Perdição Estrada

     My next army project for En Garde. Portuguese conquistadores. This blog series which I may or may not tie in to Holinwood's Chronikle, will tell of the exploits and adventures of the expedition under Dom Henrique Diaz da Camba, and his son Fernando Joao da Camba. These men and their fellow fidalgos of the Portuguese court have been tasked by the king of Portugal to go forth and conquer cities and lay claim to lands in the Indies and establish a chain of fietorias (factories) throughout to harvest the immense wealth of the Orient. 

     As such I have titled this blog post series "Perdição Estrada", "Perdition Road". I felt being conquistadores plundering the Far East that that was a fitting title. ;) I present to you the Da Camba Expedition:

The expedition as per En Garde rules. Including cavalieros (knights), soldados/militia pike and veteran shot (including two crossbow armed sharpshooters), and the fidalgos and the Almirante.

 

Dom Henrique Diaz da Camba, Almirante (Admiral) of the Indian Ocean, Governor of the Pearl Islands, wearing a feather and wielding sword and gentleman's walking cane. His son Fernando Joao stands next to him holding aloft the banner of Portugal. Behind them are various scheming members of the court, Dom Joao, with buckler and sword, and Dom Afonso.

 

Dom Afonso and Dom Joao in the process of being painted. Alongside a veteran soldado and a cavaliero (Dom Manolo).

 

Chronicle of Holinwood, Or, The Triales ande Travailes of Adam of Englonde ande His Tudor Dogges of Warre

     Welcome to yet another rabbit trail series of blog posts about yet another band of brothers for another wonderful wargame by Osprey (really I should rename this blog the Osprey's Nest or something!), En Garde! A swashbuckling ruleset of superb caliber with (like all Osprey rulesets) great flexibility in how you create your own warband as well as what time period you prefer. Though the general theme of the book is from the mid 1500's all the way to the mid 1700's, the rules are flexible and generic enough to allow for a band of dueling German Junkers from the 1880's (The Prisoner of Zenda anyone?) or, as in my case, a band of English Dogs of War (also pirates!) from the 1480's.

     My latest warband (made from the dust collecting boxes of European Mercenarieas and Wars of the Roses Infantry by Perry miniatures that I've had for a couple of years now.) is a roving band of mercenaries and ne'er do wells from the south of England (and some from Scotland.) recently put out of work by the victory of Henry Tudor at Bosworth Field putting an end to the Wars of the Roses. As Lancastrians (for the most part. Henry of Bristol and his crew of pirates were mostly Yorkists, and with their arrest and the confiscation of their ship, the carrack "Flemish Devil", Henry is the odd man out among the group. Along with them are of course some Scots who were hired by the Yorkists as well, namely one Jamie MacDonald, currently on the run from the law.)

Meet the Tudor War Dogges:

 

 

Adam of Somerset. Son of a yeoman farmer, Adam made his fortune in the recent war fighting for the Tudor cause. With the end of the war, Henry disbanded many of the mercenaries in his employ to keep costs down. So Adam must find work abroad if he is to support his farm and household. With him are a company of huntsmen and archers from his farm, wild companions whom he led in the War.

 

 

 

Ralph the Liar. A former man of the cloth, Ralph loved the riches of the earth more than those of heaven. He also lusted after women more than he lusted for chanting in the cloister. His true name is Ralph Holinwood and he is also the author of the rather spurious Manuscript #413, the "Chronikle of Holinwood" currently held in the library at Bracton College, Cambridge.

 

 

Henry of Bristol, Captain of the "Flemish Devil". His ship was confiscated by King Henry and his Yorkist crew locked up in the tower. The ship was rechristened by Henry as the "Grace Mary". Captain Henry seeks to correct this misnomer and get his ship and crew back somehow. Perhaps a raid on the Tower?

 

 

Jamie MacDonald of MacDonald, a Scot. Currently on the run from several angry innkeepers. Something about unpaid bills and their daughters.... He's the bastard son of John of Islay, Lord of the Isles. He seeks to build a fortune of his own and return to Scotland to establish himself as head of his own clan.

 

The "Flemish Devil", an artist's representation.

 

An illumination of the "Flemish Devil" attacking a merchant vessel in the Chronicle of Holinwood.

