Triumph Of The Will Rule Refresh AAR

 After our recent game we agreed that the firing mechanics in Triumph Of The Will were clunky and needed a review. By coincidence Chris has all but finished his Chinese Warlord army so it was also an opportunity to get these lovelies on table.

After diving into the obligatory Tea and biscuits we organised our forces. 

Chris and Steve commanded the Chinese, each had a regiment of infantry in 4 companies supported by a gun and MG. Steve also had a regiment of 3 squadrons of militia cavalry. Amongst Steve's troops were also dare to die troops with sword and pistol alongside storm troops with SMGs.

The Mad Baron Von Ungern Shternburg led our forces, Chris Flowers had two regiments of white infantry supported by one MG and a battery of 2 guns.

I led a force of Mongolian Cavalry 3 units of 7 tribal horse and 2 units of 6 Chahar Mongol "Regulars" I also had an infantry regiment of Officers support by an MG.

The key thing we have found clunky has been firing. Previousley you had one die for every 5 figures firing having to roll lower than the number of firing figures. This can then be modified up or down. The issue being that each unit is made up of between 6 and 10 figures so you are always throwing 2 dice needing different things on those dice. Clunky and hard to remember.

Chris has revamped that, something very different but still in line with the wider rules,.bare with.

Chris has some lovely 3D printed terrain peices like this lovely dragon and the Pagoda in the background.

Opening shots were White artillery as the only thing in effective range. Chris's new firing mechanism is that you can roll as many dice as you like but must score lower than or equal to the number of figures firing. I was pretty sceptical to be honest but it worked really well. So if you have an 8 man company firing you need to score 8 or less, roll as many dice as you like but if you roll 6 you are not very likely to score any hits. If you roll just one you are guaranteed a hit. You then get a saving throw. So you can gamble with more dice but need to get lucky.

Guns have a notional value of 5 figures per crew as do MG's, we were using barrage fire allowing us to concentrate a battery on one target but with a -5 so 3 crew per gun and notional 5 figures per crew is 30 for the battery, -5 for barrage fire we needed to roll 25 or less. Chris Flowers decided he would roll 6 dice so on an average roll he would be well in.  He actually rolled 25 so just in, that's 6 hits. Chris saves on a 5 or 6 being drilled troops. He saves two so 4 casualties on the Chinese guarding the bridge.

This did seem slightly too easy for artillery as you are very unlikely to miss unless you get greedy, we parked it to revisit as the game went on.

Steves Chinese had a long range hit with artillery on my Mongolian cavalry, with a notional 15 figures for his gun he rolled 3 dice, scored within 15 and got three hits, I saved 1, as its long range this is just shock so two points of shock slows the cavalry down by 4 (Infantry slows it by 2 cavalry movement is always doubled)

So far so good and the Whites are advancing steadily on the Chinese.

Our Artillery misses the Chinese this time but Steve is now in effective range and we get another 3 hits on the Mongols saving 1. 2 hits from MG fire add disruptions slowing us down further.

The Chinese militia cavalry await us calmly on top of their hill. Do they know something we dont? Maybe just that ponies are no match for modern artillery and Maxims.

 The Cavalry close and are now just a move away from hitting the Chinese, the Chinese however inflict another 4 casualties on the leading unit. Effectively putting this out of the game, the following two are badly damaged and have already been passed through. But the Chahar Mongols on the extreme left are untouched and about to go in.

Small arms fire has taken these tribal mongols down to 3 figures, artillery now takes them to just the one remaining figure and they are out of the game.

The field is looking pretty clear now! The infantry have continued to advance and having destroyed the infantry at the bridge and the MG the artillery switch's targets to the heavy weapons for both flanks.

The Chahars close and the tribal cavalry are able to reach their flank and support them. We then commence a bloody and bitter ongoing melee.

We need an unmodified 6 to cause a casualty. The Chahars get 6 dice to start then add 2 for being a training level high than the Chinese Militia. A further three for being aggressive and a further 3 each for supported flank.  One more for the Commander gives us 18 dice. The Chinese have 8 plus 4 for being supported and one for their officer so 13. 

Initially a draw we refight immediatly and the Chinese are destroyed along with their commander. My remaining Chahar charge the second unit of Chinese, now we have no idea if they are supposed to be disordered or not. Noting this down for review of rules later we fight again, another draw, then again, another draw then finally the Chahar win this time leaving 4 of the original two units of 6 remaining against one unit of 8 Chinese.

As the Infantry press forward and the artillery deal with all but one of the Chinese heavy weapons we charge again.

Mutual destruction. the cavalry have fought each other until nobody on either side remains, never seen that before.

We review the artillery rule at this stage, not rolling to hit for artillery has led them to be slightly too powerful. We re-introduce the original rule that a gun must hit before rolling casualties in our new way. The last two turns of white firing prove this to be a little less devastating so we will probably re-adopt this.

The White foot have now reached effective rifle range, the Chinese are badly damaged and only one unit of whites has taken any real damage, but its too late to press home our attack and finish the game off so we call it a day.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the game and found the small changes we made have enhanced the game. It also helps that Chris has incorporated all the rules and not missed any out as I usually do.

A great evening all around and lovely to see Chris's Chinese Warlord collection. Another soon I hope.

More 40mm Spanish off the Workbench for Peninsular Project

 Busy, Busy, The French have crept ahead with the finished figures so I thought I better get some more Spanish completed to keep things even.

I have ended up with a lot of French and as I had some spare Spanish taking them from 32 to 40 seemed appropriate, the next six regulars should allow me to do just that.

