Absolutely brilliant After Action Report from Des Darkin, taken from the IABSM Facebook Group, featuring action in France in June 1944 as a British attack tries to push some Germans back. The game was played using the IABCYM dice-driven variant of I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum.
Played and reported in four sessions, this AAR combines Des’ various FB posts into one document with loads of great pictures: recommended reading.
Click on the picture below to see all:
Another couple of games of To The Strongest, again on Zoom. This time it was to be my Classical Indians against the Marian Romans: a bit more of a challenge than the Achaemenid Persians!
As before, the set up was for my opponent to have a combination of a stationary overhead camera surveying the whole battlefield and a roving on-table ‘detail’ camera which could be moved to where the action was taking place.
I lost the scouting phase and, as can be seen in the picture above, ended up in a long line across the battlefield facing a Roman force who’s main contingent seemed to be skulking in one corner.
My plan was therefore to hold back my left wing and send forward my centre and right wings to destroy his two separated commands one by one, and then combine my forces again to attack his rather impressive looking camps. Hopefully my superior numbers and mass longbow fire would negate his heavily armoured veteran legionaries (gulp!).
Skulking, I tell you, skulking!
Brave, noble, well-painted!
As already mentioned, I had lost the scouting phase, so my opponent had the initiative and would move first. That should have got him a couple of squares forward, just out of longbow range, but perfectly in keeping with my plan.
Unfortunately not.
A combination of group moves, marches, good cards and, presumably, sheer Roman determination led to a line of annoyed looking Italians appearing right in front of me before my men had had a chance to even finish their breakfasts!
Two thirds of his legionaries are now in my face!
Worse, some of his hairy cavalry had got off the table to the left of my line and were threatening to re-appear and roll me up like a yoga mat!
Well, that was my plan out the window: time for a desperate scramble to retrieve the situation.
A desperate scramble
Most of my men are uninvolved!
The cards were not with me either: although my four-horse chariots managed to manoeuvre themselves into the right position for a flank charge (above left), there they halted to admire the scenery rather than getting stuck in; and my longbows seemed to be firing the wrong sort of arrows today: nerf guns would have been more effective!
Then it was the Romans to go again, and my left hand command just evaporated!
I’m sure I had a left flank around here somewhere!
The Romans were then able to “left turn” with their usual alacrity and, although I did manage to kill one unit of light cavalry, that was really that.
Well that was as comprehensive a mullering as I have ever had!
The good news was, of course, that that left us time for a second game: every cloud, silver lining etc!
Things started well: I won the scouting phase this time and ended up in a much better position as the first card was about to be drawn.
Good, tight formation from the Indians this time!
A tough nut to crack!
The Roman commander looks down on my troops with disdain!
My plan was to quickly kill the cavalry in front of my right wing, then bring the chariots back into the centre for some flank attacks. Meanwhile, my other two commands would advance en masse and pepper his men with their longbows, weakening them in time for the elephants to go in from the front just as my heavy chariots hit them from the side.
Unfortunately, the Gods were against me again (despite me changing the pack of cards I was using in a desperate attempt to change my luck!) and my first turn ended with my men arrayed as shown in the picture above. Chariots: yes, good. Division One: yes, good. Division two…where on earth is Division Two!
If there was anything I’d learnt today about the Romans it’s that they can react really quickly to anything that happens and, sure enough, forward and sideways they came as they attempted to retrieve the situiation.
There was, however, an opportunity here. If I could get my chariots across the field and into the flank of the two legionary units in the centre of the table, then I reckon that I could hit one and then the other and roll them both up. After all, I’d have three attack cards on the first unit with a Hero and a General to get replays. That would put him a third of his main force down with no casualties to me:
I had, of course, neglected to factor in the fact that it was not my day!
Although my chariots flew across the field and got into a perfect charge position, they then stopped! I had had two chances to draw a seven or more (i.e. a 64% chance of success) and failed both times.
The Roman cavalry were thus able to come forward and hit my chariots in the flank (bye bye one unit of chariots and a general), then move the rest of their troops to begin rolling up my line.
Not as bad a mullering as last time, but definitely another hammering!
A couple of great games of TTS despite my ill-fortune. Some of you might be muttering that a good workman doesn’t blame his tools, but even my opponent agreed that it seemed as if every second card I drew was an Ace. For the final chariot combat, needing two 6’s for saves, I drew two Aces: a fitting end to the day!
Still, onwards and upwards, as they say: I’d like to fight the Marian Romans again, but might try one of the other Indian-style armies next time!
Great little pictorial battle report lifted from the I Ain’t Been Shot Mum Facebook Group.
Phil Turner’s game featured the British trying to hold off the Germans somewhere near Dunkirk. Click on the image below to see all.
Two remote games of To The Strongest played at the weekend: both featuring my newly painted Classical Indians against a cobbled together army of Achaemenid Persians.
I say cobbled together because I don’t have an Achaemenid Persian army, so what ended up on the tabletop were Assyrians as Persian cavalry, some Medes from an Alexandrian army, some Greek types as Ionians, some Scythian types as horse archers, then Sassanid Persian infantry as Sparabara and, embarrassingly and perhaps the most heinous crime, Greek Hoplites as the Immortals!
Due to lockdown, the game was played remotely i.e. the table and figures were set up at my house, with my opponent being able to see what was going on over Zoom from his house. After last week’s first attempt, I’d invested in a new webcam, so the picture was much improved:
I also bought a little tripod for my mobile ‘phone (you can see it in position, above) so it was also a lot easier to move the “battlefield reporter” camera around as well.
I placed my CinC and his two Heavy Chariot units in the centre, with the elephants and longbowmen on the wings.
Unusual activation cards leaves two Persian and one Indian brigades stationary. It was the start of many poor cards for the Achaemenids.
I let the Achaemenids get too close, giving up the longbow’s greater range advantage.
The Maiden Guard in a fetching turquoise. Lovely figures: actually look like maidens!
