Gaming Weekend - Pt.2 - An Austrian Waterloo

After Friday's gladiator games, on the Saturday morning we dug out Steve's delightfully sculpted Waterloo terrain for a 6mm clash between the French ...

... and the Austrians (at Waterloo?).

This game was a follow-up to our first attempt (Link) to use Neil Thomas' Napoleonic Wargaming Rules (NTNWR) with 6mm figures, but using a brigade of 4 units, each of 4 bases, to represent what is a single unit in the rules.  As we're still tweaking, Steve commanded the French and Martin the Austrians (including a few of his beloved Bavarians) while I took notes on anything we felt wasn't right and suggestions for changes.

After two turns the table looked like this ...

... I like to think this looks like a Napoleonic battle, or at least a contemporary print of one.

In the foreground of the above, the French heavy cavalry ...

... and their Austrian counterparts ...

can be seen facing off against each other as they protected their infantry who were in a foot-race to occupy Hougoumont.  Beyond that, the French columns can be seen advancing (left to right) to the attack ...

... while the Austrians seek to take up a more advanced defensive position[1].

And, in the far distance, at the top right, the Bavarian cavalry are seeking out an opportunity to turn the French left flank.

Inevitably, it was the cavalry on both flanks that first came to blows.  The honours were roughly even with the French heavies prevailing ...

.. while their lighter brethren were bested by the Bavarians.

Observation 1: heavy cavalry combat is more lethal than that between lights as they throw twice as many dice in combat.  I see no reason why an even fight between two bodies of heavy cavalry (HC) should be bloodier than one between light cavalry (LC).  Also, cavalry on cavalry combat usually results in few losses until one side ends up being pursued by the other.  I propose making all cavalry fight on the 'default' one combat die per unit (like LC) when fighting mounted opponents of the same type.  I am also considering making defeated cavalry rout, removing the option to simply fall back facing their opponent when defeated.

While the cavalry on both flanks were whittling each other down over several turns, the French voltigeurs (open order light infantry) won the race to Hougoumont; occupying it just as the Austrian infantry rocked up[2].

The resulting Austrian assault on Hougoumont was repulsed with loss.

In the centre, the Austrian guns were still advancing to get into position, while the French guns, taking advantage of 'Wellington's ridge' (La Haye Sainte in the background) were already starting to inflict losses[3].

While the light cavalry contest was dragging on, ...

... the heavy cavalry fight, courtesy of their higher lethality, had ended leaving the victorious French heavies unopposed.

This in turn forced the Austrian infantry that had been rebuffed from Hougoumont to form square or face the consequences.

The French infantry, in the centre, had still not reached the Austrian line ...

... which had now shaken itself out into some sort of order and finally got their guns into action.

The much-anticipated infantry clash did not take place; the French brigades (units) being unable to close as the rules do not allow formed infantry to charge formed infantry unless they are stronger i.e., they have more units.  

Observation 2: without a significant artillery advantage this makes it difficult to put in an attack that is strong enough to go in after advancing through the enemy's artillery and facing defensive musketry.  I haven't formulated any rules mods for this yet, and maybe I'm okay with it as is.

After realising their attempt to whittle down the Austrians was only going to be a case of mutual annihilation the French chose to pull back to their ridgeline, ...

... take up a defensive position, and challenge the Austrians to attack if they fancied their chances were any better.

The French, were heavily influenced in their decision to not press on by the presence of the Bavarian cavalry (at the top left table-edge in the above) that were now wandering unopposed in their rear having finally disposed of the last few French chasseurs à cheval.

With the Austrians declining the invitation to attack, the battle ended indecisively in a draw - not surprising for a contest between two, supposedly, matched forces.

Post Mortem

Overall, I felt the rules gave a convincing game with few exceptions.  First, expanding on the two observations made in the narrative above: 

Observation 1: in addition to the earlier comments, the cavalry combats dragged on far longer than I would expect.  The rules say the defeated side in a combat chooses to retreat either half a move facing the enemy or full move facing away from the enemy.  The former means the cavalry just bounce off each other and then try again.  The proposed rule to make defeated side (not if a draw) in a cavalry vs cavalry mêlée do the latter (I shall call it 'rout') solves both these issues.

