Quatre Bras - Revised

Hard to believe I last did this scenario in 2015, especially when I went to the trouble to make up the terrain mat for it.  So it goes.  Good to get it out again and use my collection to make up the armies (had to have some Prussians stand in for the Brunswickers).  The biggest challenge was reviewing the scenario, particularly the OOB and order of arrival.

Stefan took command of the Allied army.

Stefan ignored the scenario set up and placed the 2nd Dutch Belgian division

 around the Gemioncourt farm, so as to keep them all in command.

We let the farm hold the three stands of Jagers plus the artillery,

although strictly speaking it is too small.

The 5th and 9th French division plus II Corps cavalry arrive.

They are in command for the turn they enter,

after that Ney has to roll (4 or less on a D10).

14:00 The French 6th Division arrives in march/road column.

Ney failed his command roll, the French only had half move,

not enough to change formation 

(whoops - something wrong there).

2nd Nassau immediately attack,

hoping to drive the French back in to their newly arrived troops.

The end of the 14:00 turn

The French centre has been disorganised but has held.

Kellerman to the rescue with the cuirassiers.

End of 14:30

The Dutch Belgian cavalry has started to arrive.

II Corps cavalry is working around to the Namur Road.

Progress has been slow as while Ney has taken himself out of the command loop 

by attaching to the light infantry of Foy's division, getting them ready to attack the farm, 

Reille who took over is only a slightly better commander - a 5 to Ney's 4.

Regardless, Kellerman has cleared the way

Again, Kellerman and the Cuirassiers charge,

this time against the Dutch Belgian militia.

At the end of 15:00 the 2nd Dutch Belgian division is in trouble.

II Corps attempts to finish off the remaining Dutch-Belgian troops.

At the end of 15:30 the French could see the way through to Quatre Bras,

but are those fresh Allied troops about to arrive?

(The entry of Picton's division was delayed one turn to allow it to enter deployed

and thereby avoid the risk of embarrassment in the face of the French cavalry).

By 16:00 the French can see that Wellington 

along with Picton's 5th Division (hear those bagpipes)

as well as part of the Brunswick Corps, 

have arrived to support the 2nd Dutch Belgian Division 

now taking refuge in the Bois de Bossu.

Kellerman again goes into action, this time against the Dutch Belgian light cavalry.

It has taken the French a while to get into position,

meanwhile the Dutch Belgians have mostly rallied.

Then the II Corps cavalry battle the Black Hussars 

(my Prussians being a handy substitute).

It got a bit messy.

The French chasseurs went uncontrolled, the Scots formed square,

the French chasseurs will bounce, messing up the French lancers

and it was getting late

so we called it quits.

How the game finished up.

Issues

Order of Battle

French

Allies

Arrival times

TBC = To be confirmed

Deployment

I prefer a fixed deployment.  It does limit the Allied player however as much of their force will be out of command, but maybe this reflects the Prince of Orange's situation.

Command

Chain of Command

Should it be possible to take Ney out of command by having him attached? This is an issue caused by using his base command rating of 4 (an alternative would be to shorten his command span).  Having to roll for command really limits play.

Attached

If a commander is attached, should that automatically put the unit(s) in command?  This could be open to abuse. But if it was a higher-level commander (i.e. Corps or Army) then it is possibly reasonable.

Half Move

When the Corps or Army commander fail their roll, their troops get a half move.  This means for some units they can't change formation.  This is fatal for troops in march/road column.  Options would be to allow a formation change if a unit is not disordered and uses all its movement allowance, alternatively allow a partial formation change, but mark the unit disordered; or even use the forced march mechanics. This problem also applies to being able to put cavalry on react (which requires a full move).

Map movement

This is an idea for the future and would add a pregame a bit similar to the Scharnhorst method in the Blucher rule system.  It could also extend to the French I Corps maneuvers. 

The march/road column movement rate in Napoleon's Battles is roughly equivalent to the average of 2.5 miles per hour or 30 hours per day (based on a quick Google search - what I was interested in is if there was a distinct difference between on table movement rate in proximity to the enemy, versus movement when there was not such concern in imminent combat).

Footprint

This is a perennial problem with these rules and many others.  What to do when general's base takes up so much space?  When a unit's footprint is too large to fit into an otherwise perfect combat opportunity (a classic situation where unit sizes can now vary from 2 to 7 stands).  As a unit represents a brigade or large regiment, why not allow a partial commitment of just a few stands representing some of the unit's battalions or squadrons.

Barbarossa Turn 47 Completed and Turn 48 Partial

This session starts with some Soviet attacks in the centre.

Northwest of Moscow.

Southwest of Moscow.

The situation at the end of Turn 47

North - Leningrad.

We are essentially ignoring this front having not appreciated the supply rules

and the off-putting scale change mental gymnastics required for the insert map.

Centre - Moscow.

Axis have broken the Soviet lines, top left-hand corner.

South - Kharkov.

Odessa and Crimea.

Turn 48

The weather for 24 and 25 September is fine across the whole front.

