Camp Cromwell

Sunday School at Barrie's

2012-06-03T18:56:00.003+10:00

Saga

With four punters we tried the Feast of Crows scenario where the four players start in the four corners of the table in a free for all. Mark's Anglo Danes in the foreground, Leigh's Anglo Danes on LH corner, Barrie's Vikings in far corner & Jim's Welsh in the RH corner.

It was the terrain, nothing personal, but every one charged towards the Vikings, though Mark democratically attacked both Leigh and Barrie when he got there.

By the time limit (end of turn 7) Barrie's force was all but destroyed, but the victory conditions awards Victory Points for casualties inflicted, your own losses don't count. It turned out we did Barrie a favour by ganging up on him - it gave him more opportunities to kill people.

As always with saga it was a lot of fun, but it's very much game rather than a simulation.

Treasure Trove Found!

Barrie had said he had a few Renaissance troops somewhere. When he dug them out we found a treasure trove of Renaissance 15mm figures - Western Europeans, Poles and Turks. The pic is just one of 7 trays of them. They might be small, but they make up for it in volume...and even at 15mm winged hussars look magnificant.

They are based on 60x30 bases, a little different from mine, but perfectly compatible under Pike & Shotte.

We plan to fight Poles v. Turks using Pike & Shotte next Sunday.

FOW Interlude

2012-06-02T21:49:00.001+10:00

Jim's Hungarian Light Infantry
v.
Rich's Canadian Mech

1750 pts late war, Counterattack Mission, Canadians attacking.

The Canadians are attacking from the far corner. Their Wasps & Shermans attacked down the far left of the table. Their infantry in the unfrocked Priests moved around the hill to their left to attack the ham roll stand in the foreground. Bugs lead the way & 6pdrs followed up.

The Hungarians moved an infantry coy towards the ham roll stand with their Paks in support. 3 Panthers & 2 Nimrods were in reserve to come in at the far RH corner.

The attack of the Shermans & Wasps was stopped by the Hungarian infantry and their Panzerwatists, but the infantry were reduced below half in the process and also routed.

The Canadians other attack went better for them. Their bugs prevented the Hungarian infantry getting to the objective to dig in. When the Hungarian armour came on they were caught between the 6pdrs and the infantry. A naval bombardment took out one Panther, the other two tried to attack infantry but failed miserably. The Nimrods were blown away by the 6pdrs. With smoke keeping the Paks out of it, the Canadians had no trouble taking & holding the ham roll stand.

We had a few V3 moments...like the armoured transport rules are a bit confusing, but basically, the Canadians played to their strengths well & won comfortably. The Panthers demonstrated their weaknesses - probably cured the Hungarians of that delusion. It was noteworthy that both attempts by armour to attack infantry failed - V3 has improved the balance there.

Nick somewhere out West (West Launceston?)

2012-06-01T10:05:00.000+10:00

The Donkey Botherers gang (Dennis) had been terrifying the good folks in town. Finally, enough was enough -- Nick and his mates came down from the mountains, to run the trouble makers out of town.

As Nick's heroes approached town, a shot rang out. One of the Donkey Botherers, drunk on a rooftop, spotted one of the hard mountain men and took a shot. The shot missed, but the element of surprise was lost. A couple of the mountain men shot back with their buffalo guns. Large pieces of building went flying -- but the gang member was safe. He jumped down from the building roof, joining Syphallis Bill in the town center. Nick's heros worked closer. But suddenly another of the Botherers appeared around the corner of a building, and let fly with both barrels of a sawn-off shotgun, downing two of the mountain men in one shot. Retribution was swift -- a musket ball knocked the gang member out of action. The mountain men charged around the building, and a swirling melee developed. Unfortunatly, the hardy mountain men werent that hardy -- three were knocked out in no time. The mountain men tried to use their large trusty buffalo guns in the town, but they werent much good compared to the nimble six shooters. Before you knew it, Nick and two buffalo hunter friends were all that was left of a posse of 9 -- Nick turned tail and ran!!!!

A fun, quick game using Legends of the Old West.

Pike & Shotte: Montrose v. Covernanters

2012-05-29T23:41:00.000+10:00

Mike's Covernanters v. Steve's Scots Royalists

The Covernanters are on the left in the pics. 2 P&S plus 2 dragoons on the right, 2 P&S plus artillery in centre, 4 cavalry in front of the centre.

Montrose's army has Highlanders on the rough hill in the foreground, 2 Scots & 1 Irish P&S in the centre and 2 Gordon horse plus commanded musketeers on the far right.

Montrose started forward with the Gordon horse on the right, but when they moved slowly and the Covernanters moved P&S that way he changed his mind & brought them back behind his centre.

The Covernanters advanced their horse in the centre & the opposing foot formed a row of hedgehogs. But their infantry & guns lagged behind. Montrose counterattacked the horse with the Gordon horse and his foot. The Gordons lost a unit, but the Covernanters lost 2. Both sides withdrew their cavalry.

In the foreground, the highlanders on the hill got pounded by musket fire when they came over the crest. They retired and the Covernanters followed up. The hill disordered the pikes, but the musketeers were doing the work so it didn't matter. More musket fire broke the highlanders.

In the centre, Montrose's foot counterattacked the Covernanter foot and broke it.

Now both sides had a division broken & 1 verging on it. The Covernanters disengaged their right and moved it to the centre. Montrose advanced his right towards the Covernanter horse.

The Covernanter artillery had been hurting the Irish, but were outflanked and taken out by musketeers.

