Rorke's Drift in South America

Monday 6th March - WDW

"King of the Battlefield" - French v Prussians
"Baroque" - ECW
"Chain of Command" - WW2 - Germans v Russians
DBM - Tuareg v Welsh  - Andy's typically sneaky set up meant that our opponents could only see two full commands and part of a third.  Our fourth command came onto the flank almost immediately and the remainder of the third emerged from the dunes.  Poor Al was in the mire for another week.  At close of play the Welsh had one broken command and another getting close.


Thursday 9th March - Quetzalcoatl Rampant - first game:

I had already typed up the Lion Rampant additions and worked out a Tarascan army list.  All I needed to do now was a trial game using "The Pikeman's Lament" - easy!!!   Well maybe not.

 The initial set-up with the Aztecs on the left and the Tarascans to the right.  Here are the 'companies':

Aztecs (Ood general) with Eagle & Jaguar Warriors @ 4 pts; 1 x Veteran Warriors @ 4 pts; 4 x Warriors @ 3 pts; 2 x Skirmishers @ 2 pts.  Total = 24 pts

Tarascan (Judoon general) with Veteran Warriors @ 4 pts:  4 x Archers @ 4 pts; 1 x Warriors [+ Atlatl] @ 4 pts.  Total = 24 pts

The Aztecs advanced along the line until one unit decided not to join in.  The Tarascans were more cautious only advancing their archers.

At last the Aztec right began to move forward but only into the wood.  On the far left the skirmishers decided to have a rest.

Now it is getting nasty on the Tarascan right with enemy warriors bearing down on the archers.  Did I hear "Men of Harlech" being whistled?  Whatever it was it worked as the gods frowned upon the Aztec general whose unit took casualties from shooting and then he threw 'snakes eyes'.  The resulting morale tests meant two units retreated and one fled the field.  This is what it looked like:

The Aztecs never recovered.

I thought, when I started, that it would be a walkover for the Aztecs.  Serendipity wiped out the Aztec general on move 5 and a high failure rate to 'activate' units resulted in Aztec pin cushions.

I'm sure that I got many things wrong but managed to carry on.  Lion Rampant (and therefore QR) refer to 'Courage' and' Armour' whereas TPL likes 'Morale' and 'Stamina'.  I hope that I made the correct substitutions.

As you can see I used an 'occasional table' 40" x 24" with green A4 sheets of paper on it.  The three pieces of terrain I diced for.  A pretty primitive  set up but sufficient to try out the rules.  Think I need to play a game with some of the club experts before I go for a second attempt.  Also need to get a copy of Lion Rampant for myself.

Altogether an interesting experiment.