15 July 2009 Scenario 29: Raid on a Train.

This game was played solo using 40mm 19thC Fictional armies and Hearts of Tin.

A July afternoon in the Rahdon Hills, the Oberhilse Frontier Light Horse have been patrolling the new rail line that the Fahrway Trading Company has built from their mines in the disputed territory to the headwaters of the East Wye River, suddenly they see one of the new fangled steam engines sitting idle, guarded by a detachment of Faraway regulars, the Buffs. Flashing off a heliograph message to the 1st Dragoons requesting support, they deploy into line, send out skirmishers and descend towards the train. The long roll sounds from the camp as the red coated soldiers grab their muskets and fall in.

A few shots ring out as the frontiersmen fire their long rifles from the saddle while the main body aligns them selves as if for a charge. A terse command rings out and the Buffs smoothly form square. The frontiersmen are brave fighters but charging squares is not their idea of warfare, they trot closer and pull out their rifles. In the square, Colonel Pointer watches the slow drain of casualties with concern while scanning the western horizon for some sign of the rescue train that he is expecting. At last he decides that the horsemen do not mean to close. He orders the Buffs into line and advances expecting the horsemen to fall back. Surprisingly, they stand as if pinned, all but the skirmishers who pull back behind a patch of woods, he orders a devasting volley and the horsemen finally ride back out of range.

 Suddenly from behind, there is a commotion, the light horse skirmishers have ridden around the woods and are about to swarm onboard the empty train. Another crisp order sends the light company doubling back towards the train while the main body falls back slowly in line. A cheer goes up, there coming around the bend is a train bristling with the bayonets of the Green Tigers. Time has run out, the light horse dash forward firing from the saddle but another sharp volley sends them to the right about. Two hours later, the Blue Dragoons wend their way through the hills and scrub woods but they are too late, the enemy is gone.