Wargaming Projects - 3 of 4 - The Present

A Potted History of my Wargaming Projects

Prehistoric; Past; Present; and, Pending

Part 3 - Present Projects: which if not complete (is a project ever complete?) are at least currently being gamed with when I can, for which reason many of these have already been featured on the blog.

This post will be a bit different, as many of my projects which have reached gaming status have already been featured on this blog so many will just have one photo and a link to previous post.

This time I'll go in, more or less, chronological order - fantasy comes last on the basis that it hasn't happened yet.

25mm Ancients (Hinchliffe, with a few Minifigs and Lamming)

I started this army back in 70s and, as discussed under 'pre-historic' projects here, were originally intended as an Alexandrian army but became a generic Successor collection, and the above photo shows all my pike, 250 all told, i.e. just enough for a single syntagma, the smallest tactical unit.

These guys have been used for various versions of 'Ancients' rules by the Wargames Research Group (WRG) and while currently based for the DBx rules series they also get used with 'To the Strongest' (TtS), albeit having to provide the armies for both sides.

The TtS rule-set also encouraged me to make special markers.

The latest use of these troops (here) was for a sort of mash-up of DBM with TtS, i.e. using a grid-based movement system like TtS but DBM for PIP activation and combat.  

Although some further mods will be required to handle recoiling troops (a grid square is too far for a recoil) this is likely to be the way I will continue to use these as the game was quick and fun.

15mm Gladiators (Chariot Miniatures)

A quick filler of a project to make an equally quick game to fill the gaps between bigger games during gaming weekends with friends.  This uses the Ludus Gladiatorius rules and has been featured before on this blog e.g. here.

15mm Normans (Essex Miniatures)

An old project that was originally going to be a First Crusade Army, but not too keen on the Essex Byzantines, I decided to switch it to 1066, but couldn't find an Anglo-Danish and Viking range that I liked.  Luckily my friends have suitable opponents so, while I don't have any opponents for them, they do get used.

15mm Wars of the Roses (Minifigs, Roundway, Peter Pig, et al.)

When DBA first came out, I thought that if you used three armies on each side you would get something like the three Battles that Wars of the Roses armies tended to form up in.  Of course, before I'd finished the armies, many of which I sent off to get painted, DBM came out so I've tended to use those instead, albeit the photo above is from a game using 'The Perfect Captain's' A Crown or Paper - Coat of Steel battle rules. 

These troops get fielded reasonably often, especially in Chit games as described in one of my early posts on Chit Game here.

25mm ECW (Hinchliffe with just the odd Minifig, Warrior or Garrison interloper)

These were mostly Lee Gramson's collection from his now defunct 'Going Back to the English Civil War' blog.  We had corresponded via that blog when he said he wanted to sell the collection as he was moving to Spain, I jumped in the car and drove down to Hythe (IIRC) to pick them up.  My incipient OCD forced me to re-base and re-retouch many of the figures, including: head-swaps; replacing Blu-tack modelled elements with Milliput; adding reins to the horses; replacing swords with steel rod; and, painting new aluminium-foil flags.  The latter was triggered by the kind present of a hand-painted Royal Standard from 'Wellington Man' of the 'Hinton Spieler' blog ...

... which encouraged me to get back into painting flags rather than printing them.

What I was surprised to find during this project, was that I found it much easier to refurbish old figures rather than start from scratch with bare castings, and all this work was done in far less time than I had feared.  I have since added several units to expand the collection further, and Hesilrigge’s Lobsters are the only unit left on my 'To Do' list.  I am pleased to say that these have become one of my favourite collections and get regular use and should be familiar to readers of this blog, like their last post here.

30mm Toy Soldiers (Spencer Smith Miniatures - SSM)

My SSM War of Austrian Succession (WAS) collection, like the ECW collection above, is another of my favourites but unfortunately gets less use than I would like.  I'm also waiting on the new owner of the Spencer Smith moulds to put them back production to complete a few loose ends.

