X Wing - The Campaign - Game 23 - Rescue the Queen

Once more into the breach...

Welcome back, if you didn't know this is a continuation of the X Wing Campaign, full explanation and details of Campaign rules are here. The set up page is updated on a regular basis.

Mission Briefing

"Gentlemen,

A rescue mission today boys, Queen Sante the Rebel sympathiser has been captured by a Bounty Hunter and is en route to a nearby Imperial Interrogation Centre. She holds vital secrets in her head and we doubt she will be able to resist questioning for long.

Our only hope is to get her before she reaches the inquisitors hands. Deal with any escorts but your main mission is to disable the Bounty Hunter and get the Queen away unharmed.

The General won't be impressed if you vapourise her and the Bounty Hunter !

May the Force be with you"

Team "Rebel Scum"

Rick O'Shea was at Rebel HQ for Tea and Medals and thus missed a mission for the first time.

Spike Sharpie PS 4 E Wing (Triple Ace) (Squadron Leader)
WK Jnr PS3 T70 X Wing (Ace)
Pop Cicle PS 4 HWK-290 (Ace)
Crank Case PS4 Y Wing (Double Ace)
Captain Tangent PS3 A Wing
Obi Two X Wing

Team "Glorious Empire"

Firespray 31, Kath Scarlett PS 7
Tie Advanced, Storm Squadron "Jeff Vader" PS4
Tie Fighter, PS 6 Dark Curse
Tie Fighter x 5, 4 PS1 and 1 PS4

Empire ship selection is as follows, Start with the Firespray add 1 Tie per Rebel player, every third Tie will be a random named pilot, all other Ties are PS1. Add 1 specialised Empire ship per six Ties, we ended up with Jeff Vader again, for the second game running.

Load outs are as follows;
Firespray with Heavy Laser Cannon, Mercenary Co-Pilot, Slave 1 and Proton Torpedoes.
Tie Advanced - Concussion Missile

Set Up

Game should be played on a 3 x 3 table.

Set up

Rebel Players set up anywhere on the top table edge range 1 from the edge.

Imperial players set up anywhere on the bottom table edge range 1 from the edge.

Game lasts until one side secures victory or the end of turn 10.

Special Rules

Imperial Re-enforcements - When the Rebel Rescue Shuttle arrives the Imperials will receive 2 PS1 Tie Fighters who will arrive on a random table edge, these ships sole mission is to attack the Shuttle.

Firespray 31 - Contains the Queen, when the ship drops to 2 hull points its electrics will short and the ship will drift and its weapons are disabled. From this point the ship will drift, moving a straight 1 towards the furthest away table edge for the remainder of the game. If the Rebels get a bit enthusiastic with their shooting and shoot down the Firespray the Queen is killed and the game lost.

Empire ships cannot target the Firespray.

Rescuing the Queen - When the Firespray is disabled a Rebel Shuttle (use a captured Imperial Shuttle PS8 & Anti Pursuit Lasers) enters play. When the shuttle is within range 1 of the Firespray it can use an action to place a tractor beam on the Bounty Hunter and take it in tow.

Once under tow the two ships move as one with the Firespray placed behind. Imperial ships may not target the Shuttle from its rear arc for fear of killing the Queen.

Protect Action - Any rebel ship within range one of the Shuttle can use a Protect Action and place an evade token on the shuttle, sacrificing its own action for that turn.

Jump to Hyperspace  - To leave the table you need to declare your attempt and then try and gain 2 critical hits, hits from previous rolls carry forward. You cannot attempt to jump until after turn 4.

Turn 1. Roll 3 attack die

Turn 2. Roll 3 attack die + Pilot Skill / 2 (round up)

Turn 3. Automatically jump

Victory Conditions

Rebel Victory -  The Firespray exits the table with the Queen alive inside.

Imperial Victory - The Firespray remains on table after 10 turns or the Rebels kill the Queen.

Draw - Any other result.

How did we get on

Tonight saw the first ever mission without the mighty Rick O'Shea on table, having been involved in the previous 22 games it was certainly unusual to not have his K6/B Wing blasting everything out of the stars. Spike Sharpie our last remaining veteran of all 23 missions stepped up into the Squadron Commanders seat for the evening,

Much to the joy of the Imperials Jeff Vader was back, after not being involved for a number of months he turned up two weeks running, wet tray in hand.

