Odds & Ends (5) - Zulus, Sir....... thousands of em!!!

I've not got much gaming in recently due to holidays and real life interfering with my gaming time, we did manage a small game of Black Powder at the club recently, in which I took control of several (5) impi's of Zulu's against Rob who commanded 4 battalions of British.

I've not played Black powder that much, maybe half a dozen games, but I like it, and I'm always up for a game. In this simple scenario, which was a practice run of a much bigger game we have planned in the next few weeks, Rob's British were defending a small farmstead, from my marauding Zulu's.

My forces had little option but to advance as fast as possible having only one unit with ranged fire, this I promptly did and was soon closing in on the British, who had set up in two lines each of two battalions.  Craig the GM (whose fantastically painted miniatures we used) had secretly informed me that I had a sixth impi hiding in the long grass on my left flank, quite close to where the British had established their forward line. With this knowledge I advanced my royal impi and muskets up the left flank to join the hidden troops in what I hoped would be a decisive attack on the British line, in the centre and right I advanced my remaining 3 impi's in a head on rush toward the enemy line.

The Zulu's moved forward in almost perfect unison, the centre/right forces formed a "Horns of the Buffalo" type formation and headed toward one British unit, whilst the Royals, muskets and hidden impi smashed into the end of the British line on my left. Neither British unit lasted too long and I was soon advancing again into a third unit, between this unit and the fire from the remaining unit, the Zulu advanced stalled and I started to take casualties, two of my impi's were soon wiped out, and 3 of the remaining 4 were badly shot up and looking as though they might run. A turn spent rallying my troops had them back on the move, and they finally destroyed the stubborn third British battalion, forcing the last battalion to retreat to the farm to watch me close in.

That's where we had to end it, as it was getting on, but their were no doubts that it had been a triumphant Zulu victory. I had been lucky and almost everything had gone right for me, and my melee dice rolls had been very good through-out the game, my opponent did make the mistake of having his forward line too far forward so that it was not supported by the 2nd line, but even so at the crucial point in the game it looked as though the British might just pull it out of the bag. I can't wait for the larger re-match now, though I'm not looking forward to facing the Gatling guns.

The stout defenders of Vangendorf farm

The view at the start of the game from the British side

Two Impi's in their starting positions


The Zulu initial deployment( a unit of Muskets were placed in front of the topmost unit)

 

 Zulu Muskets and Impi.
 

 

 The British 2nd Line.

The Game

The Zulu advance in the centre, a third Impi forms the head of the Buffalo just out of shot.

 

The Zulu left flank, once the hidden impi had revealed itself.

 

 Fierce fighting on the left, results in the loss of one British unit.

 

The main battle in the centre, 2 Impi's take on 2 British units with 3 Zulu Impi's moving up to support, 1 British unit had been wiped out at this point.

 

Following the loss of the 2nd British unit the Zulus poured forward to engage the 2nd line of British.

 

 

 

Another unit of British was swiftly dispatched by the horde of Zulu's now advancing on the farm.

The last unit of redcoats retreated to the relative safety of the farm.  

Things didn't look too good for the remaining British troops.

6mm War of the Roses (1) - Battle Report

I had my first game in my new hobby/geek room last night, as I was rushed and it was only a small game on a 4ftx4ft board we went old school and set up the board on the floor rather than getting my table out.

We used the Impetvs rule set which I am becoming a big fan of. As both my opponent Craig, and I are novices when it comes to these rules, we didn't bother with any sort of points list or min/max retrictions as it was a fairly small game to get us more familiar with the rules. For simplicity we also dropped the rule by which a Commanders ability can change dependant on the initiative roll and dispensed with the breakpoints so as to ensure the game didn't end too quickly.

(all miniatures from Baccus, buildings from Leven)

The Yorkists:

Led by me, consisted of:

Main Command

1 Unit of Mounted Men at Arms(General attached)
1 Unit of Dismounted Men at Arms
2 Units of Retinue Bill(one of which was formed into a large unit with the above)
2 Units of Shire Bill(formed into a large unit)
2 Units of Shire Archers

2nd Command

1 Unit of Dismounted Men at Arms (General attached)
1 Unit of Retinue Bill(formed into a large unit with the above)
2 Units of Shire Archers

The Lancastrians:

Main Command

1 Unit of Mounted Men at Arms(General attached)
2 Units of Retinue Bill
1 Unit of Retinue Archers
4 Units of Welsh Infantry

2nd Command

1 Unit of Mounted Men at Arms(General attached)
2 Unit of Dismounted Men at Arms
2 Units of Retinue Archers
1 Unit of Mercenary Crossbows

According to the guidelines in Impetvs this works out as about 8-9000 troops for the Yorkists and 11-12,000 for the Lancastrians.

