Burgundian Ordonnance versus Early Swiss

Almost an historical match up, my Burgundians fight Rob's Swiss.

Burgundian won the scouting, but the Swiss had a trick up their sleeves.

Aggressive deployment.

We played this as giving then a 2H move after everyone had deployed.

They started advancing, we started shooting.

Some hits scored, but not as many as I would have liked (or expected).

Well, the Swiss centre went through the Burgundian centre like a hot knife through butter.

However their wings found things a bit harder.

A lot harder,

but still they pressed on.

And on.

And on

until they were at the table edge.

Stabbed in the back!

But I just failed to avoid a loss which resulted in a draw and therefore it became a grind.

But ground down they were,

victory to the Burgundians.

Weimar Take Four and half Take Five

No image from our fourth game.  Russell was the DNVP, Richard SPD, Peter KPD and I was Zentrum. It was over in three impulses!  That is less than half a round (of which the game can have a maximum of six). 10 minutes!

Richard has provided the following summary of that game:

Today we played a game in which the KPD won with a Council in Berlin and Munich and Essen.

WOW, It was all over in Turn (Round) 1 after 3 card plays!

The KPD card plays were as follows:

The Agenda Card chosen by the KPD was "Revolution Now" allowing an extra card to be drawn and played at the beginning of the Impulse phase.

A Party card was played at start of impulse phase that was used for Ops value to demonstrate in Essen, with the result being gaining extra party bases in Essen (giving the KPD a majority of party bases in Essen).

Impulse Phase - 1st Impulse

The "Brothers don't Shoot" card was played for the event as KPD had a majority of party bases in Essen allowing an uprising to be placed there and another uprising in any another city. Berlin was chosen.

Impulse Phase - 2nd Impulse

The "Arm the Workers" card was played as the event, giving three demonstrations and a +1 die roll modifier. This resulted in successful uprisings in Berlin and Essen and Hamburg, but Hamburg was re-rolled and failed after successful reaction from the Zentrum player, but to no avail.

Two uprisings were converted to Councils and game over!

Quite an incredible turn of events.

Take Five

With the same party allocations, we embarked on a new game.

As a party of Government in coalition the SPD I went for stability as my Agenda.  Unrest was removed in Berlin and debates were held in the Reichstag.  Again, there were lots of Communist demonstrations.  There was also lots of inflation.  Zentrum was reduced to just one party-base in Breslau (where at least there was prosperity).  However, the Government suffered five crisis rolls and even that sole party base was lost.

In Round Two, with Zentrum reduced to just three members in the Reichstag it still formed Government with the SPD, but now in minority.  Hyper inflation remained and the country was on the verge of collapse, at least the English blockade had been lifted.  Yet again, there were five crisis rolls and Zentrum was left with just one member in the Reichstag.

Round Three saw a counter coup in Berlin which removed the Communists.  The Government was also very successful in disarming both right and left wing mobs.  The Government was back in majority (only just) and additional crisis rolls averted.

Lots of DNVP and KPD party bases and members of the Reichstag,

but not so many armed gangs to stage coups or even demonstrations.

There is even a bit of prosperity on the rise.

The Zentrum Party board

.

The SDP (Richard) is in the lead with33 VPs, 

then the DNVP (Russell) with 24 VPs, 

then the ghost of Zentrum on 20 and 

KPD, (Peter) with 13.

Thematic Byzantine versus New Kingdom Egyptians

My new troops facing Karl who is running Dave's Egyptians.  My troops fared as well as can be expected against Dave's veteran figures.

New troops are on my left, and other newish troops on the right.

It's the first time in battle for these guys and you just know what's going to happen.

Cautious advance

Initial engagement is looking good.

But could have gone better...

A lot better...

A much lot better ... 

Defeat.

:-(

CR-11 PILGRIMS/MONKS - Part One

Had these for a while, but with pilgrimage being a bit of a theme along with the Crusades I thought it was time to get them painted.

The Old Glory packs consist of a number of figures that don't fit nicely into units.  This was the case with the Byzantine cavalry where I avoided having four left over and went for two bases for Basic Impetus.  With these figures I went for one base with eight left over. I have started on them supplemented by some other figures, but that is for Part Two.

BZ12 10TH C. BYZANTINE TAGMATIC KATAPHRAKTOI

These arrived at Xmas time and are now ready for the table.  Pity about the bendy spears, and the archers firing to the side, but none were broken and so I couldn't really justify replacing them.

Stolberg Corridor - Day Four

It has been a while.  Only excuse is renovations on the home front.

Previous reports can be found here: 

Day One 

Day Two

Day Three

Day Four is the 16th of September 1944.  The fighting on the 14th has effectively advanced the map one hex row to rows 11 to 19.

The US forces have advanced as far as Mausbach (hex row 17) and occupy most of Stolberg

The table set up.

Good to go...

Note the following images are all orientated in the reverse of the above two images.  This is from the German perspective and as I was the German player it goes along with the theme of my blog.

The US commence with a push out of Stolberg.  

Elements of CCB of the 3rd Armoured Division attack some isolated Panzer Grenadiers,

while a battalion of the 47th Regimental Combat Team, 9th Infantry Division,

attack a group of the 9th Panzer's infantry holding a hill.

There are still pillbox defences held by remnants of the German 353rd Division.

US troops from 3rd Armoured and 1st Infantry commence wearing them down.

The village of Ellendorff is top right.

The US 9th Infantry take up the assault on the German left flank, against Mausbach.

The assault on the pillboxes is renewed.

And the US 1st Division is able to follow through and assault the heights

that they need to capture to seal off Aachen.

US breakout from Stolberg continues.

