Game 18 : Aspern Essling day two

Only a few pictures for this game. Day 2 differed in that the Austrian reserve was now used, more cavalry and more good infantry in the Grenadiers of the reserve. In game terms, the new kit made the action in the centre more even in the sense that the Austrians felt confident to advance, albeit slowly over the 2 days of gaming.
However, as before, the main action revolved around the two main villages, neither of which were to fall to the Austrians. Aspern was especially memorable for all the luck going the French way and when the Austrians needed something not to go wrong, it went wrong. Typical gaming really!
The following piccies are snippets of the action, much akin to the action in day 1.

Above shows three Austrian columns trying to attack Aspern directly and the reserve Grenadiers trying to flank the village. The crux of this fight was the heroic defence of the church with luck from somewhere and the failure of the column near the nearest village to take it when 2 of the 3 battalions ordered to charge decided to stay still!

This shows the height of the attack on Essling. The Granary would hold firm throughout the 2 days of gaming and the French even launched a counter-attack to regain the portions of the village lost on the first day of battle.

More of a panoramic view of the battlefield. The centre was a bit of a stand off, but the French reserve cavalry did eventually move out and blunt the initial Austrian advance in this sector.
The game worked as envisaged and all the rules and mechanisms used so far are indeed working well.

Last, but not least, the guys playing the game. Two new guys to the Situation room and Nick and John, standing and sitting respectively on the left.
Aspern Essling has now been put away and a whole new game has been set up. This will the biggest challenge to date. There are 12 players, some who have played the new rules and some who have not. All of the rules will be used, essentially this means bringing in the command and control and order rules. I'm sure this is going to cause some pulling out of hair as master plans get thrown into confusion because the player cannot do what his eyes tell him to do because he failed to instigate the order. Lots of fun, I hope!
The battle itself was a secret as I produced a map, OBs and got one of the players to come up with the allied plan based on a strategic overview, tactical information currently available and an OB. Now that I have the plan and the game starts tomorrow, if the guys read this they will find out it is Austerlitz.

Lets see what happens!!!!!

Games 12-17 Aspern Essling : revisited 6 times!

Starting at Easter, Napoleonics started in earnest. A major driving influence was the fact that the new rules were ready for play testing. Having a stable environment for play testing rules is crucial, hence the first day of Aspern Essling got fought at least 6 times. Some of the guys are now happy that I've at least moved to day 2 of Aspern Essling where the armies have changed and the challenges are subtly different.
I won't go into vast details about the rules as explanations of changes could be nearly as long as the rules themselves. Suffice to say that most areas have been subject to significant change and their are some totally new aspects, namely a full set of rules for command and control, the treatment of Generals and the definitions of terrain, especially villages and built up areas.
Moving to the actual battle, the first 3 pictures show the terrain as seen from the river Danube behind the French lines.

The French right flank showing the village of Essling, the Danube and the woods behind it. The Granary is to the left and forward of the village, albeit I still have to find a 10mm model to suit.

 

 

The French centre between the twin villages. Historically, Napoleon found it fairly easy to manoeuvre behind the central road that directly linked the two villages to each other. To reflect this in the game, the road was defined as a form of gentle slope that then affected visibility behind it, accepting that the actual Geography shows know significant feature. The whole ground is open.

This is the French left flank on Aspern, with the church to the extreme left of the village. The streams immediately behind denote the various small branches of the Danube that extended here. The wholes area is deemed to be marshy and suitable for light infantry only.

Austrians forming up to attack Aspern

Austrians prepare to advance in the centre

 

 

Austrians advance on Essling. This shot shows both armies. The French are defending the villages with the cavalry reserve in the centre behind the slope and out of sight.

 

The Austrian advance continues in the centre. Will this goad the French Reserve cavalry into action?

General action around Essling. The Granary is represented by the village section to the left.

 

 

General action around Aspern with the "Church" in the foreground. Villages are now very difficult to take. The new rules make all firms of fire fairly ineffective and the only real way to make progress is with the bayonet.

 

The French cavalry now charged the centre. Some piccies of the event which represents five Cuirassier regiments in what affected to be a divisional charge.

