The Upteenth Battle of Blasthof Bridge

Countless gamers have fought across the fair fields of Blasthof in the last fifty years, and tonight it happened once more. Ron and Mark, two stalwarts of the South Florida Miniatures Gamers, kindly consented to be my guinea pigs for the evening. We met at The War Office (aka a small office suite) for the set-to.

As we were playing with my 18mm Wofuns and centimeters, rather than the classic 30mm Spencer Smiths and inches, the field needn't be large.

Unfortunately, we had neither a river nor a bridge in the club!

Due to the available terrain, Blasthof Farm and the Blasthofberg were relatively larger than the original, while the River Blast was reduced to a desperate trickle. At least the bridge was sturdier than the original paper.

The sides were drawn from, respectively, my WSS French and '45 British collections.

Ron:

• 18 1e Cuirassiers
• 32 1e Guard Francaise
• Anvre Battery (2 guns)

Mark:

• 12 Yorbourne Dragoons
• 40 Royal Kempston
• Halmouth Battery (2 guns)

As usual, I failed to take enough photos, but here's a representative selection.

Mark moves his guns to the hill as his Dragoons cross
the river; Ron moves stolidly towards the "bridge."

Mark spreads out his troops and opens fire (to no effect).
His light horse are already to midtable.

As Ron slowly moves upfield, the range closes and Mark's
guns start to pick off his infantry. Ron's cavalry are
angling towards Mark's dragoons, who are out of view behind
the farmhouse (out of LOS of Ron's guns).

Ron's Guard Francaise are on the bridge,
while his cuirassiers charge Mark's dragoons.
Unfortunately, both French units are under
short-range crossing fire...

The combat went badly for Ron (who spent much of the game
rolling nothing but ones and twos), and his defeated cuirassiers
are rallying in the field. Meanwhile his infantry, trapped on the
bridge, are at least fighting back while they get the crap
shot out of them.

No more game photos, but suffice to say that by turn seven, not only were both of Ron's regiments understrength (requiring them to retreat from the field) but his guns were charged and taken by the dragoons (despite a game blast of canisters that killed four horsemen. His infantry had to rally on the bridge in full view of Mark's infantry and guns and would probably not survive to retreat!

So a solid victory for Mark. Though, to be fair, Ron rolled badly all game, and even his heavier cav (+1 versus lighter cav) didn't help. Both enjoyed the game and seemed to like the rules despite the fiddliness of one-to-one melee alongside multi-bases.

They were also impressed by the look and feel of the Wofun miniatures. Which allows me to segue into the Paperboys I've built this week:

A DBA "camp" base for medieval Scots. As the miniature
soldiers are 3D, I removed the paper figures, but the tent and
shields look pretty good!

Added a light gun to my Continental troops guarding the
America250 book display at work. Unfortunately,
their command base was destroyed in action.

Til next time...

Battle of Blasthof

This is a game I've wanted to play for close to thirty years. Well, to be fair, I did play it with my first pack of 28mm AWI Wofuns, years before I started this blog, but I was using the original "beginner" rules then. This time is with the Athena Books edition which I hope to run at Das Krieg Haus. All moves and ranges are converted from inches to centimeters.

The forces:

2nd Foot, Yorbourne Dragoons, and Blew's Battery

 Saillant Regiment, 1st Cheval and Jaune Battery.

Deployment. My apologies: closer examination
will reveal the refuse of the farmer's feline harvest.

I did not play a true solo game with intent to win, I simply put the "Electoral" Brits on the defense while the "Imperial" French aggressively moved to seize the bridge. As it proved, this wouldn't be good tactics, but it did provide opportunities to test all the mechanics.

Turn 1: Both sides move, Brits cautiously - except to
cross the river with cavalry.

Turn 2: Closer to bridge. French cav reforming,
with intend to hold off Brit cav from preventing
a crossing.

Turn 3: Brit cav tempt French to charge. Notice that
the British guns have been plinking at the French horse,
who thus far have three casualties.

Turn 4: Cavalry charge. French lose due to 4 casualties
from crossing artillery fire, though killed two Brits
in melee. Infantry crossing bridge.

I used the SCRUD method for the 1-1 fighting. One combat was 2-1, so its side got to double the score and I rolled separately. Infantry melee is simpler, one die-score of casualties per 10 men fighting.

