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"Alright mes enfants, listen in." Garde Municipal Captain Marcel Proust looked critically on his charges and shuddered inwardly. Mon Dieux he thought to himself, the only consolation I have is that I'm not related to any of these people. He subjected Private Latrine, delicately picking his nose with a slender finger, to a withering stare, then commenced his briefing. "Our orders are the Section will engage in a search and clear operation on the Moncriell Estate, known to be the haunt of outlaws since the Marquis' untimely death." There was a knowing cough from the assembled Garde Municipal, followed by a couple of sniggers. "Silence!:" barked Proust,"we all know the rumours, but no goats were ever found, so let's keep our minds on the job shall we?" The Elves in front of him shuffled their feet and grinned sideways at each other. "Right. So, I will lead odd numbers on the right flank, Corporal Visage will take even numbers on the left. I want to see skirmish formation, I want to see pairs, and I want to see a bit of common sense." Proust paused. Common sense from this lot, that'lI be something to see. He continued. "Remember to stay in sight of at least one other pair at all times, and the signal for a contact is?" He waited. "Shout 'Contact!' and seek cover in pairs?" ventured a voice from the back. "Correct. At least someone pays attention to my lectures. Now, remember that as well as the outlaws, we're looking for Old Marie's still and evidence of any other excise violations. Load and make safe, and move out." Three hours later the section had shaken out into pairs for skirmishing and was moving cautiously through the sparse woodland on the edge of the Moncrieff Estate. Bored and sweating, the Elves were nevertheless trying to stay alert. This was no longer one of Proust's interminable exercises; out there somewhere could be people who would shoot at them with real bullets and give them no chance to learn from their mistakes. Grips on muskets tightened, and eyes scanned every patch of brush and fallen tree for possible enemies. The enemies were there alright. Ahead of Corporal Visage's group lay a pair of outlaw pickets, watching and listening as the Militia came closer. Big Pierre turned to his companion with an evil grin. "Let's give the pretty little pretend soldiers a taste of what they're up against, eh Le Clerc?" His companion returned the smile and eased back the lock of his hunting rifle, sighting down the long barrel at Corporal Visage... The Garde Municipal With Mordred and most of his regular troops on campaign in Catalucia, the Witchlands and other disputed areas of Valon, the defence of Amorica is left in the hands of the Garde Municipal. These range from semi-regular formations with well trained, equipped and motivated troops all down to barely-organised bands of citizen vigilantes. Valon is divided into twenty-four Military Districts, each District being subdivided into ten Departments which themselves are made up of Tithes (a tenth, roughly equivalent to a county). Each Tithe is expected to raise a Garde Municipal force, part of the cost of which is defrayed through local taxation, part through national contributions. Garde Municipal force sizes are tied to a Byzantine bureaucratic system linking population, numbers of hamlets, villages, towns and cities, land under cultivation, type of cultivation, tax returns and a hundred other criteria. Suffice it to say that any given Tithe's Garde Municipal commitment could be anything from ten to ten thousand troops. These commitments, needless to say, are seldom met in full, especially with the wars taking so many young Elves away to fight with the regular army. The Garde Municipal in this scenario are from the village of Illuin, Loriath Tithe, Cirth Ondolinde Department, Military District Sixteen. Loriath Tithe is obliged to to return two hundred and seventy-five troops for the Garde Municipal, but currently has only one hundred and eighty-four under arms. Illuin has one section, a total of fourteen Elves led by an ex-regular Captain of the Garde. Captain Proust despairs of most of his charges, but soldiers on in the hope that a little of his experience will perhaps rub off on them. Although on the retired list, Proust counts as Elite and Experienced because of his extensive service. He is armed with a pistol, sabre and musket. An old wound means that Proust cannot run. His section are all Militia, ten Raw and four Average. They are armed with muskets and bayonets. Two Elves in the section have magical talents, one Average and one Raw. Their spells are as follows: Private Rhone: distort appearance (-10% to hit when shot at) & unblock normal weapon jam immediately. Private Avignon: open strengthened door in one move, normal immediately Garde Municipal uniforms broadly mirror those of the regular army but are plainer with less decoration and variety of facings. Overalls and fatigue dress are very common among the infantry elements which are predominantly Voltigeurs and Chasseurs a Pied. The Outlaws Outlaw bands are an increasingly common feature of Amorica, as they are in Catalucia, Albion and most other countries in Valon. The dispossessed, the poor, the unemployed and disadvantaged often turn to highway robbery and other illegal activities to keep body and soul together. These outlaws usually operate alone or in ones and twos, but every Department in Amorica is likely to have a larger group cooperating to achieve greater profits and safety in numbers. Outlaw bands can range from a single homeless family indulging in petty theft, up to groups of fifty or sixty hardened criminals virtually controlling a whole Tithe. Armed with an assortment of weapons, sometimes mounted, always using hit and run tactics, hard to find and harder to catch, outlaws are a persistent thorn in the flesh of Ferach Excise and Garde Municipal units. The band of outlaws in this scenario are led by One-Eyed Jacques, an almost legendary lawbreaker, wanted throughout the Cirth Ondolinde Department for a huge number and variety of crimes. He has managed to stay one step ahead of the law and gathered a motley collection of criminals and hangers-on around him. One-Eyed Jacques counts as an Experienced Regular because he has spent so long staying out of prison, and he is armed with a pair of pistols, a long knife, a sword and a blunderbuss. The rest of his gang are all rated as Militia and there are eleven of them; eight Raw and three Average. Four of the group have magical abilities, two Raw and two Average, as follows: Big Pierre: steady shot (+5% to aimed fire) & open strengthened door in one move, normal immediately. Little Alphonse: light small fire immediately & open normal door immediately. Maurice the Weasel: light small fire immediately. Louis-Philippe: speedy flight (can run two moves before having to walk) The outlaws may be armed with whatever collection of weapons the player wishes, with the following restrictions: i) Up to two figures may have rifles, either military or hunting.
