Alea iacta est

Big night at the club last week, Simon and I tried Bolt Action V3. Now as you know I was not going to bother getting this as I thought the price tag a rip off, was it a rip off, yes it was, there is far too much bumf in the thing and far too much unecessary eye candy. The actual rules take up less than half of the pages. The army lists are a huge part of the book but they are very generic and you cannot simply choose a German Eastern Front force for late 1943 without knowing what they had available, this will have to wait until the new army books are released although you can instead stick with a campaign book. I am lazy and use Easy Army which up until now I have found perfect, the author has put generic lists up for V3 but I am unsure whether he will attempt to change the Theatre lists, I really do not want to sit down with a calculator. I can say I have supported the author in the past and am not just taking him for granted.

I digress, we set up an easy meeting engagement and with books at the ready, no one has so far put together a QRS, we got stuck in. I took infantry, heavy weapons, artillery and armoured platoons, Simon had pretty much the same. The Soviets were defending and were on the table when I attacked, I was fairly aggressive and threw my armoured car forward to spot the hidden Russians, this had to back off when a KV1 turned up, but I used the Recce rule for the first time ever and it dodged back behind a small wood. 

My Recce hiding.

More bang for the buck Hetzer.

I managed to start picking off some of Simon's small teams and he began to lose initiative dice, he was then forced to bring on a small anti-tank gun which annoyingly managed to get some decent dice rolls and first set my Hetzer on fire then immobilised it. The Germans were doing well when we called a halt as the clock struck 10, we only managed three turns but spent a lot of the time with our heads in the book.

Did they work, yes, some of the things I think will make the game better from an historical players view although there are still some bits which have me shaking my head. Chain of Command 2 will be appearing in January however I suspect I shall still continue to play both sets for different reasons.

Now for the main event, Rob organised a large Napoleonic game in the Gin Pit in nearby Grange-over-Sands yesterday, there were six French commanders and five Allied while Ed took the place of umpire and rules adjudicator. The gist of the game was that an Allied army was in position trying to stop the French from advancing, the French commander had seen an opportunity to strike while his boss was busy elsewhere, possibly garnering some browny points.

In a less than democratic manner the leadership of the French command was hung on my shoulders. The battlefield consisted of three farms, one each on the extreme flanks and one in the centre, an important road ran through the middle, if the French could take the road they would win, otherwise it would rely on both armies holding the farms and inflicting losses on the enemy. As we munched on some excellent pastries provided by the commander of the Guard I came up with a cunning plan. Julian and the Guard would smash through the centre and take the road, I would protect his left and Michael would protect his right, Stewart and Paul would be on my left and told not to get drawn into a battle around 'Hougemont' to their front but to watch what was happening in the centre and intervene if possible. Ian was given the job of protecting the extreme right and possibly taking the farm to his front. Well, that's what was in my head.

Discussion time.

The new Napoleon.

The battle kicked off and the Guard plunged ahead while the troops on his flanks were reluctant to move, the enemy came forward quite aggressively opposite me and I threw my lancers in to stop them, this action was less than glorious and I lost a squadron but had halted the enemy advance. This was a foretaste of the less than enthusiastic actions of the French cavalry all through the battle. For some reason I was being asked questions on the best way to proceed as though I knew what I was doing, I nodded sagely and kept schtum. As I advanced towards a hedgeline and the middle farm I noticed the Guard marching away to my right, Julian had decided to ignore the enemy centre and make for the road, his beautiful troops waving goodbye as they went, he had made a bold move, would it pay out?

The beautiful Guard.

French commander in true Napoleonic style, but with only a tad more hair.

Ed pronounces wisdon.

Elsewhere, yes, 'Hougemont' had proved irresistable to Paul and Stewart and a large gap opened between them and me, which for the moment was thankfully empty. Ian on the other flank had managed to take the farm but Russian strength was building up while his cavalry proved reluctant to fight. A crises now approached, something had gone wrong with the troops under Matt holding the road and Julian managed to throw the Guard at them, this was the beginning of some of the most brutal fighting of the day, if Matt was defeated Julian could claim the road and the French would have victory.

