More Leaders pt3 - French

 As I noted in my post on substitute figures, I don't actually have any dedicated WW2 French figures although I have boxfuls of WW1 French. I tend to use Adrian helmeted SCW figures instead as they look much the same and many of them were originally French figures anyway. Well, after the now numerous appearances of my General de Gaulle figure, I realised I 'needed' some French officer figures in Kepis for an upcoming game as they are so distinctive.

Another bunch of Skytrex figures, this time from the French command pack, which contained no less than 11 figures, which I think must have been an error. Slightly disappointingly, only three of them were in kepis, although it did have the inevitable pigeon team, like the Airfix WW1 set. Most of them were NCOS in greatcoats with helmets and rifles. Never mind, a cunning plan presented itself.

I just based up six of the figures as an extra pair of infantry stands. Five of these are Skytrex NCOs and the tall guy in the middle of the second base is Essex I think. He came out of my bag of spare gunners in Adrian helmets.

These will be useful supplements for my other SCW figures in Adrians, although they are very obviously wearing French style greatcoats too. My regular group seem to enjoy 1940 games, so it will be nice to have a few more proper French troops.

The three actual figures in kepis are these. Two of them with pistols and one with binoculars, they are all wearing greatcoats. I did the guy with binos in a kepi with a khaki cover (the most common configuration), a second in an uncovered kepi, so dark blue with a red top and finally one in an FFL kepi blanc. Yes I know only ORs were supposed to wear white kepi covers, but it is such an iconic piece of headgear.

Like the British and Russians, these were basecoated in Vallejo English Uniform, and then various details and highlights picked out with a pinwash around the equipment, inkwash on the flesh and a light drybrush.

Painting these finally finished my pot of Vallejo English Uniform! I've had this for years and it has painted hundreds of figures and provided mud on scores of vehicles. It was one of the first Vallejo paints I bought once my last pot of Humbrol Khaki ran out. I still absolutely hate dropper bottles as I prefer to dip my brush in the paint and not waste it on a palette, but this was great paint with lovely coverage and consistent colour right to the end. I could probably unscrew the top with a pair of pliers to get the last out, but I already had a replacement in stock as it is such a useful colour.

As a postscript, I've subsequently discovered that if I store the bottle upside down, there is still tons of usable paint in it. So a few more months life in it. Maybe you are supposed to store them upside down? Search me. 

 
  

La Septieme Wilaya - Paris 1961

 Paris, September 1961 and the war in Algeria shows no end in sight. John B put on a cheery game covering the authorities response to a planned Algerian Nationalist (FLN) offensive in Paris, complicated by the disgruntled OAS colonialists - Day of the Jackal and all that. 

Rather like our Berlin Noir and Siege of Leningrad games, it was greatly enhanced by Johns provision of period maps. This one was a high resolution map of 1960s Paris, and somewhat useful for figuring out where things were as much of the action took place in les banlieus.

The session was run as a committee game, with us all taking on various roles in the French security forces, headed by Interior Minister Frey (Micheal).

I was cast as this lovely chap, Jacques Furet, head of the Special Services Detachment of the CRS and veteran of the Battle of Algiers in the late 1950s. While the CRS is mainly known for riot control, it is a paramilitary force outside of the Police line of command with a major anti-terrorist role too. Unlike the Gendarmerie, it is a civilian force and not liable for overseas deployment.

I had 10 companies of CRS available, around 1400 men, heavily armed and not averse to banging heads together.

Vive la France! An excuse to wear a lot of silly hats, but mainly berets and kepis (I do have a kepi, but Furet isn't in the police).

I wont run through the entire cast, but Jim was the Police Prefect and John A his trusty deputy with around 7000 police in the Paris area. There were various obscure police intelligence units represented - some 500 detectives under Tim, Russell and Ian both ran undercover infilitration and intelligence units with bizarre acronyms as names. Pete ran a military intelligence detachment. All the units were real, and by and large the characters were all real people too.

This was a more detailed early 1960s Metro map, which came in handy as the incidents unfolded.

Briefly, following the murder of a policeman and a bomb outrage at a school it became apparent that the FLN were active in the city. Intelligence led us to believe that they were operating in areas heavily populated by Algerian immigrants, specifically Clichy in the northwest and Bagneux in the south.

