Her royal highness (ie, my fiancée) came down ill on the last weekend, or at least felt under the weather enough to doze on the sofa for most of the Sunday, so I had the day to my own devices. I made good use of it, by putting in a mammoth painting session which took up all the afternoon and evening (minus time to cook dinner and play the caring doctor role, naturally). I’m happy to report genuine progress!
Some of the first advice I ever got about painting figures was ‘do it in bulk.’ In other words, don’t paint a figure if you can paint a unit, and don’t paint a unit if you can paint two units. For my ongoing 6mm project, I organised out every remaining unit and stuck them down on the ice-lolly sticks I’m using as a painting mount. It’s the first time I’ve seen them en masse, and they did look very good – a genuine sense of bulk to them all. Still, as I left them with the PVA setting, I could turn my attentions to painting some 15mm.
As you’ll have seen from previous photos and posts, there is a small group of each army which has merely been undercoated up until now, and I have managed to complete all of them. The total runs to 40 Infantry figures and 16 Cavalry figures, covering various types of units and officers in both armies. On the quality scale A-Z they probably come in at around ‘U’ of something, but that wasn’t the point of it. I was aiming to do a basic paint-job, which would at least produce a respectable unit at a distance, and that’s been achieved within a single day. I’m pretty pleased, as I can finally say I’ve now got two entirely painted armies (those undercoated figures were really grating on me after a while).
I’ve based them simply enough like the others on painted card, and I just need to spread on some glue & pour on fake grass to complete the picture. I’ve also found some green card and measured out some name-labels for each regiment & commander, which I’ll be gluing to each unit’s base for ease of reference. All slightly dull perhaps, but solid and practical progress!
Friday, July 18, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
The upcoming campaign
As Stokes put it on his comment to the last posting, ‘What’s next on the imaginary front?’ Well, I’ve been pondering it for some days now, and have decided to push on with a full season of campaigning between Aschenbach and Luftberg. It seems only sensible that if Luftberg claimed the Von Zaub province only to be defeated at Neukatzberg in the fall of the year, there’s every likelihood they’d return next summer to contest the claim more fully.
There’s a single-year campaign system included in the Might & Reason rules which should be perfect to use, but there’s a few considerations to do first. The armies have been set up based on what figures I had spare, but now with M&R there is a proper points system to structure your army. I’ve been uncharacteristically hesitant to the points system, regularly talking myself down from agonizing over it with the thought “The game designer doesn’t have pages and pages of formulas and equations to work out the odds of this – he’s just used some arbitrary points system and playtested until it seemed okay!” The problem is that as it stands the points system seems massively slanted in favour of the Prussians (as Capt. Bill commented on the last post).
Want an example? I put the forces from Neukatzberg through the M&R points system to see how they shaped up, and discovered each side was underpowered. However, while the Luftberg army was at 70% of it’s powers when it was routed, the Aschenbach army was drained down to just 60% of what it should have been. In other words, even though the Aschenbach army didn’t have a single unit destroyed or even badly battered (the Grenadiers going to half-strength were the sole exception) while they trashed all before them, the M&R points system reckons they should have been even stronger, with an extra regiment or two added to the fun. I know that the learning of the rules led to some Luftberg blunders, but I really just don’t think they needed the help.
The Prussians were certainly good, but not by such a vast margin (after all, in terms of pitched battles, even a great commander like Frederick lost as many as he won.) If so, then why should we use the M&R points system with all the potential faults? I’m going to try it out for two reasons: First is that the campaign will allow the more numerous Luftberg forces to manoeuvre over a wider area and get the strategic advantages which come from having more men. The Aschenbach army may be good, but it can’t be everywhere. The second reason is that the campaign rules for commands, supply, fortresses, sieges, etc. are designed for armies sized to the M&R system. Either I conform, or have to rewrite the rules.
