The Scottish Insurrection, Because They're Already Revolting

This past weekend will probably amount to the high point of my summer, if not until Cold Wars next year.

As I previously mentioned, I had my friends Phil and Jess up for some gaming extravaganza on Saturday.

Sunday was a trek to visit my friend Steve and give him one last hurrah before his wife gives birth and either he descends into that phase of fatherhood, or we discover that the Mayans were right.

What started off as a nice father to future father offer of some wargaming to a mini convention.  We've spent the last few years happy if four people got together. Sunday we had a dozen people in the house, most crammed into Steve's Bar. 

I arrived late, due to a babysitting issue (a foreshadow of things to come for Steve. mwhahaha!)  I gave my Godson Connor his primed and based unit and a half of Highlanders finally and started setting up Steve's battleboard for some Gnome action.

Steve had requested a good amount of Miniatures Building Authority items for Christmas and his relatives apparently love him.  Of course, his terrain has been set up in the bar the entire time and almost seven months later, we would finally christen it.

With three and a half units of Highlanders, and plenty of support weapons to boot, it was easy to set up a Scots versus the World scenario. 

The Highlanders

Objective: Hold the Compound at all costs.

Units:

Clan MacBirkner -  1 1/2 units, no support weapon

Clan MacNichols -  1 unit with LMG and Golf Mortar support

Clan MacNichols Teal - 1 unit with LMG

The Allies

Objective: Place one unit of troops of good standing with the compound's courtyard at the end of the game

Units: 

Swiss

British Marines

USAmerican Cavalry

(Paint) Free French

more reinforcements were in the initiative deck.

The Allied Deployment

The Highlanders Deploy Sparsely

The Early Rounds:

The Highlanders started by sending a portion of Clan MacBirkner to the first hill, as well as picking off British Marines through slats in the high fence.  The Cav charged down the road, turning at the ford and hid under brush from fire from the hill.  The Marines followed suit.  The French decided to charge out of the estate and dash for the bridge.  A few shots from the golf mortar dissuaded this tactic pretty early. The Swiss did what the Swiss normally do:  Tunnel.

The Cav Leads the Way!

The Middle Rounds

The Highlanders contihnued to get comfortable (we had three novice and one experienced player on that side).  Their light machine gun and golf mortar continued to pound the French who quickly decided that charging up the 1st hill to engage MacBirkners in hand to hand was less lethal.  They were successful in the assault, but the casualties were too much and they routed.

The USAmericans stormed passed the annoying Highlanders and worked around to behind the buildings on the far side of the table. The British Marines did a good job eliminating the advance guard along the fence and pondered their next move.

The French Assault the First Hill

The Swiss continued to dig, and the lowly four soldiers sent out popped up around the light machine gun and tried to seize the weapon.  Unfortunately the Clan MacNichols Berserker was there and quickly picked up two kills.  The final combat was against the Swiss Officer and the Berserker ran out of gas.  The Highlanders atop the hill did quick work of the sole remaining Swiss tunnel team and quickly regained the LMG.  The remaining Swiss back at their deployment slowly left the chateau towards the ford in the road.

Late Rounds

Finally, reinforcements arrived!  Aussie Cav arrived, and quickly took the spot that had just been filled by the British.  The British had managed to seize the first building without the Highlanders realizing it, so they hung out their until the end of the game.  The Swiss moved gingerly along, but it was the USAmericans wrecked the most havoc.  They were not only the single allied unit to trade fire with Highlanders in the village square, but the final few managed a charage across, scattering the enemy, but decimating themselves in the process.The Highlanders still occupied the town when I called it, so they won. The casualties were tremendous.

Berserkers Just Don't Fare Well Sometimes

Given the new players and no future knowledge of the battle board,  I think this was moderately successful.  I may continue to run the Scottish Civil War for the new players, just with some old Mordheim terrain and some kilt on kilt action.