Great Northern War with BLB

We have had a few play throughs with Beneath the Lilly Banners recently and decided it would be good to try a small Great Northern War game with the Talon and Claw amends added.

The Russians have two squadrons of dismounted dragoons holding a farm ahead of their line and slightly left of centre with a sotnia of Cossacks and 2 squadrons of mounted dragoons covering the left flank. their centre and right is 3 battalions of foot and a double battery of field guns.

The swedes have 3 Squadrons of horse and 3 Battalions of foot supported by a light gun.

Steve's lovely new Eastern Europe buildings are on the back left of our picture from TM terrain. The Church is particularly lovely.

Up to press I have been pretty sceptical of BLB in particular due to the low movement rates. The Swedes being very manouvreable get bonuses on movement, infantry move 6 inches instead of 4 and wheel at full movement making them really easy to use. They also get some other rules bonuses making them a bit more effective. I was hopeful this would solve some of my concerns.

The Swedes always get one more level of orders than they have rolled to reflect their professional staff work and officer crps, so for most of the game I was able to order all of my troops, this makes a big difference when you are attacking and another reason they cost more in a points based game.

I used the Swedish Dragoons below to represent the two squadrons of drilled horse and Adelsfana as the Elite Veterans. 

Steve has his Cossacks deployed forward but pretty quickly pulled them back out of harms way.

King Charles was not a fan of artillery and often left it behind, in todays game I felt I might as well as done the same, not really much use in attack for the Swedes.

Initial moves I send my Elite horse squadron to my left to try flank the Russians and my dragoons right to try tie up the Russian Horse. My foot Brigade marches straight down the throat of the Russians to try for conclusions.

My Dragoons are immediatly shot at by the dismounted Russians int he farm and I take my first casulaty.

The double battery inflicts 3 casualties on my Elite Veteran infantry unit. Thats with a ,long range modifier and a new target modifier, next turn it will be easier, its a bit of a shock, that double battery will have destroyed a battalion before I am half way and another before we can close. I need to change my plan.

Steve realises that this will impact the playability of this as a test game and removes a gun. Something learned already.

Move 2 I change direction, as the Gusn are un manouvreable I decide to attack through the farm where the guns cant reach me and punch through the Russians on my right.

Even with the increases movement rate of the Swedes it takes me another two moves to get there and my bets battalion has 5 casualties now having taken 3 morale tests. Just as well we are manovreable.

Field guns are pretty devastating, well placed artillery will be a key factor for future games I feel.

I deploy my light gun to support the attack on the farm. 2 dice I score one hit, but as its cover I have to re-roll hits and miss. My musketry however inflicts casualties as does the return fire from the Dragoons.

Next move the Swedes declare a charge on the dragoons and convincingly pass their test.

The beat up Dragoons fall theirs and leg it out the back of the Farm.

on my left the Adalsfana have been advancing to try get around the flank of the Russians, I was planning to try charge the rear of the artillery, however one volley from the Russkies and they are seen off in retreat. 

The Adalsfana took a real kicking from that one volley and wont be much use for the rest of the game,.

On my right the Dragoons have steadily advanced as Steve has steadily retired denying me a target.

My lead battalion now charges the second dismounted Dragoon squadron, they stand but are not surprisingly defeated in hand to hand, Steve rolls well for them and they retire in good order out the back of the farm.

I push my Elite Veteran unit out of the farm at the left of the Russian line away from the gun and throw a wasted long range volley at them.

Its now 10pm and we have not quite got to grips again. Having said that I have enjoyed the game much more and we took our time going through every step to ensure we had it right. 

I am still concerned about the movements rates but much happier with the mechanics and the differences for Great Northern War.

We agree to have another game next week, slightly larger and try increasing movement rates slightly. We decide that we will add an average dice of movement for each unit.

I cant wait to get to a point where the Great Northern War collections are back on table regularly.

Back to the Arthurians

So we have a Midgard play test coming up I better get some more Arthurian painted right?

