July activity

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!

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

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

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

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

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?

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!