Colonial Barracks - Part 1

On my last post, I opened my report from this year's Colonial Barracks convention with the battle I ran on Saturday morning.  This part of the report, which I have labelled Part 1, will cover some of the games that were played Friday night.

We open with John Murdaugh's 40mm Battle of Camden using "Disperse, Ye Damned Rebels!" rules on Friday afternoon.

Supervised by Larry Brom (red Marine cap), Martha, Lori, and Tim (American players) get ready to show the British a taste of American hospitality, with a torrent of lead!  John sits behind them.

Nick Zizo ran a Zulu game on Friday afternoon featuring Warlord Games' Rorke's Drift set.

The Rorke's Drift model dominates the battlefield.

Chick and Donna (far side of the table) and Dwight (front left) contemplate their options as the game begins.

James (left) and Dwight wonder if their Zulus can actually break into the compound at wash their spears in British blood.

And while the above two games were being played, Ed got his troops sorted for his Friday night Mexican American War game "The Battle for Jalapa," which presumed that Santa Ana did not take his army north to Buena Vista but had it available to oppose General Scott's advance from Veracruz.

The big game Saturday night was Rich Smethurst's and Dale Kemper's "55 Days at Peking" action on the Tartar Wall above the legations.  I played in this game as a Boxer commander.

Dale Kemper (owner/operator of Stellar Systems, manufacturer of the Ral Partha Colonial line), sets up troops on the two part model of the Tartar Wall.

As Boxers move down the wall, a Chinese rocket explodes just in front of the Marine defenses.  Donna was also a Boxer commander.  We had about six Boxer players, each of whom could have a 20-man unit on the wall at any one time.  When a unit was destroyed, another took its place.  The Marines, however, were limited to two platoons plus a machinegun.

A closer view of part of the Marine lines.  Charlton Heston is on the horse.  In the background, a Marine is killed by another Chinese rocket warhead.  The rockets weren't very accurate and we hit our own troops several times.

Boxers swarm up onto the Marine barricade.

As another rocket lands just behind the Marine line, more Boxers gather for their chance at the "round-eyes."

But the Marines' rifle fire slaughters the Boxers, sending the survivors reeling.  In the background there is furious action at the other Marine barricade.

Oh, no!!  Heston is killed by a Chinese rocket warhead.  This was my only success as a Boxer commander.

On the far barricade, several Boxer units attack the Marines as another rocket explodes just behind them.  Can the Boxers take advantage of this?

Yes, they can.  The Marines are forced away from the barricade and fall back to secondary positions at the heads of the ramps leading down into the Legations area (at far right).  Only the priest is left to stand against the "heathen Boxers."  the game ended shortly afterwards as a platoon of Sikh infantry climbed up one of  the ramps and the Boxers finally ran out of troops.

This last picture from Friday night is the 15mm Alamo set-up for Terry Sofian's "The Alamo + Rough Riders + Them" game that was run Saturday morning.  Terry used his newly released "The Hive and the Flame" rules and pitted Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders defending the San Juan Mission against rampaging giant bugs from outer space.  There are several early tanks in the foreground.

That's all for now.  Further report(s) will be made to cover the other games on Saturday and the game on Sunday morning.