…my elephants smash into one unit of Sparabara.
Against my chariots in the centre.
…and the Chariots charge forward into the enemy horse archers.
Leaving the Chariots free to sack the Achaemenid camp.
So a victory for the Indians: a couple of enemy units killed by missile fire, but the main damage was from the heavy chariots punching their way through the centre. After the game, Bevan mentioned that he wasn’t expecting to find “cavalry” in the centre of my line, and this discombobulated his battle plan!
I also feel honour bound to mention that the cards were most certainly not falling for the Achaemenids!
Note the sneaky Persian horse on my left!
Remember I mentioned how badly the cards were falling for the Achaemenids? Same thing this game: opening volley of longbows killed two of the three Persian cavalry units facing my left flank.
…mean nothing. They are to help Bevan see the rough ground over the webcam.
But I send the elephants forward relying on the longbowmen to deal with (or rather slow down!) the enemy horse when it reappears.
The Achaemenids have haemoraged Victory Coins!
What with my early missile-fire successes, the elephants punching through on the left, and the chariots/cavalry dealing with the right, the Achaemenids ran out of coins.
Note the chariots have also punched through on the far side.
So a second victory for the Persians, although things were a lot closer this time.
Massed longbow fire, and the elephants/heavy chariots at the schwerepunkt, proved a winning combination. Both sides had infantry with strong missile fire but weak melee skills supported by decent melee troops (his cavalry, my elephants and chariots) but I had the advantage in both areas: my longbows outranged his bows, and my elephants/chariots were a bit better than his cavalry. These two advantages gave me the win despite having less units (by one!) and less flexibility (three commands to his four).
Still, I suspect Bevan will have his revenge. Next encounter will see me fielding the Indians again, but against an Alexandrian army…gulp!
Another remote game: this time a re-fight of Austerlitz.
The set up was similar to that for Ostrolenka (see earlier this year) but with a few improvements. Two teams of three players each: the French (Mark, Peter and I) and the Austro-Russians (Dave, Steve and Trevor) each in their own Zoom breakout room.
Each team could see each other and a limited view of the battlefield, and each was periodically visited by an Aide de Camp (Bevan) who took our orders and passed them on to the Umpire (Edward) who ran the table.
Eight participants, eight different locations: the wonders of modern communication!
The game would be played with the Age of Eagles ruleset but scaled at divisional level i.e. the smallest units were divisions grouped into corps.
Each turn would be one hour of battle time, and the battlefield was about 8 by 9 miles in size. Each side would decide their deployment and send in orders for their first (7.00am battle time) turn before the day of the game itself, with the aim being that each turn would take 20 minutes to play, meaning that playing nine turns would give us all a game lasting from 7pm to about 10pm.
Each turn, each team would be able to move their Army Command location and issue orders to each of their Corps. Or the team could decide to “ride about a mile and a half round your army to inspect things for yourself” instead of issuing orders.
As a guideline, we could issue a one sentence order with a one sentence advisory to each corps:
"V Corps to deploy between villages A and B. Artillery well to the front"
"II Corps to attack enemy to front. Cavalry in reserve prepared to take opportunities"
"IX Corps to assault village C. Watch out for enemy Corps behind hill to your left"
"III Corps to advance and pin enemy to front. Attack only if enemy corps disordered"
"VII Corps to withdraw behind XX stream line. Conscripts to form rearguard"
Corps would continue to follow their previous order until changed. We were further warned that:
If you issue an order to each Division you will run out of competent Aides de Camp to take orders before you get very far.
If you issue long and complicated orders with multiple conditions and sub clauses the Aide de camp will pass on a random selection that he remembers to the Corps commander.
For those of you unfamiliar with Austerlitz, our briefing was as follows:
Napoleon’s successes against the Austrians during the second half of 1805 have been extraordinary, with Vienna taken and many prisoners seized. However, Czar Alexander of the Russian Empire has now come west to help his ally Emperor Francis. Despite the French triumphs, Paris is swirling with rumours about Napoleon’s imminent defeat and fall from power, especially after Nelson’s victory at Trafalgar. The French Emperor needs one final triumph on the battlefield, and the hilly ground near Austerlitz makes a perfect setting.
Our army could deploy anywhere in the western third of the map (roughly bordered by the line of the stream running between Kritschen and Tellnitz). The Emperor Napoleon could place his HQ wherever he likes within that area, but the battle is lost instantly if he is captured or killed.
Streams were all easy to cross with only a modest loss of pace. Ponds and marshes were frozen, but would hinder movement somewhat. The battlefield was very hilly, with various plateaus. Santon Hill and the Goldbach Heights tower above all the other ground.
Our victory conditions were simple: victory would be achieved if significantly more casualties were inflicted on the enemy than were suffered by the French army, or if Czar Alexander was captured or killed. In either case, Austria would sue for peace and the Confederation of the Rhine could be established.
Our army consisted of six corps:
Bernadotte
Rivaux’s Infantry Division (some 5,500 men)
Drouet’s Infantry Division (some 6,500 men)
1 Foot Artillery Detachment
Davout
Friant’s Infantry Division (some 7,700 men)
Bourcier’s Heavy Cavalry Division (2,700 Dragoons)
Soult
Vandamme’s Infantry Division (some 8,700 men)
St Hilaire’s Infantry Division (some 9,000 men)
Legrand’s Infantry Division (some 8,600 men)
Beaumont’s Heavy Cavalry Division (2,700 Dragoons)
2 Foot Artillery Detachments (1 with heavy guns)
Lannes
Suchet’s Infantry Division (some 8,600 men)
Cafarelli’s Infantry Division (some 7,600 men)
Oudinot’s Infantry Division (some 5,400 Grenadiers)
2 Foot Artillery Detachments
Murat
Kellerman’s Light Cavalry Division (about 2,100 Chasseurs and Hussars)
Wathier’s Heavy Cavalry Division (1,700 Dragoons)
Nansouty’s Armoured Heavy Cavalry Division (1,700 Cuirassiers)
d’Hautpol’s Armoured Heavy Cavalry Division (1,600 Cuirassiers)
1 Horse Artillery Detachment
Bessieres (Imperial Guard)
Hulin’s Old Guard Foot Division (some 4,500 of the finest veterans)
Savary’s Old Guard Heavy Cavalry Division (1,600 elite horsemen)
1 Foot Artillery Detachment
As we didn’t expect the enemy to follow history and conveniently deploy in two easily-beatable chunks, we decided that we would go for the Pratzen Heights and then hold against all comers, waiting for the opportunity to exploit an opportunity.
