Napoleonic Battle for Bridgehead

      When I first got back into wargaming, my interest peaked when I used some 15mm Heritage Napoleonics received on Christmas in the 70s.  I was looking at them last week and decided to have a war-game with them again. I used scenario # 5 from ONE HOUR WARGAMES. This involved establishing a bridgehead with both sides receiving reinforcements piecemeal.

The Auustrians have found a river crossing that is unprotected.  The Austrian general deploys a battery while waiting for his infantry to come up. Two French infantry regiments are coming up on its' left flank.

The first Austrian infantry regiment comes up to support the guns.

But a French light infantry regiment attacks first and forces it  back.

French reinforcements come up behind the Austrian line.

One Austrian regiment brings the French light infantry under fire, distracting them from the regiment on the bridge.

The Austrian crossfire on the light infantry gives the infantry crossing the bridge time to deploy.  The Austrian battery turns to try to fight off the approaching French lancers.

The lancers force back the battery and the French infantry force back the Austrian infantry.

The French lancers overrun the battery and surround the Austrian general.

The Austrians receive another regiment and counterattack. One regiment saves the general and push back the lancers.

More French infantry comes up and gets the Austrians in a crossfire. The Austrian general at this point is killed by a Swiss regiment coming on the right flank.

The French have overrun two more Austrian regiments and the light infantry regiment has broken the Austrian regiment that has been firing across the river. The Austrians fall back.

Another view of the end of the battle. The Austrians lost four units and their general, the French lost no units, although three units were down to two or one figures.

I found an old camera that works better than my cellphone and the other camera I was using. I had the gaming table set up under a window for natural light, unfortunately it was dark out before I played the game and didn't set up any more lighting.

Peter Laing Crusader Wargame

I was determined to get a war-game in today, using my new Peter Laing Norman figures. I decided to use the first scenario in ONE HOUR WARGAMES.   As explained in the book "Two armies are facing each other over a symmetrical battlefield." Both baselines have a hill in the center. Another feature that I like from the book is that both sides have the same number of units, but you roll to determine the composition of your force.  What's more, if identical armies are generated, players should re-roll until there are two different forces. I used my modified BATTLELORE rules on Heroscape terrain.  Unfortunately, the photos were taken using my cellphone and 4 cups of coffee did little to steady my hands!

The Crusader army. Three knight units, one archer unit and two skirmisher units.

The Saracen Army. Three knight units, two men-at-arms units, and a skirmisher unit.

The Saracen cavalry closes too fast for the archers to fire effectively.

The Saracens drive the Crusader knights back and overrun the archers and one of the skirmisher units.

The Crusader Princes' unit is eliminated and the Saracen cavalry divides what's left of the Crusaders.

The end of the battle. I got interrupted half way through the battle and didn't get back to it after dark.

        The Scenario made for a quick, fun game. I think I will work on using the way of choosing armies, but increasing the size of the armies to 8 units each. 6 units makes for a quick game, but using BATTLELORE rules makes for too quick a game. ONE HOUR WARGAMES has 30 scenarios, all that look perfect for my way of gaming.  I'm also thinking of trying a squared grid battlefield that might make using scenery easier than HEROSCAPE.  Now to try to work on my photography again.

New Purchase: Peter Laing Feudal and Dark Ages Figures

Last week I managed to win several lots of Peter Laing Feudal and Dark Ages figures. I am disappointed that I still haven't found my camera to get some shots of them. Luckily, Ian Dury was in contact with the seller, who graciously forwarded photographs of the to Ian. Ian, in turn, has shared them with me. Thank you again, Ian.

These lots added several hundred figures to my collection.

I dare say I believe this is going to put a stop to my ECW game for now. These figures have me thinking of my Hyborian game, or possibly a Crusaders game. Also, these figures go well with my Airfix castle.  They are great inspiration for more wargames.

A Kindle Bonus & My First Wargame Rule Book

    Last month I ordered ONE HOUR WARGAMES by Neil Thomas through Amazon. I bought the actual book, not the Kindle version.  It is not due to be shipped until November 19.  Yesterday I checked on the status of my order, hoping that the books came in earlier than expected. Nothing had changed on the due date; however, if you do buy the book, Amazon offers the kindle version at a good discount; for ONE HOUR WARGAMES I got the kindle version for $2.99. And it was on my Kindle in a few minutes after the purchase. Between the Kindle and book version, it still only cost me $20.00. Not a bad deal. I'm starting to really like my Kindle!

