Hobby Update 14 Jul 26...and a game!

The push to get through the lead mountain continues. Next up were a bunch of Fireforge Templars, plus some unknown - maybe GW? - late medieval style cavalry? The former are new, the latter second-hand and in need of some restoration...

There area still a few bits to touch up (and a missing arm!) on the cavalry, but they are looking a bit better than they were.

(a Viking that had been missing from the previous batch also sneaked in)

I based the Templars for the desert. Not sure if that was the best choice, we shall see!

And on Sunday, I actually got around to playing a game. I ACTUALLY GOT AROUND TO PLAYING A GAME! I was sitting in the garden doing some reading, then I was doing a few things with original D&D (playing out a few example combats to remind myself of the mechanics) and then the urge really struck me to just play a game, so I set up an old favourite: Scenario 1 from the One Hour Wargames book, with my Baccus WSS figures and the Polemos: Ruse de Guerre rules.

 

 

The Set-Up: 

The 'Anglo-Dutch' at the bottom, facing the 'French' at the top.

I rolled for forces from the book (slightly modified to allow for 9 units instead of 6) and generated the following armies:

 

The Anglo-Dutch Army:

Duc de Aunis

1st Brigade: 3 bases of Infantry (Murray, Colyear, Portmore)

2nd Brigade: 3 bases of Infantry (Ferguson's, Lord North's, Leven's)

3rd Brigade: 2 bases of Dragoons (Lord John Hays', Ross'), 1 base of 6pdr Foot Artillery  

 

The French Army:

Lord Lancaster 

1st Brigade: 3 bases of Infantry (Berwick, Galmoy, Dorrington)

2nd Brigade: 3 bases of Infantry (Dauphine, Sault, du Roi), 1 base of 6pdr Foot Artillery

3rd Brigade: 2 bases of Horse (FitzJames, Sheldon)*

Slightly on the exaggerated side, but all real units - all Scots in the Anglo-Dutch army, apart from Ross' Dragoons (Irish) and the artillery; whilst the Horse and the 1st Brigade in the French Army are all Irish.

(*okay purists, I know that these are really the same regiment at different times...)

The Dutch Scottish Brigade (1st) on the Anglo-Dutch Left.

The Dragoon Brigade and artillery in the centre.

And the 2nd Brigade (Scots' Brigade) on the right.

The Irish Brigade on the French Left.

The 2nd Brigade in the French Centre.

And the Cavalry on the French Right.

The Battle:

The French Army takes the initiative in a shallow echelon, leading by its left (top-right), with its right slightly refused; the Anglo-Dutch have slightly advanced and pivoted their left-hand brigade (Dutch Scots' Brigade) to counter this.

Things get serious. The Dutch-Scots' Brigade has advanced to check the advance; the French 2nd Brigade has pivoted to engage them, although this has slightly disordered the advance; note that some of the British Dragoons have fallen back to avoid French artillery fire. The Franco-Jacobite cavalry has trotted forwards (top-left), threatening to charge

A wider shot

The Irish infantry move forward to engage their Scots' counterparts...

The Dutch-Scots' traded a volley with the French and then charged forward. The Franco-Jacobite cavalry then charged the left-hand battalion of the Dutch-Scots' (Murray's Regiment)

The result: Murray's Regiment (left) ingloriously collapsed and ran; most of the French infantry was pushed back (Dauphine and Sault, centre)

But Dauphine's Regiment subsequently broke when the Dutch-Scots' resumed their firing! (top)

The action then switched to the Anglo-Dutch Right: the Irish and Scots regiments traded close-range musketry volleys...with the most devastating results! Fergusson's Regiment was routed (bottom-right), but all three of the Irish regiments were broken!!

After a few more moments, the French position becomes untenable - the two remaining regiments of Dutch-Scots' (Colyear & Portmore) stop any further French cavalry attack, and also break another French regiment (Sault) by fire. The remaining unbroken French infantry and artillery are unable to do too much to stem the rout.

The position at the end, when the French Army gives way.

Game Notes:

A very crushing Anglo-Dutch victory - but the real victory was getting an actual game on the table; or in this case, the garden grass. It was great fun, although it was over a little quickly (not perhaps as quickly as the photos imply, the game was slightly more involved in that, I skipped over some bits). The rules were fine, remembered them all straight off, except whether units which support to a flank recoil when the base they are supporting does (they definitely do so when supporting from the rear). The musketry looks highly decisive, but this is deceptive - the firefight between the Dutch-Scots and the French was pretty ineffective and it needed a further combination of bayonet and a second firefight to produce a decisive result. On the other hand, the musketry exchange between the Scots and the Irish witnessed 4 '10's being rolled out of 6 dice, which accounts for the sudden destruction of the French left. The Franco-Jacobites did have their share of luck - the successful cavalry charge on the Dutch Left was a low-odds (but high pay-off) tactic. It was just that the Anglo-Dutch (ok, Scots) were luckier all in one go...