Deployment:

Being outnumbered it was agreed that I would defend, and I therefore set up first, my main command was situated on a large plateau which occupied the centre and left flank of my side of the board, the infantry was set up in large units were possible and the archers were on the lower slopes in front of the infantry. My 2nd command was in a similar posiiton on small spur on my right flank.

The Lancastrians placed their main command fairly centrally around the village church, with the 2nd command on a hill on their right flank. One solitary unit of retinue archers being placed on the Lancastrian left and being tasked with facing off the Yorkist 2nd command.

The view from my side, with my forces holding the high ground.

 

 

The view from the other side, showing the Lancastrians ready to advance.

The Plan:

Mine was fairly simple, stay put and soften up the advancing enemy with missle fire before charging once the enemy reached my lines, no great plan tactically but it allowed me to concentrate on getting the rules right. This changed slightly once I saw my opponents set-up, as my right flank was unopposed (well apart from one unit or archers) I decided to advance my 2nd command and try to disrupt the Lancastrian attack with a flank attack of my own.



The Battle:

(All the following pictures show the Yorkists at the bottom)

Craig's army rumbled forward at a slow but steady pace, keen to avoid any unnecessary dis-order he limited his movements so as to keep a decent formation as he approached over broken ground and through woods.

On the main front an archery duel went in the Lancastrian favour as one of my shire archer units in the main command were routed by the combined shooting of two retinue archers and the French crossbowmen. In my favour I routed the lead unit of Welsh with archery fire and an unlucky cohesion test. This however did nothing to slow the overall advance of the Welsh troops.

Over on my right flank, all my forces advanced at full pelt to close the distance on the only unit of retinue archers that opposed me, they in turn (well with some poor discipline rolls), caused some disorder with their shooting slowing down my advance and stalling my intended speedy attack.  More Welsh were routed through archery, and I decided to support my flank attack with a large unit of shire billmen which being centrally placed at the top of the plateau near the wood moved down toward the Lancastrians that were emerging from the woods to my front.

Craig's right flank which was still intact, edged forward forcing me to retreat some units from the crest of the slope due to archery. I was fairly concerned about this force, as their was little I could do to slow it down at this point, and could only await the inevitable assault.

 In the centre, the Welsh started up the hill to extract some revenge on the shire archers that had mowed down 2 of their fellow Welsh units. My large unit of shire bills went in against some retinue bills that had reformed after passing through the woods and after some hard fighting routed them from the field.

By now the Yorkist right flank had lost 2 units of shire archers to the bows of the lonely retinue bowmen that held this flank for the Lancastrians,  but the surviving foot were now close enough to put the archer to the sword(or poll ax).

On my right I charged in hard with a large unit consisting of retinue bill and dismounted men at arms, fully expecting to crush the impudent bowmen that had so hindered my attack,only to see them easily survive and have to retreat slightly and ready to shoot at point blank range next turn, this also left me wide open to an attack by the opposing army commander and his armoured horse which had swung round by the church in the centre of the battlefield.

 In the centre, my victorious large unit of shire bill wheeled to face the Welsh which had moved into a position of attack, I was conscious of the unit of retinue bill lurking in the woods, which were situated to pile in as soon as the Welsh took me frontally, again their was nothing to be done about this at this stage in the game. The other unit of Welsh, had by now climbed the lower slopes and butchered the shire archers that had made life so uncomfortable for their comrades.

Seeing the Lancastrians racing up the incline on both sides was enough for the so far untouched Yorkists on the top of the hill, who decided to retreat in the face of the inevitable defeat, leaving their friends in the units that had attacked to their own fate.  Or to put it another way, we ran out of time.

