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.

The Lilies Triumphant

 A quiet day ahead, no large map projects, some tweaking to do with a couple but nothing else except wait for Storm Agnes, what used to be known as bad weather, at least it will keep the weathermen happy while BBC reporters don wellies and look for puddles to stand in and 16 year old females howl that the end is nigh.

No club last night, the school was having a sixth form meet for parents or some such and therefore parking was going to be at a premium, so we decided to give it a miss, I therefore offered a game here in the even more spacious budding War Room. It was going to be Italian Wars as I missed last months game with Julian due to his work schedule, it was a four player battle French vs Imperial/Spanish, Jimi and I were Imperials and Dan and Fran were the French. The sides were equal in units but quite different in the make up of the forces, the French infantry was slightly inferior to the Imperial foot but they had a Swiss pike block to make up for it, their cavalry was superior to the Imperial horse but with a little bit of luck that could be handled. It was a simple game as Dan had not played before and Jimi and Fran had had only one small introductory game at the club, there was a crossroads in the centre of the open battlefield which one side or the other had to capture.

We split the armies into two divisions each, I was opposite Dan while Jimi held our right flank, Dan had held back his Italian pike so I saw an opportunity to race forward and assault his Landsknechts before the cautious Italians could intervene, he also left one of his gendarme units in the rear mistakenly taking them for less armoured Archers, so I also felt that as I had the one elite cavalry unit in our army I could take on and beat his advanced cavalry. On my right Jimi also advanced quickly with his infantry while his cavalry were slowed down due to an annoying hill to their front.

 

Jimi's infantry.

Imperial left flank.

Swiss advance while Old Band wait.

The Imperial army received a Papal blessing so advanced confidently as the battle opened, the French artillery opened up and handed out some heavy losses to Jimi's Landsknechts, a bad start, nonetheless his men drove on. My cavalry were soon in action against Dan's gendarmes and for a moment, just a moment it looked like things were going to plan, then disaster struck and my elite cavalry were destroyed while the others were held up and losing the fight. On the right our plan to put some hurt into the Swiss before they came to blows was in disarray, Jimi's artillery, skirmish screens and Spanish shot failed miserably to inflict casualties on the burghers from the mountains. The best mercenaries in Europe smashed into the Spanish pike block and quickly routed it, this loss caused the nearby Landsknechts to stop their advance and retire, Plan A had failed. Nearby Fran and Jimi's cavalry now clashed and this went too and fro but eventually the French won the upper hand.

French and Imperial Landsknechts clash.

Old Band still skulking.

Just before the end.

I had now managed get one of my pike formations into action but it was a hard slog, my cavalry were in a mess and then the hard fighting pikes were hit in the flank by cavalry sent over by Fran, this was the death knell of the army, the Imperials had shot their bolt and could now only react as the still largely untouched French army swamped the battlefield.

Useless French artillery (Jimi's)

Triumphant Swiss.

And there you have it, a great game and a lovely wargaming spectacle. I had been hoping for a little luck for my cavalry and didn't get it, on my other flank Fran's incredible die luck was the complete opposite of Jimi's. Our plan to shoot up the Swiss as they advanced was a disaster while the French artillery in contrast knocked lumps out of our infantry. 

In other news I finished a second unit of Jinettes/Ginets for the Imperials, light cavalry have still to make their mark on my battlefields and I am not sure they ever will in stand up fights. I also took stock of where I am with the Imperial army, I needed one more pike block and quite a few cavalry units so these were ordered and are on their way, the pikes arrived from Wargames Foundry yesterday. My favourite heavy cavalry types from Steel Fist are out of stock and Simon is unwell so I turned to the Perry's for these, I have went for the metal Scurrours from their Wars of the Roses range which I think will do, I have one unit on the way and if they are OK I will get some more to finish the army off. Casting Room Miniatures do a heavy cavalry type figure but it is not up to standard and is quite wooden and mainly unarmoured. The use of plastic even jumped into my mind, but thankfully only for a few nanoseconds, although I suppose I could drill out the plastic lance and replace with metal, but only in the most dire of cirumstances.

