Muskets & Tomahawks at Barrie's

JohnM has made some house rules to tidy up some of Frenchness in Muskets &Tomahawks & we played two games to try them out - both raid scenarios & 400 pt armies.

Game 1: Barrie's British v. JohnM's French: John attacking

John is advancing away from the camera.   Being busy in the other battle I know only that John managed to burn the village & claim victory.

Game 2: Jim's French v. JohnW's British: JohnW attacking

The British are attacking from the far end.  Their regulars are deployed on the road engaged in a fire fight with the French regulars in front of the village.  British militia are in the woods one ach flanks.  They also have Indians on their right.  The French ahve 2 mCanadian militia in the wood in font of the village & are praying for their Indian allies to turn up on the left.  So far only their chief has showed.

The regulars mauled each other badly and both fell back. The French into the wood while the Brits came forward again through the cornfield.  The British attack down the near flank was held up by the French Indians (who did show up in time to be of use).   The British attack on the far falnk got to the rea rof the village and they began trying to fire the RH house.  But the Indians sent through the wood on the right got a hit on them & a bad morale throw had them recoil out into the open where the Canadian Milita drawn back from the wood into the village blew them away.  The British failed morale due to high losses giving the French a decisive victory.

Bolt Action Doubles at Good Games

We used Camp Cromwell's house rules for Bolt Action Doubles.
JohnM & Chris each had 1000 pts of Russians.
Jim & Jake each had 1000 pts of Germans

Frontal Assault Mission on 8x6' table.

The Germans are defending the RHS of the table.  Jim on their left & Jake on their right.  They have 4 objectives to defend & have deployed up to half their units on their half of the table.  The remainder of their force is in reserve.  To win they must hold all objectives.
The Russians deployed second up to 18" from their table edge.  JohnM on their right, Chris on their left.  To win they must take 2 objectives.

Chris is attacking the objective in the woods on the far side, but also sending a platoon to help John attack the objective in the village.  John is attacking both the objectives on his side.  The German armour has come on in the centre.  

The battle became a bloodbath for the Germans.  Jim's entire force was eliminated while Jake's was reduced to his Panther & one infantry platoon.  At the end of turn 6 the Russians have taken the objective on the hill in the foreground and destroyed all the Germans on the two forward objectives, but they don't have any troops within 3" of them yet (they some within 4" of both).  The dice decreed that there was no turn 7, so by the rules it was  a draw.  But the consensus was that that was a pretty cheesy result & the Russians were entitled to fell victorious & maybe the victory conditions for the scenario should be reconsidered.  Otherwise the doubles system & the scenario worked fine.

Hail Caesar: Adrianople 378AD scenario

The scenario is based on Adrianople 378AD.  The Huns & Goths start with their 2 infantry divisions  on a big hill and their 2 cavalry divisions off table.  The Romans have all their army on the table at the start.  Their 2 infantry divisions are much stronger than the enemy's, but the cavalry though as good in quality as the Barbarians is outnumbered.  Each Hun cavalry division throws 1 dice turn 3, 2 on turn 4 & comes on if a 5 is thrown, or on turn 5.   One comes on one flank and one on the other, their exact point fo entry being 2-3' from the corner along the back edge on a 1, 2-3' from the corner of the side edge on a  6 and proportionally in between otherwise.
Dale, Mike & Dylan commanded the Romans and Jim, Chris & Mark the Barbarians.

The Romans are on the left in traditional deployment with cavalry on the wings.  The Barbarian foot is on the hill.

Mike's foot on the Roman left blunder back at the start and got rather left behind.  His cavalry charged the infantry anyway, but bounced off.  Dale's foot has just failed to charge home on the second turn, with his cavalry covering his flank.

 The Barbarians have lost a unit on their left, but still have a reserve to fill the gap.

 Mark's cavalry has arrived on the far flank (on turn 4).  The Barbarian foot is still holding the line.