Observation 2: while I agree with the rule writer's view that formed infantry will be unwilling to close with formed infantry unless they believe they have an advantage I think troop quality to be as important as numbers.  Here I propose that higher quality units would, only for the purpose of determining whether they will charge, be treated as having an additional unit for each level of quality they are higher.  For example, an elite brigade charging a levy brigade, being two levels higher, could still charge even if weaker by one unit.  Poorer quality brigades wishing to charge would ignore any quality difference i.e. they just take account of numbers.  I may even allow generals, attached to chargers, to be counted as an additional unit.

Additional observations.

Observation 3: limbered artillery getting the same, generous, saving rolls as deployed artillery seems very wrong.  This is a simple fix; just reduce the effectiveness of their saving throw when limbered, but I need to give some thought as to how much to reduce it.

Observation 4: the rules are unclear as to whether brigades (units in the rules) can, or should, split their fire between targets to their front.  I am leaning towards enforcing the ±45° arc of fire for each unit (base in the rules) but otherwise letting them choose their target.

Observation 5: there appears to be nothing stopping brigades / units fighting to the last man / figure or 'hit'.  These remnants, especially cavalry, will find it easier to slip through gaps and to get round behind the enemy and be a severe nuisance.  I propose that any brigade reduced to one unit may not attack and must retreat to avoid combat that would result in the enemy throwing three times as many dice in combat.  They would retreat before contact in the opponent's turn such that they do not impede the opponent's move.

Observation 6: on more realistic terrain, like that we used in the above game, not allowing cavalry and artillery to at least pass through woods and towns (impassable in the rules) is very restrictive.  The proposed change is that such troops stop on reaching the terrain, then in their next turn, just one unit is placed on the other side.  In the turn after that it is joined by the rest of the brigade, and can move off in the next turn after that.  The single advance unit that passes through first, if engaged, fights on its own (discount the rest of the brigade).  If it does not win the mêlée it must retreat to rejoin the rest of the brigade which takes a morale test.  This passage will not be allowed if the terrain is occupied by enemy, but is allowed if occupied by friendly, formed or light, infantry.  Only one brigade may pass through in a turn.

I hope to try out these rules again soon to see if these proposed modifications deliver the desired effect.  Watch this space.

Notes:

[1.]  Doing this in the face of an imminent French attack was risky, but necessary to avoid fighting in their deployment area and suffering from the bane of all wargames, the table edge!

[2.]  The Austrians had set out in line, and only changed to column en-route.  Had they been in column when deployed they might've got there first.

[3.]  We had finally realised that in NTNWR only the troops and guns of the player whose turn it is can fire (with the exception of defensive fire when charged).  This was why we had found artillery and musketry overly bloody in earlier games.

Gaming Weekend - Pt.1 - The Circus

The past weekend was a long overdue meet up with some long-time wargaming friends, Steve and Martin, at Steve's place - unfortunately the fourth, Keith, couldn't make it.  Martin and I arrived Friday evening and after a good supper (Green Curried Fish and beans) we moved on to the beer and a couple of quick games of Ludus Gadiatorius using my mini-amphitheatre featured in an earlier article: When it's Too Hot to Paint.

In the first game our randomly selected characters ...

   Me             Steve           Martin

... sized each other up across the sands of the arena.

But why am I not looking at my two opponents you ask?  Well, my attention had been seized by a couple of lions that someone had let loose to enhance the entertainment. 

As a Bestiarius, I decided I would take on the lions and leave the other two to their classic gladiatorial match up.  This was a mistake, as apart from encouraging the lions to take chunks out of me they also seized the opportunity to stab me in the back when opportunity presented.

Then, as they realised that I, in my badly wounded condition, offered little threat they turned on each other.  At the same time the lions also decided that I wasn't the one they wanted to eat, and so down went Steve ...

... shortly followed by Martin as I carefully backed away towards the exit.

Being munched by lions, meant the Emperor's thumb could not influence their fate and both were ruled dead.

For the second game, we randomly selected some new personas:

  Me             Steve          Martin

This time there was only one lion, which Steve rapidly dispatched while Martin and I hammered away at each other to little effect.

I succumbed next as I recklessly neglected my defence to put everything into an all-out attack on Martin, not helped by a dart in the back from Steve.

Steve might've regretted his choice of target as Martin made short work of him once he managed to catch up with him.

