L'Art De La Guerre - Romans vs Seleucid

Quick game of LADG today at Stephens using my Punic Romans against his Selecuids.

Another fast and furious game using LADG with Romans again failing to have any impact at Impact against the Pikes phalanx and being ground down.

My Elite legion was particularly poor.....

Field of Battle at Montmirail...... The Guard Repulsed !!

Played Montmirail today with my hombres Stephen, Richard and Le Duc using Field of Battle.
Another excellent game with these fast flowing rules.
Of course the 'dice demon' Stephen was as ever on top form giving a bloody nose to the advances of 2 Old Guard Divisions.
His Artillery shooting was particularly awesome even against the D10 Guard as he consistently gave them hits whilst causing Force Backs and Disorder (Out of Command).
Conversely the French Guard artillery was mediocre at best.
Le Duc seemed to have my dice today rolling low every time the demon rolled high it is amazing to watch.
On my flank (Allied left) it was pretty much a stand off as the Guard Cavalry were reluctant to charge in although they really should have as so much better than Russian mounted.
My Prussians were quickly forced into Square but that made them fairly invulnerable.
Once French Army Morale dissipated the French Cavalry were galvanised into action and began to show their prowess routing Russian units and even breaking a Square !
But it was too late as French were by now giving morale to the Allies.
French then pulled an Army Morale card which they passed being as Napoleon was a D12+1, however very next card was another Army Morale card which French rolled a respectable 9 adding 1 for 10 but the demon rolled a 12 on D12 to force the French to surrender.
Couple of uses of house rules for Hasty Square and Cavalry Counter Charge today which worked fairly seamlessly.
As ever a fun game that was brought to a firm decision in around 4 hours of play, not many rule sets you can say that with !





Russian guns draw a bead

And do the business. Note the yellow Out Of Command markers on Old Guard in center and several hits

Old Guard Lancers threaten on right

Solid lines of Russians

Young and Old Guard Cavalry advance

Opposing mounted Corps about to clash

Old Guard arriving piecemeal in center

2nd Old Guard Division suffering whilst attacking on right

Old Guard Cavalry moves up a gear

Prussian guard road whilst forming square in face of Guard cavalry

 

Montmirail on the eve of battle...............scenario set up for Field of Battle game

Game planned for tomorrow with Stephen 'Dice Demon' Brittain, Richard 'The Murph' Murphy and Darren 'Le Duc' Graham at chez Steiner.
Scenario is Battle of Montmirail set February 1814 with Russia and Prussia pitted against France in the awesome form of the entire Imperial Guard !
Scenario is based on that supplied by Peter 'Gonsolvo' Anderson (I was going to use the Shako version but bit small for 4 players).
I pontificated on which set of rules to use considering Shako, March Attack, Grand Piquet, Snappy Nappy, Black Powder, Morale Napoleon or Die Fighting but plumbed for good old Field of Battle (Le Duc will be pleased) as do not then have to teach a fresh set and FOB works great anyhow and I find for multi-player it is best as all players always involved in game with opposing rolls, opportunity fire ie no standing around twiddling thumbs or other appengdages with FOB.

Am fielding units of 2 bases as this means I can reduce the 10' x 12' table Peter used for his 25mm troops onto my 7' x 5' table with my 15mm figures whilst keeping a decent ratio of table space to unit footprint.
Units are Brigades/Regiments here with Command Groups being Divisions and larger groupings Corps (4 Allied Corps vs 3 French Corps).
I have nominally set up the Corps on table but will allow units to re-deploy within reason.
The French will be played by Le Duc and Richard with Stephen in charge of Russians and I will control Prussians (so I can run game whilst participating).




