Ill Gotten Gains

Simon put on this game at the club.  My Sudanese figures got to venture on to the Table Top in the pay of a dastardly adventurer who had looted ivory and gems from Africa.  The rules were Men Who Would Be Kings.  Karl was on the dark side as well, looking after red and blue Arab gunmen.  Curtis and John were the good if very unlucky natives - Massai warriors.

Trudge, trudge, trudge.

The white Arab gunmen seem a bit reluctant.

Natives arrive on the left,

but they soon scatter after a few volleys from the blue Arabs,

and a shot or two from the cannon (not yet in view).

More natives, this time on the right.

Note cannon at top of the image.

There is also the plane, which the dastardly adventurer intends to make good his escape in.

My Sudanese warriors get ready to charge the natives.

Meanwhile two more groups of natives have appeared in the rear.

Moving swiftly under the acacia trees.

The natives fall upon the blue Arabs who promptly get a move on.

(Always tricky when the results of your attack see the enemy

 going further in the direction they were heading anyway.  Doh!)

Unlike these natives who my Sudanese have bested and pushed back.

The white Arabs stand to fight hoping their shots will hit the mark.

They do and these natives stall.

All over.

The red Arabs well aimed shots put an end to the other natives.

The Sudanese had chased off their opponents.

The dastardly adventurer jogs off to board his plane.

 100 years later his descendants will have to apologise.

If only he had thought of the consequences of his actions

it would have saved a lot of future bother.

 

 

Vikings versus Old Saxons

This game featured repurposed Saga armies.  Mine was using sabots, but Dave had gone all out and rebased his.  His figure density gives a better look, but I am happy just to be getting some extra life out of my figures.

Terrain was sparse and I've even doctored the image of the wood to give it some more trees.

The Vikings hold back their centre.

Their heavy foot is significantly weaker than the Old Saxons.

It might not look it, but the Vikings have deployed as large units

to match the Old Saxons.

However the Saxons gain a benefit from this formation being classed as warbands (due to them being impetuous).  For the Vikings it just gives them a little bit of staying power.

Well, the Vikings get the first strike, but it doesn't go well.

But they press on and things develop somewhat.

Clash of the centres and the Viking hold, for now.

But with the Old Saxons throwing double or more dice than the Vikings,

and Dave's new lucky dice at that,

losses start to mount.

However the Vikings are cheap unlike their opponents.

Both sides came to within one unit of breaking,

but the force was with the Old Saxons.

A close up of the action

And a new figure in my collection,

rescued from discarded parts and restored to operational status.

I am going to call him Young Dave.

Planning for Frederick's Battles

So, of late I have been participating in a rules learning exercise for Koenig Krieg a set of rules for the Seven Years War that date from around the 1970s using Simon's superb 28mm figures.  Not surprisingly they have lots of things in common with rules for the Napoleonic period from around that time and say ten years after (i.e. the 1980s).  I then recalled there is even an adaption of my preferred Napoleonic rules for the SYW called Frederick's Battles.  The challenge is can I adapt the 15mm figure scale with the figures that Simon has  to recreate a battle?

The target is The Battle of Mollowitz 10 April 1741, the scenario for which is included in FB.

A 16 figure unit (roughly a regiment or brigade) in 15mm in line has a width of 3 inches and a depth of 1 inch.  In column it has a width of 1.5 inches and a depth of 2 inches.

Simon's figures are based six to a 45mm square.  

My vision is to use two such bases to represent a unit.  Unit strength would be recorded on the base like what we do for Rommel or Snappy Nappy.  In fact the look would be similar to SN.

In the scenario most infantry units are 16 figures.  Five are 20 and one is 24.  If Simon has enough bases the larger units could be represented by three bases. The frontage would be about right for the 24 figure unit, a bit over for the 20 figure unit, but so it goes.

"16"figure brigade in line

In column

20 or 24 figure brigade in column

And in line

In NB (and by extension FB) 1 inch represents 100 yards.  The measuring stick in the above images is in 40mm steps.  40mm equals 1.5 inches (more or less).  This means two bases of Simon's figures will have roughly the right frontage for a 16 figure unit.  The depth is a bit more, but shouldn't matter.  Importantly it means that the measurement can remain at 1 inch.  Very handy.