The genesis of this project, inspired by the 'Charge' rule-set, was one of my earliest posts (here) so I won't repeat it here.  Several battle reports are also posted, including a five part series on a refight of the Batte of Mollwitz (here).

15mm 1745 Jacobite (Essex Miniatures plus the odd Freikorps)

This project was started after reading a blog on adapting DBA for the '45 Jacobite Rebellion, and seeing the very nice 15mm Essex highlander sculpts.  It stalled a bit when I found that the rules didn't give a very good game but the project was rejuvenated (and re-based!) by the use of Sam Mustafa's 'Maurice' rules for the '45 on the 'Shrine of Sadness' blog.  

They don't get a lot of use and I think this post is the only time they've featured on the blog. 

6mm Napoleonics (Heroics & Ros, with some Adler artillery)

When these came out in the 70s, they were the ideal answer for students short of cash, space and time to paint.  A group of us all picked an army, and I chose the Prussians (post 1808) and now have three 'brigades' (a Prussian brigade was the equivalent of other nations' divisions) each in its own magnetic storage box like the 'East Prussian Brigade' shown below.

Unfortunately, the problem with everyone doing a different army became apparent when the guy with the French emigrated after Uni leaving lots of allies with no enemies so I also started to put together some French.  I now have four French divisions based on Reille's Corps at Quatre Bras plus Kellerman's entire cavalry corps - at a figure ratio of 1:12 for infantry and 1:15 for cavalry.

Better still new wargaming colleagues have built Austrian, Bavarian and French forces one, even built some sculpted terrain for Waterloo.

The rules for these games have typically been home-grown, based on many others, but recently we've been getting good games using Neil Thomas' 'Napoleonic Wargame Rules' (NTNWR) - the latest being here, and it's likely that, with a few mods, we'll stick with these for a bit.

20mm Vintage Naps (Hinton Hunt, Alberken, DK, etc. - mostly copies I fear)

This project is entirely down to bloggers like 'The Hinton Spieler', 'Hinton Hunt Vintage Wargame Figures' and others who seduced me with the charm (yes, I know it's subjective) of glossy vintage 20mm Napoleonics.

I have a long way to go to get anywhere near completing the planned armies, and the number of unpainted castings in the loft is a bit disconcerting, but at least I've now done enough for a game, the last being here.

28mm Old West Gunfights (Guernsey Foundry)

This project was originally built for use with 'The Rules With No Name' by Bryan Ansell, a free download from Wargames Foundry who now produce these figures.  They have also benefitted from being one of the few projects for which I've actually put together a decent amount of terrain - in this case a scratch-built township.

Nowadays, they tend to be used with the Too Fat Lardies 'What a Cowboy' rules, but have so far only made a single appearance on the blog here.

 

1:2400 Russo-Japanese Naval (Panzerschiffe)

Inspired by a campaign system by David Manley published in both Miniature Wargames (MW) and Wargames Illustrated (WI), this project proved very quick to complete with resin ships from Panzerschiffe.  The entire campaign as played has been posted in four parts: Intro; Part 1; Part 2; and, Part 4.

Wings of War (Commercial 1:1444 WW1) 

Not much to say here, as it's a complete game system produced commercially, requiring no modelling or painting so hardly a 'project'.

20mm WW2 Normandy (FAA, SHQ, MMS, et al)

This project originated with an article entitled 'BOCAGE ‘44' by Andrew Grainger in WI#15 with rules for fighting an Infantry platoon in Normandy.  I was drawn to this by the way troops were more often pinned by fire rather than killed or wounded.  For this I put together an infantry company of three platoons (at about 80% strength) and a troop of tanks (3 Cromwells & 1 Firefly).  I then ran games as a 'Dungeon Master' with players commanding a platoon troop and working together to achieve an objective against a motley collection of Germans.  I as umpire would roll to see if any enemy were present every time players exposed themselves to a new line of sight - the games had a real sense of jeopardy.

But then along came Chain of Command (CoC) and the collection is now used almost exclusively for that.