Captain Tangent managed to get his A Wing a little too far forward and ended up taking an early bath. Blown out of the sky by the Firespray. He survived the dice of death and will be back in a new ship soon.

Our Hawk didn't survive either, this fragile ship just never seems to survive long enough to get tricked out enough to become a decent ship, I think Pop Cicle has his eyes on a new K Wing.

It was the Rebels who managed to stay on Mission this week, they only shot 2 ships down during the course of the game and managed, just to disable the Firespray without blowing it up. The Shuttle arrived and just managed to get the tractor beam on the Queens ship and escort it off table on turn 10, a close scenario which could have gone either way.

Result (2 pts for a win, 1 for a draw)

Rebel Win

Campaign overall score is, Empire 21 pts, Rebels 25 pts

X Wing madness will return with game 24 on the 16th of March 2016. A mission which will see our Rebel Pilots protecting a Frigate from a swarm of Imperial Assault Gunboats.

GEEK ZONE

Jim head mechanic in the Rebel Garage has his work cut out as two ships failed to turn up back at base, anyone got a spare K Wing manual.

Pilot upgrades prior to start of game 23

Pilot Pop Cicle added an Ion Bomb to his HWK-290

Pilot Spike Sharpie bought a Shield Upgrade for his E Wing.

Pilot Ensign WK Jnr bought an R2-D2 unit for his T70 X Wing.

Pilot Crank Case stuck a set of Advanced Proton Torpedoes on the Y Wing,

Pilot Captain Tangent bought a Kalidor Crescent for himself.

The K6/B Wing is a B Wing upgrade for the Campaign, it costs 15 GC. The B Wing exchanges its manoeuvre dial for an X Wing dial, gains 1 hull and may add a Heavy Laser Cannon as an upgrade, it is only available to pilots with a PS of 5 or above.

Rebel Pilot results below,

Pilot Spike Sharpie - E Wing (PS4), survived, 0 kills, 3 GC - Totals, Missions 23, 8 GC, 18 kills

Pilot Ensign WK Jnr (PS3) - T70 X Wing, survived, 2 kills, 8 GC - Totals Missions 8, 15 GC, 7 kills

Pilot Pop Cicle - HWK-290 (PS4) shot down but survived, 0 kills, 0 GC - Totals, Missions 16, 0 GC, 6 kills

Pilot Crank Case - Y Wing (PS4) survived, 0 kills, 4 GC - Totals, Missions 17, 5 GC 11 kills

Pilot Captain Tangent - A Wing (PS3), shot down but survived, 0 kills, 0 GC, Totals, Missions 11, 4 GC, 0 kills

Pilot Obi Two - X Wing (PS1), survived, 0 kills, 3 GC, Totals, Missions 2, 3 GC, 0 kills

Not Present

Pilot Rick O'Shea - K6/B Wing (PS5) Totals, Missions 22, 9 GC, 32 kills

Pilot Baby Brian - A Wing (1) not present - Totals Missions 1, 0 GC, 0 kills

Pilot Oi M'Groin - Y Wing (2) not present - Totals, Missions 4, 3 GC 0 kills

Pilot Sir Jeremy Dodger - X Wing (2), Not Present - Totals Missions 3, 7 GC, 2 kills

Pilot Twiki Bond - A Wing (1), Not Present - Totals Missions 1, 6 GC, 0 kills

Roll of Honour (At the going down of the twin suns, we will remember them)

 

Pilot Brian sadly lost after only 2 missions, RIP

Pilot Commander Wayne Kerr veteran of 7 Missions, RIP

Ship Zone

Uber geeks area for those who want to see what our intrepid pilots fly.

A Kalidor Crescent is bought for 5 GC and adds a pilot skill slot.

Spike Sharpie, Kalidor Crescent with Sniper Trait - E Wing with Shield Upgrade

Pop Cicle - awaiting new ship

Rick O'Shea, Kalidor Crescent - K6/B Wing 

WK Jnr - T70 X Wing with R2-D2 mech

Crank Case, Kalidor Crescent with Barrel Roll - Y Wing with Adv Proton Torpedoes

Captain Tangent - awaiting a new ship.

