Yee Ha.

Big week, two games one after the other, first up is Matt who wanted to try Brandy Station and get some cavalry on the table, something seriously lacking in most of my Johnny Reb games since taking them up, despite having enough for around eight brigades. Ryan and I put our scenario together years ago and it is in two parts, I put together the northern part of the fight, so three large Confederate brigades versus two Union and a small infantry brigade. Matt bravely took on JR having only played once before and it is quite different to what he usually plays. Matt took the Confederates which left me with the Union forces.

Union forces.

Confederates.

Brandy Station (just noticed no railway, duh).

One Reb brigade is already on the table with another arriving on my left as soon as the game starts and a third arriving on turn 2 on my right. I was crushed together in a wood with my only elite troops at the rear of the column, the Rebs are nearly all elite, it did not look promising. I decided to move the infantry to the right and shuffled Devin's brigade of cavalry along to my left while Whiting's elites took their place but sadly they could not all get to the front line, I also sent  two batteries to support Devin. 

Starting positions.

Rest of the Federals turn up, no room at the inn.

Jones on the hill.

Hampton turns up.

I eventually got Devin into a firing position as his breechloaders had the range on the enemy muzzle loading carbines, some good shooting sent one of the Reb regiments routing to the rear, this was a setback for Hampton's attack and his brigade now looked pretty weak as I readied Devin to prepare to charge. I was feeling better but should have known better, Devin was hit and stunned by a sharpshooter and his brigade halted until he recovered, at the same time both my artillery batteries now ran out of ammunition, you couldn't make it up. Matt took the time to reorganise and now sent Jones' brigade to move on the Union centre right, this was not a success so he turned towards the cavalry in the centre and those moving on Hampton.

Union left get ready to attack.

Traffic jam.

Artillery runs out of ammunition, did they bring any? 

As my artillery floundered charges now swept across the empty ground on my left, although I had a good start here the results left several of my regiments disordered up against elite Rebs in the second round, I was forced to send these boys back into the fray. Meanwhile on my right the Reb brigade here had advanced very slowly and my infantry had them covered this flank was secure, but looking across the battlefield I couldn't say the same for the centre and left. I still had a couple of regiments in reserve but as Confederate cavalry had now broken through my line I found these in the wrong positions to counterattack. It was time to leave.

Lee's brigade on the Union right.

Lee and Jones move forward.

Guns that work.

Another hard fight and a tough one for the Federals, Devin being hit and my line halted had a drastic effect at the wrong time, the less I say of the lack of ammunition the better, I also found it very difficult to get my reserve cavalry up to the line and it was fed in piecemeal. 

I have added a stand of sword and buckler men for my Spanish pike blocks. Matt Smith very kindly printed off some Patrol Markers for me, The Big Red One for my Yanks, I have also found some pieces which will do for Jump Off Points, so that will be them done and a few itches scratched. 

Yesterday was my second date with the dice, I was at Erik's and he had set up a scenario based on the lifting of the siege of Newark by the Royalists, my objective as the dashing Prince Rupert was to prevent the Parliamentarians from simply leaving the battlefield. To do this I would have to destroy the enemy forces or cut them off from the two bridges which would allow them to retreat. At first I went straight for the enemy cavalry and after a hard fought engagement and with more cavalry turning up I swept them from the field. 

Royalist cavalry.

Newark.

Parliamentarian festung.

By this time I realised that my cavalry would now have to attack the main Parliamentarian position which included artillery and infantry regiments behind stone walls along with a couple of cavalry units which had escaped as I now saw that there was no point attacking them as I would be unable to cross the river anywhere apart from going through Newark and hopefully putting myself and my army on the enemy line of retreat, and beating them of course. My cavalry were no longer fresh and some had to find shelter beneath Newark's walls taking them out of harms way. My infantry had now turned up but were a long way from the city so I only managed to get the garrison into a position to possible try and make a fight of it, this did not help as the retreating enemy would easily outnumber my forces before the rest of the army could arrive in support and I would have no room for maneuver. 

My cavalry victorious.

I head for Newark, I need to get to the windmill in the background.

