The first game in February 2024 is an ACW game between Russ(Confederates) and Keith(Union) using the Borodino Game boards with Keith providing the fences.
Keith was defending with 3 brigades and Russ was attacking with 4 brigades. The woods were light woods, fences gave a -1 to hit from rifle fire advantage and the hills effected line of sight. The building also gave a -1 to hit advantage against rifle fire only.
Russ advanced 2 brigades across the open terrain largely protected by the hills until you crested them. Keith failed to get into the house before Russ made it in.
Typical ACW battle now occurred with rifle attrition determining outcomes.
The other 2 Confederate brigades moved up the road through the woods and prepared to attack. This was a bit tardy!
Further along in game and Russ has taken heavy casualties on his right.
Nice shot of Reb’s on the ridgeline. Whipped Union regt in the backgroud.
The terrain board has a nice gun emplacement in it which these Union troops were using to their advantage.
The game finished with the Confederates running out of steam…or rather troops on their right.
Go Goldie messages on a Friday, wanting a game Saturday at the Hutt club…..somehow 4 of us managed to make it……and Goldie was still messaging me at 11.48pm about the game…..me only being awake thanks to some noisy neighbor’s boys music!
So Goldies plan was for a meeting engagement where we played down the table…objective to control a crossroads in centre of table(I say centre…but it was a centre on the allied side!)
Goldie(Prussians) and Robert(Dutch/Hanoverians) were Allies and Rob and I were French. Below is Rob advancing onto table…up road with 2 brigade’s of foot and a 2 unit cavalry brigade. I advance on once they are on table. All arrive up the road.
Allied cavalry advances. They similarly advance up the road.
Very early on and French Lancers and Prussians Dragoons fight it out. Thankfully Prussians did not win…or some guns and infantry units would be in peril.
Roberts Hanoverians advance onto table…..I think this was their first battle…which we all know is often fated to be a disaster.
Bit further on Prussians are at crossroads….but some French Lancers are now fighting Prussian Landwehr cavalry…normally you would go ,’ We know who’s not going to win that!’. However, the French were shaken already and could not counter charge…..the perfect target for Landwehr cavalry!
French Legere take out the Prussian battery at crossroads.
So each player had 3 brigades… 2 foot and 1 cavalry…in the belief the table would get to crowded, I subbed in a brigade of Guard cavalry for my 2nd infantry brigade and also the cavalry brigade. Points wise about the same…and they are much prettier!
Robert checking how the advance of his Hanoverians is going…….my infantry were lining a hedgerow waiting the onslaught of 2 brigades!
Robs French advance on the crossroads and hold the wood as Goldies Prussians, who were a bit tardy…finally arrive.
Ahhh…tis a glorious sight……..Goldies Grenadiers had advanced to crossroads….but got themselves shaken…..and were still shaken in our turn…so I sent the Empress Dragoons in…..the 2 dice with ones are Goldie form square…they fail to form square and are disordered….it just gets better and better.
View from behind…..lots of Allied units are now on the field of battle.
Oopys..after combat dice rolls…..I had 8 hits on the Grenadiers…..Goldie needed 3’s to save them…below is the sad tale…..so that’s them gone.
The other Grenadier unit decided to high tail it home as well…and the Empress Dragoons retired on Rob’s French lines.
Goldie now threw his landwehr into the woods and charged square on the side of the wood…his cavalry had previously charged them and forced them into square. It often takes 2 or 3 turns for the attacking column to take out the square in this situation…and so it was again.
Roberts shooting has forced me to withdraw my damaged and outnumbered infantry back from the hedge line into the woods.
It took several turns before Goldie was able to push Rob out of the wood….but he had a strong line with artillery ready for Goldie.
View from behind Roberts advancing troops…Dutch on the left and the Hanoverians on the right…in distance Rob has a battery on the road…I have a Guard battery on hedge line and infantry in the woods with a unit of Guard D’Honner cavalry on the edge of woods.
Ahem….open flanks…I keep talking about open flanks…..I had attempted this charge my turn before…but was agreed I was not quite positioned for a flank charge…so I moved them so was. Robert attempted to move the Dutch up to cover the exposed flank, but..well…they are Dutch…they didn’t want to move that far…so the Hanoverian flank was still exposed….so I charged it with ‘The Gods’.
I destroyed the 5 units below.
I then carried on into these guys….managed 11 hits…but these lads were made of sterner stuff and held on!
So we called the game.. I think was a French victory. Lots of lessons…..exposed flanks….artillery are weak if in front line and exposed…etc
Fun game though…and its always a delight to use the French Guard cavalry…big, heavy metal Front Rank figures and Goldie did a wonderful paint job on them!
Onto the Whisky of the Week!
Now my favorite whisky of them all is a 500ml wee beauty from Edradour which is simply called ‘Straight from the Cask’ which sadly I currently do not have and am awaiting a resupply!. However, they do make a similar dram under another label, the ‘Ballechin SFTC’. So I treated myself to this for Xmas.
Tasting Notes are:
Nose Smoked meats and honey roasted nuts, with a hint of milk chocolate coming through later on.
