Lion Rampant 'battered' and activation markers

I was taking my new Sengoku collection for a solo test spin with Lion Rampant rules yesterday.

The rules has the player activate and then conclude any actions such as combat or firing before moving to the next unit, with the player choosing the sequence depending upon tactical considerations.  However, sometimes the player will lose track of which unit has activated or not.  Or at least my memory can fail, especially if interrupted or needing to leave the table during the turn.  It may be necessary to mark those units already activated and obviously markers would be the solution. I therefore decided that one could combine the use of these markers to the requirement of “battered” indication for a unit into a single simple chit for the tabletop.

The Takeda marker showing both its 'battered' side and earth-coloured 'activated' reversed side.

I used MDF laser-cut very small rounds as they are uniform and thick as to allow ease of pickup from the table.  I painted one side with my usual “earth” tone colour [ as to be discrete on the table ] and the other side of the chit in the ‘colours’ of the retinue.

Showing the two respective clan markers. Obviously one does not need to do this, but I find it fulfilling ( I say with a bit of a grin )

I use the ‘colours’ side of this marker to indicate if the unit is “battered”.  The test to recover from this morale state is considered an activation and so if successful, the marker can be flipped over to reveal the ‘earth’ side.  Other units, as they complete their activation, an ‘earth’-side chit can be added so all in the game knows that it has been dealt with.

The markers in action.  The weakened samurai on the left are still battered while the two ashigaru units have done their activations.

Obviously this method need not be exclusive to these rules and can be useful for many other applications.  It may be simple but effective and one of those hand-slap lightbulb moments which are great to deal with the requirement but embarrassing to believe that you did not think of it earlier!

Crecy ...LR style

**Warning**
The following blog post contains images of unpainted miniatures on the tabletop which sensitive wargamers may find offensive.  Viewer discretion is advised.

The historic Battle of Crecy with Lion Rampant

My current medieval collection is based on the English of the mid-14th Century.  Thusly I am thinking that I should do the French to oppose my rather large contingent of mostly longbow and to do so with a group of early version of GW “Bretonnian” mounted knights that I have at the ready.  But how would games play with only these MAA types - not withstanding the rule that only half your contingent can be of one troop type?   As one of the famous battles of the era , The Battle of Crecy in northern France comes to mind, as it is well documented as any of the period and is noted for its wild charges by masses of mounted knights.

I set up this battle for Lion Rampant, my current rules-de-jour.   I was going to bore myself with a turn by turn account to document the affair the effect of the rules to the historical account.  However in the herky-jerky motion that is Lion Rampant’s initiative play and my failure to make most of those due to my poor die rolling I decided just to give an overall of account. [ed note: I had 3 turns of both sides missing their initiative rolls which, in LR, means nothing happens. Lots of my 1s rolled. Yes, three turns of the boys just staring at each other... On the other hand the turns are quick to do -grin- ]

So if the short version is wanted:
The French mounted knights finally charged but were repelled and were slaughtered by the bowman. The famous Genoese crossbowmen gave poor account of themselves per history.  The new weapon of the cannon (apparently making its debut on the battlefield at this time)  fired twice (!) and the pits (anti-horse defence) was rather effective and the men-at-arms did their job. And yes, the arrow-storms were lethal.
In general the game account went quite well according to historical play with the French beaten off with over 3x the casualties sustained by the English.

While I still do not understand the strict gap requirement (and it certainly does not make for good photographic shots)  but in keeping with the rules the deployments for the English units were a minimum of 3 inches away from each other. The French will have two moves to meet the English line ( 20 inches ) and with the width equal to that of the English line could also have three units of mounted knight across and a reserve unit having the king one move to the rear.  This is unlike the actual battle which had three successive lines of knights however with the initiative rolls as they are in LR, this would allow at least some degree of charging and perhaps not allow the concentration of bow fire upon only one unit at a time.

