Painting Update - Napoleonics, WWII

Here's a look at what I've been painting lately. 

I've begun the next part of the Napoleonic project with more skirmisher bases for two infantry brigades. 

I also finished the command elements of the 1940 German battalion. 

As well as artillery support bases.

And machine-gun support bases.

To finish up, a pair each of anti-tank and infantry guns. 

The only pieces that I need to complete now are some horse-drawn wagons for the French and Germans for moving their guns around the battlefield. 

Back in Black - Men of Company B AAR

My wife and I were visiting family this past weekend up in New Jersey, which gave me the chance to swing by the SJGA meeting at their new location.

The club was running two games; Konflikt 47 and Men of Company B. Ted and Chip were running the Vietnam game, so I joined that one. 

I have played Men of Company B only once in the far distant past, which I recall enjoying. 

The scenario was a standard search-and-destroy mission by an American platoon, with a number of Viet Cong squads hoping to thwart the American's goals. The American platoon was accompanied by a pair of M48 Patton tanks. 

The Americans came on group together on one side of the table, searching through the villages.

As the VC squads only start with two teams and need to recruit from the local villages, they came on the opposite side of the table from the Americans and began bolstering their strength.

The American players quickly discovered several important supply caches. The VC players (including myself) were worried that the game would be over rather quickly if the Americans kept up their success!

With enough recruited villages, the VC began a tentative advance on one of the outlying American squads. 

They would have to deal with the reinforcing M48s, however, who could easily outrange the VC's close-range anti-tank weapons. 

The M48s advanced, supported by a squad of American infantry. 

The third American platoon also deployed, pinning down one of the VC sqauds. With half of the village squares on the table explored and looted, the VC players needed to keep the Americans out of these squares to have any hope of winning.

Credit goes to Sam for keeping this village out of American hands for the entirety of the game! 

That hope was reduced further when a combination of tank and infantry fire from the Americans ripped into the advancing VC squad. As only the squad leader was left, he quickly disappeared into the terrain to try his luck elsewhere. 

That luck would come in the next turn. Another VC squad that had disappeared early in the game was able to redeploy behind the Americans as the tanks and infantry advanced out of the searched villages. This allowed the VC squad to ambush the American platoon command team, wiping them out and recapturing the highest priority cache in the process. 

Suddenly the American platoon found itself out of command and trapped between two VC squads. 

Realizing that their captured caches were in danger, the advancing Americans were forced to turn around and recapture the villages they had left. 

Deadly American firepower ripped into a number of VC squads that had suddenly appeared in the absence of the American infantry squads. 

The game ended with a decisive assault by Ryan with an American infantry platoon, forcing the VC squad with the high priority cache to abandon it and retreat.

At the end of the game, it turned out that the Americans had won by 17 points, and the high priority cache had scored them 18! Had the VC (i.e., me) not been blinded by the chance to take out another American squad and instead retreated, that may have changed the end result. Instead, it was a Proper Victory for the Americans, with the Viet Cong forced to retreat having lost several squads. 

While the Second World War is generally as far as I'm comfortable playing wargames with, I do enjoy the asymmetrical gameplay of the Men of Company B rules. It's an interesting conundrum for both sides; the Americans need to get in and out quickly, and also try to destroy any VC squads entirely before they can disappear and pop up elsewhere on the table. For the Viet Cong, they have to take the time to recruit and gather their strength, and they're always going to be fighting uphill with raw recruits and less firepower. It's a balancing act between knowing when to risk an opportunity and when to run away and conserve your strength.

As always with Ted and Chip, a great game. And it was nice to see the SJGA thriving in their new location!

Brittany's Spears - Right Cruel and Fell AAR

Another weekend gathering at Kelly's!

This time we were playing another of Rocky's rules; "Right Cruel and Fell", for fighting the Hundred Years War.

This was a bash-up set early in the Hundred Years War, with the French and British providing backing to a civil war brewing in Brittany. Historically, this was a proxy war between the two larger powers, but Rocky's scenario was set in a version where both sides had sent proper armies to back their candidate.

The scenery was randomly set up by Kelly, commanding the French, and I, commanding the British (Kevin and Scott would join the French and English, respectively, early during the fighting). Two fordable streams split the battlefield, which was centered upon a trio of small villages. Fields, hills, and forests were scattered around the table. 

The French and their allies consisted mostly of mounted men-at-arms with supporting spearmen, crossbowmen, and peasants armed with sharpened sticks. The English brought their longbows and men-at-arms, while their Breton allies had some men-at-arms, spearmen, and militia.

