What a fantastic weekend the Rejects just had, gaming the Attack up the River Medway with the man who wrote the rules Mad For War, at the actual place the battle took place.
It doesn't get much better than this!!
Rapture is a gaming festival , not a wargame show, so there were computer games, board games, Cos Play and all sorts of other weird and wonderful stuff going on alla around us.
We did get a lot of interest and we all spoke to lots of people throughout the weekend about the game and just how cool it looked, this of course was all down to the maestro himself, Barry.
Just before the public were let in on Day 1 I grabbed this shot. We were in the Tabletop area with other wargame groups, who I've got to apologise to, as I didn't manage to get any shots of their great games as I was just too busy!!
Game 1
As we were gaming for 2 days Barry suggested we start from the beginning of the Dutch attack, where the Dutch sailed past the Isle of Sheppey and into the mouth of the estuary. It was quite a simple game, the Dutch on the right had to sail past the English ships who were coming out of the estuary to meet us.
In reality the Dutch landed on Sheppey and captured the fort, seen in the picture, and didn't officially hand Sheppy back to England until 1967!!! Each year the folk of Sheppey hold an Independence Day festival commemorating the event.
The Dutch moved around the right of the English squadron, while one ship, was brave and sailed close to the fort at Queensborough, which fired a shot off, missing its target.
A lucky shot and up in flames goes one English ship.
Then another goes up in flames and the larger and stronger Dutch see off the English and make there way up the estuary.
After that game, we took a short break, myself and Lee went for a little walk, and who should we bump into, Posties little cousins!!
Then into Chewbacca, I dunno and a Stormtrooper.
Now this car did look pretty cool, I've got to admit
Who you gonna call?
A shot into the gaming area,
Sir Blog-a-lot
Barry & Steve
Game 2 - Riding the Chain
As you know from Game 1, the Dutch have entered the Medway, but the English government has built a chain across the Medway. The Dutch have to break the chain a capture the Royal Charles, anchored up the river, the other side of the chain.
Barry used the turn in the river from the Chatham board and tuned it around.
The Dutch were very lucky, the first ship to try and ride over it, broke it, so they were free to ride over with all their other ships.
Either side of the river guarding the chain was a small redoubt containing artillery, who did their best to cause a little mayhem onto the Dutch ships.
There were also to anchored English ships close to either shore who also gave it to the Dutch!!
Now here is where it started to go wrong for the Dutch.
A couple of ships were having trouble with the wind, (ooo errr) which meant they didn't move, so it caused a bit of a traffic jam behind.
As the Dutch passed the anchored ship they gave fire, damaging the undermanned English ships.
Forgetting our main objective, capturing the Royal Charles, Lee back sailed to shoot at an English ship.
Which meant the rest had nowhere to go, if you went within 2 inched of the shoreline you run the risk of running aground, which believe me wasn't fun!
Poor old Lee's legs were killing him so he plonked his butt in a chair, then asked me to grab his bag of grub from under the table, as a punishment for being a plonker and stopping to shoot at the ship in the above pick, I place his bag just out of reach of the starving chap.
ok only for about 20 seconds, you should have heard him wimper and wine!
Barry was controlling all of the English ships and decided to tow the Royal Charles up river and out of our reach. meanwhile Lee's shot at the English ship set it aflame, which brought about a big cheer, that was until Barry told us, if it blew up every ship withing 4 inches would have to test to see if that too caught fire, which as you can see was the rest of the Dutch fleet!!!!
The lights in the building played havoc with taking photos, so you'll probably see the same shots from myself, Richard, Lee and Barry.
Somehow a gap was made, and Lee saw his moment and shot forward after the Royal Charles.
It was only moving 2 inches a go, but had to be fully off the table for the English win, when.....
Lee just caught up with it ending the game immediately with another Dutch win.
So our first 2 games played out just as they did in history.
English 0 - 2 Dutch
We didn't have enough time left to play the Big attack game as time was running out of the first day, so Barry suggeseted played a small open sea 3 v 3 game, so we could test the rules more.
Three Dutch ships handled by me, Lee and Postie v Richard, Steve and Barry.
Where's Lee's ship gone you may ask????
I guess you know the answer?
Barry felt sorry for Lee, so we got some reinforcements, Lee was back in the game.
I gotta admit it was a tad confusing knowing which ships was which and on who's side they were on, let alone trying to work that out 2 days after the battle!!
Shots were flying in left right and centre!
More wreckage floating as Steve's ship goes boom!
I think this was me? A very nice rack down the English ships line
The game ended with another Dutch victory, even though poor Lee had to surrender his second ship after he was boarded by the English.
Day 2
For some reason on the Sunday we had to park what seemed like a million miles away from the event, Which I didn't mind as it gave me a chance to grab a few photos of the docks themselves and of course Upnor castle which played its part in the events of 1667.
A Westland Dragonfly c.1952
HMS Cavalier, a CA Class Destroyer launched in 1944
HM Submarine Ocelot 1962
HMS Gannet, a sloop of the Victorian Royal Navy. Built in 1878.
Two Rejects walking off to the game.
