One Down, One Up

Tuesday and I had a busy day ahead with two games organised, the first was ACW and an introduction to the Johnny Reb rules for Matt Crump. I didn't want anything too complex so chose the Battle of Kettle Run, but with regular regiments all using rifled muskets and either 200, 300 or 400 strong, the actual OOB was very different and there were a lot of smoothbores and poor muskets involved along with light artillery.

Basically it is a wooded battlefield with a Confederate 'Forlorn Hope' right on the Union deployment line albeit in a wood, the rest of the Rebs maintained a long line behind these troops, the Federals had three brigades and they would arrive at different times, one already opposite the forward Confederate line in the wood. As the game opened the main Reb line organised themselves along a tree line while their left began to move forward, I also reorganised my line in order to flank the small number of Rebs in front of my 3rd brigade with the intention of opening up overwhelming fire on them. Matt decided as I moved forward to move back and I let them go as it was slow going through the wood. These troops reinforced the Confederate centre.

The battle begins.

I get ready to attack the Forlorn Hope.

My right arrives and straight into trouble.

Confederate right.

 My 2nd Brigade now arrived on my left and I moved it forward with the intention of taking out the Reb right, a little later my 1st brigade arrived on my right and I saw an opportunity to catch a couple of Reb regiments out in front of their line before the rest caught up, I also now had artillery turning up and was confident I could punch through the Rebel right, I just needed a bit of time. I did not get that as the two 'victims' on my right let out a Rebel Yell and threw themselves at 1st Brigade, I was caught unawares and my skirmishers fled, then my centre regiment decided to join them, a little later only one regiment was left to hold my line along with some guns while a full Confederate brigade now approached. I had no option but to withdraw the 44th and the guns before they were swept away.

I take the woods.

 

My right skeddadles.

My left moves forward hoping for victory.

 

The Rebs counter.

The Confederate centre.

On my left I had managed to get 2nd Brigade into a good position to pour lead into the Rebs in their front, but wait. In the centre Matt now threw in another charge which I had not expected and began to roll up my centre, I lost two regiments before I could stop them, 2nd Brigade did not like what was happening and my lead regiment went shaken while my skirmishers fled. Matt held out his hand as we looked over the wreck of my hopes, I took it.

I think Matt enjoyed the game, especially with a handsome win under his belt. I blame 'New Player Syndrome' for my loss, Matt threw in charges which should have spelled disaster for his men and which I offered advice not to do, charges I know none of my regular Johnny Reb opponents would ever attempt, but they worked wonders and I lost. Yes my die rolling was not good but that was not what lead to the defeat.

Later that night at the club it was back to the Eastern Front Late War, my Soviets against Rob's German defenders, my second try at Chain of Command 2, it was a Delaying Action and I had to take an objective marker which Rob had placed almost in the centre of the table. My support choices were a Medic, SU-76 and a heavy machine gun with entrenchments, Rob had an infantry gun and I think that was it, the support roll had been low.

Low was also my Force Morale throw, I got 8 and Rob 10, not great for an attacker. I brought in my HMG and a squad which made its way in cover to the German left, I then brought on a second squad who advanced on the German right. I had high hopes for my HMG in hard cover but it was up against two enemy squads and the sandbags must have been empty as the crew began to hit the dirt. I wondered if I had brought my luck from the previous game as my morale fell to 4 from 8 as the HMG disappeared as did one of my NCO's, I looked at the clock and thought the missus will get a surprise when I turn up early.

75 mm Infantry gun.

SU-76.

Natasha and Svetlana.

The new Soviet heavy section.

Although I was down to four command dice I managed to at last bring on my SU-76 and it did sterling work against the two German squads holding the centre around the objective, my third squad also managed to come on and it too went for the German left, using cover to get close. Rob did try time and again to knock out my assault gun with his infantry gun but I saved all the hits, which were many. Rob started the Final Countdown and this gave me two phases to get to and capture the objective, a big ask with only four command dice. Nevertheless I managed to grab it with seconds to spare, the Jerries threw everything they could at the brave comrades holding on for grim life. A complete turnaround.

