Time to review how the year went and how close or otherwise I was in maintaining discipline and sticking to the plans!
The plans for the year are in italics.
BATTLES
ANCIENTS:
Early Imperial Roman: 9th Legion v Ancient British Mona.
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| Completed with a surprising Ancient Briton win meaning the campaign will continue. |
Punic Wars: Battle of Trebia.
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| Completed. History overturned with a narrow Roman victory. |
Continued -
Braddock Down has been chosen to test the Pike and Shotte rules for the first time. It is a fairly simple battle to play albeit historically very brief.
Background to the battle
Cornwall had declared for the Royalists with the well disciplined Cornish foot regiments led by the capable Sir Ralph Hopton. Parliamentarians under the overall command of the Earl of Stamford launched an offensive from Devon into Cornwall. A detached force led by the professional Scottish soldier Colonel William Ruthven advanced ahead capturing Liskeard.
A turning point came for Hopton with the capturing in Falmouth of 3 Parliamentarian ships carrying much needed supplies on 17th January 1643. Re-equipped and ammunition stocks replenished, Hopton advanced towards Devon. Ruthven, believing the Royalist force to be a rag-tag bunch of stragglers marched out of Liskeard to intercept him. Ruthven's force was primarily inexperienced Devon Trained Bands who made contact with Hopton at Braddock Down during the morning of 19th January 1643 not realising it was Hopton's main army.
Continued -
This is a scenario from the Wars of the Roses Hail Caesar supplement.
Background of the battle reproduced from the supplement:
The Lancastrian situation was not ideal. Henry VI was cooped up at Banburgh Castle after evading the Yorkists, the Scottish were looking to make a peace deal with Edward IV, and an attempted surprise takeover of Newcastle by the Duke of Somerset had failed dismally. His woes had only worsened, as he was nearly captured in Durham whilst asleep, escaping barefoot with nothing other than his nightshirt.
With a growing band of Lancastrian loyalists coalescing in the north whilst the Yorkists were distracted by countrywide unrest, the Scottish peace talks were postponed and chosen to be held in York - something that Somerset and Henry could use to their advantage by delaying them with an active and resistant Lancastrian North.
When Edward dispatched Baron Montagu north to deal with this threat, Somerset was tipped off to his mission and Sir Humphrey Neville was sent with a small force to ambush and kill him. Montagu managed to escape this deadly trap and arrived at Newcastle, where he raised an army to march forth and vanquish the Lancastrian troublemakers once and for all.
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| The early action was centered around the 8th New York who reached the foot of Pence House Hill before receiving volleys from 2 Confederate regiments. They were fortunate to save 5 of 6 hits but left them disordered. |
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| Using their initiative the 8th New York managed to pull back to safety but not before taking more casualties causing them to be shaken. |
This is the 6th Scenario from the "STONEWALL" Guns at Gettysburg Scenarios Book 4. I have added the label "ACW Battles Stonewall" on the right where you will find the other 5 scenarios.
In the previous scenarios GaG rules were used but here I will be using Black Powder 2 for the first time with amendments from the "Glory, Hallelujah!" supplement. Conversion was relatively straightforward with only minor adjustments in unit sizes.
BACKGROUND
Having achieved his aims of diverting Union troops from the Richmond theatre, Jackson considered the Valley campaign at an end. Lee gave Jackson several options, stating that Whiting's Division was on the way to join him and that he should join the main army at Richmond. He also gave him the option to strike a blow on the Federals.
The same day Lee issued these orders, Jackson's camp at Port Republic came under attack. A raiding force had been sent by Shields to seize the bridge but had been driven off although Jackson had nearly been captured. Fremont's Union army marching from Harrisonburg to the north-west intended attacking Jackson from this position.
With the possibility of getting caught between two Union armies, Jackson began getting his troops out of Port Republic. Meanwhile, Ewell organised a stand against Fremont on Mill Creek Ridge in the vicinity of Cross Keys Tavern.
Fremont decided that he would attack the Confederate right and attempted to conform his own line to that of Ewell's.