Now, a decent English commander would have looked at the table, seen how the terrain placement would likely lead to the French cavalry funneling into the center through the villages, and deployed appropriately. I, as it turned out, was not a decent English commander, and so set up two independent commands with an incredibly weak center.

As an example, look at that incredibly open road leading right to the English camp! 

But maybe I would get lucky and the French cavalry would trip over some rabbit holes. 

As the Englishmen busied themselves in a pair of fields, the rest of the three commands approached each other with skirmishing crossbowmen. 

Realizing that I hadn't done much to protect my vulnerable center from a tidal wave of the cream of French nobility, a lone unit of English men-at-arms set themselves in the way with a barricade of wagons. 

Since Scott rolled multiple 6s for his battle's command checks, his troops that weren't in defensive positions were forced to keep advancing towards the enemy. 

However, the French knights were happy to ignore the villages they weren't allowed to enter and rolled on by. 

The English longbowmen were the most threat to the French cavalry, but this had an unintended consequence. As the French were hit, they slid back and away from the threat; placing them closing to Scott's Bretons.

Kelly's first wave of knights began to charge the enemy units while a second wave formed up.

In Right Cruel and Fell, French men-at-arms are forced to advance towards any enemy units with 3 squares. As the heavily armed knights can only move 2 squares per cycle, it's possible to bait them forward to attack unsupported.

Now, the way the rules work, English dismounted men-at-arms should be able to see off their mounted French counterparts, as they're more numerous per unit.

However, if you're rolling like I did during the game, then your Englishmen are going to be as effective as a can-opener made of cardboard and white glue. 

Kelly's knights attacked on a broad front, pushing back the English center. The longbowmen in the field were desperately loosing arrows to keep the French back. 

Zooming out a bit more, you can see Kevin's attack finally crossing the stream and pressing the rest of the English force. 

However, what sealed the fate of this battle was Kelly's breaking of the center, routing the only English men-at-arms defending their camp. 

Looting a camp is worth 10 loss points. The English would begin to wave at 26 loss points, and rout at 31.

It seemed as though the French cavalry were everywhere, breaking through the English line at multiple points.

With multiple losses of valuable men-at-arms and longbowmen, the English were forced from the field, and France's candidate for the duchy of Brittany was likely to secure his seat. 

This defeat was on me from the outset. I likely should have gambled more with the defensive terrain to give the English a better position. While I wasn't wrong in acting defensively, Rocky's advice was that a much more condensed battleline with flanks anchored on defensive terrain would have had a better chance against the French. 

However, I did enjoy these rules, and I would forward to trying them again. There are also a trio of supplements that expand the rules to other time periods: the War of the Roses, the Italian Wars, and the Great Teutonic War.

Return to Osma - General d'Armee AAR

This past weekend, Kelly hosted a game of General d'Armee (first edition) at his home.

We were refighting Osma, which I have played before with Ted and the others in the New Jersey group (using the second edition of the rules).

The scenario was the same as before; three French brigades attempting to hold back a combined force of four British and one Portuguese brigades. The British had 10 turns to break the French.

Kelly GM'd, Larry and I commanded the British, and Scott and Jeff commanded the French.  

The game started with the British pushing forward as quickly as possible, with the Portuguese using a Forward! order to move up their flank.

The French elected to have one brigade defend the wood-covered hill that extended across half of the table, while the other brigade was split between defending a line of hedges and the small town. 

On the other British flank the King's German Legion light brigade moved in skirmish lines towards the French brigade that was quickly taking position on the hilltop. 

The French garrison, on seeing the waves of British uniforms approaching, realized it was likely better to move up from their position to halt the enemy advance. 

Both sides exchanged skirmish fire as battalions moved into position. 

In an incredible feat of dice-rolling, Larry managed to secure a Retire from an opposing French brigade through the Destiny table! This gave the British a chance on their right flank to keep advancing. 

Meanwhile, I was making a hash of things on the left. A failed infantry assault saw the KGL light brigade pushed back and out of firing position, while a battalion of KGL line infantry was being battered by two French battalions. 

Unfortunately, the Portuguese brigade hesitated, giving their French opponents time to recover and shake back out into formation. The third French brigade advanced up the center. 

The battle for the hill continued. The KGL cleared the French skirmishers, but the formed enemy battalions held strong. 

The British center advanced towards a strong French presence. 