Many of the Austrian/Luftberg advantages seem to be ‘off the table’ such as their more numerous commands, higher ‘raider’ values, etc. The campaign will hopefully bring these out, so when the Aschenbach army next fights it’s opponents it’ll be outnumbered, weakened by supply attrition, and face a more tactically aware rival who loves broken terrain, ample reserves, and field fortifications. Certainly sounds more realistic and interesting…
There’s a single-year campaign system included in the Might & Reason rules which should be perfect to use, but there’s a few considerations to do first. The armies have been set up based on what figures I had spare, but now with M&R there is a proper points system to structure your army. I’ve been uncharacteristically hesitant to the points system, regularly talking myself down from agonizing over it with the thought “The game designer doesn’t have pages and pages of formulas and equations to work out the odds of this – he’s just used some arbitrary points system and playtested until it seemed okay!” The problem is that as it stands the points system seems massively slanted in favour of the Prussians (as Capt. Bill commented on the last post).
Want an example? I put the forces from Neukatzberg through the M&R points system to see how they shaped up, and discovered each side was underpowered. However, while the Luftberg army was at 70% of it’s powers when it was routed, the Aschenbach army was drained down to just 60% of what it should have been. In other words, even though the Aschenbach army didn’t have a single unit destroyed or even badly battered (the Grenadiers going to half-strength were the sole exception) while they trashed all before them, the M&R points system reckons they should have been even stronger, with an extra regiment or two added to the fun. I know that the learning of the rules led to some Luftberg blunders, but I really just don’t think they needed the help.
The Prussians were certainly good, but not by such a vast margin (after all, in terms of pitched battles, even a great commander like Frederick lost as many as he won.) If so, then why should we use the M&R points system with all the potential faults? I’m going to try it out for two reasons: First is that the campaign will allow the more numerous Luftberg forces to manoeuvre over a wider area and get the strategic advantages which come from having more men. The Aschenbach army may be good, but it can’t be everywhere. The second reason is that the campaign rules for commands, supply, fortresses, sieges, etc. are designed for armies sized to the M&R system. Either I conform, or have to rewrite the rules.
Many of the Austrian/Luftberg advantages seem to be ‘off the table’ such as their more numerous commands, higher ‘raider’ values, etc. The campaign will hopefully bring these out, so when the Aschenbach army next fights it’s opponents it’ll be outnumbered, weakened by supply attrition, and face a more tactically aware rival who loves broken terrain, ample reserves, and field fortifications. Certainly sounds more realistic and interesting…
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Some thoughts on Neukatzberg
So, the first try-out of Might & Reason has been successful. The whole battle probably took about 4 hours to play out, which would have been less but for the constant pauses to read and re-read the rules. I’ve made a summary reference sheet though, which should greatly speed things in future. I’ve split the report over this (and previous posts) to post it a bit more easily, so if you’re starting to read this here – stop, and scroll down!
These things are always more informative from the losers’ perspective, so – what went wrong for the Luftberg army? Given the disastrous nature of the rout, some of the dazed survivors might be more tempted to ask ‘what went right?’ The cavalry virtually self-destructed, the artillery were galloped over by enemy horse, which left the infantry fighting alone against a full ‘combined arms’ force of the enemy. Still, the Aschenbach army’s pre-battle plan was for an outflanking move – something which quite definitely didn’t happen, and instead turned into a head-on attack. With better Luftberg handling, the whole thing might have fallen apart for them. After much pondering in the debating salons of the Luftberg capital, the following points have been singled out as the ‘big three’ lessons to learn:
Infantry can’t fight alone!
The Luftberg army advanced into the space left by the Aschenbach army’s slower infantry, which – along with the refused flank – stretched their line out to the full with only the grenadiers in reserve. In future, a double line seems obligatory. Also, as the cavalry failed to watch the flanks and the artillery was at the ends of the line, they were quickly swept away. Placing cannons in amongst the infantry seems a good option for the future, and their canister fire should help even up the firing with the enemy’s infantry.
Don’t despair over the Cavalry!
This was really down to bad luck and unfamiliarity with the rules, which meant the cavalry attacked and didn’t seek to gain outflanking advantages or any other tactical ‘edge.’ It went so badly they were routed before they could recover. It fell entirely to the reserve force under La Spezia, a deeply average commander (his stats were literally ‘+0’ which says it all, really) to hold the flank. The amazing thing is they did. By evading and flanking they managed to hold themselves together despite regularly becoming ‘Inactive’ and were just unlucky to not rout any enemy cavalry along the way. The next battle should see them perform better…
Don’t fight in the open!