 The scenario is the first one (Pitched Battle One) from the OHW book - based on Ceresole, apparently. 

 Game on a 2'x2' board, using Baccus 6mm figures, with the Polemos Ruse de Guerre ruleset. 

Battle of Charonea: an Ancient & Medieval Warfare refight

Since my first game wasn't entirely satisfactory, I decided to replay Charonea immediately with the Neil Thomas' Ancient & Medieval Wargaming rules, with an improvised scenarion based on the previous game. I supposed that the much simpler and more intuitive Neil Thomas' rules would probably suit my brain state much better!

 

 

 

I used the following forces:

 

The Pontic Army:

1 unit of Pike (Elite, Medium Armour)

4 units of Pike (Raw, Medium Armour) 

2 units of Auxiliaries (Raw, Medium Armour)

1 unit of Heavy Cavalry (Raw, Medium Armour)

1 unit of Light Cavalry (Raw, Light Armour, Javelins)

1 unit of Heavy Archers (Raw, Light Armour)

1 unit of Light Infantry (Raw, Light Armour, Javelins)

1 unit of Scythed Chariots (Special) 

 

The Roman Army:

3 units of Legionaries (Elite, Heavy Armour, Javelins)

1 unit of Auxiliaries (Average, Medium Armour)

1 unit of Heavy Cavalry (Elite, Heavy Armour)  

 

So some heavily outnumbered but stronger Roman units facing a variety of weaker Pontic units.

 

One side of the board is the slopes of Mount Thurion, whereas the other side is the bank of the River Cephisus (not represented, but keep in mind that that flank was fixed for both sides). 

The Set-Up: 

Pontic Army to the left and bottom, Romans to the right, with the Thracians on their left, slightly refused (i.e. right of the photo); the Pontic camp is to the top-left.

Another view

And another of the main Pontic host

Looking past the Pontics towards the smaller Roman force

The Battle

The Pontic advanced forces (chariots, cavalry, stratiota detachment) advance on the Romans and Thracians.

Another view

The Roman Cavalry takes the initiative on the far flank (bounded off-table by the River Cephisus) and charges the Pontic Light Horse; ordinarily the Light Horse would have avoided being in charge reach of the heavier Roman cavalry, but they are somewaht boxed in by the Stratiota and the archers.

The scythed chariots did their work well - note the damage done to the centre unit of Roman Legionaries (right); now the Javelinmen are moving up to take their turn

On the far (Pontic Left) flank, the Pontic Light Horse have inflicted more damage than might have been expected; they are still getting the worst of it, however.

Meanwhile, the Stratiota are fighting the Thracians on the Roman left (centre-bottom); the Thracians might be thought of as being ahead on points, at this stage.

The left-hand Pontic phalanx is moving up, to try and get at that disrupted Roman centre

The Roman leginaries have taken additional casualties from the Pontic archers and javelinmen in the centre; on the other hand, the Thracians seem to have gained the upper hand on the Roman Left (centre-bottom right)

Taking a calculated risk, the right-hand Legion attacks the leading Pontic phalanx in the flank, exposing its own flank to the Pontic bowmen; its rear is still protected by the threat of the Roman cavalry, who retired to regroup (top-right); the flank attack has been somewhat successful, but the phalanx is still intact

Proving once again that fortune favours the bold, the Pontic archers ran off!! The left-hand phalanx is therefore in a sticky situation; with the defeat of the Stratiotas imminent on the Pontic Right (bottom right), the Pontic Cavalry advance in support (centre)

And in short order, the left-hand phalanx (see gap near Roman L-shape, top-centre) and the stratiotas (centre-right) have been defeated and run-off; the Pontic reserves move up to compensate

The battle has run on a little here; the Pontic Right (bottom-centre) sees the Pontic cavalry engaging the Thracians; two more phalanxes have engaged the two central, and quite weakened, Roman legions (centre); the stratiotas on the Pontic Left (top-left) are facing off against a Legion and the Roman Cavalry; the Pontic javelinmen have moved to the back to get out of the way (bottom-left); the Pontic reserves (a Phalanx and a group of Stratiotas) are moving towards the centre to assist.