Palate Juicy sultanas and raisins, with more meaty malt and smoke developing.
Finish Sea salt, chocolate mousse, and brown sugar.
I must admit to being a wee bit underwhelmed as was expecting a powerful hit of Sherry Goodness as well as the 58.0% alcohol…but this one is a more Peaty than Sherry dram. It is still quite tasty…but pales to the Edradour SFTC.
So its welcome to 2024 and the first game of the year.
Alan hosted a Franco Prussian Game at his place which 6 of us were available for. Both Alan and Goldie have collected Prussians while Goldie and I have collected French. While I continue to paint as slow as ever, the French are a bit short on units so again ACW units are subbed in.
Once again the rules used are ‘Black Powder’ plus the ACW ‘Hallelujah’ supplement. We are still tinkering with shooting and ranges so these were the adjustments used for this game:
Artillery shoots 48 inches
Prussian artillery have no long range penalty
French rifles/Mitrailleuse weapons shoot 24 inches
Prussian rifles shoot 12 inches
French are 3 base battalions and Prussians are 4 base battalions
From memory the number of battalions per side were evenish…but the Prussians were at least 2:1 in artillery(I am painting my 5 guns up now!).
Below is the centre of table where both sides are in possession of a building. Alan on one of his business trips to China spotted some display clothes in a shop , purchased 4 of them, has had them sewn together and now has quite a good terrain base cloth!
French firing line anchored on building…Prussian artillery in distance and troops in wood.
Prussian advance on their left flank……
The nasty Krupps.
French attack into flank of a Prussian line…..French fluffed attacks…took several turns but larger Prussian units attacking them on 2 sides eventually destroyed them.
French left flank…….avoiding the Krupp’s but giving up the longer rifle range.
Massed Prussians preparing to attack across the river.
Across they are….a mitrailleuse was hiding behind the building so artillery could not get it, and firing off against the Prussians advancing on the table edge…so a Prussian unit charged from other side and took it out….French commander has been taken away…….
French centre was quite well protected with 2 defensive zones and good firing zones.
The gap in Prussian lines is from a blown away battalion. It took A LOTOF SHOOTING TO DO THAT.
I tried using a twinkling light feature on phone camera…didn’t work that well.
French used old fashioned lines and swapped units to recover casualties…. as you should!
End of game…..Prussians take the building by charging in on 2 sides. French 2nd line was supporting but you need lots of hits to cause casualties…and artillery!
So that was first FP game for year. Was fun. We will need to work on the shooting as I still think its now quite right. Hopefully the Perrys will give us some more love in this period this year so we can flesh the armies out.
Now at Xmas I was given some love with 3 new bottles of Whisky!
The first to be reviewed is a gift from friend PW who was back from Vanuatu.
This is from Glenmorangie and it is ‘A tale of Winter’.
The bottling note for it is:
Following on from Glenmorangie’s A Tale of Cake, the magnificent distillery has gone and created Glenmorangie A Tale of Winter (we do like the idea that “cake” is in fact a season and that it precedes winter, but we don’t think that’s what they’re going for here)! Director of whisky creation Dr. Bill Lumsden wanted to evoke the feeling of winter, of sitting in front of a fireplace while the snow fall outside, and to do so, he finished a bourbon barrel-matured single malt in ex-Marsala wine casks. All those rich, comforting, chocolatey notes certainly put this one in the ‘winter warmer’ category.
Tasting notes are:
Nose Honeycomb, chocolate digestives, fragrant lavender, sultana, and cinnamon.
Palate Cocoa, Brazil nuts, vanilla tablet, jammy red berry sweetness developing, crystallised ginger.
Finish Spicy ginger remains, mellowed by vanilla and chocolate mousse.
Now I had a bottle of ‘ A Tale of Cake’ a year or 3 ago, and PW went a bought one as was so delicious. This one I have been enjoying almost as much.
So Saturday 18th November 2023 was the annual convention of one of the wargames Clubs here in Wellington NZ, the Warlords. We had been asked if we wanted to put one of our demo games on so we agreed and decided as we were on an ACW kick to play Antietam. I asked Alan seeing he works on a fancy graphics Mac to design a poster which is below. Its pretty cool.
Now as Goldie enjoys writing up scenarios and preparing Orbats etc, he designed the game.(Goldie and I as usual then debated it for several weeks) The game map is below. The table was 16 foot long and 6 foot wide. The Confederates would set up first and then the Union would march on(having written up orders of arrival). The entry points for the Union were the Hagerstown Pike, Smoketown Pike, Pry Ford, Boonsboro Pike and Rohrbach Rd. The Antietam Stream was only passable on the bridge on the Rohrbach Bridge Rd and at the Snavely Ford.
The Confederates set up from the edge of the West Wood, the hill in front of the Dunker Church, along the sunken road , then along the Bridge Rd to the bridge and then on the southern side of the stream.
There were 5 players aside with the Union being Goldie, Robert, Brian, SteveT and Keith. The Confederates were Terry(me!), Mike, Alan, Sheridan and StephenC. Scenario rules allowed both sides to not follow a historical set up.
