Usdau 1914, refought in 6mm

 Righto, we thought.. Great war Spearhead we thought, let's try a new scenario, we thought..  Usdau, 1914, we thought.. seemed vaguely familiar, we thought, but anyway, out came my 6mm armies (Irregular Miniatures), and on we went. 

Only problem.. we chose a scenario we'd already played.. here is the link to the previous game, played with my 20mm armies.

Anyway, a photo record of the action in 6mm

The battlefield seen from the NNW.. Russians defending the high ground to the left, Germans attacking from the right. The rail line running along the table counts as level 1 entrenchments for stands immediately behind it

Usdau is a 3 village sector 'town', heavily occupied by the Russians

The Russian left, more lightly defended than the right, which hangs as an open flank

Jon flank marches two regiments on the right, deep flank marches

A German regiment holds the German right, and a second regiment advances directly towards Usdau

The Russian reserve regiment turns to face the flank march

Fire opens on the Russian right against the flank march (Russians on the left of the photo, Germans advancing on the right)

The German regiment advancing directly towards Usdau comes under fire and begins to take casualties

Jon pushes the advance on the flank

The Russian right flank defenders are also taking fire and casualties

German flanking force is taking signifiant casualties in what is becoming an intense firefight

Russian 'reserve' regiment taking intense fire, including direct artillery fore from 77mm gun batteries that have now unlimbered in support

The defenders of Usdau aa\come under heavy and sustained fire

That German regiment advancing directly on Usdau is feeling the heat, fails a morale check and withdraws

The remnants of the retreating German regiment seen in the upper part of the photo moving away from the camera

Usdau.. it's pretty hot in there now, casualties mounting on the defenders

The scene across the battlefield from behind the German flank march

The German attack had failed, with one regiment having pulled back, and one of the flank marching regiments teetering on the brink of collapse too. However both of the Russian right flank regiments were also just a few stands away from compulsory morale checks. Their larger size saved them, since all of the Russian troops are counted as 'Green'.

Comparing this refight with our 2018 version, the German flank march was stronger this time around, Jon flank marching two regiments. However this meant that the remainder of the Russian force had been pretty much unengaged.

The German task is pretty demanding. The scenario notes comment that the Russian defenders are classified as Green to provide a degree of vulnerability given that the scenario models an open flank for the defenders.  Interesting that in two runs through, the Germans have struggled to take Usdau, or to drive Russian regiments to a morale check.

However, another great game

A couple of very different 6mm 'games

I managed to fit in two games over two nights in my attempt to get a few games before the tyranny of work's time demands kicks in. The first was a four player ACW game played using the Volley and Bayonet rules, and Keith's figure collections. Here a re a few sample photos, no commentary (just lovely armies to look at and to use on the able).

Then Andy and I got together to try to re-acquaint ourselves with the Mantic game Warpath, again using 6mm figures (well, they re all GW Epic figures, and probably more realistically 7mm).

An interesting contrast to the ACW game the night before.

Action on the Peninsular... a 25mm Volley and Bayonet Napoleonic game

Another 'holiday game', in which the 25mm Napoleonic armies (Spanish and French) fought an encounter on the Peninsular. The armies were 3000 points strong, and the battle fought using our Volley and Bayonet rules. In setting up the table, I tried to create more open space (I tend to 'overpopulate' the table with terrain. I thought it would be interesting however to put down a river, with a couple of pieces of 'marshy bank' clearly marked. The river however completely shaped the battle, allowing the French commander (Jon) to adopt an unassailable position formed as he 'refused' his right flank after the initial deployment. Certainly it was beyond the power of the linear Spanish infantry to assault the French, which passed the initiative to the French. 

Jon assaulted on his left, where he redeployed two brigades of French Guard (M6 Shock troops) in response to a Spanish attack. The Spanish division deployed on their right withstood the first assaults, but then fell apart to the French attacks. One telling factor was the relative movement speeds of the linear infantry versus the massed infantry. This allowed Jon to act more quickly than we could manage.

The battlefield, French on the left, Spanish on the right

Spanish infantry take a town on the Spanish right, hoping to make this a bastion to hold up the flank, while another divisions attempted to hook around the French left

The flanking Spanish can be seen on the right of the photo, but Jon was able to redeploy troops quickly to counter the threat, and prepare for his own attacks. The stone walls became 'hasty works', offering the Spanish some protection

The view from behind the Spanish in their 'hasty works

The Spanish left has wrapped around the French right, but the French have used the river to refuse the flank

The Spanish on the left of the photo threatening the French. However an assault across the river was tricky, as the mass of the French cavalry reserve was sitting behind the infantry ready to counter attack an attempt to cross the river.

The Spanish attempting tp hold on their right after the first French Guard assault had been repulsed

The Spanish right after an entire division has been carried away

The Spanish left . moribund!!

The terrain entirely shaped the game, so there was less fighting than we would have liked. However ot was still good to get the troops out on the table.

The figures are however now so old that 'metal rot' is setting in, and horses in particular are now beginning to break off at the 'ankles' (if horses had ankles, but I think you know what  mean). This is a diminishing force, as I won't be investing in replacements. It is simply too expensive.

American Civil War 15mm armies get an outing

 Catching up on a few game splayed recently, this a small Volley and Bayonet game (2000 points) played using my 15mm ACW armies. These figures hadn't seen the light of day for a very long time, and with a game organised with Keith, he suggested we drag them out. The small size of the game didn't diminish the challenges of the game (as we have already found with the smaller FPW games we have played using our 6mm armies). Not a full AAR here, but just a sampling of -hoots to give you the feel. The union forces' attempts to push forward and attack the Confederate troops were stymied, as were attempts at using the Union artillery superiority. Keith used the terrain to his advantage, I didn't .. simple really. It was a very cool small game.

Union cavalry, which quickly dismounted (as dd the Confederate cavalry)

The town sectors were scratch built quite a few years ago