First ACW play test

Steve’s AWI rules we play tested are, it turns out, based on a work in progress set of ACW rules and tonight we get the figures on table for the first time for a run out.

Great fun but it has to be said my dice were particularly awful, even for me.

Chris and I had 2 Brigades of infantry each with a battery each. Chris was attacking with the Reb's, slightly less troops but much better quality. 9 regiments a mix of crack and veteran with a two gun battery.

I had the Yanks but 3 of our regiments were off table with Steve, could I hold off the better quality confederates until Steve could arrive to support. 8 regiments of various strengths a mix of drilled with the odd green and veteran unit with a three gun battery supporting. Steve would roll at the end of each turn for arrival of his 3 regiments of drilled reinforcements.

We used card activation with a card for each brigade to see who went first. The rules allow for 4 actions per unit, fire, move, manouvre, reload etc. As each brigade activates you roll to see if you get an extra action, on a 6 you do on a 1 you get one less. Excellent commanders get a plus one so an extra action on a 5 or 6 and no chance to reduce to 3.  My commanders were not too good, Chris managed an extra turn a couple of times. First move the larger 5 regiment brigade of Rebs pushes forward.

My turn and I try get my left hand brigade to spread out and cove more ground, actions do require a roll to complete, shuffling to the left to fill a gap is a complex manouvre requiring a roll of a 4, I manage this no times in 4 rolls. hardly a shuffle. The shape of things to come I fear.

Hard evidence of my inability to roll a  decent dice. I am not on my own Steve has rolled for the Yankee reinforcements, they wont be arriving this turn.

On my right the Rebs have pushed forward quickly and aggressively. They manage a volley and inflict some casualties, 1 firing dice per base needing a 5 or 6 at effective range. I fire back with a large 7 base veteran unit and may as well have fired in the air. 1 casualty. Sigh!

On the left I have decided to shift a different unit and manage a staggered line to cover the advancing Rebs, again they have fired and inflicted casualties whilst my response suggests we have been issued with defective rifles or bad powder.

The rebels advance into the woods and we are almost able to volley each other (8 inches in woods)

On my right the Rebs charge the large veteran unit who are driven back 12 inches. The Rebs have taken casualties but as hey are crack they are unlikely to fail any morale and have now left my front regiment exposed. 

In the centre we have an uneven fire fight, casualties on both sides but my green troops loose a base after 5 casualties and the Rebs Veteran and Crack troops after 6 or 7 so I am taking morale tests more often and less likely to pass them.

Chris's artillery has only 2 guns and one is smoothbore so shouldnt be that good, 2 dice needing 5's and 6's. I probably dont need to dwell on this one.

The rebels close with my lead unit, two volleys sends it realing back in disarray almost to the guns.

My artillery in response? Lets just say Chris isnt too worried at this stage.

Chris advances one regiment of Rebs through his front damaged unit and volleys my drilled Yanks, along with the earlier artillery hit this forces a morale, I troll double one and the y are off table, not that I am getting frustrated at all!

My remaining unit then takes a further two volleys and is forced back with commander taking a hit and losing a level of command.

Last move of the game and Steves reinforcements turn up on the flank of my pretty much destroyed brigade. Pretty much just in time to cover the retreat (Someone less kind might say route!) of my two very badly mauled brigades.

Despite my desperately poor dice its easy to see the rules have potential and I have enjoyed it, all be it laughing at my own expense. I look forward to playing them again soon, hopefully with a couple of weeks off I can replenish a little luck.

May the odds be ever in your favour!

Thanks for stopping by!

Planning for Russian Civil War at Partizan II

It's my turn to put on the game at the Newark Partizan II show in November.

I was toying with Sikh Wars or Russian Civil War but I did Aliwal with the Boondock Sayntes in May so I am thinking something Russian Civil War related and do Sikh Wars next year.

That does still give me plenty of choice, my collection can cover Mongolia, Siberia, Southern Russia and now Poland, with lots of extra troops from chum Chris's Chinese army and Dave and Si's reds and whites. I even have an Anarchist army for Ukraine which is growing nicely.

I am particularly tempted by the Polish-Soviet War 1919-20. Its a period I am adding to at present and has some colourful units and interesting options.

My Whites and Poles are exceeding my Reds by some margin now. So I am thinking about games that are less defending against the Red Horde (Which is a lot of the Polish-Soviet War) and more meeting engagement or even defending Reds. So that's  a better fit for the beginning of this war when the Poles choose to attack the Reds who had formations building up in Ukraine and Belorussia but were not quite ready to launch their offensive. Politically it was a bad idea really as it made the Poles look like the aggressors, reducing the support they had from the Allies and neighbouring countries, Militarily it made loads of sense, although in the end probably didn't help them at all.

