"Firing into the Brown" #91 - bot madness, dust, "Botched Relief" 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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It's no secret that the bloggerati are seeing some wondrous traffic patterns across their blogs - so I thought I'd have a look at what's going on here, in my little sunny corner of the web...

...the first three of my 'top 5 posts' in 14 years of blogging were all written in the last month..  amaze-balls.. 😏

..thought this one was interesting - these are page/post views over the entire life of the blog.. 

..so those bots, in one single month, have accounted for almost 7% of all the views in 14 years of blogging...  what utter nonsense...😁

..."top of the world, ma"

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Oh yes...👏

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Time for another game - and I thought it would be nice to the get the American Civil War guys out. It was either them or the English Civil War guys, but they haven't marched in an age, so Gerard's will have to wait a while - next time, I promise... 😀

The next in my oh so enjoyable ramble through Neil Thomas's "One-Hour Wargames" is #28, "Botched Relief", an interesting sounding scenario if ever there was one.

In summary - a Blue force (got to be the Confederate) of four units is attacking a Union held town. The Union force comprises six units but they are commanded by a bit of a McLellan who is loath to commit his entire force, so only two of them garrison the town and the other forces are positioned some way away and only released piecemeal.

I'm giving both sides one Zouave regiment and one artillery piece, the rest will be standard strength infantry regiments..

So - orders of battle will be:

Table as follows:

Two Union units occupy the town, four units occupy the hill/ridge (one of which is noted in advance as "first responder"), the Rebel force attacks along the road from the bottom of the picture..

Just need some time now to fight it!

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

"Pancho sees stars"... setup and game

Time for another update..  and a game this time...

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Whilst continuing my efforts to declutter the loft the other day (basically by lifting and shifting it to eBay/World of Books/ We Buy Books 😏) , I also happened to be watching "The Tall Men" which was on afternoon TV (an absolute classic western, by the way, with Clark Gable, Robert Ryan and the utterly glorious, Jane Russell). I was struck by how one of the scenes would make a cracking little "Ruthless" scenario.. and so a game was dreamt up.. 

In summary, in the film Gable is hired by Ryan to help him drive his cattle from Montana to Texas, and along the way they fall in with a wagon train (that among other people contains Russell) and there then ensues the usual Hollywood ménage a trois (which we can ignore), because one of the scenes concerns what happens when the herd arrives at the state line, and is met by a bunch of  'concerned local citizens' stroke vigilantes, demanding a 'duty' paid per head to carry on, pure extortion.... cue gun battle - and scenario...

Going to use the 15's for this game as it means I can utilise the cattle from the Marlburian project as long horns.. 😊

Scenario/specific rules:

• a herd of cattle heading for the stock pens at the nearest rail head have encountered a block to their progress in the form of a 'gang' aiming to make a profit from their passage in the form of a per head "passage fee"

• 
  there are seven in the gang, and the herd is being driven by a smaller number of cowboys (just four). Clearly an unequal tussle, but to even up the sides the cowboys will be significantly tougher than the members of the gang (who are in any case actually just a few bad guys leavened with a whole number of bar flies and town 'low life's' looking to make a quick buck)

• the cows 
• block line of sight and provide cover, and always move last in every turn. 
• by their nature they will stick together - they need one of the cowboys, either in the wagon or not, within 6" of them to maintain their direction and progress (which is up to 8" per move); when there isn't anyone within 6" throw a D10 (and repeat every turn this is the case)
• 1 - 3 : move half a D6 (rounded down) in inches in the direction indicated on a direction dice
• 4 - 9 : they will just stop in their tracks wherever they are and not move
• 10 : they stampede D10 inches in the direction indicated on a direction dice

• the chuck wagon 
• blocks line of sight and provides soft cover for anyone behind it, or in it,
• moves up to 8" per turn
• is steered/controlled by (a minimum of) one of the cowboys (decision to be made at game start)
• whoever is the designated driver (so Guinness Zero rather than rotgut whiskey!😏) pulls their own card, and this decides when the wagon moves in the turn
• stops in it's tracks whenever at least one of the cowboys on board is not conscious/present

• the cowboys win if they manage to drive their herd off the opposite side of the board, the gang win if they stop them

Dramatis personae:

The Cowboys:

Pancho, Abe, Donnie and Cal - left to right

The Gang:

The Gang - Jedd through Pat - left to right

Move 1: 

Zack gets the draw and moves first - twice - into the rough ground - if the herd comes north of the central rocks then he has a good covering position. Across the way, Cal on board the chuck wagon with  (as the designated driver), takes a shot with his Winchester at Zack [long range, hard cover - throws a 10, -2 for hard cover, scores a hit!], but only grazes Zack who ducks down out of sight [failed his toughness/morale test and went what Ruthless calls 'lily livered', or 'Shaken' in other rules😁]

In the center, Donnie runs across and takes cover in the patch of rough ground and rocks rocks, that Blake has also just occupied - going to be "busy" in there! Pancho meanwhile runs to the edge of the same cover and snaps off a shot at Zack, missing by miles..

