I Fought The Law....and The Law Won! A jailbreak on Pinatella goes badly awry

       This battle is a follow-on to The Relief of Pinatella which found the frigate Dijon having gone mercenary to be fighting against it old fleet-mates. The Dijon was sunk and such of the crew as were rescued were put on trial for being turn-coats. This game was fought using Pikemans Lament rules, the island was stylized to fit onto my tabletop.

the actual island of Pinatella

        The stink of unwashed bodies and fear filled the room; oblivious to it all Rene Chartrand leaned against the wall and looked at his former First Mate Alaine Clermont, "Well, we will all hang soon enough". 

        Clermont laughed grimly, "At the time seemed like a good idea to switch sides, in retrospect perhaps becoming prisoners of war would have been better. Shall I tell the boys that we are going to have to take action tonight?". He carefully dusted off his britches as he stood up to look out the tiny window of the cell.

          Chartrand stepped next to Clermont to peer down into the bay. He could see the King's Commissioner's boat leaving the harbor as the supply ship waited to enter. "I would say that tonight is our only chance, it is good to see that the supply boat is punctual, that is our ticket for of getting out of here. The watch changes at the fort at dusk, we will make our move then. With some luck we can get most of the way around the bay before the garrison discovers what we are up to"

 

having overpowered the sleepy guards the crew breaks out 

and speeds around the perimeter to as quietly as possible

 

but an eagle-eyed look-out at the fort spots them before they get a third of the way to the dock

 

with the garrison reacting I choked on several Move Orders and a full half of the seamen stood still

 

Trunkmonkey had no such problems and his troops reacted smoothly

 

even the garrison sent men out to contain the jailbreak

 

I failed on my Move Orders with all of the troops at the head of the column

 forcing the rearmost units to try to move forward past their immobile fringes

 

the garrison was moving faster than my desperate escapees

 

 the troops from the fortress moved to block the access to the dock

 

as the sailors rounded the corner the soldiers opened fire ....

 

 .... claiming two of the very few musketeers the sailors had

 

another batch of botched Move Orders left the sailors bunched up 

and unable to move toward the enemy

 

then, much to the sailors surprise and dismay, they discovered that

 the garrison officers were at the Hermit's cabin playing whist,

these stalwart lads put up a determined defense behind the cabin's stout walls

 

the garrison troops continued to advance

 

their fire continued to claim the lives of the escapees

 

weary of trading shots with the sailor's skirmishers

 the officers ran outside and put them to the sword

 

this prompted the sailors officers to attack them

 

the upshot of this was that only the Captain remained standing

 

having at last gotten in range the sailors charged fiercely into the musketeers of the garrison

 

at last able to fight they caused much carnage among the musketeers

 

but the other unit of musketeers opened fire and evened the score

 

then it was the turn of another unit of sailors to brave the fire of the steady garrison troops

 

a look at the carnage in the Hermit's cabin

 

and on the ground surrounding it 

 

at last it was the sailors chance to charge

 

but their morale failed after suffering several casualties

 

another outbreak of terrible Orders tests stymied the advance

 

the fortress garrison had moved into the buildings to gain an elevated position to fire from

 

in addition a lucky roll of a twelve grated the musketeers a "First Volley" advantage

 

this was particularly bad for the sailors taking the fire

 

the Captain managed to charge into contact and kill three of them before falling

at this point the remaining sailors fled, some jumping to their deaths 

a few retiring to the prison where they barricaded themselves inside

 

the scene at the end of the battle, a tableau of carnage, 

half the garrison dead, all but a few of the sailors slain on the field of battle

       In the gathering darkness Clermont saw the Captain fall before the swords of the garrison musketeers. Acting quickly he gathered a few steady hands and slipped into the underbrush along the base of the cliff, "Lads, listen close, for the last few weeks I've seen a fishing boat set sail from somewhere on the north coast of this island. If yer bold enough to help me rescue the Captain I'll lead you to the boat and we all will be free. Or you can stay here and hang with the rest off the boys." The three hardened sailors glanced swiftly around the group and as one nodded in assent."Good, now  listen close and this is what we'll do"

         Chartrand awoke to a sea of pain and the swarthy face of Clermont grinning foolishly at him, "Yer alive, I'll be damned. We thought that you were done for". Chartrand peered over the gunwale at the sea around him to find no landmarks, baffled at his circumstances he gestured weakly and raised an eyebrow. Clermont caught his meaning and explained, "We found you barely alive in the darkness and slipped away to steal this magnificent vessel" He spread his arms to indicate the tattered but seaworthy fishing boat, "We thought it best to get as far away as quickly as we could  so we set off downwind, I would think that we are fifty knots south-east of Pinatella".  

          Chartrand wracked his memory of the sea-charts that he had spent too little time studying, vaguely recalling the two eastern satrapies of Nylia he recalled that the Satrap of Liberica was notably friendly to infidels; especially ones with technical skills. "South by southwest", he murmured, "We are going to go full outlaw with this move".