Desperate fighting for the road as time runs out.

 

The centre.

My boys wondering where the Guard have gone.

As time ticked away the Russians took back their farm and Ian was on the back foot, he was simply outnumbered, Michael had attempted to help the Guard but his infantry simply would not move forward until it was too late. I cleared the enemy from my front and took the farm in the centre and then simply held my ground as more and more Allied troops began to turn up. 'Hougemont' at last fell to Paul and Stewart. The Guard were under immense pressure in the centre as British reserves turned up, Julian was screaming for cavalry as the Russians were now heading for his flank, sadly the cavalry simply ignored his pleas and sat miles away despite being ordered to gallop to his aid. As the last turn ended Matt had secured the road while the Guard could take no more and the survivors retreated. Ed totalled up the scores and it was a draw! It now came down to a dice off between the commanders, Matt for the Allies and me for the French, I confess I do not know what Matt threw but his comment of 'Shit' said it all, I got a four and the French players whooped with elation.

Another great day with an impressive battle full of peaks and troughs, laughter and the odd expletive. Lots of lovely troops on the table and pastries to boot, what's not to like. Ed did a great job keeping the game flowing, Rob for organising and Stuart no doubt for helping. I believe there is one more in the series, so I am looking forward to it.

I have now finished my mercenary hoplites for the Seleucids, these are very tough under WAC rules so the Twelfth are in for some problems at some point. Mate Dan helped me out as the Little Big Man transfers I got for the Foundry figures were far too small for the hoplons and just did not look right, he had some from Victrix. I have made a change to my painting, I am not going to varnish these troops, nor the Romans already being worked on, my main reason is the paints are already matt and they will only be on the table once in a blue moon these days. I also find that the matt varnish over time really dulls the metals on figures.

The gaming continues this week, Italian Wars here on Wednesday and somewhere in Sicily at Matt's on Thursday.

A good start to '24

 It's been a wee while but the dust has now settled from the Festive Season, the New Year has begun and seems so far not very different to the old one, "quelle surprise" as the French say. I am expecting my builders to get in touch any day but radio silence so far apart from the new windows have been measured up. I have been dragged around bathroom and flooring showrooms, been asked my opinion then had it tossed aside to be told what I really want.

I was supposed to kick the new campaigning season off with an Eastern Front Chain of Command game but Simon took ill and it was cancelled, instead my first shots were fired in the Gin Pig yesterday in one of Rob's large Napoleonic games. It was an alternative history where the Prussians had been destroyed at Wavre and Ligny and Allied forces under the Prince of Orange moved towards the approaching Russians, during this both of these ran into the French flank guard somewhere south of Turnhout.

Russians in the village with some help from their friends.

I had control of two cavalry brigades and a Guard brigade in the left centre of the battlefield, I was offered the commanders baton and told Julian to hold our left flank and Rob to attack a small village full of Russians on our right, meanwhile myself and Ian to my right would advance for a couple of moves and then see if any opportunities came our way. As usual with Black Powder I found it very hard to get my cavalry moving, my guns managed to hair off and bring the enemy cavalry opposite under fire, Ian moved his cavalry to contact while wondering what had happened to his support.

The table.

My cavalry about to attack, while the Guard whistles.

Rob lines up his assault.

Ian was pushed back but I had at last got my troopers moving and they smashed into the weakened enemy, it also helped that I had three squadrons of very tough Curassiers. The Allies lost a couple of squadrons while I followed up, more Allied cavalry were thrown into the melee but this did not help and soon the British heavy cavalry fled the field leaving the remaining horse in a very bad position. I took a bit of time to reorganise then went in again, while sending my second brigade to the right in the hope of destroying the Allied cavalry in reserve behind their left centre.

