The League of Augsburg
Fate, Fortune or Faithlessness? Camaret Bay 18th June 1694: Part 5
Orders of Battle
The full English order of battle is as follows:
1 battalion of converged grenadiers (all musket), 2 battalions of Marines (all musket), 1 battalion of Guards, 11 battalions of Foot (pike and musket with the possibility that 3-4 could be all musket armed).Here are the battalions which participated in the expedition:
1st Foot Guards
John Cutts’ Regiment
Richard Coote’s Regiment
Samuel...
Fate, Fortune or Faithlessness? Camaret Bay 18th June, 1694: Part 4
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| A map drawn up to wargame the action |
It does sound unmistakably like D-Day. It took place around 200 miles from and almost exactly 250 years to the day before Operation Overlord as, although the date is now noted at June 18th the old style calendar marks it as June 6th or 7thin most sources. The action can be fought in various ways; as a large scale battle, as a skirmish or...
Fate, Fortune or Faithlessness? Camaret Bay June 18th, 1694. Part 3
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| Possibly Lord Carmarthen running the Gullet |
Consequence of perfidy
When the Allied fleet arrived in Camaret Bay it immediately came under fire from the forts around Camaret village and those at Bertheaume Bay on the northern shore opposite. The plan was for men o’ war to run the narrow channel called the ‘Gullet’ between the two headlands and sail into the anchorage at Brest. This gap was exactly...
Fate, Fortune or Faithlessness? Camaret Bay 18th June, 1694 Part 2
The Mission – Destroy Brest!
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| D-Day 300 years before it happened. Camaret Bay was an exptremely ambitious plan |
The raid was a large scale affair for an action of its type. It was months in the planning with the objective of wreaking havoc on a key strategic anchorage for the French fleet at the port of Brest in western Brittany. Naval bombardments of French ports had been undertaken before, one such...
Taking Baby out for its first stroll
Partizan was the debut of With Talon and Claw and I am pleased to say it was a sunny day for the new born. Several customers took delivery of their pre ordered books and a brisk trade was had by North Star who were selling the book on the day.
The launch weekend has been a success and we've shifted enough copies already to ensure the book will have a healthy life.
The game I chose as the launch pad...
Fate, Fortune or Faithlessness? Camaret Bay 18th June, 1694 Part 1
This piece was first run in Wargames Illustrated in 2016. I thought it a solid multi-parter to run on the blog whilst I am holidaying.
Contemporaneous notoriety
The disastrous attack at Camaret Bay on June 18th1694 was a very English tragedy. From a distance of 322 years it is easy to understand that a relatively minor operation which went badly wrong and resulted in the death of a largely forgotten...
Templar Museum - Monteriggioni, Tuscany
This was a wee bit of a find. 1.5 Euro entry fee, a laminated six page guide in English - up a back stair inside a restaurant in the 'Assassin's Creed' castle of Monteriggioni - but, I loved it!
A series of vignettes from the 1st Crusade and Capture of Jerusalem to the Teutonic knights, Landsknechts and the dreaded Swiss coming to town in Siena - it was all good stuff.
I definitely got a hint of...
The Chatham Board - the tide is coming in
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| Looking north(down river) and from the west bank. |
Things are progressing. I have concentrated on the western bank of the river and focused on flora and dwellings.
The perspective on the landscape is better with trees and buildings in place. The wooded areas and hedges are glued down with slow setting Bostik.
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| Some 2mm troops on this base - Dutch Marines face off local militia |
The village is place on...
Huzzah for Lithuania!
All the way from Vilnius, bang on time (I always like to under promise and over deliver) and in very good nick.....
With Talon and Claw has arrived in Scotland!
This means..
Pre orders will go out tomorrow and Saturday which is six days ahead of schedule and..
If you are going to Partizan you can pay in advance and pick up your copy on the day without a postage charge if you haven't pre-ordered...
One Saturday at mine... Building 1/2400 terrain
I have been researching how to bring this important campaign to the table top for a while now. That activity has paid off. I originally planned to build the entire river in 1/2400 which would have been a mammoth task however, I have now identified five important stretches:
1.The Mouth/Sheerness
2. Musselbank
3. Gillingham Reach and St Mary's Creek
4. The Chatham Dockyard stretch
5. Chatham to Rochester...
1.The Mouth/Sheerness
2. Musselbank
3. Gillingham Reach and St Mary's Creek
4. The Chatham Dockyard stretch
5. Chatham to Rochester...
Verbrand hun slagschepen! (Burn their battleships!) June 13th 1667: Part 2
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| The battleships lie at anchor watched over by the Eastern Shore Battery commanded by Spragge. |
Turn 1.
The Dutch sailed upriver from Upnor Reach in line ahead with the frigate Harderwijck leading the way followed by the Fireships Catarina, Pro Patria, Rotterdam and Drak in that order. Ahead lay gun batteries on both the east and west bank consisting of heavy artillery transported from Gravesend and...
Verbrand hun slagschepen! (Burn their battleships!) June 13th 1667: Part 1
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| Restoration idyll. Lying at anchor in the calm of a June morning - Three men o'war in ordinary. |
I was keen to run this scenario and determine whether it made an exciting two player wargame or, whether it was a 'play against the house' type affair.
I have explained the background in a previous post - During the Medway Raid (Tocht naar Chatham) the ultimate phase was the Dutch attack on the pre-sunk...