 

Tales of the Wardens: The Cambridge Affair, Wherein the Wardens uncover a Fiendishly Fenian Plot!

     Last night was my first game of In Her Majesty's Name and I have to say I love the ruleset! It's fast paced, easy to play, and very much a storyteller's game rather than a rule lawyer's which I like even better. I didn't take enough pictures unfortunately as the game was pretty fast paced and we were learning the rules still. But for a game where I only read through the rulebook once before playing it's very easy to figure out which made my first playthrough enjoyable. (Not usually a trademark of most of my "first" games.)

     It was the summer of 1865, reports had arrived to the directors of the RIS that a mole among their ranks had been spying for the Fenians, the underground Irish separatist movement. Valuable information regarding the specs of the DOORs ended up in the hands of the Irish rebels, possibly for the purpose of rewriting Irish history, and strangling the British Empire in its infancy. Dr. Adamstone immediately set up an expedition to Egypt, where the Irish mole had been tracked to. There among the ruins of the ancient pharaohs, the Fenians had uncovered (the mole had apparently gotten into Dr. Adamstone's private study and found a certain book...) an ancient stone portal that possibly operated similarly to a DOOR. 

     With a flash of brilliant blue light, a rift was torn in the fabric of reality and through it stepped the Wardens onto the Egyptian sands a dozen miles from Cairo. Their mission, close shut the pharaoh's gate and capture the Irishman...

 

The ruins of the lost City of Thoth, known to the Arabs as Al Gebra. Across the branch of the Nile lies the ruined crusader fortress of Krak des Templars.

Entrance to the temple of Thoth. Wherein the Irishman has opened the gate via arcane rituals and called forth his ancestors...

 

 The DOOR opens and through it steps the soldiers of the Queen!

 

Dr. Adamstone assesses the situation as Lord Lundy marshals the troops for a general advance across the river.

 

A band of wild pagan Irishmen from the ancient past led by their Druid take up positions in the desert to ambush the Wardens.

 

Lord Lundy imprudently leads the men across the bridge eager to get to grips with the wily Irish.

 

The Irish remain cleverly hidden among the rocks and bulrushes of the desert.

 

 

A lone chieftain hides near the Well of Wisdom

 

The Irish Druid has cast a spell of protection over the men, bullets are like raindrops against the rocks... For three turns anyway...

 

Across the Nile and into the open, a volley is fired by the Highlanders at movement in the distance while "Mad" Jack and Cain fire their rocket guns (I made them sappers for this game to fit in points wise). All miss as the Irish have "lined jackets".

 

The Irish emerge from hiding!

 

They charge towards the Wardens shouting their Gaelic war cries.

 

A lone Gael charges Lord Lundy, his sword drawn ready to meet the warrior, shouting back at him in Scots Gaelic.

Another ineffectual volley is fired at the advancing horde. (So hard to hit with all the negative modifiers for movement and armor!)

 

A bit later in the battle, "Mad" Jack and a Highlander turned to charge some flanking warriors while the rest of the company met the foe head on, bayonets fixed.

 

"Mad" Jack manages to inflict a hit but it does nothing, this warrior's Pluck was much better than the Sergeant's.

 

In a couple of short, sharp turns the Druid had stepped in and killed Lord Lundy in one fell blow and the Highlanders succumbed rather too quickly. Lt. Cain met his end with a blow to the back of the head by one of the warriors who then made short work of the Doctor. (Adamstone had no armor and only a pistol. I used the Scientist stats from the Explorers Club list for him)

 

The Irish had the last poor fellow surrounded, the Druid offered the young Scot terms which were gratefully accepted. Back through the DOOR he went to tell the tale of the fate of the expedition....

 

So that was my first of hopefully many more games of IHMN. I loved it. Fast paced and very user friendly rules that made it easy for two players to set up their army lists quickly and get to playing. Special thanks to my friend Alvaro for providing his wonderfully painted SAGA Irishmen for a very tough opponent (enhanced as they were by using the Black Dragon Tong list!) ;)

Next time though I intend on having a real DOOR for the Wardens to charge through, something like this: 

 

 

 

In Her Majesty's Name! A blog series on the Exploits of the RIS Wardens

     Last night I played my first game of Osprey's In Her Majesty's Name. A wonderfully fast paced and thrilling game that Mr. Craig Cartmell has written and quickly becoming my favorite skirmish ruleset. Before I get to the thrilling story (in a follow up post) that is my first game of IHMN, I feel I should provide a background on the principal characters that make up the Wardens of the Royal Interdimensional Society.

