Battle Command - Dresden scenario

Game with Hugh using Battle Command and Dresden scenario (ripped off from GDA of course)

Hugh has played FOB once but as 90% of Battle Command is same (only the Initiative/Card Deck differs) not to much 'teaching' required (certainly not to Cambridge Professor standard).

Hugh took the attacking French And I therefore the Russo-Prussian defenders.

After deployment we both tried to attack each others left wings as both had our weaker infantry (2nd Line/Provisional) on respective wings.

On my right I pushed my Jager Brigade up and Hugh withdrew his lesser chaps and sent a couple of Young Guard Battalions across from center to assist, which did weaken his push against the Prussian Brigade on central hill.

Situation changed drastically when the two Guard Light Lancer units appeared from reserve on this flank (not unexpected) forcing the Jager into squares one of which the crushed (fatal roll of 1 on d10 vs 11 on d10) but one Guard unit was later routed in another charge on a square.

The remaining Guards tried to breakthrough to the rear hill objective whilst my light Cavalry Brigade failed to intercept them.

On my left my 2nd Line troops were holding back defending villages to rear and Hugh had his light Cavalry on this flank which crested a hill to threaten my lot.

His first charge was repulsed by my volleys but second damaged another unit which luckily managed to get into square and cavalry repulsed in disarray ie 3UI lost and Disordered.

This square was then pummeled by volleys from French Line units and destroyed.

The game was decided around village of Seidnitz in center.

Hugh charged his Young Guard early on with one unit being forced back but the other forcing my defenders out of village section and it fell to French.

I did Rally and retake this sector but the quality of Young Guard shone through with further charges seeing both section of village being captured by French.

The rate of casualties on my force saw it Morale Drop to zero (from 28) and whilst I passed first Army Morale I decided to yield as no real way to retake village.

Hugh did lose a Brigadier which slowed his progress for a while but of course I managed to roll my usual 'bucket of ones' in a couple of turns to aid the enemy.

French ended with only 7 morale (from 34) so quite a bloody affair overall.

As ever a fun game with this system although am now of opinion that Battle Command is a more 'grindy' version due to new card system (no big runs of initiative possible compared to FOB3).

Further games planned with Hugh

The battlefield from French side with Seidnitz in center (this plus villages of Grosse and Kleiner Dobritz to rear were objectives as is hill in far left)

Pics from the game (of varying quality due to lighting)

Young Guard and Line Brigades push forward to right of Seidnitz 

French in firm control of Seidnitz

Young Guard too tough for Russians

French Provisional troops under pressure from Russian Jager as Prussians defend hill

View from Allied right across battlefield

Young Guard deploy to support Provisional Brigade  

Prussians hold in center

Early action at Seidnitz as possession changed hands. French Hussars have forced Russians into square on left and they are suffering from skirmish fire 

Elite Guard cavalry have appeared on my right 

The Guard Lancers in full flow having destroyed a square in tandem but about to come a cropper on next square.

Losses mounting all across the area

Russian cavalry 'rooted to spot' in fore ground

Wittgenstein surveys his predicament as push on left has fallen short and major tussle inprogress for Seidnitz

Right wing push showed early promise until the Guard Lancers appeared

French mounting major effort on village. Note Line Brigade all in disorder as Brigadier is Hors De Combat

The Young Guard battalions proved just too strong for brave defenders

Ulster Wargames Society - Khalkhin Gol with Chain of Command 2 and Little Big Horn

Monthly club meeting today and took part in a Big Battle Chain of Command 2 game set in 1939 in Manchuria with Japanese against Russians.

Game set up and run by Jeremy D and Dave M with several figures from Chris.

Terrain was mix of hills, knolls, rough ground, depressions and couple of light buildings.

Five Nippon players: Jeremy D (CinC), Dave T, Tim, Chris and yours truly against four Ivans: Dave M (CinC), Dave B, Ian and Stevie C.

Nips were the attackers fielding 4 Infantry Platoons (12 man sections) with 3 Chi Ha tanks (under my illustrious command) with numerous support assets (including ATGs, ATRs, Chi Go, a Ruse, Mortar Platoon)

Reds had I think 3 Infantry Platoons (10 man sections) with 3 BT5 tanks and various support assets (not sure what except for a Mortar Barrage)

After Patrol phase Japs had quite favourable Jump Off points especially as their Ruse allowed a Jump Off point to be moved a very flexible option. 

