König und Kaiser

Battle of Weissenburg

2011-10-03T06:11:00.004+01:00

The major Strathian offensive of the war, as the Duke invades Meldenia. Above, we see Strathia entering from the right, while Meldenia approaches from the left - both armies are following the course of the river towards a plateau of raised ground.

The Meldanian Army, led by the Duke Cristoph Von Melden, in a succession of lines thanks to the cramping effect of the river.

The Strathian Army, mostly entering on the same bank...

... and across the river, a small mixed-arms detachment. Its aim is to place cannon over the river on the Meldenian flank, enfilading the line.

The approach - the Meldenians gain the hill, and the Strathians advance. Cannon-shots are exchanged along the main battle-line. The village and the bridge over the river fall to the Strathians, and the cross-river detachment swiftly clears some fields of lurking Meldenian Croats.

The Strathian Duke then sends his guards and grenadiers to his right flank, seeking a double-flanking move. The Meldenian line, luckily heavily stocked with infantry, responds by pulling in both flanks. Will the promised contingent from Meldania's ally, Buvalia, get here in time?

They do! Rushing up at speed from the Meldenian Rear, the Buvalian force moves down the river and detects a previously unnoticed crossing-ford. Suddenly the Strathian flanking cannon are looking vulnerable.

The carefully-tended fields, recently swept of Croats, turn into a close-fought battlefield as Strathian infantry battle to contain Buvalian horse and foot at the crossing.

Back at the main battle-line, the Strathian line is becoming stretched as the Meldenian artillery punches holes through the blue line. Reserves have blocked the flanking attack, so the Duke of Strathia throws in his last reserve in: four brigades of cavalry, launched like a fist into the centre of the Meldenian line to smash it wide open.

Meldenia holds out! The white line holds firm, and the oncoming horsemen are shot down by the score as they advance up the slope, raked by musket volleys and canister from the supporting cannons. The overstretched Strathian army can take no more and begins to fall back, leaving behind some of the flower of its troops dead on the ground

"Your Grace, you must flee this accursed field!"

Battle near Palmsa

2011-08-19T06:20:00.003+01:00

The war is on! Strathia is up against an alliance of three enemy states, and the Duke Von Halburg himself is poised to invade Meldenia with the main army of the Duchy. To the south however, the secondary army is waiting under Count Von Stresswitz, guarding the main city of Palmsa from the Sarvanian Army (the two lower army markers you can see facing off against each other on the map above.) Sarvania duly advances, unable to resist the chance to put all of Strathia's plans into chaos by forcing a siege on their capital so rapidly in the war.

The white-coated Sarvanians enter the filed of battle from the bottom of the picture, while the blue wall of Strathians wait silently for them - both flanks anchored on a small village and a stream on each side of them. There's only one route for the Sarvanians to take - headlong!
The Sarvanian infantry attacks in double-ranks, keeping its Grenadiers and lively Hungarian-style regiments to the fore. On the open flank, the Sarvanians move artillery up and a screen of infantry, thus bringing the village under bombardment and blocking the superior Strathian cavalry.
Kapow! After enduring a hail of incoming cannon-balls, the Sarvanian line hits home. The bluecoat Strathians reel back, with some units cracking up under the strain and fleeing for the rear as the Hungarians press home and threaten to put their swords & bayonets to use.
The fight goes on, but bogs down. Count Stresswitz keeps a steady hand on things and rallies waverers, plus sends reserves in as required to blunt the Sarvanian attack.

General Von Kreist, Reichskanzler of Sarvania, has had a pretty good day by his standards. His obligations to the League are fulfilled, and the strength of the Strathian military whittled down a fair degree - as are his own. True, some might say he just did the bare minimum and then retreated, or that his attack was beaten back, but what do they know? The Strathian position was a tough one, and the slippery Count still had his grenadiers in reserve - clearly no decision of decisive nature was going to be reached, and in the best traditions of 18th-Century Military Theory are clear: bst to withdraw and count on the damage done collectively adding up. Now, all eyes in the region turn northwards to the anticipated Strathian invasion of Meldenia...

[A quick word on forces in the campaign: The Strathian army is huge, and by points-standards it is as large as the other three allied armies added together. However, as the other three countries can rebuild every year in normal DBA-Campaign style, the Strathian Player can't. His large army will, in a protracted war, be ground down until it also reaches the same size as any other participant, when it will then recruit normally. If The Duke of Strathia fancies remaining the regional top-dog, he'll have to do it fast!]

The League of Strathia

2011-08-16T06:36:00.004+01:00

What with all the talk of vast new campaigns, new army collections, etc. it's actually been some time since some games were published here! As I realised this with a start, I decided to get something quick and simple done and issued asap, rather than saving away and leaving huge gaps where nothing was really happening. So: here is my new 'quick' DBA-style campaign, between some local rivals.

Allow me to introduce four minor countries, huddled together in a minor enclave off the Baltic coast. Going clockwise, there is the Freistadt of Buvalia, a mercantile state sitting at the mouth of the River Mannow; there is Sarvania, the large and landlocked country to the southeast; next is the dominant local power, the Duchy of Strathia; last, the coastal and rugged Duchy of Meldenia.

This group of countries used to be under Strathia's control in the 'League of Strathia.' However, the greedy Duke Franz Von Halburg has taken a bit too much from them all, for a bit too long. The states have united, and declared war on Strathia to end the League. Can the Duke maintain Strathia's control? Will the rebelling alliance hold together long enough to secure victory? And if so, which of the three will emerge as the new dominant regional power?

New Model Army?

2011-06-12T13:59:00.003+01:00

Recently, while noodling and footling around with different imaginations for my planned big grand campaign, I found myself at a quiet moment painting-wise. As I have been posting on my other blog, I've recently finished up and squared away a large WW2 project. Now, with my spare evenings, I seem to be at somethting of a loss without as many projects. This got me thinking about something I swore not so long ago I simply wouldn't do: collecting another Seven Years' War army.

Uncertain if this was a good idea or not, I began to look into it and pondered what to get. I settled pretty rapidly on a Russian army, who (barring small exceptions) posed the other main enemy that Frederick the Great found Prussia tangling with on the battlefield. The general outlook is good: natty uniforms with a nice green-and-red scheme; stackloads of artillery; stubborn infantry who just never seem to quit; comically (on the games table, at least) inept commanders more interested in fighting with each other than an enemy; cavalry with hordes of light horse in the form of the Cossacks. In short, a force which would sit nicely alongside the Austrians and Prussians I already own and have enough of an individual character to make it hold it's own. Browsing and planning the Essex Miniatures' website (my supplier of choice for 15mm figs) has seen me work out a three-batch system which allows me to grow the army progressively over time up to the final planned size, which would mean it could compete with the two others.

All that I need to do now is convince myself I'm really up to painting hundreds of tricornes and coat-facings once again! (shudder...)

Down the Wargame 'Rabbit-Hole'

2011-05-20T19:50:00.002+01:00

Good grief, but I didn't think a wargames campaign would take up so much time purely in the setup! I've surprised myself, to be honest, but wanted to at least check in to say progress is ongoing. I'm currently working with a massive hex map I've made, by printing and taping twelve A4 pages together to produce a massive folding map of a fictional area. Whether the map covers a fictional continent like Europe or some minor Baltic Enclave beneath the notice of history, I haven't yet decided (or much see the need to ever decide!)

I am currently detailing the countries as per Tony Bath's advice, which is strangely 'against the grain' as far as I'm concerned. Normally I'm all in favour of reducing detail in a campaign to make play smooth and easy, but this system of Tony Bath & Co. goes the very opposite way. Everything, down to the population of farmhouses and the national budget is detailed by following his advice! Contrary to my expectations, this actually helps with the detail, as I feel I 'own' the creation far more with this sort of detail at my fingertips. Quite a pleasant surprise, I must say. I shall post again soon, with some map info and the basics of how one of my countries works. Back to the Exchequer!

Campaign Plans

2011-04-08T06:11:00.003+01:00

It's been quite a while since I was wargaming anything SYW-related, to be honest, but the itch has not gone away. I have resolved on a new project for my nations of Aschenbach and Luftberg, in order to re-launch the enthusiasm. I was campaigning over the small province of Muckenmire, but things have degenerated and slowed so much it seems pointless to become bogged down in it. Time to man up, accept it's halted, and park it for a while. Maybe in the future I can pick it up again (the advantages of detailed record-keeping!)

So, what now? I had toyed with the idea of a large campaign which took on board some of the lessons I had learned from the Muckenmire campaign. I liked the hexes & movement, but felt I had allowed too small an area and clogged it with fortresses - possibly realistic, but something of a struggle to campaign in for a game. I also had higher ambitions, as a flip through the old rulebook 'Warfare in the age of Reason' by Tod Kershner saw the campaign system catch my eye. For those who don't have this, it's basically a full SYW campaign map, with the whole of Europe shown, plus the American Colonies & Indian Subcontinent included.

I liked the notion of something big-scale, but there was one problem: I had Prussian and Austrian armies, but no others - and I had sworn a solemn oath to myself that after long months painting the pair of them, I was never again painting a large 18th-Century army! I abandoned the idea, but the potential still remained and I turned it over and over in my mind.

Finally, another two sources of information/inspiration arrived! On a whim, I got the 'Campaign Cartographer' software for myself to let me draw good-quality maps (after just one too many uninspiring hand-drawn black & white effort) plus I ordered a copy of the old-style classic 'Setting up a Wargames Campaign' by Tony Bath.

I am currently reading through this and sketching out ideas, but I think that I am generally clear on the plan I have: Aschenbach and Luftberg fighting each other through a large map littered with minor principalities and duchies (who, through the influence of their powerful neighbours, just happen to have extremely similar uniforms) plus some colonial footholds that the two superpowers can scrap over through land and sea! I'm still reading onwards, but I shall keep you updated on my progress so you can see how things develop.

Battle at Grossenbasch

2011-01-27T06:12:00.004Z

After a break over the xmas holidays, I thought I'd share some pics from a one-off fight I'd had. At random, I decided to just put each full army on a big table and fight out a stand-alone battle. Normally I have been recently doing this on the floor of the living room, but the knees don't take well to it! Instead I broadened out the dining room table by the simple method of putting down some sheets of MDF board to widen it from a small-ish rectangle into a large square area - and then I crammed every bit of scenery I had onto it, to make the terrain as challenging as possible.

After a brief setup, I was off! Each army advanced from it's setup area, rapidly gravitating towards the defensive positions around - of which there were many. Below is the Luftberg army in it's deployment zone, about to occupy a small hill to its front.

Below we have the Aschenbach army, which has the space for a more linear setup to the front, and guns packed on a hilltop behind.

The battle opened with the speedy Aschenbach advance in the centre, between the two areas of woodland. The centre offered only a narrow corridor for advance between these obstacles, so brigades of infantry went through one after the other. The object for Aschenbach became to have the two leading line infantry brigades swing left and right, leaving the enemy centre set up for the third brigade (made up of Grenadiers) to break through. The terrain is tough however - a stream on the left, a hill to the right, and an enemy-held village right in the centre!

Disaster looms! The Aschenbach infantry cause terrible casualties, but by trying to swing out and widen their front, they expose their flanks to enfilade fire as the Luftberg line bends back and becomes concave! The bluecoats flee, and the Luftberg line begins to advance. With Croats also sniping from the trees, could this be a total collapse for the Aschenbach army?

The grenadiers occupy the gap between the two woods, and crush the Luftberg advance with their steady volleys. The advancing tide is turned back, with the possibility of breaking the Aschenbach army part now rapidly fading - those grenadiers have sealed up the bottleneck like, erm, a cork in a bottleneck!

Sensing a loss of Luftberg strength, the grenadiers advance out to press on the enemy line. Luftberg units prove equal to the chance with their supporting batteries however, and the Grenadier advance is held - also thanks to some pretty aggressive counter-charging by the lively Hungarians!

And so, with the see-saw infantry battle over, the battle peters out in a standstill. The cavalry on each flank maintained a watchful hold on each other, waiting for one side or the other to gain an advantage in the centre before attacking. Sadly, that never came decisively for either side. The ground in the centre was certainly torn up, with an Aschenbach advance, then a Luftberg one, then a second Aschenbach attack, followed by yet another Luftberg counter-attack. As it turned out, the grenadiers were battered enough to pull back and hold the line long enough for all the batteries of artillery to be lined up in a protective screen. Each army had lost heavily, but neither had prevailed. I suppose the Aschenbach King can simply go home dissatisfied, but the Luftberg General will have a job writing to his Emperor and spinning this as a victory!

Hochkirch Re-fight Pics

2010-12-08T11:32:00.002Z

Scandalous neglect! Sadly much real-life activity plus a total lack of opportunity has kept me from playing any games for a while, but I did recently manage to squeeze a half-sized battle onto my dining table, to re-fight the battle of Hochkirch. I won't give a large or detailed description, but shall post a few snaps I managed to take. The battle proved to be a real knockabout affair, and almost all the action took place in a 2ft x 2ft area on the Prussian flank, where the Austrian columns hit. Had I known, I would've simply written off a large portion of the field and scaled-up the area of interest, but there you go - you live and learn!

The full battlefield - Prussians deployed facing to the right, while the Austrians appear at the bottom of the table.

The Austrian attack columns

The Austrian attack columns - as seen from above

The Austrians attack the Prussian line around Hochkirch village.

The Prussians held them in a hot fight for a while, but the Austrians turned both flanks and steadily overwhelmed them by superior numbers.

Moving on to the next battle

2010-09-27T06:05:00.003+01:00

Dear god, it's been nearly a full calendar month without any postings! Whatever is going on? Well, sadly the boring real world gets in the way now and then and weekends are fully-booked, which brings all opportunity for gaming to a crashing standstill. Shame, but there it is!

I have been toying with ideas however, primarily one about doing a historical re-fight. It dawned on me that my newly-completed armies could represent very good forces in a SYW-style refight. If I doubled the scale, a very big battle!

I checked online for some scenarios, and found a bunch of them available online for free via Sam Mustafa's excellent website for his rules 'Might & Reason' (championed here on my website on several past campaigns!) The link is:

http://www.sammustafa.com/honour/might-reason/mrscenario.html

After tabling the forces and relative sizes, I realised that the Battle of Hochkirch from 1758 was a plausible candidate for my dining room table, if I halved the unit size (i.e. represented each unit with a single base rather than the normal two.) I'm currently tinkering with scales and reduced areas, plus also trying to work out how to represent the landscape on the table (it appears that the battle map was basically a large sloping hill, with around seven different contoured heights given on the scenario map.) I was planning to make the terrain by putting some books under my grass-green throw-rug, but having 7 books mounded up at one end of the table and none at the other seems a touch ridiculous! Still, I'll contrive something roughly close enough to the historical map to let the refight go ahead - after all, with time so difficult to find, no little technical problem will cost me the chance for a tabletop scrap! So far, next weekend looks free, so I'm off to polish my breastplate and have my sabre sharpened up.

The Battle of Berkhoek

2010-08-19T06:15:00.005+01:00

I have cracked the use of Battlechronicler, so I can now supply explanatory maps and cut down on text - always far better to get the casual blog reader to follow a battle report, I find!

The situation starts with the Aschenbach army behind the small stream near the village of Berkhoek. Their right is on a wood, while their left is near a marsh. The cavalry is on the left, while there is a small field redoubt between the cavalry and infantry to protect the line further.

The battle opens with an artillery exchange, with some troops falling on each side.

The Aschenbach line, seen from the redoubt.

The full Luftberg army, deployed in classic linear style.

The advance got underway - Luftberg planned to pin the front and quickly deliver a flanking blow with the cavalry, which would roll up the enemy line. The Right-Wing cavalry advanced rapidly, splashing through the stream in front of the enemy horse and taking heavy fire from the redoubt.

The cavalry press on and attack the enemy dragoons, flanking them and forcing them back. Elsewhere the left-wing cavalry continue to languish and make slow progress, while the infantry lines trade long-range volleys. The grenadiers push heroically forward however, showing the aggressive spirit necessary!

The cavalry battle in progress.

Presumably inspired by the example, the Hungarians cross the stream too, after the Grenadiers - one battalion of which charges and captures the artillery guns next to the redoubt in heroic style, but sadly the redoubt's defenders make further advance impossible without exposing their flanks to deadly fire. Where are the cavalry - they're surely meant to protect against this sort of thing!

The infantry lines stutter forward towards each other, with battalions being repeatedly halted in disorder by the hot fire. Aschenbach is naturally doing better here, outshooting it's more poorly-drilled rivals.

Aschenbach's line is straining as the casualties mount, but the reserve Fusilier battalion from the depot in the rear finally arrives to help out. Likewise, a battalion of IR7 refuses the flank to keep the line together.

At last! The left-wing cavalry finally roll an excellent move and ford the stream, heading deep into the enemy rear. The right-wing cavalry are stalemated, and a second attempt by the grenadiers to charge some cannons is halted in a storm of grapeshot. The line is holding, but only just - and there's nothing left to stop this cavalry attack threatening to descend. Von Hartling decides to withdraw slowly, hopefully avoiding the enemy cavalry before it can get a successful orders roll. Disaster strikes however, when Von Hartling completely fails his own orders roll - his army is a sitting duck!

Nooo! The cavalry commander on the Luftberg left wing gets the second full-effect orders roll - two turns in a row now! This incredible streak of form sees his horsemen descend onto the backs of the hard-pressed bluecoats, who promptly shatter like glass.

The disaster is total - two battalions are scattered, while a third is surrounded along with the surviving gunners. Caught deep within the milling hordes of Luftberg troops, there's nothing for it but to send out a white flag and begin the genteel process of negotiating an honourable surrender. Von Hartling does however use the time for this wisely, snatching his remaining infantry clear of the wreckage, abandoning the redoubt and falling back behind his cavalry as a screen.

Gentlemen, another glorious victory to the Elector Von Luftberg - champagne!

Technical Problems

2010-08-17T06:29:00.002+01:00

Apologies for the delay, everybody. The battle is fought, but I am intending to post photos & the report along with maps using the Battlechronicler software - worth googling as it's a free download for your wargame maps etc. to put on your blog. Only problem is that I'm still going through the 'teething troubles' stage, getting the hang of how to use it. The results should be along soon, hopefully, so please bear with me!

Up-and-coming Fight

2010-08-06T06:51:00.003+01:00

Thanks to everyone who commented on the last post - my long-held objective is complete! And now, with perfect timing, the Muckenmire campaign has thrown up an interesting (and large) battle.

Winter approaches, so both sides are largely clearing up the province by engaging in the time-consuming and static pursuits of siegecraft. Von Krumper is now camped outside Veldhuizburg, Von Zaub is away investing the large and isolated city of Oosterheide, and Von Hartling - well, it's not going so well. After entering the province and sweeping a few towns away from the enemy, the dire autumn weather forced a halt and consolidation, building a depot to let him move deeper into enemy territory. Upon completion, he crossed the river Konigveldt and approached the garrisoned town of Vincken for a siege. Sadly for him, there was a late-freeze in November that restored full-speed movement in the province before the serious winter snows set in. With the roads passable, no less a force than the Elector Von Luftberg's army itself (newly arrived in the province and looking for trouble) began approaching fast.

Keeping up the siege was impossible, and hasty withdrawal to the Konigveldt river the only option. However, Von Hartling wasn't about to give up without a fight. The road back to the river is one of 20 miles, but two-thirds of the way back the road is hemmed in - by woods and the river to the north-west, and swampland to the south-east. At this bottleneck, the outnumbered Aschenbach army can make a stand and hopefully bloody the noses of the Elector's men.

Forces are as follows below. The Aschenbach army has every advantage of terrain and position, but is heavily outnumbered: parity in artillery, but facing odds of two-to-one in Infantry and three-to-one in Cavalry.

Aschenbach - Von Hartling commanding

IR4 Von Hoffman Infantry Regiment

IR7 Von Dunckel Infantry Regiment

FR8 Von Grappel Fusilier Regiment (one battalion late-deploying)

DR1 Von Fleiger Dragoon Regiment

#2 Artillery battery

Rudimentary fieldworks

Luftberg - Von Luftberg commanding

Pilsen Grenadier Regiment

IR2 Doppler Infantry Regiment

IR5 Von Trapp Infantry Regiment

IR7 Von Stiegl Infantry Regiment

IR9 Bartok Hungarian Infantry Regiment

KR3 Klimt Kurassier Regiment

DR2 Krauss Dragoon Regiment

HR2 Schiele Hussar Regiment

#1 Artillery Battery

Siege Train (not on field)

Pontoons (not on field)

Painting: Completed!

2010-08-02T06:22:00.003+01:00

It's done! In a post I sometimes never thought I'd type, here it is: I have completed my Seven Years' War armies! First conceived in 2008, and now - roughly one and two-thirds of a year later, they are now completely painted and based. I had thoroughly sickened myself of painting after an earlier burst that broke the back of them, and allowed me to play games with a few left over - I just couldn't face mopping up the remainder. Little bits were done here and there, slowly nibbling away at the pile, but that was all.

Then, yesterday morning, I suddenly had the impulse out of nowhere to just get my head down and finish it off. One lazy Sunday transformed into a frenzied paint-a-thon later, and it is over. The final Aschenbach units are complete, painted and based!

Doubtless when they make the film of this deranged painting project (it's all in my mind's eye, so why not?) I'll be on-screen looking all windswept and conflicted, trying to decide whether to go back for one last mission(painting session) before final retirement. I'll be living in some log cabin in the mountains, where I've no doubt sought refuge from the horrors of the war(gaming.) I'll tell my boss(conscience) that I'm through with it - I'm out, and have no more interest in coming back. He'll tell me that if I don't do it, nobody else will - and, just before he walks off to leave in his jet-powered helicopter (yes, he has one of those) he tosses a single, battered figure at my feet. I look down, and pick it up: a Prussian Musketeer, Advancing (Catalogue Number SYWP1 , Essex Miniatures.) Slowly clenching it in my fist, perhaps delivering a skyward shout to the uncaring gods, I know that once more I'm back in the game, damn them. Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in... They pull me back in...

In retrospect, I probably need to go have a bit of a lie down! Ponder all the games to come, and all that! :-) Here's some eye-candy of the second army.