We therefore issued the following orders to our corps commanders:
SOULT:
Deploys on Schlappanitz.
Turn 1 Orders:
Orders: Move as fast as possible east, keeping south of Girschkowitz and Blasowitz and up onto the northern end of the Heights.
Commentary: You must get up onto the Heights before the enemy.
Anticipation: Deploy along the edge of the Heights facing N-NE, with left flank covering Krug.
LANNES:
Deploys on Puntowitz.
Turn 1 Orders:
Orders: Move as fast as possible east keeping north of Pratzen and up onto the central mass of the Heights.
Commentary: You must get up onto the Heights before the enemy.
Anticipation: Form on Soult's right flank.
BERNADOTTE:
Deploys on Kobelnitz (or as close as our deployment limit allows)
Turn 1 Orders:
Orders: Move as fast as possible east via Pratzen and up onto the southern part of the northern end of the Heights.
Commentary: You must get up onto the Heights before the enemy.
Anticipation: Form on Lannes' right flank.
DAVOUT:
Deploys on Marxdorf
Turn 1 Orders:
Orders: Move to Puntowitz.
Commentary: Keep a sharp eye for Allied troops approaching from the south.
Anticipation: Guard against an Allied approach from the South
MURAT:
Deploys on Kritschen
Turn 1 Orders:
Orders: Move east to where the road crosses the Bosenitz Brook.
Commentary: Send scouts up onto the Santon Hill
Anticipation: Be ready to head either east or south dependent on what the enemy does.
BESSIERES:
Deploys on the Zurian Heights.
Turn 1 Orders:
Orders: Move to Girschkowitz.
FRENCH HQ & NAPOLEON:
Deploys with Lannes.
Turn 1 Orders:
Orders: Establish yourselves at the juncture between Soult and Lannes.
The idea was that once our strong centre had encountered the enemy, we would either crush them straight on (if they had come straight at us) or pin them so that a flank could roll them up (if they had weighted their opposite flank).
We actually predicted to ourselves that they would go strong up north, so we were anticipating Soult and Lannes being engaged, Murat pinning, and Bernadotte swinging north and rolling the enemy up from the south.
In the event, I think it fair to say that things went sort, but not entirely to plan!
Here’s a series of snapshots from the game, with commentary where appropriate:
From left to right:
Bessieres takes the Guard forward to Girschkowitz to protect the left flank.
Soult (the three central columns) heads up the hill and encounters Russians
Lannes (top centre right) is already engaged!
Bernadotte is moving forward slowly, Davoult is in reserve. Why is all our artillery (the grey blocks) in a stream bed?
The Guard have been hit by three divisions of Austrian Cuirassiers. Better send Murat to help.
Soult has a 3:2 advantage: should be okay.
Lannes still going strong.
Come on Bernadotte: get moving!
And will someone please get our artillery out of the stream!
The Guard have been smashed backwards! How can this be? Bessieres is sacked!
Murat (off screen to the left) is engaged and reports that he’s doing well.
Soult has been pushed back? Does not compute: we had a massive advantage! Get back up the hill immediately!
Lannes is still going strong.
Urgent messages going to Bernadotte, and don’t even talk to me about our artillery!
Murat still doing well to the left, but there seem to be lots of Russians coming towards him. No probs, we’ll break their centre and turn their right flank soon!
The Guard have retreated to a village and are sorting themselves out.
Soult goes back up the hill…but why has one division stayed behind?
Bernadotte is finally moving forward on the right. We bring Davoult forward to breakthrough the centre.
Murat is starting to feel the pressure…but he needs to keep fighting to hold our left.
Soult is knocked back again! What is wrong with you, man, you are French and outnumber the enemy! Get up that hill now!
Lannes (lovely boy, lovely boy) is back moving forwards again.
Bernadotte est un escargot (snail) reborn as a French marshal. Will you please hurry up and hit them hard on the right so you can swing round and roll them up!
The guns! The guns!
Murat has been dispersed, with only one division left, holding the Santon Hill. This is not good, but his sacrifice should have bought us time to win the centre and right and, as he said himself, any Hussar who is still alive at 30 is a blaggard and a coward!
The Guard have been pushed back (again!) but have determined to re-take the village. They’d better, Bessieres, as your future prospects are right in the middle of it!
Soult, Lannes and Bernadotte are pushing forward hard. Looking good: lots of blue, not so much green and white!
The guns are finally moving as well!
Hmmm…there are some Russian coming from the left now but (Gallic shrug) the battle seems to be won in the centre and on the right.
We just need Bernadotte to push forward, but he’s whining about Austrian cavalry holding him up!
A pity the battle didn’t end last picture: the enemy is resurgent!
This is where the battle ended.
Soult is barely holding, Davolut is under pressure, but Lannes and Bernadotte seem to be doing okay.
And that is, indeed where the battle ended.
Up to that last picture, we thought we’d been doing pretty well, but we were starting to come under lots of pressure.
Remembering the victory conditions, casualties were counted. We had taken 50% more than the opposition! Oops! Throwing Murat away like that had not been very helpful, and it was hard fighting all the way.
