New project for 2012

Well, (almost) all of my AWI and Seven Years War stragglers are now painted so I decided that with half term coming up the time was right to consider another project. Has to be 28mm as I only have terrain and building in that scale and ideally something that won't get too out of hand like my previous projects. I did consider doing the 1st Carlist War - nice figures, interesting and colourful uniforms, and suitably different to my other stuff but having proced up two armies plus suitable buildings I decided that it was going to be a costly exercise. I came to the same conclusion about the Crimean War, again in 28mm although the factor that knocked it off the top of the list was the prospect of painting more redcoats again! I've been rambling on about doing the Thiirty Years War for a couple of years, so I sent off for a box of Imperial infantry to see what they're like. It took me about an evening to assemble the figures (+/- an hour or so as I really can't remember and the task of cutting and sticking plastic figures together had to be supported by a few glasses of chilled Chablis). Despite the wine, the figures all went together without mishap and I have primed them using Warlord Games' red spray which has covered them a treat. Inspired by my glueing skills I have now ordered an Imperialist starter army and the same for the Swedes. I'm looking forward to making a start on the first unit later this week by which time the other stuff will have arrived, I hope. I missed Triples due to a bad back and too much practical parenting going on - daughter stressed out doing AS exams, otherwise I might have bought the troops there. Durham Wargames group have their show in a couple of weeks time so I might be tempted to drop in, but as the show is almost devoid of games (two in total which is a little short sighted and appears to be cash driven) I very much doubt it. The only trader I'd be interested in would be Dave Thomas so I could rummage through his scraps box for suitable casualty figures. A wargames show without games (or just two) is like a pub without beer, a museum with no exhibits and just a souvenir shop, or, ....er, I digress.

Branywine III - the final chapter

 

John came up yesterday to conclude our Brandywine extravaganza by refighting von Knyphausen's attack across the river. We'd previously fought Cornwallis' flank attack (see earlier posts) resulting in a British victory and the death of George Washington. This time we had the British with the objective of attacking the rebels deployed across the river, pinning them in place whilst Cormwallis' attack was going in further along the flank.

 

The rebels had 5 brigades, deployed facing the two fords that were the only crossing points. Three of their guns were dug in, and one brigade was on the British side of the river. We were using Black Powder again, but this time the British were straight out of the book as they were representing normal line troops and loyalists. I used what I had in terms of units as although I do have an extensive collection I don't have all the exact units for the battle. That explains why the Guards made another appearence and why the Queens Rangers riflemen were on the table pretending to be Ferguson's Rifles.

 

The game started with the rebels making a few changes to their deplaoyment and trying to get the exposed brigade back across the river. The British advance guard failed to appear but two infantry brigades did manage to get onto the table and begin deploying at the river. I kept a couple of battalions in column as I realised the only way to get across the fords was to hope for a very low command throw that'd allow me three moves. Great plans etc. My Highland brigade, the reserve artillery and finally the advance guard made it onto the table the following move and we spent several moves shooting bits of each other. During the course of the next few moves both sides took some heavy casualties and were hindered by a constant series of 6's that resulted in many units being stuck in disorder for significant chunks of the game. Casualties mounted and the rebels lost two units of skirmishers while Fergusons Rifles broke and the Queen's Rangers blundered, thankfully backwards! Boths ides suffered from some really bad command dice but also some fortuitous  saving rolls. I also forgot to bring on my Hessian brigade which was to prove a big mistake, but as they were not engaged in the real battle perhaps that was just fate getting in the way?

 

Around move 8 one rebel brigade had to be removed from play as it had received orderes to retire and support their comrades fending off Cornwallis. This left the rebel left flank in a weakened state, but sadly my brigade facing them was in no position to move. Also, the previous move I had plucked up the courage to send my highland brigade across the river. sadly, the 1/71st got stuck in column before they could get fully across the river and as they were disordered were unable to move. I did get a couple of units across but they were caught in a murderous crossfire and suffered heavily. On the far right I had pushed a battalion plus the 16th Light dragoons across the other ford, but the infantry were again held up in disorder and the cavalry had to retire as the rest of their brigade had been broken. Back on the left, another of my brigades became 'spent' as two battalions had broken, the Highland battalion stuck in the river in diosorder finally broke and the other two Highland battalions were likely to follow them  as they were facing more than twice their number of rebels, supported by artillery. There was no little likelyhood of the British being able to force the crossings. Saying that, the rebel line was quite battered with more than their fair share of disordered and shaken units, and the centre was looking quite flakey. Unfortunately the British had run out of steam....and men!