Finally the Gordon horse charged the Covernanter horse with musketeers in support. Both side fell back shaken, but the Covernanters had to test army morale first and couldn't rally - so Montrose won a close run thing.

The battle was enjoyed by all (including the umpire). We sorted out quite a few misconceptions we had carried over from Hail,Caesar in previous P&S games. The game plays quite differently to Hail Caesar despite having the same basic system.

The only issue I'm not really happy with is Broken divisions rules - they hang around able to shoot & tend to prevent a clean finish. HC has divisions harder to break, but pretty useless when they do. In P&S divisions are easier to break, but can still be a pain to the enemy.

Pike & Shotte at Barrie's

2012-05-27T18:06:00.002+10:00

Barrie & Steve's Covernanters v. Leigh's New Model Army

Both armies were about 770 points in 3 divisions. Leigh deployed the New Model with 3 Ironsides & 2 cavaly on his left, 2 pike & shotte in the centre and 1 pike 7 shotte plus 1 cavalry on his right. The Covenanters put their 4 highlander and 4lancer units on their left, their 2 pike & shootte in the centre with 2 dragoons in open order in front and 2 cavalry plus 4 light guns on their left.

The Covernanters advanced their left and sent their skirmishers forward in the centre. The New Model just pulled their right back while they sorted out their blundering cavalry on the left.

The Covenanter's left did well, overwhelming the horse and all but surrounding the foot which broke after putting up a brave fight.

The Ironsides were got back under control and were advanced towards the Scot's centre. The Scots answered by advancing their centre to support the dragoons and moving their right flank cavalry behind the infantry.

The Ironsides charged at the Scots foot. One unit rode down the dragoons and charged on to try to help out the New Model's right. They took out some highlanders, but were counterattacked & destroyed by lancers. The Scots pike & shotte succeeded in forming hedgehog & the rest of the Ironsides stopped short and caracolled. But this left them right in front of the Scot's artillery. One Ironside unit charged the Scots horse between the hedgehogs and destroyed it, but the combination of artillery fire and musket fire from the hedgehogs whittled the New Model horse away and eventually they broke. With both flank divisions broken, the New Model Army broke.

The game showed up a few more areas of difference with Hail Caesar we hadn't noticed before, some of which we found hard to understand from the text during the heat of battle. In particular to do with flank attacks, what happens after a combat and the traversing shots rule. I need to have a good look at the book while not under pressure.

Pike & Shotte

2012-05-24T23:26:00.000+10:00

Jim's Scots Covernanters v. Mark's Royalists

Mark had the same Royalist army that Steve & coy used last week...2 cavalry divs of 4 and 2 infantry divs of 2 pike & 4 shotte. Following last week's disaster, the Scots army was changed to 2 infantry divs of 2 pike & 4 shotte & 1 cavalry div of 6. They also had 2 highlander & a large commanded musket unit attached to 1 inf div.

The Scots (on left in pics) deployed to the left of centre with their cavalry on their right and the Musketeers and highlanders on their left. The Royalists put all their cavalry on their right. Both sides had their lefts overlapped by enemy cavalry.

The Scots sent their Highlanders & musketeers on a death or glory mission to delay the Royalist horse while the rest of the army advanced as fats as possible - which was not that fast for some of them (the right hand infantry & the cavalry only advanced at all because of our house rule that allows 1 move on fail if the order was dead straight ahead).

The highlanders & musketeers bought a bit of time, but were inevitably overwhelmed by the cavaliers. The pike & shot near the hamlet gave up on outflanking the foot and fell back to form a hedgehog to protect the army's left from the cavaliers. the rest of the division traded shotte with their opposite numbers.

The Scots cavalry charged the musketeers. The foot failed to get into hedgehog and the 2 musketeers units were ridden down. The Scotts horse were prevented from going on round the flank by the proximity rule as the reamining fott formed hedgehog. The cavalry lined up to caracole the 2 hedgehogs while waiting for infantry support to arrive. In the centre, the royalist foot counterattacked hoping to break through before the 2nd Scots infantry div arrived.

The left hand Scots infantry div did break, but the hedgehog, being unshaken remained an obstacle to the cavaliers which made a wide detour around it. The right hand Scots infantry division may have been slow to arrive, but when they did, they were decisive. The quickly broke a hedgehog. This freed half the Scots cavalry to sweep into the rear of the enemy foot. With the infantry on their flank. The royalist musketeers were ridden down and both infantry divisions broke. The Scots had one division of 3 broken, the Royalists now had 2 of 4. The army morale rule in P&S are half divs broken = army broken, so the royalists were defeated.

It was a most enjoyable game. The defining aspects of the period - the interplay of pike & shotte and of cavalry v. infantry both seemed to work very well. The only house rule we used was our 1 move on failed order to go straight ahead - it probably saved the Scots bacon as their left would hardly have moved otherwise. But to not have it and have half the army do nothing until the game was lost would not have been as good a game.

Hail Caesar: Rome v. Britons

2012-05-22T23:00:00.001+10:00

Mike & Jim's Britons
v.
Steve's Romans

The Romans are on the right in the pics. Their cavalry is at the far end, with 3 infantry divisions - all advancing but at varying speeds.

The Britons have both cavalry divisions on the far flank, then 2 infantry divisions in the centre overlapped by the Romans.

The Britons redeployed to their right so they wouldn't be outflanked and charged the Roman left.

On the far flank the Roman cavalry got hot command dice and swept away much of the Briton skirmish line.

The infantry battle turned into a chaotic mess both sides won some and lost some.

