The Generals Best China, Live Free or Die AAR

 Apologies for the enforced absence last few weeks, a broken laptop and incompetetance on my part to blame.

We decided to get the AWI collection out for another go at Live Free or Die.

Steve set up a nice little scenario, an important baggage train needs to be got away from the advancing Rebels, a small Highland brigade commanded by Steve, two battalions of the 71st supported by a company of Militia skirmishers and another of British light bobs, hold the road to give them time to get away.

A stronger Brigade is coming on table in support, 2 British line battalions, a Grenadier battalion and a regiment of Hessians, supported by a squadron of Light Dragoons.

The Americans have 3 Brigades arriving on the roll of a dice, 2 have 4 battalions of Continentals and one has 3 battalions of Militia. The Patriots must capture the baggage, the British must see it off table.

The initial roll of the dice sees Chris's left hand brigade arrive straight in front of the Highlanders defending the road. Probably the one he would have wanted on first. Aroll from Steve sees the baggae fail to get going.

The Continentals close and the first volleys are exchanged with limited imapct.

Rebel Riflemen engage the Light Bobs to keep them busy and protect the Continentals flanks as the middle brigade of Militia march on.

The third brigade of 4 continental regiments enters on the Rebel left.

My British brigade are just in time to turn right offof the road and advance to block this new threat.

A troop of Light Dragoons sit patiently between my British and the deploying continentals looking for a gap to exploit as they cover my deployment.

On my left the Hessians advance to form a reserve for Steves Highland brigade. I think he is going to need it.

The cavalry advance threateningly but stop at 24 inches away which is there standrad movement.

Next go and we charge, only to find that charge movement is randomised and we stop 2 inches short of the Militia, damn, this could be painful.

Behind the cavalry the British foot advance smartly to block the advancing Patriots.

Both sides form firing lines ready to exchange volleys and bayonets are fixed.

A dismal volley from the Militia does little damage and the cavalry charge home, predictably they are successful and the Militia are forced back but not broken, putting a number of DMZs on the Milita unit behind.

The British are in position to defend the retreating baggage and the Highlanders are clinging on against double their strength but it cant last. 

The Light Dragoons gird their loins and charge again at the next Militia regiment. Again they charge home and again force the Milita to scramble back through their own troops inflicting more damage on both battalions. The Milita are very badly mauled but the British are down to one base and we remove the survivors from play.

Steves Highlanders are being raked by musketry from the Continentals and one battalion is forced to retire, he needs something spectacular from his firing and gets it.

Steve is happy with his firing dice and the Continentals are checked for one more go as the baggage plods further away.

The Militia are in a bit of amess but still standing. Their next volley into the Jaegers pushes the skirmishers back 24 inches.

The British line is trading volleys with the american rifles as the continentals are out of range, one unit of fusiliers advances on the left to apply pressure to the continentals whilst the Milita are recovering from the Cavalry charges. 

On the left Steve is still holding and the Hessians are in position to support his retreat. My fusiliers however get the worst of the firefight with the Continentals and are pushed back.

The Milita are recovered and now begin to advance in support of the Continentals.

The Rifles are seen off and the Continentals advance to fill the gap, two battalions of continentals are forced to retire with heavy casualties, but the British Grenadiers also take a pounding and are forced back in turn.

My British are holding their own but coming under increasing pressure, fortunately the baggage is nearly off the table.

Both sides continue to blaze away with equal casualties along the line and the remaining Highlanders are eventually forced to retire.

The baggage is off table, the generals best china and his favourite wig has been saved and the British have held the Americans but at fearful cost, a Pyric victory for the Crown forces.

Another cracking game, Live Free or Die are providing the sort of game we wanted from the AWI  thoroughly enjoyable, thank you gents.

More Completed Figures for The Russian Civil War

 The recent playtests of Triumph of The Will have inspired me to try finish off the few outstanding figures for this collection.

The photos are not coming out as well as I would like with the natural light poor as we go into winter, so these Shkiro's wolves Cossacks haven't come out great.

These are mainly STP miniatures from a couple of packs but mainly the Shkiro's Wolves pack. The Cossack on the extreme right is probably my favourite.

A couple of these have been done for a while so nice to get the unit finished.

I had enough White infantry to complete another unit. I decided these would be less colourful than some of the others I have done and more in line with how they probably looked in action.

I really like the less colourful approach with these, maybe I should have done more like this? The Lewis Gunner and the firing figure centre of left stand are STP the rest are Copplestone.

