The Gaul's Games at Salute 2017

Below are some photos of the two games I ran at this year's Trumpeter's Gaming Society convention, Salute 2017. Detailed specifics of the games are in previous postings.

Dollard's Last Stand: The Battle of Long Sault, 1660
(Friday)

This one, with five players and myself as gamesmaster, can be broken down into three parts:
1) The French are caught in the open and run for the fort, 2) Dollard and company defend against numerous assaults on the walls -- with the Iroquois dying in droves -- until they are overrun, and
3) The Carignan-Salieres regulars arrive almost in the nick of time -- but too late save Dollard, and have to content themselves with blasting away the remains of the Iroquois (who outnumbered the French, militia and regulars combined, three-to-one)!

Rules were Mersey's The Men Who Would Be Kings (Osprey), using the half-sized unit option. Figures are Warlord Games.

The magnificent Fort Descheneaux, Gibraltar of the Ottawa River valley.  The heads? Oh, yeah, well, here's the thing about the heads... fact is, Dollard always seemed to have a lot in common with Mr. Kurtz.

Dollard and his boys make a run for the open gate held by Huron allies.  It takes an activation roll to close!

 

Dollard et. al. hold out in the stockade, despite desperate Iroquois assaults and intrusions. 

"By the Holy Spirit of the Chalice and the Tabernacle!" says Dollard. "Those treacherous Iroquois have snuck round the back and come over the wall!"

Desperate times as a pistol-packing Dollard single-handedly takes on a wild bunch.

 

Relief seems to be at hand as a company of the Regt. Carignan-Salieres arrive just in time.

It's all happening now: French regulars on the left, hoards of Iroquois pouring over the walls on the right, and our Hero can just be seen alone in the middle.

 Those cheating French have brought along a field gun, manned by a little known colonial unit: Les Bombardiers du Roi de Nouvelle-France.

But too late... Dollard, his lieutenant, and the resident Jesuit have been invited to a barbeque.

 

Thanks to all who played!

 

 

"Your Marshal is Seeing Double!": The Jena-Auerstadt Campaign, October 14th 1806 (Sunday)

 

Greg (Napoleon), Chris (Davout), Mike (Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen) were kind enough to volunteer for this nano-scale (2mm) game.  I helped out with the Prussians in the role of Brunswick, but took orders from Mike. Rules (The Limits of Glory) were homebrew. Figures are Irregular Miniatures.

 

The game pretty much followed the historic course of action, except that Brunswick retreated from the French at Jena, falling back on the River Ilm to support his fellow Prussians at Auerstadt.

 

I couldn't outrun Napoleon, however, and turned to fight him on the Ilm -- and was soundly thrashed for my trouble.

 

Davout's (Chris's) III Corps and Murat's cavalry were bled white at Auerstadt, but with I Corps on hand and the Imperial Guard rushing to support him, he managed to hold the line. Thus, the day went to the French.

 

View from the south-east: The Guard rush to support Davout.

 

General view of the field from the east. River Saale on the left, the river Ilm on the right. Jena is in the top left corner, some 12 miles distant.

 

 

 View from the north-east: Prussians columns cross the Ilm.

 

 Prussian columns on the march...

 

 

 ...with the French in hot pursuit.

 

 The battle of Auerstadt as seen from north. Chris's French on the left, Mike's Prussians on the right.

 

 

 Brunswick (left) turns to face Napoleon's concentrating corps.

 

 

A general view of the action from the north: the action at Auerstadt is in the bottom left corner, Prussian columns in the bottom right, and French columns dispersed at the top.

 

More than once players said, "What corps is that? Are they French?", which might have been frustrating but seemed all-together realistic!

 

Thanks to those who took part.