a Tercey battle

The Tercey Campaign:  fictional solo game : Battle of Sticksley

With the return of the main armies to the Shire, and Earl of Rockforth’s Red faction’s command of the area, the Tawney party was on its heels.  However the knowledge of one of the Red’s wagon was a prize to tempting not to resist,  and so Lord Pomsby sought to plan its ambush near the town of Sticksley.
The area was very flat and with crops not of any height, he needed to place his ambush units some distance and widely spaced.  Longe’s Musketeers were to be the main unit, hidden as it was in a graveyard near the important crossroads.  Ballard’s Pike were to march from its hidden location to block the bridge and support Longe.  Ballard’s Shotte would then advance from its hiding of a farm house to the creek’s far edge offering protection as it would offer volleys into the flank of the enemy column.

Robarte's Shotte at the bridge

The Red column was led by Urry’s experienced horse.  However there seemed to be no overall command of the column which was to led to problems during the battle. The wagons for example continued their slow trek only to clog up the bridge and be lost in during the battle.

Urry's horsemen about to be shot upon by Longe's musketeers

The battle commenced with Longe’s very effective volley into the surprised horsemen. The following column too were put into confusion by the start of the fighting, rolling not to activate at all.  Bravely charging their tormentors, Urry’s horsemen, hurled themselves at Longe but the musketeers calmly met the charge.  Urry’s remaining troopers morale finally collapsed as they fell back to the bridge now cluttered with wagons, packhorses and men from the musketeers of Robartes Regiment. The latter had advanced to meet Ballard’s counterparts who had rapidly moved through an early growth wheat field to line the creek edge.  They would continue to shoot at each other for most of the remainder of the battle bravely matching casualties.“the valley was all smoke and fire such as the bowels of hades” wrote one participant, “and such bravery the devil himself could not conceive”
(Successive courage tests were passed regardless of the casualties)

Ballard's await word to advance.  The sheep look on.

Tawny forces converge on the Red position at the bridge. Longe is in the field on the left, Ballard along the creek on the right, Ballard's Pike coming down the road.  Robarte's red-coated shotte facing Ballard while the useless Nerne dragoons are unable to find ammunition to fire upon Longe's unit in the field. The abandoned wagon blocks the bridge.

While Robarte’s Shotte was effective, Nerne’s Dragoons were still on the far side of the creek, the wagon abandoned at the bridge, its horses shot down and driver having legged it.

Robarte’s officer now ordered a retreat hoping to take the remaining pack animals back to the other side of the creek to safety but obviously his men’s ardour overwhelmed them. (I sought to have the unit save themselves but it failed its move activation!) It took further casualties and a courage test to have them break and run.

Meanwhile, Nerne’s Dragoons, true to form based on their rather poor previous performances in battle, failed numerous activations and stood about without effect. (it failed 70% of its activations this game!)

Pomsby's ambush has been a success. The wagon, not surprisingly stocked with liquor, was quickly ransacked by the troops.  An officer managed to recover one bottle of claret which the Lord accepted gracefully. He toasted the troops for their victory which was met with resounding cheers. The Tawneys may have found their new leader to challenge the command of the Earl of Rockforth’s dominance of the Shire.

Walk in the woods..

With our penchant for ‘Rampanty” rules, the new “Rebels and Patriots” was exciting so JimF brought over his French and Indian Wars figures for a go.  I played the French while Peter took the ‘Injuns’ while Clayton commanded most of the British with Jim handling the single cannon (as he suggested he would be doing enough to consult the rules)

Now as with all Rampant rules, a poor die roll will most likely change things immensely.  Clayton found that out as his Provincials ran off very early in the game (and later, Jim’s cannoneers would but sit around failing many successive activations  (no more ammunition perhaps??) .

The French on the left, British Highlanders in the distance facing the natives (right)

Peter’s natives flittered about in the wood edge targeting the aggressive highlanders which Clayton could not seem to get into contact.  Meanwhile my French “marines” (regulars of the New France) performed light infantry duties against the Highlanders also while my Coureur de Bois (skirmishers) harassed the British light gun.

