Pereant proditores.

 I have been fairly quiet or it seems that way, I did have a complete week there with no wargaming which is unusual for me but I had a post operation appointment and my wife's birthday to sort along with a visit from my son and granddaughter. The appointment was pretty much a waste of time as they should have organised a scan before it but didn't, so one was organised immediately and it will be two weeks before the results are known, pardon me while I chuckle, it has never taken two weeks yet.

 A naval game was looking for a fourth player and I jumped in with two feet, it would be a pre-dreadnaught game involving a French force against an Egyptian one with the Suez canal as a back story. I was welcomed back and told how well I looked, I get told this quite often as people expect me to look very ill indeed, but I don't. Anyway I took command of the French 1st Squadron while Paul took the 2nd, a bit less impressive as mine, the Egyptians (with mostly British designed ships) were under the command of Dan and Ian. I simple went forward intending to trade shots with Ian, but as Paul opened up the gap between us I was hit by both Egyptian squadrons, Ian's gunnery was on target while mine was dismal. My flagship was soon left a floating, burning hulk while a second ship took a rudder hit and simply ran around in circles, this left me with one battleship which now took the brunt of the enemy fire and soon headed for Davy Jones' locker. Paul had now taken the second enemy squadron under fire but his gunnery was as bad as mine and despite Dan's assurance that 'the Egyptians are rubbish' they are fine if you cannot hit them. With me out of the picture both enemy squadrons now turned on Paul, despite Dan's ships being savaged they had dealt out punishment and with Ian's almost untouched ships now closing the range it was declared an Egyptian win. Despite my naval background my reputation was in tatters but not my reputation for poor die rolling.

My doomed squadron.

I was supposed to be heading for Penrith this Wednesday but Matt called off due to having a cold, so I asked if anyone at the club was free, Big Ed got back and offered a War and Conquest game, I jumped at the chance and we decided on another Roman v Roman clash, Ed with the Twelfth and me with Thrax's boys. The armies are almost identical so we both went for legionaries and auxiliaries supported with some skirmishers and cavalry, Ed had one less cavalry unit but a unit of massed archers, I had Contarii to give my cavalry a bit of steel.

Thrax on the right, rebels on the left.

We lined up our infantry and I put all my cavalry on my left, Ed had his cavalry opposite, I was quite happy with this as I knew the Contarii should(?) be able to beat the weaker enemy horse. The Thunderbolts advanced their centre and took station on a hill in the centre of the battlefield, I pushed against both flanks with the main effort being my cavalry on the enemy right. I managed at last to get the Initiative but unusually for me I handed it back to Ed forcing him to move before me, this was going to hopefully allow me to get into charge reach with several units as he came forward, Ed helped me out and moved his cavalry closer to the waiting Contarii, I smiled inside. 

Contarii.

 

The rest of my cavalry.

Contarii threaten the rebel flank.

The last men standing for the Twelfth.

It's all over for the rebels.

In quick succession the Rebel cavalry were routed as were the skirmishers on the opposite flank, the Twelfth's flanks had gone. The long suffering cohort of Auxiliaries on my right, V Dalmatarum, who had been acting as pin cushions for Ed's massed archers managed to charge their nemisis and get their revenge as the sagittarii fled. I now decided to test the resolve of the enemy on the hill and ordered the Thirtieth to charge the Auxiliaries above them while Thrax with the First waited for the outcome at the foot of the hill. More of Ed's troops now fled as the Thirtieth planted their standard on the hill, this caused him to try a desperate charge downhill to try and kill Thrax and turn the tide of battle. In a brutal struggle Thrax did indeed take a wound but First Minerva held against the veterans of the Twelfth's First Cohort and eventually they broke and their leader captured. Thrax had pulled off a second crushing victory against another Roman army.

