Historicon Report: Battle Along the Mississippi

The second game Mike and I ran at Historicon was a set-piece battle loosely based on the Vicksburg campaign (it was along the Mississippi river, which was about the only link to Vicksburg).  The battle featured a slightly larger confederate force attacking an Union force.  The objective was simple capture at least two of three objectives.  The objectives were the chicken coop in the lower right, the hill in the center, and a small plot in the upper right corner.  The first picture shows the initial setup.  Both sides had 3 brigades on the board and one in reserve.  The CSA had 8 batteries of artillery to the Unions 5, but that would change later in the game when the captured ironclad (see the previous post) makes an appearance.

 A shot down the confederate line.  The CSA had four players (each with a brigade).  All of the miniature on the table are Perry.

 A shot down the Union line - similar set up to the CSA with four players each with a brigade.  We used black powder as the rule set with some minot simplifications to facilitate convention play.  All of the players we had for the game were great and it was a real pleasure for Mike and I to host them for a few hours of dice rolling.

 The initial confederate advance.  The original plan was (I think) to seize and hold the hill in the center with two brigades and send the other two to attack the Union's right flank.  At least that was the initial plan....

 More units advance and a Union calvary unit attempts to charge the CSA guns but rolls poorly on the order dice and comes up short in a bad spot.

 The Confederate reserves arrive and march towards the Union right flank.  The Union reserved (4 calvary regiments) arrive the following turn along the river edge.

 The Union shuffles back trading real estate to keep the advancing confederates under fire - it was a good strategy.  The initial confederate plan of just holding the hill got thrown out for a general advance - it may not have been a sound strategy but it was great fun and just what a convention game is all about!  Good Show!

 Oops- the capture Tennessee shows up - think super "artillery battery" in Black Powder terms,  The confederate brigade on the extreme right begins to take a pounding.

 The main confederate attack forms up slowly due to some command dice issues.  One of the really fun things about black powder is the command system which is very clean but can lead to some unpredictable results.

 More confederate advances but losses are mounting....

 FInally the main attack strikes!

 The high water mark of the attack.

 The confederate right flank collapses as it's exposed flank is pounded by the Tennessee and Union reinforcements.

 Another shot of the climatic Union counter attack.  We called the game at this point with the CSA having two of four brigades broken and a limited chance to regain the initiative.

A view of the guns from the Tennessee.

All-in-all it was a great game and I'm very grateful for the help Mike and I got from the players - they were a great bunch.  We also had very nice prize support from Architects of War and every player got a certificate for store credit at the AofW booth.

I'm looking forward to my next convention game!

Black Powder Test Game

 My son and I had a test game last night using my newly painted ACW figs and the Black Powder ruleset.  This was less a play test of the scenario for Historicon and more just a refresh on the rules.  Sorry for the sparse scenery on the table I need to make a lot of 28mm ACW themed terrain by July!

 The focal point of the battle was a major hill that was held by the Union - some of you may remember this Hill from my Lundys Lane game at Fall In 2012.  It's served as a focal point for many a Warof 1812 battle and I suspect it will serve that role again this summer.

 Here's a shot of two confederate regiments sneaking up on the small dismounted Union cavalry regiment that's was screening the hill' far right flank.

 Some reb cavalry creeping up from the rear

 A Union regiment and gun rushing to reinforce their right flank

 More reinforcements being shifter to the threatened flank

 A view of the confederate attack - all full brigade of infantry ply two calvary regiments.

Lastly a view down the center of the Union - they've got a lot of troops.

The game played well and served to knock a lot of my Black Powder cobwebs out.  I also just wanted to see how the new troops looked on the table and was pleased with the look.

As I indicated before, I need to make a lot of terrain by mid july to flesh out the battlefield - more woods, a few houses fences and some better hills.  At least since both my games at Historicon (F-295 and S-296 in the PEL) are sponsored by Architects of War, I'll have access to some high quality stuff.

There are still one or two spots open on the games so if you're interested signup now.

Historicon Games F-295 and S-296

The Historicon PEL is up and the two games that Mike and I will be putting on for Architects of War are listed as F-295 (Friday at 6:00pm) "Sink the Tennessee" and S-296 (Saturday at 1:00pm) "Prelude to Vicksburg"

The first game F-295 is a ACW skirmish game using the new "Uncivil War" ruleset and will be based on a Union calvary and amphibious raid to sink a confederate ironclad.  Oh yes the game will feature a 28mm scale model of the CSS Tennessee, complete with interior to fight over!