On the far flank the Roman advance was flanked by the Briton's chariots. Only a prodigious set of dice rolls saved the Roman horse from destruction (like 3 sixes to hit from 8 dice for 2 kills, then saving all of 10 hits on 4+). But save them they did and then it was all downhill for the Brits. It seemed that every time the Brits looked like winning the Romans would pull out some hot dice to save themselves.

All the Roman divisions were on the point of breaking, but none did. Following the example of the cavalry, both Brit infantry divisions just failed to break their opponents then broke themselves.

Sunday Saga at Barrie's

2012-05-20T23:16:00.002+10:00

With 4 players we fought two battles side by side. We did the clash of warlords scenario in both battles, except without a time limit - we fought to a finish.

Mark's Anglo-Danes v. Barrie's Vikings

Mark's Anglo-Danes (in foreground of pic) did well initially, but Barrie's Vikings regrouped and fought back with the levy archers proving decisive. Must have caused a great loss of face in Valhalla with the warriors upstaged by the bow wielding scum.

Leigh's Anglo-Danes v. Jim's Welsh

The Welsh special rules give them combat & manoeuvre advantages in rough ground, but their cavalry and archers are best suited to open ground. The battlefield being divided by woods and a steep hill across the centre made for some particular tactical problems.

The Welsh pushed infantry through the wood on their left and held back their cavalry & half their archers on the right. The Anglo-Danes attacked the wood armed with lots of special rules that trumped the Welsh one. The Welsh conceded the wood and fell back to a new line.

The Anglo-Danes took their time reorganising, then advanced over the hill & through the wood and attacked.

The Anglo-Danish warlord lead his hearthguard against the mounted Welsh warriors. Both side threw in all the special rules they could muster and the result was mutual destruction - both the hearthguard and the Welsh warriors all slain. This left the Anglo-Danish warlord on his own.

But the Welsh warlord was lurking behind his warriors with the last of his hearthguard. Now it was the Welsh turn, they attacked the lone warlord with a fresh load of dice on their battleboard while the Anglo-Dane had none left on his. The warlord died giving the Welsh victory.

Pike & Shotte

2012-05-17T22:17:00.001+10:00

Scots Covernanters (Jim, Mike & Mark)
v.
Royalists (Steve, Tony & Rob)

Both sides had 4 divisions.
The Royalists had 2 divs of 4 horse, 2 divs of 2 pike + 6 shotte.
The Covernanters had 1 div of 4 lancers, 1 of 4 horse, 1 of 2 pike & 4 shotte & 1 of 4 highlanders. They also had 2 medium guns & 2 dragoons attached to the pike & shotte.

The Covernanters deployed all their cavalry on their right, pike & shotte on their left & highlanders in the centre. They hoped the enemy would split their horde allowing them to overwhelm the half on their right.

Unfortunately for the Scots the Royalists deployed all their horse on their left and all their infantry in the centre.

The Scots held their cavalry back while they advanced the highlanders to the left of the central farm, and moved their pike & shotte to the right of it. Their dragoons moved up into the farm and began peppering away at the Royalist foot.

The Royalist horse galloped forward briskly against the Scots cavalry. The second rate Scots cavalry didn't stand much of a chance & were soon defeated.

In the centre both sides had poor command rolls and failed to come to grips.

On the far flank the Highlanders made a brave charge, but failed to broke through and were then crushed by superior numbers. The Scots then failed army morale and broke.

The Scots were pretty well beaten on the deployment, then their cross over manoeuvre with the infantry was probably not the right response. As a result they were well beaten. But it was fast and fun battle enjoyed by all.

Hail Caesar: Rome v. Pontics

2012-05-12T15:34:00.001+10:00

Jim's Romans v. Byron's Ponts

Both armies 500 points in 4 divisions. Romans made a map of their deployment, Ponts deployed, then Romans to the map. Army break test: Fail if 3 divs broken. Losing camp counts as a div broken. Romans also lose if both infantry divs are broken.

Roman OOB: 2 divs of 3 legionaries, 1 med bow, 1 skirmisher, 2 divs of 1 med cav, 1 light cav, 1 med spear, 1 med bow. 3 light balistae attached to one inf. (LHS in pics).

Pontic OOB: 1) 2 cats, 2 horse archer. 2) 4 warbands 2 skirms. 3) 4 warbands, 1 double handed thracian, 2 skirms. 4) 2 heavy cav, 2 light cav.

The Romans deployed conventionally, infantry in the centre, cavalry on the wings. The Ponts also deployed that way, but bunched up to their right leaving the Roman right with no opponents.

The Ponts advanced in echelon right leading. The Romans tried the revolving door, pulling back their left and swinging their right forward & left.

At first things all right for the Romans. Their left flank mixed division was better handled than the Pontic cavalry and the Ponic horse archers were quickly destroyed. The first clash of warbands v. legionaries also went the Roman's way.

One Pontic cat unit rode down the spearmen, but the other one was overcome by a combined attack by light & medium cavalry and the division broke.

In the centre things suddenly turned bad for Rome. The second wave of warbands smashed through, breaking the LH infantry division. One warband charged on to pillage the camp, leaving the Romans one broken division away from defeat.

On their right, the 2nd legion pinned down the enemy cavalry while the Roman cavalry got up around the flank (although the right flank infantry showed no signs of urgency and lagged way out of the fight).

