Double Time!, Part 2 - General d'Armee AAR

This past weekend the crew gathered together at Ted's to finish our refight of Corunna. 

From last week, the British were on the back foot, with the French pressing hard up the hill and advancing from Elviña. 

A round of poorly conducted charges, however, saw Steve repulse both French brigades commanded by Ted and me. 

Près John and loin John continued their advancing, exchanging fire with Chip's Guard brigades. I was supporting their attack with long-range fire from the artillery brigade. 

A poor Destiny roll forced Chip's Guards brigade to retreat. He rallied the brigade, but the British were stuck in a poor position, overlapping and unformed. 

One of Steve's British Battalions also routed after taking continued fire from Ted's horse artillery, but the other battalion in the brigade not only held, but advanced in the face of my French brigade. 

The game ened with two French retreats. Près John's charge against the defending Guards battalion failed, and Steve brought his Highlanders down from the hill to hit one of my infantry battalions that was in poor form. 

We decided to call it there, as GdA's timescale would place sunset (which ended the historical battle) at around turn 14. 

After some deliberating between the players, we decided the game was a draw. Both sides could claim a victory from the battle; the French absolutely battered the British units defending the retreat, but were still kept from sweeping down onto the transports. 

We'll be picking GdA up again in a couple weeks with another scenario that looks like a lot of fun! And in the mean time, I'll be sure to pick up a copy of GdA for myself. 

Double Time!, Part 1 - General d'Armee AAR

Having had our fill of nautical combat, Ted and Chip brought their Napoleonic collections together with General d'Armee.

The scenario was based on the Battle of Corunna, which saw the British retreating after a French campaign to force their enemies out of Spain. 

The scenario starts with a massive French advantage; three infantry brigades, an artillery brigade, and a cavalry brigade lined up against only two British infantry brigades. The British do have two more infantry brigades in reserves, but had to wait to bring them on. One of those brigades consists of two elite Guards battalions. The British also control the BUA of Elviña. 

The French do face one complication, however. Their cavalry brigade is on the opposite side of a river, and can only cross over once a ford is found (by rolling doubles on a pair of average dice). 

Originally the scenario was set for 10 turns. Post game, we discussed carrying on a few more turns as the rules the scenario was meant for has faster movement rates overall. 

Steve and Chip took command of the British, while Ted, the two Johns (whom I'll call près John and loin John) and myself commanded the French. 

Most of our ADCs went towards loin John's brigade to give them extra movement. Unfortunately, près John's brigade halted on the first turn, opening a gap between the two brigades. 

Loin John's brigade continued to press onwards at the French's far right flank, with four battalions in columns steamrolling directly towards one of Chip's battalions. Près John had gotten his own brigade moving, looking to close the gap and put more pressure on the British left flank. 

Over on the British right, Steve had followed history and moved one of his battalions into Elviña, directly opposing my own brigade. 

Seeing the tide of blue coming his way, Chip had his own infantry step off down the slope to meet the French columns.

My own brigade managed to chase Steve's defending battalion out of Elviña as my artillery hammered another British battalion (we did later realize that this should not have happened, as battalions defending BUAs ignore discipline tests). And Ted's cavalry squadrons were continuing to search for a ford to cross at. 

The first of the off-table British brigades made its way on, march columns quickly moving down the road to reinforce the British right flank. At the same time, Ted's cavalry had discovered a ford, and moved their artillery battery up to cover the crossing. 

Chip and Steve were hard pressed by the French attack, but the Guards had finally arrived. These massive battalions of elite infantry were going to be a massive obstacle for the French, as difficult to dislodge with fire as with bayonet. 

With Ted and I moving around Elviña, this did leave a gap in the French lines that potentially left their artillery vulnerable. But with no cavalry and attacks on both flanks, the British were stuck repelling the French infantry instead of going after their artillery. 

While the Guards moved up into position, Chip had to deal with a faltering brigade after losing a battalion. 

Less eager to charge into combat against the fresh Guards battalions, the two Johns began changing their battalions from column into line. 

After taking turn after turn of artillery bombardment, one of Steve's battalions broke and routed. But his Highlanders were still fresh, and neither Ted nor I were in a position to really push yet. Steve did lose his artillery to concentrated skirmish fire, which gave the French a monopoly on big guns. 

