Battle for Chau F'er

Another Star Wars minicampaign people, today the forces of the Republic fight for the liberation of a verdant world from the dreadful separatist yoke

   

Skywalker jumps into the fight and loses two wounds in quick succession

   

The overbearing AAT remains indomitable until Kenobi jumps in and starts cutting

Ahsoka joins in the fun while the massive tank blasts three wounds away from the jedi master

Finally the vehicle is brought down by a rocket launcher

Anakin charges some B2 but is cut down by Ventress

Jedi and sith fight it out in the center of the battlefield

With Kenobi dead at the hands of Ventress, only Ahsoka stands in the way of the nefarious sith. Thankfully her fanservice powers are too strong for them and she tanks all damage and almost kills Dooku in exchange

The last battledroids are scrapped by the advancing clones

Finally the BARC moves into the enemy deployment zone during the last turn, seizing victory from the jaws of defeat for the Republic

Siege of Roses

 

Finally what you all have been expeting, a battle report featuring the new fortress. This game pitches a small force of spanish defenders againt a massive army of frenchmen in a coastal citadel in the Costa Brava, in northeastern Catalonia

The imperials are ready

Saint Cyr surveys the fortifications

The spanish stand resolutely behind the ramparts

Muskets and guns point towards the french invader

The defenders get the first turn and start by opening fire and digging mines

The imperials start their approaches

That sneak forwards relentlessly

The first parallel is dug up as the armies come closer

However the spanish detonate a mine and kill some conscripts

The second parallel is opened within musket range

Despite terrible losses, the imperials begin to dig the breaching mines

The charges explode...

Opening three breaches in the walls

The first bastion is carried by french steel

However the invaders struggle against the ruins of the gate

With a bastion in their power, the besiegers move up the guns to blast the rest to bits

A bitter struggle for the curtain wall erupts on the right

The overconfident catalan militia makes a sortie, but is repulsed by the imperials

Another unit of miquelets charges the redoubt, but to no avail

The siege ends when the garrison of the second redoubt is blown to bits by several mines

And the sometents are cleared from the wall

After these two moves Roses belongs to Napoleon

The system worked out pretty well, the fortress fell in seven weeks but not without a struggle. The mines  however seem way too powerful and fast, so they'll be nerfed in the future

Vauban style fortress

 

I always wanted to have a bastion fortress, those wo have followed this blog for a long time will remember that I made one for the anniversary of the siege of Barcelona some years ago. That model however was a bit crappy and lacking, so I've made this improved version from 80mm thick foam.

The set includes two bastions with gunports, two walls, one gateway plus destroyed and diagonal juncions for gameplay and poseability. I've also made some earthen mounds to represent breaches on the bastion walls.

El Bruc 1808

 

Battle of el Bruc today: a french column is ambushed by local guerrillas on their way to Lleida. This episdoe kickstarts the rising against the invaders in Catalonia that will be explored in future games.

The sometents show up in a forest and open fire on the cuirassiers

The french infantry deploys

Despite the losses, the french riders rout a first unit of guerrilla

The french push forwards while the cavalry retreats from the muketry fire

General Schwarz's swiss are first into the fray, destroying the second militia unit

A mad run for the can Maçana masia, one of the objectives of the game

Even the spanish generals are wounded in the fight

Sadly for the sometents, the masia is taken by the french ad they must flee in order to survive and thus tie the game

The catalans run for it

But are eventually caught between the anvil of the infantry and the hammer of the freshly recovered cuirassiers and cut to pieces