The Union force was 56 regts, 5 small cavalry regts and 17 batteries. The batteries were assigned to Divisions.
The Confederate force was 42 regts, 2 small cavalry regts and 11 batteries. The batteries were in 5 bttns of 2 batteries and a horse artillery battery assigned to JEB Stuart.
The table set up before troop deployment is below. Brian., Robert and Goldie are in picture.
Mike played on the Confederate side as he is the descendent of a British Army Officer who served on the Staff of Henry Heth. He commanded the right flank. Alan commanded the forces to the front of Sharpsburg and the first section of the sunken road.
Sheridan commanded the rest of the sunken road and the area to the Dunker Church.
2 bttns of rifled guns on the hill. The Union artillery were all rifled with a range of 30 inches, the Confederates were meant to be 24 inch only(100% 6pounders apparently) but I nagged Goldie so much on this he relented and we were allowed 2 bttns of 30inch guns.
StephenC had the Confederate right flank on the Hagerstown/West Wood with our 2 largest brigades and a bttn of guns.
Turn 1 and on the Bridge Rd, one of Goldie batteries got his order wrong and decided to charge at the bridge(a Blunder which is roll 2 dice…get a 12, roll another dice…get a 6…roll another dice, and he rolled a 4 which means you charged 24 inches down the road) Personally I though it was a splendid start to a game. A limbered gun in front of 2 of our batteries…and if we moved a regt to the bridge edge…get another 3 shots at it…..one lost battery coming up!
The local media were so impressed, a cease fire was called while they took some photos.
Union troops pouring down the Boonsboro Pike….an impressive sight.
Brian managed to get most of his troops across the Pry Ford.
The Union guns while attached to brigades could not be ordered as part of the brigade move but must be ordered individually. Infantry fire had been reduced to 12inches for everyone except the Irish Brigade who were still using Smoothbores. They do get an extra shot at close range.
Now over on the Confederate left flank several turns have gone by. Robert had a Union battery blunder and ride into the cornfield all by its self. Then he had failed move orders for brigades moving on so StephenC decided to move out from his position and attack them. Sadly his scouts failed to report the approaching Union Force of George Greene who some fool had rated as a Command 9 for the battle!(Okay..it was me). What a juicy target.
Keith’s forces stream towards Sharpsburg. Thankfully they were facing the Stonewall brigade!!
Union troops queuing up the attack with a massed battery forming up to support them.
OMG! Another Union battery decided to blunder and charge!
Sadly the first Charging Artillery battery survived the inept shooting that went their way. I suspect no one could actually believe what they saw. Goldie has moved up supporting infantry and yet another battery.
Stonewall brigade are a thin gray line defending the way to Sharpsburg. Stuart has sent his artillery battery to assist.
Union 3rd Corps arrives!(Okay..Okay…they weren’t there…but my Command bases are for Gettysburg!!)
Brian’s troops facing off the sunken road…I do like the way he does his flags. Will need to pop up to Whanganui and get a lesson.
Union troops moving through the cornfield.
At last…..my troops arrive! This is A P Hills command moving through Sharpsburg….with Lee himself helping with dice re rolls to get them up the road.
Union right where the diminished Confederate force is in hold out mode.
On the Confederate right Mike lost his artillery bttn early on and has been forced back from the bridge. On the hill my dismounted cavalry are attempting to take out the battery that has been causing all the casualties. I felt it was a worthy sacrifice. They failed.
The battle at Snavely Ford played out all game. Mike had reinforced the initial 2 regts here with the 2 who had been defending the bridge(one actually blundered and headed over their by its self). Both forces and taking heavy casualties.
Having failed to take out the artillery my foot cavalry stayed to allow Mikes brigade time to defend the field behind. Goldie has more troops over the bridge and Keith has moved troops up to the trees lining the road.
On the union right Roberts tardy troops have finally arrived and are advancing up the Smoketown Dd.
The other side of the Smoketown Rd as Robert and Goldies troops tighten the noose on the Confederate force.
Yet another Blunder…this time a good one!(If you are Union that is) Getting infantry to attack other infantry frontally is not easy, unless of course you do as SteveT did…blunder and the result is a charge. So 3 regts went in. One succeeded in winning the combat…the Confederate die rolls for shooting had been appalling all game on this road fence.
Having arrived A P Hill prepares to replace Alans 2 damaged brigades in the front line
Mission achieved. Alan withdrew back through my line on initiative moves, which now allowed my units to step forward, still under initiative moves and take up their positions. Alan could now start to rally casualties back with Lees Command 9 rating helping him out.
A bit further along and the Confederates are retiring. The massed Union guns at medium range were dishing out to much damage. The target priority rules meant out guns could not take counter battery action but had to shoot at the nearest formed unit. I have discussed this with Goldie already and we will change that.
Over by the bridge Goldies troops advancing, Mikes Confederates in the field are retiring.
On the Sharpsburg Rd Keith is still pressing and with the massed batteries destroying anything on the Sunken Road a general retirement has been ordered.
Over on the Confederate left…..well their really isn’t one now…so Sheridan’s force will join A P Hills and act as rearguard and the Confederates retire.
A Union Victory.
