Natholeon
eldannardoJust got back from NATCON yesterday. Three days solid of playing Napoleonics. I was borrowing an army off the unpire, Russell, to use with his First Volley rules. These are very much in the style of the ‘Grand Manner’ rules, with very large battalions.
Russ gave me 1813 Austrians to play. They were mostly militia and 2nd Class troops with a couple of good cavalry regiments thrown in. I was beaten in the first two games by Andrew’s 1805 Russians and Mark’s 1812 Franco-Swiss. Then on Saturday I was trounced by Paul’s 1812 Russians and Kevin’s 1813 Italian- Wurtemburgers. I have to say by that stage I was feeling a bit down on the poor old Austrians. They seemed to be scared of their own shadows and the 6 pounder artillery was getting thrashed by bigger guns on a consistent basis. But the four games had given me a good understanding of the rules, and an insight to the army I was using.
The fifth game was an extra long one on Sunday was against Simon’s Saxons. I’d worked out a pattern for deployment that could see me get the most out of my cavalry brigade, and realised that using the militia as cannon fodder was probably a good idea, as retreating militia didn’t give the same disadvantages to morale as a retreating 2nd class unit.
The game was played at a leisurely pace, as both Simon and I are rather new to the rules and we wanted to make sure we understood them to the best of our ability. The game consisted of Simon launching a huge cavalry offensive on my left flank while I made an attack on the right with my infantry. There was a big gap in Simon’s centre which my dragoons exploited, but they just didn’t have enough time in the end to do the damage which they might have done. Simon’s Guard Zastrow Cuirassiers smacshed themselves against my 2nd class squares, but depsite the inability of the squares to do any dmage with volley fire, the squares stood firm. The 6 pdrs managed to get within canister range of Simon’s artillery, and whilst he was masked by his own troops, I let rip. It was the first triumph for the Austrian artillery all weekend!
In the end time was against us and a count up of victory points showed that the Austrians had won. Despite enjoying the whole weekend, the last game did contribute to an overall positive feeling from the competition. I’m not sure of the final points tally, but I’d be pretty sure that I was placed 6th in a field of 6. Without the last game, I probably would have been 7th! But placings wasn’t the rationale for playing – it was all about learning the First Volley rules so that the Rotorua Irregulars could play them and start to use a standard rules-set that would work when travelling to other climes. At the same time I had some good games with a great bunch of guys who played in a fantastic spirit. I’ve now determined to build a French force for First Volley, and look forward to future games with the ‘Mid-Island Mercenaries’ (as Kevin called them)!
(Sorry there are no photos, I forgot my camera!)
Nate
Filed under: Battle reports, DBA and variants, DBD, Wargaming, Wargaming works in progress
I’ve just finished a playtest of my rules mechanics for solo wargaming in the age of Louis XIV. It was a chance to try out my DBD modifications and see if I could play an’impartial’ game. The scenario and battle report are below…
The Battle of Kleine Muffinstadt
In this scenario one side is marching onto the battlefield having undertaken a surprise march. The defender is camped betwen the Flusswasser and the village of Muffinstadt. 2d6 are rolled to determine how many elements the defender has ready, and how many elements the attacker has on the board. Another die roll determines the direction the attacker will enter from, and for subsequent elements the roll is made again. A list of elements is made, each given a number, and 2d6 used to determine which elements are present or not. The General’s element is always present. Throughout the game, any elements that didn’t arrive initially are rerolled for. I made an error here, and made the artillery a 12. As this is a rare element, you are better off having it as a 7 – more chance of getting it. This is because there are 5 entries each for Horse and Foot, so quite a good chance of rolling for them. At any rate, the upshot was that the French never got their artillery out of the camp.
The battlefield looked like this, Kleine Muffinstadt in the top left corner, the camp beside it, the Flusswasser running from top to bottom, two roads and the Muffinberg hill in the centre:
The first die roll confirmed that the Imperialists were attacking the French. But the French obviously had plenty of piquets about, as three quarters of their army was deployed when the Imperialists began to arrive. Initial deployment was as follows:
Turn 1 saw the Imperialists advance down the road towards Kleine Muffinstadt. The general and the Horse regiments were in the van with the foot in the centre and the artillery bringing up the rear. This wasnot preordained by dice, this was my decision, and one that I would alter next time. It would have been better to have a mixed vanguard, as will later be seen. Meanwhile the French advanced, and an element of Horse left the camp.