Did you notice the irregular infantry in that battle? Me neither. The terrain was so open that to get cover they were in a wood off on a flank, which became totally isolated once the cavalry routed. In the history books, apparently the Austrians regularly frustrated Frederick’s plans by positioning themselves in strong positions based on rugged terrain where he couldn’t attack them (apparently he said that the Austrian Marshal Daun must have been born on a mountain, as “he had but to see one to rush up it and stay there” ). It seems a bit more notice will need to be taken of historical Austrian methods, forcing the Aschenbach infantry to struggle through rivers and woods.
The first fight was a bit of a ‘one-off’ fight, so we will presume that the struggle took place at the very tail-end of the year. For the following season’s campaign, we will have a much better idea of how to handle things.
These things are always more informative from the losers’ perspective, so – what went wrong for the Luftberg army? Given the disastrous nature of the rout, some of the dazed survivors might be more tempted to ask ‘what went right?’ The cavalry virtually self-destructed, the artillery were galloped over by enemy horse, which left the infantry fighting alone against a full ‘combined arms’ force of the enemy. Still, the Aschenbach army’s pre-battle plan was for an outflanking move – something which quite definitely didn’t happen, and instead turned into a head-on attack. With better Luftberg handling, the whole thing might have fallen apart for them. After much pondering in the debating salons of the Luftberg capital, the following points have been singled out as the ‘big three’ lessons to learn:
Infantry can’t fight alone!
The Luftberg army advanced into the space left by the Aschenbach army’s slower infantry, which – along with the refused flank – stretched their line out to the full with only the grenadiers in reserve. In future, a double line seems obligatory. Also, as the cavalry failed to watch the flanks and the artillery was at the ends of the line, they were quickly swept away. Placing cannons in amongst the infantry seems a good option for the future, and their canister fire should help even up the firing with the enemy’s infantry.
Don’t despair over the Cavalry!
This was really down to bad luck and unfamiliarity with the rules, which meant the cavalry attacked and didn’t seek to gain outflanking advantages or any other tactical ‘edge.’ It went so badly they were routed before they could recover. It fell entirely to the reserve force under La Spezia, a deeply average commander (his stats were literally ‘+0’ which says it all, really) to hold the flank. The amazing thing is they did. By evading and flanking they managed to hold themselves together despite regularly becoming ‘Inactive’ and were just unlucky to not rout any enemy cavalry along the way. The next battle should see them perform better…
Don’t fight in the open!
Did you notice the irregular infantry in that battle? Me neither. The terrain was so open that to get cover they were in a wood off on a flank, which became totally isolated once the cavalry routed. In the history books, apparently the Austrians regularly frustrated Frederick’s plans by positioning themselves in strong positions based on rugged terrain where he couldn’t attack them (apparently he said that the Austrian Marshal Daun must have been born on a mountain, as “he had but to see one to rush up it and stay there” ). It seems a bit more notice will need to be taken of historical Austrian methods, forcing the Aschenbach infantry to struggle through rivers and woods.
The first fight was a bit of a ‘one-off’ fight, so we will presume that the struggle took place at the very tail-end of the year. For the following season’s campaign, we will have a much better idea of how to handle things.
Battle at Neukatzberg - Part 2
On the flanks, the Aschenbach right wing cavalry hurried to pull itself together and destroy the last Luftberg horse, but La Spezia’s reserve force proved to have learned from past blunders – it evaded the enemy attacks, became inactive at all the wrong moments, fluffed it’s own attacks when it did manage them on isolated units, and generally made a mess of things. However, the Aschenbach cavalry was kept thoroughly occupied and pinned down, unable to fall on the infantry’s flanks or finally scatter it’s opposite numbers, so arguably they made the bigger mess of things.
On the Aschenbach left, after some hesitating, the Graf Von Kleintrink decided to seize the moment and push on to attack. He overran the other artillery battery on the flank, but the refused infantry flank proved too much – IR Negrelli (No 4), right under the eyes of it’s watching monarch, rebuffed a charge by Kleintrink’s Cuirassiers in heroic style.
