My wargaming weekend; part 2 - Wars of Religion week 7

Monday evening we met for the usual weekly club game. As it was a bank holiday we only played two of the campaign game. 

Game 1 - WOR (North) vs WOR (South); Surrounded

The southern forces were defending an improvised camp when the enemy attacked them from 2 sides. The attackers deployed second and opted to put their cavalry against the enemy infantry and their foot against the enemy horse. 

Seeing they were facing cavalry, the defending infantry quickly decided to leave the cover and advance on the attacking horse. At the same time the attacking foot advanced into the flank of the camp to attack the defending cavalry.  

The attackers struck first and were able to push back then destroy some of the defending horse, allowing them to break into the camp. At the same time their own cavalry was falling back in the face of the defenders foot taking some losses as they went.

By the end of play honours were even - the VPs the attacker was scoring from being in the camp were wiped-out by the losses taken. Draw.

 Game 2 - Landsknechts (north) vs Ottomans (south); Stronghold

The Ottomans fought for the south this week and found themselves defending a strategic fortification. The Ottomans had to deploy party of their force at the fort whilst the rest pushed-up to reinforce them. They opted for the guns, Sekban foot and a cavalry unit in the vanguard zone. 

The Germans looked to attack with a solid wall of Tercios and placed their horse on the left flank. 

The Ottomans aim was to delay the enemy as much as possible so they launched a spoiling attack against the Germans swordsman, destroying them and creating a hole in the line and generally being in the way.   

The Germans advanced under heavy fire taking hits as they came in, before launching an attack on the Sekban which they were able to beat back.  

After the first couple of attacks the Ottoman reserves began arriving and reinforced the line to keep the Germans away from the fort. With the arrival of these fresh troops pressure increased on the Germans and they were forced to fall back. Ottoman win in turn 6.   

 Campaigns Situation

A draw and a southern win have stabilised the situation for them and ended a run of losses.

 

  

   

My wargaming weekend - part 1; naval and napoleonics

 As this is a long weekend I'm packing in three games; fantasy naval, Napoleonic's and Wars of Religion

Saturday - fantasy naval.

I started the weekend hosting a game of Armada - Mantic Games fantasy naval game based on Warlord Games Black Seas but with more streamlined rules and added dragons. The two sides were Lizard Men and Evil Dwarves vs Orcs and Egyptian-style undead. I commanded the Lizards in Chinese influenced ships.

Orcs and Undead

Lizard medium ship

Undead battleship

The scenario involved capturing shipwrecked supplies from the sea and trying to sink the enemy.

Lizard flagship

The Lizards / Dwarves managed to win 14-13 as they sunk a couple of Orc ships in the last turn. So a narrow win in my first game.

Dwarves swamped by Orcs

 

Sunday - Napoleonic

For this game I was hosted by Chris G in his wargames room for the Battle of Abensberg, 1809. In this battle a combined Bavarian / French / Wurttemberg army was attacking an Austrian army in a decent defensive position. I commanded the Bavarian Corps which was already partly deployed by Sunday as they had been playing the day before. My mission was to clear the Austrians from the central sector where they held two large hills with well placed artillery. 

The whole field from left Bavarian position

Bavarian artillery moving up

As usual Chris had made custom terrain for the battle which added greatly to the spectacle. We played in 18mm using a modified version of Keith Flint's Honours of War 18th century rules. 

Lannes Corps comes to my aid

Lannes heavy cavalry

Before lunch I tried and failed a direct approach against the Austrians on a large hill in the western centre of their lines. The shooting was too accurate and I lacked artillery support. So after lunch I moved-up some massed artillery and sought to outflank through a wood, weathering an Austrian counter attack. This worked much better and I made some progress.   

Bavarians attacking through the woods 

To my left Marshall Lannes launched a large attack against the Austrian right, pushing them back into their secondary position and bringing up infantry for an attack. To my right the Wurrtembergers entered the field and began an advance against the Austrian left.   