Obi Two - X Wing unmodified.

Baby Brian - awaiting new ship

Oi Mi'Groin - Y Wing with R10 Astromech and Autoturret

Sir Jeremy Dodger - X Wing with R2-D2 and shield upgrade

Twiki Bond - A Wing unmodified

Previous Game Links

Campaign Rules & Game 1 Graduation Day

Game 2 Political Escort and Game 3 Listening Device

Game 4 Kill the Relay and Game 5 Destroy the Carrier

Game 6 Secret Weapon and Game 7 Triumph and Rescue

Game 8 Pirates

Game 9 Tie Droid Assault

Game 10 Long Way Home

Game 11 Spy Trap

Game 12 Role Reversal

Game 13 Runaway Tantive

Game 14 Robot Wars

Game 15 Precision Shooting

Game 16 Ground Attack

Game 17 Run Scientist Run

Game 18 - Floating

Game 19 - Mine Shaft 

Game 20 - Rescued from the Moon

Game 21 - Shadow Squadron

Game 22 - Filling Up Under Fire 

The Battle of Bemis Heights (7th Oct 1777)

A British Grenadier Refight

Hessian Troops man the redoubt

The last couple of weeks have seen us have another game with our AWI toys, one of my favourite figure collections. I was searching through my books for a nice biggish scenario to refight but kept coming across the same problems, lack of cavalry, lack of Native Indians and lack of Queens Rangers (the battalion and cavalry versions), in my collection.

All of that ruled out my initial choices (I was eyeing up Monmouth), not to put down the battle but the only one I could see that a) had enough stuff in for 4-6 players and b) didn't include the above troops was 2nd Saratoga. It certainly has refocused my AWI painting queue but then I have had the horses done on 12 British Light Dragoons for over a year so its my own fault.

Poors' Brigade advances

The scenario is taken from the wonderful American War of Independence Scenarios 1 Book published and available from Caliver Books in the UK, a great book (there are three more in the series) and ideal for any rule set.

I made some minor alterations to the orbat, the odd figure here and there, just to fit in with the way the figures are based. I also added an additional American Brigade by splitting Poors' Brigade in half (I can hear the gasps from the purists !), this was to allow the players to command their own troops and for the ultra purists the figures in our collection are general AWI troops and not specific to the Campaign.

As a bit of fun I live tweeted the game on, would you believe it Twitter. A pic at the end of each turn as we played and there was some decent interaction. You can follow on @yarkshiregamer.

Morgan moves on the British flank

Historical Background

After his failure to break the Americans at Freemans Farm Burgoyne the British Commander spent a couple of weeks pondering his next move. On the day of the battle, he took a strong recon force out to probe the American lines and do a spot of foraging at the same time. The reaction was swift and forceful from the Americans and Burgoyne was forced back onto his pre prepared positions. At the end of the action the Brits had lost 800 men and several guns, 9 days later the 6000 men of the force surrendered, a black day for the British and a turning point in the war.

Phillips repositions to counter Morgan

Map and Set Up

A fairly straight forward battlefield, a large hill with 2 redoubts forms the anchor of the British Line there are two fenced field complexes along with a good amount of open woods.

All the British start on table as shown, Fraser should be spread out along the front with a skirmish screen in front.

For the Americans Poor starts on table (for our version Poor and Scott), roll 1d6 for Morgan and he arrives on turn 1 on a 5 or 6, turn 2 on a 3 or 4 and turn 3 on anything else. Learned comes on behind Poor with a 1d4 turn delay.

The Americans needs to push the British off the table causing as much damage as they can whilst the Brits need to hold the hill line.