And the Portuguese were having trouble following up on their earlier success, as they exchanged fire with French skirmishers. 

While the British had gained an extra two turns from the Retire result the French had rolled earlier, the scenario wasn't looking good for them overall. The French still held the hill, keeping two British brigades checked. And none of the French brigades were likely to end up Faltering without some very lucky dice. 

And I definitely didn't have that luck! My hope of a successful infantry assault from the KGL line brigade went up in smoke, despite attacking a pair of French battalions that had lost fire discipline. 

The British decided to call off the attack at the top of turn 12, as there wasn't a likely avenue to cause another French Retire or Sauve Qui Peut result. 

My impression of this scenario from the last time I played it holds; this is a tough scenario to get a historical result with. Though I've seen other online reports with the British succeeding. I wonder what they're doing differently? I may have had more success had I been more aggressive with the KGL light brigade and fed them Skirmisher taskings for the game. They can really throw out hits, especially against formed battalions. 

Maybe we'll return to Spain at some point and try it again. 

Terci-oh No! - Tercios AAR

Last weekend Rocky ran another game of Tercios with his modifications.

The scenario saw French and Spanish forces once again clashing in the Spanish Netherlands, during the 1640s. 

The Spanish were largely deployed in a depression with a stream running through it, and were commanded by Kelly and Scott. The French had a more open deployment between a town and a hill, commanded by myself and Rocky. 

The last time I played, the French largely stood back and waited for the Spanish to advance into their small arms range. For this game, I played more aggressively and stepped off with my infantry battalions. 

I sent most of my cavalry on a flanking maneuver around the town that dominated the open flank, while I had my artillery concentrated on the hill. 

The Spanish sent their caballeros and musketeers to cover the advance of their tercios. 

The French battalions were split into two groups; one on the left that halted to engage with oncoming Spanish cavalry and infantry, and another on the right that continued to advance.

However, the right-wing group of battalions was thrown back by the Spanish tercios, and worryingly the large unit of Weimer German mercenaries was routed! These troops had generally performed well in previous games, and their early loss meant that a key unit on the French side was no longer available.

Meanwhile, at the battle around the town, while my musketeers had scattered the Spanish skirmishers the routed infantry was replaced by a full tercio. This discouraged my own skirmishers from advancing.

You can see the French cavalry turning to potentially engage with the tercio, but I ultimately decided against it. Even charging into the infantry's flank likely wouldn't give my saber-armed cavalry a decent change of winning. 

The French reserve cavalry units, having bided their time on the left flank, charged out and routed a Spanish tercio while the general infantry scrum continued on. 

The French cavalry continued to maneuver on the far flank. The Spanish had diverted a tercio, supported by caballeros, to counter the French cavalry. 

The Spanish had a very lucky turn where they won the initiative and managed to remove a number of disorder markers from their infantry units. Had the French gone first, it was likely that their combined firepower would have shattered the Spanish infantry as Disorder markers in Tercios decreases a unit's ability to save against hits. 

Unfortunately, the French cavalry attack floundered in the face of the Spanish opposition. We've noticed that French saber-cavalry struggles to deal with Spanish caballeros in combat, even when the French cavalry managed to charge in unhindered by wear or disorder. 

The infantry battle was also quickly bogging down as both sides tried to get their wearied units to follow orders. In Tercios, any unit with even a single point of Wear requires a Discipline test to activate, which is generally 2-4 d6's with a single 6 needed to pass. 

Facing some disastrous combat results, the remaining French cavalry began to retreat, covered by musketeer fire. 

Two more Spanish units left the table, even as French units continued to take hits. This left the Spanish flank extremely vulnerable to the French cavalry, musketeers, and dragoons. 

Over on the other flank, the remaining French cavalry was hurriedly redeploying to fill gaps. However, the game came to a close as French fire routed more Spanish tercios. The French could declare themselves victors of a hard-fought battle. 

The discussion that followed the game largely centered on a couple of aspects of the rules that the group believes needs fixing. First, the ability of units to fire through 3" gaps between other units. This allows for the French to really hammer the melee-focused tercios before the Spanish are able to close. This has been changed to not allowing fire if there is a friendly unit directly to a unit's front, which means gaps need to be wider. 

Second, saber-wielding cavalry (i.e., French cavalry) was regularly being outperformed by the Spanish caballeros. They've now received a bump in their to-hit score against cavalry to even the odds.

We also discussed deployment methods and other period tactics.  

As always, a great game run by Rocky, and hopefully we'll see Tercios hit the table again soon.