Blood 'n' Roses - A Play Test

Jonathan at Palouse Wargaming has been doing some deep thinking about the development of rules for his War of the Roses collection see his post, Challenges to an Authentic Medieval Wargame.  Well, he has produced his first version and kindly invited me to playtest the his rules - Blood 'n' Roses.  

Units from Jonathan's lovely collection.

I'm no medievalist and my knowledge of the Wars of the Roses is limited.  So, I'm guessing that Jonathan's invitation was because he knew that his chances of a victory would be good!

For the test, each side had three Battles (or Wards), each consisting of longbowmen, dismounted men at arms and retinue billmen.  I took control of the Yorkist army - closest to the camera.  From left to right their leaders were rolled up as cautious, brave and inspiring.  These characteristics would determine how easy it would be to change their Ward's orders, how many rerolls would be available each turn, and on rallying.

The opening dispositions.  I put all my Wards on reserve order and let the Lancastrians come to me.

Which they did.

This gave me the opportunity to attempt to change orders to engage and move into combat with my centre and right hand Wards.

Engage orders oblige the Ward to move a full 3 hexes.  Charges can only take place under this order.

Early Yorkist charges meet with some success.

It looks like the Lancastrian advance has been stalled and set into reverse.

At this point I liked the feel of the battle.  My archers had been shooting at the enemy, but once the decision was made, the men at arms and bill pushed through and contacted.

The Wards are squaring up.  However, with melee and archery fire the combat effectiveness of the Wards decline. 

As the battle drew on there was a real ebb and flow of fortunes as different parts of each army saw their ascendancy rise and fall then rise again.  With each attack the challenge was not just about acquiring the right orders, nor was it all about winning the combats, it was also about how and when to rally troops from disorder and to recover some combat effectiveness.

After some to-ing and fro-ing, the Lancastrians were slowly being driven off the field of battle.

However, some titanic defensive work from the archers of each Ward managed to blunt Yorkist attacks whenever they went in for the kill.

Both sides were becoming increasingly brittle as their effectiveness was worn away.

In the end the Lancastrians managed to outlast the Yorkists.  With two of the three Wards broken the rest of the army made best their escape.

Afterthoughts
My impression of warfare in this period is that the archers shot until either out of arrows, the weather was against them or the time for the hand to hand to begin in earnest arrives.  For me, this game reflected that nicely.

I always think of combat in the War of the Roses as something akin to a scrum.  Everyone gets stuck in, it's difficult, long, and it's attritional.  Well, this battle proved to be all those things.  It was a hard slog.  But a very entertaining one.  What is difficult in a period which is largely defined by the notion of "line them up and charge" is to produce a game that has this but also gives challenges and decisions for the player to make.  Amidst the "slog" were the decisions about what orders to give, when to rally and when to rotate troops - for example pushing the melee troops ahead of the archers and when it would be best to swap the men at arms out and the bill in.

For a wargame, there must be a sense of plausibility and that this is what the armies may have done.  It must also be fun to play.  Jonathan provided both the "war" and the "game" in this outing and with these rules.  It felt right and was great fun with something happening all the time.  It was close and the final decision uncertain right until the end.

We chatted at length after the game.  I believe Jonathan had much of his thinking confirmed but also took away a little food for thought.  He will no doubt reflect on this game and how to improve it further.  However, he should also reflect with pride on a game that I would certainly play again.

The Battle of Castelnuovo del Garda, 16 January 1796 - AAR

It seemed a suitable time to put on a French Revolutionary Wars game using Volley and Bayonet rules and my 6mm MDF armies.

The engagement is a "what if" set piece battle set two days after the Battle of Rivoli.  Which in this alternative universe did not take place.

The Austrians have launched an attack to break the French siege of Mantua.  Once achieved and reinforced by the large number of troops there, they are to push the French westward towards Piedmont.

Hoping to hold Alvinczy’s Austrian forces at Rivoli, General Bonaparte and his divisions, nonetheless, failed to move quickly enough to reinforce Joubert who was guarding the approaches down the river Adige.  Consequently, Joubert was compelled to withdraw his troops south and rendezvous with the forces of Generals Massena and Rey.

