Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Napoleonic Battle - Prussians versus French

After a long hiatus I have returned to playing Napoleonic battles with my old friend Andrew R.  Normally Tuesday evenings is the best for both of us, we were scheduled for this evening but the G20 had other plans for Andrew.  Was going to put off till next week, but Andrew decided that it was best be strike straight away, probably less chance of me finding an excuse to put of a good flogging!

Right as mentioned in another post we use the WRG rule set Wargames Rules 1685-1845.  Yes they are 30 odd years old, but I don't have a problem with them, neither does Andrew.

Here is my Prussian List for the day.

Prussians
Headquarters
Commander in Chief Command Element
Chief of Staff Prussian staff
Grenadier Battalion 10  Elite line infantry
Elite line infantry trained to skirmish
1st Infantry Half-Brigade
Infantry Commander Prussian staff
Hussars Trained light cavalry
Field Artillery Battery
(six 6 pdr guns, two 7 pdr howitzer)
(can be deployed in half-batteries)
13  Trained gunners
Light-medium artillery pieces
Four horse limbers with trained drivers

Regular Infantry Regiment
1st (Musketeer) Battalion 12  Trained line infantry
2nd (Musketeer) Battalion 12  Trained line infantry
3rd (Fusilier) Battalion 10  Trained line infantry
Trained line infantry

11th Reserve Infantry Regiment (2nd Silesian Regiment)
1st (Musketeer) Battalion 16  Raw line infantry
2nd (Musketeer) Battalion 16  Raw line infantry
3rd (Fusilier) Battalion 16  Raw line infantry
2nd Infantry Half-Brigade
Infantry Commander Prussian staff
Hussars Trained light cavalry
Field Artillery Battery
(six 6 pdr guns, two 7 pdr howitzer)
(can be deployed in half-batteries)
13  Trained gunners
Light-medium artillery pieces
Four horse limbers with trained drivers

Regular Infantry Regiment
1st (Musketeer) Battalion 12  Trained line infantry
2nd (Musketeer) Battalion 12  Trained line infantry
3rd (Fusilier) Battalion 10  Trained line infantry
Trained line infantry
Landwehr Infantry Regiment
1st (Landwehr) Battalion 12  Raw line infantry
2nd (Landwehr) Battalion 12  Raw line infantry
3rd (Landwehr) Battalion 12  Raw line infantry
Cavalry
Cavalry Commander Prussian staff
Dragoons 12  Trained heavy cavalry
Landwehr Raw lancers

I'm hoping Andrew will supply me his French list which I shall include as an edit.

Here are some photos of the day.  Needless to say I was flogged good.  My die will be binned, as they failed on all fronts except one, where on barrage from the right flank artillery butchered 6 out of 12 French troops.  Pity I could not keep that sort of luck up!

My opponent Andrew and his French!

My left flank advances.

My right flank decide to stay put and let them come to us.

Advance, always move forward, unless the artillery spoil you day.

Right flank continue to observe the French advance.

Advancing to engage those French.  Cavalry ready to charge.

French advancing on my artillery.  Lancers ready to engage.

Right flank, nothing happening prior to artillery phase from French.

French chase of the artillery crew.  Hussars mauled by French artillery.
Lancers (raw) not happy to see French cavalry opposite them.

Dragoons peel of from flank to support the Lancers.
Prussians learn to charge, sometimes.

Finally movement from the Prussians on the right flank.

Lancers countercharge the French dragoons.
Prussians learn that not all charges ram home.

Lancers bolt with the French hard in pursuit.
Other Prussians joining the rout.

Left flank starting to crumble.

Death by musketry.  Flank certainly lost.

Right flank broken.  Landwehr hiding in stone building and refusing to come out.

Thursday, July 24, 2014

My love affair with the Pulp Era

My youth was immersed with the classics of the Pulp Era.  I read books by Captain W.E. Johns (and not just his Biggles books of which he is better known), Flash Gordon, The Shadow and many others I just can't put down as my memory suffers a download freeze.  With movies like The Shadow, The Rocketeer and The Mummy of recent times I have always found that the simplicity of the days, of good always triumphing over evil, so much enjoyable over the unnecessarily complex and convoluted story lines of today.

Thanks to such miniature producers, such as Pulp Figures I have been able to indulge in my passion.  I highly recommend the figures by Bob Murch and they make up the bulk of my figures for this era.

Pulp Figures

So without much more preamble here is what I have painted to date.  Please enjoy!

The Rocketeers!  My favourites to date.

Assorted heroes and adventurers.

Hooded cultists, you can never have enough bad guys.

Despot and his flunkies.

German Zepplin Troopers.

More hooded cultists, but with some fire power!
A flame thrower, honestly?

Some Space Explorers, not quite Pulp but they were in the same box.

Hapless femme fatales awaiting rescue.

Police.  Station workers, on the beat, and ready for a riot.

The odd lot, scientists, robots and ray guns.

Weird people from another realm.

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Oldhammer Australia Group on facebook

Just a short notice to let Australians know that I have started an Oldhammer Australia Group on facebook.

It's a work in progress but I'd like it to allow those of us who live at the arse end of the world to be able to find each other, communicate, trade, arrange games and provide any assistance that one may be able to provide to others with a similar passion for our hobby.