Ivans mainly confined to their set up zone but with 2 (of the 4) Objectives looking vulnerable on either flank.

I kept my Tank Platoon off-table at start to see how things developed before committing.

Jeremy D was on Jap right with Dave T on center-right Tim center-left and Chris on left.

Right to left Ivans had Dave M, Ian, Dave B and Stevie C.

Several Jap sections were deployed early (to threaten those attainable) and in response Ivans done same and indeed their Tanks appeared right way in center-right area but separated into isolated areas.

Use of a ruse allowed Japs to occupy one enclosed field objective right away

So when able I then deployed on right to support Platoons under Jeremy and Dave T.

Chris on our left launched Banzai charges from get go against a farm objective but after a flurry of dice rolling seemed to be stymied (I was not fully aware of proceedings on left half of table throughout)

Seemingly inspired (and encouraged from sidelines) Dave T launched 2 full sections in another Banzai attack against another enclosed field Objective.

A furious melee (so many dice !) 36 halved to 18 vs 14 in first round but a draw with 2 kills each and some shock, second round it was 24 dice vs 11 and Dave rolled 4 kills and 4 shock but Stevie C rolled 6 kills and 1 Shock to actually win the melee !

This forced Daves sections back with additional Shock but due to losses and Shock Stevies section was Broken and also fell back.

Infantry action on this flank sort of stalemated for awhile with both sides exchanging lead but with Stevie C having his Force Morale and Command Dice steadily reduced (ended up on 1 Morale).

Whilst this was occurring one of Dave B tanks was being assailed by my 3 Tanks, 2 Anti-Tank Guns and a Anti-Tank Rifle over several phases but seemed impervious taking only a couple of Shock and dealing out same.

Eventually the poor bugger was forced back, was immobilized, had its Optic damaged and ultimately was abandoned but it felt more like a KV1 than a BT5 !!

Chris had by this time occupied the Objective of left and things looked bad for Ivans, but suddenly a ranging shot for a mortar barrage appeared amidst a mass of Jap infantry which luckily failed to see the barrage fall immediately.

The infantry scattered as best the could but the barrage then arrived Pinning 3 sections and causing lots of Shock.      

Unfortunately time had to be called before game completed and whilst Japanese seemed to be in ascendancy (2 Objectives occupied just about to be declared captured with a Jump Off point nullified) hard to say how things would have ended.

Amazingly my Chi Ha units survived (decent enough in this period)

Great stuff and much kudos to Jeremy D for being able to both play and field the numerous rules questions.

Russia's finest

Japanese right wing with my Chi Ha fleet in action (the wannabe KV1 just visible beside rules to right rear)

Nip infantry occupy central hill from which they launched Banzai charge

Some of Chris lot on left (and lots of dice......so many dice........)

The enclosed field taken by Chris (after a fierce struggle I believe)

Fearsome Chi Ha......hear us roar !!............ok whimper

Tims Platoon in center

Another BT5 behind the broken Russian section 

Nip adversaries have fallen back onto hill (a Senior Commander was lost in this charge action !!) 

Jeremys Sections flank the large hill and occupy an Objective with 37mm ATG in support

Central Jap positioning before the Banzai

Ruse ability allowed this Jump Off point to be moved to enable capture ground well into Russian area

Left half of table seemed so far away and someone has dropped smoke

Also at club Phil and son put on a very nice Battle of the Little Big Horn game with the other Jeremy, Billy, Tom and Leslie.

No idea how this went but some very nice 7th Cavalry and Indian figures with nice terrain and I think Men Who Would Be Kings rules (?)

Only got a couple of pics (it deserved better)

Yellow Hair himself on foot

Some very nice mounted Indian Braves (no idea as to figure range)

They Died For Glory gets an outing

Game at Stephens today and he decided to give his 10mm Franco-Prussian forces an run out with venerable They Died For Glory rules.

Stephen set up scenario and let me pick sides (jolly decent off him) and so be a masochist at heart I chose the Prussians who were as ever on attack.

French also as usual ensconced on a wooded hill top in command of a village ie standard formidable defensive position.