I thought the game played quite well. It is a rather attractive period to game with the differing uniforms, flags etc plus the terrain was certainly attractive.. We had 2 practice games before the main event to work on the shooting changes Goldie wanted to use which helped with the flow of the game. We need to look at the rules around the artillery so far as being able to target them and also the scenario restrictions. I had argued for the batteries facing the Sunken Road to be restricted to long range fire( from my reading of the battle seemed appropriate) as was concerned about the mass firepower if they moved to medium or close range.
The next Convention is in April where will look to run a Gettysburg game. Just need to paint a few more Confederate Units!
This weeks Whisky of The Week s the Glenrothes 18.
When friend Weakley came back home in August he bought me one of these for my birthday.
Tasting notes are below.
Nose Decadent vanilla and orange, with hints of cherry and almond developing.
Palate Still packing plenty of dried fruit notes, alongside crisp pear and a spicy touch of stem ginger.
Finish Lasting sweetness of vanilla and pear, with peppery flourishes.
My comment would be its a mighty fine whisky and one I selfishly prefer not to share!!
Now one of our local Wargame Clubs, Warlords holds an annual convention which most years we attend and run a game or a small competition of some kind. This year we decided not to. Which was fortuitous as due a colossal CLUSTER****, the hall got double booked and on the Friday before the weekend involved, this was discovered. Not Good. So a new day has been set and we were asked if we wanted to come along and run one of our demo games on the new date of November 18th. So the ladz have chosen an ACW game, and Goldie has selected Antietam.
So a practice game was played to test some rule changes Goldie wants to use which are basically changes to shooting ranges where they are halved. Being the sceptic I can be, I was a wee bit doubtful. Comments at end of report!
The game will have 9 players, 5 Union and 4 Confederate. battle report after the actual game will provide Orbat/Map etc.
Turn 1 and Russ Advances his troops on Goldie’s blue bellies.
Goldies Blue bellies skulking in a field behind trees! Note the unit in column of march on the right.
View in the centre from Union lines.
Russ noticed the unit in column as well and managed to reach it.
Graeme’s Reb’s faced a lot of blue coats in the centre.
The Confederate left flank where Alan faced off with Keith.
Stephen’s Union facing Graeme. Graeme plays quite aggressively as a rule so close range shooting quickly occurred. Goldie had reduced rifle/musket range to 12 inches, Confederate guns to 24inches and Union to 30 inches. Real in your face action.
Now Sheridan is providing 19 Confederate regts for the game , however he games on weekends not mid week so I subbed in a brigade of newly completed Franco-Prussian French(why not!).
Russell’s early charge on the Union column has eventually resulted in a lot of Union units popping and stalling Union advance in this sector.
However, Robert had now arrived and was pushing forward towards Russ and Graeme lines. I had also arrived with the French brigade heading towards Confederate flank and a second brigade to support Graeme and Russ.
Union troops closing in on Alan with French marching up road in distance.
Confederate right where Russ troops taking a bit of damage with my fresh units moving up to allow them to retire through me and recover. Quit a blob of Union troops opposite!
The curse of newly painted troops in their first battle hits. Plan was to move them up and then change formation to line facing Union….howeverrrrr…even with Command 9 Corps commander for rerolls they failed successive orders…and sat there with flank facing Keith. But…I still felt they looked AWESOME. The others were to busy laughing to notice.
Thankfully photos did not come out well…but Keith charged….the flank…we lost…but retired only! Yeehaa. Photo below is after ordered actually were acted on(and I was wee bit naughty with distance moved, but hey…its my Garage! They do look good on the hill!!
So that was a practice game…was fun..was very noisy…rule changes seemed to work okay and we will try again in 2 weeks so we are fully prepped for the 18th of November.
Now the 1st Brigade of French is finished will do some work on my ACW armies for a couple of weeks. First up below are 2 more Corps commands for the Union. I want to run a large Gettysburg game so am generating Corp/Division/Brigade command stands with the correct flags… for effect!
We are lacking in Confederate cavalry so will slip in regular painting of 4 at a time until have a sizeable force.
There is a backlog of reports to be posted so will work through them as quick as I can.
Its been awhile but back to the ‘Whisky of the Week!’
Here we have a Caol Ila(pronounced Cull Ee-la) Distillers Edition 43% a single malt from the Isle of Islay.
This whisky from Caol Ila has first been matured in refill American oak and European oak casks. It has then had a second maturation in Moscatel – seasoned, re-charred American Oak casks. The nose has smokey and spicy notes, with a subtle fruity note. The palate has notes of smoke, sweetness and a gentle wood spice. The finish is long and spicy with big smoky notes.
It is very pleasant, not overly peaty and I strongly recommend it for newbies to peaty whisky who do not want to be over powered. It has been my go to for past month when want to relax of an evening, at the moment am spoiled for choices but this one I have really taken a liking to.
The ACW game this month was a small game with 4 players.
A Union command were holding a position unaware the Confederates were advancing to destroy them before they could be reinforced.