 

 

The result was the breaking of many Austrian units and the complete check of the Austrian advance. The French cavalry then withdrew. In real life, the action looked stunning!

Lastly, a couple of piccies of the gamers. As usual, we drank far too much and ate too much! But a grand time was had!!!!

 

The plan is to now play the second day of Aspern Essling about 3 times. The rules have had slight amendments but I hope the play testing phase will be complete by late Autumn.
Hopefully it won't be 3 months before the next post.









Game 11 : A Sort of Arras

This was an outing for the newly arrived British contingent. The kit now available includes two infantry divisions, an armoured division, an armoured brigade, their supports and some odds and ends. This game was a sort of Arras-Arras! I designed the battlefield to allow a British Inf Div to deploy with three brigades in such a way that the battlefield ended with three natural sectors. The flank sectors were big enough to do a type of Arras ambush.
The British deployed hidden and the Germans arrived in columns along the roads. They had a restriction that no armour could be on table until the action started. The first two piccies show the terrain.

 

 

This is taken from the north. One British brigade centred a defence around the village with a German column arriving from the East (left). This ambush proved to go off with a whimper. British light armour was observed by the head of the column, so only this part suffered any hits. The remainder deployed quickly



This is again from the North with the East to the left. The Germans used all three roads to arrive, with no initial armour. The Germans pre-selected which roads the armour would use when the ambushes were sprung.

This is the Southern flank ambush. A German Flak Btn had advanced down the road with infantry to its front and rear, oblivious to the British in cover until they opened fire. This ambush worked in that it delayed the German advance. The downside was that the troops that had already moved past the ambush point quickly engaged the British further along the road so that this initial force was never reinforced and so was eventually subdued if not quite eliminated.

Above and below are two pictures of the fight in the north. The Germans received random air support, in numbers, quantity and time. The aircraft are a new addition and are the correct scale and the Russian air force has also arrived but has yet to see action. The British, in this sector, were effectively corralled into the village, tying up the best part of two battalions.

The piccy below in from action in the centre. Here, the British adopted an open prison mentality. The whole brigade deployed in the village and its immediate area. This allowed the German to squeeze the flanks and start eliminating the enemy in a piece meal fashion.

Last, but not least, the happy gamers. We had one new player this time, Tim on the right is a Senior Lecturer in Mech Eng (I think). Anyway, in between trying to kill Germans we now know that the concrete around Spaghetti junction is rotten and decaying. Should bolster the economy with some engineering projects!!!



 

All in all, an interesting game because the British infantry can be as good as their German counterparts. This is an extra challenge for the Germans as overall firepower can be matched.

Next, Napoleonics!

An Update

I thought I would add a post as it is quite a while since December. The next game is at Easter, back to WWII and I'll use this opportunity to show more Napoleonic pictures as well as ramble along in no specific direction.
Although the blog has been quiet, the room itself has been a hive of activity and aren't I glad the room is insulated! It has been cold outside! I've been busy with both WWII and Napoleonics. I tackled Napoleonics first as I had over 50 Btns to base and flag. These included the Jaegers, Grenzers, Landwehr and 24 Btns of Hungarian line and 6 of Grenadiers. The line are in 186 man Btns (60 man in old 25mm language). All the Austrian infantry are completed and I have the cavalry to get sorted out.
I then switched to WWII. I completed a German Mot Div of 3 Regts that has some novel attachments and at this very moment I'm labelling a British Infantry Div having already labelled a British Arm'd Div and Independent Tank Brigades.
Lots of aircraft have also been painted for the Russian front, but they can still be used in the West as there was little allied aircraft (my current excuse!).
Here is the first picture

