FOW Dust Up

After a bit of a break for ancient & renaissance obsessions (and holidays) it's time to do some practice for the upcoming Operation Cromwell III.  This FOW tournament is to be on 13-14 October and will have the same format as Operation Cromwell II (repeated by popular demand) - a doubles tournament of 4 rounds with 2 coys a side totalling 2,500 points played on 8x6 tables.  Tonight's battle was to check the necessity of modifications to the Dust Up mission rules to compensate for the big table.

Jim's Hungarians v. Rick's Canadians

The two armies were similar - the Canadians had a mech coy and a tank coy, the Hungarians a Gepkocsizo Lovez coy and a Rohhamagyus coy.  Both deployed most of their infantry coy on the table with their armoured coy and left-overs from the infantry coy as reserves.

The Hungarians deployed in the near left quarter, the Canadians in the far right quarter.  The Hungarians moved infantry and Paks into defensive positions covering both objectives..  The Canadians deployed their 6pdrs to face the expected Hungarian armour and attacked the centre with their bugs & wasps.

The bugs & wasps reduced the Hungarian infantry to half strength, but were destroyed before they could break them - mainly by the heavy artillery.

The real action started when the reserves started to come on.  On the far flank the Hungarians brought their mortars on first and tried to soften up the 6pdrs with mortar and artillery fire before the armour arrived.  They got some of them, but the Turans, the first armour platoon brought on was still wiped out in one turn.  Next turn the Stugs came on and with help from mortars & artillery the 6pdrs were destroyed.

On the near flank, Shermans and armoured infantry attacked the Paks.  The Paks died but took a Sherman platoon with them.  At this stage both flanks had similar results, but while the Hungarians had a second line of defense in a village full of infantry, the Canadian objective was protected only by 2 HQ Shermans plus air and naval bombardement.  They had little chance of stopping the swarm of Hungarian armour that had now come on the table.

As the mission is symmetrical, there is no serious play balance issue with the big table.   The only issue we see is that the big table means that reserves have a lot further to go if they are to be used defensively - potentially changing the options available to both sides.   Increasing the reserve entry zone to 60cm (from 40) on the long table edge addresses this.  There is less reason to increase the zone on the short edge as the reserves are still too close to the enemy objectives for comfort.

According to the standard morale rules the Hungarians should have lost this battle when the Turans were destroyed as they were the only platoon of the Rohamagus platoon on the table at the time.  I am thinking that the rule that platoons in reserve are not included in morale tests should not be used in Operation Cromwell - the rule is fine for normal single coy forces, but forces of two platoons are highly vulnerable to unlucky defeat if this rule is applied - not a desirable situation.

Ottomans at the Gates

After a 4 week winter break Camp Cromwell resumed with Pike & Shotte.  The scenario was a variation of the Barbarians at the Gates scenario we tried a few months ago.  The scenario rules are below the report.

The Hungarian town of Blott is besieged by the Ottomans.  The town guns have been silenced and the Ottoman battery has made a breach.  The Ottomans are lined up for the assault when the Polish relief army arrives at the far end of the table.  The Poles have to break the Ottomans before they can take the town.  The Ottomans have the option of continuing with the attack while delaying the Poles, or bottling up the garrison & trying to defeat the Polish relief force.

Mike commanded the Ottomans, Steve the Poles.  Jim umpired.

The Ottomans ready to attack.

Looking the other way - the Poles are coming on the far edge.

The Ottoman horse move off to meet the Poles.  Their foot move up to attack the town.

The mercenary pike & shotte  in the foreground got mixed up with the Polish horse, bit despite the confusion the winged hussars smashed a hole through the Ottoman horse.  The rest of them were mopped up by the  Ratjars & infantry.

On the far flank the Ottoman light horse held only just held their own against half their number of Pancerni - which had got well ahead of the foot on that flank.

After breaking the Ottoman heavy cavalry the Poles press forward.  On the left, the Ottoman light horse have fallen back behind the fortified camp (defended by light infantry).  The Turkeki have been beaten off but the Janissaries are pressing home the attack on the breach.

The Jannisaries went within a bad Hungarian morale throw of taking the breach, but the defenders held by the skin of their teeth until the Ratjars arrived.

Once again this scenario gave us a great battle.  The Ottoman strategy of delaying the Poles with their horse while storming the town with the foot was sound enough.   It was probably lack of experience in attacking towns that cost Mike the battle.


Ottomans at the Gates:  Pike & Shotte Scenario

The Hungarian border town of Blott is beseiged by an Ottoman army lead by the redoubtable Mustapha Kunt.  Kunt's engineers have silenced the town's guns & made a breach in the walls.  Their infantry were about to launch their assault when a messenger arrived with the disturbing news that Count Longpolski has forced marched from the Danube and is only a few miles away.