As might be expected, various intelligence gathering and public order measures took place. My main job was deploying units of the CRS to areas of potential or actual unrest, while maintaining a reserve for contingencies. The situation wasn't helped by the OAS who kept stirring things up with a number of provocative shootings across the city.

This was also a very useful map, showing the central Arrondisements. Clichy is north west of the 17e arrondisement and Bagneux southwest of the 14e.

The situation continued to spiral out of control with large demonstrations, 150 detentions of 'people of interest', unrest at the Sorbonne and a curfew imposed on Clichy and Bagneux and the Metro closed. Gunmen made an appearance in Clichy and a CRS officer was shot. The rules of engagement were loosened. In a dire development, a Sorbonne student died under enhanced interrogation.

Intelligence assessed that there were no less than 75 armed FLN operatives in the city, organised as three platoons and a huge demonstration was planned for the centre of Paris, to coincide with armed uprisings in Clichy and Bagneux. As Tuesday evening drew to a close, the Interior Minister passed our assessment of the situation on to President De Gaulle and requested that the Army be placed on stand-by to aid the civilian power.  There had already been one coup attempt, there couldn't be another.

And on that happy note, we broke for the evening.

Things duly went from bad to worse, there was considerable unrest on the streets, not helped when we imposed a citywide curfew. There were more murders of policemen, but so far we'd not managed to capture a single actual FLN terrorist, just local hard men along with incarcerating most of the Muslim clergy in the city. The police complained the CRS were going over the top in their crowd dispersal approach, the CRS complained the Police were being too heavy handed.

Matters came to a head around a large demonstration in the city centre planned for 17th October. The Interior Minister gave us permission to ban any gatherings of more than five people, so our plan was to prevent the demo from even forming up by dispersing and then arresting any large groups making their way into the city centre. We designated a football stadium as a holding area for detainees and soldiers were drafted in to provide perimeter security.

Intelligence indicated the FLN intended to stage an armed uprising to coincide with the demo. It also indicated the OAS planned an assassination campaign against the FLN leadership and leading left wing intellectuals. We were fairly sure there was at least one OAS mole in the command team and the displeasure of most of us was passed on, although it was indicated that a short term blind eye would be turned to attacks on the FLN, given the failure of our own intelligence efforts.

The day of the big demo arrived, and despite our best efforts and thousands of arrests, a large group assembled in the city centre. Rioting broke out in the football ground and even worse, police and CRS came under fire in Clichy and a fierce gun battle raged. The two CRS companies in Clichy were tied up engaging the terrorists, but the police reported they had captured dozens of terrorists, so many that they couldn't hold them and they were 'escaping into the Seine'. Another unit of CRS were despatched to escort the prisoners back to Police HQ, but when they arrived, there were only three left. Bodies washed up in the Seine for days afterwards, the police had murdered the prisoners.

On that rather sombre note, we ended having finally regained a measure of control of the streets and saved De Gaulles regime (again). The game was based on  the real life October 1961 Massacre, which was covered up by the French State for decades. It only came to light in the late 1990s following the conviction of the Police Prefect for his role in the deportation of Jews to concentration camps in WW2. In real life the FLN won Algerian independence in 1962, and De Gaulle managed to hang on to power until 1969 after changing the way Presidential elections were conducted. He finally resigned following the uprisings of 1968.

The only bright spot was that however repressive the measures we'd put in place in the game, they were relatively mild compared to what the French Police and CRS actually did. One of our group had first hand experience facing the CRS in 1968, and said they weren't any better then. Civil Wars really are nastiest, and I cant help being reminded that the perpetrators of the holocaust were just ordinary people, but part of an organisation and culture which promoted racist violence from the top down. It is more shocking as France is supposed to be a western democracy, not rounding up and murdering its own citizens. I'm sure nothing like that would happen today.

An interesting, thought provoking and somewhat depressing session. Wikipedia notes on the massacre here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Paris_massacre 

13 Vendemaire revisited

 Another trip to Table Battles this week, presented by Tim. This one covers the Royalist uprising on 13th Vendemaire (by the Revolutionary calendar), which was put down by a little known General Bonaparte with 'a whiff of grapeshot'. We've done this one before, but after Russells recent visit to Paris, it just had to be done again.