The end game went as follows - working from the far end:
The victorious Roman cavalry was still being rallied.
The victorious warbands wheeled left and charged towards the 2nd legion.
The 2nd legion charged the Pont cavalry as cavalry charged them from the flank. Already shaken by javelin fire, the Pontic light cav broke allowing legionaries to hit the heavies in flank. The Pontic cavalry broke quickly enough for the legionaries to reform to face the approaching warbands.
To cap it off for Rome, a unit of auxilary bowmen worked around the rear of the cavalry and stormed the Pontic camp causing the Ponts to fail army morale.

Pike & Shotte: Cropardy Bridge 1644

2012-05-08T22:55:00.000+10:00

Steve & Tony's Parliamentary Army v. Jim's Royalists

We dived off the deep end into the new Pike & Shotte rules playing the Cropardy Bridge scenario from the book. It used almost all of my ECW 15mm collection. The scenario has the Royalists strung out on the road (LHS of pics marching towards the camera) with the parliamentarians coming on in 2 columns across two bridge/fords.

In the first pic the battle is already joined in the distance where the Parliamentary cavalry galloped forward with surprising speed, but the Royalist horse just had time to deploy out of road column and charge first. In the foreground the Parliamentary advance guard has deployed with the columns moving up behind. The Royalists have deployed into battle formation but not moved off the road.

The cavalry fight on the Royalist left had 4 Cavalier units v. 5 Roundheads. The Cavaliers were better troops, but lacked control. The Roundhead's caracole proved more effective than expected & the extra unit made the difference. The cavalier division broke.

On the other flank the other cavalier division charged the Parliament's advance guard as their infantry followed up behind.

The parliamentary deployment of horse with foot behind paid off and the Cavaliers failed to break through & were broken.

The Parliamentary right was still a long way away, so the Royalists continued attacking on their right, hoping to pull off a win before they could arrive. However, their attempt to outflank the Parliamentary foot by attacking through the farmyard petered out and the musketeer division on their right was too slow to come up. The main Royalist infantry division was holding their own, but when the Lifeguard cavalry's desperate attempt at a breakthough on their right failed it was all over for the King's men.

Despite the size of the battle and the need for frequent consultation of the rule book, the battle ripped along quickly. It was all over in 2 hours. We all enjoyed it very much. The Pike & Shotte system is as you would expect a mix of Black Powder & Hail Caesar, but it does succeed in bringing out a very credible English Civil War feel. The similar systems make it easy to pick up P&S after learning HC, but it is a bit tricky remembering the subtle differences. On balance though I like the principle of a common system tweaked for the different periods.

Our 15mm figures are based on 40mm x 30mm stands: Infantry in 2 ranks, cavalry in 1.
Standard units: Musketeers & dragoons 3 stands in 1 rank. Pike & cavalry 4 stands in 2 ranks.
We used these with the distances & ranges straight from the book on a 10'x8' table.

Kingston FOW Tournament 2012

2012-05-05T21:45:00.001+10:00

With 21 players on 11 tables this is the biggest wargames tournament yet in Tasmania. Camp Cromwell has 5 players (not counting Nick who was hi-jacked by the LGC). There are 8 from Kingston, 5 from the Launceston Gaming Club, 2 from the Melbourne Monday Knights. Nick Ridge's son Declan played the byes (& won most of them).

Results for Camp Cromwell players:

Jim (Hungarian Light Infantry):
1. Lost to Richard Taylor's Tankovy (KBR) - Counterattack Mission
2. Defeated Rob Holloway's US Rifles (LGC) - Dust Up Mission
3. Defeated Patrick Oxborough's Strelkovy (LGC) - Cauldron Mission.
4. Defeated Nick Ridge's Brit Inf (LGC) - No Retreat Mission.
5. Lost to Smithy's Strelkovy (KBR) - Free For All Mission.

Steve (Grenadiers):
1. Defeated Rob Holloway's US Rifles (LGC)
2. Defeated Richard Taylor's Tankovy (KBR)
3. Lost to Andrew Oates US Rifles (MK)
4. Lost to Smithy's Strelkovy (KBR)
5. Defeated Nick Ridge's Brit Rifles (LGC)

Mark (US Rifles):
1. Defeated Tristian's Panzergrenadiers (KBR)
2. Drew with Griggsy's Panzers (KBR)
3. Drew with Daniel Kosta's Panzergrenadiers (LGC)
4. Drew with Leigh
5. Defeated Patrick Oxborough's Strelkovy (KBR)

Leigh (Brit Rifles):
1. Lost to Griggsy's Panzers (KBR)
2. Drew with Carl Pearcey's US Rifles
3. Drew with Rob Holloway's US Rifles (LGC)
4. Drew with Mark
5. Bye.

Byron (US Tank):
1. Lost to Daniel Kosta's Panzergrenadiers (LGC)
2. Drew with Patrick Oxborough's Strelkovy (KBR)
3. Lost to Ed's Panzers (MK)
4. Bye
5. Drew with Shane Madden (LGC)

Tasmanian Club Trophy: Kingston Bunker Rats.

1st Place: Andrew Oates (aka Lord T of the Melbourne Monday Knights)
2nd Place: Andrew Smith (KBR).
3rd Place: Nick Bowler (LGC this time).

Da Vinci Award for best army: Steve Jendrich.