Terrain
The table is 10'x6'.  A fortified town extends about 9" onto the table in the middle of one short edge. The town wall has one breach.  A road runs out the gate and runs roughly down the centre of the table meandering around terrain features to the centre of the other short edge.  There is a clear glacis at least 24" wide in front of the town wall.  The rest of the table is a plain dotted with farms, vineyards, orchards, etc.

Defending the town
The Blott garrison is commanded by the Herzog von Blott himself and comprises 4 musketeer units which can be deployed anywhere in the town or on the walls.   The garrison can sally out the main gate or over a breach after turn 1.  It takes 1 move to get 1 unit thru the gate or breach and deployed immediately outside.  (3 moves would allow 3 units to get out if they were lined up inside).
Garrison: 4 musketeers (3/2/5+/3), commander 8.
Defenders on wall: -1 to hit by muskets & artillery.
Saves 3+ v. muskets, 6+ v. light art & none v. heavy art.
Attacking a breach:   Defenders count as in building:
Only infantry can attack the breach.
Defenders count as in building:
2 dice 4+ to hit, 3+ to save,
count as supported by 3 units whether they are or not,
stand on break test result of Fall Back.
There is one breach in the wall and the artillery can try to make more.
If the artillery are firing to breach the wall (rather than at the defenders):
5+ to hit.  For each hit: 4+ = damage - place a counter.  When there are 6 counters, the wall is breached.
The defenders break if the Ottomans take a breach and move a unit into the city.
If they sally forth and 3 of 4 units are broken, or all are shaken, then the remaining unbroken units run back to the city at 3 moves a turn & defend the walls.

Ottoman battery & camp:
Battery: 4 heavy guns (-/321/4+/5) deployed in earthworks.
Battery to be placed between 18" & 24" of walls opposite the breach.
Cannot turn around and fire at the relief force.
Infantry guards defend the battery as behind obstacle using same rules as camp defence.
Gunners don't fight - if there are no infantry the gunners rout if enemy charge home.
Camp: Located at least 36" from walls if in sight, or 24" if out of  as sight.
Is partly fortified so counts as defenders count as defending an obstacle.
Under musket fire are +1 to hit, +1 save.  (No advantage v. artillery).
In H-T-H attackers lose charge bonus.  Own save is +1.  Test fall back = hold.
Guard: 4 Irregular Infantry (2/1/5+/3, skirmishers), no commander.
Any or all of the units can be deployed in the camp, the rest must be in the battery.

Ottoman Deployment
Ottomans deploy first and the Poles have the first turn.
Their field army must deploy in the band between 18" and 36" from the town wall.  The troops must all be deployed facing the town.  May be deployed in 2 lines, but if so, infantry must be in front facing the town.

Ottoman OOB
Div 1: 4 Jannissary (5/2/4+/3, elite 4+)
Div 2: 4 Tukekci (3/2/5+/3)
Div 3: 4 Feudal Sipahis (7/1/4+/3)
Div 4: 4 Gonullu (7/1/4+/3, lance, pistol, heavy cav+1)
Div 5: 4 Tartars (4/1/6+/3, maurauder)
Battery: 2x3 heavy guns (-/321/4+/4) + 2 Irregular Infantry (2/1/5+/3, skirmishers)
Camp guard: 2 Irregular Infantry (2/1/5+/3, skirmishers)
Command:   CIC: 8.  Three cavalry: 8.   Two infantry 7.

Polish Deployment
The Polish relief army comes onto the table on the edge furthest from the town.
The Poles have the first turn (but the garrison cannot move that turn).
Each division takes a command test.
One unit may come on along the road in road column, moving the number of moves determined by the test (and at least 1 move if it fails).
Other divisions can either follow on along the road of come on already deployed in battle formation elsewhere on the edge.  If the divison passes the test it is deployed within 6" of the edge.  If it fails, it stays off and tests again next turn.
Once a division is on the table it uses the standard command test.

Polish OOB
Div 1: 2 Mercenary pikemen (6/-/4+/4, mercenary)
+ 4 mercenary musketeers (3/2/5+/3, mercenary)
Div 2: Same as 1.
Div 3: 1 Winged Hussar (10/1/3+/4, lance, elite 4+, heavy cav+3)
+ 2 Pancerni (7/1/4+/3)
+ 1 Dragoon (4/2/5+/3 fire & evade, marauder)
Div 4: 4 Ratjars (7/1/4+/3 caracole)
Command: CIC: 8.   Two infantry: 8.    Two cavalry 9.

Victory Conditions
The Western Allies win if they drive the Ottomans off by causing them to fail army morale.  The Ottomans fail army morale on losing 4 divisions, counting both the battery and the camp as divisions for this purpose.
The Ottomans win if they break the rescue force, or if they take the city.
The rescue force breaks if they lose any 3 of 4 divisions.
The city falls if the Ottomans take a breach and move a unit into the city.