The Austro-Russians were claiming a glorious victory, but we thought that, situationally, we were on the cusp of a massive roll up, and we had taken the Heights and pushed the enemy back. That said, the victory claims from the French camp were much more muted: we knew that, whatever the situation, we had been quite badly roughed up.
What did we do wrong?
Well, we deployed to perfection, but underestimated how long it would take to get our guns into play.
We were also a bit passive in issuing orders sometimes. I think we could have pushed some divisional orders onto our marshals to improve the tactical situation (although there wasn’t that much room for tactics given our charge forward!) and definitely used ADCs to get the guns and Bernadotte moving forwards more quickly.
Using Capitaine ‘Indsight again, Soult initial set back was a real surprise and really turned the tide against us really early on. The unit that turned him back was the Russian Guard, who were, to coin a phrase “immense” and held us up far too long. Without their resistance, we’d have been over the hill and into Austerlitz by lunchtime!
Our huge mistake, however, was not going to see what was going on with Murat. We left him to get on with it, even when things turned against him. we then threw him away…in that he should have disengaged and pinned the Russian right flank advance. That’s how cavalry do things, after all, but we just ordered him to keep fighting. Funnily enough, it’s what the Austrian cavalry did to Bernadotte on our right.
So, in summary, a good plan, that could have worked, but we should have been more active. I blame the hours I’d already spent on Zoom working that day: my equivalent of Napoleon’s Waterloo malaise!
Good play from the enemy too. We might have had a good plan, but I think it fair to say that they made no serious mistakes once battle was joined. Well done Dave, Trevor and Steve!
Anyway, onto…
For a final decision, let’s hear from the Umpire:
To be honest, as one of the French players, I think we were relieved to be awarded a draw, but a draw had been declared and all that now remained was for Napoleon’s excellent propaganda machine to spin it into glorious victory!
To finish, my thanks to Edward and Bevan for running the game so smoothly, and to all the players for participating. It was a brilliant experience, and one I look forward to repeating soon.
A very enjoyable account, much like the reports I think Le Moniteur printed from time to time!
Very roughly, the Allies anticipated where your main attack would come from and placed our strongest Corps to block it. Sadly, Buxhowden was apparently a little hungover and they moved very slowly at the start. Our main plan was to hold the French on the Heights, with as compact a line as possible, whilst Bagration’s huge cavalry Corps savaged whatever you had on your left and then swung down the valley to smash into your advancing infantry on their flank. The Russian Imperial Guard were nicely positioned to help stop and then drive back the initial French attack.
Like a lot of things on the battlefield it don’t quite work out that way! Still Kutusov fought like a lion whilst always being outnumbered, Constantine’s Guards were magnificent, Bagration’s Cavalry did the business (Murat was always all trousers and whiskers) and once Buxhowden sobered up he know what to do. Oh and I suspect we got a few very timely dice rolls…
However our troops were all ordered to cut out the glorious but fatal charges on the French and to cause maximum casualties in defence. This seemed to work and according to our victory conditions it looked like an Allied victory – but half way through we would have settled on the draw, so no complaints about the decision.
Yes, a really good idea which produced a great game. Well done Edward & Bevan.
Here are some final, Umpire’s, shots of the game:
Having now played in three remote games, I decided that I should try and run my own: seems only fair that I should host once in a while! I recruited a willing volunteer (thank you Bevan!) and set about, er, setting up.
With the wargames room turned into a yoga studio until fitness clubs are open again, I had to set my tables up upstairs: plenty of room, but not as much light as usual. On the plus side, however, the wardrobe-like cupboard doors provided a useful place for the overall table camera to sit. This would give a bird’s-eye view of the battlefield whilst close up images were provided via a mobile ‘phone.
Connectivity was via Zoom. The laptop that you can see in the picture hosted the meeting, with the mobile ‘phone calling in as another participant. The overall camera gave a pretty rubbish picture, but it did at least allow Bevan to see everything that was happening, but his moves were mainly made based on the mobile ‘phone “roving camera” which I hovered over the table wherever the action was.
Testing the Set Up: this is what the remote player would see
I had decided on To The Strongest as the grid-based system would mean no measuring and would be easier for Bevan to judge what to do. It would be a suitably un-anachronistic clash between my Marian Romans and Bevan’s Gauls.
In order to help Bevan keep track of his troops, I had bought a whole load of little stands to carry numbered tags. Although not really visible on the overall camera, they worked very well in close up, and allowed me to call out unit numbers rather than long explanations involving “this unit that’s near this thing” etc.
The Marian Romans consisted of four commands. The Proconsul commanded two legionary units (one veteran) and a unit of light archers. His first Legate also commanded two legionary units (one veteran) but with a unit of ballistae artillery. His second Legate once again commanded two legionary units (one veteran) but with a unit of eastern horse archers. Finally, he had an alae of two units of veteran auxiliary cavalry allegedly from Macedonia. I usually use Gauls as the auxiliary cavalry, but they were on the other side of the table so that I had to use some Persian-looking types instead.
Note the markers allowing Bevan to see which units were which
Bevan’s Galling Gauls also had four commands. Two commands consisted of three deep warrior-warbands bristling with heroes; one command consisted of three cavalry units; and the final command was two units of iouantoues (youths) light infantry with javelins and another unit of cavalry.
There did seem to be an awful lot of Gauls!
The battle opened with the entire Gallic line thundering forward, with the Romans advancing more cautiously towards them.
The Gauls had their warbands on the left and centre, their light unit just to the left of the trees in the middle of the battlefield, and their cavalry on the far right.
The Romans had their Macedonian cavalry on the left, then a long line of legionary units with their associated light troops in front of them, except for the ballistae that were opposite the camp.
The Gauls come thundering forward
First action was on the Roman left, where the two cavalry forces clashed. The trees meant that the Gauls couldn’t use their superior numbers, and my horse was veteran, so I was hoping for some success here.
Regrettably, the Macedonians were obviously not enjoying the rather damper climes of Gaul, and were either pushed back in disorder or just disordered. Not a very good start!
