Napoleonic Pick up Game



Seeking to get in some tabletop time with dad my eldest son requested a fast game.

So we did a rear-guard action of the Russians vs. French from 1805.






The Russians had a line of hills and some defensive works. Had to hold for 8 turns.

The French were attacking at 2-1 odds.




Here is some eye candy.





Essentially I only managed to get the Russians to hold for 7 turns before being forced to retreat.

Garden Wars returns!


My son Alex was so keen to play another garden wars, now that the weather has turned, that he was willing to mow the lawn out for the forest sections.

Other work activities have taken over and pushed the game a day however I thought it worthwhile to prepare the blog ground as well as my son prepared the 'garden' battlefield...

Carniola, the skirmish battle
a proxy game for Emperor vs. Elector

You can read of the full scenario plans here.

The tabletop layout looked like this:


Herein follows the account of Elmar Wilhelms, a member of the household of Lady Elisenda Folc de Cardona whom was riding on the tailboard and baggage of the Lady's carriage at the moment of the start of these events.



To our left was a great woods, a bare hilltop could be seen in the distance beyond. We were approaching a couple of farm buildings first one to our left, then further along one to the right. I had just agreed to prepare to watch the right when a call 'to arms' was raised by the Dragoon officer. I felt the coach shudder from some commotion inside the cabin and heard the report of a long arm musket. From the building to the left ... one of the draft team pulling the carriage was dead and now the coach drover was having to apply the brake and reign in the horses. My fellow on the top of the carriage now, Harman had taken a shot at the approaching riders and he vanished in a puff of the powder smoke from his pistol, I saw the Dragoon Officer fall from his saddle. Then I saw the wild riders approaching and fired my own pistol at them.



When my smoke had cleared, Miss Fiona was demanding a pistol from the baggage that we had been loading afresh each morning on her orders. She then fired her own shot at the mercenary riders now fully engaged with the dragoons.



From ahead I heard some strange shouting, the Dragoons had realized their officer was dead and they were attempting to setup a plan of action, one of them shouted a warning and I heard volley of shots come out from the building to the left, three of the forward dragoons were wounded and one was dropped from his horse, trapped.

Miss Fiona then grabbed another pistol and ran to the rear of the coach. I readied my second pistol and fired again into the mass of riders, there were fewer Dragoons and less of the strange red cloaked riders, but there were still more of them than Dragoons... Lady Elisenda then came out from the coach and she drew a pistol from our collection on the tailboard. She herself then fired into the red mercenary riders, hitting one square in the chest and felling him. Another loud volley from muskets came from ahead and more Dragoons fell, there were another group of mercenaries that had taken cover next to a tall rock wall and were firing from behind it into the ranks of the Dragoons.


I heard a wild shout and a tall man with a long coat and huge beard came charging out from the door of the house ... he swung the sword with all his might against the harnesses, seeking to separate the lead good horses from the dead and wounded ones near the coach, one coachman had jumped down to break the dead horse free from the harness and was now hiding behind the animals carcass as this wild madman rushed at him.


I jumped from the tailboard with my sword and a final pistol as Harman and our leader of the household staff Markus shouted for me to join him in a line between the Lady Elisenda and the backs of the hard pressed Dragoons. Miss Fiona had run to the deadly side of the coach to catch the Dragoon officers' horse, while the Marquis of Rubi had dashed some paces away to catch another of the Dragoon Horses. He mounted it while we watched the Dragoons now holding their own against these red devils...


The madman from the house now charged at the helpless drover and cut him down, just as the Count of Erill moved to his defense, now the Count was facing this madman! Markus rushed to the old man's aid and shouted for us to continue to cover the Lady.

Miss Fiona then rode into view on the Dragoon officers Horse while the Madman and the Count were fencing. Clearly the big man with the beard was not paying as much attention to the Count as he was the two ladies...

One of the red devils broke free from his attack on the Dragoons and rode into the river crossing it and making for the open ground beyond. The madman shouted something like,

"LUIJI! I will find you in hell!"

The big man then broke free from his attack on the Count and rushed to Miss Fiona, holding out his sword as though to cut her and pointing his pistol.

"Off your horse l'il lady!" he commanded. Miss Fiona glanced at Lady Elisenda, who was moving to mount the same horse, she smirked and nodded to the Marquis of Rubí, then she winked.

She made her horse gallop away from the great madman who instantly shot at her ... and missed! Now he was full of mad rage and rushed towards Lady Elisenda, who mounted the horse as the Marquis dismounted. I heard another volley from the rock wall musket men and watched the last of the Dragoons in the van of our party fall from his saddle.