Oldhammer Australia Group

Cheers

John

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Wargames Rules 1685-1845 Rules and my Prussians

The rules shown below were the main set of rules I have been using with a friend of mine.  We had tried Empire (I think that was what they were called, too lazy to get up and check) which I and a number of others attempted to play when Wargames Warehouse was operating.  While the rules took me a while to get my head around, and truly I would never had made it had I not been taught them in person, they are an acceptable set to game with.



So my main army for these set of rules are my Prussians.  I chose these as my opponent could provide the usual armies that most people played, that is, French, British and Spanish (though the later were for the Peninsular War).  I still have many more to paint, I certainly need more artillery as the Elite guns are the size of bloody siege guns.  My figures are primarily Old Glory (best value if not quality) and Elite (Prussians though are lacking).

Enjoy!

The "army" in all its glory!

Hussars and Dragoons

Bulk of my infantry


Artillery

More infantry and some Lancers (painted by Andrew R)

Saturday, July 12, 2014

Glen Taylor's Baggage Train for Chaos

Glen had his baggage train complete for today battle.  Here are the photo's of a job well done.

On the march, escorted by a Tenderiser!

A closer shot of the train.  love the cage.

And the MAN himself with his army for today's battle.

The Battle at Y Stream

The Battle of Y Stream

After his time in the Chaos Wastes the minotaur Moosamiss had returned with the herds.  Rank upon rank of beastman and their allies, the foul and twisted chaos dwarfs.  Wizza Wotnot watched the herd advancing on his positions.  He’d given Grog Tooftayka explicit plans on how to deal with this enemy, whether or not Grog listened or even cared about it was unknown.

To ensure his chances for survival Wizza had taken the right flank and left the centre and left to Grog to control.  The Skull Crusher was wheeled into position on the hill, supported by the goblin archers.  Wolves howled and snapped at each other and their riders, impatient to be moving and hunting.  The army had swelled since last time with another group of Orc Boyz joining the clan.  The Trolls were back, looking even more hungry than last time.

Soon it was time, Wizza summoned his pet familiar and prepared his spells for the coming encounter.

The thick green line!

The herds on the move.

The actual Battle

This would have to have been one of the most enjoyable battles I have played in a very long time.  I honestly thought I was toast by the end of turn 3.  My centre looked to be on the verge of collapsing and my baggage camp looted and lost to the enemy.  What saved me was the Trolls and the Goblin Wizard, Wizza Wotnot, hero of my stories.  To be honest the dice were kind to me today (on the whole).  My ability to roll 6 and under for tests (on 2d6) was remarkable.

The centre is weak.  Two units of archers to hold off the advancing herds.

The Trolls held up one unit of beastmen for the entire game and ultimately lead to their defeat, with only two beastmen at the end of the game, and they were broken.  Their ability to regenerate their wounds each and every time was spectacular, and when they did fail, the managed to come back in the following round fully regenerated and ready to rumble further.

Those trusty trolls, refusing to die, and tying up the centre.

Wizza Wotnot would have to be the hero who saved the army from a total and humiliating defeat.  His use of his Lightning Bolt destroyed the Tenderizer before it could get into battle.  Mind you the Bull Centaur still managed to destroy a unit of wolfboyz and came close to attacking the goblin archer line before Wizza finished it off with another lightning bolt.  The Vortex of Chaos was the one spell that saved the day.  It cleaned up huge numbers of beastmen and minotaurs, almost lasting the entire battle before petering out.  Wizza’s only brush with death was the homing goblin fanatic who injured Wizza, I honestly thought he was dead meat.  Yet he survived and managed to limp of the battlefield with his honour (for it’s worth to a goblin) intact.

Wizza's brush with death at the hands of his own troops!
The battle was difficult statistically for my troops.  Needing on the whole 5’s to hit the majority of my opponents was a difficult proposition, and then I still had to wound them and hope they wouldn’t make their armour saves.  My archers were on the whole impotent, with maybe one wound to a unit each turn.  Rolling a D20 for the artillery was highly entertaining, certainly for Orcs.  The artillery from the Chaos Dwarves was devastating, even when it missed.

The view from the ridge, my troops copped a pasting from these troops.
What I have noticed is that in our games our generals are for the most part providing support to units where needed in the form of their leadership score.  Where I sent my general in unsupported to engage a unit of beastmen I was courting disaster.  It was blind luck that saved me in the end, you know, those low die rolls.  In future, unless my general is a killing machine like the minotaur lord, then he will be attached to a unit in future.

Don't get caught up in a battle with blocks of troops.  Death was soooo close.
Poor Glen was finding that his dice were not particularly kind.  When he hit, less than half would connect, and even less would wound.  This was another saving grace for my army.  Had luck been kinder to Glen then it would have been a totally different story.

The minotaur general, wishing he had been able to get into the thick of it towards the end.

On the whole I am happy with my Orc & Goblin army.  It is full of character and highly entertaining even when it actually works, which is not all the time.  I will write a more entertaining story in the days to come, embellishing Wizza Wotnots notoriety as the leader of greenskins!

The lay of the land at the end of turn 6 and game ended.


End Result
Chaos 7vp
Orc & Goblin 6vp