Meanwhile, the two battle line drew together.
I quickly lost my light bowmen and horse archers to rampaging hairies, which meant that I would be one unit down in the main clash. On reflection, I should have sent my light bowmen into the trees on the right to threaten the left flank of the Gallic line, but unfortunately I didn’t think of that at the time!
Once the two lines clashed, it was actually all over pretty fast!
Although I held my own on either of the side combats you can see above, the warband in the centre moved forward towards the artillerymen (who were having a very bad day). I snapped one unit of legionaries backwards and left to plug the gap, which was quite impressive and shows the Romans’ manouevrability, but poor cards lost me a Legate and the nearest legionary unit.
Meanwhile, my left flank was crumbling. My usually impressive veteran horse were being very unimpressive, and the legionaries were getting surrounded. A foolish decision to help the cavalry didn’t help, and I lost the last of my coins to a charge from the rear!
Below is the position at the end of the battle. My left flank is just about gone: the legionaries having tried to help the cavalry out with, er, fatal results. My centre is holding, but Gauls have punched through and are about to engage the artillery hand-to-hand and then take my camp. My right could go either way.
All in all, a fairly conclusive drubbing for the Romans, but lessons learnt and I’m sure they will do better next time!
On the plus side, however, the “remote gaming” side of things worked nicely, and it is something I will run again…and I got to push some lead around a table for a change!
Robert Avery
Yesterday I took part in my third virtual game in ten days, this time as part of Virtual Lard IV: the equivalent of a regular Lardy Day, but with all the games being played remotely.
Today’s game was a re-fight of Ball’s Bluff. It’s the beginning of the war and a super-keen Union artilleryman has advanced his guns forward over the James river into Reb territory. The Rebs have cottoned on to the fact that the gunners are out on their own and have sent a force to capture the guns; Union high command have seen this coming and dispatched troops to bring the guns safely home. The stage is set for an epic clash!
Click on the picture below to see what happened:
Having very much enjoyed my first remote wargame last week, I took part in another last night: a Napoleonic clash between the Russians and the French based on the battle of Ostrolenka, 16th February 1807.
Re-enactors fight Ostrolenka
This was run quite differently to my last remote game. Three players a side, with initial briefings sent out a couple of days before the battle itself. Once all on Zoom and initial banter done, each side was put into its own breakout room, where we waited until our “Chief of Staff” (Edward: the gamemaster, or GM, for want of a better word) arrived to either (a) give a report on the progress of our troops and take orders or (b) escort us on a tour of the battlefield, or at least those parts of it that it was judged that we could see.
Screenshot of a battlefield tour
This last was particularly clever, as the GM had hooked up two mobile phones to the Zoom session, so each breakout room had four participants: three players and a camera. Rather than being the traditional wargame helicopter view, however, the ‘phone (with its camera) was only turned on when we elected to tour the battlefield, and was held in a way that showed us only what we could see from horseback. As it was a misty day, this meant that we could only see certain sectors of the battlefield each time we toured, and only see a short way in front of our most forward troops.
This meant that, as commanders, we really felt the “fog of war”: issuing orders based only on the reports we received and, if we did tour the battlefield, we had to wait until our next turn to issue orders based on what we had seen. A novel experience for those used to the traditional wargamer omniscience!
Steve, Bevan and I were the Russians, facing Dave, Peter and Trevor as the French. Here’s an extract from the Russian briefing that sets the scene:
Following the costly battles, especially the blood-bath at Eylau, which drew the 1806 campaigning to a close, the opposing armies of France and Russia have both paused as the winter takes grip. Prussia has collapsed and Berlin fallen to Napoleon, but the French have found it harder to make headway against the Russian forces.
General Bennigsen, who has the bulk of the Russian army to your North, has ordered you to threaten and throw back the French right flank, which is anchored at Ostrolenka, so as to cause Napoleon to withdraw from his winter quarters. To achieve this you have been given a significant portion of the Army of Moldavia: Volkonski’s and Sedmarkatzki’s Divisions.
Well before dawn your two divisional commanders, who have their units ranged North of Ostrolenka on both sides of the River Narew, have arrived to receive your instructions.
They’ve both assured you that they are ready to move before sunrise, and that cavalry scouts have located French units at Ostrolenka. A captured enemy soldier says that they are not expected to break camp soon.
Seeking to achieve a concentration of force, we elected to keep all our forces west of the river Narew, effectively attempting to attack down the axis of the Kadzidlo Road. We didn’t necessarily expect to get that far west and south without first encountering the French, but the plan was to follow that strategy as much as possible until we did run into the enemy.
Our strongest division, Volkonski’s, would therefore march down the Zbotna Road until the end of the Sandy Hills, then loup around to the west. Our second division, Sedmarkatzki’s, would march down the line of the west bank of the river.
Once we encountered the enemy, we planned to deploy all our artillery and pound them to death, with Sedmarkatzki covering the guns and awaiting an opportunity to punch forward, whilst Volkonski kept edging around Ostrolenka to the west, pushing forward against what we assumed would be the far left of the French line.
(my thanks to Edward, who has also provided an excellent time-lapse video of the action, link below )
Before dawn the Russian leader General Essen sent both his divisions, led by Generals Volkonski and Sedmarkatzski, South towards the important town of Ostrolenka, in the valley West of the River Narew, hoping to concentrate his force and overwhelm the French. The strategic Russian aim was to threaten Napoleon’s southern flank, as he settled into his Winter quarters following the battle at Eylau.
The French corps commander, General Savary, made his dispositions as dawn broke, with Suchet’s division out to the East of the town, Gazan’s men to the North in the valley, Becker’s cavalry covering the left flank, and Oudinot’s three brigades of elite grenadiers held in reserve.
The Russians proceeded cautiously, deploying guns and spreading their rather crowded forces up onto the hills North-West of the town.
