A Small Campaign Conundrum

 I have returned to my Seven Years War period campaign using  the 'Soldier King' boardgame: we are in the Summer of 1757,  with the Prussians sweeping forward into Austrian territory following their great victory at Rahden, and having expelled the Austrians from the town of Wittingen, albeit at some cost. 

Summer 1757: situation after Wittingen battle

 

Roughly translating losses at Wittingen from  the Arthur Harman 'SHAME' rules Combat Value (CV)  points into Bob Cordery's 'Portable Wargame' Strength Points (SP)  values, the Austrians lost the equivalent of only 3 SPs to the Prussians 11 SPs - quite a margin. But most  Austrian units were forced to retire, because they took many more 'Falling Flag' hits which lowered morale rather than strength - an interesting feature of the 'SHAME' combat system, and one which seems to ring true, even though just a result of random dice rolls. One could perhaps characterise it as the weaker Austrian force tending to be 'looking over their shoulders' and more easily persuaded to retire faced with more  numerous assailants, while the Prussians were confident in their superior strength - perhaps over confident - and prepared to stand more losses without their morale suffering.  That's my story, anyway! 

So, it was now the Austrian turn in the campaign game, and they rolled three 'marches', so three units/stacks can move - and each unit can move no more than twice. The first priority was to get the two rather isolated infantry units in the western province of Upper Waldow into some sort of safety - so two marches were used, allowing them to join the main body ( recently expelled from Wittingen )  at Zauche.  So at least they bolstered the main defence,  but the whole army could not then attack - and didn't really feel strong enough to do so, anyway.  With one move remaining, what to do?  Austrian eyes were drawn to the small detached  Prussian infantry force at Piesport - perhaps they could at least do some damage there?  Four Austrian cavalry units were within striking distance;  an opportunity for a classic cavalry raid, striking at a detachment on the enemy flank.   And so, the order was given, and the third Austrian 'march' unleashed the cavalry to attack.

 

The Austrian cavalry raid..

This is all good fun at the 'strategic' campaign level, but it does leave me with a bit of a conundrum  when it comes to the 'tactical'  aspect,  and how to play out the scenario on the tabletop. We have a small force of line infantry, threatened by a larger force made up of only cavalry. It's certainly not a 'balanced' scenario, to say the least!  On the face of it, scary for the Prussians, who are outnumbered two-to-one in units, and they certainly cannot simply withdraw, as they would be overtaken. But it's not all positive for the Austrians - two of their four units are lower-quality 'Levies' ( including the single Heavy Cavalry unit ), whereas the Prussian foot are all 'Veteran'.  And if the Prussians simply hunker down behind defences in Piesport town,  how can  their attackers make any headway against them? 

A very 'unbalanced' fight - or is it?

 I confess I am a little unsure how to play this out. I will be doing a little thinking, looking at scenario ideas and books - I wonder if Donald Featherstone's 'Wargame Campaigns'  might give me some hints? One approach might be to think of a range of possible scenarios, from 'Prussians panic and attempt to run for it'  to  'Austrians make foolhardy frontal charge'  ( with more moderate setups in between ), then decide on the relative likelyhood of each, and let the dice decide?  It should be an interesting exercise, albeit probably not crucial to the whole campaign,  more a small and entertaining sideshow. I have just enough Austrian Hussars and Cuirassiers to make up the raiding force in 'Portable Wargame' units, so here they are, assembled and ready to move off..

Daring  Austrian raiders

 

Of course I'd welcome any reasonable suggestions, hints etc on how to approach this - feel free to comment!  I hope to get this played through in the next few days  ( which look to be distinctly rainy - I wonder if the 'variable' weather we are having here in England could be incorporated in the game? ).  So, back soon with a report, I hope. Meanwhile keep well, and safe, everyone. 

**UPDATE** As Neil Patterson pointed out in his really excellent comment, the situation of the town of Piesport is distinguished by its riverside locaiton, so there really  should be some 'river crossing' element in the scenario. Here it is on the map: 

  Thinking cap well and truly on..

Much-travelled Veterans

I have once again been the recipient of  a lovely piece of generosity, this time from no less than  Ross Macfarlane of 'Battle Game of the Month' fame. 

 

Back in March, I showed a picture of my 15mm Thirty Years' War period French troops, including some 1980s vintage Minfigs and Mike's Models/Essex.  Ross spotted that picture and  commented as follows: 

if you're interested, I believe there are some 15mm 17thc Highland mercenaries lurking in my cupboard. Old strip minifigs painted in my cabin on HMCS Ottawa in 1977 and a few of their friends that haven't seen action in ..maybe 40 yrs? I think they would be happy to cross the ocean to see action, checkout the local damsels and whiskey etc.

Let me know and I'll send the provosts to round them up.

Well, that sounded very interesting, and of course very generous of Ross. He sent a couple of pictures (including the one above)  which looked even more interesting, and I was happy to accept his kind offer.  A bit more description from Ross :

I'm not sure how many there are and suspect a careful inspection would find the occasional scrape or broken something (eadily fixed or possibly excused) but they are escorting some obviously  not highland cattle and some carts. There are some conversions in there Heritage mounted napoleonic landwehr lancers now wearing bonnet and plaid though they seem to gotten tired of carrying their lancers. 