I had 16 Regular Line Battalions, 1 Jager Battalion and 4 Batteries of 4pdrs the French had I think 12 Battalions and 2 x 4pdrs and a Millatruse.

Been ages since we used They Died For Glory but a fairly simple set at heart and soon got into flow of the rather unique interactive sequence of play and systems.

Only a couple of queries arose and most discussion was about whether or not to use the optional/alternative -1 for Long Range firing.

In end we thought it aided attackers as with the generous shooting ranges (12" for Needle Guns and 18" for Chassepot) it is difficult to close with enemy which is were Prussians shine as they generally get more dice in melee which is their forte whilst French are supreme in shooting with longer range.

Game went pretty much as expected with Prussians advancing in Deep Columns into a storm of French fire (with 2 Operations per turn this allowed loads of shooting) with lots of casualties and units forced to go Prone (equivalent to Disorder) which requires an Operation to be expended to Stand Up.

Had forgotten that any Infantry in the rules can use Skirmish, so was relying on my single Jager to perform that roll, which would have lessened casualties somewhat but still a tough ask to advance uphill across open ground.

I had massed most of my infantry on right to try to take 'open' half of ridge but things went awry when single unit failed a Morale Test which caused cascading tests on rest of Brigade and 6 units Fell Back/Routed !

FPW period is in many ways WW1-lite (lacking the artillery mass) and rules certainly reflect the high casualty rates.

Great to see the toys on table (mix of Chariot and early and later Pendraken)

Prussian mass in no mans land and taking losses from get go, the French right looked even tougher with units in woods which meant Prussians could not really engage in shotting except at short range (not great from Column anyhow)

A wall of French volleys

Single Jager Battalion reduced to half strength

Deep column formations with Prussian guns unlimbering in support

 

L'Art De La Guerre - two more games

Another couple of LADG games played with Stephen in sunny Ulster.

Both games between not quite historical opponents but what is a couple of hundred years between friends.

First up it was my Galatians against Triumvirate (Marian) Roman and this was a bloody slugfest with both sides trying to turn opposing flanks and both seeming to have boundless amounts of Pips.

Highlight for me was a lowly Psiloi (WRG speak) which was hit on flank by unit of Thracians but which managed to win and inflict hits !! however this was countered by my Greek subjects imploding in one turn on my right to Roman cavalry they were beating !

Elite Roman Legionaries in center gradually ground down my Elite Warriors and Celts defeated.

Next up it was my mid period Sassanids facing Stephens Thematic Byzantines and this one was more one-sided with my lot having really poor Pip rolls making co-ordination a problem.

Byzzies rather thumped my Cataphracts and put enough shooting hits on my other troops to crush Persians.

 

Civil War Battles an outing

Game at Stephens today and he decided to use Civil War Battles from the Peter Pig Rules For The Common Man stable.

I have had these rules since publication in 2007 but never tried them.

We tried a standard 600 point game (1 Corps of 2 Divisions a piece) using they scenario generator and war points system.

Forces based on mid-war Western lists with Stephen using Feds and me the Rebs.

Took a while to go through the various stages of the game set up but straight forward and would speed up with familiarity.

Knowing best categories to allocate your war points can be influential to battle set up.

Despite only allocating 6 (of my 60) to trying to attack whilst allocated 12 of his (60 + 3 from list) I managed to outscore him 3:1 and was attacker.

However he had much better successes (+3) in two categories whilst I only had minor effect (+1 in 2 categories) so Feds had more effective benefits overall.

Terrain is plentiful with 6 to 8 pieces each and 2 Objectives placed mainly by defender but with some pieces adjustable (limited scope) by attacker. 

No difference to terrain selection for theatre but did seem to generate a plausible ACW style table.

The Motivation (Generals activating individual units), the use of Action Points for the units is nice system that is easy to follow and this combined with fairly simple movement, shooting, combat and morale makes for a smooth game.

Only rule we had issue with was overhead firing which seemed to allow artillery to fire at enemy guns over friends and enemies units on the flat in addition to from hills seemed rather odd (FOOs in use !?) but otherwise all was fine. 

++Postscript++ we feel using the much clearer overhead firing rule from the later Washingtons Army set seems more appropriate ie only applies to firing to or from hills not on the flat ++

Did not finish the game but we did try all the component parts and a nice system overall that is decent option for a pick-up style game.