A Napoleonic Affair

Last weekend I was lucky enough to be invited out to attend a 28mm Napoleonic wargame put on by local wargamer Roundie and his mate Keith, using the General d'Armee rules.

As far as I can recall, it's only the second Napoleonic miniatures game I've ever played - the first being some 25 years ago! - and it was simply magnificent. Roundie's table, terrain and figures were marvellous to behold. Honestly, it was like stepping into a wargames glossy photo shoot. Having been used to a rather more modest approach to wargames terrain, I was blown away by the spectacle.

And the rules and scenario weren't bad either. As part of the Austrian command, our mission was to clear two hills situated either side of a prominent church. We had five brigades - two of line infantry, one of grenadiers, two of horse - with which to do it, and were up against six or seven French brigades.

Without boring people with all the details, we got our artillery into good positions which allowed us to take toll of the French first encountered, and thence to eventually get onto the hill on our right. But there were too many French for us to drive off completely, and we never quite had the command resources to get our cavalry into play early enough to make a difference.

The game itself was very good. The scenario was nicely (im)balanced, with the Austrians having initial deployment and weight-of-numbers advantages offset by French proximity to objectives and quantity of reserves.

I thought the rules were straightforward and play was driven by a pleasing mix of player decisions and dumb luck. The command and control mechanisms were playable and easy to understand, but still involved giving orders. There were obvious advantages to wearing down the enemy, but melee combat was risky, and even the best prepared attacks could go wrong.

It was a great day, and I really enjoyed getting the opportunity to command troops in such a magnificent setting.

To finish, I'll chuck on a few photos of the action.

Showing the Austrian advance and the two hills that were our objectives.

Showing the centre where a hasty attack launched by the Austrians in an effort to dislodge the French from the leftmost hill ended badly for the aggressors.

Matters proceed more advantageously on the Austrian right, where the guns wear down the enemy as the line infantry advance into position to assault the hill.

We get onto one hill...

...and the French charge down on us from the other.

Things look grim for the Austrian centre, but the deployment of the guns will throw back the  French attack.

On our right we get onto the hill in force, and will not be dislodged now. With neither side achieving their objectives, the game is an honourable draw.

(Gratuitous shot of the French cavalry...)

(Another gratuitous shot, this time of one of our brave battalions taking the hill)

As I say, a most enjoyable day of gaming with our host Roundie, Keith umpiring, and the fearsome French under Rob and Michael. I would certainly want to play these rules again.

Naval Thunder in Hyogo

I was lucky enough to get an excellent day's gaming in yesterday with Luke and Pat up at Luke's new pad in Hyogo. Things though didn't start too well - I overslept, missed the train, and had to drive there to make up time. Fortunately, the car navi did what it says on the tin and helped me thread my way through the traffic hell of Osaka; less fortunately the rush to get moving meant that I completely forgot to take up my sea cloth and a book I needed to return to our host.

Anyway, I got there about 10:00, and when Pat arrived shortly afterwards we began looking at fleets for some Naval Thunder action.

We decided on early Pacific war, so Luke and I made up an augmented Force Z (Prince of Wales, Perth, Arrow and Ardent for me; Repulse, Houston, Shark and Scourge for Luke) while Pat worked out his IJN contingent. I'm not sure what the exact composition of the Japanese force was, but there were two battle cruisers (Nagato and Hiei), a couple of light cruisers (Jintsu and Furutaka) and three or four destroyers.

It began badly for us as Nagato found her mark early and pounded an outranged Repulse, taking her apart turn by turn. Prince of Wales closed to firing distance but found hits initially hard to come by.

Repulse under fire early.

Houston engaged the Japanese light cruisers who took damage.

A menacing lot of Japanese vessels!

Fine aggressive work by Japanese destroyers distracted Perth and Prince of Wales long enough and well enough to prevent closing of the range to concentrate fire on the Nagato while she was busy finishing off Repulse.

Japanese destroyers close in to torpedo range. They wrong-footed my destroyer screen and gave Perth and Prince of Wales a scare.

By the time Nagato was listing and removing herself back out to her extreme range we had lost Repulse, Houston was effectively dead in the water, and Scourge and Shark had been hunted down by secondary-battery fire. Jintsu and Furutaka were Japanese casualties, but Hiei and Nagato were together able to outgun Prince of Wales, and although she traded fire gallantly, once critical hits put two main gun turrets out of action the game was very clearly up.

So, lots of fun, some great moments of drama, and some good play by Pat to win with the Japanese. There were a few things about the rules we might want to adjust, but they gave us an excellent four hours of play. Pat and I were playing for the second time and Luke for his first, but we were running the charts like veterans within a couple of turns.