 Anyway, they are 49!! Years old (how is that possible) but have been sleeping in a cave for decades now after many victories over the Sassanachs so hopefully they have earned some lenience and maybe even gloss varnish if suitable .

All very good stuff, and lovely to have a bit of provenance. I hope the sea wasn't too rough during the painting sessions all those years ago..  I also liked the cattle, wagons etc, those are bound to come in handy - the troops come with their own supply train and food 'on the hoof'! Most appropriate for 17th Century forces. 

I was able to reciprocate to some extent, as I had a set of good old Airfix 1:72  ACW Artillery which Ross liked the look of,  so back at the end of March we wrapped and posted our respective parcels, and the two contingents began their journeys between Suffolk and Nova Scotia. About a week later Ross confirmed the ACW gunners had reached him safely, and I waited for the Scots to arrive.. and waited.. After several weeks, sadly I became resigned to the poor wee chaps ( and livestock ) being lost and/or binned somewhere in the postal system ( being low-value items, we had agreed not to waste money on expensive delivery tracking ). No loss to me, I suppose, but it was very sad to think of them being dumped somewhere.  However I should have had more faith in them, because one day in late May (2 months on!)  I arrived home to find a parcel from Nova Scotia on my doorstep - hurrah!  Labelled as 'By Air', by the way - they must be using some slowish 'planes these days... but they got here in the end.   

So now I am pleased to introduce these much-travelled veteran Scots. 

the full complement on parade

 

I think these must inevitably join my forces as  Macfarlane's regiment, a much-travelled and battle-hardened body of men on hire to the highest bidder - initially augmenting the forces of the French and/or Bernadines in their campaigns against Bavaria and the Empire.  As you see, the regiment brings its own artillery and a troop of horse,  and those wagons and livestock, which turns out to include  cattle,  goats and a faithful hound.  

the supply train

I think those will be very useful,  I forsee some sort of convoy escort/ambush scenario  being played out.  It's making me think of the game described in  George Gush's  brilliant little 1970s   'Airfix Guide' to the ECW.

regimental artillery

 

As described, there is an interesting mixture of figures, indeed I think mostly Minifigs early 'strip mounted'  15mms of 1970s vintage, mostly musketeers but some sword and axemen, officers and even a bagpiper! And I like the  painting - even some colourful tartans being worn ( sadly I think Humbrol's tartan paint range is long discontinued ) .

They make me think that for a bit more inspiration, perhaps  I can use this:

 

'The Lion of the North. a tale of the times of Gustavus Adolphus'  by G.A. Henty ( 1886 ),  which follows the adventures of Munro's regiment in the Swedish service.   The style is, well, rather Victorian, and I suspect his views on Empire, race and nationalism may look quite dodgy these days ( I think in this case,  the muscular  Protestantism of Gustavus was thoroughly approved of ). But I'll give it a go sometime, bearing all that in mind, and I think there might be some good  scenario ideas..

Meanwhile,  I need to get the wee men onto proper bases - I think I will resist glossy varnish at the moment, I think they look fine as they are. Once that is done, they can take their place on the battlefield for the first time in a long while, albeit quite a distance from their original home - just like  their real-life counterparts from the highlands, campaigning in  far-off  'higher Germany'.  Let's hope they fight as well as they look.  When they do get into action, you can read about it here, of course.

Many, many thanks of course to Ross Macfarlane for a terrific piece of wargaming generosity, very much appreciated! 

Keep safe, and well, everyone.

Post-game thoughts on Arthur's SHAME

Having played out a game using Arthur Harman's SHAME ( 'Simple Horse And Musket Engagements') rules from Miniature Wargames issue 457,  I promised to share my thoughts on the rules. So, here we are. I wouldn't go so far as to call this a review,  it's just some musings, a few points that cropped up during and after the game, which I reported a couple of posts back.  

I also could hardly presume to question Arthur's rules-writing ability, ( 'we're not worthy! ) and he will of course always have The Last Word  - but I can at least report on how I got on with the rules.  

 

Getting stuck in : Cavalry vs Infantry line

I suspect rules-writing is much more difficult than many imagine, especially if you are writing for publication. If you put together some rules just for your own use, or for your local group of gaming friends, then the standard of  writing is less important, becuase if something is misinterpreted you can simply say 'no, I meant this..' and if something is missing, you can add it on the spot, and your authority as creator is probably not challenged.  But if writing for publication, where strangers will be trying to use the rules, and they only have your text to help them, then you'd better write very clearly and you'd better have thought of as many situations that might crop up as possible. But you must also keep it as simple as possible, for fear of producing the dreaded 'WRGese'  ( see section 32 (b) 'a unit may be  be disordered if it is Austrian ( except Hungarians ) and the day of the week dice roll ( see section 29.2.2 ) specified 'Friday' and  the time of day dice roll ( 29.2.3 )  specified a time later than the Central European 'opening time' - see Appendix L, 'miscellaneous Hostelries' )..   