My missus popped her head into the Bunker and asked if anyone wanted anything, "Luck" said Ed. I think luck was pretty much even but mine turned up just when needed while it deserted Ed at the wrong time. Again it was great to get the armies on the table, wargaming at its best for me. We have pencilled in a return match for later when I think I will push my luck and take Barbarians against a Roman army.

I have some fun coming up, my son will be here on Saturday to try out Chain of Command, Matt has rescheduled for next Wednesday and I have Erik's on Friday, both ECW, I will need some R&R after that.

I have noticed a few coincidences over the last week, the Yorkists came through Carnforth on their way to Stoke Field in 1487, the Jacobites came past in 1745 on their way to Preston and the Scots raided Penrith in 1385.

I was greeted with howls of laughter at the club when I intimated that I had finished collecting armies, but I really have. I will admit to now having the time to maybe, maybe turn to a couple of things which have nagged me for ages, adding an extra file to my Seleucid pike phalanxes and adding the same or maybe two, to the Twelfth's first cohort to make it larger than the others as it always was in the early legions.

 I have finished the lovely gift from Matt Smith, I have kept it simple and believe it has turned out OK. The last of my BEF are on the tray and should be finished sometime this weekend and ready for battle.

 I think that is it for now. 

The Monocacy: Abe worried.

 There has been quite a bit of naval action at the club recently using Sam Mustafa's 'Nimitz' rules, I showed an interest and Stuart very kindly put on a game for me this week using his lovely 3D printed ships, these have superb detail and only miss the sailors on deck.

There were five of us, three German forces and two British, being an old matelot myself I took Hood, Prince of Wales, two heavy cruisers and three destroyers, one of the three survivors of the Hood was a communicator and there is another link, I digress. In Nelson style Henry and I sailed our ships straight at the enemy and commenced long range firing, my shells fell into empty water, Henry with Warspite and Nelson on the other hand had incredible success. I found myself up against the Bismark and Graf Spee along with their escorts while Henry took on the other two squadrons. I managed to 'cross the T' but couldn't hit a barn door.

The British fleet.

The Germans.

Bismark.

The mighty Hood.

Nelson and Warspite got in close and although losing a couple of destroyers shrugged off the losses and continued to hand out damage as more Germans went to Davy Jones' Locker. My gunners at last got the range and I added to the tally of German light forces sunk but it had taken a long time. At the end of the engagement it was declared a British victory with us having sunk more of the enemy.

The rules as we played them were pretty simple, I am sure there is more depth but this was an introduction. Shooting is done using one dice, if you hit the number of 'tubes' now comes into play and damage can be lethal as even battleships do not have a lot of flotation boxes, destroyers can be sunk with one salvo. I found it strange that all hits cause critical damage whether it be the loss of a gun, your fire director or even a catastrophic explosion. Torpedoes are also hard to get a hit with and both sides fired multiple salvoes but I think only once did they hit or maybe not at all. You also have to come to grips with the fact that the ships' position on the table is where its front funnel is, so it can look like ships will ram, collide or block other vessels but they do not. Ships will also sail in formation but can break this if the player wants to. Each ship has a card with all its details on and these are crossed off as damage is taken, they are fairly basic but I was perplexed that the Hood and the British heavy cruisers did not show secondary armaments, this was a real bind to my force.

Like many sets of rules these days they are 'light', you can use lovely models, roll some dice and have a laugh with your mates during a club night. If you live and breath naval warfare you might find these lacking, otherwise full steam ahead!

Back to the ACW at last, Fran has fought the battle of Monocacy several times at the club with Warlord's Epic scale figures so I offered my own Monocacy scenario here in the Post Office/Shop/War Room (still unsure). At first glance it looks like the Rebels are up against it as by 1864 the Second Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia had been almost bled dry and regiments had had to be amalgamated to form any kind of decent fighting unit. I amalgamated some of these wargame units which were too small and upped several others to give decent wargame units. The Union forces were also in a bit of a mess, a couple of brigades were decent but the defenders on the Federal right were shockingly under strength. On the bright side the Confederates approaching the Monocacy bridges were huge amalgamations of 800 men each, a challenge for the Union defenders.