Notice that until this point, the French battery was entirely masked. It fired its first shots and killed one British gunner, who was immediately replaced by a nearby infantryman.

Turn 5: French cav retreats one move past guns while Brits rally.
Infantry gets onto bridge but takes 11 casualties
from guns and musketry. I forgot that canister allows full score
to hit between 6-12", so it could've been even worse.

Turn 6: French horse retreats second move. French infantry charges. British canister causes only two casualties! Also I think I forgot to roll for British musketry on the way in - there should have been three dice of long-range (ie half casualty) fire.

19 infantry a side, at one die per 10 men (I'll use full dice, though the second ought to be halved). The French win the melee, 9 casualties to 3! (plus two prisoners), but are now at half strength of their original 32 and must retreat. They fail to capture the colour (on a 6), which would have been a consolation.

I should have tried column attack here, which would have allowed four ranks of the column (16 figures) to fight versus two (eight figures) of the line. It probably would have come out the same.

Brits, recovered, charge the French guns, taking two casualties to canister on the way. One gun is contacted. Gunners cannot fight and are automatically deleted.

Turn 7: French cav rally. Both sides' infantry retreat.
The Yorbourne Dragoons take the second French gun,
whose crew do not have time to spike
(would be hit during the spiking move).
Brit guns fire canister at the retreating infantry on the bridge,
again causing only two casualties!

Owing to the order of actions, in which artillery fires before charges go in, it would normally be possible for the French gun to get a shot off, but the cav are too close (less than 3cm).

Current casualty score: 

• Brits: 18 of 60
• French: 34 of 58.

Turn 8: The now understrength French have clearly lost, but as the bridge is the objective and they're still on it, we'll do one more turn. Infantry fall back again, Saillant are now off the bridge. To prevent them being charged by the dragoons, ten rallied French cav charge six Brits, meleeing among the guns. Three casualties to one, plus a prisoner - the British horse are down to two men and (at 1/3 strength or less) out of the game. This will give the French the opportunity to retrieve their guns, even under fire from the intact British battery.

Just for the heck of it, the British battery gets off two more rounds of fire before the French are out of range. They cause two more casualties to the infantry.

Turn 11: Both British units are done rallying.
They can both return to the bridge by turn 15,
so, like Soubise's Electorals, have thoroughly won.

End total: 

• Brits: 22 casualties, including three prisoners. Serious casualties to infantry regiment, cavalry almost eliminated.
• French: 38 casualties, including entire gun crew and over half an infantry regiment. Guns retrieved from field.

I think this went pretty well. And it was surprisingly fun. At this small scale, the inch-cm conversion worked very well. My first thought for playing this scenario at Das Krieg with more than two players is to raise each base to a regiment, thus having five battalions and two horse regiments against four and three respectively. The two guns would remain, being appropriate for the size of fight.

My other thought is to run "Kleine Krefeld" from Charles S. Grant's first Wargaming in History volume, but that is a less "setpiece" action. I may try it myself in the cm scale at home. 

Speaking of which, I found Grant's Scenarios for Wargamers on ebay and have a copy on the way. Looking forward to reading it.

Thanks for reading.

Leuthen Solo

So it took a while, but I finally finished assembling the church and ten paper regiments (thirty stands) of heavy cavalry. The Prussians got cuirassiers and the Austrians what I think are heavy dragoons. The Wofun chaps will count as "regular" cavalry. Infantry are easier to tell apart, since I have plenty of the plastics in grenadier or fur caps.

"the lighter the category of cavalry
the more pronounced the curve in the blade of its sabre."
- Christopher Duffy

Of course, then I procrastinated getting the game going. It's the last day of December, so I think I can still claim this is an anniversary game. I've also been reading a book on AWI naval warfare, and working on the DnD 5th Edition Player's Handbook (not that that will be much use past May when a new edition comes out).

Junior General's Leuthen scenario is even more basic than others in its class on the site; for example, columns aren't a thing, so all units move at the same speed. Although those 24 inches from the enemy may make double moves. Fair enough.

The setup, on a 4x6 table (smaller than the recommended 5x7):

Range is unusually short in this scenario; most have guns with 24" range, but here it's 12" (infantry have 6"). The sides start 18" apart, so movement is in order. Perhaps to make this feel like a larger battle? On the other hand, units can both move and charge.