The second game on Saturday (S-296) will be a large ACW battle using 28mm figures and the Black Powder ruleset.  You may have seen some posts of me painting some Rebs and Yanks for that game on this site.  The battle will be directly influenced by the results of the raid game on Friday night. I wonder if that mean old ironclad will make an appearance?.....

Take a look and register - the games will be fun and there'll be beer!

Returning to the War of 1812

 With Historicon in the books, it's time to return and finish up my War of 1812 Project.  The Fall In theme is the War of 1812 and it might be fun to run a linked set of games during the con.  Of course setting a deadline also forces me to actually complete stuff so that's part of the plan.  The first picture shows my 28mm War of 1812 forces in total (along with my Langton ships).

 I've completed 5, 36 figure US battalions and have 2 more primed and ready to go. The US forces are all figures from Knuckleduster and consist of 3 Regulars, 1 Rifle and 1 Militia.  The unpainted US forces are a battalion of Marines and Maryland Militia.  There is also a 12 figure unit of Mounted Kentucky Rifles that needs to be completed.

 Outside of command stands, the British are pretty much done and are mostly Perry figures with some Victrix metal heads for the Royal Marines.  The British force consists of 7 regular line infantry battalions, 1 unit of Canadian Rifles (Glengarry Lights) and a unit of Royal marines.  The British also have a small 12 figure unit of Light Dragoons and three artillery.

 More British battalions sneaking up on the US.

Lastly, here are the British Dragoons - these are Perry metals and they're wonderful models

I'm thinking about trying to run a game for Fall In but that might be tough given my son's robotic's schedule - we'll see how the next month or so plays out before making a final decision.  If I do go, I'm thinking of running a two part game - a naval battle that determines if one side receives reinforcements and then a land battle on the following day with the attacker being determined by the results of the naval battle.  Right now it's all talk but lets see....

FIW using Black Powder

Ernie, of AofW, hosted another game last night.   The theme was the French and Indian War (FIW) and the rules were Black Powder.  Ernie set up the opposing forces to be exactly even with 3 brigades of infantry each and 2 guns.  Neither side had any calvary but we did have a wide range of light troops including Indians and American militia.  The first picture show the initial entry of the forces.  I was in command of the French along with Les and Bob.  Dick commanded the British along with Mike.  Ernie played part time umpire and full time comedian.

My Brigade formed the extreme right flank of the French line and you can see them advancing to the fence line.  This was a bit of a feint just to see what those British chaps were up to!  I also had a group of Indians that I sent into the town (at the bottom of the picture) to cause trouble.

 Once I saw that 2 British Brigades were moving to opposing me I quickly ordered my French gentlemen to run away and form a defensive hedge position by some stone walls.  I kept 2 battalions in the front line and kept one back to take advantage of the Black Powder Support rules.

 The real action of the evening took place on the French left flank where Bob and Les's brigades made contact with the lead elements of the 3rd British brigade.  Pictured is Les's infantry advancing to contact.  In the center left you can just see some of Bob's light troops picking there way through the forrest to flank the British.  In a few turns 2 British Battalions were routed at the cost of a group of Indians.   A word about the forests.  You can see that Ernie has very impressive and true to scale forests for his 28mm forces.  What's even better is that the canopy's are removable to allow for easier movement - very cool.

 Another view from the "hedgehog".  Mike poured fire on my position all night long and succeeded in routing my Indians and causing some casualties to the artillery.  I used my leader to keep rallying the gun crew (removing a wound) to keep in action.  This actually was a bit foolhardy on my part as if the unit had routed my leader would have gone with it.  The British saw two battalions broken as a result of counter fire.  Entrenched units (stonewall) are very difficult to root out in Black Powder as they have significant advantages in saving throws.

 A view from the British side of the table.  Here was some nice slight of hand from Dick.  The lead elements of the 2 British brigade are shown at the bottom of the picture and we were convinced they were coming for the entrenched French (me!)

 But they surged towards the French left flank and launched a brigade level charge.  If it wasn't for some very lucky closing fire die rolls this attack might have swung the battle to the favor of the British, as bulk of Bob's brigade was not in the line yet.  Alas the charge was halted just before making contact.  The next turn saw the British flanked and routed by French musket fire.  We called the game then as two of the three British brigades were broken.  You can see one of Ernie's forest pieces with the canopy removed in the upper center of the picture.

Here's a silly mood shot of the advancing french taken from the perspective of being in the forrest.  All in all everyone had a grand evening and both Ernie and Bard were fantastic hosts.  We were also regaled by the exploits of Ernie's grandson, Aidan, who truthfully, can do no wrong.