Conclusions:

This was only our second game of Impetvs, without having someone around who is more familiar with the rules than we are, so I am sure we made a few errors here and there, but we both got a much clearer idea of the rules and how they work. Both of us are big Warmaster Ancients/Medieval fans when it comes to gaming in this era, so some of the concepts/rules in Impetvs are a bit alien to us and takes some getting used to (the biggest one being us setting up too far apart, as units tend to be much slower in Impetvs compared to Warmaster) but overall I think I prefer these rules for the War of the Roses period at least, over Warmaster. Some reasons why: movement is more restricted, no free wheeling around which is more realistic in my view; the cohesion test, I like the way this can represent a otherwise intact unit suddenly crumbling and routing, without having suffered great losses; the variable command factor, representing the on field confidence of the troops in their leaders. I also prefer the Command/Initiative sequence, as at least you always get to order your troops as opposed to Warmaster where (and I'm sure its happened to any of you who have played it) you can have whole battles in which your forces barely move, due to continually failing command rolls.

No club night for me this week as I'm busy decorating my son's room, but hopefully a friend is calling in for a game of X-Wing later in the week.

(Naval Wargaming - 1) - Fire as she bears!

I got elected to bring my Trafalgar rules and ships last week at the club, so I duly dug them out to discover to my dismay that a good number of mast, bowsprits and sails had fallen off since their last outing (over 3 years ago). Undeterred, I cracked on and made the necessary repairs which was quite satisfying and much easier than initially thought.

I quickly re-read the rules, which fortunately are relatively straight forward and don't require any great nautical knowledge, prepped some ships rosters, and came up with the following brief scenario outline:

The Action of the 9^th of July 1810

A British Squadron led by HMS Fury (74) was dispatched to the West Indies Station to provide reinforcements following renewed French activity. On route the squadron was scattered by inclement weather, leaving the Fury without its escort of frigates, now almost in sight of port, a French squadron is bearing down, in the hope of picking off the lone ship of the line.  The few ships stationed at the port have been dispatched to provide an escort and to hopefully deter the French from attacking.

The British

HMS Fury – 3^rd rate (large) equipped with bow & stern chasers – 250pts

HMS Clarence – Cutter – 30pts

Commanded by Rob.

 

HMS Gloucester – Razee Frigate – 140pts

HMS York – Brig – 60pts

HMS Middleham – Brig – 60pts

Commanded by Craig.

 

540 points

 
The French

Toulon – 3^rd rate (large) equipped with bow & stern chasers – 225pts

Le Petit Rouge – Corvette – 45pts

Commanded by John.

 

Le Glorie – 3^rd rate (large) equipped with bow & stern chasers – 225pts

Le Mans – Corvette – 45pts

Commanded by Andy.

 

540 points


There were 4 players and I acted as referee, Rob took HMS Fury and Clarence, whilst Craig took the remaining British ships, Andy and John split the French equally between them. Only John was familiar with the rules, so after briefly going over the basics, action commenced. I decided to keep things simple, so that the wind was blowing in a northerly direction and that wind direction and strength would not change throughout the course of the game.

The two groups of French ships started to either side of the HMS' Fury & Clarence on the Western edge of the board heading in an easterly direction, with the remaining British Ships at the opposite side of the board heading in a westerly direction hoping to come to the rescue.

Both Fury & Clarence maintained their course, seeking the safety of the other British ships, whilst both French squadrons veered off, one captained by Andy heading NE and Johns heading SE, Craigs British reinforcements headed in a NW direction and with the wind assisting them they soon closed in.

The corvette Le Mans, struck the first blows, with a stern rake on HMS Fury which managed to cause considerable damage including taking out the carronades, a single shot in reply hit Le Petit Rouge, causing rudder damage which saw this little ship heading off to the NW unable to steer that was the last we would see of this ship(or so we thought).

 The British had now managed to get all their ships together and showing some great seamanship managed to isolate and gang up on Le Glorie which had taken some shelter behind a small island. This cover proved insufficient to the British whose manuevering was quite impressive, a broadside from HMS Fury followed by a further broadside from HMS Gloucester saw Le Glorie not only crippled but completely sunk. However HMS Fury had taken further damage in the exchange and was now down to Light cannons only.

In the centre of the table the smaller ships had a bit of a set too as HMS Middleham took on Le Mans, things again went the British way as HMS Middleham took only very minor damage whilst managing to both de-crew and cripple Le Mans, leaving it floating in the middle of the table. HMS Middleham now tried to rejoin the main fleet, being somewhat isolated and with the Toulon now coming up from the South seeking some revenge.