The Axis is widening the breakthrough northwest of Moscow.

The action is reminiscent of the opening days of the campaign.

Maintaining the pressure southwest of Moscow.

Army Group South trying to smash through the Soviet defence line.

Odessa continues to hold out.

The game is now providing resources for the Axis in Crimea, no longer for this spot.

The Axis air force in the south is too weak to contest the Black Sea.

The edge of the map denies the Axis critical attack hexes.

So not expecting this city to fall.

It goes into the Talin too hard basket.

The situation at the end of the Axis turn.

Rout markers for Napoleon's Battles

Endless quest for perfection.  Having blue saddle clothes to represent disorder, I've gone for red to denote rout.

They will get a test run tonight.

Nikephorian Byzantine versus Ghaznavid

A friendly game with Mark B to try out my new cataphract unit and also perfect GIF making technique.

My army was out scouted but deployed in a central position between two woods.  The Ghaznavids massed on my right and a light cavalry battle ensued which my troops narrowly got the better of. Then there was a charge by my new cataphracts that won the battle,

In they go!

This GIF was made with an image after each player's move,

and the transition speed has been set to the slowest available.

Essex Byzantine Cataphracts

Picked these up for an amazingly low price of $A0.50 a figure from Tactics.  Better still I was using a voucher my daughter had given me for Xmas.  But best of all I have them assembled, painted and based and heading to the tabletop.

First with flash:

Then without:

The archers I cut in two and repositioned, so they were firing over the heads or between the front rank (rather in the sidewards pose that looks rather daft).  

The Essex codes are BZA 14 and BZA 15 (the latter being the archers).

Virgin Queen Again - Completed (More or Less)

The game must go on!

England, with some delay, retook Dublin.  The Scottish nobles rebelled giving Edinburgh to England along with Mary Queen of the Scots.  Francis Drake circumnavigated the world (after a careful reading and rereading of the rules for this endeavour) and is now Sir Francis Drake.  A lovely fleet of raze galleons was built and deterred the Spanish (who were busy fighting the Ottomans anyway).  Unfortunately, the Scottish nobles rebelled again, and Edinburgh went to France and contributed to that country being declared winner.

For the record, France has 24 VPs, almost a win and so close and with our time having run out, won.  The Ottomans were second with 21, then there was a tight cluster with England and Spain on 18 with HRE on 19 (and one key short of automatic victory).  Protestants trailed at the back with 11.

There is a degree of complexity (along with chrome) that made play a bit challenging.  Piracy, once the Spanish have fortified and put out patrols, doesn't seem much value.  No spying/assassinations were attempted.  These things all require precious cards which are in short supply, particularly for England.

Patronage seems good value, and I would say a must. Marriages can be a bit hit and miss, but at least don't cost cards (unless they fail).

A wider view of game events is provided here by Richard (Protestant player):

Ottomans - built the Suez Canal, colony in Mombasa, captured Tunis

fought Spain in multiple gigantic naval battles, nearly circumnavigated.

Spain - Awash in treasures from the New World with Treasure Fleet Card

appearing 3 times, but mired in trying to put down the Dutch rebellion

and ultimately failing, surprised by a late game attack from the HRE

which saw the loss of their Italian capital, Milan, built the Armada but

directed it at Ottoman naval power, fighting it to a standstill. Finally

buckling under the weight of three conflicts in different parts of the map.

England - Elizabeth still unmarried, reclaimed Ireland after a

rebellion, allied Scotland, but lost it to French diplomatic influence.

Regretted making peace with France as this limited opportunities to

recover. A couple of successful colonies and scientific discoveries.

Came up with a novel interpretation of what "circumnavigate" means.

France - Busied themselves organising very successful Valois weddings,

sponsoring artists and scientists, a couple of colonies in the new

world. Avoided Huguenot rebellions. Avoided doing anything actually and

ended up leading at end of play.

Holy Roman Empire - Backed the wrong horse in the religious war at least

initially, although protestant fightback well underway at game's end,

nearly pulled off the first ever military victory across Here I Stand/

Virgin Queen games. Generous to protestants with free mercenaries. 

Protestant - Failed map reading/understanding the power of rebellion

until turn 4. Appalling card draws (one hand full of Mandatory events),

limited cards, pounded mercilessly by Spain, including loss of only

colony, staged a turn around late in the game.

Sui Dynasty Chinese versus Huns

As a learning exercise, I lent my Huns to Karl and used his Sui Chinese.  It took 21 turns, and was rather close, but victory to the Sui.  To spare you 21 images, and after a bit of trouble finding a JPEG to GIF convertor, I created the following.

Searching for JPEG to GIF convertors gave me a few false starts.  I knew I had done it easily before but when?  A search of my blog posts for a GIF brought up, eventually, an example.  I was super happy to find imgflip.com was still around.  Highly recommended!

Sadly, I hadn't taken the photos with creating a GIF in mind and so things move about a bit, but for an investment of ten seconds I think you can follow the action well enough.