Becker’s dragoons mounted some charges up the hill, attacking Volkonski’s division, which was on the Russian right flank. Casualties mounted, with the Russians generally coming off the best and one of Becker’s brigades routed.
Savary, hearing that there were no Russians East of the river, eventually re-called Suchet back to Ostrolenka, but meanwhile the Russians increased the pace of their attacks and pressed on. Gazan came under increasingly heavy pressure, falling back, while Oudinot’s French grenadiers, which had been held in reserve, were committed by Savary to shore up his left flank. In fact, they took the attack to Volkonski’s forces with considerable success as the afternoon wore on.
As the light faded, Sedmarkatzki’s lead brigades pressed the attack more forcefully down the line of the river, advancing to within a few hundred paces of the town and capturing some French guns. Suchet having been inexplicably slow in coming West was too late to buttress the French position satisfactorily. Oudinot’s successes on the French left flank could not be followed up.
Although not a disaster for Savary, the French casualties were significantly higher, and as night fell he pulled his shaken corps away to the South, leaving Ostrolenka to the Russians. Napoleon, with the main French army to the North, was forced to detach a further corps to rescue his right flank. Historians have recorded this as a minor but important victory for the Russians under General Ivan Essen.
In reality Sedmarkatzki’s powerful division never made it to this battle, having been ordered North the day before. Essen none-the-less planned two separate attacks from the North against Ostrolenka. Savary, with the advantages of interior lines and numbers, was able to repulse the Russian probes in detail and secure the French position.
(my thanks to Dave for this)
My Emperor,
I am hoping that Gerard has carried the news to you of our tactical withdrawal from Ostrlenka. Knowing how you planned to stetch the Russian Army and make it fight over too large an area for its pathetic logistic chain, I’m sure you will appreciate the efforts which have gone into this achievement.
I would wish to pay due respects to the brave men who fell for La France on the 16me, and also to the tenacity and audacity of Generals Gazan and Oudinot who fought against great odds with all their might.
Sadly I have to recommend to you that certain officers be recalled from their posts for not achieving the standards you so reasonable expect of your senior officers. Gen Debelle, although commanding one of the finest Light Cavalry Brigades in the Army, somehow failed to observe and report the entire Russian army being within a km of his position whilst Gen Becker sadly failed to maintain sufficient discipline of his Division, such that one Brigade of our finest heavy cavalry charged the enemy without orders and were effectively destroyed. Such indiscipline cannot be tolerated in the Grande Armee, we pride ourselves on not behaving like British cavalry!
You may well wish to interview Gen Suchet yourself, his tardiness in obeying his orders to withdraw cost us many casualties and compounded his initial error in advancing too far from his assigned position, although he did later make every effort to redeem himself and valiantly led his men into the fray.
I believe the Russians will now be critically extended and ripe for your offensive.
Vive La France
Anne-Jean-Marie-Rene Savary, General de V Corps
A narrow victory for the Russians and a great evening’s gaming. The fog of war experience worked really well, with our command team very much having to issue division-level orders as we didn’t really know the exact position of any of the brigades: ours or the enemy’s!
Our plan worked, although not as overwhelmingly as we had thought it would. Our guns, although acting to the overall plan, could have done with a better deployment tactically to maximise the effect of their fire; and we needed to keep better control of Volkonski out on the far right. We only just got Sedmarkatzki into the fight in time, although that did mean that our reserve cavalry were perfectly positioned to repulse the French infantry crossing the frozen river. The French Grenadiers, under Oudinot, really caused us problems. Without their intervention, or rather their highly successful intervention, we would have won a more resounding victory.
An excellent experience, and one I’m looking forward to repeating soon.
With no sign of any real-life games on the horizon, I decided to bite the bullet and ask to join a virtual game of I Ain’t Been Shot Mum run by my friend Bevan.
My previous reluctance to try anything virtual was mainly down to the fact that I spend a lot of the day working via Zoom now, and although it is truly a marvelous communication tool, it’s also quite draining to use. Nevertheless, with the Beardless King (daughter #2) busy with schoolwork and Kavan (daughter #1’s boyfriend) back at Uni, it was Zoom or nowt!
The scenario was a simple one set in France 1940. I would play the Germans, and would start the game in situ defending a bridge against an anticipated attack by a French armoured column. At my disposal I had three Big Men, a platoon of infantry, a platoon of anti-tank guns, and a support platoon consisting of a couple of MMG teams.
Click on the picture below to see what happened:
After six weeks of hard painting, helped by Lockdown 2 and the Christmas holidays, the Classical Indians are ready to hit the tabletop, and what better occasion to test them out than what is almost certain to be the final battle of the year.
My usual wargaming opponents were again unavailable due to the lockdown (it’s about two degrees Centigrade, so a little cold to game outside) so I fell back on the ever-reliable Daughter #2. We decided to play a straight up, 130 points a side game of To The Strongest: I obviously wanted to play with my newly finished Indians, so she decided to fall back on her favourite Caesarian Romans, once again adopting the persona of the Beardless Proconsul.
Three brigades. One of two units of Heavy Chariots and a unit of raw cavalry; two a mixture of Elephants and Longbowmen; plus one had the Maiden Guard attached.
The trouble with facing the Romans is that they are very manoeuvrable and hard to break: they just keep coming back!
The Roman force consisted of four brigades, each of two legionary units and a support unit of some sort.
My plan had been to hold the centre and left whilst sweeping the chariots around the right. Unfortunately the enemy’s deployment meant I would have to go through four cohorts of legionaries to do so!
The red Meeples indicate a veteran unit.
It appeared that the Romans intended to do the mirror image of what I had planned: their veteran Gallic cavalry would punch through or go around my left wing with the aim of sacking my camp!
I should have had elephants there to protect the flank from this very tactic.
Rather disappointingly, all I managed to do was disorder one Roman unit.
