Maloyaroslavets

Battle of Maloyaroslavets, by Peter von Hess

This was a very special game played in the War Room some months ago against old friend of my fathers.  Marshall R was a colleague of my fathers when I was a lad.  My Dad had dabbled in wargaming a bit when he was younger, but he never really took to the hobby.  I, on the other hand,  fell for toy soldiers and fell hard.  The good Marshall was very kind to me when I was a youngster, teaching me how to paint my Airfix French Foreign Legion and slipping my Dad spare copies of Wargames Illustrated. 

So it was a real treat to finally host him in the war room for a game of Command & Colours Napoleonics. We played the battle of Maloyaroslavets from the Russian expansion. 

The Field of Mars

The scenario introduction from the Russian expansion. 

Napoleon marched southwest out of Moscow on October 19th toward the fertile region around Kaluga where supplies could be obtained. Eugene commanded Napoleon’s advance guard and all was going as planned until reaching Maloyaroslavets. Kutusov had also directed Dokhturov to march for Maloyaroslavets and the Russian advance guard arrived first. A furious meeting engagement ensued as Eugene charged over the River Luzha bridge and into parts of the village. Both locations changed hands several times. At one point Dokhturov broke off the attack, but was reinforced by Raevski and renewed the fight. Eugene’s final effort drove back the Russians to the ridges that overlooked the village. Early in the afternoon Napoleon was near the village, but after a close encounter with a party of Cossacks, he decided not to renew the action and made the fatal decision to alter the route of retreat to Mojaisk, forcing the army to retreat through the regions devastated during the advance on Moscow.

The stage is set. The battle lines are drawn and you are in command. Can you change history?

Link to the official scenario. 

Mr R took the French as he is by inclination a vile canting Bonapartist of the worst sort and they're bit a easier to play for players who are relatively new to the game. 

The central position, the town of Maloyaroslavets, is held by the French, but not so strongly as to be impregnable. The French have forces to reinforce it, but they're not immediately in position.  The Russian player is face with a choice, do you try and crumble the flanks of the French position and push on one side or the other, or commit to frontal attack? 

I committed to a frontal attack early and though I took fairly heavily casualties, I managed to take the centre with enough force to hold it. The French held part of the town, but without reinforcements  they wouldn't be able to drive me out again. 

Meanwhile Marshall R realised relatively quickly that trying to retake the town was a fools errand and mounted an attack on the French left. The Old Guard Grenadiers and French infantry drove forward into a flurry of Russian musketry. 

The French infantry managed to drive a wedge into the Russian position and I had to bring up Prince Mishkins Hussars to plug the gap. 

On the Russian left, Marshall R pushed his cavalry and infantry forward.  He didn't have the edge in numbers (always a problem, if you're attacking), but he had the edge in quality. Time would tell if that edge would be enough. 

The battle raged all across the front, with Marshall R pressing forward on the flanks to see if he could put pressure on me.  Several Russian battalions were broken before I could shore up the left, but I was still ahead, just. 

The Prince Mishkin Hussars were pummeled by a charge of French dragoons on the right, sent tumbling back and only barely survived to reform in much reduced numbers in the Russian rear. 

Not only did they batter the Hussars, but they followed up and crashed into the line infantry behind them.  The Russian formed square and held tight while the Dragoons thundered around them.  Meanwhile in the centre, I was able to bring my guns to bear on the weakened French infantry and break their will to resist.  With that the French army began to retreat from the field and the Cossacks began their pursuit. 

This was a close fought game which ended 8-10 and was nail biting right to the end.  It was real pleasure to get Marshall R around the table and hopefully we'll be able to do it again before too long.  I can't imagine telling ten year old Kinch that one day I'd been able to host him at my own wargames table.  Definitely a hobby life time achievement highlight. 

 

Playmobil with Bear

The convoy sets out. 

The Kinchlets and I were gifted a rather magnificent 18th century Playmobil set by my friend Stefan.  We've been playing games with them on and off for the last few years.  These tend to be fairly anarchic affairs with rules that are somewhat malleable and rather off the cuff. 

In this case, Bear and I had an hour while the LadyBaby was at her drawing class, so I grabbed some figures and quickly threw a game together. 

Lord Bear advances in a somewhat foolhardy fashion

The idea was that Lord Bear and his redcoats would have to get a treasure chest in a wagon across the board.  

The wagon train sets out

We used a spring loaded cannon for musketry, one shot for every two men.  Melee was a straight die roll off, with the side with the advantage getting an extra die. 

French hussars advances - though one of their number was felled by a lucky shot 

We used 6x4 inch cards to adjudicate movement 

The hussars charge in to isolate Lord Bear 

The French infantry arrive

Another hussar slain by some good shooting

Allez les Bleus! 

Lord Bear managed to survive via some fancy sword work

In actuality, each hussar rolls a die and Lord Bear rolled one as well. Any score that surpasses his would have killed him, but he managed to roll a five and while the hussars managed a crop of twos and threes. 