The English 'line' of 2 archer units with the dismounted MAA in the centre.  Cannon holding right flank along the River Maye.  A mere 3 inches looks much larger when viewing a photo does it not? 

Oh, yeah, the Genoese crossbow were allocated a position in the front, per history, but I modified their stats to reflect their actions during that day in 1346:

Attack : ---      Attack Value : ---
Move : 6+ Defence Value: 5+
Shoot : 7+ Shoot Value/ Range : 4+ / 12”
Courage 6 Max move: 6”
Armour: 2 Special: no attacks allowed

The crossbowmen were without their shielding pavises (in the luggage) and already aware of the effect of the longbow from previous engagements during the campaign and with their
weapons affected by the rainstorms, they were reluctant to force the issue.  Thus the low courage, armour and shoot effects with no attacks allowed.
In keeping with the original rules and its mandates, I gave each side only 24 points (rather a small version of the battle!) but did allow the addition of two units of the crossbow and as they are certainly downgraded…and historically run over!….they were at 3 points apiece providing the historically more numerical French an additional 6 points.

Keeping with the historical affair, I had the English with two weird types of ‘units’.  The cannon which might have been first used in a major battle at Crecy; and the use of pits dug by the archers in front of their positions.  For rules the pits had an attack value of 6 (12 dice) with the hits added to any which the archers could add in combat.  This reflects the disruptive factor they effect.  One might just make it 6 dice for hits.  This minimizes the effect a bit more but continue to add any hits thus made onto the total from the archers in combat.

French knights fall prey to the pits in front of the archers and the arrows. In the background, the two remaining knights of the right group try to gain the courage for another charge at the English MAA. They will, unfortunately be shot down by arrows fired by the archers to their right. The banner bearer to indicate the unit is made of 'expert' archers to represent the skilled longbowmen.

The other interesting weapon was the cannon.  I copied other wargamer’s thoughts on the matter allowing an automatic fire of the cannon but requiring a 10+ to have loaded (and thus fire again).  Attack value is 6 and the range is limitless.  The special rule is “Boom” which has the target unit test for courage regardless of hits.
The effect of the cannon during the game was to take out one knight but it's unit passed the courage.  After all the English units had passed initiative during a turn later in the game, I could again roll for loading initiative ( no turn to ‘lose’ at it were) and indeed rolled a 10.  So it could fire again. (no effect this time)  However this rule does a wonderful job at simulating in fun way, the slow firing and perhaps little effect of this weapon.

The six figure crew of the cannon. The stand of spears I made so that it may be assumed by any opponent that they do have arms and may indeed for for the gun if charged! (I hope....)

Now, do I use these unhistorical Bretonnian leviathans?  Big horses, big men, big silly helmet crests.  And with the want to only have mounted knights in my retinue and now the knowledge that in a set piece battle they well might lose each time, do I paint them?  Hmm.

Nevertheless the Battle of Crecy was a successful try and went quick. Very much a ‘bathtubbing’ affair.

Dice to match my livery colours! Together with 'battered' markers

Russian Artillery Reserve of Borodino model

The Russians love to have large amounts of their artillery "in reserve" and never more so than at the Battle of Borodino.  Unfortunately its commander forgot his duty, personally leading an attack and got himself killed, disrupting the whole command structure!

Rather than have model upon model of artillery, unrealistically filling up the tabletop,  I thought a more clever way was to have but one model (for the aesthetics alone you understand) and, as we represent the pips of the dice as a battery, to use dice to represent the many batteries the Russians could use.  The pips of these dice then are decreased as they are "moved" to replace the losses of those artillery stands in the fighting.

The two Russian armies which fought at Borodino had a combined 14 foot batteries and five horse batteries which are represented on the stand.  The Horse Batteries are distinguished on this base by the ammuntion box placed near one of the dice frames. One of the "what-ifs" of the game will be the allowance of all the Russian reserve artillery to be used.