I picked this one for a few reasons. To the right, you can see a French foot battery. For this scale, I am using gun for gun. I've also changed the base widths. I did quite a lot of work to find out actual widths of formations and as with everything else there is a compromise. But not a huge one. Above the guns are French columns attacking. Again, the point of note is that in 10mm, the depth of the Btn is greater to the width when compared to basing in 25mm scale. Does it affect the game/rules. No, the only mechanism that needs to be watched is when executing retreats. In 25mm scale, a Btn in column, if retreating, will clear a Btn immediately behind it in that is also in column. In the above scale, it won't. Does it matter. Not really, if I find it becomes "important" in game play, there are simple quick and easy remedies.
On the left, note the Austrian Btns in line. Proper 3 rank lines. In close up, they really do look impressive (I need a lottery win to get new camera lenses).
I picked the next piccy to highlight something different. On the left you can see a cavalry regiment in column of squadrons with another between the woods. Cavalry no longer move around as single squadrons, they act a regiments. There will be an exception to this when I've play tested cavalry skirmishers which I want specifically for encounter games and also against irregular cavalry (read that as cossacks really).

The villages worked well. They look good and we worked out the firing mechanics. Villages are now defined with a defence factor and a definition of how many figures fire from each side. This worked very well.
One aspect that I have never touched on is storage.

Each tray you see will typically take 12 Btns of infantry or 3 Regts Cavalry. They are purpose made, both length and width from good old simple laminated hardboard. As it turn out, the gaps you see in the trays above are now all filled. If you look between the tables towards the stool, you will see, on the right, 2 major shelves. Underneath, on these shelves, are storage racks into which the trays slot. It makes good use of space and all the terrain is also stored using a similar approach.
The last game we played was a small/medium game but I chose this piccy to show what a Division of infantry, massed in column, looks like. The Austrians to the left are about 10 Btns, the French coming into picture from the right are a similar size. One thing this scale does do is give a real feel for the masses. It looks really good (some might think I'm bound to say that, but it does!).

 

The last piccy is here because it shows a Cavalry melee which is Brigade sized on both sides. Nearby troops sit in square, unsure on how this will all turn out.

 

The current combat system is the same as in classic 25mm with adaptions for numbers, but I will be migrating to a different system. It will be quicker, but I don't think it will be any less exciting, but play testing will tell all. Talking about the rules, my plan is to have a working copy later this year and if it goes really well I'll publish them.
So, its all still go! More later, probably after Easter unless there is a clamour on the blog for more information on anything specific.

Drum Roll.........Napoleonics!

 This was a momentous event for me personally. This was the first Napoleonic gaming, just over two years after the digger started the project off by digging out the foundations for the Situation Room.
The project is far from complete, I doubt it will ever be!
I'll be doing at least three posts on the games that were played last week. We used lots of figures with new terrain and new rules which I hope to eventually publish. Without further delay, I've chosen to start with the fictional battle of Wachau, Leipzig suburb areas in 1813. The armies were French and Austrian.
As an aside, one area that was short of the finished article, was allied cavalry. There was none! So some plucky French types had to pretend and what a pretence they displayed! Picture 1 shows the French left flank with the major suburb area, made up of 4 villages, in the centre background.

The next picture shows the same portion of the front line from the French right flank.

The battlefield became affectionately named the Maginot line as it was difficult to breach. But that was in the game design. I had planned starting with games using Standard Grand Manner Rules, but after a day game to get back into things, everyone wanted to try the new rules. We did not regret doing so!
The next set of pictures are purely to show off some of the figures and the size of the units and overall scale.

This shows a 2 Regiment Brigade of Light cavalry in the foreground. In the background is a Division of Austrian infantry supported to their front by 2 Brigades of Light cavalry of 4 regiments in total.

This is a closer shot of the Austrian infantry Division above. It consists of 8 Battalions, a gun battery and some skirmishers. It amounts to over 1,000 figs alone. We had 16 such sized formations on table for this game.

This shows an Austrian attack on the French right flank. There is a French light infantry battalion deployed in a wood and the main defence is centre on the village.

An Austrian battalion in close up. All told, 150 figures. The allies were fielding 70 such battalions.

This is a closer up shot of the French defence on their right. The defence here eventually developed into a counter-attack!

Just because I like it, this is Wachau, the centre of the French defence line. Deployed in it are the French Guard, you are looking at about 10 battalions.

This shows a more general action on the French left flank where enemy divisions have come to grips in the open terrain. In the new rules, melees can be deadly affairs. The ultimate result in this area was a French victory but you can already see the Austrians bringing up cavalry to stop any further French advance.

