More 10mm Black Powder ACW

 Having enjoyed last weeks game so much we decided to play another Black Powder battle of 10mm ACW using some of  the Army lists from the Glory Hallelujah supplement, set at 600 points each to match our slowly growing collections. I set up fairly neutral/symmetrical terrain and the dice decided that Ian's Union troops took the North table edge whilst Phil and I leading the Confederates deployed along the Southern edge. Here is the table after deployment...

Ian, just finishing his flapjack had created a very strong line for the Union. Phil and I as the attackers tried to go for a strong centre and needed a rapid advance. 

This being our second game we knew the rules better and this made for a faster moving first few turns. Early on, my centre advanced behind the hill in the middle of the table, Phil was advancing to the village and fields on our far right and my artillery and cavalry guarded our left. So far, so good. 

Phil's Rebs took up a good position in the cornfield and the outskirts of the town. 

A bit of a dark photo but things were looking good for our advance in the centre. 

This is what we were advancing towards, Ian's whole line of artillery with infantry support on either side. 

At this point, everything was going as planned for the Confederates. 

Ian's cavalry lined up opposite mine with a unit of infantry in Skirmish formation in support in the woods. 

My main infantry line get ready for the Rebel Yell and charge into those perky union skirmishers...but fail the Order roll twice whilst getting shot at from all directions. . 

Ian's infantry and artillery proved to be quite good shots. This combined with a sudden loss of all decent order rolls and then poor rolls on break tests for the Confederate's led to a complete and rapid collapse of the Confederate force. It took about 6 turns to get into position and about two turns to lose the battle. Well done to Ian but Phil and I were both amazed at the speed of our collapse and very poor luck with the dice.

 It was still a fun game even if we got well and truly whacked. 

15mm General D'Armee, Battle for the Farms on Waterloo Day.

 Howard very kindly invited me round for an afternoon game of 15mm General D'Armee to celebrate Waterloo Day.  For a quick set up/scenario we used the 'MacDonald's Attack at Bautzen' from the main rulebook but swapped to North France/Belgium (but we left out the redoubt) and using many of Howard's excellent British and French collection. I took control of the French leaving Howard in charge of  the British. 

French deployment from their right flank. With the dice allowing me to seize the initiative I was able to get quickly forward and capture the central farm. 

British deployment from their left flank. 

British deployment from their right flank-Howard was unhappy with the placing of his artillery and so limbered them up to move across to the centre. 

My French guard shelter behind the farm ready to pounce on any advancing British whilst a line unit occupied the farm. 

I also managed to occupy the right hand farm but this photo shows Howard's troops kicking me back out. Two turns later I was able to seize it back. 

By turn eight there was a real mix of units battling over the two main farms but so many of Howards units had suffered too many casualties and with my larger cavalry force now advancing on the right Howard called a British withdrawal resulting in a hard fought win for the French. 

This was possibly our best game of General D'Armee yet, helped by us getting more accustomed to the rules. 

Many thanks to Howard for hosting.  

10mm ACW using Black Powder

Recently I have been busy painting up my 3rd 10mm ACW army, but this time I chose to paint Confederate's rather than Union. Having painted over 160 figures in the past few weeks for this project and with Ian already having a decent collection and adding more; we decided that it was time to try out 'Black Powder' with extra ACW flavour coming from the 'Glory, Hallelujah' supplement. 

Having selected two almost identical forces it was decided that I would control the Reb's with Ian and Phil in command of the Union. In this photo my cavalry are moving to the small town in the bottom left to occupy the buildings and hold that flank. 

Ian loves to control cavalry and he soon spotted that my artillery were not well protected, thankfully I was able to get an Infantry unit across to protect them just in time.  

Some Union zouaves (how do you pronounce that?).

Phil found a wood to hide some troops in-he does this most games! (and it works too!).

Across the centre there was a slow advance from both sides and artillery was used to try and soften a few units up.  

The view from the Union line. On the top right Ian is breaking through and defeating my infantry/artillery Brigade. Yellow counters denote a 'Shaken' unit.  

Ian's victorious cavalry about to remount and try to get behind my line-things were looking bleak for the Confederates just now. Happily I managed to get a round of firing into them and rout them. 

The Union Zouaves start to advance as the Confederates fall back to reconsolidate their line... but they were not feeling too optimistic.   

Ian has painted up some lovely 10mm ACW buildings. My cavalry had spent all game lurking here whilst Phil's Union troops opted not to try and oust them. 

With defeat staring me in the face (and the end of the game close) I decided to take a last gasp gamble and charged my 2 cavalry units out of the town and into the Union Infantry on our right flank. Thanks to some tremendous dice throwing the cavalry survived some traversing shots, then closing shots from Phil and flung themselves against the Union Infantry. The dice remained good as I was able to force one Union unit back and rout the other. This resulted in that Brigade routing, the Union army breaking and handed me a most unexpected victory.  

