Bayou Wars Report - Part 2

The game I ran at Bayou Wars was held on Saturday morning as the Annual George Carr, Sr. Colonial Game.  This action pitted US Marines and a British flying column protecting American missionaries against a local Chinese warlord in the "Back of Beyond" China sometime between the wars.  I used The Sword to Adventure variant to Larry Brom's inimitable The Sword and the Flame rules with a few modifications to convention action.

A MISSION TOO FAR?

While American Marines man the perimeter of an American mission station to repel the Chinese warlord's troops, Number 30 British Flying Column must race to their assistance.  Will the British get there in time or will it be "A Mission Too Far?"

An overview of the game with the British entering from the left side and the Marines defending the mission on the right.

 

The Warlord and his son deploy some of their units while the Marines man the mission station walls.

 

Warlord troops advance against the Marines and begin to take casualties.

 

His Britannic Majesty's Armoured Car (HMAC) Ajax fires into the mass of Chinese troops that are overrunning the mission station.  Very few Marines are left.

 

British infantry and Ghurkha rifles deploy against the Chinese troops.

 

The Chinese troops flood into the mission against the last of the Marines.

 

The final bastion, the mission chapel, is overwhelmed and the missionaries and the two surviving Marines are captured.  HMAC Ajax's machinegun, while killing a number of Chinese, just couldn't help prevent the station from being overrun.

Although the British flying column moved as quickly as it could, they just couldn't get to the mission quickly enough to prevent it from being overrun.  Like their compatriots in 1944, it was "a mission too far!"

HMAC Ajax and the Crossley lorries are Matchbox Models of Yestreyear vehicles.  The troops are a mixture of many different manufacturers from old "true" 25mm MiniFigs to new 28mm Copplestone and Brigade Games, all owned and painted by ColCampbell.  But once on the table, all melded together almost seamlessly.  The roads and streams were made by the incomparable, late Andrew Doyle.  The rest of the terrain (except the "cornfield") was built and/or painted by ColCampbell, hisself.

NOTE:  The scenario was patterned after the "Bridge Too Far" of Operation Market Garden in 1944 with the Chinese playing the role of the Germans, the Marines playing the role of the British paras, and the British Number 30 Flying Column playing the role of the British XXX Armoured Corps.

Part 3 still to come!