A Chance Encounter - An Honours of War AAR

Following the recent Cotswold Wargaming Day, my mind has been somewhat focused on the 18thC when it comes to wargaming. Having seen Karl's wonderful British troops at the show, I decided to treat myself to a small force from Pendraken. Now they could fight my Austrians, but with our daughter in Edinburgh at Uni and our foray into the '45 a year or so ago, a Jacobite force was an obvious choice, figures again from Pendraken. 

So whilst in the 18thC groove and with some time on my hands, I thought it time to dig out my wooden blocks and get a game of HoW in. Now I have plenty of scenario books kicking around, so I dug out my copy of 'Scenarios For All ages' by Grant & Asquith and decided upon 'Scenario 25: Chance Encounters.' The broad details are that both sides are advancing either side of a river, unaware of each others presence due to early morning mist. Once the mist burns off, the are suddenly aware of each other. I thought this would make for something a bit different. More information can be found below:

Scenario Details

Both sides organise there forces into a line-of-march as they see fit. This is how they will enter via their respective table edges. How far in they are when the mist lifts is determined by the roll of a D6, the number relating to how close they are to one of the 3 bridges over the small stream. The stream is fordable, but it is vital to take control of the bridges to allow artillery and supply wagons to cross the stream

Order of Battle for Prussia & Austria

Both sides have identical troops, but the quality of their commanders is determined after they have been placed (Note that the Prussians use the post 1760 table). Both sides ended up with Dithering Cavalry Brigade commanders, whilst the Austrians managed to get a Dashing Infantry Brigade commander

1 x Cavalry Brigade with 2 units of Dragoons.

1 x Infantry Brigade with 2 units of Line infantry

1 x Infantry Brigade with 1 unit of Grenadiers (Superior), 1 unit of Line infantry and 1 Light Artillery piece (rated as Superior for the Austrians)

1 x Light Infantry unit (Independent)

For ease of set up, both sides deployed in the same line-of-march, with the Prussians having the head of their column in the middle of the table, whilst the Austrians only managed to be opposite the first bridge crossing. So with both sides deployed, it was time to get on with the game. I've annotated the images to hopefully give you an idea of how the game went.

The Austrians (Red) have just become aware of the Prussians (Blue) over the other side of the river.

The Austrian line-of-march, with the Light Infantry in the lead and the Dragoons at the rear helping to protect the Light Artillery.

The Prussians in the same formation.

The Prussians got to move first, but their lead infantry rolled a Poor result, leaving them to move into line only. On the other hand, the Austrians rolled Admirable & Inspiring, allowing their troops to quickly advance towards the centre of the table.

The Cavalry moved off to the left flank, whilst the Light Infantry occupied the village.

The Prussians had to move past the road block of infantry, but easily moved into the town, with their Grandiers in the lead.

The Prussians failed to make any real progress, just moving their Light infantry into the woods by one of the crossings over the stream. The Austrians lead formation failed to move, forcing their centre to move past them.

The Austrians manage to form what resembles a battle line.

The Prussians are all at 'sixes-and-sevens' at present.

Both sides suffered some Poor command rolls, which really hampered their planned deployments.

The austrian centre pushed towards the bridge, but their left flank is somewhat congested.

The Prussians left flank manages to clear the town.

Both sides managed some good command rolls, with the Austrians taking good positions by the left and central bridges.

The Austrian right flank and centre face the Prussian left. Both sides have deployed their Light Artillery.

The Austrian cavalry are ably supported by the Light Infantry.

Both sides begin to exchange fire, with the Prussians getting an early upper hand. The Austrian cavalry, poised to cross the stream, rolled a Feeble command and could only form into a two deep formation.

An Austrian unit has to retreat to reform, with the Austrians taking more hits than the Prussians.

The firefight continued, with both sides having units having to retreat to reform. Once again the Austrian cavalry rolled a Feeble, leaving the Prussian cavalry free to move up to the other side of the bridge.

Both sides have units reforming.

The Prussians suffer from canister fire from the Austrian light artillery.

A bit of a Mexican stand off develops as both sides face off across the bridge.

The Austrian Dashing commander rolls an Inspiring command roll and so must move towards the Prussians, bringing him into canister range. Neither sides shooting causes and reform moves this Turn.

The Austrian Light Infantry cross the stream to take the fight to their Prussian counterparts.

The Austrian left and centre take a bit of a hammering from the combined Prussian fire, causing them to fall back and reform. On the Austrian left, a cavalry charge sees both sides losing one unit of cavalry.

The Austrians under pressure from the Prussians.

The cavalry have a bout of mutually assured destruction.

The Austrians are under severe pressure, with their cavalry gone and being pressured in the centre and on the right.

The Austrians feeling the heat.

The Austrian left flank is wide open, with only the Light Infantry to try and hold it.

The view from the Prussian side shows how the net is closing in on the Austrians.

At this point I called it a day, with the Prussians in the slight ascendancy and with another round of good shooting, the distinct possibility that the Austrians would be blown away.

Post Game Thoughts.

After a drought on the gaming front over the Summer, it was nice to be able to get another game in so soon. Once again Honours of War failed to disappoint, with them being my 'go-to' rules for the SYW and 18thC.