Centre right of this photo show the routing Union troops and my victorious cavalry. 

This was another fun game and we really enjoyed our first go at ACW Black powder and aim to play again next week. The rules played well as we are familiar with Hail Caser so the game played quick. The hard thing for us now will not be getting the subtle differences between HC and BP mixed up when we switch from one game to the other. 

More 6mm Hail Caesar

 For todays 6mm Hail Caesar clash I pinched a scenario out of a wargames book, a simple capture the opposing town in 12 turns before enemy relief troops can arrive (or a huge sandstorm in Ian's imagination). Defenders deploy first defending the town, attackers arrive in two waves, half in turn 1 and then the rest during turn 2. The dice decided that Phil and I would be the Egyptian attackers with slightly more points than Ian's defending Elamites. 

Here you see the Elamites deployed in front of the town.

Whilst at the opposite end of the table my 2 commands of Egyptians entered first followed on the second turn by Phil's 2 commands, right in the top corner. 

Poor command throws meant that it took Phil and I sometime to get close to the Elamites. Ian very cleverly threw out his two chariot wings in a sort of pincer movement which meant we had to respond (or risk getting flanked) resulting in us taking even longer to reach the troops guarding the town. In this photo, my Egyptian chariots and Ian's Elamite Chariots have fought each other almost to break point. Ian eventually won that battle thus securing his flank. 

This overhead photo shows the gap between the two forces that took some time to close-we only have 12 turns to claim the town remember!. 

In the centre we slowly won a battle of attrition forcing Ian's troops back into the town, but only just and only by the end of in turn 11.  

There was another very bloody chariot clash on the other flank which Phil won but his remaining chariots were badly battered and took some time to get back into the game. 

With time running out Ian started to withdraw his badly beaten up troops deeper into the village making it difficult for us to catch up with them. On turn 12 we had a slight chance of shooting up one of his badly mauled divisions and thus breaking them and winning the game...sadly for us it was not to be and Ian just held out for a narrow win. 

This was another cracking game of Biblical Hail Caesar which we all enjoyed. When games are this good it does not matter whether you win or lose, it is simply great fun. 

I  am also busy painting 10mm figures at the moment. First up I have completed 3 elephants now and a unit of light cavalry for my 10mm Successors. Really nice 'chunky' figures from Lancashire Games. 

I have also been painting up some 10mm ACW for use with Black Powder and

completed a unit of Confederate Cavalry this week. The bulk of the Pendraken Army pack is now painted, also lovely figures that paint up well. 

 

The Attack on Brauros, a fictional15mm Hail Caesar battle. Persians attack Sparta again.

 

The Persian attack on Brauros 480BC. June 2022

a second fictional clash between Sparta and Persia

We played the first game a few months back and used the simple campaign rules from the first game for random events etc, see The War Crow: The Battle of the Temple, 15mm Hail Caesar

Having won the Battle for the Temple the Persians push on deeper into Spartan controlled Lakonia. The Persian Satrap Artabazus now plans to attack the Spartan town of Brauros that spans the road towards Sparta itself. Brauros is guarded by the local Helots who have sent to Sparta for help. As the Persians deploy to assault Brauros they can see the rapidly advancing Spartan main force led by Brasidas himself.

Thalia: the Seeress was captured by the Persians during the first battle. Interpreting the flight of birds to aid her prophecies the Persians throw a d6 before deployment...

1-2: Thalia's powers or Prophecy will allow the Persians to deploy after the Spartan main force.

3-4: Thalia can use her powers to allow one Persian commander a +1 Leadership bonus as long as Thalia is within 3” of them.

5-6: CURSE! Thalia casts a powerful curse on one of the Spartan command figures. The Persians can make this Spartan re-throw any one set of Leadership order dice.

Deployment:

1: Spartans deploy one unit of Helot unarmoured Hoplites plus a unit of skirmishers within the small town of Brauros. (under the command of a local captain Iasonas, Ld:7)

2: The Persians deploy upto 12” in from the Northern table edge.

3: The Spartan main force now deploys along the Southern table edge.

Both sides then dice for Initiative.

Objectives: Both sides must try to defeat the other whilst gaining control of Brauros. The Spartans may also wish to try to capture Thalia back .

With the number of players down for this game, Ian took on the role of commanding all the Spartans under Brasidas himself. I was Artabazus commanding the Persians supported by Datis (Phil). 

Spartan Sub-Commander Iasonas deploys in the village with the Helots and skirmishers. 

Persians deploy on the left and the Spartans on the right. Using our simple campaign rules the Persian missile units were classed as 'well supplied'  which we marked with red beads. Once a Persian unit had used it's extra missile dice we removed the bead. 