Next the Imperialists began to deploy their Horse, hoping to charge in before the foot could completely deploy. The last foot element appeared coming down the other road. The French made ready to secure the Muffinberg with a unit of Horse, and swing the battleline so that its flanks rested on Kleine Muffinstadt and the Muffinberg. Another element of horse left the camp and joined its partner in an advance.
The two sides continued to move towards each other. It was about here, as the shooting began, that I forgot a crucial thing for DBx games. You are meant to add the factors for the elements to the die roll! I remembered to do all the grading, but couldn’t work out why things were dying so easily. Then I realised what I’d done wrong! I put everything back 2 turns and started again! This is the situation in the reworked turn three…
Now that I knew what I was doing, it was time for combat. Their was no bias in what I was doing – the PIP dice made sure of that! Both sides were getting ome good rolls, but trying to sort out a battle line for the Imperialists was growing increasingly difficult. The infantry were still forming up as the Horse entered into battle! Meanwhile, the French were creating a sound battleline. The horse and Dragoons met on the slopes of the Muffinberg, and shooting from the French infantry destroyed an element of horse.
The Dragoons died, sending the flanking horse recoiling. The situation at the beginning of Turn 5 looked as follows:
Turn 5 saw the French Horse on the Muffinberg recoiled by an element of shot, but also the loss of the Imperialist general! I didn’t end the game there, though. I decided that it was typical of this time for the battle to continue with troops blissfully unaware of their general’s death (as at Lutzen when Gustavus Adolphus was killed). As I could make up the rules as I went along, I did decide that the their would be a -1 penalty to the Imperialist PIP die roll for the rest of the game.
The Imperialists rolled a 6 – the best possible reult – for their first leaderless PIP roll. It enabled them to form a good line of battle with their infantry, but it was all in vain. A last element of horse succumbed to a deadly crossfire, and the Imperialists were defeated (I play the 4 elements lost army breakpoint rule). The infantry retreated to the south, screened by the last 2 elements of Horse:
What did I learn? Well, first off, the DBD rules modifications work. I was quite happy with the combats. Secondly, keep Horse supported with foot if possible and advance only after you are happy with your batleline. Third, definitely don’t use Dragoons as your head on attacking element against horse – wipe out! Finally, solo wargaming is fun! I really enjoyed the game, and the ability to play through a scenario with rules, but then alter them without having to convince anyone that it is a good idea worked really well! The scenario was designed with the intention that the battlelines would only form slowly, but 2 big dice rolls meant that the Imperialists were at a bit of a disadvantage from the get-go, as the French were pretty much totally deployed from the beginning. But that is how it goes – you can’t guarantee your plan will work. When I start the real campaign with these guys, this type of scenario will be modified quite a bit to take account of scouting points etc.
Time to get the 2 sides all painted now, I guess. It took me one and a half hours to paint my first foot unit – the Orleans regiment, and I’m sure that it would only take 3 hours or so to paint 4 elements. I’m not being pretty with them – at gaming distance there is very little detail to see, so they are getting a basic paint job, and it seems to work. Here is a close up of the Orleans boys:
No wargames fashion police please! I’m quite aware that these guys might not have had red breeches and stockings, but its my army and I’ll paint it for effect, thankyou very much! I’ll keep posting pictures as the rest of the figures get done.
Nate
On Saturday we played out a battle from the Great War, in order to learn the rules. As with every first game it was a bit of a slog as play slowed for us to search the rulebook and we came to grips with the nuances. So on Sunday we relaxed with a game of WAB (where we are still coming to grips with some of the rules…).
We flicked through the Age of Arthur book for a scenario and decided on the Battle of Mount Agned as we hadn’t played it before and it gave a straight up 1500 point fight. In the photos that follow, the movements of the Saxons (Angles) are marked in blue, the British in Red. Combat is marked in yellow.
Here are the armies after deployment. Dan tried something new, which was to mass his troops on the flank that my Teulu weren’t on.
The first move sees everyone head for the crest of the Mount. The skirmishers unleash on each other, with one Saxon falling casualty. In a cunning move, the Saxon horse turn and march for the centre of the battlefield, having lured the Teulu out to the right.
The sides edge closer and continue firing. The Teulu get restless and charge the Skirmishers, only to see them fire and flee. The centre unit of Combrogi turns in anticipation of hitting the Gedricht in the flank as support for their friends to the left. The left unit of Combrogi stand still – they will need their Shieldwall to try to survive the onslaught of the Gedricht!