Some trick shooting

Bear's plan to get out of this predicament was to get some of his musketeers around to the right and then lob a shot at the hussars.  He managed it on his second shot and sent all the hussars crashing domino like to the floor. 

Ebullient after his lucky escape Lord Bear launched another charge into the French infantry. 

Who promptly shot him down like a dog. 

The game ended with Bear getting the caravan off the board edge that he needed to, but being somewhat nonplussed by the defeat of Lord Bear, who has managed to survive all other battles on his feet. 

No doubt it was merely a flesh wound and he shall return to the field once more. 

Though I was nonplussed myself when I examined the wagon to discover that the treasure chest had mysteriously disappeared!  Bear began to giggle at that point.  He shuffled around to my table edge and removed the chest which he had cunningly concealed in his sock. 

The louse had snuck it out of the wagon while I wasn't looking, so that it couldn't be captured. 

What say you blog readers? Shabby ursine trick or legitimate ruse de geurre? 

 

Battlemasters Goblin Wolfriders

This seemed so lavish when I was a youngster - still does to be honest

Battlemasters is an old MB games board game produced in the early 90s.  It was the third in a series of games produced by MB games with Games Workshop, the more famous first two installments being Heroquest and Space Crusade.  I loved them all, but Battlemasters was a real success because I played far far more games of it than I ever managed of Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd and 4th edition. 

The premise is simple; a simplified hex based wargame with card driven movement and 100 plastic figures in the box.  Gameplay is simple and a normal game runs for about an hour. 

I think this may be where I picked up my love of games with grids. I've been playing it with the Kinchlets and we've been having a lot of fun with it. I've set myself the medium term goal of getting all the figures painted for it this year.  

It also had a pretty impressive TV ad 

Goblin Wolf riders

The Evil player has a force made up of Orks, Goblins, Beastmen and other gribblies, but their main cavalry force, beyond some Chaos Knights, are the Goblin wolf riders.  These are a fast moving, but relatively weak unit, that can nip in and harry weaker infantry units. 

I'm pleased with how the wolves turned out.  I wanted to do them in something other than grey, so doing them in a variety of browns suited me.  It was a job that was very suited to Citadel Contrast paints. Using these with a big brush and a few drybrushed highlights did the job nice and quickly. 

The riders were a little more involved.  But I based out six of 'em and the remainder of the wolves in one three hour painting stint with Savage. It was nice to get stuck into something and stick with it.  Once I got home, all I had to do was add some decals and they were done. 

Painting a swatch of colour on top of the pot is extremely handy. 

My local model shop has just started stocking AK paints and they are fabulous.  Wonderfully opaque, not prone to seperating (I see you vallejo) and just splendid strong colours.   I've totally fallen in love with them.  However, one thing that I wasn't aware of and I'm not sure if this is by design or not, but you can use the hollow in the top of the cap to put a small out of paint in.  This makes it much easier to tell paints apart at a glance. 

Battle of the Bulge - August 2024

Because I am weak, biddable and easily distracted, I 've had these pictures sitting around for ages and didn't do anything with them.  We played three Battle of the Bulge scenario's using our own (slightly adapted) version of the Memor '44 overlord rules for team games. 

Due to having a few more players than I was anticipating we set up a second board, so that another eight players could get a game in.  We used one set up with five inch hexes and 1/72 kit and another using the original board game pieces. 

The game plays a little faster on the smaller board. 

And we were blessed that I had brought the board game kit along because it would have a bit of swizz if the lads who came along looking for a game didn't get one because of a shortage of gear. 

This if memory serves was the village of Neffe and the battle around it was very tough.  The Germans used their entrenched artillery to good effect and only a costly series of infantry assault by the Americans managed to clear the town. 

General Von Carpenter examining his troops.  We had had some problems representing road before, but a pal with a laser cutter ran up some pre cut MDF sections and they worked perfectly.  These are MDF with a printed texture (sourced from a model railway website) glued to them.  I could probably give them a little extra dirt and shading, but they did the job. 

Who was that masked man?  It was Anto. Anto was the masked man. 

Anto took on the job of keeping score which was tricky in a scenario that had a couple of quite complex win conditions.  His cartoons added a lot of fun to proceedings. 

German Von Casey reflecting that maybe declaring a war on an industrial super power was perhaps not the greatest idea ever. The buildings are 19th European building from Peter Dennis's paper soldiers terrain book, given a light dusting with a white spray and with some snow added to the eaves with modge podge. 

One of the benefits of the larger board is that roads really come into their own.  The players had to consider how to make best use of the mobility they offered, while also managing the traffic jams this created. 

We had some new players along as well, which is always a pleasure. 

The frozen hell of the Ardennes requires proper lubrication of all essential elements to ensure the military machine functions properly. 

Anto's illustrations got more lurid as the game ran on. 

