Initial Muster for Vittoria

I've made a first draft of an Allied OOB for Vittoria and set out what troops I have.

I'm short eleven units at the moment.  20 SpLN are currently ready to be based.  

Next is to see what's on the lead mountain.  

I have left out artillery for the time being and also need a closer look at how the Allied army was divided into corps/wings etc, otherwise Wellington is going to be very busy. 

I will be lucky to get this completed this year, but there are other scenarios I can look at in the meantime.

I am pretty sure I have no shortage of French troops.

False Nose Job - A Scenario for Torpedoes and Tides

Mark B took on the job of a secret mission to XXXX and deliver XXXX.  It was all very hush hush.  For the mission he was given two British Power Boat 72' Motor Gun Boats (MGB) and a Vosper 70' Moter Torpedo Boat (MTB).  He chose to enter from the top left-hand corner.  One of the boats carried the XXXX which was to be delivered to one of the red beacons on the far coast.

A German patrol of two Raumboots and a Kriegfischkutter are out on patrol. 

 It is a moonless night.

We decided not to use blinds as we were under a bit of time pressure.

The German patrol easily spotted the intruders.

The Raumboots are somewhat under-gunned and the British boats are hard to hit...

However, one poor MGB was soon hit.

Was it a decoy?

While one of the British boats takes a pounding,

the other reaches the rendezvous point and starts to unload.

Whatever it is it is going to take a while.

Both sides now have a badly damaged boat.

The secret mission continues, but at a slow pace.

With one MGB now battered the Germans try to close in on the Vosper.

The captain of the other MGB must be telling the spooks to get a move on.

The captain of the battered boat has a plan.

Smoke!

With the unloading finally completed it is now necessary for the British

 to stop the Germans from sticking their nose in, false or otherwise.

More smoke hides the mysterious activities.

But both sides have scored additional hits in the confused night action. 

Mission accomplished.

Time didn't permit us to play on and make good an escape.  Also, I decided that the Germans needed to actually spot what had been delivered (they had three turns) and that the automatic spotting at medium range does not apply.

All in all, another exciting game of Torpedoes and Tides and a nicely different scenario.  

The mechanics used by TnT give an excellent feel for confused fighting as I am sure occurred with small boats coastal forces at nighttime in WW2.

Europe in Turmoil but no Great War

Richard brought out this game for us to play again.  He went conservative while I was liberal.  

An excellent game.  Occasionally the conservatives had a decent lead, but with no war the final scoring favoured the liberals mainly due to their strong position in France.

Took five hours to complete which is longer than normal, but then that is because there was no Great War to bring a sudden end to proceedings.

BATTLES FOR WARGAMERS The Peninsular War: 1813 by Terence Wise

I paid $4.95 for this a long, long time ago.  I have dipped into it occasionally for inspiration and now I think it's time has come (almost).

Published in 1974

It covers a set of semi connected, less well known battles of this period and area of operations (basically the Pyrenees), after the Allied victory at Vittoria.

It starts with Castalla on the Spanish east coast and not involving Wellington or Soult, as the other five do.  Each battle has information on the forces engaged, a description of the fighting and aftermath as well as a decent map and an inspirational picture of a refight using Airfix figures.  Delightful!

The six chapters cannot really be called scenarios, and they are certainly rules agnostic.  Basic information is provided for organization and uniform painting guide with the notable omission of the Spanish.

The west coast battles focus on Soult's invasion in July 1813 and cover Maya, Roncesvalles and Sauroren and the subsequent French attempt to cross the Bidassoa in late August to relieve the siege of San Sebastian and then the Allied crossing on 7 October to invade France.

The battles involve divisions attacking through difficult terrain, often against much smaller opponents.  There is often a bit of preliminary marching and also for the defender when bringing up reinforcements.  I think this makes them challenging to stage, but a good test of a ruleset's ability to simulate Napoleonic warfare as against set piece battles.  Perhaps too small for a campaign, but the Scharnhorst (part of the Blucher rules) or Snappy Nappy might provide some kind of framework.

Anyway, lots of food for thought and having visited some of these battlefields I am certainly keen to see if I can develop some scenarios for Napoleon's Battles.

BIG BATTLES Thematic Byzantines versus Later Abbasid Arabs

An historical match up using Basic Impetus 2.0 Big Battles option.  Brad and John commanded the Byzantines while Karl and I had command of the Arabs.

With Big Battles the benefits of out-scouting and deployment are not so critical.

Terrain was kept to a minimum, just two gentle hills.

Arabs on the right and Byzantines on the left.

The two armies are very similar.

Although the Arab has a lot more infantry.

The Byzantine cavalry wings rush forward.

The Byzantine cavalry (as seen from their side) takes significant casualties.

While the Arab foot advance as quick as they can,

their cavalry is happy to stay shooting at the Byzantines.

The Byzantine cavalry is trying to get into contact.

As seen from the Byzantine side, their cavalry is getting bogged down.

After some success the Byzantine right wing has collapsed

and the Arabs are now focussing on breaking their left wing.

With both wings broken the Byzantine centre stands forlorn on their hill.

Game over.

RAF Take Two

Time for the second scenario which is a four-day event.  We just completed three and sadly had made a few errors as we are still learning the mechanics.  

Some aspects are frustrating, but the overall system seems to work well.

Classical Indian versus Anglo Danish

A club competition battle.  I went into this expecting hairy barbarians but was confronted by pointed sticks and stones. Richard was my opponent.

The Anglo-Danes were out scouted and deployed on a gentle hill.

There is an impassable area called "The Mountain" in the centre of the battlefield.

The Indians start to shuffle to the left and the Danes follow suit. 

A bit of wait and see.

The Indians decide on a full move to their left.

The Indians recover their order.

The Indians start to advance.

The Danish knights skillfully charge the Indian light cavalry,

 who had just routed some of the Danish slingers, 

so that they can't evade, 

but fail to follow up.

Both sides are now close. The Indians are busy firing.

The Danes that have not been disordered push on.

The Indians hold against the first charge.

But it is short-lived as the Indians lose most of their right wing.

Climax of the battle.  

The Indian general with his elephants trundles forward.

The Indian chariots close on the Danish knights

and the Indian light cavalry are about to charge the flank of the main unit of Danes.

Sadly it was not to be.

Indian general and his elephants did well.

The chariots failed to pursue and finish off the Danish knights.

And the light cavalry inflicted serious damage but took too many casualties and routed.

I think I failed to add to 1 to their Cohesion Test for charging a flank. It would have made all the difference as the dice roll was a 3 and they had one hit on a VBU of 2. But it's too late now, I'm knocked out of the competition.