A more general view of the action across the front. Everyone thinks the scale looks great with the terrain being used. They really like the "mass" feel of all the figures. The rules also worked well on their first outing. Most mechanics worked, tweaking as we say should see them develop nicely.

And lastly, the guys playing. We're short Bryan, he could only make a day. But we had a great time. This post is a bit of a ramble, all to do with the excitement of getting something posted. As a result, I've jumped all over the place!!! I have many more pictures and another game and so I will take more deliberate time on the next posts. I'll also go through a credit list of who supplied what. So, I'll let you slaver over this for a day or so before I post again!

Game 10 : Nowosselowka Hill 260.8 take 2

This was a re-run of game 9. The reason for this was to see how the game played with different players and different Russian choices. To re-cap, this is part of Grossdeutschland (GD) attacking a hill defended by a Russian infantry division. The Russians get options on reinforcers and each option also determines the class and morale of troops. The options are;
A tank Corps. This option makes all Russians regulars.
Two tank Corps. This option makes the infantry regulars and the armour green.
No tank corps, instead two reconnaissance battalions. This option makes all Russians guards.

Game 9 saw option 2 chosen by the Russians. Although, at times, it looked like the GD would get swamped by Russian armour, the morale was always brittle. The Russians lost about half the armour in game 9.
Game 10 saw the bold decision of having no armour and guards! One immediate consequence was that in the recce part of the game/setup, the Germans found out a lot less of the Russian dispositions. This was an important factor in how the game played.
To see the terrain, refresh yourselves with game 9. The first piccy shows the intrepid players, there would indeed be a casualty of war (well, alcohol really).

Here you can see all of us pontificating on various things. I'm winning the argument, I've got my wicky wicky stick! We are now in the realm of where we don't really need tape measures. I think they look horrible on the table and I've eventually gotten round to making sticks with lots of pretty colours and range bands.
The Russian tactic was to defend the forward village (near where Pete is standing) which is directly forward to the German lines from the centre of the defended ridge line. Then we held the ridge in regimental strength and the shoulders in equal regimental strength.
The German tactic was to refuse their left, screen their centre and put all their effort into a right hook, to take the hill from our left flank and roll up the defensive line.

This shot shows the forward village. This was defended with an infantry battalion and a regimental commissar to stiffen morale. This battle would rage the whole weekend with at least a German motorised battalion and armour support striving to drive out the Russian defenders. More of this later.

This shows the the German right flank from the German side. In shot is about 75% of the German infantry attempting to drive in the Russian left flank. This fight would be protracted with mounting losses for both sides.

 

 

This is the same attack shown from the Russian side. This was the main assault. Our right flank would remain quiet and the fight for the central forward village would last all weekend.

 

 

 

Another shot of that contested village. The Germans drove most of the Russians out, but the village was reinforced with a motorcycle company and is still clinging on to a small part with the aid of a Russian regimental commissar (who would end up surviving).

 

This shot shows more of the hill and the Germans at their high point. They are driving in the Russian flank and gaining a hold on the hill. Its at this point we came to a halt. Another weekend, another interesting result. In fact the result was similar to game 9. The Germans get a firm hold on part of the hill. Historically, the Germans took the hill and then drove off to another emergency. The Russians then walked back onto the hill!
The game was good for the rules and scenario generation. It showed that Russian infantry, of decent morale, with no armour, can hold up/out against the best the Germans have. I can see more ideas coming on now!

 

And the group piccy, missing the alcoholic reprobate! The funny part was that he was supposed to get back to referee a football game. That might have been interesting on match of the day!

Next game up will hopefully be Napoleonic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Lots of work still being done, so watch out for game 11!!!!!!!!!!