On the Aschenbach left, after some hesitating, the Graf Von Kleintrink decided to seize the moment and push on to attack. He overran the other artillery battery on the flank, but the refused infantry flank proved too much – IR Negrelli (No 4), right under the eyes of it’s watching monarch, rebuffed a charge by Kleintrink’s Cuirassiers in heroic style.
Von Kleintrink's Cavalry attacks on the left wing, going into the Luftberg flank & rear
Elector Von Luftberg (right), watches as the Aschenbach cuirassiers (left) are knocked back
In the centre, von Zaub peered through the musketry smoke and judged the enemy line to be on the point of breaking. Advancing his foot guards, he routed the infantry opposite and seemed set to turn the other flank of the Luftberg line. Even the frantic efforts of Conrad Von Hentsch couldn’t hold them firm, but the reserve regiment of Grenadiers were rushed up to counter the breakthrough. They charged into the enemy, but couldn’t sweep them back.
Conrad Von Hentsch (background) suddenly wonders why everybody round him is wearing a different colour of coat...
Another sketch-map of the major players' locations and movements
It’s guns lost, and it’s cavalry wrecked, the Luftberg army’s line now resembled a ‘question mark’ shape as it was pummelled by the enemy’s fire. By a fluke of chance, the lagging Aschenbach infantry had created a gap in the field which drew the Luftberg infantry forward into a salient, where they were getting fired on from all sides by the Aschenbach troops and their cannons, which were now unlimbered and blasting canister fire into the white ranks. It couldn’t last for long, and it didn’t. Von Kleintrink tried again on the left flank, finally routed the doughty defenders of Negrelli’s regiment and then fell on the rear of the Luftberg infantry who promptly collapsed. A glorious victory for the Aschenbach regent, General Von Krumper!
The Luftberg army faces near-encirclement before running...
Battle at Neukatzberg - Part 1
In the early afternoon, the Aschenbach army began to roll forward towards the waiting Luftberg army. As an unfortunate sign of the inexperience of all concerned, there was a breakdown of communication as the left of the infantry line began lagging behind [failed a command test to became ‘inactive’ and, through my unfamiliarity with the rules, deployed into line far too early!] The cavalry however began forging gamely ahead, including the left-flank cavalry which moved to it’s correct location but was now in advance of the army and within range of the Luftbergers.
Once the Aschenbach forces had pulled into range, the Elector Von Luftberg ordered his cavalry to attack on both flanks. The result however was a disaster, and the Luftberg horse was swept off the field by it’s opposite number [again down to my inexperience with the rules – cavalry have no resilience if you compete on reasonably even terms and then roll poorly! The Luftberg cavalry made no attempt at flanking etc. and merely crashed head-on into cavalry that had a slight qualitative edge on them to start with.] After this disaster, the Luftberg right was wide open and the left had only the reserve cavalry force under the general La Spezia to hold off their triumphant foes.
Once the Aschenbach forces had pulled into range, the Elector Von Luftberg ordered his cavalry to attack on both flanks. The result however was a disaster, and the Luftberg horse was swept off the field by it’s opposite number [again down to my inexperience with the rules – cavalry have no resilience if you compete on reasonably even terms and then roll poorly! The Luftberg cavalry made no attempt at flanking etc. and merely crashed head-on into cavalry that had a slight qualitative edge on them to start with.] After this disaster, the Luftberg right was wide open and the left had only the reserve cavalry force under the general La Spezia to hold off their triumphant foes.
Cavalry fighting on the Aschenbach left - it's about to go very wrong...
A sketch-map of the battlefield layout
The Aschenbach infantry rolled forward to try and not get left too far behind, even their line was now squint from the left lagging behind. The cavalry on the right chased down survivors and some dragoons overran a battery of cannons on the flank of the Luftberg infantry line. At this, the Luftberg cavalry reserve sensed an easy kill and descended on the isolated Dragoons that had advanced ahead of the rest. The Elector also ordered his infantry line to roll forward, and he refused his right to counter the Aschenbach cavalry now threatening there.