This is a pretty simple scenario. The Republicans have Bonaparte, 12th Chasseurs and artillery, while the Royalists have an unnamed military unit labelled 'Royalist forces', General Denikin and 'The Paris Mob'.

As ever the complexity comes in the interplay of the units between each other and the special chracteristics each one has as defined on its card. The Royalist oddities were that the Paris Mob inflicted hits on itself when it attacked (!), and Denikin could only support attacks or provide reinforcements. The Republicans special power was the artillery, which would cancel attacks and inflict quite heavy losses, but needed quite special dice (a triple straight) to prepare for action.

As I've often commented before, I can't imagine how to even start designing a scenario like this, so I'm very glad someone else has done the hard work. This scenario is off BGG.

Jerry, Russell and I were cast as Royalists. Our guys are on the left. The Mob has (lots) of green SP blocks, while the Royalist forces have 8 red SP and Denikin has 5 support SP which can reinforce the Royalist forces.

John and Mark were the wicked Republicans, both Bonaparte (yellow) and 12th Chasseurs (blue) have 5 SP. The guns are in reserve until turn 3. Initially the Chasseurs fight the Royalists and Bonaparte fights the mob, once those wings are defeated, they can attack the other units, a bit like Dominion of the Spear.

Our guys may be numerous but aren't that great. We are quite restricted where we can place our command dice, and the mob in particular is very hard to get moving. By turn 3 the Republicans have chipped away at us and now the guns have moved up but aren't activated yet.

By now the Mob are looking a bit threadbare as Napoleon keeps attacking them, and we used them to soak up artillery fire (!). Denikin has reinforced the Royalists and we've bult up a big four dice attack against 12th Chasseurs. 12th Chasseurs are down to two SP after heavy fighting.

And the Chasseurs are routed. That gives us a morale chip, so we are three to the Republicans one now. We've got another big attack lined up but annoyingly the Republican artillery is ready to receive us (that big red marker on the artillery card).

A few more turns fighting and the Mob are gone. Bonaparte is down to 2SP, while we have 4SP left. Morale is even again but if we can rout Bonaparte he is worth 2 morale chips. Sadly the Republicans have a fully loaded gun line (two blocks) which precludes us attacking. 

We do manage to get Bonaparte down to 1SP at the cost of all but 1SP to ourselves. There was a brief moment when we might have pulled it off, but the Republican artillery is up and running again, so Bonaparte attacks resulting in mutual annihilation, but as we are unable to attack in our turn, we lose.

It doesn't get much closer than that, 1SP each.... that was actually really tense and exciting, with lots of decisions each turn. Shame we lost, but it was glorious!

En Garde, Royal Fencing Competition

 The ever indefatigable Russell wanted to end 1607 in our long running En Garde campaign with a bang, so we had a double session of duelling, with massive rewards available for the winner.

The details of the competition are listed above. The rewards are pretty generous, bearing in mind that my monthly pay as a Major in a decent regiment is only 30 crowns a month. It wasn't a knockout competition but one based on multiple rounds an accumulation of points per round, but divided into an average as it wasn't possible to balance the number of bouts.

I played quite a few duels when En Garde came out back in the late 70s, and did a quick refresher crash course and a briefing for the participants. tbh, it is probably the worst swordfighting game I have ever come across, although at the time it seemed quite innovative.

The horror of the five text pages and three large tables of duelling rules seemed to put people off, and we only have five participants for the contest, although there was a good display of silly hats on offer. We all had to fight three or four rounds, depending.

My En Garde character, Major Eduard du Moulin, was pretty good at sword fighting. I was strong, had a good constitution and also had plenty of practice at fighting with a Rapier in the two (three?) years of the campaign. A quick comparison of stats revealed I had nearly three times as many hit points as some of the others, oh dear...

After much joshing and jollity, we eventually got to fight our first round, me vs Tim. I can't say it went particularly well, I easily defeated Tim, but the step by step action resolution took an age to resolve and wasn't hugely enjoyable for either the participants or the viewers. The scoring table for the competition is above, but I'm afraid there isn't much else to see in a paper based combat system.

