The Battle of Horst's Ferry.
Semaphore 21 stood beside the Mars Grand Trunk Canal at the
town of Horst's Ferry. Rearing almost 200 feet into the air its vast bulk was
covered with gears, lamps, cables and signalling devices, making it look a
little like a Christmas tree during the day and a strange and ominous giant at
night. The Drune called the Semaphore of the Royal Signal Corps 'Om - Nagi',
which translates to 'silent watchers'.
The pre-dawn wind was blowing in chill across the plains
from the low line of the Mephisto Hills to the west, making the tower creak and
sway. Not that this troubled Signaller 'Java' Thwaites in the slightest as he
sipped at his fourteenth cup of tea that evening as he stood watch. What did
trouble him was that with the exception of the Trunk Canal stations 20 and 22
to either side of him there were now no lights to be seen from the west. Well,
signal lights that were. Every few minutes the horizon would light up as guns
rumbled many miles away. They grew louder as the wind picked up.
He heard the heavy footsteps on the ladder of signaller
Toby. He'd just been despatched from central and was unused to the climb. He
was puffed by the time he got to the top. "Sir, we've lost the last relay.
Kitchener has fallen. That's as well as White Plains and Derby Canyon. There's
nothing left between us and them now sir..."
"Sir...what now sir?"
His voice trailed off a bit as the fullness of this news
sunk into his own brain. They stood in the darkness for a moment, the only
sounds the rumble of artillery, the creaking of the tower and the sharp clink
of bone china as signaller Thwaites set his cup onto his saucer.
"Corporal, there's always time for a cup of tea."
The first refugees started arriving just as the sun was
rising. Firstly they came in steam driven vehicles....cars, lorries...
wheelbarrows. The settlers, wide eyes and frightened children, wounded soldiers
strapped to limbers and groaning whenever they hit a bump. Horsemen pulled
carts and carriages loaded with worldly possessions. The ferry had been running
to the far shore on half hourly intervals. Now it was down to ten minutes. The
docks were a mess of soldiers without officers, children trying to find loved
ones, noise, smoke and confusion.
There was the sudden and deafening sound of a Gatling gun
being fired. Corporal Wellard of the Guards surveyed the scene from atop the
roof of the 'Painted Lady' wharf inn and wondered what strange crime he had
committed to be put in charge of this lot. Not being a man of a great many
words, the Corporal stood atop the sandbag pile and at the two hundred faces
looking up at him who were suddenly all attention. Heroic speeches failed him.
“Right you lot!” he yelled in his 'special occasions'
voice. “I know you are tired and I know
you want to get on that boat but by crikey I can 'it every one of your God fearin'
bonces from up 'ere with my mate Mr Gatlin...so get in line!!”
Finally the mob became a queue of some description, thanks
mainly to a squadron of well-disciplined lancers who gently but forcefully
herded the people.
Meanwhile Torvald Horst surveyed his domain. The float tree
plantation had been built with the blood and sweat of his family for two
generations and no-one was to take it from him. He loaded his 12 bore shotgun
with pig-shot and looked at his men. "They don't take our land. You fight
them for it boys. You fight them dirty. You fight them hard. And when they bear
down on you, you look them in the eyes and you fight them some more". The
float trees were glowing now as if on fire in the low rays of the sun. His men
positioned themselves around the farm, raised the sights on their Mauser rifles
and waited.
The last boatload departing, Captain Shamrock and his Drune
crew have landed one last time to pick up the last defending soldiers.
But wait! Another
large refugee convoy is approaching from the west! And hot on their tails seems
to be the entire Prussian aerial Navy who are bombing them as they flee! Shall
we leave them to their fate? No
sir..that is just not the done thing!
The lancers line up, the sunlight glinting on their steel
tipped bamboo spears. And somewhere high up in Semaphore tower 21 was the sound
of a kettle boiling...
The Prussians are carrying out lightning swift strikes all
along the western edges of the British Martian Protectorate and have sent Queen
Victoria's forces reeling back towards the capital, New Brighton. The Grand
Martian Canal stands as a line of defence in the way of the Prussian advance
but also threatens to cut off a great many refugees and retreating men as they
desperately try and make their way back to new defensive positions. One ferry
crossing point is at the hamlet of Horst's Ferry, a modest collection of
buildings serving the ferry passengers and acting as a trading post, plus of
course the two dozen or so floatwood plantation workers.
We chose to play on a 12 ft by 6ft table to allow the aerial
component of the game a bit more freedom of movement...plus it was great fun to
get so much terrain on one table!
The Forces;
British
20 of 1st Battalion Berkshires
20 of 35th Bombay Infantry
1 unit of 10 Bengal Lancers
12 Settlers led by the famous 'Horst' himself
3 Signallers manning the semaphore
22 non-combatant refugees
1 Gatling gun manned by 3 naval brigade crew
1 Small steam artillery piece
1 Large walker 'HMMS Elgar' with crew of 6 Navy
8 Crew aboard the paddle steamer 'Donegal Lady'
Prussians
3 Light to medium aerial navy attack craft, each containing
Clanks with grenade launchers
1 Medium bomber aeronef
12 Prussian attack marines
60 ish (?) Infantry including regulars and Sea-battalion
2 Attack spider walkers with heavy Gatling Cannons.
The Prussian objective was primarily to destroy the ferry to
cut off the escape route and secondly to try to destroy the semaphore tower to
cut communications. Their third objective
was to create terror and panic by bombing the refugees. For the British the objective was to hold the
crossing until all refugees and troops could be evacuated.
