Nap Campaign: Battle of Sandowa (South France) 22nd April 1808

 

A reminder of the situation at the end of the day on the 21st April 1808. After the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Loverna the French Army of the South is split in two.

Soult with the survivors of the 6th Corps (blue 6) are pursued by the Spanish and have yet to halt their rout.

Gerard (blue 4) and what is left of the 4th Corps and 2nd Cavalry Corps retreats north pursued by Wellington and the Anglo/Portuguese army. Gerard sees an opportunity to make a stand behind a river and is the scene for this action. 

The battlefield map. The French occupy the area to the north of the river with Wellington to the south including the village of Sandowa.

Looking north west from behind the allied position.

Continued -

A Blog Update

My aging body is serving as a reminder that I will not be able to wargame in perpetuity and that day when I have to hang up the dice may come sooner than I would like! 

There is still a good deal I would like to do before that day arrives and a reappraisal of how much time I can devote to the blog beckons. As readers will have noted, some of my games which could normally be completed in an evening, or a weekend at most, can take many weeks to complete. 

A significant part of the problem is the blog. I would estimate 80% - 90% of time it takes for each turn to complete is spent on preparing posts. My intention is to cut that down significantly but still maintain after action reports on most, if not all, the games I play.

You will notice a change in the next post, a Napoleonic campaign game, which will be more brief but hopefully still make clear how the action played out. 

The bonus should be more AAR's!

Pony Wars: The Homestead, Turns 25 - Conclusion

 Turn 25

An overview after movement and before firing.

Virtually all warparties are now circling or heading towards the central homestead including those on the high ground to the left.

The General decided that it would be suicidal to charge the great mass of hostiles chasing the stagecoach and, having ensured the stagecoach had arrived at the homestead, quickly formed a firing line on the western side of the farm.

The 2 remaining occupants of the stagecoach and the 2 ammo wagon drivers took position behind their respective wagons and began firing on the Indians.

In the exchange of carbine, cannon and arrows the final tally was 7 Indians killed and 3 troopers.

Continued -

Pony Wars: The Homestead, Turns 17 - 24

 

An overview at the end of turn 16 looking north.

Turn 17

An overview of the situation around the central homestead.

Zooming in on the action. The hunters decide that survival is more important than continuing the buffalo hunt and quickly join the US Cavalry at the central homestead. There are simply too many Indian warparties on the prowl!

Continued -

Pony Wars: The Homestead, Turns 9 - 16

The situation at the end of turn 8.

 Turn 9

The turn began with the arrival of the buffalo close to the north east homestead.

Hunters arrived to the south of the south east homestead and will seek out the buffalo.

Continued -

TBW Miniature Flags

A brief interlude from the wild west. I have just received the below from Michael of TBW Miniature Flags and bring it to your attention.

If you are setting out on a Waterloo project I heartily recommend this book which contains the flags you will need for all nations and units. The 16 page A4 book provides guidance on attaching the flags, full orders of battle, a map detailing initial deployment and 3 pages of flags. You have a choice of flag sizes, A or B. With A being slightly smaller. This is useful if your preference is for smaller flags or you have smaller castings such as Heroics & Ros. My own flags align with size B.

The flags themselves are absolutely superb and I only wish it had been around when starting my project. 

Different scales are provided for including 10mm, 13mm Epic, and 15mm for Waterloo. Other battle specific flags include Gettysburg and Wavre 1815.

More information can be found at https://www.thebattleofwaterloo.com/, and a link has also been added to the list on the right.

Pony Wars: The Homestead Turns 1 - 8.

The first outing for Pony Wars rules which has been languishing for a couple of years now having completed all the figure painting required.

The rules were originally written in 1980 and recently updated. They are firmly aimed at the earlier Hollywood version of the Wild West rather than historical accuracy. Written primarily for 15mm figures, Baccus now have a range of 6mm tailor-made for these rules. 

A table size of 8' x 6' was recommended for 15mm figures with all measurements in inches. I have selected a 6' x 3'9" table for my 6mm collection with measurements reduced to two thirds. A suitably sized 2/3 ruler can be downloaded from the Pony Wars website which I have printed off for use.  

4 scenarios are included with the rules, the first being 'The Homestead'. It seemed as good a place to start as any and should allow for a decent test of the rules.

In this scenario, there are 5 homesteads scattered across the board, each with 5 civilians occupying them. 4 of the 5 are situated near passes which provide shortcuts but with the risk of an Indian ambush.

For ease of reference, looking towards the fort is north, left west, right east with south in the foreground.

Fort Laramie is situated at one end of the board. They have received word from scouts that Indian war parties are on the loose placing the homesteads at risk. It is the task of the US to round up all civilians, including any that appear as a result of cards drawn, and to escort them safely to the fort.

The appearance of Indians, civilians and US reinforcements will be determined by drawn cards and dice rolls will indicate where on the board they enter. 

Victory points will determine how well the US did with the game ending when there are no civilians left to save.

Dice rolls are made to ascertain the US cavalry strength at the start. The garrison consists of 10 infantry, 2 x 6pdr cannon with 4 crew each, and 9 cavalry with the General commanding. The cavalry and General are a reserve and may be deployed from the fort but at a victory point cost. 

It was my original intention to break the segments down reporting on turns 1 - 12, 13 - 24 and 25+. This neatly aligned with level 1 and level 2 relating to the relevant card details on reinforcements etc. with turns 25+ being no further cards drawn unless the drums were beating. 

It was also my intention to be more brief on the action report. On that I failed and with wargaming time in short supply over the past month have decided to limit this first segment to 8 turns which should be more digestable. 

Continued -

Zulu War: Rorke's Drift 22- 23 January 1879, Turn 23 - Conclusion

 Turn 23

3 combats are conducted during the British turn. On the left the Zulu assault on the redoubt is inconclusive and will continue.

Immediately to the right of that combat the British section successfully repels a warband but has left it shaken.

Bad news for the British on the right which saw the destruction of Dalton's section. Dalton himself narrowly escaped and has joined the section at the foot of the redoubt. The victorious Zulu warband is both shaken and disordered preventing any further progress. 

The hospital is engulfed in flames but with all occupants having evacuated there were no casualties.

Continued -

Zulu War: Rorke's Drift 22- 23 January 1879, Turn 19 - 22

 Turn 19

The fire continues to take hold on the hospital roof but as yet has not spread or become more severe. Combats continue with the 2 men of the 2/24th on the right doing a good job holding the external door.

More dramatically on the left, Zulus have broken through the internal wall and Sgt Wilson with the Private from the 2/24th find themselves having to defend themselves against 2 attacks. The Private fights off the attack on the door but Sgt Wilson is killed fighting the second attack. 

Lt Addendorf with his 4 NNC corporals charge into the warband that had breached the wall. The fresh attack on the shaken and disordered Zulus proved too much for them and they were ejected from the defences.

Continued -

Zulu War: Rorke's Drift 22- 23 January 1879, Turn 15 - 18

 A combination of family commitments and unseasonably hot weather has resulted in a delay in gaming but finally got around to the next batch of moves:

Turn 15

A brief respite allowed sections to pull back from the front wall and move towards the stores building and the biscuit box barricade. 

3 more patients of the 1/24th successfully crossed the open area and closed in on safety.

Continued -