Take the high ground! Then hold it!

John braved the weather yesterday afternoon and came up for a game. I wanted to get my SYW Prussians and Russians on the table as they had suffered the most during the move and some running repairs were required. So, while they're off the shelves why not use them before putting them back into winter quarters?

The scenario was as follows. The Prussians need to capture and hold the high ground in the centre of the table as this feature dominates their lines of communication but also those of the invading Russian army. The Russians need to capture the hills for exactly the same reason as their invasion will be stalled even more than it already has been by inept generals if the Prussians can hold and possibly fortify them.

The Prussians have a small swift moving and flexible force to do the job. The command level of the CinC was randomly generated with only a 1 in 6 chance of it being a lowly 7.

CinC John :  command 7
Advance guard (8): 3 units of hussars and a small unit of Freikorps jager
Cavalry brigade (8):  4 units of cuirassiers
Infantry Bde (8): 1 Guard, 2 line
Infantry Bde (8) 1 grenadier, 1 line and 1 garrison btn
Infantry Bde (8) 1 fusilier, 1 friekorps and 1 line
3 light battalion guns

The Russian army: All randomly generated command levels and here had to be at least one 6 and one 7.
CinC Me: command 8
Cavalry brigade (8) 2 units of horse grenadiers and 4 of cuirassiers
Cavalry brigade (7) 2 units of hussars
Infantry bde (8) of 2 grenadier and 2 line btns
Infantry bde (6) 4 line btns and 1 dismounted dragoon rgt
2 medium howitzers and 2 medium guns in two batteries (8)

Infantry battalions are 36 strong. The cavalry are in 12 figure 'squadrons'. With the exception of the dismounted dragoons all the Russian infantry were classed as stubborn. The Prussian Guard and Combined Grenadiers were superbly drilled and steady, while the Freikorps and Garrison btns were untested, meaning their stamina was unknown until the first time they were shot at. All the Prussians had platoon fire to give them a distinct advantage over the Russians in a fire fight. Our rules of choice, Black Powder, were of course used for this game.

We threw to randomise the entry points of both armies. The Prussians all arrived on their right flank, i.e. the end 4 foot of the table. The Russians managed to have half their force at each extreme of the table. Given that the objectives for both sides were in the centre, these entry points were extremely unhelpful to both armies. So, on to battle.......

The Russian left flank. Serbski Hussars move to cover the flank of the Russian artillery.

The Russian left deploys but the guns are stuck on the road. The Prussian Hussars tried to charge the guns but failed to reach. They in turn were hit by the Russian Hussars and pushed back.

The Russian right flank. With a command rating of 6 the advance was pretty slow to start with, and the cavalry in the distance fared no better in getting going!

Prussian 40th Fusilier Regiment (my favourites, looking just lovely in pink) advance to the top of the left hill, supported by a Freikorps battalion and a battalion of Combined Grenadiers.

The Prussian right, with three battalions, including the Guard, moving up behind their Hussars. 

Another shot of the infantry on the Prussian right. 

Russian grenadiers about to launch their assault up the left hill. 

Having seen off the Prussian Hussars the Russian Serbski Hussars burst through and hit the head of the column of Prussian Guard infantry. The Guard held them off until more Prussian Hussars crashed into the flank of the Russians, breaking them. Although they were ultimately both lost, between them the two units of Russian Hussars had done well in holding back the entire Prussian right wing for several turns, long enough for the Russian attack in the centre to go in.   

Russian Grenadiers braved the Prussian musketry and charged in with the bayonet, driving off the 40th Fusiliers and exposing the Freikorps battalion. When John threw to see what their stamina was he scored a '1'! Not good!

 The Russian right finally got moving and into position to attack the Prussians who had by now occupied the other hill.

The Prussian Cuirassiers who had marched from one flank to the other in order to engage the Russian Cuirassiers and Horse Grenadiers who were by now threatening the Prussian left. 

 The Russian cavalry before their clash with the Prussian Cuirassiers.

 The Russian Grenadiers took heavy casualties but hung on, driving off the Freikorps battalion and forcing the brigade to retire shaken. In one turn the lead battalion of Grenadiers took 12 hits and saved 11 of them!

 The Russian right exchanging fire with the Prussians out of shot to their front. One battalion was broken but the others held on and supported by their artillery drove back another Prussian brigade.

The Prussian view of the Russian Grenadiers' attack.

 In a fierce melee, two units of Prussian cuirassiers were broken by the Russian cavalry, although one Russian Cuirassier unit was destroyed early on and a unit of Horse Grenadiers towards the close of the action.

 The Prussian cavalry commander exhorts his men to fight on but his efforts were in vain. A third unit was shaken and the brigade forced to withdraw, a spent force.

The Russian artillery, which contributed significantly to their army's victory. 

The Russian dismounted dragoon regiment bringing up the rear. Even when they had horses, the Russian Dragoons were badly mounted.