The game began with the refugees coming onto the table and
fleeing along the plantation road with all three aerial navy craft in hot
pursuit. On the other table edge the first spider tank appeared with two
formations of infantry.
The defenders were pretty well dug in behind barricades and
sandbag defences, with several platoons broken down into smaller formations atop
roofs, on terraces etc). The settlers and Indian infantry held the
right flank, the British regulars the centre and crossing point and the lancers
had the left. The town was also partly defended from ground attack by a dry
gully that ran down to the canal.
The aerial navy came on at a good rate of knots and the Bengal
lancers rode out to meet them, perhaps hoping to do some damage by prodding
their armoured hulls with their lances.... As they swept under the first craft
they were met with grenades from above which instantly killed the leader! But
leaderless they still rode on to where a unit of Sea-battalion were threatening
to overtake the civilians, who had also taken casualties that turn from the
bombing.
The next turn saw most of our ground forces biding their
time as they closed to within range. The Lancers began to close with the Sea-battalion
but alas took another pasting from above, this time losing three more horsemen.
However, they passed their morale and
continued. Hurrah! Even better, one of the air navy failed it's
sustain role and began to lose altitude alarmingly.
The refugees rolled well on their charges but took another
four casualties to bombs before reaching the sandbag barricades which they
started to leap over, disrupting the troops behind. HMMS Elgar finally managed
to get a shot off at the first spider tank but missed the first of four times. The Gatling guns finally opened up however and
if doing little damage at least made the spider tank captain consider pausing
just outside of short range until his supporting infantry caught up...a move
that allowed me precious time to try to get those refugees on that boat! The lancers at last clashed with the
Sea-battalion; a mutually destructive move that saw three casualties a side and
both units break. The last two lancers
didn't stop running until they were on the ferry!
A second failed sustain saw the first air navy ship plummet
to the ground, decapitating a row of float trees whose tops strangely floated
off into the ether. However, the grenade launching clank and 'wind
up' man survived and continues their pursuit of the refugees.
Things were finally hotting up with the ground troops, with
two waves of Prussians attacking the farmhouse complex, where they found the
natives very stubborn.
One sole rifleman took down four of the Prussians in hand to
hand before finally being bludgeoned. Twice units of settlers broke but rallied
and returned to the fight, even with the first spider tank bearing down and
squashing a few. One unit of Bombay
infantry had moved up to assist them and just about managed to hold them
off...until spider tank number 2 arrived!
Meanwhile back in the town the Berkshires atop the semaphore
had a good clear shot at the second air navy ship as it came into range.
It was hit with small arms fire, Gatling gun and small
cannon which caused it to lose steering control and crash into the ground, with
most of the crew perishing in the ensuing fireball.
A great cheer went up from the defenders, only to be
stifled as they saw the looming shape of the zeppelin bomber appear!
HMMS Elgar's crew had some luck with their Gatling gun (they
had fired the RA crew by this point) in damaging the front weapon of the lead
spider but disaster struck as their engine conked out! Unable to use their main weapon, the crew
valiantly swept the approaching Prussian units with their machine guns as
behind them units began to fall back.
The last of the attack ships swept by the semaphore tower, small
arms fire bouncing off it as it approached.
The British would have loved to
have tried to board men by jumping off the semaphore tower into the hull but
the movement dice didn't allow it!
However, the ship then landed just adjacent to the ferry
ramp ready to disgorge hordes (well, a dozen or so) crack troops and a
secretive agent! The refugees who by
this time had almost reached the ramp milled around in horror as they saw their
escape route blocked and got in the way of the Berkshires and Bombay infantry
trying to get to the ship, led by the Corporal astride a horse he'd 'borrowed'.
Meanwhile the bomber approached nearer as the Prussian
infantry began their breakthrough with the second spider tank, and met the
second line of defence at the rear of the ferry buildings. The Prussian assault
troops leapt from their landed craft across the ramp, sweeping the ferry with
flamethrowers that killed most of the crew, including Captain Shamrock. Luckily
massed fire from a small unit of Indian infantry and the remaining crew killed
enough of them to force their surrender. While they were taken prisoner and
herded onto the boat (including the secret agent..) in front of an avalanche of
refugees , soldiers and horses the remaining rear-guard poured everything they
had at the bomber. "Java' Thwaites put down his cup for only the second
time that morning and pulled his signalling pistol slowly from a pouch.
The bomber came closer and obviously was about to ram as he
fired into the ship, his phosphor flare setting two crew alight but alas not
saving Semaphore tower 21, which with the great noise of tearing steel girders
and splintering wood fell sideways over into the canal. The falling wreckage
killing a number of the remaining rear-guard as they fled, firing over their
shoulders.
The last of the refugees aboard and as many of the soldiers
who could get to the ship in time, the ferry departed intact. None of the
settlers had survived the assault and the Indians had been quite hard hit too.
None of the naval brigade managed to escape, as HMMS Elgar and the first Spider
mutually destroyed each other.
However, climbing aboard the ferry having survived a
tremendous dive into the canal was signaller Thwaites, still clutching his best
china cup. He had however lost the matching saucer...so the gloves were really
off now.
Outcome? Well a draw
I suppose. The Prussians got to destroy
the tower and caused a good deal of terror but the majority of the refugees and
soldiers escaped, along with some very valuable prisoners. It was
great fun to finally get some aerial ships going as well as cavalry as it
really moved the game along quickly and presented many new angles of attack
(and considerations for defence). It was really hard getting the balance of
forces right for this one with the Prussian side having a lot of armour and air
ability and the Brits having a lot of well dug in rifles. These certainly
stopped the Prussian infantry pretty well but were fairly powerless with
the big beasties...probably just how it should have been.
