The Recoiling Knight and the Surrounded Spear

Barossa replayed with Lasalle

2011-12-28T15:23:00.004-05:00

One of the games I ran at one of my local clubs with Lasalle was a refight of the battle of Barossa. Photos can be seen here.

As with other games, I was struck by how decisive it was. By the time it was over, most of the British infantry was entirely gone. Not just in retreat or hard-pressed, but completely gone from the table. It's very characteristic of Sam Mustafa games--troops that are defeated just disappear. And unlike some of his other games (e.g., Might and Reason), they disappear quite quickly.

One of the things that I've decided I don't like is that with a limited range of factors to differentiate troops, results tend toward the average, which means that instead of better troops and generalship determining victory, luck tends to determine victory.

In the historical battle of Barossa, the British took the initiative, held it, and pressed the French to destruction despite being outnumbered almost 2:1. Graham threw two conglomerate British light battalions forward while he brought his main force up; the lights, being superior to the French skirmishers, kept the French on their back foot until the Guards under Wilkes rushed up Barossa Hill and defeated the division of Ruffin deployed there, then pushed them so hard that they had no opportunity to regroup and essentially chased them off the field. In the meantime, Wheatley's brigade held the division of Leval to a standstill on the left until it was forced to retire from the field or be enveloped by the victorious British right wing.

In our battle, the British took the opposite tack, sending the lights in to screen the advance but taking the stronger force (Wheatley's) against Ruffin and holding Leval with the weaker force. The French superiority in numbers totally outweighed the British superiority in firepower and discipline. If the British had used Dilkes' Guards, it would have gone even worse with them, as the French advantage in numbers would have been even greater. In effect, it's highly improbable that the British will be anything but badly defeated when playing this battle with Lasalle, a result that was possible but unlikely on the historical day.

One problem I can see, having played several games of Lasalle now, is that fire has exactly the same effect on troops no matter what their quality is. On the face of it, that seems as if it makes sense: bullets don't care about troop quality, and a dead hero is just as dead as a dead coward. But combat "damage" in a game like Lasalle is mostly about the effect of fire on morale. Both sides lost about 20-25% killed and wounded in the battle; when an entire unit in a game like Lasalle is wiped out, that means not that all its men are casualties but that the unit has become ineffective, more through fear and exhaustion and disorder than through losses. So fire should be less effective on a strong, cohesive unit than on a weak, disordered one. This is not the case in Lasalle. Some troops are slightly more effective at delivering fire than others (but again, it's mostly down to luck), but the effect of their fire is exactly the same on the rawest conscript as on the most seasoned veteran.

The one way it differs is the size of the unit taking fire. An average unit can take three hits from fire and will dissolve, permanently, on the fourth. A large unit can take five hits and dissolves on the sixth. Thus, while troop quality has little or no influence on the effect of fire, the size of units has considerable effect.

Also, because morale and cohesion play a great part in combat, you would think these would play a strong role in determining the outcome of combat in the game. Not so much; there are effectively only two discipline classes, and discipline plays no direct role in fire combat or melee. There are three esprit (morale) classes, plus additional modifiers for guard troops, shock cavalry, or lancers. But almost all troops fall into the middle esprit class, and the difference between one class and the other in combat is relatively little.

A major feature of close combat lies in the way combat is resolved. Combat may be decisive for the defender, but the attacker is almost never decisively defeated. But any defender can attempt to fall back out of combat, then re-initiate combat in his turn, and the odds are in favour of a defender being able to do this. Two opponents can thus keep attacking and falling back, attacking and falling back until one of them is unlucky enough to fail a fall-back test.

All in all, Lasalle has a very generic feel: standardised sizes for units; combat results that tend towards all or nothing and that are primarily dependent on luck; no particular reflection of the tactical, doctrinal, or command differences that made the development of warfare during the Napoleonic period interesting. The mechanisms are interesting and well thought-out; the game flows smoothly and is easy to learn. I can see that it has nuances that will reward growing familiarity with the rules mechanisms. But I don't see much that rewards the player for knowledge of the Napoleonic Wars, and I see lots of ways in which the game will often not reflect the history of the period without severe bending and twisting. So this goes into the "wargame recycling bin," with many other Napoleonic rules.

Battlefront: Borneo battle

2011-12-24T18:01:00.005-05:00

Recently I took the lovely Dutch East Indies troops I acquired a while back and devised a scenario to represent one of their doomed battles against the red tide of the Rising Sun.

The result, which I tested out with the gamers of the Army of Central Maryland, was this assault on prepared positions, set during the battle for Tarakan in 1942.

2011-12-09T15:54:00.002-05:00

A HOTT army using Thomas the Tank Engine?

I think my nephews could get into this...

boosting the signal

2011-12-07T18:04:00.002-05:00

An excellent blog entry by Sidney Roundwood on

29 Ways To Stay Creative as a wargamer

Some excellent advice there, and some amazing pictures. If I have any wargaming heroes, SR is definitely one of them for terrain-building, as Richard Clarke is for rules writing, R. Mark Davies is for research, and my friends Peter and my co-host are for figure-painting.

Europe's Last Summer: Who Started the Great War in 1914?

2011-12-06T10:54:00.005-05:00

We haven't posted book reviews here before, but given the nature of this book, I figured I might as well share the review I posted in my regular blog.

The book is Europe's Last Summer: Who Started the Great War in 1914? by David Fromkin. A wonderful, meaty history (and historiography) of the origins of the Great War. Fromkin dispels some of the popular myths about how the war came about. These arose partly through the energetic efforts of all the participants to shift blame and partly through the efforts, either by most of the same participants or by other forces, to destroy or obscure relevant materials that will make understanding events clearer.

Fundamentally, Fromkin credits a basic and understandable but false analysis of the principle nature of the conflict that began in 1914. His central thesis is that there was not one war but two, and that the two wars arose not out of an imperialistic aggression on the part of the Central Powers but out of a nearly paralyzing paranoia, an existential fear on their part--Austria's fear of implosion as Balkan nationalism rose and Germany's fear of future defeat and domination by a modernizing Russia. It's a fascinating book, an easy read, and I would strongly recommend it.

One myth that Fromkin dispels is that the period immediately before the war was some hazy, golden period of peace and stillness. Not only had there been two wars in the Balkans in the years immediately preceding the Great War, but there had been numerous other proxy and brushfire wars around the world instigated by the great powers, and less than 10 years before Russia had engaged in a world war of its own that more or less directly brought about the 1905 Revolution, which seriously threatened the Russian state. Add to this that an arms race was taking place in Europe that would not be equaled until the Cold War and it becomes impossible to sustain this image of the Great War as a sudden and unexpected storm from a summer sky.

Also contrary to popular perceptions, the war was not caused by the desire of the German Kaiser for an expansion of his realm. Kaiser Wilhelm and Archduke Franz Ferdinand (the heir-apparent to Kaiser Franz Joseph of Austria Hungary) were more inclined towards diplomacy and negotiation than towards the use of force, despite Kaiser Bill's penchant for sabre-rattling. And the German Navy, far from seeking a war to overthrow the British Navy, was devoted to expansion so as to protect its own commerce and industry; if it anticipated war, that was a war far in the future--it was only too conscious that it could not defeat Britain in the near term.

The aggressors were the civilian ministers in Austria, who feared the rise of Serbia and saw the Balkan wars as a warning that nationalism was coming to destroy their polyglot, two-crowned, and impossibly unstable regime. If they were not able to crush Serbia and thus send a message of the limits of nationalism, they could foresee a day when their empire would simply fall apart.

Likewise, the officer corps of the German Army, aided and abetted by the German Foreign Ministry, looked to bring about a war on their terms as soon as possible, because they perceived that a war *would* happen sooner or later between Germany and Russia, and the longer it was left, the stronger Russia would grow, until its ability to overwhelm Germany would be unquestioned. Moreover, tied as the Army was to its belief in the superiority of the Junker aristocracy, it could not expand indefinitely while refraining from opening the ranks of the officer corps to those who were socially undesirable in its eyes.

There's a great deal more in this excellent book: an examination of Serbia's role in the assassination of the Archduke, a detailed account of that event, discussions of the internal politics of France and Britain, a sketch of the relationship between Kaiser Wilhelm and the Russian Czar, Nicholas, a biography of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the scorn heaped on his wife by the Austrian Court, an analysis of the diplomacy of the war crisis itself and how it was hidden--not only from the people of Europe but from the leaders in Germany and Austria whom the principal actors feared might bring about that most undesirable of things, a negotiated settlement. I'm sure I'm missing out other fascinating bits, but just recounting these parts makes me want to sit down and read it all over again.

12 hours of gaming!

2011-11-20T10:14:00.003-05:00

Well, something like. No pictures, so a short narrative will have to suffice.

We played Chatterton's Hill one more time (I think we may be just about played out on that one), using a full-size table and inch measurements. The Americans were able to withstand the British assault much better than before, with several British units getting shredded by American cannon fire, the American skirmishers holding up the British advance fairly well, and only a retreat-cascade, starting with the heavily damaged Delawares and spreading to the 1st MD finally reducing the American numbers enough that they decided to retire.

We gave the rules a thorough going over (as well as discussing historiography, post-modernism, and the strategic aspects of the Revolution). My feeling so far is that the DP mechanism, while an interesting idea, is too powerful--the effects of DPs are too strong, and it is too hard to remove them. I don't like the way skirmishers work; having a totally separate fire system for them seems unnecessary, and they seem nearly impotent, instead of a serious threat to contend with. I'm also highly ambivalent about the process of rolling for movement--among other things, it adds considerably to the time required for play. Finally, I don't think that leaders play enough of a role in the events of the game.

Eventually two players (Peter and Phil) left at the conclusion of the game. But Bryan was still here and Josh had arrived, so we played a game of Tomorrow's War that reinforced the understanding that Bryan and I had of the basic rules from playing Ambush Alley and Force on Force but also taught us new things about the more complex modern/sci-fi aspects. Even moderate troops are totally outclassed by good ones; if you're taking bad or mediocre troops up against good troops, take lots, because you will lose lots.

Chatterton's Hill

2011-11-13T19:07:00.002-05:00

I took my wee Rev War men up to Glen Burnie today and played out the battle that took place on the right wing of the American army at White Plains in 1776.

Here be photos and commentary.

Here's the Wikipedia article on the historical battle.

boosting the signal--battle of Nery

2011-11-11T13:00:00.004-05:00

I played in a test of my friend Chris's scenario of the WWI action at Nery. It was a fun game, though perhaps not so much for the Germans, who were cursed with horrific dice.

One peeve reminded me why I don't play FOW: the "sliding scale" of representation for different types of weapons: small arms and support weapons and direct-fire artillery ranges use different scales and so come out with some silly resutls. Our 13 pdr field guns couldn't direct fire any further than the rifles of our supporting cavalry dismounts, which were outranged by our MGs. The German artillery on the ridge could target our guns directly, but we couldn't return the favour. More incentive to find a good set of WWI rules! (Mud and Blood are great, but I think that this action might stretch them to their limit, with entire regiments being involved rather than platoons.)

That said, it was fun to get out and play something different, and Chris has done a beautiful job painting up his troops!

Crushingtonium redux

2011-10-12T23:41:00.002-04:00

A great review (with some better pictures) of DBV from the talented JM aka Gascap, one of my tournament opponents (who has some monumentally beautiful elephants!)

De Bellis Crushingtonium

2011-10-10T09:59:00.004-04:00

I participated in the local DBx tournament last weekend, De Bellis Vasingtonium.

I didn't do so well, going 0-4 with my Feudal Spanish. I gave David Schlanger and his Palmyrans a close game (mostly because he rolled abysmally), finishing 5-4G.

I then got creamed by David Kujit and his Hussites 4-0, as I couldn't see any real tactical solution for an army of mostly knights and skirmishers to beat an army of mostly war wagons and blade, especially when the Hussites got terrain.

I moved on to fight Jon-Michael and his Greco-Indians. Due to a total lapse of concentration, I matched up my knights against his elephants, instead of *avoiding* that matchup, and he handily beat me 4-0.

In the last round, I thought I was onto something fighting Sean and his ?LIR?Patrician Romans? as I was able to focus my knights on a fight they could win (fighting Warband and Cavalry) and even picked off an Auxilia that injudiciously strayed out of its protecting woods. But he was able to get enough overlaps and good results to beat me ?4-3?. I wept.

I didn't get any pictures of the DBA tournament, but here are some snaps of the HOTT game and the Wings of War battle.

more game reporting: Regimental Fire and Fury

2011-09-07T16:52:00.004-04:00

Here are some more battle photos, this time of a game my friend Mr Brown ran of Regimental Fire and Fury.

We refought the battle of Ball's Bluff (at a hobby store not terribly far from the battle site itself.

a twofer

2011-08-30T14:59:00.003-04:00

Two DBA battles and part of a third, with commentary. Part of my ongoing effort to upload all my gaming photos from the last couple of months. Look closely and you will see bits of my illustrious co-blogger as some (Josh the Library, maybe) whacks him with one of his own armies.

more DBA material

2011-08-29T17:24:00.002-04:00

A reminder about the upcoming local DBA tourney sponsored by WADBAG.

Also, two more battle reports from recent campaign games.

Welsh v Scots

and English v Welsh

2011-08-27T21:03:00.004-04:00

Frank does much better than I do with battle reports, but having the day at home with not much to do has given me the push I need to get 200+ photos off my phone. I'll start labelling them properly, giving life to some contests that took place, in some cases, months ago.

First off: the Danes and the Normans*, from our local club 11th century DBA campaign.

More to come, as long as the power doesn't go out.

* Kind of like "The Christians and the Pagans" but with fewer pumpkin pies.

Might and Reason: a battle report

2011-08-26T15:45:00.003-04:00

Some of the chaps and I have been playing a Might and Reason campaign, the Kolin 1757 Kleiner Feldzug scenario that's provided in the rules. We have two battles to resolve from the early stages of the campaign, and Josh the Library and I (standing in for Chris B, the Austrian player) p[layed one of them last night. A report, sadly sans photographs, can be found here.

We're picking up the rules slowly (this is the ?third? game we've played recently--I played M&R some years ago). Thinking about it this morning, I recognised that we were not doing all the things with Command Dice we could (in especial, not re-rolling Attack Tests or Combat Rolls), and I forgot about Attack Tests and the Volley Rule for the first few turns of the game.

People in the club seem to have gotten very excited about the idea of starting a 6mm War of the Spanish Succession collection. Newest Josh has some beautifully painted figures he is rebasing; I'm pulling out the figures I got secondhand on a whim last year, and Frank is ordering up some Baccus. NJ and I also have 15mm troops for the Williamite War in Ireland that we are planning to use M&R to fight, and I will be working on 15mm SYW troops to replace the 6mms of mine that we're using right now to get started with.

A Word of Thanks

2011-08-13T12:12:00.002-04:00

It is about time I recognized my blog partner and good friend, Jan, for his contributions to our hobby enjoyment. Besides being a genuinely good guy (when he's not, well, he knows), Jan has recently run three campaigns for our group - Punic Peril (ended), England On Her Knees (ongoing), and the Kolin Campaign (ongoing). I can assure you it is a lot of work and time spent. Jan is always first to run and umpire a new game for us on Thursday nights providing all the figures, terrain and playing aids. Rarely, of late, does he seem to play much whilst all this is going on. Thank goodness for DBA which he does get to roll dice and push figures.

I know Jan also contributes quite a bit to his local group in Maryland as well. Where does he find all this time? I envy him. I thank him. I appreciate him. I am honored to call him friend.

Happy Gaming All!

