Volley and Bayonet action: Frœschwiller

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - one of the many strengths of the Volley and Bayonet rules lies with the ability of the rules to play different sub periods within the 1700-1900 period using the same basic mechanisms but with small subtle changes. These changes make a massive difference to the way the game plays. Last night we played a Franco-Prussian War game (actually the historical battle of Frœschwiller). 

What is intriguing is that the rules changes seem to capture the feel of these battles that you get when you read the histories, and it is easy to see the origins of the types of battles that occured on the frontiers in 1914. Andy and I commanded the Prussians while Adrian took control of the rench defence. I have to admit that it had been so long since we had played any FP battles that I had forgotten much of the essence of using the Prussians. Consequently our showing on the batlefield was pretty dismal, but the game was a lot of fun.

I had intended to write up an illustrated AAR, but got too involved in the battle to keep a track of the action. So this is more of an opportunity to showcase Adrian's painted 15mm armies again. Just sit back and enjoy...

Minoan and Early Mycenaean DBA 1/18

I have always wanted a chariot army, and late last year I ended up buying three, being a sucker for the Essex "3 for the price of 2" deals. What I hadn't factored into the army building equation was the impact of our February 22 earthquakes here in Christchurch. At the time, the first of the three armies (the Minoans) had been based and undercoated, and about half the figures had had flesh painted on them.

The psychological impact of the EQs was interesting to say the least, and I found myself having lost the painting drive I'd had for several decades previously (and I have not been the only one). I guess facing the on-going shakes created levels of stress and anxiety that we would generally prefer to forget (until exactly the moment when the next tremour hits, although we seem to have hit a quiet period finally). And now there is the prospect of waitng to find out if our house will be repaired or demolished.. hmm

As interesting as all that might be, I think I have finally regained the motivation (in no small part due to the recent Timaru TAGCon DBA competition), and tonight I finished the Minoans. Now this is the first army I have painted after I had based the figures. I don't think I'll be doing it again, it has been just too fiddly and awkward, especially with 'close order' figures, in this case the pike.

Here is the result. The Essex pack comes with enough figures for the only army option, a Psiloi or an Auxilia.

 The four heavy chariots, including the general.

The four bases of pike, with their characteristic 'tower' shields.

The army list allows four psiloi, or three psiloi and an auxilia.

So, what is the next project? There is plenty of unpainted lead and plastic here to choose from  - ranging from Dystopian Wars VSF flyers for the HotT army, to another five DBA armies. There are Dwarves, Sci Fi vehicles, League of Augsberg French, Epic vehicles and infantry. and .. sigh.. just far too many choices.

Battle at 'Bloody Ridge'

It is after all the 150th anniversary of the start of the American Civil War, and one could hardly let this go unmarked without playing at least a few ACW games this year. So last Friday night it was, across Keith's table using Jon's 6mm figures, and yet again my all time favourite rules set Volley and Bayonet.

Here is Keith's account of the battle.

It was a hard fought affair, and one of those games where lady luck seemed to desert the Southern armies at every turn. Mind you, maybe the battle plan wasn't that flash either ('Plan? Plan? We had a plan?').

So enjoy Keith's account of the battle of Bloody Ridge.

So that was TAGCon 2011

Last weekend and we were off down south to Timaru for TAGCon (Timaru Armchair Generals Convention) for 2011. I took a group of College boys, and 3 ex students, as well as son Nick, and good colleague Andrew. Andrew, Nick and I played in the DBA event (Book 1 armies) on the Saturday.

I was using a borrowed Early Archaemenid army (1/60C), and made my worst ever showing I have to admit. Here is Keith's report on his battles, and the final results. Just a few random shots of the day.

My light horse attacking Keith's camp in my first game.. didn't work.. damn it!!!

Brian's Lydian knight General, complete with dogs.. love them!!

This was Brian's camp element.

The DBA crew hard at work ...

The boys all played in the 40K competition. Again just a few random shots. This was Elliot's Guard Psycher unit..

... and his Vostroyans advancing... there sure were a lot of them, and nicely painted!!!

Alex bringing a touch of class to what otherwise might have been an unseemly brawl? No wait, that's the Armoured Corps' job!!

Hordes of Orcs.. my Orcs in fact, being used by Toby.. looking good!!

Some Vostroyan Rough Riders in the distance..

And someone else's Orcs.. highly mechanised... just doesn't seem Orcy really, "all dem weels"!!!!!

It was a great weekend. Thanks to the Timaru Armchair Generals for organising a great event, and my special thanks to Dave B for the loan army (even if the B**y thing wouldn't fight for me.. waddaya mean it was the bad general?).

'March to the sound of the guns'

I have just finished reading this most extraordinary novel, written by Ray Grover, former head of New Zealand's National Archives.