Game 9 : Nowosselowka Hill 260.8

This game was based on an actual encounter on the Southern Kursk salient. The Germans are trying to take a strategic hill and the town to its rear which is the local communication centre. The idea to do this came from a Command Post Quarterly article written many years ago. For us intrepid gamers. it was the first time of using Tanks with good killing power and was also a game where the troop density was the lowest we had tried.
The latter was intentional, we were playing with 3 guys on each side (1 Russian was there for a day) and this was a normal weekend, start Friday afternoon and finish Sunday afternoon. One of the objectives was to see if the force/player ratio was balanced and would we get a good result.
So, the Russians are defending a strategic hill with a small town to their rear. The town has level 1 buildings only. The Hill has two contours and so you can see quite a distance from it. All the Russians are dug in.
The Russian forces are based on an Infantry Division with options for what type/number of reinforcements are available. The German forces are based on units from Gross Deutschland, a Panzer Btn, Panzerjaeger Btn, StuG Btn, Infantry Regiment, Reconnaissance Btn & Motorcycle Btn. Both sides have artillery support. Both sides also had air support where the time arrival was not certain and the aircraft type actually arriving was variable.
Changes to the scenario rules (after the broken ones from last game) were tweaks to who and how artillery was controlled and a tweak to visibility rules from buildings and hills. These were small changes but the conclusion after the game was that they worked very well and addressed the prior issues we had found.
On to the battle. The first two piccies show the battlefield.

You are looking East, the Germans attacking from South to North. The town is Nowosselowka

Still looking East, you can see the strategic objective of Hill 260.8. In game terms, the hill is about 6 feet long. The terrain has far fewer buildings than previous encounters and very few woods in the "combat area". There are lots of differing types of fields.

The major town is quite small, all level 1 buildings offering some cover but anything inordinate.
The next piccy shows German forces advancing on the right flank of the hill. It shows a mixed force of Germans and the Russians dug in, marked by their "hidden markers". This idea cam from Grant & Craig in Cornwall. The markers are numbered and there is a matching sheet off table where the troops actually depicted by the numbered markers are placed. The simplicity of this allows for dummy positions as well as real positions. Its amazing how long "nothing" can hold up an advance. The game was also different in that the attacker has to probe in a relatively careful way and balance this against the time taken to actually make headway.

The Germans adopted a fairly sensible approach of attacking, via probes, in three directions. Not surprisingly, these were to the left, right and centre. The picture shows roughly a third of the German forces. As it will turn out, the Russians will have the best part of two regiments defending the main hill. The attack you see made the most headway. Russian reserves were committed against the German right and so this sector was hard going for the Germans (nearly a disaster until the Luftwaffe arrived in the right place at the right time with the right aircraft!!!).
The next piccy shows the above attack as it developed. In essence, some markers were dummies and some were infantry that the Germans forced out of their positions. The piccy shows one of the many hit and run counter attacks that the Russians attempted. The German Marders were rather exposed!

I won't go through everything as this game will be played again. In that report I will go through all the options both sides had, the artillery rules and also how air support worked. Above, the Russians had surprised the Germans who were changing their axis of advance as they were wary of the speed of the Russian armour. But the Russians caught the Germans out.

 

But then Oops!!!!! Without going into too much detail, the Russian shooting was pretty dire. Managed to miss nearly all the juicy targets and then, thwap!!! A series of events that I will expand upon next time, but the whole Russian Brigade was wiped out!!! This somewhat unexpected result immediately exposed the whole of the hill to attack by enfilade, a whole exposed flank waiting to be rolled up.

 

This shows the position when we had to wrap things up. The Russians would lose the hill because of the earlier hiccup! The Germans would not, however, get to take the town. Fairly historical result really, the Germans took the hill and then had to race off somewhere else. Everyone thought the game worked very well, the troop density worked, the "thinking" that was required from both sides was "appreciated" and of course we had a few beers and good food.
I've eluded "loosely" to things like artillery & air support, options etc and will explain more next time as I don't want to influence the next game. All of use who played this game will be Russian next game (they don't know yet) as this will work quite well.

Lastly, but not leas the merry gamers. Special mention goes to Steve as he managed not to smash his head on the steel roof supports!!!! Maybe its because Gordon brought him a helmet!! and Steve thought he'd take the better option? One guy not in the piccy is Darren. He played against me on Saturday driving tanks all around me as well as bringing a Napoleonic village sample. Speaking of which, I will post some piccies of progress in this area. Until next post then..........