The Union had 3 brigades with 2 deployed on their left and one in the centre right. They had no Division commander, and one of the 3 brigades was a rating 7. A fourth would arrive if certain conditions were met. (they didn’t in time)
The Confederates had 4 brigades and had first move where they march onto the table.
I was on Union right. Rebs opposite me.
Goldie was on my left with a forward cavalry brigade supported by an infantry brigade. Russ is setting up his arriving infantry and cavalry brigade.
Dismounted cavalry doing their thing.
Russ quickly ganged up on a skirmishing Union cavalry unit.
This is me responding to the Confederates to my front….partial realignment so would not be outflanked. I was the Command Rating 7….so not many orders were obeyed.
What the……the Rebs were a mirage….they were there as were off table and actually arriving behind Russells troops…so my partial realignment has only taken me further away. Grrr. A small Reb brigade has taken residence in the farm to my front though. The backing off regt is because of the Reb cavalry unit in the woods on my left….proximity rule applied so cannot just turn towards them.
Stephen’s Rebel Guard march on!
Goldies infantry are taking a whipping.
Russell has got cavalry into Goldies rear.
Look…I actually got a unit to CHANGE FACING!
Charging cavalry in your rear….NEVER A GOOD THING!
And it wasn’t, Union regt is no more.
In turn Goldie hits the cavalry in the rear…who had dismounted.
End of game …..Goldie has gotten smacked badly.
Russ has now got his arriving artillery into action against my troops in centre.
I was sending 2 regts over to help Goldie… but as no one wanted to move had been a slow process…..and they never really got close.
They large 4th Union brigade never arrived……..trigger was me getting forced off my hill or Union losing a brigade….which would have been the cavalry if Goldie had sacrificed them quicker…..I kept reminding him about it!
So I was celebrating a birthday and Goldie decided to host a game at his place in my honor…how cute!
Goldie chose the game to be a Dresden 1813 refight. The set up and orbats are below.
The French right flank forces are below. John came down from Auckland for the game and bought his lovely French heavy cavalry with him. Steve T. pulled out at last minute so John got be Mortier as well as Murat. Opposite him is Stephen as Gyulai.
More Allied commanders from right to left Keith(Wittgenstein), Alan(Kleist) and Graham(Hessen-Homburg).
Allied left flank(Stephen).
Turn 1 and Robert(St Cyr) had charged his Uhlans forcing Graeme to form square. In our turn Graeme then charged them with Hussars…risky as the French have pointy stick advantage. Thankfully no one won and they both withdrew damaged.
This sight had me lamenting…loudly…the rain rule which allowed cavalry to charge squares if it was raining…Goldie threw for rain…….there were accusations of foul play as dice roll was not seen…..that was me of course…..the right hand unit failed to form square so fights disordered…a better result than forming square.
The Dice Gods are not on Johns side…..he needed 3’s to hit…..he got 4 out of 10…he then lost the combat and withdrew. Gorgeous!!
A look down the flank…..the initial French attack is repelled. I have moved Grenadiers up to line the riverbank and Graeme has moved his Grenz into the Village.
Metal Front Rank Grenadiers jeering at the plastic French Cuirassiers.
In centre PaulW who was over from Vanuatu had his reserve cavalry arrive on table…6 Russian Cuirassiers, 4 Guard infantry and 4 recalcitrant Grenadier bttns who refused for several turns to arrive. I suspect in protest at Paul leading them and not me…I am their normal commander. In front of them are Alans Prussians advancing in line…yes line…its 1813….I didn’t think Prussians knew what a line was then…..its a COLUMN Alan…a COLUMN.
On the right Keithy has it sorted. A skirmish line…supported by columns…with artillery and then pointy stick cavalry. Was a thing of Beauty.
Frenchie’s rush reinforcements to this flank…..Rob and Russ with his Guard cavalry ready for action. Any French Guard losses count as a Division…and the Division lost counts as a Corp.
Roberts conscripts were skulking in the walled gardens…the perfect spot for them. Especially when musket fire from LINES are not really going to hurt them.
Skirmisher fight starting in woods.
His cavalry having failed him….John throws his Young Guard in.
Prussian Cuirassiers take on French Guard Lancers….the Lancers are destroyed. Russ replaced his dice.
More French have lost.
To be honest…so much was happening I can’t recall what happened here….but imagine was not good for the Prussians. The must have failed to form square so fight disordered.
The other Guard unit is gone.
A bit further on…and…no French Guard cavalry……Russ replaced his dice a couple of times…..there are 8 Allied Cuirassier units over here…and 3 pointy stick units.
Graeme blunted his Austrian Division clearing the front of Dresden and I handed over the reserve division to him to do more carnage and then allow the Russian Grenadiers to take Dresden. There tardiness let us down.
Alan is now skirmishing in front of the walls. Supported by…LINES.
An out of sequence shot…..but shows some good fights.
Dear oh dear…John charged a battery to take it out and carry on and hit the shaken columns behind…hopefully destroying one and causing some tests……but the dice Gods really deserted him…his Cuirassiers were shaken going in…as was from artillery doing closing fire…had to perform a break test and…failed…popped and the Division Commander died with them..HEROIC!
