Capturing a Fort

 Last weekend, I went to a large game of Dux Brittania. The scenario was that the Saxons were attempting to capture a British fort. There were three Saxon players (I was one of them) and two British players. Each player had two leaders with two units, and one bow unit. One of the four units was elite, which for the Saxons, proved to be decisive.

The Saxon plan was to have one player threaten the gate while the other Saxon player and myself aimed for the opposite corner. In the pic, we're quite a bit into the game. Up until previous turn, things were not looking good for the Saxons. Instead of moving quickly, the ladder carrying units had been a bit leisurely. This allowed the British players to get into position to defend the walls. Additionally, the warriors assigned to batter the front gate got decimated by arrows and the warriors defending the walls hurled stones and other objects inflicting shock.

Then the dice turned. The elite Saxons managed to throw up a ladder and get a foothold at the top corner. Down in the lower corner, a fortunate volley of arrows opened up gaps in the defending British and four ladders of Saxons proceeded to fill those gaps. I had the three ladders at the very bottom of the picture.

 After the initial storming, the Saxons then wiped out the defending Britons on the wall. It was a case of better troops overwhelming the ordinary.

With the original wall defenders wiped out, the Britons ran or surrendered.

KEGSCon 2025

 September is KEGSCon month and I made the pilgramage to Chatham. I had planned things well and was able to attend the whole day.

This year, attendance seemed slightly down, but the quality of the games being played was up. I participated in three games.

The first game was a battle between 18th century Mughals vs Durranis (Indo-Persian empire) in the battle of Manupur (I think). Historically, the Mughals got massacred. This game was much closer, but the quality of the Durrani troops and timely reinforcements made eventual defeat inevitable. I had command of the Turks on the right wing. Things went well for me at first but a couple of ambushes slowed me up. Additionally, there were a couple of times I failed my command rolls that also put sand in my gears. Eventually, I ran out of troops at the front and could not rally the troops in the rear. A similar thing happened to the rest of the Mughal troops but to a lesser extent.

Mid to late in the game. My units are pushing hard with some success but also with significant losses due to routs (the units to the bottom of the pic)

At the end of the game. Despite heroic charges by two units of cavalry that routed four units in total, I don't have any units available to follow up their success. I have five units in poor shape that I will not be able to recover. We called the game at this point. The other Mughal player was in similar shape.

My second game was General D'Armee 2 with French-allied Bavarians defending a village against a Russian attack from two directions. I had command of the division on the upper right plus a reserve force that I could have come on. I chose at the beginning of the game to have the come on to my right. 

The start of the battle.

Initially it was a mixed bag for me. I lost an infantry unit to a cavaly charge and some poor die rolling. The other Russian player lost his cavalry unit early and spent much of his time trying to protect against the Bavarian cavalry on his right while pressuring the Bavarian infantry to his left. 

Mid to late in the battle. The Bavarian cavalry is being stymied by my squares while my skirmishers, having previously sent off the Bavarian skirmishers, are now firing away at the advancing Bavarian line. My artillery was making life miserable for the line as well. The line routed shortly afterwards. 

Meanwhile, my cavalry units in my reserve hit the Bavarians in the flank, seeing off a unit of infantry and a unit of artillery. They pinned another unit into square, which the Russian artillery subsequently started to pound. The Bavarian cavalry continued to threaten the Russian right, but the square managed to hold them off long enough for my charge to take effect.

About the same time on the other flank. 

The Bavarian morale basically collapsed at this point, but they had been able to hold the village for long enough that the GM declared a draw.

The third game was a Wild West shootout with every figure for themselves. I think we started with 14 players.

The view down the main street before things heat up.

I started off in the blue building in the lower right.

I had placed my figure early. Three players joined and they placed themselves close to where I was. They started shooting at each other. One was shot dead right away and another one was wounded. I seized the opportunity to go to an open window and gun down another player in the back. Every man for himself!

Me about to shoot someone in the back. I guess my hat is more black than white.

After a while, I got tired of trying to kill someone who couldn't do much (down to one action per turn, severe movement and firing penalties). While it was easy to hit someone, killing them was tough to do.

This was near the end. Bodies everywhere. I'm near the fence and starting to draw fire from the buildings on the other side of the tracks. 

Chain of Command 2

I got in a couple of Chain of Command 2 games in July. The first was a 2 on 2 battle of Canadians vs Germans in 15mm. I was doing well on my flank but progress was slow because of all of the open ground I would happen to cross. But my team mate on my right completely collapsed and that ended the game. He had not been in the greatest of positions but a run of 4 straight phases against him sealed the deal.

My position on the left getting ready to attack to the left.