To finish the day we gave the boardgame Conquest of Paradise a go. We managed to play it to conclusion in about 90 minutes, despite Luke and Pat having to learn the rules on the fly, so it was a good way to end the day.

So, good gaming, good company and fine hospitality. A great day all round.

World War 1 action with 'Soldiers'

Friday was a public holiday and to make the most of getting a day off work I popped up to Kobe to see boardgame mate Pat for a game of the SPI World War I classic Soldiers and a taste of his sangria mix.

Soldiers was not a game I was familiar with, but I can see why it is so highly rated, despite it being more than forty years old.

The rules are clear and easy to grasp, and the scenario we played, Le Cateau, was a real wargamer's situation: British on defence, needing to find the best way to defend a wide front against a numerous and determined enemy; Germans on attack, needing to both exit companies from the opposite board edge and inflict a certain number of casualties to claim victory.

We got through two games, but only touched on the tactical possibilities available to both sides. It was an excellent choice of game for the day, and if the sangria led to some less than optimal decision making in the second game, it probably enhanced the simulation value of the exercise!

Here are a few of Pat's photos from the first game (during turn 1, and well prior to the sangria taking effect). I should note in passing that the photos do not do the map justice: it had a lovely antique look to it: there was nothing garish or overstated, and the whole effect was evocative but restful. It was a joy to play on.



Full board, from the German perspective

Germans snake forward on the right.

My British defending forward early, and getting battered for their troubles.

As it turned out, the British won both games, but the first one in particular was very close indeed. There were a number of crucial actions which could have won or lost the game for either side, and we were both left thinking about different strategies to employ, which is surely one mark of a successful wargame.

On that note, while it was only a game for us, the huge slaughter depicted did give one pause for thought about how appalling it must have been for the poor chaps actually involved in these actions and others like them.

It's certainly a game I would play again.

Many thanks to Pat for a fine day's convivial play, and some excellent beverages!

Mulled Newbury

Today I was lucky enough to be able to jump on a train and head north for a few hours of gaming with Pat, whom I had not seen for a twelvemonth.

Amidst the odd snowflake, some mulled wine and around a picturesque table, we refought 2nd Newbury with the boardgame This Accursed Civil War from GMT's Musket and Pike series.

I took the side of Parliament and deployed on both flanks, as if to trap the king in a vise. I outnumbered him and was under charge orders.  What could possibly go wrong?

King Charles awaits.

Well, as has been telegraphed, quite a lot. Firstly, my own intrepid self Skippen bungled his attack on the Royalist position at Speen.

Bungle bungle bungle...

As a consequence, Waller, being overall commander, was forced to get involved rallying and reforming the troops thrown back during the somewhat over-hasty assault against a prepared position.

But Balfour's and Cromwell's cavalry wings would surely do their best and save the day.

Onwards, gentlemen!

And so they did: Balfour's horse destroyed Maurice's flank defence, but so weakened themselves in the act that they were in turn overwhelmed by a devastating counter-attack, prosecuted under the very eyes of the king himself.

Cromwell's wing then also got into prancing difficulties.  Hedge crossings disrupted their formation and unimpressive thinking condemned them to the indignity of being reaction-charged in a constricted space.  Consequently, they were unable to bring any force to bear against the brave (and superbly led!) Royalist horse. Touche, Patrick!

OLIVER!  WHAT HAVE YOU GONE AND DONE?

Skippen's foot eventually got back into the action and pushed the Royalists from their position at Speen.

Looking a little more promising as we punish Maurice with musketry.

Sadly, our casualties were mounting, and like an idiot, Skippen stayed in the front line with his wobbling brigade instead of sensibly retiring to join the next line. He dies bloodily, and with him lie our chances of winning the day.

But what of the other flank, you may ask?

There too it was a sorry sight. We got across the river but disordered ourselves so terribly we failed to get any momentum against the stalwart men of the king.

With night (and snow) falling, it was time for Waller to catch his train back home call his men together in conference and have a good go at them.

****

Despite the awfulness of the defeat, it was an excellent game to play. A real tactical puzzle, and it was a thrill to re-learn this solid system. It can get a bit fiddly for fat-fingered Kiwis with all the markers about, but it has a lot of to-and-fro action that makes for a great day's gaming and provides some moments of high drama.

As an added bonus, I won a copy of the game on the Japanese version of ebay the other night, so I can study my many mistakes in the comfort of my own private dungeon!