The rest of the bad guys also run for cover looking to cover the ranchers - but reacting last, Abe moves, shoots and hits Billy in the leg [who then passes his toughness test]

The herd moves forward, south of the central rocks, chaperoned by the chuck wagon and accompanied by the curses of Zack and Jedd who picked the wrong side of the pass.. 😏

Move 2:

Start of Move 2 - with initiative cards - red dice are markers for ranchers, blue for the bad guys - the number corresponds to the names below - that central rough ground is a cowboy magnet!

Pausing only to take stock and make sure there isn't a better target, Abe shoots at Billy again hitting him in the leg again [and Billy passes his toughness test again - tough hombre!]. Donnie meanwhile is so close to Abe that rather than shoot he takes the hand to hand option and launches himself at him but is battered in return and retires hurt [an arm wound, but he passes toughness test]

Over in the rocks - Jedd  snaps off a couple of shots at Pancho hitting him in the arm [Pancho passes his toughness test] but Pancho in turn fires at his closes target, which is Pat in the rocks to his front - hitting him twice in the leg and arm, despite the hard cover  - Pat immediately dives for cover [failed his toughness test and becomes "lily livered"/shaken]!

In the wagon Cal shoots twice at Billy - hitting him twice (in the chest both times) and killing him outright - before urging the wagon team forward. First blood to the cowboys

In the rocks Pat is still cowering [he fails the test to recover from being lilly livered/shaken] but leans out and takes a couple of return shots at Pancho - one of which is severe and knocks him unconscious! [I gave Pancho a bonus for being in cover, and Pat was penalised for being lily livered, but fair do's he hit, and then scored 10 on a D10 to knock him out with the severe wound!]

Blake runs into the rocks and throws himself at Donnie who's only just recovering from the last battering, but Donnie clearly recovered enough to give him a battering this time [each character draws three cards and the character with the highest wins - Donnie drew three Aces!! 😲]

In the rocks Fred snaps off two shots at Cal in the wagon but misses, Jim also snaps off a couple of shots at him with a similar lack of success.. 

Zack meanwhile leaves his cover and runs over to Pancho's prone figure [uh oh!]

At the end of the turn, each side tests on a D10 to see if they "skeddadle" - they have to score equal to or higher than the number of characters who are dead or "lily livered" - the bad guys pass the test, the cowboys don't test, as only one of them is down..

Move 3:

Start of Move 3 - yellow pins designate characters currently lily livered - red pin for unconscious

Pancho recovers from unconsciousness, pulling himself groggily to his feet.. [I allow unconscious players to swap cards with anyone else on their side, Donnie had the 'magic card' - a two - so he swapped with Pancho]

Jim moves round the rock and takes a shot at the now partially revealed Donnie, but misses, but in doing so presents a prime target to Cal (in the wagon) who takes two quick shots at him, hitting him twice - Jim scuttles back into cover [wounded and also failed his "lily livered"/morale test]

Over in the rocks, Jedd doesn't have a clean shot, as his compadres are partially blocking his view of both Pancho and Donnie, but takes a chance and sends off a couple of shots at Donnie who is clearest.. he misses with both, he's almost out of ammo - just one bullet left..

Zack is next to Pancho, recovers his nerve, and attempts to grapple him but Pancho gets the draw on him and shoots [interesting passage of play..  Pancho hadn't yet activated this turn so had the option to fire what Ruthless call a "Snap Shot", but a WW2 player would probably call "overwatch" 😁 - given his recovery from unconsciousness I only allowed him one shot), hits him, but with little effect - Zack gets angry and grapples Pancho again, but this time Pancho wins the tussle, wounding Zack in the arm and pushing him back - Zack is shaken and heads for Jedd's cover, helped along by a couple of shots from Abe who hits him twice more [not Zack's finest hour.. but he survives it..😁]

In the rocks Donnie has been scanning for other threats, but finally shoots at Pat - hitting him twice and killing him outright [two chest shots will do that - even in Hollywood..]

With two of their men down, and three cowering cover, it's no surprise that the bad guys decide enough is enough and scoot [failed their 'skedaddle test' this time], leaving Pancho and the boys breathing heavy, and surprised at their escape - it was a bit close at at times!