"the eagle's view"

The big units of natives did well, and the Highlanders finally gave way but not until one unit was totally eliminated!  The new way of testing for morale certainly can result in lots of loss before breaking….as long as you roll well, of course……

Flying and Dying

Once again a game of Canvas Eagles the other day.  And once again, I fail as a pilot.
First plane…blew up. I drew the wrong ‘red chit”
Second plane…on fire and would crash. Started as smoke but of course I would roll a 1, not to extinguish, but to have it turn into a blaze!

My Sopwith Triplane on fire over the lines and above my custom made stand

Overall, a typical game for me. Planely tragic......

Plunder, sir!

I love the movie "Waterloo" (1970) I was very young seeing it for the first time but already I was a confirmed military history buff.  I still think it a very good movie for the accuracy of the uniforms, history and even the acting portrayals of the characters. (Having read some of Napoleon's letters, his 'ranting' on screen is not far off the mark!) Alright, the terrain of the Ukraine is not correct for the battle site but can't have everything! The famous building important to the battle were good however.

One of the humorous scenes is when Wellington questions a soldier of the Inniskilling Regiment about the contents of his pack. The soldier had just plundered a pig and sought to defend his hopeless position to the commander-in-chief.

Wargaming mate, WillB, won, as the club door prize, the Warlord figure done for the Historicon 2015 convention and was kind enough to present him to me.  I just HAD to do it up quickly!

I put it in behind my element of the Inniskilling which represents Lambert's Brigade.  'Wellington' is a Essex French officer of which I heavily carved the bicorne to more represent the distinctive curvature of the headdress.

"I knew something queer wa' scratching me back..."

The Inniskillings is my representative unit for Lambert's Brigade at Waterloo

here is the scene from the movie:
link to Youtube movie scene

Near a bridge in Russia....

"Where are we, Francois?", the recruit asks of his veteran friend.  "Near a bridge somewhere in Russia which the Major is ordered to control. That is all I know and that is more than you need to know", responded the much older and worn French cavalryman.

This could only be the exchange between the miniatures, as I dragged them out of the box, about the rather simple scenario I came up with placing the terrain randomly upon the green mats.  As we would have WillB's Russians ( Perry metals ) and JimF's newly painted French (Essex metals) along with my French (Perry) plastics, the small wooden bridge was called the objective for the game.  Honestly it was only going to be a playtest of sorts for our "Hussar Rampant" rules; these really just a minor version from the popular 'Lion Rampant' medieval rules.

WillB's Russians on the left, JimF's dragoons near the bridge, and my French lights centre top

Will pushing his Russian cuirassiers into position while Jim's dragoons cross the stream.

Now this version has had many editions as I struggled to give them a more horse and musket formal feel to them and thus, they got more complicated.  My final version got so complicated that I believed them somewhat unplayable!  However, the new 'Rampanty' rules of "Rebels and Patriots" has a new and brilliantly simple incorporation of random charge movement with the activation which, in a head-slap moment, solved many of the issues which I struggled with.  Essentially, as you make your charge activation, the two-dice total you rolled also indicates the total inches you can move in that charge.  The higher the dice total the further your unit can move.  It can also come to pass that your unit, while able to charge, was slow off the mark and could come up short to actually contacting the enemy.  Oops. Such is friction of war.  This randomized movement also works very well for evades; so now units further away probably have a greater chance to get away but the chargers may still catch them.  Now incorporated seamlessly in the rules, any complicated ordering sequence is unnecessary.

With that rule in place we were joined by DennisC taking one of Will's commands and off we went charging about.  Jim had to cross a small stream, worried about my "Death in Rough Terrain!!" rule......he passed the rolls without issue!.  The armoured cuirassiers are tough buggers, units die quickly but usually stick around for awhile, and counter-charges are important...are some of the things we learnt.