Full results table:

Andrew Oates	528	US Rifle Coy NA
Andrew Smith	425	Soviet Strelkovy Red Army EF
Nick Bowler	322	US Rifle Coy NA
Tristan Goodwin	321	Gep Panzergrenadier Coy NA
Garry Howell	319	Panzergrenadier Coy EF
Jim Gandy	317	Hungarian Motorised Infantry EF
Ed Corsar	218	Panther Coy EF
Miles Griggs	218	Panzerpioier Coy EF
Steve Jendrich	217	Grenadier Coy EF
Nick Ridge	216	British Rifle Coy Tunisia NA
Mark Oakford	216	US Rifle Coy NA
Carl Peacy	215	British Rifle Coy Tunisia NA
Richard Taylor	215	Soviet Tankovy EF
Daniel Kosta	214	Gep PanzerGrenadiers EF
Russell Malham	214	Aussie Rifle Coy NA
Byron Combes	114	US Tank Coy NA
Rob Holloway	113	US Rifle Coy NA
Shane Madden	113	Gep Panzerpionier Coy EF
Adrian Griffin	112	US Tank Coy NA
Leigh Watson	112	British Rifle Coy NA
Patrick Oxbrough	108	Soviet Strelkovy Guards EF

Although Camp Cromwell didn't do as well as usual in the results department and lost possession of the Sturmtiger trophy, a great time was had by all with lots of close interesting games. Once again John Mumford did a terrific job organising the event.

Hail Caesar - Seleucids v the Ponts

2012-05-01T23:14:00.000+10:00

Steve's Seleucids v. Jim's Ponts

Both armies were 500 points in 4 divisions, Ponts on the left in the pics.

The Ponts had a cavalry div on each flank with Imitation Romans & Galacians in the centre.

The Seleucids had cavalry on their right, elephants on their left and 2 infantry divs in the centre - both a mix of phalanx and medium infantry.

The Ponts sent light cav forward on their right to keep the enemy left busy while the Galacians & left flank cavalry charged forward with the Imitation Romans in reserve.

But the dice gods did not favour the ponts. Once again the Samartan cataphracts were paper tigers and the Pontic left was quickly broken. The Galacians won some & lost some, but the better drilled Seleucids could exploit their successes and the Galacians broke as well.

Meanwhile the Imitation Romans were still sitting on their hill refusing to do much.

The Ponts decided their left flank cavalry couldn't do much against elephants & phalanxes, so they moved their cavalry back then left to join the Imitation Romans in a desperate effort to save the day.

But the Ponts were caught in a pincer where every loss tightened the noose and the odd win just wasn't enough. The Imitations broke & that was game over.

Saga at Barrie's

2012-04-29T19:51:00.001+10:00

After last week Barrie & I were keen for another go at Saga. Again it was fun & we're keen to try some different forces next time.

Game 1: Jim's Anglo-Danes v. Barrie's Vikings

The Anglo-Danes (in the foreground) advanced their left leaving their levy on their right hanging back. The Vikings took the bait and charged the levy. The levy fell back & the main force turned right to attack the Viking unit's flank. But the dice did not cooperate, the Viking unit took a lot of enemies with them and one got away.

A misunderstanding of the cover rules lead to the Anglo-Danes charging the ruined abby with such unfortunate results that battle became a mopping up operation for the Vikings.

Game 2: Mark's Anglo-Danes v. Barrie's Vikings

This scenario has a river with 2 fords. The winner is the side with the most troops over the river on turn 7.

Mark did pretty well for a first gamer, but Barrie in his 4th game had a good grasp of the Viking's special rules & won a tough fight.

Elperezova - 6mm Napoleonics

2012-04-24T22:42:00.003+10:00

After my experiments with 6mm Napoleonics over the weekend I worked up a summary sheet for a simplified Black Powder for big Napoleonic battles and set up a game for Steve, Big Carl & Tony - again based on El Perez from the BP book. Not a big battle yet, but you have to walk before you run.

Steve's Russians v. Carl & Tony's French

The scenario requires the Russians to fight their way over the bridge at Petitosova & get at least half their army away. The French have 1 small unit defending the bridge & the rest in hot pursuit of the Russians. Steve did the usual - deployed 1 infantry division & his cavalry to delay and marched the rest towards the bridge as fast as possible.

The retreat went well for the Russians while they could march down the road, but it all slowed down when they had to deploy to attack the bridge and their Command rating of 7 asserted itself. But they sorted themselves and charged across the bridge with 1 brigade supported by another & artillery on both flanks. They had done all they could, but the Frogs refused to budge as the rearguard melted away and the French main army got clear and began marching forward with a Command rating of 9.

The French garrison eventually ran out of hot dice and broke leaving the escape route clear, but it was too late. The Russians only got about 1/4 of their army away & the French won a good vctory.

The modified Black Powder system worked really well & can only improve with more work & testing. The players enjoyed it and it was a breeze to umpire. The simplifications make the game easier to remember and quicker to play, but I think still retains enough tactical options. Borodino 2012 here we come.

Trying out Saga at Barrie's

2012-04-22T20:30:00.001+10:00

Saga is a ruleset for Dark Age skirmish games. It's been getting good reviews so I was keen to take up Barrie's invitation to try it out. For armies all you need a couple of dozen 28mm barbarians. I made up my own passable Anglo-Danish force by selecting suitable figures from my Hail Caesar Celts. Barrie had a force of Vikings - his first painting effort for a long time.

The rule book include 6 scenarios - we fought the smallest one - a simple free for all where the aim was simply to kill the enemy's Warlord. We fought two battles going one-all before adjourning to watch the football (where Barrie lost again).

Our first game took about 2 1/2 hours due to extensive rules looking up. It ended with the two Warlords in single combat with Barrie's winning.

Barrie's force is on the far side. His have cute movement trays, but with such small forces, individual figures are fine.

