Sharp Practice British v Buccaneers

The second game in Gary's excellent Caribbean campaign on land for the British (there have been several naval games but I didn't play those myself).

While I was busy capturing the Turks and Caicos Islands Montego Bay on my home base of Jamaica had been overrun by Jon's Buccaneers. Having dealt with the Islands my fleet was returning home to recapture the Bay in concert with some land forces from Kingston.

Unfortunately the dastardly pirates ambushed my column of troops advancing from Kingston while they were on the road. I had a small force of one each Line, Grenadier, Light and Militia groups with only two leaders (though one of them was a Status III) with two more Militia with leaders arriving after 6 turns. I had no idea how big the buccaneer force was at all.

The battleground had plenty of cover for the Buccaneers to leap out from:

The British column on the road with the Light Infantry leading:

The Buccaneers took a bit of a risk by placing their deployment points close to the British column. Of the two one has been shut down by the Light Infantry but the other has allowed them to deploy in a good position behind the wall and fire a damaging volley into the British Militia who lose two men and take eight shock:

The British Militia fall back while the Buccaneers follow up. The rash advance of the Buccaneers allows the British Light Infantry to sneak around their flank and pour fire into them. Meanwhile the British Grenadiers start moving forwards:

The flanked group of Buccaneers flees from the Light Infantry's fire. The Buccaneers are finding it hard to use their superior numbers due to visibility issues:

The firefight goes badly for the British Grenadiers who lose a couple of men and are looking isolated with another group of Buccaneers moving up:

Things are not going well for the British on the other flank either with the Light Infantry taking a casualty and seven shock from Buccaneer musketry. They start to fall back out of range:

Just in time for the British two more Militia groups arrive on the road from Kingston and immediately go into action against the Buccaneer left flank:

Firing from the British inflicts numerous shock on the Buccaneer Militia on the left. Most Buccaneers have no real target now and some have run out of ammunition. The British Light Infantry have rallied and are ready to return to the fray:

The Buccaneer Militia fall back leaving the other group on the hill exposed. What had looked a bad situation for the British has stabilised and they are ready to drive forward again. Looking at the odds the Buccaneers decide they should fall back into the jungle leaving the field to the British:

This was Jon's first game of SP and he certainly had me worried in it!

I could have won the game by taking both Buccaneer deployment points without even fighting with a bit of luck in the officer activation at the start but, after the Light Infantry activated first, for the initial 4 or 5 turns the British hardly activated at all and were as a result constantly fire-fighting crises rather than developing their own plan.

I did manage to hang on long enough for my reserves to arrive though and their arrival turned the game to a large extent, together with a reversal of fortune in the officer activation as once I had my reserves it was mainly my officers that activated!

While the Buccaneers did manage to withdraw I'm not sure where they will go now as my fleet drove off the Buccaneer ships in Montego Bay so they are stranded on the island now.