Several of the players at this game were veteran Memoir '44 players, but hadn't played on a big board before.  It definitely shifts the feel of the game from "boardgame" to "proper wargame".  

I can't define a proper wargame, but I know it when I see it. 

As the German offensive slowed, the American counter attack began to gain momentum.  Though the German players extracted a heavy price for every foot of lost ground. 

We used lines of kitty litter to indicate where each board section ended.   They worked, but I've since switched to using some small fences that I based on lolly pop sticks, which I think work (in that they clearly indicate which section of the board is which), but despite being much bigger blend better into the board.  I must run up some snow covered ones. 

Mr E and Mr T sizing each other up while General Savage contemplates how he's going to get his drinks cabinet ten yards closer to Berlin.

The Germans used a lot of heavy armour in these games and they were powerful.  However they often failed to get where they needed to be and had difficulty dealing with entrenched American infantry and artillery.  Extremely dangerous, but not panacea. 

Though they are very scary when you are on the receiving end!

The last game was the American counter attack to relieve Bastogne.  The 6th Armoured got rolling towards Longvilly and the result was a big armoured clash, which was a change from the infantry and artillery heavy battles in woods that we'd been playing in the morning. 

A lonely Sherman bravely faces a pair of Kraut big cats. 

All in all, a good days gaming.  I only regret that it took me over a year to write it up.  The Germans squeaked a marginal win over the three days, but it was hard earned and I don't think anyone felt hard done by.  We all retired to the bar upstairs and got a few pints in and then fell to planning the next one. 

The Battle of Prokhorovka

We’re re fighting the battle of Prokhorovka at the moment using Memoir ‘44.  This was the giant armour clash between the 11th SS Panzer Korps under Manstein and 5th Guards Armour under Rotmistrov.  

The rules are the Breakthrough format of Memoir 44 (using a larger board and specialised card deck) and some 6mm figures and terrain to represent the units.  Each team of players discuss their moves in a WhatsApp group and send them in. We’re doing about two turns a day.

Initial moves were cautious with the Germans refusing their left flank and pivoting to face a Soviet push.  The Sovs spent some time in concentrating, while trying to soften the German defences with air strikes.  The first Soviet attack on the it left is going in now.

#memoir44 #history #secondworldwar #WW2 #boardgames

Heroquest - the best thing about it.

Balin the Dwarf contemplating his next move, while Sophia the Sorceress considers her Spell cards. 

One of the pleasures of children is sharing something that you enjoy with them and watching them enjoy it too.  I came into a copy of Heroquest last year and have been biding my time at introducing the Kinchlets to it.  I've always had a soft spot for the game and I'm aware that it's recently been re-released, but the new edition has left me cold.  

I really enjoyed the setting of the Old World in Warhammer of the original and I didn't care much for the World of Warcraft stylings of the new figures, so it made sense to stick to the edition of the game that I played as a youngster. 

The adventurers quickly split up

We've played the first few quests and this is our third game.  The kids have gotten into the rhythm of the game well and are enjoying it.  Though I like to think that my extremely hammy reading of the introductory text of each quest doesn't hurt. 

My Orks, of course, talk like a ultra-violent Dick Van Dyke.  The trick is to stick your lower jaw out and yell things like "Oi you gits!" with appropriate amounts of gusto. 

Orks

I have a bit of an allergy to playing with unpainted figures.  I've been slowly painting my set using the tutorials from Miguel at Rush the Wash.

But by the same token, it would a poor father who refused to play just because the figures weren't finished.  It's amusing how little children care about such things. 

Sophia the Sorceress has bitten off rather more than she can chew

This was an interesting game. It was quest number three - Lair of the Ork Warlord.  This is a follow on from the previous game we played The Rescue of Sir Ragnar.  Sir Ragnar had been kidnapped by the Ulag the Ork Warlord and the heroes have been sent to put a stop to his evil schemes. 

It was also the first game we played where the Kinchlets lost. 

Slinging spells like Billy-oh - Sophia fights for her life. 

Sophia the Sorceress got rather cocky and was running around the board attracting the attention of many monsters, but didn't take the time to take care of the ones she activated. The kids also got separated which meant that they were surrounded.  Sophia the Sorceress who had started the game being very cautious with her spells was slinging them with gay abandon by the end, but it wasn't enough to get her out of trouble. 

The Ork Warlord Ulag is struck down

She did manage to use a spell to take out the Ork Warlord Ulag, but got greedy and went to check his treasure room rather than immediately running for her life.  Meanwhile Balin the Dwarf who was valiantly trying to hold off a horde of nasties took a big hit from a Chaos Warrior.  Reduced to one Body Point he made a run for the stairs. 

The result was the first game that the kids lost and there was a certain amount of tears and disbelief.   I really enjoy sharing games with them, but I think it's important that they realise that the contest is in fact a real contest.  After some big hugs and a chocolate digestive, we agreed to try again another day.