So, with Martin declared the winner (sole survivor) the Emperor, clearly entertained, gave both Steve and myself the Thumbs Up to fight another day.

A Close Run Thing

'Taking the Gembloux Gap' a pint-sized campaign.

Turn 2, Game 2, Scenario 2 the 'The Culverts at Noirmont'

After the catastrophic French showing in the first game, my French now fielded a fresh platoon ...

... but this one was going to have serve throughout this scenario and the next two before another fresh platoon becomes available in scenario 5.  Whereas John's German platoon is that used in the last game, it is only down by two men, one of whom would return to duty for the next game (game 3).

The Scenario

John's trademark terrain lay-down for this scenario is shown below, viewed from the German perspective).

In this scenario the Germans have to be quick off the mark to stop the French blowing up two culverts, one large, one small, as highlighted in the photo below taken from the French end.

If the French succeed in blowing both culverts the Germans have to spend game turn three bridging them before moving on to Scenario 3; if they don't the Germans advance to Scenario 3 without delay.  Either way this scenario is only ever fought once.

As demolition of the small and large culverts are 6 and 12-point engineering tasks respectively, this was not going to be an easy ask.  I would have to deploy an engineer team to each culvert and on each activation roll a d6 until the cumulative total reached required number of points.  The engineers then have to retire to a safe distance (>6") before a CoC die is used to detonate the charges.  There is then a 1-in-3 chance for each demolition that something has failed, either a partial demolition (2-in-3 chance and good enough for this scenario[1]) or a total failure which requires the task to be repeated before again detonating the charge.

In this scenario, the French get six support points available, plus a free engineer team, but given the scale of the demolition task and the potential difficulty deploying engineers in the aftermath of the near inevitable Stuka Strike I selected another two engineer teams (1pt. each).  With the remaining four support points I again selected a 'Canon de 75mm M1897' ('soixante-quinze') with five gun crew and Junior Leader.  

This gun had served me well in the last game and is effective against both infantry and armour.  I had toyed with the idea of slowing the German deployment with a pre-game (artillery) bombardment, but unless I reduced my engineers it would not leave me with enough points to select anything with a chance against a panzer.

John, with 12 points of support, covertly selected: 'surprise surprise' a Stuka Strike (4pts); a Motorcycle Mounted Reconnaissance Squad with Junior Leader (5pt.s); and, a Panzer I with Junior Leader (3pt.s).

The final bit of pre-game prep were the dice rolls to establish both sides' Force Morale.  I rolled a '1' for a FM of 8, and John rolled a '5' with +1 for his men's opinion[2] which gave him a starting Force Morale of 11.  John also rolled for starting CoC points and received 2.

Pre-Game Phases

This is usually just the Patrol Phase, but as John had again called up a 'Stuka Strike' that came first.  So, in swooped the gull-winged messengers of death, sirens screaming as they singled out one of their favourite targets - a group of nuns!

Luckily the nuns escaped unharmed ...

... but the village Noirmont did not escape so lightly.

Then it was on to the Patrol Phase which ended with the German Patrol markers and jump-off points (JOPs - indicated by the red arrows) as shown below viewed from the German right (i.e. the Germans are attacking from left to right).

The French JOPs (red arrows) can be seen below, viewed from the French side.

From my perspective the Patrol Phase was reasonably successful as two of my JOPs were close enough to the culverts to allow engineers to deploy directly into position to start work.  The only down-side was that this left my left flank rather undefended.

The Game  

As the attacker, with the initiative and the higher Force Morale, the Germans took the first phase.

1GE(2,5,6,6,6): a double-phase to start on, but, and it's a big BUT, three '6's for an End-of Turn after this phase.  This means that all the effects of the Stuka raid will end before I even get my first phase, what luck!

With only one actionable command die, John deployed his nr.I section from his right-hand JOP near the hedge.

Either John had spotted the weakness of my left flank, or the Boche were up to their usual dastardly tricks and targeting the nuns on the road ahead.

End of Turn 1 ...

... and the fire in the burning building went out and the UXB continued ticking, and with that, it was as if the Stuka strike had never happened.

2GE(1,2,2,2,4): and John, realising the French were now free to deploy without hindrance, stepped up the tempo.  First, the German second in command, the Feldwebel (a senior leader) deployed alongside nr.I section and ordered them to advance at the run along the hedge (towards the nuns?), and he tagged along for the ride and removed the shock resulting from running. 