We called a halt at this point as it was obvious the scenario needed a lot more time before my large flanking move would be ready and I had no intention of attacking the fort, it was also getting dark and I am at the mercy of modern LED car lights. So, my cavalry did well but I just couldn't see my infantry having any chance of taking the fort. I could be wrong but didn't want to chance it. Once again a well researched scenario using Erik's very smart collection on a lovely table. Tactically I did well but didn't win as I saw it, in reality the Parliamentarian commander retreated so would it be a strategic win beating his cavalry and making him leave as the rest of the Royalists turned up, not sure. The main point it was an afternoon of gaming.

Next week I have a friend coming for a couple of days from Welsh Wales for some JR, I am looking at the Battle of Perryville and maybe a smaller scenario depending how the larger one goes. 

Contemplating battle on the morrow. On the Perryville battlefield 1992.

I have decided to free all my slaves to avoid reparations, what? We don't have any, never have? Our ancestors were farm labourers. Oh I'll be OK then......................... 

GI's do well

Another run at WWII this week in the Bunker, we had decided on Chain of Command and Matt mentioned he wanted panzergrenadiers with lots of machine guns, instead I gave him my Fallschirmjager which just happened to have the same number of MG42's, I would take my new US Infantry. These guys fight rather different from all the other platoons and I hadn't a clue how to get the best out of them, the rules however, all rules in my opinion, tend to give the Yanks an easy time of it. They get to move and shoot without an accuracy penalty, they also get the Storm of Steel mechanic which in this instance is over egging their abilities and they get to use Scouts as Jump Off Points.

Why did you bother with them I hear from the back. I never intended to build an American platoon but I needed to take my mind off other things for a while and what better than to build up another platoon before I stopped, yes I hear more grumbling in the back. This all pertains to playing with wee sojers, I have the utmost respect for those men who fought through Europe unlike some of the ungratefully liberated.

I introduced a few little changes, both sides got a 'Red Dice' to help with orders, I also changed the Force Morale so that 10, 11 or 12 replaced 8, 9, 10 or 11, the table was also set up with what I hoped would be less open ground. I put down a village straddling a river with two bridges, the northern part of the village had been hit by artillery and was mainly ruins but a few buildings had survived including the station, hotel and a boozer. The Yanks had to capture the bridges to win, two bridges would be a major victory and one a minor victory. Matt supported his Para's with a Pz IVG, I on the other hand took a 75mm Sherman, a 60mm mortar and an extra squad.

I wanted to pressure the Germans in the centre and on their left flank while planning to use a Scout team to get further up the table if the opportunity presented itself, Matt just wanted to hold me up. I managed to get three squads into decent positions but somehow began to take mounting casualties on my troops in the wood which were targetted by the Panzer and quite a few machine guns, so much so that I had to withdraw them. Matt had a run of double phases to help with this, although I must admit my boys weathered it well, It was time to bring on the Sherman.

I deploy.

The remaining civvies beat a hasty retreat.

My tank and and a nearby squad turned on the ruins just north of the hotel while I pushed another squad up to sneak into the large building, it was Matt's time to withdraw. I now did the same to another set of ruins near the rail bridge and the Jerries again retreated, the tank however was still being a real pain. I had now sent a Scout team out to flank the German right as the Panzer was now busy firing on my right. I better mention this but I too now managed a good run of double turns and used them to reorganise. then I saw my chance, my men in the hotel broke the enemy opposite them, I deployed from the scouts into the station where the last of the Jerry squads had deployed but were beginning to suffer, one good phase and I would be on them.

These poor guys got caught out later.

The annoying panzer.

Matt now got a double turn, my boys in the open field were routed and fled, the survivors that is, around this time I also had two of my Junior Leaders hit which meant I had to put my Senior Leaders into harms way to keep up the pressure. Once I got t he initiative back and despite losing a squad I broke the Para's in the ruins and stunned both a SL and their JL. This sealed the deal for the Americans as two enemy leaders and an enemy Jump Off Point now lay within touching distance of my boys in the Station and Matt's morale plummeted. Game over.

Help is at hand.

Forward boys.

I think the higher morale worked, you could at least throw a bit of caution to the wind to try something different and recover if it went south, the extra dice for orders also worked well although I think the double turn mechanic should lose a dice after the first one, both Matt and I suffered a bit from our opponent having several in a row, and it is quite frustrating to sit for a couple of phases doing nothing but dying. Cutting down the lines of sight, it helps, we had a bit of a conversation about this and might have to up linear obstacles to medium, you cannot really see through a decent hedge.