 

At around move 18 we called it a day, having fought for a little over 2 hours. It had been bloody and attritional, incredibly frustrating due to some poor command throws and lots of disordered units, but it had also been a challengin and enjoyable game. In terms of this game, the rebels had clearly beaten the British, who had failed to cross the river in any strength (and stay there), but taken with the outcome of the other game, it was an overall British victory as the rebels had been pinned and were in danger of having their flank rolled up by Cornwallis who we reckoned was almost at the table edge. Black Powder worked very well again.

 

Next time? Guilford Courthouse I hope.

SEVEN YEARS WAR FOUR-HANDER WITH BLACK POWDER

This game might end up as being one of the most reported ever as in addition to this account (from Prussian perspective) it'll no doubt appear on Rob's blog and may even get written up for a magazine by Paul. We all met up at Rob's today to christen his new games room. As well as John and I, Rob had invited Paul Stephenson to join us for a large SYW game using Black Powder. John designed the scenario, based on one from CS Grant's wargames scenario book. We each had 5 btns of infantry, a unit of lights, 3 units of heavy cavalry, one of light and 2 guns. The commanders had mixed abilities, selected randomly. The Prussians ended up being led by a bunch of timid generals, the French were hesitant and the Hannoverians were aggressive (I think). Can't remember what the Austrians were.

Anyway, I played the Prussians, teamed up with Rob and his Hannoverians. John and Paul were the Austrians and French respectively. I won't give a blow-by-blow account but will merely dish up some of the highlights. (One of which was lunch - thanks Carol). Also, apart from numerous cries of despair from the right flank I'm not really sure what went on over there....

The scenario called for all forces to enter the table and attempt to secure three bridges spanning the river that ran down the length of the table (12 x 6....big!). The Franco/Austrian forces got the first move but didn't make much progreess, while the Prussians got 3 moves for the infantry brigade and stole a march on the enemy. Rob's Hannoverians barely made it onto the table... ;o(

My infantry lined the river and essentially shot the French cavalry to pieces as they were unable to close into contact or withdraw due to disorder and/or command constraints. In a moment of insanity, my cuirassier regiments declsred a charge across the river at a group of Austrian infantry in march column. Amazingly, they threw low enough and made 3 moves and crunched into the heads of the Austrian columns. Sadly, John threw some amazing saving rolls and it took 3 moves to destroy or disperse 3 btns of Austrian infantry. One of my cuirassier regts was caught and destroyed by Austrian and French infantry and artillery but the other one escaped to reform. Meanwhile my infantry had captured the bridge and destroyed some French cuirassiers and hussars, enough to stop the brigade in its tracks. In a protracted firefight in the centre the honours were more or less even as both sides lost an infantry btn but when the French lost their second it was clear that the Prussians were going to be able to hold their objective and the French were a spent force (well the cavalry were anyeway).

In the centre the Austrians had secured the central bridge but the Hanoverians had the third on the right. Despite some unlucky die rolls and numerous blunders the Hannoverians held on and the end of the battle was in sight. Had we gone on a few more moves it may have been diferent but we had agreed a finish time at the start so with 2 bridges the Prussian/Hannoverian forces were able to claim a victory.

As always, the rules were great. Lots of swings and roundabouts and highs and lows but it all evened out in the end. Rob's new games room is awesome. The game was really well balanced and tense throughout. Between Rob and I we have almost as many men as in the real SYW! It was good to see Paul again and lunch was superb.

Roll on next time!

Woodland Indians

Well after much badgering from John I finally got down to painting my Indians for the AWI. Not the best job but they'll do and I did try out some of the new GW paints on them and used the last of my old ogryn flesh as the wash, so they are in honoured company. Funny how the photos always highlight the faults, like forgetting to paint the edge of two of the bases and the rather shiney nature of the figures despite being sprayed with anti-shine varnish. Big game tomorrow at Rob's - a four way SYW using Black Powder. I need to sort out my Prussians and decide which units to take. Big decision!

BACK TO WASHINGTON'S ARMY AAR

We mety up at John's this week and played another Washongton's Army AWI game using John's lovely 15mm Peter Pig armies. I was the rebels and Rob played the British, who were the defenders in this scenario.

My plan involved advancing most of my troops on my left, leaving a weak centre and an fairly strong (how wrong could I have been?) right flank. Sadly, and to cut an embarrasingly long story short, my steamroller on the left took its b****y time in reaching the British lines due to some rubbish command throws, whilst in the meantime my centre was struggling to hold on against stronger and better British troops supported by two guns. My right was held by a militia brigade which, due to some poor deployment on my part was crumbling away, as my worst troops were the ones I had managed to get in close with the british in trying to drive them out of the built up area.