TURN 10
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| The French 6th Corps begin their evacuation across the single bridge to their rear with several battalions held back as a rearguard. |
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| That rearguard is looking increasingly fragile. On the right the Granaderos Militia have successfully beaten off the 2/8th Light Battalion forcing them to retreat. On the left the 2nd Badajoz Volunteers have charged the 1/8th Light Battalion and held to a draw. Beyond them the gap was created by the destruction of Penne's 1/75th Line by artillery and musketry. |
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| The situation at the start of turn 6. In the south the 6th Corps has gone on the offensive following the collapsed Spanish attacks. Dogged by poor command rolls the Spanish failed to co-ordinate their assaults leading to piecemeal charges which were easily dealt with by French defenders. What is left of the Spanish 2nd and 5th Divisions are retreating from the field. Their Vanguard, 3rd and 4th Divisions along with their cavalry are still fresh and with Picton's 5th Division may yet defeat the 6th Corps. In the north the threat of the French dragoons has been dealt with in the nick of time and the stage is now set for an Anglo/Portuguese general advance against a weakened 4th Corps. The French are still strong on cavalry though and could prove problematic for the allies. |
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| Battalions of the French 22nd Division quickly move out to hit the Spanish, some of whom were still in a square formation as a result of the close proximity of lancers. Here the column of the Hesse-Darmstadt battalion charges into the Valencia light battalion in square formation. The Germans quickly overcome the Spanish unit causing it to break and flee the field. |
TURN 1
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| A dice was rolled to determine who had the initiative which was won by the French. They had the first turn which was not without problems. The 2nd Cavalry Corps, consisting entirely of dragoons, were ordered to deploy on the right flank anchored on the river. The 9th Cavalry Division in the lead received their orders which Burthe passed easily moving out to its designated position (top of photo). Vincent however, failed his command roll. Strolz intervened with a re-roll which resulted in a Command Blunder! Vincent's Brigade inexplicably retreated off the tabletop. The single brigade of the 10th Cavalry Division (bottom right) moved sluggishly but at least it was in the right direction. The march columns of infantry is Toussaint's Brigade of the 14th Division also move slowly towards the farm and their intended position. |
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| Allied movement was confined to their left flank with the Portuguese spreading out clear of the rocky terrain. Collins has a good command roll allowing his brigade a full 3 moves along the road crossing the bridge. His primary task is to secure the second crossing near the French lines in order to prevent any possible outflanking moves. He is to use his accompanying artillery battery along with musketry to harass the French flank. A secondary task should the opportunity present itself, is to cross the bridge if safe to do so and assault the French. |
What began with full of hope for the allies in destroying Grouchy's army has turned sour over the last couple of turns. They had a clear advantage in rolling over the French centre and right flank but both assaults have floundered. At the same time the allied right flank has all but collapsed.
The allies have now suffered 9 broken brigades out of an original 18. The French have lost 5 broken out of 19. Black Powder provide a victory option of breaking half or more brigades but I chose to keep this open and decide upon the outcome depending on what happens on the tabletop. That said the difference is so stark that it may be a factor on what happens next.
I decided to play a few more turns which of course could impact the campaign.
TURN 11
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| The French begin an encirclement of the last of the Brunswick infantry with a Guard Chasseurs unit sweeping around the rear towards the startled Brunswick Hussars regiment. |
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| All that remains of the Brunswick are 2 infantry battalions and an artillery battery commanded by Specht. The Prince of Orange and Duke of Brunswick made a hasty retreat! While the Chasseurs and 2 battalions of the Young Guard reform to deliver the coup-de-grace, the 2/1st Tirailleurs fancy their chances of breaking the square. They charge taking fire from the nearby battalion in line and from the square. The Young Guard battalion suffers heavy casualties generating a break test which they spectacularly fail leaving them broken and failing to make contact. |
Continued -
TURN 7
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| The Scots Greys have been pushed back again but a moment for the British to celebrate. The Life Guards (middle of photo) successfully defeat a Cuirassiers regiment buying time. There is a risk of it being isolated if it conducts a sweeping charge, tempting though that is against a light cavalry unit. Therefore the Life Guards hold their ground being the only British cavalry unit not subject to the 'Gallop at Anything' rule reflecting their greater discipline. |
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| The Young Guard charges the Brunswickers with one being caught in square formation. Despite being at a significant disadvantage, both Brunswick units hold on - just! |
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| A Dutch horse artillery battery, despite being shaken, delivered a shattering round of canister into the Guard Lancers. It proved too much for the Guard cavalry unit. Already shaken, the huge losses inflicted caused them to break leaving the field. |
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| The battle began with an artillery bombardment from both sides inflicting minor casualties so far. The only significant movement being the Dutch and British heavy cavalry brigades ordered to reposition towards the right flank in order to counter the large French cavalry threat. Ghigny's light cavalry Brigade had also been ordered to reposition but started the game with a Command Blunder causing it to retire a full move! |
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| The allied cavalry made good progress repositioning. |
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| In response to the allied cavalry movement the French 4th Cavalry Corps remained strangely static. |
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| A reminder of the situation leading up to this battle. This is the night of the 17th April and will only broadly reflect where the troops will be positioned the following morning within their respective part of the battlefield. The numbers shown have changed slightly due to the change to Black Powder rules. Red 4 is Blantyre's Brigade along with the 2nd KGL Light Dragoons who will march to the sound of the guns during the morning of the 18th. |
I could not believe it when I checked, but it is 2 years since I played a game from this campaign. It is long overdue for some attention and I have now completed map moves leading up to 3 more battles. As in previous posts, the maps have been split into sections. The first being the whole campaign map followed by each of the 3 current theatres of operations.