I have not done a lot of painting in the last couple of weeks, one set of four halberdiers and 50% of a sword and buckler base, I am home alone next week so expect to get a move on with these. My wargamers ADHD is kicking in as I realised setting up the game I do not have American Jump Off Points so I am going to 'need' those at some point and of course some US Patrol Marker's. I also noticed that my 2nd Panzer markers had been painted white on black, so naturally I had to change them to yellow on black, phew. Who will notice, I will.

Matt is back next week and wants to do an ACW cavalry battle, so it looks like Brandy Station, I have eight cavalry brigades most of whom have never seen action in my 30+ years of Johnny Reb. Yeehaa. 

The worst night of the year coming up, although most of the little darlings gave up knocking on my door years ago, it also helps there are no young families in my part of the village. I think it must be a nightmare in America, I could not take that. 

Greeks get the gifts.

 Back to the sunny climes of Penrith, it does tend to be better than Warton mind you, I left nice sunshine after the game and as I proceeded south it looked like the shadows of Mordor were in front of me. Anyway, back to the Dungeon for a game we had to postpone a few weeks ago, it was to be early WWII, Greeks vs Italians and this time I was given the Greeks. I had to capture a fuel dump in the centre of the table reputedly containing not fuel but Extra Virgin Olive Oil, though I expect this was a ruse. I had some Regulars and some Elite mountain sections along with the usual heavy weapon supports, the Italians had no elites and a couple of dodgy Albanian squads and a little tankette.

The objective.

Another view.

I was allowed to initially bring my first wave on from any of three sides but decided to stick to the opposite side from the Eyeties and brought on my howitzer and heavy weapons apart from an anti-tank rifle. I intended to soften up the Albanians who already held the fuel dump. That went fairly well and by turn three I had captured the olive oil and a massive amount of dried spaghetti, however the tankette was now roaming around causing me a bit of strife and my second wave seemed well short of the dump as Italian regulars moved closer to my survivors of the melee. Matt also managed some very good mortar drops along with one of my elite squads proving a lot less elite than I had thought and hitting the deck.

My own heavy weapons teams proved quite useless for most of the game, my anti-tank rifle at first refusing to turn up but negating this with a lovely flank shot which destroyed the little tank, my sniper managed to find two bullets which worked and hit an NCO and LMG gunner, the rest were duds.

The Albanians hold the tins.

The Greeks lost it then the Italians took it back.

It's all or nothing, go boys.

Matt got the supply dump back, this changed sides several times and the bodies were stacked inside like Rorke's Drift. Time was running out and critical decisions had to be made, I had one untouched elite squad which I wanted to leave to the last minute and kick out any Italians which were left on the objective, but I had no choice but to take it and hope the game ended. It did not, there were three Italian squads close enough to assault, one could do nothing due to a large amount of pins unless it was lucky, it was not, the second I charged with a forlorn hope of elites which took them out. 

Once more the Greeks can relax.

The tankette ist kaput.

This left one opportunity for Matt to make one last charge, I threw everything over the turn at these men and whittled them down until the odds were almost even. They nonetheless managed to reach the ramparts and a furious melee began which was quite simply down to Lady Luck, the Greeks pulled it out of the bag, phew!

My right flank move in at last.

The Greeks really can relax, a narrow victory.

A superb game with both side alternating between sighs and shouts of joy. Matt got some really nice mortar drops against some desperate failed morale tests which did for him in the end. I matched him in despair at some die results but also managed a few successes just at the right time. A tense and exciting game. 

Yet another skirmish game hits the stores. "Tear Down the Empire", "The Fall of Rome" the advert shouts, now that's going to be spectacular and all you need is a dozen figures. How can five men form a Shieldwall or why does a hornblower allow you to move further, fantasy vs reality. If a bunch of Germanic brutes wanted to raid a village they would not chose one with a garrison, even if it looks like there is one cataphract among them, lost Marcus? What you would have is a bunch of peasants with sticks, not much of a game there then. The average small Viking raid for instance would have around 3-6 ships with crews of 30-60 so at least 90 men, not a dozen, there goes the pocket money. And yes I have played several skirmish games, cowboys, spaceships and even Dark Ages, back in the, eh, Dark Ages, but there were no hornblowers or Merlins stumbling about. For some reason I do not see platoon level WWII games as Skirmish. Each to their own, and I know that playing with rules generally at least two decades old, but really, another turnip raid?

