Almost a Nikephorian Byzantine Army

On a impulse I bought some second hand figures from the Facebook "The Australian Historical Wargamer Trading Post" group.  They arrived today (thanks Steve) and I had fun sorting them out, working out what they were and what I could do with them.

There is almost enough for a Basic Impetus 2 Nikephorian Byzantine army.  Just short a few slingers and some light cavalry.  I need another unit of archers, but can do that by thinning out the ones I have and adding in the odd command figure.  I think a bit of detailing, some flags and basing and they will look fine.

These Tin Soldier figures are a bit ordinary compared with the Hellenistic range (and even the Medieval range), but I like them. 

The challenge as always is getting my act together and finishing them.  In doing a bit of an initial search I came across this post by the Archduke Piccolo which is giving me inspiration for colourful shields, flags and pennants.

Vikings versus Late Sassanids - Again

And the fight goes on.  A repeat of last week's game against Mark B's Sassanids.

 End of turn 1.

For this post all photos will be from the same perspective.

 Turn 2 and missiles are flying.

I've put too much strength on my left.

The Sassanids have broken through on my right, but I'm sending my berserkers to distract them.

 Turn 3.

An initial charge has been repulsed.

 The elephants just couldn't make it.

 Turn 4.

I seem to have things under control.

 My Commander charges in but fails to score a hit.

 Turn 5.

The ground is trembling.

 Again my Commander fails to score a hit on the enemy.

 Third time lucky?  No.  The commander and his huscarls are suffering.

 Turn 6.

Everything depends on the centre.

 My commander is unable to even scratch the enemy cavalry.

 What's this?

Finally a hit, but it is too late and of no consequence.

My commander is squished.

Turn 7.

We called it quits.

My other attacks were proving ineffectual.

But it is still a close run thing.

Comments

Since my return to blogging after my four week holiday I had been a bit saddened to see that comments on my posts had dropped off a bit, well, a lot really.  Zilch.

I recall James of the ANF blog had said Goggle had changed something...

Wait a minute, what's this tab: "Awaiting Moderation"?

Oh dear...

My deepest apologies to those who had commented, only to see their words of wisdom disappear.  Never fear, they will be appearing soon.

Battle of Elchingen 14 October 1805 - Twice in the same day

The benefit of a small game is you can readily play it again and so we did.  With the terrain already set and troops sorted, we switched sides with Stephen taking command of the French this time.

With the end of the 09:00 turn the Austrians screening the bridge had again been routed.

9:30 and I commit Hessen-Homberg to rallying troops at Ober-Elchingen.

By 10:00 the Austrians have reinforced Ober-Elchingen by occupying the Abbey.

10:30 and Ney has led the French in capturing part of Ober-Elchingen.

Hessen-Homberg is now very busy trying to rally troops.

11:00 and more French troops appear.

Hessen-Homberg gets one unit back into some kind of order.

Which was just in time as the French immediately attacked.

11:30 and Ney has been repulsed when he attacked the Abbey.

Free Rolls did not save him.

Ney attacks again. He has no Free Rolls left.  

This time his troops are routed and he is required to roll on the General Elimination Table.

He rolls a 10.  Not a good outcome...

12:00 and Ney, who has been mortally wounded, vows to keep on fighting.

12:30 and Ney is good to his word launching further, but now desperate attacks on the Abbey.  

He was within sight of victory before succumbing to loss of blood and falling dead from his horse.

And as it was getting close to finish time, this was a good point at which to end the game.

Battle of Elchingen 14 October 1805

I was looking around for a small Austerlitz related scenario and came across an Age of Eagles scenario for the Battle of Elchingen.  I knew nothing about the battle, but it fitted my needs perfectly.  While the AoE scale is similar to Napoleon's Battles, I couldn't just use it as and luckily found an excellent OOB in Scott Bowden's book on Austerlitz and then even more fortunately a write up of the battle on the Obscure Battles Blog which also included some wonderful maps.

As the notes for the AoE scenario state, this battle is probably too small to be done justice by the rules, however having had fun with small scale games using Napoleon's Battles in the past I thought it was worth giving it a go.  I was not disappointed.

