MAY THE FOURTH.....

It had to be done! As it was the Tring Club Games Day on Saturday, we decided to play some Star Wars skirmishes with my old plastic figures.

The first game was a general two-on-two firefight on a frozen planet, complicated by a hungry wampa wandering around. This was a win for the Rebel Alliance.

The second game was on the same planet, this time the objective was to retrieve important data from a crashed craft. This game was a win for the Empire.

For the final game we moved somewhere hot. This game was a four-way fight. Lando Carlissian was conducting a trade for some dodgy goods on this ship and trying to get back to it before the stormtroopers turned up. Unknown to him a rebal agent had hidden an important datafile on the ship and Chewbacca was leading a team to retrieve it. In the meantime Londo's "customers" were trying to double cross him and steal his ship. The final team was a patrol of stormtroopers, sent to impound the suspect vessel. Despite being wounded, Chewbacca and his men won through in the end and emerged victorious! Which seemed apt at this particular time.

10mm 30 Years War - Pike and Shot

We had three games running at the TWC Games Day on Saturday. I was playing with Chris and Colin in a 30 Years War game, using Warlord's Pike and Shot rules, with Chris' superb 10mm Swedish and Imperialist armies. We managed 3 games, swapping sides each time, with 2 wins to the Swedes and 1 to the Imperialists.

I've always been a fan of Black Powder but this was the first time I'd played Pike and Shot. It was quick to play and great fun.

Other games being played were a 6-player Warhammer 40K game.

And a game of What a Tanker set in 1940 with Belgians fighting off the German Blitzkrieg.

10mm War of Spanish Succession - Saragossa 1710

At the May Tring Club Games Day, we staged a big 10mm battle based on the Battle off Saragossa, fought on 20th August 1710. The game was fought using Black Powder, with Last Hussar's Blenheim Palace amendments.

Historically the Allies had advanced out of Catalonia, defeating the Bourbons at the battle of Almenara. They then pursued the retreating Bourbons with the intent of finishing them off, catching up with then at Saragossa. The Allied army had 30 infantry units and 20 cavalry against the Bourbon's with 24 infantry and 30 cavalry. We had a great time playing this and the battle resulted in an overwhelming draw for the Bourbon army.

Both cavalry flanks got stuck in long before there was any infantry action. Interestingly on the right of the Bourbon army all the brigades on both sides ended up in a Broken state, but on the Bourbon left only one brigade (an Allied one) broke in the closing stages of the battle. I think this reflected the different tactics being used. On the left, both commanders maintained their lines. The front brigades clashed, then the commanders pulled them back to join any retiring units behind the safety of the second line where they could rally. In the meantime the second lines clashed and repeated the process. Both sides would pause their attack to reform their lines. On the right, the British commander threw his second line out to try and outflank the Bourbon cavalry, which forced the Bourbon commander to do the same to counter the move. So the two second lines contacted each other piecemeal and the cavalry melee degenerated into a messy scrap. As neither side had the security of a rear line to reform behind, units were thrown back in to battle with less opportunity to rally properly. It became a far more of a battle of attrition than the other wing.

In the centre the Catalan/Austrian infantry failed to advance, whilst the British/Dutch contingents raced across the battlefield. The Catalan dice was so bad that the British commander insisted on the infantry Reserve being committed to guard his flank! The Bourbons advanced far enough to anchor their flank on the woods and were otherwise content to await the allied attack. The British took pretty horrendous casualties, despite their platoon firing they were out-shot by the Bourbon infantry and the Dutch units that tried to support their attack were also badly shot up. The Spanish/Austrians finally got going but were really just an audience to the Reserve's attack in the Bourbon lines, which was thrown back and the brigade Broken.

At this point we took stock. On the Allied side 5 of their 9 brigades were Broken, against 4 of the Bourbon 10. However we realised we had forgotten the rule that artillery do not count towards calculating a Broken brigade, so one of my Bourbon infantry brigades was also Broken (but that also meant that the British brigade would have been gone at least two turns earlier!). So we called it a draw, to the advantage of the Bourbons.  Historically the Marquis de Bay would have been delighted with that result and considered it a victory!

Here are  some pictures of the battle.

 Initial deployments, from the Allied side....

.....and the Bourbon side.

Yorkists 2, Lancastrians 0

At the last Tring Club Games Day I organised a 4-player Wars of the Roses game, using Sword and Spear. Each player controlled a 400 point army, so Lancastrians, Mark and Ian R, faced of against the Yorkists, Ian H and myself. At one point we were considering making a club rule that everyone should be known as Ian, because we had 5 Ians on the membership list and it would make it easier for new members to remember names.