Many thanks to Pat for a most enjoyable day and some most palatable beverages.

Modern Spearhead: Clash at Oberickelsheim

In December 1979 the 1st Brigade of the US 3rd Infantry Division was tasked with hitting the flank of the advancing Czech 15th Motor Rifle Division and stalling its approach to the Main River.

Stolen from Luke's blog 'hoti to kratistos'

Accordingly, the commander laid plans to do just that.

The forward deployed 3/7 ACAV troop, on the scene at daybreak, was ordered to advance to the Main and follow it north until it encountered the enemy.

But in a shock to the ACAV's recon elements, it happened that the Czechs were closer then anyone had thought...

As the lead recon units began to trade fire, other Czech units were making their way to the combat zone. Thankfully for the Americans, heavy rain turned the fields into boggy hindrances to the Czech advance.

1/30th Battalion arrived in time to provide the firepower needed to halt the initial Czech attacks.

But with the AVAC elements tied up in a firefight there was nothing to stop the Czech advance to the river further north.  The bridging equipment in evidence gave notice of their intentions...

As tensions rose, the 2/64th American armored battalion arrived, and with this the Czech opportunity to take 1/30 in the southern flank vanished, to the great relief of the American commander.

The day now settled into a series of patterns: Czech advances in the centre were stopped by the massed firepower of the M60A1s and the heavy artillery; Czech reinforcements struggled to get through the mud to aid their compatriots and, in the north, the Czechs continued their steady approach to the Main.

The Czech centre paid a heavy price for its attacks, but the river was bridged, and with air strikes impossible in the wet weather the advance units began crossing.

With time running out for the players, the action was called at 11:00 game time with the Czechs across the river but the Americans having routed the Czech centre and things very much in the balance.

It was a fantastic day and a real treat to see so much happening on such a beautiful table.  Many thanks to my noble opponent Pat and to Luke (whose more in-depth reports can be found here and who put the game on and hosted us) for a great wargaming experience.

Wargame in Kobe

On Saturday I trotted up to Kobe for a game of The Perfect Captain's Spanish Fury with Pat and Luke.  After our last game day Pat had kindly offered to umpire a renaissance game for Luke and myself, and although it took five months to find a free afternoon, I think we were all agreed that it was a case of better late than never.

The battle was Mookerheyde (1574), which pitted a Dutch force under Count Louis of Nassau (Luke) against a Spanish force under Sancho de Avila (me).

The Spanish (red) were superior in quality, but the Dutch (blue) and their mercenaries had a slight edge in numbers, especially cavalry.

(Image captured from this Perfect Captain PDF here) 

In our game the Spanish had twenty turns to crush Nassau and his men.  Anything less would be a loss, so the burden of attack lay on me - just how I like it!

The heart of Spanish Fury is the orders system, which meant that how I brigaded the troops together was important. I split my cavalry into two commands, put the Spanish tercios together (S6 and S7) and left the Walloons on their own. This was not perhaps the wisest choice.

Luke had all his cavalry in one command and an arrangement I wasn't sure of for his infantry.

I put all my brigades under assault orders, so we immediately went racing across the turf towards the enemy. Nassau's cavalry seemed to have similar plans, but all his infantry bar one unit of landsknechts (R6) held in place.

(Initial advances)

As my infantry advanced it began accumulating disorder points from the enemy sakers, so I decided to march as quickly as possible and hope to rally the disorder before charging home.  On my left the cavalry fight was likely to be over swiftly and I hoped I could get the better of it.  Unfortunately, I didn't really pay attention to what Luke was doing (always a dangerous oversight!) and started rather poorly.

At the first onrush I managed to cleverly advance my unit of reiters within range of the guns of the advancing German foot, so we were a pretty ragged bunch by the time the melee combat with the intended enemy - the cavalry - actually began.

Elsewhere, the cavalry battle was reasonably evenly matched, with me winning one combat decisively, getting the worst of another and drawing the third. But it was the fourth that was crucial: my reiters routed after the gun work of the landsknechts (and I couldn't blame them!) leading to a furious pursuit which carried the enemy cavalry behind my infantry lines. My reiters kept running, but his did not: they rallied on the flank of my advancing tercio, just as it was about to confront the landsknechts.

The Count's reiters reform after their pursuit... on my tercio's flank!

At this point I was confronted with a stark choice: halt my infantry advance and go into hedgehog to see off the enemy or continue advancing towards the Germans and try to break them fast. I chose the second option.

