Cossacks Take To The Field (Briefly!)

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My first game of the year, so it was only right that the Cossacks finally take to the field with their opponents, the Polish/Lithuanians (hereafter known as the Poles/the Polish), provided by friend Bevan. So new to the table were both armies that the Poles hadn’t even been properly based yet.

The table was set up quite differently to our usual ECW terrain: no hedges and loads of irritating patches of rough or impassable ground.

We used the excellent eastern front modifications to For King & Parliament available on the Tales From A Wargames Shed blog.

View from the Polish side

The Poles arrived with a fearsome army: two units of Winged Hussars; four units of Pancerni horse; three units of Petyhorsy horse; three units of Tatar mounted bowmen; and four infantry Haiduk units.

Not properly based! Are the shades of the wargaming room to be thus polluted?

To oppose them, my brave Zaporogian Cossacks fielded four tabor war wagons; two brigades each of one unit of Registered Cossacks and two units of Moloitsy; and two Tatar warbands, one of two units of mounted bowmen, the other the same but with a unit of Tatar noble lancers as well.

Tabor in the centre, then the infantry, then the cavalry on the wings.

Here’s how the game went:

In summary, the Poles sent their cavalry forward on each wing. This proved too strong for my horse, who were mostly Tatar bowmen and reluctant Cossacks, leaving the end of my infantry/tabor line exposed.

My musket fire proved ineffective (I think it must have been raining) and although they did cause the Poles some damage, the Moloitsy infantry then began to crumble.

As the battle ended, the Poles were about to fall upon the Registered Cossacks whilst my tabor still sat in the centre watching what was going on!

Aftermath

An excellent game (despite the result!) and it was good to get back to gaming and give my latest army a baptism (of fire!).

IABSM AAR: Home Run at Osmanville

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An excellent I Ain’t Been Shot Mum battle report for you to look at today, from Scott Miquelon’s equally excellent Little Soldier Painting Studio blog.

Scott has created a comic-book style AAR showcasing his solo game using the Home Run at Osmanville scenario from the 29 Let’s Go Large article in the TFL 2014 Christmas Special.

Click on the picture below to see all:

More Marlowe to Maidenhythe AARs

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As mentioned in previous posts, one of the things I like about publishing scenario packs (in addition to the extra money to buy more figures) is reading people’s AAR of the games therein.

I’ve featured a round of reports from the first scenario of the Marlowe to Maidenhythe pack, The Attack of Marlowe, and am pleased to say that the people playing through the campaign seemed to have enjoyed the first game well enough to play through the second: Widbrooke Common.

Here a link to the Blunders on the Danube blog where disaster is narrowly avoided during the game when one of the tables used collapses! Despite the unexpected earthquake (this is Berkshire after all!) this is a great looking game with some lovely figures deployed. Here a pic:

The Start of the Game

Then it’s on to the Troop Time! blog, where Widbrooke Common has also been played out, thankfully without any near-catastrophes.

The author of the blog, Zanoni, does mention that he’s disappointed that the M2M scenarios aren’t linked more closely, but as I’ve explained before, that’s the way they are designed.

As the first multi-game supplements for FK&P, I wanted M2M and SoN to be scenario books that primarily provided people with lots of easily run games i.e. without any barriers to playing any of the 24 scenarios provided in any order.

I did think about going the whole hog and writing a campaign based on a dependency tree and with characters/units who can progress or expire (much like I do for my IABSM scenario packs) but felt that, at this stage, what FK&P needed was just lots of individual games that people can play

That said, I also wanted to link them together in some way, so there's a strong campaign thread running through each pack, the games feature the same people and units throughout, and there a neat tracker provided so that players can keep a running score of how they are doing: hopefully a good compromise, "best of both worlds" product.

So hopefully Zanoni will keep playing through the pack: he certainly seems to be enjoying himself so far.

The two lines clash! Picture from the Troop Time! blog.

Now all we need is the Iron Mitten to catch up with his Widbrooke Common game!

IABSM AAR: South of Cherbourg

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Here’s a quick IABSM battle report from Sergeant Steiner’s excellent blog.

The Sergeant played through one of the free scenarios in the main rulebook: the South of Cherbourg game. This is an all infantry scenario with regular Wehrmacht defending against advancing US troops in Normandy in 1944.

Click on the picture below to see all:

IABSM AAR: Blenneville or Bust! #4B Reversed

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Here’s an after action report that shows how flexible the IABSM scenario books are.