ii) At least two figures may not have any firearm.
iii) No figure may have more than two firearms.
iv) All figures must carry some form of blade. The Board Terrain for this game is quite simple (so much so there is no map!), but needs to provide plenty of cover. Lots of trees, bushes, hedges, bits of old walls and Iow hillocks and ridges should be scattered liberally across the playing area. There should be one building, preferably a wooden shack or tumbledown cottage somewhere, either in the middle area or towards the outlaw end of the board. Set Up and Special Conditions The Garde Municipal enter the board from side A, split into two sub-sections led by Captain Proust on the right and Corporal Visage on the left. the troops should be in pairs with at least five centimetres between pairs. Remember this is a search operation
And the section needs to cover a wide frontage to be fully effective. Garde Municipal may attempt to spot hidden outlaws within 20cm at any time during their movement. To do this their commander nominates the Elf attempting to spot an enemy and the area he is scrutinising. A d10 is rolled and the score checked as follows: 1-3 Fails to spot anything (even if there is an outlaw there)
4-6 Thinks he sees something if there isn't an outlaw there, disregards any actual hidden outlaws as a fallen branch or trick of the light.
7 -10 Successfully spots any hidden outlaws. Garde Municipal Officer in campaign dress. In the unlikely event that one of the Garde fails to spot an outlaw and an outlaw passes all his panic rolls and doesn't do anything to draw attention to himself, the Garde automatically spots the outlaw if he comes with 5cm of the hidden criminal. If the Garde do spot an outlaw they can either engage him in combat or attempt to take him into custody. This can be done by shouting "Come out Scarface we've got the place surrounded, we can do this the hard way or the easy way", or some similar persuasive patter. It is then up to the outlaw commander to decided how his character will react. Is he the "Come and get me copper, you'll never take me alive" sort, or the "it's a fair cop guv, I'll come quietly" type? Outlaws who surrender will need to be guarded, one Garde for every two prisoners once disarmed and immobilised. The outlaws all start the game off the board with their locations known only to the umpire or the player controlling them. It is up to their commander what they do and when they do it, with the following provisions: If Garde Municipal approach to within 15cm of a hidden outlaw without spotting him, the outlaw must roll to see if he panics and does
something. Roll a dl0: 1-4 No action
5-7 Breaks cover and runs away
8 -10 Fires at the nearest enemy figure. If the outlaw has no firearm he will run and engage in hand-to-hand combat instead.
Note that their commander does not have to indicate which outlaw he is rolling for, or indeed why he is rolling a dice at all. It all adds to the tension This scenario will work best with two players and an umpire, although it can be done without an umpire. In the three-way game the umpire controls the outlaws and the two players each command a Militia section. In this way outlaws will appear at random and without warning to the players, forcing them to react in a (hopefully) tactical and co-operative manner. The spotting and panic rolls add to the lack of predictability and, obviously, benefit from having an umpire to see fair play and adjudicate disputes. In a two-player format there is less chance for loss of command and control and the lack of cooperation between the Militia sections because both are being run by the same player This game was inspired by a 1/ 300th Second World War game I played more years ago than I care to admit, umpired by our esteemed Editor (whose vicious streak has not mellowed with the passage of years). In that game two Allied columns were pushing up the board, cooperating in achieving certain objectives, with the German forces umpire controlled and random. by the end of a long afternoon of hard play, the allied columns were disorganised and panicky, failing to cooperate or coordinate and short of any major objectives after travelling less that a third of the way up the board. The element of uncertainty was almost paralysing, and that is what I wanted to have a go at trying to duplicate here. Webmaster's Note Originally published in Orcs in the Hills, Issue 5. |