Then the much-dreaded German armour made an appearance, but in the less than imposing shape of a Panzer I ...

... and it immediately laid down suppressing fire on the Café.

The other two German infantry sections then deployed; first nr.II section from the German left flank JOP from where they put down suppressive fire down around the small culvert ...

... and then nr.III deployed into the cornfield and went tactical to avoid being caught in the open by any French response.

After all this activity, the situation looked like this.

3FR(3,5,5,6,6): and it's my turn for a double-phase, and not a moment too soon as the Germans are piling on the pressure.  With only one actionable command die what should I prioritise?  I decide that, despite it being a support option rather than part of John's core platoon, I do need to neutralise the panzer.  So, I bring on my trusty 'soixante-quinze' ...

... and let fly at the Panzer I on the road.

And it seems my anti-tank jinx only applies when I'm playing German, as I hit it first time (just!) despite it being a partially obscured, moving, small, low-profile target.  I achieve just one penetrating hit, but the PzI fails to save and takes 1 shock and engine damage[3]. 

4FR(3,3,4,6,6): a treble-phase and with the boot (from the last game) now on the other foot, the Germans are starting to look concerned.  I start by deploying No.1 section into the Café ... 

... from where, with German suppressive fire no longer in effect, they open fire on the German nr.II section who are in the open and made to pay - suffering 1 kill and 4 points of shock (2 on each team) ...

... but more importantly the 'kill' is the section's obergefreiter (junior leader) who was killed outright (the dead figure at the back of the above photo).  The Bad Things Happen test sees German Force Morale drop from 11 to 10.

Next the soixante-quinze takes another shot at the PzI, again hitting, although that's easier now as it hit with its last shot.  And again it's on target, this time scoring two penetrating hots and the PzI rolls 'snake-eyes' to save neither but only takes two more points of shock.

Finally, I deploy my platoon (senior) leader, the Lieutenant, behind the Café from where he can both give orders to No.1 section in the Café and any engineers that might deign to turn up to demolish the small culvert (I've not yet had a '1' that I need to deploy an engineer team).

5FR(3,4,5,6,6): I still can't get any engineers on the table so I start with the '3' to try and finish off the PzI with the soixante-quinze.  

And it seems I can't miss today, and again score two penetrating hits, and the PzI's armour continues to let everything through, wounding the commander and taking two points of shock.  

The Panzer's crew now abandon the vehicle[4] and leave the field, hopefully taking their wounded commander with them.  The impact of  both 'Bad Things' sees German Force Morale slip from 10 down to 8.

The Lieutenant, behind the Café, now orders No.1 section to again target nr.II section in the open, this time inflicting 2 kills (one on each team) but no shock.

6FR(1,1,5,6,6): and things just get better, as I can now deploy an engineer team at each culvert where they start laying charges, at the small culvert (counting down from six on the die) ...

... and at the large culvert (counting down from twelve on the dice).

And that is all I can do this phase, but the 5 helps with building up my CoC points.

7FR(2,3,3,4,4): okay, so all good things come to an end.  But, now I know what it feels like to be on the right side of a crazy bunch of dice - and it feels good.  I have to admit that John is taking it all with great deal more grace than I managed in the last game.  

Again, the Lieutenant, lurking behind the Café, orders the engineers to crack on, and they snap two and finish laying the charge.

He then orders the section in the Café to keep up the pressure the German nr.II section as I'm keen to destroy that and bring the German morale down even further.  But this time they are only on target with three shots and all of those fail to hit anything.  

I then deploy the V-B (rifle grenade) section near the soixante-quinze to take on the German section in the cornfield but without effect. 

The nuns must be scared witless at this point as they are stuck in the middle of vicious firefight and unable to move[5].

Finally the soixante-quinze, having dealt with the panzer, now also turns its attention to the Germans in the cornfield, inflicting 2 points of shock (1 on each team).

8GE(2,3,4,4,5): and John's Germans finally get a chance for some long overdue pay-back.  First, his Feldwebel with nr.1 section ...

... employs maschinengewehr against the 75mm gun, with supporting fire from the rifle group.  They score a kill and 3 points of shock, but the nearby V-B section takes the lot and the kill wounds their caporal (junior leader), and so French Force Morale goes from 8 to 7.

The long-suffering nr.II section then fires back at the Café ...

... but the hard cover it provides restricts their impact to a single point of shock on No.1 section within.  

The last activation sees nr.III section's Obergefreiter remove a point of shock and order his men to tactically advance (5") through the cornfield 

9FR(1,1,3,5,6): and the first single '6' of the game allows the civilians to flee, the nuns finally getting behind the French firing-line ...

... and the group of refugees pulling off the road and into the farmyard where they should be less at risk.

With the '1's the engineer team by the large culvert continue laying charges and are joined by a third engineer team to assist them, albeit only rolling a '1' - this leaves 4 more needed on the dice to complete the task.

Then the Sergeant (junior leader) leading No.1 section removed a point of shock and directed his men to finish off the German nr.II section.  His men let fly inflicting 1 kill (LMG team) and 3 shock (all on the rifle team).  This leaves on 5 men in the German nr.II section with 7 points of shock so they are now PINNED.

Also of note, I now have a CoC die.

10GE(2,2,3,6,6): combining the two '2's the Feldwebel with nr.I section orders them to run along the hedge, skirting the wood by the road, and removes the resulting shock.  Behind them, the motorcycle (m/c) recce section deploys from the JOP by the hedge (having left their bikes somewhere safe and out of sight).  

11GE(1,2,3,4,4): and the Feldwebel again doubles nr.I section forward towards the French JOP by the 75mm gun, and close enough to block it.  The hedge is a medium obstacle and allows the Germans to decline close combat with the French on the other side.

The German platoon commander, the Leutnant, then deploys by the m/c recce section and directs maschinengewehr (and rifles) against the 75mm gun (and V-B team).  The resulting 10 hits, kill 4 (2 V-B men, 1 gunner and gun's junior leader is wounded) and inflicts 2 points of shock on the gun team - and they are PINNED.  The French firing-line is now in a sorry state but French Force Morale holds steady at 7 (obviously hadn't put the pin marker on when this was taken). 

The section in the cornfield (nr.III) then runs forward in an attempt to put the small copse between them and the French section in the Café, but they only manage 5" and stay exposed.

The pinned nr.II section, with nothing to lose, fires at the Café but with only 3 fire dice at a target in hard cover they unsurprisingly achieve nothing.

12FR(1,1,1,2,3): and one engineer team finally gets all charges in place on the large culvert and the other two withdraw to a safe distance, albeit one doesn't quite get far enough to be safe.  It feels like I might yet pull this off. 

No.1 section in the Café then open fire to punish nr.II in the cornfield for failing to make it into cover.  And punish is the word, with 3 kills (1 on LMG, 2 on rifles) and 3 points of shock inflicted (again 1 on LMG, 2 on rifles). 

Then No.2 section is deployed, exposed in the road, to try and save my gun-line.  And they make a good start inflicting 2 kills (both LMG) and 1 point of shock (rifles) on the German nr.I section.  No.2 section can just be seen in the top right of the photo below, firing through the nuns (whoops!) at the Germans by the road junction (nr.1 section).

13GE(1,1,2,2,4): and the Feldwebel with nr.1 section directs them to fire back at the newly arrived French No.2 section - how everyone keeps missing those nuns I'll never know.  But, they only kill 1 rifleman and inflict 4 points of shock (at this point I'd run out of shock markers so we also started using the red counters).

Things then go a little screwy in my notes, as next the Leutnant removes 2 points of shock from nr.II section and instructs then to go tactical ... BUT he is nowhere near them being with the m/c recce section.  Then the m/c recce section's junior leader directs them to move and fire at the French gun-line inflicting 1 point of shock on the V-B team.

So, let's not dwell on this and move on.

14FR(1,1,3,3,5): and the two '1's allow the all the engineers to get clear of the culverts, at which point I play my CoC die to detonate the charges.  And it seems the baraka is still with me as first, the small culvert is demolished ...

... shortly followed by an even bigger explosion wrecking the large culvert.

A win for the French, but now I have to get out while I can to save my men for the next fight.  But before then No.2 section again fires on nr.I section on the road.  

The withering fire only kills 1 LMG gunner but delivers a massive 6 points of shock and nr.I section is PINNED!

Carried away by all this success I overlook the second '3' and leave it unused - that was foolish of me.  This it seems was just the first of a series of mistakes we made - we must've been thinking about the next game instead of focusing on this one. 

15GE(2,5,5,6,6): and I now have to survive a German double-phase before I can withdraw.  Luckily, they only have one actionable command die, which is used by nr.III section ...

... to kill a rifleman in the Café.  

 

16GE(1,3,4,4,5): and the Feldwebel removes 3 shock from nr.I platoon pinned in the road.  The section's obergefreiter then orders them to fire back at the French section (No.2) that had pinned them.  Being pinned they only manage 1 kill, but it stuns the French section leader and French Force Morale falls from 7 to 6.  

The Leutnant then orders the m/c section to fire at the French gun line killing a gunner and putting another two points of shock on both teams.  

As can be seen from the mess above, this should've routed both teams, but somehow, probably as we both knew the game was going to end there, we overlooked this. 

Post-Game Correction: the Bad Things Happen for the routs that should've happened in Phase 16 were rolled for (1 & 5).  French Force Morale was unfazed by the rout of the gun team but the V-B team's rout saw it drop from 6 to 5.

17FR(Withdrawal): and because of the error in the previous phase, we didn't roll to see whether the routing V-B team managed to withdraw safely.  

A.N.Other Post-Game Correction: and a 6 was rolled for the surviving V-B team member, which saw withdraw successfully.  The V-B caporal withdrew with him.  So the corrections made no difference, but worth doing all the same.

The Aftermath

The French platoon, having only lost 5 men, has 1 return to duty (RTD) in Turn 3, and 2 more in the turn after that.  The other 2 are permanently lost so.  As the French won this scenario, it means there is no fight next turn while the Germans bridge the culverts so all three will be back for Game 3 in Turn 4.

The platoon's Lieutenant who was 'thoughtful' is now 'content' after a win.  His CO and men are both impressed as both go from 0 to +1.

The Germans lost 7 men and an obergefreiter (junior leader).  They have 2 men RTD immediately and 2 more in the turn after next, so for the next fight in Turn 4 all four will be back.  This means the platoon will only be down by the 3 men, the 2 permanently lost in this game and 1 from the first game.

The Leutnant (platoon leader), having come so close to winning, is unfazed by the defeat and his outlook remain 'sociable'.  His men's opinion is unchanged at +2, but his CO's opinion has fallen from +1 to 0, probably because he is getting flak about failing to secure the culverts undamaged.

Mistakes

Few in this game, until we let our concentration drop once the 'win' was in the bag for the French.  Both sides forgot on occasions that pinned troops go up a level in cover.  But more seriously the I had treated the V-B team and the 75mm gun as a group when they are not from the same unit.  This would've changed the sequence of pinning and routs, but that will just have to be a lesson for next time.  

Post Mortem

My support selections were critical, as I don't think my platoon could've held long enough for fewer engineers to complete the demolition tasks.  The soixante-quinze, as ever proved its worth, but luck was key ingredient, both in the turn ending on the first (German) phase; a quintuple French phase; and, successful detonations of the demolition charges.  If any of these hadn't happened, I suspect I would've lost.

If I'd had a crystal ball and knew the effects of the Stuka strike would cease in the first phase placing my JOPs to maximise defensive options would've been better.  But you can't base a plan on something as unlikely as three '6's coming up so early in the game. 

Observations

Despite the French getting a run of 5 phases, the luck of the command dice was more evenly shared this time; both side getting 8 of the 16 phases played[6], compared with a 12-4 split in the first game. 

The oddity in this game was that across all 16 phase there was only one where someone threw a 'wasteful' single '6' in their command dice!

Notes:

[1.]  A partial demolition would deny any vehicle crossing and as this as all the French are seeking to prevent this would meet their objectives.   

[2.]  This was a mistake as the men's opinion was +2, and needs to be 3+ to add to the Force morale die roll.  Luckily this had no impact on the game.

[3.]  Engine damage means the PzI is now prohibited from driving flat out or moving and shooting in the same phase.

[4.]  Crews will abandon their vehicle if the level of shock reaches 4 or more.

[5.]  As per the last game, and just for a bit of fun, the fleeing nuns and refugees, are activated to run away every time someone throws a single '6', but at this point (Phase 7) no-one has.

[6.]  Ignoring Phase 17 when the French withdrew before rolling the command dice.