"Firing into the Brown" #64 - The Jolly Boys march again, Sir Edmund Verney, and stuff...

"So Carnehan weeds out the pick of his men, and sets the two of the Army to show them drill and at the end of two weeks the men can manoeuvre about as well as Volunteers. So he marches with the Chief to a great big plain on the top of a mountain, and the Chiefs men rushes into a village and takes it; we three Martinis firing into the brown of the enemy".

Kipling "The Man Who Would Be King"

Time for another update..

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"My soro is beyond all that can bee sade..."

Detail from a portrait of Sir Edmund Verney, ca. 1640 by Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641)

Sir Edmund Verney was born in 1596 and knighted by James I in 1611. In 1612 (so could have been only16 at the time!), he was made a gentleman of the privy chamber to Charles, Duke of York, later Charles I. In 1623, he went to Spain with Charles and the Duke of Buckingham to court the Infanta Maria. They travelled incognito, and while there, he protected a dying Englishman from receiving his final rights from a Catholic priest by punching the priest in the face. Clearly the Spaniards weren't too happy about this but it does give a clue as to his religious leanings.

He was made Knight Marshal of England for life upon the coronation of Charles. He also stood for and was elected to parliament for Buckingham in 1624, New Romney in 1625, and for Aylesbury in 1629. With the approach of the English Civil War, he was also in the Short Parliament and then the Long Parliament (as member for Wycombe). 

He was no "yes, man" and despite his friendship, often found himself in opposition to the King, mostly due to his opposition to the Laudian religious policies (in essence making the Church of England more High Church/ceremonial/hierarchical). He was Puritan in his religious outlook, though not fanatical about it.  

Despite this, with the outbreak of war Verney declared himself for the King, bottom line, Charles was a personal friend as well as his King

“I do not like the quarrel, I do heartily wish that the King would yield to their desires, but I have eaten his bread and served him near thirty years, and will not do so base a thing as to forsake him now; and choose to lose my life (as I am sure to do) to preserve and defend this which it is against my conscience to do.” 

...for his service and loyalty, Charles made him Keeper of the King’s Standard.

His eldest son, Ralph, declared for Parliament, his younger son (also Edmund) declared for the King.. if ever there was a family that proved the statement this was a "war without an enemy" this was a typical one.. 

At Edgehill he died while defending the Royal Standard...

"[Sir Edmund Verney] himself killed two with his own hands, whereof one of them had killed poore Jason [Verney's servant], and brocke the poynt of his standard at push of pike before he fell, which was the last account I could receive of anie of our owne side of him … he would neither put on armes or buff cote the day of battell, the reason I know not” 

..from a letter to Verney's son Ralph, after the battle..

The standard was later recovered, but no trace of Verney's body was found - it's highly probable that he was buried in an unmarked grave on the battlefield.. Verney's widow wrote afterwards..

"My soro is beyond all that can bee sade; it tis not possibly to bee greater then it tis; but truly it trubles me much that his bodie was beriede amonst the multitude; I know itt coulde not have added anythinge to him, only have sattisfiede his friendes to have hade a cristan beriall" 

He died on the 23rd October 1642 (at the age of 46 years), and the anniversary of his death this week prompted this snippet proving that yet again history shows that we stand on the shoulders of giants.. 

Ave..

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Tex, Zeke and Robbie, reconvened at the livery after their recce of the gang's hideout - the ground was rough and broken and was perfect for a divided approach and attack... the three agreed that Tex should cover the front of the cabin, while Zeke approached from the side and Robbie the back.

Pausing only to get their weapons ready, Zeke and Robbie with a grin on their faces then pulled on their old uniforms - a bit snugger than they used to be, but if the three Jolly Boys were going into action again, it only seemed right...

Tex is armed with his trusty repeating rifle, and for this skirmish, Zeke and Robbie have 6 guns in addition to their old Sharps carbines. Black and Cole have their 6 guns as per the last skirmish. 

Move 1:

Start of move following... 

Tex (3♦), Zeke (Q♥), Robbie (Q♠) and in the cabin (floor plan left), Black (2♠) and Cole (8♠)

Crouched in the dust behind a rocky outcrop that backed on to the cabin, Robbie spat out some grit and listened out for any noise from the cabin - hearing nothing he doubled forward through the outcrop taking cover just short of the cabin but covering the back window. Over to his left, Zeke does the same but in moving kicks a rock. In the cabin, Cole looks up in surprise [I threw a D6 giving them a 50:50 chance of being surprised - I figured that they would be on edge] springs to the window, and spotting Robbie out back shouts a warning to Black as he draws his six gun. On the other side of the paddock, Tex hears Cole shout, throws up his rifle and takes a snapshot at Black through the window but not surprisingly misses. Black pulls his six gun and moves into better cover by the side of the front window.

Move 2:

Start of move following... 

