Title

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Tally Ho!

Thursday, 16 January 2025

The Battle of Dyrrhachium (1081) - a scenario for Lion Rampant.

To close-out the Dark Ages gaming we've done a large game (90 points a side) of Romans vs Normans. In 1081 the Normans under Robert Guiscard invaded part of what is now Albania and took the city of Dyrrhachium. Empower Alexiou I lead a force including the Varangian Guard to recapture the town, resulting in the battle. Interestingly the Varangians contained many English refugees from Hastings. 

To simulate the impetuous nature of quite a few units we adopted the following scenario rules:

  • All Norman cavalry (Heavy and Elite) counted as having Wild Charge in effect, regardless of the range, until they had fought a melee. The same applied to the Varangians
  • The Normans must deploy a single unit of Knights in their centre to represent Guiscard's feint
  • When one side had lost half its points they would need to  
Romans

  • CinC: Alexiou I (Impulsive) + body guard of 1 * Heavy Cav (Bloodthirsty)
  • Left: 5 x Heavy Cav, 1 x Lt Cav, 2 x Lt Spear
  • Centre: 3 x Heavy Spear, 3 x Lt Spear (Jav), 2 x Skirmish
  • Right: 1 x Archer, 2 x Elite Infantry, 2 x Heavy Spear (Veteran)  
Normans

  • CinC: Robert Guiscard (Aggressive)
  • Left: 3 x Heavy Cav, 1 x Elite Cav, 1 x Crossbow, 1 x Heavy Spear
  • Centre: 4 x Heavy Spear, 2 x Elite Inf, 1 x Crossbow, 2 x Skirmisher, 1 x Elite Cav
  • Right: 4 x Elite Cav, 2 x Lt Cav (Jav)
The field from the Roman left

Norman knights on their right

Roman centre

Norman left

As the scenario dictated there was a general advance by the Normans. The Romans hung back on the left and centrally while the Varangian Guard surged forward.   

The Romans had the better of the skirmishing in the centre, pushing the Romans back and causing damage on the main line. Meanwhile the Romans cavalry launched a series of multi-unit attacks on the Norman Knights, weakening them and nullifying that attack.   


The Varangians attacked the Norman cavalry opposite them with heavy losses on both sides. This was strategically in the Normans favour as it blunted the Romans main attacking force.   

Varangians engage the Normans

Centrally the Normans had the stronger infantry with Elite and Heavies facing off against Heavy and Light. The greater weight enabled them to bludgeon through, with crossbow support, and out damage the lighter Romans.         


Varangians slug it out

The Romans were the first to hit 50% points loss and the dice gods saw the centre lose several key units in the resulting courage tests. So we called it a Roman win.    

The Roman centre yields

The game worked well despite its size, with three players a side completing it within 2.5 hours. The result was fairly close to history with the collapse of the Roman centre the decisive point. The Roman flanks did a little less well than history but did hold Norman advances.   


Sunday, 12 January 2025

Dark Ages - Defending the Indefensible

With the dark ages campaign now over we are doing a few one-off games until we start the planned 1815'ish Napoleonic's. This weeks scenario was one where the Romans and Anglo-Normans had to capture and hold a road junction and a hill. It was progressive scoring with 1 point for each per turn. You could win by scoring 10 points or routing the enemy. 


Roman horse

Anglo-Norman Knights

The Romans were the faster force and managed to grab the objectives but the Anglo-Normans moved quickly to threaten them. Disaster struck through successive double-1's for the ANs mean the CinC died and then his bodyguard routed, trying to retake the road junction.    

The AN's fought on but were unable to claw-back the Roman's lead. Roman win 

We also finished-off the game of Britannia we had started over the holiday break. The Angles had an good few turns for the blue faction and the expected Saxon attack for red never really came off as they got hung-up on the Romano-British. We got to turn 11 but had to stop at that point with blue leading. It was decided they would win as they had nt yet had their major invasion (Normans) and this would score heavily for them.   

The board after 11 turns

 

Sunday, 5 January 2025

Sand and snow - New Years round up

With a couple of weeks off this Christmas, and limited distractions,  I've managed to get some gaming and painting done since the festivities.

WWII Desert (the sand)

I popped over to Fishponds for a go at V for Victory from Tomahawk studios, a WWII platoon-scale game. We played DAK vs Indians. All their games tend to have a few innovative features and V for Victory is the same. 


Unit activation is done alternatively using cards, seven in your hand at the start of a turn.  Each has a different balance of move, shoot and special / rally so you need to plan carefully at the start of the move what you want to do but leave some flexibility to respond to the enemy. 


Indians advance

It also distinguishes between suppressing fire and shoot-to-kill. The former is easier and can pin-down or eventually rout units, but not maybe as quickly as the harder fire for effect.   

DAK exchange fire with the Indians

The Indians won 2-1 on objectives held, helped by the German MMG in centre table disappearing from a  single round of Indian MMG shooting.  