Now I rushed to the aid of Markus and the Count of Erill, Harman was lagging behind me as we managed to parry one of the thrusts and swings towards this old Count. The Marquis seemed to be looking further down the road behind our battle, shouting something about more riders!

Now I was fully engaged against this great big bearded madman! His huge sword cut and thrust with a ferocity I have never before seen! Twice it seemed as though the Count was done for and each time either I or Markus managed to deflect the blade enough to keep the Count alive, though he was moving his own sword in some defense, we were certainly not able to make any advances against this skilled madman. Then from behind him a pistol shot rang out. Harman had shot him in the back, Markus thrust home and I joined him in ensuring that the big man would not rise again.



I looked about, in horror seeing another troop of mercenary riders chasing Miss Fiona who was well past any help we could possibly offer. Then I spied Lady Elisenda riding into the wooded orchard near this column of riders, they split and the front group moved to surround Miss Fiona, while Lady Elisenda changed direction and left the four horsemen chasing her on the wrong side of the orchard ... by the time the got around she was five lengths ahead and gaining ground.


The other riders turned out to be Hussars from Syldavia and after a tense few seconds while the red riders flew from the scene our wounded Dragoons stood back to let their troop officer come forward.



The other mercenaries began to flee into the woods now from the back of the building and behind the stone wall.

More shouts were heard from the distant riders, then they all seemed to dissipate.

It was a minute later that we discovered that Miss Fiona had been killed by the riders, her horse was cut down and without any weapon of her own to use she was likewise cut down.



Before we could catch up with Lady Elisenda we searched the houses and the area where the gunmen had come from. Within the hut there was a strange musket, such as I had never seen before, most certainly it was the weapon of that bearded madman. Scratched into the butt of the weapon in crude letters was "MARIO". Other than some scraps of food little else was found.

Lady Elisenda was last seen riding to the border post, she was to learn of the death of Miss Fiona sometime later ....



Your Gaming Crew:

Carniola done!


The battle for Carniola has been played out.

Now I need to get some sleep and process the pictures to tell the story of these great events!

More by Wednesday.

CARNIOLA PREP



The Emperor vs. Elector blog has proxy battles come up from time to time.

This time its a little scenario called Carniola, all designed for a skirmish situation.

Above is an overview of all the troops for the game planned, below is the critical 'cargo'.



I have one confirmed player for tomorrow, with a second very likely.

Should be a fun little game, look for AAR here by Wednesday.

The Sword and the Flame

A game at Jeff's was a setup skirmish meeting between a 'trapped' British / Sepoy force and a relief column of British and Sikhs and two tribes of Pashtun.



Set in a hilly, rocky, lightly wooded area there were plenty of places for the Pashtun to get set up and keep cover.

The British column was to come to the aid of the 'fort' / town ... they were told that hundreds of natives were in the hills ...

So we start:

The British column chose to take the most direct path, past a large hill ... this was the critical choice.




Meanwhile the men in the town were to awake to the sound of Jezail firing, the first volleys being able to clear the men out from any sort of visible locations.



Then there was a group of rifle armed Pashtun that charged into a copse of tall grasses and palms just outside the wall and building entrance, for the Sepoy troops this proved to be too much and they were gunned down quickly.

The relief column continued to advance, carefully first checking the rocky areas on both flanks, then when their scouts had slowed the column pressed on blindly coming across a wave of Pashtun sword waving warriors madly rushing the stretched out column.

Then the Red Coats fired, these warriors backed off, though for the lone scout in the hill region, this was not good as it left him surrounded...

The town battle had dropped off, as the British forces had fallen back into a covered corner behind buildings and a low wall ... not going well at all as the Pashtun Riflemen simply moved in to the open spaces over the many Sepoy dead.



The Pashtun warriors on the hill were not done yet, they rushed the British again, meanwhile the Ghurka had broken out of the rough terrain and made their own charge against some Jezail armed Pashtun.

The British Regulars were driven back by the renewed charge of the Pashtun hill tribesmen, they lost their leader in the process and chose to withdraw back into the hilly region satisfied with chasing the red coats away.




The Ghurka did not fare so well in their charge, they were killed or wounded down to two men that fled the field.

Back in the town the British and Sepoy forces had withdrawn from the walls and were now in a copse of palms and tall grasses. Two forces of sword and spear armed Pashtuns were bearing down on them from outside the town.



That copse of palms and tall grasses was a killing zone where the British and Sepoy officers were first wounded then outright killed when overrun by Pashtun tribesmen.