It all reminds me of a reliable favorite feature of  'Systems Analysis for Beginners' type  training courses back in the day ( the late 1980s sort of day, in my case )   -  'write a set of  instructions for making a good cup of tea'... 

'OK, so this is easy, here we go  (1) put the kettle on...'

- 'Excuse me, do I need to put anything in the kettle? You haven't specified..'

and so on.  If you really want to complicate things, introduce the 'Cream Tea scenario', with its hotly-disputed jam first/cream first dilemma.. 

In Suffolk we follow the Cornish protocol: jam first!

Oops, I seem to have digressed. Just a bit of fun.

I did enjoy using the rules - I should say that straight away. Being pretty simple they produced a fairly fast-moving game, and  units could take  damage and get knocked out of action quite quite quickly once they 'got stuck in' to combat, which seemed about right and kept things going on at a good clip. Given  lucky dice rolls, a well-delivered musket volley,  round of canister or  cavalry charge  could shatter an opposing unit in a satisfying way - and if the dice did not oblige, the enemy would shrug off that ragged volley or half-hearted charge. 

The rules are definitely pitched at the  Napoleonic  period - there are skirmishers and Horse Artillery, and  infantry are expected to form square if attacked by cavalry. Wanting to play a Seven Years War period encounter,  I made some changes , the biggest being to abandon the use of square. So if cavalry attacked infantry in line and did not break them, then rather than 'flowing around' a square, I decided the horse would 'bounce back' to reform and perhaps try again - and they would suffer a penalty on their attack dice if charging frontally at all those disciplined volley-firing musketeers.    I simply did not use Horse Artillery or Skirmishers -  the latter are optional, anyway -  though I suppose I could have fielded some light infantry in open order. One query I had was that early on, it's specified that troops should be on 20mm x 20mm bases with 4 infantry per base, but in the section on skirmishers it's stated that they should deploy 'in a line of single figures, one to a square'.. hmmm.  I did like the relatively short musket range - from what I've read, effective musket range was actually frighteningly short. Arthur specifies musket range is  'one square between units' which is  a neat way of explaining it to a child or beginner.  And then artillery canister range is 3 times Musket Range, which I take to be '3 squares between units' (i.e. up to  4 squares, hope I got that right! ) . 

The main thing to master is the combat system, with dice results designated rather like 'Command and Colours' games - the attacking ( fire or close combat ) unit rolls a number of dice based on its quality, and then different dice scores inflict commander hits,  musketry/canister hits, artillery hits,  close combat hits or 'fallen flags' . The 'hits' from fire or close combat reduce the target's 'Combat Value' (CV) in effect its strength or fighting power,  but the 'Fallen Flags' have a separate impact, on the unit's  morale. This can have some interesting effects - the very first piece of firing in the game by the Austrian artillery inflicted two 'flags' on a Prussian cuirassier unit, which brought it to a halt, despite no loss of CV. That seemed entirely feasible - I assumed that  the unit's beloved commander may have stopped a cannon ball, in full view of his men!  The 'Fallen Flags' can be removed by a commander figure joing the unit and rolling a die to rally them,   whereas the CV hits are for ever, and  if the unit loses all its CV, or a number of flags equal to its troop quality, it must withdraw.   I thought this system gave quite interesting results, although it does require you to track two different factors ( CV and Fallen Flags ) for each unit, which some might find a bit fiddly. 

The charging/close combat system I also liked, in that when a unit declares a charge, it rolls its 'attack dice' , and the number of flags and/or hits decides the outcome - with a very good attacking score, the defenders may simply break and run for it!  Or they may be shaken, and roll less dice in response, or be resolute, and roll as normal. That seemed quite a  smart approach, cleverly combining morale effect and casualties, and fun too.  I can well imagine a raw defending battalion, charged by a determined-looking  elite attacking unit, who might give a feebly ragged and inaccurate volley and then turn on their heels; or a steady, experienced defender waiting  'til you see the whites of their eyes, lads!', giving a terrifying  volley that mowed down and halted less motivated attackers!  Another nice touch was the cavalry vs. cavalry mechanism, specifying that if neither unit is halted or broken, they pass through each other, turn, and may charge again next turn.  That seems just right, if my memory of  Mr. Duffy's works is correct. 

 Prussian General wasted many turns failing to rally Cuirassiers

 

Commanders/officers I didn't quite 'get'.  I think I made a mistake by choosing only one commander figure per side - as a result, both sides' commanders got stuck trying and failing to rally off 'Fallen Flags' from important units, when perhaps they should have been lending their motivation to attacks.  I think I should have had several officers per side, and indeed Arthur's presumed setup involves several players on each side, each having  their own commander figure.  The rules don't actually say a lot more about commanders and ADCs - the latter can apparently 'deliver messages/orders from one General to another, or orders from a General to a unit or formation..'  but there's nothing else I could see about orders, which raises questions.  Can units move at all without having received orders, and must they follow those orders until new orders are received?   As far as I can see in the rules,  they say nothing more  on the subject  (hmm...'Put the kettle on...?').  In effect I answered my own question by assuming telepathic control of units by players, without the need for specific orders to be delivered to them - very 'old school' on my part, perhaps?