I could have sat my Grenadiers behind the river and shot Johns cavalry all day…but where’s the fun in that for John…he had come all this way…… so I headed over and attacked his infantry…expectation of being destroyed eventually…but it would stop him retiring cavalry back across Dresden to help the other flank.
Stephen has lost his 2 infantry division’s,,,rain does that to you……so he had 2 Hussar units left so he charged French Cuirassiers……and…won!
Keithy moved his Landwher Cavalry over to block our side of the river and the Russian Grenadiers can at last be seen advancing to the right of the village.
Robert threw his last light cavalry regiment into blunt the infantry advance making them form square. I retaliated with Cuirassiers…the French lost. Grenadiers and artillery are moving up.
To the right we have Austrians forming for another attack…the Prussian guns are about to move into the gap in the front. A couple of turns of arillery from the 4 batteries and then 12 bttns will charge in! Oh for another hour……….
French still hold the Gardens..I don’t even think they got charged…but Rob has a solid force supporting it.
End of game on right…Russian Guard are advancing into the Fray. Keiths infantry are behind them rallying casualties.
So that was Dresden 2023. Another couple of turns and I think Allies would have taken Dresden…….Goldie agreed was Allied Victory.I am sure he did…honest guys…..thanks to John and PaulW for coming and playing.
Time for the Whisky section of the tale…and what a Tale it is! Being my birthday weekend John and PaulW came out for dinner. My partner had slaved all day cooking and we had a superb Lamb Shanks meal accompanied by a wonderful Pinot Noir PaulW had ordered and had sent to my place.
Now PaulW and I enjoy a good Whisky tasting night…..where we taste …discuss the tasting…rate them…debate our scores…..play music and then move onto the next one. PaulW had been sending bottles to my place…I had some PaulW had not tried…Paul bought me the Glenrothes as a bday prezzie…..so we had…a few to taste….the list is below…I will rate them as future battles are discussed.
Cadenhead Glentauchers-Glenlivet 14years(Winner)
Bladnoch Liora
Glenmorangie Extremely Rare 18years
Glenrothes Elders Reserve 18 years
Arran Sherry Cask
Edradour in the Cask
Lagavulin 16 years
Laphroig 10 years
Bunnahabhain Toiteach A Dha
Caol Ila Distillers Edition
It was a great night……the ending was……I can’t recall it so it will just remain a mystery of legend!
So, the Group have dipped our collective toes into another new period in ‘Pike and Shotte’.
Within the Group Russ, Stephen and Alan have been building armies and with Alan overseas for work, Russ and Stephen bought their forces along.
Stephen is building an English Civil War army with Scottish leanings while Russ is working on a Swedish Army and Alan Royalists.
Russ, Graham and Goldie played the Swedes while Stephen, Rob and Keith were the ECW/Scots. Set up of armies below with the Swedes on the right.
Swedish cavalry with Cuirassier’s skulking in support.
3 units of wee jocks.
Swedish Battalia(thats a Pike block and 2 supporting units of matchlocks.
Stephens artillery.
Swedish Shotte chaps supported with more cavalry supporting.
Very pretty Swedish unit.
Graham was on this Swedish flank and starts to advance.
Another lovely unit by Russ.
Close up of the shootee chaps.
Rob sent his cavalry charging into the Swedish flanking Battalia who succeeded in forming a ‘Hedgehog’ so the cavalry stopped short of the hedge.
However, this did mean they now were going to get hit by Swedish cavalry.
Stephen charged a unit of wee Jocks into a Matchlock/Popgun combo….the Pop gun..popped…and the shootees retired.
Pop gun has popped….shootees have retired…and the cavalry are getting excited.
Ouch….Swedish Cuirassiers into a damaged unit of wee Jocks.
There is even a supporting cavalry unit.
Keith with Battalia of Jocks looking across table at Swedes.
The cavalry shot on the other flank went on for a few turns. The blue dice with 1’s means someone failed really badly to save hits.
A bit further on and a miracle occurred…Robs cavalry managed to beat off the Swedes. Dice can really be random at times!
Now Russ has chewed thru the wee Jocks with his heavies…who now eye up more wee Jocks.
The wee Jocks are no more…so Russ swept into Keiths Battalia. Goldie managed to get his Battalia to move…and charged over table…and just missed reaching Keith! That last inch really counts at times……
The shootees retired from the Cuirassiers…not sure how…..need read rules more……and Pikes turned to face Cuirassiers….so these wee Jocks will be toast sooner rather than later.
We told Graham to just charge…don’t worry about rolling…just get in…so he did…..he probably shouldn’t have as .. but we did get several training combats on Pike v Pike…
And that’s where we called it…… Swedes have a win. Points wise the Swedes had a more expensive force so next game will be a bit more balanced.
The game looked very attractive…..2 well painted armies……a rule set in the family of Black Powder and Hail Caesar so we are familiar with concepts and turn play…makes easier to learn.
It’s been 20 years since a group of us had a Chinese meal with the Perrys in Wellington while they were here for ‘Lord of the Rings’ activities. I asked them then if they would ever do FPW…and they have….so Goldie and I are finally having our first game with their figures.