My depleted Chasseurs, having failed their charge activation,  hold up the larger number of  Hussars behind them

The white clad Russian cuirassiers charge in. The French fail to make a mark on them.....

...so the cuirassiers could meet my hussars, and attached commander, next turn. 

But while we maintained formations, the movement was point-to-point without the care of wheeling or changes of facing.  Not what we might consider for the "formal formations and tactics of the day" but it was simple, and lessened any complications to the moves.  The rules seemed to work and all the players had fun without issues.

"Frankensteins" painted

....my new "Frankenstein" militia Grenzers painted.  Made from various extra parts -see previous post for details.

on the painting stick

and on the table ready to engage the French dismounted dragoons

advancing 

Perry plastic dismounted dragoons move along a road unaware they now have opposition on the tabletop

My little frankensteins

OK, Mary Shelley I am not.   However, I do feel similar to her character, Dr. Frankenstein.   He of the famous fictional novel created life and horrified by what he has made ( the low-key button-counter in me). And like in Frankenstein, this monster was a composite of parts grafted together from cadavers of various abandoned plastic sprues.  It is with these that I have created these... ahem….Napoleonic Hungarian Militia.

my original prototype

They are, of course, an abomination from the historical but perhaps close enough to act the role.

The list of body parts:
Legs: Warlord ancient Celtic warriors (c.1st century BC)*
Torso: Warlord War of Spanish Succession (c 1700 AD)**
Arms: Perry French Dismounted Dragoons (c 1809 AD)***
Hat: extras from Perry box

Cartridge Box: cut from discarded sprues

Canteen: cut off from previously altered Austrian infantry (c 1809 AD)

author notes:
*I had picked up a bunch of these half-built ancients from the B&B but were left with lots of legs remaining.  Very odd posing due to excessively bent knees and the top of the hips at a 45 degree angle - or more!  The creations certainly have a Games Workshop Orc-ish pose look to them.  Monsters indeed!
** These torsos are offered as a few alternatives within the Warlord WSS boxes. Luckily a group of us collected enough to allow me to have sufficient amount of one type to make 24 of these in total.
*** These Perry arms are one-part with both arms/hands attached to the weapon so specific to their dismounted dragoon body.  I happened to try these onto the extra Warlord WSS torsos and they fit surprisingly well and thus unexpectedly launching this whole project.


I loosely describe them as Hungarian to justify the ankle-tight trousers of the Celts. The Hungarians were known for similar attire.   Unlike official or parade ground proper uniforms, reality would be a different story with unfulfilled supply especially to the lower rungs of the military establishment.  It is my thinking that Hungarian militia would be very low indeed on the priority list and so liberties in their equipment could be made.    Yes, the corsehut hat was probably not worn by any Hungarians but so very definitively Austro-Hungarian as not to use!  As fashionistas say: the headdress makes the outfit!

I think I will go the 'traditional' red-brown tunics, light blue tight trousers of the Hungarians, and black belts to have them "blend in with true Napoleonics". The heavy cavalry gloves (too much of a pain to modify) will be painted as red cuffs and flesh coloured hands.  As the saying goes: a layer of paint hides all sort of imperfections!

So my existing French Dismounted Dragoons ( link ) will eventually have an opposition in my little frankensteins

Sengoku battle

Fictional Battle of Zenrokkumura

Oh, this is but one of the multitude of minor squabbles occurring during the Sengoku period of Japanese history - the time of the classic Samurai we all know and game.

Having no idea who will show at host’s Francis’ place, the scenario has to be, well, ‘loose’ to allow for various number of players.  I deployed a triad of forces, with small one in the village to protect the sacred ‘Zen White Stone’ , the other equally matched forces on each side.

The village defended by the Oyamada.  The Zen white rock with stool in the center. Peasants to the left, Samurai at lower right.  

Being a Lion Rampant game, it is hard to describe the action but the Okurdaira and the Takeda aimed for each other while controlling the Oyamada protecting the village I sought to stay out of the fight only entering once one side was weakened thus being on the winning end ( much like Stanley at Bosworth Field )

The mass of Takeda early in the game.  I ignore the 3" rule....obviously.

