ACW Minis acquired : and a Victory Without Quarter game

 Hello everyone!

I had started an ACW planned game set in 1995 or so, then due to many life changes, the project kept being put off and put off and put off.  In about 2010 or so I finally gave up and gave the remaining unpainted minis to my son to use for a history class of his.  

The project had been abandoned.

Then last year, after moving and realizing that there would be space and possibly resources to re-start the project, an opportunity to re-stock the minis appeared.

We, myself and three or four other gamers, combined to make a donation to cancer and obtain the remains of another game players collection that had been in a partial condition.

There were many hands that have moved the immense container of raw lead and box of painted minis, and just yesterday I was able to see them all and make some reservations for foot, cavalry, guns and officers - so that I could realistically re-start the project!

We then engaged in a little game of Victory Without Quarter, with the 'longer life' modification.

I made an error in the cards, missing an Alpian commander, however given the brutal dice rolling and the unlucky caisson explosion of powder right next to the Alpian CIC, the day belonged to Stagonia!

Stagonian knights with the CIC in support
take out the Alpian knights

Alpian pike & shotte did not fare well in the center
seen fleeing here

Stagonian horse, just stood about for most of the battle

While on the right wing of Stagonia a mixed
brigade had ... mixed results

An error for certain, yet a new form of "Maddening Subordinate" may have been born,

The TOADSTOOL: place brigade commander, then remove his card from the deck for 7 turns.

A good sport though after all.

Basic "tiles" expansion

 The plan for these tiles was to use them for all sorts of different war simulation eras.

I did the play-test and discovered a need for more 'command' elements, so I have expanded the command pieces.

the new 'green' forces

I also discovered that the four colors was really a minimum (for formation ID and national characteristics), so I searched the raw materials and discovered that I had enough for one more full set, including the new armor, anti-tank/AA artillery and mechanized/skirmish markers.

combined with all the other colors
making for 5 separate forces

Now I have enough to put on some really different simulations, I have plans to include some different sort of plastic table coverings and simple map works are coming into view.  Things that could only work with such simple tools.

Murat Playtest

 I was asked by a fellow Napoleonic game player to go over a set of tabletop rules they have built and have some commentary for them.

I decided to use the battle of Quatre-Bras to run a game in, as the layout is reasonably well known and the history well known.

You will see the die rolls in the images, along with the turn counter (d20), red & blue dice are combat & morale AND the initiative dice
the white one is for luck or morale or firing
the green one for morale and movement

deployment
(the French light horse still to arrive)

initial positions

artillery fire was wearing down the opposing batteries

'smoke puffs' can be seen in front of the guns
they will drift across the field to the west
as it was determined wind was from the east

Allied troops arrive (top left)
while the melees are joined in the woods
(both left and right)

Dutch troops are falling back in both woods
French Cavalry (center) is pushed out to the right

now artillery has begun hitting the Brunswick forces hard

close range fire had run out of ammunition in the woods
(double 1's)

snake eyes also ended ammunition for the British
troops before Quatre Bras

the ensuing melee went REALLY BAD

now across the lines the French were pushing back the
Anglo-Dutch allies

more artillery fire was massing against the black
clad Brunswickers

the Brunswick force had fallen back into QB
while British guardsmen came forward
the Dutch in the woods (left in image) had been
fully pushed out now

British guards fail to stem the French tide
(right side of image)

the Dutch outside the woods fail to rally at all
continue to fall back

the Brunswick forces in QB are being encouraged to hold
via Wellington and his staff directly

the French left had broken out of the woods

in Quatre Bras, firing goes well for the French

then a melee causes the Brunswickers to collapse

Wellington is killed in action

the whole force had only a few guards to hope to re-take
Quatre Bras

This quickly failed

the French sent guard horsemen to open the right flank
only a force of Hanoverian conscripts were in the way

they lost the die roll of the exchange by 14 pips!

the Anglo-Allied force was now routed
Wellington was dead

The system allowed for good employment of combined arms and I really liked the one page QRS.

There are some changes I have suggested via an email to the designers.

Thank you for reading this quite delayed AAR.

Great Wargames Survey of 2022

 I have not taken part in the survey before as I had seen it as a marketing tool.

Since then I have decided that real decisions are coming from the data gathered, and so I have decided to enter my own data into the mix.

You can do you own (it takes about 10 mins) at the site link here:

Wargames Survey 2022

I ended up putting in longer comments at the end of the survey since the questions often did not directly apply in my situation and I am the first to admit that I do not fit the common commercial game buyer.

Let me know what your experience of looking into your own hobby action(s) was like?

House repairs - or what I did last month ...

 The weather finally broke and now all my daylight hours are spent moving around the house to work in the shade.

 

Insulation needed to be pushed out and re-done in some sections, with all the eaves coverings taken off and still to go back on.

some of the eaves coverings now going back on

The roof leak was also completed so that now we need to await the rains to test it all.

flashing around chimney stack still to be
nailed down and new shingle line done
this was completed tonight

The playtest happened, some notes were made and now I am compiling all into a commentary for the rules authors.

opening positions

Getting ready for a playtest

 I have been asked to make a review for a home-made set of rules and I thought this would be a great chance to put my new blocks to the test.

Found out already that I need to make some more blue 'command' stands.

French Forces

Allied Forces

Can you guess the battle?

Going to have a few runs at this one using this battlefield, to test out the concepts and make my notes.

Having read them over a few times and now printed them I have also made up the control materials as suggested ... got some ideas on sorting that out smaller already.

 

made my own hard copy of rules and QRS so that
I do not have to constantly refer to a computer screen

More in a few days.

Amazing Documentary about the 1812 Russia Campaign

 Napoleon's Downfall:

Really great coverage of the whole campaign.

Basic 'tiles'

 In an exploration of possible 15mm American Civil War minis, I have used up some left over paints and the off-cuts of MDF that Jeff left me.

a set in Grey
with distinctive command markers

sets in blue and red

finally in black

Each set contains 1 'corps' commander, 4 'division' commanders, 8 artillery, 4 transport (used as limbers), 8 cavalry and 40 infantry markers painted onto MDF.

My plans are to use these as proxy troops in a number of configurations, though the American Civil War is the primary purpose.

The house works continue, these are a project in evenings to use up left over materials without cost.