Christmas 2012 Marlburian Grand Battle

The plan was to design a scenario with defence in depth rather than standard six foot wide table- so I based this on a scenario I had read about from the League of Augsburg boys in the UK that had been played a few years ago. Using my Marlburians there was to be 21 French and Bavarian Battalions and 20 squadrons of Horse defending a series of villages. They were commanded by Paul as the duc de Villeroi and he had Ralph as his senior commander on the right flank commanding the Bavarians and some French troops. In the centre were Phil and Brian and Paul held the left flank. The Allied objective was to cross the river to their front and storm the villages held by the enemy. The French were to attempt to stop them.
On the opposite side was the army of Milord the Duke of Marlborough (played by Nick) with a total of 26 battalions of foot and 28 Squadrons of Horse and Dragoons (English, Scots, Danes, Prussians, Hanoverians, Dutch and Austrians). Nick took the English contingent on the Allied left with Chris as his subordinate commanding some of the redcoats. In the centre Ross and Roger commanded the large Dutch contingent and on the right of the Allied line Lochlainn commanded the combined Danish, Hanoverian and Imperial troops. The Prussians were commanded by Liam and these had been sent on a wide flank march on the Franco-Bavarian right. They would appear at a crucial phase in the battle.

French Center

Here come the Zulus!!

The 2nd Company on the bridge. Here they come- Phil's 4th Coy held off 6 waves of attackers.

The wagons moving south with supplies.

We've got this lot on the run, Sah! Well done lads!

More Zulus advance!! The 2nd Coy defends the river crossing.

3rd Coy report: CONTACT!!!

The Zulu Impi- the left horn!

A change of pace was decided upon -rather than our usual ancients Armati and horse and musket fare- Nick M was proud to unveil his large Zulu war collection- by that we mean about 80 redcoats and about 300 Zulus!! The scenario was simple. The column of wagons defended by one company had to resupply the outpost (held by another)and the other two companies were to guard the bridges leading to the outpost! The Redcoats performed valiantly but went under in a massive rush of shields, feathers and assegais! The redcoat players- Ross, Phil and Lochlainn put up a valiant fight and despite Phil's valiant efforts in halting six waves of Richard's attacking Zulus it was a clear victory for the armies of Cetshwayo!

More Pics from the 'Siege of Acre'

I had loads more photos from our big Chrstmas game 'the Siege of Acre' so I thought I'd throw them onto the 'net!
Christian Archers preparing to fire!
Saladin's right flank!

Muslim Infantry!

The Crusader Left Flank.

Saladin orders a major advance!

The Christian center.

The end of the line: Turkish light cavalry skimish with the Christian infantry on the extreme end of the battle field.

Crusader knights are about to cause some serious trouble to the Arab archers.

Shirkuh's mamluks charge Guy's infantry.

New Rules

Well, here we go again! Another set of Horse and Musket rules that can be added to the growing collection on my shelf: Lasalles. A few weeks ago, Ralph and Richard ran through the streets shouting "Eureka!" clutching these rules and claimed to have discovered our groups 'holy grail'- a set of Horse amd Musket rules that we all like playing ( a tall order I must tell you!). Well I must admit I was a bit sceptical at first and at one of our usual Friday evening gatherings, this time at Nick's place I was given the command of some French Infantry and a small cavalry brigade. Well after three hours of play and a close fought game I was hooked!!! The rules have some unusual mechanisms and the game is not really an 'I go - you go" style of game. It is a lot more subtle. It plays well and can accommodate quite a few players. Now I just have to make some ammendments for my Marlburians!!!....but it seems most of the Band of Wargame Brothers are keen to start Armies...except Nick who already has so many that the foundations of his house are begining to sag...but he's damned happy that he has a set of rules that we all agree on!!!

Siege of Acre

Our usual Christmas stoush brought together all the combined Norman/Crusader knights and foot sloggers that we could lay our hands on (Ralph's , Ross' and Richard's) to fight every Turkish spahi and Arab fellahin ( mine, Ross' and Nick's) that just happened to be lying around. There were six of us on the day and we were aiming to recreate the attempted relief of Acre by the armies of Saladin in 1191. Ralph took the command of the forces of Outremer as Guy de Lusignan, holding the right flank. Richard commanded the forces of Conrad de Montferrat in the center. Phil commanded the Holy Orders and other assorted knightly rabble on the left. Opposite him, commanding the Muslim right wing Nick led the hordes of Taqi al Din. The center was held by Ross who played the great man (Saladin) himself and I was given the Muslim left wing commanding the Egyptian troops of Asad ed-Din Shirkuh!
The Battle was a long drawn out affair with the Muslim forces launching initial attacks on the flanks but staying clear of the Christian center which had a lot of crossbows! On the Muslim right Taqi ed Din’s forces (Nick) substantially outnumbered those of the Grand Master of the Templars (Phil) who put up some stiff resistance. On the Muslim left the quick attack of the Egyptian Mamluks of Shirkuh(me) came to a grinding halt when they collided with Guy’s (Ralph) household troops. As the battle of attack and counter attack swirled on the flanks, wide ranging Muslim light cavalry began to harass the extreme end of the Christian line and then Saladin sent forward the main Muslim body in the center.
Under Armati each side has 'Key Units' and when a certain number of those are broken/destroyed then that side is defeated. The game went for the best part of 6 hours. There were over 500 cavalry and 260 infantry. It was a lot of fun and the game went down to the wire leaving Saladin the victor by a very narrow margin. However, our esteemed umpire and designer of the scenario decreed that due to the massive losses suffered by Saladin's forces, the Muslim forceas were unable to break Guy's grip on the city! In other words...it was an historical result! Nice one lads!