We all agreed that the combat system was lousy, and that we were very unlikely to finish even over two nights. Fortunately John rode to the rescue by suggesting an alternate system....

Tim Price's 'Battle Cards', which we used to run lightsaber duels at a number of shows some years ago. The rules in their entirety are reproduced above, and combat is resolved using a deck of seven cards per player. The actions are surprisingly similar to En Garde, being parries, various strengths of attack and a 'rest' card. You need to read the rule section on the 'rest' card very carefully as we made a mistake with it to start with, you will always have the rest card in your hand, as you pick it up again when it is played.

Basically each player picks a card and reveals it, cross referencing the relevant action. This worked much better, it was visually entertaining as we could reveal the cards on screen and it was also fiendishly challenging making the card selections from an ever depleting deck. A very clever game.

Things rattled along very quickly after that, although it still took two evenings to fight the whole tournament. We even had time to do some gambling on the results of each round, which was also very entertaining as the odds fluctuated depending on the standings of the participants at that point in time.

I had a flutter on my most dangerous rival, Lt Colonel Tartiflette, as I figured if I was going to lose I may as well make some money on the way.

The final result, and despite losing appallingly badly in my last bout, I did eventually come out on top (just). The rewards are amazing, appointed Kings Champion for a year, a bonus of 3 social points per month for one year, 1000 crowns cash prize, a monthly pension of 25 crowns, free membership of a club of your choice, a free night out and a one level bump in social level. That puts my Major on Social Level 10, the equivalent of minor nobility, which will come in very handy with my career progression plans.

Sadly it means that dear Judith (SL9) is somewhat beneath my current station and a new paramour will need to be sought out. Having reached the end of 1607 however, we are taking a break from En Garde for a year or two, instead have Twilight 2000 or Cosmos 68 lined up for future retro RPG games. 

I'll have to file away all the En Garde stuff for future use, as there is an awful lot to keep track of. That has been loads of fun for the last couple of years though, even if it hasn't been very photogenic for the blog.

One Hour Aspern Essling

 I was keen to try out Disgruntled Fusiler's "Echeloned Attack" scenario, but as is my predeliction, turned it back into something more like the historical battle. This uses my One Hour Napoleonic variant of Neil Thomas's rules. The original scenario is on the AMW groups.io group. 

It is May 1809 and Napoleon is trying to bring Archduke Charles to battle by forcing a crossing of the Danube, having already occupied Vienna.

Battlefield from the south. I've not bothered to model the Danube and in this area it is a flat flood plain with lots of meanders. The French actually crossed by a succession of islands, the largest being the Island of Lobau. Imagine the waterway at the bottom is fringing a large island.

There is dense and largely  impenetrable woodland in the bottom left, and the ground rises towards the north. The overall layout is based on the Echeloned Attack scenario scenario, supplemented b the Bloody Big Battles Napoleonic Aspern Essling scenario, so I've added in some of the roads in fairly historical places as well as another village. There are actually a lot of small hamlets in the area so I've sort of amalgmated some of them. 

The key feature as far as the battle is concerned are the villages of Aspern and Essling, with the road between them running along a berm, some of the local flood defences. The berm provides some cover from fire across it. Aspern's flank rather handily rests on the woods, but both are overlooked by the ridge to the north. The other village to the northwest is Breitenloe. 

The road through Aspern-Essling leads to Pressburg to the south east, and the road to  Bohemia leads to the northwest. 

Some representative pontoon bridges. Any French reinforcements need to cross these, but very unfairly the Austrians are floating logs etc down the river to try and damage them.

Massenas 4th Corps established a bridgehead over the Danube on the 21st and occupied Aspern and Essling while the rest of the French army waited to cross. Each of these units is around 6-8000 infantry or 3-4000 cavalry. Massena has two infantry units, one cavalry and an 'artillery' which has attached infantry as well. Most artillery is factored into the standard units as they can shoot around a mile.

Massena himself is represented as a notable formation leader.

Napoleon pushed two more Corps over the river on the 22nd to support Massena. In the lead is Lannes' 2nd Corps with two infantry units and Lannes himself (historically he fell in battle).

