FK&P AAR: McCleod's Odyssey

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With my Rabble bases now painted, it was time to have go at scenario #10 from the Marlowe to Maidenhythe scenario pack: McCleod’s Odyssey.

In summary, the Scots who have featured as mercenaries in previous scenarios in the campaign are making their way home, but run into a force of Militia backed up by locals who want a word, shall we say, about the Scots’ behaviour as they went south.

It’s a standard encounter battle, with both sides directed to get stuck in as soon as possible.

The Scots, to the right, approach the village of the Gappe, held by the Militia and local folk

Deployment

The Scots placed their Highlanders on the left, opposite the rough and more enclosed terrain, their artillery and pike only units in the centre, and their standard battalia on the right. In reserve were their horse: a unit of poorly mounted pistoliers and a unit of poorly mounted lancers.

The Militia occupied the Gappe: infantry battalia in the centre, Swedish horse on the left and Dutch horse on the right. The three units of Rabble were on the far right, facing the Highlanders.

The Battle Begins

My plan was for my Highlanders to deal with the Rabble then sweep in to the Gappe from the flank. Bevan, my opponent, however, was up to all my tricks, and moved his Dutch horse to the right of the village, threatening the Highlanders’ flanks.

At the same time, the enemy Swedish horse moved out to their left. Not wanting my day ruined by the sudden arrival of cavalry on my right flank, I moved the Scots horse to counter: you can see them top left in the picture below.

Finally, my main infantry units moved forward…but my pike-armed battalia decided that they had walked far enough and just about refused to move.

Everything then seemed to happen at once.

On the left, two of my Highlander units were charged, as predicted, by the enemy Dutch horse, with both surviving the charge but becoming disordered in the process. I struck back and, incredibly, one unit of Dutch horse was double-disordered and had their Colonel wounded.


This was a great opportunity for a game-winning opening clash but, try as I might, I just couldn’t find a way to break the enemy horse and would now have to suffer the fate of all loose infantry attacked by large numbers of close formation horse!

Meanwhile, on the other flank, my horse and the enemy Swedish horse now faced each across one of the fields outside the village.

A victory for the Scottish horse, despite their manky mounts, but now they would Pursue their fleeing enemies from the field unless they stopped and rallied.

As these actions were happening on the flanks, my centre moved forward, me seeking an advantage by overlapping his left wing.

Mid Game

After the initial clash, I had won the right flank but was about to lose my left flank: the Highlanders were outnumbered 5:3 and could do nothing except take the charges from the Dutch horse.

One unit of Highlanders crumbled and fled, leaving a gap through which one unit of Dutch horse could pour. The enemy horse pursued for a bit, then rallied and headed into the big open space behind my centre. All that was in front of them was my guns, and although I managed to disorder the horse and wound the General with them with some startlingly accurate artillery fire, I was soon overrun.

Meanwhile, another of my Highlander units had gone, leaving the third in a dire situation.

Meanwhile, the two centres were fighting it out but, despite having superior numbers, a bit of bad luck meant I was losing.

If my cavalry didn’t return soon, I was going to be out of victory medals!

End Game

The left side of my centre was now beginning to crumble as well as his successful right wing started to curl in on me.

We were both down to a handful of victory medals, with enough units at double-disorder to settle the matter one way or the other if they broke.

My pistolier horse quite their pursuit and crashed into the left side of the enemy battalia in the right hand building. That pike unit broke, and the advantage was momentarily mine, but then my pike-only unit in the centre of the field (bottom left in the pic above) went, and we were evens again.

It was down to whoever lost the next unit and, finally, my last unit of Highlanders could take no more: they had been fighting front and flank for three turns now, somehow hanging on…and that was the last of my coins gone!

The day was lost: but it had been an epic battle that, once again, had come down to a could-go-either-way climax.

Afterword

My big mistake was to let my Highlanders get into combat with Dutch horse: I should have retreated to cover if I could. That would have meant I went into the more successful clashes on the right and centre without having haemorrhaged victory coins on the left.

A great game, however, whatever the result.

