Next Caribbean House

My next effort at a stucco house.  This time, the stucco is crumbling away, exposing the brickwork underneath.  I'm going to call this structure the Customs House, with a little storage shed for out back. 

One house does not a village make, but it's a start

Based on some helpful advice I got on TMP, I chose to develop my pirate town with a Spanish colonial feel.  When it is done, the town will have an adobe church, a governor's mansion, a cantina, a Vauban fortress, a few houses, and some sheds.  I thought I would start small by building a prototype house.  

It could not have been easier.  I cut some foamcore for the walls and some matte board for the roofs.  The "tiles" are painted and drybrushed corduroy glued to the roof boards.  I applied epoxy grout to the walls to simulate stucco.  Some brown paint mixed in and a final drybrushing with white provided color.  Them some balsa beams and painted cardstock shutters, and voila!

Total time: about 2 hours.  Total cost: about $3 in materials.  Not bad, says I.

Arrrr...

The Battle of Germantown: A class exercise, pt. 4

We break for the long weekend with some serious shooting but no units lost so far. The Americans have been aggressive but the British have countered every move so far. The students have been getting into the game, with cheers for amazing rolls and jokes about runs of bad luck: scenes that would be familiar to many veteran gamers. I created a very simple set of wargaming rules, and several students have already asked for more complexity. For instance, I freely allow friendly units to pass through each other. Someone asked me "But shouldn't that make their lines disorganized?" Smart kid.

The American right is a mess. Swarms of militia and riflemen try to take out a small command of Hessians. But those are some tough little Germans. They had to roll a 10+ on two dice to stand up to a dragoon charge after having been shot up real good. They're still there...

The Brits hold a strong position in the center, which the Americans are attempting to flank by advancing through the woods. The Americans opened an artillery duel in the center but quickly took the worst of it.


Some Tory militia try to hold off a strong push against the British right. Crappy rolling by the Continental commander is making the Yanks rethink their offensive.

The Battle of Germantown: A school project, pt. 3

After our second day of gaming, the armies are close enough to start shooting. Washington's army bypassed the Chew House and advanced across the rough terrain in the center. A violent fight for the woods in the center appears to be in the works. The Pennsylvania riflemen on the left bank of the Wissahickon (close to my house!) got the first volley in, but a return volley by the British drew the first blood. Will they have the numbers needed to follow up? What will happen when the American left crashes into the outnumbered British defenders? We have one more class before the long weekend...

The Battle of Germantown, A Class Project, pt. 2

The game is underway, with the students being given roles, deploying troops, and playing through their first turn. Some shelling of the Chew House, but overall the guns have been silent.

Below, the British Generals plan their strategy.

And the American generals put on their angry faces as they prepare their attack.

Below is the battlefield after one turn. The Americans have chosen not to put pressure on the British left by advancing down Ridge Pike. Instead, they are putting most of their forces on the British right. By and large Washing is choosing to bypass the Chew House, a move which will slow his attack but will probably give him a larger punch when he hits British defenses.

The Battle of Germantown: A Class Project, pt. 1

I teach a Military History elective to high school seniors. Because of my school's history, we examine the Battle of Germantown (1777) as a case study. This year, there are twelve students in my class. One student on each side takes the role of Washington or Howe, and the other students play the roles of divisional commanders. Below is the game board I made for the game, just plywood with paint and flocking. We are looking north. Germantown Pike is the road that runs from south to north. And the Wissahickon Creek (which cuts through my school's current campus) runs up the left side of the board. Fortunately, I have a big Harkness table in my classroom which gives us ample room for the simulation.

The figures are 6mm AWI Baccus. They're a little tricky to see, but they fit nicely in a small space so we can get a whole class around the gaming table. Here is some Continental line infantry.

Below is the entire American command. Each division was assigned a card that the Commanders in Chief used for unit placement. We had read both Clausewitz and Sun Tzu, so I wanted to simulate the 'fog of war' as much as possible. Especially because the fog of war at Germantown was said to be a real pea-souper.
And here is the British Command.
I've done this simulation before, but this year I have simplified the rules, since my gamers are absolute novices. Changing formation takes a full turn, and players choose between a line and march column. Shooting forces a morale check. One failed check results in disorder. A disordered unit which fails a check is eliminated.

