Battleground 2018

Hi folks,

Yesterday was spent at the Battleground 2018 wargames show in Stockton along with my 'Old Guard Wargames Club' compadres. We were using our 10mm figures and the Black Powder rules (or at least a chopped down version) and attempting to fight 'Pickett's Charge' from the 3rd day of the Gettysburg battle.

I was being General Pettigrew on the Confederate left (far left of the table above). I had one large unit and 4 medium sized units, and was backed up by Angus, who had three medium units.

My end of the table, the initial advance was limited by poor command checks combined with the odd blunders (I think all the Confederates had the same issue - my problem with these rules number 1: the defenders were sitting back and shooting, and didn't have to roll command checks and run the risk of incurring a blunder). My objective was to capture 'The Angle', which was defined as the space between the two buildings with the stone wall to my front. The capturing of this point was deemed to be pointless (ha), as there was another Union Corps behind this one, but capturing it would classed as a rebel victory.

Too many years having to assault with my Highlanders has led to me treating every army like Highlanders - so my troops got up and into the Union defenders, taking a few hits on the way. I tend to get a bit annoyed when the rules are woolly (not knowing the rules myself doesn't help) and/or the game doesn't fit my internal logic of what I feel they should do (and generally that's because the rule isn't being applied properly or there is a failing in the rules system).

A few turns later, I had managed to batter my way over the wall and into the Union position:

Dave, seeing the collapse of the Union right, sent some troops over to shore up the flank. By now my own units were on the verge of collapse, having got into the Union positions on their own. Angus managed to get some of his troops up to support, which helped.

The game ended with the Confederates getting smashed, but still in control of the wall (technically, a Rebel victory, as much as any defeat can be...).

Loot wise, I picked up a few FoW related goodies:

Some dug in markers, a German special character, artillery template and basing sand - plus a book I've been after for a while, which turns out to be a bit disappointing (review may follow).

I also picked up some 28mm Sci Fi terrain, which will be for Necromunda:

I really had every intent of taking pictures of the other tables at the show, but managed to fail to get around them this time. Sorry!

10mm ACW AAR + Holiday snaps

Hi folks,

Nothing new painted so far, having been away from home for a week. I've hit a bit of a lull in my motivation again. I've decided I'm going to just focus on clearing my painting shelf of the stuff that's been sitting there all year...

This weekend I went to the Old Guard Wargames Club over in Northallerton and we played a largish game of 'Black Powder' using our 10mm ACW collection.

We played something of a meeting engagement, with the objective of catpuring the three junctions in the road which ran roughly along the middle of the table (closer to the Union side, but us Reb's started a bit further into the table).

The Rebs had 3 brigades, of which I had 2. The Union forces had two large brigades. We pulled a little strategic deception and myself and John swapped ends of the table. John's brigade was to defend and contest the junction in the village, while I was to go for the other two junctions and combat Stu's brigade. Martin was facing off against John. Both sides had a similar number of units, with the Union having a few more while we had a couple more guns.

The opening turns for the Rebs went poorly, with a large part of John's brigade blundering and falling back to the start line. My own brigades were slow to move forward, while opposite me Stu's union troops surged forward and secured the junction. One of Martin's units got into the woods to protect the middle junction.

Stu decided, in his usual aggressive style, to surge forward and try to catch my slowly deploying units before the rest of my force moved up. Unfortunately the fences and a poor order roll left his troops sitting on the road - the limit of his advance. In the mean time his cavalry unit sat on his baseline, having failed every attempt to order it forward.

Thankfully, my orders roll was good and the remains of my force surged forward. So began a close range slogging match. Stu drew first blood with my biggest unit running under artillery fire, but I had deployed to be able to get 3 units firing on one of his, while his front line masked the rest of his army. This gave me a tactical advantage, as I could deploy more firepower against his units. I also managed to get my cannon up to help out.

On my right, one of my guns and two units took on one of Martin's big units. It would eventually flee, leaving a massive gap in the Unions centre.

As the close range slogging match continued, the difference in cover began to tell. My troops in crops and light forests had better saves, while the union troops on the road had little cover. On Stu's left, I decided to make a move as his large unit had hit max stamina. I aimed to charge him on the flank (top of the picture above). My reasoning was that more than half my unit would hit his flank, but he correctly argued that the rules mean I had actually charged his front (I hate geometry in these games,  if a unit would fold round the side of a unit, why wouldn't it? The outflanking 2/3rds are hardly just going to stop). Anyway, I snapped a little bit, as it seemed a bit of an irrelevant argument at the time - I certainly would have accepted it as a flank attack.

I passed the order check and decided to commit my other two units, one of which was small to the same attack, forcing a split of the defensive fire. The Reb charge went in and wiped the unit out, forcing it's support back as well.

An even bigger gap was blown in the Union line, and my troops began to move forward into the space. John's troops had also moved up, fighting Martin's Brigade in the town itself. On my left I had moved out my uncommitted unit, flanking Stu's line and through weight of fire eventually removing the two units on the road. At that point we called it quits, accepting a Rebel victory.