Post match analysis:

• First the butchers bill - the cowboys got off remarkably lightly all things considered

• I need to revisit the "fisticuffs"/hand to hand rule - I play solo so the implicit mechanism in Ruthless of playing cards from your deck is not an option. The other mechanisms I have workable alternatives for, but for hand to hand in this game I was allowing each character to pull three cards and whoever got the highest won. It's always seemed a little off kilter that in 'Ruthless' the toughness value is really only used for morale checks so I'm thinking I may move to an opposed dice roll where the difference in toughness values is added to whoever is the "toughest's" roll, so for example when Zack (toughness 7) attacked Pancho (toughness 3), Pancho would get a +4..

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

"Firing into the Brown" #90 - large projectiles, dames 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..   somewhat unbelievably this is my 1,110th post, but is a bit of a mish-mash (in fact, a true 'Firing into the Brown' article😏) as I have been mostly busy elsewhere ..

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Blimey!

Charge and projectiles for a 18 inch heavy artillery gun - AP shell on the left, HE shell middle, propellant/charge on the right.. piccie taken sometime between 1920-1924 and courtesy of the Imperial War Museum

...as to what fired it, well there was a Royal Navy gun of that calibre, but it was largely done and dusted with by the time this picture was taken, so I'm going to assume they may have been from the Royal Artillery's 18" Railway Howitzer [clicky]

...either way - your day ain't going to get any better if either one of those shells lands on you... 😏

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..another one to add to the fort-speak dictionary...

...that (the pointy hatted stack, centre) my friends, is called a "Dame" - it's purpose is defensive, specifically, obstructive. In this example it's is on the roof of the caponier (see previous dictionary entry 😏) to stop anyone attacking along the roof, but they could reasonably be on the top of any wall or covered way that you want to obstruct access along.....  possibly apocryphal story for the source of the name is that they are named for a large lady you can't get your arms around.... 😁

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It's been noted among the Bloggeratti that something funny is going on - lots are reporting excessive page views in the last month or two, but this is even funnier than most of what's been reported.. when I looked a few hours ago, that one (which was the post before this), was less than 14K.. so it's increased by 400 odd views in just a couple of hours!  

Now bear in mind my usual page view is 2 to 300, you can understand I'm fascinated to see how high it's going to go... 😂

Utterly meaningless of course - it's just some AI/ChatGPT/data mining bot, working overtime in a dark computer hall somewhere....

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Laters, as the young people are want to say... crossed fingers for a more informative post next time... 😁

"Firing into the Brown" #89 - fort speak, Nassau Friesland 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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An English/Fort, Fort/English translation... a starter for 10 anyway.. some of them you'll know - some not - I've picked up some crackers over the last few work parties! 😀

Caponier centre covering the ditch, Carnot Wall to the right, then scarp, then glacis, then parapet far right - read on for clarity! 

• bastion - the angular structure - usually on a corner - sticking out from a curtain (see later) wall, may have a postern for access to a Carnot Wall
• curtain wall - the outer wall of a fortified structure  - can also be known as a rampart
• parapet - top part of a defensive wall that provides cover for the defenders - can be crenelated (see later) - can also be known as battlement
• banquette - raised step at the bottom of the parapet for the defenders to stand on when firing over the parapet - a firing step..
• merlon - the solid part of a crenelated parapet ie. the bit between two embrasures/spaces
• moats and ditches - we know that one 😏
• Casemates or Casement - a bomb-proof chamber in a fort - used to mount guns in
• sally-port/postern  - a small, secure gate in the curtain wall used for making surprise attacks or sallying out from a fortification. 
• chemin de ronde - the walkway allowing defenders to patrol the tops of ramparts, protected from the outside by the battlements/parapet.
• Carnot Wall - loop-holed wall built along the ditch to allow the defenders to fire directly into the ditch
• Caponier - type of defensive structure - covered or not - loopholed, and placed to allow the defender to fire along the ditch - can be accessed via a Gallery, may have a postern for access to a Carnot Wall or Bastion
• Crenelation - regular spaces (known as embrasures) in a parapet through which the defenders can shoot while remaining in partial cover
• Gallery - a long enclosed passageway, or corridor - can be used as defensive position and as a means to move around the fort without being exposed to fire.
• Glacis - a sloped earthen bank that protects the forts vertical walls from cannon fire
• Loophole - we know that one 😏
• Place of Arms - protected area, usually near a sally port, in which small groups of men can be assembled when leaving or returning to the fort. 
• Redoubt - any small fort with its own defences which is located near a larger fort. 
• Scarp - the steep, inner slope of a ditch located just below the rampart of a fort. The opposite side of the ditch from the scarp is called the counter scarp.
• Tenaille -  an advanced defensive-work, in front of the main defences of a fortress  - used to protect the main entrances to a fort from cannon fire and direct assault.
• Faussebraye - a shot trap - similar in function to a tenaille but a part of the curtain wall rather than separate 
• Terreplein - the level space on the top of the ramparts on which cannons were placed. 