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| 14th April |
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| 15th April |
TURN 17
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| The lone Concord company gamely fights on exchanging volleys from the Grenadiers. They are again shaken and disordered but hold their ground. |
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| More light infantry emerge from Concord having completed collecting their haul of American stores. Pierce has a command failure leaving the Sudbury and Framingham company stranded on the road. His Acton and Beford Minutemen continue to fire volleys towards the British with limited success. |
TURN 9
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| Barrett has second thoughts and realises that he could be quickly destroyed by the Grenadiers. He decides to pull back to the Punkatasset Hill and defend the North bridge. Better to wait for reinforcements before fully engaging the British force. |
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| The Grenadiers continue to advance albeit slowly! The lead light infantry unit approaches Concord. |
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| Pierce orders his minutemen to occupy the woods at Merriam's corner and engage any British they find. |
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| Gunfire can be heard in the distance and a concerned Colonel Gardner quickly forms up his men outside Concord ready to move to Lexington. |
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| Meanwhile in Lexington redcoats are seen marching towards their settlement. The militia move off the green and begin to spread out. |
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| A daunting sight greets them as the long snaking column moves into view lead by skirmishers. |
This is the second outing of this action. The first, hard to believe now, was 10 years ago in 10mm using British Grenadier rules. A report was published on the blog in May 2018 and can be found under the AWI Battles label on the right.
I will be breaking the AAR down into digestible segments starting with this introduction to the game before the battle proper starts.
The reasons for revisiting this action are twofold. 1. It is one of those battles that fired my imagination when discovering it in the school library. I recreated it on the tabletop using Airfix Highlanders representing the redcoats and Airfix WW1 Americans the militia! All manner of bits and bobs were strewn across the board for terrain. 2. I am curious as to how it will play out using Black Powder rules and 6mm figures.
I will be doubling up on the number of figures used with minor adjustments to suit the rules.
The following summary is copied from my first post - it saves more typing!
During the early part of 1775 tensions rose sharply between the American colonists and British troops. While orators debated the legitimacy of 'taxation without representation' or the 'rights of man', the climate between soldiers and inhabitants grew steadily more tense. The British CinC, General Thomas Gage, suspecting matters were coming to a head, began sending brigades of troops on marches through the countryside surrounding his main base, Boston. In these rural settlements people were overwhelmingly hostile to the British Government. They had been conducting a training programme of their own, regularly assembling their village militias for drill. Thousands of highly motivated volunteers stood ready to answer the rebel leaders call.
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Hannibal famously traversed the Alps in 218 BC invading Italy. He defeated a Roman army at Ticinus in northern Italy recruiting a good many Gauls and other allies in the process.
Rome reinforced Scipio with a second army under the command of Longus and their armies converged near Placentia at the junction of the River Po and Trebia. Hannibal, with approximately 29,000 infantry and 11,000 cavalry, were camped across the Trebia from the Romans. The Romans numbered approximately 16,000 Roman Legionaries, 20,000 allied infantry (most trained in the Roman manner with a contingent of Gauls), and 4,000 cavalry.