Frank on the right just before the collapse occurred.

The second game was a 3 on 2 battle with the Germans holding two objectives. I took a tank platoon for something different. We were slow getting going so action was just heating when we had to call it. I could not make the second half so I do not know how it went.

Position at the end of the session. The Firefly had just done a reaction shot to the Pz IV that rolled into the woods at the very top of the screen. The Firefly missed. It is now our turn but the Germans have a COC die that they were going to use on our turn. It is likely that they will use it on my rapidly charging Sherman near the top of the screen.

What A Cowboy!

 Wow, it's been a while since I last posted. I'll have a follow-up post in a bit to explain why, but let's say that I haven't touched the Zulus or even gamed since my last post.

However, that changed recently as Stephen held a gaming day at his house. 

We played What A Cowboy with 3 players a side controlling 2 characters each, a gunslinger and a shootist. My gunslinger I named William Kidd ("Don't you dare call me 'Billy'") and he had lightning reflexes. My shootist was a native who I named Johnny Whitefeather. As I rolled poorly for money, I equipped both of them with a single 6 shooter each.

The scenario was that one side were Mexicans who gained control of one side of town. I was on the other side with the objective of forcing the Mexicans to leave town.

Mid game with a view from the Mexican side. The dance hall is on the upper right and the church yard is on the lower right.

The game started out a bit slow with both sides being a bit cautious. Early on, the Mexicans took a commanding presence in the centre of town. Then Stephen's Mexicans had a brief foray into the dance hall, which ended badly for his Mexican shootist. 

I had the centre right, but I decided that a headlong charge against 2 Mexicans in the grey Cantina and 1 Mexican in the building next door was not a good idea, so eventually my two characters went to the right to try their luck against Richard's Mexicans in the church yard.

Richard's two cowboys are guarding the church yard entrances. Note where the stage coach is.

Richard's gunslinger went on the attack and charged. He rolled poorly, and was stuck in the middle of the road. It got worse, as the gunslinger was then run over by a stage coach. Johnny Whitefeather went on the attack while the gunslinger recovered. 

Richard's two characters fall back to the yard walls. Johnny Whitefeather dodges the coach and reaches the corner.

After several rounds of ineffective gunfire and brawling (and interrupted by rampaging Indians), Johnny found his aim and gunned down Richard's gunslinger and shootist.

Blam! Blam! David's gunfighter looks on, before taking out rampaging Indians emerging from the church yard.

While that was happening, on the other side of town, things were going badly for our side as Justin's two characters were eliminated. This left the two sides dead even in characters and skill, so we called it a draw.

It was an enjoyable day. We were hoping to get in some other gaming, but we ran out of time.

 

O Group Test Drive II

Midway through, the Germans below have already lost a platoon. Top, the German advance begins.

 So we returned to Frank's place again to do another introductory scenario. This time the Germans attacking on the same map but in the other direction. Once again, I was on the defense gusrding the left with the objective of holding the town. Frank was on the right defending the hill and another built up area. We each had a company. I assigned both AT guns to Frank's side with one in ambush in the town and the other back in the centre to guard down the road. I took the MMG and one platoon in ambush on my far left.

German attack succumbs to mortars, fire from the upper village and tanks on the road, 

The German attack came unstuck pretty quickly due to a hesitant company, a couple of timely and effective ambushes, and some horrendous die rolls at the worst moments.

We made a number of mistakes that I know of:

• I should have rolled for the effects of mortaring on my HQ and a combat patrol when the Germans mortared the town a couple of times. In my defense, they did specify that the MMG was the target so I didn't think about area of effect. This would have meant that the Canadians would probably have had to spend a couple more orders to rally off shock or replace combat patrols.
• The AT gun in the town should not have gotten the defensive bonus for being in a town. This was something that the rules author cleared up in the Lardies forum.

I know that there's a bunch of other rules that we missed or forgot. I'll have to make a post summarizing them to help me remember them.

O Group Test Drive

Starting positions with the British attacking from the left and the Germans defending the wood line

 On Thursday, Frank invited a few of us over to try out O Group using a starter scenario. The scenario was primarily about how to scout using recce and combat patrols and how to deploy units. In this case, the British were trying to locate three hidden German units and capture a building near a road junction. I took command of the 2nd German company on the left. I hid one section as far to the left as I could and hid the MMG in the centre in the back woods. I felt the front woods were a little too exposed. 

In the foreground and background the Brits advancing to the woods where Germans await

I had hoped that the British would overlook my far left and attack more down the centre. It was not to be. The British on my side headed directly towards the far left, so I switch plans and decided to make a stand in the woods and run out the clock (the ritwas 8 turns long). There was a general back and forth happening with one of the highlights being a British section running into my hidden unit when the were charging another unit. Things went rapidly south for the British at that point, although we may have played it wrong in ruling that the British section would continue its charge after the ambush.

