Here there be pirates !

On March 19th we played a pirate wargame, using The Sword in the Caribbean rules. We had 6 players who played the following crews or units:

Pirates
Capt. "Red" Sonya's crew - played by Jim
Capt. "Smilin' Jack" Hawkins - played by Jay

Spanish
Capt. Don Diego de la Vega - played by Russ

English
Capt. Bartholomew "Black Bart" Bligh - played by Phil
Capt. Lord Pavel Young - played by John
Royal Marine garrison - played by Sean

Each company or crew was made up of 2 12-15 man "bands" or units. Each unit had secret instructions that defined their mission.


Here we are setting up the terrain. You see Jay (taking the picture), game master Ed, pirate captain Jim and captain Phil.

The picture were taken by Jim and John. Click on a picture to see a bigger version.





The village market.







Another view of the village, from the direction most of the pirates will approach.








The native village







That's all for now. I'm shutting down my computer because a thunder storm is approaching and dropping pea to marble sized hail at my house right now.

I'm back tonight to finish the battle report!

Here we see the British marines patrolling the island.

This unit was painted by Jim. Their mission
was to defend the village and water supply
and make sure the new governor survived.




This is the other part of the British marine company.








Some of Phil "Black Bart" Bligh's sailors
gather at the edge of the village to defend
it from marauders. The 2 crews in town
both had the mission to defend the food
and supplies in the market.




Russ' Spanish militia advance on the village.

The scenario said that the Spanish had just
handed over the island to the British but the
Spanish garrison commander didn't like this.

Before he set sail to return to Spain he had
made it his mission to kill the new British governor.

The pirate crew of 'Red' Sonya enters the board.
Their mission was to get to the chapel, and find
the treasure. They were required to capture one
of the priests and 'question' him to find the valuable
artifact.




The rules have a special section on how torture prisoners to get information. Quite a few of the results have the prisoner dying.
'Smilin' Jack' Hawkins' crew attacks the Royal marines.

The pirates' mission was to find water and supplies
but after being fired on by the British they did
what pirates do .




After the first part of the melee one British unit
has retreated. The other unit has gotten behind
the pirates and will continue the fight.

In the end the pirates had to pull back. One unit
failed morale and headed for their ship without supplies.



Spanish commander Russ

Pirate Jay

Game master Ed




Russ' Spanish push toward the village, avoiding
the fresh water pond guarded by the alligator.

We decided that if anyone got to close the alligator would attack and we would use the TSATF Darkest Africa rules to figure out the results.

Everyone avoided the alligator. Isn't she a beauty!!!


The Spanish make it to the village and are met
by Phil's and John's crews.

Both units in John's crew are in the foreground.
The Spanish are advancing in open order line against Phil.



Part of pirate 'Red Sonya's' (Jim) crew sneaks toward the mission. They try and keep a hill between them and the British marines and avoid the alligator.






The fight at the village takes on a new dimension
as both sides use their 'granadoes' (early hand grenades).

The granadoes were used just prior to melee and
could produce surprising results.




At the end of the game 'Red' Sonya's crew captured
a priest and found "The Cross of Coronado" a gold relic
of great value. They hadn't gotten it off the board but
had done much better than 'Smilin' Jack' or the Spanish.





The English had held the village even though 1/2 of John's crew routed off the board (into the jungle) and Phil's crew and taken a lot of casualties from the fighting with the Spanish.

Thanks to Jim for supplying some of the figures (pirates, Spanish and Marines) and to Jim and John for the pictures.