Franko

Alaska Photos - Part II

2011-08-12T09:46:00.012-04:00

I got some requests for more pics of our Alaska trip so here you go:

Inside Passage

Whale watching, Auke Bay, Juneau AK

Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau AK

Sockeye salmon have reached their final destination to spawn.
Steep Creek Trail, Juneau AK

Vancouver BC Canada

Looking over a suspension bridge
Lynn Canyon Park, Vancouver BC

Temperate Rain Forest
Capilano Park, Vancouver BC

Can you say Middle Earth? Cool!

That's all for now. We are planning to put together a DVD of our vacation. With over 1500 photos taken, editing and production will be a while for the finished product. It'll be fun though!

Happy Gaming!!!

Franko

Focus. Finally.

2011-08-02T08:09:00.003-04:00

With all the hub bub on DBA 3.0, I have taken a break from the game and its painting projects. I have been assembling 28mm Colonials. I have been putting colors on various Flames of War Early Germans. A dab here and a clean up there. Throw in vacation and I can state emphatically that my hobby productivity has been virtually nil as has been my play time. Well all that is about to change. My good friend and fellow blog co-host, Jan, has introduced our group to a great game called Might & Reason in 6mm. I'm hooked. Its a great system and I will be looking to get my hands on some Baccus 6mm figs to paint up. Army(Armies) TBD. In the interim, with FALL IN coming in late October, I am determined to paint up a new army for one of the DBA events. Chris (Huzzah Hobbies) ordered me the excellent range of Lombard figures from Baueda/Hostis. Very nice casts. I will be creating all options lists for both III/2 (Early Lombards) and III/21 (Italian Lombards) with these figures. The schedule will be tight as it normally takes me 3 months to paint up a DBA army. Wish me luck! If there is interest, I will post up my normal array of project status photos.

Happy Gaming!!!

Franko

Alaska 2011

2011-07-29T11:22:00.017-04:00

Speechless. Yes, me. Speechless. I cannot begin to describe what I saw on our vacation to the raw beauty that is Alaska. The 2000 pictures we took won't even do it ample justice. They become a reminder to us of what we experienced on our trip. Being there is the only answer. However; I will attempt to briefly share our trek through this land.

Vacation Agenda (all distances "as the crow flies"):
Dulles VA to Fairbanks AK - 3258 miles - Air

Fairbanks AK to Denali AK - 88 miles - Land

Denali AK to Anchorage AK - 178 miles - Land

Anchorage AK to Whittier AK - 49 miles - Land

Whittier AK to Skagway AK - 466 miles - Sea

Skagway AK to Juneau AK - 86 miles - Sea

Juneau AK to Ketchikan AK - 205 miles - Sea

Ketchikan AK to Vancouver BC - 585 miles - Sea

Vancouver BC to Dulles VA - 2338 miles - Air

Total Air - 5996 miles

Total Land - 315 miles

Total Sea - 1342 miles
Total Trip - 7653 miles

And since I cannot begin to speak of the wonder of this trip, simply allow me to share some key views and memories with you. Enjoy.

Fairbanks AK

Sable Pass, Denali Wilderness Tour

Princess McKinley Lodge

40 miles from the base of Denali. We drank for 6 hours waiting for the cloud to move. It did but we were too drunk to take the photo. I hear only 30% of the people who visit Alaska get to have a view of Denali. We got to see the whole family - Denali, Foraker and Hunter. I feel blessed.

Somewhere between Trapper Creek and Anchorage on the scenic train ride.

The cruise ship awaits us in Whittier AK

Marjorie Glacier, Glacier Bay AK.

To fully capture the experience here you need sound. We were fortunate enough to witness one of the largest cavings in recent years. First you hear the ice cracking; then louder popping; and finally a boom called White Thunder and the ice comes crashing down 300 feet into the water below. Amazing!

Skagway AK

A great "period" town and the usual tourist trap. Great setting. The Red Onion Saloon houses a brothel upstairs (museum) but the ladies still dress up in revealing period costume. Much fun at this bar.

End of Part One. I will continue if you'd like and take you through the state capital of Juneau and share some whale watching and then some scenic views of the Inside Passage enroute to the lovely city of Vancouver BC. A temperate rain forest??? Wait and see.

Thanks for viewing!

long time, no blog

2011-07-15T12:02:00.004-04:00

Various things have prevented me from blogging much of late, but not from gaming. I hope to be able to catch up--with a few illustrated reports, even--soon.

I can report (since I have no pictures to illustrate it) on last night's refight of the battle of Mollwitz using the Might & Reason rules.

Mollwitz was the earliest battle between Prussia and Austria in the First Silesian War, which formed the firs portion of the War of the Austrian Succession. There are short descriptions of it here and here, but probably the most succinct is this map (a rather entertaining near-contemporary account can be found here). One of the first battles of the post-reform Prussian Army, it served notice to Europe that a new powerhouse had arrived. Although its cavalry arm was still weak, Prussia's infantry was the juggernaut that swiftly became legendary.

As in the historical battle, the cavalry of the Prussian right wing was thoroughly defeated by its Austrian foes. But the Prussian center had closed with a stymied Austrian infantry mass and devastated it with volley fire before crashing into it with cold steel. The Austrian right wing cavalry had injudiciously attempted to fight both the Prussian infantry and the cavalry and so had damaged neither severely (note to self: attacking fresh infantry frontally with cavalry is a bad, bad idea in 18th century Europe). The affair, having started in late morning, was concluded before the afternoon was through.

This was the DAHGS's second attempt at playing Might & Reason; I think we improved our percentage of rules correctly played, and we got all the way to the actual end of a battle with the official defeat of an army. I am still not very sanguine about the chances of the Austrians against a full-blooded Prussian attack, but maybe once we get to some of those battles where there are 10+ Austrian infantry units (15-20 regiments) ready to go grimly to the slaughter, they may have a better chance...

Huzzah! DBA Open Tournament!

2011-05-23T20:59:00.004-04:00

Well so much for that. It was a great event. Here are some blurbs from the Fanaticus Forum:

2nd Annual DBA Open Tournament Results

1 - Frank Popecki I/1 Early Sumerian
2 - Mike Guth III/12 Christian Nubian
3 - Tom Black II/78 Late Imperial Roman
4 - Josh Cruciotti II/56 Early Imperial Roman
5 - Sean Donnelly II/54a Scots-Irish
6 - Al Ohtren III/75 Konstantinian Byzantine
7 - Jan Spoor III/45 Pre Feudal Scots
7 - Chris Bloch II/33 Polybian Roman

GAME 1 - Early Sumerians vs. Republican Roman (Chris Bloch)

Chris won terrain and deployed. I decided to use only the right half of the board as I feared the Roman blade line would be a tough fight and his lines would extend past mine. Better to guard one flank than two. I sent my 3 phalanx supported by Aux and Ps on the right with my HCh(Gen) supporting the left end. The remaining HCh, Bd and Ps refused my left and watched for flanking efforts by the Romans. Chris had to use his pips to respond to my attack on his extreme left leaving him little to develop his own attack. The lines crashed and in the worst sequence of die rolls I can ever recall, Chris lost 5 straight combats - DOUBLED - on a 3-2; 6-4; 6-4; 6-4; 5-2QK. That's a lot of 5s and 6s for me and 1s and 2s for Chris. 5-0. Game over.

GAME 2 - Early Sumerians vs. Early Imperial Roman (Josh Cruciotti)

Josh won terrain and deployed. As in the first game, I again decided to attack using only half the board. These Romans with their 3 cavalry elements and 4 auxilia are a much quicker army than the Republicans so I had to be aggressive with the main attack while refusing my right flank. This time both Sumerian HChs were deployed together on the extreme left of the phalanx line. Blade/Ps watched the refused right and Ax/Ps were in central reserve. The Sumerian battleline lumbered forward. The Romans started to develop an end sweep attack with Blade and Aux but it was checked by the Sumerian reserve. Josh had placed his 3 cavalry elements in the center of his line with Aux and Blade on the extreme right. This was THE perfect match up for me as the Sumerian pike would occupy the mounted Romans and the HCh would smash through the Roman foot. This is exactly what happened as the HChs broke through the front lines and then dispatched all reserves sent against them. I did lose an element in the fights checking the Roman flanking attack so this one ended 4-1 Sumerians.

GAME 3 - Early Sumerians vs. Christian Nubian (Mike Guth)

What a mess. Having lost terrain for the third game in a row, Mike put out his assortment of BG terrain in the form of 2 rough and 2 dune pieces centrally placed so as to channel the Sumerian attacks. I used all my opening bound pips to send my Ps to occupy the 2 dune pieces (1 each) and make Mike use pips to take it back. IF I could delay his occupation of these dunes, I MAY be able to slip a phalanx or two through the gaps and form up with my HChs on the right in the GG. The Nubians contested the central dune with 3 bow elements looking to turn my Ps into a pin cushion. I supported the Ps with some pike and my lone Aux and masked any exit from the dunes. Having done its job, the Ps withdrew suffering no loss much to Mike's dismay. Mike demonstrated against my now Ps/HCh/HCh line with his Cv(Gen)/Cm/Cm line. After a few bounds of a very tactical cat and mouse game to get a phalanx through the pass, our lines joined as Mike pressed the attack after an initial withdrawal. The lines looked something like this -

Nubians - double warband/LH/Cav(Gen)/Cm/Cm

Sumerians - double pike/pike/Ps/HCh(Gen)/HCh

The Cavalry general ran down my Ps but in a shocking series of combats, the Sumerian HChs destroyed both Camel elements in the same round of combat. This exposed the flank of the Nubian general to an attack by the Sumerian general with no recoil option. The Sumerian general prevailed. 3G-1 victory for the Sumerians.

That's it. A great tournament and one of the luckiest I have ever rolled.

And some brief reports from Jan:

I played pre-feudal Scots; I had one match against Al and his Byzantines, one against Mike Guth and his Christian Nubians, and one against Chris the 1002 Irish (who was playing Chris the Shop's Polybian Romans).

Al and I had a close-fought match which ended 4-3. He lined up his 8Bw on his left and his Cv and knights in the center and right, and his artillery backed up by his spear right in the center. I let a group of spear backed by skirmishers hold my center, with my general superintending, some more spear and a Wb on a hill to my left with the LH to help out on the flat, and most of my Wb and the other skirmisher on the right in hopes of chopping up the Bw in the woods. I got one Bw pretty quickly, and when some Sp wandered over we got another. It looked as if we might push him back to his camp. But then I lost a Wb and the attack slowed. I lost another Wb (and, I think, the skirmishers or the Sp) and the attack stalled. He had put the Sp out to guard the flank of the artillery, and the KnGen and the LH pounced on this opportunity to kill his heavy foot who had been hiding (!) the whole time behind the Art. Alas, we killed the Sp but were not able to seal the deal on the flank, and he nabbed one more element and the win. It was a very good game.

I had a good game against Mike, too. As always, he was careful and cagey in his deployment of terrain and troops. It turned out we both thought we would hold with my left/his right because we thought that was our weaker side, and the battle was fought on his left/my right, a struggle of Wb, Bw, and LH. It went back and forth, but then there was a flurry of action and he won 4-1.

Chris I thought I would have a decent shot against; Bd v. Wb are tough but brittle, my Kn liked the idea of charging his heavy foot, and there was a convenient wood to screen one flank. We both advanced skirmishers into the wood to do some desultory demonstrating, and he proceeded to double and kill my guys in the first attack! The rest of the game went the same way. When he pushed his 2 spear out in front of his line for some reason, I ran at them with my Warband looking for a decent 3v4 shot at a QK. Nope. First one then the other fell to 6-1s. I lost another element somewhere, and I killed something, since it ended 4-1, but my personal morale was shot at that point.

All in all, it was a fun day, and (as earlier mentioned) my GF, Emily, without even playing, decided she would like an Ancient British army, which we purchased (yay for Corvus Belli--Chris the Shop even had a Boudicca chariot team on the shelf!) and we went home well satisfied. ---Jan

It was a grand event! We had only 8 players show but the absense of 3-4 players was justified. We really hope to see 12 or more at next year's tournament as DBA interest appears to be growing @ Huzzah.

I have talked to Chris and he is receptive to expanding the event to 2 tournaments during the day to help make it worth while for out-of-town DBAers to make the trip. We also plan on fixing a date earlier so we can provide better advanced notice.

Feel free to add battle reports in your comments. Thanks everyone!

Happy Gaming!

Franko

1683 Polish - Complete, for now.

2011-04-23T10:50:00.004-04:00

In the prior posts you have seen the development of the 1683 Polish. The completed army consisted of mainly mounted elements and will be the matched pair for the Ottoman Turks that I will eventually paint up. However; to be a true "open" army, I had to change some options. As much as I love the Pancerni Cavalry and Winged Hussars, these had to be cut back and substitutes taken for this next list. You saw the artillery and the first dragoon element. Here is the second element of dragoons:

That makes this list consist of:

Grand Hetman Jablonski (Kn Gen)

Winged Hussars (Knights)

2 Pancerni (Cavalry)

1 Light Horse

4 Polish Shot

1 Artillery

2 Dragoons

This army will be a more rounded list and a matched pair to my Cossack DBA-RRR army. All that is needed is to mount the banners and pennons. Here they are:

I still have some elements left over for painting. I have the figures needed for King John Sobieski's command element and another Winged Hussar element. I will augment these with Fire & Sword boxed sets to complete my Big Battle DBA-RRR Polish army some day.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this near and dear to my heart project. I hope you have as well.

Happy Gaming!

Frank

1683 Polish - The Dragoons arrive! And Artillery!

2011-04-17T21:07:00.006-04:00

We have left the Legio Heroica line of figures as they do not produce Dragoons for the Army of Vienna range. A substitute had to be found that would mix in scale and get somewhat close to quality. My hopes rested on Fire & Sword's Renaissance line. Images gave me high hopes but when I opened the box and started prepping the figures disappointment set in. Maybe after painting LH's figures everything else is just blah, I don't know. All I can say is I put as much effort into these dragoons as I have for the army since day one but they lacked "paintability". However; they'll have to do. Here they are:

This is the first of 2 Dragoon units in the army. Rear view:

I am starting the second dragoon element which will be in a more traditional green scheme as opposed to the "Guard Dragoons" above. I also have already finished an artillery element. I'll add photos of that later. Its later and here they are:

Enjoy!

Happy Gaming!

Frank

Ukranian Uprising

2011-04-13T21:34:00.004-04:00

I have two friends to thank for this next project - Jan, for buying me the army as a gift, and Paul Potter, for painting this massive army. I take no credit for this beautiful army whatsoever. What we have is the very nice Old Glory line for the Renaissance in Eastern Europe. These are the Free Cossacks that periodically fought for their independence from Poland-Lithuania and Muscovy. These will serve as a matched historical pair for DBA-RRR battles against my Polish. The host:

The Dragoons:

Pike, shot, and some Light Horse:

Skirmishers and Warband:

This army should be fun. Enjoy! Happy Gaming! Frank

1683 Polish - Enlarged photos (Hopefully)

2011-04-08T06:50:00.001-04:00

1683 Polish - The Grand Hetman leads the Army!

2011-04-05T21:59:00.010-04:00

The basic 12 element army is now almost complete. I finished the Knight(G) - Grand Hetman Jablonski - with his Winged Hussar Aide and Bunczuk Bearer. I am very pleased with the detail I added for the "3 foot rule" viewing distance. Doing the leopard head on the Hussar was fun. When I am finished with all options, I will add banners and pennons for the final touches. The camp, as you can see, is mostly done. Here is the Polish host. I hope you like them.