James Moulding and friends played scenario #4B from the Blenneville or Bust! scenario pack, but with the roles reversed i.e. in the original game, the British are attacking defending Germans but in this game it’s the British defending with the Germans attacking.

Click on the picture, below, to see all:

Note that this report is taken from the IABSM Facebook page. I hope James doesn’t mind me reproducing it here.

IABSM AAR: Viking Panzers in Central Poland

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Another cracking I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum battle report from the pen and camera of Mark Luther.

It’s another 6mm battle fought at the Gigabyte’s cafe, and this time features a somewhat generic game based on actions to the east of Warsaw in August 1944 where the Soviets had sent masses of tanks through thin lines of the German defenders. The panzer units were then forced to scramble to cut those units off before they totally disrupted the front.

Click on the picture, below, to see all…

IABSM AAR: Anzio #10: Highway 7

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Another great 6mm I Ain't Been Shot Mum game from Mark Luther played at Gigabites Cafe in November 2021.

The scenario is taken from the Anzio: Wildcat to Whale scenario pack and features US infantry and armour assaulting a collection of four farmhouses held by men from the Herman Goering Panzer Division.

Click on the picture below to see all:

19C AAR: The Battle of Lederhosen

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With both the Austrians and the Prussians now rebased (see previous posts) it was time to get the armies back onto the tabletop. This would be their second outing after over twenty years in storage!

The Austrians

  • 1st Division

    • 1st Line Battalion

    • 2nd Line Battalion

    • One Jaeger Company

    • Two artillery batteries

  • 2nd Division

    • 1st Jaeger Battalion

    • 3rd Line Battalion

    • Two Jaeger Companies

    • Two artillery batteries

  • Cavalry Division

    • 1st Uhlan Regiment

    • 1st Hussar Regiment

  • Army Reserve

    • 1st Dragoon Regiment

The Prussians

  • 1st (Jaeger) Division

    • 1st Jaeger Battalion

    • 2nd Jaeger Battalion

    • One Jaeger Company

  • 1st (Line ) Division

    • 1st Guards Battalion

    • 2nd Guards Battalion

    • 1st Landwehr Battalion

    • 2nd Landwehr Battalion

    • One Jaeger Company

    • Three artillery batteries

  • Heavy Cavalry Division

    • 1st Cuirassier Regiment

    • 2nd Cuirassier Regiment

    • 1st Dragoon Regiment

  • Light Cavalry Division

    • 1st Uhlan Regiment

    • 2nd Uhlan Regiment

And that was where we had to end the game unfortunately.

I was certainly in a very good position on my left, honours were even in the centre, but I was definitely losing the right,. So we called it a draw, with a slight strategic advantage to the Prussians balanced by the extra casualties they had taken.

A great game, and I’m now rebasing the French so that they can join in the fun!

19thC AAR: Austrians vs Prussians

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As we’d been playing For King and Parliament almost exclusively for the past few months, my regular wargaming opponent and I fancied a change. He’d spotted my fairly extensive collection of 19th Century figures, so suggested we dust them off and have a game.

Good idea, says I, so the next question became a discussion about what rules to use. I wanted something simple, with no need for protractors and laser pointers and the like, so we thought we’d give Neil Thomas’ Wargaming 19th Century Europe 1815-1878 a try.

This compact little booklet contains a wealth of information. There’s a large background section followed by six pages of rules and then large numbers of army lists, battle scenarios and historical information.

Six pages of rules sounded good to me, especially as I knew that I would need to re-base my collection to play any commercially available rules, so would only need to expend a little brain power to work out how to use my existing figures and play-test the system before making any sort of re-basing decision.

We set up a quick encounter game using as many of my Austrian and Prussian figures as possible, and set to…

The Battle

As I said, above, we used my existing figures based as is, and made loads of mistakes with the rules - despite their simplicity!

I won’t therefore do a full AAR, just a gallery of the action. Suffice to say that my brave but outnumbered Austrians were soundly beaten: the breachloaders used by the dastardly Prussians proving highly superior to my Lorenz rifles!

It was a most enjoyable game, however, with the rules proving simple yet infinitely subtle. It certainly had the feel of a 19th Century battle: very pleasing as many rulesets for the period, in my experience, are a Napoleonic battle with a bit of advanced weaponry tacked on!

I’ve now started re-basing my troops to suit the system (and many other sets as there’s nothing too outre about what’s needed) and we’ll have more of a proper game next time.

Oh, and it’s worth mentioning that none of the figures featured had been on the tabletop for over 20 years!