All of this cavalry are stunning.

On my left Julian had been forced to withdraw his light cavalry and his lancers had been pushed back, however the Allies could not take advantage of this as most of their commands had a great reluctance to move forward and with the arrival of several infantry battalions were running out of room to manouvre. My Guard had arrived by now but again simply sat around for a couple of turns before decideding to obey orders. Rob was having a very hard time trying to oust the Russians from their defences. Ian managed to send his infantry into the attack but had been beaten back, but importantly not broken.

Two more players had turned up and were given a brigade each, Andy sadly now facing a large hole in the Allied centre and slowly being outnumbered as Peter with the French reserve now moved to hold the left of the breach with lots of French cavalry in reserve. This allowed me to move my Guard battalions to the right flank of the breach and threaten the Allied flank and rear, my cavalry had not managed to destroy the Allied cavalry reserve but they had weakened it and as my infantry now took up the ground things looked very bad for the Allied cause.

Our hero, now Marshal, Georges on the left.

Paul's traffic jam on the Allied right.

French cavalry still a threat.

We called it a day at this point, objectives were counted up and the French scraped a win on points, game wise the Allied right could not budge the French defence and the French right could not take the town, the Allied centre however had been crushed and the flanks of the Allied army on both sides of the breach were in great danger of collapsing. And so we were done, another great looking game with some beautiful figures moved around, Julian and Ed's cavalry are simply superb, if things keep going on like this we will need a larger venue.

Nine of us, seemed like more.

I have finished off the last of the figures in my lead pimple, some arquebusiers, this leaves some of the figures which Dan had offered me, these are some guns and heavy cavalry types, they need stripped, cleaned and primed before I move on them, but with the threat of builders arriving and my vast wargaming empire hidden under beds, in cupboards and taking up most of the study and shortly my living room I will not be adding troops for a while yet. I am also finding it difficult to find Dettol to strip the paint, is this now too dangerous for the public?

My grandson is a Blood Bowl and Underworlds player and received several teams and warbands (how can a warband be three figures?) for birthday and Christmas, as I have time I offered to paint some of the figures for him, something out of my comfort zone but hey a test of my brush skills. I have completed the first figure while watching a Games Workshop video, the host got to the eyes and recommended white and black of course, I couldn't actually see the eyes! Whither you like GW etc. or not some of these guys are fantastic painters, I can confirm I am average, maybe just a tad above that but no more.

To The Strongest author Simon Miller dropped me a line to inform me that the Montrose scenario book which I worked on will be out soon, I was quite chuffed if I say so myself with the maps for this publication. Years ago I covered the same ground in a book written by Charles Singleton. I have no priority map work on at the moment which again suits me fine, I have started the mini atlas however.

 

Central Madrid for the mini atlas.

 I saw something on FB the other day, a lovely camouflaged German truck, but it had bright blue windows, on my walk the other day I looked at all the cars jammed along the village main drag and did not see one with bright blue windows. Why do wargamers paint blue windows?

Review

 I'm back! We survived our journey down South and actually made it there and back in 4.5 hours which is a minor miracle on our roads these days, we did encounter some push back from a 'smart' motorway on the way home which seemed to increase the congestion rather than reduce it. I was never one for conspiracy theories but I do wonder if the constant 40mph is more to cheese me off than continue the flow of traffic. We had a great week and were treated like royalty by my son and his partner, I didn't lift a finger for seven days. I also did well in the gifts department although nothing wargame related for the first time in decades, I did manage some nice books amongst other stuff.

 I had thought my wargaming was over for this year but I received an invite to a SYW bash at Dans just before I flew south for Christmas. It was fought out today and was very enjoyable even though it was Black Powder (with a heavy load of commonsense from the regular players). I was in command of the Austrian centre with six battalions of infantry and three squadrons of curassiers. Dan had devised a small meta game which would or could have an effect on each armies deployment, Fran who was the Prussian CinC was cautious but Rob as our commander put a lot into the scouting beforehand, therefore some Prussian forces would be delayed arriving while another lot just wouldn't turn up, we also managed to deploy forward so got a jump on the Prussians.