      On a hot summer evening in 1858 in Inverness, Scotland, a man opened a portal to another universe and the world was changed forever. The man was Robert Davies, and his invention of the DOOR, also known as the Direct Observational Operations Router, would lead to the discovery and mapping of a new realm for the British Empire, the Multiverse. After several trials wherein he stepped through the DOOR and explored several various worlds, he presented his invention and his findings to the Royal Society the following year. So sensational was his discovery that Parliament voted more funding towards the maintenance of the DOOR and the Queen herself honoured Davies with both a knighthood and a lordship. The Royal Society opened a new branch titled the Royal Interdimensional Society, or RIS.

     As the discovery of more and more universes, each one having a Britain which developed along different lines historically (and some almost completely evolutionally!) the RIS felt it necessary to ask Parliament and the Queen to meet the ever growing number of Kings, Princes, Lord Protectors, and other such dignitaries and to convene a permanent Council of Sovereigns. A "round table" council of leaders of the multitude of various Britains from each universe, constituting essentially a Commonwealth of the British Multiverse. The RIS with Parliament funding has created a specialist team of veteran soldiers, sailors, and scientists of the Queen's armies to "police" the British Multiverse. Known as the Wardens, their mission is to aid the various Britains when threats of an extreme nature beyond the technological or military power of that Britain are unable to deal with it. The Wardens also perform covert missions on behalf of the Soveriegns when necessary and scientific expeditions as well. After all the RIS is a scientific institution first and an empire builder second.

     With Lord Lundy's (Sir Robert Davie's title) DOORs the Wardens have done much to build and protect the British Multiverse throughout the 1860's and well into the 1870's. In addition to Parliament's funding of the RIS, they also receive input from Isambard Kingdom Brunel, now Lord Brunel after his contributions to the Empire via massive war machines that have aided the Queen's armies in their wars in Afghanistan and the Sudan. He regularly contributes ideas, inventions and even goes one some of the missions himself to test his latest devices in the field. He is often seen striding through a DOOR in his "steam electric armoured suit", a wonderous device that lets off large jolts of electricity to burn foes to ash. Lord Brunel has also recently improved upon the DOOR by creating the GATE (Greater Algorithmic Teleportation Emitter) which is large enough to bring some of Brunel's war machines through to the other worlds. 

 

     Among the members of the RIS Wardens that take part in regular missions are:

Lord Lundy: Sir Robert Davies, inventor of the DOOR also a former veteran of the 42nd Highland Regiment, the  Black Watch, he is Commander of the Wardens and overall leader of their operations. It was at his request that Parliament permanently assigned a company of the 42nd to the Wardens.

Dr. Henry Adamstone: Professor of Arcane Studies at Bracton College, Cambrige University. His knowledge of obscure and dead languages, such as Pictish, and his expansive library of arcane books and artifacts at Bracton have made him one of the top leaders of the RIS as his knowledge is indispensable when encountering some of the "non- English" and more mysterious Britains. He is also Gatekeeper of Merlin's Well, on the grounds of Bracton. Merlin's Well is very ancient and it is said that the famous wizard lies beneath it slumbering through the ages. Whatever the case, drinking or even sitting near the well (which is gated off in the middle of a thick wood on the campus grounds) leaves the visitor with inspiration to create, and sometimes even induces visions or dreams of an exceptional nature.

     Captain John Stevenson: Captain of the 33rd East Essex Regiment of Foot, he is second in command of the Wardens, most of whom are fellow soldiers of the 33rd. He is a master of defense and often works with the Royal Engineers assigned the Wardens to set up traps for various missions.

     Leftenant Jeremy Cain: the right hand man of Capt. Stevenson, Cain is the son of a noble family and even though he maintains a slight aloofness to the rest of the men he still gets the job done and is very reliable.