Nick in Launceston

Another Flames of War doubles practice.  Nick (using Rob's US armour) vs Rob and Shane (Panzer Lehr).

The mission was encounter.  Nick tried to rush the German infantry guarding their objective before the German reserves arrived.  The German infantry were loaded down with panzershrecks -- it was a hard ask.  But it was hoped that 2x Jumbo Shermans would help the US attack.  Meanwhile, Panthers were marching up the center.

The initial US attack faltered -- the panzershrecks stoped the assault, and two shermans were 'bailed out'.  The next assault worked a bit better -- one platoon got in, and did some damage, but the other platoon, with two tanks already bailed, tried to attack, and ended up with two more tanks bailed out.  The German infantry then attacked and destroyed all of those juicy bailed out tanks, and sudenly life got a lot harder for the US. 

The US reserves arrived, and although they were only Stuarts, the German Panthers didnt fancy trying to take an objective when faced by a stuart horde.  So the Panthers swung over to complete the destruction of the Shermans.  Even more Stuarts arrived -- but the flank shots of 10 Stuarts on the Panthers only ever resulted in bails.  Once the Shermans died, the Panthers turned around, and the Stuarts evaporated.  A well desrved win to the Germans.

Nick in Launceston -- Magic

I have started playing Magic each Tuesday night at Good Games in Launceston.  Rather than fill up the club blog with descriptions of my misadventures, I have started a new blog: http://nicksmagic.blogspot.com.au/.

My plan is to play standard event decks, and rate them.  For those that know Magic, this will make sense.  For those that dont -- feel free to ignore me :)

Doubles Practice

Another practice game for operation Cromwell. Flames of War, 2500 points, on a 8x6 table. Nick R and Nick B with Russians. Rob and Shane with Germans.

Rob and Shane had an army with tiger support. And the battlefield was wide open, with very few trees / hills / crops to hide behind / in. Nick and Nick had their work cut out.

Fortunatly for the Nicks, the scenario was 'Counterattack' -- where there is an unprotected objective that the attackers can take (but they need to hold it to turn 6).

The game started out with the Russians running towards the unprotected objective with t-34s. Unfortunatly, tigers came out of ambush and destroyed a company of T-34's. This made the Russians change tack, and they moved their tanks back to support an infantry assault on the other objective.

The infantry assault was remarkably successfull. It looked to be in trouble when German artillery rained down on the Russians -- but a flurry of good dice saw the Russians only lose one stand. They unpinned, moved foward, fired flame throwers, and went into an assault. The Germans just melted away! Well, not quite -- there was actually a viscious exchange, which resulted in a much reduced Russian company (two stands of pioneers and a surfeit of leaders) holding the objective. The tigers were in range to assault. They went in, and killed a pioneers stand. The Russians counterrattacked, and hit a tiger. The tigers had to roll anything but a 1 to keep going -- and rolled a '1'. But wait -- they had a re-roll for company command -- and they re-rolled a '1'. A final desperate attack by a much reduced German infantry platoon reduced the russians to just the company command. But still the brave Russians kept fighting -- the attack was beaten off, and the Russians won with 1 stand of infantry left out of over 30 they had attacked with. (It wasnt that bad -- there was an untouched Sapper company ready to walk over the dead bodies next turn anyway)

No pictures -- my pictures didnt work. I blame the glare of the unpainted figures that Shane had on the table temporarialy (before they met an untimely end)

Task Force A does it again!

A practice for the doubles FOW tournament (Operation Cromwell).

Nick R and Rob vs Nick B and Dennis.

It was supposed to be a different game. Nick R substituted at the last minute for Shane. And Shane and Rob thought they were fighting Russians, while Nick B and Dennis thought that we had agreed to be Americans. All in all a bit of a mix up.

Nick R and Rob had a Panzer force -- King Tiger, lots of Tigers, and lots of Panzer IV's. Nick B and Dennis had a tank destroyer force -- 8x M18 and 8x M10 (using Task Force A and Rangers in Brittany). As Nick said before the game -- 'we will win or lose by turn 3'. It wasnt quite right -- the game went to turn 4.

Task Force A and the rangers attacked as fast as they could. Nick R and Rob were worried -- the force looked impressive. But they sent a small Panzer IV platoon forward to disrupt the tank destroyers -- a move that worked succesfully. Some tank destroyers 'decloaked' and destroyed the small Panzer IV platoon. But then the Germans unleashed an ambush of 6x Panzer IV J and unleashed a pile of woopass on the tank destroyers. The return fire wiffed. The surviving tank destroyers missed. The US artillery missed. The 5x Stuarts getting flank shots missed. And the Panzer IV's happily followed up and removed most of one US company.