FK&P AAR: Disaster at Skirmett's Orchards

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Here’s a battle report from the playtest of the final scenario in my newly-published Siege of Norchester scenario pack for the English Civil War rules, For King & Parliament.

As the title of this post suggests, this was an absolute disaster for my Parliamentarians!

“Went the day well, my dear?”

“No it bl**dy didn’t!”

The day started very well. Above is a view from behind the Royalist lines, with the village of Skirmett in the centre of the table. My plan was to win on the wings then envelop the Cavaliers in a “horns of the buffalo” manoeuvre.

Northern Donkey Wallopers to the Front!

On my left wing, I had a brigade of Borders horse: poorly-mounted, but out-numbering the opposition. The lancers on the far left were quite nasty in a first clash, so I was pretty happy that I could get an advantage here.

The centre and right

I was a bit more concerned about my right wing, where the Roundheads had quite a few units of Swedish-style horse versus my monolithic Dutch-style troops, but my infantry were nearby and could always pore fire into the flanks of any rampaging Royalist cavalry before they got too close.

Back on the left wing, the two lines of cavalry smashed in to each other: complete disaster!

I may have gone a little over the top on the disorder markers!

Let me explain. I got my tactics just right and ended up with three cavalry units facing just the one of his. Not only that, but I was uphill charging downhill. Yes, I had both my CinC and the Brigade Commander with the central unit, but officers casualties are quite rare, yes?

Wrong!

In the first clash I lost both my CinC and the Brigade Commander: both killed outright!

This was particularly painful as in FK&P not only are officers really useful for, er, officering but, representing the cult of personality around so many ECW commanders, your CinC is worth a great many Victory Medals. Combined, I lost just about a third of all my Medals with the death of just two men! This obviously meant that even if things went 50/50 from now on, I would lose the game in short order.

Anyway, we decided to play on for a bit…

Even Stevens on the Right

Another cavalry clash on the right, with my troopers getting an initial advantage.

The Centre standing Firm

Unfortunately that advantage didn’t last. Lady Luck again deciding that she was for the King!

Centre cavalry unit couldn’t even last long enough for the infantry to intervene!

Which meant that when my already battered left flank finally gave way, I was out of Victory Medals and on the stage coach to Losertown!

The Left Crumbles

So a very quick battle mainly due to the surprising death of my CinC and a cavalry brigade commander. Still an enjoyable game and, looking for the silver lining, the speed of my defeat gave us time for another game…

FK&P AAR: Napshill Downs

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Regular visitors will be aware that last Friday saw the release of my second scenario pack for the For King & Parliament English Civil War ruleset: The Siege of Norchester.

The pack contains twelve free-standing, fictional scenarios in a loose chronological order. It tells the story of the investment of the fictional, Royalist-held city of Norchester. It begins with the Parliamentarians gradually pushing the Royalist foraging parties back into the city itself, then looks at the Royalist attempts to delay the construction of encircling works. There’s an assault on the outskirts of Norchester and then a Royalist attempt to get a messenger through to the King to ask for aid. Finally, there’s the arrival of a Royalist relief force, the fall of Norchester and the attempted escape of the main Cavalier protagonists. The same officers and units are used throughout the campaign, and it is hoped that the players will come to adopt and recognise them as their own or the enemy.

The pack is designed to give players who don't have enough time to write their own scenarios a number of games that they can play with little or no preparation. All you have to do is print out the game and player briefings, set up the table according to the map, break out the figures and cards, and start the first turn. You don't even need to print the pack out in full: just the pages you need for the scenario you're going to play. The games can be played either as a series of linked games or as a collection of one-off battles. To emphasise: each scenario is free standing and they do not have to be played in any particular order…but it is anticipated that players will play them in order as a campaign, keeping a running total of each sides’ score as they go along. The pack provides a Campaign Record Sheet as an easy way of doing so.

Finally, although specifically designed for FK&P, with a little work the scenarios can be adapted for any set of English Civil War/Renaissance rules: the basic elements of why, where and with what each side is fighting being largely common to all systems.

Napshill Downs

An important part of the preparation for launch is to playtest all the scenarios in the pack, and below you will find a gallery of images from the playtest of scenario #11: Napshill Downs.

As one of the later scenarios, the background is that Norchester has already fallen so some of the Royalist erstwhile defenders are trying to make their escape from the region in order to continue the fight against the Parliamentarian traitors elsewhere. The Roundhead force (which I was commanding) is tasked with bottling them up and destroying them.

This was one of those games that went wrong for me just about right from the beginning when I completely cocked up my opening moves! Read on to share my pain!

