About a month ago I travelled to Chris Gregg's for a game, this time to help playtest some Napoleonic rules he has been developing with his friends, based upon Keith Flint's excellent Honours of War. Being a tad green behind the ears for this 'period', I was quite happy to be given command of the Austrian forces who were still somewhat 'linear warfare' in their approach. The game had the added bonus of being set during the 1809 Danube Campaign, which you now know is the focus of my tentative foray into Napoleonics. This game certainly helped tip the balance for sure. Richard would be my Bavarian opponent which was nice, as he is an excellent sport and we always have a good game. Chris did have to rein in my propensity to chat and waffle during the game, but in my defence I don't get out much!
Both sides had their own orders, victory conditions etc, which added a lovely Fog of War to the proceedings. Chris as is often the case was the umpire and rules arbiter and kept things moving along at a good and steady pace. But more on that later.
I took photos during the game at various points when I remembered, when we had a natural break or something memorable happened, of which there were many of the latter. I will try and give an idea of how things panned out via the captions and some thoughts at the end, so without further ado.
 |
| An overview of the battlefield, as viewed from the Austrian positions. The main objective was to have control of the BUA as seen top left. |
 |
| Bavarian troops cross the bridge. I think the buildings were 3D printed? They looked rather good to say the least. |
 |
| The church on the edge of the town, defended by artillery that was to be a constant thorn in the Austrian left flank. No other troops are visible yet. |
 |
| The Austrian left flank ready to advance. |
 |
| The Bavarians wait on the hill. |
 |
| A view down the table with Chris checking something or other. |
 |
| The Austrians push forward. |
 |
| The left flank closes in on the churchyard, after the Light Infantry have already been repulsed. |
 |
| The Austrian right flank struggled to get going by having an iffy commander, forcing the C-in-C to help him out as it were. The Austrian artillery is limited to the road and is slow to move up in support. The Bavarians have a rather effective gun line on the hill. |
 |
| Fighting rages in and around the churchyard. |
 |
| Bavarians move up in support. |
 |
| A very nice mountain river/stream that neatly delineated where the river was impassable. |
 |
| The Austrians have been repulsed and an infantry unit is broken. |
 |
| Austrian Grenzers force the Bavarian artillery to limber up, but are then caught by the Grenzers and destroyed. This happened twice during the game! |
 |
| A good old fashioned cavalry charge! |
 |
| The Austrians are forced to retreat... |
 |
| ... and so are the Bavarians (top of picture). |
 |
| The Austrians still push forward. I loved the Bavarian limbers that seemed more like something you would see in a Jane Austen film! |
 |
| As the Austrian artillery finally can leave the road, the Bavarians are slowly withdrawing towards the BUA (I think!). |
 |
| Arch Duke Charles arrives with his BIG guns. |
 |
| The Austrian right wing, somewhat strung out, is doing all the heavy lifting, as the left cannot get close to the church and BUA. |
 |
| A confused picture, with both sides light troops attacking the artillery, with the Austrian Grenzers being charged in the flank by Bavarian cavalry. |
 |
| Suddenly Austrian light infantry appear on the Bavarian left flank, but still far away from the action (a scenario option). |
 |
| As the Bavarians charge into the Grenzers, which are routed, they then carry on into the Austrian Line Infantry ... |
 |
| ... who don't have time to form square and are destroyed. |
 |
| A case of cavalry MAD destruction I think...? |
End of the Game
So after some 6 hours of playing time, we reached the end of the road, with both sides having achieved their objectives IIRC, effectively an honourable draw. The Bavarians were slowly withdrawing and the Austrians didn't have the strength to pursue them, especially as they were out of cavalry by this point.
Post Game Thoughts
Well what a wonderful days gaming! I'll try and sum things up as follows:
- Chris came up with a really, really good scenario, with neither side knowing the others objectives. It is rare to have an umpired game like this but it really does bring a lot to the table. So thanks to Chris for all his hard work.
- Richard was as ever an excellent opponent and we had lots of fun with the usual badinage going too and from across the table, which is one of the joys of FtF gaming.
