Raid on a Stockade

       Trying  to squeeze in a game, I finally made use of  C.S Grant & S.A. Asquith's  "Scenarios for all Ages", using scenario 27 "Raid on a Stockade".  And I actually read through the scenario and followed  many of the suggestions, which, of course, made for a good game.

        "The situation along the Shiak-Brookshire border continued to deteriorate. Both sides were mobilizing their militia, and Brookshire spies  were reporting that the Shiak army was building supply depots along the border. The Brookshire command decided to try to disrupt the Shiak plans by raiding the depots.  The command turned to Lt. Col. Barnaby, the hero of the Battle of Wormy ridge.  Barnaby puts out the call for volunteers for the raid. Response is luke warm, until he mentions that since anything found is to be destroyed anyway, any volunteer could take what he could carry.  He quickly had all the men he needed., which he formed into a "Ranger" unit."

      The men in Barnaby command didn't have time for niceties such as uniforms. They crossed the border and closed in on the largest of the supply depots, which was guarded by 4 militia units.

The garrison has sentries on each of the walls; Barnaby has his forces surrounding the post.

The Stockade (an old Atlantic model fort).

Barnaby with some of his Rangers.

Another shot of the Rangers in the woods.

The sun is just rising when the Rangers start their advance.

Ranger approach from the west.

The sentries must be dozing as one Ranger unit reaches the palisade unnoticed.

Finally the sentry on the east wall sees the advancing troops and fires on them, rousing the garrison.

Captain Collins, commander of the stockade, quickly deploys his units. He notices that there is no assault from the south, and the attackers from the west are still have a lot of ground to cover, so he concentrates on the attacking force from the east.

Another shot of Capt. Collins troop deployment. His militia wore their dress uniforms to war!

The Rangers kill two militiamen with their fire, while a third Ranger scales the palisade and engages a militiaman in hand -to-hand combat. (Hand-to-hand combat was by rolling two dice; high roll wins.)

The militiaman won the fight, and pitches the body of the Ranger back over the palisade.

The militia fire kills two Rangers, and two other Rangers break and run.

The Rangers on the north wall lose another ranger and another retreats.

The Rangers close in from all sides and pour fire on the garrison.

 Barnaby chose his Rangers based on their marksmanship, and that skill is coming into play. The militiamen lose three more men.

Capt. Collins redeploy his men. There main pressure right now is on the north  and southeast part of the garrison. Capt. Collins can be seen in the north-east corner helping with the fight, the militiaman  in the middle of the eastern wall can fire on either of the Ranger groups.

The militiamen direct their fire on a group of Rangers working around the south, and kills three out of four!

The Rangers have now closed on the stockade. Col. Barnaby and his bugler join the Ranger who just lost three of his friends.

The Rangers shoot down the two militiamen on the south-west corner of the stockade.

Two militiamen from the south-east corner start moving to protect the exposed south-west corner.

On the north wall the militia are still holding their own.

The Ranger scale the palisade in two different places along the west wall. In the "Scenarios for all Ages" they suggested rolling for each figure and needing doubles to succeed in scaling the walls. It seemed to me they weren't facing any opposition and would have no trouble scaling the palisade. And so for each man in the group I rolled two dice. In the north-west corner I rolled 8 dice and got the equivalent of three doubles. On the south-west I rolled 6 dice and got two doubles.

The end of the next turn. The militiamen are still hitting the advancing Rangers, and the militiamen on the south wall kill one of the Rangers who scaled the wall, but the militiamen have also lost three men.

The Ranger on the south-west wall jumps down and opens the gate of the stockade. The Rangers on the North-west wall starts working their way around the cat walk. Notice Col. Barnaby's group along the south wall and another group of Rangers making for the open gate.

Col. Barnaby and his group fires on the militiamen on the south wall, killing both of them! The Rangers on the north wall have killed another militiaman and another Ranger has scaled the wall and gotten between the last militiaman on the north wall and Capt. Collins. The Rangers in the south-east corner have shot down another militiaman.

Capt. Collins, finding himself with only two men left, decides to surrender. Collins is brought down to meet Col. Barnaby.

A shot of Victor and Vanquished; Col Barnaby and Capt. Collins.


For rules I used "Horse &Musket" by Chris Salander, which appeared in MWAN 102.  They are good rules to use for skirmish games and seem comparable with Bob Condrey's Memoir of Battle rules.