The second one took less than an hour - we knew what we were doing already & were feeling gung-ho as well. I added a standard bearer and one of Boudicea's daughters as cheerleader to support my Warlord & it seemed to inspire him. With just one game's experience we were beginning to get into a few of the tactical nuances the game provides. This time the Anglo Danes cunningly outflanked the Vikings and won a decisive victory.

The force selection, movement & combat mechanics are dead simple - the unique features are the Battle Boards and the Saga dice that drive them. There are different battle Boards and dice for each type of force. The rule book has Vikings, Anglo-Danish, Welsh & Normans. More are, or will, be available in supplements. The dice each have 3 symbols, 1 of the first, 2 of the second, 3 of the third (you can fake them with standard dice). Each turn you have a command phase where you throw a certain number of the Saga dice and place the dice on the Battle Board. Your options are limited by the dice results as each symbol can only be placed in certain places. You then take the dice off as you use them to allow you move, shoot or provide tactical options. It sounds weird and artificial and it's difficult to describe, but it works surprisingly well. Every turn you have to look at the tactical situation, look at the dice you have rolled and make a plan. Then you implement it (using normal dice in the combat). It takes a little while to get it, but when you do, there is a surprising number of tactical options (which are different for each type of force).

I've never liked skirmish games previously (being too much of a meglomaniac), but I like this one. Easy to play, but fun and challenging.

Experiments with Black Powder 6mm Napoleonics

2012-04-21T21:18:00.001+10:00

Following my introduction to Lasalle last week I thought it would be interesting to try Black Powder Napoleonics & compare. A year ago we did a bit of Black Powder 7YW in 15mm & liked it, but then Hail Caesar 28mm fever took over. But I have all these 6mm Napoleonics and today finally got around to trying them out with BP.

The 6mm figures are based as follows:

- Russian Infantry: In column formation on 40x30mm stands.

- French infantry: As Russian except some skirmisher figs around the column.

- Cavalry: In single rank on 40x20mm stands.

- Artillery: 2 guns on a 40x20mm stand.

Unit sizes:

- Standard unit: 3 stands.

- Small unit: 2 stands.

- Large unit: 4 stands.

Scale: Half distances in the book. This is in proportion to the unit sizes & allows typical battles to be done on a 6x4' table.

With these scales, I consider a stand to be a battalion, a “unit” a brigade, & a “brigade” a division. Thus a typical force of 3 or 4 divisions is a Corps and should provide a good one night battle for two players.

The ultimate aim of course is full blown Napoleonic battles (it is Borodino's 200th aniversary). Multi-corps battles will work on a 10x6' table, though it will probably take a couple of nights to resolve one - which is not a problem - that's just more time to enjoy it.

To try out the system I played the Fighting Retreat at El Perez scenario from the book solo. However as I have only sorted out the French & Russian 6mms it became the Fighting Retreat at Elperezova with Russians retreating. This Fighting Retreat scenario pretty well governs stratategy making this a good solo game. But still lots of tactical permuations are possible.

In this solo battle the Russian rearguard delayed the French as best they could while the rest of the army rushed towards the Petitosova bridge and safety. Two Russian columns marched towards the bridge (defended by 1 small French unit) while their cavalry on their right (left of pic) and an infantry division on their left tried to delay the main French force.

But the Petitosiva garrison held on heroically to fatally delay the Russian retreat. The pursuing French, having broken or driven back the rear guards, arrived in time to attack the bridgehead defence and take the road in front of the bridge to cut off the remains of the Russian force. The French suffered significant losses, but the Russians only got 5 of their 15 units over the bridge to safety. To win the Russians had to get 8 away, so it was pretty close in the end.

I got a few things confused with HC which I discovered progressively as I gradually got back into the BP way. But it was certainly a good idea to do a solo battle before trying a proper battle. The rules and the scale went together well & it all felt right. Importantly, I could see that with just a few simplifications the game will run quickly enough for it to work with really big actions.

It was interesting to play BP again after Hail Caesar. Rick Priestly's achievement in producing two sets of rules with basically the same mechanics, but which convincingly reflect the character of the two different eras is remarkable. It will be interesting to see Pike & Shotte - which is in the mail.

Comparison between Black Powder and Lasalle

After playing Lasalle a few nights back, I wanted to play Black Powder again to refresh my memory of it before comparing them. They both provide a good straightforward game that doesn’t give you a headache. Lasalle may be a tighter set with less ambiguities. It is more measured and slower paced - move rates are slower and predicable and losses build gradually with less wild swings of fortune than in BP. I could happily play either, but my preference is Black Powder for the following reasons:

1) I like using a family of rules sets over different periods even though this is both an advantage and a curse - the common methods make it easier to remember how to play the game when you swap periods, but it’s also easy to confuse the points of difference. (Using half scale for BP helps as it makes the move distances consistent).

2) The wild swings of fortune in BP can be exasperating, but it also makes an exciting game.

3) I like the BP command system.

4) I like the BP/HC philosophy of the rules being a tool box that you can fiddle with by adopting optional or house rules (so you can easily eliminate any issues that seriously annoy you).
5) I think BP lends itself better to scaling up for fighting big battles with 6mm figs.

Lasalle Napoleonics at Nick's

2012-04-19T22:57:00.000+10:00

Jim's Austrians v. Nick's French - 2 divisions a side in 6x4' table, 15mm figs.
My first go at Lasalle Napoleonics, but Nick is a veteran of a few games & had a pretty good grasp of the rules so we didn't waste a lot of time looking up.