Cavalry above - Cuirassiers & Dragoons

Generals & Grenadiers

Fine regiments of Infantry, Grenadier mitre-caps shining in the foreground

Infantry in foreground, plus Fusiliers and Hussars behind

The Artillery

Meet Otto - the flag-bearer in IR7 (Von Dunckel) who enters my personal painting valhalla, as the very final figure based out of the approximately 719 painted and based to complete this project.

(Also, Thanks to all who ever read the blog or posted on it over the long struggles with kind words of encouragement - it made a big difference!)

July activity

2010-07-29T06:40:00.002+01:00

Where does the month go? I've been busy with much 'real life' stuff, plus when I have been able to progress with the Muckenmire Campaign, it doesn't immediately generate any action - curses on this muddy weather, slashing everybody's movement! Still, even with this delay I believe a big battle could be soon approaching, as Elector Von Luftberg himself has arrived with his army of reinforcements.

More generally in the hobby, I have been listening to the excellent 'Meeples & Miniatures' podcasts, which I would recommend to anybody with iTunes and (like me) has a long-ish commute each day to and from work. They basically just ramble on over any topic that takes their fancy on wargaming, and the result tends to be very entertaining. A recent discussion was on the board game 'Commands & Colours: Ancients' which I haven't played in ages. There was discussion of period variants, plus the way that numerous gamers had converted the game from a card board and wooden counters into effectively a quick-play wargame with miniatures. My interest has been tweaked - I may have a root around for a SYW-version I can use my miniatures with. The ability to fight a decent wargame-like battle on a limited-size board and complete it in 60-90 minutes would be a nice 'filler' game, so we shall see!

Highway Robbery!

2010-07-19T06:12:00.003+01:00

Taking up the action just south of Veldhuizburg, I laid out a large map area for just two cavalry units a side to fight out a large-scale skirmish on - the Luftberg cavalry of one Dragoon and one Hussar regiment making their escape south down a road, while the Aschenbach cavalry of one Cuirassier and one Hussar regiment dash to stop them.

The Luftberg cavalry crosses the Schelve and heads south down the road (bases turned sideways as they're in column.)

Oncoming Aschenbach cavalry races in from the east (partially obscured by the mist. Some would say the camera didn't focus, but what would they know?)

The Aschenbach cavalry moves fast, and manages to cut the road in front of the Luftberg column, just next to a small cornfield.

Luftberg hurriedly deploys, and the Dragoon regiment steps sideways onto a little rise of ground nearby.

The Hussars and Cuirassiers clash, with the heavier troopers winning and the Hussars falling back.

The opportunistic Dragoons charge down onto the flank of the tired Curiassiers and send them reeling back in disorder through the crops. A stand-off ensues, with each side rallying as best as they're able. Luftberg eventually moves it's Hussars off southwards, behind the Dragoons.

This leads the mobile Aschenbach Cuirassiers to swing round the revealed flank and hit the Dragoons again - it breaks them, sending the broken remains fleeing south.

And with that, the fight is over! Luftberg's cavalry slip the noose and escape being penned up in the siege, but in doing so their Dragoon regiment has been routed by the enemy. Plaudits all round! I'd recommend trying this as a quick skirmish battle - I actually used a playing area large enough for both my entire armies, so moves had to be carefully thought through to prevent the four units I actually used just slipping past each other. The Black Powder rules also worked very nicely, with lots of flanking and reforming: just what you'd expect from a cavalry battle.

The Cavalry Trap

2010-07-10T08:40:00.003+01:00

The action converges on Veldhuizburg now, as autumn draws on and a crossing over the Schelve becomes the principal prize for Aschenbach arms. Bitzhelm is well prepared for defence, with one of his remaining Infantry battalions in the works for defence, while his still-numerous cavalry (which never really got into action at Dolderburg) are also close at hand in the surrounding countryside.

The Aschenbach General Grenwitz has approached south on the Dolderburg road, and has commenced siegeworks with camps, parallels, etc. However, on his own he lacks the numerical strength necessary to properly seal up the town, and so his ineffective works can only screen the eastern approaches. In the west the land is still open and teeming with squadrons of the rival cavalry, who spend days in running skirmishes - Aschenbach trying to contain the besieged

close in to the works, while Luftberg tries to constantly break through the cordon and raid out on the supplies trundling down the Dolderburg road to Grenwitz's troops.

Miserable stuff for the besiegers, being thwarted like this. Von Krumper's approach gives cause for hope, however. He'll bring the numbers needed to clamp the western areas shut and

allow the siege proper to begin. However, Veldhuizburg - with it's back to the Schelve - is still not quite trapped thanks to the bridge Southwards. As Bitzhelm's Infantry fill the Garrison to capacity, the Cavalry will simply pull out southwards over the river. Grenwitz has plenty of time to ponder all this, at great length, and devises a suitably inventive plan.

He writes to Krumper, explaining the problem and suggests the following: As Krumper approaches to within a few miles of the scene, he sends his pontoons southwest to the Schelve and gets his Cavalry across, with orders to cut the Road and bottle up Veldhuizburg from the south. This way the garrison will be overloaded with useless Horsemen when Krumper's troops finally lock down the siege with a full investment - which will probably result in Veldhuizburg's rapid fall through starvation through the excessive pressure on the supplies.

Krumper decides to risk it - a cavalry-heavy fight beckons, as once his pioneers are spotted at work the Luftberg cavalry will struggle to disengage in the fields west of Veldhuizburg, fall back through the town, and then escape down the South road. Failure will probably doom Bitzhelm's whole force to siege & surrender, while failure risks a prolonged siege against a small rearguard which could well bring disaster if Aschenbach tries to persist with it through the rapidly oncoming winter.

Veldhuizburg

2010-06-30T06:05:00.005+01:00

I've had a moment of creative diversion that I thought I'd share. As the campaign focus moves to the river-crossings of Veldhuizburg on the River Schelve, I found myself sketching out maps for the small city/large town of Veldhuizburg. Here's a plan of the place:

It sits on the NE bank of the river, with a bridge across to a small (unwalled) docklands area on the opposite bank. Surrounding terrain is generally low-lying with scattered woods and marshland. I've also wound up doing my model in 3-D, and here's a view below:

As you can see, Veldhuizburg has a bastioned wall around it's perimeter, designed in accord to the scientific principles of the age. There are no ravelins around the works however on account of the relatively smaller size of the fortifications (outworks cost money, you know - do you fancy writing to the Elector about it, mister Burgomaster? I thought not!) The ditch in front has been cut into the river Schelve to create a moat around the walls, and a small Glacis to the front has been made by mounding up the sandy soil into a ramp (presumably, the money for Ravelins is taken up in paying some poor devils to constantly shovel the sand back into place and prevent the whole place slumping down!) The town layout is also on the classic Dutch fortress-pattern of streets radiating out like spokes from a central assembly area, allowing the garrison reserve to reach any point on the walls swiftly. On a whim, I made the central area a grassy little quadrangle to serve as the garrison parade-ground, town market, or promenading gardens for the well-to-do.

[Just as an extra note, I should add that the whole thing was drawn up easily on Google Sketchup, the free download for drawing 3-D pictures you can obtain, and can be used even by untrained amateurs like me!]

Rain in Muckenmire

2010-06-23T06:50:00.002+01:00

Wouldn't you know it - after much delay in the real world, the exact thing happens in the 18th-Century world! Aschenbach's campaign of invasion into the province of Muckenmire has been hit by a most inconvenient spell of bad weather. The normally hot august weather has been ruined by some unexpectedly heavy rain, which has turned the entire theatre into a muddy, shapeless mess.

Fresh from his bloody nose at the Steenwijk, the stunned Von Krumper has taken stock and called for a re-concentration of his forces, with the aim of taking Veldhuizburg further up the River Schelve and obtaining a crossing to the southern bank. If the capital of Brederdam can't be taken by a direct approach, it can be cut off and encircled from the rear! Veldhuizburg is also an easy target on account of the only defenders being the Luftberg army under Von Bitzhelm, still recovering there from their earlier defeat at the hands of Von Grenwitz.

Only a small holding force under Tobias Ludwig stood in the way, with his small detachment of Luftberg infantry & cavalry dug in at the Katherijne Bruck bridge over the Langendijk canal. He should have been brushed aside by the main Aschenbach army, except - he wasn't. The Aschenbach troops never even made it there. Thanks to this foul weather and trying to haul a siege train through it, the attack slowed to a crawl and never even landed a blow. In fact, the closest thing to action all month was when Von Krumper ordered the depot for his aborted advance to be torched - the first time for weeks anybody in a blue uniform has felt warm!

Enough of this miserable trekking around. Time to go to your billets in a handy requisitioned farmhouse, hang up your gaiters by the fireside, then engage in some drinking, gambling and pipe-smoking for a few days until the rain lets up.

Plans for Progress

2010-05-31T06:45:00.000+01:00

Hello Everybody, and sorry for the (relatively) long time since posting. The real world will have this way of demanding attention! Anyway, I thought I'd check back in with my Wargaming doings.

A few weeks back I hit on the idea of keeping a hand-written, pen & paper record of the campaigns I was running. This has been adopted for a few projects of mine, which at present stand at the Aschenbach/Luftberg campaigns (fully detailed here, obviously), a refight of the Wars of the Roses (covered on my other blog), a fictional-setting American Civil War campaign (also on the other blog) as well as a planned Sci-Fi Campaign (not blogged at all, but a lot of groundwork getting done!) All this is pretty busy stuff, and I find it takes up a lot of time. However it's a lot of fun and highly rewarding, plus it carries two advantages which are not instantly obvious.

First is that the written record performs much like the blog on a specific topic - it makes you regularly act on it! Most wargamers will, I believe, only have a general-purpose wargaming blog and while this compels them to wargame if they want to keep posting, they can flit from idea to idea/project/scheme at will, and so a few can fall aside. By writing it out as a dedicated record, you're likelier to keep at it!

Second is that while all this has made my work slower and progress more gradual, it has made it far better. Take Aschenbach & Luftberg, for example: I fought out and posted on the Battle of the Steenwijk recently, and haven't done much since due to other projects getting in the way. It used to be this would mean forgetting what was happening & losing interest, or having to stick with something when my attention had moved elsewhere temporarily, causing irritation & more loss of interest. As it is however I opened my Campaign journal and found an instant reminder of where every battalion was and what each commander was doing, so I instantly resumed the story from where I had left off.

Anyway, I feel a small announcement is in order to mark the spectacular victory gained by Luftberg over the Aschenbach enemy that has triumphed more often than not in pitched battles. The Elector Von Luftberg finally has a subordinate who can win clear-cut victories in the field against the enemy king, which is no small matter. As such, the Elector of Luftberg has announced that Felix Von Hentsch is to be promoted to a Marshal of Luftberg, and issued with a jewel-encrusted baton immediately so as to display his prestigious new rank. Sadly the expense of the jewelled baton means reinforcements will be a bit delayed, but no doubt Marshal Von Hentsch will understand...

Anyone know about this?

2010-05-12T06:53:00.002+01:00

Hello all - for the first time in months I'm posting this on a desktop PC, since my last one had a meltdown and I was forced into my 'lifeboat' of a laptop to keep using the internet! The newly-established PC has the game-managing software 'Steam' on it, and it threw up a rather interesting hit when I browsed about in the store...

Does anybody know about the game 'Rise of Prussia' by Paradox Interactive? I had heard about their previous games, set in the American War of Independence, but this was something of a new discovery for me. (Apologies for no link, but I haven't quite got the knack of it yet for postings!)

Anyway, I thought I'd point it out as it's been out for about 2 months and I had heard nothing about it anywhere - I imagined a strategy game about continental Europe in the SYW would be of interest to some, and so thought I would point it out!

The Battle of Steenwijk

2010-04-24T14:54:00.004+01:00

Time for the big push, as Von Krumper crosses the Noordschelve river to put himself on the same bank with the Luftberg army, beat it, and then be in the provincial capital of Brederdam by dinnertime. A long month of buildup has seen him leap into motion, with the river carefully surveyed for crossing points and the pioneers prepped with a bridge of boats to make the move. All this preparation didn't go unnoticed by the enemy however, so by the time the bridge was assembled the Luftberg army under Von Hentsch was ready and waiting, with a cordon round the expected bridgehead. Von Krumper selected a crossing near a small tributary waterway, the Steenwijk, which formed a bell-shaped enclave which could be easily defended from counter-attacks.

Von Hentsch planned to have his infantry and artillery on some low rises back from the river as his apparent main line, but this was all just a lure. With the Aschenbach troops drawn on, hopefully with their right flank in the air, the Luftberg killing blow could descend from his left wing, a regiment of Cuirassiers and another of Dragoons, along with a full regiment of infantry.

Things start well enough with the columns of Aschenbach infantry crossing over, led by a screen of Hussars and then the Grenadier Guards in the lead.

Like clockwork! The infantry cross over and deploy into two lines of a regiment each, plus a battalion in reserve. The only disruption comes from the odd long-range cannon shot and the crackle of musketry from the Croats and irregulars in a small copse over the Steenwijk.

Devil take the hindmost! The lead battalion of Grenadier Guards takes it's orders to full execution, powering on ahead to tackle the enemy line with no thought to the slow and careful deployment behind in the main body. Boldness or Rashness? Time will tell, although the Luftberg line is rattled as Schrammel's infantry regiment takes a pounding.

The hussars try and drive off some Croats to their front, occupying a small bit of woodland. Sadly the Croats prove infuriatingly effective, raining a constant, debilitating fire onto the horsemen and also into the flank of the infantry from across the Steenwijk. Such disorder is intolerable! The Aschenbach deployment out of the bridgehead starts to struggle.

And then, the cavalry are loosed! The two battalions of Cuirassiers charge, supported by the Dragoons, and sweep into the flank the blue infantry were about to occupy. The Hussars, milling about in front of the Croat-filled wood, are sent bowling back and the horsemen crash into the lines of infantry battalions, causing mayhem. Even the king Von Krumper himself gets a nasty scare as squadrons suddenly bear down on his command post!

With all the attacking weight being taken by the cavalry across those flat, marshy fields, the Luftberg infantry struggles to keep pace with the fight. Still, the Grenadier Guards are taught caution by letting themselves get flanked and hit in the front by musket and cannon fire. (When will these damned Grenadiers stop rushing headlong into trouble?!)

Vexed with shot! The Aschenbach infantry units pushed back into the bridgehead find no respite to reform, thanks to the skirmishing fire of crack-shots across the stream. The bluecoats volley back, but it's pretty ineffective and saps the strength now needed to hold off the Luftberg cavalry.

The battle in full swing. The Grenadiers manage to pull themselves back from the tip of the breakout, while the infantry battalions wheel round to fire on the horsemen trying to form for another charge. Both armies have now ended up turned through 90 degrees, fighting at right-angles to their artillery lines. The gunners on both sides of the river send shots ploughing lengthwise down the lines of infantry and cavalry alike. Can nobody get any elbow-room to move around here?

Realising drastic action is needed, Von Krumper calls across his reserve regiment of cavalry from the far bank to try and counter the Luftberg horse. They make it over, but fail to deploy out of column. Desperate to give them some protection and win some room to deploy, he is forced to commit his last untouched reserve unit - the second battalion of the Foot Garde. The grenadiers follow their black-and-yellow regimental banner forwards and fire volleys into the disorganised Luftberg Cuirassiers, buying the Cuirassiers the protection they need.

The Luftberg horse falls back, a spent force. None of the four battalions have been broken, but each one has three hits marked on it and all are disordered. In other words, they're blown, exhausted, incapable of further offensive action. Why, my little nephew Otto could ride them down on his hobby-horse! However, several battalions of Aschenbach infantry have broken up under the charges, the slowly tightening arc of whitecoat infantry, and (above all else) they can't get any peace to recover from disorder or casualties thanks to the endless lashing fire of the irregulars across the whole bridgehead

Losses are heavy for Aschenbach, and many of the remaining units are badly shaken and set to rout if pushed hard. Von Krumper has had enough of this grim field, and orders a withdrawal. The Cuirassiers trot back across, never used in the day's fighting. Following them come several shaken battalions of infantry, glad to get across to the friendly shore. Last out are the hussars and the Grenadiers, forming a tough rearguard that proves off-putting enough for the exhausted Luftberg infantry to fail to pursue. A dejected Von Krumper recrosses the Noordschelve from his untenable bridgehead, the breakout a failure. The poor fellow seems stunned by the calamity!

Over at Felix Von Hentsch's headquarters, it's celebratory schnapps all round! The enemy have lost three out of their seven infantry units and failed to get across the river. Rarely has there been such a spectacular and crushing defeat for Von Krumper, and this represents a personal triumph for Von Hentsch - now in the glory of his greatest and most clear-cut victory!

Fun on the River

2010-04-15T08:48:00.002+01:00

Time to gear up for another fight, this time as the main Aschenbach army crosses a large river and the Luftberg army tries to fling them back. I'm currently on holiday this week, but as it's for my relatives visiting I am not getting much time for wargaming, frustratingly enough! Still, there's a fair bit of preparation to do, so I'm busying myself with that - making little pontoon bridges out of card, and such.

Let's take a look at the forces on hand for the fight:

Aschenbach Army (HRH Von Krumper commanding)

IR1 v. Zaub Garde Regiment (2 battalions)

IR2 v. Klink Infantry Regiment (2 battalions)

IR3 v. Grumble Infantry Regiment (2 battalions)

IR6 v. Rechnung Infantry Battalion (1 battalion)

CR2 v. Kurbitz Cuirassier Regiment (2 battalions)

HR1 v. Ritter Hussar Regiment (2 battalions)

Artillery Battery No. 3 (2 sections)

(Also various impedimenta, such as siege guns, baggage, etc.)

Luftberg Army (Graf Felix Von Hentsch commanding)

IR4 Negrelli Infantry Regiment (2 battalions)

IR6 Karlovic Croat Infantry Regiment (2 battalions)

IR8 Schrammel Infantry Regiment (2 battalions)

CR1 Haas Cuirassier Regiment (2 battalions)

DR1 Raab Dragoon Regiment (2 battalions)

Artillery Battery No. 3 (2 sections)

Overall, this gives two closely-matched opponents. Aschenbach has grenadiers, better infantry and good commanders, while Luftberg has the better cavalry force, skirmishing troops and is defending a river. Sounds like a decent fight, at least!

I decided to make this one a bit bigger than normal, and realised that I could field each unit at a battalion level instead of my usual 'unit=regiment' scale. As such I have been painting and basing my Aschenbach Grenadier HQ bases, plus digging around for a few extras. I have managed to cover everything with the exception of two things - I have only one unit of Aschenbach Hussars and Luftberg Croats, so fielding two battalions of them was something of a problem. I decided in the end to have one battalion/squadron of Hussars in play at one time for the Aschenbach player, considering that one battalion would need to remain off-board to guard the pontooneers, siege-gun artillery park, and so on. If the hussar squadron in the fight is destroyed I will allow another one to enter, it's role guarding the rear-areas doubtless now being taken over by disorganised bands of straggler hussars and demoralised troops which were routed off the field.

For the croats I have raided my spares-box for odd figures and found some old models of line troops in tricornes, advancing in skirmish-like poses. I've discarded them as I was unable to fit them in with the revised unit formations, but I can put them to use now - they will represent the citizen militia from the capital Brederdam, which Von Hentsch will have doubtless swept up in his force when he marched out of the city, to act as irregulars, local guides and scouts through the sandy flatlands at the mouth of the river. I'll give them a quick paint into 'civilian' coats and colours, and they should fill out the Croat bases to give me two skirmisher units.

As soon as I can get a few hours of quiet-time, I'll be battling away. Photos and report to follow!

Muckenmire's Defenders

2010-04-08T06:20:00.002+01:00

The Luftberg army has the unenviable job of defending the province from invasion, and starts out dispersed across a fair part of it. The general from our last campaign, Felix Von Hentsch, has been glowering away in the provincial capital (in my mind, he's been 'bumped' to a backwater posting as military governor, following his mixed success in the Spitzplatz campaign. Looks like events have pulled him back to centre-stage!)

The Elector himself, Ulrich Von Luftberg, will start off-map. There's no reason the Elector would go to such a dismal place without reason, so he'll turn up a few moves into the game with the bulk of the army - rushing reinforcements to the province and hopefully turning the tide.

Also present will be the ever-irrepressible General Ludwig and the Graf Von Bitzhelm, each commanding a force of their own and (naturally) sized appropriately to reflect their social status.

On a practical level, I wanted a dispersal of forces at the start, but wasn't quite sure how to do it. I ended up totalling the entire army's points value under the old 'Might & Reason' ruleset, and then broke it up as a percentage. I went with:

40% Main (reserve) army of reinforcements under Luftberg

25% Provincial (garrison) army under Von Hentsch, at the provincial capital of Brederdam

15% Secondary provincial army under Bitzhelm, at Hertbosch

10% Flank-guarding detachment under Ludwig, at Vriezenveen

5% Garrison

I ended up assigning troops into what turned out to be pretty reasonable proportions, with some infantry and cavalry present in most, along with artillery in the big armies. While Ludwig gets a big force such as five infantry, three cavalry and one artillery units, people like Ludwig get a simple pairing of an infantry and cavalry regiment. The smallest units of all, the garrisons, turned out to be a left-over infantry regiment (stuck in the city of Oosterheide) and a hussar regiment (which was turned loose into the countryside as a raiding-group.)

The campaign is poised to be moved on shortly, and the next big encounter seems set to be Von Krumper's attempt to cross a river in the face of Von Hentsch. He's done it once before, but can he manage a contested river crossing against an alert defender, under 'Black Powder' rules? I'm off to ponder the special rules required for such a tricky operation!

The Invasion plans

2010-04-01T06:15:00.003+01:00

A whole fortnight has passed since I last posted, due to real-life work, wargame record-keeping bogging me down, plus numerous other projects rumbling on at the same - there's always something! Anyway, what's needed is a campaign overview to show how things have been developing for the protagonists.

Aschenbach are invading, and to avoid the single easily-isolated army I split the total force into three roughly equal parts. Von Krumper would take his third (styles the 'main' army, because - well, he's the king, basically!) and head directly for the province capital of Brederdam, stuck on it's little island in the mouth of the mighty Schelve river. Krumper would take the eastern road and then cross the northern fork of the Schelve by pontoon bridge, arriving on the island and besieging the city by it's landward side. Approaching directly from the north would mean attacking over a river, and the swampy ground north of Brederdam didn't exactly promise a happy fate for any siege guns hauled into it! His advance has gone well enough, but sadly he has been compelled to stop and build up supply depots to operate across the river. Something of an unfortunate delay, but now he's gathering himself for the river crossing (which is next for the gaming table.)