Mike scrambles to form a front facing Mark's cavalry on the far flank while Dale pulls his cavalry back to face the imminent arrival of Jim's cavalry on the left.  The Barbarian foot is giving ground, but still holding on.

Jim's cavalry has arrived but has only moved 1 move on while Mark's cavalry has failed to press on.  The left end of the Barbarian foot has counterattacked the Roman's flank left hanging by the cavalry, but Romans are tough & it's not going well.

On the far flank Mark's cavalry is doing bugger all while the centre fights for its life.

The Roman cavalry on the near flank has withstood the first charge,  but Mark's cavalry still has not attacked and the Barbarian centre has finally cracked.  With half their divisions broken out of 4 while the Romans have lost none, the Barbarians fail their Army Break & the Romans have won.

The hairy Barbarians dream of what might have been.  It was a close run thing.  The Roman cavalry on the left was down to half strength & would surely have broken if Mark had only got the command dice to charge it.   With a Roman division broken, the Barbarians would not have failed their Army Break Test with exactly half their divisions lost.  The Barbarian cavalry on the other wing would have soon cleaned up Dale's cavalry, then the Roman infantry would have been surrounded by a horde of heavy & light bow armed cavalry, and that scenario seldom ends well for the infantry.

 

Hail Caesar! Greeks v. Persians

Greeks: Jim & Chris: 2 Hoplite divs of 4 hoplites + 1 skirmisher, 1 div of 2 hoplites, 2 peltasts & 2 skirmishers, 1 div of 4 small medium cavalry, generals all CR 9.

Persians: Mike & SteveJ: 2 infantry divs of 4 sparabara & 2 skirms, 2 cav divs of 4 heavy cav & 2 horse archers, generals all CR 8.

The Persians (on the left) did a traditional deployment with cavalry on each flank.   The Greeks put their hoplite divs in extended lines on the flanks and cavalry in the centre.   Their initial advance has turned into an echeloned attack due to bad command dice on the right.

The Persians hung back to maximise their advantage in archery.  The action started with a Greek attack with cavalry & hoplites on the left hand Persian infantry div.

A furious melee developed in the centre with the Greeks getting the upper hand.  The hoplites on the left are trying to attack the enemy cavalry but the Persians are firing and retiring and only one hoplite unit has charged home.

The Persian infantry div left of centre has broken, but the Greek cavalry is also about to break. The hoplites on the near flank are getting the upper hand over the Persian cavalry.  But on the far flank the hoplites are not doing so well.    The Greek's mixed infantry div in the centre is still fighting but has heavy casualties.

The Persian cavalry on this flank is about to break, but the Greek push on the far flank is running out of steam under storms of arrows.

The hoplites on the near flank have broken the Persian cavalry, but both divisions on the far flank have been reduced to two shaken units and now break giving the day to the Persians.

It was a interesting battle between two very different armies.  The Greeks knew they had to get in close while the Persians did all they could to turn the fight into a firefight they couldn't lose.  The first charge of the Greek cavalry may have been critical.  2 small units charged a sparabara unit and came within 1 pip of breaking it straight up.  A win there would have lead to the rapid demise LH Persian infantry div.  It was still broken by the attack of 1 & 1/2 divs but it took valuable time and cost the Greeks serious casualties.  For once we had a lot of cases of infantry attacking cavalry.  But Hail Caesar handled it well with the hoplite's long spears making it a fair fight - as shown by the Greeks winning one flank and the Persians the other.  In the end the Persian arrows won day.

Muskets & Tomahawks at Barrie's

After a convivial lunch celebrating Jake's birthday Jake set up a largish game of Muskets & Tomahawks with 500 pts & 4 players a side.

It was great looking battle but as is often the case with M&T the scenario was indecisive with neither side able to gain victory.

Flames of War refresher

Mark & I fought an afternoon Flames of War battle to refresh our skills for future tournaments, (though as it happened neither of us can go to the one in Launceston this weekend).