Behind them we have Davouts 3rd Corps (1 x Infantry), the Imperial Guard (1 x Elite Infantry) along with Napoleon who is the overall CinC. Finally we have Bessieres with the reserve heavy cavalry.

Napoleon and the wagons are representational, I'll use those to show units which reorg.

John A and Jim played the French. John was overall commander and also commanded Massena and Bessieres. Jim had everything else.

The French figures are largely my old H&R 6mm figures from the mid 1970s, which have been rebased many, many times.

The Austrians under Archduke Charles arriving from the north and west in echelon. They need to take either Aspern or Essling (or both!) to win.

From the west are Hillers VI Korps and Bellegards II Korps with 2 x Infantry and 1 x Artillery between them. The Austrians had loads more guns than the French, so they get two artillery units

From the northwest is Prince Friedrich with III Korps (1 x Infantry and 1 x Artillery). There is also Archduke Charles Army HQ and some wagons which are representational.

Tim commanded all these.

From the north we have Lindenau's Grenadiers, Lichtenstein's reserve cavalry and Prinz Franz's IV Korps. 2 x Cavalry, 1 x Infantry and 1 x Elite Infantry.

On Tuesday Ian commanded these, Russell took over on Wednesday. The Austrian figures are actually my Irregular 1866 Austrians, but they are all in white jackets and grey or blue trousers, so hopefully no-one will notice the difference.

To simulate the disjointed Austrain attack, there is no overall Austrian CinC, just the two halves of the army. Imagine one half speaking Austrian and the other Hungarian...

Right, to battle!

Hiller decided on a rapid deployment so came on in March column, hoping to overwhelm the French left with a rapid assault. Long range cannon fire from Aspern inflicted minor losses on the leading units. 

KP Friedrich began marching on down the northwest road as Hiller deployed to attack Aspern. The leading formation pushed forwards aggressively to cover the deployment of the rest and was punished by brutal close range French fire. Massena even put in a spoiling attack with his cavalry, but the Austrians held firm. 

Lannes managed to successfully negotiate the chain of pontoon bridges and Napoleon directed him to the right flank, even though all the Austrians were on the left. Perhaps he had a cunning plan... 

Hard pounding at Aspern. The battered lead Austrian unit pulls back to reorganise and a fresh unit moves up, covered by the Austrian grand battery. Friedrichs units also deploy, although only his artillery is in range. 

The French cavalry decide discretion is the better part of valour and pull back, but despite Massenas personal intervention, the Aspern garrison completely missed the nearby Austrians! 

Liechtensteins cavalry and the Grenadier division began to move up to the ridge above Essling. 

Heavy fighting around Aspern, both sides had massed all their available reserve artillery to support the battle. The French garrison inflicted equal casualties, but had already taken losses earlier on, so were looking a bit shaky. 

Liechtensteins cavalry went out wide on the Austrian left and the Grenadiers advanced in line with Friedrichs infantry. Lannes suddenly had a fit of caution, not wanting to be caught in March column by the Austrian cavalry so hung back somewhat from Essling to deploy. 

The French cavalry once again put in a spoiling attack on the Grenadiers, supported by cannon fire from Essling, inflicting some loss on the Austrians. 

At Aspern the Austrian numbers and massed artillery finally told and the garrison were routed, despite the presence of Massena. With flags waving and drums beating , the victorious Austrian infantry marched through clouds of smoke and occupied the village. 

This put them right under the muzzle of the French reserve artillery who blew huge holes in their ranks with cannister, but they were undeterred. 

Massena survived the rout but fled all the way to Essling! I'm not sure what the Emperor will make of that... 

Back at Essling, the bold French cavalry came unstuck. The Grenadiers poured volleys into them as they milled around, and the Austrian cavalry put in a counter charge against their flank. They were fortunate to survive with just one hit remaining. 

They withdrew to the south to reorganise. Massena was suddenly looking a bit thin on the ground, but Lannes was finally deployed southeast of Essling. 

The victorious Austrian cavalry fell back to ridge, joined by Franzs infantry. The other cavalry put it in a spoiling attack on Lannes' right to little effect while the Essling garrison cannonaded the Grenadiers. 