FK&P AAR: Return to Widbrooke Common

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This being the second game in my latest run-through of Marlowe to Maidenhythe, my just-published scenario pack for For King & Parliament.

I had lost the first game quite badly (down ten victory medals) so was keen that this one went my way. The scenario is an encounter battle, with the Parliamentarians (played by Peter, boo, hiss!) facing the Royalists (played by me, huzzah!) across Widbrooke and Battlemead Commons: the open land between Cookham and Maidenhythe down near the river.

Roundheads to the left, skulking in the hedgerows!

The Royalists face a couple of problems. Number one, the enemy has hedges to hide behind meaning that if they didn’t attack I would have to assault troops in cover with an even number of points; and number two, my main infantry brigade is all untried, meaning the danger of disorder in any first clash is high.

On the other hand, my opponent, Peter, was absolutely paranoid about the large numbers of “Swedish” horse that I was fielding. He was convinced that they would make mincemeat of his “Dutch” horse (a fair assumption, but one that had been firmly shown not to be a surety in our first game last week*) to the point that I am fairly certain that he had lain awake at night moaning “the Swedes, the Swedes: what do I do about the Swedes”!

This worry would actually be the major factor that decided the outcome of the game.

*Dutch horse fight deep and slow, Swedish horse fight fast and thin. They tend to lap around the flanks of Dutch horse and thus get a substantial advantage in an initial melee.

The Battle Begins

I opened the proceedings by sweeping forward on either wing with, you guessed it, my Swedish horse. My infantry I advanced cautiously in the centre.

Peter replied by opening fire with his artillery, which actually did me a favour, as the units targeted had to check for disorder due to their untried status: which both failed, but so early on in the game that I had the chance to re-order them before any enemy was encountered. My men had now had their first taste of battle and survived unscathed: they would act normally from now on.

As my Swedish horse on my left approached his Dutch horse, they retreated behind the hedgerows to their rear. This suited me just fine as Dutch horse, despite their deficiencies, are worth more points that Swedish horse (they are strong against almost everything else) so I was happy to have his cavalry bottled up in a corner ‘guarded’ by units worth half the cost.

The Roundhead Dutch horse bottled up in one corner by their own fear of my Swedish horse

Meanwhile on my Right

Meanwhile on my right, my other brigade of Swedish horse was attempting to turn the Parliamentarian flank.

This looked difficult to do at first, as there were a couple of infantry battalia there who turned to face me, but my infantry were coming forward as well, meaning that the Roundhead foot would potentially have to fight in two directions at once.

Scene from behind the Parliamentarian lines. Units 9, 11 and 12 are about to retreat to their right, leaving my horse free to curl in from the flank

The Roundheads attempted to consolidate their position by pulling back and to the right as much as possible, but this manoeuvre, whilst sensible in some ways, let me bring my cavalry around in a proper outflanking movement.

Once my cavalry were around his flank, with my infantry coming forward, the Parliamentarians were in some difficulties. I used a battalia of infantry to clear his guns (by this time out of ammunition) and then sent them in through the gap opened up to attack the right hand side (from my point of view) of his line.

A bit of bad luck saw me lose the battalia, so I was forced to commit my reserve (my commanding general’s Cuirassier bodyguard) into the attack, but by this time my cavalry were in position for their flank attack.

The Royalist cavalry are round the flank!

With commanded shot to their front and Swedish horse to their flank, the grey-suited Roundhead battalia quickly crumbled, exposing the flank of the untried infantry battalia next to them.

This followed suit, and the rest of his line quickly followed them off the table: pinned from the front and rolled up from the right.

The Roundhead cavalry were, eventually, thrown forward but, by this time, it was too late to have any real effect: the day was mine.

Aftermath

A solid victory that netted me 10 victory medals (I had lost a couple of units early on) and evened up the campaign to date.

Next we will fight for Pinkneys Court, but here are some more pictures of today’s encounter:

TTS AAR: Roman Revenge!

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Regular readers will know that I’ve recently suffered a series of defeats at the hands of the Marian Romans. One of my regular opponents, Peter, has crushed my Classical Indians twice and then the Sasanid Persians twice; my other regular opponent, Bevan, had beaten the Summerians twice. This despite the fact that I’m regularly told that the Marian Romans aren’t that good (too much heavy infantry, not enough cavalry) and certainly not a tournament army.