Meanwhile, the Rangers with M10 support had managed to kill one platoon of tigers and take an objective. This forced the Germans to take a company morale test, as they had no reseves, so their heavy company had no platoons - just the CinC tiger and 2iC Tiger. They passed. Then they got their King TIger reserve, and the Panzer IV's moved over to complete the destruction of the M10s and Rangers.

Wild, Wild West Launceston

Nick vs Rob over 2 weeks, using Legends of the Old West.

No pics unfortunatly -- the games were too exciting!!!!

Hang Em High

When we left the story, Rob's Rowdies had succesfully robbed a stage coach -- but Kid Brown was wounded, and then captured. Sentenced to hang, Nick's Mountain men guarded the scaffold, while Rob's lads planned a rescue. As Kid Brown was being read the last rights by the preacher, shots rang out. The mountain men moved towards the sound of gunfire, but were hampered by townsfolk running around. Peversly, some folks ran towards the gun shots, preventing the mountain men from getting a clear shot at the outlaws. The outlaws lined up behind a fence, and started shooting at the brave mountain men standing out in the open. The mountain men accepted this disparity, planning that as long as the outlaws stayed behind the fence, they couldnt get to the gallows and rescue Kid Brown. Casualties mounted. The preacher was urged to hurry up his reading. But at the last possible moment, Rob's leader managed to shoot the rope, freeing Kid Brown. The mountain men tried to fall back and aprehend Kid Brown, but with further casualties, they lost heart, and headed for the hills.

Showdown

Rob's Rowdies werent content with getting away -- they wanted to show the town who was boss! A few weeks later a classic Western Showdown developed, as the outlaws, joined by a noted gunslinger, stalked through town, while the Mountain Men, reinforced with a couple of friends (an indian fighter and a lowlife buffalo skinner who would do anything for some booze) tried to fend the outlaws off. Sneaking around the back alleys, the mountain men got close to the outlaws. Their intent was to launch a co-ordinated, close range assault. But the outlaws struck first. The indian fighter proved to have a glass jaw, and went down with the first swing of a fist. One of the mountain men unleashed his buffalo gun, and felled an outlaw. And then it was fisticuffs for young and old. The mountain men gave better than they got, but were not scot free. By the time two turns had passed, the outlaws were down to the leader and the gunslinger, but 1/2 of the mountain men were down as well. With both sides having to pass 'Pluck' tests, the mountain men failed first, and headed for the hills. (Which was a shame, because if they hadnt they were in a position to totally wipe out the outlaws)

So far the mountain men havent won a shoot-out. They have little money, and an assortment of injuries. But with all those battles comes experience -- some of their fighters have become remarkably tough. And the last battle against the Rowdies did not go well for the Rowdies -- despite winning, four of their band were killed! The mountain men are looking foward to revenge!!!!

Pike & Shotte Sunday School

Steve's New Model v. Mark & Byron's Royalists

The Royalists are on the left with 2 infantry divisions in the centre and cavalry on each flank.  The new model has 1 large infantry division in the centre with horse on their right and Cromwell's ironsides behind the foot.

The royalist cavalry advanced on both flanks while their foot advanced slowly.  Parliament refaced their horse to meet the oncoming cavaliers while their foot waited.

On the far flank the Parliament's horse initially gained the upper hand, but the royalist foot came up to help out and in the end both cavalry divisions broke at once.

On the near flank, the cavaliers fell back on their infantry support as Cromwell advanced.  A short flurry of charge and countercharge resulted in a stalemate as both sides worked on rallying their units.

With the Parliament's horse on the far flank gone the Royalist foot made a converging attack on the Parliament's foot and began eating it up from the far end.

Another cavalry fight broke out on the near flank as the cavaliers tried to support their foot in the centre and Cromwell charged towards the centre to intercept.

Cromwell did break the cavaliers on his flank, but it was too late to save the foot.  The foot broke and gave the Royalists victory.

We again used the Hail Caesar divisional & army break tests.  This made the battle go on for longer, but not excessively so (less than 3 hours).   Under the P&S system Parliament may have won just by breaking the 2 relatively small royalist cavalry divisions, but Parliament was out played and our system definitely gave the right result.

The other house rule we tried for the first time was allowing any flanked unit to make a command test to turn to face if not also attacked frontally. Shaken or undisciplined units have to re-roll passes, and elite troops re-roll fails.  If they pass, they turn to face disordered.  Further, we make a result of fall back become break if the enemy follows up in contact.  (We cannot see the logic in cavalry automatically turning to face, while infantry has to cop it - it makes more sense to have a test favouring better troops).    It seemed to work just fine.