My advance on the left took so long that Rob managed to get enough troops in my way to hold me back, although I did capture my primary objective (the church) - no thanks to the Indians who had little interest in getting above a slow crawl (possily literally) for much of the game. (In 'the plan' the indians and my cavalry were to have rushed forward and captured the church leaving my continental brigade to sweep round on the British centre, which was supposed to be distracted and drawn out of position by my weaker centre, in a massive punch to the kidneys.....). Well von Molke hadn't yet been born so we didn't have the benefits of his wisdom when it comes to 'plans not surviving first contact with the enemy'.

In the end we called it a day and a British victory. My plan was flawed and my dice throwing was even worse than Rob's. Never mind - I like the rules although the turn sequence takes a bit of getting used to and I'm not sure they reflect the period any better or worse than other rule sets. That doesn't matter as it was a fun game and the first time all three of us had got together for quite some time.

If we get a game in next week I'm hoping I can put on the other half of the Brandywine game. Failing that we have the inaugural game in Rob's new games room to look forward to.

BRANDYWINE PART II

Well, after a longer delay than expected due to all sorts of unforseen reasons John and I managed to complete our refight of Brandywine today.

When we had stopped a few weeks ago, the British and Hessian reinforcements had just entered the table and were moving up to support the battered Grenadier, Guards and Lights, while George Washington had just turned up on the Rebel side, heralding the arrival of some much needed reinforcements. On the right the Hessian grenadiers were very slow in taking over from the shaken and disordered British grenadiers thanks to some useless command dice, but eventually they did manage to get into close range of the rebel line, saving the British grenadiers from more damage and possibly from routing! In the centre the Guards brigade stubbornly held on against significant rebel musket and artillery fire, but eventually the artillery and one unit of infantry facing them broke. Trouble was that the Guards were unable to advance due to being disordered and/or shaken and the gap in the rebel line was swiftly filled. I almost lost one battalion but thankfully managed to pass the morale test.

On the left it was much more exciting. The British reinforcements advanced and were threatening the rebels in the town as well as the brigades facing the Light infantry. One rebel unit blundered and ended up charging a light batallion and was not surprisingly broken by the combination of closing fire and melee (no bayonets not good idea). This meant that its parent brigade had to withdraw as it was down to 50%, making a nice gap in the line! Sadly, my other Light batallion also blundered and launched a bayonet charge against a rebel unit to their front. The dice throws on my part were pants and Lights lost the melee, failed their morale and had to withdraw. This left a big gap in my line that thankfully the reinforcements could fill.

John was feeding his reinforcements (2 brigades of militia) into the line on my left as well as into the centre holding the town of Birmingham. Many of his units along the entire line were shaken and he was not really in a position to do much more than hold out for as long as he could in the hope that the British might fail a few morale tests. It was not to be. One of my new British units charged the shaken rebels holding the extreme of the line in the town. Further along the line, a rebel unit had speedily plugged the gap in the front left by the destruction of a battery of guns and the forced withdrawal of a unit of infantry, led by George Washington using the 'follow me' rule. Sadly for them, and also for GW, for once I threw some decent dice and caused grievous casualties in the unit as it was fired on by two guns and a full batallion of guards, causing four hits which meant it became shaken with excess casualties. This meant that Washington was at risk. I threw a 6 and down he went.

It was at this point that John conceded defeat. His left wing was being pressed hard by the Hessians, his right was crumbling and had nowhere to go, and his centre was almost all shaken. What reinforcements he had were being used to plug gaps. With Washington out of action what else could he do?

The British had suffered serious casualties among their elite troops but were still there.....just. Thanks to the arrival of the reinforcements they were able to overwhelm the rebels on both flanks and pin them in the centre. So, a British victory - probably not a surprise but it could have gone either way in the early stages and if I'd not made the Guards, Grenadiers and Lights a little tougher they would certainly all have run away early in the game. However, I do wonder whether I have the characteristics right for the British, and to some extent the rebels. The six units on the table at the start were the elite of the British army but to give them any chance of following the historical run of events I had made them large, elite, crack and steady. Without the crack and steady characteristics the whole lot would have broken very early in the game. OK, you say. Fortunes of war, but the Guards and Grenadiers still made heavy going of their part in the attack, and the former spent much of the game immobile due to John throwing enough 6's to keep them disordered. The British line batallions were just as per the rulebook with no fiddling from me, but they didn't really face any pressure so wern't put to the test before the rebels conceded defeat. Making the elites 'large' was an attempt to reflect impact rather than just size (its not the size that matters missus, but what you do with it....) and maybe that was too much? The flip side is that maybe I should have made the rebels 'small' instead? We shall be doing the other half of Brandywine soon so I might try that out and see what happens. Next time will certainly not be as straightforward for the British.