That's probably enough for now, I should conclude by saying that I did enjoy using the rules, and they gave a suitably fast and fun game, as promised, with some interesting and thoughtful features that succeed in providing a flavour of the period. Arthur Harman certainly has nothng to be ashamed of.   A few questions came up, and I suspect I will have to think a bit more about suitable adjustments to reflect Frederician warfare - but that's all part of the fun, isn't it?   I think these will make a nice occasional alternative to Bob Cordery's 'Portable Wargame' rules that I have mainly used up to now. I know Bob and Arthur are old friends and wargaming comrades, so that seems rather appropriate.  I hope you've enjoyed reading about the rules, the game and the post-mortem, as I have enjoyed them all - maybe some of you have given them a go too, or will do so.  

This post was a bit delayed by 'real life' but also by glorious weather over the weekend here - not a time to be sat indoors typing on a computer! But I did get a little painting and relevant reading done in the sunshine, of which more later.  Meanwhile keep safe and well, everyone.

R.I.P. Duncan Macfarlane

Thanks,  Duncan

 

It's very sad to hear the news that Duncan Macfarlane has passed away, aged 73. Of course he was the founder of not one but two long-running magazines for our hobby; and current editors of both have paid tribute.  Dan Fauconbridge, current editor of Wargames Illustrated, says on their website 

It is with great sadness that I have to announce the death of Duncan Macfarlane. Duncan was the original owner and editor of Wargames Illustrated, creating and publishing the magazine for the first time in August 1987, after having previously been the editor of Miniature Wargames. Duncan passed away suddenly but peacefully on 28 May 2021, aged 73. He will be sadly missed by all those that knew him, and those within the hobby that didn’t have the good fortune to call him a friend will doubtless be aware of the debt of gratitude owed to him as both an innovator and stalwart of wargaming.

and John Treadaway  of Miniature Wargames, on theirs: 

It is with great sadness that we at Miniature Wargames have heard the news of the death of its original founder, Duncan Macfarlane.

Duncan – an ex-Games Workshop manager – started the magazine in 1983 and produced it for the first four years, acting as both photographer and editor, advertising manager and.. well everything else.

I came across him on more than one occasion delivering magazines in London by hand to a wargaming shop!

He introduced quality photography to the hobby with his shots of painting luminaries of the period and produced a magazine which – even from issue one with its ‘free sci-fi board game’ tag on the front cover – embraced the whole hobby. His talents even extended into appearances on TV to promote wargaming.

After parting ways with Miniature Wargames, he then went on to do something unheard of: he produced a new wargames magazine – Wargames Illustrated – and both now stand as testaments to his love of the hobby.

Both editors promise articles devoted to Duncan in their respective next issues. 

Also paying tribute, the inimitable Mike Siggins on Instagram  said 'worked with Duncan for a decade. Quirky, eccentric, photographer, editor and founder of the two best miniatures magazines. Top bloke. He never did pay me. R.I.P.'

I never properly 'met' Duncan,  though as a younger person I remember  rather shyly buying  the good old green binders for 'Wargames Illustrated' from him at his stall at SELWG or Salute in the 1990s. I'm very pleased to have have nearly all his issues of Miniature Wargames  close at hand ( anyone got a copy of issue 35 going spare? ) , along with the first year or two of Wargames Illustrated - and probably another 15 years worth of 'WI' in the loft.   I loved those magazines and still do; he combined superior illustration and classy design with the ability to persuade  fellow gamers to provide thoughtful and inspiring articles - even if he didn't necessarily ( allegedly ) pay very promptly.  

Two such articles stayed with me for years, decades even - Henry Hyde's splendid  'Fictitious Wars' (in 'MW' issue 47), which was both the launch of Henry's  writing career, I assume,  and later inspiration for a huge resurgence in 'Imagi-nations' gaming;  and Dave Hoyles'  'The Lazy Way'  in MW issue 7, to which I will devote a blog post some day.  And let's not forget Paddy Griffith's articles launching Wargames Developments,  and Duncan's emphasis on publishing new rules, which gave us Andy Callan and his 'Loose Files and American Scramble',  many a set from Arthur Harman and Chris Peers,  and introduced Graham 'Trebian'  Evans  with a Napoleonic Fox-Hunting game(!), among 'many, many more'. Just the  first 12 issues of MW also include articles from George Gush, Terry Wise, Phil Barker, Bob O'Brien, Peter Gilder, C.S. Grant and Don Featherstone -  anyone who was anyone in the hobby wrote for Duncan.

So it's time to settle down for an evening with some well-thumbed copies of his magazines, and raise a glass to the memory of the genius of  Duncan Macfarlane.Thanks, Duncan.   

Keep safe, and well, everyone. 

A mini Lobositz, with Arthur's 'For SHAME' rules

Look out boys, here they come..