But like any plan, it went for nought, as while Rene left my Samurai alone as he moved against DaveS’ and Kev’s red and white flagged Okurdaira,  his compatriot Francis promptly charged my Oyamada samurai and lost the combat.  “They are samurai?!” Francis exclaimed in his defence,  “I thought they were peasants. Aren’t peasants easy to kill?”

The Takeda mounted Samurai (Kingsford Miniatures)

Okudaira army advances ( the red/white sashimono was a common theme for several clans it would appear)

However with that, I decided to help the Okurdaira but as I came out of the village DaveS and his Okurdaira teppo (handgunners) then shot at me “They were the nearest and best target!” he would say.  You do get the idea that these players do not care a wit about strategy and just want “to throw dice and kill things”

I retreated but to the village to let them sort it out, which, after quite the bloodbath, the Takeda with their black flags, won the attrition battle.

WAT the heck am I doing?

I ask myself, "What the heck am I doing?"   "Well", I answer myself, "having fun, and besides, you already got some tanks do you not?!"

The why and how is of course the all-tank game "What a Tanker" which has been nicely promoted by Craig within The Club for the past months. He set up a very nice looking game at the local hobby store last week with a lay out of a town and hill for the Shermans and PzkwIIIs to roam around.   Interesting choices based on your dice rolls.  I managed with my little 'ol Sherman to come up behind a German PzkwIII within the streets of the town to blast its backside and later played a very, very close dance with another German.   So close that he could not shoot at me as his barrel could not rotate enough in the small street!
He backed up, I hit him well, but not sufficient to render him hor-de-combat and with only throwing two command dice, got exactly the right combo of rolls to take me out. Sigh.

Stoked by the game,  I immediately thought of gaining my own model.   Interestingly I already have models I bought very cheaply a few years ago at the B&B and planned to use the KV-1b as a Leman Russ for my small 40K contingent. I spent a bit of time yesterday refurbishing that model to have the commander either in a open hatch or with a cover for buttoned up - which is an important distinction in the rules.

I also have a T-34 but not a great model and a previously built (by others)  Panther but it is not painted. All models are 1:56 scale as is played at club.

Generally I don't play in WW2 games as the rules tend to be complicated, the size of game way too large to play safely in an evening and I have no interest in expanding my collections in that direction.  But with these rules, one tank is all it should take to have a fun lengthy game -  assuming you don't run into a big gun with hot dice early!

My refurbished KV-1b with (ahem) a MDF wooden base as the commander's hatch cover.  Dodgy construction and painting but it was cheap enough at the B&B.

with commander in place (yes, yes a 'Valhallan' 40K model but close to the part), the ad-hoc hatch cover (it has to be thick enough to vacillate easy removal if needed), and the "required" color-matching dice for Russian command rolls!.

a French unit of the AWI

Left over plastic bits and bobs can be useful, even for the ‘metal’ crowd.  I this case I had years ago built an American Revolution French force for the siege of Savannah in 1779.  I had moved away from that project but had one last unit primed and ready to paint.  But with sprue full of extra Zulu (read: negro) plastic heads available I was now able to create the rarely seen Chasseurs-Voluntaires de Saint-Domingue which played a role covering the French re-embarkment.

Clipping off the metal hats, then heads, of the Front Rank figures, I inserted the plastic heads. I wanted some variety from the identical heads so did not try to be too exact in the cuts.  In hindsight I probably should have done a more identical approach as the other Front Rank French have a straight ahead, ‘no-neck’ look to them.  I guess I have been influenced by the more recent ‘realistically proportioned’ renderings than the style of the decades old “thick and squat” sculpting style epitomized by old Front Rank poses.

As you can see, I took the photo shortly after gluing but before adding a black undercoat so the work can be better seen.  I will eventually get to them but no real rush as they have currently no opponent to battle with!