Well you could have fooled me!

It was obviously time for me to have a go with Caesar’s boys and see whether I had managed to learn anything from the somewhat painful lessons described above: for our next encounter, I would use the Marian Romans and Bevan would play the Gauls.

This was the second clash between the two, with Bevan winning the last game (I have been going through a bad patch lately!) fairly decisively.

At this point I must confess that rather than put together a list myself I used Peter’s Marian Roman army list: 130 points of veteran infantry with three camps, a standard, and three units of cavalry.

I set up as you can see, above, with my camps in one corner and my Roman infantry in a fairly tight block. That was lesson one: keep your legionaries where they can mutually support each other.

There did seem to be an awful lot of Gauls facing me: six warbands liberally sprinkled with heroes, and four good cavalry units.

As I suspected, the Gauls attempted to lap their cavalry around my main battle line. My cavalry were tasked with holding the right flank, with a unit of legionaries turned that way as a back up, whilst the rest of the army beat the Gauls in the centre. The Gallic cavalry on my left flank would have to be dealt with by the infantry.

The two sides advanced towards each other fairly smartly, with Bevan suffering some unlucky cards with his left flank cavalry meaning that they were delayed getting into the fight. This was excellent news, as I didn’t think my outnumbered and outclassed cavalry would be able to hold the opposition for long once battle was actually joined.

the legionaries form square!

My Shaky Right Flank

On my left flank, two units of Gauls had started lapping round, but my infantry snapped to face them and dealt with the flanking units fairly easily. His cavalry was still late to the party on my right, giving me the chance to disorder one of his warbands without breaking formation.

The Gallic cavalry and warband at the front of the picture are about to be mullered by my legionaries

The main battle lines were now joined, but the superior quality of my troops meant that in the centre I had now killed one warband, and disordered two more. One legionary unit had, however, been lost and, over on the right, another was being hit front and rear at the same time. I desperately needed to get my successful units on the left over into the centre.

rushing back to the centre! thank jupiter the romans manoeuvre well. note the legionary unit fighting front and back top right!

If there’s one thing the Romans do very well, it’s march: and before anything had had a chance to happen on my right flank, I had four legionary units pushing back warbands on the left and centre.

the left and centre legionary units are grinding down the opposition

Meanwhile the legionary unit on the right wing that had been attacked front and back had actually managed to repel both units: driving the warband back and destroying the cavalry: these Romans can fight as well as march!

Unbelievably, my cavalry were still holding their own: the lights kept evading and returning, and my one decent unit was still around despite being attacked in the front and flank at the same time.

the roman mincing machine in action

With the four main Gallic warbands now disordered and my legionaries almost unscathed, it was now just a matter of time. The cards fell evenly, but with me hitting on a 6+ and saving on a 5+, and the disordered Gauls hitting on an 8+ and saving on a 7+, the advantage was all mine. One warband after another broke and fled the table until all the Gallic victory coins were gone.

Aftermath

My losses amounted to one legionary unit and one light cavalry unit so a pretty colossal victory for the Romans

The tactics I’d employed, learnt the hard way, had worked, and Peter’s army list with it’s six veteran legionary units had proved its worth.

Now I need to prove that this wasn’t a fluke!

FK&P AAR: Attack on Marlowe Again

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One of my regular To The Strongest Ancients opponents wanted a go at For King & Parliament, so I suggested we play through the new Marlowe to Maidenhythe campaign.

I have recently been playing the Parliamentarians a lot, so we agreed that I would play the Royalists, and he would play the Roundheads. With that decided, it was on to scenario #01: The Attack on Marlowe.

The battlefield from the Royalist side. We were playing by Zoom.

This first, introductory, scenario is quite small (only 90 points per side) and features a Royalist attack on Parliamentarian forces drawn up waiting for them.

My plan was simple: use my superior horse to dispose of his cavalry, and then harry his flanks as my infantry took the centre.