In the centre of this province would go the second army, led by the grizzled old veteran, General Von Grenwitz. His job is to try and clear the province north of the Schelve of all enemy troops. At best, this means capturing the city of Oosterheide, but at a bare minimum it means protecting Von Krumper's advance in the east and keeping Luftberg raiders off his flanks and supply lines. It swiftly proved that Oosterheide was strongly garrisoned with a regiment of infantry, and therefore that a siege was only going to succeed if the Luftberg army completely failed to intervene - a highly unlikely turn of events. Sure enough it proved so, as once Von Grenwitz occupied the town of Dolderburg he received news that a Luftberg army under the Graf Von Bitzhem was crossing the Schelve to his south and rushing up the road, looking for a fight. Well, as you'll have seen from the last battle report, he gave it one! The two armies met a short distance from Dolderburg and Luftberg was defeated, the battered remains pulling back to the town of Veldhuizburg on the Schelve river.

So much for the two armies, but what of the third? Well, the third and final component was placed under Von Hartling and held back for a delayed entry. It was felt that there was a serious risk that the line of the Schelve river could become a kind of impregnable moat for the defenders, and so Von Hartling is to enter in the west of the province, which lets him come out behind the line of the river where it curves north. Any Luftberg defence which had formed in the first few months would be outflanked, and the river line could be rolled up like a carpet - genius! Well, so Von Krumper naturally thinks.

The map above (which is hopefully enlarge-able, although I can never work these things out) should give some sense of where they are - Krumper is the easternmost arrow, Grenwitz is the central one, while Von Hartling's planned entrance is shown in the west as a dashed route. I will post more maps soon, when I cover the province's fractious defenders.

The Battle of Dolderburg

2010-03-12T06:04:00.006Z

Hello everyone, and welcome to my overdue play-through example of Black Powder in action! There has been a meeting engagement in the opening stages of the campaign (of which more shall follow) and below is an account of the first clash. General Von Grenwitz has marched a small force of Aschenbach troops to the town of Dolderburg - a critical point for the early stages of the Aschenbach invasion. Marching rapidly to meet him is the Luftberg army in the vicinity under General Von Bitzhelm, intending to meet on the batlefield and get the rookie Bitzhelm his first battlefield victory. Setup was a nondescript bit of countryside with a few low rises, some woods and hedges, plus a stream snaking along a peaceful valley between the sides. Each army marched on as a 'meeting engagement' type of scenario, although through campaign situations the Luftberg army was allowed to deploy it's regiment of hussars along the stream, as a kind of advanced picket.

Aschenbach Army (The Hon. General Von Grenwitz commanding)
Von Schott's 'Hirschburger' Grenadier Regiment
No.5 Von Moglich's Infanterie Regiment (1 battalion only - half sized unit)
No. 1 Von Schnitzel Kurassier Regiment
No. 2 Von Flunck Dragoner Regiment
Artillerie Battery No. 1

Luftberg Army (His Grace the Graf Von Bitzhelm commanding)
IR1 Radetzky Infanterie Regiment
IR3 O'Brien Infanterie Regiment
DR3 Hortenburg Dragoner Regiment
HR1 Rotwang Husaren Regiment
Artillerie Battery No. 2

A numerical superiority to Luftberg, but a qualitative edge to Aschenbach (what's new?)

Let battle commence!

Turn 1
Orders Phase
Luftberg kicked off by seeking to advance forward and get into fighting trim by the stream. Verbalising his orders to the troops as follows (in our head we can best imagine a slightly German-tinged accent): “Ze entire Brigade vill move forwards und deploy into line between ze wooded hill und hedges.” Accompanied by a commanding sweep of the measuring-stick to gesture the line intended, the brigade (the entire army in this case) rolls to see how many times it can move towards fulfilling this. The Luftberg army has a Command rating of 7, and this gets +2 for all the units being in march column to reflect their mobility. This means a Command Rating of 9 in the end, which he has to roll on 2D6 to get a move. If he rolls 2 or 3 less than it, he gets 2 or 3 moves correspondingly. As only 10+ rolls will mean a failure, he’s pretty likely to do well. Bitzhelm rolls 2D6 and gets a 7 – excellent! 2 under his command rating, so he gets two moves. The columns move off at a sprightly 6” per move pace (I’m halving the ranges in BP because I’m in 15mm.) Being out of range there’s no shooting or hand-to-hand combat yet.

Over on the other bank, the Aschenbach army is sent on a flying march south (parallel to the stream) to try and snatch the defensive position on a hill this side of the stream – what with Grenwitz unwilling to try and force a crossing in the teeth of the advancing Luftbergers. The Aschenbach Command rating is 8, plus he also has the +2 for being in march – he rolls a 7 so gets three moves, zipping his infantry across to the hill and ready to deploy. The cavalry continue to lurk opposite the stream, ready to charge any crossing attempt.

Turn 2
Bitzhelm wants to take on the hill before the enemy get thoroughly set up to meet him. He orders his intantry and artillery to move east to face it and begin bombarding it. His modified Command rating is 9, but he rolls an 11! The order has failed, and as a result Bitzhelm can issue no more orders this turn – looks like the Dragoons will just have to kick their heels and wait for word from HQ next turn!

Luckily however, the failures appear to be on both sides. Expecting an easy job to finish his deployment into line on the hilltop, Grenwitz needs 10 or less and gets – 11 as well! Doubtless some strange mood in the air! (Incidentally, if Aschenbach had been playing with the ‘Superb Drill’ special rule on it’s infantry, they would have been allowed one automatic move towards fulfilling their orders even after a failure – rather handy insurance against just this sort of fumble.)

Turn 3
Bitzhelm retries the order, and gets a 6 – three less than his rating, so three moves! Unfolding into line and crossing the hedgerows, his infantry close the distance at a worrying rate – right up to the stream edge, where they squeeze in slightly obliquely to fit in by the Hussars. The cannon also follow up on the flank, deploy, and the firing begins!

Shooting Phase
IR1 Radetzky is at the bottom of the hill, and it’s 9” range can reach the Aschenbach ‘Hirschburger’ Grenadiers on the summit, who are still in marching column! The regiment gets 3 dice to roll, and gets hits on a 4+. Unluckily they miss all three, which is just as well because the saving throw for the Grenadiers would have been very low in March Column, leaving them in a bad state! The artillery made up for it however, and banged away energetically. At medium range it rolled 2 dice (4+ to hit as normal,) and managed to roll a single hit. The grenadiers roll their save and need a 3+ to ignore the hit (typically it’s a 4+ to save, but these are Grenadiers with superior discipline!) As they are in march column and unprepared for cannonballs hurtling through their ranks, the save has a -2 modifier. The result is a 5+ needed , and they fail the roll – a hit is marked on the unit with a counter showing a casualty. If a unit takes 3 (or 4 for the grenadiers) hits it becomes shaken, and risks collapse. The shooting turn ended with the other infantry regiment - IR3 O’Brien – firing a volley at the Cuirassiers on the far bank, but sadly they also failed to score any hits.

Aschenbach’s move saw orders being issues (angrily?) for the infantry to get into line at once and begin firing. The grenadiers do so, finally deploying for action. Right afterwards however, the artillery fail to unlimber and bring the furious Grenwitz’s orders phase to a halt. The grenadiers fire back, and also roll 3 dice needing 4+. They roll a 4, 5 and 5 – three hits! Devilish luck! (There isn’t even a need to use the Aschenbach infantry’s special ‘sharpshooter’ rule and reroll a single missed dice each turn.) That leaves IR1 with three saves to roll for, 4+ required. They successfully save two and take one hit.

Turn 4
Fearing a lop-sided musketry duel, Bitzhelm orders his infantry to cross the stream and charge home to overcome the enemy! Sadly his Orders roll of 10 is no good, and the lads clearly feel rather ambivalent about the whole thing. Only firing remains to be done, and each infantry regiment scores a hit each on the Grenadiers and Cuirassiers, but both make their saves. The artillery misses altogether, which probably means some farmer off in the rear is getting his field ploughed for him!

Aschenbach manage to unlimber their guns and get them into action at last, and also pull their single brigade into line on the Grenadiers’ flank. This housekeeping is accompanied by an order to the Cuirassiers who are told to pull back slightly to get out of musket range. Grenwitz rolls a natural double-six, which meand not just failure, but an outright blunder! Thankfully when the random effect is diced for the Cuirassiers do not charge solo over the stream and against the enemy infantry; instead they withdraw two full moves, taking themselves straight off the table – the order to pull back was obviously taken a bit too literally!

With this, it’s back to firing. The grenadiers fire and get 1 hit, plus the ‘to hit’ dice rolls a natural six, which means that the lively fire throws the target into disorder! This is a one-turn temporary confusion which prevents orders and reduces fighting ability, and represents an ideal opportunity to charge into hand-to-hand combat to rout a unit (or it would, except here there’s that damn stream in the way.) Next the newly-deployed artillery blast at the other infantry regiment IR3 gets a hit too with a six. The regiment makes it’s save, but the disorder still applies – this confusion is contagious! To round off Bitzhelm’s misery, the infantry battalion also fires at the artillery battery and scores a hit on the crews. Thoughts turn to retreat, as this hillock of Grenadiers is clearly not going to fall to firepower or get charged.

Turn 5
With his infantry trying to recover from the staggering effect of incoming fire, orders are out of the question. He resolves to try and get his cavalry over the river and hopefully turn a flank. It was too dangerous before with two regiments of enemy horse waiting, but now with the Cuirassiers taken off the scene with the misunderstood orders to withdraw, the odds look much better! The hussars are ordered to cross and charge, but roll an 8 when they need 7 or less – useless irregulars! With their failure there’s not even the option of bringing up the Dragoons and deploying them for a fight. Luftberg is left with only ineffective firing, where the artillery lands yet another hit on the grenadiers which they save.

Aschenbach decides now is the moment to press forward, so the infantry are ordered to march down the hill in preparation to crossing the stream and see off the enemy. They actually roll a 6 which gives two moves, but as no specific order to charge was given so contact is not allowed. No matter – each side now lines the opposite bank of the stream, exchanging fire at close range (a +1 to hit, which means dice will only need 3+ at such point-blank conditions!) The grenadiers duly make good on this, rolling a spectacular three hits, which the luckless IR1 Radetzky promptly fails each save for with a string of twos and threes. (In case you haven’t noticed, the dice seemed resolved to favour Aschenbach throughout this game!) With 2 existing hits and now 3 more, this total of 5 hits takes them over their stamina limit – the unit is not just disorganised, but on the brink of an outright morale collapse!

The break test
The stamina value is 3, but with the total of hits now at 5, the taking of excess casualties through firing means the unit must take a ‘break test.’ The regiment rolls 2D6 and consults the table with it’s modified result. Colonel Radetzky wants a high number but gets a godawful 5. This is further reduced by -2 (for the casualties in excess of his stamina number) and -1 (as he’s already disordered at the time of taking this test) to give him a score of 2: utter destruction! The surviving soldiers in IR1 take to their heels, fleeing to the rear as fast as they can go.

As well as this excitement on the turn, Grenwitz got some results elsewhere – he just barely managed a difficult order for the Cuirassiers to return (very difficult because of the distance to them, and he didn’t want to go riding off after them himself at this point in the battle!) Also, the artillery managed to place a casualty marker on IR3, although the infantry failed to harm the Luftberg battery as they closed in.

Turn 6
IR3 finally get to remove their ‘Disorder’ marker, and decide to pull back behind the protective obstacle of the hedgerows for some cover. As the enemy are within 6” the regiment can make a single move on initiative, avoiding the need to roll a command test. It does so, getting itself into the protective terrain (+1 to all it’s morale save rolls.) Bitzhelm attempts to order the cavalry into action again, before the enemy Cuirassiers can return. He orders the Dragoons and gets: double six! A blunder! The stupid fools come galloping up, still in march column. No doubt when in reserve they thought the battle was progressing nicely, but now they find the front much closer than they thought! In firing, the artillery gets no hits, but the infantry shoot down some more grenadiers – sadly the regiment makes it’s save again and shrugs off the loss.

Watching from his hillock, Grenwitz orders his infantry forward and the bluecoats cross the stream, ready to close with the hedgerow last-stand. Grenwitz then orders the Dragoons screening the river to charge the Hussars on the opposite bank, just to ratchet up the pressure a little more. They get one move, which brings them to the stream’s edge. In firing, the infantry battalion completes it’s firing on the artillery battery, finally shooting down enough of the crews for the remainder to take the hint and flee, spiking whatever guns they can’t take with them. The artillery on the Aschenbach side are having a much better time, lobbing rounds into the deluded column of blundering Dragoons opposite, promptly getting a casualty and causing disorder in their ranks. The grenadiers fire away at the infantry now in the hedges, failing to get a casualty but at least causing disorder (damn all these sixes!)

Turn 7
It’s pretty much all over now. IR3 fire on the grenadiers but get no hits, thanks to needing 5+ to hit (-1 modifier from being disordered.) Aschenbach rolls on, getting the grenadiers point-blank again before the hedge. The defenders save all hits, but on their flank the infantry battalion sweeps through the wrecked battery and wheels round, flanking IR3 and the hedge. Enfilading doubles the dice rolled, and despite it’s small size the battalion inflicts 2 hits, though luckily these are saved. Grenwitz also orders his tardy Cuirassiers up although there’s barely any work for them by this point. The dragoons are ordered to charge and they splash through the stream, but thanks to the unlikely odds (Dragoons roll 8 dice compared to 6 for the Hussars, plus there are bonuses for the charging heavy cavalry in deciding who wins the combat) the dashing horsemen opposite decide not to wait for their arrival and evade, moving back out of their way. Still, the Dragoons have to stop up short in the face of this evasion, so they can’t reach the rest of the enemy army for a charge (textbook screening by the Hussars, it has to be admitted.)

At this stage the game is clearly up. Cavalry in disorder and undeployed, artillery wrecked, one infantry regiment routed and the other outflanked – this is clearly not Bitzhelm’s day. He orders a retreat and the triumphant Von Grenwitz chivalrously allows him to slip away, his job done and honour satisfied.

Book-keeping transfer

2010-03-05T06:24:00.003Z

I haven't been doing any tabletop wargaming or even blog posting for a bit, down to both other wargames projects demanding attention and my desktop PC becoming deeply unstable and freezing every few minutes, forcing me into my 'lifeboat' PC of an old and battered laptop! Still, I have managed to stay active in other ways. I have recently been revamping the way I keep records of my campaigns, and thought I'd explain what I was up to.

From reading various blogs and solo-wargaming podcasts, it dawned on me that I was rather under-exploiting one of the big opportunities of a solo campaign, which is to record everything in a very detailed and colourful narrative, to re-read at leisure like a historical novel. I had a think, re-read a bit of 'Wargame Campaigns' by CS Grant and got underway!

Above is a snap of my journal, which I bought out of Asda (about £4 and pretty hefty pages, hardback cover, unlined, plus 3 pockets at the back to store loose sheets of paper.) As per Grant's sensible suggestion, I wrote out a list of all generals and units in the campaign on a strip of paper, which I then glued to the left-hand side (as you can see in the photo above) to form a fold-out 'flap' with all the units and characters listed. Now when I use each left-hand page as a ledger I don't have to write out headings for unit names and characters over and over again.

The left-hand page records each unit in three broad columns, which read left-to-right as 'at the start of the turn' then 'during the turn' and 'at the end of the turn.' Mostly this is about their physical location in the game world, so I can track armies and do the functional basics of campaign record-keeping.

The right-hand page can be used for the heart of the campaign record, in the form of a prose-style account of the turn, spiced up with the odd hand-drawn map, sketched drawing (no doubt sketched by some artistically-minded gentleman on campaign) and fictionalised quoted excerpts from the private correspondence of eye-witnesses, in the style of whatever actual historical book you prefer! A good opportunity to take advantage of is not just to discuss what happens, but what might have happened at various stages as the campaign strategies unfold. This all adds to the narrative (as well as builds up a stock of future scenario ideas, which no wargamer should be without!)

So, that's what I've been up to with my Muckenmire campaign, setting it into the new format before it truly gets going. Through it, I have recorded the setup and first two moves, which have now brought two armies within battle-fighting distance. The whole process of working backwards in my disorganised notes proved longer than I thought, but I think I'm finally sorted now! I shall post on the blog an update on the situation to fill all you on-line readers in, so you can see how it has come once again to the battlefield. Then, I hope this coming weekend to get the (small-sized) battle fought and recorded, allowing me to give the long-promised Black Powder rules set detailed example of play.

So, there you go - still enjoyable wargaming work, although of an unavoidably behind-the-scenes nature! Sadly, the system is appealing and I now find myself buying yet more of these Asda notebooks to transfer all my other campaigns into the format too! (Is there any action in this hobby which doesn't lead to yet more action required?) :-)

Casualties

2010-02-14T08:47:00.002Z

I have recently received a small order I placed with 'Koenig Krieg' for something that Black Powder makes necessary - a set of casualty markers! They are lead bases, triangular in shape, with recessed numbers at each corners (perfect for BP) and a fallen figure in the middle.

I painted up a set yesterday evening and thought I'd post the results. Most BP units become 'shaken'with three hits, so these markers will remove the need for placing dice next to regiments to denote hits (which was my previous method - effective, but annoying on photos!)

I simply painted them generically for about five Aschenbach and seven Luftberg infantry. Overall the casting seems okay, although some of the arms looked a little 'elongated' compared to the body. And the set had only one pose, face-down. I believe Old Glory do a good set of 15mm casualties, but I gave up ordering them thanks to one of the most user-unfriendly webpages I've ever come across! If you feel like getting some, then I would recommend Koenig Krieg or (if you feel patient) Old Glory 15mm. The last photo, below, is the best close-up I could get. I intend to flock the bases to make them more 'grassy' but I'm quite happy with the full set being painted and effectively ready in a single day!

Campaign Counters

2010-02-11T06:20:00.007Z

The upcoming campaign in Muckenmire is planned to be a little different from the previous Spitzplatz affair, mainly because I want to split he armies up a lot more. Before, I had two large armies colliding every so often for a major battle, but with this campaign I am hoping to fight more 'small' battles between a few units at a time in various places, to get a bit more strategic interest. To this end, I've made up my hexagon map and drawn it with Google Sketchup. There are a large number of roads and fortresses, and armies will need to have a road running back to their supply source through a succession of friendly fortresses. One problem this posed was that as the armies were split up they'd be pretty short on infantry, and detaching more and more as garrison troops just seemed to likely make things worse.

What with all the painting having been mostly done, the chances of me expanding the armies was precisely zero! So, I decided to break them down a bit more, and represent every regiment on the campaign map with a pair of counters - effectively a first and second battalion for each regiment of infantry and cavalry. This should mean that fortresses get held correctly and a decent force still turns up on each battlefield!

I made counters by simply printing off a grid of squares by using Excel, then I went to Junior General to get pictures of the various troop types, placed them in each box, and printed them out. Although with a bit of work I could have printed the text for each unit, I preferred to hand-write them on myself. Far easier than trying to insert text boxes around nested drawings in Word, which has become a total nightmare every time I've tried to do it!

I also wanted to avoid the 'killer stack' situation where each side forms a monster-sized grand army and can't be stopped, so the endless possibilities for cutting supplies should mean that a variety of smaller armies can elude and frustrate a large single enemy. This will give the personalities a bit of scope for independent action, which may or may not be wise in the strategic sense, but should be fun for the game!

With all this growth on the strategic level, I was also able to fling in a few non-tabletop items which would not be deployed in model form. First up I wanted to include some sappers, or engineers who could help the armies cross the rivers and soggy terrain. I made up one counter for 'Pontooneers' or bridge-building engineers, drew a stylised plan view of a boatbridge (crude and basic, true, but it does the job!) I issued one of these counters to each army, to get them going.

The other big strategic factor is all those fortresses, and struggling around with sieges will be required. As a result, I also issued each army with a set of 'Siege Artillery' counters to serve as the army's siege train. This will represent all the heavy guns, mortars, pioneers, gabions and shovels a man could want. It's possible to besiege a fort without the siege counter, but it's presence will give big bonuses to anybody who tries it.

That covers the armies on the strategic level, so I'll shortly post on my method for setting up the armies and deploying them, plus the initial strategies each side will try to follow. I will also, in the next few weeks, try and give a more detailed Black Powder ruleset example, as some posts have requested a bit more detail on how it plays.

Black Powder Battle Report

2010-02-06T09:11:00.003Z

I've had a one-off battle to try out the Black Powder Rules, and thought I'd post some photos & notes. Very loosely, the fight was a re-run in the style of the recent ‘Might & Reason’ ruleset battle of Froschbach from a month or two ago. I adopted a ‘pile everything on’ philosophy and decided to simply play every painted and based figure I could. Luftberg were there in full, of course. Aschenbach were mainly present, and could muster a decent show – they had only one Grenadier unit, a half-sized Fusilier regiment, and one missing Infantry regiment. Cavalry were also 75% done in Cuirassiers and Dragoons, so rather than field one full and one half-sized unit of each I put them all into one large unit of each – subtle as a brick through a window!

The battle plan adopted was pretty similar, mainly because I was curious how each rule-set would handle it. The field was roughly similar too – each side advanced in columns onto a field with a stream perpendicular to the two battle-lines, plus some hills to the edges.

Aschenbach went for the central Infantry attack with a mass of Cavalry on the right flank, to turn the line. Luftberg deployed similarly, but had Cavalry on both their flanks and deployed (as per the old ‘brigades’ standardising notion I had devised and not gotten round to using,) which meant that the left flank was all Dragoons & the right flank was all Cuirassiers. The whole army was preceded by the ‘Advance Guard’ brigade of shifty Irregular types, Croats and Hussars.

The battlefield (Photos courtesy of Google Earth)

The battle began with Luftberg proving themselves slightly above clueless, only getting basic single-move orders to fumble forward while Aschenbach were clearly able to move far faster. Generally all seemed favourable for Aschenbach’s big central attack, but although the attack brigade made good rolls and hurtled forward to catch the Luftberg troops still deploying, the other brigades lagged behind. The left infantry brigade was particularly troubled by the stream slowing it’s movement and the oncoming enemy cavalry. Clearly moving at max speed and ignoring the rest of the army is not a good idea!