Now Goldie had already painted a force of Prussians, and he has added enough French which when we add ACW Zouaves we can have a game.(my French are underway but not ready).
Each side is fielding 2 Brigades of 6 infantry with the Prussians also fielding a regt of 4 artillery batteries. The French have 2 batteries of 4 pdrs with one attached to each brigade and a mitralleuse which is attached to the Zouave brigade(5 Zouaves and a light infantry).
The terrain has the French defending a farm complex and a wooded ridge and there are 3 woods and some hedges scattered around the table, The French are defending the ridge/farm house side of the table.
Goldies right side brigade which is regts of 3. The Division commander is attached to the brigade. Regts are 3 bttns, each of bases with 5 or 6 figures to a base.
Close up of Prussians.
Goldies newly painted French which are in regts of 3 bttns, with bases of 5 or 6 figures per base.
View down the line. The beautiful flags Goldie picked up from ‘The Flag Dude’ at this year’s Salute Show while holidaying in London.
The French left brigade with subbed in ACW infantry with a French la Hitte artillery battery.
A regt of the dreaded Prussian Krupp artillery opposite the farmhouse. I was very happy they were there… and not facing my infantry in the open.
Goldie has advanced one regt into the protection of the hedges while the second is in behind the wood.
View of French right flank. Prussian artillery in top left gets 2 shots a battery and has a range of 60 inches. But only target is the buildings where 1 bttn is sheltering! There is a French battery with a 48 inch range, also shooting 2 shoots skulking hidden from the Krupps opposite it and then 4 infantry bttns in line. The French infantry shoot 36 inches compared to the Prussian 18 inches! The Prussians being larges units, get 4 shots though.
First French shooting and the 2 front bttns are disordered and one has 3 casualties. I need to inflict 4 to shake them.
On opposite flank Prussians did not move! French moved up through the woods on ridge.
I rushed a unit up into the centre wood with another at rear of wood and a 3rd angles to shoot across table. Each division has 1 unit of light infantry.
Goldie forms a 3 bttn line on his left flank .
View from hedges to French line and farmhouse.
The Prussian batteries would spend several turns of ineffective fire on the Farm house.
Goldies right finally did some advancing.
Realising he needed artillery support on his right. Goldie ordered the artillery regt to limber up and move to the right. They got the order wrong…instead rolled a double six…which is a blunder…followed by and 1 and they retired off the table. This means be 2 or 3 turns before they can fire again…PERFECT!
Goldie advanced the brigade to throw me out of centre wood.
I managed to roll a few more than one would expect of 6’s when shooting so was constantly disordering Goldies advancing infantry which also reduced the effect of their firing. Below Goldie has advanced a unit up to close range ready to blast my flank bttn.
A bit further on French have moved bttn from behind wood to get more shots in,,,,,,the Mitrailleuse is also ready to machine gun down the enemy!(this shoots as a machine gun, it rolls 2 dice…if a roll hits, you keep rolling until it misses)
Here is a close up of this little beauty. I deployed this away from Goldies artillery and being an ‘Unclear’ target, Goldie cannot target it with infantry if they are same or closer distance.
The plan to advance to close range and shoot up my flank bttn has not worked. By games end Goldie was lamenting about these guys. The saved hit after hit! And dished it back out!!
Hedge bound bttns…they kept getting disordered…not only from bttns to front but also the battery and a bttn in other brigade. The 36 inch shooting range for French infantry is awesome.
The first Prussian bttn breaks and flees.
Goldie moved the 3rd regt from in the hedges to cover the front of a shaken bttn on the left, it then gets disordered….the other 2 bttns are taking damage as well.
Mitralleuse checking out which target to shred!
Other flank and another Prussian bttn has popped…..they have a stamina of 4, and the 3 remaining are on 3. The French have stamina 3 and 2 are on 2! Its close.
Another Prussian bttn pops…this time in the hedges.
Goldie deployed his artillery within 36 inches……and they didn’t get a shot as had moved x 2 …so they drew all my fire…..they are stamina 1 units…so 3 are shaken and the left 2 are also disordered.
Goldie continues trying to take the centre wood……he has moved Prussian bttn up the flank and shot up a bttn on ridgeline that coupled with artillery fire…broke and ran!
Goldies left flank brigade now breaks. The forward bttn gets 3 bttns and battery firing into it…it pops. With damage to other bttns..brigade is now broken.
The mitralleuse finally got some god shooting in and a battery popped..Goldie moved his guns back out of range…and the French on ridgeline moved forward to keep shooting them.
So that was game 1……. we agreed a French victory.
Back in the 80’s I started playing FPW games at Military Miniatures in Auckland where Mark(1866 and all that) had a MASSIVE collection of figures…we played HUGE games and invariably they were games of attrition…..but great games…so this is the start of that love affair for me again.
What makes the period so much fun is the differing weapons…the ranges of them…the size difference in units…..Zoauves…….Guard…….and the need for each side to employ differing tactics.