Before HMS Middleham could escape however, a sail was spotted ont he horizon as the plucky corvette Le Petit Rouge, had just managed to make a repair of its damaged rudder (just before it went off the table) and turnabout heading straight for HMS Middleham. The French now out for blood, de-crewed HMS Middleham with a single broadside leaving it floating next to its earlier victem(Le Mans) in the middle of the game board.

With Toulon heading in from the South and Le Petit Rouge moving East from the centre of the table the remaining British ships where clustered around a small island still celebrating the victory over Le Glorie. Finding themselves a little tight on manuevering space, they just about managed to turnabout to face the danger presented by the still unscathed Toulon.

Whilst Le Petit rouge sailed around the centre of the table considering whether to take HMS Middleham under tow, Toulon finally managed to bring her guns to bear on the British, further minor damage was inflicted on HMS Fury and the cutter HMS Clarence was totally crippled by a broadside from the large 3rd rate. manuevering in the small space between the island and the edge of the board proved problematic as firstly HMS Fury went "over the edge" quickly followed by Toulon, at which point we decided to end the game with the result a British victory. the Final tally was as follows:

Le Glorie – sunk

Le Mans – crippled and no crew

Toulon - sailed off the edge

Le Petit Rouge - survived

HMS Fury - sailed off the edge with major damage incurred

HMS Clarence - crippled but still crewed

HMS Gloucester - survived

HMS Middleham - crippled and no crew

HMS York - survived

Rob's HMS Fury with HMS Clarence almost hidden behind it, in the background you can just see John's French 3rd rate, coming in from the South.

 

 HMS York, Middleham and Gloucester heading to the rescue.

 

Craig's Brig's rendezvousing with HMS Fury and HMS Clarence, the razee frigate HMS Gloucester trailing behind in the foreground whilst in the background Andy's 3rd rate tries to put an island between it and the British.

 

 

Le Petit Rouge sails off to the NW with a damaged rudder, whilst Le Mans(in the centre) is about to be blasted by the two British Brigs (bottom right). Le Glorie seeks the shelter of an island shadowed by HMS Fury and Clarence.

 

 

Everyone claimed to enjoy the game and the rules, and somewhat surprisingly we actually managed to finish the game.

 

 

 

 

(Boardgames - 1) - Richard III - Game Report

I introduced my mate John to this game recently, and we managed to get two of the three campaigns played out. I took a few pictures but it being a boardgame they are not very exciting.

(Early in the 1st Campaign)

The first campaign did not go very well for my Yorkist forces, and I made a few silly moves when I invaded from Calais with the Nevilles and the future Edward IV committing them to battles I didn't have to fight and withthe odds against me. This resulted in a huge series of battles in the South West that led to the deaths of Salisbury and Fauconberg, and Warwick deserting to the Lancastrian cause, Edward barely escaped the disaster. My invasion from Ireland and the troops I raised in East Anglia all came to nought, and at the end of the campaign my opponent held over 10 votes to my 3 or 4, all in all a crushing victory for the Lancastrians who did not lose one loyalist, whilst I had lost 3 including the traitorous Warwick.



The 2nd campaign was a different kettle of fish entirely, as the Yorkist forces moved straight in for the kill having realised that King Henry VI was in London with few nearby supporters. King Henry soon lay dead on the battlefield killed by the Earl of March, and the Yorkists held most of the South of England, with Lancastrian forces mustering in the North and South West. As the campaign progressed we realised we wouldn't get to play the 3rd campaign which was a little disappointing as we were both engrossed in the outcome. However knowing this, we both made some moves that we might not have done if we had a 3rd campaign to consider.

One such move was a major Lancastrian attack on the isolated Duke of York, accompanied by the Earl of Rutland and the Irish mercenaries who were all holed up in Chester, this 1st Battle of Chester saw 7 Lancastrian blocks against my 3 Yorkists. Against all the odds the Yorkists came out victorious without even losing a block, the Earl of Rutland performed magnificently hitting on 5 out of 7 rolls of the dice (he needs 2 or less to hit), the Lancastrians on the other hand had been all but annihilated as only 2 blocks retreated and both of those were badly mauled.

 

 

(The Battle of Chester, Before & After)



As a final move and at this point a little annoyed at the defenders of Chester, my opponent threw another 4 blocks at the grim survivors, leading to the 2nd Battle of Chester which again saw him fail, as I held off the attack losing the Irish, but having both Plantagenets survive. More losses followed for the Lancastrians as I pounced on isolated nobles.