So, The Russians had managed to successfully drive the Prussians off both hills. The Prussians almost managed to roll up the Russian left flank but couldn't quite pull it off. The Prussians were forced to withdraw as three of their brigades were broken.

I enjoyed it as I actually won a game, the first one ever, with my Russian SYW army. John threw some amazingly dreadful dice scores throughout the entire game which hampered his plans more than a little. I managed quite a few blunders but they all went in more or less the right direction. I think the game was balanced about right. There were about the same number of troops, although the Russians had more guns. The Prussian commanders and most of their troops were much better than the Russians on paper but this didn't entirely manifest itself during the game.

The Battle of Fontenoy

Paul came up this week as he wanted to refight the Battle of Fontenoy at my place using his extensive 15mm collection. We set the game up the previous evening to give us a full day of playing which worked really well given Paul was bringing all the figures and terrain with him. I think the armies were scaled down to about 1 to 3 in terms of units which of course still meant that the Allied army was still outnumbered by the French, especially in cavalry. Paul didn't have enough Dutch troops so we utilised others to stand in for them, which explains why some of the photos are in sepia so you can't see the actual uniform colours, although he did replace all the flags with Dutch ones for the game.

 Panorama of the battlefield

 View of the English advance from behind the French centre.

 Close up of the English horse covering the advance of massed battalions of English infantry! Hurrah!

 The French centre behind Fontenoy

 The English and Hanoverian advance.

 The Dutch assault on Antoing

 Fontenoy. Just after a regiment of French failed a break test and withdrew, leaving a nice gap :o)

Highlanders on the Allied right advancing very slowly towards the French redoubts, and their doom, in the woods.

 The second Dutch assault on Antoing........

 The ultimately successful Dutch assault on Fontenoy.

 The Dutch drove off the French defenders and were able to occupy the outer limits of Antoing.

 British horse covering their infantry while they deployed. The commander of the horse was a numpty and it might have been more effective had they not actually got in the way of the advance!

 The Dutch (and Hanoverians) take Fontenoy.

 The Buffs threw a blunder and closed with the Gardes Suise, but after a hard fight during which the Swiss were shaken and badly mauled, were repulsed.

The French were ejected from Fontenoy quite quickly and even the Gardes Francais were unable to dislodge the Hanoverian and Dutch infantry which had swamped the town with their assault.

The  main French line holds firm, bolstered by the shaken and badly cut up Gardes Suisse. 

 The Gardes Francais failed to cover themselves with glory; first pulling back in the face of the English advance and then being repulsed in the counter attack to try and retake Fontenoy!

 The French redoubts between Fontenoy and Antoing.

 Another shot of the French right flank and right centre, showing victorious Dutch and Hanoverians holding Fontenoy and the third Dutch attempt to capture one of the redoubts. It failed the same as the previous two attempts had.

Antoing, shown mainly to show off the scratch-built buildings.

The Allied plan called for all out attacks by the Dutch on the French strongholds while the Anglo-Hanoverians advanced towards the centre screened by their cavalry. My attempt to advance on the French left through the wooded area was fouled by some dreadful command rolls but I did get my Dutch horse to move off round the flank in order to try and draw off some of the vastly more numerous French cavalry in the centre, which it did even though the Dutch were eventually broken.

A French unit was driven back in Fontenoy, leaving a nice gap for the Dutch to exploit. At the same time the Hanoverians swung left and swamped the village while the English formed line and proceeded to advance towards the French centre and give them several delay volleys. Highlights were the Gardes Francais blundering and withdrawing a move, and the Buffs charging the Gardes Suisse as a result of another blunder.

The battle raged in the centre, with the English gaining the upper hand against the main French line, which included the Irish Brigade and more Gardes Francais. Sadly on the right my infantry had managed to assault the French redoubts but were driven off. On the left the Dutch assault on Antoing had ground to a halt, as had the French attempts to retake Fontenoy.

It was at that point that we decided to call it a day. The Allied attacks had run out of steam but although their centre was easily holding off the French the flanks were in trouble. It was declared a draw as Fontenoy had fallen but the Allies had failed in their attempt to relieve Tournai as the French army was still intact.

A great game, some dreadful command rolls on both sides and a high rate of casualties among the Generals. Thanks to Paul for providing the scenario, the troops and terrain, well everything really except coffees and lunch and a room to play in which was my contribution. There was also a touch of nostalgia as many of Paul's English were the very same Peter Paing figures I had sold to him probably 30 years ago!

Inducting a potential new recruit

My friend and neighbour (well, up the hill) expressed an interest a few weeks ago in having a go at wargaming. So this week I set up a small ACW game (one brigade a side plus a few extras) to let him see what its all about. I used Black Powder (my ruleset of choice) as they're pretty straightforward and easy to pick up.

