Two evenly matched Norman armies clashed one afternoon - and it had the makings of a bloodbath.
Rampaging knights, crossbow men , mercenary spearmen and archers were all part of a game that turned into a huge melee ....and a lucky crossbow shot changed the direction of the game!
A very close fought game that had the potential to be a very bloody draw.....but ended prematurely....
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| My right flank |
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| My left flank |
Working slowly on adding Saxon infantry units for the Relief of Vienna. The unfortunate part (for me and my painting!) is that the uniforms for the Saxons at Vienna were different for the Great Northern War- so with the exception of the Guards,( red coat and white cuffs) all the other regiments at Vienna wore grey uniforms. It's unfortunate because I have nine other battalions of Saxons for the GNW but only the Guard is suitable. More painting!
The cuirassiers are in the same boat- by the GNW they were in red coats, BUT they had the buff koller underneath. At Vienna, they had the buff coat and the lobster pot helmets. I decided that I may 'fudge' a few units so that the Saxons will have some red coated units at Vienna ( without lobster pot helmet) so that I can use them for GNW as well. The Wargame Gods will not be happy and someone will comment about uniform purity on the day of the game- and they will get a swift kick if they do!
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| Three Saxon Regiments ready to go. |
The SYW Austrians and French came out for a run....by run I mean the opportunity to kick the crap out of each other's forces.
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| French position. |
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| The very sparse Austrian holding force- primarily place to 'hold' the main French force while the flanking brigades did their job. |
Chris' collection of Samurai have to be among the most magnificent figures I have ever seen. Each one beautifully painted, most with a sashimono, and the command stands are just amazing.
Placing as many as we could fit onto Ross' table we had a stoush that was fast, furious and bloody as two Samurai armies smashed away at each other one afternoon.
Chris and Ross took one force and Liam and I took the other. The armies have been painted with particular clans and daimyo represented but we just divided the forces in half so that both sides fielded mounted Samurai, foot Samurai, warrior monks, archers, ronin and ashigaru.
Just the opportunity to use these magnificent figures was a real treat!
My photos don't do them any justice at all.
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| My commander.....the detail is just amazing. |
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| My ring flank. One of my heavy chariots backed up by the three kallipani. Not good in a fight, but they sure can shoot! |
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| Assyrian left flank....... |
Ross called up and threw down the gauntlet. I hadn't played him in an ancients game in a very long time ( nearly a year!!)
His Macedonians under Antigonus One-Eye were itching to fight. I looked over my armies and thought...'Early Carthaginians...why not?'.
Now, non historical match-ups can be problematic but as these two armies were almost from the same time period we didn't think it was going to be an issue!!
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| Carthaginian Line |
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| The Macedonians |
An interesting scenario was played using the TMWWBK rules. A town in the Peloponnese was blockaded by the Ottomans until the arrival of siege guns that were to blast the walls down and allow the Ottoman forces to storm the town.
The besieged stormed out to join the attackers who were able to co-ordinate attacks from two different directions. Their aim was destroy the three siege guns. Casualties were unimportant as the loss of the town would be a huge blow to the rebellion. The guns had been positioned to fire at certain sections of the walls and as long as the Greek forces stayed out of that field of fire, the big guns could not cause casualties.
Three units of defenders prepared to charge out of the main gates as soon as they heard the firing of the relieving force.
The siege guns were able to fire at the walls each turn rolling two dice per crewman. Hitting on a '6' only - they had to create 10 points of damage...they came very close......
The Greeks had to neutralise the guns- and the guns would keep firing until they had breached the walls OR the Greeks were driven off.
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| Opening deployment |
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| One of the Ottoman Siege guns |
I have been considering this for a while.
I have the Poles and I have the Ottomans.
And I've added Imperial and Bavarian Foote to play out the relief of Vienna in 1683. Many of my WSS Imperial Cuirassiers will be fine...and I have lots of them!
I need some Saxon Foote and Horse ( I might cheat and use some of my GNW Saxons...but don't tell anyone).
I guess it's one of those battles that all gamers have heard of and many have played, and I think as I have had the Ottomans for so long it's time to give it a crack.
It will mean a table with the Kahlenburg heights...and maybe a section of the walls of Vienna....and a Turkish camp.
Hmm.....time to get started.