Despite all the players having some experience with the Black Powder rules we did struggle a bit with the the finer differences between being disordered and being shaken.  Combat is very quick given that each unit only has three causalities.  No melee's lasted more than one round.  I like Black Powder for 6mm ACW, but those games are much more firepower focused and have less melee combat given the range and greater effectiveness of the firearms.  If we wanted more staying power we could always raise the level of wounds a unit can withstand (usually 3) to 6 or 7, which appears to be the approach the new "Hail Caesar" rules use.  Net, net Black Powder is a ruleset that emphasizes fast play and sweeping movements.  A beer or glass of red wine is definitely in order when playing!

Forests for 6mm American Civil War

Now with the WWI Fleet project moved from "build" to "game" status, it's time to move on to hosting another American Civil War (ACW) game using my 6mm armies.  New to this game will be the heavy forrest sections that my friend, Ernie of Architects of War fame, made for me.  The really cool thing about these forests is that they have removable tops that allow for easy access to move units that are in the terrain, as you can see in the next photo:

It's a very elegant solution and allows for some interesting gaming opportunities - Battle of the Wilderness anyone?  Ernie made a very useful PDF on how to make the forests which can be downloaded from the "How-To" section of his companies website.  The pieces he made for me will work with anything from 6mm to 15mm so expect also see them on Flames of War Battle reports.  In fact, Ernie has some truly impressive forest sections of similar design for larger scales (28mm+) in his personal collection - the tree trunks are about a foot long (he uses branches) and the canopy is another foot to foot and a half - amazing stuff when on the table.

I'll be making some more sections for my table.

I use Black Powder for my ACW gaming and will designate the new forrest sections as "Heavy Woods".  Normal woods add a +1 to saving die rolls but the "heavy woods" will add a +2 and visibility is limited to a base width (60mm).  There  will also be some special movement rules that can result in units getting "lost" and disorganized when moving through the woods.  I'll spring those upon the players and let you know how that aspect works.

6MM ACW Black Powder Battle Report

Ernie and Mike came over and played a test game using my 6mm ACW figures and the Black Powder ruleset.  The game was loosely based on the Batltle of Shiloh and involved a initially larger confederate force (6 infantry and 2 calvary brigades and 14 batteries) attacking a smaller Union force (4 infantry and 1 calvary brigades and 12 batteries).  The Union did have reinforcements (3 Infantry and 1 calvary brigades plus 8 batteries.  The reinforcements needed to be rolled for but did come on fairly quickly.  The objective for each side was to exit a brigade off the far corner of the table.  Mike commanded the Union and Ernie the Confederates.  One note of warning, Ernie does attempt to speak in a southern drawl while commanding the confederates and sounds suspiciously like a former Governor of Arkansas.  I'm sure it's just a coincidence.

Like most battle reports here at the Lair, I forgot to take a any pictures during the fight!

The picture to the left is the initial confederate deployment - 4 infantry brigades are in front with 2 and the calvary in reserve.  The game proved to be very deadly for the cavalry units as there were a good number of attempted charges with predictable results - the only real bright spot was the confederates running down a pesky artillery battery.

Here is the Union deployment - 3 brigades in line with a fourth coming up in column.  The Union reinforcements started coming on in turn three from the table edge to the right of the picture.  The battle quickly developed into to separate fights on each flank.

The fight on the Union right flank just after we called the game.  Union losses where high - 3 infantry regiments and the calvary brigade were destroyed and their position was being turned as you can see to the left of the picture.  We used Litko markers in the game - skulls for losses and red disrupted markers.  One note, these are the same markers that were used in the Black Powder game at Historicon from Architects of War (yes, that is a shameless plug).

Things were looking a good bit better for the Union on their left flank as two confederate brigades were just about to be overrun by a large Union force of 4 infantry brigades.  The Union calvary brigade did attempt a charge (lower right) but that didn't work out so well.  We called the game as a draw.

Overall, I think the game went very well and we did learn the mechanics of the rules.  BP is a game that rewards both concentration of fire and flexible tactical thinking given the potential for either really good or really bad command roles.  It is a great set of rules for larger battles and I think gave a good feel for the period.  We had just under 2,000 figures on the table and the battle proved to be very manageable.  The next test game will involved some ironclads and then I think we'll be ready for the campaign!