Another close up of the village, just before the Persians shot the skirmishers to pieces. . 

A rare shot of an actual living Spartan Commander. The Spartans lost all 3 command figures through melee or shooting, some of them twice, thus reducing their Leadership capability. 

The two sides both do a cautious advance. 

The Persians advance, making good use of their missile superiority early on. 

The Persian right flank, looking good...but not for long. 

Good command throws allowed the Spartans to claim the hill by the ruined temple. Persian missile fire was particularly effective here prompting the Spartiates to charge down from the hill. They routed Persians mercenary hoplites, the marines and the Assyrian levy leading to the collapse of that Persian division.  

On the other flank, Phil commanded our cavalry force who played Havoc with the Spartan advance. 

The Persian cavalry routed the whole Spartan light cavalry/infantry division quite early on, putting the Persians in a commanding position. 

Brasidas, the Spartan General got shot early on and the reduced leadership of his successor meant that two units of hoplites hardly got to move at all and played very little role in the game. This allowed Phil's cavalry to dominate the left flank. 

Elsewhere it was a really close fought battle which could have gone either way.  

Dice throw of the game: Ian needed to score 4+ saves on 7 dice and look what he threw!

Next turn the Persian Sparabara unit finally defeated the Helots, and after making a successful Rally roll, claimed the village and the game. 

Using our campaign rules, Brasidas is so badly injured he has to miss the last battle and the whole Spartan Leadership will be reduced. This was another great game which either side could have won. Now the Persians will march on towards Sparta for a final deciding Battle. 

Finally, having seen Ian's painted 10mm Indians recently I decided to get an army of 10mm Macedonian/Successor figures to put up against them. I chose the Lancashire Games Little Wars range which is mainly Greeks with a few Successor elephants at the moment but the range will be hopefully added too soon. I have started off with painting one of the lovely elephant figures with two more almost finished on my painting table. I have added some skirmishers with javelins to the base to show the supporting skirmishers that often operated with elephants in this era. 

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In Deo Veritas- The Battle of Bolden Hill 1644 in 6mm

 This week we tried out a new set of rules for small scale 17th Century battles called 'In Deo Veritas' (available from the Helion Wargames range of rules). The rules come complete with a few scenario's and even more available on line. For our first game we went with one of the smaller on-line scenario's from the ECW, 'The Battle of Bolden Hill' of 1644. Basically the Royalists commanded by William Cavendish, the Marquis of Newcastle have to prevent the Scottish Covenanters led by Alexander Leslie, the Earl of Leven from raiding south. 

Happily we have lots of 6mm ECW units (from Irregular Miniatures) between the three of us so making up the two forces was easy. Our figures are even based up in almost the right sized bases. My hope is that these rules live up to their title as exciting and fast play and that we can eventually get loads of units on the table. There is even a scenario for Marston Moor which has to be a target game to play. 

Deployment see's both forces set up on the opposite side of a small valley. Order of play is decided by drawing leader cards (also available on line with each scenario). We also used the cards to decide who would lead each wing of the two sides with Ian and myself being the Scots against Phil taking command of the Royalists. 

The Scottish Covenant forces deploy

With the Royalists lining the hill opposite. 

Needing to get my forces off the road I advanced quickly to face Phil's infantry tucked behind the walls outlining the enclosures.

  The first couple of turns were fairly slow as the others picked up the sequence of the game. 

Ian also pushed his cavalry wing forward. 

My attack on Phil's infantry stalled as Phil made good use of the cover to hold my forces at bay. 

On the right Phil caught Ian out by moving off the hill and attacking with his cavalry. This proved to be a decisive move as after a few turns of frantic melee Ian's wing broke and routed. This led to a General Will test on our whole force and with one of my raw Scottish brigades having also broken and a poor dice throw we were forced to retire from the field leaving behind a happy and victorious Royalist force led by Phil. 

So what did we think of the rules?  Well there is much good and once you get used to the relatively simple mechanics the game does flow quickly. The simple mechanics are supported by quite a few charts and lots of + and - factors which you need to get used to but we were certainly picking them up and getting used to them as we played. 

We had a few queries as we cannot find an evade rule (Ian's Dragoons were charged by Cavalry and wanted to run away but couldn't as far as we can tell?) and we would have liked our cavalry units to be able to counter charge each other but the turn sequence being dictated by cards seem to not allow this. Both are issues that can easily be 'house ruled' but I will have another read through the rules to see if I have missed anything.  

Overall In Deo Veritas seem a fun and fast moving set of rules very suitable for large battles with small scale figures. Once I have moved house we hope to try an even larger battle on a bigger table and maybe build up to doing Marston Moor. Between us we do have about 50 infantry units and loads of cavalry so should be fun.