Winter is Coming

 The miserable season is rapidly approaching, it is now dark on the way to the club and on my return, it becomes a bit of a chore to muster the enthusiasm to leave the comfort of my living room and a lovely wood burning fire to venture into the cold, usually wet, darkness. Made easier no doubt in the future when the stove is banned and my heat pump barely raises the temperture inside as we huddle around home made sustainable candles.

I was at the club this week to play our delayed English Civil War game with Stewart Simon's beautiful figures, I know I have said this before but they are a joy to look at and play with. We fought the Battle of Ormskirk where a large Parliamentarian force should have rode down the meagre collection of Royalists outside the town but of course this was Pike and Shotte. Simon and Henry suffered very badly trying to encourage their men to move swiftly forward, the Royalists also had problems but as the defenders the dire command rolls did not have as serious an effect on things. The Royalist reinforcements turned up and some furious cavalry action put the lid on Parliamentarian hopes of winning.

Ormskirk and the Parliamentarians.

The Royalists.

Despite trying to slow down I have finished another unit of mounted arquebusiers, well it is no big deal to paint up six men and horses, but I also put together my casualty wagon from Perrys, they have a nice collection of small and large wagons perfect for a baggage train, I plan to get a few more later. I have now moved on to another Landsknecht pike block, Wargames Foundry figures this time, I find Foundry expensive but there is no doubt of the quality of these pieces, they are lovely and so easy to paint. The front ranks have been started so give it another few weeks and they should join the army.

I was given some tents and three artillery pieces by Dan at the club, his renaissance forces are 15mm (or 10) and he had no use for these anymore. I have still to work on the tents but right away dipped the guns into a jar of Dettol, after two days I fished them out and brushed the old paint off, just as new, these will be a welcome addition to the artillery trains of both armies. I bit the bullet and ordered up the remainder of my Imperial forces, these consist of another unit of heavy cavalry and some foot arquebusiers, and of course crews for the above guns. That should be it for 2023 and both my planned armies will be finished by the end of the year.

What will be next you ask, well some wagons explained above and then four small contingents covering Venice, Florence, Milan and the Papal States, I am thinking of a pike block and two cavalry, maybe one heavy and one light along with a commander. My pike blocks are six stands I am toying with the idea of making these four. I had decided to stick with my ping pong table once the new room is ready but add another one, in reality half of one to give me 13.5 x 5 feet. I saw a nice build on Facebook which would allow me to keep a ton of stuff underneath, so might therefore go for a bespoke table of 12x5, I am not going six as that is a foot too far, this size is more than enough for a home table and my particular needs.

As I mentioned before The Atlas of Battles and Campaigns of the American Revolution 1775-1783 has now been published and I have received my complimentary copies, two of which I have given to my sons, maybe they will get around to reading them one day. My name was added to the title by Helion and approved by the author David Bonk, that was a nice surprise. I have read one review by Colin Ashton over at Carryings on up the Dale, I could hardly get my head through the door afterwards. No sooner had I digested this than I was contacted to provide the maps for a two volume authorised history of  The Army Air Corps funded by the Ministry of Defence (me in other words, albeit in a small way), this to is in full colour so I am looking forward to starting this.

I am taking part in another Chain of Command campaign being fought at the club based on the Gazala battle in the Western Desert, I command a German Schutzen platoon and my and the campaign's first game will be on Tuesday night. I do not have anything for the Western Desert so Rob and Stuart will be providing everything, I only need to turn up. I don't have anything planned at Casa Anderson yet for November so might start thinking about that in the next couple of days.

Tempting the Fates

 After my less than sterling performance at Ravenna last week I felt I was on safer ground yesterday with the Battle of Olustee February 20, 1864. I have a high opinion of my skills with Johnny Reb II and I have fought this scenario a lot as both the Union and Confederates and have usually won or be on the way to winning as night falls. To counter-balance my boast I am usually pretty clueless at any WWII game and pretty average with most others.

Anyway, Fran turned up on time and we set to, I was the Federals and Fran was the Rebs (are we the bad guys?), he immediately tried to stretch my line by moving his right flank cavalry along the edge of the board, but a good volley from the defending US cavalry gave him pause and he quickly dismounted. On my right the same things was tried and I moved the 13th Ky. against the small Confederate cavalry unit to its front seeking a quick victory, to my chagrin the 13th had not brought enough ammunition and ran out, back they went. I got the green 63rd Pa. up and into line and felt fairly confident that I could hold out until the rest of my forces arrived.