I actually created two OOBs, one using large units and the other small.  I decided to use the small one as that gave ten units per side, mostly representing regiments.  I used the map from the OB Blog, as ultimately realised by the available club terrain.  The only specific terrain I used was the BUA markers which I tried to get to match the map dimensions for the villages.  This resulted in two BUAs for Ober-Elchingen and one for Unter-Elchingen.  This had the benefit of allowing one of the BUAs for Ober-Elchingen to be rated as +2 to represent the Abbey.  The other BUAs were just +1.

 Starting positions 09:00

As it had snowed the previous day we played on a white background.

Other than that there were no weather effects.

Stephen, using his very own figures, took the Austrians.  I took the French using my figures.

 The French crossing is assisted by their artillery.,

I had the set up place the advanced Austrian unit in the arc and range of the French guns. The leading French column was placed at just under 5" back so it could change formation from march column to column and advance its residual inch to also be in range of the Austrians (but outside their 3" range).  This specific set up was aimed at avoiding the need for any tricky rules to represent the combined elite companies which historically had been pushed across to cover the bridge repair, the bridge repair itself and the initial crossing of the Danube.

 The Austrians launched an immediate counterattack, 

but the French infantry formed square and with the help of the artillery, easily repulsed them.

 End of the 09:00 turn.

 By the end of 09:30 the French 2nd Division was across the Danube.

 Ney leads an attack on Ober-Elchingen.

He had to use one of his rerolls and was successful.  The French start with three rerolls which I calculated as 1 for the first four turns plus 2 for Ney being rated as Excellent.  The Austrians start with none as their 1 for the first four turns is removed as their overall CinC is Poor (a minus 1). 

Ney adds a significant +3 to an attack, but the downside is that it means he is not available to command the army in the subsequent turn.  That means at best French infantry units will be moving at half speed.

 Another immediate Austrian counterattack.

It bounced harmlessly off the French square formed by the 6th Legere.

 End of the 10:00 turn.

Both sides have command challenges which result in much needed troops being left out of the action.

I felt this also reflected that some of the ground might be a bit boggy and therefore no additional terrain effects were required (as was the case for weather).

 End of the 10:30 turn.

Ney has returned and is ready to renew the attack.

 End of 11:00 turn.

Each side received a Free Roll marker.

The French 3rd Division has arrived.

Meanwhile the 2nd Division has advanced to engage the enemy.

 End of 11:30 turn.

Ney is being somewhat cautious and making sure his regiments are deployed ready for close combat.  His cavalry is on react, ready to exploit any weaknesses in the Austrian position.

 Ney has attacked and taken the Abbey.  Again he needed a reroll to succeed.

The cavalry have taken an opportunity to attack an Austrian unit that had become disordered.

 The Austrians are able to counterattack Ney and he is forced to withdraw.

 The 4th Dragoon Division unleash a devastating charge on the Austrian left flank.

 End of the 12:00 turn.

The 4th Dragoon Division went on a wild charge.

End of the 12:30 turn and the Austrians have broken.

Not hopelessly broken, but it was time for lunch and it was a good point at which to stop.

The French 3rd Division had not been engaged.

Just a note on the rules used.  Mostly 3rd Edition but with significant parts of 4th Edition plus a few house rules of my own.  The main things being:

• BUA Combat as for 4th Edition
• BUA Movement as for 3rd Edition.
• BUA deployment and advance after combat etc as per my clarifications.
• Interpenetration as for 3rd Edition.
• Rally and command for units used the optional rules from the 4th Edition.
• With the cavalry being only 8 figure units, I ignored Column formation.  They were either March Column or Line.  I rather like how this worked as I must admit I don't see the point of the Column/Line formation distinction for cavalry.
• As there was no set number of game turns (although it would have ended with nightfall after the 17:00 turn) I decided to allocate Free Roll markers at the start of each fourth turn (i.e. at 09:00, 11:00. 13:00, 15:00 and 17:00).  This would give the French an advantage at the start (and they seemed to need it).
• Most strikingly we played without labels!  The small OOBs with just two divisions per side and the fact that most units were the same made this fairly easy.