Naturally, it was the wrong one: my tercio became horribly disordered in the charge, which negated its superior stats, and the landsknechts held without breaking sweat. In the meantime, the reiters had reformed and prepared to charge. I now realised that if they hit me I would break automatically, so all depended on them passing their waver check to charge.

And they did, without a care in the world!

They then hit my poor mismanaged tercio on the flank, breaking it in one fell swoop.  With my other two tercios badly disordered by enemy fire and the cavalry battle not going well, I conceded the game and slunk off to my side of the table with tail between legs and beer in hand.

So, how was the game?

Firstly, the result seemed to me to be perfectly reasonable. I did not plan my assault well, my cavalry advance was poorly executed and I failed to take into account Luke's intentions or counter them effectively.

There were a few things that did not seem entirely polished in the way that the various sub-systems of the game fitted together, but as I know very little about the subtleties of renaissance warfare I say that cautiously.

All in all it was a very enjoyable game and an excellent day.  Next time I will work more on tactics and rely less on dumb luck, but the early finish allowed us to chew the fat, have a glass of something nice and put together some plans for our next meeting.

To finish, here are a few shots of the game from Pat's perspective.

The early going with Luke in the foreground and me over there somewhere.

The cavalry get into position, with a little support from the landsknechts.

My tercio meets the landsknechts and is in turn met by the reiters...

The end of the affair!

Where it all began - a trip down WFB lane

While in New Zealand recently I got a surprise message from an old sparring partner, Barrie.  He and his brother Greg introduced me to 'official' wargaming via Warhammer Fantasy Battle in the very early '90s.

We had some great games, and I often find myself reminiscing fondly of those times playing on a ping pong table with books for hills, the odd unpainted regiment, and one rule book shared amongst the three of us.

So when Barrie messaged me through Facebook asking if I'd like a game while I was in town I jumped at the chance.

I went round to his place on the Wednesday night and he had set up his table and brought out Orc and Empire armies.  I hadn't seen Barrie in 20 years, so we were naturally distracted by catching up as much as I was by seeing some of the same figures we used to game with all those years ago.

I took the Orcs because it sounded like the Empire army required spell casting and what not, which was never my favourite part of WFB.  The rules have changed since the edition we played with back then, and I was sorry to see that the old no-measuring rule which required you to estimate charge and war engine fire ranges by eye has gone by the wayside.

This disappointment was largely due to range estimation being a part of the game I was good at!

We used the recent rules for setting up the table, and by the end there were masses of terrain.  I decided to concentrate on a narrow front, with war engines in the centre to try and break up the enemy horse as they came in.  My main strike force of chariots was on the right, and I hoped that they'd be able to give as good as they got.

I kept trolls and a chariot to guard my left flank, and another chariot and the unit of Black Orcs in reserve.*

My right flank.

The Empire line was just a giant whack of horsemen, with some light types that scooted around my left flank and started the game in a very nice spot.  They also had some kind of magical war machine of impressive dimensions in the centre.

The sneaky light horse on their sneaky way.

The Empire left and centre, with sneaky horse in the distance.

Barrie started off by getting his light horse into position to harass my left, immediately killing off a chariot with pistol fire.  He advanced his main line a little, casting various spells of protection on his units and necessitating some dispel attempts of my own.

Those pesky blokes with pistols who killed my chariot...

Some chaps on fearsome war beasts.

In my turn I charged in on the right with the chariots, hoping to knock over his left-most unit of cavalry and from there roll up his flank.  We almost succeeded with the first part of that grand scheme, but magical saves and hatred helped him to win the first round of combat.

My chariots then gallantly turned and fled.

Charge!

Nearly...

Oh dear, here we go!

I shot with my missile weapons with some success, but we were not in a good place for the counter attack.

When it came, it looked something like the scene below.

Barrie charged in all along the line and my 'narrow frontage' plan proved to be less than inspired, as he was able to concentrate two mounted units against each of my single ones of foot.  The initial results were not, from my perspective, especially encouraging.

The Orc foot not in formation are all casualties.  The remaining three were then destroyed in the exploitation charge...

 The space where my right used to be.

Things were also messy on the other flank...

The infantry and war machine toilers were wiped out to an Orc by this charge, and then everyone else ran away in panic.

In the interests of the children I refuse to show any further pictures of the carnage.

So, there it was: game over in two turns for the enemy, one for me, and my undefeated record in WFB shattered!  What a lot of fun it was.  My tactics were, as Barrie noted, those of another time and place, but I was just happy to catch up with an old mucker again, push some figures around and roll some dice.

Will look forward to doing it again next time I'm back home.

*note to self: don't put Black Orcs in reserve!