Hannibal sent a contingent of light cavalry to harass the Romans who responded by crossing the freezing Trebia in pursuit of the skirmishers. Longus took it upon himself to lead the Roman army who found themselves opposed by the main Carthaginian force.
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| Initial dispositions with Mago's ambush concealed in the ravine at the bottom right of the photo. |
Continued -
Hobby time has been in short supply over the past month. Trebia is on the tabletop and being played through, albeit slowly!
More progress has been made on my AWI project and I felt it was time for an update. All the British have been completed and the final batch of around 100 Americans are being painted. Lexington & Concord require a little over 600 figures. A small action in 6mm!
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| 4 battalions of British Line infantry. These represent large units in Black Powder. With my basing system, I have settled on 4 bases = a small unit, 6 = standard and 8 = large. |
I was pleasantly surprised how Hail Caesar rules played out in the my last Ancients game 'The attack on Mona'. It has been sat on my bookshelves for at least 10 years and had only ever played it briefly using 15mm figures. I decided that a closer look was needed to determine if this was going to be my go-to ruleset for my Ancient games.
I turned to the Hail Caesar supplement 'Caesar's Gallic Wars' as a source of scenarios and for which I pretty much had the required figures, although the Early Imperial Romans will have to stand in for the Late Republican Marian Romans.
The scenario I have selected is the first involving the Romans against the Gauls. It is June 58BC and Caesar moves against the Helvetii after appeals for help arrived from the Aedui tribe whose farms were being raided.
When the two armies approached, Caesar discovered that the majority of the Helvetii had already crossed the Arar River and only the Tigurini tribe was on his side of the river. Caesar decided to move against them at once.
The Tigurini were surprised and have two objectives in this battle. 1. To defeat the Romans who they outnumber and 2. To get as many supply wagons as they can across the river.
The scenario gave the table size as 8' x 4' for 28mm figures. I have reduced this to 3'9" x 2'3" for 6mm. All units are standard size (2 bases per unit). Distances are reduced from inches to centimeters.
Victory conditions: If only a maximum of wagon safely crosses the river = a Roman victory. 2 wagons = a draw. All 3 wagons = Helvetii victory. Each wagon rolls for activation each turn. 8 or less they are allowed one move.
Continued -
A new project! I have Assassin's Creed III to blame for this. Playing the game reawakened my previous interest in this period which had ceased when I disposed of my 10mm collection.
This originates back to my school days when I found a book in the school library covering the battles of Lexington and Concord. It fired my imagination which I attempted to recreate on the tabletop with Airfix WW1 Americans standing in for the militia and Napoleonic Highlanders representing the redcoat juggernaut.
The inevitable happened and a batch of 6mm figures was acquired from Baccus with the intention of playing through Lexington and Concord once again. You will find a previous game on the blog using those 10mm figures. The original orders of battle for that game are being used but doubling up on the figures.
In between reorganising the Napoleonic French infantry into standard 36 figure battalions I have commenced painting the AWI forces involved.
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| The grenadier battalion drawn from various regiments. It can be broken down to 2 or 3 units for the battle. |
Turning now to what could be the final action of the campaign, the Roman invasion of Mona (Anglesey).
The orders of battle are a combination of those contained within the book, my own and what I have available.
Board size is 5'3" x 3'9".
Continued -
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| The situation at the end of turn 16. |
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| Junot's Corps begins to climb the ridge and several charges were made. I should add here for those not familiar with the rules, each average brigade commander can order up to 2 battalion charges (an exceptional commander 3, poor 1). It is possible to add further charges on battalion initiative. They must roll a 5 or 6 on a D6 dice. Volleys of musketry opened up across the entire ridge. The allies took the decision not to wait to see the "whites of their eyes" but blaze away intending to inflict the maximum damage on the slow moving columns. |
JUNOT'S ASSAULT
Turn 9
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| Massena decides it is now time to commit Junot's Corps to the assault. As much of the allied army remains out of view on the reverse slope, a dice roll determined where Junot commits his assault. The result was the northern end of the ridge to the right of Ney. All orders are passed successfully and the Corps begins its move. |
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| As Junot's Corps closes the gap they begin to come under fire from 2 allied batteries on the ridge. |
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| Junot's mass of skirmishers begin to engage with their opposite numbers with neither side coming out on top. |
Continued -