The game begins.

Rebs start arriving.

Same view.

Rebel reinforcements started arriving and shook out into a firing line, muskets rattled and a firefight began, the 54th Mass. and a battery had arrived, the guns went into the front line while I sent the 54th to my left where I hoped they would swiftly destroy the Confederate cavalry holding their right and sweep in and roll up the Rebels, or at least force them to send valuable reserves that way. Meanwhile I had more regiments running to the front but so had the Rebs and they concentrated on my centre and right, it was at this moment that the 63rd had had enough and ran for the rear, luckily I had men arriving and the dangerous gap was plugged, but only just. I breathed a sigh of relief.

Come on boys!

Big hole in the centre and a battery gone.

Rebs close in.

Confederate pressure mounted and it was now time to reform the 54th back into line from skirmish and sort out that Reb cavalry, no it didn't happen as the 54th milled about failing to build a line, they now became the target of a Reb battery and casualties mounted. I still felt that I could push on here but next the Massachusetts men refused to charge! The hope I had had of turning the Confederate right evaporated, elsewhere in the centre the 20th New York skeddaled to the rear, another hole to plug. I was quickly running out of units.

The Rebs now closed in on my right, the 9th NY Heavy Artillery just shaking into line now ran for the rear, again just as I was starting to form a second line of defence. In desperation I threw two charges in against the enemy, I caught them offguard, the 20th NY failed their charge but the 11th Mass. went in and in a bitter melee captured the 2nd Mo. We only had a few moves left and as I surveyed the scene I was going to lose my left flank, mainly due to the lacklustre performance of the 54th, and a build up of Confederate forces, my charges on my right had only been partially successful and it did not look like they could hold off a Rebel counterattack, my centre was still fairly intact but would soon be outflanked or forced to retire, I called it a day.

More Rebs.

The Rebs might have got their objective if we had played another three turns as my army was in a precarious position, so in all fairness they were on their way to victory, the victory conditions need amending but no matter by the end of sixteen turns you can usually tell who will eventually win, and this time despite my boast it would not be me. The 13th Ky. despite losing its ammunition fought like Trojans against a tidal wave of gray, so no shame there, even the 39th NY who always give me pause when taking a morale check also stood their ground, but enough of my regiments ran to ensure I could never build a decent defence. The Rebs were ably led by Fran and took suprisingly little casualties for what seemed a hard fought battle to me. The regiments used are from my own forces, not the ones at the battle, apart from the 54th Mass. so don't get confused.

 Once again Johnny Reb II and Olustee had delivered a great game, it remains one of my favourites. Tomorrow it is English Civil War with Stewart Simon's beautiful figures at the club, I must be due for a change of luck, it doesn't matter, everyone is down with the lurgy, night off.

The end, the Reb left.

The end, the Reb right.

'Lucky' George

 I was going to keep this back and add on the upcoming game battle of Olustee (ACW) on Sunday but I have an odd hour so why not. I have not only played Italian Wars this week, I let the Dark Side take over on Tuesday and played a game of Blood Bowl with 'Lucky Jim' Clarkson, I will not bore you with the details but suffice to say Jimi's reputation remains intact.

Yesterday, after missing last month due to being a very busy man Julian came along to join myself, Dan and Stewart to fight a game loosely based on the battle of Ravenna 1512AD, the original scenario was drawn up by James Leach at Olicanalad Blog and my version was based on Blunders on the Danube's version of that, so thanks to those guys.

I as CinC commanded the French left while Dan took the right, my plan was to bombard and shoot at the Spaniards behind their defences and soften them up before we attacked, we also had a good opportunity to use our firepower to weaken the Spanish cavalry wings giving us even more advantage. The pre-battle roll delivered an 'Act of God' which would strike at some point in the game.

As the battle started my whole left flank was almost reluctant to advance or shoot at the enemy except my Gendarmes who rode off heading for the Spanish works in glorious isolation. Dan moved up his skirmish units and fired off his guns, the Landsknechts waited patiently. Sure enough the Spanish cavalry started to advance, on my flank without hinderance and cautiously on Dan's. My artillery remained eerily silent while half of my cavalry remained rooted to the spot.

 

The battlefield.

Spanish positions.