The Grand Hetman:

Here's a rear view. Its a little darker than I first thought and it loses some detail. I will probably retake some photos and update the blog at a later date.

Here's the basic 12 element army. As you can see this army is primarily for fighting in the more wide open expanses of Poland, Lithuania, the Ukraine and against Ottoman incursions.

Here's a defender's view of the advance!

Next up will be the optional troops for a more infantry based army that can fare better in rougher terrain. I have a box of Fire & Sword Polish Dragoons on order and will paint up some artillery and more shot for starters. I will keep you all updated as the project continues.

Thanks for sharing the journey thus far.

Happy Gaming!!!

Franko

1683 Polish - Winged Hussars Pt.II

2011-04-03T11:17:00.003-04:00

I know I said I would wait before I posted more pics but I like to take photos of the elements so I can view them "up close and personal" looking for mistakes and overall quality. Having done so, I figured I would share them with you. Here is the second element of Hussars. These were based off a different plate and I assume a different unit. I followed my friend Jay's advice and highlighted the black feathers with P3's Coal Black instead of my usual bluish gray. I like the effect and this color will be my color of choice from now on. Thanks Jay!

Now, truthfully, I will not post any more photos until the Grand Hetman Jablonski is finished. This will give me my basic 12 element army and then I will work on the "all options" elements to add army flexibility. I am thoroughly enjoying this project and hope you are too.

Happy Gaming!

Franko

1683 Polish - The Winged Hussars

2011-03-25T08:55:00.004-04:00

After over a week of detailed painting I have finished the "test" element of the Polish Winged Hussars. You would always like it to turn out like the reference paintings but, alas, it never does. Its good to dream though. Honestly, these are my best effort and I am pleased with them. It took stages to paint and put them together. The lances and wings had to be part painted separately and then glued onto the main figure for final details. The wings were a good fit and I applaud Legio Heroica for their design. The lances, on the other hand, appear a bit short at the counterweight end and do not fit well in the hand. Overall they are okay. Enough talk - here they are:

3 more elements of leopard-skinned battle cavalry. Oh my eyes! I think they are worth it. Kudos and criticisms are equally welcome. If I can improve upon them by your suggestions I will certainly try. I hope you like them.

Have fun!

Franko

Through the Mud and the Blood: Test Case

2011-03-20T14:18:00.022-04:00

Me and the Wednesday Night lads have been trying out a couple of rules sets for tactical modern (20th century) combat. We decided to try playing each of them with the same basic scenario to see which we liked best.

Since we're using our WWI 28mms, we started off with the Lardies' purpose-designed WWI skirmish rules, Through the Mud and the Blood. I devised a short early war scenario, a meeting engagement between a German infantry platoon and its British opposite numbers. The British hold a small Belgian village with two sections and a machinegun team. The Hun are attacking with three sections of infantry.

And, yes, the figures and buildings are unpainted. Since neither the British player nor I are independently wealthy, it was either play with unpainted figures or don't play. Anyone who wants to donate painted figures or cash to our collections is welcome to.

The table set up with blinds (hidden unit markers). Germans are coming from the left; the British are on the right. The cat supervises. The beer is Guinness.

The British sent several blinds forward to scout the approaching Germans. These proved to be dummies (one or two men who fled back to their units with word of German locations).

The British had fewer runners attached to their platoon HQ, but they did have a sniper, who made short work of the German senior officer, Leutnant von Auffenberg. This had severe negative effects on the German advance, as might be expected.

The Germans advanced with one section to the left and the platoon HQ to its right. The British had their MG covering their right flank and a section in the village to the east of the crossroads. Between them, they generated a very effective crossfire, making the corner of the orchards, where the German infantry had expected to position their fire base, quite unhealthy.

Another German section was moving up through the village on the right.

1te Zug starts taking casualties and shock from the MG.

German reinforcements come forward.

/1te Zug manages to shoot down several of the MG crew.

Most of the German platoon HQ is hit as they direct the action, and a frontal assault by 2te Zug on the British infantry is thrown back with heavy losses.

The British musketry's devastating effect.

3te Zug sneaks forward through the village while the rest of the platoon tries to regroup (the trees need better bases...)

3te Zug's assault also fails, and 2te Zug is mostly hors de combat.

Even 1te Zug has been severely damaged by the MG.

One British section took some hits, but another stayed on blinds the whole time, and the MG came through still functioning.

We got a baseline result: a serious loss for the Germans, due to poor tactics (failure to concentrate firepower effectively on a single target) and insufficient force (three sections was not enough to take on two sections and an MG, especially when the defenders had good cover to fight from).

We'll try again with another rules set and see how the next play-through goes. We know and like the Lardy methods, though, so it will be tough for the competition to deliver a stronger result.

2011-03-20T13:03:00.005-04:00

My blog partner here, Frank, got my started keeping track of my DBA games some while ago. I've just been feeding all the results of the last five months into my spreadsheet (I'd been noting them down in my handheld but not pushing them into the hopper).

I don't know that my record-keeping is complete, and I know I am missing some details, but I do have 82 results. Frank is always saying he and I play pretty much equal, and he is more right than he knows! Of the 18 matches he and I have played that I've noted down, he has won 9 and I have 9. I've won 4:1 against our friend Chris H and 3:2 against Josh A. But Josh C continues to be my bete noire: I have played the same number of games against him that I have against Frank, but I have won only 5! And against a newer opponent, Al O, I have won only 1 of our 6 games! And against other, non-club opponents, I see I can boast to have recently extended my streak against my WADBAG evil genius David S to 0-5. :-)

Sadly, one day I know I have no record of is the last DBA Day I had at my place. For whatever reason, I didn't have my PDA to hand, and I lost all of those records. Pity, as we got a whole raft of games in that day!

1683 Polish - The Light Horse

2011-03-19T21:52:00.004-04:00

After a brief break to have a ton of fun at Cold Wars last weekend, I returned to the paint table to continue the Polish. Here are some pics of the Light Horse elements of the army.

Next up is what this army is all about. You guessed it - the Winged Hussars! Leopard skin capes eh? We'll see how I do. I am psyched! See you then.

Have fun!

Franko

Early Renaissance Battle

2011-03-04T14:16:00.006-05:00

More and more of our local gaming group has become interested in the Renaissance period and DBA-RRR. While an extension of standard DBA, RRR introduces a few new elements and rules that truly give the feel of the Pike and Shot period. I enjoy the game and the differences offered from DBA. Having said that, we set up a couple of my armies to have a go at it. I took my 2 Spanish Tercios (2Pike/2Shot) with 3 Knights and an Artillery and faced off against the German Minor States list containing 4 Pike, 2 Shot, 4 Knights, Artillery and a Light Horse.

The Germans set up splitting their knights to each flank and made an immediate end run for my camp with the LH. I peeled off my Knight General and counterattacked after the camp was initilly taken and pillaged. Forcing the LH to recoil off my back edge, the score reverted to 1-0 in favor of the Spanish.

Meanwhile, the Spanish Tercios drove the Germans off the hill on my left flank devastating the German knights and shot with overwhelming firepower while the pikes offered up protection. The main infantry formations started a shoving match in the center.

Down 3-0, the Germans lauched a counterattack with his knights on my right flank. Brave knights and artillery fire held the attack in check and the Germans finally gave way 4-0.

Now I want to get back to my Renaissance Polish painting. I am inspired!!!!

Happy gaming!

Franko

Normans in Norway!

2011-03-04T08:49:00.006-05:00

Having been bought off by English gold, Duke Richard II of Normandy postponed his invasion of the island and set sail for the lands of the Vikings. The Norse king has been gaining far too much prestige early on and has crippled the English army in consecutive battles. It was Richard's intent to check this upstart Viking. His sight set on the ports of Norway, Richard loaded his fleet with the best of the Norman nobility and set sail. The Vikings had just seized control of York so it was unclear whether they would abandon their new dominion and defend against the Norman invasion. As Richard's army set up camp his scouts reported the Vikings were indeed contesting the Norman incursion and were going to give battle.

Forkbeard, the Danish King, chose good defensible terrain on which to offer battle. Anchoring the flanks of his heavy foot on a waterway and some woods, the Vikings gave no opportunity for the more mobile Normans to concentrate on an open wing. A rough going ridge further broke up the avenue of advance. Far to the Viking right, the pass around the wooded area was guarded by more heavy spear. The woods themselves were guarded by another unit of heavy spear. This was a very strong position. Forkbeard chose wisely and dared the Duke to attack frontally.

DEPLOYMENT:

The Duke formulated his plan. Cavalry, supported by a unit of Lesser Nobles, would tie up the Viking spear guarding the pass between the ridge and the river. Norman light troops would attack the Viking heavy foot in the woods on ground favorable to them. Should the woods fall to the Normans, the Viking Blade line would be compromised. The Norman heavy horse would advance against the main Blade line. A heavy spear column would advance along the ridge acting as a link between the two mobile forces. Norman Light Horse would be held in reserve to seize any opportunities that may present themselves.

The Normans opened the attack in the woods while engaging the Viking spear on the right. Forkbeard countered with a supporting Blade element peeled off from the main line and attacked the Norman column on the ridge. The Norman spear narrowly escaped being caught in bad going but retreated in good order. The light troops failed to take advantage of the Viking heavies in the wood and the spear gave ground grudgingly. The Duke was angered as these events unfolded.

From the start the Duke knew this day would be decided by the Norman heavy horse. Without further delay he unleashed them headlong into the Viking shieldwall. The Viking line braced itself for the impact. A thunderous crash could be heard as the Normans impacted their foes. The first division was checked followed by the second but both withdrew in good order. Forkbeard was now in a great position to resolve the final combat of this charge at +3. The Norman third division leveled lances and hit home determined to carry the day. When the dust cleared thousands of Viking heavy foot lay dead many having formed a death square around the slain body of Svein Forkbeard. The Danish King had fallen.

With their King dead, the Vikings broke and fled. Norway, for now, is a Norman province. 1G-0.

Great game, Josh!

Happy gaming!

Franko

1683 Polish - The Pancerni Cavalry

2011-03-02T21:58:00.005-05:00

I am loving this project. Here are the "completed" Pancerni cavalry elements for the Renaissance Polish army. I say "completed" since I have just primed the 10 Kalkan shields that will be attached to the rear of the horse. That'll finish them up. This first photo is a bit overexposed so some of the detail washes out. Trust me when I say these are some of my best efforts of late.

Here's a shot with the flash off. I hope I can continue this effort when I get to the Winged Hussars! These were good practice for them.

Next up will be the Lithuanian Light Horse. I hope you are enjoying the journey!

Happy gaming.

Franko

Games Day @ Huzzah Hobbies

2011-02-27T13:15:00.003-05:00

I had fun researching and putting together a WWII scenario for Games Day. With all the talk at the club lately about Mid-War desert, I pulled my DAK and Americans out of storage and chose the Battle of Sidi Bouzid as my theme. In early February '42 Rommel, not liking his purely defensive position in Tunisia, decided to seize the initiative and attack through the eastern passes splitting the allied Free French and American forces in the west sectors. His lightning surprise advance drove the allies back. Over 80 miles to the north, the American HQ, with poor reconaissance and planning, ordered an immediate counter-attack in this sector. CCR attacked over 60 miles of open terrain down the valley, crossing wadis, harrassed by German air, and right into a German trap at Sidi Bouzid where elements of both the 10th and 21st Panzer divisions were pinching in from both the north and south. With some tweaking and play balance, I put almost 4000 points per side into this battle and am very pleased with the game play and the fun the players seemed to have with it. Below is a snapshot about midway through the battle. The Germans were fortunate to have reserves arrive early which tipped the balance in their favor. They didn't need the 2 Tiger platoons set to come in last on the reinforcement schedule.

A view from behind the American forces. Alan has prepared to launch his first infantry assault into the village.

From behind the German position in the village. Matt, as the DAK player, repulsed the American infantry assault and the American armor casualties were mounting rapidly. An American retreat ensued.

I hope to run this again after a couple of minor tweaks. I think it is a great scenario using a modified Flames of War HOLD THE LINE mission. I thank Chris for allowing me to use his table space on Saturday. I had fun.

Happy gaming!

Franko

And so it begins - a quick update.

2011-02-23T09:14:00.003-05:00

Overall it was a pretty productive week painting. I have completed 3 Polish foot (shot), 2 Haiduks (shot), 2 skirmishers:

and 2 Pancerni cavalry:

I will post photos when I get back from Pittsburgh and finish the last 2 Pancerni. I am trying out Army Painter's new basing material, tufts, and I like the effect. It is more work but worth the final result. You'll see and I hope you like them. I do.

EDIT: Photos added 2/24/11.

And so it begins - Renaissance Polish

2011-02-15T20:38:00.006-05:00

You may, or may not, remember I received for Christmas Legio Heroica's Polish Army at Vienna 1683. First off, I will tell these are fine 15mm figures that were easy to clean up and nicely animated and detailed. These are well worth the price my wife paid for them. LOL. As this project was one of my goals this year, I finally decided to put aside the various painting "distractions" and get down to business. Another first for me was prepping the surface with Gesso as opposed to my normal watered down black paint as primer. Jan turned me on to this stuff and so far it delivers completely sealing the painting surface. I find it takes longer to apply and I'm afraid to water it down in case it loses some of its properties. Anyway, it was worth the work. I feel the paint flowed on to the surface better and stayed put. The lighter colors didn't crack as I've seen on some of my work in the past. This alone was worth the effort.

I started with the Polish infantry. I am trying a new technique since I saw P3's line of base coat highlight paints. I bought the red and blue sets as they are the predominant Polish colors I will be using. Most of this army is cavalry so starting with the infantry was my best bet. I like the result and hope you do as well. Here are two photos of the Polish "Shot" elements for DBA-RRR.

Next up will be the Pancerni Cavalry elements. See you then!

Happy gaming!

Frank

Normans v Bretons

2011-02-12T17:13:00.004-05:00

A quick report and a few pics of my game against my long time DBA rival, Jan. Since we had nothing scheduled for campaign battles, Jan, feeling the period, opted to invade Norman teritory with his expansionist Bretons. Having been subject to Jan's weird terrain filled boards in the past, I decided to place a BUA on the board and see if it gave him fits.

I only took one round of pics but these three show the nuts and bolts of the fighting. This first pic shows the Norman left wing. I had hoped to hold here and support the BUA while I won on my right. Oddly enough, Jan's plan was to win the battle here and hold on the other wing. The Bretons are missing a LH element as the spear lunged forward supported with a flanking attack by Psiloi which returned to the defense of the BUA.

Here is the BUA. Originally I had the bow element in garrison hoping to give harrassing fire on the Breton mounted contingents. Jan's successive wave attacks of Psiloi, Horde and, finally, Warband took the BUA but the Norman spear took it back and held.

Finally, on the Norman right, the Duke's knights engaged the Breton cavalry. The thunder of their charges drove the Bretons from the field and the Duke had won the day.

Another fun night of gaming. While this was going on, Josh and his Vikings put a hurt on the defending Anglo-Saxons under Chris H. as he attempted to thwart the invasion of York. The Normans invaded in the south, at Winchester, but were paid off so no campaign battle for me tonight. Chris B. and I had a go with Chris taking the Norse-Irish - his army in the campaign, while I gave him some practice against the Pre-Feudal Scots. A good learning game for Chris and fun for both as it was a good battle.

That's it for this entry. Have fun and keep on gaming!

Frank

The Normans - an old friend returns.