This was actually quite successful. Although I only managed to disorder the lead Gallic horse unit, just next door I managed to disorder a legionary unit and kill the Legate commanding them. First real blood to the Indians.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough to stop the Gauls. One unit punched straight through the longbowmen in front of them, the other was locked in combat with another longbow unit despite being disordered and having a lightly wounded commander.
Do I pull the elephants back to protect my camp from the Gauls that have broken through, or do I add them into the fighting to the front and try and win the battle elsewhere before my camp falls?
I elected to fight it out. This seemed to be the right choice as, on my right flank, my heavy chariots had destroyed a unit of legionaries.
The Gauls moved swiftly to take my camp: three victory coins down the toilet!
Surely my two chariot units could dispose of this last non-veteran unit of legionaries. A flank attack on an already disordered unit? Surely a foregone conclusion!
Well, no, actually, it wasn’t! That unit of legionaries, admittedly commanded by the Proconsul herself, held out for two rounds of combat against two heavy chariot units, one attacking from the flank!
The rest of the Romans had time to muller the rest of my army!
Here you see the elephants finally getting in to action. Believe it or not, they are about to lose their commander and then themselves to bowfire from the equites sagittarii. That cost me four coins and the game!
So a loss for their first outing, but actually not as bad a loss as I had thought. My massed longbow fire did cause the Romans real problems in the initial stages of the battle, and had that unit of legionaries on my right not held out against overwhelming odds, then I think the day would have been mine.
Lots of lessons learnt: the most important one being to put a unit of elephants on the wing where the chariots aren’t: an elephants versus Gauls match up might well have gone my way as the Gallic horses don’t like pachyderms and suffer big penalties in combat.
Anyway, another cracking game of TTS, and a fitting end to a great year’s gaming.
Here’s another excellent I Ain’t Been Shot Mum AAR and video AAR from Alex Sotheran, this time set in 1941 as Operation Barbarossa gets under way. The game is taken from Alex’s very readable Storm of Steel blog.
Unusually, it’s not the Germans that are facing off against the Soviets, but the Roumanians: some nice-looking infantry supported by R-2 tanks.
Click on the picture below to see all:
Here’s a great After Action Report from Alex Sotheran, taken from the IABSM Facebook Group and Alex’s equally excellent Storm of Steel blog.
It’s Kursk 1943, and Alex plays through a solo game with the Germans attacking a Soviet-held village. There are plenty of “big cats” out to play, and there’s even a link to the YouTube video of the game.
Click on the picture below to see all. Highly recommended.
Here a set of pcitures taken from the IABSM Facebook Group showing moments from Rod Redden’s latest game. It’s Belgium 1944, and 11th Armoured Division with 1st Airborne support takes on 2nd SS Division.
Over the last couple of weeks, Des Darkin has been playing out an excellent looking game of I Ain’t Been Shot Mum on the IABSM Facebook Group.
I say IABSM, but Des has actually been playing using his variant I Ain’t Been CoC’d Mum Yet, which uses dice rather than card activation. That variant is available in the Lard 2019 Magazine.
Click on the picture below to a full AAR, combining the four posts that Des made as he played through the game…
With lockdown back upon us and Daughter #1’s boyfriend back at University, my only potential opponent for a battle was Daughter #2. A little bit of gentle arm-twisting persuaded her to abandon the questionable delights of K-Pop YouTube videos and join me in the wargaming room for a game of To The Strongest.
I wanted to use two of my newest armies: the Sumerians and the Marian Romans. I politely gave her the choice, thinking she was bound to go for the Sumerians with their exciting four-onager chariots, axemen etc, but instead she chose the more space-invader like Romans. I felt a little disappointed here, as I’d wanted to play them, especially as I know hoe good they are. Competitive Dad? Well, you have to take your victories where you can!
Both sides deployed. The Sumerians looked their usual impressive selves: the blocks of citizen spearmen supported by light infantry; the aforementioned chariots; and three units of axemen or archers.
The Romans, under the so-called Beardless Pro-Consul, looked a little ragged by comparison, which just shows that appearances can be deceptive:
Both sides opened the battle by advancing forward smartly.
In the centre, my heavy chariots headed straight for the oncoming Romans, hoping to hit them whilst they were deployed with gaps in their battle line. Apparently not all my chariot units were equally keen on getting stuck in, so there were holes in my line too, but I didn’t think this was a problem as I reckoned that being mounted meant that any stragglers would catch up fast.
On my right flank, some equites saggiarii tried to sneak past my flank, but were blocked and eventually destroyed by my lights:
On my left, however, two units of Gallic Cavalry had a bit more room to play with, getting past my flank, and causing me (along with some Cretan archers) huge problems for the rest of the battle.
Note the Gallic horse right out on the right of the picture. They have got past my flank and forced me to deploy my reserve to face them.
Back to the centre, and the two lines came together with a mighty crash. Unfortunately, the mighty crash mostly involved smashing chariots as, using their excellent manoeuvrability, the Roman legionaries snapped into an unbroken and pilum-toting line of heavy infantry. Who new Daughter #2 knew what she was doing!
I pulled back in an attempt to re-organise but, of course, this just gave the Romans a chance to reorganise themselves and to then slam forward once more, again using their quality and agility to always be in the right place at the right time with the right units. I tell you, if you can’t get round the flank of the Romans (which I had singularly failed to do) then you are in big trouble: the Roman mincing machine makes, er, mincemeat out of anything it faces!
Here’s a series of pictures showing what happened in the centre:
I did have a couple of light units pushing past the Roman left flank but all that happened was that one double cohort of legionaries swung neatly sideways to face them, and without the help of the other light unit (who had been previously occupied in finishing off the horse archers) I was not going to get anywhere anytime soon.
But it was on my left flank that I was most in trouble.
I had managed to get my reserve into play in order to head off one lot of Gauls from rolling me up but, just at the critical moment, luck deserted me, and two of my brigades drew consecutive Aces at the start of their activations.