Fraser falls back from the woods keeping Poor under fire

Orbats

American

Gen Benedict Arnold	C in C	Excellent
Brig Gen Morgan	1st Brigade	Excellent
11th Virginia (Rifles)	Elite	20 Figs
Dearborn's Light Btn	Line	20 Figs
Morgans Skirmishers	Elite	8 Figs
Brig Gen Poor	2nd Brigade	Average
1st New Hampshire	Line	18 Figs
2nd New Hampshire	Line	20 Figs
3rd New Hampshire	2nd Line	16 Figs
2nd New York	2nd Line	16 Figs
Brig Gen Scott	3rd Brigade	Average
4th New York	2nd Line	16 Figs
1st Conn Militia	Militia	24 Figs
2nd Conn Militia	Militia	20 Figs
Brig Gen Learned	4th Brigade	Average
2nd Mass	Line	24 Figs
8th Mass	Line	24 Figs
9th Mass	Line	24 Figs
1st Canadian Regt	2nd Line	24 Figs
Learneds Skirmishers	Line	8 Figs

Conn Militia on the move

British

Lt Gen Burgoyne	C in C	Average
Brigadier Fraser	1st Brigade	Excellent
Frasers Skirmishers	Line	6 Figs
Foragers	Line	6 Figs
1st Light Infantry	Elite	16 Figs
24th Foot	Line	16 Figs
Major Gen Riedesel	2nd Brigade	Average
Hesse Detachments	2nd Line	20 Figs
British Grenadiers	Elite	16 Figs
Pausch's Artillery	Line	1 x 6pdr
Reserve Artillery	Line	1 x 12pdr
Howitzer Section	Line	1 x How
Williams' Artillery	Line	2 x 6pdr
Maj Gen Phillips	3rd Brigade	Average
1st British Detachments	Line	16 Figs
2nd British Detachments	Line	16 Figs
Col Berryman	4th Brigade	Poor
Hesse Jagers	Elite (Rifles)	6 Figs
Hesse Grenadiers	Line	16 Figs

The Thin Red Line

Our Refight Feb 2016

We used British Grenadier rules for our refight, a set we are all fairly familiar and happy with, being from the same stable as our Napoleonic and SYW rules is great in someways, the basics flow freely although we do find ourselves quoting rules quite confidently only to find they are from one of the other sets.

Morgan advances

The Americans got Morgan on table on the second turn and Learned on turn 5, Poor advanced from the base line initially engaging Fraser who gradually fell back from the woods into the fields in front of the hill. Part of the Brigade stayed with Fraser the rest advanced towards the main British Line followed by Scott, this break up of Brigades would cause command issues later in the game for the Yanks.

The British didn't stand still, well aware of the threat to their flank, Philips repositioned his Brigade quickly putting one Battalion either side of Berymans redoubt securing that flank whilst the Artillery moved itself back onto the hill and into the other redoubt for a better field of fire.

Fraser starts to threaten the Americans flank

It was the British who were doing the damage as the Americans pushed forward, one British Battalion threw double 6 on firing two turns in a row which considerably slowed Morgans advance down.

In the middle Learneds Brigade had joined the mass of American troops as they advanced, subtle is wasn't as a double Brigade column developed and moved towards the hill. Riedesel saw his chance and wheeled to take the advancing column in the flank, supported by parts of Frasers Brigade who were comfortable in their skirmish with Poor.

Charge !!!

Melee

The game came to a head on turn 12 as the Virginia Rifles charged the redoubt held by the Hessian Grenadiers, a 4 on the firing for the Hess boys and a narrow melee roll saw the Grenadiers pushed back out of the feature. A victory for the Americans then ?

Victory ?

Sadly for them it was a no, the rest of the turn was a disaster, the units behind Morgan were taking fire from 3 sets of guns and two battalions, one from the flank. Added to that the British Grenadiers had joined the fray and were pouring fire into one of Poors units. The Morale phase clinched it as two entire Brigades went into retreat or rout.

No defeat

Learned was stuck in the fields having to refuse their battalion flanks for safety and would soon be surrounded leaving Morgan on his own unsupported in the redoubt surrounded by British troops and Guns.

A close run thing but a British victory, a cracking game too and one we would certainly consider revisiting.

Next up is a Spanish Civil War battle around the University in Madrid.

Happy 2nd Birthday Yarkshire Gamer !

So what have you done? Another year over....

My favourite photo of the year SMS Derfflinger at speed

So where the hell did that go ! "The years pass by like trains, I wave but they don't slow down" wrote the legend that is Steven Wilson, a great line, so true.

I like doing my yearly review on the anniversary of the blogs foundation it's great to look back on the "gaming" year, therapeutic and cathartic. For those of you who don't know YG now has a Twitter Feed and a Facebook page if that's your preferred method of communication, the links are, as you can see the titles took ages to come up with.

