The battle of Marshmallow Moor-1644 and 2nd clue!

The messenger finally arrived, breathless, and gave the official dispatch.
Le messager arriva essoufle, et tendit le courrier officiel.

- Well, gentlemen, it seems that after our wonderful humiliation against the Cornish, the Parliament has decided to send us North... Against the Scots. They think if we win two decisive battles, we might be through.
- Hmmm... Though it might be true, is it really wise? They're numerous, hairy and they stink! Were they not red-haired, I would think they're French! And besides, aren't they well commanded?
- Indeed they are my friend. And I'm afraid we'll have first to battle against lord Dave Mc Allen, and his rabble. I've heard he's pretty good.
-Dang.

- Bien, Messieurs, il semblerait qu'apres notre memorable humiliation contre l'armee de Cornouailles, le Parlement nous confie de quoi redorer notre blason.. en nous envoyant dans le Nord, contre les Ecossais. Ils estiment que si nous remportons deux victoires decisives, nous pouvons gagner.
- Hmmm, meme si cela est vrai, est-ce vraiment prudent? Ils sont nombreux, poilus et ils puent!  Heureusement qu'ils sont rouquins, sinon on penserait qu'ils sont Francais... Et de surcroit, ne sont-ils pas bien commandes?
- En effet mon cher. Et je crains d'avoir a vous informer que nous allons d'abord devoir affronter lord DAve Mc Allen et ses pouilleux. J'ai entendu dire qu'il etait plutot competent. 
- M....... 

And so started my third game in our renaissance comp. My Parlementarian army had to face the 1641 Covenanters: lots of rubbish troops, but numerous, and Dave Allen is a pretty good player. I needed a big win to hope going through to the second round.

For once, terrain was on my side, with a lot of enclosed fields right in the middle of the table. That gave me an idea:

Voici donc comment a commence ma troisieme partie du tournoi interne. Mes Parlementaires devaient affronter une armee Covenanter de 1641: plein de troupes pourries, mais nombreuses, et Dave est un bon joueur. Il me fallait une victoire decisive pour esperer entrevoir le 2e round.
Pour une fois, le terrain me fut favorable, avec un ensemble de champs clos en plein milieu de la table. Cela m'a donne une idee: 

I would attack on my left, supporting my center, well protected in the fields. The center included a huge unit of 8 bases of muskets, devastating. My right would ne lighter, with a few units, and some light artillery.

Dave deployed his army to try to block my attack, with lots of average troops on his right wing... And then I wondered... Strange. He only has the same number of units as I do... Right, he's attempting a flank attack, so it'll be a race against time.

And they were off! I moved as quickly as I could to position myself properly for an all-out attack: supported muskets on the center, cavalry on my left against some dragoons... Everything was more or less ready. DAve could only react to my movements. Good.

J'attaquerai sur ma gauche, en supportant, ancre sur les champs. Mon centre incluera une grosse unite de 8 tireurs, a la vollee devastatrice. Ma droite sera plus legere, avec seulement quelques unites et de l'artillerie legere.

Dave se deploya pour me contrer avec beaucoup de troupes sur sa droite. Et pendant son deploiement, je constatai qu'il avait autant de troupes que moi. Bon... Il va tenter une marche de flanc. Chic une course contre la montre.

Et on est parti! Je deplacais ;es troupes aussi vite que possible pour me positionner correctement en vue de delivrer le coup fatal: mes mousquetaires au centre, cavalerie a gauche contre quelques dragons. Tout etait plus ou moins en place. DAve ne pourrait que reagir a mes mouvements Bonnnn. 

An unpainted unit! Heresy! Burn them!

No one before us, ok , let's move.

I'll be honest with you. This battle was so tense I forgot to take as many pictures as I would have liked, but you can imagine what happened... No? Well, let me tell you then. My left wing went into contact, we exchanged a lot of fire, we even ordered a push of pikes. Oh yeah, that was truly beautiful... Erm... Yup, I was happy, because for many turns, Dave's flank attack refused to arrive. Each turn was a respite, during which I could try to inflict as many casualties as possible. or so I thought...

Je serai honnete avec vous, cette bataille fut si tendue que j'en ai oublie de prendre des photos. Bon, j'en ai suffisamment pour vous narrer l'histoire, mais quand meme. Mon aile gauche arriva au contact, et apres un echange de feux, on est meme alle jusqu'a ordonner la charge. Oh, quel plaisir! Pendant de nombreux tours, la marche de flanc de Dave refusa d'arriver. Chaque tour etait donc un repit pour moi, me permettant d'infliger un maximum de pertes...

Indeed his average pike and shot were simply plowing through my veterans, breaking one and seriously mowing another. Fortunately for you, the unpainted unit also disappeared... My goodness, things were looking pretty grimm. But what was happening in the center? Well... See for yourself:

Plus facile a dire qu'a faire, car ses troupes ordinaires etaient en train de massacrer mes veterans, une unite deroutant et la seconde etant dans un sale etat. Mon unite non peinte disparut elle aussi. Ok, la ca commence a chier dans le ventilo. Mais que se passe-t-il au centre?

Poof! Nothing could resist the mighty power of an 8-pack of shooters, supported by light artillery. Everything just disappeared in front of them, without so much as a sweat. So. To be clear, everything depended on the arrival of the flank attack, then? Yup. Did they arrive? NOPE! I had time to use a cavalry unit to charge a fragmented unit, and then, they routed. Even though I was in a bad shape on my left, it was more than enough for me to break Dave's army! Hurray! The curse is lifted!

Pouf! Rien ne pouvait resister a la puissance de mes mousquetaires, supportes par mon artillerie. Tout disparaissait en face d'eux. He he. Donc, pour etre clair, tout dependait de l'arrivee de la marche de flanc... Qui ne vint jamais! J'utilisai le temps gagne pour charger une unite fragmentee avec ma cavalerie, et elle derouta au contact. Meme si mon aile etait dans un sale etat, cela fut suffisant pour faire derouter l'armee de Dave. Hourrah! La malediction est levee.

Thanks to this game, I received a whooping 21-4 victory, meaning I only need now 17 points to go on the second round. But I 'll need to win against Jim first. Another Scottish army.

Grace a cette partie, j'ai gagne 21 points, ce qui signifie que je n'ai plus que 17 points a grapiller pour passer au 2e round. Il me faudra toutefois gagner contre Jim.


Now, for the second clue about my secret project.
I already have received some interesting answers, meaning you're thinking the way I want you to. But, so far, it's not WW2, nor, FIW, nor ACW, nor Vietnam, nor Arthur. Though there is an Arthur somewhere. But where? ;)

Passons maintenant au deuxieme indice de mon projet secret. J'ai deja recu quelques reponses interessantes, ce qui signifie que vous reflechissez bien. Cependant, il ne s'agit pas de WW2, de guerre franco-indiennes, de guerre civile US, de Vietnam ou d'Arthur. Il y a bien un Arthur quelque part, mais ou?

So, I've decided to be a little nicer. First I had wanted to give you this: Du coup, j'ai decide d'etre plus gentil. Au depart, voici ce que je voulais vous donner:


But then it would have been quite hard I guess.
So my clue for the day ( or two clues should I say). You have to find a region:

Mais cela aurait peut-etre ete un peu dur. Je vous donne donc deux indices pour trouver une region (chui gentil non?)

vipera ammodytes

Red wine (pic from www.cafegaribaldi.ca )