Spanish dragoons ...

The newly formed company of locally raised dragoons for the Yucatan province on parade....

 the dragoons head out on patrol duty ....

 out to check the coastal areas - reports of a pirate ship seen by villagers to be investigated....

[new items: 6 dragoons, using my own home-cast figures]

On Parade...

A detachment of the French infantry regiment Hallwyl on parade...

[new items: 10figs all Jacdaw, except drummer which is a hack-up of Old Glory head and a Front Rank body]

An unusual obelisk ....

Randell and Hopkerk's expedition continues...

After exploring the coastal areas for a while they have started on journies inland, documenting various ruins found along the way.  On one of their expeditions they came across an unusal obelisk, this was studied and drawings made of the carvings before they continued on their way ...

Red Jack - Bolego - the getaway

The pirate Red Jack and his crew had landed in the Yucatan to the south of Campeche, in the early morning he had raided the town for supplies and valuables - taking the local Spanish authorities by surprise.

Red Jack and his men moved out as quickly as possible and headed north to the pick-up point on the coast, their route would take them through Bolego; the Spanish quickly assembled some troops to chase him down ....

---oXo---

In the morning at the small settlement of Bolego,

 Red Jack's ship arrives at an inlet on the coast near the settlement ....

 Red Jack and his men with their booty make their way toward Bolego ....

 A sentry runs in to Bolego to warn the officer on duty that he has sighted a column of men nearby

 As the local troops turns out to investigate, the pirates reach the outskirts of Bolego

The Spanish form up and exchange fire with the pirates ....

 then make a spirited attack ....

 the Spanish loose a few men and the pirates are pushed back from the edge of Bolego

 In the distance the pursuing column can hear the sound of gun fire ....

the pirates have repulsed the Spanish attack in Bolego

 as the remnants of the local troops retreat to the safety of their barracks, the pirates start to move through Bolego ....

 the pursuing Spanish column comes in sight of Bolego ....

 the pirates hurry through Bolego ....

 the Spanish form up and exchange fire with a few pirates ...

they push forward into Bolego ...

 and follow the pirates out of the town as the remaining local troops join them ...

 The pirates have reached the ship .... and start transferring their booty on board ....

 the pirates small rear guard comes under fire from the advancing Spanish ....

 they make a desperate run for it but don't quite make it to the last boat as the Spanish catch up with them .....

Red Jack the scourge of the Caribbean makes good his escape on ship .....

Alternative table back scene boards ...

One of the problems with having a fixed set of backdrops is choosing what to have - I went with a generic European look, the only problem with that is when you want to do 1/1200 ships I put the blue sea cloth over the table but the backdrops jar - downland in the eye of view isn't quite right.

So I bought some new ones with just sky on and light grey cloud at the horizon (from the New Modellers Shop, see http://www.newmodellersshop.co.uk/backscenes.htm).  I cut up some 3mm MDF in 8inch widths to use as additional back scenes - these rest reasonably well again the fixed ones;  the back scenes as purchased are wider and longer than my boards.

So I stuck the backscenes to the boards and trimmed off the excess; the two boards at the back of the table don't quite meet right - it seems my table is not quite flat - anyway the result is very pleasing overall ...

 the horizon now looks more realistic, with the 1/1200 ships

and the coastal sections

the alternative sky boards will be useful if I'm going to have sea as part of the table layout.