I thought I'd try a game with Arthur Harman's recent 'For Shame' rules from Miniature Wargames magazine issue 457  ( it's been pointed out that 'SHAME' = Simple Horse And Musket Engagements  - thanks, Martin S !) .  As described in an earlier  post, my 'Soldier King' Seven Years War period campaign has thrown up an interesting battle at Wittingen.  I hope the campaign can act as a common thread to string battles upon, and  is  flexible enough to  allow me to try out different rules and methods of setting up scenarios as each encounter comes along. 

And so, to the battle: I showed the attacking Prussians and the  ( heavily outnumbered ) Austrians before,  now we need  a battlefield. Given the unbalanced forces,  I wanted a setup that made things challenging for the attackers - after all, the defending  Austrians  would have taken up as good a  position as they could.  I had a look through some books of scenarios, and lighted upon  no. 21 from Neil Thomas 'One Hour Wargames',  entitled 'Twin Objectives'.  A larger attacking force must secure both a wooded hill and a  village ( which we will promote to represent the town of Wittingen )  - and rather pleasingly the original inspiration was from a Seven Years War battle, that of Lobositz.  Given the Prussian preponderence of cavalry, it seemed particularly appropriate. Another massed charge, perhaps?

The scenario demands that the defenders station one unit on the wooded hill in the North East, and the rest of their forces close to the Southern table edge, anchored on the town ( note that  'North' in the scenario is actually South in my campaign, and all directions here follow the campaign alignment - Prussians moving southward ) . The Prussians enter from the North, and crucially they must control both the wooded hill and the town at the end of the fifteenth turn in order to win the game ( of course, being a campaign, simply 'winning the game' is  less important than the condition of the armies at the end..). So  the Austrians placed one brave battalion on the hill, and another,  plus their gun,  in the town  ( no doubt hastily loop-holed and barricaded ), with their third battalion West of the town  and their Light Cavalry to the East, to threaten the attacker's flank. The Prussian horde entered, led by their three much-vaunted Guard Heavy Cavalry units, the victors of Rahden: infantry massed on the left , ready to assault the hill. 

The rules were 'tweaked' but only very slightly - I translated  Arthur's suggested square grid to hexes,  with move distances and ranges the same. Next, Arthur's  rules for cavalry attacking infantry had a very Napoleonic flavour, assuming that the foot would try to go into square - I gave the disciplined linear infantry of the 7YW period a better chance, by subtracting one attack dice from the cavalry if charging frontally - and of course not requiring the foot to form square. Instead of 'flowing around', I reckoned a cavalry unit that did not break their  infantry target would simply 'bounce back' a couple of hexes  towards their starting position; that  seemed plausible.   Given that these were new rules to me, there was a bit of thinking required, and I will give a bit more detail for the first few moves, to show a little of how ( I think ) they work, I hope this doesn't make for too long a post. The later moves may go at more of a canter! 

Cuirassiers shaken, Horse Grenadiers Charge - on Turn 1 !

It was a case of action well and truly from the start - in Arthur's rules the artillery fire at the start of each turn, and the Austrian gun made great practise immediately. Firing at the Prussian 1st Cuirassiers, the gunners' three dice rolled two 'falling flags' - which caused quite a jolt to the target's  morale, requiring them to halt. One might suppose their  senior officer had got in the way of a roundshot! So immediately, the Prussians' imposing Heavy Cavalry was dealt a blow. This perhaps stung the remaining Heavies - their   Horse Grenadiers immediately launched a charge on 1st Battalion Botta d'Adorno infantry, West of the Town. As 'Guard' quality Cavalry ( normally 4 dice ) charging formed infantry frontally ( less one dice ) they rolled three dice, and inflicted one 'fallen flag' but no 'Sabre' , so  no Combat Value ( CV)  reduction. So the infantry were somewhat  shaken, but kept order - fire with only one dice. That took -1 CV from the cavalry.  Having not broken the infantry, I decided the charge had 'bounced off'.

 Meanwhile the Prussians began dealing with the wooded hill, sending their two Jaeger units to advance on  the 2nd Botta infantry frontally, while the two Von Kleist foot units moved around the hill, threatening the defenders' flank and also  screening their comrades from the threat of the  Austrian cavalry. The hill's defenders ( 2nd battalion  Botta )  gave a first volley to 1st battalion Jaeger, their three dice scoring one 'flag' and one CV reduction - not bad shooting, and the 'Flag' means the Jaeger will get one less dice when they respond. 

From the above you can perhaps see how combat effects work in these rules : I think we can imagine that units  in effect suffer casualties ( CV reductions ) and/or shaken morale  ( 'Fallen Flags' ). Casualties wear them down slowly - lose over half their initial CV, and a unit cannot move or fire offensively, and if CV reaches zero, must retire.  'Fallen Flags' reduce morale, weakening fire/combat power , perhaps causing them to halt or be unable to attack, and if the number of Fallen Flags reaches the unit's quality level ( 3 for Trained/Veteran , 4 for Guard/Elite ) then again they must retire.  Commanders can try to 'rally off' Fallen Flags, but that's not easy - need to roll a 6. Neither of my commanders managed that in the whole game! 

