RUSSIAN RUMBLE

This past week the Wednesday Group played another Russian Civil War game using the Perfect Captain’s Red Action Rules. http://perfectcaptain.50megs.com/redactions.html

The battle had the Whites trying to locate and recover a cache of supplies located in a small town along the rail line. The Red’s goal was simply to prevent that occurring. The battle opened with the White’s cavalry sweeping in on the right flank along the rail line at a full gallop, speed being more important than combat. The Red’s were slow to make an appearance, with only a pair of Tchanca, MG’s in horse drawn wagons, guarding the village. White artillery quickly destroyed the first, while a fire fight with the cavalry forced the other to retire deeper into the town.

 

Whites Advance on the Town

After several turns of unopposed White maneuvering the rest of the Red army started to make an appearance. Red cavalry moved up to oppose their opposite number while their artillery and a meager number of infantry began advancing down the main road. By this time the White infantry had joined the cavalry in searching the town for supplies. Extremely accurate artillery fire from the Whites drove off part of the Red’s infantry, while a steady fire from their cavalry pushed the Red’s further and further back. By games end the Whites had discovered there were no supplies to be found. Having sustained few casualties, themselves and having eliminated or driven off the Reds the White army was declared victors of this encounter.

 

Whites Clear the Town

The Village Secured, but Where are the Supplies?

Our group likes these rules a lot and will be playing more of these games in the future. Battles flow back and forth with combat results being more prone to degrading and repulsing units rather than destroying them. Quality is rare in our games with most of the forces being mobs with only a few elite troops having the Storm and Specialist abilities. Best tactics are don’t ask to much of your troops and have a reserve ready.  

Toon Tanks Tangle

US tanks occupy the town. The Haunted tank on the left. 

Recently the Wednesday group played a game of What a Tanker by Two Fat Lardies. If you are not familiar with this game, it is a simple tank on tank duel using command dice to cover the various operations of moving, shooting, aiming and loading. Our forces for the game were 3 Panthers and a Hetzer on the German side, with 3 Sherman M4A1s, an M36 Tank Destroyer, 2 M4A4E8 Easy Eights, and an M5 Stuart as the famous “Haunted Tank” for the Americans.

 

US tanks enter the battlefield

Panther out hunting. US tanks can be seen in the far center behind the trees. 

Things started quickly with one of the Panthers being in a spot to both spot, aim and fire at the M36 doing some serious damage to the Tank Destroyer before it had even had a chance to do anything. The rest of the forces on both sides maneuvered around to gain cover for themselves and set-up to get sights on their enemies. The wounded M36 darted deep into a nearby grove of trees to break line of sight with the offending Panther and gain some much-needed cover.

Easy Eight in woods over watching the road

The following turn the M36 activated first, moved to the edge of the woods to fire on the Panthers and missed. It was rewarded for its trouble by being the target of a pair of Panthers that finished it off. Shortly after one of the Easy Eights got an amazing shot that destroyed a Panther, but the Panther commander played his Special card that reduced all damage to no effect and survived unscathed. With all the American tanks seeking cover around the village the Germans needed to maneuver to gain shots in the upcoming turns.

 

First Kill. M36 on fire

The third turn saw a standard Sherman take out a different Panther. This evened the odds back up. The rest of the American tanks kept to cover, while the Germans became impatient and started aggressively maneuvering.

 

US revenged. Burning Panther

The next turns saw the Germans taking shots on the tanks in the town. They damaged a few, but left themselves open for counter attacks. The Hetzer was the first to go down to the Easy Eight that had been sighted in on the main road. The Panthers then through caution to the wind. In order to get better shots on the tanks in town they exposed their flanks to the Easy Eight over watching the road. It proved a poor choice as another Panther went down in flames. With only a single tank remaining the lucky Panther that survived to first killing shot departed the board for safer hunting grounds.

 

The Hetzer goes down as the Panthers maneuver to engage the US tanks

The third Panther goes down to a flank shot as the lone surviving German heads off the battlefield

Overall it was a fun game with great looking terrain. I am sure there will be a rematch soon.

Another Bloody Hill Line

The latest battle again featured a hill line defense. This saw Otherwhen attacking Nodd to open the central road and continue their campaign to seize the eastern province of South Riding. For a change I made this primarily an infantry battle, with the cavalry fight taking place unseen and off board. Otherwhen had a slight numerical infantry advantage, a few superior infantry units in their Queen’s Own Guard, and Zeebataillon (their elite Marines), and double the artillery. Both sides had a smattering of light horse to help guard against flanking attacks and plug the inevitable holes in the line. Each side expected additional infantry reinforcements. I made an error in my measuring and the central hill that was supposed to give Otherwhen’s artillery a useful supporting position, turned out to be just out of range against the main infantry line of Nodd.