An alternative is to use measuring sticks with 3cm gradations, but as 1 inch is 25.4mm it is probably not worth the effort.

Artillery should be on a 1.5 inch base.  The scenario only has two batteries, both on the Prussian side. 

A bit wide but not much of an issue.

That leaves cavalry.  The units are either 12 or 16 figures which equates to frontages in line of 3 and 4 inches respectively.  Again the plan (or rather best/easiest option) would be to use two bases to represent the unit.  Frontage and depth would be acceptable (although the proof would be in the game).

Close to perfect for either sized brigade

Even depth looks good

Order of Battle Requirements

Using this system, the following bases are required:

Prussians

• One army and four wing commanders
• Twenty two bases of infantry (two units of two bases and six units of three bases
• Eight bases of cavalry (four units of two bases each)
• Two guns

Austrians

• One army and three wing commanders
• Ten bases of infantry (five units of two bases)
• Twelve bases of cavalry (six units of two bases)

Map

If we leave out row E then this can easily be accommodated on one of the club's 6x4 tables and using the club's existing terrain.

Labels

Labels will also serve to mark casualties.

The top number in each box is the number of bases required, or figures in the case of commanders.

A Helping Hand

This is a rescue mission of sorts.  The rider was being disposed of by Simon along with some other figures.  There was a horse, but it was the wrong kind.  Happily I was able to find a horse (which might or most probably had come from one of Dave's disposals).  It was only when I had finished painting the horse that I realized the rider was missing a hand (I thought it was tucked under the tunic holding the reins or something).

I um'd and ah'd till the thought came to me that the Sudan figures I painted up a few years back had provided a variety of spare hands clutching swords etc.  Could I find them?  No :-(

But then I thought, surely Carlo might have some spares.  He did.  He was also in isolation due to Covid proximity.  But he came through with a few options, one of with was a British officer's arm holding a sword.  Perfect!

Oh, shouldn't this guy have a curved blade?  Well that maybe, but looking at the scabbard, that looks like a straight sword to me.   

The sword was trimmed to size, the hand separated from the arm, a tiny hole made in each end and a pin inserted to help secure the sword hand to its new owner.  I was glad I was doing this in 28mm as it was fiddly. 

Best of all, after a lick of paint, project was completed.  

Note scabbard

Next to see if I can feature him in a game of Songs of Drums and Shakos.

PS

Here is a before pic (one that I used to trigger Carlo's emotions into lending a hand)

The Siege - Two

At the February NWS Games Day Simon assembled his fortress and prepared to stand siege.

My post on our previous game using this fabulous terrain can be seen here: https://onesidedminiaturewargamingdiscourse.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-siege.html

It's hard work, but someone has to do it.

The siege!

The terminology

View from the besiegers

View from the besieged

Inside the fortress

Engineer supervises the building of the saps.

The fortress front line defenders

The saps wriggle forward

Parallels and additional batteries are constructed

Getting close

The besiegers have plenty of ammunition and their guns are well crewed

The fortress has been trying to conserve its ammunition

Small arms fire now supplements the siege artillery

An assault is imminent,

but sadly we were out of time

The game was playing well, but a few modifications would help:

1. Units eliminated should be classed a Combat Ineffective (CI)

2. Risk of loss should always be on high rolls: 456 for gun crew, 6 for engineers, master gunners etc 

3. Delineate two/three areas for each side for placement of CI units, units removed during the turn and for returning units (i.e. those that were removed last turn).

4. Marking troops under fire.  Troops fired on during a turn are marked with a "smokey" this stays for the next turn to indicate they had been fired on.  Consider simplifying so if a unit is fired on at any time in a turn it gets marked.  All marks come off at the end of the turn.

5. Just role for initiative once per turn, not per fire segment.  So gaining initiative helps to immediately place enemy units under fire if that is what the phasing player wants to do.