Dominica Trip: Getting my history geek on

My wife and I took our first grownup vacation in six years. We visited the island of Dominica for a week. I liked pretty much everything about the island (except for the terrifying roads). Beautiful scenery, dramatic waterfalls, excellent snorkeling, and a near-total absence of mass-produced tourism.

The island also has a rich history. Passed back and forth between the British and French several times in its colonial existence, both cultures left their mark on Dominican society today. The island was too rugged for the large sugar plantations that made the slave experience so harsh on other islands. Be that as it may, the island was witness to several notable slave revolts, most notably that of the Maroons in the early 19th century. Slaves who escaped and made it to the island's interior could live free of retaliation for years. It was not until 1807 that the British army hunted down the Maroons and executed their leaders in the most violent means imaginable.

There are two very evocative 18th century forts on the island, both worth a visit even for non-history buffs solely for the spectacular scenery.

The first one of these forts we visited is at Scott's Head, at the southern tip of the island. Scott's Head is a small fishing village (with lots of inexpensive snackettes--we had a barracuda lunch) on the rim of a collapsed volcanic crater. It is a top site for Scuba divers, and the snorkeling was not too shabby, either. We saw lots of great sponges, an octopus, and all manner of brilliantly colored fish in two dives there. The view below is looking back at the village from on top of the rocky outcrop that houses the fort. That's the Caribbean on the left and the Atlantic on the right.


The next photo is of Scott's Head itself, guarding the entrance to the harbor. The fort is located at the top of the cliff to the right, right where the bluff seems to level off. You can see it if you zoom in.
The trail is steep but short. There is a ruined magazine where the trail turns right, and a quick march through a lemongrass meadow leads you to the battery.



The main fort on the island is located on the headland at the northern part of the island that is known as the Cabritz, the promontory that looks like a two-humped camel in the photo I took out of the airplane window. The spit of land that connects it to Dominica is marshy, and it is easy to get the sense of why this area was chosen to defend the island and the town of Portsmouth, which sits in a harbor to the south.

This is a view of Fort Shirley, on the southern flank of the Cabritz. Lord Cochrane retreated here when the French briefly took the southern part of the island in 1807. The French decided the fort was not worth the price they would pay to take it, so they looted what they could and retreated to Martinique. For the most part, the fort was situated in the saddle between the two humps of the headland.
A quick climb from the visitor's center leads one to the outer gated of Fort Shirley. Beyond it are the fruits of about a decade of careful restoration work.


Here is the restored battery, with five 36 pounders trained on the harbor where a bunch of millionaires moor their luxury yachts. Note the careful aim I am taking...
This is the fort which guards the inner perimeter of defenses. Attackers would have had to assail three lines of defenses if they wanted to attack from the landward side.

Above is the restored building where junior officers lived. There is a bar and reception hall inside. Well-heeled Dominicans rent it out for weddings.

Above is a plaque signifying that the fort was the site of another anti-colonial revolt. In 1802, the 8th West India Regiment held out for three days. While the Brits responded with their usual reprisals, it did push the crown towards emancipating colonials who fought on behalf of the King.

The coolest site at the fort was a battery on the north side of the headland known as the Logan Battery. The restoration is still underway, and the jungle still claims much of this collection of ruined buildings. A banyan tree grows out of the officers' quarters. A kitchen and magazine stand nearby. Below, Mrs. Mad Doctor explores the ruins, which is home to about 10,000 lizards.


Above is one of three guns that still protect the Logan Battery. The Caribbean is now invisible from the battery ruins. However, the guidebook mentioned that the soldiers stationed here were witness to the Battle of the Saints in 1782, a few miles offshore to the north. I decided to hack my way through the jungle to the water's edge to see if I could see the Isle of the Saints.


Above is the view that I earned for my troubles, which involved a pair of legs that looked like I had tied a dozen angry cats to them. The map says there was a forward battery at the water's edge. All that remains is a pile of rubble that looks like a drystone wall. Through the brambles, you can barely see the island, so the battle took place in the channel between here and there.