Thus, Alvinczy was able to complete the junction of his three columns on the Rivoli plateau.  After a day’s rest, he set the Austrian army in motion south to defeat the revolutionary Army of Italy.  As he approached Castelnuovo del Garda, Alvinczy got news of the French beginning to deploy.

Bonaparte, now certain that the approaching Austrians represent the main strike towards Mantua – not the feint that Augereau is holding back around Verona - he is determined to strike a blow against Alvinczy at Castelnuovo del Garda.

The Players and Armies:
Austrians (6 divisions)
Generals Vukassovich and Luisignan – Dan
3 artillery, 3 regiments and 3 freicorps

General Quasdanovich – Steve
5 cavalry regiments and 5 infantry regiments

Generals Liptay, Koblos and Ocksay – Ray
10 infantry regiments

plus Colin, a late addition, who would share Ray's command.

French (8 divisions plus assets)
General Joubert – Lee
8 infantry and 1 cavalry plus 3 artillery

General Rey – Stuart
3 cavalry and 3 infantry regiments plus horse artillery

General Massena – Surjit
5 infantry and 2 cavalry regiments, 1 artillery

Battlefield and Deployment
The players had their army lists and some essential rules remainders sent out a week or two before the day of battle.  They were also forewarned about deployment.  In short, they had to follow these instructions:

1.  Choose one player from their side to reconnoitre the battlefield. They had 10 minutes to sketch the battlefield; observe the enemy forces and ask questions about the terrain.

2.  The sides reconvened and had 15 minutes max. to note on their sketch maps their deployment.

3.  the two sides then had 10 minutes to simultaneously deploy their troops.

4.  Both sides rolled 1d6.  The higher scoring side went first.

So, this is how it looked with the troops waiting to be deployed.

The French to the left, Austrians to the right.

View from the French side.

... and from the Austrian side.

And this is how the armies ended up facing each other.

The Battle

From the umpires point of view this was a very busy game.  After a year since last playing these rules, the Rejects needed to (rightly) ask lots of questions. They then proceeded to stress test the umpiring as well.  All that is said because in the second half of the game I just plain forgot to take any photos in the heat of battle.

Interestingly, neither side elected to deploy a reserve despite the big movement allowances in Volley and Bayonet.  At least one player would bemoan this omission at the end of the game.

French cavalry advancing.

Both approached each other cautiously.

The Austrians on the right quickly adopted a defensive posture while their cavalry sought to turn the far flank.

This gave the French cavalry an opportunity to start harassing the Austrian left flank.

Stuart has to turn General Rey's divisions to face the threat to their flank from Quasdanovich's cavalry.

Meanwhile, the Austrian left comes under attack.

However, the French first assaults are stalled as the cavalry is thrown back.

The attacked now become the attackers as they seek to drive away the threat to their flank.

Alas, this is going to be a desperate tussle on the flank that will eventually wear down both sides.  The French commanders now start throwing the rest of their line at the Austrians.

The battle on the far Austrian right is becoming increasingly isolated as Quasdanovich's and Rey's troops grind away at each other.

As we returned to the fray after lunch, the heat of the battle meant that my camera saw no more action.  So, I will try to finish the report as concisely as possible.

On the far flank (Austrian right, French Left) Stuart and Steve continued their own engagement.  Eventually, Quasdanovich was able to induce a morale collapse on d'Hilliers division.  However, the event took an immense effort.  Stuart's last division under, Duga, was also left exhausted.  But not before inflicting enough damage to the Austrians to leave Quasdanovich ineffective as an offensive force.

On the Austrian left, sterling defensive action by Grenadiers and desperate charges left the French assault ragged and ultimately exhausted.  Though the defenders were barely any better themselves.  In the centre, the French attacks were repeatedly repulsed as the luck and valour ebbed and flowed.  In the end, the French centre was in some disarray.

