They came from the jungle - Piracy with This is Not a Test.

I've not had a lot of hobby time recently, so it was fantastic to meet up with Andrew again this week to finish our swashbuckling mini-campaign (part 1, part 2) using the post-apocalyptic rules, This is Not a Test, with great success.

For this engagement, Captain Blood's buccaneers, pursued by the Port Onslow militia, clashed at a small fishing hamlet on the edge of the jungle. The cutter Charlotte had been wrecked and the stores were all destroyed and/or lost except for two great pigs and a donkey. With both crews swollen with new recruits, food was scarce, butchering the beasts was the objective, and survival the prize.

Blood's buccaneers were returning for a jaunt in the jungle - looking for fresh water no doubt - and emerged into the hamlet from the lower left of the table. The militia entered from the top left, coming in from the more open hill country. One pig remained on the cutter, the other pig and the donkey were in the open between the huts and the sea.

Both forces split into two unequal groups. A large group of militia with muskets stayed on their hill, while a smaller group made a line for the donkey and the cutter, keeping behind the buildings. The buccaneers left a smaller detachment by the ruins in the jungle, while the larger group headed for the village. Despite the soft cover provided by the jungle, the abundance of muskets fired by a militia firing line on the hill meant that buccaneer casualties mounted quickly. 

By the end of turn three, the buccaneers had already lost seven of their 14-member crew. If survival was the prize, it was looking a little distant. Behind the huts, the militia eyed up the donkey.

The bucanners sought shelter from the musketry behind the huts on their side of the village, while Jim Lad - mostly hidden in the jungle - legged it for a pig.

Despite making it all the way to the end of turn five, securing the meat off one of the pigs and taking out several of the militia at short range, the weight of casualties became too much and the buccaneers bottled it.

Of their starting force of 14, above you can see the only members of Blood's crew to survive this match. After the three skirmishes with the militia, Blood's PTSD has rendered him cowardly, the swabby with sword, pistol and monkey is left gruesomely scarred, and poor Donna Maria, the sassy heart of the crew, limps away with a bum leg, a hand injury and gruesome scarring of her own. At least they got a pig!

The Port Onslow Militia refloat the Charlotte and take her, along with most of their number back to home. They should feel content that they have paid back the humiliation they suffered during the raid on Port Onslow many-fold, and Captain Blood will think twice before returning to the high seas!

Next time, we'll return for some Fantastic Battles, but before that, Mark has been revelling in prehistory month, so keep an eye out for a raft of Palaeo Diet reports.

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