As the Polish lines of communication became stretched the Red army reserves including the first Cavalry army (Konarmia) mainly Cossacks who had fought for the whites or Imperial army previously , marched in to push the Poles back.

I think the fluid situation in Summer 1919 in Ukraine with both the Poles and Reds attacking and defending would make an interesting game for the show and visually different for visitors.

So assuming this is the game I am going with I need to consider where the gaps in my collection are and start painting to fill them.

I got a good start with the below today.

Up to press I have focused mainly on my Poles as they are a new army and good fun to paint. So that has meant that my Red army is a bit weaker in comparison.

As with our most recent game this can be partially remedied by expanding my Anarchists and having them fight alongside the Reds as they did on occasion historically. 

These guys are Anarchist Cavalry but at least a couple of them would fit very nicely into a Red Cavalry regiment, especially the Konarmia which contempory's described as looking more like a horde of bandits, some men without hats wearing Womens hats looted from houses along the way.

These 4 are STP miniatures, a Russian firm stocked by Empress Miniatures with a really lovely mix of figures. The two in the middle perfect to mix in with Reds, the other two probably better as Anarchists. If I am careful with which figures I base together many will be able to do double duty. 

These two are both Boer War figures, the civilian gear makes them good for Anarchist once the Foundry figure on the right had a head swap. Again probably not ideal for Red cavalry. I have maybe 32 to paint in total, hoping I can have half do double duty as Reds with the other half probably only being suitable for Anarchists or Partisans really.

At first glance a White Cossack officer might be out of place, however whole brigades of Red Cossacks changed side to fight for the Poles and my Cossacks are short of a leader figure.

Nice to have the option to field a regiment of Cossacks with Tchanka in the game.

I have a whole raft of Anarchist foot to paint, possibly enough for a brigade and a gun will come in handy, they were much more organised than we might think. The below picture has 4 models all from different manufacturers. 

Left to right Scheltrum this German figure perfect for those Ukranians who had been armed and uniformed by the occupying Germans and now fighting for the black flag, then an STP figure based on Nestor Makhno, I have at least 4 Makhno's so this guy will either command the gun or a company of foot. The gun is a Woodbine Turkish 75mm Krupps, again no doubt left behind by the occupying Germans when they pulled out and the last is a Civilian figure from Copplestone's Partisan pack, perfect for the Anarchists.

The biggest gap for Reds currently is Guns and MG's so the first filler for that is a Copplestone Red MG crew. At least another to follow and a couple of field guns.

A few more coming off the workbench, mix of manufacturers.

The sailors are Anarchist sailors, from Russia's Black Sea fleet in Crimea, they could equally be White or Red sailors. I hope to create enough for 2 companies to add to my two companies of Red sailors so I can either have them as a full battalion or keep them separate with the Anarchists as needed. All three of these are STP from Empress.

This guy is a Scheltrum civilian, I think from the Spartacist pack, a very dramatic pose, you cant see the carbine on his back, quite a few of them have this distinctive curved knife not sure what that is, perhaps a sailors knife?

And whilst I am not concentrating on the Poles, I do have my last battalion of Greater Poland Army missing a company so will try get 8 of these completed in between other stuff. Great War German Storm troopers with the grey green jacket and Polish collar tabs.

Particularly busy this weekend with a bunch more completed, this gets me well on the way to fillign in a lot of the gaps.

So we have a Red army officer who will be added to a few others to give me another couple of companies, 4 Anarchists or Partizans all from Copplestone and a couple of my favourite figures from this batch, then a gun leader, a Copplestone Chinese Gunner with a Scheltrum head which came out quite nice I think.

The Germans to get my last company of Great polish troops nearer to finished, a Great War storm trooper with two plastic Wargames Atlantic figures. 

Lastly the sailors, I have kept these fairly simple. The left hand figure is a Scheltrum German sailor who looks slightly different to the rest but will do. The leader in the middle is Artizan thrilling tales bits quite nicely, the others are all STP, I particularly like the running guy who I gave a khaki army gymnasterka to make him a bit more campaigny.

A few more anarchists, mixed manufacturers.

These riflemen are Copplestone first and second from left and Scheltrum on the right.