   While looking for another book, I came across the first set of war-game rules I ever bought. When I was in high school one of my brothers took me up to the big city (Boston) for a day of sightseeing (with no adults!). We went into a bookstore on Beacon Hill and I found the book THE NAPOLEONIC WARGAME by G.W. Jeffrey. It was produced by Almark Publishing, first published in 1974. I never did play them.

More Semi-Flats

I recently bought another lot of semi-flats on Ebay and they arrived today. Most of the figures are cavalry; the majority appear to be German hussars with lances. I did get some more infantry, along with a cannon and casson. Among the figures are two interesting  figures. One seems to be a boy carrying a bag over his shoulder and a suitcase (maybe a new recruit?) the other a small semi-flat lancer, who seems to be about 20mm range.

The new lot.

Gone for a soldier.

The little lancer.

Another Peter Laing Joust

     With time on my hands I decided to try out some ideas on the game. I also wanted to try them with both the RISK and DINOWARS style rolls.  The field of battle was squared off with 1 inch squares. With the first game I would use the RISK roll. What's more, when a knight suffered a wound, he suffered that wound or wounds the rest of the game. They can only battle while between the tilt (the barrier). If not they had to around and start again. This never became a problem, although if I play again I will add to the tilt. Also maybe having different color dice for each knight would be less confusing. I found 6 different knight with different colors, so I just used the main color to name the knight.

Entering the lists: (on left) the silver, purple and red knights. On the right, the white, the blue and the black knights.

The silver and black knights joust first.

The black knight rolled the red dice(!); the silver knight the black.  The silver knight is dismounted! Here is why I think different colored dice for each knight is needed. In the game the knights entering from the left use black dice, from the right they use red dice. If the joust goes on for a few turns it gets easy to forget who should be rolling. Of course I have a paper to keep track of hits so a glance tells me who has what dice for that joust.

After the different rounds, the game comes down to the black knight and the white knight. Black has already fought twice, but suffered no wound. The white knight has suffered one wound and will battle with one less dice.

The first joust of the match: White knight has inflected two hits to the black knight. The next joust white got two more hits on the black knight, and became the Champion of the tournament.

I tried to use the DINOWARS rules for the tournament. After three passes there were still no wound to the knights.  This was going to make for a long game: I called it quits at this point. However, I decided to try DINOWARS for a melee battle.

The set up for the melee. This is a free for all. Below are some shots of the action.

At the end of the game only the red knight had been dismounted (by the black knight); the black, the purple, and the blue knight each had three wounds; the white knight two wounds; and the silver knight one wound. At this point did the black knight win, being the only knight to dismount another, or the white knight because he suffered the fewest wounds? If I ever was to play this again, a point system would have to be worked out, unless it's to the last man standing.

With the end of the melee game, the joust game will go to the back burner.

Peter Laing Joust

     My back pain finally came to a head on Monday. I managed to get to work thinking the pain would go away.  Instead the pain started going down my right leg. I finally went to a doctor only to find that I have sciatica. After two days of the worst pain I've suffered,  I could finally put some pressure on the leg.  Being bored of TV, I  went to look at some of my Peter Laings. After my last posting I was thinking that the rules would be good for a Medieval joust.  I dug out 6 knights and some dice and played a game.  
      The rules were simple. Roll a dice for each knight at the same time. For each 2 pips rolled they advanced one matchstick. When they came together they would each start by rolling 4 dice. I used the RISK game idea of comparing dice starting with highest rolls and working down, high rolls would take one dice from the other player. Each dice counted as a wound. First one to lose their dice would be eliminated. Last knight standing won the tournament.

Parade of the contestants. The White Knight withe the red lion hosted.

First joust; the White knight suffers 3 hits. Next round he was eliminated from the competition.

After three rounds the Black knight dismounted the Red knight.

After two rounds the White knight with black shield dismounted the Blue knight.

The final round found the White knight (with black shield) vs the Black knight. It took three round but the White knight dismounted the Black knight.

The Champion!

With a little more work this could be a fun game to play when there's those periods of stagnation .
As most of my knights are already painted (by people who have more skill than me) it would be easy enough to come up with names of the different knights and make a  book of heraldry using their shield designs. Also have matching foot figures so there could be the traditional melee on foot. Another back burner project!