- The rules worked well and I think there was only one query during the game, which Chris and friends are going to consider. Certainly everything flowed smoothly and nothing felt 'wrong'.
- The 15mm-18mm figures were lovely and there was loads of space to manouevre the armies, which really added to the joy of the game.
- Initially by around Turn 3 I thought it was all over for the Austrians, but how wrong could I be. They got back into the game and after that the front lines ebbed and flowed nicely, with some memorable moments throughout.
- The heroes for the Austrians were with out a doubt the Grenzers who KO'd two Bavarian batteries and certainly punched above their weight.
- The terrain really limited the Austrian ability to bring their guns into play, hampered as well but the initial Bavarian numerical superiority in artillery. I'm certainly looking forward to reading about the actual battle in Gill.
So there we have it. Chris is putting on another game in July and as yet I'm not sure if I can make it as it's too far in advance for me to plan. Fingers crossed I can attend, but we shall see.
I increased the pixel size of these photos so I'd be interested to hear whether this improved the images you can see and if it affected loading time at all. For years I've gone with 800 x 600 ones, but this time went with 2,400 x 1,800. I'd not noticed but Chris pointed out that my images do appear rather pixelated when he views them, so any feedback appreciated.
In Other News
The garden is now pretty much sorted, which frankly is a bit of a relief! Now it is really a case of feeding, watering and dead heading to keep things in tip-top condition. this means that my mind is certainly moving very much back to gaming mode. I'm taking a few days break from things to re-charge the batteries and then it's onto 18thC India. I'm sure my finger will be fine but certainly not fully functional just yet. At least it will initially be basing so not too tricky, famous last words!
TTFN.
What a great looking game Steve and Napoleonic Austrians avoiding total defeat is like a win in my book! Our rules more or less force Austrians (and Russians) to spend most of their time in columns, which makes them a juicier target for enemy fire, of course...the rules you were using do not seem to have the same outcome...lots of Austrians in line!
ReplyDeleteI cannot say I had noticed any particular issue with your pix to this point, but the ones in this post are certainly very clear indeed.
Thanks Keith and all credit to Chris for, as always, putting on a lovely game. I agree about the whole total defeat thing, as generally when playing the Austrians, no matter the period, they do tend to get a battering. The victory conditions for both sides helped here as already mentioned, again credit to Chris for this.
DeleteEach complete base was a Brigade roughly speaking, so less opportunity for Battalion Mass etc. When I did form line, it was to try and maximise fire power, but most of the game was spent not in line.
Thanks for the feedback on the photos too. They do look clearer to me. I suppose when I set this Blog up well over 10 years ago, data limits and download speeds were an issue, but much less so here these days. These images are about 2Mb, so much more than noraml, but much less than the 7Mb+ of the 'raw' image.
Chris lays out a marvelous looking game! What a joy to fight over such handsome ground. With Chris working on a variant of HoW for Napoleonics, how does his work differ from the final results in SotE? I have had no issues with your photos either.
ReplyDeleteHe does indeed Jon and we are lucky to be able to play on it from time to time:). As mentioned to Keith above, the basic unit being a Brigade, it does feel different to SotE, where a unit is a Battalion. I think I remarked at th end that I kept thinking of each units as such, which is more down to me than anything else. Certainly SotE works for the sort of level of game that I prefer, ie a Division with possibly some Corps support thrown in.
DeleteThanks for the photo feeback too. I know when I view Matt's Blog (Wargames in the Dungeon) his phots are very pixelated until you click on them, then they're crystla clear. Not sure if it's a setting thing or not?
Excellent looking game and entertaining report. Photos look fine to me. Kudos to Chris on his scenario and rules.
ReplyDeleteThanks Richard and glad you enjoyed it. The scenario did work a treat and ideally works best with an umpire. Happy that the photos look OK to you too.
DeleteWhat a beautiful battle Steve, love the 15mm scale and terrain. Pictures look fine and no issues loading etc 👍
ReplyDeleteThanks Matt and the smaller scale figures looked great, plus there was plenty of space to manouevre, retire to reform etc. Glad to know there were no issues with loading etc.
