A Schleiz of the Action - Wars of Eagles and Empires AAR

Last weekend, HAWKS hosted their Cold Barrage convention for the second year. Cold Barrage was originally created when HMGS' Cold Wars fell through in 2024, and so a single-day event was launched to fill the void. It was so successful they decided to do it again!

I went up originally planning to play in two games based on the same system: Wars of Eagles and Empires and Wars of Ozz. Unfortunately I wasn't feeling all that well, so while I managed to soldier on through the morning, I left early.

However, I did get a chance to play in Buck Surdu's new rules, Wars of Eagles and Empires, which are a Napoleonic outgrowth from Wars of Ozz. Buck himself was running the game, so between his guidance and my familiarity with Wars of Ozz, learning the system was pretty easy.

The scenario was a refight of the Battle of Schleiz, the opening clash of the War of the Fourth Coalition in 1806.

A mass of French infantry and cavalry was marching towards the town of Schleiz, with a mixed command of Prussian reserve infantry, conscripts, and cavalry in their way. 

The French's goal was to push through the Prussian defenders, while the Prussians hope to delay the French advance. 

The Prussian players (myself included) went with an ahistorical approach compared to the dithering commanders of the past and stepped up, with two brigades swinging out to either side of Schleiz. I was controlling a reserve brigade, which I decided to move up the Prussian left flank.

French and Prussian infantry first clashed as the Prussian attempted to shift the French from a hill. In the background, you can see French battalions trying to clear out from each other's way. 

As the French had heavily weighed their assault on their left, the Prussian left was faced with only a few battalions.

Halfway through the battle, the fight on the hill was still going. I continued to bring up the reserve brigade, while French light infantry filtered through the woods. 

The battle for the hill ended with a French win; however, the Prussian battalions fell back in good order towards the cover of the woods. 

On the other side of the battle, French and Prussian cavalry clashed. I managed a decent run of wins with a hussar unit, but after several breakthroughs the unit was blown and routed from the table. 

The battle came to a close after about four hours of game time. While the Prussians had put up a valiant defense, their casualties (especially from highly accurate French artillery) gave the victory to the French. 

Overall, Buck ran a great game. The rules seem to work for what they aim for, and I still enjoy the loss of control that can occur thanks to the reaction charts. It's a fun way to depict the loss of overall army cohesion as smoke engulfs the battlefield and casualties mount. 

I've picked up a pdf copy of the rules for myself, as well as the Mexican-American War supplement. 

Fuddlement Abounds - Tercios AAR

This pat weekend I attended a game hosted at Kelly's home. Using a modified version of the defunct Liber Militum's Tercios rules, Rocky ran a scenario that saw French and Spanish armies clashing in the Spanish Netherlands circa 1645. 

The battlefield was a relatively open plain split up into three segments by a small forest and a village. A small stream wound its way onto the table on one side. 

The two opposing armies consisted of various pike-and-shot units of differing quality, cavalry squadrons (the distinguishing features being whether they were French impact cavalry or Spanish skirmishing caballeros), and a smattering of artillery. 

The Spanish opted for a double-line deployment, while the French chose a checkerboard. Both sides deployed most of their cavalry to one flank.

Kevyn and Kelly commanded the Spanish army, while Mark and I commanded the French. 

The battle started with the skirmishers and cavalry of both sides quickly advancing into position. 

While Kelly's caballeros had open terrain to advance into, my cavalry units were stymied somewhat by the stream. However, at Mark's suggestion, I did aggressively push our musketeer units into the village. 

On the other side of the battlefield, Mark had pushed forward with a mixed force of dragoons and harquebusiers, occupying the woods and the attention of Kevyn's flank.

With both side's heavy artillery being unmovable one deployed, the Spanish decided to step off with their infantry. Meanwhile, the cowardly French infantry hung back and consoled themselves after one unit deployed a bit too close to the Spanish artillery and took a few salvos for the mistake. This did allows Kelly to chase one of my musketeer units out of the village.

Also, the Spanish caballeros were causing a real headache for my cavalry, as they were able to trot up, fire at my cavalry, and then retreat before I could do anything. (For the future, Rocky's advice is best kept in mind: CHARGE!)

The Spanish infantry continued their way across the field, although now their artillery sightlines were being obscured by their own allies. The French artillery had no such worries and opened up. 

The forest fighting continued, although Kevyn's infantry were grinding away at the French harassers.

After several round of back and forth fighting, the cavalry forces on both sides were much reduced. I had finally gotten to grips with several of Kelly's units, and my musketeers had been helpful with their support. However, the remaining caballeros were still hardy enough to likely shoot their way past my reaming units. 

In the center, the masses of infantry had finally closed to begin firing upon each other. 

Having cleared the way of pesky French, the Spanish flank swung its way through the woods. 

Before it could reach, however, the French battleline had curved around, hammering the Spanish with shot and artillery. 

As the cavalry skirmished over on the open plain, a tug-of-war developed for the village. A Spanish tercio had chased the French musketeers from the area, but was then routed by returning fire. 

After exchanging fire for several turns, infantry from both sides began to charge and counter-charge, mixing the lines as units either retreated, fled, or were routed.  