The confused Luftberg advance

Aschenbach's neat battle-line advances

In the centre, Aschenbach hammered on with it’s two lead units up front – one Line Infantry, one Grenadiers – which crashed into a firefight with the lead Luftberg units. The rash advance suddenly looked very unwise, as the lumbering Luftberg masses steadily sorted themselves out – enlivened by the odd regiment ‘blundering’ it’s orders and sailing off in totally the wrong direction! Rapidly, the fight developed into Aschenbach’s two regiments locking horns with five enemy regiments! With both flanks enfiladed, Croats firing in on them, plus Hussars threatening their rear, it rapidly turned into a disaster. Both regiments became disordered, meaning they couldn’t be pulled back from the disastrous situation, and when they were finally hauled out they were badly shaken by the hot reception!

The lead units get enfiladed and disordered

Croats, Hungarians and Fusiliers struggle on the flank

The battered survivors back away, under pursuit

So, where were their supporting units? The cavalry brigade had a fantastic time smashing up the Luftberg dragoons opposite them, but they were weakened themselves and found that by the time they had seen off their opposite numbers, the Luftberg infantry were in place to hold them back. They never even had a chance to try it, as the central attack failed before they had reformed to come and assist, the useless show-boaters!

Aschenbach Cavalry - thanks a bunch, guys!

As to the left-flank infantry, what about them? Well, they advanced gamely enough but rolled badly for orders, plus the stream slowed them down further, representing a terrible dawdling when the crisis broke! As the Luftberg Cuirassier brigade closed in, they deployed into line and unlimbered their batteries to receive them. The disadvantage of having one flank wide open and cavalry-free quickly became obvious! Although one Cuirassier regiment was shot up and forced to a standstill, the other two proceeded to charge and outflank batteries and regiments one after the other, rolling up the line like an old carpet. Finally all Aschenbach units on the left bank of the river were swept away! With one flank wrecked, the other stalled, and the centre reeling, Aschenbach had clearly lost the day and retreated. A sterling victory for Luftberg!

Overall, disaster for Aschenbach was pretty likely as they weren’t bringing their ‘best game’ to the table, what with being only partially completed. Over-eager advances on good order rolls are clearly very unwise, as keeping your force together is pretty essential. An excellent, fun first game, which was far faster than Might & Reason as well as more action-packed!

It is also probably worth adding a little bit more about the Black Powder (BP) Rules, now they’ve been played. The advantage of superior orders seems best while ‘unengaged.’ Once units close up to the enemy, they are more limited in their movements and can make an automatic single move by initiative – and they’ll probably not need more than one. Well-led armies will want to engage in the dramatic flanking marches to turn an enemy line, as the higher order rolls will be useful here in the early stages. BP seems to be a good set of rules for mobile, dramatic battles (ie, the fun type!) I would also add that the 24-man unit is not critical to play. All you need to be able to do is show formations, so technically you could probably play it with a DBx-style of army, if you just used little counters or something to show if units were in line or column, etc. Mind you, you’d lose the visual effect, and a 4-figure unit might look a bit weird with three casualty markers at it’s base (almost more figures shot down than standing - embarrasing!)

The victor preens himself on an overlooking hill...

...While the loser slinks away. Let me know how it turns out, lads!

The Parade Ground

2010-02-03T08:11:00.003Z

I know I promised to detail my campaign plans, and I shall in a day or two, but first – a little diversion for two bits of news in my gaming world, both of them big!

My original games were played out on an old ‘Subbuteo’ game mat, which is basically a green bit of cloth 3 or 4 ft square, and this has been a regular battlefield for me over about ten or fifteen years – no exaggerating! It’s certainly done great service, but I finally decided it was time to get a replacement. Not least because I filled the old mat with the 50% reduced armies in the battle of Froschbach, which meant that any further battles on the old mat would be like a knife-fight in a phone booth. Popping down to Homebase, I’ve bought a grass-green throw to act as my new field of conflict. According to the label it’s 150cm by 200cm, and for the non-metric folk out there that translates into a roughly five foot by six-and-a-half foot of space. Very roomy, even if a bit of that is lost in the tassels at the end, and not bad for about £15.

That would be a big development on it’s own, but there’s more – the lead mountain has shrunk! Here, for the first time ever, is the Luftberg army envisioned over a year ago. Now fully realised in it’s painted and based glory, here is a sight on the wargames table I’ve devoted countless evenings and weekends to realising through 2008, 2009 and 2010. Hooray for Luftberg! Death to their foes!

The full army on parade. I find I have to zoom out far more than normal to see everything on the double-base units!

Infantry Regiments in line, plus artillery.

Dragoon Regiments.

Cuirassiers, Hussars, Grenadiers and Croats.

Elector Ulrich Von Luftberg himself, plus kibitzing nobility of a militarily-minded persuasion.

New Campaign

2010-01-26T06:52:00.002Z

So, now to the new campaign. What’s wanted now is a genuine break from the norm, no generic province in central Europe but a specific one with some character of it’s own.

Welcome to the province of Muckenmire, as ghastly a backwater of low-lying, rain-sodden, semi-submerged bogland as could ever be wished onto a hated enemy. The source of nothing but over-religious peasants, tastelessly rich merchants, moodily-lit landscape paintings, outrageously elaborate cheeses and innovative waterproof footwear. In short, no decent Luftberg gentleman could regard the place as anything other than a nightmarish hell-hole. And flat – so very, very, flat.

The province is heavily inspired by the actual Hapsburg holdings of the Austrian Netherlands (modern-day Belgium, basically.) Muckenmire was inherited by Luftberg through various treaties as a bargaining-chip. They never had a desire for it, have no interest in it, and aim to foist it off at the first opportunity onto some luckless counterpart. Spoiling the party, Aschenbach seek to take it.

A year has passed since the Spitzplatz war. Feldmarschall Krumper is now the ruling monarch of Aschenbach through succeeding to the throne, after the sad death of his senile and elderly father. It’s the role he was effectively doing anyway as the Prince Regent, but now he’s able to exercise full uninhibited power. Picking off a low-hanging fruit like Muckenmire should be a tantalisingly easy trick!

In Muckenmire itself Von Hentsch, semi-banished to the province’s governorship, fumes over events in the capital of Brederdam. He was side-tracked into a backwater, only to see it become the focus of Aschenbach’s latest agression. Now however, instead of being left to his own devices he is faced with a steady stream of his contemporaries (ie, rivals for glory) arriving as part of the Luftberg buildup.

The geography for Muckenmire is based on the Low Countries, plus – with a flagrant disregard for reality – turned thru 180 degrees just for the hell of it, to make things ‘fresher’. Distinguishing characteristics include the low water table, many small rivers, marshes, etc. One major river (the Schelve), plus a provinvial capital in it’s mouth. It has a largely urban population and most large towns are fortified, plus a few canals, a good road network, and some scattered woodland at the fringes. Actual tactical maps will be ‘in character’ and heavily favour marshes, fenland, streams, ponds, polder and dikes.

Next post I'll cover the military plans of the two old protagonists.

Black Powder: A Review

2010-01-19T06:08:00.002Z

The postman has finally delivered my copy of the Black Powder rules, and so I thought I should post a review from my first reading:

Intro
First, the basics: Black Powder is a new set of rules by the Games Workshop old-hands Rick Priestley & Jervis Johnson, and is published by Warlord Games. It covers a period of a full 200 years, broadly from 1700 to 1900. (Readers of this blog will probably be minded towards the SYW themselves, and there is certainly lots of suitability.)

Appearance
First thing is first: the actual look of the book is incredible. No stapled A4 booklet here! Hardback, nice illustrations, a colour picture on virtually every page, and usually of a ridiculously vast diorama. This is a genuine work of love by a set of enthusiasts, and easily the best-looking book I’ve ever seen in the hobby. Maybe standards are higher nowadays and this merely shows my ignorance, but this is surely excellent stuff in anyone’s eyes.

Language & Style
The actual writing is marvellously judged to suit the period, typically being rather over-polite and gentlemanly, shot through with a dry humour. For example, the Foreword advises it is “a game for militarily inclined gentlemen with straight backs, bristling beards, and rheumy eyes that have seen a thing or two … The library or billiard room will serve as our battlefield, or else some similarly spacious and secluded refuge. Ensure that children are safely put to bed and … secure the doors against the intrusion of womenfolk as yet unfamiliar with the conventions of war.” What’s not to like in that? Each topic in the rules is typically given a 2-page spread, so it’s all visible when laid open on the table for reference mid-game. There are no excessive bullet-points or quick summaries, but a discussive tone, with the same humorous style throughout. For example, when the rules mention marking casualties on units they advise using models of fallen soldiers, adding: “Some gamers will doubtless feel that this service can be provided equally well with pen and paper. This notion has a whiff of accountancy about it and can only be recommended to those irretreivably so inclined.”

Mechanics
The game itself is simple and has a no-nonsense straightforwardness. There is a standard and unvarying ‘to hit’ roll and a ‘save’ roll on all combat, and all modifiers merely increase or decrease the number of dice rolled – making it very easy to remember. Each generic type of unit has a profile stating the number of dice rolled for shooting or hand-to-hand combat, a morale value (the number of save dice it rolls) plus a stamina level. Successful hits leave casualty markers, and when they exceed the stamina level it becomes possible the unit can break and flee.
Orders are given from a dice roll, to individual units or a group, depending on a general’s ability and luck – if he fails to issue an order he must stop all other intended orders, forcing careful consideration and prioritising. Also, if he rolls very badly there is the possibility of a nasty blunder taking place!
That, in a nutshell, is it! The mechanics are remarkably close in style to Warmaster, in case any of this is sounding familiar.
For particular flavour there are pages of Special Rules listed, all of minor but telling tweaks which have quite an impact through the simple games system. Each one is not usually specified for where and when it should be used, but is accompanied by a small commentary discussing the impact it has, and the sort of rough style of troops it should be applied to. This makes the reader take up slack, judging for themselves whether they think Prussian Infantry should be given the ‘First Fire’ or ‘Sharp Shooters’ bonus, and so on.
As a final note, I should add that the book has advanced rules, covers unusual items like howitzers or rockets, personalities for generals, half a dozen played-through battle reports as extended examples, plus some appendices of advice for different scales and sizing of units.

Conclusion
The level of detail and specific instructions in Black Powder has been deliberately left low, with the writers taking long stride back from telling you how to do everything. They expect enthusiastic players to work things out themselves, and don’t spoon-feed you requirements. I would say this is as much a toolkit for wargaming as a ruleset - especially with the special rules mentioned above. It aims to point a way, accepts most wargamers rewrite things and use ‘house-rules’ anyway, and so puts much more emphasis on players to think right from the start. It’s actually remarkable to think of the ‘classic’ elements of rulebooks left out: There are no minimum force sizes, no setup zones, no army lists, and not even a points system! (Well, all right – they grudgingly and disdainfully include a “suggested” points system for tournament play, hidden away in one of the appendices. They encourage players to simply do it the historical way – fight a battle with a force you reckon is adequate to win the day against the enemy. In other words, the very thing that a points system just puts an arbitrary figure on!) This results in an Exhilirating sense of freedom and the aim is just as much – if not more – to encourage enthusiasm for wargaming. About a third of the book is example battles written up and played through, and combined with the whole book’s discussive style it is remarkably reminiscent of the 1970s books by Charles Grant or Donald Featherstone. In fact, I would suggest it is at least their spiritual descendant, owing them a huge debt.

Should you try it? If you want a detailed, scientific set of rules, I would advise “No.” If you want a playable and simple set with the emphasis on game rather than simulation, I would advise “Yes.” And if you liked ‘The War Game’ by Charles Grant, I would advise “Definitely!”

It's All About Personality

2010-01-14T06:21:00.002Z

With painting proceeding apace on the 'lead mountain', I can turn my attention to the upcoming campaign. I am planning to have a more varied terrain than before, with the two armies scattered it into various smaller groups. This may make a big 'all units on the table' battle less likely in the campaign, but it should allow for lots of more varied fighting as various sub-commanders march around. I'm aiming to get a campaign focused more on Luftberg, and specifically the internal rivalries of it's characters. Fighting Aschenbach might be the day-job, but with your back-biting rivals all around you, this internecine fight is personal!

With this in mind, plus the upcoming chance of more independent action, it's probably a good idea to look over who our various personalities are - and consider how their standing has been altered by the conclusion of the Spitzplatz campaign.

Elector Ulrich Von Luftberg is top of the heap, absolute ruler of Luftberg in perpetuity, etc. etc. He did not take part in the recent Spitzplatz campaign, due to it being effectively being engineered and run by Felix Von Hentsch. However, his previous outing saw him win the major battle of Vogelhof, still the greatest battlefield defeat that Aschenbach have ever taken. In fact, he won the whole war and took over the whole province for Luftberg following a successful siege back in 2008 (well, whatever the imagiNation year-equivalent is!) He'll get brought out of his semi-retirement to command the national army again, putting personal reputation on the line once more.

Graf Felix Von Hentsch is the embodiment of supreme evil, coldly plotting to usurp the Electorate for the Von Hentsch family. As his own dynasty seemed like the only alternative to the ruling family, marrying into the royal house looked like a sure thing as long as no rivals appeared and Von Hentsch prestige remained high. Sadly for his plots, the Spitzplatz campaign came along. In the campaign, Von Hentsch aimed to loot the five cities in the province to ruin the newcomer Von Bitzhelm family. He only managed two of the five, which means that the Von Hentsch clan now has a rival to deal with. Plus, although he managed to snatch a stalemate at the end of the campaign, he lost several pitched battles to the Aschenbach army, rather tarnishing his self-proclaimed reputation as a military genius. Still plotting away, Von Hentsch is a man with enemies to destroy and a reputation to restore.

Graf Karl Von Bitzhelm is the dynastic ruler of Spitzplatz, and his family are famous for being vastly wealthy and ugly - the classic 'arrogant noble'. Although the campaign through his lands didn't kill off Aschenbach claims to it (and probably guarantees a later campaign will need to be fought,) his siding with Luftberg meant he is now highly politically favoured - much to Von Hentsch's annoyance. He's never taken the field before, but really - how difficult can it be? If that villainous Von Hentsch can do it while stealing off the Von Bitzhelms, then surely it can't be that hard!

Freiherr Tobias Ludwig is the most junior of the quartet, who shot to prominence during the Spitzplatz campaign. The great-nephew of the Tradgardland Duke, he arrived mid-campaign

and proceeded to give Luftberg's military some of it's best moments. He even led a semi-suicidal attack at the battle of Froschbach, and with the aggressive cockiness he's famous for, he doubtless believes that if he'd been given a more senior role he could've saved the whole battle for Luftberg. Clearly valued as a subordinate by Von Hentsch, it's unlikely that Ludwig sees it in quite those terms.

So, four various commanders for the upcoming campaign - all of whom like some but hate most. The summary breakdown runs as:

Luftberg likes Bitzhelm (rich, plus guarantees Spitzplatz to Luftberg); hates Von Hentsch (plotter, and nearly lost the war); and dislikes Ludwig (jumped-up swaggerer!)

V. Hentsch likes Ludwig (trusty second-in-command); hates Luftberg (as he wants his throne); and hates Bitzhelm (his rival to power.)

Bitzhelm likes Luftberg (his new political ally), likes Ludwig (arrogant aristocrat, so a kindred spirit); and hates Von Hentsch (he plundered his cities for his own wealth!)

Ludwig likes Luftberg (the head of his adoptive homeland); hates Von Hentsch (who should have resigned his command and given him the army) and hates Von Bitzhelm (older, uglier, and a new rival to this military glory-hog!)

It's worth noting that the above wasn't really 'written' by me - the relationships just seemed to form up that way as the named leaders marched around and played out the battles. It's a nice sign of things taking on a life of their own. How this dysfunctional crew will function when Aschenbach comes calling remains to be seen, but it should be "interesting" if nothing else!

New Year, New Plans

2010-01-08T06:31:00.003Z

Many belated returns, everybody! I hope you had a good holiday season. I've been getting back into normal life over the past week, but I've still kept active with my wargaming plans.

First, the old campaign has come to it's conclusion at the tail-end of last year - rather good timing, as it has lasted for about a year in the real-world, as each side contested the province of Spitzplatz. I'll post shortly tying up all the ImagiNation-world changes, and rounding it off (in other words, digging back over old posts from 2008 to review who met their objectives!) Once this is done a new campaign with some fresh quirk will be launched, to let Aschenbach and Luftberg once again continue to test themselves against a new contrivance of fortune.

So, what for the new year? Well, over the holidays I did two big things. The first was to invest in a new wargames rules-set, and the second was quite a lot of painting.

First, with a bit of Xmas money as a present (I never specify hobby items as presents, as my family tend not to be too sharp on military compositions for armies in the mid/late 18th Century - bafflingly) I have bought a set of rules. It came from listening to the excellent 'Meeples & Miniatures' podcast, which I recommend if you like to hear two entertainingly affable wargamers chatter at length about the hobby. Anyway, they recently reviewed the ruleset 'Black Powder' quite favourably, and this caught my attention for several reasons:

a) it's written by Rick Priestley, who did the old Games Workshop rules that first got me into wargaming (and yes, that rulebook is still on my shelf)
b) It's a big hardback book which looks excellent
c) It's been described as having the old 'classic' discussive tone of the likes of Charles Grant and other 1970's-vintage books
d) It covers SYW, Napoleonics and ACW, which are all favoured periods with me
e) It is apparently quite similar in mechanics to Warmaster, which I always felt was criminally under-rated.

So, with that I have sent away for it and am awaiting delivery (it seems to have sold well, and stocks are currently 'on order'.) I'll post a review when it arrives. The only offputting factor was that I had heard it was a 'big battalions' ruleset, which used 24-figure units. I was a bit uneasym until my mental gears creaked into action and I realised that my existing 15mm figures are based in 24-man infantry regiments already! Ah, happy fortune!

Secondly, I have been painting a lot. As readers may know, I have been battling for months to paint flat-out, while playing SYW games along the way. For much of Autumn I managed to nearly burn myself out with frantic painting. In fact, I swore off it and decided to give myself a break. However, the old adage that 'a change is as good as a rest' proved right, and I found myself painting - just on other things. I've been busy on a 6mm medieval army (which I've mentioned on my other 'General Headquarters' blog) plus a pile of Perry ACW figures, etc. Things got encouraging however when I wrapped up the medieval project over the holidays. With this boost, plus a new-year burst of enthusiasm, I have turned back to the last remaining units in my army-expansion project. Pictured below is my 'Lead Mountain':

As you may be able to see, I have my masterplan on paper (in the "2010 SYW TO DO LIST") plus a stack of figures. Some are raw lead, totally unpainted, while others are completely finished and need merely rebased. In all, there are 18 bases of infantry and cavalry left to do.

So, that's the new year - new figures, new rules, and a new campaign!

Taurenwald Aftermath

2009-12-22T06:06:00.002Z

Before the end of the year kicks off and hobby-time falls away, I just wanted to post about the results of the recent battle of Taurenwald. I played it out with the rules-set 'Table Top Battles' by Mike and Joyce Smith, and a lot of fun it was too. Not as 'serious' as the usual Might & Reason rules I use, but just as much fun, and probably concluded in about a third of the time!

So, the Luftberg attack is beaten back, but each army comes unstrung. Clearly, unless each army annihilated itself, the units destroyed in the battle are routed rather than dead, so we can check for rercovering them. Lacking any system, I decided on a straight D6 dice roll of 4+ to recover them. However, the strategic situation is a bit different for the protagonists. Luftberg is fighting with it's main supply dunp barely a few miles back down the road, while Aschenbach is deep in wooded territory with a long road, a pillaged city, a river, and a range of hills between it and home-base. It seems far likelier for Luftberg troops to be regrouped quickly after the battle, so I gave their roll a +1 modifier. Aschenbach soldiers, being far likelier to go 'missing' on the long trek back to a rallying point, got a corresponding -1 modifier.

The results of the rolls (once per regiment destroyed) produced the following armies ready for continuing the campaigh:

Luftberg: 6 Infantry, 1 Croat, 1 Dragoon, 1 Hussar, 1 Artillery.

So, not too bad for Luftberg...

Aschenbach: 1 Grenadier, 3 Infantry, 1 Cuirassier, 1 Dragoon, 1 Artillery.

Hm, Aschenbach maintains it's quality, but is painfully outnumbered. Looks like fighting various skirmishes and three pitched battles is a bit harder to recover from, when you've the smaller army!

If it was a pitched battle, then maybe it could be fought out again - except there's no chance of that. Luftberg are safely locked up tight in their fortress of Blinzburg, ready for a siege. Aschenbach have to besiege a force who outnumbers them 3:2 in infantry, in deeply wooded country while the enemy has irregular light troops to raise havoc in their rear. It can't be done! So, it looks like the campaign in the province of Spitzplatz is coming to an end, militarily a stalemate while the diplomats agree negotiation terms. We'll have to see what they come up with in the new year, when doubtless the armies will find themselves launching into some new campaign over a tiny province. For now though, it looks like a peaceful christmas - Happy holidays, everyone!

Taurenwald, Part 2

2009-12-12T09:50:00.006Z

Felix von Hentsch's attack gets off to a less than brilliant start when the lines clash, and the Aschenbach counterattack through Taurenwald village blasts his centre apart. Damned cowards fled like a bunch of old women!

Von Hentsch pulls his remaining infantry regiment back into the protection of the woods, plus his cavalry begin to pressure the enemy flank. Meanwhile, the smug General Von Krumper preens himself in the wrecked village.

Over with the left column, General Tobias Ludwig shows how it should be done. Giving ground in the face of the enemy line, he works on the flanks. The Croats send one regiment reeling, the cavalry force the Grenadiers to halt and turn away, while the last remaining regiment quickly learns what it means to take on 4:1 odds!

Back on the right, the Aschenbach infantry find it just as hard to take on a defended piece of terrain. One infantry regiment is scattered by Luftberg artillery fire, while the other collapses after being fired on by invisible opponents in the woods. The Cuirassiers flee, and General Von Krumper realises the village is about to change hands for the third time.

On the left, Ludwig presses on, but the roused camps continue to produce more regiments belatedly forming to fight. His cavalry vanguard crashes headlong into the U-shaped enemy line, with his infantry following on behind.

Ludwig's cavalry get routed, but the two lines meet with one slight advantage - he's got more cavalry on the flank. Over on the right, Von Hentsch has occupied Taurenwald with his last infantry and his cavalry now push depeer into the enemy's old camp, finding more and more Aschenbach horsemen beginning to oppose them.