So it was that the French saw two divisions exhausted and another two suffering from morale collapse.  Meanwhile the Austrian army ended with two exhausted divisions and one in collapse.

I called it a minor victory for the Austrians.  Though, on reflection, the reality of the situation was that both armies had fought themselves to exhaustion.

Afterthoughts

That was a busy and action filled game.  However, both sides were struggling with their dice rolling for most of the battle.  This possibly meant that the game was less decisive in its outcome than it might have been.  To give an example, Quasdanovich had four units onto one French.  He had 16 dice to roll and needed sixes.  He rolled and not one six!  This absence of sixes was repeated across the table for much of the game.

The pre-game "stuff" worked well and gave an initial momentum and urgency.  Plus, it was fun to see the results of faulty reconnaissance.  For example, the Austrians failed to see that the French had cavalry and based part of their deployment on that "fact" which explained their exposed left flank.

After the game, one of the Austrian commanders made the observation that they should have kept the cavalry in reserve and ready to move to wherever needed.  I think that he felt the desperation of trying to keep the flank with only the one line of troops.

Whether it was fun or challenging to play I will leave to Ray and Lee to comment in their blog reports.  I was exhausted like many of the units, but satisfied that the game was close and ebbed and flowed, and that I had not made any significant errors.

Lucky Channel Hoping

The other night I was sitting around feeling rather listless and without motivation. So, on went the television despite knowing there was nothing of interest identified. Inevitably, channel flicking then commenced. All of a sudden, I came across a channel showing a programme entitled, "U-Boat Wargamers". 

"Hello, what's going on here," I thought.

What I had stumbled across was an episode of a series about how the Royal Navy combatted the German submarine threat in the Atlantic during World War Two.  It looks at how an officer was tasked with working out the Kriegsmarine's tactics and produce a counter to it. The officer was Captain Gilbert Williams who led the Western Approaches Tactical Unit (WATU). His means for finding the solution involved wargaming.

Captain Gilbert Williams

To run his games and problem solve the situations, Williams used a number of officers and ratings from the Women's Royal Naval Service (Wrens).

Mary Poole, one of the many Wrens involved.

After the U-Boat threat to merchant shipping was defeated, WATU continued to develop anti-submarine tactics for the later stages of the war, including Operation Overlord and the Pacific War.  WATU trained naval officers in its tactics by hosting week-long training courses in which the students played wargames.  WATU formally ceased operations at the end of July 1945.

Game materials being organised.

Wrens calculating the outcome of the players' decisions.  The wargames were played on a large gridded piece of linoleum on the floor.

A wargame at play. The convoy escort players had to view the layout through slots in hung sheets.  which greatly limited their vision.  The U-Boat players did not have to stand behind the screens.

More information about WATU can be found here.

There are six episodes in the television series. I searched and saw that you can watch it on Amazon or Sky History.  I stumbled across it on a channel called "Blaze".  Which is currently showing it on Sundays at 9pm.

I've certainly learned something new... everyday's a school day!

Has Your Hobby "Turned Your Current of Life?"

Following a visit to Chartwell, the Kent home of Winston Churchill,  I decided to listen to a series of podcasts on the life of Churchill.  They both happened to be about his early life.  The podcasts are all on BBC Sounds:

The Rest is History 1: Young Churchill: Born to Lead

The Rest is History 2: Young Churchill: Soldier of Empire

The Rest is History 3: Young Churchill: Prisoner and Fugitive

The podcasts were very interesting.  They made reference to Churchill's own book that he wrote in 1930, My Early Life.

Like a a very thoughtful partner, my better half looked out for it and actually found it in a charity shop.

I'm currently in the process of reading it.  I have to say that so far it's an easy read and he's quite self-deprecating. The narrative flows like a "ripping yarn".

But one thing that I came across was this passage about when Churchill was still a school boy.  He was writing about his collection of nearly 1,500 soldiers.  The account continues:

"... my father himself paid a formal visit of inspection.  All the troops were arranged in the correct formation of attack...  At the end he asked me if I would like to go into the army.  I thought it would be splendid to command an Army, so I said 'Yes' at once."

