Tag Archives: wargaming

June 2024 – Napoleonic Game: Austrian’s v French

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The 2nd game in June was a 4 player French v Austrian Napoleonic one.

I set the table up with 2 small French forces each of an infantry brigade with 6 foot bttns, 1 battery and an attached small cavalry brigade of 2 light cavalry regiments each encamped around farms. Rob and Robert were the French players.

The terrain had 4 roads entering the table, 1 from each side of the table. The 2 Austrian players would roll to see which road they would march on down. Alan and Stephen were the Austrian players. Stephen had an Avante Garde brigade with 3 standard size bttns, a Grenz unit, light battery and 2 Hussar regiments. Alan had an Avante Garde brigade with 3 large infantry bttns, a Jager bttn, light battery and 2 Hussar regiments.

French deployments are below with Rob then Roberts deployments.

Alan arrives on the North Road.

Stephen arrived on the East Road which put him between the 2 French forces! Alan can be seen deployed on the North Road.

Robert has garrisoned his farm with a bttn and moved the rest of his force North to meet with Alan. 2 of Stephens bttns and the battery are tasked with taking the farm.

The rest of Stephens force are tasked with holding Rob off and awaiting reinforcements. Austrian Hussars have charged a French bttn, who formed square, the Hussars then retiring and the skirmishing Grenz have advanced to clsoe range to shoot them up…the Hussars staying within 12 inches which pins the square…and the Grenz close enough to them that the French cavalry cannot charge the Grenz.

Alan deploys to face Robert’s approach.

OMG! Robert charged straight in…Alan rolled APPALLINGLY badly … a theme that would continue all game….even a change of dice did not help.

Rubbing salt into the wound Robert sent lancers into the flank of Alans last bttn after disposing of his cavalry.

Down south Rob is deploying to face Stephen …Rob was unable to get his 2 bttns south of the village to move…lucky break for the Austrians.

Fortunately for Alan his reserve formation of 5 large bttns and a battery now advanced on to the table over the remains of the Avante Garde brigade.

Stephen had his reserve of a Grenadier brigade march onto the table,,.. so I personally took control of the French reinforcements of 6 bttns and a battery who rolled to arrive on the South Road. I decided to move them to a central position and support both Robert and Rob as necessary.

Hmmm…..Alan has charged Robert…then deployed a bttn in line…masking his guns…….

The reserve Austrian Grenadiers advancing…lovely metal Front Rank figures….ladz were telling me current Figures purchased from the new providers of Front Rank metals are not great(okay…I have toned down the comment ….with the cost of postage to this neck of the world you want a decent casting!). 3D printer anyone………

My brigade continues to advance…..good shooting from the attack columns shakes the Hussars who moved to attempt a block.

Alan, if he lives is now being transferred to an Austrian Village on the Turkish borderlands…..he lost the combat….both the attacking unit and support decided to head home…..his unit in line fluffed its shooting and is soon to be heading home as well.

The stalemate between Rob and Stephen continues in the South.

Soo we called the game at that stage…Robert has cleaned out both Alans brigades….he was quite damaged…but still operational…he was holding Stephen off in his farm, it was a stalemate in the South but there were sufficient French on the table to force Stephen to retire.

A French win was called. Robert’s very aggressive attack coupled with Alans real bad dice rolls made for an interesting encounter.

Til next time…..

June 2024 – Franco Prussian 1870 War battle

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I didn’t have a game planned last week but Goldie is away this week so we quickly decided to have a Franco Prussian Bash.

We played down a 6 foot by 10 foot table which I prettied up more than normal. Goldie won roll off for starting sides and who went first.

So Goldie was using Prussian’s with 3 brigades of 4 battalions and a 4 gun massed artillery battery. My French had 3 brigades of 4 battalions. Two of them had an artillery piece each while the 3rd had a Mitrailleuse.

Each game we are ‘tweaking’ the armies slightly as we have more games with them so they ‘feel’ more like we believe they should perform. For this game we tweaked the French rifles to have 3 shots, and reroll 1 miss. This was to reflect the French chassepots rate of fire being higher then the Prussian rifles.

Below first French brigade marches down a road.

Goldie has an infantry brigade and his 4 gun battery deployed. Only 2 of the guns can shoot…they are deployed below a low hill. The ruins in the center are rough ground and like the woods, only infantry can enter it and move at half pace. The hedges and walls give a +1 save from rifle fire when behind them and woods give the standard rules(-1 to hit target in woods and -1 to hit target in woods) The villages are defensive zones that can take one battalion each.

Another French brigade and …it slowly advances to their left.

The forward French brigade…slowly advances….Prussians can be seen.

Goldie has moved a brigade up on his left….French have advanced to a low rise to their front. A dumb thing to do on reflection…my advantage is a longer rifle range…and not being caught in the open…I should have stayed back behind the hedge on other side of the rise!

The Prussian are not only well painted…but in mass look quite imposing.

Goldie moved the 2 guns that could not fire over the rise and deployed….to be greeted by 3 shots from an infantry battalion…along with artillery fire. They popped! Prussian guns are scary…if kept out of the 24 inch range of the French infantry that is.