The battlefield.

The Reb left.

The Reb right.

The Union left and centre.

I took the good guys while Fran as usual wore gray. I decided to quickly abandon the far bank defences and retire to my side of the river as despite the works my small regiment, 200 men, would be under extreme pressure from some 1,600 Rebs supported by artillery, should I have used them as a speed bump, who knows, maybe. Having decided to hold my right I wanted to advance my left and immediately marched off, hoping my slightly better numbers would win through. 

The first cannon shot of the day routed and dispersed one of my defenders behind the works, not a good omen, I was therefore forced to start edging some of my regiments to the right to fill the gap. My artillery took out a couple of Confederate guns with counter battery fire. Fran could have held back but he took his historical part seriously and pushed all his forces forward in an assault of the Union line, I thought this was playing into my lap, the Fates would soon put me in my place. As a storm of fire hit my defenders Rebel infantry pushed across the Monocacy but it was all taking time, I had now got my far left into close proximity of the Confederate right and I hit it with a well timed surprise charge, I broke the line and only needed one more push to halt their advance, Fran looked nervously to his right. 

Attack now lads.

The Confederates sense victory.

My outnumbered defenders.

Then it all went pear shaped, despite several Confederate routs the survivors stopped my attack in its tracks and it was my troops who were now shattered. Meanwhile with the threat lifted Terry and York's brigades now hit the dog leg in the Union line and slowly but surely ground down the defenders while several regiments fled to the rear. By now I had lost my only artillery battery which had done sterling work up until they were captured, I had no choice now but to disengage as fast as I could for some welcoming trees behind my front line. As we contemplated the next turn my left was in complete disarray while the Rebs had rallied and held me off, my centre was running and my regiments were all carrying heavy casualties and unlikely to stand in a line of battle, my extreme right was still there but again under pressure and it seemed only a matter of time before they were overwhelmed. I handed over my sword.

York and Terry.

The big skedadle.

Big unit.

Havoc caused by my artillery.

On reflection I possibly should have simply withdrew and formed a new line without a dog leg and away from the Reb artillery as their infantry would mask the fire as they advanced, but I didn't. Although I used my cavalry to help my attack on the Confederate right I felt I did not get the best out of them. And yes, I do have time to moan, Fran's ability to punish me with devastating fire at least four times during the game and in melee to beat me by one point had me rolling my eyes several times. Nonetheless one again JR delivers the goods, a great, exciting fight, win or lose.

I have at last finished the SYW battalion kindly gifted to me by David Bickley of GHQ, it was a struggle as I had not wanted to paint any more British or any SYW troops having completed what I wanted. However I am now the proud owner of  His Majesty's 21st Foot 'North British Fusiliers'. This has also rekindled my painting mojo so although I am not starting any more new periods I have ordered up a fourth cohort for the 12th from Aventine before Keith retires next year and in case no one takes over the ranges, which would be a great loss to the wargaming community. Because the Thunderbolts are getting a new unit I have also ordered up some mercenary hoplites for the Seleucids, these are Foundry metal as Aventine no longer do their earlier range, the packs are eight men, so you would think three packs equals a 24 man unit, no, because for some reason best known to them the command pack is seven men! So I am stuck for one, spear overarm hoplite to complete my unit, grrrrrr, I did manage to scrounge a plastic guy from the club but....... I have also looked at my lead pimple of Landsknechts and with just a couple of packs I can put together another pike block, so they too are on the way.

More Scots, 21st Foot.

The LMF as well as stumping up for the new figures has also bought me a couple of new books, The Battle of Pinkie 1547 the last battle between the Kingdoms of Scotland and England which received very good reviews some time ago and I had it on my list at one point so why not. The other is Lionel Shriver's Mania, which although a work of fiction is set in a world where it is a crime to call anyone stupid is fast becoming non-fiction, non-crime hate-crimes anyone?