The pics are all taken from the Austrian side. The dice determined that the French were the attackers, and for that they got an extra couple of units. The defenders had the choice of choosing table side, or deploying second. They chose the latter.

The French had 2 infantry divisions, the Austrians an infantry & a cuirassier division.

The French advanced quickly on their left with their right echeloned back. The Austrians moved forward a little to meet them with their cuirassiers charging the infantry as they left the farm fields.

The cuirassiers broke one infantry unit, but most of the French got into square & the cavalry was beaten off.

There's a bit of a gap in photo record here as your reporter got carried away in the action. The French centre was counterattacked by the Austrian left and destroyed. The Austrian left then turned around and attacked the french left.

The French were pinned by the cuirassiers on one side and attacked by infantry on the other. The French losses mounted and they eventually failed an army morale test.

Lasalle has its odd quirks but nothing too outragous that you wouldn't get used to. The system rattles along pretty fast and doesn't require continuous reference to tables. As a virgin player I just did what seemed right and the rules pretty well supported me - which is always a good test. I certainly enjoyed the game.

Nick in Launceston - Lasalle Again

2012-04-19T10:37:00.000+10:00

Had another bash at Lasalle at Chris's place. This time we did two divisions a side -- Austrians had Infantry and Cuirassiers, French had Veteran Infantry and Light Cavalry.

This time we added in generals, reaction charges (which didnt come in to play), and army morale. However, we stuffed up the army morale, forgetting to test until way after both armies had 'broken'.

Nick had Austrians defending, with his Cuirassiers on his left flank. Chris had French attacking, with his light cavalry on his left flank.

We rolled for generals. The Austrians need a 6 to get a good general, and a 1-2 gives a bad general. True to form, the Austrian Cuirassiers had some limp wristed powder puff general. The French need a 1 to get a bad general, but get a good general on a 4-6. Fortunatly, both French generals were average.

The French left flank screamed up, deploying their horse artillery, and threatening the infantry in front of them into square. One unit even screamed across the front of the Austrian line, taking out the Austrian artillery, before running into Austrian cuirassiers and evaporating. The horse artillery slowly pounded the squares, damaging them, but not breaking them until the end of the game.

The Austrian left flank waited till the French had advanced close. Then the cuirassiers charged out. The French decided to try to shoot the Cuirassiers down rather than form square. 2x Veteran infantry destroyed as a result. Learning their lesson, the rest of the French infantry formed square, leaving the cuirassiers floundering hopelessly, slowly taking attrition from long range artillery or the odd musket shot. Eventually, a fresh French hussar unit tried their luck on the cuirassiers. They were beaten, but this further disorganised the cuirassiers. The hussars rallied, charged the cuirassiers again, and broke them! Huzzah!!!

At this point there was a swirling infantry melee in the center. The French really missed the loss of their two veteran infantry units -- they just didnt have the numbers. The Austrians slowly wore the French down. But with the loss of the cuirassiers, the French infantry in square on the left flank became free to move -- they joined the fight. Unfortunatly, the French center had been ground down sufficiently that the Austians managed to take on and beat the fresh French toops.

Suddenly, the Austrian squares facing the French light cavcalry and horse artillery broke under the pressure, and a French chasseur unit managed to get the last surviving Austrian artillery, and the Austrians went from what looked like a good position to complete collapse. The French had undisputed control of their objective, to win the game.

On reflection, we found a few more mistakes. Particularly, the Austrian Cuirassiers are a reserve division, so they come on as reinforcements. But to counter that, we forgot to give them the shock cavalry bonus for most of the game.

A good game, that has me painting Napoleonics again!

Nick in Launceston -- New Store Magic Night!

2012-04-18T10:22:00.000+10:00

There is a new store in Launceston -- Good Games. This is a branch of a large chain on the mainland. It has computer gaming, plus tables for various fantasy and card games. The best bit though is the opening hours -- 11 am to 11 pm every day! The stock at the moment consists of Magic, Heroclix, Dystopian Wars, Warmachine, etc. All of your usual popular fantasy / sci-fi themes apart from GW, which they are not stocking as they are already stocked by Tiger Models and Birchalls. I spoke to the manager, and there is no desire to get into historicals due to the startup costs. When all is said and done, I have to say Area 52 is a nicer store with a larger range. But you cant complain about another store in Tasmania!

They have several game nights. I went along to their Tuesday night magic tournament. Cost is $10, but you are guaranteed to win a $6 booster, so its a cheap game. I bought an event deck at Area 52 to take along. Event decks are pre-made legal decks that supposedly are powerful enough to be competetive in tournaments -- but they arent that powerful, and do require some tuning! I had a black/green deck that used the undying mechanic -- creatures that die come back even more powerful (but if they die in their powerful form they really die). My first game was against someone who was in her first tournament, and had been playing for a month. She destroyed me two games running! Next round was a bye. Third round was against Rob. The first game I managed to reduce Rob to one life, then his creatures kicked in and he started slamming me. But, right as I was about to die, I drew a card to do one damage to Rob, and managed to extract a win from the jaws of defeat. Rob won the next, and I won the third. The last game was against Terry. I'm not sure what his deck was -- I managed to get a horde of creatures out for each game and rush before he could do much. In the end, 2 wins, one bye, and a loss. I made a profit, winning 2x $6 boosters (Assuming you ignore the $40 for the event deck!)

I think my Tuesday nights are sewn up for the next few months!

FOW Hasty Assault Mission

2012-04-17T22:53:00.002+10:00

Jim's US Mech v. Steve's Grenadiers
1,555 pts MW, US attacking.