The opposing forces. Otherwhen on the left, Nodd on the right.

The battle opened with Otherwhen launching a general advance across the entire line. This surprised me some as during the planning part of the game they had talked about starting with a bombardment before advancing. This was something I thought was a wise choice given the length of time they had to accomplish their goal, (ten turns and only needing about four turns to bring their infantry into contact against the enemy’s main line). Both sides artillery played a substantial roll in the outcome of the battle.

On Nodd’s left flank the Black Barron’s brigade was withdrawn behind the hill line while all their artillery concentrated on the advancing center units of Otherwhen. The casualties inflicted were moderate, but the outcome was substantial. Otherwhen’s Senior brigade had three of its four battalions panic, meaning they could take no offensive action for the rest of the day. This included both elite units. Substantial counter battery fire eventually drove off or destroyed Nodd’s artillery, but the damage had been done.

The Black Barron’s Brigade withdrawn behind the hill. Otherwhen’s Senior Brigade advancing in the top center.

View from the center of Nodd’s defensive line, The target of the attack.

On the flanks it was a different story. After a slow start, Otherwhen’s right flank began driving in the Black Barron’s brigade This was helped by a daring attack by the Barron’s cavalry against the battery of artillery and an advance off their hill line to support this. Rather than maneuver to the artilleries flank the cavalry launched a head on charge from maximum range. While the battery had been reduced to half, it was still a not well thought out assault. Covering such a long distance into a firing line had predictable poor results for the cavalry who were driven off repeatedly. Their supporting infantry came off the worst in the firefight and having come down off the hill were finding it hard to get back up against the pursuing infantry.

Otherwhen attacking the remains of the Black Barron’s Brigade on Nodd’s left flank after the hussars failed charge on the artillery.

On Otherwhen’s left flank their infantry line supported by highly effective artillery fire was making dynamic headway. When their reinforcements arrived in the way of a flanking attack the results became catastrophic for Nodd. The cavalry and infantry defending this flank stood their ground repeatedly while being virtually annihilated in the process. Otherwhen commanders had become so obsessed with this success that they had overlooked a serious problem. There was no attack being made on the central position that was the objective. With both flanks collapsing Nodd’s generals were using the command abilities to their fullest to delay Otherwhen’s progress until the sun had set and time had runout.

Nodd’s right flank under heavy pressure. Casualties are already mounting as the flanking attack through the forest begins to develop.

Otherwhen pressing in on the right flank while Nodd’s forces stubbornly holdout.

Nodd forces holding on until the end.

It was a costly victory for Nodd, but they had finally stemmed the tide of Otherwhen’s success. The keys to this victory was the unusual result of three infantry battalion’s morale collapsing with so few casualties, especial for elite units, and the failure of the attackers to switch any forces over to the center to capture the objective. Overall this was a very well-played game by all parties.

Nodd infantry holding strong. This central hill was never attacked.

Otherwhen’s Senior Brigade seen at the end of the battle where it had stalled early on.

We Came, We Saw, We Got Our Butts Kicked.

This past week my local group gathered to play a game of Honors of War (HoW). The game pitted the Austrians and Prussians in an epic clash. We had eight players, four to a side and around one thousand figures on the table by games end.

The Austrians were tasked with holding a ridgeline and two small towns against a massive Prussian assault. Initially only a vanguard of grenadiers was available along with a substantial cavalry element to hold the planes on the right flank. The plan was to hold the ridgeline awaiting reinforcements to solidify the position and for the cavalry to engage their opposite number and upon that success to launch spoiling attacks against the then exposed Prussian infantry’s flank. As you can likely tell by the title none of this went as planned.

Austrian cavalry prepare to vanquish their Prussian opponents. The troops on the right are destined never to leave this spot.

On the first turn our grenadiers moved up and took their position at the front of the hill while my cavalry group headed off to attack, however the other half of the cavalry failed to activate. The Prussian infantry rushed forward making good time, while their cavalry oddly held back. 


On turn two our cavalry group again surged forward. Little was I to know that this would be the last time our second cavalry group would activate. Over the next few turns our reinforcements arrived and to my surprise the Prussian, after making amazing progress simply halted outside of musket range. I had to wait for the cavalry reinforcements to catch up because my right flank support repeatedly failed to move. I was finally ready to launch my attack against the enemy cavalry, when suddenly the Prussian reinforcements of hussars arrived on our flank, and just behind our dawdling cavalry. The rear attack against them potentially left them vulnerable, but since our cavalry was not pinned each unit contacted had the opportunity to turn and face the enemy charge with each only needing a 3+ to succeed. Five out of six units failed the roll. I was forced to send part of my cavalry back to try and prevent disaster. By games end our cavalry force was a mess. The Prussians still had a fully intact brigade of dragoons ready to go. We had lost 5 battalions and over half of the remaining were blown. The Prussian hussars were also spent, as was more than half of the rest of their cavalry. For us the battle was over.