2011-02-09T11:33:00.004-05:00

After a bit of a break from DBA it is time to return to this addictive little game. My usual suspects at Huzzah Hobbies have conjured up a campaign backdrop for our Thursday night battles. The original campaign design can be seen here: http://www.fanaticus.org/DBA/campaigns/england1002ad.html

and you can follow the campaign here at Jan's Campaign Blog:

http://england1002.blogspot.com/

I am using an army I picked up a few years ago. These are my Normans (III/51):

All figures are old Tabletop minis. They run a truer 15mm scale and are kinda cool. As you can see I am not fit for battling in bad going types of terrain. I could have gone the all knight option but that would be making matters worse. So, we'll see what happens.

Most of the diplomacy is over. Starting positions and army composition have been sent to our learned campaign master and blogmate, Jan. Tensions are high and we await some fun!

Keep gaming and having fun!

Duke Richard II of Normandy

Hold The Line - A Flames of War Mission

2011-01-16T17:43:00.008-05:00

As I may have mentioned before, Huzzah! Hobbies has gotten quite a few new players interested in Flames of War. Having been away from the game for a number of years, I was coaxed back into the WWII fray. The release of Blitzkrieg by Battlefront sparked a renewed interest in the game also and, of course, added more painting projects to the year. We have almost finished a Late War Escallation league in which I ran my Guard Tankovy Batalon with some success. Now, its an Early War Escallation League and my Schutzen Kompanie is off to a bloody, but winning, 5-4 start over Scotts' French Infantry. This entry, however; is about the LW Campaign we are running where teams of three players per side conduct an Axis of Attack campaign as outlined in the main rulebook and some supplements. My teammates have been splitting their wins and losses and this was my first game up against Chris Ward and his attacking German PanzerKompanie. My Russian Strelkovy Batalon was on the defensive in Hold The Line.

The Russians consisted of 2 Strelkovy Companies, 3x82mm and 4x120mm Mortars, 4x45mm AT guns, 2 ZiS-2 57mm AT guns, an HMG company and 4xSU-85 Assault Guns. This gave me 8 "platoons", of which I could deploy half and the rest had to go into "reserves". I opted to attach pioneer teams to my Strelkovy in case of a Panzer assault and bought the 3 HQ AAMGs as usual. The mission allows me to hold up to half of my deployable units in ambush so that was the role of the ATGs. Let's keep the Germans guessing. Below is my deployment. Strelkovy would hold the village. Well back were the 120mm mortars with AA coverage. Any flanking maneuvers by the Germans would be met with my ambushing Anti-Tank guns.

Below is the German Panzer force. 8 Panzer IVH's, 2 platoons of SPAA, a recon platoon of PzIIs, a Tiger and Air Support.

Chris started off poorly as many of his panzers bogged down attempting to cross the stream. He used the bridge for his SPAA and his recon element. Chris immediately called for air support as he did every turn. He wanted those 120mm mortars gone as they posed my only long range threat to his open-topped SPAA and could also hurt his PzIVs and PzIIs with some luck. For each of the first three turns the Soviet AA machine-gunners valiantly drove off the attacks of the German planes. The German armor and SPAA formed gun lines and tried to shell the Russian infantry out of the village. Meanwhile, the German recon element made a wide swing around the village on my left headed for the forward objective. I wouldn't get reserves for the first three turns so I had to do something NOW or it would be a lightning fast German victory. Sneaky, Chris. Very sneaky.

I deployed my first ambushers but since I had no cover due to the reconaissance rule, I had to deploy outside of 16 inches in the open. Taking out all the tanks was not a guarantee so I had to rid myself of "Gone to Ground" cover for my infantry in the village. Casualties were light so far from the German fire so I pulled back a few teams to contest the objective. His firepower was reduced by the loss of 1 SPAA platoon from the shells of the 120mm mortars so this was as good a time as any.

The 45mm ATG crew unleashed a devasting volley into the German recon panzers destroying 2 and driving the third off as Chris failed his platoon morale check. The situation was saved and Chris would have to come up with a Plan B.

The Germans continued to fire into the village defenders while sending a platoon of PzIVs to my left flank and the Tiger to my right. This was going to be the main attack. I was getting my reserves so now was the time to bring on the SU-85s. I was hoping to run them up my left flank avoiding the massive Tiger and counter-attacking the PzIVs and SPAA vehicles. In the meantime, I deployed my second ambushers in the woods to my left and opened up on Chris' flanking Panzer platoon. The crews of the 57mm ZIS-2's did their job and devastated the German armor. The Soviet SU's lost one to the Tiger and its 40" range but managed to get shots on the second Panzer platoon driving them off as well. In a last ditch attempt to win, Chris sent his lone SPAA guns charging my right flank. They were met by a Russian HMG company and the sheer weight of firepower was too much for them. With the loss of more than half his platoons, Chris was forced to take a company morale check which he failed. The Germans fled the field and the village remained in Russian hands. A 6-1 win for our team.

Well played and much fun, Chris! This new group of players down at Huzzah! are a great bunch and I'm happy to be back playing Flames of War. I look forward to many more fun games.

Have fun! More to come!

Comrade Frankovich

weekend game report #2: Mockern

2011-01-13T12:32:00.003-05:00

After our trip to Manchuria on Saturday, several of us shifted west and refought the engagement at Moeckern, part of the 1813 battle of Leipzig. It features a huge force of Prussians and Russians trying to smash their way through Marmont's VI Corps. Descriptions can be found on the napolun.com site and the napoleonistyka site (they're mostly the same text, but with different maps and illustrations).

This was a huge game, and again I ended up arriving late because I couldn't find stuff I had meant to bring. I need to spend this next weekend doing a lot of reorganizing and sorting and labeling. Scott brought the French and Russian forces; I brought the Prussians. Fra. Eric brought his big terrain mat and laid out the road network in coloured sand--one of his excellent skills. We had more than enough players, so Scott and I ended up acting as umpires, helping the players who were unfamiliar with the rules and trying to keep the pace going (at which we only partially succeeded).

We did make it through several hours (game time) of the battle before we had to stop, but half of the Allied forces (the Russians) had not yet got onto the board. Partly this was my fault for arriving so late. Partly it was because some players who were not at a specific moment actively engaged (moving troops, conducting fire or close combat) were stepping away from the table, disengaging, getting involved in side conversations, and not thinking ahead about what their strategy was, what they might want to do next, observing their opponents' moves, etc. So when they came back to the table, they'd kind of lost the thread, had to reorient themselves, think through their options, figure out how to carry out those options in game terms, etc. I need to think about ways to help obviate that, to help players stay engaged.

In any case, it was great to see my Prussians get a run out at last. I've had them--most of them--for ~25 years, and this is only the second or third game that I can recall them being fully engaged in. Usually they are the other shoe, waiting to drop, in Waterloo scenarios, and by the time their entry turn comes around, the players are pretty much done, one way or another. Very much a case of "always the bridesmaid..." Well, for once, they got to open the ball! :-)

weekend game report #1:Battlefront

2011-01-12T17:42:00.005-05:00

My buddy Eric has gotten into playing Battlefront WW2, and his Soviets have been waiting for an outing. Since I had mentioned to him several battles I'd been able to set up for my Imperial Japanese Army of late, he suggested we look into a Soviet-Japanese battle.

Of course, I went overboard with the research and am excitedly looking up information on the two periods of warfare between Japan and Russia in WW2--the early battles in 1939 and the late battles in 1945. We started with the Nomonhan Incident, a Japanese attack and Russian counterattack in the border region between Soviet-controlled Mongolia and Japanese-controlled Manchukuo (Manchuria).

I've reported on our first battle here on the BFWW2 board. I think a few photos may have been taken; I'll post links if so. We got seven players together, a record for my small group, I think. Eric and Bryan supplied Russkis--the better part of a Russian rifle regiment; I brought Japanese--a full battalion of infantry; Phil hosted and gave us all lunch (Eric and Amir had brought "health food"--coffee and donuts from Dunkin Donuts).

Given that I ended up arriving late (as usual :-( with half the troops and terrain, we got a good portion of the game in before people had to leave. The Russians found it a painful slog to get through the Japanese defenses, while the Japanese were alarmed that the Soviet penetrated as fast as they did--like every good compromise, no one was happy! :-)

Goals!!!

2011-01-11T10:45:00.002-05:00

No, don't get excited, I am not a follower of futbol...the round ball kind...at all. However; since it is the season of goal setting I will follow suit and think about some goals for myself this hobby year.

As of late my main gaming interests have been Flames of War, AE Bounty, DBA, of course, anything Zombie, and almost any other game friends put in front of my face to play. I use pre-painted plastics for my SciFi and Zombie games so I am covered there. After years of absence, Chris at Huzzah Hobbies has been promoting a lot of Flames Of War and I couldn't resist re-entering that arena. The Blitzkrieg book was released for Early War by Battlefront so I have jumped in with both feet and am doing a German Schutzenkompanie (Motorized Infantry). That is Goal#1 so I can play in Huzzah's Early War Escallation league.

Goal#2 has to be DBA but the Renaissance variant, DBA-RRR. For Christmas I asked for miniatures to do an army I have always wanted to have - Polish - because, really, who can resist having Polish Winged Hussars on the field of battle? The figures - Legio Heroica - are simply gorgeous and will fill future posts here as I start that project. As a "matched pair", I received from my Blogger partner a surprise Christmas gift! Knowing what I had asked for Christmas, Jan went out and fitted me with Renaissance Cossacks for DBA-RRR so I have opponents for my Polish. What a guy!!! That is certainly Goal#3 for 2011.

The final, Goal#4, for 2011 is the Corvus Belli Numidian Boxed Set for DBA. That too should grace the pages of this blog later this year.

As we all know, goals are great but must be flexible; or should they? In reality, the real GOAL for 2011 is to reduce the pile of unpainted lead. I believe this is our best intention every year. For some reason it just never works out that way. I wonder why? LOL

Good gaming all! Let's have some fun!

Frank

new player needed

2011-01-04T14:07:00.004-05:00

The Punic Wars DBA campaign that I took over moderating lost a player last year--Carthage. Without a replacement, we won't be able to continue. Would any of our readers be willing to join?

You do NOT need to have the DBA armies of the period/region. You don't even need to play DBA (though it helps). At this level, the campaign is a very simple diplomacy game. The game consists of turns in which players move their armies and battles are resolved in sequence (usually my local DBA gang fights out the battles). I post results and we move on to the next player. After all players have had a go, we move to the next turn. After three seasonal turns (Spring, Summer, Autumn), we do some book keeping (the Winter season) and we move on to the next "year". Players engage in diplomacy by email or board postings, with declarations of war and peace allowed at the beginning of each season (you can't attack someone you haven't declared war on). We've been doing a seasonal turn every week or so.

Any takers?

exhausted...and humanity still died!

2010-12-30T15:33:00.004-05:00

I stayed up until far too late last night with my friends Bryan and Ryan (hmmm...that sounds uncomfortably like a pair of brothers on a 70s TV show...) played Arkham Horror.

But we *did* end up finishing a game, for the first item ever!

Sadly, that ending was not a good ending.

For those unfamiliar with the game, players take the roles of ordinary inhabitants of the small New England city of Arkham, circa 1926, struggling to deal with the increasing number of strange portents, events, and horrifying monsters leaking into our dimension from other worlds. As they try to accumulate enough information about what strange forces are at work, the danger grows, and eventually, if things go very badly, one of the great Elder Gods may manifest in Arkham, at which point the player have one last chance to save humanity.

Yes, well, we pretty much failed. Ryan played two characters, which may have been a cagy move. One, the beautiful scientist from Miskatonic University, was surprisingly effective at fighting monsters, but the other, an elderly professor, was the real bread-winner in our gang. He managed to close almost all of the gates (interdimensional portals) that ripped through the space-time continuum to spill dire beasts into the streets of our fair town. Bryan, playing a magician (stage magician--think Mandrake, not Merlin) and I (played a hard-boiled, or in my case apparently half-baked, private eye) did not fare so well. I started off collecting a lot of information, but was never able to turn it into hard evidence sufficient to lead anywhere. Even with my trademark twin .45 automatics, I had a hard time beating down the perils, both squamous and gibbous, that came my way, and Drake the Magician had trouble translating his expertise with pigeon-producing and lady-sawing into real magic. Both of us wandered into other dimensions on several occasions, but we ended up lost in time and space (I started off the game getting lost in some very terrestrial caves...), unlike il Professore, who wandered abstractedly across the Plateau of Leng and back, or into and out of the planet of Yuggoth without suffering ill effects (too often...).

Eventually, though the town began shutting down. So many monsters arrived that they chased off most of the inhabitants, closing the places we might have found help or lore to prevent the coming of the Great Old One. We closed almost all the gates and sealed several of them, but it was in vain. Nyarlathotep, the Haunter of the Dark, arrived and consumed two of our investigators immediately. The Professor and Drake the Magician held out a little longer, but in the end he consumed them utterly.

Good fun. Can't wait it play it again. :-)

a bonanza of holiday gaming!

2010-12-27T18:16:00.003-05:00

I've been very fortunate over the last few weeks to do a pile of gaming with different friends.

Right after Thanksgiving, I got to do some board gaming with my friends Chris and Mel, which included their favourite, Agricola, and their new favourite, Stone Age.

I was also trying out Partizan Press's British Grenadier with the Boyz Night boyz. The three of us played a portion of the Bunker Hill scenario and then the next week Bryan and I played the Hubbardton scenario.

Then, shortly thereafter, I had a game day at my place, which turned out to be very small--me, the grrlz, and my housemate Ryan. We played the hunters & gatherers version of Carcassonne, the European version of Ticket to Ride, and a terrifically nifty game that Ryan brought along called, simply, Bang!.

Ryan came along to the next boyz night, with Bang!; we also played Pandemic, dying fairly early to a massive outbreak of Red. :-( We talked about playing Arkham Horror, but decided to put it off until the following week.

Ryan wasn't able to make it then, but Peter and Bryan and I played through a surprising number of turns (given we had all brought beer and we hadn't read the rules in a loonnnggg time :-). Peter actually closed several gates to the Other Worlds, and I think Bryan closed at least one. I spent most of my time getting whacked by a collapsing beam in an old house or hiding in the hospital (where some nice ambulance men took me when I crawled out of the house) because the nearby streets were filled with monsters.

On the 18th I went out to Warrenton to play Battlefront WW2 with my buddy Mike. We had a great game testing out his scenario for the battle of Primosole Bridge during the 1943 campaign for Sicily. Then the next day I went up to Glen Burnie for a lighthearted game of The Sword and the Flame at AOCM followed by several Wings of War battles.

I'd missed one or two of my Thursday night games with the Huzzah Harries, but last week The Original Josh and The Other Chris and I played Algernon Pulls It Off, and I think I managed not to goof up too many of the rules. Chris shot down one of Josh's planes by ganging up on it, but with both of them flying four aircraft and just learning the rules it wasn't too drawn out, and they both enjoyed it.

My chum Scott and I are putting together an Age of Eagles Napoleonic game for January 9th, and there's talk of another Battlefront game on the 8th, possibly a Russo-Japanese battle in Manchuria!

So this is really quite the month (or more) of gaming for me!

published again!

2010-12-15T11:37:00.003-05:00

I am happy to say that I have the honour of having been published in the latest Too Fat Lardies Xmas special, their 2010 Christmas Toast.

I heartily recommend all our readers check out this compendium of gaming fun. What could be more festive than a hearty gaming session, complete with flaming plum pudding and brandy, over the hols?

Medieval Scandanavians - The Army has landed!

