More games and project completed

A busy week of gaming saw me over in Fishponds at the weekend for another game of Test of Honour with my monks once again facing off against my brothers samurai. The mission was to search a village and identify casualties from a previous battle who could be saved.   

 

Temple guards attacking

The monks proved good in combat but terrible at searching and so the game ended in a draw with both sides nabbing two objectives and the fifth going unclaimed. 

Battle is joined in the centre of the village

The completed project is my Great North War Russians and Swedes, with the final unit some dismounted Dragoons for the Tzar's army. Its been a couple of years work but I now have 24 Russian units and 16 Swedish units done, with a roughly 50/50 cavalry ratio. All are based for Beneath the Lilly Banners.    

Great North War Russian Dragoons - NorthStar figures  

With Nigel's armies we've enough for some large games. We both have Ottomans who could also be fielded.  

Finally some more Blucher during the week. This game pitted an very elite French army (mostly Guard) against a much larger Austrian army in a resetting of the 1814 Battle of Laon. The game was tied but with the Austrians feeling a bit happier as they were holding 2 of the scoring three villages.      

Laon for Blucher

 

A busy week - Sudan, Great North Wars and Napoleonic's

As the title says three games squeezed in this of various types.

Firstly the warm-up games continued for the upcoming Khartoum game, this time with the proposed forces we'll be using.

Lancers try to rescue a jammed gattling

The British struggled a little to hold back the Mahdist tide but checking the rules later we'd misremembered how scrub worked and been too generous on hiding behind it, which would have given the Brits more distance shooting.   

Camel Corps are surrounded

Later in the week I made the trip over to The Forest for a game of Beneath the Lilly Banners with our favoured Great North War setting. The scenario involved an Ottoman force trying to capture a fort and prevent some supplies getting through.    

Ottoman Azabs

It was the first time we'd used Tribal Horse, Tribal Foot and massed Russian Dragoons. The Tribal Horse proved annoying and highly manoeuvrable, the Tribal Foot shoot OK but can nt stand up to close order troops in combat and the Dragoons were a little disappointing against the Ottoman lancers but may need more practice.     

Ottomans close in on the fort, which would later fall

The final game as A Napoleonic one using Lasalle with the French attacking a similarly sized British force who were not all active at the start of the game. It was an 1814 French vs Russian game reset for the Peninsula campaigns. 

The French were able to capture about half the table and destroy one British infatry brigade, however they lost a brigade of their own and most of the heavy cavalry. We called it a winning draw for the British. 

Swiss vs Scots - the final unit in the brigade lost

It was out first use of the British - the infatry is excellent with about 33% more firepower than standard units but crucially the ability to recover casualties at the same rate as the Russians. So they are hard to outshoot and attacking them, whilst risky, is the best bet.      

French attack into heavy fire

So a busy week of gaming - the trouble is holding 3 - 4 sets of rules in your head means sometimes you get muddled! I'm putting my mistake on the Sudan game terrain rules down to that, not old age!

  

Battle of Kliszow - 1702. A game of Beneath the Lilly Banners

The action takes place in Poland during the Great North War and starts in typical fashion with the Swedes looking to attack the flank of  a larger and well dug-in Saxon army. As they manoeuvred to attack a large contingent of Polish-Lithuanian troops arrived to support the Saxons. This meant the Swedes had to reposition and adopt a defensive posture. We begin our battle as the Saxon and Polish cavalry starts its attack on both flanks of the Swedes. 

Polish with Hussars to the fore 

Saxon's well dug-in on a hill

Saxon Cuirassiers and Dragoon

Swedish opposite the Poles

Swedish opposite the Saxons

Swedish centre behind a stream, facing the Saxon centre 

The action began with the Saxon / Polish horse advancing towards the waiting Swedes. The Polish moved more rapidly as they were not hindered by marshy ground to their front.   

 

View from the Polish flank

View from the Saxon flank

On their left the Swedes were able to contain and push back the Polish attack. The Hussars died gloriously, leaving it to the Pancerni to carry the fight to the Swedes. Things were tougher on the other side as the Swedes were out numbered nearly 3-1 and so were gradually pushed back by the Saxon Cuirassier.      

 

With the Poles beaten back, the Swedes were able to move around the flank and launch an attack on the Saxon foot's dug-in position. The defences hampered the attack and so they were unable to break into the position before the end of the game.      

  

So likely a partial victory for the Swedes. They were just about hanging on on their right against the Saxon horse and had beaten off the Polish attack on their left. They had been able to mount an attack on the Saxon foot but had been unable to make much headway.

As some bonus content my latest effort from the painting table, some Russian foot. Even after Peter the Greats  military reforms not everyone fought in the familiar green/red uniforms. This unit is the Perm Regiment from early in the Great North Wars. They were it seems issued a yellow uniform at one point. Its not clear if they saw action in it but its good enough for me as its a nice bright look.      

 

Great North War and Italian Wars week 8

 Italian Wars - week 8

Only one scoring game was played this week and I've no pictures of this as I was late back. Fiorento attacked West Gallomagna and managed a win in the Stubborn Defence scenario. The other weas declared a draw as there was a misunderstanding over the scenario rules, so 1/2 a point each.  

Great North War

With the release of Beneath the Lilly Banners version 4 we played our first game under the new set. It is basically a tidying-up of version 3 with rule consolidated from the various supplements. It plays smoothly with a few errors in the play sheet we quickly spotted. 

Danes (aka Brits) in the village

The rules contain a slow-grow campaign and so we played the last scenario of that, reset to the Great North War. I played the Swedes vs Nigel's Russian and Richards Brits acting as Danish allies.  

Russians holding the centre

Swedish attack on the centre

Swedish Dragoons 

The Swedes has the better of the cavalry battel on the flanks but struggled in the centre against Danish units emplaced in the village. 

The Elite Russian / Danish horse

Opposing Dragoons clash

Infantry clash in the centre

Danes resist around the village

Swedish Dragoons break through

An honourable draw was declared. With us having 3 copies of the rules a  future campaign beckons once I've painted some more horse.