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| The first of my Imperial regiments. ( I have to confess I didn't paint this unit!) |
I have been slowly working away at the Saxons for the Great Northern War.
I originally started with 70 odd figures from the Front Rank late 17th Century range that was going to be for another project.
But one day I decided to paint up some GNW Saxons (see past post!) and got four regiments. Flags were from my favourite dealer of product, Barry Hilton at Warfare Miniatures.
Earlier this year I bought some more Front Rank and began painting to add more. The Saxons are a nice army- and sooner or later I am going to have to put them on the table against the Swedes!
I had some more flags and began to put them on. I now have 9 regiments of infantry. Time to do some cavalry!
The flags on my Ottomans were looking a bit sad and forlorn, so I decided to order some flags (from Warfare Miniatures - Hi Barry!) and update the Kapikulu cavalry. The flags had been the original ones from the about 1990! So time for the upgrade!
Spyros expressed an interest in the Vikings sitting on my shelf.
After a brief discussion, we decided to get them on the table to fight my Anglo-Danes ....and redo Fulford Gate - the first of the three epic battles fought in 1066. We played it at the Company of Dice club meet here in Sydney.
Spyros was Morcar and Edwin and I was Harald Hardrada.
The two Anglo-Danish earls raced to take up a position on a stream bank and made it just in time before Hardrada's Vikings got there.
End of Turn 2 .
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| View from the Viking lines- Edwin's Mercians, skirmishers thrown out as the main line races to the stream bank- a defensible position. |
I've been lucky to get four or five games in over the last few months and this might be the last one for a while- so it was gonna be a good one.
Ross's early 16th Century collection is spectacular. He has a vast, beautifully painted collection of Swiss, French Gendarmes, Landsknechts, Argoulets, Pavisiers, Burgundian Knights, German Knights, Italians of the same, arquebus, crossbow etc etc...all the stuff that makes that period so fascinating!
Putting his French on the table to fight his Maximilian Imperials, we knew it was going to be a bloodbath- loads of pike and heavy knights....
For this game I took one of the old Table Top Teasers by Charles Grant and translated it to our rules and tabletop. This time there was no difference in quality of troops or commanders. Both sides had a Dashing commander, a Dependable commander and a Ditherer! (based on the command structure of Honours of War) As the vanguard of their respective armies the forces were composed of similar (identical!!) troop types.
Each side had six line infantry battalions, one light infantry battalion and three regiments of dragoons- all of the same quality. I am sure that this was historical....both sides exactly equal!!
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| The Teaser map from 1978. I added a couple of hills near each objective. |
After our last game, which was enjoyable despite the poor French performance we went for round two.
Another scenario was decided on as Ross and I were too traumatised to play the same one after our (French) Foote commanders refused to move. Paul was keen to give it another go- but we went for a scenario : Multiple objectives.
This scenario required the defenders ( French) to have their forces deployed at various points around the table ( see map - Zones A,B and C) and the attackers ( Austrians- Zone Z) to be deployed in one area. The town itself was worth two points and each hill (three: X,Y, Z) was worth a point each.
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| My sketch for deployment |
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| The deployment and the arrows indicating the direction of advance for each side: Blue /French, Red/Austrian |
The French defense was randomised and was split across the three deployment zones. Under the Honours of War rules the French infantry and cavalry ( Heavies especially) are inferior ( or just slower) than the Austrians. So using the point system, the French had quite a few more troops- but much poorer quality even though wisdom states that the attackers should outnumber the defenders.
With our Seven Years War /War of the Austrian Succession armies nearing completion, it was time to give some of the available troops a run through. Paul had rebased his lovely Minifigs Austrians ( that once belonged to Ross three decades ago) and Ross' French were put through their paces.
We had decided that the usual head-to-head stoush really didn't cut the mustard as it lacked any forethought and didn't give us the ability to use our brilliant tactical minds ( sure..whatever). Scenarios were what was called for and we went for one called 'exposed vanguard'.
Paul and Chris were the Austrians.
Ross and I played Ross' French.
What topped it off, was the fact that the French CinC was 'Dithering' as were his senior infantry commander and his dragoon commander.
The Austrians were all Dependable except one who was 'Dashing'.
These classifications make for interesting gaming as players must roll each turn to see how each Brigade will respond.