Game 4 - The Attack of Chatham Docks
Now after the last 4 games we all wanted to play the Dutch as they'd won all the previous games and lets face it should smash the English. Me and Lee had played them in all 3 games, but split, he stayed with the Dutch while I was demoted to Captain the English fleet with Postie.
Altough it looks like there's a lot of English ships, most were unmanned and those who were only had a skeleton crew.
Barry's board does look stunning, with all the great Brigade Models 2mm buildings. Everyone who stopped by commented on how realistic it look and who well the river was painted.
I asked Postie to point at the drydock, which is where we were actually standing playing the game.
But first, as some of you may already know it was Barry's birthday, so we all sang happy birthday to him.
And presented him with his Charlie the Catapiller cake!
Most of the English ships have their top masts taken down
Urgh those damn reflections!!!
And "Here they come, sailing down the street, errrrr river"
Looks plain sailing for the Dutch?
Talking of Dutch, here they are, minus Barry of course, Steve, Richard and Lee.
A white puff of smoke can be seen in the distance, just infront of the giant Caterpillar.
It didn't do a lot of damage but woke up the dockyard, or did it???
The wind direction was doing the English a big favour, most if not all of the Dutch fleet, were sailing into the wind, so progress was slow.
ooo, another shot of Charlie the Caterpillar
The leading squadron led by Richard made a dash up stream but Steve and Lee ships lagged behind.
The English had to throw to move each ship, to simulate a hasty crew being rustled up to try and stop the moored fleet being burnt.
The Dutch have a prize in sight, the Royal Oak.
Marines in rowing boats are on their way to help.
The Monmouth runs agound as it strays a little too close to the shore.
More English Marines row out from St Mary's Island
The 3 Dutch objectives, capture or burn The Royal Oak, Loyal London and Royal James.
The Monmouth manages to free herself from the sandbanks and moves down river to meet the Dutch.
With most of their fleet running into the wind and not being able to move, Richard's Dutch are out and alone.
Upnor Castle fires its cannons at the small Dutch vessal carrying its leaders.
The small red markers on the left are English batteries who have fired and need to reload.
Hmm? How can I get my bloody ships to move!!!!
The English do have two small fire ships, and a small vessel who are all racing down river.
The Dutch Command yacht get too close to the shore, as it turns back down stream, as it does a unit of English militia fire their muskets to see if a Dutch Admiral would fall. But alas it wasn't to be.
English Marines row out to try and board the Breda, but are beaten back.
But our fireship is not, we manage to light it and hit the Breda.
Meanwhile down stream a lucky shot from a shore battery hits the perfect spot and Boom!
Goes a Dutch fireship, are the other ships within 4 inches though, they sure do look like they are????
The chap (sorry I didn't get your name) tuned up and was admiring the game. Postie or Barry asked him if he wanted to throe some dice to see if the other Dutch ships might catch fire.
A massive loud explosion (probably heard in Holland rocks the shores of the Medway as two other Dutch ships catch alite and blow up.
Lesson learned, don't sail all your fireships close together!
Or this can happen, there was a loud roar and cheer from me and Postie, even Barry joined in!!
The Rotterdam, Wapen van Londen and the Draak are all aflame.
We tried again to board with some Marines, but again are pushed back.
"Fire!"
Bad news for the English, the Bomb vessels doesn't explode and the Dutch easily mange to save the Breda buy pushing the ship off and away from themselves.
What to do, what to do?
We decide to try and form a line if we can in front of the 3 moored would be prizes.
I manage to bring my ship around a fire a broadside from each side, not doing too much damage to the Dutch ships but to the morale instead.
We're close to the end of the day and the game, can the English hold on and re-write the history books, or can the Dutch pull a victory out of the bag?
The English send their brave yacht to give a racking shot down the back of the Utrecht as our fire ship floats down stream.
The English manage to get a 3 ship protective line in place and for how long remains to be seen. But we sneak past another fireship, centre of the photo.
The Dutch double team the small English yacht, who are boarded and forced to surrender.
Boom!
Our fireship gets in and rams Steve's ship.
Which also catches on fire!!!
The Monmouth runs aground before it can drop its anchor, just upstream from Upnor Castle. The Dutch Admiral has had enough and fearing capture abandons his yacht and is rowed away in his rowboat.
Its desperate times so the Captain of the Monmouth who has just managed to free himself from the shore line grapples the Utrecht and try's to bored and capture the Dutch ship, alas the dice gods were not on his side anymore, the captain is killed and the Monmouth........
Powder stores are hit and it blows up!
And in utter disbelief Barry called an end to the game.
The Dutch had utterly failed there objectives and the win goes to the English fleet!!!
If I remember correctly, Barry said this is the first time the English have won this scenario and he's played it many many times. We did what we needed to do, hold the Dutch up for as long as possible, trying to pick pick pick at their forces a much as we could, but they and the wind were the true reasons we won the game, the wind always seemed to change in the English favour which really slowed their advance and some damn poor dice rolling from Lee and Steve really helped our cause.
I think Barry enjoyed the Reject experience as much as we enjoyed having Barry umpire his Mad For War rules for us at Chatham Dockyard.
What a blast!!
Thanks Barry
And that dear reader is the end of the post, I'm not around for a couple of weeks, but will try and comment when I can, internet permitting!
When you coming down again Barry???