Map from Pete's scenario

Pirch's Prussian Division (Yorck's Korps) on Allied left

Russian Cavalry Corps (Vasiltchikov)

Russian XI Infantry Corps (Von Lieven)

Russian VI Infantry Corps (Prince Stcherbatov)

French Imperial Guard Cavalry Corps (Nansouty)

1st OG Division (Mortier's Corps) with guns under Druot behind and Napoleon on road

 Ricard's Infantry Division (Bertrand's Corps)

The eve of battle........the extra fields and trees are decoration only (ie Class I in FOB terms)

Prussian reserves Jurgass Cavalry Division

French reserves 2nd Middle Guard Division (my YG standing in) and De France Cavalry Division from Bertrand's Corps

L'Art De La Guerre - Gauls vs Caesar

Game of LADG today using my Gauls against Stephens Romans under Caesar (Triumvirate list).
Been a bit since we played LADG as we having been using MEG for the period.
Roman Legionaries are good tough troops on LADG (unlike DBM) that have a definete advantage over Warband types if they can hold the initial Gallic charge.
With the superior Roman command (ie more Pips) they can hold off charging the Gauls when basic factors would be 2 vs 2 and make the Impetuous Gauls charge them when it is 2 vs 1 to Romans (those damn Pila) but with Gauls having Furious charge.
However the Gauls need to score 2 more than Average Legionaries and 3 more than Elite types to inflict losses (with extra loss for Furious charge).
In todays game I charged in with some 13 units of Gauls (a mix of Heavy and Meduim types) against a line of (Average and Elite) Legionaries and managed to win a massive 2 Combats with 1 drawn and the rest lost.
Stephen threw 4-6 on his dice for 10 combats and of course I managed several 1s as usual thereby taking multiple Cohesion hits.
In the ensuing melees the Romans have the advantage as they now count Armoured,
To make matters worse my Heavy Cavalry who were Elite managed to lose to Average counterparts.
So in the course of 2-3 rounds of combat I lost a dozen units for no losses to Rome !
I did manage to kill a few bases later but was still hemorrhaging Warband units and so was defeated in short order.
But you know what it was a fun game with a large unfettered clash of arms and was quick if somewhat nasty.
We were once again enthused by LADG which is much faster playing than MEG if a little more stylised having a more pronounced 'rock/paper/scissors' feel to outcomes than MEG.
I can see why they are popular competition rules as pretty well written and quick (I would suspect more so with the 200pt armies than the 300pt we usually use).



Apologies for poor pics as the sun (yes folks the sun !!) was bright and shiny today in NI.

Opposing lines at start

Gallic cavalry and chariots on left 

Medium Infantry Gauls in center

After huge initial Impact and Melee phase note multiple hits on Gallic side and gaps were once where units. 

Fought in sweltering heat on left and in shade on right

Might & Reason Malburian game played and a Grand Slam !!!

Le Duc arrived today for a game using Might &; Reason rules as he wanted to try them out.
I picked Malburian period to use my 10mm stuff selecting a French versus Imperial matchup using the points system.
French had an Average commander and Imperial a Good leader.
I laid out terrain during week and Le Duc selected the French and we simply deployed 12" onto the table and then had at it.
Great game with lots of the simple subtleties of the rules coming through.
One needs to manage Command Dice over the course of a Turn and to manouevre units to advantageous positions before committing them otherwise Inconclusive outcomes are the norm.
I had a force of Dutch troops assisting the Imperial Austrians and the get extra dice to roll Musketry phase to simulate Platoon firing system but not once did I manage any sort of devastating volley whilst the bog standard French opposing them rolled multiple hits !
Both our flanks seemed to implode at same time but my Dutch took losses and therefore I was rolling for failed Army Morale from 4th turn and at end of 5th my Army succumbed.
Great stuff with an ever excellent rule set.
Maybe not as dramatic as Field of Battle but has nice feel of linear warfare.





French right wing

Austrian right

Ill fated Dutch in centre

Central Austrian Forces

Cavalry slog on Austrian right

And Dutch getting hammered in centre

Mounted action in narrow space on Imperial left

Austrian foot redeploys in columns to plug gap as Dutch disintegrate

Austrian Cuirassier in the ascendeny on right

Action continues in center

Austrian force on left under pressure from Garde Francais

Austrian horse on left near to defeat

Overall view of the lines of battle

Austrian right dominate hill

French push forward in centre

And the GRAND SLAM is Irelands !!!!!!