In Turn 2,  battle was properly joined on the hill, with 2nd Botta giving another stinging volley to 1st Jaeger  ( 2 more off their CV , now already down to 4 from initial 7 ) , the Jaegers' volley in response being quite ragged ( and the Austrians on the wooded hill were in cover, so one less dice ) - no effect. 2nd Jaegers tried cold steel - charge up the hill! Less one dice due to the cover, but they inflicted one 'Flag' on Botta, reducing the defender's fire dice by one, and in turn receiving just 1 CV reduction.  The Jaegers not being halted or broken, close combat would continue.

The fight for the wooded hill

West of the town, the Austrian artillery made more excellent practise, finding the Prussian Horse Grenadiers had come within canister range, and promptly peppered them - down 2 CV points for the cavalry. To add insult, 1st Botta stepped forward and used their muskets, and the Horse Grenadiers lost  one  Flag as well! This drew a furious response, with both 2nd Cuirassiers and Horse Grenadiers charging  1st Botta in succession. But the resolute Bottas stood firm, both charges bounced off, and the foot lost just 1 CV, inflicting -1 CV on each of their attackers. Stout lads!    

On Turn 3, things began to go Prussia's way. The Austrian gun spattered the Horse Grenadiers with  more canister ( -1 CV ) , but the Prussian gun had now unlimbered, and opened counter-battery fire, immediately achieving a 'Fallen Flag' on their opposite numbers ( despite their  being in cover in the town - good shooting ), so the Austrian gun would fire with reduced effect.  On the hill, both Jaeger units managed to get to close combat with 2nd Botta, who suffered another 'Flag' down. One more, and they would have to retire..  Meanwhile West of the town, the Horse Grenadiers pulled back from the withering fire,  2nd Cuirassiers charged 1st Botta yet again - and bounced off yet again - but now step forward the Prussian Guard Fusiliers with a crashing volley, and Botta suffered one Flag and 2 CV losses.  In response their own musketry discomfited the Fusiliers - one Fallen Flag.  1st Botta had 'played a blinder' so far, but that Fusilier volley hit them pretty hard, coming after the wear and tear of the cavalry charges. 

Brave Botta vs Guard Cavalry and Fusiliers

 In Turn 4, although the positions of the units changed little, the situation did. The Austrian gun's lucky streak continued as they inflicted another 'Flag' on the Prussian Fusiliers, bringing them to a halt, but Prussian muskets and bayonets proved decisive. On the wooded hill, the Jaegers in close combat inflicted a third Flag down on 2nd Botta, and in the musketry duel to the west,  the Fusiliers did the same to 1st Botta. Both Austrian battalions now had as many 'Fallen Flags' as their troop quality value - so both must retire from the fight. This would leave the hill objective in Prussian hands, and allow them to focus on objective number two, the town - and it left only three Austrian units in play.

Faced with this setback, on Turn 5  the single Austrian  Grenze Hussars  squadron decided for decisive action, with a pell-mell charge into the heart of the Prussian array, targeting their gunners! I like the  charge procedure - the attackers roll their dice, and that determines the defenders' response. The cavalry rolled one 'Flag' and one 'Sabre' - not enough to rout the gunners, but it forced them to fire hastily and then take shelter with the nearby von Kleist foot, leaving the cavalry,  albeit also suffering one Flag,  occupying the gun position ( hmmm.. I don't think there's a rule for 'spiking' the guns? ) .  In return, Prussian 2nd Cuirassiers turned around and charged the  Grenzers from behind - but their dice were very poor, and allowed the Hussars to counter-charge. They too made no impact, and under the rules the combatant units pass through each other and turn about, ready for another charge next move, if willing.  Quite a flurry of action, and it felt 'right' for charge and counter-charge. 

Turn 5 , the whirling cavalry melee: Hussars chase off Gunners but are charged from behind by Cuirassiers ( more Cuirassiers to front are still halted by artillery fire and can take no part, frustratingly for Prussia! ) 

 

 The following turn, the Hussars sensibly  decided to pull back towards the town, while both 1st and 2nd worn-out Botta battalions began to retire, allowing Prussian Jaegers to take possession of the wooded hill.  Their one remaining full-strength Cavalry unit kept the Hussars under threat, and the two Von Kleist battalions began to advance on the final objective - the defended town. 

The Prussian gunners regained their gun and resumed a duel with their opposite numbers, and were getting the better of it despite the Austrian's position in the cover of the town - so on Turn 7, the Austrian Light Horse  tried another desperate 'charge for the guns' ( sadly only a squadron, not a light brigade..) , but to little effect. Poor dice saw them 'bounce' , and they were promptly attacked by Prussian 2nd Cuirassiers. These rolled most effectively, taking 1 CV point and  two Flags from the Hussars, which was decisive - the Austrian Lights had now lost three flags, and they too must retire. Just one battalion and a gun ( also two flags down thanks to counter-battery fire ) remained holding the town. Things looked bad for the Austrians..