The two gunners finish my Krupps crew, left is a Spanish Civil War Empress gunner and then a Copplestone Back of beyond. The command figure is the Nestor Mahkno from Giants in miniature, a lovely sculpt.

The Cavalry are all Scheltrum and a particularly scruffy looking lot

This last figure is a realy nice Scheltrum "Konarmia" red cavalry man. He is particularly scruffy with his rifle wrapped in sacking and his trousers loose around shoes as he has no boots. These figures come with separate heads so I gave him the Budnovka cap, the head however is  company B head.

The horse is a Knuckle Duster Mexican mount, fits really well and I can use the Scheltrum horse to replace this when I get around to his original bandido rider adding some variety to both unts. 

And just to show I am actually getting somethings completed here is the Cossack officer and Red MG crew based up and game ready.

So a view of what is potentially planned for Octobers show game, hope you like it and maybe we will see you at the show?

Thanks for stopping by.

Playtest Eastern Front Napoleonic Game

Cracking wee game tonight at Steve’s. Still trialing the WIP rules and this week we added some event cards.

I would be defending with 2 Divisions of Russians and a Division of Prussians supported by a regiment of Guard Currassier and a Brigade of Hussars.

Steve was attacking with 2 Division of French and a Division of Italian foot supported by a Currassier Brigade and a Light Cavalry Brigade. Table 8 x 6, I had a village at either end to anchor my line, Steve had already deployed everything and rolled for Artillery ammo with most batteries having around 8 shots.

As Steve pressed forward with his Italians he also started to shift some of his central French foot to support them., I was going to have to slow the Italians down if I was to have a chance of holding my right.

Fortunately my artillery and the regiment holding the farm were breaking up the attacking Italians pretty convincingly. Early doors and the first regiment of Italians is in real trouble and sent packing.

The French and Italians press on, the Italian artillery focusing on the Prussian regiment holding the farm but Steve is unable to inflict enough casualties to winkle the Prussians out

In the centre I move my guard currasier forward and Steve responds by pushing one regiment of currasier to cover the flank of his infantry.

On the right the light cavalry brigade advance towards the Prussians , again covering the flank o the infantry.

In the centre I charge my currassier at Steve's who counter charge and a desperate melee ensues.

Steve has the better of the cavalry melee but being guard my guys pass their morale and keep fighting.

On my right Steve has his French brigade across the river and forming to support he Italians push forward. However the ineffective light gun is in the way and holds him up a little.

In the centre the Russian Guard have broken the French heavies and the French foot quickly form square.

A charge by the second regiment of French Heavies breaks my already mauled Guard cavalry but they have stopped the French advancing for some time and the French heavies are depleted enough to weight up whether to press on or not.

On my right the light cavalry brigades clash. 

Both sides throw one regiment in with another in support.

Honours are even and the melee continues.

On my left the French foot have charged in on the Russians.

They also get a regiment into my troops in the left hand village and the fighting here is particularly desperate.

The Russians take heavy casualties but the French cant prize them out.

One regiment of French are pushed back but the fight for the village ebbs and flows. The French have 5 Regiments against my four but have been unable to get enough in to use their slight superiority and the Brigade int he centre has not moved at all so is unable to threaten my centre and draw of troops.

Steve throws another regiment of French into the fight for the village as do I and casualties mount on both sides with no break to the deadlock.

Eventually it is the French that break off and are forced back. They are retreating not routed but it will eb four or five moves before they can reform and charge back into the combat, the left flank is now looking secure.

On the right my light cavalry charge a regiment of Italians hoping to further disrupt their advance here.

I have forced one regiment of French to retreat but was unable to follow up and had to settle for charging the next one after I had reformed. I have slightly better quality which is showing.

The Italians have seen off my cavalry charge, we didnt quite make it so they volleyed my cavalry. but their lead elements continue to be disrupted by musketry and artillery and fail to make any headway.

The Italians are forced back and the French artillery are out of Ammo, the French supports are not in a a position to attack without their Italian allies. My cavalry has pulled back after badly mauling the French. They are not really in a a position to attack again on the right without several moves to reform and re-order. The right is now fairly safe.

Steve still has an untouched division of French in the Centre but so do I.

Unable to make headway with the two flank attacks Steve concedes this one and we call it a night.

Very happy with the game mechanics and the random cards add a bit of something to the game too.

I would go as far as to say the first Corps level Napoleonic rules I have ever really enjoyed and felt able to work with. A bigger table with more figures for the next one I hope.

Thanks for stopping by.