Meanwhile, with only a couple remaining cavalry units, I moved my weary musketeers over to the horse-strewn battlefield to try and keep the Spanish caballeros from flanking the French line. 

However, the battle came to end as we ran out of time. While both sides cavalry had been mauled, the French infantry had kept the center and could be called the victors of this bloody affair.

I think Rocky did a great job adapting this rules from their original incarnation. I like the hidden order cards that can also be used to react, and this went a long way to make Rockey's I-Go-You-Go version feel interactive. This could have been lost from the original's alternating activations (which would have taken forever in a game of this size). 

Kudos also to Rocky (and some contributions from Mark) for making use of Warlord's weird 13.5mm "epic" miniatures to make really impressive looking pike and shot units. 

For Want of a Nail - Saga Tournament AAR

This past weekend I attended a Saga tournament at the invite of a friend. I haven't touched Saga in years, so I dusted off my Normans to see how they would do.

The theme was Vikings and Invasions, and saw warbands from the Anglo-Danes, Welsh, Normans, Saxons, Franks, and Picts clashing over three rounds.

I brought a mounted Warlord, 12 Hearthguard, 16 Warriors, and 12 Levy.

 

Round 1's scenario was Clash of Warlords against a Frankish warband consisting of only Warriors armed with hand weapons, divvied out into units of varying sizes.

The game was rather bloody, with both sides beating each other down over six turns. While my Normans had the advantage in ranged-weapons and mounts, the Frankish battleboard could give even smaller units some massive combat advantages.

I did manage to win the game, 12-8.

My second game was against a Welsh warband in the Capture scenario, where both warbands attempt to control three points in the center of the battlefield.

The Welsh warband consisted of some mounted Hearthguard, generic Warriors, and some ranged-weapons Levy.

This game came down to a couple early gambits between the Welsh and Norman Warlords. Unfortunately the Welsh pulled out ahead and I found a good part of my warband wiped out by the end of turn 2. I realized that this would quickly lead to an exponential victory point gain for my opponent and decided to concede, losing the game 1-19.

 

 

The last round was the Conquest scenario against a Pictish warband. This scenario is a combination of the Clash of Warlords and Capture scenarios, where both sides aim to cause as much damage as possible while gaining extra points by staying close to the center objective.

The Picts had a chariot-mounted Warlord, a small mounted units of Hearthguard, some Warriors, and a few units of Levy armed with a variety of ranged weapons; most worryingly, a unit of 12 Levy with crossbows, which could be incredibly deadly to all of my units. 

Sadly, this was another game that I did not do well in. Like the Welsh, the Picts are a slippery warband that likes to move around and avoid direct conflict, which the Norman warband doesn't have many answers for. After losing half my warband in the early rounds (especially needing to avoid the ranged Levy horde hanging out in the field), I decided to charge into the mass of the Picts rather then spend the rest of the scenario running away. This resulted in another lopsided loss of 3-17.

So a rather poor showing overall! Some of it I chalk up to unfamiliarity with the rules (the last time I played Saga was back in 2021 and apparently there's been a version 2.5 reprint) as well as some bad matchups with warbands. 

A Year In Gaming - 2024

A very Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it, and Happy Holidays to everyone else!

Once again, another year has passed, which gives me a chance to look back at my involvement in the hobby

As always, we start with the games played:

• 'O' Group - 1
• Downsync - 1
• General d'Armee - 2
• Pickett's Charge - 1
• Pike & Shotte - 1
• Rapid Fire Reloaded - 2
• Wars of Such Magnitude - 1

Wow! Nine games in total. That's a somewhat dismal showing compared to previous years. 

Reflecting on this, the lack of games comes from several factors. This has been an incredibly busy year for me personally. Some major trips and life changes (like getting married!) meant I had to juggle my schedule and put gaming on the back burner. I also don't have the same regularity of gaming that I had while I was back in New Jersey. With Ted's hosting and the SJGA's monthly meetings, I was pretty much guaranteed three to five games per month. And Cold Barrage was the only convention I was able to attend. 

I do have a hope to increase these numbers, either by getting involved more locally or setting up a gaming space. 

My painting numbers are somewhat more comforting:

• 6mm Monsters - 21
• 6mm Infantry - 76
• 15mm Vehicles - 3
• 15mm Vehicle - 4
• 15mm Infantry - 340
• 15mm Equipment - 7
• 15mm Cavalry - 6
• 15mm Artillery - 8

15mm continues to dominate as my go-to scale, mostly thanks to the Napoleonic and WWII projects. 6mm sneaks in thanks to Starship Troopers: Sector Sweep.

And no 28mm at all this year! I think that's a first ever since I started tracking my painting progress back in 2017.

To round out the post, here's a look at the games I played. I'm looking forward to more gaming in 2025!

'O' Group 

Downsync

General d'Armee

Pickett's Charge

Pike & Shotte

Rapid Fire Reloaded

Wars of Such Magnitude

Painting Update - Napoleonics, Starship Troopers, WWII

 Here's what I've been painting as we approach the end of the year.

Arachnid swarms in Sector Sweep act as five warriors bases moving together. When a Warrior is killed, the swarm splits up. 

Here's another French line battalion for the 1813 project. 

And more French! Here's a pair of 25mm anti-tank guns for O Group.