I hope to get a couple more units complete. My figures are aimed at Hail Caesar but fortunately two bases from a unit of 3 bases are the perfect frontage for Midgard so I just need to split units up to create more. 

A key gap is Hero's which is an important factor for Midgard.

Not surprisingly then my first addition is a Champion, this is Agravaine I think from Warlord, suitably Heroic figure and nice to paint. The Black cloak in Homage to a recent Arthurian Fiction novel by

I have a while bunch of Plastics to build, paint and mix in with my metal figures so here are a couple of Gripping Beast to mix in a unit. Very simple to paint so speeding things up for me and mix in quite well with the Foundry and Crusader metal figures.

As a Rich Warrior I have given this Pict fairly colourful gear.

I picked up a bunch of reasonably well painted Saxons and Franks from ebay, all Foundry figures. I have re-painted faces to match mine, the shields were the real concern, they have transfers that are too small for the shield so look odd, I have painted one of the below from scratch and tried painting over the other two to tidy them up with mixed results. Still a quick solution to more figures on table.

This pack of 8 Crusader Romano British have the same relaxed vibe as the Foundry ones already painted and whilst a bit chunkier fit in quite well on the bases. 

The three Leaders/Champions of the Romano British, two lovely old Foundry mounted leaders and a Warlord dismounted figure.

And here are the first lot of Romano British Spearmen completed, 3 bases makes a unit for Hail Ceasar and 2 bases works for Midgard.

Two more Pictish bases is another Midgard unit, a few more to do to complete it as a unit for Hail Caesar.

Last up a Pictish leader/Champion from Footsore. This image is a bit dodgy as the lights on the light box gave out.

A bit of messing about and the lights are fixed, here he is with proper lighting!

On table soon, thanks for stopping by.

Killiekrankie with BLB

Another game with Chris trying out Lillie Banners. I am yet to be won over but open minded.

Chris had already had a solo game of Killiecrankie, the battle between Jacobite Highlanders led by Bonnie Dundee and the Government army by General Mackay.

Chris wanted a proper re-fight so has the exact units engaged in the same formations and locations they started the battle in, so three regiments of green troops holding the centre of the line.

Lovely figures.

First thing to note is how close we start, less than 2 feet apart. This is one of the things we have been doing wrong in the past, movement is very short so tables need to be very narrow.

So I don't know a huge amount about this battle so forgive my errors here. The British outnumbered the Highlanders by at least 3 to 2, with a fair number of veteran units present. Mackay. The outnumbered Highlanders flung themselves down a fairly steep hill, taking heavy casualties from the first volley, including John Graham, Viscount Dundee they crashed into the Government lines and destroyed three quarters of the army pursuing the remnants till midnight.

A historical refight does not bode well for me as the Government commander.

The game starts with the Government artillery, leather guns that aparantly fell to bits on the day, firing and as historically immediately ceasing to work. Fab, love History I do!

The highlanders begin to descend the hill, they have movement bonuses built in as highlanders but a further bonus for the scenario to reflect coming down the hill so typically moving at double the usual rate of advance.

The only thing I can do is decide if I am to receive them in six ranks or three. Three gives me increased firepower which is pretty much my only chance of stopping them so for all except two units in the centre of raw recruits I line them in three ranks and wait for the tide to reach me.

Not all the Jacobites are clan, two units of all musket troops, below is Cannons Irish regiment.

On my extreme left a unit of Grenadiers anchors the line, decent troops but few of them.

As the Highlanders howl down the hill the Government troops hold their fire, 8 inches is effective, its going to be tight. Beautifully painted figures by Steve who is about to smash them with the highlanders.

Behind the foot I have two troops of very poor locally raised horse. On the day they ran away without firing a shot, lets hope my dice are better.

The Highalnders are mainly Reiver castings I believe and suitably dynamic.

As the Highlanders close the regulars unleash volleys all along the centre and right of the line. Casualties are inflicted but with the exception of the extreme right not enough to check the Highland charge.