The model is the three-horse ammo cart by Perry Miniatures and, as usual from them, nicely done - once all those little flash tags are removed from the metal pieces, of course (sigh).  I added some metal ropes which I had acquired at some point (when??) but match perfectly with the modelled parts on the horses!

"North is that way!!"

With no unfairness to Litko and similar companies offering bright plastic wargame markers, together with employment of other brightly coloured beads and such which in my opinion many wargamers unfortunately use I feel there is no need for such indicators to be such an eyesore.

Why not use a casualty figure as a 'hit' marker?  Or extra pieces of equipment as a 'shaken' indicator rather than a red bead?  Looks better on the table does it not?

Rant over......

I hosted a game awhile back for which I took elaborate effort to write out the scenario for each player to read.  It indicated the direction of each planned attack.  One player could not remember which direction on the table was 'North' and asked the question many times!  Frustrated, I scribbled a large arrow on a white piece of paper.  And yes, this glaring white piece of paper had to be left for the duration of the game.  Sigh.

I mentally examined the problem of how to mark direction upon the table ( i.e. "Which way is North?") and leave it for the duration the game, be applicable for all eras, and without it being too obtrusive.

one possible solution:

and, yes, all my battles occur upon golf greens...... ;)

Napoleonic Poles vs British?? 15mm fictional battle

Can't resist playing in any Napoleonics game... actually, any miniatures game.  Monday's affair was set up with a nice map for each side and even off-table troops!  Francis brought out the Poles - all of whom I painted and subsequently sold to him last year and his British - some of which I also painted - to defend a hill position.

My old Old Glory 15mm Polish.  The white clad units are the Polish 13th Infantry Regiment who were distinctive from the dark blue uniformed units of the rest of the infantry.  Staring at this photo I realized perhaps why I sold these as the poses are rather strange, looking as they are of running into hurricane strength winds?  

With Kev holding the right flank, our plan was simple as we had the defend orders. I plunked down on the hill and awaited the inevitable charge up the gut by DaveMc., while Kev had to deal with Francis' onslaught.

Francis lining up artillery fire on Kev's British.  My position is in the foreground with the red coat Marines on the hill.

With woods covering my left and centre, with a skirmish unit within to act as a tripwire, I deployed my artillery in front of the hill knowing DaveMc will aim right at them and so soften him up.  Kev had the same idea and so we lobbed shot after shot/dice into the mass of Dave's Poles and rolled very poorly.  Not one shot hit!   Not one.

The loyal allies of Napoleon then overran my artillery - not that I cared at that point as they could not hit anything anyway so no big loss! ~grin~.  However my steady British Marines stopped their advance with a volley and counter-attack throwing them off the hill.  The units of my left then formed columns to quickly swing inward to complete the disintegration of DaveMc's division.

The Poles charging to be repulsed by the steady (from the dice anyway) Marines.  All these 15mm were painted by me and in Francis' collection.

Meanwhile, Kev had to defend against Francis who is a very experienced Shako2 rules player and who gained the reinforcement of the Polish light horse brigade from off-table.  With Kev rolling rather poorly overall, outnumbered and hit in front and flank, his division collapsed.  However as I would have time to establish a defensive posture in time to meet Francis's forces, the British were given the victory.

The right flank action

Shako2 is very much a tactical game with only an overlay of grand-tactical effect (a simple divisional "arrows" indicating direction of attack).  However it does this rather well with easy to remember modifiers.

Good to see my old 15mm boys in action

A"stagger" marker.  Each nation has their own in a "national" regimental flag

Command in my GdC rules

In a previous post showing the play-test of the Austerlitz scenario,  I made references to my command morale and command control rules.  As I like everything to be indicated on the table and so I prefer markers and numbers directly on the element; avoiding written rosters and the like.

  In the following photo, I have one of the commanders - the name label can be changed for each historical battle - showing,  he has 1d6 roll for the number of command points he can employ to  maneuver each element. (this can change at random obviously and can be rationalized as due to orders being well written or not, couriers being shot or not, etc.).  The larger the command, the more pips the player will be given.