2010-11-29T20:48:00.006-05:00

The Norwegian army is complete. Since the last blog entry, I have finished the 2 skirmisher elements and the crossbow. The minimum list is now complete. Here they are:

Skirmishers back up the blades:

More skirmishers:

Town militia crossbow:

I had intentions of using the longship has a camp but it is too fragile and unwieldy for the gaming table. I oredered a pack of horse holders as the camp. I will paint them up but have decided I need to have the Baueda Viking camp as well. NEED IT! :-)

I hope you have enjoyed this project as much as I have. I'll post the camp when its done.

Have fun!

Frank

Medieval Scandanavians - The project takes shape.

2010-11-08T12:44:00.006-05:00

With Fall In behind us, painting projects move to the front burner again before Cold Wars arrives. As with all of us, our mountain of lead never seems to get smaller as we continue to add to the pile. Gamers, sheesh!

I am in the process of completing the infantry. Since our last update, the second knight element, a cavalry element and the six blade elements have mustered around the king's banner. I am very pleased with the Essex mounted figures. The infantry (blades) are a mix of Old Glory and Essex. I believe I have overcome the challenge of their different size by mounting the Old Glory figures as usual but mounting the Essex figures on top of my initial base groundwork. This has raised the Essex figure sufficiently to match up better to the Old Glory height. I am happy with the results.

As for the basing scheme, I googled up some photos of the Norwegian coastlines during their summer season. A mixture of grayish slate and plush grass inspired my groundwork. I like the effect.

Next up are the crossbow elements and the really nice Viking foot scouts from the Baueda/Hostis line of figures. They match up well with what I have and I look forward to painting them up. A camp and the unveiling of my Scandanavian "surprise" will complete this project. I hope you enjoy it as much as I am. Until then,

Keep on having fun!

Frank

DBA-RRR at Fall In 2010 - SURPRISE!!!

2010-11-01T11:34:00.006-04:00

First off, I want to thank all the players and GM Kyle Burley for running this event. If you haven't played this Pike & Shot DBA variant, you should. It gives a different feel in a period I had no interest in at all but gave it a try due to the hard work adapting DBA to the Renaissance period by Tony Aguilar. I absolutely love it. I entered my Low Countries Spanish into this fray and couldn't have enjoyed this tournament any more. Great players made it so and this surprise:
Anyone who followed this project here on the blog already knows the work and absolute joy I got from painting this Minifig army. I am honored to receive the award. Here are a few more pics:

As for the tournament, my Spanish went 1-1-1. They defeated Spencer's German Minor States in round one with a 4G-0 win. In round 2, despite our best efforts, Michael Guth and I had to settle for 2-2 draw. Mike also fielded Low Countries Spanish but a much more Knight/Shot heavy version. In the final round, Will Pavane taught the European organized Spanish that the New World was no place for old world tactics. His English Colonials stomped the Spanish. With 8 shot, 2 Indian skirmishers, A Dragoon and a Cavalry, his firepower took its toll on the Tercios before they could roll over them. A resounding 1-4 defeat.

Great fun and I certainly hope more and more DBA-ers try this variant. You won't be disappointed!

See you soon,

Frank

Hindus: COMPLETED!

2010-10-29T00:27:00.010-04:00

In a move unlike any in my painting history, I have finished a DBA army more than eight hours before the competition. Painted. Shaded. Based. Landscaped. With a camp. Unprecedented. :-)

Of course, it's only about 9 hours before the competition, but....

The army

Right wing

Center

Left

The camp, artillery, and skirmishers

and again

the bow

the horse

and the ELLIES!

Sorry for all the shadow--I'm not a great photographer!

They aren't a patch on Frank's Tamils, but I have to say, I'm really rather pleased with them!

last pics before completion

2010-10-27T11:25:00.010-04:00

It's a bit tiresome finding a way to photograph here when the sun isn't shining like a beazle. So, last piccies before I finish off the mounted lot.

The rajah in his howdah. We'll figure out an appropriate canopy for him later.

Ellies (still have to finish the harness and detailing).

And ellie crew (done).

Cavalry horses.

Riders and mahouts.

Bowmen.

Art, Bd, Ps. Just need to paint the landscaping and add a little fluff.

And the Fatimid 8Bw I've been finishing at the same time.

totally unrelated to anything

2010-10-26T18:55:00.001-04:00

And while I'm finishing the Hindus, what are the already-completed Tamils doing?

Reading pulp fiction, apparently...

quick update (photos this pm)

2010-10-26T09:54:00.004-04:00

Not liking the fact that, 24 hours after I applied it, the Army Painter stuff is still slightly tacky. The only thing that should be slightly tacky on these figures is my choice of colours. :-)

Bd, Ps, Art are based. Camp almost done (I was about to glue the guards on, then realised I hadn't painted the curtain to the tent, which they will kind of block. :-) But I like the diapering of lilies and stars I did on the canvas... Bw and elephant archers and howdah all done, need to be coated. Cv almost done (manes and tails on the horses and a few details on the riders). Ellies need the final macro colours and detailing.

I also finished off a couple of Fatimid spearmen that have been keeping that army from being finished since forever, and I'm touching up a ballista for the Mac Imps.

experiment

2010-10-25T18:19:00.002-04:00

Since Frank did all the Tamils shiny, I'm using the Army Painter stuff as a final coat on the figures. Bd, Ps, rajah, spearbearing El riders all done. Camp all but finished. Need to do arrow cases on Bw and archer El riders, distinguishing colour on lancers and their horses (each has his armour and lance the same, but shield, pyjamys, and horse harness a separate colour), and finish howdah and elly harness. And finish the surprise. :-)

Hindu Indian army progress: now with more colour!

2010-10-24T11:56:00.010-04:00

Some more in-process snaps.

Bowmen getting near-done. (You can also see my photographic assistant's tail...)

The Art; I really like this little gun!

The mounted fellows (Cv in armour and spearmen and bowmen for the non-rajah elephants).

Getting the camp ready (a tent with guards and a small campfire).

Swordsmen with a touch of colour (I thought red-orange pagris would be nice to symbolise the fiery nature of the Bd).

Skirmishers, probably the least showy of the bunch.

My biggest problem in painting is that I lack focus and concentration; I'm always being distracted by things. In this case, I made some more implements while I was painting.

Ouch!

2010-10-22T10:56:00.002-04:00

Last night was not a good one for me, DBAwise. I got hammered 1-4, 0-4, and 2-4G by Frank and (twice) Josh, while I played the same army. Which one? The Gauls. What am I playing the the Two Davids' tournament at Fall In? Oh, yes, the Gauls. Not looking good...

progress report (no photos)

2010-10-19T23:57:00.003-04:00

Finished the first colour on all the Hindus by greying up the ellies and doing skin tones on the riders (rajah, cavalry, mahouts, ellie archers). Finished the second, third, and fourth colours on the special project. Hoping to finish painting on the specials tomorrow (two more colours plus detailing) and maybe wash, matte coat them, and base them Thursday morning.

Hindu Indian army progress

2010-10-17T13:25:00.009-04:00

As my co-author pointed out to me in his usual gentle, kindly way the other day, I've been thinking more in terms of getting our Hindus done before the tournament, rather than far enough before the tournament for us to actually practice with them. Ah, well. He's right, though; I need to get a move on.

So I've actually picked up a brush again, and I got the first colour on (most of) them this weekend. I find that after the first, the others tend to flow more quickly, even though the first is the fastest because one doesn't need to be very cautious (at least, not the way I paint).

OK, first off, those with the least progress. I did get the ellies assembled this week, and on the weekend I've been undercoating them and the riders. The howdah is still a bit of a puzzle--the canopy is an L shaped piece that sort of vaguely slots into the back. I'm thinking of skipping it, or substantially modifying it. Not only does assembling it the way it comes from the package defy the laws of gravity, it doesn't look a damn thing like any howdah I can find a picture of. What would make more historical sense would be a canopy supported on four pillars with a tent or wee domes to it, like this or this. I'm not sure I'm up to building that, so I may look for a chappie with a big umbrella....

Next is the gun team. These chaps have kurtas and pyjamy trousers and carry implements, but their clothes should still be fairly plain. The gun will be a red carriage with a brass tube (Indians excel at making things out of brass!)

Then comes the cavalry. I still have yet to find a simple and effective way to mount riders separately for painting. But horses are easier. Again, once the first colour is on, it's like there's a psychological barrier that makes the others, even though they take longer, seem to go more quickly.

After the cavalry are the swordsmen and the skirmishers with their javelins/spears. All but one of these fellows are wearing lungis, so they will be pretty quick to paint.

And last are the archers: 4 x 3Bw. Again, weapons and lungis (plus beards, turbans, quivers, etc.) so fairly quick. I may do the foot first so as to have the feeling of accomplishment produced by picking the low-hanging fruit. :-)

DBV and CoG

2010-10-11T16:53:00.003-04:00

I attended the 5th Annual DBV event, specifically the DBA Open, last Saturday. Unlike my foray in Ashburn, I did not cover myself in glory, with my Italian condotta army falling 1-3, ninth in a ten-man field.

I lost my first match, against my very own Later Swiss, on loan to my buddy Josh Cruciotti. I gambled on blowing through the end of his pike phalanx with a carefully directed charge of knights led by the condottiero himself, but left myself open to an envelopment by the remaining Swiss and their light horse. When Farinata degli Uberti hit the dirt, the rest of the army fled. :-(

I retrieved the situation somewhat by a victory over Tom Black's Early Poles. Our armies were fairly similar--I had more knights, IIRC, and he had more bow. He had Frank-luck with his pip dice, and I managed to maneuver to fight the matchups I wanted, so Dame Fortune smiled on me.

The third game went downhill again, as I met the Seljuk Turks of Jack "the Butcher" Sheriff. His light horse managed to outflank me very successfully and Ser Manente was again proving the view of Epicurus that the soul does not outlive the body.

My last fight was against Gordon Stewart, and this time I get my impatience for victory allow me to push my knights too far ahead of the rest of the army. The victor of Montaperti hurtled forward with his entourage, hoping to outflank and roll up the (very long) line of the Rhoxolani Sarmatians, but his impetuous charge took him deep into their army where he was, to put it straightforwardly, whacked.

I even missed out on the Butcher Award (to the player with the highest total of elements killed--enemy *and* friendly); David Schlanger edged me out, 20 to 19, as he won both the tournament and the "biggest slaughter" award. :(

I skipped out on the evening's Wings of War combat in order to see United's penultimate home match of 2010...which they lost 0-2, with retiring star Jaime Moreno retiring from the field a little early, red-carded in the sixth minute. WoW would probably have been more satisfying...

The day wasn't a total loss, however, my friend the Rev. Karl dropped by and gave me two Formula De racetracks (Belgium and Spain), which I look forward to trying out.

yo, yo, homies! don't fuhgit the DeeBeeVee

2010-10-08T11:32:00.004-04:00

The 6th annual "Wars of Washington, DC" DBA tournament will be held on Saturday, 9 Oct. 2010 in conjunction with the Congress of Gamers gaming convention, at the Rockville Senior Center in Rockville, MD.

DBV is part of a full schedule of WADBAG-supported events organized by WADBAG for COG. You can register for events in advance by email to Chris Brantley or just show up on the day of the event. There is no fee for events, but you will need to pay the Congress of Gamers registration fee of $7 (per day) ($6 if you pre-register).

Tutorial: 10.00 am to noon
Tournament: 1.00 to 5.30
Wings of War (WWI air combat game): 6.00 to 10.00 pm

European buildings

2010-10-06T11:12:00.003-04:00

Anyone needing some inexpensive European buildings could do worse than check out these links.

buildings from the Market-Garden campaign in 1:285

German buildings in N gauge (1;144 or ~10mm scale)

Thanks to the guys on the Battlefront forums for the links!

two successful games!

2010-10-04T16:07:00.006-04:00

On Saturday I ran a Battlefront: WW2 game for a couple of friends. We played a small scenario in which three companies of Imperial Japanese infantry attacked through jungle, over open ground, and across a river to clear an Australian militia company that was blocking their advance.

I've played BF about half a dozen times; Mike and Phil had not played it before (IIRC), but they are both quick studies, and Mike used his Special Attorney Powers to read through the rules carefully and absorb a lot of minutiae, including a lot of stuff that had so far escaped me. :-) We had a grand time, and I (as the Aussie commander) got very lucky when, on two occasions, the lead IJA company that was closing in on my main strongpoint decided instead to fall back and regroup. At the end, I'd lost one of my three platoons, the Japanese had gotten around to threaten our flank, and we were going to have to high-tail it back down our LOC, but we held the sons of Nippon to a draw.

Yesterday I ran a game of "Science Versus Pluck" for the Army of Central Maryland chaps. They had a British expedition of two infantry and one cavalry brigade with which to locate and destroy a Mahdist army. They succeeded in doing both! They were helped in large part by my incomplete familiarity with the rules, which ended up benefiting the British, and with what I decided was a somewhat impatient Dervish commander who, seeing his units being winkled out and defeated one by one, decided to simply "let slip the hounds of war", as it was looking less and less likely that the British were going to walk into the lovely ambush he had set up.

Now I'm looking forward to the De Bellis Vasingtonium tournament that's coming up next Saturday. Life is a great big wargaming bonanza right now!

Tamils Make Their Mark!

2010-09-25T16:38:00.004-04:00

In a quite unexpected turn of events, the Tamil Indian army that my co-author so beautifully painted took today's Huzzah Hobbies Inaugural DBA Open. Not in a walk (there was some very excellent competition), but in a rather elephantine amble at any rate. Tremendously good luck and a small field made it easier than it might have been for them to come top, but at least a small amount of skill and fearsome Tamil bravery played a large part.

I faced a Makkan army to start. Sacrificing our cavalry on the left flank (a role they would reprise in later engagements, to the extent that volunteer cavalrymen are now had to find in the kingdom of the Cholas) we were able to coordinate a full three-elephant charge on the enemy's wall o' warband and squish two pairs of warbands in the first exchange. 4-1

Next up was a Ghaznavid army. They put out a BUA and were unlucky enough to have it fall into my deployment area. A Tamil blade + skirmisher combo swiftly crushed the auxilia holding it, the elephants crushed a spear, and our bow managed to double an enemy bow. We did lose a blade and skirmisher in the process, but the enemy fled in awe at our rampaging jumbos. 3B-2

Finally the Tamils came up against a crafty Leidang army, which fought us on a field covered almost entirely in marsh and woods, on the shore of one of their great mountain-sea inlets. We advanced slowly, then stopped when our elephants were some distance from the marshes. Our foot moved into an open field beyond, only to be driven back by the ferocity of the Norsemen (and a few discreet flags signals from the command howdah). Again our cavalry ventured forward to see if they could manage to push open the enemy's right flank at a low-odds attack; instead they were annihilated. :-( The withdrawal of our blades was eventually coordinated with an attack by our elephant corps as the enemy emerged from the marsh. We lost a blade, they lost a blade, then in successive rounds we eliminated their blade general and a third blade. Final 3G-2

The prior outings by the Tamils since their consignment from the armory have not been covered with glory, so this was a great boost for their morale. It was a nice boost to mine as well, as I believe this is the first wargame tournament I have won (and almost certainly the last :-).

Many thanks to Huzzah Hobbies for sponsoring the event, to Mike Byrne for running it, and to my worthy opponents (Mike humself, a gentleman whose name I fear I did not get, and Mike Guth). It was, as Wallace would say, a grand day out!

Medieval Scandinavians - Part II

2010-09-22T14:10:00.007-04:00

I have finished the mounted elements consisting of 1x3Kn(G), 1x3Kn, and 1x3Cv. These are all Essex models that I felt fit the timeframe for the army I was attempting to portray. I am pleased with them overall. I still have to decide what terrain scheme will be the final product.