An interesting game, which gave us an idea of how the game we will run at the Stockton show will go. The game also looked decent, which is important as well. The terrain was Dave D's, as were some of the figures.

Holiday wise, I spent the week in Scotland with Amy, celebrating our 2nd wedding anniversary. I got to visit the Scottish Museum of Flight at East Fortune - a really interesting site set in the 'technical' part of what was a WW1 airship/WW2 training and coastal command base. The buildings all have placards on them saying what they were, there are splinter proof bomb shelters scattered around and all three of the hangers are still present.

RAF Matador

Late mark Spitfire 

Rolls Royce Merlin engine

Bollingbroke/Blenheim

Meteor

Better view of the Spitfire

Parachute drying building - how cool would that table be for a wargame...

We also visited Saint Andrews on our one sunny day:

And other than that it rained, hard, constantly. I did get two WW2 prints of Spitfires attacking German bombers over the Scottish coast, and a couple of DnD books. I've also ordered a FoW Spitfire cos I fancied having one in invasion stripes for my Normandy games. I took models to assemble but didn't get them out of the bag, watching far too much 'Critical Roll' and working on stuff for the DnD game I've just started running.

Hopefully I'll have some painting to show off sometime soon!

Black Powder Battle Report - The 3rd Battle of El Teb

Hi Folks,

I had the pleasure this weekend of attending a Sunday Gaming day with 'The Old Guard Wargames Club' just outside Northallerton. We had a day of gaming (with a short visit to the pub for lunch), and much of the day was spent playing a 28mm game of Black Powder using Dave D's impressive collection of Sudanese figures.

We were playing on a 12' by 6' table, and the scenario was from the Black Powder rule book. Notice the village at the very very very far away end of the table.

Other reporters have gotten their 'stories to the papers' first. Check out Dave's report here, and Martin's here. Excuse the tongue in cheek report!

I had volunteered in advance to command the British 2nd Brigade. This comprised of:

- A Battalion of the Black Watch
- A Battalion of Royal Marines Light Infantry
- A Battalion of the Yorkshire and Lancaster Regiment
- A detachment of sailors with two 'machine guns' (and a small skirmish base once deployed)
- A Royal Artillery Howitzer

I was fighting alongside Martin, with his 1st Brigade:

- A Battalion of the Kings Royal Rifle Corps
- A Battalion of The Gordon Highlanders
- A Battalion of the Royal Irish Fusiliers
- A Royal Artillery Howitzer

And John with his Cavalry Brigade:

- 10th Hussars
- 19th Hussars
- Mounted Infantry
- Abyssinian Mounted Scouts

Some pics of the arrayed force:

And my own forces....

My Brigade - front left is the artillery gun on the back of the camel (limbered), on the right of that the Black Watch with the RMLI to their right and the two naval 'machine guns'. Behind them the Y&L's and some correspondents.

Our mission was to capture the village ahead within 8 turns. This seemed like a tough order, given the size of the table (and this was reinforced by the first few turns being less than stellar). Our 'emergency' path to victory was discussed before the game and quickly became 'Plan B' (AKA 'lets just smash the F*ck out of their army and win that way').

The Mahdist forces were split in two, with one large 'brigade' of 10 or so infantry units and two guns, while the cavalry 'brigade' consisted of two horse cavalry units and two camel skirmish units. These were deployed after ours, with a lot of the units in 'reserve' off table. 

Our forces had a limited deployment area as we were arriving in column. We squeezed as much in as we could. The plan was for my brigade to go up the centre, martins on my right with 3 Battalions and a gun to advance up my right (clearing the terrain there as he went) and the Cavalry under John to scout terrain and cover my left.

We immediately realised that the Mahdist forces would likely try to hold the ridge line and the wadi to our front, but knowing the enemy to be sneaky beggars, we were expecting ambushes from other terrain. We were also planning to get our artillery forward to a position to be able to hit the ridge line.

So, with the bold Black Watch leading the way, the attack stepped off.

Initial movement was slow, with several units failing command checks. We didn't know at this point that units in column get to move once without any checks.I moved forward quickly, while Martin on my right deployed troops to check out the wadi there. The Cavalry advances to keep pace except for the mounted infantry, who were to hang back - they were a small unit and losing both small units could cost us the brigade. However, they kept failing command checks and I think it was turn 3 or 4 before they moved!

Mahdist troops appeared on the expected ridge line, with two cannon and several infantry units. Skirmished appeared in the wadi to the front and left. Mahdist artillery at long range proved very (too?) adept and put a hit on the Black Watch causing them to fall into a state of disorder (I think the rum ration may have been hit...). The skirmishers on the left also hit the leading cavalry unit and put them into disorder. This is where things started to go wrong...