The Order of Battle was as follows:

Corps	Division	Brigade	Commander/Regiment	Rating	Dispersal	Points
6th Corps			Ney	8"E(7)+3	7M     5F	32
	2nd Infantry Division		Loison	4"G(6)+1		14
		1st Brigade	Villatte
			6th Legere	16FrLT	6	16
			39th Ligne	16FrLN	6	15
		2nd Brigade	Rouget
			69th Ligne	16FrLN	6	15
			76th Ligne	16FrLN	6	15
	3rd Infantry Division		Malher	3"A(7)+0		10
		1st Brigade	Marcognet
			25th Legere	12FrLT	5	12
			27th Ligne	12FrLN	5	11
		2nd Brigade	Lahassee
			50th Ligne	12FrLN	5	11
			59th Ligne	12FrLN	5	11
	6th Corps Cavalry Division		Colbert	8FrLC	4	8
	4th Dragoon Division		Laplanche	8FrLC	4	8
	6th Corps Artillery
			Foot Artillery	Fr12#		11
			Horse Artillery	Fr8#		11
						200

Corps	Division	Brigade	Commander/Regiment	Rating	Dispersal	Points
II Column			Riesch	8" P(5)+0	7M     5F	19
	Advance Guard		Coburg	4"G(6)+0		12
		Advance Guard	Erzherzog Ludwig IR#8	12AsLN	6	9
		Centre Brigade	Genegdegh
			Karl Riese IR#15	12AsLN	6	9
			Erzherzog Maximilien IR#35	12AsLN	6	9
		Reserve Brigade	Ulm	12AsLN	6	9
		Artillery		As6#		10
	Hessen-Homburg's Division		Hessen-Homberg	3"A(5)+0		8
		Advance Guard	Mescery
			Erbach IR#42	12AsLN	6	9
		Centre Brigade	Auersperg
			Erzherzog Karl IR#3	12AsLN	6	9
			Auersperg IR#24	12AsLN	6	9
		Reserve Brigade	Herman	12AsLN	6	9
	Cavalry	Cuirassier	Erzherzog Franz #2	8AsHC	3	8
		Hussars/Uhlanen	Blankstien #6/Schwarzenberg #2	8AsLC	4	7
						136

I originally considered making Ulm and Herman 12AsGN but thought this would make them too tough and the actual Grenadier units were well dispersed amongst the brigades.  This also helped in my decision to avoid trying to create a French unit representing converged elite companies (and using the initial setup to give the French the chance to break out. 

Also, the French 3rd Division could almost be left out.

Vikings versus Late Sassanids

Back to 15mm for this game.

 I hadn't researched what a Sassanid Army would be like in Basic Impetus 

and so I set up very defensively with my flanks well defended.

 Turn 1 and the Vikings advance, while noting the Sassanid strength on their left has also advanced.

 Turn 2 and my right flank has engaged the enemy that has thrust wildly forward.

 Turn 3 and things get interesting.  

There is a brutal standoff after an unsuccessful flank attack by the Vikings.

(Top left hand corner - both sides suffered two casualties, a case of the Vikings rolling high for Cohesion.  This was not to be the first time this occurred...)

 Turn 4.  The centre is closing.

 Turn 5 - The Right Flank.  

One Viking unit has been routed and the other has been savaged (after a poor Cohesion roll).

In the broken ground an epic fight is about to start between Sassanid cavalry and some Irish.

 Turn 5 - The Centre.  

It was the start of some confused fighting, but the Vikings seemed to get off to a good start.

 Turn 5 - The Left Flank.

Would these guys please hurry up and join the battle?

 Turn 6 - The Centre.

The berserkers are getting ready...

Meanwhile the grind continues.

Sassanid CinC with his cavalry have been routed.  Yeah!

 Turn 6 - The Right Flank.

The fighting in the broken ground continues.

The Sassanid light cavalry is effectively spent.

But they do have one good body of cavalry remaining.

Turn 7 - Berserkers.

*sigh*

 Turn 7 - The Right Flank.

The Irish won the broken ground (just - they are down to 1 factor remaining).

Amazing the equally reduced Vikings held off the Sassanid cavalry.

Turn 7 - The Centre.

The fighting was a non-event, clearly everyone was exhausted and it was time to go home.

Even with my crappy dice rolls, I was surprised how well the Vikings can do.  Clearly terrain is important, but they have numbers.  The Berserkers are also fairly flexible as they have the movement capabilities of skirmishers.