1/1200 WW2 Fletcher Pratt Naval (Airfix)

Although they haven't been used for some time now, I still consider this project active, but it requires a church hall or similar to play.  These very old rules, that had predicted the demise of the Graf Spee if she met a group of cruisers are very simple but give really convincing results.  At my last club we fought every action of the Bismarck's short career and got an almost identical result to history in every case.  Unfortunately, there's a lack of 1:1200 kits, I had to kit-bash an HMS Prince of Wales to make a Rodney ...

... and getting up and down from the floor plays havoc with my knees so, I'm not sure these will get run out again - shame.

 

28mm LotR Breaking of the Fellowship (Games Workshop)

A lovely quick project that allowed me to game with Games Workshop's (GW) delightful Lord of the Rings figure range - I wanted to paint some figures but didn't want to build armies.  I designed a game to just represent the breaking of the Fellowship from when Frodo has fled from Boromir who tried to take the Ring, until he departs, leaving his companions behind, to take on the quest to Mordor by himself or, hopefully, with Samwise.

The use of playing cards for a very simple movement and combat system was stolen from a Three Musketeers participation game I saw at a convention, and the 'hidden movement' system I read about somewhere so long ago I don't recall where.  This was all described here.

28mm LotR Dragon Rampant (Games Workshop)

This project was really just an expansion of the Fellowship project - see above.  I had been picking up cheap GW LotR figures from eBay for a while with view to doing different scenarios when I encountered the Dragon Rampant rule-set.  This fired me up to send off the stored plastic to Fernando Enterprises for painting as I knew I'd never spare the time from my historical projects for this.  The end result, some fun games of Dragon Rampant like that here.

Well, that's all for this instalment of the potted history of my wargaming projects past, present and future, the previous instalment can be found here.

Rearguard Action - The Game

A Table-top Teaser for the War of Austrian Succession

The Scenario (Link), called for the Bavarian Commander, Seckendorff (me), to write orders for all his units before any Austrians arrived on table.

Seckendorff ponders how best to manage an opposed retreat

Seckendorff's plan calls for the infantry regiments (IRs) to cover each other as they fall back in turn, in a sort of leap-frog affair.  The Kurfürst IR is already on the move along the road in column of fours[1], covered by the Max Josef IR, and also by the Zweibrücken IR who will deploy into line once the Kurfürst IS has gone past them.

The Plan - will it survive contact?

The Kurfürst IR are to continue on to occupy Birkenheim and the adjacent hedgerows to cover the withdrawal of the other two regiments.  The Max Josef IR will fall back once the Zweibrücken IR is deployed.  The Militia, although not yet told, are being left behind in Birkenheim Farm to check the Austrian advance.

The von der Kurtz Freikorps (hereafter, the v.Kurtz FK) is attempting to stop Austrian irregular infantry from turning the position through the woods, and the cavalry are dispersed to put in spoiling charges where possible to give the infantry time to pull back.

So now all is in place, for the Austrian's arrival in the first turn.

Turn #1

The arrival goes to plan, except for the failure of any cavalry to appear on their right wing, and all move at best speed after the disappearing Kurfürst IR.

Don't look now but I think we're being followed.

The Austrian pursuit is getting uncomfortably close as the Kurfürst IR threw a '6' and only moved 9" instead of the normal 15" in column of fours.  But help is at hand.

Don't worry lads, we've got your back!

The Bavarian guns have a very poor view of the Austrians at this point[2], but one gun manages an opening shot - it misses.

Well, that opens the ball.

Turn #2

Once again, most of the Austrian units arrive as bidden but the Austrian right wing again remains devoid of any mounted troops[3].

Once again no cavalry shows up on the Austrian right.

Despite the Austrian right wing lagging behind, the Max Josef IR, unhappy[4] at the size of the force confronting them, including an artillery battery unlimbering to their front, panic and fall back behind hill[5].

The Max Josef IR opts for discretion over valour.