The infantry on the flanks are Old Glory from their Early Crusdaer range. I selected "dismounted sargeants" as I felt they best represented what the upper classes and veteran campaigners would field. The center element is Essex from their Early Medieval range. Based on the the following passage from Osprey, I felt these would work:

'The Lanslag or "code" of King Magnus Lagaboter of Norway (1263-1280), dating from 1274, indicates the different levels of equipment that men of various social or economic classes were supposed to have. The poorest man should possess a red shield with an iron rim around its sides, plus a spear and a sword or axe. Quite why the shield should be red is unclear, but might have had something to do with its leather covering. Men who were one step higher up the socio-economic ladder were supposed to bring the same equipment plus a helmet. Those in the next rank had the same, plus a mail shirt or a panser, probably meaning a coat of plates. Those men who were not free landowners should nevertheless bring a shield, a good spear, a broadaxe or at least a smaller axe.'

The problem was the size difference between Essex and OG. I feel I solved it by basing the OG figures as I usually do but decided, for the Essex figures, to apply the basing sand first and glue the figures on top of the texture. It seems to have worked.

So, about halfway done and still enjoying the project!

Franko

Medieval Scandinavian IV/54d

2010-09-04T22:59:00.004-04:00

Well its that time again - another project. Having repainted a Teutonic army and seeing Tony Aguilar's Medieval Scandinavians on "Figuratively Speaking", his blog, I was drawn back to the Baltic for the next project. Having painted a fair share of horse lately, I was looking for a predominantly infantry based army that would be fun to play. I settled on this one but knew little about it. Asking the pundits on Fanaticus, it was suggested that this "other" list could be a prime candidate for the Norwegians so off I went. I searched many, many figure manufacturers for the right "look". I wanted the arms and armor to portray the cover art of Osprey's Medieval Scandinavians-Volume I. Of course, only Essex fit the bill and not being a fan of Essex figures I was hesitant. Poring over the website I decided the mounted arm really was nice and had some decent animation. The foot, of course, were boring, but they would have to do as not many manufacturers mix well with Essex in my opinion. We'll talk about the Essex foot in a later post. For now, let's begin with the mounted arm and I am very happy with the results for the Knight General.

While Tony's army was an earlier period in Norwegian post Viking history, I wanted to go about a century later, circa 1300, to get the feel of the Osprey cover art where Norway, lagging behind the rest of Europe in arms and armor, was going through a transitional period. This, I felt, would get me the best of both worlds and deliver the "feel" of the army I wanted for this project.

Oddly enough, the first figure I painted wasn't Norwegian at all but, based on another Osprey print, a Swedish Noble who I have placed in Norwegian service. The "centerpiece" of this element is obviously the King of Norway. The Norwegian coat of arms is potrayed as best I can do on his shield while the horse barding and the standard bearer display the cross of St. Olav.

Above is the rear view. I will terrain all the bases upon completion of all the elements. I haven't decided how I want them to look yet so they can wait. One element down but its a start. Let the journey begin.

Frank

Completed Projects

2010-09-04T10:58:00.001-04:00

Just a quick note to let you know I added some pics to the post. Next up...

Medieval Scandinavians!

Huzzah Hobby Night!

2010-09-03T08:26:00.000-04:00

Great fun yesterday. Chris and I went at it as my Polish Corps met his Austrians at the Battle of Ashburn - a village set in some rolling hills. Chris was the attacker in this 12 pt. DBN affair. A good, tough fight but Poniatowski's attack columns carried the day routing the Austrians. 4-2 final score.

Sean showed up with his Scots-Irish and the first game of the Huzzah Pyramid was under way. I elected to field the Huns as my Book II entry. Showing no fear, Sean drove his 3 light chariots into the Hunnic hornet's nest and exited unscathed in a total 4-0 rout of Attila's army.

While we waited for Chris, Sean and I got in a practice game for his S-I against my Sub-Roman British. Sean's wild-eyed auxilia outfought my spear line and Saxon warbands in another rout. A 4-1 final and I will be avoiding Sean as long as I can. He's got my number!

Chris entered the pyramid fray with his Polybian Romans and challenged me on the bottom tier. Attila was more patient and more leery of his low factor LH for this battle. The hunnic light horse picked at the Roman flanks and broke up the enemy line into smaller pieces defeating each in detail for a 4-0 victory.

I look forward to more fun and excitement next Thursday. See you all then!

Completed Projects

2010-08-29T08:45:00.010-04:00

I have been busy working on the pile of unpainted lead around my painting room. With the completion, mostly anyway, of the Tamil Indian, I decided to take some armies I usually morph and paint what was needed to make them a stand alone army list. I also had picked up a couple of camps at Huzzah Hobbies so I threw them into the production line.

I had a boatload of germannic type infantry and cavalry so I painted them and added to the Late Imperial Romans I had. Now I can field a II/83a Patrician Roman West list.

I had purchased some Huns from ebay a while back but not enough to field the Hunnic II/80 lists. With an order from Khurasan Miniatures consisting of their Slavs from the Avar line and another Light Horse from their Hunnic line, this army is now complete for all options other than Hephthalites in India (c). I must eventually do a dedicated Khurasan miniatures army as the figures are very, very, nice.

The Teutons, IV/30, were a repaint project. Having bought them painted from a vendor at Cold Wars 2009, I was displeased with them when I examined them more carefully when I got home. That project is now complete as well.

A Gothic camp and a Roman camp round out the completed projects. They are nothing elaborate. Basically just the Baueda cast resin models. I added a captive female and a slave attendant to the Gothic camp. I can now concentrate on my Medieval Scandinavians I just received from Essex as well as the Corvus Belli Numidians I purchased from Huzzah Hobbies a couple of weeks ago. After that its anyone's guess what I dive into for DBA.

That's it for now. Happy gaming!

Franko

2010-08-27T11:54:00.003-04:00

Had another good DBA Night at Huzzah Hobbies. Frank, Old Josh, Chris, Bryan, Al, Mike, Sean, and I (did I miss anyone?) filled up Chris's two smaller tables and tested his new "shop" 2x2 boards with a number of games. Josh and Frank played out a Carthage v. Spain battle from the Fanaticus Punic Peril campaign (which I'm itching to post the results of there, but Fanaticus seems to be down), while Sean and I played the same armies (but at full strength). Later I matched up the Carthos against Mike's (pseudo) Poly Romans in a nip and tuck game that went down to the wire. I saw some other Poly Roman battles (I know Chris played his PRs against my Carthos generalled by Sean), and I saw Frank's lovely Picts out fighting a battle before they "galvanized" as Iberians for the PP matchup, but I'm not sure what all the matchups of the night were. After the DBA had finished and everyone was packed up, we had a quick Wings of War battle, in which Frank neatly navigated his way through a swarm of German patrol craft while leaving his escort behind to be cut to pieces as he escaped. ;-)

Lardiness

2010-08-25T13:22:00.002-04:00

I thought I would point out to those of my readers who may play Sharp Practice from time to time but perhaps do not follow the TFL blog closely that the Lards have recently put up a post about why using formations is a Good Idea. They had one a few weeks ago, too, for ACW Sharp Practice.

They've also posted videos on playing SP on YouTube

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

I've not had a chance to watch more than the first one, but they look like a good intro, with top tips from the maestro himself.

DBA Day

2010-08-22T19:59:00.006-04:00

I had a small DBA gathering today. I thought about opening it up by inviting the WADBAG and DAHGS, but in the end, as a I had a couple beginning (or at least novice) DBAers, I thought a lower-key setting might be better.

As it was we had five players and (if I'm counting correctly) six games. Early Crusaders v. Syrians (4-0), Alexandrian Macedonians v. Later Achaemenid Persians (?-?), Hittites v Early Northern Barbarians (3G-2), then Alex Mac v Persians again (4-1) while Hittites fought Han Chinese (0-4) (yes, not all historical match-ups :-), then the Alex Mac had a change and fought the Hittites (2-4). I had hoped to get another game in, a "friendly" for my winless Tamils against out of period early T'ang, but Eric and I got onto solving the troubles of the world :) and didn't leave time for the game. :-)

I think everyone had a pretty good time. We finished off a box of DD coffee, a dozen doughnuts, and 11 bottles of beer, and 6 of cider, if that's any measure. :) And no dice got spiked or flung across the room. :D

the Hindu Project

2010-08-18T08:55:00.009-04:00

Finally, the day that Frank never thought would come: I started on the Hindu Indian army (III/10c). Basecoating, at least :-)

The elephants still need their heads glued on. :-) They and the cavalry aren't properly blacked up yet, as they need some sticking together still.

The bleeding cavalry have bleeding bows and quivers to be glued on, thank you very much, and half of them have spears that have to be glued into their hands. *headdesk*

The gunners (should I paint them in red and white? :-)

The swordsmen

The skirmishers

And lots and lots of archers

thinning out the horde

2010-08-17T12:17:00.002-04:00

As I buy more wargames and figures, I have to let some go (or else my study will collapse into my downstairs neighbours' bedroom by sheer weight of lead and paper).

I recently disposed of most of my Games Workshop items (though I have a few things left to get rid of, mostly odd bits of Imperial Guard and genestealers).

Now I'm thinking the next big step should be to rationalise my scale choices. I've never had a lot (depending on your definition of "a lot" :-) of 25mm historicals, and as I acquire more and more 15s (and some 6s), I'm thinking it may be time to start bidding farewell to the big guys.

I'm going to start out with the ones I rarely/never play with. I have unpainted Fall of Rome, Wars of the Roses (some painted or part-painted), Tudor period English and Irish, and British in India 25s from Old Glory and Redoubt that will go on the block shortly. If you have any interest in those periods, leave a comment here and I can let you know what I have.

Probably the next tranche, unless I end up gaming with them soon, will be the 25mm Napoleonics, Spanish-American War and World War I figures (plus some WWI/WWII trenches from Grand Manner), all also UP. Last to go (because I'm most attached to them) will be the F&I and Rev War 25s.

I'm also considering, after several decades, giving up on Advanced Squad Leader. It's a fascinating game, and I have a huge volume of gear for it, but I rarely get to play, and it's one of those games that one needs to play constantly in order to play at all well. It needs to be your primary hobby, and I have far too many other interests. It's rewarding and tremendous fun (if you like complex games), so if you or someone you know wants to take the plunge, let me know.

A New Karma - HUZZAH!

2010-08-15T10:01:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was the opening of Chris' new hobby store in Ashburn, VA - Huzzah Hobbies. A nice store in a good location, Chris did an amzing job with the limited square footage. Product was laid out nicely and well organized while the rear of the store had two custom built 4'x6' gaming tables and several standard sit down tables very suitable for boardgaming and DBA. I made my purchase of Corvus Belli Numidians; had several Dunkin' Donuts; a cup of "Joe" and proceeded to commence my day of DBA. The change of venue from my usual gaming had a very positive effect on my dice as you shall see. There was good floor traffic in the store and I got to see several faces that I haven't seen in quite a while. I hope this bodes well for Chris' business venture. Then, of course, there were the usual Monday Night Battles' suspects.

My first game was against Josh as I fielded my Polybian Romans against him. Josh played a Macedonian Early Successor army. It was a chess match until I set up an assault on his lone elephant destroying it and opening a huge gap in his line. The Roman blade and psiloi poured through the gaps and flanked the phalanx. Josh went down 6-0 in my opener.

The phantom, Mike Downey, made an appearance and I enticed him into a game. Given a choice, Mike took my Thracian army while I fielded a Successor Army under Lysimachid. A tough battle ensued as the Thracians got their preferred terrain and spanked my flank guard auxillia but I was able to hold on until the knights and phalanx crushed the Thracian main body 5-2.

Josh returned to my table and opted for a "medieval" type battle and wanted to try a light horse army so we pitted my Seljuq Turks against my Lusignan Cypriots. From the get-go it was obvious Josh wanted to flank both ends of my line with his LH but fierce bow resistance halted his attack and the main body of knights and spear carried the day for the Cypriots 5-1.

Not having seen Phil in a while, his interest in DBA was peaked and I offered him a training game. He has a FoG Polybian Roman army so I gave him my Polybians and I took out my Seleucids to do battle. I chose the Seleucids so he could see a variety of unit types between the two armies. Phil immediately sensed that DBA is a very intuitive game and got the hang of the basics while Bryan assisted him with pointers. It was a fun game and a Seleucid 4-2 victory. I hope to see Phil (geez, I hope that IS his name) participating in some DBA with our crew.

As Bryan and Jan had already started a game, Josh game back to my table with thoughts of revenge for his earlier defeats. He chose Dark Ages so I gave him my Later Imperial Romans which he chose as his army of choice. I'm toying with the idea of getting Baueda's lovely Lombard figures so I test drove a morphed Early Lombard army. Josh, once again, attempted to harrass my flanks with his 2xLH but, once again, they were held at bay by the Lombard bow as the main line of 6 Lombard knights crashed into the Roman blades. It wasn't pretty and was over quickly. 5G-0 was the final, I believe. I may have lost an element. I am uncertain.

I couldn't leave for my Father-in-Law's b'day party without a game against my long time Monday Night rival, Jan. I knew he would do it and he did. He removed his Tamil Indian army from the case. We justified that I could field my Arab Indian army as a historical opponent and we sat down to do battle. With 3 Tamil jumbos and 4 blade, this was going to be a test for the spear and cavalry heavy Arab Indians. Without going into great detail, I figured my only chance was to use my superior mobility and work an advantage picking away at an element here and there. If the Tamil blade/jumbo combo hit me, it would be a rout. I created several good opportunities to get Jan in trouble early but I couldn't seal the deal. It became a very intense chess match as we both tried to gain the matchup advantage. Being down 3-2, it was looking grim for me and Jan was looking for the death blow as his right flank line of jumbos, supported by psiloi, hit my spear/bow line. This would be quick kill heaven for Jan if he outdiced me. The first roll was by his General jumbo against my bow with CFs of 5-4. Not good. If I got lucky, his jumbo would recoil into a Tamil blade element killing it off as well. Jan took the odds and the chance. HUZZAH! The Arab bow fired furiously into the enemy and Jan snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. 4g-3 final and a most enjoyable game.

All in all, it was a great day of friendships, shopping, eating and gaming. Many thanks to Chris for sharing his dream with us and I wish him the very best of luck. Our little DBA group will switch to Thursday nights and I hope we can pick up some new DBA players. There appeared to be some genuine interest from the onlookers we had. I hope so.

Franko

sad (elephant) tale

2010-08-12T15:51:00.002-04:00

So, WADBAG had a get-together last night. It was a most enjoyable evening, hosted by the High Sheriff of Arlington, in which numerous battles were played, copious pizza consumed, and much hilarity ensued. I did fairly well (for me) beating my Later Swiss (captained by Herr Gregorius) with my Italian condotta, losing to the Kujitmeister as we both played condotta, and beating the Sherriff's Trojans with my Early Northern Barbarians. But my final game was the most painful--I brought out my beautiful new Tamils, lovingly painted by my co-blogger Franko and admired by all the participants, only to be crushed 2G-0 by Herr Schlanger when (of course) I let impetuosity lead my elephant + cavalry wing get too far ahead of my foot and they were surrounded by Dave's Maccabean pikemen and light foot. I'm so sorry that their first outing was such an ignominious defeat, but I remain resolved that future battles will show their mettle better! :-)

alas, if only I read Polish!

2010-08-04T13:18:00.002-04:00

from Wikipedia

Dzikie Pola (Wild Fields) is a Polish role-playing game, set in the historical setting of the 17th century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It had two editions: first in 1997 and second in 2005.