We did of course look in the book or discussed a couple of rules, we also found out that the game does not actually end when the Final Countdown finishes but for some reason continues until the turn ends or something like that. I thought it daft at first but I can now see where TFL are coming from but it is too complicated and I don't want a headache explaining it. I thought my use of cover was pretty good as Rob was left for a long time without a target while I crept ever closer, I did wonder if things would have been different if he had sent a nearby squad at my boys in close combat rather than trying to shot them off the objective, but he came close. Oh, and the Russian squad now has a built in sniper, not that Natasha and Svetlana had ever been to sniper school. My medic could not stop my NCO from dying as she never turned up. Women eh?

So there we have it a busy day which turned out alright in the end, actually the whole day was fine as I enjoyed both games. I continue to be busy with maps so not a lot of painting getting done at the moment, I have just finished the maps pertaining to the longbow book, I had to cover Dupplin Moor, Halidon Hill, Homildon Hill and Verneuil, all disasters for we Scots although we can blame the French for the last one.

I see Rubicon keep advertising their upcoming Pz I, so perhaps I have not got enough vehicles for my Early War Germans and I think I have just enough Panzer Grey left in the tin to cover a tiny tank. With the introduction of command vehicles for both Bolt Action and CoC2 (Senior Leader) I feel the need for this tank as I have a Pz III for my Late War Jerries. I really need to get some EW games in with the British v Germans.

I have hit a dead end entertainment wise with the end of my binge on NYPD Blue, all 12 seasons, I am hanging on with the last season of Bosch Legacy despite the awful acting abilities of his screen daughter and her lawyer mentor, not helped by their desperate story lines. On the book front I have finished Ben Kane's Hannibal trilogy and I enjoyed that for a bit of light reading, is reading about Lake Trasimene and Cannae considered light? I picked up what I thought would be an interesting book which examined the theories about Hitler not committing suicide but it turned out like wading through mud, I used to pride myself on finishing every book I picked up but that is not happening now. I have just started a new book on the Siege of Malta, first chapter was a bit off..............

Not sure what gaming I am getting up to next week, I might try and sneak a game here between all my real life appointments. 

New Rules and Italian Wars

 First visit to the club in a while and an introduction to the much touted Chain of Command 2. I had planned a 1v1 game against Mike who had not played before but somewhere along the line we ended up in a 2v2 game of Big Chain of Command, something I had not played before. 

Stuart had sorted out a Normandy game where the British were attacking a German position, we all had a platoon each along with supports, I chose a Priest, a model I have had for a long time but like many it has never fired in anger. My thoughts were that the Jerries would not have enough points for anything like a dangerous tank so the artillery would sort out their infantry. I had the right wing and headed for the objective in the village church, sure enough there were only German infantry in front of me and one squad found themselves in the open as they made for some cover. I brought on the Priest and gave them a fright, I didn't kill many but their Shock rose considerably and they bolted back into the church.

The British are coming!

At last I get it on the table.

Jerries hiding from the Priest.

Paul on my left was the target of most of the German support, medium machine guns and a 'door knocker' Pak 36, he had a Sherman and it tried to hide from the little anti-tank gun as the Steilgranate round could potentially knock it out. The British did well with extra phases and these allowed me to make it to the bocage hedges on the outskirts of the village while the Priest continued to rain down fire on the defenders, German morale took some hits and began to fall. We had to call a halt as time was up and it looked like only a matter of time before a British victory would be sealed.

What did I think, well the game was fine as a learning tool but too big for a club game at this stage as we checked the book on several occasions and poor Mike simply looked lost, I remember my first game and I know how he felt. There are a lot of little changes and overall I think they will make for a much better and more dynamic game. To get the best from the game you need to commit 100%, it is not the kind of game you throw down when you have a couple of spare hours, the myriad decisions and uses of the Command points are vital to winning as well as enjoying the challenge. I have another game set for this coming Tuesday at the club against Rob, Soviets vs Germans.

I do have to say that I am not totally sold on the new army lists, there have been some changes, especially to the Soviets but having researched the Russians and Volksgrenadiers for my own platoons I would prefer to use my own. However for now I will toe the line and see how it goes.

My third game now that I am back in the swing of things, Italian Wars and the battle of Ceresole. Now I have fought this battle a couple of times, the main reason is because it is fairly easy to do and the forces are almost on a par. A couple of points about the terrain, I have not added the low hill around Cascini Alfiere because it was not an obstacle to line of sight, you can check on Google maps but best of all friend Simon Miller has been there and assured me the French guns would not have been impeded by the 'rise'. I also substituted a small field for the fish ponds, I don't have anything suitable and this was the right size.