Now the Pashtun Hill became a scene of utter chaos, as the Sikhs were charged by another tribe of Pastuns.



This tribe, first scared the Sikhs yet again they did not charge home and this time they became pinned at the base of the hill and remained that way. However now another force of Jezails had arrived and began a merciless barrage from beyond any range that the Sikhs could return fire, the mules that had been brought to carry out the wounded from the town were now filling fast with the bodies of Sikh riflemen.



The game end came as the British relief column commander realized he was never going to reach the town. He turned off from this destination and fled the field.

The only troops left from the town were now holed up in a small outer building from the town, under fire from Jezails and soon to face further rifle attack...

All in all a good game day and Alex and his friend want to play MORE!

Age of Reason



It has been a long while since I had dealt with all the aspects of the Age of Reason rules and I wanted to run through them again before going into more troops actions or more complicated terrains.



So my eldest son had been asking me to get into a game ... today was an opportunity.

The new matchstick armies got their first field test and Alex got to learn all about using cavalry in the center of a Horse & Musket battlefield.

He started with them in the center of his formation, unhappy that he could not deploy the infantry even further to the flanks...

I chose to concentrate on my right and give a refused left wing.

The Cavalry choices got worse as he split them into columns just as my guns got into range. BOOM down went 1/3 of a squadron.



Further advances with the same cavalry came with a snap decision to charge at the same time as my right wing got close to his infantry.

My wing went into charge, then his infantry made it into square with a good roll. Sadly his cavalry was even further away than mine was and the charge fell short, leaving the horsemen disordered and within musket range...




It was at this point that Alex chose to depart the game, having an offer to go play outside in the sunshine. I think he also understands SHAKO better now and the rules shift caused some confusion. I pressed on to see what final results could be got.



The red forces (simulating France in the 7 Years War period), did not fare so well. A musket exchange went equal, except that the Red Army command was attached and suffered a wound, not critical but he did have to retire from the engagement. Then the charge failed to go, leaving the men disordered in the face of my ordered regulars. Not a total turning point for certain and the outcome was really no longer in doubt as the blue (simulating Prussia during 7 Years War) cavalry was now round the red flank and ready to pounce on the routed militia and disordered and wounded square on the far left of the Red lines.

Certainly a good first outing for these tiny troops.

Matchstick ARMIES



After a couple of weeks, part of the time searching out my painting materials again, I have put in a whole 4 hours painting.



$2 worth of matchsticks and maybe $2 worth of glue, left over base coat and cut up cereal boxes, micro amounts of paint (less than might go on one 12 man unit of 25mm guys). Some left over craft paper flags finishes them off.



One of the neatest parts of such little troops, three armies will fit into ONE box!



Now I shall get into the 'nitty gritty' of Age of Reason and see what results...

See all about these troops and other exploits on The Duchy of Mieczyslaw

Return to the tabletop



A planned return to the tabletop gets into gear this week.

First to recover the table and gear (stored away for a while ... yes you may have noticed the lack of postings here), that process starts tomorrow.

With my renewed interest in things 6mm, I have taken a page from The Old Dessauer and spent a whopping $2 for a box of long matches for fireplace lighting, cleaned them up and glued them into the shapes required.

I have now only a bit of quick painting to do then I can start on the game table process to see what that focus and flow brings.

Plans are to expand the tales from The Duchy of Mieczyslaw to bring them into the 18th Century ...

Within another few weeks I may also have out the rest of the minis to get back into action on the Tricorne front (much to Jeff's delight I am sure).

Rules Study

Been away from the tabletop for some time now, looking at gathering back up some of my games materials and putting in some tabletop games.

While waiting I have been exploring the world of 6mm Napoleonic and Horse & Musket eras and rules sets for those games.

So far I have found at least 6 free sets and some reviews of the Polemos system.

Question for readers, have any of you used any good systems that you would recommend?

Colonial Game Plan

Jeff has setup some Colonial fun with his own metal.



I have agreed to take on a command in the campaign plan, seen above.

Check out more at Colonel Hud's blog.

Nothing Small



While not as impressive an article as may have been printed of Featherstone et al. I have my own moment in the press of my day.

This image, and others from the recent Trumpeter Salute 2011 convention are on the Burnaby Now website.

Matchstick Armies

The Old Dessauer has done a great job again of expanding on the posting regarding his matchstick troops.

I go into this subject as I have played in a fun re-fight of Minden, where some 12mm? 10mm? and 15mm miniatures were used to great effect.

It got me again thinking of the mass battles effect that can be had with such forces.

Moreover the cost factor is really good.

What are your thoughts about such quick use armies?