With his future now determined by this conversation, Churchill then went on to comment that, "the toy soldiers turned the current of my life."

Now, I love my hobby.  However, I can't say that it "turned the current of my life" in as dramatic or life defining way as Churchill's.  What it did do was provide good friends, a positive community of like minded people and a life engaged in the joy of history, gaming and problem solving.  That's not too shabby!

So, have the toy soldiers turned the current of YOUR life?  If so, how?

The Battle of Brownsville - An ACW "What If" AAR

The Rejects assembled last weekend for our first game of the year in the shed.  Postie had arranged a fictional American Civil War engagement based in 1862.  In simple terms the Confederates were advancing and the Union troops were reacting and marching to meet the incursion.

Lee, Mark, Ray and Steve led the Rebel offensive.

Dan, Surjit and I commanded the Union defense.

The figures were a large variety of 15mm.

The rules were Fire and Fury amended to use 2d6 instead of d10.

The Deployment
Standing on the Union side of the table, looking left.  The central corps is marching off the heights. On the far flank by the river, Dan is marching on. He immediately faced approaching rebs already deployed in supported line.

Looking towards the Union right flank, the rest of the centre and Surjit's command march down to meet the threat.

A view from the Union right flank down the length of the battlefield.

All the confederates are on the right in the photo and mostly in march column.

The Battle

All along both lines the troops advance quickly.

With a few to the right starting to shake out into line.

On the Union right flank, Ray was quickly advancing his Rebel brigades while Surjit tried to deploy against the attack.

The Confederates moving quickly and aggressively occupy the woods nearby and within charge range.

Meanwhile, in the centre and on the Union left both sides are bracing themselves.  In the meantime, the Union have been able to use their superior artillery to disorder and reduce some of the Confederate elite units.

The Union centre is able to deploy along the road whilst Surjit moves to threaten the Confederates in the wood on the right flank.

After manoeuvring into position and having to take artillery casualties, the Rebels now seem poised to assault all along the line.

Steve takes two of his Confederate brigades and launches them at Dan's defending blue coats.  Dan's defensive fire causes some Rebel disorder.

Which is sufficient to help Dan win both melees and push the attackers back.

In the centre, Lee charges with elite brigades at the Union line.  The Rebels take casualties going in and are disordered.

The Confederate brigades, being depleted from artillery fire and defensive infantry fire, are overwhelmed.  One is entirely wiped out and the other retreats in disorder.

And on the Union right flank, Ray hurls his Confederate troops out of the woods and into Surjit's blue line.

However, the Union defence is too determined and stubborn.  The attackers falter with one retiring out of range and the other left exposed.

It was more or less at this point that the Confederate commanders had a meeting and agreed to cede the field to the Union.

So, a Union victory.

After Thoughts
The onus was on the Confederates to attack, which they did.  Although they had a qualitative edge, numerically the sides were even.  This made for an extremely difficult job for the Rebels.  This job was not helped by the amount of casualties and disorder they suffered on the approach and when charging.

On that last point, I think that an unintended result of moving from a d10 (which made for very random and sometimes extreme results) to 2d6 meant that the dice result was smoothed towards the more probable 6,7 and 8.  These results coming up more often had the effect of making a shot with artillery or small arms more likely to result in the target being disordered and often taking a casualty.  It made for a less random and entirely irritating experience, but the consequence was that it was very hard for the Confederates in good order.  I'm not saying that the 2d6 should be abandoned, just that attackers need a quantitative advantage over defenders, as just a qualitative advantage is not enough - especially if most of the quality is blown away before it can close.

We often end I game of Fire and Fury with some questions and dissatisfaction. It was the newest Reject, Dan, who made the clearest observation that perhaps what we need is a new set of rules for ACW.  I have my thoughts on the matter with Black Powder or Bloody Big Battles as high on my list.  Any suggestions?  Remember, the rules must cope with BIG games.

Nonetheless, it was an enjoyable game and the earlier than usual finish meant that us Rejects could sit with tea and cake and have a grand old new year catch up.