@yarkshiregamer for Twitter
http://facebook.com/yarkshiregamer for Facebook

Two years ago I got off my backside and went from thinking about doing a blog to actually doing the blog. I am still very much enthused with the process and average about a post a week, I've found it a great way to record my gaming activities and painting escapades, forgot what colour I painted the trousers on those 28mm Spanish Foreign Legion, no problem it's on't blog.

I am not ashamed to say that project 2015 my 28mm Punic War project failed, I only managed 4 of my target units, did I set the bar too high ? Or did I just get distracted by WW1 Naval ? Project 2016 is officially 28mm 3rd Crusade and I am going for 12 units again, distracted me never (although a Jutland refight in November may eat into the time especially when I have no Battleships done)

We did quite a bit of Naval gaming last year; on top of the usual Easter Naval Campaign we went all WW1. With this year's Russo German 1941 game already planned along with Jutland, 2016 will be no different. Like most of you I have too many projects on the go and too many collections to leave gathering dust, most periods get played once or twice a year as you will see if you trawl through the blogs back posts.

Exploding ships

Under coated and in the paint cue we have,

28mm SCW Foreign Legion and Carlists  (for our next game)
15mm SYW British
28mm Crusades  (both sides)
28mm WW1 (Arab Cavalry and Indian Infantry)
15mm French Napoleonics
28mm EotD Werewolves
28mm AWI British Cavalry

Added to that I have over 100 28mm Cavalry in various stages of construction and oil painting for SCW, AWI and Crusades.

Phew, and that's before I get sidetracked.

This is me being sidetracked

Blog hits and reads have doubled on last year and are steadily increasing, we are now fast approaching 100,000, which is nice. So I would like to thank everyone who has visited YG over the year, thanks for all the plus ones on Google, comments on TMP, Lead Adventure, The Wargames Site, Facebook, Twitter etc etc. I do generally reply to all the comments I get so come on down and leave your mark !

So the moment you have been waiting for all year, the Top Ten posts on't blog in the last year. nothing survived from last year, every things new. Each listing has a link back to the original post if you missed it.

THE TOP 10


Cue Led Zep in the background and a DJ voice over....

Bubbling under this week at number 10 is

WW1 28mm Turkish Infantry - From Box to Table

A big surprise entry here, this post proved very popular at the time I posted it, who would think that so many people were interested in WW1 never mind Turkish troops of WW1. Great figures from the Woodbine Design Company made my job as painter easier.

Presented in my Box to Table style tutorial it covers the various stages of prep, paint and basing listing all the paints used.

In with a bang this week at No 9 is a modern classic,

Operation Brevity 1941 a Scenario / AAR

No surprise with this one, the Perrys fantastic range of 28mm WW2 Desert Figures and the marvellous Blitzkrieg Miniatures vehicles have brought many people to or back to this fascinating theatre of WW2.

I often search the net for Scenarios or ideas for our games so I always present our games with the info I would want to run the game from scratch, maps, orbats, scenario rules, background etc.

The first of many Naval Gaming posts is next at Number 8

Fireworks off Malta - WW2 Naval Campaign Part 3

As mentioned above we did a lot of Naval gaming this year and at the start of the summer we had our yearly Naval Campaign. Rather than go through the pain of plotting individual search plane sectors etc I prefer a linked scenario approach to Campaigns, having run a number of these now for me its the best and easiest way to run these games.

This years campaign followed an Italian Convoy on the way to resupply the army in North Africa, each game drew in more forces and this game (the third of four) saw the first Capital ships join the fray.

Next up at number 7 another Naval Post,

A WW1 Naval Deathmatch - GHQ -vs- WTJ 

 
Whilst collecting my new 1/2400 WW1 range I tried a number of manufacturers but these two US companies are by far the best. In the post I compare the two looking at detail, price range etc.

A hat trick of Naval Post as straight in at number 6 is,

The Great Tripoli Dash - WW2 Naval Campaign Part 1 

It does amaze me how many visits these Naval Posts get, its a niche area of the hobby but they do prove very popular. This was the initial post of the Campaign and was a night action involving the Convoy along with some Destroyers and Light Cruisers.