My brigade and supports ready to rush forward.

 

Nervously looking around for the rest of the Austrians.

The curassiers unleashed.

The plan was for our left and centre to move on the enemy while our right merely threatened the Prussians. On my first move my entire force went hell for leather against the enemy centre and found itself out on a limb in front of the entire Prussian army, Rob on the right would not subsequently move for several turns, Matt on my left got off to a slow start but eventually managed to move up to join me. I stood and took a lot of lead but weathered it well despite looking at one point as if my troops would retire. Matt now went against the Prussian right and somehow managed to be winning but lost all his cavalry and his infantry looked to be in trouble, it was now in desperation I brought my curassiers into the action, although they were never overly successful their continuous charges and support for Matt's Dragoons gradually wore down the Prussian line. Allied to the success at last of Matt's infantry these manouvres caused the Prussian right to retire from the field, a definition of victory from the jaws of defeat.

The Prussian centre folds

My men still stood in the midst of a hurricane of fire and despite everything thrown at them managed to hold their line. The Prussian left had now turned up and was trying to put pressure on Rob's small brigade but somehow Rob managed to hold them off. The pressure now built on the Prussian centre to finally try something to stabilise the situation but Fran failed to persuade his men to back him, instead they threw the towel in and retired.

So that was the last game of 2023 and it finished the year off on a high, especially as at one point it had looked like both Matt and I would be overwhelmed and sent packing only for the dice gods to turn half way through the battle in our favour. A great afternoon of fun and laughter.

What about the rest of the year, well not a bad year wargaming wise, I started and finished the Imperial Army of 1525 to face my Pavia French, I have had a little break from painting and am now unsure whether to begin or delay Phase 3, this being the introduction of troops from various Italian States, if I do they might consist of a pike block, a gun and a couple of mounted units. I had a daft idea to build up some Peasant Bands for the German Peasants War but those poor guys in reality should never stand a chance in a pitched battle, my next daft idea is to add more Swiss, but earlier than 1525 with the upcoming Steel Fist figures. These would be Confederation Swiss and not mercenaries for the 2nd and 3rd Milan Wars period. It's still all up in the air.

The Italian Wars of course took up quite a bit of my wargaming time here at home, with several chaps coming to refight some of the battles with Julian and I. It would seem I am a poor commander (new dice needed) for this period and have yet to gain success on the battlefield, but this is offset by the sheer enjoyment of seeing massed pike blocks and swarms of cavalry face each other across the table and everyone having fun.

I did at last manage to play a Chain of Command campaign thanks to Matt Crump who has valiantly fought the Hitlerites off as they attempt to kick in the rotten Soviet door around Smolensk and win Operation Barbarossa, something which now seems impossible to do, hopefully a full article on this later in the year. Is it getting colder?

I have not played as many ACW games as I would have liked here at home, but I did manage to field my War and Conquest forces thanks to Stuart Smith and my Seven Years War troops thanks to Erik Faithfull who journeyed to Casa Anderson.

And on the subject of Casa Anderson the builders are due to arrive in the third week of January so my home games will be on hold until it is all finished, I expect this to take at least two months, maybe three. I am not looking forward to the upset but it will I hope be worth it when I open the 'War Room'. If you can think of a better name then suggestions on a postcard.

I have finished my last map of 2023 a private commission for my nephew of Rorke's Drift which is to be framed and presented to someone as a birthday present, I really enjoyed doing this one (see the books above). This year I have drawn 406 maps for 49 projects. I have two new projects in the wings but am determined to see the year out before starting, one is warfare in the Indian Ocean just after the American War of Independence and the other is entitled Battles and Battlefields of the Peninsular War.