Well, that was the plan…but it didn’t work. Despite the fact that my horse were fighting in the superior “Swedish” style and his were fighting in the old-fashioned “Dutch” style, my cavalry on my right flank were swept from the field!

The battle has begun: the field from the Parliamentarian side. Note the unit markers used to help my opponent keep track of his troops over Zoom.

Worse than that, on my left I manoeuvred my two units of cavalry to face and flank one of his pike units only to fall victim to some amazing shooting from both the unit and its accompanying light gun.

The opening stages of the game therefore left me down five units!

Although the outcome was now something of a foregone conclusion, I had no choice but to battle on: each game in the campaign is scored on how many victory medals the winner had left at the end of the game, so although I was fairly sure I was now going to lose, I needed to make it as painful as possible for my opponent to finish me off!

“‘Ware Horse to our right!”

Unfortunately this proved no very painful at all!

As my line moved forward, the Roundhead Dutch horse returned from having disposed of my cavalry and lined up to roll up my main battle line (as shown in the pic above).

I committed my reserve battalia to stopping them, but they were soon overwhelmed by a combination of infantry and cavalry attacks. I managed to blow away a couple of enemy Forlorn Hope units away, but soon my last victory medal was gone and I had suffered a pretty devastating defeat: down 10 victory medals after only the first game!

Revenge had better be mine in Game 2!

AAR: Virtual Lard V

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One of the few good things to come out of lockdown has been how people have found ways of gaming remotely.

The Virtual Lard Games Days are an excellent example of this. Using the Lardy Discord server to co-ordinate, vast numbers of games run simultaneously all around the world, with a virtual pub also available for those all-important post-game discussions. The Virtual Lards are, in effect, online conventions.

Virtual Lard V took place last weekend, and I was lucky enough to get a place on two games: one in the morning and one in the afternoon (this isn’t guaranteed: the sessions are often over-subscribed).

Sharpe Practice in the AM

The morning’s session was a terrific game of Sharp Practice Napoleonics with Col Murray running a session that involved the French (commanded by the two Bobs: Lucky Bob C and myself) attempting to stop some Austrians (commanded by Andrew and Grizzlymc) making away with some items that had best remain nameless.

I won’t detail the step-by-step action, but suffice to say that my masterful mismanagement of the French Grenadiers kept a large proportion of the Austrians so busy shooting them to bits that the rest of our force (Bob’s Line and my Skirmishers) were able to drive the rest of the enemy off the table, so reducing their Force Morale to zero and giving us the game.

It was very exciting. At one stage it looked like being a certain Austrian victory as their Dragoons headed off-table with “the items”…but their movement rolls were poor, giving Bob and I (well, mainly Bob) time to hammer the Hungarians with musket fire again and again until they broke and fled. The last turn could have gone either way, but the draw of the cards, for once, favoured the French, and victory was ours.

Here are some pictures:

As an afterthought, one of the amusing things about Virtual Lard is the way that it brings people from different time zones together. Grizzlymc was actually in Sydney, Australia, and sipping whisky at what, for us, was early morning!

IABSM in PM

My afternoon game was I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum!, with Jim Catchpole running a scenario set in France in 1944. Dan Albrecht and I were commanding a company of British infantry moving forward to clear a village that may or may not have been in German hands. A pleasant chap called Michael was playing the Germans: he hadn’t played IABSM before.

All went well for the British until we hit a major chokepoint: a bridge that proved to be the single crossing point over a fast-flowing river right outside the village in question.

We began by doing everything right: probing over the bridge with out recon carriers, laying down smoke to cover a German MMG, but then the cards turned against us and the German artillery came hammering down.

An abortive attempt to break out of our “beachhead” by the carriers failed dismally (my fault entirely, Dan!) and then we just couldn’t get out of the artillery kill zone. If we moved forward, the waiting Germans shot us; if we stayed where we were we got hit by shells from above.

We lasted a couple of turns then ordered a retreat!

It was a difficult scenario, but we could have done a whole lot better. Which was a pity, as our leapfrogging advance to the bridge was a speedy thing of beauty! What we should then have done was to take the time to spot properly, lay down smoke properly etc but the arrival of the German artillery mucked up our plans.