The battle opened with the French left advancing rapidly while I held my right back, I moved my own left forward albeit tardily to keep away from the fish ponds and possible disorder, Charles also was a bit reluctant to move his right forward. I did not do will in the exchange of fire despite outnumbering the French in shot troops and failed to shoot away their skirmishers, although the Italians in the woods on the French right stayed put in safety for the duration of the battle. 

Ceresole.

 

Swiss at the ready.

Imperials on the left, French on the right.

Imperial left flank.

The first clashes came on my right as my light cavalry were pushed back and my skirmishers rode down, I did manage to meet a large Swiss pike block with my Spanish/German pike, my troops put up a brave fight but in the end they were dispersed, my whole right flank had gone. Meanwhile on my left I eventually managed to circumvent the fish pond and hit a French pike block, this time my luck changed and although knocked back my men found fresh reserves of courage and threw their opponents back disordered. At the same time a force of Gendarmes did what Gendarmes do and hit another Landsknecht unit head on, again after a bit of a fright my numbers told as the cavalry here also fell back disordered.

My left advances.

The centre and my left.

Looking good.

The end.

At this point we called it a day, both sides had been successful on their respective left flanks and the French were beginning to reorganise to take on the Imperial left, what would have happened, who knows. The French still had their Swiss and another large mixed pike block and several Gendarme units against three Imperial pike units some skirmishers but no cavalry.

We had some fun, it takes time to get to grips with Furioso but when you do you can never take things for granted in the melees due to the combat morale part of the fight. I was lucky to hold on as Charles' die rolling was quite exceptional up until the last couple of turns. I still have some work to do with the rules but I do enjoy them, I just need to play them more and get things sorted in my head.

I have managed to get some painting done in between map work and might have another vexillation finished by next weekend hopefully. I now have to choose an ACW scenario to play against Matt Crump on Tuesday when I introduce him to JR2, that same evening I shall be playing Chain of Command at the club so might need some R&R on Wednesday. I wanted to push my luck and get something for Thursday afternoon but I lost that fight.

I have had my first yearly meeting to review my health and overall it is all positive, I have been treated fairly quickly and my only gripe is that the admin side of things take forever, instead of results in two weeks it takes five, or more. I cannot fault the people at the coal face. 

I'm Back

 Holiday over, it's raining and I had the heating on last night, the country continues to slide into the abyss, and yes, I miss the beautiful Aegean weather and the only worry I had was choosing oysters or smoked salmon for starter.

My first impression was of a building site, dozens of half built buildings litter the island, some kind of tax dodge I found out, there is also a lot of fly tipping, abandoned cars and even buses in parts, usually the parts away from the tourist areas. It quickly became apparent that there was not as much history on Rhodes as I had thought, a few seriously ruined and dangerous castles, the Acropolis at Lindos and Rhodes Old Town and that's it. The last two were impressive, especially the Old Town inside its protective walls and Lindos is simply a picture postcard village.

Walls of Rhodes.

Inside Museum of Archaeology.

Galley of the Knights of St. John.

Archaeology Museum.

Street of the Knights.

Grand Masters Palace (rebuilt by Italians).

Walls of Rhodes.

Knights castle.

Hotel.

Fake Beatles.

Acropolis fortifications at Lindos.

Acropolis.

We took advantage of the local buses to get around which were cheap, 7 euros as opposed to 180 to get to Rhodes in a taxi, for instance. We spent more time than we normally do at the hotel, this was first class with amazing food and amenities along with a beach, best of all was the friendly and helpful staff. They also had entertainment every evening and our first taste of this was a Beatles tribute with two Italians and two Brits with the worst wigs I have ever seen, thankfully their act was far superior and a highlight of the holiday. I partook of my first Turkish massage and it is not for the faint hearted.

So in the end we took it easy for two weeks and enjoyed losing the real world for a time, a real treat. Landing back in Blighty it all now seems like a dream. Rain, cold, doctors appointments to be made, new glasses to source, supplies to get in, normality hits like a punch in the stomach, until next year.

On the wargaming front not much of course, I had ordered the new Chain of Command V2 while away, I had timed it to arrive the same day we got back from holiday, as obviously it would not have gone through the letter box. Postie put it in our wood store, half an hour from home it started raining, by the time I arrived the envelope was soaked and the rule book ruined. I have had to order another, grrrrrr.