While the timorous Max Josef IR's behaviour meant they escaped the attention of the Austrian artillery (who engaged Birkenheim Farm instead) ...

Looks good, but proved ineffective against the farm buildings.

... they also blocked any firing from their own artillery.

Hmmm, tempted to fire anyway?

Meanwhile, as the Trenck Pandurs approached the Grünwald, they lose their first figure to the outnumbered v.Kurtz FK hiding out in the wood.

Hiding?  Dressed in yellow, who are you kidding?

Turn #3

This turn finally saw the belated arrival of the Birkenfeld Cuirassier Regiment (CR), who quickly moved up behind the Deutschmeister IR.

Oh dear, we should be in front of these guys, not behind them!

Ahead of them, the rallying in-place Max Josef IR, saw its earlier behaviour justified, as the Kurfürst IR threw another '6' to again slow its progress by the maximum amount.   

Dad?  When are going get there?

Back up the road, the militia in the farm, while doing an excellent job as a road-block, were starting to take losses from the Austrian guns ...

Are you sure this is close enough?

... and the Freikorps in the wood now found themselves in a one-sided firefight against the more numerous Trenck Pandurs.

Ganging up like this is most irrregular.

But, the highlight of the turn, was the first charge declaration of the game by the Austrian Baranyay Hussars, who charged en-masse against the single squadron of Frangipani Hussars ahead of them.  The Frangipani were undaunted and counter-charged.  With only the front ranks engaged in the first round, this was an exactly even fight.  Even that is, until the dice got involved; my throws for each figure-vs-figure fight were stunning, John's were embarrassing.  The net result?  The Bavarians won 7-0! 

Frangipani topping the Austrian hussars!

And, to rub it in, as victors in the mêlée, they took another 2 figures prisoner[6], leaving only one survivor in the first Baranyay hussar squadron.  This was a major set-back for the Austrians as the whole regiment would now have to rally back for two moves[7].

Turn #4

This turn saw a slight lull in the action as the Austrian hussars rallied back (NB: this photo also shows Zweibrücken IR starting to deploy into line now the Kurfürst IR has passed it) ...

Gangway!   Coming through!

... the Deutschmeister IR slowly struggled up the hill vacated by the Max Josef IR, frustrating the advance of the late-arriving Birkenfeld CR behind them ...

This hill's a bit of a bind.  (uphill = ½ move)

... the Austrian guns, now including a howitzer advanced closer to the farm complex for greater effect ...

This time we mean business.

... and the Kurfürst IR finally managed to roll low (only a '3') for the road movement penalty, and at last reached the hamlet of Birkenfeld.

Is this it?

The v.Kurtz FK escaped this turn unscathed by withdrawing back through the wood; the Trenck Pandurs, expecting them to stand and fight, had no orders to advance after them.

Turn #5

The last Austrian unit, the converged Grenadier Battalion (Bn), arrived in this turn, but is a long way back and unlikely to see much action.

A typical elite reserve - skulking at the back.

The Austrians guns unlimbered and ready, next turn, to engage the farm at short range, short range that is for artillery, but just out of musket range.

It's not magnificent, but it is war.

As can be seen in the above, the Austrian Los Rios IR is simply by-passing the farms (they took 2 casualties while doing so this turn).  Also, the Bavarian Max Josef IR can be seen formed up in column of companies to withdraw now the Zweibrücken IR has deployed into line to cover their withdrawal now the Kurfürst IR has reached Birkenheim and is starting to occupy it.

Make yourselves at home lads.

The Max Josef's formation change opened the field of fire for the Bavarian artillery back on their ridge, who now sprang into life against the Deutschmeister IR, but promptly failed to find the range for no effect.

Call yourself gunners, how can you miss that target? 

As if their poor gunnery was an omen, elsewhere, things were also taking a turn for the worse for the Bavarians.  There would be no fooling the Trenck Pandurs a second time and they plunged into the Grünwald to seek out the v.Kurtz FK.

