L’Art De La Guerre - two 200pt games played

Played a couple of LADG games today using the standard 200pts sized armies instead of our usual 300pt games.



First up was Punic wars encounter with my Romans facing Hannibal’s Carthaginians and then my Avars faced off against Charlemagnes Carolingians.



Of course I lost both although the Punic encounter was a close game.


These 200pt games are very fast playing but we can see how they are the standard for competitions.

                                     

L'Art De La Gurerre - Sassanids versus Huns

Game today using LADG for a change with 300pt armies.
I choose my Sassanids and Stephen fielded Huns (under Attila)
Been awhile since we played LADG but what an excellent set of Ancient rules they are.
Bit of a bloodbath this one with a constant drain of hits from the 'shooty' Huns.
Whilst Huns were mainly Medium Cavalry their being nearly all Elite makes them pretty much the equal of my Sassanid mounted bowmen.
Great stuff and so now planning to try the 'standard' 200pt game on Monday.

Hitler's Reich another couple of games

Played this excellent little game with my Dad again last night.
We managed two close but quick games.
Axis won first by taking all Soviet Production Centres for auto victory.
In second Allies won by reducing Axis hand to zero through relentless Strategic Bombing
Great game easy to play and fast and furious fun.















Only one pic as I forgot to take more !

This game arrived this week but not more than a cursory look at so far

Hitler's Reich - two more games played

Another couple of play throughs of this highly playable game with my Dad tonight.

First game was over fairly quickly as Barbarossa failed for Axis and my Allies has a good run of cards and successful Events and Attacks whittling the Axis hand to zero for auto win.

Second game was a much tighter affair as Dad took Balkans and both Tobruk and Suez before launching Barbarossa.

His invasion was successful and his Blitzkrieg actions saw Kharkov, Leningrad and Moscow fall ! 

However in 1942 the Soviets counterattacked taking back all three Production Centres.

In 1943 we both had a hand size of a mere 3 cards but I was able to win Strategic Bombing Events to force the Axis to zero again for the win.

We learnt a lot in these games including how essential it is for Axis to take Yugoslavia and maybe Greece to protect Romanian and Austrian Production Centers (Austria is also the gateway to Berlin if not protected.

Indeed Axis in 1941 (when hand size and Conflict deck is at most favourable) need to build a decent hand of Events prior to executing Barbarossa or to reduce Allied hand by attacking Western Allied resources. 

Excellent little game this, highly abstract but very playable and fun.

Field of Battle 2 - Katzbach 1813 scenario with Le Duc

FOB game with Le Duc played using a GDB scenario as basis.
French of McDonald facing attack by Prussians (and a few Russians) under Yorck.
Le Duc took the Prussians and I the French defenders in what turned out to be a lengthy blood soaked battle of attrition as befits an 1813 encounter.
Sizeable numbers of Raw (D4 defence) troops on both sides and a Poor deck for French with Average deck for Prussians meant lots of Lulls (9 in total) and weak vulnerable units aplenty.
The arriving reserve Brigades served to keep the game taught as seemingly every break in opposing lines was swiftly shored up.
We seemed to have endless re-shuffles in this game due to equal Initiative rolls meaning some cards took take ages to appear.
French went for what seemed an entirety without seeing any Move cards but had lots of Melee opportunities which they often could not complete.
I was down to 3 Morale chips when Le Duc announced he was close to ruin as well.
But he got the next initiative run with several cards he used well causing me a good deal of damage with me 'gifting' him several Morale Chips.
When I used my initiative I had a poor run of useable cards and failed to cause Prussians any Morale Chip loss.
The next initiative went in similar fashion with Le Duc now 'up' 10 of my cards !
Of course on a Lull card I then drew an Army Morale Card but managed to survive it however another appeared a few cards later and France succumbed.
Another great game of FOB and one of longest we have played.
Mind you there were some 32 Prussian/Russian units against 25 French so a largish engagement.
I really must do a video of this excellent system.



The battlefield prior to deployment

French side of table

Prussians arrive

French left

Large (4UI) Prussian cavalry units on move

A Brigade of French Conscripts arrive

Prussian approach on French right

French left (Chasseurs Brigade to rear failed to Move on 3 opportunities ! my 1's in inaction)

As Prussians push in center around Janowitz village.

Things getting messy and intense on French right as both sides reserves arrive

Chasseurs and Lancers still refuse to leave initial area

Landwehr support their Regular colleagues

Veteran Prussian Brigade tries to outflank French on hill

Squares formed in center to protect from my Hussars

Lines thinned on both side on right flank !! My reserve cavalry done sterling service here.

Whilst my Chasseurs after coming into action lost badly to a crack unit of Prussian Hussars.
It should be noted that at top center a unit of French foot have destroyed 2 Russian units after attacking from the village. Sadly they later Routed under superior numbers.

Hitler's Reich first play

Played Hitler's Reich in earnest tonight with my Dad.

Very enjoyable it was too with this WW2-lite but fun game.

Neither of us know the respective Events well enough to achieve best strategies but even from one play the importance of Barbarossa and control of the English Channel is obvious.

Dads Barbarossa was less than stellar which allowed me to annoy the Axis on western front.

We done virtually nothing in the Med/N.Africa fronts as all activity was in Russia and N.Europe.

Game ended in 1944 with fall of Berlin to Western Allies and Axis failure to recapture.

The problems with rule book layout remain but having played a game most things fall into place now.

All pics from early turns as I got too engrossed later

Test Of Battle at Le Ducs - Market Garden scenario

Game of Command Decision Test Of Battle at Le Duc's' yesterday as he wished to try the latest iteration of CD and had set up a Market Garden scenario from one of the official CD supplements.
Read his more in-depth AAR at http://warfareintheageofcynicsandamateurs.blogspot.com/2018/09/breakthrough-at-oosterbeck-or-not-with.html)
Think the scenario was entitled 'The road to Elst' but certainly set in that area with 30th Corps pushing along the infamous highway (lots of "this bits the wide part!" comments).
Game attended by the brother Brittain who commanded the Nazi defenders whilst Le Duc and I took charge of the British.
Game start delayed after extensive waffling session between all of us including diverse discussion of Le Duc's extensive library of books and rules, or thoughts on sci-fi games, fantasy games (ugh), board games, various projects and ideas we all have for various time periods etc etc !!
Once the fracas began it became very clear how tough the British mission was as we encountered various hidden German units and anti-tank weapons.
I was attempting to push on our left but got stymied in an area of polder and my armour on that damned road although I did destroy a PzIII Platoon and a battery of nasty 20mm Flak guns.
Le Duc on our right managed to push forward but at too high a cost and we called the game after 5 turns (in another 3 turns 2 Tiger platoons would have appeared)

We discovered a couple of rules we had missed in earlier outing with TOB, firstly that when issuing a Rally order it must touch the issuing stand so really means a turns delay as Battalion Commanders move to Shaken Companies (as their CO cant issue own order) to issue an effective order (ie within 6").
Also that the Regroup order now applies to Vehicles/Tanks as well as Infantry a change IIRC from earlier versions of CD.

Great to get a game in with 20mm kit ('midgies' as we call them) from Le Ducs collection.





Pre-deployment look at battlefield from German right (John)

Push starts up "the wide part"

And the inevitable outcome