The green flag indicates he has one more step-down until a loss will lessen his command morale total indicated by the small black die which is added to his Command Morale Chart roll.  This allows large commands to be decreased at a similar rate to small ones and allows me to allocate historical numbers to each player without problems of equality for differing quantity, within the rules.

Finally, the white flag indicates his command has previously suffered a loss last turn to which the player must roll upon the dreaded Command Morale Chart.  Early losses should not affect most commands but as the losses accumulate it becomes harder not to have the formations fail to advance or to indeed forced to withdraw. Thus the petering out of the battle in a more realistic way.

The flags markers are simply green plastic toothpicks cut in half and hot glued onto plastic bases (insuring a strong bond) The flags are paper folded over and glued on. ta da.

Too many games are marred by ugly coloured markers or dice and I try to prevent that while giving a 'clean' but effective and efficient look.  At least I try.

Battle of Gross-Beeren 1813 - the game

Battle of Gross-Beeren 1813 - the game   (August 1813/2015)

Peter "the Mathematician" excepted my invite for a go at our rules 'GdC' to see his new charts in action ( well, I created the charts based on his calculations of the dice variables).

Reynier's Saxons and French engaged with the Prussians of Bulow's corps 

The historic Napoleonic Battle of Gross-Beeren during the autumn campaign of 1813, was the large battle which ended the French move by Oudinot to take Berlin.  Oudinot's various corps travelled in parallel routes in a very Napoleon inspired method but failed to have each support each other, and thus, Reynier's corps of Saxons and French move toward the town of Gross-Beeren was not supported by either Oudinot himself from the west, nor Bertrand who was moving to Blankenfeltle, some 5 km ( 4 miles) to the east who emerging from forest was content to occupy the Prussians there rather than help Reynier's 'middle column'.

Bulow's corps is the three blue blocks on the upper centre of the map.  Gross-Beeren "Gr-Beeren" and the small windmill symbol forms the centre of the battle, while Dohschule's Division of Tautentzien holds Blankenfeltle aka Blankenfeld and which forms the game table

As Bertrand did little that day and the few Prussians facing him were content with that situation with all of the Prussian Bulow's large corps now able to face Reynier without interference, most scenarios often ignore that area and concentrate around Gross-Beeren itself.  However, that would mean too few elements for the afternoon, so I gave Peter and myself a bit more to play with!

The town is Gross-Beeren with the Windmill Hill off to the left off camera.  Blankenfeld is off to the right.  We see the Saxon division Sahr (left) and Durette's French division (right) initially engaging the lead Prussian elements.  

The short synopsis of the game is that it surprisingly went much like the historical battle.  While the Prussians overall had some numeric advantage - 24 elements to the French 20 - Bulow with his 17 could take on Reynier's 10 while Bertrand and his 10 element strong corps made no headway against the smaller Prussian all Landwehr force holding Blankenfeld.

I took the French side while I gave Peter the opportunity to use the larger Prussian force.  Like Bertrand, I was met with effective cannon fire ( rolling well, Peter took out my leading light horse which prompted a corps morale rolled which, I my usual style, I rolled very poorly for and forced me to halt my advance, in file, within the woods.  Again like Bertrand had facing concentrated Pussian artillery fire that day in 1813.  I furthered this poor situation by totally not realizing, until Peter suggested late in the battle as the idea then struck him, to expand into the woods to work around staggered lead brigades!  The elements in the woods would be disordered and more trouble to order about so not ideal but could in time give combat to the Prussian and earlier moves might have changed things perhaps.  However, I could now see Bertrand's issues that day in 1813.