A terrible run of luck hist the Luftberg troops! The infantry going into Taurenwald are rapidly bombarded into a chaotic mob by the waiting Aschenbach batteries, the Croats are finally routed out of the central wood when Von Zaub manages to spare a regular regiment to clear them out, then the left-most regiment under Ludwig is destroyed by hostile fire!

And then it gets worse! Ludwig's cavalry ride down the Aschenbach flank regiment, but then his last two infantry regiments are hit by the Grenadier-fronted Aschenbach line, and flee the field in chaos!

Similar disaster on the right! Von Hentsch's cavalry are outnumbered and scattered, being broken up piecemeal by the continually reinforced Aschenbach line. Time to admit defeat, and retreat. All the damage that can be done, has been done.

So, a victory for Aschenbach again, but what manner of one? Von Hentsch's surprise attack has similarly wrecked both armies. The difference being, that Luftberg is right on the doorstep of it's main supply-base city, while the less numerous Aschenbach troops are at the end of a long and tenuous supply line. A few more such Aschenbach victories and they will be ruined!

Taurenwald, Part 1

2009-12-09T06:22:00.005Z

The Peaceful camp of neat, white tents along the roadside - and then, in the pre-dawn darkness, the Luftberg army attacks in two columns from the south!

General Felix Von Hentsch oversees the right column, which hits the village of Taurenwald and scatters the unprepared defenders. The Aschenbach army raises the alarm and rushes to form it's ranks.

The scant regiments of infantry available form a line and rush back in a daring counterattack, retaking the village before the Luftberg line can advance. Outflanked by cavalry and Croats in the woods, can they hold it?

The left column, led by General Tobias Ludwig, shakes itself out into line, but is rapidly halted. The Aschenbach general Zaub has responded quickly, forming three regiments and rushing them forward obliquely to protect the disorganised camps.

It looks good, as the Luftberg line retreats slightly and reforms - but those Croats in the centre and the cavalry on the flank are a risk. Especially when the Aschenbach line's own hussars are ridden down by their heavier and more numerous enemies.

March to Battle

2009-12-03T06:18:00.002Z

Following the battle of Froschbach, the remaining armies are of virtually identical size. What with Aschenbach's superior discipline and leadership, this should mean they have the edge. What can General Felix Von Hentsch do to ofset this? After much head-scratching and pondering to harpsichord music, there appear to be two options: entrench and fight from behind several feet of earthworks, or launch a surprise attack to negate the enemy advantage.

Aschenbach is marching back across the countryside and then rejoining the road to Blinzburg, the Luftberg source of supply into the province. With it's fall, Aschenbach can dictate peace terms. With the Luftberg army reformed and steadied by Von Hentsch's firm disciplinary hand, they have reassembled at their depot near the Rotenwasser bridge. Initial plans for a dispersed and low-intensity war of raiding parties have been abandoned, in the light of Blinzburg coming under threat. Taking the southern road, the Luftberg army has further to cover but makes better time, getting between the enemy and the city. A few miles short of the city, in the woodland surrounding it, the Aschenbach army encounters the Luftberg outposts and realises it's opponent is present for a fight. The critical battle, in fact - neither side can carry on the war if they take heavy losses.

They pitch camp, expecting to have to attack a defended position the next day. Because of this assumption, they make no camp defences of their own. The cunning Von Hentsch orders a dawn attack on the unsuspecting enemy, planning to rudely interrupt their dreams of a battle in the morning, and dinner in Blinzburg. He'll oblige them on the former at least, and on the latter only as his prisoners!

Battle Honours

2009-11-23T08:49:00.003Z

I know some people have a great enthusiasm for book-keeping in wargaming, but I personally tend to avoid most of it. However, when running an imagination campaign with a manageable number of regiments, each with their own name, a little bit can be rewarding. I have been keeping a simple spreadsheet of my units for this campaign, and writing down if they were present in each battle or skirmish - plus adding any notable feats of arms that stick in my mind. The process is pretty straightforward and undemanding, plus it gives some decent regimental 'narratives' over time. Here's a few typical examples:

Luftberg Infanterie Regiment of Negrelli (No. 4)
Present in Passditz battle-line but unengaged. Did not take part in rearguard.
Fought in Redoubt-storming near Spitzburg, flanked enemy and nearly won fight, but was forced to retire.
Fought at Froschbach. Attempted to attack flank of Grenadiers over marshy stream, but took heavy losses in stream.

Aschenbach Kurassier Cavallerie Regiment Von Kurbitz (No. 2)
Fought in Passditz and routed opposing cavalry.
Took part in pursuit after battle, routing Dragoon reg. D1 and captured General Van Der Dijk, but was caught by the fire of 3 enemy infantry regiments and greatly weakened by heavy losses.
Recovered and refitted in reserve, then was in action again at Froschbach. Charged repeatedly and was heavily engaged.

As you will see from the two examples above, the histories can quickly begin to take shape. I'm hoping the process could eventually begin to make more and more 'real' connections, such as two opposing regiments that repeatedly tangle with other could develop a rivalry, or perhaps a unit that fires particularly effectively in a few fights may be judged to have a particularly zealous drillmaster and get a permanent bonus, etc. The possibilities that emerge over time are good for firing the imagination!

The Big Roundup

2009-11-10T06:11:00.002Z

Today is something of a significant date in the Blog's history. To the best of my reckoning, this is about 1 year ago from when I resolved to carry out my big 'expansion' project. About 3 months ago I suddenly threw myself into painting and basing when I realised today was imminent, hoping to have it all done. I thought success was unlikely, but I wanted the spur to keep me active. The result is - exactly what I wanted!

From having about a third done, a third partially painted, and a third untouched, I have made huge bounds forward over the last few months. Now, how did I do? Out of a grand total of 74 bases across the two armies, I have 56 completed bases and just 18 still to do - 75% completed! Considering most of the completed ones are the 'heavier' infantry bases with a dozen figures compared to the cavalry's five, that's pretty good going. In fact, if I had abandoned the blog and not fought the battles over that redoubt and the monster clash at Froschbach, I could plausibly have managed the target! Proof that all painters should set achievable targets to encourage themselves along - I strongly, strongly recommend it!

After all that, how have things fared in games-world? Well, Aschenbach have yet again won a battle in the open field. The cavalry proved itself able (with some careful handling and some infantry support) of taking on double it;s own numbers. Things looked like the army was about to be overwhelmed by the size of the enemy, but the superior Aschenbach firepower in the Might & Reason Rules came to the rescue. That was the first time I think I've seen Grenadiers at work in full strength, and in the open - and it's alarming! They were chewing through enemy infantry regiments with virtually no damage in return. To put it in perspective, the standard Luftberg infantry unit has 6SP's (strength points) while the Grenadiers have 8SP's - and in fire they effectively double it, making the contest 16 to 6. They can very nearly take on three-to-one odds!

The only moment of brilliance for Luftberg arms is the dubious advance by General Ludwig into the boggy stream, which saw an infantry regiment effectively wrecked in exchange for flanking fire onto the Grenadiers, which did at least do some damage to the giants. No doubt Ludwig will maintain this was just the sort of long-odds stuff needed to save the day, although his rivals in the army will argue it's just proof of his immaturity and evidence of why he shouldn't have been promoted over them, dammit.

Poor General Felix Von Hentsch! Beaten twice in the field, the war is not doing his military prestige any good. Can he possibly tolerate a rival in Ludwig, even as he needs him now? The Elector Ulrich Von Luftberg (Victor of Vogelhof, etc. etc.) must be sharing the pain of the Empress Maria Theresa, railing against competent-but-uninspired commanders that keep on losing to the bluecoats after respectable performances. They're such a tough army to beat!

Looking over my records from the battle, I decided to follow the M&R post-battle process, and discovered that the Luftberg army only narrowly had enough hussars and light troopers to stave off a pursuit that would've resulted in a major defeat - close one! Totting up the casualties and rolling for recovery, Aschenbach had a few units reduced for the remainder of the campaign, and lost an artillery battery - thanks to the Luftberg Cuirassiers running down the crews. The Luftberg army is in far worse shape. An artillery battery, a regiment of hussars, one of Cuirassiers, two of Dragoons and FOUR of Infantry have been wrecked, depleted so far that the survivors can only be dispersed to strengthen other regiments, while the remaining cadres are ordered back to Luftberg to refit and replenish with new recruits. Terrible!

So, what does this mean on the campaign? It's unlikely that Luftberg can take on anything but a fragment of the enemy army in the field, but can Felix suddenly execute a kind of klein-krieg low-intensity war to thwart Aschenbach and save the day?

The Battle of Froschbach, Part 3

2009-11-06T06:20:00.005Z

The third and final part, as the battle comes to the climax. Both cavalry forces, battered and desperately trying to reform, hang back. However, Aschenbach's refused flank meant it at least has infantry on hand, who press slowly forward and deliver some volleys, pressing the Luftberg horse back yet further and breaking up their reforming attempts.
In the centre, the infantry battle develops. Luftberg infantry stare into the smoke, from which suddenly emerges first the rattle of a grenadier march being played, then the glint of polished mitres. The grenadiers are attacking! Aschenbach reduces the distance to hug up close and make all fire short-range. It proves too much for Steinkopf's boys in the middle, who flee headlong! The Grenadiers press on, and the regiment of O'Brien suddenly finds itself out of reserve. It's all that stands between the army commander Felix Von Hentsch and capture! ("Hold them off lads, I'm just going over here for a moment! I'll be right back!")
The Luftberg Infantry General La Spezia tries to turn some units, wheeling them round to contain and flank the Aschenbach penetration of the front rank. By the stream, the daringly advanced Regiment of Negrelli under Ludwig's observation gets a hammering for it's impertinence - the reserve Aschenbach regiment swings round and hammers it with volleys.
La Spezia's frantic reorganising. The line is now down to one regiment deep, and most units have been badly battered.
Now here's a classic 'Age of Reason' sight - the front-line clearly delineated by the firing-smoke of the two sides (actually firing markers in the game rules.) The Aschenbach line is shaped like a question-mark, bent back left and right by the Ludwig flanking-move over the stream and La Spezia's attempts to form a salient. The bluecoats are all-out, having nobody left in reserve.
Von Hartling brings up his reformed Dragoons to threaten a combined-arms attack, leaving his disastrously battered cuirassiers behind. Surely the remains of the Luftberg horse can't resist this?
The full battlefield bird's eye view.

Luftberg throws in it's last cavalry charge, hoping for lucky dice. Sadly it's not to be, and Aschnebach hold firm. The survivors rebound, and the Luftberg cavalry is now reduced to just four regiments, most with only a few strength points left. (Notice all the Aschenbach units with the hexagonal hit-markers too!)
Yet more crashing volleys, but the Aschenabch ones come with the unruffled regularity of a clock ticking, while Luftberg fall into increasing disorder. It's over! Literally - the turn ends, and the Luftberg army fails an army morale test, meaning it quits the field. (It rolled badly, but frankly as most units were on the brink of collapse, it probably would only have failed even more spectacularly on the next turn.)
Officers beg Felix Von Hentsch to quit the field. Felix wonders if maybe he should have just withdrawn when the Aschenbach army began marching to outflank him...
For General Von Krumper, yet another victory! Long live Aschenbach's Royal House!

The Battle of Froschbach, Part 2

2009-11-04T06:25:00.005Z

General Ludwig, out on the right, sees his opportunity to flank the oncoming Aschenbach infantry with fire across the river. It'll be long-range, but it all helps!

On the other Luftberg flank, the generals execute a competent redeployment - wonders will never cease! The first battered cavalry brigade falls back behind a protective screen of Hussars to reform, while the fresh second brigade under Van Der Dijk comes trotting forward. Alarmingly close, in fact, to the unlimbering guns!

Things are looking bad, here - Aschnebach's right flank are pinned in place, unable to go forward.

The main Aschenbach effort is still advancing however, into the waiting muzzles of the cannons. The attack can't be stopped to wait for the right flank to catch up however, raising the prospect of the assault falling flat, like an attack-dog leaping forward and then realising it's leash is too short. At this rate, the army will rip it's own centre wide open as the two halves drift further apart!

Von Hartling orders the Dragoons to charge the oncoming new Luftberg troopers, hoping to take the edge off them.

They batter them but rebound, having failed to get a magic high dice-roll. Looks like those Luftberg cuirassiers will be coming on!

At close-range, the Aschenbach gunners add their fire and send cannonballs plunging through the startled men and horses.

As the fire continues, Van Der Dijk steels himself for action. "Charge!"

Thundering forward, his dragoons go all-out for the Aschenbach horse, while the battered cuirassiers try to rush uphill at the cannons. They get some point-blank fire for their trouble, but they are not to be denied.

The Dragoons recoil from the tired Aschenbach cavalry lines, but the real result is on the hilltop. Both artillery batteries are overrun and the crews slain, and although one regiment is shot to ribbons and reduced to a single strength point (SP), the famous Cuirassier Regiment Schrodinger sweeps through and is only just repelled by the frantic efforts of the supporting Aschenbach infantry. Had it broken throughm it would have been loose in the Aschenbach army's rear!

In the Luftberg centre, the Aschenbach infantry now draws close. A blast of musketry cuts down the artillery crews positioned in front of the white lines. Some guns still fire, but it's a devastating volley.

Sensing the Luftberg cavalry is battered, Von Hartling attacks again and this time the adjacent infantry moves up too, lending it's fire to the struggle. He rebounds, but the blooded Luftberg cavalry soon pull back also and try to reform.

In the centre, the infantry lines pull into range and the volleys crash out along the line, and the Aschenbach grenadiers rapidly show their quality with devastating volleys hammering the enemy line.

The fire takes on an L-shape, thanks to Ludwig's fire over the stream. It can only be at long range however, and so is muted in impact. This clearly irks Ludwig...

"Attack!" Egad! A sudden rush of blood to the head caught General Ludwig, who orders his men to advance into the marshy stream (in the rules, he rolled an auto-attack order.) They can now give close-range volleys, but are terribly exposed in turn. Is this madness, or genius?

The Aschenbach regiment in reserve smoothly turns to face the new threat, but casualties are mounting on each side and the Aschenbach main attack is now stretched to a single reserve unit. The front-line Musketeer Regiments are all battered, but the Grenadiers are still largely unaffected. If the breakthrough is to happen, it'll be down to them, but they're facing heavy odds!

A plan view of the field, with the front-line marked with a yellow dotted line. The enfiladed left, paper-thin centre, and exhausted right of the Aschenbach line are all visible. It's do-or-die time!

The Battle of Froschbach, Part 1

2009-11-03T06:12:00.006Z

The battlefield, with both armies deployed in the morning.

On the Luftberg right, Tobias Ludwig holds the redoubt, plus light troops are on hand until the reinforcements arrive.

In the centre, Felix Von Hentsch inspects the ranks of regiments in an offset single, double, even triple line, fronted by batteries.

Over on the army's left, the largest mass of horsemen yet fielded, in two brigades under General Van Der Dijk (recently paroled from captivity) and General Frundsberg.

Facing them, General Krumper preens and fusses over uniforms before the attack.

Von Hartling at the head of the cavalry, on the Aschenbach right.

Over on the army's left, by the stream, the Grenadiers are standing ready.

The opening moves! Following a decent breakfast, Ludwig moves his Croats off to occupy the town, and then receives some good news - his two off-table regiments arrive immediately! (A slight rules-tweak here, owing to having only 50% sized units - to represent moving in column, I just turn the single base sideways.)

Marching as one, the Aschenbach army begins to move with it's customary precision.
Von Hartling trots forward, and one of the two Luftberg cavalry brigades comes on to meet him. It dawns on the Aschenbach general that the cavalry will probably be fighting over the hilltop where General Krumper had wanted his artillery to deploy in support of the main attack. Looks like the grenadiers will have to do this without support!

The long walk towards the enemy continues, with only jaunty marching band music to keep the nerves under control!

With the distance closing, the Luftberg cavalry charges...

... and recoils! The combat was mixed, but by the Might & Reason rules, the attacker always recoils and most combats are inconclusive at first, until strength-points (SP's) have been drained and then units begin to crack and rout.
With a crack and boom, the Luftberg cannon take their range and begin firing. The Aschenbach infantry deploy smoothly into fighting lines.

Von Hartling counter-charges, keeping only one dragoon regiment in reserve. His troopers rebound too, but the Luftbergers are definitely beginning to falter, and their SP levels begin sinking.

The clash between the infantry is drawing nearer, and the cavalry are already locking horns. The Aschenbach infantry begins refusing it's right wing, and most of the guns deploy here too, immediately behind the cavalry battle. Can the horsemen of either side secure the crucial flank for the main attack? Will the grenadiers be attacking the Luftberg centre with friendly artillery pounding away in support, or white-coated horsemen charging into their flank?

(To be continued...)

Approach to Froschbach

2009-11-02T06:15:00.003Z

The blog has halted recently due to that troublesome 'real world' getting in the way once more. I recently managed to hurt some muscle in my neck, which gave me a painful 'lean' for a few days with my head cocked to one side, and this brought pretty much all hobby activity to a standstill until it wore off.

In games-land, I have managed to paint up around two thirds of my figures, when in a sudden 'flash of inspiration' made me realise that I could fight a 50% scale Might & Reason battle between the full armies for the first time in about a year! Each unit has two bases in M&R, but by just using one base per unit and halving all distances I was pretty much set to go! The battle has been fought out and - following the pause for recuperation - now completed, so my plan is to blog the battle and post photos over the next few days of the week.

Following his failed attempt to push the Aschenbach army back, Felix von Hentsch has revealed he is at least present in strength. For the Aschenbach army commander Gerdt Von Krumper, this means a chance to sieze the initiative and strike! A flanking march round the southern flank with virtually the entire army will avoid the fortified lines of each side, and bring on an open battle. The disadvantage is all the Luftberg cavalry is watching the southern flank, so any attack will not be a surprise and most likely will meet a fully drawn up Luftberg defence.

The scene for the confrontation turns out to be this scene of bucolic bliss:

The small village of Froschbach, nestled in behind some peaceful rolling hills and with a little stream meandering down a shallow valley. Hills in the west and east have little re-entrants on their slopes, plus some woods top the hill to the west. The northern area of the field affords Luftberg a flat, open plain for deployment.

Due to the circumstances that brought the battle about, namely the flanking of the fortifications mentioned before, I've added a few 'setup conditions' to the defenders, quite arbitrarily. First, their right/west flank can have a redoubt, but facing away from the developing attack. If they have to form a new line outside their works, then it makes sense for them to at least anchor it on a strong redoubt, like a pivot. It won't be facing the attack, but it will at least defend against any flanking moves.

Next, the cavalry will have been skirmishing and slowing the Aschenbach advance, so it will be required to assemble together as one mass on the left/east flank, having presumably drawn aside like a matador's cape to reveal the white infantry lines awaiting.

Last, two infantry regiments are presumed to be 'late arrivals' on the field, to represent Felix von Hentsch's understandable reluctance to completely abandon his fortified lines until he's sure that this flanking move isn't a probe, but a full-blown assault.

The infantry line is drawn up in the customary double-line manner which worked so well at Vogelhof, and nearly worked at Passditz. In fact, by placing the Croats forward and occupying the village of Froschbach, the right side of the line isn't too likely to be threatened. There's even scope to increase depth to three regiments on the left, in preparation for the Aschenbach oblique flanking attack. There's no foe like a predictable foe!

So, over on the other side of the field, what does Von Krumper have up his sleeve? Will he attack the left, centre or right? Well, he doesn't know too much about the enemy dispositions, but he does know that the stream running up the field splits him neatly into two. Either he tries to straddle it, or commits entirely to one side. The western side seems to offer nothing but hilly terrain, redoubts, and fortified villages - hardly appealing! The east is more open, but the cavalry situation here is awful. Hi sown troopers will be numerically outnumbered by two to one, although they are of higher quality. Also, following the injury of the great Von Kleintrink, can the Aschenbach cavalry recapture the old magic?

The new man, hand-picked by the military-minded king and general, is a General Von Hartling. Competent and active, he should be a worthy successor - not least because of his reputation for swashbuckling bravery, hardly a drawback in a cavalryman! Nonetheless, he's untried in command, and betting the success of the attack on his ability to overcome the odds seems a bit risky. So, with each flank rejected the choice is clear - the centre! The army will advance with it's left flank secured on the boggy stream, the right flank refused and guarded by the cavalry, while the centre, led by the grenadiers themselves, breaks the enemy army in two!

It's a plan with just enough of a crazy chance to work. Send out the orders - we attack tomorrow, under cover of daylight!

Aschenbach on the march

2009-10-17T08:40:00.004+01:00

Feldmarshall Gerdt von Krumper has had enough of the Luftberg army. Since arriving in the province of Spitzplatz at the head of the Aschenbach army, he has daringly crossed the Spitzwasser, defeated the enemy force at Passditz with a textbook oblique flanking attack, and taken the capital city of Spitzburg. Since then, things have fallen away. Rather than admit they are beaten and quietly withdraw, the whitecoats managed to blunt his pursuit and even wounded the Graf von Kleintrink, charismatic head of the cavalry. Since then it’s been nothing but inglorious digging, and each army unable to do anything but knock heads and cause losses. Time to break free of the stalemate, now the latest assault has been repelled and the enemy have revealed they are still in their works in strength, not detatching troops off to other regions.

The only option is to outflank to the south, and avoid all those fortified points. The Luftberg cavalry is all over the countryside, especially those disgraceful irregular hussars of theirs who always run from a proper fight. Such a move wouldn’t be able to go unnoticed so tactical surprise is impossible, but the pitched battle that resulted would at least be in the open field and not behind fortifications.

Leaving only his Fusiliers regiment behind to form a screen in the defences, Von Krumper plans to shift his entire army round the flank and offer battle, possibly to decide the campaign then and there.

Storm the Redoubt!

2009-10-05T08:40:00.006+01:00

With a blast of early-morning cannon fire, the redoubt troops are awoken. But this is no harrassing fire - something's up!

Sure enough, the Luftberg infantry comes streaming forward!

A little surprise awaits however, courtesy of our busy defenders - a line of Cheveaux-de-Frise!

The first-wave tear their way through, as the defenders pour on musketry-fire. On the left, the supporting infantry regiment of Negrelli turns and wheels round, seeking to turn the enemy flank.

