DBMM (& FOG) Celtic Cup Day 1

Celtic Cup Championships held in Belfast with 15mm Open Competitions for DBMM and FOG rule sets.

Game 1 My Maurikian Byzantines (627AD) against Selecuid (Jan Van Emden) a marginal 14-11 win for me

Game 2 Byzantines against Naverese (Dave Houston) a reasonable 18-7 win (Dave had some truly awful dice in combat)

Some other games from the day

FOG games (Dave Brown tries to sneak a unit forward whilst chatting to opponent)

DBMM encounter

More Dbmm (I think that Housties crotch in sight on right !!)

Willie Coughlan sets out his Gallic horde (and looks smug about it)

More Dbmm (Stephen with his Late Roman in distance) Mark Gibson & Ian Austin (to the fore) 

Richard Aynsley plays 'pocket billiards' whilst watching Dave 'the man in black' Taylor 

A great days gaming (And I already have vastly more points than usual !!) with a good variety of armies on show in both competitions.

DBMM Celtic Cup Runner & Riders

List of armies in use at Celtic Cup for Dbmm this weekend, being an open competition the variety is of course rather wide. No contemporaries for my Byzantine to face and not too many I would relish having across the table, but will be interesting and enjoyable anyhow as all a nice bunch of lads that are entered.
Both DBMM and FOG being played in 15mm.










==DBMM==
Name Region Army
1. Mike Bennett England Dailami
2. James McKenna N. Ireland Later Swiss
3. Ian Austin Scotland Late Roman - Eastern
4. Rob Brennan Republic of Ireland Timurid
5. Jan van Embden (Sat) Republic of Ireland Seleucid
6. Mick Hessian (Sun) Republic of Ireland Jurchen Chin
7. Stephen Brittain N. Ireland Late Roman
8. Gary Barr N. Ireland Maurikian Byzantine
9. William Coughlan Republic of Ireland Gallic
10. Tony Bergin Republic of Ireland Early German
11. Mark Gibson N. Ireland Neo-Babylonian
12. Gareth Allen Republic of Ireland Hundred Years War English
13. Anthony Fitzgerald (Sun) Republic of Ireland Nikephorian Byzantine
14. Tim Madeley Republic of Ireland Navarese
15. Brian Bull N. Ireland Macedonian

Here also list of Foggers














==FOG==
Name Region Army
1 David Houston N. Ireland Mid Republican Roman
2 Ian McKay Scotland Later Sicilian
3 Hugh Cameron Scotland Medieval Castillian
4 Dave Saunders England Later Sicilian
5 Gordon Jamieson England Lydian
6 John Muir Scotland Early Scots Isles and Highlanders
7 George Dick Scotland Post Roman British
8 Tom Sheeran N. Ireland French Ordinance
9 David Brown N. Ireland Low Countries
10 Robert Crawford N. Ireland Later Selucid
11 John Lavery N. Ireland Swiss
12 David Taylor N. Ireland Ordonnance Burgundian
13 Daniel Taylor N. Ireland Late Republican Roman
14 Richard Aynsley Republic of Ireland Classical Indian
15 Keith Branagh (Sat) N. Ireland Selucid
16 George Kingston (Sat) N. Ireland

FOG Renaissance New Lists & update

Just got this this week covering armies from 1660-1698 for Field Of Glory Renaissance rules. The 'Boyne' armies are of course of interest.
Just a pity the rules don't include War Of Spainish Succession.

Have also been re-basing my Maurikian Byzantine army for Dbmm competition coming up this Saturday & Sunday here in Belfast (Celtic Cup) but no pics as don't want to give composition away (not that its in any way cunning or tricksey !).
Hope to take a few pics for blog.

12 Black Hat Prussian Dragoons and 12 Prussian Hussars for 1813/1814 currently on painting table, hope to finish these in week or so.

PK Field Of Battle : Prussians take on French

Game at Stephens today I picked period he picked rules so it was 1814 Prussians versus French using Piquet: Field Of Battle rules. A hugely entertaining game it was too ! we used Lasalle terrain generation and half measures for our ground scale. I fielded 5 Brigades with 23 units against 20 French units. French had several Elite units Prussians none (I really am a glutton for punishment !) Terrain was 'the valley' with line of hills on opposing sides of table (Stephens rubberized terrain mat very useful for this allowing placement of items underneath - considering purchasing one) into which I placed a wood and a field and Stephen a town.
Prussians designated as defenders  although this proved nominal as cowardly French hugged their ridge whilst 'General Vorwarts' went.............'Vorwarts'.


Lots of crappy iPhone pics (with lots of caption 'digs' at French dogs):


Prussians line along their ridge (temporarily)

French line theirs (super-glued)

Prussian mounted Brigade advances on right

Prussians Infantry Brigades begin to advance

Guess who are advancing ? 

Even the lowly Landwehr show French how its done 

'Vorwarts' in the center 

French militia cower in town

More 'Vorwarts-ing'

Landwehr go eye ball to eyeball

Whats this ? French heavy cavalry actually advancing !!

Reserve Infantry Brigade 'up and at em' against French 'one step forward two steps back' Brigade. 

Earlier shot of mounted wings mutual advance

French 'Elite' Infantry falling back so much for fabled elan !