Ian R faced off against me on the Western side of the battlefield and Mark squared up to Ian H on the East. The Lancastrian forces were slightly balanced in favour of their heavy infantry, so would have the advantage in melee. I'd gone for a more shooty option with the Yorkists, which gave us more manoeuvrebility and an advantage if we could keep them at a distance.

I won the scouting phase and had the advantage of deploying my units last. Ian H and Mark when for a fairly traditional approach and squared off against each other. Ian R massed his heavy infantry on his left flank (towards the centre of the table) with a pike block on the end of the line, bridging the gap between his command and Marks. Given how slowly heavy infantry move and how difficult it would be to manoeuvre the pike block, I deployed with a refused flank of my billmen facing his heavies, hoping to out-shoot his longbowmen and get around the heavy infantry's flank before they could close with mine. Just for good measure I stuck my dismounted men-at-arms in the middle of my bowmen with the idea that they would make short work of any bowmen they got into contact with. Unfortunately t'other Ian didn't realise what I was doing and, probably worried by what seemed to be a gap in our lines, moved troops across to fill it - but more of that later.

 The Eastern side of the battlefield.

 And the Western side.

 A view from the Lancastrian side of the table.

In the opening move my idea of using longbows to take the enemy out at a distance was demonstrated, but not in the way I had intended. With first shot of the game (and some outstanding bad dice on my part) Ian wiped out one of my militia longbow units with a single volley!

The rest of the first turn passed unexceptionally. None got outstanding activation dice, so everyone edged a few units forward and did the odd bit of shooting. Ian advanced his crossbow and a militia longbow unit into the wood in the centre of our positions, so I threw my Irish kerns in after them but all they achieved was take a hit themselves. I moved my handgunners in to the wood to support them, unfortunately I forgot that the handgunners cannot move and fire, so they just stopped in front of the crossbowmen, frantically trying to relight their matches. Sadly Ian got to activate his men before me in the next turn and blew them away! Over on the Eastern flank the two sides carried on battering away at each other. In the meantime the pike block started it's slow advance across the table.

Irish in the wood, where did those Flemish handgunners go?

The pikemen crawl across the table (notice the border horse in the corner of the picture, they ain't on the same side!).

Things get nasty on the Eastern side of the battlefield.

By now Mark had got most of his heavy infantry into contact, but they were not having the desired effect. It was looking pretty even on the Eastern flank, both sides had lost a couple of units, but Mark had several militia units close to breaking due to the shooting casualties they had taken as they crossed the gap between the armies.

Back on my side of the game, my longbow superiority was starting to tell when I had an amazing stroke of luck. Ian was using his general to frantically rally units I'd shot up before they broke, when I routed the unit he was attached to. Ian rolled a 6, HE'S A DEAD UN!

Morale checks for the dead general, plus an army test for reaching 1/3 casualties were mostly successful, at least for the units that were already engaged.

It would be a huge headache to try and control his force with the reduced command radius his captain had. Most of his army would be out of command, he could either try to shore up his scattered bowmen, or else concentrate on his heavies, getting them into contact whilst he still could. He chose the latter, starting to move units across to face mine and edging his pike closer to the end of Ian H's line.

Lancastrians batter at the Yorkist line.

A view from the Lancastrian East flank.

By now my guys were on a roll and Ian R's troops dropping like flies, I just needed one more unit destroyed to reach is army break point. He charged his pike into a unit of Ian H's archers, who gave them a bloody nose, then Ian charged them in the flank with his border horse. Even light cavalry charging with lances has a punch and the dice gods were obviously favouring York this day, because in no time the pike had taken 5 hits and were just one away from breaking (and routing Ian's command). At this point Mark took the opportunity to open his mouth and boldly stick his foot in it. He turn towards his fellow commander and said, "I think you have lost this battle for me!". Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear...!

A minute or so later, one of Mark's bill units routed, taking him over 1/3 losses and requiring a morale check for all his units. His dice rolling was average, about half his units passed and half failed. Unfortunately, all those that passed were at full strength and all those who failed were the ones that had already been shot up, so 3 or 4 further units routed in sympathy with the unfortunate billmen. In a single combat Mark had gone from just under 1/3 losses to over 50% and his command broke!

How we laughed.....

Checking the rules, it seemed that, in a multi player game, we should combine the two commands for calculating the army's break point, so as Ian R hadn't quite reached the 50% loss point, we could fight on. However in the next turn the pike routed and wiped out Ian's border horse, taking their combined losses well over 50%. An outstanding Yorkist victory!

Most of us were fairly new to Sword and Spear and we were all happy with how the game played out. We realised that we had got a couple of minor things wrong, but for the most part we had stuck to the rules. I think we will be playing these rules more often and I need to dig out my 10mm Late Romas and Sassanids to give them an outing.

Just to rub it in, the Lancastrian losses (the pike block hadn't been added to the pile yet at this point!).

And the Yorkist losses!

There were two other games going on at the Games Day.