Turn 1: On the right, the Austrian cavalry start to sweep round the Prussian left flank. On the left near Leuthen, the Prussian cavalry drive the Austrians back into Leuthen and kill their commander, Nadasty.

Turn 2: The Austrian cavalry drives back the Prussian flank guard, wiping out half of it, but on the left the Prussian horse fight their way into Leuthen. The Prussian infantry and artillery haven't even fired a shot yet.

Decimated Prussian horsw sweep through the village.

Turn 3: Prussian cavalry gets around Leuthen as the Austrian infantry reserves reverse ranks to hold them off. The Prussian left is still holding out against the Austrian cavalry, who can't make it over to Leuthen to hold off the looming Prussian infantry. Cavalry fight their way through the Leuthen defenders.

The equivalent of Rot-Wurzburg did not hold this time.

The church is practically surrounded.

Turn 4: While its left flank desperately holds out in Leuthen under heavy fire from the Prussian center-right, the bulk of the Austrian army tries to form a line behind Leuthen to hold off the Prussian horse. The Prussian cavalry has got past Leuthen by now while the infantry is firing into the town and causing casualties. I think this is definitely a Prussian victory, though their cavalry has taken a beating.

While Prussian horse is following up, I think it's clear
that the Austrian infantry could finish forming a line on
this side of town before the Prussian main force arrives.

I find the Junior General rules a little fiddly for a solo player because of the morale mechanism - before melee both sides must remember to check.

1. Attacker checks - if failed, no charge
2. Defender checks - if failed, lose a base and fall back
3. Melee roll-off - loser loses a base and falls back.

Each scenario is slightly different, but all of the "horse and musket" types taken together make for a nice, simple set that, as intended, would work well for kids. It would help if I had an opponent to remind me of the steps, though!

The other issue - and this is my own fault for "mixing" miniatures - is reassembling the units in their correct groupings and boxes. I might have to find a way of notating the regiments, perhaps by sticking tabs under the bases.

It is two hours to midnight here on New Year's Eve, so I at least completed the Leuthen anniversary game in the same month! All the best to you and yours, and here's to more gaming activity in the new year. Thanks for all the commentary and encouragement I've gotten from readers - community is key to gaming, even online. See you next year!

Happy Austerlitz Day (or not!)

I finished the late Christopher Duffy's book on "the Battle of the Three Emperors" this morning, and went to see Napoleon this afternoon.

So, yeah, a little whiplash. I like Duffy's work, but as I'm more interested in the 18th-century period that first got me into gaming, this is the first time I've looked at his Napoleonics. It's very good. Short, like his other major "battle" book on Rossbach and Leuthen, but comprehensive. I read it because I knew nothing about Austerlitz - or really, anything Napoleonic other than the Peninsula and Waterloo, what with my anglophilia - and wanted a primer before the film.

I needn't have bothered, because the film makes a hash of Austerlitz (and Waterloo). Austerlitz was more interesting than I expected, because like Waterloo it seems to have been a "close-run thing." Both sides were attempting the same maneuvers, both sides had significant successes. I also learned a bit about the Russian junior commander Bagration (still dunno how to pronounce it) who gave his name to a Soviet operation in WWII.

The movie turns Austerlitz into a single trap (when as Duffy points out, most of the Russians and Austrians got away), while Waterloo is Ney's cavalry vs. the squares and that's about it. There are plenty of other inaccuracies, but in general the movie itself is ... okay. From the reviews I've read, historians are trashing the (two) battles and liking the love story; non-history buffs are liking the battles and trashing the love story. The French, understandably, hate the whole thing.

My view? The film isn't so much bad or good as superficial. It spends so little time on any one incident as to trivialize them. For that matter, I was expecting a 160-minute film to drag, but it went pretty swiftly in part because it didn't linger on "sections," jumping years at a time with little if any explanation. If you knew nothing about the period, you'd probably be badly confused. And if you read up on the actual characters and battles, you'd be more confused.