Getting to the business end now and we're off to the States for number 5,

6mm Adler ACW - Confederate Infantry From Box to Table 

We did a "small" ACW game which ended up with over 3500 figures on the table, when we started the game I underestimated the number of Confederates I would need. I had to rapidly produce a Division of Rebs to full fill the games requirements, this post in the Box to Table style covers the journey from bare metal to the table.

Jumping in from outer space at number 4, let hear it for,

X Wing - The Campaign Begins 

Bit of a cheat this one, we have been running an X Wing Campaign for well over a year now, in fact game 23 is tomorrow. This is the original post which covers all the Campaign rules, all the subsequent Campaign posts link back to this one so no surprise that its here really.

Going all Eurovision at number 3 with a French entry,

Panzers in Normandy - Then and Now (and now) 

This post was my excuse to get some boring holiday photos out there and it worked !

The family had a lovely two weeks in Normandy staying close to St Mere Eglise, luckily the boy wonder and Mrs R both like a bit of history so we toured the beaches and sights quite a bit. I used Major and Mrs Holts Battlefield Guide and Panzers in Normandy - Then and Now books as our guides, great memories.

Just missing out on the top spot at Number 2

1/2400 WW1 WTJ Naval - From Box to Table 

Naval action again at number 2, the most common comment I get with my ships is "I like those bases" apart from one guy on TMP who said they look like Fridge Magnets, which made me chuckle, I even posted a photo with one on the fridge holding up a supermarket coupon to keep him happy !

Standard Box to Table format for these covering the making of the bases as well as all the painting.

And at Number 1.......Drum Roll........ is,

Battle of Gaines Mill 1862 Part 1 

A winner from across the pond in the U S of A ! You guys and girls in the States love posts about homegrown battles, anytime I post an ACW or AWI piece my readers from the US shoot up and good on you for that. A healthy interest in ones history is never a bad thing.

ACW is not one of my main periods and I asked our resident expert to pick a "small" game we could have a crack at. Gaines Mill he suggested, now Ian plays Brigade Fire and Fury, I play regimental Johnny Reb, the word "small" was lost in translation.

It was a long post as I put a full regimental orbat on with strengths etc, there was also quite a lot of scenario rules etc included. The game was that big I had to split the thing into two posts.

2016 and onwards

So there you have it the YG year in review, lots planned for the upcoming year, we have an AWI game of 2nd Sarratoga on the table at the moment and a big Spanish Civil War game up next so stay tuned.

King Geoffrey says keep it Yarkshire

Prelude to Leipzig - an 1813 Scenario / AAR

My return to Napoleonic Gaming after a 16 year absence

A picture which sums up what I've missed

Let me take you on a journey.... (if your not that bothered about the day trip; the scenario and AAR are below). Its a trip many of you who will read this have been on, it must be a circular track because most of us seem to still be on the same train.

I was 12 or 13 having grown up with Airfix plastic figures and was looking for something else "more grown up", I was in my local library when I discovered the books of Grant et al and was avidly reading everything I could find about this new pastime "wargaming". One day in the process of taking a book called The Napoleonic Wargame out; the librarian, Shaun asked me if I was a gamer, we exchanged numbers and the rest is history. We had a great group of people Steven, Sean, Shaun, Simon, Pete, Karl, Konrad, Dave and Dave, we had some cracking games nearly always Napoleonics; initially in 1/72nd scale and then 15mm, culminating in a massive Leipzig game (1:33 fig scale). We drifted apart after a few years as people went to University and moved away but I still have many fond memories of those times, recently through the extensive reach of the internet I have got back in touch with some of the old gang, who knows we might meet up again. Bruce Quarries' rules were our weapon of choice which we had to heavily modify to make them more playable, but they were our rules.

This book has a lot to answer for !

I moved away too, coming to my adopted home of Yarkshire in the late 80's and joined the local club, although they were big on Napoleonics the rule set of choice was Gilders, I just never got to grips with them. The figure scale was wrong for a start 1:20 not 1:33 and I wasn't rebasing my stuff for anyone.

Italian Artillery

I found a set of computer moderated rules called "Hard Pounding" and for my little group of gamers they were perfect, we played quite a few games over the early 90's with these on the Atari ST. Then the rules migrated to the new fangled PC and never worked again. The writers of the program could never seem to get it right, whenever I spoke to them at shows they seemed to do two moves then stop whilst they tried to fix the code, a task which proved increasingly more difficult as they consumed more beer as the day progressed.