The grenadiers go in, but badly weakened!

The infernal point-blank firefight takes it's toll, but the attackers suffer most. The grenadiers are destroyed, but the support regiment of Von Trapp crashes in, like a wave onto the rocks.
Blooded, the left-hand regiment backs off and Negrelli wheels for the flank...
"Fire! Aha, now the gaiter's on the other foot, no?"
The von Trapp regiment flees too, and so the defenders swing out of their defences to finish the assault off.
It goes badly! Suddenly out of their defences, the Luftberg fire feels a little more galling - to say nothing of turning their flank out and exposing it to the Luftberg supporting cannons, who send roundshot bounding down the line.
Everybody left pitches in, and the redoubt is a mass of troops chaotically striking out at anybody within reach - surely such hot work cannot be stood for long?
It cannot! With the outcome balancing on the razor's edge at points, the troops of Negrelli finally fall back, fighting as they go - what a heroic show!
The Bluecoats can keep their worthless redoubt, and half of their strength will never see another day!
In fact, maybe a bit more than half - here's a few parting shots for you!

On the other side of the hill

2009-09-29T06:06:00.002+01:00

Dig, dig, dig...

Stand to...

"Nothing ever happens around here!"

Out in the Park

2009-09-24T06:22:00.005+01:00

Trotting out on a summer's eve, General Felix Von Hentsch has been reviewing the odd parade, in order to keep the troops sharp. With his entourage of bickering brigade commanders and nondescript hangers-on in tow, he's been reviewing the army's artillery park.

Certainly the field pieces make a nice show, lined up for inspection and review. The Luftberg army commander can at least reassure himself that his force can assemble a fearsome grand battery if required.

Away from such pleasing dalliances however, a short ride out to the front lines will reveal that the enemy are not far distant. Felix has resolved that he shall be giving the scoundrels of Aschenbach a sound beating if the opportunity presents, and now it has. The defensive lines are obviously not continuous, as unbroken trench-lines are for close sieges only. No gallant army would hide in such works in the open field!

A short distance away, on the forward slopes of a gently wooded hill, the Aschenbach army has built a small redoubt. It's a strong position, but isolated from the rest of the army and unlikely to receive swift reinforcement if attacked with vigour. Thought to hold about two regiments, Felix has resolved to throw double that number against them. The regiments are already picked in his mind, and soon they shall launch a surprise dawn raid to overturn the works and threaten the Aschenbach line with being turned if they don't fall back immediately and humiliatingly.

A scheme with no drawbacks! Granted, some of the actual troops required to charge into the cannon's mouth may not share that opinion, but they're no doubt comforted by the knowledge that their personal sacrifice will be Luftberg's gain. After all, what Electorate ever rose to greatness without sacrifice from the lower orders? It's the natural way of things!

In the meantime, double the grog ration, fix bayonets, and remove flints - just to motivate the boys to do the business with cold steel!

Back on Campaign

2009-09-19T07:49:00.002+01:00

Time to get back to the campaign between Aschenbach and Luftberg, who are currently contesting the province of Spitzplatz. As readers with long memories will recall, recent events have been mixed for both sides. The general of the Luftberg army, Felix von Hentsch, was caught by a surprise attack while near the capital city of Spitzburg, and defeated after the battle of Passditz. However fortune was quick to redress things, as the Aschenbach pursuit was deflected by the rearguard under Tobias Ludwig, the great-nephew of the Tradgardland duke and general-for-hire extraordinaire. Not only was the Luftberg retreat called up short, but the much-feared Erich von Kleintrink, hard-driving commander of the Aschenbach cavalry, was removed from action by a grievous injury to his leg.

So, now the two armies have halted a short distance east of the capital city, no doubt engaged in much spade-work, and are now glowering at each other. Here's the old map of the situation.
And here, in a re-jigged format, is the new one of the same thing.

The close-up of the central area, viewed here looking to the north-west. Aschenbach controls the city of Spitzburg, but has the river Spitzwasser to his rear. Each army is hard against the tributary Rotenwasser to guard it's northern flank.

Felix von Hentsch can now reflect on his next move. Forced to live in a tent with only seven wagon-loads of personal effects and only two of his mistresses for company, camp-life has clearly lost it's charms. But with his supply lines exposed to an enely army on this side of the Spitzwasser, he can't just march off until the foe opposite him is dealt with. He has two real options. To maintain the 'digging offensive' he could rely on his superior numbers to slowly stretch the fortified line south and west, extending it until either the Aschenbach army is outflanked or compelled to fall back to a tiny bridgehead in the city itself...

Or, if he wants, he can despatch his lighter raiding troops northward by building some pontoons over the Rotenwasser. The catch is that the Aschenbach foe will simply do likewise, if they have access to the riverbank. A first move could however be a sharp rap against the Aschenbach defences, to drive him slightly backwards until he was across from the swampy marshland at the river junction. Then, Felix's northward move would be free to roam as it pleased, with the bluecoats pinned helplessly at the capital. Whatever he decides, he'd better make up his mind soon, as things are serious - he's down to his last three crates of champagne.

DBA SYW

2009-09-15T22:07:00.002+01:00

As I mentioned in my comment back to Jeff in the last blog entry (I’m trying to respond to every comment, so you’ll always get something back from now on!) I have finally knocked a big chunk off the ‘to do’ pile by completing all my Luftberg infantry! One regiment of Grenadiers, one of Croats, and ten (ten!) of line infantry, all based and done! I’m one pretty pleased wargamer, I can tell you!

So, as I dash on to knock off the remaining cavalry (5 figures a base – seems like a breeze after the 12-figures-a-base infantry!) I wanted to put something on the blog to keep folk engaged. Yes, I do care about all my bloglodytes (to coin a phrase - at least as far as I'm aware.)

As with most wargamers, I have a regular itch to make my own versions of rules, typically quick-play ones. I recently filled in an idle hour bashing out a quick set of 18^th-Century DBA variant rules. If you know the general DBA-esque setup, this’ll all be very familiar. Nonetheless, have a look and see what you think:

Unit: Move/Range Combat Mod vs. Inf/Mounted

Infantry 2”/2” +3/+4

Cuirassiers 3”/0 +3/+4

Dragoons 4”/0 +3

Hussars 5”/0 +1/+2

Skirmishers 3”/2” +2

Artillery 2”/6” +3

Guards/Grenadiers can add +1 to all combat mods.

Skirmishers ignore terrain effects, all others double costs to cross/enter.

Artillery cannot move and fire in the same turn.

Artillery add +1 combat mod if firing at a target within half-range (3”)

All Luftberg (ie, Austrian) infantry units can only move straight ahead or wheel, while Aschenbach (ie, Prussian) infantry can move obliquely.

For combat, roll a dice each, add mods and compare. Minor loss is less than enemy but more than half, major loss is less than half enemy.

The results are:

Recoil = move back one base depth, facing same way.

Repulse = recoil, then turn around and make 1 full move rearwards.

Rout = Repulse, and rally next turn with 2PIPs. If not rallied, removed.

Destroyed = remove from game.

Cuirassiers who win must make a follow-up move of 1 base-depth straight ahead.

RESULTS – MINOR LOSS

INFANTRY Routed by mounted contact in the open, repulsed if flanked, else recoil.

CUIRASSIERS recoil.

DRAGOONS recoil in close combat, repulse against fire.

HUSSARS repulse

SKIRMISHERS recoil vs. fire, routed by mounted contact, else repulse.

ARTILLERY destroyed by mounted contact, repulsed by foot in close combat, else recoil.

RESULTS – MAJOR LOSS

INFANTRY repulsed by skirmishers, destroyed by mounted in open, else rout.

CUIRASSIERS routed by infantry in contact or by fire, else destroyed.

DRAGOONS routed by infantry in contact or by fire, else destroyed.

HUSSARS destroyed by any mounted in contact, else rout.

SKIRMISHERS repulsed by fire, destroyed my any mounted contact in open, else recoil.

ARTILLERY destroyed by any contact, repulsed by fire.

And there you go! I’ve tried to generally keep things simple and so have made some sweeping pronouncements to simplify, but I think it should overall get the ‘feel’ of it. I’d be curious to know what others think of it, so feel free to stick on a comment with any (constructive) criticism!

An inkling of progress

2009-09-13T09:39:00.001+01:00

The other night, I had the place to myself and took the opportunity to haul out all my stored Luftberg miniatures, covered the dining room table with them, and had a massive ‘stock take.’ It was actually pretty encouraging, as the full look of the army was clearly starting to take shape. Worryingly, it took up the full length of the table, but that just seemed cool to me - this is genuinely the biggest wargames force I've ever owned! I’ve not taken any photos, as I plan to hold a full review parade once the painting is done, and post liberally from that!

Two rough ‘milestones’ are drawing close. The first is the completion of the entire Luftberg army, which only requires a determined burst of cavalry-painting to finish. The second is the basing of some new Aschenbach infantry, which would give me a 12-base force of suitable composition. This would mean I could field a DBA battle between the sides again, and at least progress the campaign a little. It’s not with my typical Might & Reason rules, but certainly it should give some decent fights to post.

Right – I’m off to buff some tricornes. I just wanted to post and let you all know that big things are at least soon on the way!

Back to Base-ics

2009-09-04T06:56:00.002+01:00

Hi y'all, it's just a quick update today, as I'm taking a break from painting Aschenbach uniforms to post a quick technical update. In the last post I railed against Essex Miniatures' teeny bases, but the very effort of moaning about it made me dwell on it long enough to come up with a solution. This took about 10 seconds to figure out though, which probably means I should keep my mouth shut about complaints in future, but there you go!

Basically, a small 10mm x 10mm bit of thin card is snipped out and glued to the base, so instead of the model trying to balance on a small base, I've a small base trying to balance on the model - much easier! Now they're stable enough to stand alone, and I can also glue them directly onto their large MDF 60mm x 30mm final bases much easier, and without all the colour-bearers experiencing a strange height-gain next to all their fellows!

Painting continues, and with a bit of luck, I may soon be at least able to field a DBA-sized force from the finished bases. Better than nothing!

The Reinforcements arrive!

2009-08-31T06:43:00.003+01:00

Stepping out of my front door on saturday morning to nip down to the shops, I stepped over the dead postman on my doorstep I hadn't left there. Expired through the compacted spine he'd obtained from hauling a parcel up the stairs, I prised the object from his dead fingers and realised that Essex Miniatures had clearly given up using lead to cast their models in favour of super-density antimatter.

Well, not quite. The post arrived on saturday bearing with it my longed-for miniatures to complete my armies, contained in a deceptively small box of around a kilogram of weight - lots of metal for the lead mountain!

Most of the miniatures are already familiar to you dear readers, through photos of them painted - however, some packs have answered a few questions. For example, one figure bought back in the mists of time has ended up painted as an Austrian artilleryman, holding a lit fuse out before him. He's never turned up in any other pack of gun crews, so I've always wondered where he came from. Wonder no more, with a look at the Grenadier Command Pack:

Oh, the ignominious demotion! A tricorned officer in the Grenadier Guards, mistaken for a common 'trade' officer like a soot-grimed artillerist! I can feel the contempt radiating off them already. The mysterious figure turned out to be as you see above: an officer in a heavily-frogged coat, gesturing languidly ahead with a topped cane, not a lit taper at all! The other mitre-wearing figures are pretty good too. The drummer probably can't bend his arms from the amount of ornamental braid sewn onto his sleeves, and I especially like the chin-up colourbearer, jauntily holding the colours one-handed.

Here, then, is a full base prior to setting onto a set of sticks for painting. The figures above are an Aschenbach Infantry HQ Stand. The mounted officers are pretty much the same as for Luftberg, except the figure is looking over his shoulder (doubtless checking the line of his companies for some minor error in drill.) Foot officers carry a spontoon. If I have one complaint about the Essex range, it's the stingy base sizes on the colourbearers. Look at the size of the flag! Balancing them to stand upright long enough for glue to settle is a nightmare.

Oh, and one last pic 'in colour' to show you my efforts to finish up my existing troops. Here are some Croats, now painted in my fancy new red uniform. The figures had been based before, but attempts to prise them off the base soon established that buckled legs were the more likely consequence! As a result, I was compelled to repaint them still mounted on the base - thank god they were open-order!

It's taken HOW LONG?!?

2009-08-26T07:03:00.001+01:00

The thing about a blog is that it makes you look back every so often and re-appraise how far you’ve come. Sometimes, the results of these retrospectives are… disturbing. Well, maybe that’s a bit strong. ‘Eye-opening’ is probably a better way of putting it. Take, for instance, the big project I undertook to rebase my miniatures. It’s been running since the stone age, or so it feels like to me, and the results are pretty reassuring – superficially. Lots of painting done, the old bases torn up and reorganised, plus a definite game-plan of where to go from here up to the finish.

Roughly, things stand as follows: one third of the miniatures are fully finished, painted, based, and ready for the tabletop; a further third are partially, mostly or completely painted, requiring finishing up and basing for action; and the final third are as yet un-purchased, thanks to the dislocating effect of the wedding on all the finances. The big blunder here was that I bought only Luftberg troops in my first big rush at the project, not a mixture. As a result, both armies have been uprooted from their old system, and now only one has grown to massive size while the other has languished at it’s old size, off-bases and useless. If you want a free hint for your own collecting, then learn from my blunder – never put all your eggs in one basket: grow both opposing forces together! Even more irritatingly, certain far-sighted individuals commented on the blog back at the start and warned of this very blunder, so I’ve no excuse for my idiocy!

What brought on all this navel-gazing? Well, that’s when the looks back get truly ‘eye-opening.’ I realised it had been running on for a while, but then it suddenly came home to me how much – I started this off in November last year, and now we’re already into August. I never, in my wildest dreams, pictured this job taking over a year. Not even up to a year!

In other words, if I’ve got any ambitions to bring this in at under one year, I have about three months remaining. The world won’t end if I don’t finish it by then, but my own ambitions will have been busted. It’s sprawled too much, and I need a target deadline. Now I’m fired up with fresh enthusiasm, and I intend to hurl all I’ve got at the remaining painting to knock out the last troops. I’ve also finally steeled myself to part with my hoarded money, and placed my order with Essex Miniatures for the remaining figures. Soon, I’ll have the lot in hand. In the meantime, I’m forging on with the last few hold-outs I have from the first batch – photos to follow soon, hopefully. Wish me luck!

New Blog, and Old one still going!

2009-08-22T09:25:00.002+01:00

Hi, just a quick note for everybody - as you'll see from my last post, I was pondering a move into more general wargaming, but I've decided to keep this one strictly 18th-Century!

For those of you hankering for a battle report of some sort (and god knows it's been a while from me,) I can only cordially invite you to notice my other blog at:

http://generalheadquarters.blogspot.com/

where for your entertainment, the 'French Upstart' Napoleon is taking on the combined allied powers somewhere in Germany in 1813. (So, from the perspective of this blog, Science Fiction!)

Bloggage

2009-08-11T06:44:00.001+01:00

The SYW Painting Project groans on, but my wargaming remains active. As a matter of fact, I’m actually buffing up some ACW figures at present, following my recent reading of Bruce Catton’s excellent books on it.

Aha! The above sentence may be something of a surprise to you, as it’s the first time I’ve mentioned non-18th Century wargaming. I actually do a fair bit, like DBA ancients, Medievals, 2mm Napoleonics, ACW (soon!), WW1, etc. etc. However, I’ve always kept the ol’ blog strictly focused on my 18th-Century campaign. Mentioning anything else felt strangely like ‘breaking the fourth wall’ in a way, as if I was spoiling it.

However, over time I’ve come across many other blogs (Wargaming Miscellany, A Wargaming Odyssey, Geektactica, Steve’s Random Musings, Steel on Sand, - to name only a couple) which cover several periods. Plus, with this repainting scheme underway, it’ll be a fair while before I can campaign again for the blog – while in the real world, I’m still very active in the hobby. I've other campaigns I'm happy to share, but no blogging outlet for it all.

So, I thought I’d solicit some opinions from the valued readership – should I convert my blog into a multi-period ‘General Wargaming’ blog, or should I start a new one for this and keep ‘K-und-K’ strictly 18th-C only? I’m still pondering what to do, but haven’t made up my mind yet. Any other bloggers out there with advice are welcome to share their thoughts!

Grenadiers

2009-08-05T06:11:00.002+01:00

I hope everyone's weekend went well - I had lots to do, but thankfully I also managed to squeak in a little bit of painting. In a refreshing change I also took some figures up to the finished stage in one go - my grenadiers!

Luftberg's regiment of Pilsen Grenadiers have grown from the eight originals (based to the old system, on the left of the photo) to twenty-four frosty-eyed killers, fit to maul any battlefield. The uniform is just based on the first paint-effort I did years ago on my originals, which combines the two usual facings-colours of the army - red on the collar, blue on the coat-tails & cuffs. It's not based on anything historical, but just came about because I liked it. The figures are Essex Miniatures' Hungarian Grenadiers, as I thought that would add a touch of Mittel-Europa swagger to the figures!

Oh, and you may have noticed something else: no command group, with flags and drums! There was a reason for this, as when I ordered my figures initially I decided against getting any commanders. I had some vague notions the Pilsen Grenadiers would be a 'Combined Grenadier' regiment, assembled from the detatched grenadier companies in the other regiments, in the typical style of the age. As such, I wanted to give them less of a 'finished' look with their officers, colours, etc. Purely personal inclination, of course, and it hasn't translated into paint-schemes or anything complex - I just like 'em!

Coming up next on the painting table, some strips of base-wood which I'm planning to paint up as river and road sections. My terrain is growing with my army!

The Pre-Holiday Works

2009-07-31T06:08:00.003+01:00

Ta Daa! Here, you see the bulk of the completed brush-work. Obviously I was more stressed pre-wedding than I realised, as I managed to burn through pretty much the entire remainder of the Luftberg Infantry! Roughly, there's enough above for around four or five bases, using my current basing system of 12-figures per base.

Here's a pair of close-up views of some of them, arranged so you can see the back and front. I carried out all the painting to a structured plan, which I've detailed on one of my previous blog postings. It seemed to help, as I had all the stages written down on a big table and doggedly ticked off each completed section as I went ("Hats, done... Cartridge boxes, done..." etc.) It helped me see progress, which is definitely needed after a major session when you've just had to knuckle down and paint about 100 black gaiters - sadly there seems no way of avoiding at least 2 or 3 seriously dull 'plods' of this sort!

And here's an extremely-extreme-close-up. I stuck to the 2-foot rule, eliminating all detail that's not visible beyond this. Plus, the figures have still to be 'dipped' and this will greatly help with picking out details, etc. So, why haven't I dipped them yet? Well, I've not entirely finished all the infantry yet - I've just killed off the bulk of it. Here's what's still to do:

At the top you'll see my Grenadiers, who were left aside in the drive to get Line Infantry out the way. Below them, the red fellows are my skirmishers. I recently became siezed with the urge to paint them as Croat Grenzers, with a wildly impractical uniform of bright red. This means I'll actually have to destroy one of my new bases, as I've stuck the existing three down and they're painted in their 'old' uniform of a practical grey, which will never do! I'll only have my light troops sneaking silently through the woods and rocks while dressed in the most outrageously dandy-ish manner! These cut-throat fops can just count themselves lucky that neon hasn't been invented yet!

LAst of all, we have the deeply unglamorous stuff: a mass of horses, which I find the most irritatingly dull thing to paint; mounted officers, of which I seem to have loads; and the tail-end-charlies of the Line Infantry, the stray figures who came unstuck from my painting sticks and will have to be buffed up individually.

Fingers crossed for the weekend!

The Elector Returns!

2009-07-27T06:27:00.002+01:00

Hello all! I have finally, after several weeks' absence, returned to normal life! I have been away from wargaming, first for the minor matter of getting married, then for a honeymoon. The wedding went brilliantly, and amazingly quite problem-free, so 'the empress' is now officially in the family, and I've now done some travelling in continental Europe. We headed off for a two-week cruise around the Baltic Sea, which proved to be fantastic. I've visited Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Finland, Russia, Sweden, Tradgardland and Norway. Quite a break!

Even with all that was happening, I still found myself in quiet moments pondering my hobby - I've quite missed it! Now that the wedding preparations and travelling have happily ended, I might be able to get back to normal. Despite thinking that I'd have no time before the big day, I actually found myself getting more painting done than normal, which means the mountain of Luftberg infantry is actually largely done. Now all I need to do is paint up some odd non-line units like grenzers and grenadiers, then I can dip & spray the whole bunch, and base them all. Once that's out the way, I can get on with the minor step of buying the Aschenbach figures and Luftberg cavalry I need to complete the armies to a playable standard. They look great, but it's quite a pain trying to run a campaign without a model army to put on the tabletop!

I'll start posting regularly again, and priority No. 1 is to get some photos of the painting efforts - updates on the way! Priority No. 2 is to read through all the regular blogs that have been posting for a fortnight and I've not had a chance to read. :-)

All Quiet on the Front!

2009-06-10T22:57:00.003+01:00

dear me, but what a succession of obstacles have been thrown my way! Wargaming has almost entirely ceased on the tabletop, what with the loft being full of junk (ie, 'cleaned out' which essentially just means everything being moved around - never matters how much you throw out, the rest of the junk just seems to expand and take up the room!)

Anyway, wargames space has vanished. Painting has slowed to a virtual standstill. The final purchase of figures has been postponed. Spare time has disappeared. All in all - a perfect storm of distractions to derail my hobby! About all I've managed to do recently is read blogs!

Anyway, at least there's a reason. In four weeks and one day, I'll be getting married! Yes, the Empress herself will be setling down with me as I make an honest woman of her. I've managed to keep at least some background hobby-activity up until now, but there's no denying the amount of time on hobbies is draining away- I'll have to admit defeat, temporarily hold off future posts, and get my head down for the next six weeks. Mind you, the last two weeks of that time is my honeymoon, which should be an enjoyable and well-earned holiday! Once that's done, I'll doubtless have stacks of spare time to fill up, so I'll be looking forward to my return to 'full time' Aschenbach & Luftberg campaigning. Wish me luck, and I'll be back soon!

Happy Birthday, Dear Blog!