And then there were 3. It had taken several turns for the right flank Prussian brigade to move forward…here they are advancing through woods. Another brigade can be seen advancing through the ruins.

Prussian center brigade advancing…slowly through the ruins….French behind hedge to their front.

Eventually my left flank brigade made it into the village and then the stone wall to the front. Again…close up shooting against Prussians is not advisable as they get 4 shots a turn and have stamina 4 being larger battalions. What I should have done is let Goldie have the village and sit behind the southern stone wall!

Goldie throws a battalion into the village.

On the other side of the table my attempts to get a 3rd battalion to join the 2 battalions on the low rise was met by 2 turns of blunders.. backwards….. So I was forced to grab the light infantry battalion of 3rd brigade and rush them up to protect right flank.

Massed Prussians look great.

The game was now a shooting one apart from the one combat in the village.

A shaken French unit holding on.

The village is lost. We agreed we need to revisit village combat as Prussians took it to easily as the Black Powder rules are not great to this type of combat. The Prussians had 9 attacks(8 for unit and 1 for commander) v French with…2. They also get to add supports in the combat resolution while French add +3…..normally its okay as most units have 6 attacks…but these big units have 8 and has moved balance. We will think on it!

Aerial view of the village and surrounds. French have 1 unit destroyed, 1 shaken and 2 carrying 2 casualties each….so they are gone burger shortly. The Mitrailleuse wasn’t doing much either!

The other side of table and 3 of the 4 Prussian guns are destroyed……I have a second line but is pretty obvious the French day is done and need to retire.

Far right…holding on……just….

So that was fun. I made more of an effort on the terrain so looked pretty. We need to think about village combat and Goldie needs to keep his guns out of range and I need to not get so close to him before I am shooting!

Til next time, Terry out.

May 2024 Napoleonic Game – 1813ish

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Played a 4 player game at Hutt Valley Club with French v Russo/Prussians.

I organized the sides to be roughly equal on numbers as a new player, David was having his second game of Black Powder. Sadly David had some problems on his farm and couldn’t make it on the day. So rather than assist David, I filled in on the French side with Rob, Goldie had his Prussians and Mike was playing Russians for I believe the first time.

The Allied set up on North side of a stream, they had a couple of villages and some field fortifications to hide behind. Below is some of the Russian set up.

View down the table. Rob commanded the French right and in view of Goldies Prussian being mainly Landwehr suggested the plan was Rob attacks and I hold the Russians attention.

So Rob attacked on turn 1. Not quite what I had in mind, but, Go Rob!

I did a more sedate skirmishing advance on a village.

Hmmm….so Robs attack was an initial draw coupled with some extinction events on both sides, but Rob eventually did the deed on the landwehr. French heavies move up in support.

View from Mikes side towards my French.

I tried to get a skirmish line up to close range on the Jager…also skirmishing..to avoid the Russian artillery doing to much damage on me…it failed.

Cavalry attacks going in. Its looking good for Rob at this stage!

Missing Prussian units…others damaged……but heavies have taken punishment.

Back on other flank…French skirmish screen has taken a battering …so columns have burst through them to charge and drive off the skirmishing Jager and then carry on into the columns behind them…only…we didn’t make it…and instead decided to be target practice for Russian batteries. Being the gentleman I am(well..sometimes) I helped Rob with advice on how to beat up my French(I never play French…normally Russian..or Austrian…even Dutch before French!)

At same time the columns were meant to be engaging Russian infantry…behind this battery was a brigade of light cavalry…who were meant to charge the battery in the distance…..die in the attempt…allowing the now unloaded battery to be ridden down by the next French cavalry unit…..sadly…..no one wanted to … and rolls and re rolls just failed…and failed….and…..I need a drink….

In centre…. it was shooting..and shooting…..

View of other occupied village… a tough nut to crack frontally hence Rob’s flanking movement. Goldie has Dragoons and horse battery stationed in reserve in center.

Robs attack stalled as his cavalry commander blundered and retired…..the horse battery got shot up and popped…..and attacks could just not get going……its one of those days….

Russian horse battery has now deployed so the plan of charging the foot battery is now over and with the damage was taking…I decided to retire from the field.

In center…French skirmishers finally managed to get moving and stormed across stream to enfilade the defending troops on the field fortifications…with supporting columns to retire behind if needed,,,and brigade of heavies ready to assist. But its all to late…..

The Rob v Goldie duel and Rob has just taken to much damage to push Goldie back.

So we called it an Allied victory as they still held the villages…and looked to have a superior position overall.

Now when we visited Christchurch recently, my better half got all carried away and bought a bottle of whisky for me. She liked the name…no other reason….how can you resist buying a bottle of ‘Firkin Whisky;…just say it a few times after a tasting….it grows on you.

Found a review : ‘They say quality counts, and this dram has our number! This is a seriously sensational whisky. The elegance of Linkwood, one of Speyside’s finest, marries perfectly with the glorious earthy oak and Madeira richness & raisin spice. Brilliantly rich and fruity notes complement the hint of toasty oak with exceptional balance. This dram lingers like a summer lover, complete with a lovely tingle of spicy oak.’

Its a darn good whisky is all I can say .

Til next time.. Terry out.