So that was it, my first love was over. My last game was about 16 years ago, a re fight of the Action on the Coa. Since that day my Napoleonics have sat in the display cabinets in my game room watching as new scales and period played out on the table in front of them. I haven't stop collecting and painting these figures, my collection has grown to in excess of 6,000 15mm figures. Over the years I have toyed with gaming with them again but always seemed to get sidetracked until last month when I decided enough was enough, dump the new fancy period and go back to my young love, but had she grown old and bitter over the years ?

French troops cautiously monitor the Russian hordes

I have looked at many sets of rules over the years, tried to write my own but never settled down on a set. Finally a few years ago I found General de Brigade and I thought at the time "hey, these could work" but they were the wrong scale, 1:20 again what is wrong with these rule writers ! So they went to the bottom of the pile. Then I started to play other periods notably AWI and SYW with the rules from the same stable of GdeB. I went back to GdeB, now familiar with most of the concepts. No way I was re basing 6,000 figures so I looked at converting the rules to 1:33. As the morale works on % casualties and the melee on loosing 1 in 4 etc I only needed to change the firing tables.

So there is the background to the game, anyone who wasn't on the nostalgia trip can come back in the room.

All my figures are based and then have a textured movement tray in which they are placed, this was essential with our old computer rules when quick identification was required for inputs etc, hence the unit labels, not everyones cup of tea but that's why they are there if you are wondering.

Scenario

The game is based on one I found on-line at Rafael Pardos "Wargaming with Napoleonic Miniatures" site HERE. The site has a great number of scenarios (all for the Lasalle game system) but there is plenty of detail to make the conversion to your set straight forward. The game on Rafael's site is designed as a solo scenario which I have changed to fit in with what I wanted. I choose the scenario as it had reasonably manageable forces which were fed into the game gradually, ideal when you've had a few years off the period.

After breaking a unit of French Line the Russian Uhlans are charged by French Chasseurs

The background of this fictitious game, which is set in October 1813 is as follows,

"Blucher Army of Silesia has crossed the Elbe and is advancing towards the Mulde River to join up with Bernadotte. Seeing an opportunity to catch the allies out Napoleon has moved northwards with several Corps. Their rapid advance caused the hasty retreat of Bluchers forces, in the confusion Osterman-Sackens' Russians have become isolated and are forced to march west passing along the front of the French 1V Corps, we join the action as they attempt to bypass the French."

The game is played on a 8 x 6 table, the above map is broken down into 2 ft squares to help with the laying of terrain. All the symbols should be obvious, the black rectangles are walled enclosures.

French OOB

C in C Betrand

Infantry Division (Morand)
1st Brigade (Belair) 4 btns of French Legere (all 24 figures, all Veteran)
2nd Brigade (Toussaint) 4 btns of French Line (all 24 figures all Line)
3rd Brigade (Hulot) 6 btns of French Line (all 24 figures, all Line)
1 x Foot Artillery Battery 8 pdrs (with Belair)
1 x Reserve Foot Battery 12 pdrs (with Hulot)

Cavalry Division (Roussel)
1st Light Cav Brigade (Dommanget) 1 x 16 Saxon Chevaux-leger, 2 x 16 Bavarian Chevaux-leger
2nd Light Cav Brigade (Lagrange) 1 x 16 Polish Uhlan, 2 x 16 French Chasseur a Cheval
1 x Horse Artillery Battery 6pdrs (with 1st Brigade)

To ease us into the first game all Cav is Line class and all officers are average. Some of the troops used are more to do with my collection than the historical orbats.