Saxon forces of the GNW

During the holidays I finally finished my Saxony contingent for the Great Northern War for which two of the local boys independently started the same project.  They twisted my ‘rather rubber wargame arm’ to have me create some reinforcements for WillB’s Russians to face the fury of KevinA’s elite Swedish foe.

For the most part the other two have used Warlord’s (ex-Wargames Factory) plastic WSS figures and I have followed in that path and also altered my usual painting style to give them a very basic paint coat then cover the lot with Army Painters ‘Soft Tone’ (from the small bottle)  While it certainly darkens the tones, it provides a similar effect as the other collectors forces.

It might be noted that they were rebased from individual stands to square multiples (40mm) given the more formal lines of battle.   I have large enough force of line infantry and cavalry and contingents of dragoons and grenadiers along with artillery support to satisfy most of our scenario requirements.

Fun minor project and interesting to gather the campaign and indeed uniform information as it is one of the few major wars I was not really familiar with.  I like the colour red so this would be the army for me, it would appear!

Saxon cuirassier without their red overcoats!

newly painted dragoons

My red coated mass of the Electorate of Saxony c 1706

Me and dice

No Year-in-Review for me.  I painted lots in 2018 but didn't make any lists. During previous years I made lists of unit 'birthdays' but going back upon them I would remember painting a particular unit but, what!?  that was five years ago?!! How the *bleep* did the time go by? I do not want to be reminded......

But while continued painting and playing was moderately consistent, so to was my dice luck.  A funny thing with me and dice:  I roll very poor dice. Very poorly.  I won’t even think of getting near a craps table.  I rolled 36d6 consecutive dice recently in a game without recording a 6 among them (.014% chance of doing that apparently I was reminded)

So when depositing two new dice on my wargame table from my pocket - a gift from our LFGS hobby store owner - I was not surprised when both icons representing the ‘1’ came up.  For me the ‘6’ is always hidden…….

Cavalry for Waterloo

Once on roll, I continue to gather figures until…. well I was going to say “until it gets ridiculous”,…. but I often even go beyond that.

With plastics and all the conversion possibilities which I enjoy creating,  I have now have a sizeable force of Napoleonic cavalry to do battle with each other and to fill in when necessary for our bring-what-you-can games.

Newly created British 16th Light Dragoons.  Selected as they were the among the first of the Allies to come to the rescue of the British Union Brigade after their famous and foolish charge early in the Waterloo battle. 

All my units on 'parade' (except for the tardy Belgian Light Dragoons to be painted)

French Chasseurs (Perry plastics)

French cuirassiers

Dutch Light Dragoons made from various plastic bits (early British bodies, Russian shakos, French plumes and medieval horses....)

a single unit of French Hussars.  

Another view of the whole lot with the Allies to the left and French on the right.  All plastics.  I might blow out a back disc if I were to carry it all if metals!

"Is this not the same village, Francois?"

...."Ah, all these Russian villages look the same in this d*amned snow!"

photos from a replay of my Retreat from Moscow game on Monday night

bands of angry Russian peasants

Retreat from Moscow - the game

Well after a vacation to warmer climes, what type of game would you think I would like to do?  Something with steamy jungles? Perhaps an amphibious landing on a nice tropical beach? No, I decide upon the frozen tundra of Russia….. and the famous Retreat from Moscow of the Grande Armee!

To be honest, the vacation had little to do with it.  It really all started with a large white tablecloth I have had for years, and a chance encounter with WillB at the club when he was selling (giving away, really) some of his Perry ‘Retreat’ figures.  I couldn't resist. When I heard that the Seattle convention of “Enfilade!” theme is to be ‘Winter’ , well…….heck.

With my interest, Will later traded with me some further of his Retreat collection…seeing my weakness :}

The Perrys do packs of six foot and three horse, so I choose to continue that organization of units as not to make the whole project overwhelming.  In any rules, you can have various means “stretch out” the elimination of figures/units and I did not see the need for masses on the table.  This game is to be a lonesome party of stragglers in small units seeking a different way home from the mass of the disintegrating French army.

