Wednesday, February 25, 2015

28MM BLACK POWDER: ACTION AT FRISCHERMONT 1815

Over the past few weeks I setup a fictional game in my garage vaguely based on the action at Plancenoit in 1815 but I moved the action north to the area of Frischermont. I used a 10ft by 6ft layout on my table.  I have played it twice as the French player - first against Scott Duncan and secondly against Dave Paterson and Kevin Bowman.  We used Black Powder with the 66% using my House Rules.  All the commanders were rated as 8.  Both times it proved a French victory but the second game was much harder fought.  Luckily for me Dave and Kevin in the second game were hamstrung by some appalling command rolls which prevented their reserves arriving on time.  Their Landwehr brigade failed to arrive in 10 turns by which time their army had broken.   All these photos are from the second game.

French veteran brigade advances onto the table

French line infantry counter-attack at Frischermont.  Model was made by Iain Gale for his Waterloo game.
Here are the Player Briefings and OBs

Prussian Briefing

The enemy is defending the line of villages shown on the map.  Your objective is to defeat them and move your force of their side of the table.  Your force starts the game off table.  Two brigades can try to enter on each turn up to turn 3 and one per turn after that.  Decide your order of march and where the troops will enter the table.

Prussian Army
1st Brigade
4 Infantry Btns, Foot gun

2nd Brigade
4 Infantry Btns, Rifle det, Foot gun

3RD Brigade
4 Landwehr Btns, Foot gun

4th Brigade
3 Russian Btns, Foot gun

1st Cavalry Brigade
2 Dragoon Regts, Horse gun

2nd Cavalry Brigade
2 Hussar Regts

3rd Cavalry Brigade
2 Landwehr Cav Regts

Moment of Glory - French light cavalry strike the flank of the Russo-German legion

French Briefing

Your command is defending the line of villages shown on the map.  Your objective is to prevent the enemy moving of your side of the table.  Your initial starting troops can be deployed up to half way across the table.  However an outpost is established in the hamlet just over half way across the table.

French Army
1st French Brigade 
3 Infantry Btns, Foot gun

2nd French Brigade 
3 Infantry Btns, Foot gun

3rd French Brigade 
4 Veteran infantry Btns, Hvy Foot gun

4th French Brigade
2 Guard Btns

1st French Lt Cav Brigade 
2 ChaCH Regts, Horse gun

2nd French Lt Cav Brigade 
2 Hussar Regts, Horse gun
 
Note
In addition there are 3 infantry detachments (small units) holding the hamlets.

Reserves
The 3rd and 4th Infantry brigades and 2nd Lt Cav brigade are off-table marching to the sound of the guns. 

Arrival from
Turn 2 - 2nd Lt Cav brigade
Turn 4 - 3rd Infantry brigade
Turn 8 - 4th Infantry brigade

I am planning a 28mm French Russian Napoleonic game in mid March using the new Blucher rules. 

Landwehr cavalry threaten the French right flank

Old Guard charge home near Frischermont

Friday, February 20, 2015

28MM VBCW: BERWICK 1938 GAME 3

I was at Hugh Wilson’s this week for the 3rd part of our Battle of Berwick VBCW game.  This covered the 2nd day of the counter-attack by the forces of the BUF and the Northern Militia.   We played 6 turns using the Bolt Action night fighting rules and then 10 daylight turns.

View over the table - the 3 bridges and the harbour in the distance

Warship supporting landing party attacking the walls
 
As before the BUF outnumbered the Scots by approximately 2 to1 but due to command limitations within Bolt Action we could not deploy all our strength onto the table.  The Scots called up an airstrike and like both attempts in our last game it proved a disaster as the novice pilot attacked and wiped out the newly arrived Scottish cavalry.

Lancelot covers the engineering party clearing the main road bridge
 
At the end of the game the BUF, after a desperate series of assaults and counter-attacks, had captured the railway station.  In addition our infantry supported by the medium tank Lancelot had cleared the main road bridge.  We also got our giant Char 2C Black Prince into action at the railway bridge.

More photos with descriptions on Flickr at
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bill26048/sets/72157648601926444/

Scottish RAF attacks their own cavalry - a tragic error

Classic rustic scene - cricket team, cycling club and a 65 ton heavy tank



Friday, February 13, 2015

28MM VBCW: BERWICK 1938 GAME 2

I was at Hugh Wilson’s this week for the 2nd part of our Battle of Berwick VBCW game.  Tim Watson worked out the scenario for the first game and Colin Jack the scenario for this second game.  Hugh has done great work again on the terrain for the games.  Due to camera problems I did not get any photos for either game but I have used Dave O’Brien’s photos for this report.  Bart wrote a report on the first game which is at
http://asienieboje.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/berwick-uppon-tweed-1938.html

View from the sea showing 2 of the 3 bridges
The scenario over the 2 games was that the forces of the Scottish Republic had captured Berwick in the first game and this game was the counter-attack by the forces of the BUF and the Northern Militia.  We had 7 players for the game plus 2 umpires/supporters.

BUF forces advance on the bridges and their obstacles
The BUF outnumbered the Scots by approximately 2 to1 but due to command limitations within Bolt Action they could not deploy all their strength onto the table.  The highlight of the game was the airstrikes by both sides which went astray hitting their own units. 

Armour action at the railway bridge
At the end of the game the BUF had cleared two of the bridges but not entered the town.  We have decided for the game that night has fallen and the BUF will fall back to the south bank to regroup.   This game will be continued…….

Bart has written a report of this 2nd game including the OB:
http://asienieboje.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/berwick-uppon-tweed-1938-2.html

BUF airforce strikes it's own side - pinning 6 of my units - terrible mercenary pilot