Provisional Croatian Regt (from my 1812 collection)

Russian OOB

C in C Osten-Sacken

10th Infantry Division (Lieven)
1st Brigade (Agatin) 4 units of Jagers (all 20 figs all classed as Line)
2nd Brigade (Sass) 6 units of Infantry (all 20 figs all classed 2nd Line)
1 x Light Positional Battery 6pdrs

27th Infantry Division (Neverovsky)
1st Brigade (Stawicki) 4 units of Jagers (all 20 figs all classed as Line)
2nd Brigade (Alexejev) 6 units of Jagers (all 20 figs all classed 2nd Line)
1 x Positional Battery 12pdrs

Cavalry Division (Vassilshikov)
1st Brigade (Rasachoff) 1 x 24 Uhlan and 2 x 16 Hussar (Line)
2nd Brigade (Uschakov) 2 x 16 Dragoon (Line)
3rd Brigade (Karpov) 2 x 12 Cossacks

The Grand Duchess Catherine Btn

Game Set Up

Both sides start with one brigade of Light Cavalry on table, for the French roll 1 d6, on a 1 or 2 entry point A, 3 or 4 entry point B, 5 entry point C and 6 roll again. For the Russians roll 1d6 on a 1,2 or 3 use the entry point D, 4, 5 or 6 use E.

On turn 1 randomly select one of the remaining units, French enter by Brigade, for the Russians once a Brigade is selected the remainder of the Division follows. Roll as above and determine the entry point.

The Brigade will enter the table in column on the road selected and must remain on the road for 1 turn. Guns are always at the rear of a Brigade column. Once the rear of the column has entered the table randomly select the next Brigade (unless you are Russian and the remainder of the Division is not on table).

I am a big fan of scenario randomness, so this game should never play the same way twice. The French have less troops but because they have smaller Brigades they should get on table quicker. The Russians in their larger Divisional columns should arrive slowly but in a big mass.

Objectives

The French are trying to block the exit of the Russian Troops from the table, the Russians are trying to exit stage left (leave the table on the left edge).

If more than 60 % of Russian Troops exit it is a Russian Victory.
Between 40 and 60% exit a draw
Less than 40 % exit a French Victory

I have not put a turn limit on the game as we have a permanent set up and I find you can normally agree a victor between the people I game with without having to resort to points etc.

How did we get on

Well it was certainly nice to be back in the Napoleonic chair again, we had a whole Sunday and an evening session set aside for this game, however we didn't need the whole of the Sunday for the first game.

Things started relatively calmly with our French Light Cavalry entering on point B whilst the Russian Cavalry came in on point E, they raced along the northern road to the town and set up camp, whilst the French harried and charged them on and off in a indecisive battle.

Saxon Light Cavalry

The first Russian Division came on at point D whilst the first French Brigade the Legere came on at point B. As the Russians slowly came on the table the Commander decided to march his Jager Battalions up the road adjacent to the river towards the northern Bridge. Fate determined that that was a mistake, just as the last of the 6 Russian Line Battlions entered the table, a French Line Brigade followed by the remaining French Cavalry came on at point C.

The Russian Line Collapses

As the Jagers marched north they left the southern bridge open and the Russian flank exposed. The French Legere were able to get over the bridge un opposed and smash into the Russians. The Green Coated Infantry was outnumbered and to refuse their right flank leaving a weak spot at the pivot. It was only a matter of time before that weak point broke. The hope was that more troops would arrive and quickly, with an Infantry Division and a Brigade of Dragoons sat on the side of the table there was a collective groan from the Russian Commanders as they drew the Cossack Brigade as their next reinforcements. When they got on the table the remaining Infantry Division was drawn but they marched onto the table into 1 routing and 2 retreating Russian Units rather than on the empty northern road so we called it as a French Victory at that point.

We all enjoyed our first foray in a while into Napoleonics so we reset and went again !

The rules seemed to work quite well, we were all familiar with the basics as I said above we are veterans of BGren and the 7 Years War version so there were no real surprises. The conversion of the tables seemed to work quite well, the Artillery seemed a bit light but that's something we can look at next time we play.

I think I will invest in the newer 2nd Edition of GdeB as looking at the on line play sheet for that version a lot of the things we questioned as we went along seem to have been solved in that version. So my old love wasn't that bad to me after all, with a busy schedule ahead it will slot nicely into our game rotation which seems to have us playing most things about twice a year.

Some game pics to finish off, Regards

Russian Lt Cavalry Advancing in Game 2

Russian Infantry in subtle mode, Game 2

French Infantry, waiting.

CHARGE !!!

Russian Infantry defending a village

Bavarian and Saxon Cavalry advance

Next up we will blow the dust off our AWI collection.