The game is set in the historical setting of the 17th century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Players characters are the Polish nobility (szlachta), and most of the adventures are set in the turbulent, south-eastern region of Zaporizhzhia (region known then in Poland as 'Dzikie Pola', today mostly in Ukraine). It's the twilight time of the Polish Golden Age, with looming destabilization of Golden Liberty and government sliding into anarchy due to magnates plots and mounting serfdom-related tensions, especially involving the Cossacks. Conflicts between numerous nobles, duels and increasing internal unrest are common themes, while magic is rare (and depends on how far the gamemaster wants to move away from historical reality).

oh, and...

2010-07-16T16:22:00.006-04:00

Since seeing some brilliant "6mm on 25mm bases" DBA blog photos recently, and because some of the WADBAGers are very gung ho on more people playing HOTT, and because even BRYAN has bought a copy of HOTT and has been talking about an army, I've decided I will start building some HOTT armies.

But I will not be buying any new figures.

I have some boxes of Warmaster Fantasy figures I've been trying unsuccessfully to flog for ages, so I'm going to use them to build some HOTT armies--10mm figures on 25mm stands. :-) I figure they should look like some of those medieval paintings of huge armies swarming all over.

Work to do...

2010-07-16T15:08:00.005-04:00

Now that Frank has wowed us all with his incredible artistry, I will start appalling you with my totally awful, rubbish painting work as I begin documenting my work on the other two armies of our quad: the Hindu Indians and the Rajputs.

At the same time, I've looked at my DBA army list, and I have 7-8 armies that I need just a few stands or just one or two bits of work (basing, etc.) to move from "in process" to "completed". So I'm going to see if I can't clear that deck as well. I have a *lot* of other projects right now, but for the moment I will limit my painting to those topics, so as to get that elusive feeling of "accomplishment".

I also bought a small and inexpensive tripod for my digital camera, so if I can remember to bring them with me, I should be able to document a few of the Monday Night games.

ETA: Woo, that's depressing. I took stock of the lads this morning, and several of the armies I thought were complete are not. They could be fielded, especially if I cannibalized elements from other armies, but they are not up to the current 2.2 changes with all options. I can't decide which I hate more: the armies where one element was changed from X to Y--so I have to buy one element and paint it in the style of the old job I did years ago, plus now I have a useless element--or the ones where almost everything in the army changed.

Sassanids Rock!

2010-07-13T16:05:00.002-04:00

We had another grand evening of DBA combat at the Chantilly Game Parlor last night. When I got there, Kyle was in the process of beginning to crush Frank, Early Imperial Romans against Scots-Irish, I think. They both did their best to maneuver their forces to best advantage, but on a relatively open board, the S/I with their large numbers of light troops, did poorly against the relentless shieldwall of the legion. And what tactical advantage Frank was able to gain through his greater experience was whittled away by the traditional Popecki luck.

Having finished my traditional hasty Monday dinner of two slices from Buon Appetito, I unlimbered my Sassanid Persians, which had last seen duty against an Arab Conquest army commanded by el Franco back in April after their inauspicious debut at Cold Wars. They did not disappoint, taking down a scratch Hun army 4-1 despite my misgivings about the greater mobility of the Hunnic light horse. To be honest, I got very lucky, as a couple of L battles (I outflank you, then you outflank me) developed on the right that could have been very nasty for me, but the nobles of Persia managed to see off the steppe nomads without too much harm done.

Kyle and I then rolled out my two Italian condotta armies for a Venice/Genoa grudge match. He picked the compositions; I got terrain and rather overconfidently put out a BUA that ended up in his deployment zone. I hoped the spear I stationed there would hold out long enough for me to capitalize on his scattered deployment, but they folded like a thin sheet of newsprint in a Mumbai monsoon and even road march to contact and the shooting up of some very bold Venetian knights by my crossbows were not enough to stave off defeat. I lost 2BUA-2.

Frnak and I finished off with a quick game of one of his matched pairs: Hindu Indians against Samanid Persians. His terrain ended up giving us a steep hill behind each of us and a big patch of rough in the middle. On one side my spear and bow faced off against most of his cavalry and spear; on the other side all of my cavalry faced his bow; and in the middle I sent a taskforce of blades and skirmishers hunting for his auxilia. Sadly, the one risk I thought I was safe from turned up on contact, as my cavalry general went down to a 6-1 by his bows. I lost another when I gambled to try and win the opposite flank of the melee first and left another cav in the middle to fight last, double-overlapped. 2G-0. The shame of it!

local gaming plug

2010-07-13T11:46:00.004-04:00

The Washington Area DBA Gamers will be holding their annual De Bellis Vasingtonium DBA tournament on Saturday, 9 October 2010, in Rockville, MD. There'll be a beginners' tutorial, a tournament, and an as-yet-undetermined evening event (in the past these have included themed "bring your own" tournaments and historical campaigns with scenarios, special rules, and purpose-built boards. More information available here. Possibilities mooted for his year's evening event have included more DBA, HOTT (the fantasy/sci-fi version of DBA), and Wings of War (a popular, simple WWI air combat miniature game).

I'll be there, and I will bring extra armies (and WOW planes) to loan to friends who might be interested in trying out the game but have no kit of their own. DBA is a fun little game, and the local crew are by and large a very nice bunch of gamers, so I'd encourage people to give it a try.

from Touching History: Peter Gilder's Sudan

2010-07-09T14:47:00.002-04:00

Sadly, my Sudan kit does not look THIS good.

2010-07-09T09:39:00.005-04:00

a Polish Commonwealth reenactment near Warsaw

Thanks to the Wars of Louis XIV blog for the link

Looks like Polish reenacting has many of the same elements that US reenacting does: heat, farbs, rectangular bales of hay, bored soldiers, ladies falling out of [the top half of] their costumes, enlisted men standing around in ranks waiting for an officer to finish [whatever: a conversation, his lunch, a slash...], copious alcohol consumption, very small cannons, lots of guys on one side and very few on the other [I like the one guy who has the stones to show up as a Turk at a 17th century Polish reenactment], vendors [their food stall looks better than most of the ones at our events--I bet it never sells funnel cakes!], and somewhat goofy looking battles.

But ZOMG! the clothes! and the furry hats! And most of all, the dozens of horsemen. Seeing dozens of HUSSARS! let alone reiters and pancerni--woooo! That must be terrifically cool when they trot across the field.

I also notice a striking absence of hugely overweight middle-aged men, a common feature of US reenactments (and I should know, having been one of them for many years). Plus, out of all those photos, I spotted one (1) pair on modern glasses and no wristwatches, both of which are far too common on Western European reenactors.

Plus, how cool would it be to be in a reenactment where *most* of the people were named Jan? ;-)

more action in the Sudan

2010-07-08T14:28:00.004-04:00

I'll try and add some photos later, but I waned to record our first full game of "Patrols in the Sudan".

My intention was to start with the beginning of the second stage of the Sudan wars, the Dongola Expedition of 1896. As a first step towards conquering the Sudan, the British planned to have Egypt reconquer the province of Dongola, currently held by the Khalifa (the successor to the Mahdi). At the limit of Egyptian control was Sarras Fort. Further south, Akasha was the first village across the notional border between Egypt and the Khalifa's domain. There had originally been a railroad line between Akasha and Sarras Fort, but the Dervish forces had pulled this apart. And rail was essential for a large expedition south; the Anglo-Egyptian force would not be able to rely on the Nile as a supply route and needed to start re-establishing the railway. So a column was sent to retake Akasha. It consisted of Egypt's 13th Sudanese Regiment, a company of the Camel Corps, a squadron of cavalry, and a mountain battery. (The last not because the column expected to encounter mountains but because 'mountain guns' were light guns made for quick transport over difficult terrain.)

I don't have any Egyptian or Sudanese troops painted up yet, so our little column was British troops (one platoon each of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and the Seaforth Highlanders) and Indian regulars (a platoon of Gurkha Rifles) with some African scouts (notionally Arabs, but looking a lot like Boers!), and a Naval Brigade Gatling gun. [The Seaforths and the Royal Warwicks were, historically, part of the later expedition in 1898; the only British enlisted troops in the historical Dongala Expedition were the 1/North Staffords and a battery of Maxim guns.)

Peter, commanding the Mahdist forces, revealed some rocky terrain flanking the British line of march, which the British proceeded to scout thoroughly. A unit of Ansar troops were believed to be in the area, but scouting proved this belief to be false--they must be in the village or the decrepit fort up ahead!

The British continued to advance, and they found a depression lay between them and the fort. Looking into this, they found a force of Hadendowah tribesmen, which they proceeded to demolish readily with rapid-fire musketry. These enemy destroyed, there seemed to be none ahead but whatever forces were to be found in the village and the fort.

But the scouts left behind to keep an eye on the terrain behind them reported that some brush, previously overlooked in the advance, seemed to be disgorging rather large numbers of Ansar. These rapidly overwhelmed the crew of the Gatling detachment, which had been lagging behind the advance. Only the naval officer in charge, Lieutenant Parsons, was able to escape, trotting as fast as his donkey would carry him to report that the natives now held the column's automatic weapon.

The Seaforths had confirmed that there were Dervishes in the fort and were busily engaged in shooting them out of it. Not to be outdone, the Warwicks decided to roust out the few enemy holding the village.

A more injudicious decision cannot be imagined, as not only did there prove to be many more enemy in the village than anticipated, but they proved to be highly agile and ferocious as well. The Warwicks, surprised and startled, faltered and were surrounded by a sea of patched jelabas and waving spears. Captain Lewis managed to escape, along with Mr Atteridge, the war correspondent of the Daily Chronicle. As these gentlemen fled towards the safety of the nearby Gurkhas, another band of rebels swept out from behind the fort, and yet another plunged down a nearby ridge and swept into the rear of the riflemen. The doughty Nepalis fought with might and main, but they were undone by the unexpected approach of the enemy and eventually fell prey to their sharp swords. The Seaforths quickly formed a ragged square and began to withdraw, picking up spare officers as they went.

Lieutenant Parsons watched the whole affair with horror from a rocky knob in which he had found shelter. This would not make for the glowing report to Colonel Hunter, the column commander, that he had hoped would guarantee his mention in dispatches.

Tamil Indian - Frank's Half.

2010-07-07T22:23:00.007-04:00

A brief entry just to show my half of this project. As I pointed out the differences between Jan's and mine already, its time to just take a peek.

My Tamil Indians with ancient temple site and goddess:

Close-up of the temple camp:

I hope you enjoyed. See you for the finale!

Frank

Tamil Indian - Nearing Completion.

2010-07-07T09:19:00.013-04:00

The journey is nearing its end. I have completed a double Tamil Indian "b" list army which will be split between Jan and myself. While on ebay, I searched for Hindu amulets and the like and came up with a cool little amulet of Ganesh. Since I had planned to make us both camps, this would be the one for Jan's. Here is Jan's completed army consisting of an El(Gen), 2xEl, 4x3Bd, 2x3Bw, 2x2Ps and 1x3Cv. The camp and 2 Maiden Guard camp followers complete the array.

Here is a close-up of Jan's "camp". I decided to make some type of altar for Ganesh. Using standard Litko bases, I made steps leading up to a simple table. I tried to give the model a marble effect and I am pleased with the results. It needed something more so I came up with the idea for a carpet going up the marble steps. This was achieved by painting a pattern on painter's tape.

Here's another look at Jan's Tamils.

My army is nearly identical. If you have been following along you know of the "gray film of death" disaster on the elephants. I kept the 2 worst elephants for myself and will touch them up one day. My cavalry element is a tad different but the rest of the army is the same. I will post pics with my Tamil camp and 2 Maiden Guards later. All that is left is the optional BBDBA sub-general which we will use a 3Bd command element. They are in the paint line. I have the figures for the "a" list which is just swapping out the 4x3Bd for 4x3Wb. These are Outpost Figures as well. Almost done so enjoy the rest of the project with me. I hope you have liked it so far.

Frank

Tamil Indian - The Cavalry Arrives

2010-07-03T00:16:00.010-04:00

We're getting down to the finish. I have just completed the 2 cavalry elements for our armies. These were fun to paint. The Outpost cavalry figures practically painted themselves. On Jan's cavalry I was unable to do a floral pattern on the trousers like I had originally intended. The placement of the spear butt on the thigh; the riders carrying their shields low and the sword on the hip made it impractical to paint any floral designs. So, after a repaint, I went to plan B. Research showed that many Tamil (Indian in general) had half moons, florets, dots and other smaller designs on the colorful attire they wore. On a 15mm figure, these would look like nothing more than dots so that is what I did. They still came out well and I really like the overall look. The cavalry I chose was a different figure for my army. They are prepared to either thrust or throw their spears so they are held higher on the figure as is the shield. This allowed me the necessary room to paint floral designs on two of them. I chose to dot the third one since I liked the way Jan's came out.

So, without further delay, here they are:

As you can see, since brushing on the matte finish as opposed to the spray, the figures have a much "flatter" look to them. The spray appears to give them a more satin finish (it says matte) so I am going to brush this matte finish over the elements I have already done to achieve consistency in the overall look. It won't take too long so check back to see the full Tamil Indian BBDBA contingent on parade! Thanks for following along!

Frank

greetings from the Sudan

2010-06-30T12:02:00.003-04:00

No, it's not work travel, just gaming travel. Major Sherwood, Captain Taylor, and I spent last evening exploring the baking desert and thorny scrub near Wad Sa'id. As the Dervish player, I bided my time as the British column moved towards the village, waiting to spring what I hoped would prove to be an effective trap. One troop of Ansar warriors, lying in ambush, was discovered by the scouts of the Europeans. Immediately their fearsome Highlanders volleyed into our ranks and charged, sweeping away what I'm sure I had meant as a decoy.

Delays held up the arrival of their second platoon of infantry, but I too had trouble with reinforcements, being unable to locate my commander of camel troops to order him into action. Their Indian cavalry scouted forward, leaving the main body behind, and I was hoping to finally spring our ambush with the finally located camel troops and a band of ferocious hadendowa. But, alas, between conversation, learning the rules, and the consumption of several hoppy beverages, we had spun out the time available to us.

We enjoyed the game, though, and we're planning on taking another run at it on Monday. It being a holiday, we should have more time for a full game.

Tamil Indian - Leadership at last!

2010-06-26T12:05:00.005-04:00

No more paint pens! No more spray cans! After the heartbreaking results of the prior elephant attempts and all the rework required, I went back to basics and hand painted all details and brushed on the final matte finish. I wasn't going to take any chances on these after the time and effort spent to do what is my best painting effort. As with the other elephants, the patterns on the howdahs are my interpretation of genuine patterns found on the website alluded to in the previous Tamil post. The General for my Tamil army is on the left; Jan's on the right. I went with a scroll pattern for Jan's howdah based on his "wow" response to one panel I had painted on a previous elephant. Assuming he'd like it, I went for a 4 panel scrollwork pattern for his commander. I am very pleased with the results. I hope Jan is as well. Here they are:

I have cleaned and prepped the 2 cavalry elements - 1 for each army - and am ready to start the horses. I plan on patterned saddle cloths but I have not yet envisioned what I will do to the riders' clothing yet. I guess it will be a surprise to all of us.

Talk to you when the cavalry is done. We're in the home stretch of this project and, in a way, I'll be saddened when its done. I am enjoying this ride!