French right at start

Prussian centre

Prussian cavalry on right wing

French 'attackers' center 'nailed' to ridge

The 'bold' French furthest foray

Footnote: FOB vs DF
Having played last two games using Die Fighting it was interesting to compare these rule sets and to be honest both very good and yield plausible results in their own ways. Overall systems in DF a bit slicker but we both enjoyed (more familiar or comfortable might be better terms) being able to 'kill' outright a unit on table today rather than solely 'routing to its doom' only but its simply a different approach to combat outcomes/attrition. FOB lacking a bit of flavour/diversity between inherent periods perhaps but possibly more 'balanced' as a game as a result. DF resembles original Piquet more closely (not surprising as same author) in that one simply cant attack/move everywhere (at least thats a risky strategy) as resources/pips dwindle or not available, whereas FOB allows a 'general advance' (not necessarily a good idea) as pip costs to turn cards but not to act on them plus both sides get to react with equal pips (tempered by different sequence decks). Comparisons a bit 'apples and oranges' as both offer fast play with the inertia/chaos/unpredictability to differing degrees that we both like in wargames. We both like Lasalle as well (even if Cavalry seems a tad powerful) and its nice to have options especially for our friendly type games wherein being 'jacks of all trades even if master of none' suits us.

We are hoping to try 'classic' Piquet: Cartouche and Les Grognards with smaller forces for more tactical nuanced option at some stage and to try DF & FOB with ACW or Franco-Prussian forces ...................... ah the lure of fresh projects.............................

Stylish Blogger !?

Got a message from couple of fellow bloggers that they nominated this effort for 'Stylish Blogger' not 100% sure what this entails (bit of a perpetual motion-chain letter type thing ?) but seems harmless enough and generates a nice feel good factor so here goes.

Many thanks to those nominating me:

Paul at http://napoleonicsinminiature.blogspot.com/
&
Carlo http://militaryminiatures-carloantonio.blogspot.com/

7 things about me :

1. Way too long happily married ie for over 25 years
2. Way too scary having a son learning to drive
3. Way too much unpainted lead
4. Way too many different rule sets
5. Way too many gaming projects in my tiny brain
6. Way too much time spent working not playing
7. Way too many Dvd & Blu-Rays (over 1600)

List of favourite blogs :

Way too hard this !! as besides the two mentioned above any and all in my blog list herein have been inspirational/helpful/informative/entertaining/interesting.

Not sure if I am meant to do anything else ?

Die Fighting SYW action

Played anticipated Seven Years War game today using my Russian versus Stephen's Prussians using Die Fighting rules which we have been itching to try again after last outing with Napoleonic types. I set up the table last night, using scenario and terrain generation system from Command Piquet set which generated fairly plausible terrain and gave Prussian ability to deploy forward (ie up to 24" rather than 12") in two central sectors.








Table in calm before storm mode

Using Die Fighting I used 24 units of Ivans generating a basic 330 dice and told Stephen to bring 280  dice worth of Prussians as they have so many advantages within the rule system (massively better Command and Unit quality plus easier movement and loads of re-roll options). I gave him 2 objectives in my deployment zone and allowed him to select 50 bonus dice between them (with min of 10 on any one). I deployed first (2 Cmds to his one per deployment phase). With my poor quality I had a CiC and 5 sub commanders  for my 24 units whereas Prussians had a CiC plus a whopping 9 sub commanders for his 20 units !! My leader quality rolls (at -2) yielded an average CiC, 1 headstrong, 1 average and 3 Inept Commanders. By chance (ie you roll for ability after dividing army into 'brigades') my 3 infantry brigades had the 3 inept blokes. Prussians (with +2) had mostly Superior or Dependable types with 1 headstrong and 1 average. In short he generated 40 command dice to my paltry 13.  Random unit quality and dice adjustment went quite well for me with several crack units only 1 poor (this was lucky) and most average but generating an positive dice bonus to leave me with 360 dice to start. Prussians mostly crack or average and final dice total of 300. Russians used fixed phasing system, the Prussians a more flexible play 2 cards of choice version.

Russians deployed in full as Prussians complete theirs.

  












Game then got underway and we found Prussians to be as expected rather good at moving with command dice being highly useful. In this period one can use two resource dice but only highest counts plus any additional free or command dice. This also applies to shooting and melee dice which to be honest we found a tad odd (not sure that musketry in SYW was any worse than in later periods ?) especially as in melee it meant that heavy cavalry are rather potent as the get 2 free dice (but only 1 in Napoleonic period ?) in addition to any command dice. Conversely the 'defender' only get best of 2 resource dice and cant use command dice (very few free dice available). This meant that any heavy cavalry (of which there is quite a lot in period) throws effectively 4-5 dice versus 1 effective. So usually defender could score max 6 vs often a score of 20 plus (especially after re-rolls etc). This lead to 'I charge your front line and chase them off' followed by 'your second line charges and chases mine' and so on. Once they charge the cavalry are blown requiring rally  and subject to shooting which can cause disorder (again Prussians had ascendancy with extra command dice to rally off blown/disorder).
The lack of individual unit attrition or destruction more evident in this game as all the big hits only effect the overall army dice total. A somewhat abstract bloodless method as give unit 20 hits it still jusy retires 20" then can come back to fray.
That said after a couple of charges both sides cavalry were in disarray (but Prussians more likely to re-cover and re-organize). Russians pretty much had to sit and watch from deployed positions which whilst historical to a degree is rather less satisfying from gaming point of view.
Ran out of game time as Prussians looked like turning Russian right (so many blown or disordered cavalry) but Russians still had nearly 250 dice so a long way from defeat.
We both think Die Fighting is very slick system with excellent command and control methods easy movement but found combat system today a bit lacking and not really having 'feel' of SYW period we were expecting/looking for.
The bloodless nature of the fighting is a problem for us I fear.

Prussian centre

Prussian right 

Two immobile Russian Infantry Brigades

 Prussian Grenadiers deploy forward

 













The back and forth on Russian right with cavalry