The Battle of Steenwijk

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!