 

Busy or what? Next week I am introducing Fran to War and Conquest at the club on Tuesday, playing WAC on Thursday evening with Ed here at me casa, Ed had the temerity to beat the 12th when we played last, two years ago, I have a reputation to recover. On Wednesday I am off to Penrith and the Dungeon for an Operation Sealion encounter with Matt. On leaving the club both Julian and Rob intimated they will come for a game at some point this month. I'm exhausted already.

It ain't over until the physically challenged lady sings!

Giving WWII a rest I thought I would take the opportunity to do a large battle and get a couple of armies on the table, even if the game did not work I could sit for ages just looking at the troops and disappear into a little world of my own. Legio XII had not been on campaign for a long time so I thought they could challenge the new boys on the block, the Seleucids, I roped in friend Matt from the Wargames Table to once again take command.

Are you superstitious with your armies, I am, each has its own set of dice and I try not to have favourites, however the Thunderbolts are my favourites, I love that army, I like the rest but those guys do me proud. I am always a bit wary of handing them over to another general but put it down to a new political appointee from Rome, so temporary only. I do wonder however that in a solo game can I be totally unbiased and not upset the other army by secretly rooting for the Twelfth, am I mad?

I sorted out a table then sent Matt a map and the army list for Early Imperial Roman, the battle was going to be 3,250 points a side. I chose four phalanxes, an Elephant,Ccataphracts and Companions supported by some skirmishers and mercenary Peltasts, I then deployed them before looking at Matt's army choices and his deployment. My first thought was it was not going to be a long battle, my army seemed to be more powerful than Matt's, opposite me were four cohorts of tough regular legionaries along with one veteran (Praetorians), these were supported by some archers, skirmshers, Contari and an Auxiliary Cohort. I checked my numbers again as for a Seleucid army I seemed to have way more than I should, but no, they were fine, the legionaries opposite were the finest though. Matt had also given me a rough plan to follow so let battle commence.

Romans left, Selecuids right.

The Phalanx.

Praetorians, Cohors II, I, III.

 From the Roman perspective the heavy infantry needed to advance sharply and get into combat as both flanks looked vulnerable, the Auxiliaries and massed archers were going to sit on their hill and see what transpired. The Seleucids decided to hit both flanks while leading the advance with the elephant in concert with a phalanx, I got excited and with only auxiliaries and some archers on the hill thought I could ride them down with the Cataphracts, I had intended to set a phalanx on the archers but decided to instead pull it in to the centre and flank the left hand cohort. The Praetorians screwed up the Roman advance, this is one of those units, and refused to move despite being howled at by the Legate himself, so this left three cohorts against four phalanxes and the elephant, but the Romans had no choice but continue forward, the slow Praetorians could now protect the right flank but it still looked like the left would collapse as the Companions and Contari came to grips and the Cataphracts advanced on the hill. I had fully expected the Contari to be swept away but no, they held on for three turns before fleeing.

The advance, well not the Praetorians.

 

The Contari put up a fight.

Now the main clash between both infantry lines came and the phalanxes smashed into the cohorts, I now realised why I had more men, I had forgotten to give the phalangites light armour, a big mistake when facing Romans. While the smart but useless Praetorians were chasing the Peltasts Cohors II in a tough battle with the White phalanx eventually managed to rout them, Cohors I were uncharacteristically routed by the Purple phalanx. The biggest setback of the day occurred as Cohors III was hit by two phalanxes and the elephant, none of these units could seem to make any headway against the others, the flanking phalanx and the elephant were particularly inept and things slowly swung in favour of the Romans.

The Cataphracts charge fails.

Rome just about to win the left flank.

On the left the Auxiliaries stopped the Cataphracts and they too began to slowly turn the tide, just as the victorious Companions came thundering back ready to hit them in the flank the armoured horsemen broke and took the Companions with them, the Gods had deserted the Seleucids, in the centre with the help of the Auxiliary Archers Cohors III beat their tormentors and it was all over for the Greeks.

