Battle of Gilly 15th June 1815 with Field of Battle 3 at Ulster Wargames Society (and other stuff)

Played Gilly scenario with FOB3 as planned at UWS meeting today with usual suspects Dave T and Dave B with a young chap Mark also playing (great to see youthful enthusiasm).

Another excellent game with plenty of incident which saw French (Dave T and Mark) chase off Prussians (under Dave B).

Prussians made a bit of a tactical blunder by trying to redeploy an Infantry Brigade from their left wing but ended up getting shot in flank several times by French Artillery and then the potent Empress Dragoons (after a favourable run of cards and movement rolls) managed to get across a ford and crashed into a Battalion in march column annihilating them in short order along with a screen of skirmishers.

Such things can occur in FOB which Dave B had likely forgotten, of course had he been luckier with cards it could all have been a stroke of tactical genius.

French foot pushed across the stream and into Gilly as poor Prussian volleys failed to thwart their progress and things got desperate for Prussians who threw caution to wind using 'Daring Deeds' with commanders to Rally troops but saw two commanders rendered Hors De Combat whilst stirring their troops.

Prussian morale plummeted (25) and an Army Morale card saw them yield (French lost 9 of their 35), this was a smallish game and was played to completion in about 3hours.

The French deployed with 'Boney' himself (on road) as outnumbered Prussians push aggressively forward on their right and fatal redeployment into march column of their left wing Brigade although at that stage the French cavalry seemed a long way off

Prussian right wing ready to march to left but Cavalry support sitting too far back on slopes (note the ford) to provide effective cover for this manouvre

Later and the French Artillery and Empress Dragoons (far left) have caused havoc on Prussian left with units destroyed and routing after being caught in marching columns. 

French are into Gilly and pressing hard on their left, as Prussian morale about to collapse.

And a couple of better pics taken by Bryn.

Also at club was usual great looking game from Phil (with Leslie and Paddy) and his 20mm kit think it was based on action at Son bridge during Market Garden.

Again more Bryn pics

Mike along with Simon and Bryn played an ACW boardgame 'A Fearful Sacrifice' with a First Day of Gettysburg scenario utilising only one of its two large game maps. 

This is a visually impressive game with lovely components (nice chunky counters) and a system using card activation/actions and at a tactical scale that seemed quite 'miniatures like'. 

Not sure how it ended but Bufords Cavalry (Simon) screen seemed to have stymied Rebel (Bryn) advance and Union reserves seemed to be pouring in around Gettysburg town and Cemetery Ridge last I saw.

More from Bryn who was Reb commander

Andy (glowing from his recent Team Yankee win in Wales) and Jeremy played Hail Caesar 2 with their 28mm Romans and Celts, they managed two games I believe.

No Retreat! The Russian Front Pbem progresses and preparation for UWS game

Just completed Turn 4 of ongoing Vassal Pbem of No Retreat! The Russian Front with Mike and my Germans stagnant due to Snow (and a Long Winter turn upcoming) but did manage to survive several Russian attacks mainly by backing off. 

Need to get through these awful Winter turns and into summer 1942 to try to get some progress Eastwards before worm turns..........

Also planning another Field of Battle 3 game at club on Saturday so sorted out terrain and OOBs for Action at Gilly 1815, a smallish scenario (as I cant stay til the death this week) adapted from a GDA version.

Glory Is Fleeting test game and Fall Of Saigon solo scenario

Game today with Stephen (recovered from last weeks dread lurgy) trying Glory Is Fleeting rules with his 1812 Russians facing my invading French Grand Armee.

We both choose from the respective Infantry Corps lists fielding 4 Divisions each although Russians had more mounted troops overall as allowed a Mixed Division.

The French list took me several attempts to get right as several core units must be purchased before one gets to select freely but yields a fairly plausible Divisional sized force with several veteran units in 1812.

As only our second outing with rules we played less than optimally as trying to cover as many situations as possible for learning purposes.

So for example I charged into fully fresh large Russian Infantry units (with Artillery attachments) which unsurprisingly saw my units bounced badly but this did show us the charge sequence/actions in full and how supports and Cavalry support charges worked.

Couple of minor queries over wording re Supports but nothing we could not work out with careful reading of rules.

As per previous version (FOGN) I still love the Scenario/Terrain set up and Deployment system.

Apologies for couple of fuzzy pics 

Also this week I managed another solo session with Fall Of Saigon expansion to Fire In The Lake, this time trying the Extended Short Scenario. 

This has a single 8 card 1968 deck (from FITL) being followed by three 8 card decks for 1973, 74 and 1975 from expansion but including all four 'factions'.

Great stuff again with Viet Cong winning at end of 1974 by 1 VP.

An AI take on my Blog

After reading a Blog post by The Waving Flag relating to an AI site (www.perplexity.com) I decided to give it a quick decko and simply typed in the question: "What is Sgt Steiners Wargaming Blog ?" and herewith is the answer given which is on the nose and interesting, if not a tad concerning, as to the 'power' of such AI even on such a mundane and inconsequential topic. 