With the battle in full swing I forgot the photo at the end of Turn Three! Basically, the Saxon right flank charged in. The Pagenses were swept away by the Duguth at the top of the battlefield. The Gedricht charged as foreseen, but in order to hold up the supporting Combrogi unit, the Saxon Skirmishers charged into them! This was completely unnecessary, as the Gedricht ripped through the Combrogi front rank, broke their morale and hacked them down as they ran. The interesting side of this was that the Combrogi in the centre destroyed the Skirmishers and pursued them past the watchtower.
At the bottom of the battlefield, the Duguth charged the Combrogi and the Skirmishers and Pagenses clashed. The first combat was a stalemate, but the second saw the Pagenses sweep the Skirmishers away and charge down to the bottom of the hill, where the rallied skirmishers routed by the Teulu in turn two were waiting.
In the meantime, the Teulu began their turning manoeuvre.
In turn four the Gedricht and right flank Duguth turn around. The mounted Duguth charge into the Combrogi who had about faced at the end of Turn Three. The Duguth lose heavily, but stand firm, leaving the Combrogi with a horribly exposed rear (titter)!
The Teulu continued their turning manoeuvre.
As feared, the Gedricht and Duguth charge into the rear of the beleaguered Combrogi. Despite taking down the last 2 mounted Duguth, they are soundly beaten. Morale collapses and they try to flee, but with no direction of escape, are mercilessly cut down. The Saxons give a particular shout of glee as the Sacerdot loses his final wound. In the previous round of combat the Mounted Thegn had issued a challenge to him, and inflicted the first blow. Warlord Danwulf particularly dislikes these militant Christian types!
The surviving skirmishers charge into the Pagenses, but the wild men of the west have their tails up now and rout them from the board. Unfortunately, they follow them off it…
The Combrogi on the ridge line finally destroy the Duguth, and cut them down in pursuit, particularly angry at the death of Sam the Sacerdot!
The Teulu finish their turning manoeuvre – finally!
Taken on a different angle, this shows the battlefield from the British side.
The Teulu crash into the Gedricht from close range and rain down hammer blows upon them! It is too much for the Gedricht, even with their Army Standard Bearer reroll. They break and run, only 10″! Surely the Teulu will run them down, but no! They only roll 9″ in pursuit! It is enough to bring them into contact with the Duguth, but that is all. The surviving mounted Thegn decides things are getting too hot and runs away. The Combrogi advance towards the tower, but it is too late! it is the end of turn 6 and the game is over. No one has secured the tower decisively and it is starting to get cold and dark and it is time for tea… a bloody draw!
Dan’s ploy almost worked. It took me 5 turns to get the Teulu into a place where they would be effective. This is the problem with such a wide unit. I could make it three ranks for manoeuvre, but as we play the optional rule of being unable to reform within 8″ of the enemy, this would limit the ability to add width in a hurry. I may consider dropping a couple of cavalry and put a character in my third unit of Combrogi. I need to check to see that I have enough character points for that. But the smaller the Teulu get, the easier it is for opposition to FBIGO (fall back in good order) instead of routing. It is a bit of a toss up really.
Anyway, it was a good game to end the weekend on.
Nate
This was our first outing of Warhammer Great War, excluding a brief playtest when the rules first showed up. As such, we wanted to both try everything out, so i made a scenario where both sides would be attacking and we could use our 1500 point army lists. First thing to note - two 1500 point sides is a long game! Please excuse the unpainted figures on the table. Neither of us has had the time to finish painting our armies, but it is the priority!
Anyway, on to the battle:
We did alternate deployment. I chose to leave two companies in reserve as I felt that this was historically what happened. Dan massed the British on the Serre Road.
In the following, green lines are German movement, blue lines are British and red lines indicate fire. Red circles indicate hand to hand combats.
The first move was predictable enough. The British began their advance up the Serre road. In the south the Germans left their trenches for a flanking attack with the flamethrower team. At this stage shooting was pretty effective, but not crushingly so. The German battalion command moved behind the trench line towards the road, sensing that it may have to hold the line until the reserves arrived.
Turn two saw the advances continue, and the Mark IV moved forward to exchange fire with the A7V. Tank vs tank combat proved to be as ineffective as it was in history! No reserves arrived and the German AT gun and mortar were destroyed. The Stosstruppen holding the trenches were taking plenty of casualties, but also inflicting a few too. (apologies for the lack of arrows in this turn).