The Auxiliary Archers charge in and seal the Greek fate.

 What had started out as a distraction for the day turned into a brutal and exciting battle. It had its heroes and villains, the haughty Praetorians doing their own thing and the tenacious Auxiliaries and Cohors III defying the odds. Normally I suspect the combination of elephant and phalanx would have swept the third cohort away, however I have a house rule that all units in contact with the elephant suffer disorder not just the target, this slowed the combat, also the flank phalanx also ended up in contact with Nellie which did not do them any favours, all this as well as the dire combat rolls of all involved ensured a long and protracted struggle. It was a bad idea to attack uphill with the Cataphracts and when it was obvious they were going to be beat in the long run I should have disengaged them, there are rules for this under trial but I did not have them to hand, I will keep them close for the future.

I now want to get a fourth cohort which has been one of those things which never goes away and will have to happen one day.

Needle in a haystack II

As I mentioned I had started a second Goeben campaign to run alongside the first, I overloaded myself a bit with all my small projects, painting etc. and running two campaigns but they were both highly enjoyable and certainly gave me something to do.

The second involved Dan (Milne), Stuart (Troubridge) and Stewart (Souchon), I was learning more as we went along, Dan was a hands on CinC which left Stuart merely to sail his ships as ordered, I talked to Stuart and we decided if Troubridge met the Germans he would actually have the last say on whether to engage or not, not the CinC. If I did it again I would only have two players, British and German. A French gentleman on Facebook informed me that the French had several modern ships available in the Med so you could if you wanted add a French battlegroup, I however did not and if Goeben had met the French would have strongly advised her to sail away, in real life they didn't meet hence they were under the control of the umpire.

This time the British CinC concentrated his ships at Malta  and once informed of the bombardment of Phillipeville made for the Tunis-Sicily Gap while sending light forces to scout ahead. HMS Chatham and four destroyers were sent to keep an eye on the Straits of Messina. The urgent signal from the British Embassy in Rome informing Milne that Goeben was coaling at Messina set the game afoot. Sadly for the British Goeben only had a few hours left to finish coaling and their ships were too far away to catch her. Nonetheless forces were sent north and south of Sicily just in case.

Because of this Chatham and her destroyers made a brave effort as Goeben exited Messina to damage and slow down the German ship. Chatham was severely damaged and was forced to withdraw as the Germans sped past, three destroyers went to the bottom but not before two had launched torpedo salvos at Goeben. Of the eight torpedoes fired only two hit and exploded, although damaged, Goeben's armoured belt reduced the effect of the explosions enough that her speed was not compromised. She sailed off for the fleshpots of Constantinople.

HMS Chatham

Typical WWI destroyer

Again another excellent little game and a hard task for the British, I have played this several times since 1987 and the worst thing to happen to the Germans is that the Breslau gets sunk, Goeben has always managed to evade the British battlecruisers. This has inspired me to fight a what if at the club when I am allowed out again, to see just how the Goeben might have managed against the 1st Cruiser Squadron or perhaps the battlecruisers.

I have started a solo game of Chain of Command but the sun is out and I may be suffering from locked up syndrome so I am going to get some fresh air and clean and wash the car after which I may get on with the game. My new Soviet organisation is going really well against the panzergrenadiers.

Looking over my terrain as I put the table together I noticed a few greens did not match up so I now cannot leave it alone and have ordered up two boxes of the static grass I use to eliminate this problem, should have done it ages ago. I also noticed that my lovely shell holes have no bottom, so if you put them in a corn field, you see corn surrounded by earth, daft, so they too are getting a facelift.

Nine figures started so they will get finished next week just in time for my Seven Year War generals to turn up, so for the third week of lockdown, I am unsure how many at the mo, I will set to on my industrial buildings of which there are half a dozen.