Tex (5♠), Zeke (K♣), Robbie (10♦) and in the cabin (floor plan left), Black (K♠) and Cole (7♥) cover the front and back windows

In the cabin, Black sees Tex across the paddock and immediately guesses what this is about - 'stupid old man has come to get his bag of money back!'.. pausing only to rest his gun on the window frame, he aims and fires and is rewarded by the sight of Tex reaching for his ribs - crimson showing between his fingers. Zeke curses - this isn't what was supposed to happen - damn bad luck dogs him, first the damn stone alerting the bad guys and now a stupid lucky shot has hit Tex! Running forward he crouches besides the front door of the cabin. 

Robbie can see Cole and fires off two shots from his six gun. At this range there's no need to use his carbine. All he wants to do is make him keep his head down, but shouts with joy when he sees both shots hit Cole in the leg! [He threw 11 twice, needing only 8 or more to hit!] 

Cole ducks down in agony, but fires off three shots [he had a 7 card which allows three actions] in rapid succession - not surprisingly none of them hit. Tex grabs his chance and darts into cover, out of sight of the cabin, but moving towards it - no way he was leaving his friends to do this on their own.

Move 3: 

Start of move following... 

Tex (8♥), Zeke (2♦), Robbie (6♠) and in the cabin (floor plan left), Black (A♦) and Cole (K♥) - the yellow dice indicates Cole is currently "lily livered" (ie. shaken)

Black sees Tex run into the rocks and loses sight of him, so runs to door of the cabin with the intention of getting a shot at him - flinging the door open though, he is shocked to come face to face with Zeke! 

Hearing the shout of alarm, Cole spins round from the window and snaps off a shot at Zeke who he can just see round Black [threw a dice giving him a 50:50 chance to be able to see him], hitting him in the chest. 

Tex can't get a shot as Zeke is in the way [threw a dice giving him a 50:50 chance as well, which he failed],  but runs to the cabin door. Out back, Robbie fires twice more at Cole and is rewarded with at least one hit! In the doorway, Zeke recovers from his surprise, grunts "Avon calling", and fires twice at Black grazing him and causing Black to back away into the cabin [Black failed his 'lily livered' test]..

Move 4: 

Start of move following... 

Tex (8♣), Zeke (5♦), Robbie (5♣) and in the cabin (floor plan left), Black (7♣) and Cole (J♦) - the yellow dice indicates Black is currently "lily livered"

From across the cabin Cole fires twice at Zeke, he can see Tex just behind him but he's the better target - he hits him in the leg and chest, and Zeke ducks back round the corner of the cabin. With the doorway now clear Tex fires twice at Cole, hitting him twice and killing him outright [third leg wound and second chest wound either of which did for him]. Black pulls himself together, and backs into the corner of the cabin shouting out as he does that he's had enough... Robbie covers him from the back window and tells him to throw his gun down, and come out of the cabin with his hands up...

Pausing only to give some first aid to Zeke, who they are pleased to see is not as badly hurt as they had thought, Robbie and Tex enter the cabin and recover the bag of silver dollars. 

They don't hang round - the rest of the gang might be back any time, they reload their weapons, Tex takes Coles six-gun, and then tying Black to his saddle they sling Cole over the back of the other horse and the party head for home..

Post match analysis:

• First the damage - good call by Black, though I'm not so sure it will be in the long run... 😏 Cole was out of ammunition, so would have needed to reload anyway.. even if he hadn't been shot dead the odds would still have been 3:1 

• For this game, rather than a D10 to decide firing hits, I used 2D6 as I think it gives a more reliable/stable result - in the rules you're hitting on a 6+ or 8+ depending on weapon range, but there are modifiers to this for aiming/cover/morale etc. so the mean of the 2D6 is on, or about, the same value as to hit - for this game they were missing as much as hitting, so I'll go with the modifier for a few more games to decide whether the outcomes are too bloody or not. If it's too bloody then an increase of 1 to each of the "to hit" values will resolve the problem
  
  
• Lily livered test - when a character becomes lily livered ("shaken") they can test by throwing a dice and adding the value of any card in their hand - for my games I don't use a hand so in the same way as I have had to modify the 'jump the gun' and 'unconscious' rules, I just get the character to roll the D10 and score over their toughness value. In theory this is much harder than the test in the rules (in fact I can't see how you would fail the test in the rules as written!) and it worked for this game..
  
  
• Back at the livery, Tex, Zeke and Robbie collapse into chairs, and share a bottle - that's another scrape they seem to have been able to get out of. His wounds bandaged, and somewhat shame faced at having ducked away from the door, Zeke volunteers to make the evening meal - the other two laugh, and say they would have done the same, but seeing as he's offering, "yes please, and does that include breakfast as well?".
  
  In the stables, securely tied up, and with a slowly stiffening Cole wrapped up in an old horse blanket for his only company, Black awaits his fate - in the morning Tex and Robbie are taking him and the body to the local sheriff, there's a small reward for them... alive... or dead... 

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 Laters, as the young people are want to say...