Follow-up moves as the battle develops
Incredibly the single dragoon regiment didn’t evade but managed to hold off the swarming mass of attacking horsemen. Seeing the enemy infantry approach led to the Aschenbach soldiers formed into line, with the elite grenadiers and Foot-Guards slightly in advance of the rest. The Luftbergers promptly advanced on and began firing. Amazingly, IR Doppler (Luftberg IR No. 2) took on the Grenadiers and rolled three ‘6’es in a spectacular display of musketry! The fearsome Hirschburger Grenadiers were staggered and lost half of their strength in the face of this (admittedly uncharacteristic) display of firing efficiency. All the same however, the qualitative superiority of Aschenbach fire began to tell as the lines went toe-to-toe.
The Aschenbach grenadiers find they've had better days...
The firefight develops...
Battle at Neukatzberg – Camp before battle
A whole month of development, background, and horrible, shameful, peace. Time for a battle, and here we have one! I’ve been eager for some time to try out the Might & Reason rules set with the armies of Aschenbach and Luftberg, and now I’ve had a chance to do so. I decided a one-off battle to try out the system was in order. I pressed every available figure into action, quickly made name labels for all the units and officers, and used makeshift counters & dice as casualty markers. The whole thing was a little bit ad-hoc and unpolished (even taking place on some old carpet tiles for extra space) but as a learning encounter it’s been pretty useful. Over the following sequence of posts, I’ll recount the battle.
In the campaign setting, the first year has gone uneventfully for the characters – nobody died, nobody had kids, etc. I’m actually glad there were no mass deaths or anything, so obviously my Excel spreadsheet for randomly calculating deaths etc. has some worth to it. :-)
Anyway, I decided after some deliberation to begin in the thick of the action, with a border skirmish already underway between the two states. From the map, the province of the Von Zaub family are the obvious friction point, being the buffer state between the two. It’s aligned with the Aschenbach ruling house, so the calculating Elector Ulrich Von Luftberg has marched in at the head of his army to take possession. As the old king Otto of Aschenbach is far past feats of arms, his regent Gerdt von Krumper will lead out the Aschenbach army to counter them.
Using the Might & Reason system the two armies drew near and began their battle in the afternoon, which I thought might restrict the time available but actually turned out fine. The ground was generally open and flat, with some streams, villages and woods on the fringes of the action. The Luftberg army drew up in traditional style and anchored it’s right flank on the large woods stuffed with Croats for protection. With this flank guarded, the bulk of the cavalry was placed on the open left flank to counter the likely Aschenbach attack. Infantry formed up the main line in the centre, with cannon on their flanks and the Grenadiers held back in reserve to stop any enemy breakthrough. The Elector Ulrich was the army commander (naturally) while the admirable figure of Conrad v. Hentsch commanded one of the Infantry forces.
Over in the approaching Aschenbach army, General von Krumper had determined on a straight oblique attack in the traditional style, hitting the Luftberg left flank and refusing the side of the battlefield with the irregular-infested woods. The middle aged Hans von Zaub was at the head of his guards regiment, who – along with the Hirschburger grenadiers – would provide the punching power of the attack. The Graf Erich von Kleintrink was put in charge of a cavalry force, but through rolling for sub-commanders’ profiles he seemed to match best with the commander for the smaller cavalry force on the refused flank – so it turned out that a relative nobody led the breakthrough cavalry wing while the Graf sat fuming on the ‘quiet’ flank. At least, that was all the theory…
In the campaign setting, the first year has gone uneventfully for the characters – nobody died, nobody had kids, etc. I’m actually glad there were no mass deaths or anything, so obviously my Excel spreadsheet for randomly calculating deaths etc. has some worth to it. :-)
Anyway, I decided after some deliberation to begin in the thick of the action, with a border skirmish already underway between the two states. From the map, the province of the Von Zaub family are the obvious friction point, being the buffer state between the two. It’s aligned with the Aschenbach ruling house, so the calculating Elector Ulrich Von Luftberg has marched in at the head of his army to take possession. As the old king Otto of Aschenbach is far past feats of arms, his regent Gerdt von Krumper will lead out the Aschenbach army to counter them.