Turn Three saw the British infantry assault and destroy the A7V. Unfortunately their grenades hit the ammunition for the 57mm gun and the tank exploded in a devastating way, taking out most of the assaulting British! The Stosstruppen reserves showed up in the nick of time, rushing to occupy the wall of La Signy Farm and the now practically empty trench. British fire had decimated the holding platoon. The troops holding La Signy farm were also suffering heavily, but the battalion command placed itself to make sure that they could firm up the troops. Meanwhile the British were on the verge of their assault on La Signy farm.
Turn Four saw the British pour fire into their intended objectives. The Reserve Stosstruppen platoon that had occupied the empty trench were cut down almost to a man! The advance guard of the assault on the farm reached the farm wall, but a shot from the supporting mortar scattered back onto its own men! Not only did several members of the platoon face the end of their game, the unit was pinned as well!
Things had been looking grim for the German line when the Stormtroop Company arrived. They swept into the battle, assaulting the leading British formations and cutting through them! The battle had reached a turning point!
Ignore the shot from the 18pdr that says the mortar was destroyed. That was intended for turn two!
The Germans go over to the offensive, not wanting to lose the momentum of their attack. In every combat of hand to hand they are totally successful, not losing a figure. But there aren’t that many of them, and shooting keeps whittling down their numbers. Even those British units falling back continue to fire their Lewis guns. In the South the Flamethrower team finally reaches the hedgeline. Can they get past the assault party and occupy the road corner?
The British Assault party throw back the flamethrower team with their shooting. There simply won’t be enough turns to take the road now! Meanwhile the Stormtroop counterattack continues, scything through the British in hand to hand, aided by their bombing ability. But always suffering casualties. It might have even been worse for the Germans, but at about this stage Dan started rolling the worst dice I have ever seen. Five 1s and three 2s for his HMG? Oh dear…
What is left of the two forces engage in a desperate struggle in front of the Sugar factory. The hand to hand combats continue to be fast and decisive, but the familiar pattern is still there. Only the Battalion commander’s leadership rating is keeping any troops still going. And at the end of this turn the sole survior of the Stosstruppen platoon that was in the first reserve wave begins to fall back. In the north, the mortar crew pull out rifles and pin their attackers. In the south the flamethrower team pushes pointlessly on.
The final turn. The Germans assault and occupy the Sugar Factory, but there are only five of them, representing three different units. They can’t claim the victory points. In the south the flamethrower team and assault party are still largely intact, but have not managed to do anything decisive. The battle is over and it is a very bloody draw!
So what lessons did I learn from that?
First of all, the Stormtroopers and Stosstruppen are devastating troops and move like lightning. Their extra d6/6″ gives them a huge counterattacking advantage. If you make them bombers, their assault power is overwhelming. In this game only the Stormtroopers were bombers, but they were exceptionally effective. On the other hand, there are very few bodies to soak up the bullets, and it was telling that for all of their assault power, they simply didn’t have the numbers to achieve their objective.
The Brits mounted a human wave attack and it very nearly paid off. As they don’t have any troops that can zip about the board like the Germans, they must go on the offensive early and be prepared to take a lot of fire. For this reason, fielding the maximum unit strength is important for them. Dan was not convinced that having a field gun was particularly useful, and despite some notable target kills (the German Mortar team), he is probably right.
I’m still not convinced that Dan massed his troops in the best place, not used his tank effectively. But just one tank is a pretty ineffective toy to have. I don’t think I’d bother taking one for the Germans again. It draws fire for a while and distracts the opponent, but it is a pretty pricey distraction. If the Brits had two tanks, it might be more effective for them. An attack on the centre of the ridge with two tanks and a company of troops might have been a better help to the attack on the farm. It would certainly have meant that the Stormtrooper and Stosstruppen Reserves would have been less concentrated and easier to deal with.
Trenches and hedges may give cover saves, but don’t rely on them. I had two platoons who never left the trenches almost totally wiped out. Mortars are particularly effective for this, and I would recommend taking the maximum number of mortars in attack or defence. Same with HMGs. Dan was of the opinion that if we played a lengthways Blitz mission HMGs and Mortars would be more of a hindrance on the attack as they can’t move and fire. I guess so, but using them to support an advance in stages is historically accurate.