There is a good movie to be made out of the Josephine-Napoleon love story, but this isn't it. There's a good miniseries to be made out of following Napoleon's military career; again, this isn't it. Put them both together in under three hours, and... I don't think it's a disaster, but it's certainly not an "epic showcase" of a movie. It doesn't seem to make up its mind about its main character, probably because of the parallel military and romantic plots. Even the famous incidents don't come off well, with famous quotes like "whiff of grapeshot" and "wooden walls of England" seemingly left on the cutting-room floor even when they come up.

Another anniversary comes up this week, that of Leuthen, and I am trying to organize my assorted 18mm Wofuns so as to play it. Grenadiers and Curassiers are the "improved" version of the basic troops in the Junior General scenario I'm planning, and their numbers are limited in my army, so there may need to be some cosmetic proxying - that or hasty construction of yet more Paperboys! Below is my list of necessary units, to be noted as I collect each type:

Prussia (played by Prussia, Hesse and Britain) needs:

• 5 Cuirassiers (to be Paperboys)
• 4 Grenadiers (Yes)
• 6 Line Cavalry (Yes)
• 7 Line Infantry (Yes)
• 5 Guns (Yes)
• Six individual commanders (Paperboys)

Austria (played by Austria, France and Scotland) needs:

• 5 Cuirassiers (Paperboys)
• 4 Grenadiers (Yes)
• 5 Line Cavalry (Yes)
• 10 Line Infantry (Yes)
• 4 Guns (Yes)
• Six commanders (Paperboys)

Since each unit requires six "hit points," I plan to use three bases for each, with casualty figures to denote odd HP losses. Putting all the figures back in the right box as they die will be hell...

"Austrians" thus far - units in fur caps (center) might stand in for grenadiers?

"Prussians" thus far - mostly British.

Leuthen Church is also cosmetic in the game, with Leuthen itself played simply by a strip of difficult cover, but I'm trying to build the Paperboys version anyway:

The "boxes" that make the false fronts are trickiest.

So I'll have to do some printing on Monday; in the meantime I'll try to finish the church. Thanks for reading!

Hill Line Defence

Finally playing a solo game of conventional scale! Drawn from Charles S. Grant's classic Programmed Wargames Scenarios. Let's see how it goes, shall we?

The rules are Stephen Simpson's from Wargames Illustrated #75. They are forerunners, I believe, of Beneath the Lily Banners, and I quite like them - short and simple. This is the first time I've had a table large enough to field units of the correct size (four bases) and to move them correctly (5-15").

One issue with the rules I'm using is that there are no rules for light infantry, unless you count Highlanders and Indians - which in these rules are more for assault than reconnaissance. There also aren't rules for different types of cavalry. I suppose I could use the rules for elite or green units (basically + or -1 to all rolls), but I'll leave that out for now. Given that light infantry, under programmed deployment, are often spread out across the deployment zone, that's probably fine, since usually you only get one or two regiments anyway.

That means the British defenders have six infantry regiments, one cavalry regiment and two guns. I formed them evenly, with the guns in the center, half the infantry to either side, and the cavalry forward on the left flank.

I rolled randomly for the opponent from seven choices, and the French get seven infantry, three cavalry and a gun. I roll for their deployment, and get "centre-right" - from left to right, a 2-4-4 distribution. That works for the regiments; I'll put the cavalry to the right, as part of the attack, and the gun to the left. There is a possibility that the left flank will act defensively, which will suit the gun.

The rules are modular, and have basic additions for command and control, but I'm leaving those out for this first runthrough.

Deployment from the Attackers' side. As it is July 4, there were
atmospheric sound effects to help set the scene...

I roll to determine what the French left flank will do, and it will be drawn into the attack. We're off!

Deployed infantry and guns move 5", deployed cavalry 10". If in column, they move a further five. Guns have unlimited range, but a bonus within 18". Musketry range is 10". Since they are aggressive today, the gun will move with the infantry, aiming to get close before pouring in fire. As you can see from the photo, I've kept things simple by starting everyone off deployed into line.

Turn One: The French (well, about half of them Irish or Scots) march towards the British and Hessians on the ridge. The gun will target its opposing numbers. The mechanism is very basic - D8-D6, plus or minus any factors such as, in this case, being under fire from artillery over 18" away. I rolled 2-6+1; the result is less than zero, so one of my guns takes a hit. Another and it is routed. With infantry, I'd remove a single base; with guns represented by a single base, I'll have to remember.