Post ambush with a Brit platoon down to one section. Background shows Brits reeling from artillery

On the other flank, the British made slow progress. The did manage to force the Germans to expose one of the hidden German units, but the British attack became completely unstuck when a German artillery barrage caught them bunched up. One section completely disappeared and the rest had to retreat back to where they started.

The scenario is tough for the British to win. Their only chance is to move quickly and scout aggressively. It would have been nice if the scenario had pointed this out to help the British. I would like to try it out playing the British next time to see how being quick and aggressive would work out.

As far as the rules go, they seem very interesting. They could be better organized and the missing page numbers are a major pain (one that I will fix by writing them in myself). But the system itself seems to make sense and work out well.

KEGSCON 2021 (Better Late Than Never Review)

This quite a bit later than I had planned, but I've had a busy October.

So it's been a very long time since I went to a gaming event. The last one was the Trumpeter event in March or April of 2020. (Trumpeter has resumed as of this October but I'm no longer in BC.)

I knew that KEGS is in my area, and I've even gamed with some of its members in various Hot Lead conventions. But I learned that they planned to hold a one-day event at the end of September and I was all for it. 

Come the day, I set out for Chatham early in the morning. I arrived in time to see a huddle of people waiting outside and for the GMs to be setting up. There were some interesting games on offer but I decided to go with Seven Spears, which is a Japanese variant of Sharpe Practice.

The scenario was two mirror image forces were to loot a village for rice and livestock. My good friend Stephen took the two groups of Red Ashigaru and I took the Red Samurai and archers. Stephen took his forces to the right to enter the village from the back gate. I took my forces to the left to cover the front gate. 

As I was opposed by the Blue Ashigaru, I kept my Samurai back to minimize their exposure to the Blue archers. I was able to have far more success with my archers against the Blue Ashigaru than the Blue archers were having against my Samurai. Meanwhile, Stephen proceeded to thoroughly loot the village.

Opportunity came in the form of a nice hand and my Red Samurai charged the Blue Ashigaru, who were not in shield wall (or the Japanese rules equivalent). Quality told and eventually the Ashigaru routed for the cost of only 2 Red figures. 

I then tried to pursue the Blue Samurai, who had looted the livestock. I could not get the chips to come out in a favourable way, so the Blue Samurai got away.

My second game was a Franco-Prussian battle using Bloody Big Battles. The French objective was to capture three villages, spread across the battlefield. 

Turn 1 with green French on the far left. Prussians are capturing the middle village in the upper right.

The Prussians had a small force defending a hill on the close left edge. The French came on from that corner and later arrivals would echelon a cross the battle field. The Prussian later arrivals would similarly echelon across their edge.

Rolling up the Prussians on the left with French reinforcements arriving on the right

While my troops had better long range weapons, they were inferior in quality and lacked skirmishing. The Prussian artillery was also much better, so I figured that duking it out in a shooting match was not going to work out. I barreled forward and, to my surprise, was able to push the Prussians out of their defensive lines with relatively few casualties. It seemed that the greener my troops were on that flank, the better they did, with them eventually rolling up the entire Prussian flank and capturing the furthest village, for the cost of a brigade of cavalry and a couple of stands of the better troops.

The Prussians got to the central village first, but I managed to turn it into a reverse Verdun. I put two full brigades and their artillery against a weakened brigade defending it. Numbers eventually told as I first removed the supporting units before routing the defenders.

 

Rolling on the left, massing to attack the centre village, and reinforcements arriving on the right

On the right, I had basically conceded the right-most village to the Prussians, who had detached a regiment from the central brigade. My plan was to overwhelm the Prussians with my reinforcements. But the Prussians hesitated, so I occupied it instead. I instead concentrated on making enough room so that I could deploy all of my troops against the oncoming main Prussian force. The Prussians made an attempt to capture the village but they didn't sufficient numbers at the point of attack and got overwhelmed. At this point, the French controlled all three objectives and the Prussian left and centre were almost non-existent, so we called the game with a decisive French victory.

Capturing the left village, wearing down the Prussians in the middle, and defeating them on the right.

The French certainly benefitted from luck at two key moments: the mad rush against the Prussians on the first turn, especially by the green troops. I had expected them to hammered while I attacked with my better troops, so I was essentially using them as distractive cannon fodder. But they lived a charmed life throughout the game and bulldozed whatever unit happened to be in front of them. The second key moment of luck was the hesitation before the village. It meant that I didn't have to expend time and units taking the village and I could instead set about attacking the other Prussians.