Free For All Mission, 1750 pts North Afrika book
Captain Ghandi's Indian Rifles v. Mark's Afrika Korps Schurtzen (both Tunisia)

The Indians are on the near side of the table.

While nothing much happened on the left of the table for the entire battle, the Indians immediately attacked on the right.  The bugs destroyed the Schutzen on the ridge, but the MkII's had doubled across from the centre to counterattack. 

The MkII's have destroyed the bugs, but the Indians& Churchills are still coming

Having destroyed the bugs the MkIII's failed their stormtrooper test after machine gunning the oncoming Indians.  While the 25pdrs smoked the Pak40's in the centre, the Churchills destroyed the Panzers in one turn.  The werfers did great execution on the Indian infantry, but they were Fearless & didn't break.  The Churchills breasted the ridge and with a bit of help from the infantry soon wiped out the werfers to gain complete control of the objective and victory.

Not having played FOW for some months we were a bit rusty woth the rules at first, but getting there firstest with the mostest always works even if you can't remember the rules. 

Man o' War

After a bit of Sails of Glory at Barrie's I thought it time to do some more of our home grown Man o' War Rules. I've picked up some new Airfix Victories to add to the old 60's models (they are still making the same model after all these years)  so could put 13 ships on the table.
British: Mike & James each with 3 ships, 1 2nd rate & 2 3rd rate all with elite crews.
French: Mark with 1 1st rate & 2 3rd rates with regular crews.
             Jim with 1 2nd rate & 3 rd rates with regular crews.

The wind is coming from the left.  The Brits are at the far end, James upwind on the left.Mark has the French windward column on the left.

James is sailing close hauled while Mike is charging ahead on a beam reach.  Mark intially turned to windward, but seeing what the Brits are doing turned back onto a reach as Jim tacked up to combine the 2 French squadrons.

Jim's & Mike's squadrons sail past each other exchanging broadsides while a wimnd shift as cause chaos in Mark's squadron.  But James is too far away to take advantage.

Mike's squadron has passed down to windward as James' squadron sails into an unequal melee with both French squadrons. 

Mike is struggling to turn round and beat back upwind as the French pound James' squadron. 

Two of the French ships have peeled off with serious damage, but all 3 of James' ships are critically damaged  & surrounded.  One by one by one they have to strike while Mike is still beating back to windward.

Five French ships remain in fighting shape & turn to take on Mike as the other ships get out of the way and round up the prisoners.

Mike's 3 ships are the ones in the centre with 5 French ships on this side of them.  The lead British ship has just struck its colour.  That makes 4 ships sunk or struck out of 6 so the Brits fail their fleet morale test & have to concede the battle.

It was a good battle for the Frog.  The Brits made a mistake at the start and the French took full advantage.  In this battle we put the damage logs on the ship's bases instead of on separate boards.  It's a moot point which is best. 

Meanwhile in Suffolk:
My friend in England is currently fighting Trafalgar using these rules.

This is the start of the battle set up ready to go.  Only the heads of the British columns are on the table.  They use some local variations including separate damage logs.

Sails of Glory at Barries

Six players six ships.
FrenchL Jim, Steve & JohnW
British: Barrie,  Ed & JohnM.

The French started on the near side.  The wind is down the table from the left.  Far right Steve & JohnM are engaging in mutually assured destruction.  Far left JohnW & Ed are dancing around each other.  In the foreground Barrie & Jim have already passed each other with an exchange of fire that heavily favoured the French when Barrie tried to be cunning and hold his fire for a better shot that didn't happen.

Subsequently Barrie agains misjudged distances and sailed into the mouths of Jim's guns & was sunk.  JohnM eventually sunk Steve's ship, but was so badly damaged himself he sank anyway.    Ed & JohnW's put a lot of damage on each other, but Ed ran for home when Jim's almost intact ship turned towards him.