So into July and the planned game for the night was our first ‘Pike n Shotte’ game…. however Stephen was providing most of the figures and had to pull out at the last minute. So I quickly alerted the ladz and planned a Naps practice. It’s been a while since as a group we had a game, and we have a Dresden 1813 refight coming up. So, I asked each player to bring 1 foot brigade and a light cavalry brigade, with the aim of boosting it with Garage stocks.
In the end I boosted each player up to 2 brigade’s of foot and 1 of light cavalry. Each foot brigade also had 1 battery. Commanders were to be 8’s, however each side was to randomly make one a 9, and then make another ‘Aggressive’ which added a +1 to ‘Charge’ orders. Goldie insisted I give him the ‘Aggressive’ when I won the roll off on our side…apparently unlike me, Austrian commanders are not allowed to be ‘Aggressive’.
Franco-Bavarian force commanders from left to right were Alan with Bavarians, Graham with French and Robert with French. The Allies from left to right were Goldie with Prussians, Keith with Russians and me(Terry) with Austrians. Terrain was rolling fields with a scattering of woods and a central village with another small village in Allied deployment zone.
Goldie has taken the central village to the right of the central road and the arm of Graham is moving a brigade into assault the Prussians. Robert is in foreground with Alans Bavarians flanking Graham.
Prussians occupying the village…buildings are Hovels…painted by Hovels http://www.hovelsltd.co.uk/Russian%2025/rusvil.html. It is quite hard to evict a unit in a village unless you can attack multiply sides or you have softened up the defenders with artillery fire at medium range…as Graham found out.
Behind and to the right of the Prussians, Keith has a skirmish line out…. although a base of line troops think they are Jagers(while trousers).
Over on the Austrian flank Stephen has managed to make the game after all…and brought along some of the British he is painting so these replaced some Austrian units, and he played this side.
French attack on church.
Alans Bavarians were a wee bit slow to start moving…but are now moving up in support of Grahams central advance.
The Bavarians support comes a wee bit late..Grahams brigade is thrown back.
So Graham sends his Dragoons in against Russian Hussars…who have pointy sticks. I swapped a French light cavalry unit with the Dragons to even out the odds…pointy sticks inflict a -1 save in cavalry combat and -2 versus infantry. Dragoons get an additional attack and add +1 to combat resolution.
Bavarian line with skirmishers out front advancing.
But another Austrian large column has found a target. The Austrians get 8 attacks…hit on 3, save on 3 as are a column. Bavarians get 3 shots as they close in….hit on 3’s and then get 6 attacks in combat. Supporting units assist in the combat resolution stage.
Now below the British skirmishers have charged the Bavarians skirmishers. As both are skirmishing, neither can evade. Skirmishers hit on a 5+, as the British are charging they have +1 for charging, so hit on a 4. Neither side can be supported.
Then the Bavarian and Austrian cavalry charge/countercharge. With light cavalry where numbers are matched, it devolves into a series of attacks ending in mutual extinction. Light cavalry are not Battle Cavalry, unless they have pointy sticks… or are Guard types.
Another attack a turn or so on…..
Back in the centre and Graham is still trying to get into the church. But more important in the top left corner is Grahams Hussars getting a charge in on Keiths shaken Uhlans….this was to be decisive for the game.
The aftermath of the French Hussar charge…..the shaken Uhlans popped…..surrounding units failed morale tests for friends breaking and popped…the Hussars then swept into the other Uhlan unit…and as its a sweeping advance are caught stationary…….so no pointy sticks bonus….they popped…….surrounding units failed friends breaking rule…..and Keith lost his centre. Graham wasn’t in much better shape!
Over on the Allied left flank Goldie sent his Prussian Grenadiers into Roberts columns and loo and behold…the Grenadiers lost…badly….. and popped.
As we see below….they are no where to be seen.
Now at games end…Graham has pulled back from the village….unable to capture it.
Stephen is still trying to take out the Bavarians with his large Austrian Bttns…but with minimal success.
In the final action…….the supporting Bavarian bttn has moved to not have an open flank…..as 2 regts of Prussian Landwher cavalry are facing it…..if they can get in…they should be able to take out the shaken unit in combat…..6 attacks into a shaken flank…hitting on 3s…minus 2 save…..and only 3 attacks back on 6s…..perhaps cause break tests…and perhaps even sweep into the flank of the Bavarian line unit…..lots of perhaps…alas…they failed the order to charge….and that was that…..
There were lots of combats I have not covered….it was a fast moving fun game……in the end the French/Bavarians had a victory. Well down to them.
The Whisky of the week is a ‘Glenfarclas 15 Cask Strength 57.8%’ which a friend shared the opening of with me.
Now…it is rather special, and I could not find an actual review of this very limited release…..needless to say….it was truly wonderful. Below is the review of the standard 43% release……I feel it is like comparing the Dog car I drive(its a Toyota Ractius…bought to drive the 2 Leonbergers around in) to the Bro in laws new Mustang……
At 15 years old, this whisky shows the complex and mature style the Glenfarclas distillery is renowned for – light butterscotch, dried fruit and an big oak and sherry character are mingled with hints of malted barley and a touch of dry peat smoke. The finish is long, with Christmas cake spices lingering on the palate, making for a complex and richly satisfying single malt.
terrysgaragegaming 