Well played Michael, well umpired Jim, and I think Dan and I both agreed that our solution was to pull back and call in the artillery. Or, to put it another way: I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit...it's the only way to be sure!

Here a few shots of the game right up to the point where the German artillery arrived:

Afterword

All in all, another great Virtual Lard. My thanks to the organisers and game-runners, and can’t wait until the next one.

FK&P AAR: Return to Cookham Moor

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After last week’s defeat, there was nothing for it but to play the next game in the campaign: Cookham Moor.

The Moor is a fun battle where both sides start the game facing each other across a stretch of open land:

My right flank consisted of a brigade of Dutch horse. They are good, solid troops, but the Royalists in front of them were in Swedish formation: more agile and, most importantly, able to counter-charge. That has led to defeat in previous battles, so I decided to try something new: I would advance up to the hedgerow and wait for them to come to me. The Commanded Shot from the nearest infantry brigade would move slightly forward into the woods, threatening the flank of any Royalist advance. At the same time, the guns would deploy and the Scots on my left flank would move up to the hedgerow in front of them. For once, the cards fell my way:

The Royalists advanced forward across their line, and soon the battlefield looked like this:

DSCN2349.JPG

The Royalists then moved their central infantry to their right to face up against the Scots, uncovering the cavalry that had moved over from the right. This cavalry then charged straight forward: right at the Parliamentarian guns just over the bridge!

This was a disaster, as the Royalist cavalry swept the guns from the field, then heading off table in pursuit. There was now a massive hole in my line.

A general melee then broke out across the entire line. My Scottish pikemen did well, forcing the Royalist Commanded Shot to intervene; but my Highlanders, as usual, proved ineffectually weak.

With the infantry locked into combat, the focus changed to the cavalry clash on the right.

Here, my decision to hold the hedgerow proved a very good one, as after a couple of turns all his cavalry was dispersed.

This made up for the disaster in my centre, but both sides were now looking very battered indeed: so battered, in fact, that whichever side next lost a unit would lose the game.

If that was not exciting enough, on my far right the Royalist CinC at the head of his small-unit bodyguard cuirassiers was faced off against my CinC at the head of some Dutch horse!

It all came down to this combat. Could I do the single hit I needed to break the bodyguard and win the game?

Well, you can see from the picture above that I didn’t manage to hit the enemy in my turn. No matter, I thought, he needs two hits on me to break me.

Unbelievably, however, the two hits were done, my cavalry broke, leaving Sir Christopher all on his tod! I had lost the combat and lost the battle!

Aftermath

Phew! What a game!

I had managed to retrieve the situation in the centre and everything had all come down to one final combat that I had really lost on the luck of the cards…but at least I had played the Dutch horse well!

FK&P AAR: Return to Whyteladyes Lane

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I had another play through of the Whyteladyes Lane scenario last weekend, hoping to put my previous defeat (to John) behind me as I sent Bevan’s Royalists running from the field. As is now usual, the game was played over Zoom, with markers showing the number of each unit so that Bevan could more easily work out which of his troops were where.

The game is a tough one for the Roundheads, as they begin the game in an extended column against ready-for-them Cavaliers in a more sensible formation.

Last time, I had pushed forward right from the start, and been chewed up piecemeal. This time I decided that I would form approximately on the head of my column and work from there.

This definitely seemed to work much better, and although I still had one unit (the one at the head of the column) isolated, I now had a bit of a battle line formed to hold the front whilst the rest of my troops deployed. As you can see in the photo below, the Royalists spotted my isolated Highlanders and charged them with a small unit of “bodyguard” Cuirassiers.

All my cavalry were on my right flank, so I advanced them forward to block his cavalry moving down behind a hedge and into my rear.

Usually I charge my Dutch-style horse in as soon as possible but, this time, knowing that the enemy Swedish-style horse would then take the initiative through a counter-charge (something my more ponderous units cannot do) I decided to employ more historical tactics and halt just beyond charge range and discharge my pistols into the advancing enemy.