After wavering for a turn, the British line had solidified along the hilltop. I did managed to put a dent into one of the Guards units with a decent Artillery Assault order. 

Chip demonstrated how deadly the Guards can be by removing one of près John's weakened battalions in a single volley. While the rest of près John's battalions were in relatively good order, loin John's infantry was shakier (since he had been the spearhead of the attack). 

In loin John's favor, however, was the fact that another of Chip's battalions broke and routed. While he managed to keep the last battalion of the brigade in place

Steve's position was doing better (he wasn't outnumbered as much as Chip was), but the French brigades he was facing were much less haggard.

As we ran out of time, we put the game on hold and decided to continue next week with a few more turns. It wasn't looking good for the British, but they didn't need to break the French; just hold on until sunset ended the battle. 

Bollock's Bluff - Homebrew ACW AAR

This month's SJGA meetup saw a new gamemaster step up to the table - Chris!

He was running a somewhat home-brewed set of rules based off of Fire and Fury: Brigade meant to work as a fast-play alternate for group games. We used his 1/72 scale plastic collection, perfect for recreating that 'toy soldier' feel!

As befits a playtest, the best scenario is the simplest! So we had three identical brigades on both sides; an infantry brigade, an artillery brigade, and a cavalry brigade. 

The infantry brigades were headed by Sam and Sam, one veteran club member and the other new to the scene. I'll refer to them as Rebel Sam and Union Sam respectively. 

Union Sam sent his troops up the left flank, looking to block Robert's Confederate cavalry. Brandon's artillery was backing him up. I took the Union cavalry for a spin, trying to find a decent spot to slip past the Confederate lines. 

Rebel Sam was aiming for the fields in the center of the table, sending his three infantry regiments sprinting forward in column.

Robert's dismounted cavalry was the first to engage the Union infantry, with both sides trading somewhat desultory fire and minimal casualties. 

Rebel Sam's infantry continued to push up the table, engaging with Union Sam's infantry and guns. 

My cavalry were having to deal with all of the fences along the road, slowing their movement. 

Meanwhile, Tim was bringing up the rest of the Confederate artillery and a reinforcement regiment of infantry.

Fully set up in the field, Rebel Sam ordered his infantry into line, just as my cavalry was starting to get away. Unfortunately, Rebel Sam also discovered just how horrendous artillery fire was in these rules, as an entire regiment was wiped out.

Union Sam and Brandon did a little switch at this point, swapping an infantry regiment for an artillery battery so they could concentrate on their respective arms. 

Rebel Sam's infantry was catching fire from multiple angles as my cavalry continued to rush towards the Confederate rear. 

Tim and Robert had linked up, with Tim beginning his own artillery barrage against Union Sam's infantry. 

After a couple lucky shots from Brandon's guns wiped out another of Rebel Sam's regiment, Sam moved his infantry back into column and started moving them to flank the Union artillery. 

Union Sam saw one of his infantry regiments retreat after being pounded by Confederate artillery. 

Both sides were being whittled down at range by the other side's artillery. 

My cavalry had finally swung around into a decent position when...

A Confederate tank showed up?!

Well, it seemed we'd gone from a historical battle to steampunk.

My cavalry charged and routed the last of Rebel Sam's artillery, while his last infantry regiment was wiped out by Brandon's guns. 

However, Tim's artillery had mostly seen Union Sam's infantry off, and the last remaining Union infantry regiment wasn't about to move into the open where they would be run down by Robert's cavalry. 

With Sam's tank now outflanking my outflankers, I decided to resist charging into Tim's infantry regiment and retreated back towards the Union artillery. 

With both sides battered, it came down to an artillery duel between Brandon and Tim, and with a 2:1 advantage, the Union was heavily favored. Some decent dice rolling from Brandon destroyed two Confederate guns. We decided to call the game, as a draw. 

While we were working out some of the kinks in the system (artillery fire being far too deadly overall, for example), Chris did put on a great game. I could see these rules being used for fast group games at either the club or convention, maybe with a little more chrome to make them feel more period specific.