Reinforced, the Austrians cavalry advance against the Prussians.

The Austrian central hill position await the Prussian infantry advance.

Prussian grenadier capture the town. Austrians linger just outside musket range.

After the unexpected flanking rear attack by Prussian hussars half the Austrian cavalry are in a major disarray.

Having seen off a battalion of Prussian grenadiers the rest of the Austrian cavalry await the inevitable Prussian cavalry charge.

On the opposite flank the reason for the Prussian infantry delay became clear as a pair of fresh infantry brigades came crashing into our left flank. With both flanks compromised and a force of nearly intact veteran Prussian infantry to our front we concede the game. 

The main Prussian battle line engage the central hill.

The disarraying outcome of the cavalry battle with units scattered across the field. Prussian hussars lower left, dragoon and cuirassier right. Austrian cavalry upper left and center. 

As one sided as this turned out everyone, save one of us, had a good time. For obvious reasons the poor fellow who never got to play, other than by rolling poor dice, did not enjoy the experience. What I took away was the need to limit both Dithering and Dashing commanders. Their extremes of a one third chance to either not activate, or on the opposite side, a one third chance to double move, are real game changers. Personally, I hate a system that prevents you from playing simply because of luck. I am considering modifying the effect to only allowing half of a force to advance on a Poor result, while a Feeble result will be no units may advance.

New Scenario: C-in-C’s at Work

I ran a different sort of scenario for my Toy Solders game on Wednesday. The goal of this was to test out an idea of reserves. I wanted C-in-C’s to have a broader job than just moving from crisis point to crisis point adding the command points. I worked out rules to activate and attach reserves for the game that required them to be within command range of the divisional commander they were attaching to. We played through it twice and while it worked, it still lacked the crises point issue that I had hoped for. The scenario both times went well, so all is good on that front.

Game 1 opening moves

In the first game both sides shifted forces to attack/reinforce the town road exit. This led to a weakening of the central road position that the forces of Otherwhen succeeded in taking. 

Reinforcing the town

Cavalry battle on the town flank

Assault on the central hill line

In the second game cavalry was sent to the high hill flank while the main assault came straight up the central road. Devastating fire from the Otherwhen forces had the Nodd defenders reeling. Even with this the Nodd defenders were not pushed off the hill until the last turn. 

Game 2

The cavalry battle near the town, while the key assaults approach the hill line.

Otherwhen assault advancing up the main road

Otherwhen's assault on the big hill begins. 

Nodd's infantry stand ready on the central hill 

Cavalry face off in the valley below the big hill.

Otherwhen cuirassier and lancers in the foreground. Nodd hussars to the left. 

The cavalry battle near the town road.

Last of Nodd's cuirassier defending near the town await the Otherwhen charge.

Otherwhen's Queen's Guard lend their weight to the assault on Nodd's Royal Foot Guard. 

At battles end the field nearly empty of Nodd defenders 

At near days end Nodd's Royal Foot Guard still holding on to the main road right to the end

Dog Wars - Warfare in the Age of Madness

Beginning a new project is always exciting. This one especially, since I have been planning it for over 30 years. This is my mid 18th century grand project in order solo play Charles Stewart Grant's Scenarios for Wargamers, and Programed Scenarios for Wargamers. It requires at least 15 units of line infantry, 5 of light infantry, 16 of medium and heavy cavalry, 5 of light cavalry and 6 batteries of artillery.

My plan is to play using Honours of War (HoW) rules because of the random element in command activation, which as a solo gamer is good. It means that my overall knowledge of what both armies want to do can still be thwarted by good, or bad die rolls for command. They also play fast enough that even with the number of units involved it should not take me to long to complete turns. Another useful thing is they allow for both size and quality differences of units. This is a big thing for campaigns since it allows an easy way to implement changes that will take place.

This is an ImagiNation project, so a lot of additional work is required. There are a number of things already started. Figures are ordered, uniforms designed, national and regimental  flags are begun, rules are chosen, scenarios are set. As ideas become reality, and more things start to jell, my enthusiasm continues to grow. Unlike the Toy Soldiers project that was designed to be a multi-player event for store games and conventions, this ones primary intention is for myself. I expect much more activity here as things develop.