My Confederates were tasked with attacking a small town held by the Federals which was known to have a large amount of much-needed supplies. I made the Confederates better than the slightly more numerous Federals in terms of command but in the end it made little difference as I managed to throw my usual run of rubbish command scores which meant that my incredibly excellent plan to isolate and destroy the enemy battalion by battalion didn't work! It also didn't help that Peter picked the rules up really quickly and managed to hold me off and disrupt my troops enough to turn my attack into a shambolic and bloody failure. One battalion was caught in march column and badly shot up, another was pinned and the third managed to at least hide in the woods and drive off a Federal attack. My cavalry were also isolated and as the federals had a spare unit of infantry and their cavalry covering their flank it had nothing worthwhile to do. It did however manage to throw double '6' and blunder, resulting in a charge towards the Federal cavalry. In the melee that followed the Federals were broken but the Confederates were shaken and unable to exploit this minor success.

In the centre, the Federal artillery destroyed the lone Confederate artillery battery. On the left the unit caught in column managed to shake out into line but was broken by the weight of fire the federals managed  to pour onto it.  The battalion hiding in the wood charged the Federal zouaves facing it and managed to get into hand to hand combat but were broken in the melee. The Federals had successfully beaten off the Confederate attack and the game came to a close. Beginners luck!

Well, I didn't put Peter off which is great and he'll be back for another game soon. I'll remember to take photos next time!

New games room and table christened with TYW scrap!

Well, as the title of this post suggests, my new man cave is ready for action. There will no doubt be a larger inaugural game to celebrate the occasion but Rob came up last night for a taster. I opted for Thirty Years War largely because I knew where all the troops were under the table but also because it is a colourful period and the rules are pretty straightforward (Pike and Shotte, love 'em or hate 'em they work for me). Rob took the Swedes and I led the Imperialists, in a simple encounter battle for possession of the river crossings.

 (Above, the armies deployed for battle. Below, a close up of the Imperial left wing)

 (Above, the Swedish army, with their Saxon allies on their far right flank, well out of the way! Below, Finnish horse pushing across the river to try and delay the Imperial advance. They failed and were broken after a hard fight with Imperial cuirassiers)

 (Above, the Swedish centre, the Blue Brigade and the Yellow regiment cross the river. Below, Imperial infantry in some confusion attempting to form up to receive the Swedish attack).

 (Above: Swedish dragoons before they dismounted to take pot shots at the Imperial right wing. Below, over on the other flank the Imperial Cuirassiers, Harquebusiers and Croats forced the Saxons into a defensive hedgehog).

 (Above, Imperial pikes stormed across the bridge, driving off the Saxon musketeers holding the opposite end.  Below, battle rages as the Swedes get in close).

 (Above and below, the hapless Swedish dragoons again. They dismounted just in time to be hit by Imperial Harquesbusiers, fresh from driving off all the enemy horse on the Swedish left flank).

 (Above, the main Imperial infantry line advancing towards the Swedish Blue Brigade, while below, four squadrons of Swedish horse held  in reserve are pushed forward after the Finnish and Livonian horse on their left had been drive off by Imperial cuirassiers.)

 (Above, Swedish cuirassiers move forward in support of their infantry while below, the left closed with the Swedes and crossed the river in strength). 

(Above, Croats harass the Saxons and keep them from deploying out of their immobile hedgehog formation. Below, opposing pike blocks clash in the centre). 

 (Above, the Imperial advance is halted temporarily by the elite Blue brigade. Below, the end of the action.)

This was a great game and when we had to finish it was still very much in the balance. My right wing had driven off and broken their opponents and were swinging around to engage the Swedish centre. My left wing was held up by the Saxons and the terrain. In the centre things were evenly matched except that Rob had six squadrons of uncommitted Swedish horse and his infantry were superior in quality to mine. We  shall never know........ and most remarkable of all, although we were both plagued by some dreadful command rolls as usual at the wrong time, neither of us managed to throw a double 6 and blunder during the entire game!

New games room and table ready for action!

Yesterday saw the completion of my new table. The man cave is also just about ready for use; I just need to sort everything out, fill the display cabinets and put some pictures on the walls. There's loads of space on the shelf under the table for all my stuff, indeed there's plenty of room for more stuff!

The table is 5' x 12' which while not as wide as my previous one is longer, higher and far sturdier. 5' is wide enough I guess, even for the massive Black Powder and Pike and Shot games I play. Another big advantage that it is well lit, heated and everyone can stand up straight without cracking heads on the ceiling. I can fit a 2' extension to the table if I really wanted to.

I have a new terrain matt on its way as the old one, apart from being too small for the new table, has seen better days and hasn't really survived the move.

I'll be glad when I can get back to some painting and especially basing as I have lots of troops completed but in need of basing. I will still be keeping my painting station upstairs in the 'office' so I don't have to disrupt the production line whenever I have a game. Now, where did I put my backdrop??????