Now the scenario was based on the French being about one and a half turns from the hills and the Austrian relief forces were 3 infantry turns away- depending on die roll.
And that's where the title of this post came in. The French infantry 'dithered' for two turns in the first three, the French artillery rolled three ones in a row....'sigh'......whereas the Austrians tore across the table, in Turn 2 getting a double move in fact....it was basically obvious that the French weren't doing any real damage to the vanguard and by the end of turn four the French commander was facing a firing squad.
Spyros has always been proud of his collections of 20th Century and 21st Century figures.
World War Two? You bet.
Korean War? Check
Arab Israeli Wars? Yes
Rhodesian Bush wars? Of course.
Cold War and British Army on the Rhine? Jawohl!
Falkland Islands- yes both sides.
Afghanistan? Iraq? Yes and yes.
Drug cartels, modern black ops? ...shhh...but yes.
So when he rang me to tell me that he was doing Germans I was a bit perplexed.
"I know," I said, "I painted your Bundeswehr for you in the flecktarn camo."
"Not them. Ancient Germans. Tribesmen."
"Seriously? Why?"
'To fight my Romans."
"You have Romans???"
So that led to this post.
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| The German commander encourages his tribesmen |
The game was interesting as both sides were marching onto the field and had to jockey for position as each brigade had to shake out into line. Troops arrived on a predetermined plan - each commander had a good idea of the arrival of various brigades with some possible alteration. The battlefield had long lines of approaching troops!
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| View from the French side. Moving along the road-A Dragoon Brigade. Behind Infantry brigade with Irish, Royal Italians and Barvarians. In the middle of the picture- the opening engagement- A brigade of Prussians and Hanoverians attack a brigade of Swiss and Germans holding the small village of Eyne. |
Gaming has been a bit thin on the ground recently, and I haven't had the chance to put anything on the blog- life getting in the way of all the important stuff! That was until very recently when I managed to get a few in (Reports to follow!). Additionally, with a few spare days and an itch that needed to be scratched, I had always wanted to have a crack at what I always felt was Marlborough's most unusual battle: Oudenarde July 11 1708.
It was unusual in that it was not a planned battle and involved a river crossing ( in two places!) as the French Commander, Vendome, scrambled to deal with Marlborough and Eugene's crossing and the battle that unfolded was a fascinating tactical situation.
How to do it on the table?
With both armies consisting of over 90 battalions each and 130 squadrons, I had nowhere near that- and most of my OOB was for other battles. Undaunted I decided to give it a go. I figured that I could do a 3:1 ration for the infantry and 4:1 for the cavalry- about 25-30 battalions a side and 30+ squadrons a side. The proportion wasn't quite correct but I was using everything suitable that I had. So it was a 'bathtubbing' exercise which reflected some of the tactical nuances of the battle but not really a recreation of it.
Terrain was essential so I decided to scratch build it. I needed to represent the Scheldt river and the town of Oudenarde where the Allied army crossed over and the heights above the town that were fought over by the armies on the day.
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| My go to book for this one! |
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So the Round three was fought out just after Chrristmas. In our first game my Elamites had been victorious. In the rematch Ross' Assyrians had smashed my army very comprehensively.....so it was time for the DECIDER!!
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| Assyrian Left flank....Elamite light cavalry (left) up in the Assyrians' (right) faces skirmishing from turn 1. |
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| The table- Elamites on the left, Assyrians on the right. |
Chris has some of the most amazing 28mm Napoleonic figures I have ever seen. His collection is huge and the quality of his stuff is first class. With the advent of the Perry's Valour and Fortitude Rules, he wanted to put some of his troops through their paces and get a handle on the rules, which are fast, very bloody and easy to play. He dropped in one Saturday afternoon last year - I had the table ready to go. I wrote up the post...and forgot to post it!
What was especially mind blowing was his model of Gemioncourt- the famous farmhouse that was fought over during the Battle of Quatre Bras in June 1815 just before Waterloo. And although he didn't have the full OOB for the battle, it didn't matter as we set up a close approximation of the battlefield and then had a combined Franco-Bavarian force assault a defending Anglo- Brunswicker force.
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| The amazing modelled farmhouse- Gemioncourt from the battle of Quatre Bras |
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| Highlanders awaiting the French onslaught. |
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| The attackers!! |