A lacklustre fight ensued on our left and I lost several units being unable to coordinate an effective counter to the enemy cavalry advance. I saw the danger and turned my pike blocks towards my left but it was slow going. The Gendarmes smashed into the breastworks and almost, in my mind, broke through but it was not to be and they were hurled back, the second unit when it hit again tantalyzingly came close but it too was sent packing, I moved up a pike block in the hope they would be more succesful, but as they were already outclassed by their opponents this really was wishful thinking. On Dan's front the cavalry fight went too and fro and the Landsknechts reached and climbed the defences, sadly the huge pike block had been disordered and it was thrown back to recover but it would take time.

 

The battle opens.

Gendarmes charge.

Gendarmes pushed back.

Looking at ruin on my flank Julian attacked my one remaining cavalry unit with his German men-at-arms, in a total suprise to everyone the Stradiots met the attack and destroyed the Germans, maybe our luck had turned, there was sighs of disbelief from the Spanish lines. On the enemy side a unit of Jinettes had been forced to hurl themselves onto some Italian pikes, again it was an upset as the horsemen cut down the Italians, our bad luck was back.

Spanish lines.

Overview.

Landsknechts reorganise.

We had been fighting since about 10am with a break for lunch, provided by our master chef Julian, and it was now approaching 4pm. It had become obvious we were not going to breach the Spanish defences and didn't have time to throw in another assault by the Landsknechts, which I am sure would have been succesful this time, and I will hold that thought. My left flank might have held off the remainder of the enemy light cavalry but not the infantry which were now free to advance on me, Dan had held his own and reinforcements had at last turned up but then the Italians promptly refused to move and blocked the bridge and anyone else from turning up.

The end is nigh.

 What about the 'Act of God' I hear you cry, well it was 'Grim Reaper' and it hit me and caused me to lose a cavalry unit, we had a couple of Hazards, one would have been disaster had one of the armies had Swiss and the other caused one of my skirmish cavalry units to change sides. All this had a dire effect on my plans married to the moan below.

I had a dig at 'Lucky Jim' above but my own die luck was abysmal and Dan's I think was not much better, my gun which was to enfilade the enemy cavalry fired on the last turn of the game and.... missed!

It was good to have more players and the 'new' guys brought up a couple of points in the rules which had been missed by Julian and I, a case of more cooks didn't spoil the broth. I think that the size of the game was about as much as Furioso could handle if everyone knows the rules, they would struggle with anything larger, having said that my table probably would not handle anything larger comfortably. I also do not think it would work well with more than four players, it could possibly be done if one side moved all its sixes first then the other etc. But we are nowhere near that stage yet.

A good day helped by the company, Julian's posh soup, Stewart's lager, Dan's forebearance and my wifes patience.

There's thousands of 'em.

 I have noticed several pieces recently on just how many historical wargamers there are, personally I am surrounded by quite a few, always have been so I have never given it much thought as long as I can find someone to play the odd game. Things also seem fairly healthy by the amount of stuff I can buy for the troops, from dinner plates and tankards to a scaled down copy of the Reichstag circa Berlin 1945. New ranges abound along with a boom in 3D printing which I think is the future despite being wedded to metal. The figure arrived at was around 50,000, which may seem like a lot but up against 900,000 anglers pales into insignificance, even the train spotters are in six figures despite the things being characterless these days. Does it really matter, not really, I file it under the same guff that we need to grow the hobby or get more females interested, or more diversity etc. you are either a wargamer or you are not that's the only thing that matters.

The big news of course is that the Atlas I have worked on for the last three or more years has at last been published and I have recieved several complimentary copies as my name appears on the cover. I had finished the maps a long time ago so apart from tweaking my job was done. The book looks very good, a coffee table tome to adorne any bijou reading room, which of course we all have. You can find details here.

I had another Italian Wars game at the club this week, I will not wax lyrical as you will no doubt be fed up of Italian Wars, also it was only an introductory game for Simon, the period does not play well on a typical 6x4 with only a fraction of the forces sitting in reserve in the War Room. Anyway I was the Imperials and although the cavalry action on the wings was inconclusive I lost my two pike blocks so was on a hiding to nowhere.

I have managed once again to add more troops to the Imperial army, a unit of German men-at-arms and have taken delivery of more cavalry and the last pike block to keep me going now the nights are fair closing in. This leaves a couple of cavalry units still to get but they can wait.

Apart from that everything is fairly quiet as winter approaches, I am ticking over with map projects and have finished several commissions outwith my work for Helion.