I still managed to get a good look through the undamaged parts and liked what I have seen so far, I also saw that I needed replenishment markers so I have sorted a few out over the last day or so. I have a game at the club on Tuesday, I have been co-opted into a four player game, so I suspect it will be more of a learning experience for all concerned than a fight to the death.

Replenishment markers.

I have also managed to finish off half of the troops for the vexillation from XXX Ulpia Victrix, so I will be starting the second half soon.

My wargame calendar is beginning to firm up, club on Tuesday, Italian Wars next Saturday then ACW and more Chain of Command the week after.

Roundheads and Cavaliers via the Ostfront

Club night and I was in two minds whether to go or not until Simon phoned me about something or other or maybe I phoned him, no matter, I offered a game and we went with Chain of Command, this would be my last game with Version 1 of the rules as I have pre-ordered Version 2.

There will be three 'bundles' on offer pre-order and I saved £20 but it was still a whopping £45.50 for the book a .pdf and some tokens, and I was distraught at £35 for Bolt Action 3, if you are completely new to the game and want everything to make things easy then you are looking at £70! I am sure people will argue this is fine and I should join the 21stC, and if TFL can get that then good luck to them, but that seems excessive to me. On the plus side you can however get the book on its own or even just the .pdf (I think) so you can cut your cloth to suit.

Panzerjager I

StuG III

Collective Pig Farm 452.

Reds!

 I digress, I dug out an old scenario which was an attack on a Collective farm during Operation Barbarossa, but this time Simon chose to be the attacker so we played it as a Soviet counterattack. I had an infantry platoon, a StuG III and a Panzerjager I as I expected a KV-2 to rumble on, Simon surprised me with a T28 and a T27 along with his platoon and a MMG. The usual hopeless public transport system let him down and he arrived late so we did not manage to get a satisfying full game in. The upshot was that the Panzerjager and the T28 spent all evening trading shots without any serious damage, the StuG broke a Soviet squad it caught in the open while the Russians put an end to one of my squads hiding in a dacha. As the clock ticked down my morale which had started at a measly 8 was at 4 while Simon had fallen from 11 to 7. I still had two squads to deploy while the Russians now had no targets as I waited for them to come out of cover. Not the best end for Version 1 but them's the breaks, I look forward to V2 despite my empty pockets. 

Yesterday I took up Erik Faithful's offer of a game at his, it would be the Battle of Roundway Down, an ECW clash which I had heard of and got the impression it had a lot to do with cavalry. When I arrived at Erik's I saw I had been correct and there was a lot of cavalry, much of which he had just added to his growning collection. The table looked nice and he had produced handy guides to the battle along with maps and his homegrown set of rules, he also took the time to explain what had happened historically. I was offered the choice of sides and although not keen on the Royals I am less keen on Politicians so I chose the Royalist forces.

Eric has weather rules as this could have an effect on how well the muskets and artillery of the day performed, normally of course there was no problem and the wind blew fair, this day however a summer gale was blowing and would blow for most of the battle until the heavy rain appeared just as the wind fell. The upshot of all this was that no one would get the benefits of shot during the battle and the Parliamentary artillery was all but useless, no, it was useless.

Roundway Down.

Royalist Cavalry.

Parliamentarian army.

The first clash.

I decided to await my reinforcements coming from the town of Devizes before I committed my cavalry wings. The lads in town took their sweet time and I felt forced to move the cavalry, my right wing hit first and swept all before them apart from one enemy squadron. Flush with victory my left now went in, safe from the enemy artillery due to the gale. Despite a couple of  losses my horsemen once again proved their worth, perhaps I would not require the foot. I now took it upon myself to sweep up the remaining Parliamentary cavalry that had survived, but it was now my turn to suffer and I lost several units to a particularly vicious enemy squadron as I chased it around the board. 

The Royalists about to win the right flank.

 

At last my infantry arrive.

The enemy foot are left alone.

The Royalists close in.

The end.

The infantry from Devizes now arrived and pushed away some enemy Dragoons from their front, they now marched on the enemy army, by now I had managed at last to drive all the enemy horse from the field, I had three squadrons left and set them up to menace the enemy foot which formed a large square as my infantry bore down on them. As they advanced they captured two of the enemy guns and then hit the enemy line, things did not go well for Erik as once again my die rolling and the fact my boys were veterans, despite having low ammunition, ensured a win for my side. It was all over for Parliament, in the fighting I had lost two commanders and Erik one, the dispirited and now wet enemy army made off down the road to Bath.

