BATTLE OF UBERGANG

Played out on November 26/27 at Bluebear's New Gaming room!

The Duchy of the North faced off the bureaucratic and uffich Burtzenians.

The battle was a Table Top Teaser, number 3 this time.

Jeff had the table all laid out very well with a pair of hills, a river and a series of roads.

From one wooded defile came the Duchy of the North, the other disgorged Burtzenians.

I commanded the, mostly, white coated Burtzenian forces. Their primary job was to take and hold the bridge over the river. Upon arrival a great opportunity for victory presented itself, for if the town could be taken from the Nordeners, then the main body would be able to crush their advancing forces.

The early battle was one of maneuver, I chose to hold off the Nordeners with some cavalry, sadly the better force was only able to arrive in small numbers. At least the recruits did well, when they charged a smaller force (after taking two 'cracks' at it) of dragoons, they managed to shatter them completely, the follow-up carried them into a force of infantry which had strayed too close (actually their aggresive commander had 'interpreted' his advance orders into an all out assault!) These infantry were very nearly cut to ribbons, but the recruits were unable to maintain their devastating charge, due mostly to 'desertions' in the pursuit (lame excuses about lame horses while busily looting the dead and wounded).

After this clash came a small lull, only punctuated by my skirmishers getting in a few licks at the enemy artillery and still arriving infantry.

The last stage was dominated by artillery, for while my lone medium battery had only 7 shots, and missed with the first 4, the last shot was a killer - taking out the entier cossack formation that was not in a charge mood, yet willing to get to point blank (thus cannister) range on the guns!


I was unable to get any re-enforcement to capitolize on these gains though and by the end of the battle, taking some time to re-form and re-organize their ranks the Norden Duchy troops tried one last advance, only to get pummelled back to their starting point by one very tough gang of veterans.

Result: a draw.

Ultimately a good first run for Jeff's new game space and I look forward to sharing with him some more.


For everyone else: here are a couple of shots of Jeff's troops now on display in his new cases.

Latest additions finished.

While it took a bit longer than I wanted them to I have finished off the latest batch of Tricornes, the Militia (in top hats) and some gifts for my eldest son (he has been asking for the red coated brits from the Napoleonic era).


Along the way this time I have also finished the Kisslev Kossevars, which I plan to use as footborne Cossaks in the future.

Also done, but not on their base stands yet is another fantasy 12mm Green Elves army for HotT and a 25mm TITAN. All of these fantasy ones have been languishing on my to do shelf for some time now, watching batch after batch of Napoleonics and Tricornes passing them by.

For the moment I only have two gift items on the painting desk (and will not divulge them here lest someone they are to be gifted to is reading) and once they are done I will be totally re-organizing my office and painting spaces. Moving out some of the books that are not immediately needed and shuffling about some of the furniture so that I can be better organized for continued painting (and other) operations!

A sneak peek at the Burtzenian Forces.

Jeff appears to have something on his mind, regarding a little 'inaugural battle' of some sort and has asked me to snoop about and see if I could snaffle up some white coated Burtzenians.

So I have and in the process took a picture of them.

Since this has eaten up some of the time otherwise devoted to brushworks and other things I decided to make use of the picture again here.

Of note also is the two more 'battalions' of four companies each of more tricorned white coated Burtzenians with blue and purple facings along with a couple more mounted officers. Which could be made ready in time for any action after the 16th?

It would be a stretch to have them ready that fast but it could be done.

More White Coated Tricornes

The Burtzenia troops continue to expand.

These two battalions should be done by the end of next week, then I can get on with clearing off all the old part painted fantasy stuff and then re-org the office and painting areas, with an eye to becoming more efficient!

THE LATIVM CVP

A tournament review.

As promised soon after the CVP final game, I have now had the time to get the review put together.

Jeff Hudelson, the featured player in this review, is the first ever LATIVM CVP tournament entrant to bring his own 'early roman era' army and win every match through the round-robin, then defeat the returning past champion on his way UNDEFEATED to the Grand Championship.


In his first semi-final match, Jeff faced another Greek army, similar to his own, save that this one did not have the light cavalry rather had psiloi.
Jeff had the good fortune to not have to deploy from a heavily wooded area, which interfered with the movements of his opponent, and very nearly shut down his communications (very low 'pips' rolled at the start by Paul R = Jeff's opponent).


While bogged down in the woods the Greeks (seen in blue) were forced into tight columns or along the road, Jeff was able to get to the road exit first and block off easy escape from their cavalry.
Jeff also hemmed in the Auxilia troops at the edges of the woods by superior numbers of spears.

After a long period of maneuvers, where Jeff was able to counter anything Paul R did, the fight began in earnest, with all degenerating into a wild fight in the few clear spots along the main road. Early on Paul was able to push back Jeff, then once out into more open country, where one would have thought the cavalry would have fared better, disaster struck and time after time they were pushed back into the trees and once unable to form ranks got cut apart by the combined efforts of Jeff's spear and auxilia troops.


This then set the stage for the CVP FINAL match, between Jeff's Greeks and Paul S commanding a Camillan Roman armu (II/10. from version 2.0 of DBA).

Thier deployment was done with great care and thought, coming from both players, as neither wanted to 'give away' anything to the other.

Initial action saw Jeff launch an attempt to 'steal' the Roman camp.

This was countered by Paul S, but not before Jeff could use the greater speed of his army to take up a commanding position around the Roman lines.

The Romans managed to block the attempt at their camp, but in doing so (with their General) were forced to leave their other flank, left, well out of communication range.

Jeff was quick to capitolize on the weakness in communications to that far Roman flank and assembled a force to press it. However his own left flank force suffered a loss at the hands of the Roman General.

Now the Romans were starting to feel the pain for having streched their line so far, unable to communicate effectively, the Roman flank got turned, and a Psiloi was ridden down by fast Greek Light Horsemen.

Desperate fighting now began to happen, and the Romans pulled out a minor victory, staving off total defeat at one moment and giving a sense of 'turning the tide' at the same time.


It was only to be a momentary respite though, as command was unable to get both himself closer and re-order the now turned lines.

Chaos was the result, with the Greek army under Jeff able to re-order his lines faster than Paul S could.

Jeff Hudelson wins the 2007 LATIVM CVP

The lack of recent posts has been because I have started an interesting little game of DIPLOMACY.

Played via an internet engine:

http://www.floc.net/dpjudge/

Worth checking out.


I shall not say more as the game is 'blind' and some of my opponents may be reading this blog.

Once the game is done I'll have more to say.

Painting updates later...

Brushworks, more white coated tricornes. (just for Jeff)

The progress was stalled on these troops over the past few weeks, with other matters taking precedence.

Now the stalling has ended and I will have more regular brush time.

Anyway the progress tonight was on the general 'whiteness' coming up and in getting the gaiters first lower layer painted.

enjoy the pics!