This left me unable to get anything done, and the Gauls closed in, hitting my blocking force from both front and back:
And that, really, was that: my left collapsed, my centre crumpled and I haemorrhaged coins faster than you can say “bloody Romans”!
A great game of To The Strongest despite my somewhat embarrassing defeat! Showcased how good the Romans can be in a straight up fight where their flanks are safe.
Here’s a great battle report from Dan Albrecht and friends, first published on the IABSM Facebook Group.
The game is taken from the Falaise Firestorm scenanario book from Skirmish Campaigns, and involves action around Mount Ormel in the Falaise Gap.
Click on the pic below to see all:
Here’s another I Ain’t Been Shot Mum battle report from the A Wargamer in Cyprus blog. It’s another adaptation of one of the scenarios from the Operation Compass scenario pack: a third scenario from the Australian assault on the Italian fortress of Bardia.
16th Australian Infantry Brigade are within the Italian perimeter and have made some progress against a fairly irresolute defence. The Aussies have followed a wadi and discovered a second line of Italian defences ready for them. Click on the picture below to see what happens next:
After the battle for Cookham Moor, the Parliamentarians have retreated in some disarray: falling back to a position where their rear and one flank is protected by the river Thames.
This protection, however, forms two sides of a potential cage, so the Royalists have hurried forward to do battle again, knowing that if the Roundheads break, there is nowhere, at least on two sides, for them to run.
Could this finally be the decisive battle that both sides have been seeking?
The action takes place on Cock Marsh: a bleak, wind-swept area of open ground between Winter Hill and the Thames. The lower slope of Winter Hill borders the south side of the battlefield. The north and part of the east side of the battlefield are bordered by the Thames i.e. impassable terrain. Any unit that is forced off-table into the Thames is lost.
The main part of the tabletop consists of moorland separated by hedgerows and the odd patch of trees. All hedgerows count as linear rough terrain. All wooded squares count as rough terrain. There are two Iron Age burial mounds on the Parliamentarian side of the field.
Cock Marsh is a bleak and featureless place.
I would play the Roundheads, John would play the Cavaliers.
Scottish mercenaries good for an initial, ferocious charge, but largely useless after that!
The yellow Meeple indicates an Untried unit i.e. one that must test morale the first time that it sees action of any kind.
My plan was to sweep forward with my four units of Dutch Horse and smash the Royalist Swedish Horse from the field. The Cavalerie would then be free to turn and roll up the Royalist line.
I had, however, forgotten that Swedish Horse (like the units opposite me) are not inferior to Dutch Horse, just different. As John said afterwards: “You threw away your cavalry by attacking my best units head on”. Thank you, John, for your words of wisdom!
The red Meeples represent Veteran units, and that’s more Scottish mercenaries on screen as well.
He obviously didn’t think standing on a burial mound presaged the outcome of the battle!
A cavalry brigade (Swedish Horse and Dragoons); plus a unit of pike-only foot from the neighbouring foot brigade.
The pikemen appear to be impersonating Scots mercenaries: a cunning ploy!
Quite a few of them…and is that the Oxford Musketeers Commanded Shot I see at the back (with the blue and white stripey flag). Evil buggers who have stuffed me several times before!
Look how weak it looks compared to my glorious Cavalerie.
Appearances can be deceptive!
Everything looks good so far…
One squadron of my Dutch Horse disappears, as does one squadron of Royalist Swedish Horse.
I was rather hoping the Highlanders would make short work of the Dragoons, but they end the turn honours even (the two units with the red disordered markers on them).
The rest of the Highlanders wait for the enemy Swedish Horse to charge. Come on: if you think you’re hard enough!
…and it’s all gone horribly wrong.
Only one squadron of Dutch Horse left, and they are double-disordered, and there are still two enemy cavalry squadrons existent.
The two sides have moved towards each other. The only difference between this point and the start of the battle is that I’ve lost (read: thrown away) three squadrons of Dutch Horse worth nine victory coins (about half my supply).
This is where my men started to divide themselves into those who could swim and those who could not!
And I’ve let a gap appear in my infantry line, leaving one Scottish pike unit isolated.
My Highlanders and John’s cavalry just about wipe each other out…but I can’t afford to lose many more coins!
And here’s where the cards deserted me as well: you’ll notice that my battalia seem to be double-disordered versus the Royalists’ single disorder.
I forget which one of my units broke, but this photo was taken just before they did, costing me my last victory medal.
I’d like to say that my (extremely heavy) defeat was all my fault, but that would be to underplay John’s skill at exploiting my errors.
I am now writing out one hundred times "Do not throw away your cavalry on a frontal charge against even or worse odds” whilst Sit Christopher and his surviving men drag themselves out of the water on the far side of the river!
A great game of For King & Parliament despite my defeat: 150 points a side played out in just over 90 minutes.
Robert Avery
Here’s a great I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum AAR from Tim Whitworth and his friends at The War Room featuring the second scenario from the Anzio ‘Wildcat to Whale’ scenario pack.
At dawn on 25th January 1944, the Guards Brigade, headed by Number 1 Company of the Grenadiers and with Shermans from one squadron of 46th Royal Tank Regiment (crewed mainly by Welshmen from Liverpool) in support headed back towards Aprilia. Using the embankment of the disused railway line (the “Bowling Alley”) as their start point, they first had to take Carroceto.
Click on the picture below to see how they did…
Here’s a great little battle report from Julian Whippy and friends, taken from the IABSM Facebook Group, featuring a game they managed to put on despite the current COVID restrictions.
Click on the picture below to see all:
Vis Lardica is a website devoted to wargaming and military history, with a special emphasis on the company-sized rulesets produced by the TooFatLardies: I Ain't Been Shot Mum (WW2); Charlie Don't Surf (Vietnam); and Quadrant 13 (science fiction)
Welcome to Vis Lardica, a not-for-profit website mostly dedicated to the company-sized wargaming rules produced by the TooFatLardies, but encompassing my other gaming interests as well.
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