Scenario 4 Holding Action (2)

It’s been over 5 months since the last game, and in that time I’ve managed to start a new job and engage in all the usual summer activities. But with the rain teeming down outside this weekend, I was very glad not to be in a tent or canoe and hijacked the kitchen table in retaliation for Mrs Dog’s annexation of the basement for her weekend course.

Another game, another period/scale combo (15mm Napoleonics) but a return to the plains of North Germany in 1813. Having been forced to retreat north after his defeat by the Prussians at Stavkstadt, General Lebasque needs to locate a river crossing that will enable him to rejoin Davout’s main body. He has sent a scouting force towards the small village of Dreibrücke (clue’s in the name), who are about to discover that the Prussians have got there first.

As per the Sharp Practice 1813 lists, French infantry are lower quality (‘Conscripts & Volunteers’ rather than ‘Regulars’, ‘Skirmishers’ rather than ‘Light Infantry’) so the Prussians have an edge there. To balance the forces under Sharp Practice 2 requires lots of good leaders for the French and plodders for the Prussians. The high rating and musician for the French light cavalry leader is to allow him to control his force, split into four groups per the scenario, as they search for a ford to outflank the Prussians.

Visually this is a bit of a nostalgia trip, with Second Generation Minifigs fighting over Gallia resin buildings. Teenage me may have painted all these forces in Humbrol enamels (sorry if the yellowing, rather glossy, varnish shows up in the pictures) but did not have the foresight to purchase a third Gallia bridge, so a very grand 1/72 Italeri span completes the table.

World War II

World War II was probably the dominant conflict in terms of the media, toys and other gamers as I was growing up in the hobby. But apart from a brief excursion in 10mm (using the horrible Skytrex Action 200 range) which went nowhere, I had never got into it personally. Then, just when I had decided that I had all the periods I would ever need, certainly for this project, I suddenly found myself launching into 1944 in North West Europe in 20mm. How the hell did that happen?

AB British weapons teams. Even my painting can’t disguise the excellent sculpting

Going Solo

I expect to play most of these scenarios solo. Is this because I am a misanthropic 'Billy No Mates' with poor social skills and poorer personal hygiene?

No.

Is it because I live in the middle of nowhere and have no opponents for miles around?

No.

Is it because I hate to lose and like to have everything my own way?

N...maybe.

Let me explain.

Scenario 3 Holding Action (1)

Two months without a post? That’s more like the kind of pace I expected from this blog. The usual real world excuses plus, in keeping with my refusal to do anything until it has long ceased to be trendy (see this blog), I managed to have Covid. Not a severe case, but enough to give my mojo a severe kicking. However, with a little help from a long weekend, I managed Scenario 3 and my first Ancients game of the project.

With my Byzantine army still awaiting its trip to Sri Lanka for a coat of paint, if I was going to get a game of Ancients in it would have to be an all Sassanian affair. Fortunately, Sassanian history provides plenty of examples of civil conflict. I'll admit that my knowledge of the Sassanian empire had, until recently, a very narrow military focus, but I've been rectifying that with this excellent book.

Yes, I know the author (or his editors) use fewer s's than me, but I'm sticking with Kaveh Farrokh (or his editors).

So my Byzantines are for the early 6th century CE, or at least they will be when they're painted, and conveniently around this time the Sassanian Sahansah Hormizd IV, who favoured the landed gentry (dehgans) over the nobility (savaran) was being overthrown in favour of his son, Khusro II. So this scenario pitches a delaying force of the savaran trying to hold out against Hormzid’s army until nightfall.

Scenario 2 Positional Defence (2)

A first outing for my ImagiNations inter war forces of Syldavia and Borduria. A low grade conflict between these two countries sputtered throughout the late 20's and early 30's, long before the involvement of an interfering boy reporter from Belgium. This scenario represents an occasion on which Borduria seized a mountain pass on the Syldavian side of the border, for complex reasons to do with the internal politics of the intelligence service, the ego of the local commander and the disappearance of his mistress's bichon frisé. Unsurprisingly, the Syldavians were quick to send a force to eject the invaders.

Using CoC Up, my modified (bastardised is more like it) version of Chain of Command, I'm calling each stand of figures a 'platoon', so that infantry units of 3-4 stands are 'companies' making each force: 

Borduria (Blue)

1 Battalion HQ (Senior Leader)
3 infantry companies (1 Junior Leader each)
1 stormtrooper company (1 Junior Leader)
1 tank squadron (2 Pz38t) (1 Junior Leader)
2 77mm batteries (1 Junior Leader)

Syldavia (Red)

1 Task Force HQ (Senior Leader)
5 infantry companies (1 Junior Leader each)
1 machine gun company (1 Junior Leader)
1 Jaeger company (1 Junior Leader)
2 tank squadrons (each 2 FT-17, 1 MMG armed, 1 37mm armed) (1 Junior Leader each)
1 cavalry squadron (1 Junior Leader)
1 105mm howitzer battery (1 Junior Leader)
Pre game bombardment

Given the force sizes, the traditional 5 command dice of CoC may make for a very slow and uncoordinated game. Now, slow and uncoordinated may be exactly the effect I am looking for in this period, but I might allocate 2-4 extra ‘red’ dice to each side depending on how things are going. (In CoC ‘red’ dice count for activation on a 1-4, but 5s and 6s which generate CoC points or extra turns are ignored.)