So what will I do with my attacking army list now? I think that I will go to an assault battalion with a Stormtrooper Company as support. The Stormtroops will be three platoons strong, two armed with Lewis guns, and one with a flamethrower. They will all be bombers. The 2 Assault Companies will be 2 full platoons strong each. It just gives a few extra bodies, and that is important in this game. I’ll price this up and work out the support and see if it is viable.
Not too sure what Dan will do with his list other than drop the field gun and maybe work another tank in – or maybe no tank at all. I thought the British came very close to winning the game, but a few bad dice rolls and pinning his own attack didn’t really help.
Two 1500 point armies is a BIG battle. The purpose of teh game was to learn the rules properly and try out everything in our army lists to see how it performed. In that sense, it was a success. But I’d definitely recommend only 1000 vs 1000 or 1500 vs 750 point games for the future.
Finally, the thing that we both agree on is DON’T think that you are playing Warhammer 40,000. We got caught out with the rules several times as they were not what we had expected. Great War is its own game, so be aware of that!
Nate
Filed under: Battle reports, Legends of the High Seas and the Old West, Wargaming, Warhammer Ancient Battles
It has been over a month since I last posted, but as foreseen, school has taken a front seat in my life again. Never mind – the next lot of holidays are only 5 weeks away!
Dan and I have received our copies of Legends of the High Seas from Warhammer Historical and it looks like a great game! We’ve played 2 quick games between our pirate crews, and I got my butt kicked – twice! Ne’er mind, it let us see what the various advantages and disadvantages of our crews and their weapons were. We got hold of the Weapons and Warriors Pirate playset from ebay in the UK, and I’ve put my sloop together already. I’ve got a Pirate crew and a Royal Navy Crew – Dan is thinking about whether to be Pirates or Privateers. Hopefully I’ll be able to give an update this weekend as Dan is coming down and we are keen to have another game or two (they are quick).
A week and a half ago Dan stayed, and as well as two pirate games we got in a game of Age of Arthur WAB. The beauty is – we finally both have painted armies! The mission was the battle of Ceit Celidon, and I was attacking. Therefore I had to try to get three intact units off Dan’s board edge to win. Surprisingly, I just about did it - I would have won if I’d let my Army General leave the field, but i hadn’t read the scenario conditions properly and turned him back to help out another unit. So in the end it was a bloody (and I mean bloody) stalemate. Here’s some photos:
Here the two battleliens are drawn up and begin to converge – British on the right, Saxons on the left.
Here’s a nice view of the rear of two of Dan’s Saxon units – Duguth and Gedricht. Dan’s done a really nice job on these figs!
Combrogi do there best to imitate a speed bump in front of the Gedricht and the Teulu make hard work of some Duguth.
Combrogi plough into mounted Duguth. The Duguth proved to be an effective speed bump, but failed just in time for this unit to exit the board. Along with the Teulu, this gave me the bloody standoff that neither side wanted! My Sacerdot in the fornt row of this unit is points well spent if people are looking for advice on characters. His reroll on panic tests saved my bacon twice in this game!
I put everything school related on hold last weekend as Dan was able to come down. We did what we usually do – plenty of work on terrain and basing figures up - and played a game. It is a compulsory agenda item for us to have a game of something when Dan is down, usually involving our current project. We are still coming to grips with the rules of WAB, so that is our aim for gaming at the moment. Things ran much more smoothly than normal – ie not so much referring back to the rules, but we did forget one major rule - fall back in good order. This turned the game really, as Dan’s big unit of Gedricht should not have been run down by my Teulu – they should simply have fbigo. Earlier, a similar situation had occured on my flank in turn two. I was the victim that time, so I guess things evened out (that’s my excuse, ’cause I won…).
We played 75% breakpoint, which brought us right down to the wire – it was basically a case of whoever could kill one figure from the opposing side would win. My Combrogi aren’t armed with javelins for nothing! Lots of fun, but the rematch will definitely see us with a much firmer grasp of all the necessary rules.
Above are the armies at deployment. Note the beautiful terrain, and the half (or less) painted armies.
A full size picture to show the fruits of Dan’s efforts so far. These are Duguth with some archers. Dan complains about how long it takes to paint anything, but his efforts are definitely worthwhile! In the background are a house and church that I scratch built. The thatched roof is made from teddy bear fur.
Above you can see the armies coming together. The river is made from plasticard, with Silicon filler, model raiway ballast and static grass to add to the effect. The road is MDF covered in railway ballast and finished off with static grass.
Next game will be after Christmas I think. In meantime, I have skirmishers to paint…
Nate