Not a lot on the cards at the moment, mate Matt Crump is recovering so no games here or in Penrith for the moment, nothing else planned for the war room for now and I have guests over the next couple of weekends (I think) so only weekdays are free for now. Italian Wars albeit much smaller will be at the club next week against Simon.

The dice below were left behind as Jimi left last night, they are for sale although the 1, 2 and 3 facings will need refurbished while the 4, 5 and 6 facings are like new.

Up Against it.

 Bolt Action last week, it was supposed to be Dux Britaniarrum, and I wanted to try something new, I am trying to get all my WWII stuff on the table at least once, so I decided to take my Volksgrenadiers, beautiful figures from Empress Miniatures. I did some research into these guys and you can field an Assault Platoon or a Rifle Platoon for Chain of Command or the same in Bolt Action with a bit of jigging about, BA only gives them as inexperienced, this is not quite right but I went that route anyway.

My whole force was inexperienced, I took four squads all armed with assault rifles apart from the LMG team, I also gave two of the squads a halftrack. Neither CoC or Bolt Action seem to know what to do with these vehicles and the rules are pants, but I wanted to get my men into action quickly and with added support from the LMG in the 251, and no, I don't allow a transport to get lifted simply because someone unfriendly is close by. I was playing 'Bad Luck' Jimi with British, he had an elite Commando squad and three others supported by a sniper, mortar (no FOO), an AT gun and a Sherman. Did I mention my support was a Hetzer?

There were five objectives roughly along the centre line, two of which were very close to our own table edge so there would be a fight for the remaining three. I quickly deployed my halftrack and ran my intial troops forward as fast as I could to narrow the range to the enemy, I had warned Jimi that I was taking Volksgrenadiers but he hadn't done his homework and on he came. I opened up and the British began to take horrendous casualties from the assault rifles, I suffered the odd hit from the sniper and thankfully the mortar began a trek across the battlefield to get a shot in, not having an observer. The Sherman and the anti-tank gun turned up, I managed to keep away from the AT gun but the Sherman started lobbing shells at my boys in the centre, not very well as it turned out, sadly it was approaching the squad which had lost its panzerfaust, "Hans, don't touch it, it is dangerous and Herman ist kaput" (no one picks it up in BA of course, yet children and old women could use one). I digress, my Hetzer crew had decided not to turn up until turn four and duly missed with their first shot, in return they were stunned by a reply from the Sherman. Having got the range they did not miss with their second shot and the Sherman went up in flames.

By this time I was doing very well on my left and Jimi was losing units at an alarming rate, in the centre I rushed for the mid objective past the flaming tank so that we both contested it. It was turn five and the British were suffering at least 60% casualties as the Volksgrenadiers turned their right flank and the Hetzer was about to run amok on the left. We shook hands and called it a day, true to form Jimi had some bad dice luck on several occasions while I was fairly average. I had managed to keep my infantry in cover until they could use their assault rifles to overwhelm the smaller British squads and teams, despite them being easier to kill Jimi did not have a great deal of success in that endeavour.

I took a break from painting Italian Wars and built my new Rubicon kits. I managed to get two versions of the T-26 by not sticking the top deck with the turret on to the hull, I can now have it as the twin turret MG version or another 45mm single turret, I have one already, there is a bit of a bad fit with the vision plate on the front left, I noticed this on my original tank as well, it is a bit more pronounced on this model as I wanted the decks to be swopped, I will live with it, just. The 250/7 mortar carrier is a lovely little model, you also get a spare mortar and crew to dismount, but I didn't want them, the whole point was to have it mobile. When I questioned its use in Chain of Command I was told because of the scale it would be off table, damn, money down the drain I thought, but then a nice gentleman put up the ranges for the 80mm mortar from a manual he had and the minimum was 65 yards, and this meant around 18" in Chain of Command. It came to light that other medium mortars had pretty much the same minimum ranges. Yes it would be desperate to fire the mortar at that range but it could be done, it can be used on a 6x4 table, the muffled cries were silenced by "play the period, not the rules", that gave me a smile. I might only bring it in on a table larger than 6x4 but then again.......