Chemin de ronde indeed, Rodney! 😁

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Source: Pike and Lace Wars site..

Another in the occasional "regiments of renown" series featuring the histories of various regiments painted in haste at the beginning of a project but which were not documented here for posterity.. so we come to Dutch cavalry regiment "Nassau Friesland" (NB. Friesland, sometimes Friedland, was one of 8 Dutch provinces at the time so the regimental name refers to both where it was raised, and the Colonel's name in this instance)

Raised in 1668 the regiment was also known as "Oranje-Friesland" after 1702 - presumably from their honorary Colonels title of that time.. 

Sapherson shows two Colonel's for the period we're interested in, from 1673 it was Prince Hendrik Casimir van Nassau Friesland, and from 1696, his son, Johan Willem Friso van Oranje Nassau - both these guys were the Stadtholder (the title of a provincial governor and military commander, acting as a deputy to a monarch) of Friesland..

Johan Willem is an interesting character, he was one of the (main?) claimants to the throne on the death of William III as a result of being his first cousin, in fact he was titled Prince of Orange, but he was hideously young - he was only 9 when he was given the Colonelcy of the regiment  so it was clearly not an active role at the beginning..  he was only 15 when William died, and the outbreak of the war stopped any further action on his part to follow up the claim which was opposed by Prussia (and of course Louis)...  John Willem died at 24 as a result of drowning on a ferry crossing..  a short but active life as he made General before he died.  He commanded the Dutch infantry at the Battle of Oudenarde, the Siege of Lille, and the Battle of Malplaquet. 

After Johan Willem Friso drowned on 14 July 1711, his wife Marie Louise van Hessen-Kassel became regent until their son, who became Willem IV, came of age. 

Interestingly - all the current regents of Europe can trace their lineage back to him..  😏      

I can find little or no record of the regiments activities in the war - the similarly named infantry regiment (and indeed their Colonel) was most active, but these guys not quite so.. 

• they are listed as 2 squadrons strong in 1702 in the Allied camp in Nijmegen prior to the campaign in the Low Countries that year (and the same in 1705 and 1712)
• they are listed as "Oranje-Friesland" and 2 squadrons strong at Ramillies where they were on the left wing under Brigadier Grovestine (sometimes Grovesteyn) and 3 other Dutch cavalry regiments
• they were at the siege of Mons in 1709 (again 2 squadrons) where their Colonel (John Willem - Price of Orange) was in overall command of the Allies
• in 1712 they were under the command of a Colonel Cavendish when they were part of what would have been called a chevauchee in medieval times - Prince Eugene sent a large raiding force into France in order to pillage, "raise contributions" (😏), and bring back prisoners (for both information and ransom) - the raid was a success "[they] made great booty everywhere and burned down several villages. Afterwards, he went to the dioceses of Verdun, Toul and Messins where he also raised contributions. After his incursion, Grovesteyn [who lead the force] returned to Trarbach with 300 hostages and a lot of cattle"

"John William Friso (1687-1711, Prince of Orange. At half-length, slightly to the right, lookong at viewer. In armor. After an original by Lancelot Volders. Part of the collection of portrait miniatures of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam".

These are Dixon's and painted and based by me some time pre-2006, and as I usually say probably one of the first regiments I painted - I have a curious antipathy towards flags for my cavalry units - so there isn't one, despite the luxuriousness of the example above.. 😏

References:

• Dutch Army of William III
• John William Friso - Wikipedia
• Henry Casimir II, Prince of Nassau-Dietz - Wikipedia
• Account of the 1712 raid - you'll need to hit the translate button.. 😏

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

I have been to.. Eastney Battery West

"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..   more fort archeology...  😏

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As I mentioned in the last post I've been doing a bit of volunteer work with the Palmerston Forts Society clearing brambles/weeds and vegetation from the western end of the Hilsea Lines..  but for one reason or another this was not possible this week as the field was being used, so access wasn't possible - but faced with a band of old men armed with secateurs "desperate" for work it would take a brave organiser  to turn down the opportunity to get some other work done instead, and so it was that I finally got to visit one of the two "fort'lets", or batteries, built at the front of the old Royal Marine Barracks on Southsea seafront...

By way of giving you some perspective though, this is the general topology..