Even worse, can be seen in the background of the above.  This time a squadron of the Frangipani HR was charged by single squadron of the Austrian Batthyányi Dragoon Regiment (DR).  The hussars counter charged as before, but this time their luck deserted them and they were soundly trounced, 6-2, resulting in 2 more being taken prisoner (just two left standing).

With hindsight, me thinks mixing it with heavies is unwise?

Turn #6

And the Bavarians were now making their own bad luck as, having misjudged how close the Deutschmeister IR were getting, another hussar squadron was gutted by an infantry volley (but lucky to still have a command figure to lead them).

Austrian firepower was making itself felt elsewhere as their artillery, and the Arberg IR advancing past it in the foreground ...

And this time it's personal.

... lashed the militia stranded in Birkenheim Farm

Steady men!  Men?  Erm ... yes, both of you.

The second militia company, lining the hedge behind the farm, returned the compliment to the passing Los Rios IR.

Ignore it men, we have more important work to do.

The Bavarian (actually an allied Pfalz unit) Zweibrücken IR, who had formed, unreported, a column of companies with a view to retiring in the previous turn, now extended back into line to fill the gap left by the defeat of the hussars.

Aren't they supposed to cover our retreat?

And in the background of the above, the Trenck Pandurs can be seen getting to grips with the v.Kurtz FK, albeit the dice see the latter winning the firefight 3-2.

Well, that wasn't so bad, I think we can hold here for a while.

Turn #7

The turn opens with the gutted Bavarian hussars on their left flank sacrificing themselves by charging the Deutschmeister IR and, being so close, the infantry are pinned[8] trapping the cuirassiers behind them for another turn.  The Austrian infantry, no doubt shocked by this bold action, fire a panicky volley[9] that is just insufficient to stop the hussars charging home.  The hussars lose the mêlée and go understrength, but the delay inflicted has been worth it.

Really sir?  I'm not sure my comrades think it was worth it.

This is not the only charge, as John surprises me by charging his Trenck Pandurs at my Freikorps in the Grünwald.  Being in open order, my men are easily swamped and overwhelmed by odds of two-to-one.  With just one officer and one man left, the Freikorps will rally back for two moves but will not come back as they are understrength.  The Grünwald now belongs to the Austrians, but they will have rally for a turn before they can exploit it.

Well maybe not ... we better make ourselves scarce.

In the centre, the Austrian Arberg IR continues to move toward Birkenheim Farm, firing volleys as it goes and, with artillery support, clears out the farmyard.

A deadly silence falls.

The Bavarian centre, left unmolested by the valiant efforts of those covering its withdrawal is now looking much better organised (the buildings are all occupied), albeit it is no longer safe resting its flank on the Grünwald.

So now we have to cover the Max Josef's retreat?

Turn #8

The Bavarian artillery finally, has found the range and starts to hit the Deutschmeister IR hard, which has the effect of widening the gap for the Birkenfeld CR to advance past them.

Well, that's one way to clear our path!

On the Austrian left, the Los Rios IR, having by-passed the farm, is able to start a firefight with the Zweibrücken IR, but the numbers are not in their favour.

There may be more of us, but how will we get away?

At this point, I'll let a couple of overview photos take the place of a couple of thousand words; first from the Austrian perspective ...

Just a complete log jam.

... and then from the Bavarian perspective.

Looking promising but for the Zweibrücken IR?

Turn #9

Gambling on the Austrian Los Rios IR having orders to stand and bring up the rest of their companies into the fire fight, the Zweibrücken IR rapidly forms column of companies to do a bolt down the road and escape.

C'mon lads, it's time to get out of Dodge!

While they escape most of the Austrian volley fire, the Trenck Pandurs, now rallied, advance to the edge of the wood to make them pay for such a risky move - their major surveys the damage.

I'm glad I put all the trouble-makers at the back.

Whilst this is going on, a squadron of the Bavarian Hohenzollern DR charges the Birkenfeld Cuirassiers to prevent them interfering.  This proved unnecessary as two squadrons of the cuirassiers had orders to charge the dragoons anyway, so the two meet half way.