This worked a treat, as you’ll see in the picture below. All three units to the right are disordered, but it will only take one more hit to break either of the enemy horse units, whereas my greater numbers mean that I can survive another two hits.

All now seemed to be going well, and even Bevan confessed later that he felt that, at this stage, I had the advantage. That was, unfortunately, about to change!

If you look at the picture, below, you’ll see that out at the top of the screen two Royalist units are overlapping my line. I should have taken steps to deal with these immediately, probably by withdrawing back over the hedge or by moving sideways…but I didn’t, not seeing how much of a threat these would turn out to be.

This was a bad mistake, compounded by my response: I thought I move forwards out of danger by breaking through the enemy line.

This is the situation (below) a few minutes later: the enemy unit of pikemen dressed in red in the centre of the photo have swept in from the left and destroyed two of my pike units.

My unit dressed in blue managed to get onto their flank, but the cards didn’t fall for me, and the Royalists would go on to destroy the Highlanders as well. That was nine Victory Medals gone in one fell swoop!

To add insult to injury, on the other side of the field my Dutch horse had now been forced into engaging two battalia of enemy pike: not something that horse enjoy doing! The game continued for another couple of turns, but the writing was on the wall. I eventually had no choice except to order a retreat.

Afterword

I came close this time, so I think when I replay this scenario again I will try pulling back my column and forming on the hedge line behind the first couple of battalia.

Whatever the result, another great game of FK&P: I shall just have to get my revenge at Cookham Moor this afternoon!

TTS AAR: The Sasanids Seek Revenge!

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Regular visitors will know that my last two games of To The Strongest each involved my Classical Indians getting severely hammered by the Marian Romans. My opponent generously suggested that some of the reasons for my twin defeats were down to the relative strengths of the armies: the Marian Romans were made to kill an army like the Indians.

What might work against them, I asked, to be told that armies consisting of lance-armed cavalry supported by horse archers were very popular on the tournament circuit. Something like the Sasanids, I asked. Exactly, I was told…so this week’s game was to be my Sasanid Persians versus his Marian Romans. Revenge was to be mine!

As is now usual, for the moment, the battle would be played over Zoom, with my remote opponent able to see the table through a combination of helicopter-view webcam and on-table-on-tripod ‘phone camera. Each of his units was also marked with a number, helping with the transmission of orders: “unit 4 will move forward a square” etc

the set up

The Romans were unchanged from last week’s appearance: six units of veteran legionaries supported by some light and medium Gallic cavalry. The Sasanids sported six units of horse archers backing the hard punch of escorted elephants, cataphracts and four units of savaran lancers.

romans. Boo, hiss!

noble sasanids

The Plan

My plan was simple: pin the Romans frontally whilst hooking around their left wing. Horse archers to weaken and exploit flanks and rears; elephants, cataphracts and lancers to hammer into weakened legionary units.

Opening Moves

I had the initiative, so as the game began my right wing shot forward into the start position for their curl around the enemy left flank. Likewise, my left wing moved up to keep his left wing occupied.

the battle begins

You may have noticed that no mention has been made of my centre. This is because my central, most powerful brigade had decided that they hadn’t quite finished their breakfasts yet, and weren’t moving until all porridge (or whatever Sasanids have for breakfast) had been consumed!

The elephants and veteran savaran look on as the wings engage

Now what I should have done at this point was to wait for my centre to get moving before sending in my flanking forces…but I didn’t, and fully paid the price!

On my left flank, somewhat surprisingly and extremely annoyingly, my horse archers and lancers were seen off by the enemy cavalry backed up by legionaries. They moved forward very quickly, got their attacks in first, and soon I was left with cavalry around my left flank and nothing much to oppose them except what I could afford to commit from my centre. Hmmm…I’m sure that this was supposed to be the other way round!

One unit of horse archers lost to javelin-fire already; my savaran about to be defeated in combat with the gauls. my left flank is about to disintegrate.

On my right, I was perfectly positioned to curl in and hit the Romans in the flank. Unfortunately, they used their extreme manoeuvrability (well drilled, these Italians!) to not only turn to face me, but also to form an oblique line that effectively protected them from harrying flank attacks.

unit 4, in orbis (all round defence), protects the new roman right flank from my central command…not that that was doing anything even vaguely threatening anyway!