Wurttemburger's of Bertrand's corps.  These are Perry plastics with modified Austrian shakos - they had gone to this shako from the helmet in 1813. I scraped off all the Austrian cockades and such and added a small lozenge badge.  With the distinctive Austrian roll cut off the pack and removal of the Austrian canteen, together with a couple of the bottom buttons scraped off the tunic to allow the Wurttemberg half-lapel.... the Perry plastics make great models of these German troops. 

one of Fontanelli's Italian brigades disordered in the woods

My Reynier in the meantime faced against Peter's Bulow, who was allowed to deploy very close to the town. Historically heavy rain masked his advance made easy by Reynier's thought that the day was done and allowed his Saxons and French troops to start to bivouac!

heavy action at 'Windmill Hill' located just west of Gross-Beeren

As a rules note, the new command allowance give more pips for larger commands than we have used previously, and while players will enjoy more allowed play with all their elements, sometimes a lot of 1s on the dice, can really be troublesome if they have a big command!  However, like Bulow, Peter managed his large but not overly powerful force with a lot of finesse as it had many very fragile Landwehr (militia) units.

new markers include small green flags (same construction as the white ones) which, by adding or removing, allow for a more gradual step-down of the important Command Morale modifier die with each loss of a command's elements. The small "4 d" indicator provides players a reminder of the # of dice to roll for each command {important should a player have multiple commands to play).  The wheel indicates the artillery is limbered and thus can/has moved.

Prussian Landwehr cavalry.  Calpe Miniatures with "English shakos" in the rear.  I received these in a trade. They match well with the Perrys. 

However, battles go to those with the bigger battalions as the saying goes, and the Prussian numbers came into play.  Interestingly Peter, like Bulow in this battle, thought the open left flank of Reynier was key, which Reynier - and I - had no reserves to match; and like the Saxon division holding that area, my Saxon elements were obliged -- well, OK, forced by my adverse Command Morale losses -- to fall back.  Again, like the actual battle.  Love the confirmation of the historic outcome.

The French in retreat.  Rather more organized than in reality......

Like a house on fire

Napoleonic warfare had more than its share of town fighting and many of the major battles these were a focal point in the action.  The vivid descriptions of fire, smoke and carnage are abound in battle histories with the phrase"charred remains" somewhere in the final chapter.

Up to this point, we have not dealt with fire and its effects in the rules.  For fun, however, I quickly and without very much effort into them, made a few "the roof on fire" markers using thin black card - from product packaging -  and dyed wool probably designed for burning tank wrecks, and creasing the card in half, these can be placed on the roofs and look OK I think.

When showing these to the boys, immediately the discussion moved to how the rules could be changed/ added to employ these new markers.  Again I kinda put the cart before the horse.  However none of the proposed ideas grabbed me and so I will not complicate the rules with the addition of fire to the combat.  Might still place these on the buildings for fun!

New "combat dice"

Only the most devoted OCD type wargamer might be pressed to:  a) need to buy and create a new dice model for his game and b) make a blog post about it.  Actually I have CDO.  It is exactly like OCD but letters are in the correct *bleeping* order!  -grin-

Anyway, I have had many kind comments about good looking game(s) I put on last weekend.  I did notice, to my eye anyway, the glaring red of the dice we use for combat adjudication on the tabletop.  We use special d6s with three sides having '0's.  Never gave much thought to them but the red quite shows in photos. So.....

The old red dice along with the new blacks

I decided that I must work on that.  Therefore I went to the local hobby store, bought a box of Chessex brand black d6 and proceeded to fill in the 4, 5 and 6 sides with black paint and then some gloss for durability.  Black was chosen to match with the thick black sides of our bases and markers.

black to match

OCD alert: while I would have filled in the pip divots with perhaps putty or such to make the '0' sides smooth, I felt this would compromise the weigh issue of the dice and well be too much effort to do correctly.  so I must live with seeing the old pips.

with the old reds

and now only with the blacks with the upper most die showing a nil effect

From the usual wargamer vantage point however I think they look OK and show well enough if the player will gain any advantage from the dice.