GHQ WWI Battleships and Other Historicon Purchases

I finished the assembly and basic painting of my first GHQ 1/2400 scale WWI ship.  The model in question is the British Battleship Royal Oak.  As you can see in the picture the model is just three inches long but the casting has a wealth of detail from anchor chains and capstans to life boats.  The GHQ micro-naught line is very impressive.  The model was very easy to build and paint.  This one went from out of the blister to painted in about 90 minutes.  There are a few places that need a touch up but I'm happy with the results.  I used a thinned down version of the GW baddab black wash to highlight the details.  I'll finish this one up tomorrow night and get a few others started.

I also spent some time cleaning up and priming some 28mm Bolt Action German paratroopers (Warlord Games) that I also got at Historicon last week.  These are all metal and the quality is good.  I did struggle a bit with the 75mm anti-tank gun as there are no instructions in the blister.  I had to resort to using the assemble instructions from an old Battlefront 15mm anti-tank gun!  I'll likely put these aside as I finish up the GHQ ships but I wanted to get the basic work out of the way.

On the gaming front, I'll be organizing a 6mm ACW game using Black Powder for my club in the nest few weeks.  Hopefully they'll be enough interest to run a campaign during the fall.

3 Days at Historicon

Well I just got back from my first "overnight" game convention experience after attending three days at Historicon.  I must say that all the gibberish and hand-wringing concerning the convention on TMP and the impending demise of Historicon was way off-the-mark.  I had a blast and the Valley Forge Convention Center was definitely a big step up from the Host in Lancaster.  The convention center hotels (I stayed in the Radisson) were adequate (they're not a Four Seasons) but the pricing was reasonable.

I was able to play 3 games at the convention and help my friend Ernie both with his debut of Architects of War and put on his Black Powder game with the Perry brothers and John Stallard.  There may have also been some new lead acquisitions but the less said about that the better.

I really enjoyed the 2 pre-WWII dreadnaught games that I played which were put on by members of the Northern Virginia Gamers club (NOVAG) using their home grown rules.  I found the games to be a lot of fun and really liked the feel of the period.  In fact, I ended up purchasing a fair number of WWI ship models from GHQ and as a result have yet another period to game / model.  I will say the guys from NOVAG did a very nice job hosting the event and ensuring the form of the rules they used where both approachable and yet gave a good feel for the period.

The highlight of the con for me was helping with the "Black Powder in the Peninsular" game that was co-hosted by Architects of War, Warlord Games and the Perry Brothers.  The photo to the left is a picture of the 24' table with the scenery in place.  You can see a lot of the new terrain pieces from Architects of War on the table - especially the fortfication set, which is a very difficult location to assault!  My role in helping put the game on was to lug stuff around and help new players with the rules while playing.  I did a pretty good job on the lifting stuff part.

Here's a picture of the game masters.  From left to right Ernie Baker (AofW), Alan and Michael Perry and John Stallard.  Having the authors and main play testers of the rules moderate a game is fairly useful!  The game featured almost 2,000 of Ernie's personal collection of 28mm Napoleonic figures and had 6 players per side, each commanding a brigade.  My command in the game was to be one of the two brigades to assault the fortification in the center of the map.  My Brigade attacked the right side and another player attacker the left.  Technically, we were supposed to just screen the fort but got really good command roles and attacking is just a lot more fun!  The fort was defended by a brigade of British and a brigade of Portuguese infantry.  Oh yes, it had a ton of artillery too!

After the previously mentioned lucky command role, my brigade was able to make contact with the defenses on turn two.  My first assault was repulsed with moderate casualties on both sides.  In a subsequent turn I was able to renew the assault with the support of the reserve battalion and....

Breached the defenses!  The British brigade was quickly despatched but those damn Portuguese were superbly played and manage to hold the last third of the fort until the end of the game.  While the mechanics of Black Powder are elemental they lend themselves to both very quick play and a real feel for command trade-offs .  I really like the ruleset and recommend it highly.  It's not for everyone as there is moderate detail and a lot is left up for player discretion but for me gaming is as much a social experience as it is a competition and these rules blend the two nicely.  There will be a lot more (and better!) pictures from the game posted on both the Architects of War website as well as their blog.

Lastly, a picture of John Stallard and myself.  John's a great guy and very fun game host.  I think he may have missed his calling and instead of owning a miniature figure company he could have been a very successful game show host.  He's a very affable fellow but I do not recommend trying to keep up with him in a pub.

As for the debut of Architects of War,  Ernie reports they did a very brisk business at there stand and was very pleased with the reaction to their initial product line.  I was able to even make a sale or two!  Check out their website when it comes up in the next week or so.

All-in-all it was a great trip and I look forward to next year!