We have been slowly emptying the shop of all the junk that has built up over the years and managed to sell the last of the actual shop fittings, and last weekend they were collected. I now have a really large space to play in until the builders turn up hopefully early next year, it really is a large space, upstairs the same area has two bedrooms, a corridor, walk in cupboards and a dining room.

As I said above I put the Italian Wars to the side building the kits, I have only just finished cleaning and priming some Spanish Jinettes and have yet to pick up a brush, I have some map projects which I might concentrate on this week and do some extra time on them, so you won't see them for a bit yet.

The dreaded Black Powder last night, ACW this time with Fran's amendments. The scenario was loosely based on the arrival of the 1st Division at Gettysburg fighting against Heth so it was an outnumbered Union force against a gray tsunami intent on clearing McPherson's Ridge. I was on table awaiting the arrival of the Iron Brigade, I had small regiments in my brigade against two very large Confederate brigades on my flank, the Rebs had to break both Federal brigades to win, how successful they would be would in a large part be down to Lady Luck despite their numbers.

Fran had for added flavour given me a small skirmish unit of dismounted cavalry, a left over from Buford's force, by the end he wished he hadn't bothered. These men were way out in front of my line and for a moment held up the Confederate advance then fell back behind the thin blue line. As the enemy approached I unleashed hell in a cloud of musket smoke and the Rebs shuddered to a halt their leading regiments taking heavy casualties, but the brigade to my immediate right still managed to struggle up the hill.

The massed gray ranks.

Steady boys.

Fire!

The first charge hit my boys but to everyones surprise was repulsed and caused some disorganisation in the ranks following, just as I was feeling superior my centre regiment broke and the reserve had to make its way forward. Another Rebel assault went in and this time my boys narrowly failed to stand but had stopped the victorious Sesech from advancing further, my second and last reserve regiment now took its place in the line and the Rebs went back again. I had also managed to stabilise my centre and some bad command rolls stopped Fran from taking advantage of my weakness. Time and again despite my best efforts Fran managed to make saving rolls only one failure of which would have spelt doom for his regiments. Eventually however I was forced to withdraw, my men could look the Iron Brigade now arriving in the eye and in my mind had saved the day.

Edward's mass undone by their slowness.

The Iron Brigade sets up just in time.

On my left things had gone awry for both sides, Edward's two brigades due to a combination of horrendous die rolls and terrain took almost two hours of the evening to get into action, Alex's Iron Brigade also had problems turning up from turn 2. This meant that as the sun set these two forces eventually got to hand to hand combat in the woods and the Union line held, helped by the death of one of the enemy brigade commanders and the fact they were elite. Despite my brigade having broke the Rebs had failed to break both Federal brigades.

Fran and I had enjoyed some desperate fighting on our part of the battlefield and his tremendous luck at saving rolls had frustrated my efforts time and time again but I was eventually pushed back. On the other flank command rolls ruled the action, Edward took the whole evening to advance to contact and Alex also suffered but not as badly in bringing the Iron Brigade to the front line. I find this and the disorder rules the most frustrating part of Black Powder, Fran had sorted the disorder thing out but failing to move turn after turn is a nightmare, a bit like not getting the right command dice in Chain of Command, there is nothing you can do.

I am taking part in another Chain of Command campaign run by the lads from Grange-over-Sands based on the battle of Gazala, I am commanding a German platoon, their are six of us and we should be kicking off in a few weeks. The club may be closed next week so we are unsure what will be happening next week.