GdC mass look

Like the new Sam Mustafa rules of "Blucher", our home-brew Napoleonic era "GdC  General de Corps" could be much like a 6mm game but in this case set to a 28mm figure sizing.

The photo shows a French attack on the Allies position at Waterloo with D'Erlon's attack in column with Milhaud's entire heavy cavalry corps in column alongside its right flank. Each stand represents a brigade.  Each has a small black die whose pip number can be changed to indicate any change in status and the green labels show the commander of each and are only temporarily attached and thus can be changed according to the battle/scenario.

The new turn dial

Knowing the game turn seems to be a universal question most asked at any game.  "What turn are we on?".  So recording of said event is important.  I have seen various methods employed:  coins collected from pockets,  pebbles aligned in groups,  crudely scratched upon the back of the rule book, and such.  Of course dials of varying forms are most likely and I have been employing one given to me by a club mate which is basically two weak fridge magnets with card glued upon, the upside with a printed Napoleonic tri-coleur flag photocopied on the face.  Did the trick of course.

But a couple of days ago I just HAD TO go to the local game store to see what new items ( and sale items! ) they had, and to use up a gift certificate. "Dear, you want to go shopping?" Once I mentioned the area, she knew, but decided to come along away.....

Now as I buzzed around the store like a very excited and confused hamster before she got too bored, I found the '4Ground' display and came across their turn dial.

 It is simply two pieces of plywood joined together by strong mini magnets which keep the wood together but still able to turn as to expose each number.  A tab allows for positioning.

Well I liked the concept so I bought it and with my OCD kicking in, I of course had to do my thing to "blend it" into the table as not to have visual distractions.

Without spending much time on this, I painted the edges black, the tab brown, added my "earth" putty and flocking, and deciding that I wanted a bit of extra weight as not to allow the number to be changed should an accidental nudge be made, I added an existing lead Prussian casualty.  Actually the dial seemed too plain and I thought of the extra 'dead' to place on top.  I have plastic dead types but this Prussian was already painted and in hindsight the weight effect is a good by-product !

While close to the action in this photo, the dial will be no doubt placed in the corner of the table but hopefully not too eye distracting.

Quote of the day:  I have CDO.  It's exactly like OCD but all the letters are in the g*d**n correct alphabetical order !!   <grin>

Examples of our Napoleonic Markers

I like the use of subtle markers on the table rather than any paper notations or obvious coloured objects to distract from "the look" of the tabletop.

These do not have to be elaborate affairs nor do they need much effort to create.  I have done much of the work of these while waiting for the wife to finish dressing before going out,  and such.  Ten minutes of quick gluing a bit here and there can add up to finishing these mini-projects.

In our last game, Seth and I found that our corps morale requirement required us to remember which corps needed to test the following turn.  Even with only two of us and a quiet environment, we had to resort to an ad-hoc marker to remind us.  Seth finally suggested perhaps a flag or something, joking that it could be a white flag... as I was about to conduct my first test..... har, har....

A good idea nonetheless , I looked at what materials I had at hand.  Lots of those GW plastic bases with thick black edges so keeping with our basing look.  I have plastic toothpicks so, picking out the green ones as not to need paint for quick practicality and for that subtlety, mind you.. I cut them into half as height is not really the issue and hot glued them onto the plastic bases.  I cut some paper into flag shaped bits and wrapped it around the toothpick while creating the wind-wave (this I did while during commercial breaks in between my rare viewing of TV - I have no sympathy for those who say they have no time...lots of time if not wasted...rant over ).   Finally terraining the base itself to blend it into the environment.

The photo shows the 'Corps Morale' marker in action along with some of the twenty I created to cover any size of game hopefully.

The other markers are for the other various conditions;  the square blocks for, well, formations in square;  the abandoned pack for disorder, the wagon wheel for limbered status of the artillery and the ball bearings indicating ammunition status, previously required.

close up of the various markers for our Napoleonics game