Tuesday 29 October 2024

OHW Scenario 17: Encounter

I fancied getting my ImagiNations troops out onto the table again and whilst pondering some options, I settled upon getting another One Hour Wargames scenario onto the table. To be honest the last one was a bit too static due to the BUA rules in BPII, but the next one, even though similar in premise, was all open terrain.

Some sketched plans and outlined ideas and a few hours later I was good to go. Rather than use the random forces options from OHW, I decided to go with equal forces, purely so I could get all my painted toys onto the table. A good enough reason for me!

I set things up the night before and after a nice bike ride in the morning, I was all set to bung some dice. I made a few tweaks before I started, as it's always good to mull things over and come to it all with a fresh pair of eyes as it were.

An overview of the table. The objective is to be in control of the hills at the end of the game. The Germans arrive from the West, the Italians from the East.

The calm before the storm as the farmer takes his geese to market.

Pigs are taken into the beech wood to forage.

The cows come out of the byre.

The Germans troops ready for the off.

The German reserves.

The Italians.

And their reserves.

The Game
This is a pic heavy AAR and hopefully the captioned photos will suffice.

The end of Turn 1. Both sides made tentative moves towards the hills.

The Germans march past a house.

German calvary move past the farmer and his herd.

The Italians pass the cornfield.

The end of Turn 2. The Italians advance rapidly and beat the Germans to the hills. The Germans have to shake out into line to meet the threat.

The Italian left flank.

The Italian right flank.

Italian light infantry amongst the rocks.

Italian artillery: "Duck!"
The Farmer: "No, geese!"

The Germans deploy.

Germans moving off to their left flank.

German cavalry move off to try and turn the Italian flank.

The end of Turn 3. Both sides begin to engage each other, but to little effect. Neither sides reserves appear.

Italian cavalry come under fire.

German infantry across the road begin to take hits.

The German cavalry pull back, wary of the Italian infantry.

The Italian right flank in a good position.

The farmer herds his geese to safety.

The end of Turn 4. Both sides begin to take hits, with the Italians losing an artillery piece. Both sides jostle to get the best position to bring their fire to bear. German and Italian reserves being to arrive, but slowly.

The Italian cavalry makes a disorderly retreat to preserve themselves.

The Italian light infantry come under sustained fire.

"Waht is good for the goose...". The Italian artillery battery breaks to the rear.

The first Italian reserves appear.

Ditto for the Germans.

The German cavalry move to the flank to try and threaten the Italian position.

At the start of Turn 5, the German lose a line infantry unit.

The end of Turn 5. The Italians get some revenge for the loss of their artillery by breaking the German line infantry. As the firefight continues, both sides reserves move forward slowly, when speed is of the essence. The German cavalry on the left wing see a chance and charge the Italian infantry on the hill.

The Italian reserves move slowly, but steadily forward.

Likewise the Germans.

The Italian right wing is under severe pressure but holds on.

The German cavalry charge in but fail to break the Italian infantry, who manage to turn to face the threat in the ensuing melee.

At the start of Turn 6, the Italian cavalry rides to the rescue...

...but fails to break the German cavalry, as the Italian line infantry retreat.

The end of Turn 6. Despite a heroic fight, the German cavalry break, as other Italian units move forward. The Germans push on but some shocking shooting means they fail to capitalise on their advantage.

A view from the Italian left.

The Germans begin to dominate the centre, but cannot gain any advantage due to poor shooting.

German reserves move off to the left.

The German cavalry break.

The end of Turn 7. As the Italians move slowly on their left, on their right the quickly move forward to shore up this flank. The Italian cavalry move to try and threaten the German left flank to slow the move forward. On the German right the cavalry charge each other, only for the Germans to be pushed back, locked in combat.

The Italian cavalry gain the upper hand.

The Italian left flank reserves still move too slowly.

Whilst on the right they have more vim and vigour.

The German grand battery cannot shift the Italian light infantry from the rocks.

The Italian troops on the hill come under extreme pressure.

The Germans offer a refused flank as their main units push forward to try and take the hill.

At the start of Turn 8, the Italian cavalry emerge victorious.

The end of Turn 8. With all to play for, both sides push towards the hills to shore up their positions or to try and take them. The Italians survive a hail of lead, losing a line infantry and cavalry unit, with others hanging on by the skin of their teeth.

The Italian left flank manages to hang on.

Troops finally reach the hill.

An Italian line infantry unit breaks on their right flank.

Italian reserve artillery deploys to shore up their central position.

Italian troops arrive just in time to ensure the right flank is secure.

The German guns have been unable to dislodge the Italians from the hill.

Italian cavalry break as they come under accurate fire.

The Germans try to break through in the centre.

End of the Game 
And after 8 hectic Turns, the Italians have managed to hand onto the objective, gaining a minor victory. Both sides had taken losses, as can be seen below.