I see the cavalry are hogging centre stage again.

This mêlée turns out to be a fairly bloodless affair, with all turning on the last two figures paired off in combat.  The dragoons manage to win that and snatch the victory; the cuirassiers are now largely neutralised.

Is that all?

But, alongside this, the Deutschmeister is having a much blooder time of it as the Bavarian artillery just keeps improving its aim.

This is definitely not what I signed on for.

All this leaves the Max Josef IR free and untroubled to cross the hedge and take up a safer position from which to beat of any further pursuit.

See boys, I told you I'd see you safe.

Meanwhile, largely overlooked in most reports, the unsung heroes of the day, the Wappen Donau Militia, are still clinging on to Birkenheim Farm.

Austrians sir, thousands of 'em!

Turn #10

As order writing starts, Khevenhuller, looking at the sun, decides to call it a day and ends the pursuit.

Looks like they've managed to give us the slip.

Given how long it's likely to take the Austrians to be able to launch an effective attack on the Birkenheim position, which is looking quite solid ...

Now this is what I call a defensive position.

... it's clearly not going to happen before we reach our set time limit.  So, Seckendorff breathes a sigh of relief, and the Bavarian army lives on to fight another day.

Have any of you seen where our militia are?

 The End

Post Mortem

It was an interesting scenario, and was always going to be a challenge for John, as this was his first time playing with these rules, but he did pretty well.  

He was unfortunate to get no cavalry arriving on his right wing for the first two turns as this was the part of the field that offered most open space for cavalry.  Then, arriving late, they then found themselves stuck behind their infantry.  What made it worse was some terrible luck when his cavalry did get stuck in, which saw them defeated and out of action for several turns while they rallied.

The Austrian light infantry, when they finally got stuck in, saw off their Bavarian opposite numbers, quickly, and with ease.  If John were more familiar with the rules, he might've managed that even sooner and then, controlling the Grünwald, could've severely jeopardised the Bavarian retreat. 

I think the main problem the Austrians face in this scenario is the construction of the defile.  The Austrians mustn't make any mistakes if they are to make the progress needed, and any unlucky combat outcomes can set them back quite badly.

All in all, I think still a fun scenario, although I haven't asked John for his opinion, he did seem to enjoy it. 

Perhaps one for you to try at home?

Notes:

[1.]  The scenario dictates that all IRs must leave their table-edge in column of fours along the road.  The road is cluttered with detritus from the retreat of main body and columns marching along it have their move reduced by 1D6". 

[2.]   The rules do not allow overhead fire by cannon under any circumstances; howitzers are an exception, but the Bavarian rearguard has none. 

[3.]  Each arrival point is diced for and the desired units arrives on anything but a '1', the Austrian right-wing cavalry entry point rolled a '1' in the first two turns.

[4.]  The Max Josef IR had every right to be unhappy with how slow the withdrawal was going as in this turn the Kurfürst IR rolled a '5', to again significantly slow its movement along the road.  

[5.]  My rules allow units to make a voluntary (overwrites any order from the general) Rally Back move as if defeated in mêlée, but this must be followed by a Rally Forward (in place) in the next turn.  This means a unit is both vulnerable and out of action for two turns.  When both turns of rallying are complete, the unit will need new orders having lost any it had previously.  BTW the Max Josef IR's voluntary Rally Back should've been performed with its back to the enemy - made a mistake here, but luckily it had no impact on the game.

[6.]  Units defeated in mêlée lose an additional figure (prisoner) for every 5 figures lost (rounded up).

[7.]  After a mêlée both sides have to rally for as many turns as the mêlée lasted, plus one further turn if defeated in the mêlée (suffered 50% more casualties than the opponent).  

[8.]  A unit charged by another that is within half a move, is pinned and may not move in any way in response.  They can still fire and mêlée as normal if not contacted to flank or rear.

[9.]  Infantry firing at chargers test to see whether they fire at long or short range.