Failure to Launch - Castles in the Sky AAR

For Septembers SJGA club meetup, I offered to run an intro game of "Castles in the Sky", one of Osprey's newest entries in their wargaming rules series. 

The scenario was an ambush set in the Pacific Ocean. The Japanese players needed to escort, or protect a dreadnought (with no weapons), while the Americans needed to destroy it. 

I let the Americans set up one of their squadrons in a cloudbank on their half of the table as an ambush that would be spotted when the Japanese came within short range distance of it. They chose the center cloud bank.

The Japanese players led the dreadnought around the left side of the table, directly towards the American's ambush spot. 

Long range fire didn't result in much damage, but did put friction on both sides (the ruleset's way of messing with command and control). 

The battle quickly turned into a giant furball as the Americans sprung their ambush.

Unfortunately, the previous turns had taken so long that we had to end the game before there was any decisive results, which was discouraging. Unfortunately I think the game failed to impress.

Observations that I made:

+The group liked the core mechanics of the game

+If the players knew the rules, it would have gone better, instead of a single turn taking an hour or more.

-Players thought I started the fleets too far apart, which did keep the action from happening earlier on. I probably should have started both sides closer by 6"-12", maybe even closer.

-There were too many ships for too many new players. I probably should have only had them running 3, or even just 2, ships each.

-I needed something other than dice to indicate altitude. Chits would have been a better choice.

This project will probably get shelved for a while. 

Painting Update - Castles in the Sky

Here's a look at the Japanese fleets for Castles in the Skies (which I had just finished on the day of the club game).

The Japanese first squadron consisted of a Yamashiro-class battleship, two Akeshi-class light cruisers, a Nagatsaki-class destroyer, and a Mikasa class frigate.

The second and third Japanese squadron consisted of a Yashima-class battleship, a Yakumo-class heavy cruiser, a Nagatsaki-class destroyer, and a Mikasa class frigate.

The objective of the game was for the Japanese to defend a Shinano-class dreadnought that had inactive weapons. 

Painting Update - Castles in the Sky

There's no after action report this week, so let's take a look at what I've been painting: 

I've been working on a club game with the somewhat new rules for aerial naval combat, "Castles in the Skies." I decided to put together two fleets, split into three squadron for a six-player game. 

The first American squadron has a Lincoln-class battleship, a Lexington-class battlecruiser, a Brooklyn-class destroyer, a Decatur-class Frigate, and a Saginaw-class frigate.

The second American squadron has a New York-class battleship, a Maryland-class cruiser, a Brooklyn-class cruiser, two Decatur-class frigates, and a Saginaw-class frigate.

The third American squadron has a Maine-class battleship, a Maryland-class cruiser, a Brooklyn-class cruiser, a Decatur-class frigate, and two Saginaw-class frigates.

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.