Prussian foot assault the town - defenders hold firm

 

The Prussians could now throw two battalions of Von Kleist and one of Jaegers at the lone Botta battalion barricaded in the built-up-area, and their general hoped to 'rally off ' a Flag and get his Guard Fusiliers moving again too, while the guns continued their artillery duel.  BUT he ( that's me, of course) made the mistake of throwing in the three battalions piecemeal as they came up, rather than a simultaneous mass assault.  Given the powerful advantage of defending a 'BUA' in both musketry duels ( reduce fire by TWO dice ) and bayonet charges, on succeeding turns  the Austrian foot saw off 1st von Kleist  ( reduced to CV of 3, may not attack further ) ,   2nd von Kleist  ( also down to CV of 3 ) and 2nd Jaegers ( reduced to CV 4, perilously close to retiring ).  The 1st Jaeger had taken a battering in attacking the hill earlier, so were left to occupy it, in safety.  All attempts to get the Fusiliers moving again had failed, and cavalry may not attack a built-up-area,  so by the end of Turn 10, the attack on the town had effectively stalled.

How it Ended - Bottas hold on, just!

 Finally, at the start of Turn 11 the Prussian gunners saved their commander's wounded pride, by winning the artillery duel. They inflicted  a third 'Fallen Flag' on the Austrian guns  - which must now retire from the field.  This left the 3rd Botta d'Adorno battalion as the sole remaining Austrian unit. The Prussian foot were not going to be able to dislodge them;  the guns might eventually batter them into submission,  but for now they had halted the Prussian attack.  In 'scenario' terms, this looked like an Austrian victory would result if playing on to Turn 15. In 'campaign' terms, the Austrians had four-fifths of their units out of the battle, and the remaining battalion well advised to wait for darkness and slip away, leaving the depleted Prussians in possession of the town. 

"It was the Guns wot won it.."

I'm sure I have overstayed my welcome now, so we can leave it there. I hope I've given a decent impression of how I got on with Arthur's rules,  which I liked, on the whole - it felt like a sort of mix of 'Portable Wargame' and 'Command and Colours'.  Action was fast and furious, as promised, and I hope I understood the mechanisms right, more or less. A few questions arose, and a bit of tinkering might be in order to make them more attuned to pre-Napoleonic combat.  I think those can be the subject of my next post. 

Meanwhile,  I hope you've enjoyed this account, as I did the game;  keep safe and well, everyone. 

Fnurban #9 Norfolk, and Good

Old Ironsides guards the road

 

With Covid restrictions lifting last week, we wound up our courage and managed to book a 'short break', 3 nights in a pleasant cottage in rural Norfolk.  Admittedly it rained every day, but we still had a thoroughly nice time, and there was some military history interest locally. For example, the above splendid Cromwell tank guarding our route, a memorial to the 7th Armoured Division ( 'The Desert Rats' ) who were stationed in Thetford Forest for some months in early 1944, in preparation for the D-Day invasion of Normandy. The damp and gloomy winter forest  will  have been quite a change from the Mediterranean theatre they had been accustomed to..

We stayed in the small  village of Foulsham - here is a not-very-impressive photo ( best view I could get from the footpath in the neighbouring field )   of Foulsham Old Hall, a rather rambling/tumbledown looking Tudor house just on the edge of the village. 

Old Foulsham Hall

 

In the 1630s/1640s this was home to Philip Skippon, commander of the City of London Trained Bands in 1642 ( "Come my boys, my brave boys, let us pray heartily and fight heartily. I will run the same hazards and fortunes with you. Remember the cause is for God, and for the defence of yourselves, your wives, your children. Come, my honest brave boys, pray heartily and fight heartily, and God will bless us" ),   Sergeant-Major General to the Earl of Essex, commander of the Parliamentary  left wing and reserves  at First Newbury, and of the New Model Army's  centre at Naseby, where he was badly wounded.  

About five miles away is the village of Melton Constable, where we stopped on a thoroughly wet morning to look at the church :
 

Melton Constable Church

and we discovered that this village was home to Sir Jacob Astley, Royalist commander, Major-General of King Charles' infantry at Edgehill  ( "O Lord, Thou knowest how busy I must be this day. If I forget Thee, do not thou forget me"...."March on, boys!"  ) , leader of the Royalist infantry at First Newbury, and at Naseby - effectively Skippon and Astley were each others' opposite numbers, as well as near neighbours. Also, both had previously served Maurice of Nassau and the Elector Palatine in the Thirty Years' War on the continent  They must surely have met in local society, and I wonder if they had any interaction in the time after the war ( as Astley had said "Well, boys, you have done your work, now you may go and play—if you don't fall out among yourselves" ) - did they re-live the battles in amicable discussions later, or did old emnities live on? 

Foulsham was also the site of an R.A.F. airfield in the Second World War, and base for a couple of squadrons of 100 Group, Bomber Command, who carried out 'Electronic Intelligence'  - flying Halifixes   equipped with radar detection and jamming equipment   among the main  bomber stream , using 'Window' to create  false plots on German radar to confuse the defenses,  and also using radar-equipped  Mosquito night fighters to detect and shoot down German fighters, and lurk around their bases aiming to catch them on take-off and landing, causing 'Moskito Panik' among the defenders which it seems led to many crashes when worried Luftwaffe pilots attempted hurried landings. So it seems our sleepy village was home of some cutting-edge 1940s aerial warfare technology, and played a valuable part in the air offensive. 