For a time there I had thought of stopping the blog or if not to simply cut down on the number of posts, I managed this for a few weeks then things ran away with me and there was a lot to say, also I do enjoy doing it so perhaps less posts in '24 but I should still be here.

I will finish with two recommendations to watch over the holidays, both on AppleTV, Slow Horses and Silo, the latter is an old one and one which I stayed away from as it didn't seem to be my cup of char, but I was wrong, so wrong I have even bought the books, I also intend at some point to buy the Slow Horses series as well. And I nearly forgot The Equalizer 3, bad guys get their just deserts, what's not to like.

Silo

Up Against it.

 Bolt Action last week, it was supposed to be Dux Britaniarrum, and I wanted to try something new, I am trying to get all my WWII stuff on the table at least once, so I decided to take my Volksgrenadiers, beautiful figures from Empress Miniatures. I did some research into these guys and you can field an Assault Platoon or a Rifle Platoon for Chain of Command or the same in Bolt Action with a bit of jigging about, BA only gives them as inexperienced, this is not quite right but I went that route anyway.

My whole force was inexperienced, I took four squads all armed with assault rifles apart from the LMG team, I also gave two of the squads a halftrack. Neither CoC or Bolt Action seem to know what to do with these vehicles and the rules are pants, but I wanted to get my men into action quickly and with added support from the LMG in the 251, and no, I don't allow a transport to get lifted simply because someone unfriendly is close by. I was playing 'Bad Luck' Jimi with British, he had an elite Commando squad and three others supported by a sniper, mortar (no FOO), an AT gun and a Sherman. Did I mention my support was a Hetzer?

There were five objectives roughly along the centre line, two of which were very close to our own table edge so there would be a fight for the remaining three. I quickly deployed my halftrack and ran my intial troops forward as fast as I could to narrow the range to the enemy, I had warned Jimi that I was taking Volksgrenadiers but he hadn't done his homework and on he came. I opened up and the British began to take horrendous casualties from the assault rifles, I suffered the odd hit from the sniper and thankfully the mortar began a trek across the battlefield to get a shot in, not having an observer. The Sherman and the anti-tank gun turned up, I managed to keep away from the AT gun but the Sherman started lobbing shells at my boys in the centre, not very well as it turned out, sadly it was approaching the squad which had lost its panzerfaust, "Hans, don't touch it, it is dangerous and Herman ist kaput" (no one picks it up in BA of course, yet children and old women could use one). I digress, my Hetzer crew had decided not to turn up until turn four and duly missed with their first shot, in return they were stunned by a reply from the Sherman. Having got the range they did not miss with their second shot and the Sherman went up in flames.

By this time I was doing very well on my left and Jimi was losing units at an alarming rate, in the centre I rushed for the mid objective past the flaming tank so that we both contested it. It was turn five and the British were suffering at least 60% casualties as the Volksgrenadiers turned their right flank and the Hetzer was about to run amok on the left. We shook hands and called it a day, true to form Jimi had some bad dice luck on several occasions while I was fairly average. I had managed to keep my infantry in cover until they could use their assault rifles to overwhelm the smaller British squads and teams, despite them being easier to kill Jimi did not have a great deal of success in that endeavour.

I took a break from painting Italian Wars and built my new Rubicon kits. I managed to get two versions of the T-26 by not sticking the top deck with the turret on to the hull, I can now have it as the twin turret MG version or another 45mm single turret, I have one already, there is a bit of a bad fit with the vision plate on the front left, I noticed this on my original tank as well, it is a bit more pronounced on this model as I wanted the decks to be swopped, I will live with it, just. The 250/7 mortar carrier is a lovely little model, you also get a spare mortar and crew to dismount, but I didn't want them, the whole point was to have it mobile. When I questioned its use in Chain of Command I was told because of the scale it would be off table, damn, money down the drain I thought, but then a nice gentleman put up the ranges for the 80mm mortar from a manual he had and the minimum was 65 yards, and this meant around 18" in Chain of Command. It came to light that other medium mortars had pretty much the same minimum ranges. Yes it would be desperate to fire the mortar at that range but it could be done, it can be used on a 6x4 table, the muffled cries were silenced by "play the period, not the rules", that gave me a smile. I might only bring it in on a table larger than 6x4 but then again.......