DeleteFantastic terrain Steve. agree with you especially about the river. Kudos to Chris. No issues at all with the photos.
ReplyDeleteChris/Nundanket
Thanks Chris and at some point I want to make a river section like that. good to know no issues with the photos too:).
DeleteA large table for long lines of 15mm troops is a cool sight. It’s my favorite scale for horse and musket as you get the best of both worlds; cool miniatures and terrain and enough space to March around in.
ReplyDeleteI quite like the idea of neither side knowing what the other is up to. 😀
You do get a good mix of both Worlds as you say Stew, but for me the downside is all that extra detail you have to paint;)! The fog of war bit was excellent and hard to replicate without an umpire, but not impossible...
DeleteChris does put on a nice table and it sounds like scenario gave both sides a good game - though for a figures game, I would find 6 hours a stretch.
ReplyDeleteAs for photo’s. I would say these are clearer than your usual ….. but they should be at that resolution. I might not have this right, but you may want to investigate before doing a lot of big file posts. I am pretty sure the Google have (had) a size threshold, under that size the upload is free, above that threshold and the size of the picture is taken from the 15gb allowance that Google gives you for free.
Depending how much detail is in the picture, I aim for 800 to 1000 pixels wide, but say the photo has a lot of one colour Green grass, blue ocean), then the pixel count of the picture drops and I can afford to go higher, say 1200 wide.
I try to keep pictures in the 350kb size, as the last time I tried to work it out, I think that still makes to storage free, not consuming my personal allowance. But, my pictures are a bit mushy ….. however, the truth of the matter is that digital photography can be very unforgiving when too much detail is made a ailable.
It was a long game for sure, but we did have a good break half-way through, which helped. I was rather pooped when I got home, but in a nice way.
DeleteThanks for the photo tips Norm, so I may revert to my normal size for most posts and then up the ante for those ones where you want to show figures etc off in their best light.
Very nice Steve. Your Austrians did surprisingly well. The grenzers put in a sterling performance and always add a nice touch of colour. ⚔️⚔️
ReplyDeleteYour pics look fine to me, but I’m only viewing them on an iPad (so it’s not as if I’m looking at them as a big image).
Sadly, our grass needs a cut today and my wife also announced I need to “try and do a bit of cleaning today” so it looks like I’ll be kept fairly busy with chores 😞☹️ Yes, but who’s going to base my 2mm Cossack and Tatar armies…?
Cheers,
Geoff
Thanks Geoff. The scenario did give the Austrians a chance, plus of course the unknown orders for the Bavarians. Glad that the images look fine too.
DeleteBest not to point out whose going to do the basing whilst you're cutting the grass etc;)!
Wonderful terrain it looks like a pleasure to fight over... The Austrians did put in a real performance.
ReplyDeleteIt was indeed fun to fight over Stu:). For once the Austrian boys done good (as did the Bavarians to be fair!).
DeleteLooks like a terrific game but no less than one would expect from Chris Gregg. :-)
ReplyDeleteChris does always put on a great game and it was certainly fun to play:).
DeleteThank you Steve for doing our game such good justice and thanks to all your wonderful readers who have commented so favourably. The game was "long" by some folk's standards as the scenario had to last 10 turns for a result. I won't say any more as i will blog this myself with full background. It also gave time and space for manoeuvre and for failed brigades to fall back, reform and come back for more (with my small rule amendment on Hit effects). Both players said they appreciated that aspect and it's what I want. HoW is good for the two-hour attention span as it gets rid of battalions quite quickly; my game is at a level above that in scale, as you said in a comment. Your photos are very good and no loading problems - please do so again whenever you report on my games as it makes the terrain effort so much more worthwhile if it can be seen on bigger screen. Very much hope you will make the next one at end of July - but get into fitness training mate, and curb the irrelevant chat during play if you want to finish on time! :-)
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome Chris! Glad to know that the photos work better at this resolution too. Gaffer tape bought to keep my trap shut, just in case;)!
DeleteLooking forward to your report too and all the extra detail that it will contain, which is always good and of course useful:).