Undeterred by last night's fiasco, the same US Mech coy lined up for another go.

In this mission half both sides are on table at the start. The defender' reserves are delayed and scattered, the attacker's are neither.

The US put a dismounted mech platoon on each flank & SP 105's in the centre. The Germasn deployed infantry with mortars, HMG & Pak support on the ridge & artillery behind.

The US advanced on both flanks, but brought all their reserves in on the left. With a traffic jam in the corridor between ridge and table edge, the Luftwafe was scary, but the tank's AA saw them off until they got in close.

But the German artillery & mortars were more effective hurting the GI's & eventually destroying them.

The 2nd grenadier platoon arrived in the nick of time to defend the village and its objective. The US had lost ther infantry, so the tanks had to risk the bogging rolls and go in unsupported.

The Honeys were beaten off, but the Shermans made it over the hedge and took the objective. The Germans tried to blast them off it, but with the help of cover and smoke the Shermans survived to seal victory.

FOW Counterattack Mission

2012-04-16T21:56:00.001+10:00

Jim's US Mech v. Richard's Fins

1555 points MW Counterattack Mission, US attacking.

The Fins are deployed in the far RH corner, the US in the closest quarter. The Fins have some light tanks in reserve to come in on the LH corner.

The US objectives are in the 2 far quarters.

The US decided to take the direct approach. 2 infantry platoons lined up as close as they could to the Fin line with Shermans & Honeys in support. The artillery are on the hill & recon behind it ready to make a dash for the far objective.

Alas the US's bold plan met some serious opposition from the dice gods. The artillery failed to hit & pin the enemy infantry and the combined fire of the rows of tanks and infantry fell short of 5 hits.

The unpinned infantry with lots of SMG teams had no trouble stopping the attack thru the woods. The KV's stopped the bazooka charge with MG fire, then they stopped the Honeys with 2 bails. The whole US line ground to a halt.

Then things got worse for the US. The Fin reserves arrived on turn 1 and intercepted the Recon. The Recon got away with some transport losses & holed up in the town.

The Shermans charged to the flank of the KV's but 2 bails was not good enough. The 105's missed again and the GI's were again stopped by fire.

Fin infantry charged the Shermans from cover and the Shermans fell back. Then all 4 front line US platoons failed morale (including the CO re-roll) and it was game over. The Fins lost 1 infantry team.

Peter Williams' New Book

2012-04-15T17:18:00.002+10:00

Our old comrade Peter Williams has just had his fourth book published.

The Kokoda Campaign 1942
Myth and reality

For more info go to:

http://www.cambridge.org/aus/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9781107015944&ss=cop

I haven't seen it yet, but being Peter, it's bound to have an unconventional slant and be a rattling good read.

Hail Caesar at Nick's

2012-04-14T18:57:00.003+10:00

We had a good turnup for Nick's monthly garage day - 9 blokes including Mike Chevak who I haven't seen for 30 years (on hols in Tas). We fought a hoplite battle with the same troops as at Nicks a few months ago - then using FOG. Carl, Mark & Tony commanded the Spartans, Steve and Mike commanded the Athenians, I umpired. Nick, Byron & Leigh also present.

All pics taken on iphone from the Athenian left. Both sides put their cavalry on the far flank. The Athenians advanced their skirmishers & cavalry (with Mike in command of them, what else would the cavalry do?), but otherwise stood and waited.

The Spartans made a general advance, somewhat slowed by their right flank being a tad reluctant.

The cavalry fight on the far flank was quickly decided in the Spartan's favour. But Mark's Spartan cavalry had lost enough for Mark to have to spend some time rallying before renewing his advance.

Tony's Spartans overlapped Steve's left and attacked his flank. Steve somehow beat the attack off but not without heavy losses & after a bit of rallying Tony's division still threatened to roll up the Athenian line.

Steve counterattacked in the centre and advanced his right against Mark's cavalry. The front line of Spartans in the centre was broken, and after beating Mark's cavalry, the Athenian right wheeled left and attacked the Spartan's exposed left flank.

But at the same time Tony was attacking the Athenian left flank.

The Athenians broke first to end a battle with wildly fluctuating fortunes.

As Carl doesn't come to Camp Cromwell we fought this battle with no house rules. There really wasn't a lot of difference to how it went, but I think our tweeks do remove some of the odder things that can happen & make the game go a bit quicker.

Nick in Launceston - Lasalle

2012-04-13T10:05:00.000+10:00

It was an unplanned game -- both Nick and Rob ended up at the club with no opponents. But Nick had his Napoleonics in the car, so an impromptue Lasalle game was set up.

Nick (Austrian, with one infantry division and one Cuirassier division) vs Rob (with one veteran infantry division and one conscript infantry division).

Nick tried a grand sweep on his left flank with his Cuirassiers. They crashed through the French artillery. But the artillery had shot them up pretty well, and when they hit a square in the back they bounced. The square was only conscripts, so they charged again -- but lost and broke. Meanwhile, a 2nd Cuirassier unit attacked another unit of conscripts that failed to form square. Rob rolled a flurry of 6s, and the Cuirassiers lost!

On the other flank the relentless march of the veteran French infantry overwhelmed the Austrians. It didnt help when Nick tried to do some fancy maneuvers, and only 1/2 his units moved. In two turns the proud Austrian right wing turned to a rabble!

A well deserved victory to Rob, who seemed to like the game!

(There was some Kingston Kup practice on another table. All I will say is 'there were hordes of em!'