     Sergeant "Mad" Jack Ransom: a gruff old soldier of the Queen's armies in every sense of the word. "Mad" Jack has a bawdy sense of humour and keeps the men's spirits up and the new recruits in line. No mission is too dangerous or suicidal for him to volunteer for and he often points out the flaws in a plan in a very blunt, common sense manner that rankles fellow officers sometimes. He recently received a sash of the Order of St. Edmund for outstanding valour from King Harold XII of Britain 54. Although he is an NCO of the 33rd, the nature of his expertise leads the Warden commanders to leave him free reign to get his missions done as he sees fit.

 

Dr. Adamstone flanked by Capt. Stevenson (with pistol) and Lt. Cain

 

Lord Lundy (with dirk drawn) standing with the men of the Black Watch alongside Sgt. Ransom, "Mad" Jack, sporting his purple sash of the Order of St. Edmund.

 

Brunel's "Steam Eectric Armour" complete with shock halberd, which emits 50,000 volts of static electricity on the first strike.

 

Next post: The Cambrige Affair

On foreign regiments in the Villenese Army

      Whilst I have covered the main national regiments of the Count's army, I have yet to tell of the extraordinary men of the famed foreign volunteer regiments of Villenois, the Irish and Scottish regiments, also known as the San Patricio and the San Andres Regiments respectively. 

      While the immigrant Irish nobility serve in the Wild Geese cavalry regiment, their supporters and clansmen serve in the San Patricio Regiment. Clad in blue grey uniforms with bright green facings, the Irish are some of the hardest fighters the Count can rely on in battle.  More often than not they are put in hopeless situations by Lumerier because he knows that they will hold their ground or die to the last man rather than retreat. This is especially true when elements of the British army are present in a battle. The hatred the Catholic Irish have for the Protestant English lends a fiery fury to their determination to win a battle. They, along with the Wild Geese, are nominally led by Francisco O'Donnell. Himself a descendant of Red Hugh O'Donnell, Francisco is rightly considered the chief of the Irish in Villenois, as the bulk are from Donegal, Clan O'Donnell territory. The regimental standard is St. Patrick's Cross.

     The San Andres Regiment similarly is another fantical band of tough Scots soldiers. These men likewise are Catholic and have a particular hatred for the English. Jacobites to a man, they see James II as the rightful king over the Protestant Dutch usurper William of Orange and as such took service with the Count in the hopes that one day when the clans of Scotland engage in another uprising that Lumerier will provide support to the Jacobite Cause. Taking their queue from the French Guarde Ecosses, or Scots Guard, the San Andres Scots are considered to be elite shock troops of the Villenese army. The Davault counts also have distant blood ties to Scotland so the Count treats the Scots rather favorably. Clad similarly to the Irish, in blue grey coats with red facings, the Scots are a very professional force who channel a cold anger into their discipline, especially when facing the British in open battle. Though unlike the Irish, the Scots will not readily quit the field if Villenois becomes an unlikely ally to British interests, as relations with Scots regiments in the British army, while far from cordial on most occasions, still evince a professional politeness as more often than not, these regiments are made up of their kinsmen from home. The principal leader of the Scots regiment is Alisdair MacDonald. A distant cousin of the MacDonald of the Isles, Alisdair is a battle hardened supporter of King James and will  not return to Scotland unless he is at the head of a Jacobite army ready to reinstate the rightful king on the British throne. Until that time though he remains at the Villenese court, a most welcome strategist whose calculating and careful deliberation makes him a good counterbalance to the hotheaded O'Donnell. The banner of the regiment is St. Andrew's Cross.

Alisdair MacDonald, captain of the San Andres Regiment.

 

 The French Scots Guard.

 

Banner of the San Andres Regiment, the White Rose, once a symbol of the northern House of York, became a symbol of Stuart supporters after the Battle of the Boyne when James, like Richard before him, lost his throne to a foreign invader.

 

A soldier of the San Andres Regiment.

 

Banner of the San Patricio Regiment

 

A soldier of the San Patricio Regiment.

 

Standard bearer and soldier from the San Andres Regiment. Nearly a fourth of the men serving under MacDonald are from his clan or from clans allied to the Lords of the Isles.