Invasion!

 

The Ruberian invasion fleet approaching Chaudeville-sur-Mer
and the flanking beaches. The armoured cruiser, RNS Warrior
begins its duel with a shore battery.

Following up from the previous posting, there has been a further development in the Little Great War. Readers might recall the naval action as the Azurian navy tried to interfere with the Ruberian invasion fleet heading for the Norromandy coast. That narrative has yet to be reported, but suffice it for the moment to say that hard fighting kept the Oceanic Fleet at bay. The invasion fleet arrived off the beaches at Chaudeville-sur-Mer about mid-morning 6 June, 1884.



Now, this turned out to be a two day battle. Failing to achieve all their objectives on D-Day, Ruberia's I Corps found itself having to fight a second battle to effect a breakout from the bridgehead.

..

General view of the battlefield. The two small 
villages, close up and to the right, were the D-Day 
objectives

For this campaign I decided to fight out some of the opening action whilst I can, before using 'down time' to draw up the maps and fill in the background narrative: casi belli, political and military alliances, and a bit of a breakdown of the forces available to the belligerents. An unusual approach, but I am hoping that this plot scheme proves narratively satisfactory

1st Brigade approaching Silver Beach. The shore battery 
scores a hit on Warrior...

Certain looming family issues, complicated, at least for the moment, by a 1500-mile separation, seem likely to place a crimp on war gaming activities for a goodish while. Hence this approach to the campaign: to create a backlog of action reportage hopefully to keep this blog spot ticking along at something approaching its normal pace.

3rd Brigade beginning landings on Sabre Beach, west 
of Pointe d'Oq. The light cruiser RNS Eliza and Merchant 
Cruiser MS Allwright engage the shore battery on the point
clifftop.

3rd Brigade beginning its assault upon the Nonstreham 
Heights... Allwright has taken a hit...

At any rate, I think this will be enough of a 'teaser' to be going on with...
To be continued...