Shieldwall.

?

 I am painting again as you know and have finished my first two halberd bases, I have several more but don't want to rush them, I also received two boxes of sword and buckler men from The Assault Group. I am also working on maps again as I have some loose time, "The 1684 Campaign of the War of the Holy League and the Failed Siege of Buda".

My granddaughter phoned the other night and while we were talking movies said I should watch 'Jojo Rabbit', this is a fairly old movie and I dismissed it from a clip I had seen of Adolf Hitler being an idiot with a young boy. How wrong I was, it was an excellent and clever movie. The reason we were discussing movies is that she said they watch movies in history classes, not documentaries but movies, and we all know how accurate 'based on a real event' or similar is. What a dreadful way to teach history.

And I could not end without this lunacy from Ireland, You should get consent before you hug your grandchildren, you won't be able to see it now of course because commonsense prevailed and the lunatics who thought it right were forced to take it down. Each new day never fails to surprise me.

Group hug? 

Aaaargh!

 Back on the treadmill, its been almost a month since I had a game against a live opponent, I usually rely on Matt Crump and the odd visitor but both he and myself could not align the stars due to real life and holidays. That has now ended and I went for another Italian Wars battle, Agnadallo 1509, between France and Venice, I have fought this a couple of times at least but I now have three books on the battle, two of which offer scenarios and as is normal all do not quite agree. 

I use Furioso rules so I have to make allowances for this in respect of the size of each contingent, this needs work but I did what I could, also the terrain is quite wet but as it was the same for both sides I did not spend a lot of time fretting about small streams, granted I could have slowed movement but I didn't. I also introduced some changes to the units more in line with reality, the Venetian troops for instance put up an excellent resistance better than they are listed in the rule book. The battle is a bit complicated as each side had one 'battle' either arriving late or not at all, I had these on the army sheet but decided in the end not to bring them on, there was enough fighting to do. 

Venetian left.

French right.

Venetian army.

I set both armies up and offered Matt his choice, however we instead diced, I got the Venetians when I had half been expecting to get the French, the better army. I decided to quickly advance my left which seemed to be my strongest force, I would hold with the right and hope my guns would damage the enemy before they hit my line. My Initiative scores were dire and nothing got more than 3, my left started fairly well and managed to breast the ditch to their front in good order. Matt held back his right but came on very aggressively on his left. Very soon his cavalry had taken out my shot and a gun, on my left my infantry crawled towards the Swiss to their front, on men, on!

Venetian left not at all keen.

French left advance.

Venetian right in trouble.

Eventually the infantry of both sides got into action and I was being overwhelmed, I thought that one more push could cause me to retire. I now managed to beat one Swiss block on my left and engage the other while capturing the commander on that flank, only to have him rescued and again captured and again rescued, this time to stay free. It looked like there was a slim chance of a Venetian fight back but it was not to be, I received a hazard and several men deserted, a cruel twist of fate, the pendulum swung away. My army was broken.

Venetian left looking good.

Centre looking dodgy.

The end approaches.

Granted the Venetians, like the real thing, needed a bit of Lady Luck to win this but a slew of low initiative rolls meant I was on the back foot for most of the battle, at the same time I made some mistakes and Matt fought better. Oh, in my defence Matt once again borrowed dice and yes, mine were so bad I changed them, not that it made much difference, my average throughout the battle was one hit on the enemy.

I am adding halberdiers and sword and buckler men to some of the pike blocks and while doing so went through my lead pimple, I am loathe to have more figures than I need, but to my surprise I managed to fish out quite a few to add to my new purchases to build the stands I want along with another couple of generals. So something to while away the long winter evenings.

I have just about finished 'Plunder' by Max Hastings, very good, sad in places and especially so in the last weeks of the war with many pointless deaths and dubious operations being carried out by the Allies. TV looked up with 'Last Seen' an excellent thriller on Apple (I think), I am now reduced to looking at the BBC for something, that is how low I have fallen.

I have offered my son a Chain of Command campaign in order to try out a couple of minor changes to the rules, one which I have fought before and proved to be decent, The Road to Bremen. Strangely enough the attack on Bremen as reported in 'Plunder' was one of those operations which were pointless. All being well I should be heading North to the Dungeon next week.