The Attack on Marlowe

Meanwhile, blogger Zanoni has started playing through my previous ECW scenario pack: Marlowe to Maidenhythe, which is now available in both digital and physical form.

His first AAR, covering scenario #1 The Attack on Marlowe has lots of pictures of his beautifully painted collection of ECW figures. Recommended as a feast of eye candy!

Click here to see the report on his excellent Troop Time! blog.

Siege of Norchester Scenario Pack Now Available

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Simon Miller and I have just published the digital edition of my second scenario pack for For King & Parliament: The Siege of Norchester.

Buy The Siege of Norchester here

Hopefully you'll have seen (and had your appetites whetted!) by some of the many playtest battle reports posted here (the last post before this one being an example) but for those who haven't, here's the marketing blurb:

The Siege of Norchester is a supplement for TtS! For King & Parliament that contains twelve free-standing, fictional scenarios in a loose chronological order.

The pack is designed to give players who don't have enough time to write their own scenarios a number of games that they can play with little or no preparation. All you have to do is print out the game and player briefings, set up the table according to the map, break out the figures and cards, and start the first turn. You don't even need to print the pack out in full: just the pages you need for the scenario you're going to play.

The Siege of Norchester tells the story of the investment of the fictional, Royalist-held city of Norchester. It starts with the Parliamentarians gradually pushing the Royalist foraging parties back into the city itself, then looks at the Royalist attempts to delay the construction of encircling works. There’s an assault on the outskirts of Norchester and then a Royalist attempt to get a messenger through to the King to ask for aid. Finally, there’s the arrival of a Royalist relief force, the fall of Norchester and the attempted escape of the main Cavalier protagonists.    The same officers and units are used throughout the campaign, and it is hoped that the players will come to adopt and recognise them as their own or the enemy.

action from scenario #2: munces wood

The games can be played either as a series of linked games or as a collection of one-off battles. To emphasise: each scenario is free standing and they do not have to be played in any particular order…but it is anticipated that players will play them in order as a campaign, keeping a running total of each sides’ score as they go along. The pack provides a Campaign Record Sheet as an easy way of doing so.

Finally, although specifically designed for FK&P, with a little work the scenarios can be adapted for any set of English Civil War/Renaissance rules: the basic elements of why, where and with what each side is fighting being largely common to all systems.

So whether you’re for the King or for Parliament, The Siege of Norchester gives you everything you need for many hours of joyful gaming!

Buy The Siege of Norchester here

FK&P AAR: Ramshackle Road

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Another game of For King & Parliament using a scenario from my forthcoming Siege of Norchester scenario pack. This time it’s an encounter at Ramshackle Road, where the Royalist raiders are pinned against a river!

Although I did definitely lose the battle, the game was actually closer than the report above suggests. The appearance of the Royalist horse on my flank was a nasty shock, and I didn’t cope with it very well!

A great game, despite the result!

IABSM AAR: 83rd Naval Brigade in the Caucasus 1942

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Another superb 6mm I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum! after action report from Mark Luther.

This time Soviet Naval Infantry take on a German recce force in the north Caucasus in August 1942. The Germans were closing in on the port of Novorossiysk from the north and the Soviets had set up blocking positions before Verkhnebakanskiy. This represents the 83rd Naval Infantry Brigade's fallback spot. They were facing the 125th Infantry Division with some StuGs and armored cars.

Click on the picture below to see all…

FK&P AAR: Laundry Day

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Another day, another Norchester playtest!

The Royalist raiders, headed by Sir Arthur d’Artois area heading for the rear of the Parliamentarian lines, determined to take some of the pressure of their colleagues under siege in Norchester.

The Roundheads, however, have been tipped off and are expecting them: they have a force drawn up in front of the rear of their camp and are prepared to do battle!

Another cracking game, with the scenario passed as playtested.

The battle swung this way and that, but always with me having the edge, right up to the last moment. To indicate how close it was, my opponent had only one Victory Medal left himself i.e. if I’d broken one more unit or taken that camp, then victory would have been mine.

The final turn began with me on four Victory Medals: all of which I lost on the right as my troops finally gave way: about as close to victory as you can get without actually winning!

On to the next scenario now: Ramshackle Road…

Action from Marlowe to Maidenhythe

Most of you should know that Norchester will be my second scenario pack for For King & Parliament, with the first being Marlowe to Maidenhythe.

Always great to see my scenarios being used: here’s a link to the Blunders on the Danube blog where there’s a great report of the first scenario from M2M: the Attack on Marlowe

Blunders on the Danube/M2M AAR