I'm not actually sure if guns can move and fire in this game - they can fire while deployed and they can move while deployed. Given the paucity of scale, I'm fine with it; each move can be assumed to be several minutes.

The cavalry sweeps round a putative Built-Up Area.

The French gunners "lay on."

In response, the British hold their ground and I fire both my guns at the Irish regiment opposite. They'll have a +1 for the long-range artillery, but this is balanced by a -1 for being under fire from more than one unit. Straight D8-D6: 4-5=-1. They lose a base. Simple, see?

Turn Two: More advancing.

As enemy cavalry gang up on mine, I realize I made the mistake
of not moving my grenadiers forward into 10" firing range;
they're still 12" away.

"Close up, close up!" cry the officers of the Irish Brigade.

The extreme left has some difficulty as it skirts the wood.

The guns fire on Dillon again, and with a bare success - 1 on the D8, 2 on the D6 - they take another hit and fall back, too worn to continue. That's only one of ten units eliminated, though, and the defenders are still outnumbered.

Turn Three: Time to charge. units must roll to attempt such actions, at 4+ on a D10. Remarkably, only one of the units passes. The British morale roll is at -1 for first round of melee, but +1 for being uphill. They pass. My left-flank infantry, in response, move forward, but don't quite have line of sight to the cavalry (the crown of the hill is in the way) or range to the infantry. The cavalry melee continues with no result, as does my cannonade.

I need to dress the enemy ranks here...!

Turn Four: Moved forward, and did dress ranks. Lots of firing now we're in range, but ineffective on both sides. A second cavalry unit managed to charge in, but the combat remains inconclusive, even when I charged my own left-hand infantry into it.

Round and round we go...

Turn Five: Ranks fully dressed now, but still mostly out of 

The battle looks more traditional now, but the dying light
is in the defenders' eyes...

... and they are taking casualties.

Turn Five: The lines are in musketry range, and platoon fire flickers up and down the rows of French and British.

"For what we are about to receive..."

One unit of French horse retreats, leaving the other open
to charge in ... and they fail the roll for a third time. Cowards!

The British cavalry unit is eliminated, but its opponents are still in contact with infantry as well. Musketry is again inconclusive.

Turn Six: The French are now at the foot of the slope, yet still both sides continue to load and fire again. Only on the right are the French moves starting to bear fruit, as the Hessian grenadiers hold fast against yet another charge of French horse, now lapping about them, and the flank battalions cross bayonets.

Push of pike.

Turn Seven: The charges - most of them - go in:

Most of the fighting is inconclusive, with the exception of the Hessian grenadiers, who are finally smothered. One French unit fails its charge attempt; it and the gun instead fire into a British unit and force them to rout. This means a check on the AI chart - "A Blue Force unit is broken or falls back creating a gap in the line." I rolled "Hesitate two moves then move into the gap if it remains."

The "Gap of Danger"

At this point, that may not matter much:

With the grenadiers gone, an ominous flanking movement begins.

The British all hold, though narrowly at times. With all in melee, none are free to act.

Turn Eight: The Brits hang on as the cavalry starts to roll up their line. They attempt to break away and refuse their left flank, but fail.

Turn Nine: The next left-flank battalion is destroyed by the swarming Horse, and others take casualties, though thet guns manage to take out the Ecossais.

Turn Ten: Another British (well, Hessian) unit routs, and others take casualties. I think it's over, and I'll halt here.

So I lost the game against the attacking AI, probably because I failed to react and relied too much on my firepower. It took longer than expected, but by the end I had holes in my lines and was badly flanked. With only one roll per turn per unit, the combat system is pretty swingy and it could (and probably should) have gone far worse for me once combat was joined. My left flank held out agains outnumbering cavalry far longer than I expected.

I might change up Simpson's rules slightly - command and control rules could have made a difference, though most likely just making it more chaotic as more units refuse to obey orders. This is the second time I've run the first scenario in the book, and it's a good one to start with, though perhaps the attacker should be the active player. (Most scenarios can be played from either side.) All in all, a good game and, I think, a fair result.

The game would be far quicker if I didn't keep pausing to write it up and take pictures. With the brevity of these rules (a three-page article, one page of basic rules and one page of extra "modules") I could easily have played it through in an hour, but that might not be as interesting to read.

Next time, Scenario Two: Broken Ground.