2009-06-01T06:26:00.003+01:00

Much celebrating tonight, as this day marks the 1-year birthday of the 'Konig und Kaiser' Blog! I thought I could go on for a bit about how much I've enjoyed it, how it's been great for my own hobby-pursuits, how it's given me focus and inspiration, not to mention bringing me lots of encouraging comments from kind fellow-hobbyists, etc. But then I thought 'Pictures Speak louder than words' so below, by way of simple illustration, is a show of what a year of blogging your efforts can encourage you on to achieve:

Above is one of my earliest photos of my entire army.

And here is one of my latest photos showing a small part of each army!

Enough said... Except for one last essential - a massive thanks to everyone who has ever commented or read and enjoyed any of the posts here. It really wouldn't have got this far without your help!

How '18th Century' are you?

2009-05-26T06:52:00.003+01:00

Time to take a break from all the campaigning and planning, and consider something a bit more light-hearted. Ever wondered how you would actually fit in if you were in the world of the 18th Century? Find out now, with my highly scientific test below!

1 You have a noisy neighbour, and the sound from next door is disturbing your sleep. Do you:
a) Ignore it – you were young once, too.
b) Wait until the next day and perhaps have a quiet word, to smooth things out. If unsuccessful, consider him to be "slightly less than a gentleman".
c) Fire a pistol through his window to let the bounder know what you think of him!

2 You decide to run for office in a political campaign. Do you:
a) Join a party, begin networking, take part in debates.
b) Stick up some bunting in the local market, stand on a box and harangue the great unwashed about repealing the corn laws.
c) Get your massively rich uncle to buy you a seat in parliament, and evict anybody that dares to vote otherwise.

3 You’re going abroad to India. What’s the cause?
a) A lovely holiday – beach, sun, sand, plus a bit of a new culture.
b) Business – I’m constructing a new railway up to the polo club!
c) Killing Frenchmen.

4 What do you think of classical music by Mozart, Bach, etc?
a) All a bit high-brow – this elitist stuff is not really for you.
b) You mean there’s another kind? (Besides music-hall, obviously...)
c) All a bit low-brow – this populist stuff is not really for you.

5 You’re packing for a trip. This consists of:
a) A small rucksack or suitcase, spare shirts, toothbrush.
b) Big steamer trunk full of silverware, Madiera and moustache-wax.
c) Carriages, tents, tableware, a wine cellar, horses, two carriages, three footmen, 325 changes of wig and just a few armchairs – you’re travelling light, so just a few tons.

6 Your boss tells you that you’re not getting a hoped-for promotion. How do you react?
a) Disappointed, maybe ask your boss for some constructive feedback on your professional development.
b) Annoyed, start rumours against him at the gentleman’s club, and begin calling in favours from your network of friends.
c) Call him a rogue and a scoundrel, slap him in the face with your glove and demand satisfaction. Run him through with a sword next morning, on the decorative lawn in front of the office entrance. Explain to the police you had no choice.

7 You see a brand new piece of technology which impresses you. Is it:
a) A shiny new electronic gizmo, about the size of your hand.
b) A shiny steam-powered brass-and-iron contraption, about the size of your house.
c) A non-shiny wooden machine, about the size of a palace, which allows about a hundred serfs to weave fractionally faster than if you had to stand there beating them.

8 What do you think of America?
a) One of the top countries in existence – I even thought of moving there!
b) Full of buffalo and savages – perhaps some promise for them though if they rejoin the Empire, by jingo!
c) Not worth the bones of a single grenadier – those colonials will never amount to anything!

9 You’re decorating a room. The result:
a) Trip to a DIY store, paint samplers, and a weekend up a ladder with a paintbrush.
b) Dusted by the household staff, plus given the odd clean by sending some 8-year-old boy up the chimney.
c) Outrageously-decorated wallpaper, statues, busts, ornamental picture-frames, etc. No surface knowingly left uncluttered with ornamentation.

10 Describe your ideal romantic relationship.
a) Meet a girl, settle down, get married, perhaps raise a family.
b) Marry a frigid lady you’ve spoken to on at least two occasions, live in a different continent from her for several years on official business, have your children sent to boarding-school as soon as they turn 6.
c) Have about a dozen affairs, generally hoping you’re outpacing the wife. Father about 14 children, hoping at least one will survive into adulthood. Die of syphilis.

11 You decide to have a quiet night in. This is:
a) On the sofa, watching TV, maybe a DVD Boxed Set.
b) In your study, wearing a smoking jacket, taking the odd shot of opium.
c) About 15 friends, vast amounts of wine, plus gambling until about four in the morning or until everyone’s dead.

Check your answers!
a) Oh dear, not very 18th Century.
b) Nope – still not 18th Century. In fact, actually rather 19th Century. Do you do colonial gaming?
c) Outrageously 18th Century! Well done!

The New Aschenbach Army

2009-05-20T06:46:00.002+01:00

Progress on Luftberg continues - all infantry are now painted up to their coat facings, plus I've now saved up enough to order the rest of my figures. For a moment however, it's time to turn attention to their foes in Aschenbach and repeat the brigade organising process.

The Aschenbach army organisation proved to be a lot easier than I had thought. After the massed hordes of Luftberg’s army, the relatively fragile Aschenbach machine proved a lot easier to break down.

The guiding philsosphy: hard hitting groups of specialists! In Might & Reason (as in real life, historically speaking) the Prussian/Aschenbach army is good for striking hard and fast, and – well, that’s about it. So, with this in mind, here’s the logic:

First up, the infantry – the Luftberg style of four regiments plus artillery won’t do. The whole Aschenbach army contains six line regiments in total, so straight away we’re cutting the size of a brigade to three regiments. In keeping with the logic of producing a hard spear-tip for the army in attack, I knew right from the start that my two regiments of grenadiers would get put into a single ‘Guards’ brigade. At three regiments a brigade, that gives them a regular line regiment for backup to their mitre-hatted brilliance.

Three line regiments can go together straight away to produce a ‘standard’ infantry brigade; and the third infantry brigade can be the last two line infantry regiments, plus the fusilier infantry regiment. Three brigades of infantry, each of three units, but with wide quality shifts between each.

Next: artillery. In M&R, only gun-crazy armies like the Russians get a specific artillery brigade with it’s own commander, but the armies can keep artillery aside in a central ‘army reserve’ unde the direct whim of the general. I decided to do this in the end, creating a little artillery park for Feldmarschall Von Krumper rather than disperse them piecemeal. Now, in the style of later-years SYW Prussians, our bluecoats can use massed artillery to blast an opening in the enemy line as Frederick did in many of his fights, such as Kunersdorf. True, that was where he took one of his heaviest defeats ever, but I’m sure the logic holds!

Now, last of all come the cavalry. I pondered how to share out the regiments (two cuirassiers, two dragoons, one hussars) and considered doing it in the style of Luftberg, producing one crack cavalry brigade and one ‘leftovers’ brigade, but I ultimately decided against it. The Aschenbach cavalry is naturally superior to it’s rivals, and so it should be sensible to have two capable brigades of one cuirassier and one dragoon regiment each (plus the hussars added to one brigade, making it a little bit stronger.)

So, the Aschenbach army stands at a 'Guards' infantry brigade, two ‘regular’ infantry brigades; a ‘heavy’ and a ‘light’ cavalry brigade; plus an army artillery reserve. By pure coincidence, six formations – just like Luftberg.

The New Luftberg Army

2009-05-13T06:48:00.000+01:00

I’ve tried organising armies various times in the past, and not always successfully (usually down to the desire to cram as many miniatures into an army as I can.) As a result, I thought I’d explain my thinking here and let people see what led me to the decision.

To summarize, Luftberg has a force of 11xRegular Infantry; 1xIrregular Infantry; 3xCuirassiers; 3xDragoons; 2xHussars and 3xArtillery batteries. Most numerous is the infantey, so I considered them first. The main aim for the brigades is for them to move independently on campaign, so they need to be plausible at putting up a decent fight individually.

The two accepted ‘rules’ that have evolved for Luftberg infantry commanders is that there should always be a reserve line behind the first to block breakthroughs; and second that close-range artillery support is a big advantage. One to one, the Aschenbach infantry will outshoot them, but artillery is usually good for clipping a few Strength Points (SP’s) off each attacker once they’re in canister range, and victories aren’t cheap – Aschenbach may break through, but if reduced from a start of 7SP’s down to about 3 or 4SP’s, they’re usually not able to take on a second line of 6SP Luftberg infantry.

So, we want an infantry brigade to allow this. After a bit of pondering, I decided I wanted four regiments per brigade so I could present a 2-regiment-wide double line (or if fighting alone the brigade could perhaps manage 3 regiments in front with one in reserve.) Onto this force, I attached one of the artillery batteries so I would have some ‘5+ to hit’ canister dice getting rolled, as well as ‘6 to hit’ from the infantry.

From numbers, I could get two full infantry brigades, plus a third of only three regiments. One of these regiments was decided as the Pilsen combined grenadier unit, which I decided would give it a bit of extra ‘heft’ to make up for being short a regiment – also, it got the last artillery battery.

One brigade I wanted to form was an ‘Advance Guard’ unit, filled with wild irregulars who could be a fast-moving raiding group, pillaging it’s way through the enemy rear. Croats were a guaranteed presence, as were some of the hussars. I pondered having a unit of regular infantry included, to act as the nucleus (perhaps my jaunty Hungarian regiment,) but I decided against it in the end. If the advance guard is going to be irregular, it needs to be all-out or not at all. I assigned both hussar regiments at the end. The force will be pretty poor on the tabletop in the open, but should prove a more tangly prospect in the rough, and a positive danger if it fights in combination with another regular brigade.

Last comes the cavalry, three each of Cuirassiers and Dragoons. I wanted two cavalry commands to put one on each wing in a major battle, where I typically split the difference between a heavier ‘attacking’ force (2 Cuir, 1 Dragoon) and a lighter ‘defending’ force (1 Cuir, 2 Dragoon.) However, here I finally decided against it.

Aschenbach cavalry units are typically 1SP stronger in combat than their Luftberg opposite numbers, and so consistently get outclassed. Pairing off just plays this game, so I decided to organise the cavalry by type into a Cuirassier brigade and a Dragoon brigade. The Dragoons will always be the underdogs (although far from a pushover) but now the Cuirassier brigade might just plausibly outpunch it’s opposite number and be able to swing a battle.

So, that’s my new Luftberg arrangement of six commands – two Infantry Brigades, a Guards Brigade, an Advance Guard, a Cuirassier Brigade and a Dragoon Brigade. Hopefully my thinking stands up to analysis, but as ever – the thoughts of others are welcome!

Organisation

2009-05-11T06:38:00.000+01:00

One of the bonuses of blogging if that your own efforts ever flag, you can always surf the numerous links through other blog pages to find some previously-overlooked site for new inspiration. I was recently looking at the site ‘Les Reves de Mars’ – the title of the marquissangfroid.blogspot.com blog – when I saw something very impressive.

The author, obviously with something of a flair for graphics and visuals, has done a great little diagram of his army, with each figure represented by a dot or oval. It’s a great way to get a sense of his collection, and it’s further polished up with various portraits of commanders, titles, etc. This also includes his higher organisation, where his army is split into various brigades.

The corps system is of course a bit of an anachronism in our period, since it really came into it’s own a few decades down the line thanks to some French upstarts. Knowing this, I’d avoided doing anything of the sort myself. Things probably went a bit too far the other way. At present, the Aschenbach or Luftberg HQ is basically a scene of luxuriant indolence where generals sit around engaging in national pursuits (making troops run the gauntlet for Aschenbach; engaging in complex backbiting plots for Luftberg.) They hang around until the night before a battle, when a bunch of regiments will be assigned to them, and they lead them the next day. After the fight, they are detached back to the general mass of the army and the general goes back to kicking his heels.

Clearly, this will not do. Although corps are a bit too formal, the army regiments could at least be grouped into some formal brigades. So, I’m looking over my armies and shaping them into some sub-commands. Juggling the different combinations is proving to be good entertainment all on it’s own (surprising just how much of the wargaming hobby can be entirely paper-based) and I’ll shortly put details of my proposed army organisation system!

Painting - Dangerous for your mental state

2009-05-05T06:52:00.001+01:00

I should update the blog on the progress towards the big and mad project to rebase all units with a massive expansion. I bought a stack of Luftberg infantry back at the beginning in November, and now we’re into May. Where does all the time go?

I’ve rebased a large amount of older units, plus painted and based a good wedge of the new-bought infantry, but there’s still enough to keep me very busy with painting. I’ve got about 14 or so ice-lolly sticks

With miniatures glued to each, which I base-coated white with the old expedient of a spray-can. Recently I moved them on yet further when I painted their bases green and the gaiters black for them all.

Now, I’ve a system up and running which runs as follows:

1) Paint facings on coat cuffs and tails (almost always blue, as I’ve painted a good number of red-facing regiments)

2) Paint collar, which usually means painting half the head as this’ll get redone later. As long as I get a neat line at the bottom of the collar, things are okay.

3) Repaint the head, hair & hat black, plus the sword handle & cartridge box. Most Luftbergers and Aschenbachers have black hair these days, oddly. There’s the odd brown-haired one, but that’s your lot. Blondes are so rare that they’d probably be pointed at and laughed at in the street. Primitive times… Sorry, where was I?

4) Skin-colours go on, completing the face and I also cover the hands – plus a good proportion of the still-white musket.

5) Brown paint now, doing up the musket and their equipment pack. A few steps later I’ll probably notice I’ve forgotten to paint the butt of the musket, and have to go back, swearing volubly. The Musket, being round, held to the body, and gripped two-handed, is proving to be spectacularly easy to overlook bits on. Still, as least the Aschenbachers hold theirs vertically, which is a bit better.

6) The miniature should be mostly there now. Some quick details follow, like silver for the bayonet & sword-handle, gold for the cartridge-box plate, etc. The most fiddly bit is the headband, typically white or yellow. Brushing it on can take a while, and I always seem to land the crown of the hat with an accidental brushing, so I need to redo the black here.

7) No miniature of this last collection has reached stage 7. I’ll do them en masse due to the awkwardness of it all, but this is where the miniatures get ‘dipped’ to add all the detailing and shading. Then, after being sprayed down with a protective coat, they’re ready to be based!

So what of the remaining figures, the Luftberg Cavalry & the Aschenbach Infantry & Cavalry? Well, it’s not cheap to get them all in one go, but I’ve hit on a good method to afford them. For the last few months, at work, I’ve been avoiding the vending machine and bringing in my own lunch, putting aside the £1 or £2 I would otherwise be spending. It’s such a small sum you never miss it, but by the end of the week that’s a fiver or so saved up. This has been going on for a while, and I now calculate I’ve saved up 90% of the money – only a little while to go, so that by the time I’ve finished the infantry I’m on now, I should be able to buy the remaining ‘lead mountain’ and start on them!

Normally such small-time personal accounting wouldn’t be worthwhile, but I’ve discovered something good from it. You know how you constantly think of launching other projects, different periods, and collecting different armies because of some great discount or range you’ve found? I’ve had that too, but by saving so gradually, you come to value the money reserve you’re fractionally gathering. It makes you think, very very carefully, about how much you’re spending, and on what.

In the time it’s taken me to save up for this purchase, I was convinced at various times I was going to spend it on plastic 25mm ACW armies; 6mm lead ACW armies; Medieval Hundred years’ war armies; Colonial Armies; WW1 armies of 1914-vintage; and possibly a 2mm epic-scale pair of armies for pretty much anything. In other words, I am a little bit flighty! I could’ve spent a fortune, but this blog and the project for remaking two damn good armies has kept me on course. Hooray for the penny-pinchers!

Fighting Retreat Post-Mortem

2009-04-27T10:19:00.001+01:00

So, after much delay and hold-ups, the battle finally happened. And the Luftberg army slips away intact, to fight another day, thanks to the newly arrived Tobias Ludwig. No small achievement, but getting Erich von Kleintrink was also a massive bonus. Will the Aschenbach cavalry ever again have quite the same zip? Only time will tell.

The battle was fought out with a reduced force, thanks to my ongoing rebasing and expansion programme, but the thing I noticed most? The game didn’t suffer for it. Less units were on the tabletop, and like 99% of all wargamers I suffer from that creeping megalomania that ‘more means better!’ It’s quite encouraging to learn, not least because it encourages breaking up the two armies on campaign from monolithic blocks into smaller groupings. I know it’s an anachronism to bring in a Napoleonic Corps-system to the mid-18^th century, but some less formal detachments, wings or advance-guards should fit in nicely! Plus, I won’t have to wait until 2017 when all the miniatures are painted.

The new basing makes it possible, in a big way. The forces would’ve looked pretty lean and uninspiring under the old system, but the new basing makes them look much more substantial. Also, I made a few improvements on appearances in other ways, such as working out how to take photographs without the flash and having a little tripod stand to reduce blurs in close-up shots. The resulting pics are definitely more colourful and bright, as my old photos tended to cast big shadows on the background. I also began using unrolled balls of cotton wool for smoke, which are required as game markers to show ‘fired’ units. I had used tufts before, but now with more figures per unit, it seemed better to have them produce thick blankets of musket-smoke. I quite like the look of them!

On a practical level, the game was played out using my usual Might & Reason Rules set (still excellent) and caused the uncontrolled Von Kleintrink to wreck any hint of tactics. I had initially envisioned the game as a long-running hit-and-run race between columns trying to cut each other off along a road, but it didn’t turn out that way. Each army had only two ‘junior’ commanders, who simply wound up colliding headlong. In M&R, your army general gets ‘command dice’ which he uses to reroll other dice that don’t suit him – the better the general, the more command dice he gets. With only sub-commanders present, they basically knocked about as they chose – attempts to activate them frequently wound up with them becoming ‘inert’ when action was required, and on occasions where disengaging and manoeuvring was the best option, commanders rolled ‘attack!’ options that sent them plunging headlong into disastrous situations. Von Kleintrink seems to be very much the aggressive subordinate, ill-suited to independent command but very good when placed under some steady direction from Von Krumper. Perhaps it’s best for von Kleintrink to be out as a casualty, rather than having to report back on his failure and explain how he got a prime regiment of Cuirassiers shot to fragments for no gain.

Ludwig did a good job with his infantry, considering they had no reserves or artillery support, and there was even a surprise discovery. The Croats had made it onto the flank of the Aschenbach line, but their fire proved as undecisive as ever (they were at half-strength, because I had, erm, only painted one base.) I was at a loss how they could prove useful – clearly I’m just not a ‘light infantry’ sort of wargamer – when the Luftberg infantry charged to close combat (a standard move for Luftberg, who can’t outshoot their opposite numbers in a one-to-one firefight) but as I read the rulebook, I realised that the outflanking bonus in close combat counted for light infantry as well as formed infantry, and it didn’t matter how strong they were.

At last, a genuine bonus for the previously ill-used irregulars, who can now hover menacingly on the flank of any line and prove endlessly enervating for attacking enemies. At full-strength, even firing on flanks will prove painful, while the -3 dice roll modifier for flanking in close combat means they are able to tip the scales against most attacks. They are also pretty difficult to scare away, so it looks like the Luftberg army will abandon it’s previous practice of sticking the Croats under the worst commander and leaving them ‘inert’ in some isolated backwater.

Well, that’s enough chat for now, but I’ll be back soon to cover the next step in the campaign in the imagination world, and the progress of my massive miniatures expansion project in the real world.

FIghting Retreat, Part 2

2009-04-20T06:46:00.003+01:00

The second charge went ahead, followed by the Aschenbach infantry which deployed out into line. Von Fleiger’s dragoons were once more repulsed, this time causing chaos as they fell back through the deployed blue ranks behind. However, with Kleintrink at their head the Cuirassiers were not to be denied this time and they smashed Raab’s dragoons aside. In the confusion, General Van Der Dijk was knocked from his horse and captured, but this misfortune was outweighed moments later – General von Kleintrink himself was unhorsed in the scrap, his horse falling on him and crushing his leg. The old scrapper had to be rescued by his retinue and borne off to the rear for an urgent date with the surgeons, while his command went leaderless.

Milling in confusion, the horsemen of both armies tried to reform but now found themselves subject to the full and undivided attentions of the infantry of each army. The lines exploded into a hail of musketry, and saddles were emptied by the dozen. Ludwig had made his line worryingly thin, flying in the face of the conventional wisdom that Luftberg infantry needed a reserve line to resist an Aschenbach attack. The advantage though was that he was now subtly angling his line inwards, enveloping the Aschenbach cavalry and infantry with interlocking fields of fire that meant the whitecoats could co-ordinate their fire and ‘gang up’ on unfortunate enemies.

The Cuirassiers of Von Kurbitz (KR2) found themselves being pounded by three enemy regiments, and were wrecked by the disorganising fire. Luftberg’s cavalry were similarly battered and finally pulled back, but the infantry proved able to resist the charges of Von Flunck’s dragoons on the end of their line.

The critical point became the left of the Luftberg line, closest to the withdrawing wagons, where the curving infantry line had just seen off the enemy Cuirassiers. The Aschenbach infantry regiment of Moglich (IR5) moved up to attack, aiming to break through the Luftbergers and turn their line. The croats swarmed round their flank and fired on them, while out of the smoke came the counter-charge from Radetzky (IR1). Trying to fend off the Croats proved to have thrown them off-balance as the Luftberg charge crashed into them and they fled from the fight!

Von Zaub, now in command of this sorry mess, realised it was a lost cause. His cavalry were so badly disordered it would take hours to reform them, his infantry were outnumbered and facing a solid enemy battle-line, and there was no way of catching the rapidly-distancing wagons. He ordered the remaining regiments to pull back and disengage.

General Ludwig had fought and won his first encounter, saving the escape route for the whole army and even beating the formidable Erich Von Kleintrink to do it. Heading back to rejoin the wagon train, the troops of Bartok’s IR9 expressed the whole army’s feelings and cheered him to the echo.

Fighting Retreat, Part 1

2009-04-17T06:13:00.002+01:00

As the wagon-train set out, Ludwig’s escort was initially deployed in a semi-circle, covering the wagons from every direction except north. The vanguard was strengthened with Croats and Hungarians, plus the cavalry under General Van Der Dijk formed a screen all along the southern face.

No sooner was the column underway than the Aschenbach force under General Kleintrink was spotted, coming over the hills directly south of the column. They approached with Kleintrink at the forefront surrounded by his cavalry, followed by Von Zaub bringing up the infantry support in marching columns. Scorning any thought of outpacing them to block their escape, Kleintrink ordered a direct charge headlong at the escort, to scatter the rival cavalry.