Some of the above knowledge was gleaned from  a purchase at another place we visited - the nearby seaside resort of Cromer.  We paddled around in the rain,  but also vistied 'Much Binding' , a small and slightly eccentric, but well-stocked second-hand bookshop in the town centre. Quite a haul of books was the result -  some guiding spirit seems to lead me to  good bookshops on rainy days! 

                    

Rainy-day haul at 'Much Binding', Cromer

                         

As you see, a book about Norfolk airfields In WW2 was among them - I already have the Suffolk equivalent ( and R.A.F. Sudbury near home ).  We return to the Civil War theme with John Buchan's life of Cromwell, and more 'old-school' history in G.M. Trevelyan's history of Queen Anne's reign , part 3 'The Peace and the Protestant Succession'.  I have had parts 1 and 2 for maybe thirty years in the same edition, nice to finally have a set !  'The Defence of Duffers Drift'  I have already read in one evening,  and it's great - made me wonder how many wargamers would actually really know how to defend a small position with 50 men? I suspect many may be as ignorant ( myself included ) as the narrator professed himself, at the start of his Boer War 'Groundhog Day'.   Finally, back to the Western Desert with a nice old Penguin edition of  Cyril Joly's   'Take These Men : Tank Warfare with the Desert Rats'   first-hand account - I had not heard of this, and it looks pretty interesting.  Not a bad little collection, albeit another extension of my reading  backlog ! 

And so,  as  the Geordies might say : 

"- So, Davey boy, where did ye go on yer short break, and how was it?  

- Wye Aye canny lad, it was Norfolk an' Good..."

Keep well, and safe, everyone. 

  
 

Soldier King Campaign : exploiting victory

Back at my campaign using the 'Soldier King' boardgame for an imaginary sideshow theatre of the Seven Years War, we reach campaign turn six - the summer of 1757.

Initial situation: where will  Prussians strike?

 With  Prussia having achieved a major victory at Rahden, and the largest and best-quality Austrian field force in captivity, could the victors  exploit their stunning success?  I rolled dice for initiative, and fortune favoured the Prussians, winning them the right to move first. That seemed 'right' somehow, as the Prussian commanders would be keen to follow-up their victory while confusion and panic swept the ranks of the Austrians.  The Austrian territories wer protected by a scatter of small forces, many units only new-raised; the Prussians' whole army had concentrated at Rahden, and could choose its target. The dice gave them five 'marches' - each stack requires one march for a move, so they had no great constraint on movement. The priority was to prevent the Austrians from concentrating their troops, so the plan was simple - attack the largest remaining Austrian force with sufficient numbers to  wipe it out. 

 

seek out and destroy the enemy..

And so, leaving a flank guard of infantry at Piesport to cover their left , no less than eight units of Prussians moved to attack the Austrian force of only four units at Wittingen.   The opposing armies stack  up as follows: 

Look at all that Guard Heavy Horse..

It looks very tough for Austria: I did wonder if they should simply try to escape. But the Prussians have three units of Guard Heavy Cavalry against one unit of Lights - there's no way they could cover the infantry's retreat without being overrun. So I'm afraid it's stand and fight, hoping to inflict some damage at the very least, or nothing.

Translating those cardboard counters into troops 'on the table' we have , first the Prussians : 

The Prussian 'steamroller'

 

We have one battalion of the 44th Fusiliers promoted to 'Guard' status, with two battalions of von Kleist Frei Korps and  two of Jaegers ( fighting as Line in this event - this size of force is stretching my resources ! ) making up the veteran foot. Two squadrons of the newly-acquired Spencer-Smiths again represent  the von Preussen Cuirassiers, with  one squadron of von Kleist Horse Grenadiers , all rated as 'Guard', Finally one unit of field artillery seemed proportionate to the overall force.

And their Austrian opponents look like this: 

and the ( possibly worried )  Austrians

Three battalions of the Botta D'Adorno line infantry, one squadron of Grenze hussars and one artillery piece make up the defending force,  who are outnumbered pretty much two to one. 

Now I can imagine some might be thinking 'that's not going to be a balanced game' , but maybe I think the 'balanced' game is a bit of an artificial construct, and maybe one of the advantages of running a campaign is to generate engagements like this - after all, in real campaigns, the last thing any commander is aiming for is a 'balanced' battle.  Surely battles really happen when one or both sides think they have a strong  advantage, or if not, they have no easy way to escape and are forced to fight. In that respect, hopefully this is a 'real' battle. My job now is make it  worthwhile as a game, which  will require a bit of thought - I guess the measure of 'success' will be quite different for each side. I think it also helps that I am playing this solo, so there's not an 'Austrian player' who is feeling like he's on a loser from the start - I have a slightly detached view and can look at  the unfolding narrative as a whole. That's the theory, anyway. I have an idea for a battlefield setting, which will wait for next time - in the meantime, keep safe and well, everyone.