More Partisans, you have already seen the three figure bases in these pictures. The extra two bases of 2 allows me to create two units of 7

The command base has 2 Copplestone figures the rest are STP from their Makhnovist pack.

Again the command base was already done, all of these are STP, the  Makhno pack has a few sailors in, Ukranians from the old imperial Black Sea fleet.

Although designed as Ukranian anarchists these could really be any partisan unit we like so will see plenty of action

And just so you dont think I am forgetting the 40mm project, here are the first of my Connaught Rangers.

More to come for both these projects. Thanks for stopping by.

Triumph of the Will another playtest

Apologies its been a while, my laptop broke so only just been able to get back in the blog.

Anyway this time the Reds would test their metal against Chris's Warlord Chinese.

Chris had another couple of units finished and added 2 units of mercenary White Russians, a common site in Warlord armies Steve would command the Chinese and I had my Reds.

                        

The Reds had 3 regiments each of 4 companies of foot, 1 regiment of Regulars, 1 of Militia and one drilled. These were supported by2 guns and 2 MG;s, they were also backed up by an FT17 with a 37mm gun.

Cavalry support was provided by a regiment of trained red cavalry in 4 Sotnias with a Tchanka MG cart in support.

The Chinese had a regiment of 3 companies of Militia cavalry, supported by Mortars. three infantry regiments, one Militia, one drilled and trained with White Russians and SMG armed storm troops supported b 2 machine guns and another FT17. in the rear a further company of trained chinese supported by White Russian Lancers form a bodyguard and reserve.

First shot of the game I need to roll less than 20 with my artillery dice to score hits, I decide that 5 dice should get me what I want, I roll 19 and with a sigh of relief inflict 5 casualties on the Chinese.

Both sides advance steadily towards each other, the majority have attack orders so have little choice. My right hand regiment of Militia have engage orders, allowing them to stop once they are in effective range and can bring the Chinese under fire.

On my left most of the Chinese cavalry have crossed the bridge to defend their flank, I am pushing a column of cavalry forward whilst the Tchanka opens up on the reserve unit of Chinese on my flank.

As they advance the FT17 s of both sides clank slowly forward, the Chinese machine abruptly breaks down, oh dear.

As the red cavalry close they begin to take fire from the mounted Chinese and in particular the machine gun, the front Sotnia is quickly reduced to just 3 troopers.

The Tchanka returns fire and inflict 2 casualties.

The Chinese mortars are proving ineffective, with a crew of 2, they need to score a hit for each gunner first then roll below 10 to score casualties even if both hit. Initially rounds of firign see one hit which is not converted.

Meanwhile the infantry close to effective rifle range and both sides open up relatively ineffective firing as both sides are moving.

At this stage both sides are just inches apart and preparing to for close combat, this will suit some of the Chinese storm troops better than other troops.

The Red Sailors close with their old enemies the White Russians who have already been softened up with artillery fire, numbers tell and the Whites are quickly overwhelmed.

The Warlord and Bolshevik forces engage all along the line with varying degrees of fortune. the infantry of both sides are pretty even in terms of results.

The cavalry however are a different story, with the front rank decimated, the second rank have enough room to press forward as they charge home on the Chinese and both troops of Chinese militia cavalry are seen off in short order.

The Warlord cavalry flee leaving the left flank and the Chinese mortars wide open for the red cavalry.

Needing to score some serious damage on the reds Steve opts to roll three dice for his machine gun needing to roll 10 or less, he rolls 13 and misses.

As the left crumbles the Warlord morale team step into action to encourage the troops.

The veterans of the red navy destroy their opposing Warlord storm troopers, in the process they open themselves up to short range SMG fire. We decided that the target number needs to be double for troops all armed with SMG at short range. These weapons only work at short range in our amends. So with 10 figures doubled Chris needed to roll less than 20, he decided to roll 4 dice and got less than 20 so 4 casualties on top of the one already inflicted, and my red navy unit is down to 5 men. 

Whilst that firign mechanism feels slightly odd, it works and its easier to understand than the old way.

A gap opens across the lines as units are pushed back or destroyed on both sides.

The night is drawing to a close and as its a play test we dont need a final result just to be sure the rules are working. We think they are.

The Red centre was breaking but the Chinese had also taken a pummelling and the Bolsheviki were very strong on both wings, the cavalry on the left preparing to sweep around the rear of the Chinese. All to play for but on balance a likely Red victory.

We called it a day with another decent play test of the updated rules and found we are pretty happy with them.