Burgundian Ordonnance versus Later Crusaders

Yesterday Richard and I had just enough time to squeeze in a 600 point game of Field of Glory when my Burgundian Ordonnace took on his Crusaders.  600 points doesn't give you much when you are each running knights.  We only had two and a half hours, but the battle was all finished in about one and a half.

My very poorly finished camp.  In order to make up 600 points I had to run some light artillery.  I preferred to leave it with my camp.

Action is just about to start.  Skirmishers protect my wings, but the bulk of my army are the three units of knights, two of longbow and one of crossbow.

Success on my right.  In the clash of knights my lads got the upper hand when Richard failed his death roles and his blokes evaporated.  While that was happening my longbowmen shot up and then bested some defensive spearmen.

On the left my longbowmen suffered against the crusading knights (I need to buy stakes), but my knights held firm allowing my crossbowmen to ultimately defeat the enemy crossbows.

I must get on and add more to this army so I can field a proper 800 point force.

Rusty ACW Game

At the club last night I finally got to use some of my ACW figures for a proper game, not using Fire and Fury, but local set which we will just call 1861, developed by Simon C who also umpired (and tried hard to remember his rules).

So my guys hadn't been used in what was probably 10 years (except for the HotT game the other week).  Simon had last used his rules 20 years ago.  The game was a tad rusty.

Of course, looking at the pictures it is not an ACW game, there are no snake fences or other beautiful terrain.  Why?  Because rules written 20 years ago didn't need the eye candy.

My figures are a mix of ABs and Old Glory with perhaps some other brands as well.  Some I painted, most I didn't (anything on fluffy flock was more than likely not done by me).  I was the CSA and Mark B was the USA.

One Confederate division holds the felt entrenchments, while a second division marches up the felt road.

A bit of detail showing the overall Reb commander in the town (you have to use your imagination).  Each stand is a regiment, all nicely labelled.

My boys holding their ground.

The Union on the march.

The third Confederate division moving up.  The object is the main road and rail junction.

The Rebs go for it.  The slaughter was bad as you would expect being in the open an' all.

The attacking division breaks, but the Union line is thin and there is a second division coming up, however we were out of time.  The perils of games at the club.

The rules worked okay.  They are meant for campaign style actions were marching and multiple days are important.  I still like Fire and Fury and some aspects, mainly scale, were similar.  The important thing was that we got to have a game and I got to use my figures.

The other useful thing was I now have half my ACW force on magnetic bases for ease of transport and we also demonstrated the use of steel paper sabots for bases.

In Shallow Waters

At the club last night I decided to get all serious and play a scenario out of the book.  Steve B took the French for his first game against the more experience Stephen N.  I was the umpire with a slight French bias.

An albatross' eye view.  The British are on the left of the picture and the bottom of the picture is the "end of the world".  The British frigate is heading for the reef.  Didn't I explain that reefs were not compatible with fine sailing?

The British frigate runs aground, but not before it got a bow rake on the French frigate just as it started to engage the British 74. The French 74 also gets in to action as it inexplicably also sails for a reef.

A more horizontal view of the action.  The British 74 was double shotted and did terrible damage to the French Frigate which caught fire.

The burning French frigate collides with the British frigate becoming entangled.  With the wind behind it you would think there would be a risk of the fire spreading, but the rules are strangely silent on collisions.

The French 74 has also run aground, but is still able to get a shot on the British 74 as it lumbers into range.  The British have loaded double shot again and are holding their fire.

Getting close, but not yet in arc...

The British collide with the French but do not become ensnared.  What to do?  We let it proceed on it's next movement scrapping across the French stern and ploughing into a reef!

And so the stuck ships belted the living daylights out of each other until the French reloaded with grape and swept the British 74 clean of crew.

Interesting game, but I don't feel like playing with reefs and islands in the future.  Perhaps need a refloating rule?  Also must do some research about collisions.

Alexander Macedonian versus Fatamid Egyptian

An 800 point Field of Glory game yesterday saw my reinforced Macedonians take on Mark W's Fatamid Egyptians.

My plan was to attack with my left, but almost immediately I saw I had weakened my right too much and so needed to move my reserves to cover a threat to my pike phalanx.  Why was I using such slow troops?  I had to send Alexander to hurry them up.

A very poor picture of Mark's beautifully painted Fatamids.  There was a lot of them!

I had high hopes for my elephants, seen here lumbering forward.  I can only think that being a elephant mounted lancer must be a very uncomfortable job.

My Sogdian horse archers did great work in holding up the Fatamids on my far left until they eventually ran out of table space after evading for the umpteenth time.

My plan was working as I took the plantation on the left, with my Cretan archers being initially able to support the Sogdians.

The bigger picture.  At this stage it is all going well.  Not in view there is in reserve on my left  a unit of Prodromoi and on my right the Agema and Companions.