The main fight in the centre is weakening both sides equally; in the bloody struggle in the foreground, both Thracians and Pontic horsemen are falling in droves, but slighly more of the latter than the former

However, that Pontic Cavalry unit seems to be fighting down to the last man!  This was matched by the heroism of the Stratiotas on the other flank (top) who have seen off the Roman Right in its entirety - just!

Can't be long now for the Roman centre...

And another legion goes down! The Romans are defeated, with only one legion and the Thracians still in viable units, and both of them heavily understrength

Game Notes:

A nice, fun game with a distinctly lower level of complexity than Polemos SPQR. Because of if, Neil Thomas' Ancient & Medieval Wargamning is really easy to pick up and play from the shelf after a period of absence, because there really is not that much to remember; in particular, there are very few exceptions and special rules. It does probably lead to an unrealistically 'zippy' game, with the mighty phalanxes easier to start and stop; but on the other hand it didn't seem to make that much difference: in this game, maybe some of the actions on the Pontic Left (top of the board) were slightly more complex than a set which focused more on command would allow, but apart from that, it wasn't so jarring. Neil Thomas' rules are generally fairly attritional, and these are no exception, although the possible of cascading unit morale failure is always there and happened a few times in this game.  Light troops are much easier to use and more effective than in other games, although other troops will crush them if they can catch them. The 'no interpenetration' rules do ensure that there are significant control, if not command, problems. Of course, given the emphasis on attrition, the Romans in this scenario were always going to be in for a thin time, it is extremely difficult to win in these games unless a force is at least 75% strong as its opponent, with some morale or tactical advantages to assist.

But genuinely really nice to get these rules to the table again.

 

Alcolea - Neil Thomas-esque

As well as a 'proper' test of the Alcolea scenario (see link for more of the background details), I used the base scenario to construct another Neil Thomas-esque scenario. Again, I made this a more 'generic horse & musket' game rather than sticking to its Napoleonic origins. The high-level objectives of the game are the same though: the Franco-Jacobite Spanish forces must either seize the crossing or defeat the opposition army - in this case, a Dutch force. The Dutch force is mainly poorly-trained, with a small cadre of trained troops; the Franco-Spanish forces are trained, with an elite battalion included. 

As usual, I used the Polemos: Ruse de Guerre rules. 

 

 

The Forces:

Franco-Spanish-Jacobites: 8 bases of Infantry (1 base Well-Trained), 3 bases of Dragoons, 1 base of 8pdr Foot Artillery

Dutch: 10 bases of Infantry (8 bases Poorly-trained), 1 base of Cavalry, 1 base of 8pdr Foot Artillery

The Set-Up:

Very similar to the 'main' scenario, changed into a slightly more representational terrain on a square 2'x2' board, but otherwise pretty similar I think. The Franco-Spanish are approaching from bottom-right.

The advancing Franco-Spanish

One part of the Dutch force, on the hill to the flank

And the other part, guarding the bridge and town. The barricades are represented by another 'urban area' on the top end of the bridge.

The Battle:

French infantry, supported by artillery, get ready to storm the bridge

A wider shot: Spanish infantry are positioned along the road to help protect the flanks; the Frech Dragoons are switching position and riding down the road (left) to isolate the Dutch on the hill

But considering attack to be the best form of defence, they storm the hill!

The French making slow-going against the Scots and Swiss in Dutch pay by the bridge

However, the Spanish, despite suffering quite heavy losses of their own, including one battalion which has routed, have caved in the Dutch flank on the hill

Still it is a bridge too far for the French...

However, excpet for a knot of infantry and cavalry at the far end of the hill, the Spanish are triumphant and the Dutch are in flight!

And it is only a matter of a few more minutes before the entire Dutch wing is broken

After a little more desultory firing, the Dutch commander withdraws, deciding not to contest the bridge any further since the loss of his Army's right wing.

Game Notes: 

Another Thomas-esque game which worked pretty well. Doing these scenarios back-to-back shows how little one loses in the more simplified scenario. The loss isn't 'nothing', but it is pretty small. The Dutch were a bit unlucky: if they hadn't failed their army morale test, tactically they were still in quite strong position around the bridge, with better troops in a better position. However, c'est la guerre and Polemos is going to punish the 'Spanish' (i.e. the Dutch, in this refight) for having that kind of risky deployment, which allows catastrophic success against a weaker wing to help defeat the stronger. Also, Ruse de Guerre as a baseline makes higher ground less strong a factor than in Polemos: General de Division...although how much that matters also depends on choices you make about troop quality...

In any case, all good fun: I commend this approach to the house!

Figures by Baccus 6mm, buildings by Leven.