Franko

very sad news

2010-06-25T09:57:00.002-04:00

Paddy Griffith, the historian and wargamer, died yesterday.

an announcement
another on TMP

Tamil Indian - The Project Continued:

2010-06-24T17:13:00.007-04:00

It has been a long time since I've posted a progress report on the Tamil Indian project. I, for the most part, have really enjoyed this project from research to final product per element. I say "for the most part" because I ran into some major disappointments along the way. What I had hoped to be the showcase elephant elements became a nightmare. After countless hours of fine detail applied to the elephants with my paint pens, the application of my trusty "magic wash" caused ALL the detail to bleed and the effect was obviously ruined. Well I learned from that mistake and repainted all 3 elephants. I thought they came out to my absolute best ability. Sadly, when I applied my tried and true American Accents Matte Finish, I ran into propellant issues and got the gray film of death all over the 4 elephants (I had one previously ready for matte finish). I was heartbroken. I have since trudged on with the remainder of the project and my enthusiasm has returned as I'm working on the command elephants for our armies. All that is left is to finish the elephant generals and one cavalry element each, then add a camp. This will complete 2 DBA Tamil Armies. As an option for a BBDBA army, I will paint up a command blade element for each so we can have that option as well.

Here are some shots of Jan's Tamils to-date. I hope he likes the elements I have selected for him.

The army arrayed:

Another look:

A view from the other side:

Now that I am fully engaged again in painting (I had taken a hiatus in May), I should have the command elephants done with a week. Yes, a week, wait until you see the patterns I'm trying to paint on them!!! All the patterns on the elephants are my rendition of actual fabric patterns from the site referenced by Simon Bargery on Fanaticus in the Eye Candy section here. See you soon. I hope you are enjoying this project along with me.

Franko

a friend begins a brave venture

2010-06-24T10:58:00.002-04:00

For those of you in the DC area, our chum Chris Huhn has decided to try launching a new hobby store in the northern Virginia suburbs. It's going to be called Huzzah Hobbies, and it will be located in University Center in Ashburn, VA, at the intersection of Route 28, Route 7, and the Loudoun County Parkway.

My understanding is that he's aiming for a September 1st opening. I'll post again with more news when I get it, but Chris is a fine chap and I'm sure will run an excellent store. I'd urge people to check it out once he opens the doors.

World War I Caproni Aircraft

2010-06-21T12:51:00.003-04:00

And people wonder why the Italian Air Force isn't considered as distinguished and capable as the RFC/RAF or the Luftstreitkräfte/Luftwaffe. It's hard to imagine why...

Aspern-Essling: End of Day 1...

2010-06-19T14:04:00.008-04:00

Aspern falls!!! We have reached the end of day one and the Austrians should be pleased that they accomplished something. I can tell you there simply aren't enough CAPs for the Austrians to be organizing attacks across the front. The Archduke simply has to focus on taking one objective on day one and using any extra CAPs just to get his diverse columns on the map and in somewhat of a position to reorganize during the night and prepare for day two. I feel he achieved this. The Austrians attacked Aspern from 3 sides but were not able to form even one attack column so the attack went in at 4v6. Superior elan carried the attack as the French legere was destroyed and Aspern fell firmly into Austrian hands.

As you can see below, all the barges sent down river missed their target and Napoleon was able to march his reinforcements across the bridge. This enabled the French to set up a good defense around Essling and organize some artillery and cavalry in a central reserve. His concern is the fall of Aspern and only a few elements remain from the fight including his Young Guard. The red markers indicate where elements were destroyed. The casualty count is 3 dead elements for the Austrians while the French have lost 6.

Rosenberg's column now faces a stiffened French defense around Essling.

A view from the Austrian side shows they did manage to get the columns on. A massive reorganization is needed to prepare for the day two attacks.

The scenario rules allow the French to reorganize commands and reposition units up to 400 paces. The Austrians are allowed to reorganize and reposition up to 1200 paces but must back off 600 paces from all French units unless in a fortification or BUA. Lastly, the Austrian engineers do manage to sabotage the bridge during the night so Napoleon's engineers will be very busy at dawn and also prepare themselves for the windmill that launches downstream on Turn 1 of day 2. Fun, fun, fun!!!

2010-06-14T10:50:00.002-04:00

So, I read up on the special rules for "The Highland Quorum", but I didn't get a chance to play, in part because of World Cup :-) and in part because I got distracted playing two new games, Delta V and Pandemic, with my friends Bryan and Peter. Peter's son Ethan also joined in the game of Delta V and beat the lot of us. Darn meddling kids! :-) Bryan had to bail on our game of Pandemic, leaving me and Peter to handle the outbreak of world-spanning diseases. We had gotten one under control as he left, and managed to (almsot) shut down another, but time and resources ran out, and Earth was consumed by plague. Alas.

2010-06-10T15:54:00.002-04:00

Thanks to one of my local gaming friends who kindly bought up most of my remaining Games Workshop figures, and to the fine fellows at Noble Knight Games, who took off my hands some RPGs and boardgames I will probably never play again, I had the funds to recycle into acquiring several games that I have been salivating over for a long time.

Both for their depth and their obscurity, I've been intrigued by the mated games Turkenkrieg and Heirs of the Golden Horde, wargames from Red Sash Games that deal with campaigns in the Balkans and around the Black Sea among the armies of mid-18th century Russia, Austria, and the Ottoman Empire. Now I've got them in my hot little hands, I realise that I may never find the time, space, and an opponent daft enough to play the whole scope of these marvelous monsters with me, but I am content enough simply to be able to read the immense historical commentaries they contain, gaze at the sheets of colourful playing pieces (based on the soldiers' uniforms), and play some of the smaller scenarios. One starter scenario in HGH depicts the initial Russian expedition to punish the Tatars of the Crimea and is eminently suitable for a solo playing as the Russian commander marched hundred of miles, lost thousands of men, and never came in contact with the enemy! :-)

My first Red Sash acquisitions were the game Charlie's Year, on the Jacobite Rising of 1745, and its follow-on prequel module, The Highland Quorum, about the rebellion of 1715. Slightly smaller and less insanely densely furnished with rules, these may someday get played all the way through. Most recently, I found that they had published Remember Limerick! a game on the Jacobite war in Ireland of 1689-1691* that I recently developed a siege game related to. So I had to get hold of that, too. :-)

Just as an example, the historical commentary (forget the rules, charts, and OB booklets) for Turkenkrieg alone is 63 pages of, I would guess, 8 point type on 8.5 x 11 pages. So no matter what happens, I'll have plenty of reading and gaming to keep me busy!

*The war that brought us that highlight of Irish sectarianism, the Battle of the Boyne, still "celebrated" by Orange Order parades to this day on the 12th of July.

Monday Night DBA

2010-06-09T13:52:00.002-04:00

We were missing my co-blogger Frank, who had a family emergency, but Kyle joined me and Josh, who, thinking on his feet, bought a roll of 30" 'dungeon' paper for a few bucks that we turned into a DBA battlefield (I had left my mat at home).

Josh and I started out, pitching my Han against a made-up Tien army (composed of bits of early Bulgar and Swiss pike! :-). I established a Cav/LH salient on his right immediately by use of a road and light horse multiple moves. but then rashly threw it away by making an attack on his line before I'd developed the position properly, losing two Cav in the process. My LH fell back to join my Hvy Chariot General and my spear/crossbow line pushed forward, shooting down his LH on the way. He obligingly moved his Pike forward to engage my foot, giving me a nice overlap that I immediately turned into a flank, picking off a pike. He also engaged my remaining mounted troops with his blade line, offering to sacrifice a Bd to QK by my general in hopes of cutting down the LH.

Instead, the LH just ran off, and the Gen killed the blade. But then Josh quickly sidestepped and surrounded the general, eliminating him with a quick twist of the wrist while at the same time doubling several elements in my Sp line that I thought were relatively safe. From overconfident to confident, I quickly went to lost, 6G-3.

Josh and Kyle then had a battle with the same armies while I had some dinner; I'll leave it to them to describe that. Suffice to say that it wasn't the Han's night.

Kyle and I then had a go with the Swiss pike, backed by the rest of that army, against my Italian condotta (he chose Venice). Sitting in their shoreline camp, the Venetians watched a Swiss army gather on the far side of a swath of woods and marsh they had chose to slow our advance. Instead of sitting back, I tried to be true to the Swiss spirit and attack in deep columns linked in the woods by skirmishers and with our artillery guarding our camp. Our big block of knights went around one flank. He kept most of his knights in a reserve by the beach, with two pairs of Cb+Sp covering the gaps in the bad going and an artillery behind them, while his 2 LH prepared to raid my camp and attack my rear by making a long end-run around the woods.

We pushed through the gaps in the woods, only to find his foot had moved up close to the exits. I was able to get a front and flank on one of his Cb and kill them, but the Pk really didn't fancy getting close to his other one, and his artillery managed to blow apart at least one schiltron of Bernese. He sent one Kn off to guard against my Kn, and they spent the rest of the game pushing back and forth. His LH did manage to come around and hit the rear of one of my columns, but they did so one at a time, and the nachhut just calmly turned around and fended them off. Finding the pike too tough to chew, the LH went off to try and attack the camp, but were repulsed by gunfire there.

On the right I picked off one of his spear. Meanwhile his general (possibly Niccolò di Pitigliano) led his guard forward and hacked up one of my Ps that had eliminated his Cb. The other Ps scampered forward and started a desultory fire into the ranks of knights which they found annoying. They charged, driving the skirmishers back into the edge of the woods. Pursued into the woods by the knights, the skirmishers turned and began dodging among trees and bushes. While the nearby pike, still in the gap between the woods, kept his remaining knights from coming to the aid of their general, the craven skirmishers gained the upper hand over the signorini d'armati and hamstrung their horses, knocked them off with tree branches, and most foully muthered them (the old 'dagger through the eye slot' proved a favoured stroke). 4G-3, and a tough fight it was. Kyle's deployment was very good in the way it utilised his foot troops and shooters, but it left the greater part of his army (4 Kn and his KnG) without much occupation for most of the battle.

good gaming weekend!

2010-06-01T00:33:00.002-04:00

I didn't get to game on Friday or Saturday, but Sunday I participated in a Battlefront WWII game depicting the Japanese armoured counterattack on Saipan on the night of D+1. Those of us commanding the IJA assault got very historically slaughtered in droves, those we did manage to penetrate, briefly, the USMC main line of resistance.

Today I played two boardgames with my buddy Eric. We learned the rules for "Six Days of Glory", an operational game of the 1814 campaign in France. Eric commanded the forces of Napoleon I, while I represented FM Bluecher of Prussia. After an initial misstep, I managed to successfully stall my way to victory (Napoleon must crush the Allies--anything less is a victory for them).

Then, after a delicious dinner, we played "Hellenes", an excellent game that combines the block game dynamics of Columbia Games with the card-driven operational mechanics of GMT. I did well initially with Athens, but as I kept taxes high, revolts spread across my hegemony faster than I could suppress them, and my nibbles at the borders of the Lacadaemonian league were not enough to put them back on their heels.

Aspern Essling (Day 1) (End turn 6)

2010-05-31T20:20:00.017-04:00

If I get another shot at running a BBDBN event at our conventions, I would like to present this KISR scenario. I want to thoroughly playtest it and bring out the best experience I can for the participants. The scenario is played out on a 4'X3' map shown below. It is fought over a 2 day period with 10 turns on day 1 followed by a night interphase where both armies can reorganize and reallocate their commands preparatory to the major engagement on day 2 lasting 24 turns. What I like about the scenario is how the engineering rules have been presented in a simple form and recreates the importantance of destroying the sole crossing over the Danube by the Austrians and its prevention by the French. Cool stuff. The battle map shows the BUA of Aspern on the left with a strongpoint attached to its left. Only the building butted against Aspern counts. The rest of the stand is treated as open terrain. A marsh and wood cover the rear of Aspern. A raised dike runs left to right and connects to the other BUA - Essling - with its attached strongpoint, the Granary. The victory conditions are quite simple - the Austrians must take Aspern, Essling and the Granary strongpoint without losing 22 elements. Done. Notice the far left and the Austrian engineers busy at work. They have been loading barges with rock and floating them down the river in an attempt to destroy the bridge from Lobau Island. One barge was deflected past by the waiting French engineers (not shown) but another is headed their way. They can also float logs and on day 2 launch a windmill on a raft - I'm not making this up people - and I just happen to have a windmill model to use.

The at start forces are small. Lannes' French division can deploy in the marsh or in or around Aspern. Massena and his division begin in or touching Essling. Both strongpoints obviously start in French hands. 5 elements of cavalry and 2 horse batteries beginning behind the dike (under Nappy's control) round out the French deployment. For the Austrians, Hiller's advanced elements start outside 200 paces from Aspern along the leftmost road. The remaining Austrian main body enters during the first 4 turns along the various roads. ALL French reinforcements are in one loooooong column from the bridge back.

The photo below shows Hiller's initial attacks on the Aspern strongpoint, which was taken, and driving Lannes' French through the swamp. Charles and the main body have entered the map and are marching to reinforce the attack.

Here's a close-up of Hiller's attack.

Meanwhile, on the Austrian left, Rosenburg's wing arrived on turn 4 and is marching to threaten Essling and the Granary. Napoleon dispatched some light horse to delay the march. The French light horse charged the screening Austrian horse but were driven back with casualties as some fire support from Austrian LI proved too much to handle.

Fearful for his left, Napoleon has dispatched 2 elements of his Young Guard towards Aspern as the Austrian threat draws his attention. He leads 2 artillery batteries as well.

The garrison forces at Essling prepare for Rosenburg's inevitable attack.

Napoleon and the Archduke Charles eye each across the field of battle.

The long column of French reinforcements and the remaining Austrian troops - 4 elements of Grenadiers.

That's the recap of the first 6 turns. I will continue solo play and some opponent play as opportunities arise. Stay tuned for the conclusion of day 1!

Have fun!

Frank

Big Battle DBN

2010-05-31T12:05:00.005-04:00

Aspern Essling
21-22 May 1809

Background

Having succeeded in capturing his Austrian enemy's capital of Vienna on 13 May, Napoleon Bonaparte needed to cross the Danube to seek out and destroy Archduke Charles and his main army. The emperor's problem centred on the successful destruction of bridges across the rain-swollen Danube by the retreating Austrians and he finally found a potential crossing point at Lobau Island, some four miles away. The island was occupied and a bridge constructed by engineers.

On 20 May, Marshal Massena led his IV Corps across to form a bridgehead and to check for enemy troops. By the next morning, more than 24,000 men with 60 cannon were occupying the villages of Aspern and Essling. The first thing the French command knew about the Austrian army was when more than 95,000 troops, supported by 200 cannon, moved against them. Reinforcements to the bridgehead were limited by the regular loss of part of the span due to debris and boats sent down the torrent by the Austrians. Fortunately, for the French, a low wall ran between the two village strongpoints and this, together with desperate courage, allowed them to hold large portions of the positions. Driven out on several occasions, the French soldiers always managed to retake them at the point of a bayonet.

By the 22 May, most of Bonaparte's forces were on the northern bank but the destruction of the bridge delayed Marshal Davout's III Corps and weakened a French counterattack that pushed the Austrians to breaking point. Knowing he did not have enough men to break the enemy, the French emperor ordered a withdrawal to the Aspern-Essling line where a renewed series of Austrian attacks forced him to pull back on to Lobau Island. The repositioning took most of the night to achieve, but it was done in good order and when the final troops made the crossing the bridge was taken down.

While not a true defeat, Aspern -Essling marked the first serious reverse suffered by Bonaparte at the hands of his foes. More than 21,000 French soldiers became casualties and the army suffered the grievous loss of one of its finest commanders, when Marshal Lannes died after losing a leg to a cannonball wound.

Source: http://www.napoleonguide.com/battle_aspern.htm

Coming soon - the first accounts after 6 turns of battle. Enjoy!

Frank

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