The Fatamid archers get a great roll and shatter my left wing hoplites.  Mark W having a good die roll is such a rare event it deserved a special photo to capture it.

Grrr.  Then it all started falling apart.  My Thracians with their heavy weapon didn't know how to fight and broke very quickly.  The elephants had come to late to their assistance.  Meanwhile the hoplites were feeling even less inclined to fight.

A sub-commander tries to rally the Thracians.  The sight of the fat man with the comb-over just didn't do it, even though he had a big horn.  The Thracians could not be rallied.

Another deadly volley destroys the hoplites.

This time the sub-commander is able to rally the broken troops, but they were really in no fit state to keep on fighting.

The Fatamid cavalry had pushed round on my left, but the Sogdian horse archers are keeping them occupied.  Just a pity the hoplites and Thracians have been destroyed.

The right.  It quickly became apparent that I was outnumbered and my quality troops (Agema and Companions - the first time I have run two lance armed cavalry units) were not tactically adept to deal with the situation.  I had left it too late to withdraw, but more through indecision than bad timing.

Just when things started to go good for Alexander, with both units of pikes coming to grips and quickly breaking their opponents, he gets in the way of a dying elephant while trying to inspire them and is killed.

The Agema had tried to buy time but were eventually worn down and obliterated.  The second units of hoplites who had been on the left in reserve and had marched to the right to protect the flank of the phalanx were in trouble, but had fought well enough to kill Alexander's opposite number.  However it was all bad news on this flank as the Companions were soon broken as they tried to withdraw and were charged in the rear, just as they were trying to help the remnants of the Agema.

Now it all got tricky.  The Fatamid medium foot that had broke the Thracians and killed the elephants arrived just in time to stop the Hypaspists saving the hoplites.  The Fatamid medium foot had the dice with then and succeeded in breaking the Hypaspists and winning the game.  Another rare event in the annals of Mark W's dice throwing.

The finally picture of my left, the Prodromoi have routed some enemy light horse and the second unit of Thracians is coming back out of the plantation, but all too late.

A well deserved victory to the Fatamids.  A great game using all troops and all the field.  Some bloody fighting with both inspired C-in-cs being killed.  Some tricky things kept us checking the rules from time to time and I readily admit I'm still a novice.

My movement trays worked a treat and don't seem to show up too much in the photos. 

My newly painted troops did not fight well and it is rather obvious that their flock is too green and I will have to do something about it.

Maybe an extra commander might have helped me (the Fatamids were running four to my three).  I also now realise that I failed to included the compulsory javelin armed light cavalry in my force.  They would have been of more use that the Macedonian archers I had.

Wednesday Was Wargames

Two games of Carcassonne with my daughter when she got home from college (no pictures) and then in the evening at the NWS a game of Wings of Glory followed by an ACW HotT game.

Wings of Glory

All planes and play aids from Stephen's collection.

Stephen flew his new Albatross DIIs against mark B in a camel and myself trying out the Bristol Fighter.  A head on encounter results in a game of chicken.

The Bristol Fighter coming back into the fray having suffered jammed guns.

A collision, but with little or no damage.

Boom!  Bang!  First the Camel explodes and a short time after so does the Bristol Fighter.  What kind of ammunition was the Hun using?

ACW

I was determined this year to get some use out of my ACW collection and having enjoyed the HotT game so much last week I made up two simple armies and encourage Stephen and Simon to give it a go.  Both armies were identical: Hero General, one cavalry (riders), two artillery and six infantry (shooters).  As Simon had a blue top he got to go Union.  Stephen was the rebs and I was the umpire.

The Union were defending, but were able to make an attack on the Rebs' left which put the game at 3 to 1 in their favour.

Finally the Rebs got their main line up and after some tricky shooting got a 3 to 4 result.  End of game I thought, but I had DBA in mind.  With a 24 point army 12 points of dead enemy were required before victory could be called.

We then had some tense rounds of fighting with generals being heroically to the fore.  It looked like the Union might win as the Rebs were having a run of bad dice, but at the last minute they game good with a six when the poor Union could only muster a one.  So it goes.

An amazingly fun game!

ACW Temporary Rebasing

My 15mm ACW armies are based for Fire and Fury.  That's 1" wide and 3/4" deep for infantry (three figures), 1" by 1" for cavalry (two figures) and 1" wide and 1 1/2" deep for artillery (one gun, two crew).  With the club there is an opportunity to use the ACW 1861 rules for a strategic level game and it's just a matter of looking at some basing options.

The first test was would my magnetised bases hold to steel paper through the printed label?  

Next was to try it on for size.

Well...

Not quiet.  Labels will need to be increased in size as my guys ain't for slimming down.

The level of adhesion is good.

The steel paper was from a the beginning of a roll and was quiet curved, but will flatten out.

Looks promising!