Post Game Thoughts
Well that was great fun! Lots of actions and with relatively few troops and all on a 4' x 4' table. A few ponderings on the game as always:
  • The Italians certainly had an advantage going first, but could have lost it if the Germans had been a bit more speedy in response. In the end both sides had about to same amount of moves, so no large 3 moves bounds to adversely affect the game one way or another.
  • I decided to go with all cavalry, rather than a mix of cavalry and mounted infantry. This worked well, but I think it would have been better to have put all of the cavalry on the table at the start. A few more units are definitely required.
  • It was good to have some melee, as these rarely happen in my games, so I was rather rusty on this front, needing to read the rules quite a bit. So some homework for me on this front.
  • Having 3 unit Brigades rather than 4 worked well and maybe this is something I need to look at moving forward...
  • I liked having some civilians on the table and this has pushed me to try and add some more as well as more decorative items to help dress the table.

What Next?
Well I've put in an order with Pendraken for some more troops to help flash out my mid-19thC forces. More on these in due course. My current aim to to try and carry on painting existing forces that are primed, whilst my mojo is up for this. Certainly I'm enjoying myself painting again, with the added bonus that I have enough troops to get some games in.

Alongside this I've been looking at some background fluff to go with the above, but still early days, but lots of fun doing the research. More info to follow.

I hoped you enjoyed the photos and AAR and if so, it would be lovely for you to leave a comment.

TTFN.

18 comments:

  1. Very colourful lads you have there and a smashing table set up. Top notch AAR too!

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  2. The Germans' goose has been cooked. Splendid game photos, Steve but odd stuff on your gaming table including Italian cavalry sporting shields. Do my eyes deceive me? Why are melees rare in your low-density BP games? Is small arms fire enough to force a defender to evacuate a position?

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    1. Very good Jon! When I started out on my mid-19thC ImagiNations, I had the idea that some of the Light Infantry would be from the Balkans and/or the Austro-Hungarian borders. Some years ago I saw some photos of Albanians in the late 19thC, wearing chainmail armour, carrying swords and jezzails, so the idea stuck. So sort of historical I could argue...

      In the 1860's, cavalry rarely fought in the main battles due to the increased range and efficacy of muskets/rifles. What combat they saw was against each other when scouting, protecting artillery, baggage etc. For infantry as far as I'm aware, again firepower tended to settle things before it got up close and personal. Yes you can charge in for a melee, but best when the opponent is shaken and disordered, as they can shoot at you as you come in. Hope this makes sense?

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  3. Aha! I thoroughly enjoyed that AAR. And as Mark said, splendid table, especially with the animals and Farmer Giles.
    Like Jon, I wondered about the cavalry sporting shields and tulwars. But I like the explanation. It puts me in mind of Flashman.
    As for your duck crack, I'll have to let you off as it's a poultry offence.

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    1. Thanks Chris! I'm going to replace some of the adhoc units with 'proper' ones in due course, so the 'Balkans' chaps can be fielded as a brigade on their own. Now you've mentioned Flashman, I suppose I really need factor him in somehow and of course get a suitable figure...

      Your last line made me laugh this early morn!!!

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  4. Cracking game, the table and figures look great, love all the farm animals, add a lot to the table, although you have to pity the poor farmer having that load of louts rampaging over his land!

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    1. Thanks Donnie! I was watching an American Battlefields Trust video on Spotsylvania last night and they mentioned a family having to leg it whilst the battle raged around their property for a few days. Luckily in our games we never have to worry about the consequences.

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  5. Nice job Steve, the troops look great with their splashes of red and blue. I note that the ACW supplement ‘Glory Hallelujah’ goes out of its way to make physical contact (melee) harder compared to the earlier Napoleonic era, due to firepower.

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    1. Thanks Norm! I deliberately when quite bright colours so they pop when on the table. The ACW supplement does make it harder to get into melee, which of course is right for that theatre. I was checking out the V&F lists as well as Thomas' Wargaming 19thC Europe, for ideas on how to tweak things for say the Austrians liking to get stuck in with cold steel in the 1860's, due to misplaced lessons learnt from teh 2nd Schleswig-Holstein War.

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  6. Great looking game and a cracking AAR, Steve, nice to see you getting some tabletop action in too!

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    1. Thanks Keith! With limited things to do in the garden etc, I certainly have more time and the inclination for games.

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  7. Another good-looking game, and the Pendrakens look really good. Quite inspirational!

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    1. Thanks David and glad you found it inspirational:)!

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  8. Splendid looking game! I thought the Germans had it at one point but then their shooting wasn't up to it, haven't used blackpowder for a while, it's all been V and F but I can imagine some sort of mash up of the two as they're kind of related rulesets?
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks Iain! I think one Turn where they couldn't hit a barn door cost the Germans any chance they might have had. C'est la guerre and all that.

      I've not played V&F, but a quick glance at the rules does show many similarities with BPII, so it would be quite easy to pick bits from both should one feel the need. For example looking at the FPW lists, it wouldn't be too difficult to use the info to make ones suitable for BPII. The Fate cards could be used along the lines of Chance Cards from the likes of Featherstone et al.

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