Grenzer unit

My guns still moving

The game ended after 10 turns with the Austrians pushed back onto their second defensive line but still in control of the road exits, and so they were awarded a minor win, despite losing about 2-1. 

Austrians holding the line 

   So that's two games down and one more tomorrow. One close win and one minor loss.    

The future?

We've been experimenting with resin printing recently, as an option for home production of figures either more cheaply than buying or where they are not available commercially. After some experiments we now have things set up and can print reliably with very few failures.  

My first attempts at stuff for the table are some Ottoman Napoleonic infantry from Wargames Atlantic. The file was about £12 for 5 figures, with the print cost a few pence / figure. 

In this case the figures come as bodies, arms, head and a pouch. All are printed in grey resin which you much less toxic and smelly than you might have used a couple of years ago. Its UV cured in a special chamber, then glued together. 

Each group of 5 prints in about 2 hours.  Once cured the resin is more brittle than hard plastic so you do need to be careful on things like muskets. I plan to be mindful when basing them of not having bits sticking out!  

 

These are then painted in the usual way, in my case with acrylics. These are painted as Nizam-i-Cedid from 19th century and are of the type who might have fought the European powers or against Napoleon in Egypt . 

28mm Ottoman Nazim-Cedid

The big plus is you can do units you might not otherwise bother with. The Ottomans are nt a popular Napoleonic army as they are pretty weak and only available in metal. The cheapness means I can afford to indulge myself despite the dubious fighting value. I have a second unit printed and will add at least one more.   

Wars of Religion - week 6

Following last week's results the North was on the defensive in two games and attacking in one. The Poles were allocated to the attacking game and the Ottomans appeared for the North this week. 

Game 1 - Ottomans (north) vs WOR (south); capture the hills

The defending Ottomans deployed their artillery on a large hill with infantry on either side and all the cavalry massed in the east. The southern WOR forces deployed with infantry centrally and cavalry on both the wings.

Ottoman cannon dug in on hill

The Ottomans pushed forward a little into some cover in the centre and advanced their infantry against the WOR cavalry in the west. They succeed in routing the enemy Horse with supporting fire from the artillery and turned inwards to threaten the flanks of the WOR infantry.     

Janissaries holding the line

After a tussle in the centre the superior Ottoman shooting was able to hold off the attacking southern forces for an Ottoman Win in turn 5.

Game 2; Poles (north) vs WOR (south; Stubborn defence

The defending southern army deployed with its infantry in the Vanguard position and its Horse looking to reinforce as quickly as possible. The Poles massed their cavalry in the west of the field with their infantry holding back in a central position.  

Polish winged hussars attack 

The Poles advanced quickly across the field and got lots of units over the half way line within a few turns. 

Some hard fighting ensued, which was fairly even but crucially for the Poles all taking place in the south's half of the table giving them plenty of scoring units. 

By the end of turn 6 loses were pretty even but as the Poles had lots of units over the half way line they ran out winners. Polish Win.  

Game 3; WOR (north) vs WOR (south); For king or country

In this game both sides had to keep 3 forlorn hope units with 12" of the centre and try to kill as many of the enemy as possible. The north were on the defensive in this game but had some decent terrain with a field and hedgerow to defend. 

The north deployed infantry as their forlorn hope in a good defensive position in the centre of the kill zone. The south deployed only weak units in their forlorn hope, looking to attack each flank with infantry in the west and cavalry in the east.   

North's forlorn hope

The south attacked and managed to push back the northern cavalry in the east whilst seeking to manoeuvre their infantry around the northern defenders.   

The battle continued with most of the action in the east as the opposing Horse gradually wiped each other out. 

The game ended after 8 turns without the main infantry clash occurring and result declared a Draw.  

Campaign Situation

A better week for the north with two wins and draw. Crucially the Polish win means the north is now attacking the south's rear echelons.