2nd turn, the Rifle Brigade troops on the right decided to blunder, and rather than clearing the wadi they moved sideways - into my columns. This caused further disruption to the advance, and meant the right hand brigade was only advancing on the Generals command check (Roy was the supreme commander).

The RMLI deployed into line to advance on the skirmishers ahead, and the machine guns moved up and unlimbered with the skirmishers covering the flank (towards the wadi). 1st brigade did move forward to support. The cavalry stopped to water the horses, it was time for Gin, or something...

Fire was opened on the skirmishers ahead, with the machine guns being pretty underwhelming!

On the 3rd turn, the Black Watch got shifting and moved out to the left to tackle the skirmishers there. 1st Brigade moved up on the right and deployed into line beside the RMLI. Our guns began to hit back at the Mahdist artillery, deploying into firing positions. The cavalry were now having tea with little cakes...

While the Ethiopian scouts were forward with the leading troops and actually engaging the enemy with small arms!

But little did we know what was coming!

Fire from our units at the fore destroyed the Mhadist unit in the forest while the Black Watch disordered the skirmishers on my left with close range fire.

 
However, Mahdist turn 3 saw the rest of their army turn up - mainly in the rough ground ahead of the Black Watch. Time to fix bayonets lads! Lots of fanatic spear armed units suddenly appeared in the undergrowth...

Thankfully, none could charge straight away due to distance and terrain. But there was now a veritable horde in front of the lone Black Watch battalion.

On the right flank (a sideshow compared to the main battle...!) a mass of Mahdist cavalry advanced, lead by skirmishers on camels.

Thankfully in the British turn 4, the British cavalry finished their tea party and decided to help out the Black Watch. A solid cavalry charge by the 19th Hussars destroyed one enemy unit, while the Black Watch fired on those to their front and disordered them (unable to move or charge next turn).

White rings on units represent casualties and red rings disorder.

The other units in my brigade hurriedly shifted to the left to support the Black Watch, while the Machine Guns lost one gun to artillery fire.  The 1st Brigade (Martins) on the right put fire into the camel skirmishers to their front, putting both units into disorder and (we decided) effectively blocked a charge route for the mass of cavalry behind. This was to be a recurring theme, with a traffic jam developing on that flank.

With a little more help on the left, I felt a little more secure - and Plan B (Kill them all!) was now in force, so it was useful that the Mahdists had come to us! Johns Cavalry charged another Mahdist unit and both groups took a beating, with the cavalry winning the fight but deciding to fall back having become shaken.

The combat which resulted in the British Hussars winning, but returning to their own lines to regroup!

In the Mahdist turn 4, yet more troops arrive! Those across the wadi surprised us by leaving their positions to charge forward into the centre and developing fight on the left flank, while the fight on the right hots up. My sailors with their Machine Guns moved up to support the 1st Brigade line, but the gun jammed...

The Royal Marines moving up to support the Black Watch but receive a charge from Mahdist units across the wadi, which they manage to beat off against the odds - becoming shaken from casualties in the process.

Turn 5 saw poor command rolls from me, and not much movement. The cavalry held the line, with the plan to charge any incoming charge and allowing the Black Watch to concentrate on firing at the units to their front.

The Mahdist turn 5 saw more charges hit the British line. The under pressure Royal Marines, the Black Watch, the Sailors with their jammed Machine Gun and the Y&L's all take a charge, with the Y&L's being charged in the flank. This ended badly, with the unit being forced to retire in disorder. The RMLI drew their combat but found themselves surrounded. Things were looking bleak. The Black Watch gave the incoming charge a volley and I think it failed to connect. The Machine Gun managed to draw the combat - unwilling to give up the gun! The Mahdist cavalry moved around the stalled skirmishers and charged the Gordons - suffering a volley in the way in and then ranks of Scots with bayonets fixed! The Cavalry broke and fled.

But the poor RMLI...

In the British turn, the ongoing combats with the Royal Marines and the Machine Gun ended in disaster. The Royal Marines fell to the blades of the Mahdists, as did the gun crew. One unit of the  skirmishing camels on the right flank finally had enough of the sustained volleys of rifle fire and fled, reducing the 'brigade' to half strength.

On the other flank, the Black Watch put in a charge which destroyed one Mahdist unit and wheeled onto the flank of the two others (already threatened by the cavalry). Behind them the guns and Y&L put fire into the Mahdist units that smashed the RMLI... Things still looked up in the air with Mhadists broken through in the centre, even with their cavalry gone... but the loss inflicted by the Black Watch also meant that the main Mahdist 'brigade' was also at half strength and the Mahdist forces were broken!

So that's it! A great looking game, Dave's collection is impressive and the table looked fantastic. Great atmosphere all round and we made good progress. Afterwards, I got a quick game of Battlegroup with Stu, just giving him an example of play:

Lots of burning tanks (and an abandoned Tiger!). The Germans lost this quite heavily, but were out pointed! They would have lost a lot sooner had we been drawing morale chits.

Thanks to the guys for the games!