Now it was the French artillery which got pummeled at Aspern. 

Massena pulled the guns back to join the cavalry and reorganise. Napoleon himself was now over the river, accompanied by Davout  and the Imperial Guard, their columns angled towards Aspern. 

Back at Essling the impudent Austrian cavalry were punished by massed musketry and cannon fire and took heavy losses. I think both sides cavalry commanders need reminding of the role of reserve heavy cavalry on the Napoleonic battlefield.... 

There was something of a lull in the fighting as both sides shuffled units around and reorganised in anticipation of the forthcoming French counterattack. 

The Austrians sent some reserve artillery towards the ridge, but otherwise consolidated their lines and reunited their cavalry. 

Lannes took over the defence of Essling, while Massena reorganised his artillery and cavalry and shuffled his remaining infantry west towards Aspern. 

Napoleon supervised Davout and La Garde as they deployed south of Aspern. Meanwhile Bessieres was still stuck on the other side of the Danube figuring out how to get his Cuirassier divisions across the pontoon bridges safely. 

We broke for the night at that point, with everything to play for tomorrow. 

Overnight Russell joined us and took over the Austrian left (Lichtenstein, Franz and the Grenadiers). The Imperial Guard boldly marched up to Aspern, covered by cannon fire from Davout and Massenas artillery, which was sadly ineffective, unlike the musketry from the Austrian defenders.

Davout shook out his Corps into open order and entered the forest, but the Imperial Guard were being hammered by the Austrians in and around the town as well as the artillery up on the ridge. A bit more softening up before committing to the assault might have been in order.

Over at Essling there was much excitement as the Austrian cavalry tried to flank the village and were counterattacked by the French cavalry. Numerous Austrian saddles were emptied but they hung on.

In response the whole Austrian left wing attacked. Infantry marched up to Essling and the Austrian cavalyr charged. They put a couple of hits onto Bessieres' Cuirassier but Massenas' already weakened Cavalry were put to flight and fled in disorder 

Bessieres returned the favour and routed his opposite numbers, while the Essling garrison engaged the Austrian infantry. 

Back at Aspern the pounding was too much for the Imperial Guard and they retired exhausted. Davout was in a good position to attack the town from the forest though, covered by the French artillery.

The situation at Essling was now desperate for the French, the massed Austrians poured in numerous effective volleys as well as cannon fire, which reduced the garrison to one hit.

This was followed up by a charge from the Austrian cavalry. Cavalry need 6 a to hit attacking towns, so that is three dice, which rolled.....1,1,6! The French were routed and sabred down by the victorious cavalry! Essling fell, but Massena was poised outside waiting to counterattack.

Back at Aspern, Davout succeeded in recapturing the town as the defenders were routed.

At Essling Massena was content to shoot at the cavalry, which almost routed them, while rallying some of the disordered troops outside the town. Bessieres meanwhile manouvered his cavalry onto the flank readying for another charge.

The Austrians counterattacked Davout, who easily weathered their feeble attack. The Austrians were suddenly looking a bit thin on the ground here.

Sadly for the French, Lannes, who was also in the otwn, managed to roll a double 2 and was taken from the field, mortally wounded.

At Essling however, the French counterattack failed. Unfortunately I forgot to take a couple of photos here in the excitement as Bessieres charged the Austrian infantry but was in turn routed by the a flank attack by the remaining Austrian cavalry.

Massena attacked the town but no longer had the strength to retake it, particularly when the Austrian Grenadiers stormed the adjacent berm.

As time ran out, the Austrians and French held a town apiece, which meant that Napoleon had lost. Time to retreat back over the Danube and try again at Wagram in July.

That was a very hard fought and close battle, very enjoyable to run and with  very positive feedback from the players. It is always nice to get to a vaguely historical result in a sensible amount of time. I'm pretty happy with this version of the rules, and while you could ride a horse and cart through some of the holes, they work well enough for this sort of game and produce a decent narrative. I'm still not sure I've got the Imperial Guard quite right, I can't help feeling that they should be better than just a 7SP unit, but hey ho. 

I can't help thinking the French made rather more errors than the Austrians, but such is the nature of war.