This is what the terrain is supposed to look like…

Inter War

A long time ago I purchased a couple of boxes each of the Revell WW1 French and Germans simply as an excuse to buy the fantastic Revell WW2 German artillery set, with vague notions of WW1 skirmish action. These sat unopened and undisturbed for years with a little reinforcement by Emhar, until a combination of the novels of Alan Furst, Beevor’s book on the Spanish Civil War, the appearance of ‘A Very British Civil War’ and some fantastic sets of plastics (one by Pegasus and two by Caesar) produced an unstoppable momentum towards gaming the interwar period. Hät provided the hallmark of the era: useless tanks, Italeri chipped in with German motorcycles just begging for conversion, and my ‘Furst Wars’ project was born. ImagiNations are courtesy of a well known Belgian reporter.

Scenario 1 Positional Defence (1)

So this is where it all begins.

Armies painted (by someone else, thanks Neil and team), terrain painted (by someone else) and laid out (by me, yay me!), rules studied, scenario prepared. Deep breath. Let's go!

For this first outing I am using my 6mm Napoleonic armies with the Maréchal d'Empire rules. A few die rolls using the army generators in the back of those rules provides the following forces, as a Prussian Corps attempts to dislodge a weak French corps with supporting cavalry from a fortified position somewhere in Germany, 1813. (Note for the non-grognards: what the Prussians call a brigade is roughly equivalent to a French division, while French brigades are similar to Prussian regiments. C’mon, it wouldn’t be Napoleonics if it wasn’t needlessly confusing, would it?)

Napoleonics

Without ready access to a cup of tea and a madeleine, I cannot accurately recall the precise order of events that made Napoleonics my first (military history) love. Certainly there were the 1/32 Airfix figures, but there was also a book from the local library on the Waterloo campaign with an orange hard cover (the slip cover having long disappeared) that I read and re-read.

Eventually, despite my mother’s misgivings over their small size, I graduated to the Airfix HO/OO figures, which included cavalry and artillery and the fantastic battle set complete with farmhouse and wagons that I still own and use. Then, when I grew up to be a serious wargamer (about age 12 or 13), I sold them all off and bought metal 15mm Minifigs, French and Prussians for the 1813 campaign. Having acquired enough for Scenario 42 (of course) I then purchased no more for almost 20 years, by which time Minifigs had been through a couple of resculpts and my figures were out of scale with pretty much everything on the market.

Part 1: Attack and Defence

Scenario 1 Positional Defence (1)
A straightforward scenario with the defensive line anchored on a forest, some villages and three redoubts. The latter make this seem like a Napoleonic game, and the forces translate nicely into a Corps sized attack in Marechal d'Empire, so a first run out for 6mm it is. If only I had had the foresight to get some redoubts from Total Battle Miniatures...

Scenario 2 Positional Defence (2)
This time the defender holds a re-entrant and there is a lot more terrain.

My Plan

or "The Triumph of Hope over Experience".

Nothing as misguidedly optimistic as a timeline. Just the scenarios, with the period and any little tweaks I can already see I need to make. I will update this as the project proceeds.

Part 1: Attack and Defence

Part 2: Reinforcements

Part 3: Rivers

Part 4: Air, Rail and Sea

Part 5: Convoy and Ambushes

Part 6: Terrain Problems

Part 7: Encounter Battles

Part 8: Special Problems

Totals so far: 2 Ancient, 4 Napoleonic skirmish, 5 Napoleonic big battle, 3 Inter War, 2 WWII.

OK, now I’m really worried. Which idiot came up with this idea?

Fantasy..nope Ancients...oh wait...Dark Ages!

I really don’t like the fantasy genre. Apart from some very happy, but misguided, time spent playing ‘Tunnels & Trolls’ as a lad, it has simply never appealed, it’s just too silly. (Yes, I am acutely aware of the irony of that statement given the subject of this entire blog.)

I can’t stand Tolkein. The Lord of the Rings movies were rescued for me by the battle scenes, but otherwise faithfully recreated the crushing dullness I had experienced when attempting to read the books. (Half way through the first of the movie trilogy, my better half stage-whispered “Oh just get on with it! I could have been there and back by now.” Luckily the assembled elf groupies and dwarf botherers in the cinema were too engrossed in hobbit antics to notice.) As for Warhammer, well don’t…just don’t.

Ancients

OK, this is a long story, that gets embarrassing towards the end, before a last minute snatching of self respect from the jaws of shame.

It is one of Charles Grant père's fantastic books that bears responsibility for my interest in Ancients. I chose a copy of ‘Wargame Tactics’ as a school prize when I was 11. At the time I knew nothing of Byzantines and Sassanids and certainly could not spell or pronounce either. Yet Grant’s description of armoured horsemen, mixed spear and bow units and, of course, elephants, captured my imagination in a way that tediously one-sided Romans v Barbarians clashes never did.

The Periods

Over the years of not wargaming, I have haphazardly accumulated all sorts of half-starts and speculative purchases as whims took me and finances allowed. Embarking on this project did force on me a degree of rationalization not seen since the transatlantic move, but I think I ended up with a net increase in periods and armies, so that's not really rationalization, is it? 

Information

Introduction

This is a blog about wargaming, something I am not very good at.

When I say I'm not very good at it, I don't mean technically inept, although it's true, my figure painting and modelling skills are those of the aptronymous hound, lacking opposable thumbs and pie-eyed on pints of Dulux with Vallejo chasers. The quality of my historical research is also highly questionable, as you will no doubt be horrified to discover if you persevere with this blog.

Not wargaming...