Paris horror

Words fail me as to the horror and stupidity of these attacks and the blind naivety of European (and my own British) Governments............

Napoleon At War solo game

Decided to give Napoleon At War rules an outing using my French versus Prussians.
Only part way into the game but finding the rules more to my liking than when I first tried them ages ago.
Pretty similar in complexity to Lasalle or Imperial Eagles with units as Battalions.
Movement is free and easy outside engagement (12" of Cavalry and within Artillery ranges) or commitment (6" Musket range) ranges ala Black Powder then its Simple Moves or dice tests for Complex Moves within these ranges.
Shooting is straightforward based on dice per firing base and a hit number based on unit quality (3+ to 5+) with every 4 hits resulting in a lost base with roll to save any excess hits or hits less than 4.
Combat is also straightforward but very bloody as each hit is a base lost.
Some twists with favourable or unfavourable rolls and re-rolls and several unit traits again a bit like Black Powder.
Units can recover lost stands if outside engaged ranges and some combat outcomes can see firefights develop which is nice system.
Artillery is a bit odd in that the batteries are classed as Independent units under the CinCs command meaning they are tad hard to use to support Brigades as he has only a 12" Command range.

Nice points system with units costed if they are Organic or Support at higher price than those classed as Reserve units but these usually do not appear in initial deployment having to be diced for each turn to arrive.
Rules set up as a competition style set with around 2000 pts seeming normal but i used 3200 pts to get troop more variety.
They come with several generic Scenarios such attack on prepared position, vital river crossing which do lend bit more variety than simple encounter games.

Interesting that my revisit to these rules has garnered a more favourable impression than previously.

Seven Years War bash using 18th Century Principles Of War rules

Game at Stephens today using 18thC POW rules.

I fielded a tough but tiny Prussian force against Stephens Austrians.

A good game with me trying to attack on my right only (very Freddie like) but getting into a traffic jam when a wooded area turned out to be impassable.

In POW you dice for terrain density when about to enter (or starts in your deployment zone) with my rolling the requisite 1 to make it a no go area !!

We were a bit unsure how rules handled what they term Trotter Firepower cavalry (not sure if they had to shoot compulsorily or could charge) but went with them being just slightly underpowered mounted type.

Bigger faux pas was forgetting that Prussian movement bases go double speed and even more glaring error was mucking up Melee outcomes (we forget about winner vs loser outcomes somehow !!??)

Still a good set of rules although like Black 

Powder movement is very free and easy which whilst simple to play does sort of seen bit odd for SYW troops.

Phone pics so bit fuzzy

Frederickian traffic jam

Austrian horse await

Damnable nuisance Grenzer defend cultivated area

Austrian foot defend Rough Hill

Blucher - British versus French

Game of Blucher today against Stephen using his recently painted British with my 1813/14 French arrayed against them.
We had planned to try the Scharnhorst campaign system but with Rugby World Cup final on we decided to just plow on with simple set up (although we did use one of the Scharnhorst maps).
We also use two base in lieu of 4 base units (has no effect on game play)
Great game with my Guard Corps getting right into British from get go.
My Guard Cavalry mugged 2 British Heavy Dragoon brigades (although we both started off on 8 dice per unit) and turned British left flank.
However my Guard Infantry despite being tough succumbed to a barrage of shot and shell with 3 Brigades destroyed.
On my left my Cavalry Brigade held a British Foot Brigade at bay whilst I moved up a Conscript Corps.
Wellington is a very good Commander with the Intuitive ability allowing him to roll his own Momentum dice meaning he knows exactly what he can do each turn.
Combined with his Mobile trait he has great flexibility.
Napoleons Legend status means his army is tough to break but often the French are left with unused units as unknown Momentum level means they cannot plan as well.
A really slick and fun set of rules even with the inherent abstractions of this level of force representation (not many Volleys fired compared to Skirmish Fire).

And hearty congratulations to the greatest team playing the greatest game on the planet and winning (kudos to Australia for making it a great final)

Lock N' Load Band Of Heroes game played

I managed to pick up a copy of the 2nd Edition of Band Of Heroes game (the one without the 'haloed' hexes) and played a scenario with my Dad.
A good system this being sort of Squad Leader lite with excellent graphics.
I had Yanks racing against Fallschirmjager to take a crossroads and nearby building.
Did not use my mobile/armour assets well enough (in that I forgot to mount any Infantry on them) and my foot sloggers took to long to get to crunch areas.
Still great fun with a decent game system

L'Art De La Guerre - Romans versus Selecuid

Played another LADG game this time facing Stephens Selecuids with my Romans.
Another superb game with us trying Ambushes, Pikes, Cataphracts, Allies, Elephants & Impetuous types.
Roman Legions are decent against Pike (well except for my Elite Legion !!) but Roman mounted have no real answer to Cataphracts (other than to try to avoid).
I had a Pergamene Allied command which of course was Unreliable at start (first of usual deluge of rolls of one !!!!!!!!).
However their inactivity was a boon of sorts as they held up two enemy commands who were reluctant to close and activate them until later in game.
In LADG once you commit troops it is much harder to extract them due to lower Pip levels than in DBMM or FOG.
Romans fought valiantly but eventually succumbed to Antiochus and his army.
Great stuff again and this set has really awakened our interest in Ancients.
Goodness knows when I will get 'To The Strongest' or 'Sword and Spear' rules in action again !?







Impressive Phalanx

Elite Legion awaits

And Standard types

Subject Gallic troops who were run over by Cataphracts before getting to grips with Pikes

Oncoming Phalanxes

Supporting Thracians

Roman Skirmishers advance to delay

Cataphracts bearing down on the Celts

Pergamenes emerge to engage Greek right

Pike and Pilum clash

Elite Legion in trouble

No Retreat: The Russian Front

Played this excellent board Wargame with my Dad again and a T12 (Spring 1943) loss for the Germans. Initially the Germans made good progress into Russia capturing 6 cities including Leningrad but the Ivan's made good their losses and began to recover several cities to auto win the game.

Hugely enjoyable game as ever.

L'Art De La Guerre bug keeps biting......

Another game with LADG !

I used Maurikian Byzantine and Stephen use Abbassid Arab slightly out of historical sync but not jarringly so.
Byzantines have a mighty Command value of +6 allowing to simulate high organization of their forces.

Another enjoyable and bloody game (my ability to roll a one when opponent rolls a 6 remains unfettered !)

We did have a fairly major brain teasing session with rules over Group Moves and ZOCs but think we got it sorted in the end.

Several Dbmm 'legacies' creep into our thoughts which we need to unlearn I suspect.

Every time we play a game we are specualting on which army match-ups to try next which is always a good sign.
We both feel LADG is a sort of Dbmm/FOG hybrid in many ways but with enough uniqueness for us to enjoy.
Both love the lesser number of PIP points available and how single element/unit moves are less key (no 'hard' flanking here), indeed the game plays how we originally thought DBMM was played with much more group movement and less of those fiddly micro moves.
This reduction in PIP allowance allows means harder to do the DBMM 'parting of the Red Sea' effect with Regular types or watching armies constantly marching from flank to flank.