North is top..  Solent is the water you see..  Gunners Row/Clocktower Drive is the old marine barracks building, now repurposed as very lovely apartments (the views are stunning)..  note too, the two batteries East and West, originally there would have been a rampart with parapet and covered way running between the two of them roughly along the line of the road (long gone, mostly removed in WW2 the remaining bit can be seen just north of the car park by The Yomper))..  my work spot for the day though was the west battery..

As this is private ground (it's purpose now is an enclosed garden for the apartments) I've limited the number of photo's to those I can find on the web, as quite rightly, I have no interest in encouraging any incursions/trespass as a result of showing in detail what a quite fantastic place it is..  if I had one of those apartments, I'd have a chair in there every day with tea and book at hand..😁  ...it's a glorious spot..  which funnily enough is one of the reasons why the battery is so well preserved to this day, as it became the private garden of the Major-General of Royal Marine Artillery after the forts were disarmed around 1907 - he lived in what are now the apartments at the west end of Clocktower Drive

"Crinoline Gardens"...   snigger... 😁Yellow lines are Carnot Walls and Caponiers - see later for a definition of what each is - still there but under 10 feet of soil

Anyway - a little history..

• the two battery's were built between 1861 & 1863 for the sum of £17,435 (roughly £2.8M in todays money according to Google) and are identical, but mirror imaged
• Each had a dry moat to the front and sides, with small Caponiers [clicky]  and Carnot walls [clicky] to cover the side ditches - fort-speak .. it's like a fascinating different language 😏. The rear (known in fortification terms as the Gorge) was covered by a loopholed wall three feet thick, and it has a central gate. The front face had embrasures for larger guns, with the main magazine under the south west position (the one with the ramp)..
• They were commissioned as a result of the Royal Commission in 1859 that also lead to the development of the other forts surrounding Portsmouth, so were considered an integral part of the overall defence plan. They were designed to protect the approach to Langstone Harbour and the sea to the east of Horse Sand Fort (in the Solent)
• The earliest record of the armaments at the forts dates from 1869 when it was stated that each had five 7-inch rifled breech loading guns and seven 8-inch smooth bore guns.
• By the 1890s, the fort had been upgraded to four 64 pounder 58cwt rifled muzzle loading guns with ranges up to 3,500 yards
• The 64 pounders were removed around 1900 and replaced by a single 6-inch Mark IV breech loading gun on hydro-pneumatic carriages which had a range of 8,800 yards - these were a variation of the Moncrief mounting I mentioned previously, but in this case the guns also had an armoured roof to protect the gunners from shrapnel (presumably) and the guns would rise up through a slot in the roof which would have been flush with the top of the concrete surround - two of the 64 pounder positions were converted to Maxim machine gun emplacements. 
• The fort was decommissioned in 1907 before the plans to install a second 6-inch Mark IV breech loading gun on hydro-pneumatic carriage was completed. 

West facing rampart of the West Battery (photo Charles Taylor) - as it happens this was where I was working for the day - happy to advise that that big bush is no more.. 😎

...and with the help of Google Earth - here's some detail - following is the view from the rear... note..

• yellow circle is the disappearing gun position
• the magazine is under the position with the ramp
• the red circle is the Maxim gun positions
• blue line marks far side of ditch
• green line is the Carnot wall which would also have had a ditch behind it to allow soldiers to deploy and fire through loopholes in the Carnot wall and into the ditch

"Crinoline Row" ...snigger...

following is the view from the front/south west... note..

• yellow shading is the ditch
• purple line is the caponier position - the other side would have been protected by the rampart between the two battery's I think..
• orange shading are the two mini bastions - which were loopholed to allow firing into the ditch - they were accessed through gates into the space behind the Carnot wall allowing men to deploy where they were most needed
• red lines are the Carnot walls which would also have had an open space behind (shaded blue) to allow soldiers to deploy and fire through loopholes in the Carnot wall and into the ditch - the Carnot along the front face is far clearer

Following is a picture from the East Battery which overall is in a far worse condition than the West one as a result of first, not being a Major Generals garden, and second, having been handed over to the Royal Navy to use and abuse as they wished for a large number of years -😏- but despite that, it shows some features that have now disappeared under soil on the West Battery..  specifically following - the Carnot Wall and Caponier (at the end of the ditch) can be seen far more clearly, but look at that curved brickwork.. it's stunning workmanship.

Caponier and Carnot wall... this is the East Battery but the West would have been the same before they filled in on both sides of  the Carnot

More stuff:

• EASTNEY BATTERIES
• Eastney Battery East - Portsmouth - TracesOfWar.com

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