(The final tally of loyalist KIA's)

And that brought the 2nd campaign to a close, the final adding up was 13 votes to 12 in the Lancastrian favour so the newly crowned Edward of Westminster would have a tenuous hold going into the 3rd campaign. The final toll of dead loyalists was 2 Yorkists dead and 6 Lancastrian dead, with the way blocks were positioned ready for the final campaign and the large losses of the 2nd campaign things were not looking too good for the remaining Lancastrians.

 

 



(Set up ready for the final campaign)

I'm off to the club next week, having not attended for about 3 weeks now, for a planned game of Rules of Engagement using 15mm Germans vs Russians.

Odds & Ends (3) - X-Wing AAR

Managed to squeeze a game of X-Wing into my busy schedule this week, we both took ships we hadn't used before so it was a bit of a learning experience. Both squadrons came in about 160pts. I took command of the Empire, and had the following ships:

1 Firespray (Standard Bounty Hunter with an Auto Blaster, Navigator, Concussion Missiles and Seismic charges)
3 TIE IN (1 Royal Guard, 1 Sabre Sqn & 1 Avenger Sqn with Push the Limit and a Hull Upgrade; Expose and Hull Upgrade and nothing, respectively)
1 TIE Bomber (Gamma Sqn with Prox. Mines, 2 loads of Cluster Missiles and both normal and Advanced Proton torp's)

The Rebel forces commanded by John were:

1 Millenium Falcon (Han & Chewie with an Intelligence Agent and draw their fire)
2 X-Wings (1 Red Sqn & 1 Rookie both with R2's and Proton Torp's)
1 A-Wing (Green Sqn with Push the Limit and Cluster missiles)
1 HWK (Rebel Operative with a Recon Agent Shield Upgrade and Blaster Turret)

I didn't manage to grab many pictures as the action was flowing and I don't like to disturb it for the sake of a few photo's, so apologies for the lack of quality images.

We made our own mission up, which was that the Rebels would start in 2 groups the Falcon and X-wings in one the HWK and A-Wing in the other, the Falcon and HWK had to get within range 1 of each other and then both spend an action "Communicating" as they attempt to transit vital information via a short range encryption device. The Empire simply had to stop this from happening.

It didn't start too well for the rebels with their rookie X-wing pilot heading straight into an asteroid, fortunately doing no damage(this became a bit of habit for this poor pilot, who managed to hit 3 asteroids during the game)

 

The battle split into two distinct  sections, with the X Wings engaging the TIE/In and the Falcon and A-Wing taking on the Bomber and Firespray, the HWK being quite fagile took itself out of the battle  hoping to fulfill its mission.

 

My TIE's managed to eventually defeat both X-Wings though not before my Royal Guard had had his Pilot skill reduced to 0 due to critical hits. The Bomber seemed to draw a lot of fire and was taken out before I had chance to fire off all its special weapons which is always annoying. The A-Wing after being shot up, was destroyed when it clipped an asteroid.

The chase was now on to bring down the HWK which would scupper my opponents mission, the first TIE to get within range of the HWK was promptly and much to my surprise shot down in one quick burst. The Falcon was attempting to get within range of the HWK and all the remaining ships had converged in a corner of the table. Finally managing to get rid of some critical damage that prevented the Firespray from Target Locking the HWK, I launched my missiles only to see the HWK easily survive the attack. At this point both the Falcon and the Firespray were badly damaged and the HWK was just hanging on in there. Both remaining TIE's had suffered only minor damage, but both had injured pilots. If I didn't take the HWK out soon the rebels would claim the victory, fortunately for me in an attempt to evade the Firespray the HWK swung straight into the line of fire of both my TIE's and my man of the match - The Sabre Sqn Pilot did that last bit of damage to bring it down.

Only the Falcon survived on the rebel side and that was badly shot up, I still had 3 ships left but all were damaged and it was much closer than the final tally would seem.

It was my first run out with the Firespray and I liked it, its auxillary fire arc(to the rear) is very useful, and unlike most Imperial ships it can take a kicking. I was particulary impressed with the Expose skill on my TIE Sabre Sqn pilot which he managed to use almost every turn.


We have planned a game of Richard III for next week which John hasn't played before and I'm not overly familiar with, so its off to swot up on the rules.