Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Black Powder: Napoleonic Prussians versus French

Another game using Black Powder this time at Stephens and using my Prussians against the hated French.

Prussians have a couple of unique special rules including they can form Closed Squares from Closed Columns and can have sub-commanders in their Brigades (reflecting better staff).
Much different from the Russians last fielded.














No time for a proper AAR but plenty of pics


















 

Monday, October 16, 2017

Black Powder: A Clash of Eagles game played


Game of Black Powder played today using new A Clash of Eagles supplement.
I used Russians versus Stephen and his French.
We used the points system but I used Gen De Brigade terrain generation system to set up table and we diced for side (which proved a bit of a bind for me)
Really nice game using new rules (Albion Triumphant plus a few new) which generated a game very like Over The Hills.
Of course this is unsurpising as same co-author as OTH
We tried using Play Sequence as per BP (ie not having shooting first) and to be honest it worked fine as units now don't shoot if they move more than once.
One quirk of Russians is that their Artillery must deploy one per hill if possible which a problem as one hill was to read of deployment zone.
Russians are diffcult to co-ordinate for movement but are tough fighters and have good stamina (pretty much same as our tweaks to FOB) and favour the bayonet.
French by contrast move very easily especially in column and their skirmishing is effective (all but Russian Jagers are poor shots and poor Skirmishers)
We failed to finish the game as Stephen had to leave early (to try to avoid predicted stormy winds) but my Dragoon Brigade had broken on my left whilst things in centre were undecided.
Enjoyable stuff with a well tweaked version of BP

Not many pics as too caught up in action 







Saturday, October 14, 2017

L'Art De La Guerre again - Rome versus Carthage

Another game of LADG played this morning for which LADG eminently suitable as Stephen only had the AM hours free.
We played a historical match-up of Rome vs Carthage (Hannibal in Italy to be precise).
No elephants on Punic side but lots of Numidian Light Horse and several Elites (Cavalry and Veteran spearmen).
I fielded 3 Legions (1 Elite) with usual weak mounted command)
Hannibal invaded and picked Plains to fight upon.
I picked a river but failed to get it but did place a village to defend a flank.
Romans quite monolithic with so much heavy foot and with no place to hide the Cavalry (no deploying one command behind another in LADG) they were a target for Cartho mounted right wing.
I did get two Legions into combat (Elite Legion was skirmished by enemy mounted) along with my Cav and suffered mixed fortunes.
My Cav held out longer than expected but one legion succumbed pretty quickly whilst other held on.
In one turn I suffered horrendous losses enough in fact to end the game but I did at least kill some Punic units.

Another excellent game completed within our tight time frame (even with usual pre game waffling session)









Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Another L'Art De L'Guerre game (and some SYW)

Played another game of LADG at Stephens pitting his Han Chinese against my Republican Romans (not strictly historical but at least contemporary opponents).

Another excellent game in which I tried a Flank March which was successful in arriving if a tad too early (ie turn 1 !!).

Legions not able to bring the Han mounted arm to contact and their Crossbows are quite effective vs Armour especially when potentially firing 10+ elements every firing phase.

All the Romans can really do is to chase them to reduce shooting.

I had a Pergamene Ally who along with the flanking command of Roman Horse bore the brunt of fight against Han foot (mix of Spears and Bow).

Another excellent game with this very playable rule set.







































Also have a SYW solo game in progress on my table using Piquet Cartouche