End Game

With my right flank attack effectively neutralised, the enemy right flank was now in the perfect position to curl around my left flank. I had to commit my centre to holding them off, who then got attacked by his centre: effectively he had done to me what I wanted to do to him!

romans outmanoeuvre me on the right

My right flank bravely tried to crack a few legionary skulls before disaster struck, but the truth of the matter was that I had been comprehensively outmanoeuvred. Game one went to the Romans!

romans to the front, romans to the left!

Game 2

As the above really hadn’t taken very long at all, there was time for a second game.

I was keen to have another go using the same tactics, and this time things seemed to be working much better for me: although the Romans had once again adopted their oblique line, this time my left flank was secure and my centre had kept up…so after the opening moves, the battlefield looked like this:

sasanids poised for victory!

Now, however, Lady Luck decided to intervene.

Really? I hear you cry: you were defeated by bad luck, were you? Not the enemy’s tactics and your own incompetence? Like in the last game?

No, really: it was bad luck.

For those of you who haven’t played To The Strongest, the mechanics work by the use of playing cards (or you can use D10 or chips) with higher cards being better than lower cards. Aces are low so, needless to say, drawing an Ace is generally a very bad thing.

We kept a pictorial record of the cards that I drew as the clash that would decide the game took place:

It was so ridiculous that even my opponent was suggesting that the only solution was a box of matches and some lighter fluid!

Anyway, I lost that game too, but still had a great morning’s gaming

To finish, here are a few more pictures of the game. You look at them whilst I go and get a good fire going…!

IABSM AAR: Les Attaques

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Another absolutely beautiful battle report, this time featuring a game of I Ain’t Been Shot Mum played using the first scenario from the Defence of Calais scenario pack.

The report was originally posted on the IABSM FB group, which you can access by clicking here.

It’s May 1940, and with British troops being evacuated from the beaches at Dunkirk, the ancient port of Calais stood on the critical western flank of the Anglo-French lines.

In a desperate bid to shore up the flank Churchill committed the British 30th Infantry Brigade to defend Calais to the last. What ensued was an heroic struggle that is writ large in the annals of British military history.

This first scenario features men from the Searchlight Battalion, supported by anti-tank guns, trying to hold off the leading elements of the German advance. Click on the picture below to see all:

IABSM AAR: Le Bleu Ferme

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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:

Indians Hammered, and then Hammered Again!

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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!

Game 2

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!

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!

Aftermath

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!

TTS AAR: Classicial Indians and the Achaemenids

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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.

Game One

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!

Game 2

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!

Napoleonic AAR: Austerlitz on Zoom!

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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!

Set Up

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.

Background

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.

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Deployment

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.

Terrain

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.

Victory Conditions

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 Troops

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

The Plan

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.

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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.

The Game

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?

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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!

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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!

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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.

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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!

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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!

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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!

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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.

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The End

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.

Analysis

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…

The Result

For a final decision, let’s hear from the Umpire:

It was something of a heavy-weight bout, with both sides launching head-on attacks! It felt like two battering rams crashing into each other!

I'd call it a costly draw, although strategically more of a set-back for Napoleon perhaps.

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.

From the Austro-Russians

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.

Finally…

Here are some final, Umpire’s, shots of the game:

TTS Remotely: Marian Romans versus Gauls

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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.

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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

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.

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The Sides

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

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

The battle opened with the entire Gallic line thundering forward, with the Romans advancing more cautiously towards them.

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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

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.

Aftermath

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

SP AAR: Ball's Bluff at Virtual Lard IV

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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:

Napoleonic AAR: Ostrolenka by Zoom

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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

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!

Introduction To The Game

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.

The Russian Plan

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.

GM’s Summary of the Action

(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.

Historical Note

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.

French Commander’s Report

(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

Conclusion

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.


IABSM AAR: IABSM via Zoom!

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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:

TTS AAR: Classical Indians versus Caesarian Romans

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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.

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.


IABSM AAR: Barbarossa 1941 Solo

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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: