Having set up the situation for the second battle of my 'Soldier King' campaign in the previous post, it's an interesting challenge to work out a tabletop scenario.
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| All (red ) roads lead to Rahden - and battle |
The issues are that (i) the forces are radically unequal, (ii) I'm not sure I have enough figures to represent them all on one table, and if I have, (iii) I'm not sure I will have space for them all on my three feet square table. So I've been thinking a bit about how to represent the forces and produce an interesting ( and hopefully not too one-sided) game. The thing to avoid, it strikes me, is having the heavily outnumbered Austrians just dug in at the town, being ground down by frontal assaults from their attackers. It's a nice problem to have, of course, and not least because it has sent me to look in some grand old books and publications.
The simplest option is a basic one-off battle scenario, and I found something that looked relevant in Grant and Asquith's 'Scenarios for All Ages' - entitled 'Encirclement or Breakout'.
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| from the masters of scenarios |
On a single table , 'Red' is stuck in the middle, with no less than three 'Blue' forces of varying strengths closing in from various directions. Very conveniently, I have an Austrian army in Rahden, with three Prussian contingents converging on them by separate roads. In the scenario, the Red objective to escape, getting his units off the table - and perhaps this is the best hope for the Austrians in Rahden. Can they find the weakest of the surrounding forces and brush it aside, thus escaping? Can Blue close the net around them, and capture a good proportion? So, a potentially useful scenario - though conditions (ii) and (iii) may not be met very easily, given my resources of figures and space. I think Charles Grant and Stuart Asquith assumed a fairly large table and plentiful troops for their setups! Also, with such a disparity between the two armies, in a small space there might not be much scope for finding that crucial gap.. but it's worth considering.
I think perhaps a better bet, though, is some sort of 'mini-campaign' arrangement, with a map area that encompasses several 'tables-worth' of country with the town at the centre, and the Prussian forces arriving at different times on their respective roads, giving the Austrians the possibility of fighting them 'in detail' in more equal combats, while trying not to be worn down by repeated battles. A smaller version of the King Harold's 1066 situation, perhaps? General inspiration for this comes from Donald Featherstone's War Game Campaigns - he clearly loved the map-to-table translation of action. I think I acquired the John Curry re-print first, but then found the original at Salute or SELWG the other year and couldn't resist. Anyway, great for getting the ideas going.
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| So good, I bought it twice |
Finally, one of those lovely series of magazine articles from the old days that never quite gets 'archived' from the mental files system. In this case, George Gush's 'One-Day Wargame Campaigns', which turns out to have been the first proper article in the first issue of 'Miniature Wargames', back in , was it 1983?
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| Issue no. 1, article no. 1 - not a bad start.. |
Really aimed at big club games involving multiple players, a large space and as many figures as possible, so not quite appropriate here! I think I thought of it because of the mulitple-table aspects. Anyway, it gave me a very pleasant hour's reading on a grey winter's day, and those games must have been great fun. George Gush was an early hero, from his Airfix ECW guide, WRG Renaissance period rules, and his 'Renaissance Armies', which I still have ( sporting a 'Fourth Form Prize' label inside the cover, it was a long time ago! ) - and of course he gave me the title of this blog. Is George still with us, does anyone know?
All the above is of course a way of saying 'I haven't set up the battle yet', but ideas are being mulled over..which is all part of the fun. Keep safe, and well, everyone.
Good for the little grey cells. Who says this hobby isn't good for your health?
ReplyDeleteI look forward to reading about the game(s) resulting from your decision.
Thank you, indeed it's good to ruminate a bit sometimes.
DeleteI will of course report my conclusions and the resulting game - eventually!
Interesting. You offer up many different options for yourself. Now, you must pick one.
ReplyDeleteYes indeed - decisions, decisions! I am leaning towards a map which covers multiple table-areas, Featherstone-style, and then lay out a table when contact is made. Bob Cordery's terrain generator might cone in handy, too..
DeleteIt sounds to me as if the determining factor will be the actual figures you have.....unless this is a good opportunity / motivation to paint up any other figures you may have!
ReplyDeleteNeil
That is a good point, as I could almost do the whole thing in 'Portable Wargame', but it would entail Austrian Grenzer Hussars masquerading as Heavy Cavalry again! I really need to get those Austrian Cuirassiers painted..
DeleteThat’s a tricky one for sure. Maybe a series of battles makes sense with your table size. Battle one versus one Prussian column (chosen at random unless the Austrians have some intelligence on strength), with Prussian column 2 potentially arriving late in the day al la Waterloo. If the Austrians win then proceed to Battle 2 and so on.
ReplyDeleteThanks, yes that is the sort if thing I am thinking of - and Neil P. had some ideas about randomising arrival times which were interesting. 'The King Harold option': I think it's the way forward!
DeleteHi Dave, I found myself as a result of reading your post looking up George Gush's numerous contributions to Airfix Magazine. I was particularly interested in the articles he wrote regarding converting Airfix soldiers to Renaissance figures. Very clever. It would never have occurred to me when I had all those Airfix sets as a kid that I could customise them in that way. But given how fiddly it all is and how maladroit I have always been I reckon that the result if I tried would have been an unholy mess!
ReplyDeleteThanks Dave - that's really interesting about the Airfix conversions - I think I tried a bit of that long ago! You have jogged some deep dark recesses of my memory, possibly involving 8th Army 'transitioning' to Landsknechts? Maybe the tin hats looked right? I will have to look for those articles myself - thanks!
DeleteFascinating reading through your thinking through the options of how to do this. Just wondering, and I apologise if maybe I missed it, how much do the respective commanders know of the situation. Of course one doesn't want the cream of ones army captured a la Saxon Army at Pirna, nor have a perfectly good kesselschlacht go awry because of poor coordination of the various commanders. I would start with the commanders first. How much does the Austrian commander know of his predicament. Also there are 4 roads out of Rhaden. He could just leave as well and preemptively ambush the smallest of the 3 forces and break out.... IF he has the right intelligence
ReplyDeleteThank you, very good point! I admit I had not considered the intelligence side too much, but with a bit of mental 'retro-fitting' I think I am assuming that with the Austrians being lodged in enemy territory, their intelligence may not be too good, as the population are not friendly. The Prussians do indeed have to worry about co-ordinating their three forces. We shall see..
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