The whole town is almost now in their possession.

Fighting on the German right now extends almost the full length of the battlefield.

While on the German left the defenders of Mausbach are under a lot of pressure.

With Mausbach now in their hands, the US Combat Commands of 3rd Armoured

make a big push against the German panzers.

A US unit has cut off the German centre, but after repulsing the attack by CCA,

the Germans rushed to wipe that unit out, their only attack so far and one I failed to capture on film!

The Germans in the pillboxes have just about succumbed.

The last unit of the German 353rd Division is doomed.

US CCB of 3rd Armoured has infiltrated through the woods and assaults Eschweiler.

The 9th Panzer fights on. 

The Germen right flank has been compromised, and Eschweiler is only very thinly defended.

The destruction of the last Panther is about to occur when it goes to the rescue of the Panzer Grenadiers.

The recon unit of 12th Panzer fails to delay the US encircling move.

The session ended with the US 6th turn.  That leaves them 2 turns for the day, with the Germans 3.  This is important as conserving Ops dice is essential to recovering units overnight, something the US needs to do as the German 12th Infantry division, a large formation, is about to arrive. 

The situation is depicted in this image which also highlights the front lines and pockets.

The US 16th Regimental Combat Team of the 1st Division has been held back (i.e. off table) to screen Aachen.

The table needed adjusting and if you compare the image below with the initial table image, you can see the progress the US forces have made.

Ready for next session.

Note image orientation is from the US side.

Basic Battle of Kynoscephalae in 6mm

EDIT I had wrongly named this the battle of Thermopylae, but I stand corrected.  

Mark Woods, using his fabulous 6mm collection of Romans and Macedonians, created army lists to allow a big battle using Basic Impetus 2.0 (note: not so much the Great Battles option in those rules, just a really big Basic game).

Mark and Michael were the Romans (left and right respectively) while Karl and I were the Greeks (right and left).

It is also nice to have some historical context to game (which is most missing in my Ancients games).  In 191 BC, Roman forces led by Manius Acilius Glabrio defeated Antiochus III the Great and forced him to leave Greece 

The Battle of Cynoscephalae (Greek: Μάχη τῶν Κυνὸς Κεφαλῶν) was an encounter battle fought in Thessaly in 197 BC between the Roman army, led by Titus Quinctius Flamininus, and the Antigonid dynasty of Macedon, led by Philip V, during the Second Macedonian War. It was a decisive Roman victory and marked the end of the conflict.

This was my force.

It consisted of:

• Six units of  Agrianians
• Two units of Illyrians
• Four units of Thracians
• Three units of cavalry and
• Three large units of Phalangites

With games of this size, capturing everything in one image is a challenge,

but here is the deployment.

Greek infantry are holding a hill in the centre.

The first couple of moves I spent shuffling my cavalry to the left to avoid the elephants.

Checking distance till contact.

It took a while.

Little legs after all.

The elephants. 

Things got off to a good start with the rout of the Roman light cavalry.

On the right the Greek cavalry didn't do so well.

The skirmishers really earned their pay.

Things have started to happen, and the results are somewhat mixed.

The wheeling Roman unit on the right-hand side of the image will win them the game.

The right wing's right flank has been compromised.

The Macedonian pike armed infantry are hard at work,

the Galatians however lacked staying power.

At this stage I was quietly confident...

The Roman left is starting to collapse.

But it also rapidly went pear-shaped on the Greek left.

The Greek right fell apart as well after a flank charge on a pike block

 by the previously identified Roman unit.

I also put a link to this post in the Impetus forum and included the army lists which I will reproduce here as well:

Roman White Legion  (right flank)
									VDU				I			VD
Hastati						4xFP			5				2			3			Pilum						12
Principes						4xFP			6				2			3			Pilum						12
Triarii						2xFP			6				2			3			Long spear						6
Velites						4xS			2				0			1			Javelin						4
Cavalry						1xCM			4				2			1									1
Elephants						1xEL			5				3			2									2
Aetolian cavalry						1xCL			4				1			2			Javelin						2
Aetolian peltastoi						1xFL			4				2			2			Javelin						2
																ARMY TOTAL									41

 

Roman Red Legion (left flank)
									VDU			I			VD
Hastati						4xFP			5			2			3			Pilum					12
Principes						4xFP			6			2			3			Pilum					12
Triarii						2xFP			6			2			3			Long spear					6
Velites						4xS			2			0			1			Javelin					4
Cavalry						1xCM			4			2			1								1
Aetolian peltastoi						1xFL			4			2			2			Javelin					2
															ARMY TOTAL								37

 

Macedonian left flank
Macedonian cavalry						3xCM			5			2			2									6
Agema						2xFP			5			1			3			Pike						6
Phalanx (front rank)						2xFP			5			1			3			Pike						6
Phalanx (rear rank)						2xFP			4			1			2			Pike						4
Illyrians						4xFL			4			1			2			Javelin						8
Agrianians						6xS			2			0			1			Javelin						6
Thracians						2xFL			4			2			2			Javelin						4
															ARMY TOTAL									40

 

Macedonian right flank
Thracian and Galatian cavalry						2xCM			4			1			2									4
Illyrian cavalry						1xCL			3			1			1			Javelin						1
Phalanx (front rank)						4xFP			5			1			3			Pike						12
Phalanx (rear rank)						4xFP			4			1			2			Pike						8
Galatians						4xFL			4			4			2			Impetuous						8
Cretans						4xS			3			0			1			Short bow						4
Thorakitai						1xFL			5			1			3			Long spear						3
															ARMY TOTAL									40

The boxes under each army list are to cross of the VD value of each unit that is routed.  When all boxes filled the army is broken.