Von Fleiger’s Dragoons and Kurbitz’s Cuirassiers galloped forward and clashed with their opposite numbers, respectively Klimt’s Cuirassiers and Raab’s Dragoons. The combat was speedy and brutal, with both armies’ infantry rushing to position behind the melee of horsemen. The combat was largely inconclusive, with the Cuirassiers generally having the upper hand over Dragoons, and Von Kleintrink possessed of a deathwish as ever and heroically threw himself into combat to encourage them on. However the Luftberg line took the impact and the Aschenbach horsemen were forced back to reform, galloping back between the columns of oncoming infantry.

At this point, it was honours even. Each cavalry force had been bloodied, but as attacker it naturally fell to Kleintrink to recoil from the contact and reform, but he took this somewhat badly – his cavalry had swept the field at Passditz, and now they were denied?

On the Luftberg side, Ludwig was busily forming his infantry into a single line to resist the oncoming blue force, while his wagons moved further along the road and off his flank. The obvious move was for the enemy to attack with his quick-firing infantry, pin the Luftberg force in place, and then use his cavalry to flank the whole contest and pick off the wagons. Ludwig’s own cavalry was inert, thanks to Van Der Dijk’s failure to grasp the urgency of the situation and pull back. Then – salvation! The Aschenbach cavalry reformed and came back head-on. Kleintrink’s blood was up and he refused any option but headlong attack.

Will Ludwig survive against the most notorious of the Aschenbach commanders? Will the Aschenbach cavalry ever be beaten in the field? Can the fragile Luftberg infantry line hold against the dreaded Aschenbach musketry? All will be revealed in the next post!

Holidays and Delays

2009-04-03T06:39:00.002+01:00

The other day I was all set to finally play the long-anticipated (on this blog, anyway) roadside skirmish. My other half was off out for the evening; oncoming summer meant it was warm, so I could set up in the loft without hypothermia; I had the number of rebased figures; I set up the terrain - in fact, I was totally ready... Until I checked the camera batteries! Both flat, and so I was unable to take any photos. As that sort of thing would have me lynched (and quite rightly, too) I decided to postpone until I was back with fully-charged batteries.

In the meantime, starting this weekend, I'm off for a four-day trip to Dublin! I've never been to Ireland before, so it should be a nice little holiday. I can however predict one certain contact with the 18th Century during my break - the 1759 date on the Guinness logo!

Rearguard forces

2009-03-26T06:18:00.000Z

Luftberg’s luck continues to run ever-badly. Ah well, at least there’s hope yet for them in von Kleintrink’s headlong attack. It seems unlikely that they’ll get as far as the redoubt, as the whole thing is likely to get settled one way or another before then, but I’ve nonetheless worked further on the model. The clay has dried, but predictably had an annoying tendency to shrink and needed to be constantly reworked so it didn’t part company from the plastic base. I covered the dried clay with glue and stuck on lots of base-modelling sand, to give the whole thing the look of freshly-heaped earth. For some variety, I used grass on the actual interior ground area. I’ve still to paint up the wicker gabions in a dark brown, but it’s coming along.

I’ve also done some basic housekeeping, in the form of remarking my measuring dowel-stick into 60mm long sections to reflect the new base size. I’ve also got to tidy up my turn progress marker, which is basically an A4 page with lots of linked boxes like a flowchart, for counters to be placed on. I’ve discovered the Might & Reason rules are not clear enough to hold in your head, as it’s all ‘stages’ within ‘phases’ within ‘turns’, all of alternating initiatives & varying lengths. For the DBA rules it’d be redundant, but for M&R it’s pretty much essential. I’ll see if I can post my results.

I’ve also turned my thoughts to forces. To guard the convoy, which I’m planning out as three counters for three wagons, I’m going to field four infantry regiments – two with the convoy, one rearguard and one vanguard. I’ve also strengthened the vanguard with a half-sized regiment (only a single base, with points and strength halved,) as the chaotic nature of the retreat & pursuit makes detachments as likely to appear as full-formed regiments. Also, I’m fielding a half-regiment of Croats, to give a bit of much-needed irregular troop-support. Plus, there’s two regiments of cavalry going on the field. No artillery though, as it’d probably be as much of a hindrance as an advantage.

For Aschenbach, which is naturally smaller on account of me just having rebased old figures to play, the force is as follows: Two full infantry regiments, a half-strength detachment of Grenadiers, two regiments of Dragoons and a regiment of Cuirassiers. They are weighted (by necessity and scenario conditions) more heavily to cavalry than infantry, which is suitable for von Kleintrink.

Oh, and the last thing – the new General Ludwig’s stats for the tabletop. I’ve decided to make him non-valorous, which would fit with him not being instantly charismatic; +0 to action (+1 or +2 would mean he is a highly active commander, so +0 suits his decent military education – at least he’s not -1 or -2, like some others!) His one non-average feature is his high intelligence, so I’ve designated him as ‘gifted’ – in M&R this means he can reroll a command dice, which should reflect him well on the table – generally solid, but with the potential for inspired bursts of action at the critical moment!

Progress to the field

2009-03-25T06:09:00.002Z

Things have been progressing, albeit slowly. The real world has intervened, and I've spent the last few days on a DIY project - specifically, wedged into the cupboard under the kitchen sink while fitting a new one, like some magician's assistant. Now it's done, but my arms and back ache! Anyway...

Scenario - check. Commanders - check. Campaign map - check. Forces - tbc. Before I get down to basing and painting whatever extra figures are needed, about all I can do is sort the battlefield.

What with the long road crossing four 4ft x 4ft battlefields, I decided to give Aschenbach a 1-in-3 chance of appearing on each field as Luftberg passed through it, which worked out as giving Luftberg a roughly 1-in-5 chance (if my sums are right) of making it through all four maps with no contact. This seemed like a pretty decent set of odds, offering the possibility of a clean escape but making it more likely that there'd be a fight. Also, I planned to do a second roll to determine what side of the board the Aschenbach entry was from. It was always most likely to be from the south, never from the north, but possibly from the east (ie, ahead of the column and across it's path) or the west (following on in it's tail.) I varied the odds of this depending on the position, so if the attack came earlier it was more likely to be ahead of the column, and more likely to come behind if it was late.

So, Colonel Ludwig rolled the metaphorical dice for the first area, hoping not to get a 1 or a 2, and he got... 1. The Aschenbach columns duly appeared, directly south as it turned out, close in to the road where it tended southwards. A direct attack by Von Kleintrink would be straight-out head-bashing, with minimal tactical space to move. Alternatively, he could move eastwards parallel to the Luftberg column. The road curves north up ahead, giving him a chance to cut a chord across the curve of the road and block the path up ahead. More tactical, but less aggressive. What will the hard-charging Von Kleintrink choose? The gods of fortune tossed a coin... Oh well, so much for ay fancy footwork: "Attack!"

Felix doesn't live up to his name

2009-03-19T06:26:00.002Z

Consider, for one Kafka-esque moment, that you are General Felix von Hentsch. You must feel there is some cosmic conspiracy against you, for your luck has remained so unswervingly bad. Your son gets invalided out of the army the previous year, and a new noble family emerge in Luftberg to challenge your pre-eminence. You engineer a war to give you a shot at glory, only for it to go terribly. Not only does the fugitive Von Zaub manage to empty the city of Spitzburg before you get there, but the Aschenbach army manages a spectacularly successful surprise attack across the river.

Not that you're a slouch, though. Despite being badly surprised, you rush to some good terrain and offer battle - and promptly lose. You have performed not at all badly, but a competent loser is still a loser, as far as you're concerned. Frustrated at poor sub-commanders failing you, you send back to Luftberg requesting a talented young blade to put some fire into the troops. Someone charismatic; someone brave; a pillar of support for you in trying times.

Meanwhile, you have to organise your retreat along the single available road east from Spitzburg, despite the Aschenbach forces under that old nemesis Erich von Kleintrink - the aggressive leader of the enemy cavalry. Then, just prior to setting off, word arrives that your new commander has arrived. Stepping into the shoes left empty by your own son, to go up against the veteran von Kleintrink, there arrives - Tobias Ludwig...

Tobias Ludwig, erstwhile lieutenant in Tradgardland, now freshly catapulted up the ranks through his dynastic connections. When you meet him he turns out to be awful - morose and pessimistic, all but predicting disaster. He is spectacularly ugly, his reputation for petty grudge-holding is dire, and the only reason the troops don't loathe him on sight is simply down to ignorance of the Tradgardlander noble. Still, the Duke's letter promises he's militarily capable, and highly intelligent. Perhaps he'll reveal hidden depths as he commands the rearguard. Even so, the snakepit politics which prevail at the Luftberg army HQ have taken a fresh turn for the worse. Perhaps you really should have just stayed at home...

Position Filled

2009-03-12T06:41:00.002Z

After looking over the responses to last week's job advertisement, I've decided to accept a Tradgardlander. The Duke of Tradgardland's great-nephew, the Lt Tobias Ludwig, will be accepted as a transfer to the Luftberg army where he will receive a field promotion to higher command upon arrival. The official acceptance letter will be dispatched to Tradgardland via EvE shortly.

Many thanks to all who offered, which was greatly appreciated, but in the end I felt best on accepting from somebody just down the road from me, rather than compel other kindly folk from having to post figures internationally! And, of course, thanks in advance to Tradgardmastare for aid in enriching the fictional background.

Bunkered!

2009-03-10T06:28:00.003Z

First and foremost, thanks to all for the offers of commander employment – I’ll pick one and respond in the next day or two.

I’ve decided, what with the build-up of the two armies, that terrain needs a bit of a sprucing up. I bought some model railway trees to use, which look very nice, but the really ambitious bit is the home-made terrain. Following on from my decision in the last post to include some field fortifications, I’d been pondering making a model and scratching my head about how to succeed.

Eventually I headed to the local hobby shop, bought a 2mm thick plastic sheet for the base, plus some non-firing modelling clay. I marked out a base area of 60mm square (two of my 60x30mm bases, back to back) and then added a 30mm border to the back and sides. I cut this out, rounding the corners, and then scratched up the surface of the borders to let the clay get a grip.

Next, I started getting clay and rolling it into sausages of roughly 1cm thick, which I chopped up into rough cylinders and placed around the base area to look like gabions. Once done, I added lots of clay to the outside and built up a parapet of excavated earth – taking care to leave a lower gabion in the middle, so any artillery wouldn’t look too implausible in residence. I also used a spare base edge to press ridged lines into the inner gabion faces, to indicate the wicker basket-weave patterning.

And that’s it. The whole thing took only about 30 minutes of sit-down modelling time, and that was with correcting my errors. For the benefit of others, these were that a) the gabions will creep inward as you press on the outer mounds of earth/clay, so you need to constantly check the bases still fit in and leave room for error; and b) check your gabion heights against your based figures, as my first efforts came up to a disappointing waist-height – something of a design flaw! Still, easily corrected with some top-up clay.

I know what you’re thinking – what does it look like? Well, here’s the latest workbench photos:

The whole thing should really help out with Luftberg’s defences in the coming scrap along the road. After all, who ever heard of a belligerent Austrian coming to grief in a bunker? J

Maps on Post-It's

2009-03-06T07:26:00.003Z

As is the way with the blogosphere (aka: the best thing to happen to wargaming since the dice) I’ve been kindly directed to a device that blows my own home-made effort away (courtesy of Snickering Corpses’ recommendation to Muster The Troops.) However, I’ll see through the battle with my home-made version, not least because I can edit the terrain as required and prevent mountains appearing in a generally level river-valley province.

I’ve used my generator as described above, and here’s the result in all it’s post-it-note scribble glory!

Awesome, I know. So, here’s the tidied up version with MS Paint.

I generated the terrain a few times until it looked right (ie, no seven squares of marsh all side-by-side) and then drew in the road lengthwise through the map, generally avoiding bad terrain where possible and trying to go within 1 square of all towns, farms and villages. One area which I noticed about ¾ along the route seemed a bit risky – where the road curves southward towards the anticipated Aschenbach attack and runs adjacent to three boxes of heavy woods. As any attack here would come virtually without warning, I pondered revising it, but then decided on another solution. I’ve got some modelling gear ready to be put to use, so I decided I fancied the idea of some protecting bastion (or revetment, as I believe that’s more technically accurate phrase) thrown up in haste to cover this obvious blind-spot.

Oh, and one last discovery on the blogosphere: The site called Miniature Wars has a personality generator, which could well provide a bit of character in future for new individuals to turn up in the game. Worth a look!

A Scrap On The Road

2009-03-04T06:39:00.000Z

With a few bases in hand, it’s time to turn thoughts once more to fighting. I’ve been turning over the idea of playing the upcoming Luftberg retreat march as a kind of ‘protect the convoy’ mission. Basically, the idea is to get a long and narrow stretch of ground mapped out, with a road running the length of it. Luftberg will start at one end, burdened with a collection of slow-moving wagons to represent their baggage train. They have to move them (or at least as many as they’re able) to the far end of the map and escape, all the while guarding against a random entry by a raiding Aschenbach force seeking to cut the road.

Step one on this is to carry out the long-overdue replacement of Conrad Von Hentsch, shot down in action at the conclusion of the last campaign, and still unreplaced as one of the more gifted sub-commanders in the Luftberg army. I have therefore (on behalf of Felix von Hentsch, you understand!) posted an advert on EvE to see if any other blogger out there has a character they wouldn’t mind volunteering to fill Conrad’s vacated boots. It seemed appropriate given the cosmopolitan nature of the military in the 18^th century, but if no colourful characters are forthcoming I’ll simply create one myself.

Step two is to knock together a map. I did this for the river crossing and approach marches to the battle of Passditz, and I actually liked the effect. I thought it really lent something to the whole battle, so I’ll do the same here, and in case anybody is interested, I’ll explain the process. I’ll be looking for a map that’s about 4ft wide, in order to give all the units a generous bit of elbow-room, and the area for possible fighting will be roughly four times as long as it is wide, to create the ‘corridor’ required for the scenario above. So, 4ft x 16ft – 64 squares in all, and in each one I’ll put a single dominant terrain feature.

Having tried and failed on repeated occasions to just imagine a map, I’ve given up. You always stick a hill or something right at the point of maximum interest, and spoil it for other options beside the one you’ve expected going in. A purely random process has proved itself perfectly good, and I’d recommend it. Plus, you can computerise it for free!

Thinking up terrain for 64 boxes can be pretty tedious, and you’ll probably need more than 64 if you’re doing a decent battle, so I like to use an Excel spreadsheet. Without getting technical (although I will in the comments boxes if anybody wants me to) you can instruct Excel to generate a random number for you – effectively a dice-roll of any number of sides. I set up a ‘terrain table’ which numbered 1-10, and assigned a terrain type to each number. These were pretty basic, like ‘hill’ or ‘light woods’ or ‘Village’ and I made about four options ‘clear terrain’ so the map would have some open areas, and not be like fighting in a mountain range or rainforest.

All you do is knock together a grid of the size & shape of your map, and in each cell you put the random number generator so each square is being rolled for at once. I then create a second grid beneath it, and tell Excel to look up the number generated for each box above, refer to the ‘terrain table’ to look up the corresponding terrain, and print the result – and bingo! You’re done. Your grid should now list the terrain for each square, and you don’t get an aching wrist from rolling dice all evening. I’ll post the results of my own map next, so you can see the fight taking shape.

Calling all Bloggers!

2009-03-01T09:15:00.003Z

Hi everybody - I've a question I'm hoping somebody could help me with. Through a busy week that's prevented me from doing much more than ponder ideas in quiet moments, I've got a search on my hands. In doing up my armies, I need to also do up some of my officers. These were previously made up from a mixed bag of officer figures, but were a bit haphazard and make-do. Now I'm reworking the army, I should buy some new ones, and the blog's reliance on characters means I should really have some 'characterful' characters (if you see what I mean.)

What I need is some advice on where to get some individual 18th C character figures for 15mm, in order to take over generalship duties. Does anybody know of such a range? Most of the ones I've seen with individual figures are unfortunately ranges like Foundry, who only do 28mm models. Any comments gratefully received!

On we go

2009-02-23T06:04:00.003Z

More activity, but all a bit lacking in focus - perhaps the result of now not having any workable SYW armies to put on a tabletop! Still, the 'To Do' pile continues to get nibbled away at. I finally managed to collect my delivery of MDF bases from the post office. It seems my idea of the postal service bringing stuff to me now seems quaint and backward in their eyes, and it would be far more convenient for them if I came to their depot to get stuff rather than the other way round. I tried to explain to the man there that they might like to hire some sort of delivery, or

'post-man' to go round peoples' houses, but he seemed unenthusiastic. Even when I explained that most people tended to have a slot in their front door to allow things to be placed inside without them being there, he seemed unimpressed. >:-(

Anyway, the long and short of it is that I've finally got my bases! They're getting painted up now with a green undercoat, which gives me the literal base' for the two reformed armies - and it's a lot! It's certainly brought home to me the sheer scale of the proposed expansion. There's some busy months ahead. Having bases gave me a few more easy hits for rebasing existing painted figures. I concentrated on bringing Aschenbach up to a better nominal strength, so I've now added:

2 bases of Aschenbach Cuirassiers

2 bases of Aschenbach Dragoons

1 base of Aschenbach Dragoon HQ

1 base of Aschenbach Hussar HQ

1 base of Aschenbach Infantry HQ

Overall, the Aschenbach force is small and very lopsided in favour of cavalry (the infantry have been too scarce on numbers to rebase, and I also lack all mounted officers required for more HQ bases!)

Still, it's got me thinking. The campaign, as you'll recall (possibly - I had to go look it up anyway) is currently hanging at the aftermath of Aschenbach's victory just south of Spitzburg. Luftberg's General Von Hentsch now has to withdraw from the enemy's presence and the gutted city of Spitzburg, but his flight eastwards will be a fraught one. By necessity, he will have to flee eastwards along the course of the Rotenwasser river, but this will lie to his immediate north (his left flank as he marches.) If Aschenbach pursue and try to cut him off, then they will be attacking on his south (right flank) trying to cut through the road and pin him to the river. This sort of thing would give us a chance to stage a small encounter battle, between a mixed Luftberg rearguard trying to keep the road open and an Aschenbach detatchment, mixed but favouring cavalry, trying to cut off the escape route. I sense a fight coming up...

Bluebear & Adik pointed out in their blogs about the cyclical nature of wargame interests, and I believe the necessary pause to rework the armies may lead to one of my own. I point the finger of blame squarely at Wargaming Miscellany, which wantonly led me on to buy a copy of Table Top Wargames, which I am planning to use for a fictional 1914/Balkan-style war between other ImagiNations (which may include the future incarnation of Luftberg as one participants in the war to end all wars.) I've not decided if I'll post it as a blog, or if running two would be a distraction and I should just keep it to myself. Plenty of time to ponder however, as I'm still only considering the rough background as yet.

Oh, and terrain has finally been resolved in my own mind - green cloth mats, completely blank, no modular terrain. It seems so simple and easy now, after a week of agonising!

Terrain

2009-02-13T06:22:00.003Z

Hmf. Something of a quiet week in general terms, with a grand total of three (yes, three) horses painted. I blame the Royal Mail, somewhat at random, as my order of MDF bases hasn't arrived yet. :-(

Mind you, I've stayed reasonably active on the internet front. Il Desto Fante (there's a link on the sidebar, if you need it) had a good post about an early wargamer, which outlined an idea for 2D terrain - ie, all rivers, woods, etc. painted onto a flat surface. Bluebear Jeff suggested a cheap cloth like muslin in a comment, which just added to my feeling this could be a good way of getting easy and varied landscapes.

So, my thoughts have been on terrain quite a bit - the armies are growing after all, going from a typical unit frontage of 8cm to 12cm, so a decent set of terrain over a large area will need to follow. Still, these things have a way of snowballing in complexity. After all, to increase variety it'd be best to have several interlocking mats for modular terrain, wouldn't it? Thinking about all the possible iterations just led to headache.

Then, a trip out during the week to a nearby hobby store led to me finding that they sell green cloth in 3ft by 3ft squares, which got me thinking that another option is to buy three or four, connect them together (either by heavy tape along the edges, or just overlapping them) to get the necessary large area (potentially 6ft by 6ft!) Books etc. piled up underneath could also provide ready-made hills, I thought, so home-made buildings and woodland would be all I needed. Although possibly I'd need to at least draw streams on the surface, or on removable tiles, or some other method. In other words, the whole thing has become a murk of conflicting options - and the initial idea was so simple!

Thankfully, Il Desto also mentioned the site 'Wargaming Miscellany', which I'd missed before now. So, I've calmed myself down by reading it's enjoyable posts and admiring his terrain - plain green-coloured boards with no decoration, and a simple grid drawn on. Ahh, simpler really can mean better :-)

More troops

2009-02-09T06:11:00.003Z

More men are now available for the new basing system, as my existing stocks get plundered and converted. At this rate, I'll no longer be able to pull units out of nowhere and I'll have to actually paint again!

Finally, I have based the two 'comparison' regiments, which are on show above. Foreground is the regiment which was painted entirely with the speedier 'dip' method, and as you can see it looks fine - just like the existing regiments, until you squint in extreme close-up. Behind it is the Hungarian regiment (IR9 Bartok) whose models carry their muskets vertically - as my Aschenbach figures do. As a result of this, they look ever so slightly spread out compared to my Luftberg troops who present their muskets forward.

Some more cavalry, this time featuring some command stands for Cuirassiers and Dragoons. I've tried to avoid basing any more Luftberg infantry, as it dawned on me I'd forgotten to repaint their legs. My existing models all had white gaiters, and I recently noticed that black was more common (and also looked better!) All regimental recruitment is on hold for want of mounted officers and black legs!

Finally though, here's the first of the rival faction - the first Aschenbach units. One base of Cuirassiers (which includes one trooper who inexplicably doesn't have white edging on his tricorne;) one base of the fearsome grenadiers, and two of infantry. From lessons learned on the Hungarian infantry above, I based the two ranks of Aschenbachers slightly tighter together on the base, so they still look properly 'formed up' in the desired shoulder-to-shoulder mass.

And that, basically, is it. I have sent away a tiny order for the remaining batch of required MDF bases, which should arrive in the week ahead (snow permitting.) After this heady rush of progress, I'm going to have to start painting once again. Mind you, in the early days it won't be 12 figures required for a base, as small-change leftovers from the existing bases will fill some/most of the slots and make it a bit easier.