We have been slowly emptying the shop of all the junk that has built up over the years and managed to sell the last of the actual shop fittings, and last weekend they were collected. I now have a really large space to play in until the builders turn up hopefully early next year, it really is a large space, upstairs the same area has two bedrooms, a corridor, walk in cupboards and a dining room.

As I said above I put the Italian Wars to the side building the kits, I have only just finished cleaning and priming some Spanish Jinettes and have yet to pick up a brush, I have some map projects which I might concentrate on this week and do some extra time on them, so you won't see them for a bit yet.

The dreaded Black Powder last night, ACW this time with Fran's amendments. The scenario was loosely based on the arrival of the 1st Division at Gettysburg fighting against Heth so it was an outnumbered Union force against a gray tsunami intent on clearing McPherson's Ridge. I was on table awaiting the arrival of the Iron Brigade, I had small regiments in my brigade against two very large Confederate brigades on my flank, the Rebs had to break both Federal brigades to win, how successful they would be would in a large part be down to Lady Luck despite their numbers.

Fran had for added flavour given me a small skirmish unit of dismounted cavalry, a left over from Buford's force, by the end he wished he hadn't bothered. These men were way out in front of my line and for a moment held up the Confederate advance then fell back behind the thin blue line. As the enemy approached I unleashed hell in a cloud of musket smoke and the Rebs shuddered to a halt their leading regiments taking heavy casualties, but the brigade to my immediate right still managed to struggle up the hill.

The massed gray ranks.

Steady boys.

Fire!

The first charge hit my boys but to everyones surprise was repulsed and caused some disorganisation in the ranks following, just as I was feeling superior my centre regiment broke and the reserve had to make its way forward. Another Rebel assault went in and this time my boys narrowly failed to stand but had stopped the victorious Sesech from advancing further, my second and last reserve regiment now took its place in the line and the Rebs went back again. I had also managed to stabilise my centre and some bad command rolls stopped Fran from taking advantage of my weakness. Time and again despite my best efforts Fran managed to make saving rolls only one failure of which would have spelt doom for his regiments. Eventually however I was forced to withdraw, my men could look the Iron Brigade now arriving in the eye and in my mind had saved the day.

Edward's mass undone by their slowness.

The Iron Brigade sets up just in time.

On my left things had gone awry for both sides, Edward's two brigades due to a combination of horrendous die rolls and terrain took almost two hours of the evening to get into action, Alex's Iron Brigade also had problems turning up from turn 2. This meant that as the sun set these two forces eventually got to hand to hand combat in the woods and the Union line held, helped by the death of one of the enemy brigade commanders and the fact they were elite. Despite my brigade having broke the Rebs had failed to break both Federal brigades.

Fran and I had enjoyed some desperate fighting on our part of the battlefield and his tremendous luck at saving rolls had frustrated my efforts time and time again but I was eventually pushed back. On the other flank command rolls ruled the action, Edward took the whole evening to advance to contact and Alex also suffered but not as badly in bringing the Iron Brigade to the front line. I find this and the disorder rules the most frustrating part of Black Powder, Fran had sorted the disorder thing out but failing to move turn after turn is a nightmare, a bit like not getting the right command dice in Chain of Command, there is nothing you can do.

I am taking part in another Chain of Command campaign run by the lads from Grange-over-Sands based on the battle of Gazala, I am commanding a German platoon, their are six of us and we should be kicking off in a few weeks. The club may be closed next week so we are unsure what will be happening next week.