There is a mix of figures, as you know I like as much variety as I can in these units. These two are both French Ligne figures wearing sleeved waistcoats, as many of the Spanish wear the same simply adding Spanish heads brings these into the Spanish unit and just gives me a couple of extra different poses.

These next two both have an extra blanket moulded on thrown over the shoulder, different heads and paint jobs make them quite different. I do like both of these particularly.

Nice to add a couple in with the proper uniform so here are two, each with different leg wear and heads.

These two Guerilla's will be added to four I already have to make another skirmish unit, Sash and Sabre figures, these are OK rather than brilliant.

Taking the two Spaniards I already have painted this is the eight man group as they will look, just a bit of basing then I can mix them into the wider 40 man formation.

Of course I havent just been working on Spanish.

These four Light infantry will give me a third unit of Leger skirmishers and another leader figure.

Another 6 Grenadiers for Paris Municipal Guard, mix of poses and trouser colours.

The chap in the middle is the only one for this unit in sleeved waistcoat so they will look slightly more uniform than some of the other units. Still a bit of variation with the 5 different figures being used. Planning to have 3 groups of 8 of these. With the addition of these I have 12 painted so far.

Again good progress and I am managing to stay enthused about a single project still without too much side tracking.

A few more of these and I will have to get stuck into the Connaught Rangers....honest!

Thanks for stopping by folks.

Great Northern War, First Game for a Couple of Years AAR

 So with the week off  Dave invited me around for a game, like me his Great Northern War collection has not been out of the box for some years so he suggested we remedy that. Chum Si took the day off to join us for what promised to be a pretty large scale game.

We played on Daves 14 foot table and even that felt full with pretty much the whole collection being used.

The Swedes would have 

15 Battalions of Foot

18 Regiments of Horse

3 Guns

The Allies

26 Battalions of Foot

22 Regiments of Horse

10 Guns

The Swedes would of course have the advantage in quality but the disparity in Guns and two brigades of less enthusiastic Poles supporting them would make a difference.

The Allies were a much more mixed bag with Russian Guard and Veteran Saxons alongside Foot Cossacks and the Horse a mix of Regular Dragoons, Horse Grenadiers, Cossacks and Polish Pancerni.

We would be playing Black Powder with the fairly large amends we have made for the Great Northern War. These amends for the most part benefit the Swedes to give them the Historical advantage they enjoyed.

Dave and Si deployed with Infantry massed in the centre and guns arrayed in large batteries, their cavalry massed on the wings with the left wing under Si having the Poles, Saxons and Cossacks.

I went for aa similar arrangement but kept a brigade of Swedish Cavalry back in reserve in the centre to exploit any gaps I might create. On the left one of my infantry brigades was slightly less good being a Tremanning Brigade (Literally third man, essentially reserves battalions called up during war time) these deployed behind my cavalry as a wood restricted deployment on the left. On my right my Poles faced Si's Poles.

First move and the cavalry advanced quickly on both wings and the artillery began to inflict casualties on the Swedish foot and horse immediatly.

The Cavalry were quickly in action on both flanks with the superior Swedish cavalry having the better of the encounters whilst taking some pasty from the artillery and larger numbers of Allies.

In the centre the Swedish foot press forward with plenty of Elan but quickly run into trouble with multiple batteries of siege guns and field guns, the Guards brigade take heavy casualties.

Before long the last of both regular Saxon and Russian cavalry on the Swedish right had been destroyed or driven off, but the Swedes had all taken casualties and were nearly all now shaken and unable to charge just leaving one unit to face the Poles and Saxons, supported by my own Polish cavalry.  

In the centre, the Guards continue to be raked by massed artillery and the Guard Grenadiers break still half a table away from the Russians.

As we break for lunch things are not looking good for the Swedes, having broken multiple units of Allied cavalry the Swedish Cavalry have all but run out of steam and the infantry in the centre have almost been stopped by artillery before they even reach the Allied foot.

As we start again the Swedes see off the last of the Allied regular horse.

The last unit of partly damaged Swedes now take on the first of the Poles, whilst they defeat them they are now pretty much finished as a fighting force.

On the left the Swedes are still fairly intact and push back most of the Russian horse but have not really finished off any of the Russians. 

Finally Swedish foot have closed with the Russians but they have taken so many casualties from the artillery in closing they are in trouble.

Daves Russian foot form a line on the flank of the Swedish Guards giving me something of a dilemma, I can try two more moves advancing on overwhelming artillery and foot or turn to try the foot on my flank. 

I opt to turn and attack the flanking Russians, this does allow the guns to inflict another round of fire into one battalion and the foot inflict further casualties but at least we have closed with the Russian foot at last and started to fight back.

Meanwhile on the left the Swedish horse have charged the Russian foot.

The Poles of both sides now attack each other and the last remaining Swedes attempt to support them.

On the left the Swedish horse are driven off by Russian foot and the Russian horse have pushed the Swedes back.

The Guards brigade destroy one battalion of Swedes but are devastated by the other three battalions of Russians and 5 batteries of guns leaving the Guards brigade essentially destroyed. The remaining Swedish regulars now have two brigades of Saxons closing on them to support a brigade of Russians and they are in real trouble.

With the Guards brigade destroyed, most of the Swedish cavalry shaken and two of my other Swedish infantry Brigades in a very tattered state we were in no condition to carry on the fight and concede to the Allies. 

A fun game with the large volume of Allied artillery leaving the Swedes unable to cope. 

Chees Dave and Si, hope you enjoyed it.