OVERVIEW OF THE BATTLE FIELD

The Holy Orders Charge the Muslim forces in their usual hell for leather style!

A View from the Saladin's lines.

The Muslim Center and Right flank.Infantry from the Christian center advance.

More Knights! I love these guys!

Close up of charging psychopaths!

Dismounted knights and crossbowmen- the troops of Conrad de Montferrat

Another Round for the Duke

Using the Rank and File rules from Crusader publishing I decided to go 'solo' one afternoon. My son wasn't interest in playing, he had just bought himself a copy of Call of Duty 4 and was glued to the TV and XBox. I, however, decided to play against the easiest and most ineffectual wargames general I know: myself. The scenario was simple, capture a line of low hills and this was done using the Programmed Scenario booklet produced by WRG a few years ago. The Duke of M had two brigades of British Infantry( 3 units each), some Dutch guns and a large brigade (4 units) of Dutch and Prussian cavalry. The troops of the Sun King had, exactly the same with both sides advancing quickly to take the hills. The British, with the superior firepower won the day but a charge by a regiment of French Dragoons (Firmacon) gave the Duke some real headaches as they ploughed through two redcoat battalions. They were seen off by the Dutch Cavalry. Ahh the glory and spectacle!!

Rules, rules and more rules

Has this ever happened to you? You buy ruleset after ruleset and although some of them play really well, and each one has some great mechanisms not one has the right 'feel'. Over the years we've played a lot of WRG Horse and Musket and for a period of time the Brothers were dedicated Shako fans. But for a variety of reasons these fell by the wayside.
In the last year or two several new sets have been available and the boys have all been willing to give them a shot(pun intended). We tried Beneath the Lilly Banners by the League of Augsburg which weren't too bad. In recent weeks we tried the new offering by the Foundry Napoleon and found the firing, melee and morale rules to be simple and really effective. We had a few strange situations due to the command and control rules, but that could have been my fault through misinterpretation! So we tried again...and got the same strange result. Although they look great and the information in the book is great, I'm not sure if we'd use them as our regular set. We've also tried the Crusader publishing set Rank and File. Now these were a very fast set. Once you start losing more than a stand or two from your units, things go downhill very fast in terms of morale! We used my ACW figures in 25mm and it was a quick, easy game with a result in around 2-3 hours. With 8 players and only one person having read the rules, not a bad effort. Finally, Warlord Games new 'Black Powder' rules arrived in the mail a few days ago. We haven't tried them yet, but when we do I'll keep you posted!

Alex and Darius at Gaugemala

The lads got together for a game in early January in the understated elegance of my garage for our usual Christmas bash. It was decided that we would refight Alexander the Great's biggest stoush: Gaugemala. Using Armati we assembled over 900 infantry and around 300 cavalry. I think just about everybody had soemthing to contribute: Thanks guys!!Ralph was Darius and Nick played the ever aggressive Alex...something Nick has no worries about playing. Nick doesn't ask who they are ...but where they are! The above photo shows the initial deployment.

On the left flank of the Persians Phil initially found his light cavalry ridden down by the Thessalian cavalry commanded by Paul, but using his advantage in numbers he held and then counter attacked, driving the Greek allied cavalry from the field. The center was where the battle would be won and lost and true to form it was a bloodbath when the rampaging Hypaspists and the Companions broke through the first Persian line. Initally it looked like it would be a Macedonian walk over but the Persians fought on grimly. On the Persian left Roger fought a long drawn out conflict with the mercenary hoplites and other assorted cavalry commanded by Ross. In the center Ralph managed to get one of his heavy infantry units to wheel ( not all that easy under Armati) and slam several units of the Macedonian phalanx- commanded by Lochlainn- in the flank. The game was completed in 9 turns and took six hours to play on a very pleasant Saturday! With a Macedonian victory- and the death of 2 Macedonian commanders ..and ALL of the Persian senior officers except Darius.....it was a great afternoon- for the Macedonians anyway!!

Persian cavalry.

The Phalanx.

The Phalanx advances!!
Below: Persian skirmishers in front of the main battle line.

Alex with his Companions and the Hypaspists at the rear of the photo.

Another view of Alex hitting the Persian cavalry. In Armati the general's element is attached to the rear of the accompanying unit.
The center of the Persian line- with the horses of Darius' chariot in the foreground.

Greek mercenary hoplites clash with the phalanx in the left center.

The Persian heavy unit that hit the phlanax in the flank!!

More Malburian Mayhem

My young son asked me to play a game of my 'musketeers'. It took me several seconds to realise that he wanted to play with the ever expanding Marlburians. So we emptied the table in the garage of the usual garbage and laid out some nice terrain. Allies (Prussians and British) versus the army of Louis XIV. I was the allies and my boy was the Sun King! The French Cavalry advance!

The Prussian Cavalry awaits Louis' troops

The Table!

Hordes of French Cavalry...'Vive Le Roi!!"

The French Guard advance throught the center towards the allied line.

The allied commander....it was a humiliating defeat...so this wasn't Marlborough. The great man never lost!

British Troops fire at the advancing Frenchmen. Above and below!

The rear center of the allied line. This came under heavy attack by the Guard Francais and supporting brigades who fought their way through the village (just visible on the right) and caught the allies in a poor position to stop them once they were in the open ground. The French cavalry smashed my (allied) right flank and it was all over bar the shouting....and my 10 year old sons' victory song.....'I beat daddy..I beat daddy...nyah nyah nyah.'. Oh well I can still beat him in an arm wrestle!!

The later stages of the game when the allies had been forced back and the French were running amok.
Some brave French infantry..painted by me!