At least it does not know my real name or does it !!??

Sgt Steiner's Wargaming Blog is a platform where Sgt Steiner shares his experiences and insights into historical wargaming using miniatures, PC, and board games. The blog covers a variety of wargaming activities, including solo dabbling, scenario starters, and game reports from different periods of history, such as the Battle of Oudenarde and the Fall of Saigon. Sgt Steiner's interests in historical wargaming, miniatures, board games, PC games, movies, and military history are reflected in the content shared on the blog. The blog provides a glimpse into the world of a wargaming enthusiast and his experiences with various wargaming activities and interests.

Enticed by it wiles I entered a second question "What is the type of content of Sgt Steiners Wargaming Blog ?" and this was response, pretty much on the money.

Sgt Steiner's Wargaming Blog primarily features content related to historical wargaming, including miniatures, board games, and PC games. The blog covers topics such as specific gaming sessions, army lists, and thoughts on various wargaming interests. Sgt Steiner's interests include historical wargaming, miniatures, board games, PC games, movies, and military history. The blog provides insights into gaming experiences and preferences, making it a valuable resource for those interested in historical wargaming

To fellow Bloggers go ahead and try this IF YOU DARE !!

Fall of Saigon in progress

Fall of Saigon expansion arrived (after a days delay due to Courier mix up) and I got it to table for solo try (no minis game this week as Stephen unwell)

Expansion includes scenarios to extend the scenarios of FITL and most intriguing a a scenario entitled 'Black April' using with the NVA and ARVN only and dealing with the NVA offensives that sealed demise of south after Paris Peace Accords.

This piqued my interest most so set it up for a play through.

With just 2 'factions' this is a two player scenario and utilises the two player initiative system from Colonial Twilight and goodly portion of the new cards decks covering 1973-1975 (24 cards per year plus new Coup cards although only 6-8 cards per year used in a scenario).

Armour is introduced in expansion (with new triangular blocks) and a couple of new associated OPs and Special Activity (Spearhead) and these are an interesting twist.

Only played through 1973 and just into 1974 but the NVA do seem irresistible especially their new 'Spring Offensive' Pivotal Event which allows them to Free March, Free Bombard and Free Attack all across the board once conditions are correct (post Watergate and regular troops fully mobilised) and have taken Saigon and most of the North.

Doubtless my play or ARVN is less than optimal (too many Events taken I fear) but thats what a play through is for.

All in all whilst just dipping a toe this is an excellent expansion and look forward to using the Extended options for other scenarios wherein if no clear winner in a standard FITL game you check the effect of Paris Peace talks then set up extended decks to play into 1973-1975.

Making a great game even better.  

Set up for Black April with only NVA and ARVN pieces (VC and USA are not used)

Overlay for 2-player Initiative and US posture track (only top line used in this scn)

That nasty Spring Offensive used and Saigon occupied by NVA (ARVN lost 14 units here !!)

NVA largely in control in north after offensive, note huge ARVN losses (these go to US casualty box in this scenario)

The busy life of a Wargamer in retirement with a bit more solo dabbling, some Pbem and missing pics.

Been dabbling and dibbling again this last few days with various board Wargames but also made a couple of purchases (!!) and did manage to play a minis game but photos seem to have gone AWOL ?

On board Wargame front I set up (always prefer physical game to Vassal as excellent as that is) and played through several turns (up until I realised Axis were stuffed in late 1943) of WW2: Barbarossa To Berlin a CDG type I have always enjoyed.

Then I got Battle of Britain onto table this being the Plastic Soldier Company version (bought a while back for bargain £15) of an old TSR game (which I own). 

A fairly simple but quick playing game. 

Ironically despite being by PSC the plastic aircraft are rather underwhelming so I used those from old TSR version as these are much crisper castings.

On Pbem front game of No Retreat! The Russian Front continues with German (moi) Turn 3 having just ended. 

Ivans (Mike) looking rather thin on ground but they will have 6 cards in their part of turn to 'spend' to restore units and they have a few reserves arriving as well so should look better for them.

I also played with Stephen a Napoleonic minis game using the superbly priced (ie free) Valour & Fortitude Rules for a bash with my Prussians against his French. 

Stephen used an old (V1) GDB scenario based on action at Gross-Gorschen 1813. 

This was mainly to try out a couple of house rules concerning Open Order units as we don't like how they play as written and are trying to make them more akin to pure Skirmish formation. 

Went well but I whilst I took photos they seem to have gotten deleted from my phone/Google account accidentally I assume. 

The rules (and other stuff) are downloadable at https://www.perry-miniatures.com/valour-fortitude/vf-rules/

And then I bought a couple of items the first being the long awaited second edition of General D'Armee by Dave Brown which is a pre-order due 4th of March or so.

Also made an EBay purchase of one of the expansions for Fire In The Lake game namely 'The Fall Of Saigon 1972-1975' a title I have been on lookout for to expand this hugely enjoyable COIN system game.