I charge my horse through the guns at the Jacobite horse and we have 4 Melees to resolve in the centre and centre right.

The left is still un-commited as Steve didn't roll enough orders to charge these forward.

All 4 Melees are lost the Highlanders are far too strong with over double the dice in combat. As green troops all 4 automatically rout after 1 lost melee, there goes the centre.

The Jacobite cavalry bounce straight from the Government horse onto the gun and destroy the crew.

Less than an hour into the game and its already lost beyond any rescuing, all that remains is to play it out and see if I can redeem myself anywhere.

Mackay ponders leading the remaining squadron of green horse past all the running infantry and at the Veteran Jacobite cavalry, pretty sure that wont help much. The Jacobites charge the foot before he gets the chance.

The Jacobite Horse scatter  the fleeing infantry and cut them down.

The Highlanders do the same and pursue the fleeing Government foot and annhialate them.

My remaining two regiments on the right have held and carry on firing at the Highland shot, but the clansmen are now on their flank.

Here come the Highlanders to finish off the regulars.

As most of my army is on defend orders I can only move one unit, I push the Grenadiers to the flak to try provide supporting fire to the line troops on my left, the Highlanders charge them and wipe them out.

On my right the Highlanders charge the flank of my regulars and route them. Just one unit remains on the right. Interestingly the same unit that survived the battle intact historically.

Mackay leads the remaining green horse at a regiment of Highlanders with predictable results. 

Still Mackay survives and may just outrun his infantry to escape. He may though have trouble catching up to his fleeing cavalry.

My left has two regiments facing two of Jacobites but with highlanders and Jacobite cavalry behind them and in front of them its not worth carrying the game on to see how long they can last.

Its a bit desolate in the centre with the remaining Jacobites nothing left to do except looting the dead.

On my right the first of the regulars breaks leaving just the one intact regiment. 

So a historical result almost exactly as it happened on the day. You would have to take that as a win for the rules. On a personal note I am still not getting to grips with the rules and struggling with having to start so close together. I am yet to play a game I have enjoyed, but then I have yet to play a game I haven't been trounced so that may be a large part of it.

We plan to try a couple of Great Northern War games, it will be great to get the collection back on table after so many years.

I really hope we can get to a point where BLB are working for me and enjoyable, I would love to love them, maybe it just needs a bit more time.

Bit Of A Mixed Workbench Update

With the Russian Civil War game done the urgency to finish anything in particular is gone.

I do however want to try finishing off the things I was working on so here are a few.

This Copplestone MG crew has been re-purposed with head swaps to be Anarchist. Came out quite well I think.

Three different manufacturers for the Anarchist Cavalry here. Left to right STP Miniatures Anarchist on a knuckle duster horse, Scheltrum Miniatures Red Cavalry with a civilian cap and then a Foundry Boer War rider with a Empress Spanish Civil War head.

I did say it was a mixed bag, the first of my Chassuers D'afrique for Mexico accompanied by a Legionaire.

This Great War German MG has been re-purposed for my 1920 Poles.

And as we are working through the Great Northern War again with Beneath The Lilly Banners I thought to finish a bunch of casualty markers which should come in handy. 

And a bunch of troops for the Russian Civil War and associated projects.

I was hoping to have these Anarchists done for the recent game but just ran out of time. The MG is a Copplestone Turkish crew with head swaps. The Cavalry a mix of makes detailed further up.

This MG will bring my Poles in German uniforms from Great Poland Army almost up to strength for their second battalion, just an 8 man company to complete them.

Here are the Poles in horizon blue all together, a good start for the next regiment, need an extra 3 figures to finish the company and 2 more companies of 8 plus an MG. Figures primed so wont be too long before they are on table.

Lastly an American Lewis gunner, no doubt a mercenary trying his look with one of the many Russian Civil War factions. I may add this guy to my Anarchists.

Thats it for now, thanks for stopping by.