Because of the small numbers, or perhaps because of them, I saw this as another of my “convention games” to be played in a noisy environment by a bunch of guys not necessarily up on any particular rules or even the period at hand.  Certainly I feel overly complicated and ‘accurate simulations’ don’t really work at big events so I opt to simple and easy to command rules.  This often means I will need to make them myself to fit the type of game and the numbers I have.
So, in this case, while the Russians (mainly peasants as that is what I ended up with) could be commanded indeed by other players, it proved interesting putting them on “auto-pilot” by using a chart and basing their ‘commands’ on proximity to the enemy and a die roll to see how they react.

The rules, brief as they were, with myself putting in about a half hour of thought were kinda based on the ideas of Lion Rampant (with low amount activation, differing hits equal casualty amounts and differing abilities).  **spoiler - they proved to work very well indeed.

The individual groups of survivors make their way past a lonely Russian village through the snow of a Russian winter.....

Of course the other things to create the game are the painting and the terrain.  The painting was necessitated by Will’s units already done.  But this actually proved a blessing because while not my usual style, it gave me inspiration to keep it simple and basic.  Then, from examples of other painters of frozen conditions, dry-brush a light grey over all areas to give them a ‘cold’ look.  Thus unusually for me, I have another’s painting in my collection.

The 'Poles' leading groups of French dismounted cavalrymen and French infantry towards the lone bridge and survival

Russian Jagers behind the houses of the village.

As mentioned the ‘mat’ is a white tablecloth I had.  Not realistic, but practical.  The Russian houses were plastic ‘Pegasus’ types previously painted by me but not to my satisfaction so they were very much “re-purposed” covered in white paint and model snow.  The Russian church I had built a while back (see: my previous post on the church build)  also became “re-purposed” and covered like-wise. Undeveloped x-ray film provided by a doctor gaming-buddy of mine years and years ago (obviously as they are now have been digital for decades) provided the cold water stream.

OK, the game.
Firstly I told Will, Jim and Peter there are no morale rules.  Units can fight on until all the figures are eliminated.  The rational is thus:
“In these frozen winter depths of despair, if you surrender the enemy will certainly kill you.  If you run, it is into the white wilderness.  To give up is to die frozen.  The only option is to keep fighting until the bitter end or continue your trek home….”

Having no morale in the rules, certainly makes everything a whole lot simpler!

While not really ‘morale’ I put in a simple rule that units sustaining the most casualties in combat or any from shooting will retreat back a full move.  That simple rule, ended up to be used tactically by the players to ‘push’ the Russians out of the way in many cases thus shooting but so losing a turn of movement just to clear a better path.

My repurposed church and leafless plastic trees in the background

Movement and shooting distances are determined according to my painted wood dowels.  Surprisingly the only things NOT to chance within the game!  And, of course, painted as to 'blend in' to the terrain.  My OCD of wargaming.....

The winner is the player with the most figures off the far end of the table.  Jim, selected the mounted French contingent and the ‘Remnants’ (of the GrandeArmee) .  His cavalry raced literally directly through the countryside so having the terrain potentially causing harm.  But as I was rolling.... and sixes were needed, so he worried unnecessarily….( I think at one point I threw 48 consecutive dice and came up with only three individual 6s and so not enough to wound, let alone eliminate a single figure….)

Jim sat back to watch Peter and Will leap-frog each other, fighting off the peasants and the much tougher Russian Jager regulars.  Yes, the Cossacks were there (of course!) but insisted to but be merely be a presence and only coming into range once to be shot up by Will’s commanded ‘Old Guard’.  Surprisingly to all the players, after initial fears of being slaughtered, Will and Peter exited with the same numbers as Jim so all were considered survivors …until perhaps the next village is encountered!

The "Old Guard" appropriately providing the final rearguard.

Some good ideas for further betterment of the rules were offered and so I will go into the next game with Version B and knowledge it will probably work for a good game and entertainment of the players.