Using the Might & Reason system the two armies drew near and began their battle in the afternoon, which I thought might restrict the time available but actually turned out fine. The ground was generally open and flat, with some streams, villages and woods on the fringes of the action. The Luftberg army drew up in traditional style and anchored it’s right flank on the large woods stuffed with Croats for protection. With this flank guarded, the bulk of the cavalry was placed on the open left flank to counter the likely Aschenbach attack. Infantry formed up the main line in the centre, with cannon on their flanks and the Grenadiers held back in reserve to stop any enemy breakthrough. The Elector Ulrich was the army commander (naturally) while the admirable figure of Conrad v. Hentsch commanded one of the Infantry forces.
Over in the approaching Aschenbach army, General von Krumper had determined on a straight oblique attack in the traditional style, hitting the Luftberg left flank and refusing the side of the battlefield with the irregular-infested woods. The middle aged Hans von Zaub was at the head of his guards regiment, who – along with the Hirschburger grenadiers – would provide the punching power of the attack. The Graf Erich von Kleintrink was put in charge of a cavalry force, but through rolling for sub-commanders’ profiles he seemed to match best with the commander for the smaller cavalry force on the refused flank – so it turned out that a relative nobody led the breakthrough cavalry wing while the Graf sat fuming on the ‘quiet’ flank. At least, that was all the theory…
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
News Updates
As I started this about the start of June, this means I'm now writing my first post outside my inaugural month - hooray!
To all those who have kindly posted about my 6mm painting efforts, thank you very much. I'm probably degrading my eyesight at a terrifying rate, and nearly hurtled an entire regiment of Grenadiers through my TV set in sheer frustration at the fiddly awfulness of the uniforms, but somehow - I'm actually enjoying it! :-)
As her royal highness (my fiancée) has decided the loft needs cleaning out, I’m still unable to try out the Might & Reason rules. Still, as the current cleaning programme is likely to leave me with much more ‘elbow room’ for games, I’m actually quite prepared to put up with the delay. I’m less happy about my knees being red raw from all the scrambling around hauling boxes, but what can you do?
Hooray! Frederick’s first infantry regiment in 6mm is ready. Here’s a photo of them, sporting the uniforms of IR1 Von Winterfeldt. I was a bit unsure about the base, but then I’ve only seen them as an individual unit on a wood shelf. I’m proceeding on trust that when assembled en masse on a green table surface, they’ll look the part. For the photos below, I've merely placed them on an old green folder to inprove things a little.
To all those who have kindly posted about my 6mm painting efforts, thank you very much. I'm probably degrading my eyesight at a terrifying rate, and nearly hurtled an entire regiment of Grenadiers through my TV set in sheer frustration at the fiddly awfulness of the uniforms, but somehow - I'm actually enjoying it! :-)
As her royal highness (my fiancée) has decided the loft needs cleaning out, I’m still unable to try out the Might & Reason rules. Still, as the current cleaning programme is likely to leave me with much more ‘elbow room’ for games, I’m actually quite prepared to put up with the delay. I’m less happy about my knees being red raw from all the scrambling around hauling boxes, but what can you do?
Hooray! Frederick’s first infantry regiment in 6mm is ready. Here’s a photo of them, sporting the uniforms of IR1 Von Winterfeldt. I was a bit unsure about the base, but then I’ve only seen them as an individual unit on a wood shelf. I’m proceeding on trust that when assembled en masse on a green table surface, they’ll look the part. For the photos below, I've merely placed them on an old green folder to inprove things a little.
If I may offer any word of advice, it's that the flags make a big improvement to a unit all on their own - even if they need some work to improve them (you can see my orange flag has a slight white 'edge' to it, which I'll need to paint out.)
I have a total of six Line Infantry regiments to paint for Mollwitz 2.0. Currently underway on the painting table (or drillsquare, if you will) are a grenadier unit, a Cuirassier unit, and (in the background) my army’s artillery. Pics will follow as and when the units are fit for parade.
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