The rules are fairly basic and play very fast, but give a good game and three times now they have turned up an historical result, so that must count for something, although I will admit to having a penchant for sixes in this game. And now a word from our sponsor, not really, a view from the Parliamentarian side.

 The battle started with a gale blowing from the SE (Devizes) direction - which meant no firing!

The Royalists had the initiative (moving first) but elected to hold their position and (potentially) wait for their foote to arrive. Waller therefore seized the initiative and ordered Hungerford’s wing forward to engage; Crawford's and Byron's brigades then advanced to meet them. Wilmot and Maurice also advanced towards Heselrige, who remained in position (hoping to benefit from artillery and infantry support in the anticipated melee), with half of the Devon Horse moving out to their right flank.

The cavalry combats initially seemed to favour the Royalists and, although Byron was wounded, most of Hungerford’s wing was routed and the Royalists managed to rally all of their victorious troops from pursuit. However, Hungerford himself with his own veteran squadron performed exceptionally well, chasing three Royalist units off the field. On the other flank honours were more or less even, the Royalists eventually won through with one unit rallied after Heselrig’s wing had been defeated, although one unit of Heselrig’s Lobsters routed their opponents and chased them off the field. This left the Royalist cavalry masters of the field with three units (one from each brigade) available to support their infantry in dealing with Waller’s infantry.

The Cornish foote were quite late in arriving (commencing on Turn 5) and two of their battalia were held up for a while by Waller’s dragoons in Roundway, helped by weather conditions meaning muskets were useless – although this also meant that the Cornishmen conserved their limited ammunition.

They then advanced towards Waller’s infantry, which had formed three sides of a square around their baggage; their artillery remained useless due to the gale, which, other than briefly dropping in strength, remained a feature throughout the battle and deviated only a little between SE and E. As the Cornish foote closed in to engage Waller’s infantry, heavy rain added to their misery. The weather conditions meant no firing at all took place during the battle.

Both Heselrig (who had taken refuge with the infantry) and Major General Wagstaffe commanding the Cornish foote were wounded in the ensuing melee; but when one of Waller’s units broke, he threw in the towel and surrendered his remaining two units (circa 1600 men) and with all his guns lost.

Although in this 18-turn 3-hour game it was the weather conditions that prevented Waller’s artillery from taking any effective part in the battle, the refight played out once again very close to the actual events of 1643.

I watched a podcast recently which dispelled several myths of historical wargaming, I have to disagree that it is not just an old man's game, look around at shows and at your club members playing historical games, youngsters are not there in numbers. I think the youngest we have at our club are mid twenties perhaps older, in over ten years at my club in Scotland we failed dismally despite trying to get new members, I have had twenty odd years here and again failed to get anyone local interested. Our club in Lancaster has been successful in getting new blood in over the past few years but it is old blood, not young blood. I am selfish now and although happy to show anyone the ropes I concentrate on what I like, I do not lose sleep or give much thought to 'growing the hobby'. I play with people only just younger than me as I age gracefully and I enjoy their company and that is what is important to me, life is too short.

On the subject of age I have reached that point where I scan the obituary pages of the Chevron Newsletter to see which of my old workmates have passed on to that oilfield in the sky. Recently one of my old bosses, Roy Paterson, passed away in the Shetland Isles where he had retired. Roy was a man who earned my respect which is not given lightly to many, he was ex-Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm and his claim to fame was that he led the bombing runs on the oil tanker Torrey Canyon when it ran aground off Cornwall. A total of 161 bombs, 16 rockets, 1,500 tons of napalm and 9,800 gallons of kerosene were dropped by Hawker Hunters, Buccaneers (Roy) and the lovely Sea Vixen to ignite the oil spill.

I have gone a bit crazy on books recently in addition to the one's I ordered a week or so ago I noticed Max Hastings has a new one on Sword Beach, although I am aware of the sacrifice the Americans also made in Europe it is so good to see something on the British, so I now have that as well. One of my favourite customers years ago went ashore on Sword. After reading the dark facts about October 7th in Douglas Murray's book I felt I needed to get something light for a change. I turned to author Ben Kane, I have his 'Eagles' trilogy which was brilliant, and although his 'Lost Legion' series ended up in the bin I cautiously got the first book on Hannibal Enemy of Rome. I now have the last two winging there way to me as I am hooked.

 

 Oh, and I am going into radio silence for a few weeks.