Grover has brought together the results of 20 years of research from war diaries and other personal accounts to create a remarkable novel which is a story of New Zealanders at war 1914-1918. Grover paints a picture of ordinary New Zealanders at war, one that lacks nothing from the perspectives of either historicity nor readability. Grover demonstrates an understanding of the nature of the conflict that would do Paddy Griffith and John Terraine proud. Yet he has also written a very good novel that has a fascinating and unusual structure and is very readable.

Published by Longacre Press in 2008, perhaps the most telling comment might be:

‘…it staggered me … I can think of no other novel that captures individual New Zealanders in war as skilfully.’
Christopher Pugsley, Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst
Author of Gallipoli: the New Zealand Story

This is highly recommended.

Dwarves and Humans at it again: more 'Kings of War' action.

"Kings of War" game number four, with the forces now scaled to 1550 points as we dug deep into our reserves of figures. The theory: the game gets more and more interesting as you scale the forces towards the suggested 2000 points.

Andy fielded his Humans, while Adrian and I commanded the Dwarves, in a 'Kill' scenario. We agreed to play for twelve turns (six turns each), having previously played games to the other option of a two hour time limit.

Andy deployed with an infantry centre, including five units of archers. We deployed the Dwarves with a solid centre of Ironclad infantry supported by two cannons. We refused the left, holding the flank with an Ironguard Regiment supported by an Organ gun. The right was held by a full regiment of Shieldbreakers supported by an Ironwatch troop, and a Berserkers Half regiment.

Just one turn of fire on the right flank Ironwatch troop (from two units of Human archers) saw them break and flee from the field. Hmm.. this might be tougher than we thought.

Andy pushed around the flanks with his cavalry. Two units of knights supported by some pistollier light cavalry approached the Dwarf right flank, while ...

.... a single unit of knights moved to threaten the Dwarf left.

The Dwarven Shieldbreakers holding the right flank moved into the forest on that flank, hopeful that this would make them a bigger bite than the knights could swallow.

Meanwhile on the Dwarven left the Ironwatch troop fled the field after a very uneven fire fight with two units of Human archers.

The forest on the Dwarven left was witness to a two turn swirling melee, as axes and lances raised and fell, thrust and parried. Eventually however the accummulated casualties took their toll on Dwarven morale, and the Shieldbreakers 'broke'.

Not to be outdone, the supporting unit of Berserkers charged into the fray and, supported by the Dwarven King,  forced a waver result on the knights.

The Human centre was looking shakey, with both units of swordsmen having fled the field after a prolonged bombardment from the Dwarven artillery. The archers no doubt felt just a little exposed as the Dwarf Ironclad regiments now advanced against them.

Meanwhile on the Dwarf right, the second unit of knights now entered the fray, attacking the Berserkers in the flank. This definitely was not pretty from the Dwarf side of the table, although for Andy this was one of those glorious moments: 32 attacks on a Dwarf unit with a defence of 3 (less one for the Knights' 'Crushing Strength'. Yep, that hurt!!

Meanwhile on the Human right, the third unit of knights attacked the Dwarf left flank held by a regiment of Ironguard. It was the last turn of the game, and the knights bounced off, inflicting very few casualties.

The game ended in a draw. The Dwarfs were in a position to exploit the shattered human centre, while the Humans must have felt that they were onto something here with their knights in a position to hammer the Dwarven flanks. The game continues to be easy to play (although with plenty of tactical challenges). We have the rules pretty much sorted now, so the game mechanics present no real difficulties.

The scale to 1550 points made quite a difference. The additional points allowed for reserves exactly as you would expect.

I'm not sure that we were as keen on the six move turn limit as on the other option of a two hour game window. The battle was hanging in the balance. I'm not suggesting that games should be fought to 'last man standing'. Rather, the game probably needed another couple of player turns each to allow one side or the other to establish its dominance on the battlefield that day.

Of course the rules don't need to be taken as so prescriptive that players MUST abide by the six turn, or two hour, play limit. Regardless, the game was an enormous amount of fun, with it's interesting tactical moments, and its cinematic moments.

And that's what matters really, isn't it?

A great blog and a darned good read

For quite a while now I have used iGoogle as my means of managing the huge array of information that interests me. This includes both professional and hobby information. Amongst the gadgets I have on iGoogle is GoogleReader, which allows me to manage the various blogs that potentially interest me, and amongst those is one that I consider to be truly outstanding: Mr Farrow's DBA Blog.

Now here's a guy who enjoys his hobby, actively engages his two children in the hobby, and writes some fantastic and engaging after action reports. This blog covers their adventures within the traditional DBA ancients period.

But they also use the various extensions to DBA to play games that cover that whole 1500 to 1900 period, and the AARs in these periods are just as engaging. Here is a typical image from an AAR (this one from the Franco Prussian War era):

So if you want some inspiration, or just a darned good read, try Mr Farrow's Blogs.