Final position with the French in control of all 3 villages

My thanks to both Mitch and Brian for putting the games on. It was so nice to go to a con and play games in person.

I'm Back and So Is Gaming

 So it has been a while since I posted. I've moved into my new home, but my miniatures hobby is severely constrained right now by a lack of storage. This means that my books and my hobby materials must stay in their boxes for now.

On the bright side, I contacted the good folks at KEGS and they got me in touch with some guys in Windsor who game. After checking our bubbles and our vax status, we got together for a game of Dux.

It turns out that I have played a few games with Frank already. He's put on quite a few games at Hot Lead in the past and I've participated in a couple.

So it was Frank and Andrew as Irish facing off against myself and Cain as raiding Picts. Random set up and terrain led this really being two separate battles with Cain and Andrew quickly facing off against each other.

While Frank struggled through terrain and deployment limitations before he could face off against me.

Things went sour quickly for Andrew as a sudden surge by Picts caught Irish slingers and cavalry off guard. 

A brief Irish counterattack momentarily halted the Picts.

But the Picts recovered to resume the onslaught. 

The closeness of the table edge just hastened the end as main Irish forces routed.

On my side of the board. I took advantage of the traffic jam caused by the mountains. I rushed Frank's Irish before they could get fully deployed into a line. 

A bit of bloody back and forth happened while Andrew's force collapsed and time ran out.

It was great to game in person again. I want to thank Frank for hosting and Andrew and Cain for a fun and interesting game.

Gaming in the Age of COVID: What a Tanker

Robert (from Gaming on Vancouver Island) and I made contact and arranged to play What a Tanker! on Sunday evening. I had been working on my 2mm board, which we would repurpose for 6mm. Despite some initial technical hitches, we got rolling with Robert taking a Pz IV and me with a 75mm Sherman. We treated the brown areas as open terrain (though in hind sight, we should use them as light woods for cover) and I laid out some hedges and houses. I came in from the bottom and Robert from the top (beside the house). 

The first few turns were inconclusive as both of us had gunners who were obviously blind.  I was trying to maneuver and approach him and just as I was getting close, Robert did a blitz down the road, but missed on the flank shot.

Example of the blindness

Having exchanged ends, we blazed away at each other, slowly backing up as a result of damage.

 This lead to me to continue on my path into the field and eventually to near the house. Things looked grim for me as Robert gradually improved his aim and I got down to 1 die (2 permanent and 3 temporary damage). I managed to reacquire 2 of the temporary dice but I had suffered to hull critical hits. Things weren't going entirely Robert's way though, because I hit him for two critical hits (one hull and one turret) plus backing him up a few times as well.

After regaining all of my dice (actually 4), I managed to roll a magical 3, 4, 5, 4. The first hit bounce but the second one I rolled 3 6's and a 5. Robert rolled one 5 as a save, and his tank burned.

Thank you to Robert for a fun game.

Trumpeter in March

With the rush to finish our home renovations, posting (and all miniature activity) has taken a back seat. Renovations are done (yea!) so I'm posting about the Trumpeter game on the first Friday of March.

It was an interesting English Civil War battle with 2mm figures using the Rampant rules engine (in this case Rebels and Patriots with some modifications, instead of the more temporal Pike and Shotte).

The main modification was automatic passing for movement activation. This made keeping formations possible and worked nicely. I'm not entirely sure whether the formations are built into the game and just renamed or whether they were modifications.

The battle started from a historical deployment. You can see more pictures at The Dying Gaul and he has another account of the battle.

 My initial thought was to push on the right and hold up on the left, falling back if necessary. Another Parliamentary commander showed up so I gave him command of the left starting from the artillery.

I had expected the Royalist to really push hard with both cavalry, so I was surprised when that did not happen. I felt a little bad for giving the other guy a command that wasn't really seeing action, but that wasn't what I anticipated when I gave him those troops.

On my right, I managed to win the cavalry battle by 1-2 punching the Royalist horse with one of my reserve units. I then used them to roll up the infantry.

 Here you see the Parliament horse on the right chasing off the Royalist cavalry, before wheeling to roll up the infantry.

Eventually, after doing nothing for a couple of turns, Rupert finally got the Royalist horse moving forward. However, they suffered from dismal activation rolls so no more than one unit was able to attack per turn.

This meant that the lone Parliament cavalry unit was able to fend off the entire Royalist attack, with minor assistance of a dragoon unit.



The end is nigh with the Royalist infantry threatened from the front and rear.

Good fortune was on the Parliament side for even when I lost a battle, I managed to take out the opposing horse through distracting them with a pursuit.