 A Warhammer 40K battle.

And a large 4-player Congo game.

Games Day November 2017 - WWI Big Chain Of Command

For the November all-day game Henry, Ian, Graham, Mark, Martin and Colin (me) played a WWI game using rules adapted from Big Chain Of Command.

Belgians are defending a town against an onslaught by the Germans.

Forces

Belgians - Henry & Colin
One Regular Infantry Platoon
Half an Elite Infantry Platoon
Supports - MMGs and Field Guns
Reserves - 2 Mounted Infantry units - arrival Point to be randomised when brought on.

Germans - Ian, Martin, Graham & Mark
3 Regular Infantry Platoons
Supports
Reserves - Cavalry

Layout
The town area, designated by the grey felt cloth, offered Soft Cover though-out. The town buildings have all been scratch built by Henry. The green cloth is open ground with various terrain features.

Deployment
The Belgians could deploy anywhere in the town.
The Germans had normal Jump-Off Points pre-positioned for the scenario by the umpire. Basically they were near the base line - one on the left, one in the centre and one on the right, and offering cover to troops deploying there.

The Game

Graham deployed one German Platoon on their left, Martin in their centre, and Mark on their right.
Ian had control of the German Reserve.

Martin starts his deployment deep in cover in the German centre.

 The Germans were rather slow to start, being very cautious of the open ground in front of them and not knowing what Belgians were going to appear where. They slowly moved forward as far as possible while still benefiting from any cover offered by the terrain.

From their start positions the Germans move slowly forward
to take advantage of any cover that is going.

In response, Henry deployed the Belgian Regular Platoon opposite Mark and Martin, and Colin deployed the Elite half platoon opposite Graham.

Henry's Regular Belgian Platoon in hard cover faces
two platoons of Germans.

Graham built up a good fire base against the Elite squads but hitting them in hard cover was proving to be difficult ...

Part of Graham's fire base in the early stages.
Two MMGs in support of  infantry.

... so he made good use of Covering Fire to reduce the effect of incoming fire from the Elites which were using the large building at the edge of the town and a trench on the flank. This gave the Germans time to take up advance positions while still gaining cover.

The Covering Fire on the Elite Belgians in the house and trench
severely reduced the effect of their fire.

On the Germans right, Mark had drawn a lot of fire from Henry's Regular Platoon and forced most of the Belgian Support units into the fight. Unfortunately for the Belgians the Supports became isolated and picked off, greatly reducing the Regular Platoons Morale.

Not a good photo, but shows the isolated positions
of the Belgian gun pits against the wire at the edge of the town.

Mark brought on a Field Gun against the Belgian Regulars.

For a while the Germans could not co-ordinate their attack, perhaps due to poor communication or lack of the good activation dice. Some piecemeal attacks were made.

Graham attempted to advance a couple of squads against the Elite Belgians
while they were under Covering Fire but could not reach the wire.

Eventually the Germans managed to co-ordinate their attack and most of them used the slow Tactical Move to gain extra cover as they moved across the open ground towards the wire lining the town.

There was certainly a lack of communication by the Belgians, which meant Colin hadn't
known about the poor state of Henry's Regular Platoon, and before he realised it they were on the point of breaking.

Ian was champing at the bit to get his German Cavalry Reserve onto the field and had quickly made ground between the slow moving German infantry up to the town.

Ian's Cavalry Reserve break into the town and look intent
on breaking the Morale of the remaining Belgian Regulars.

The Belgian Reserves were called for too late. By now there was only a 50/50 chance they would arrive each phase, and the arrival position of the Reserves was randomised. It took 4 turns to bring on the Reserves and they came on behind Graham. Initially they had great local success because they came on straight into Combat and defeated three German units. Then a fist-full of fives meant no activation for one phase.

Belgian Reserves (top right) arrive behind the Germans
and had great success initially.
Then a fist-full of fives meant no activation for one turn.

This enabled the Germans to respond to the threat in their rear and finish off the Belgian Reserves.

The luck of the Belgian Reserves has run out.

Meanwhile Henry's Belgian Regular Platoon had broken under the onslaught leaving the Elites stranded on the flank.
Repeated Close assaults on the building finished off the resistance there ...

Repeated assaults on the Elites defending the building
finally met with success.

...and the rampaging German Cavalry Reserve had swung round to the rear of the Elites in the trench.

German infantry to the front and a cavalry attack from the rear
 spells the end for the Belgians.

With Martin and Mark sweeping their German infantry through the town the end came quickly.

It is possible that the Belgian Elites could have offered more support to the Regular Platoon early on, but not much really. They had their hands full dealing with what was in front of them while Martin's German infantry in the centre was making good use of cover (they were scared to come out) so there weren't many target opportunities there.

We all had a good time with everyone involved in the battle.