Rule Britannia

I don't generally play many board games but was tempted to have a go at Britannia, which simulates the events from the Roman invasion up to the Norman invasion. Players each play a colour, with each faction controlling several tribes through the game.  

Combat is very simple but the victory conditions are complex so you need to think hard about where to attack/defend and how to use your leaders. Rome (purple) starts very strong and can quickly conquer most of the map before then facing waves of invasions that nibble away at their control.  

Turn 1 - the Roman invasion gets going

We're 5 turns (from 16) in at at the point the Romans are about to withdraw and the Saxons (red) / Angles (blue) are invading. Rome is a long way ahead on the victory tracker but with few armies and forts left to hand over to the Romano-British, so must hang on as best they can.  As the blue faction my time will come when the Normans (blue) invade towards the end of the game. 

Turn 5 - Rome is spent and the Saxons / Angles are poised 

 

Great North Wars (the snow)

Finally I've got some painting done and have been focusing on my GNW Russians. I've managed to complete some Line Infantry, a Grenadier battalion and Light Gun. The first of the cavalry are glued to together and more stuff is on order to round out the army. Its likely to take the rest of the year to complete the pile of figures I've amassed for this.  

Great North War Russian Grenadiers

Great North War Russian light gun

Great North War Russian line infantry

    

  


    

Tuesday, 31 December 2024

Christmas Game - fictional 1813 Napoleonic's battle

The overall game

The battle of Bielefeld is a fictional battle fought during 1813 between the French and a Grand Collation of its enemies. In the first round three battles take place which are the approach battles for the main action at Bielefeld. The outcome of each battle has an impact on the later game.

Each of the 6 armies contains; 10 infantry in 3 brigades, 6 cavalry in 2 brigades and supporting artillery / light troops. Three of the units may be designated as Veterans.

Units that are damaged, but survive the battle, are restored at full strength for the main battle. Units who are routed / destroyed must dice;

       Line Infantry : 1 - 3 they begin with 2 damage and 4 - 6 they begin with 1 damage.

       Other units: 1- 4 they begin with 1 damage and 5 - 6 they begin with no damage. 

       Remember you can try to recover some of these loses during the game.

Devil’s Bridges winner = half that army may begin as a flank attack that arrives after D3 turns.

Schilda / Germelshausen = if the Defender wins then the Attackers army is delayed by D3 turns for the main battle and must march onto the table.  


Devil's Bridge - French vs Russian encounter to determine the flank attack  

Both sides deployed with infatry and cavalry interspersed with their primary target the three bridges. Crucially the French won initiative and moved first.    

French left

Russian right

They flooded units across the bridges, which took fire but managed to establish a bridgehead. The Russians focused on maximising the shooting damage but were unable to retake the crossings. So a French Win and they got to have a flanks march in the large game.    


The French bridgeheads


Germelshausen - French attack vs Prussian defence to delay the attackers

The French deployed with their infatry mostly attacking the village and nearby woods and their cavalry in the more open ground to the east. 

Prussian defenders await the attack

After a short struggle they were able to overrun the village and threaten the second objective nearby.    


The village falls to the French

Prussian reserves arrived in time to stabilise the line, but in the final turn the French could still win if they were able to rout the defenders of the second objective. They cane close but could nt quite make it so the game was a close draw.   

Prussians hold in the last round


Schilda - Austrian attackers vs French defenders to delay the attackers 

The French stretched out across the field so the Austrians attacked solely down the flanks with combined arms attacks on both sides. The French sought to disrupt this with spoiling attacks from their cavalry.    

Austrian right

Austrian left

The French horse made limited impact on the Austrian foot but did delay them enough for force a Draw.    

French spoiling attack




Bielefeld - encounter game aiming to hold 3 of the 4 objectives.

As the French were victorious in the Devil's bridge game they began with a flank attack. To avoid too much over crowding we also removed one division from each side to give more space.

The French plan was the focus about half their infatry against Funsig and then intersperse infatry and cavlary brigades across the line, with only lighter units contesting the heights. The Coalition opted to place most of their mounted opposite the heights with a small force hoping to delay at Funsig while they attacked in the centre.   

Austrians take the heights

The Coalition won the initiative, which enable them to grab most of the objectives in the first turn and especially the village and town. For most of the game a Russian brigade around the village was able to hold off three French brigades and so tie-up half the French army.      

Russians grab the village 

Centrally it was a grinding match with town being taken and retaken through the game and neither side able to hold all of it for very long. Around the heights the small French force make a nuisance of itself and was able to at least contest the objective as the Austrians placed their lacked the infantry support to clear the woods at the bottom of the hills.   


The village finally falls to the French

The game ended with each side holding an objective and two contested so a Draw. The French probably had the stronger forces left but has been unable to rapidly take Funsig and exploit the flank attack.      


So we managed 4 battles over 8 hours play and some lunch in the middle. People were pretty tired by the end to we did nt mange the planned board games session before adjourning to a local curry house for some dinner.