• The scenario worked well, despite it being quite different from the normal linear warfare of the period. It certainly made it quite hard to easily deploy both sides units in a way that they could support each other, but it was nice to have a different challenge for once. I think maybe a little more depth to the table would have helped.
• I thought that the Prussians being that bit further onto the table would give them an early advantage, but this didn't prove to be the case. The varied command rolls from both sides made sure of this, with early good Austrian rolls off setting the Prussian advantage.
• The Prussians managing to gain fire superiority at a crucial time proved to be the turning point in the game. However it could easily have gone the other way if the Austrian die rolling had been better.
• It was good to get my wooden blocks back onto the table and it is something I should do more often. I know they don't look anywhere near as good as painted figures, but they are so versatile, it allows me to try so many different rulesets and periods with them. The only thing I need to do is make some smaller command stands, as the current ones are simply too big.
• I'm slowly replacing a lot of my terrain that I originally made for use with 28mm and 15mm figures. When playing HoW most of it is simply too big. However when playing BKCII, a lot of it is still fine. Anything no longer of any use I will try and sell. I know I certainly need to make some rivers, streams and roads, some of which are already in progress.

This weekend is the Colours show, so I'm looking forward to going to see what's on offer this year and to meet up with some of my wargaming friends. To date there is no info on what games are being put on, which is a real shame as it is something that the organisers are always a bit tardy in doing. 

I'm not sure what my next game will be, maybe some BKCII to get my tanks on the table again and my stalled Normandy campaign going again, or maybe something at the show will inspire me. Watch this space...

Cotswold Wargaming Day - the start of my campaigning season

My mind tends to wander more towards wargaming as the evenings begin to shorten and the prospect of a visit to Colours beckons. However this year my campaigning season started earlier than normal with a visit to the picturesque town of North Leach in the Cotswolds for the inaugural Cotswolds Wargaming Day. This had originally been planned for an early Spring campaign, but some snow put pay to that. 

North Leach happens to be where my friend Keith Flint, author of 'Honours of War' and organiser of the show lives and, by happy chance, also the reside of one Stuart Asquith. Luckily the town (more like a village in size) happens to have a wonderful village community centre that was the venue for the show. So an early start saw us all set up and ready to start before the 'official' kick-off time of 10.00am. I will try and let the captions tell the story of the various games where applicable, as well as giving an impression of the day itself.

The Battle for Nord Auslaugen

I volunteered to put on a game of 'Honours of War' with Paul, one of Keith's friends. After some thought Keith and I chose a scenario from the HoW forum that was created by Forum member Damnitz. We tweaked it slightly for the day, but in essence it was the same scenario. In short the British and Austrians where striving to take control of the approaches to a vital crossing that was guarding the main Austrian Army's flank.

The view from the Austrian lines, looking towards the redoubt and the village.

Fellow player Karl's British arrived in line of march and damned fine they looked too.

The Austrian centre and right flank.

Another view of the British arriving for battle.

A view from the orchard towards the objectives of the village, the redoubt and the bridge.

Karl is in the foreground, with in the background from the left; Paul, Nigel and Dave Fielder, the latter my Nemesis on many an occasion on the wargames table.

Karl moving his troops.

A good die roll by Nigel saw the Austrians steal a march on the British, allowing them to occupy the vital redoubt. 

A view of the British left flank moving towards the woods and the orchard, with other troops moving into the village.

The Austrian cavalry on the right flank move forwards to counter the British move.

The British ready to defend the village at all costs.

A 'Mexican stand off' developed by the orchard.

The British attempt to shoot the Austrians out of the redoubt.

The Austrian Hussars, rated as Inferior, were the heroes of the day and saviours of the Austrian position, as in several combats they saw off the Superior British Cuirassiers and Standard Dragoons, sacrificing themselves in the process.

The 'thin red line'.

Despite valiant attempts, the British simply could not make head way against the Austrians. With the British controlling one objective and the Austrians two, we decided to call it a minor Austrian victory.

Somewhere in Normandy 1944

John, another of Keith's friends, put on a game of Battlegroup Panzergrenadier, set somewhere in NWE in 1944, the exact details of which I have forgotten I'm afraid. The game looked good with lots of unknowns as to where the enemy where, so much so in fact that I bought a copy off ebay today to have a gander.

Keith's son attempts to get his British Paras moving.

Some Shermans gang up on a PzIV.

The Battle of Britain

Bruce brought along his own set of rules for the Battle of Britain and, from what I saw, they looked to be pretty good. Hopefully next time I will get to give them a go. Bruce also had the distinction of raising the bar on the catering front by having some caviar for lunch! 

257 squadron ready to fly out over the channel looking for the enemy. It is hard to believe that these are 1:600 scale planes as the painting is simply staggering.

The enemy in the form of the Italian Airforce. Again the painting had to be seen to be believed.

Waves of Italian bombers and their fighter escorts are being intercepted by our brave chaps.

Frankly, how could you not like these planes?

The Seven Years War

Will put on a game using Der Alte Fritz's own rules, with Hinton Hunt figures IIRC. Whatever they were, they looked fabulous and were wonderfully painted.

An overview of the game.

Marching off to war.

The Faller railway buildings complemented the figures.

The flags simply added to the overall visual appeal of the game.

There were some nice bits of scenery too that I was impressed by.

Talavera 1809

I have to admit I can't remember who put on this game, but it looked fantastic and won the 'Stuart Asquith Trophy'. 

A view down the long table that really made it feel like a large battle.

The town looked great.

The defenders in position.

Each command was identified which, if you know the battle, would help make sense of what was going on.

The advance begins.

Show Thoughts

For a first show, I thought it all went remarkable well. Hats off to Keith for organising this as we all appreciated it. It was a really nice day out, very relaxed with some lovely games on show and in a wonderful setting. So my highlights of the show were, in no particular order:

• Meeting Stuart Asquith again and having a really good chat about wargaming. Thoroughly enjoyable and something I will remember for many a long year.
• Seeing Bruce's 1:600 scale aircraft. I never really been attracted to air battles, but his rules and planes certainly piqued my interest.
• Catching up with my friend and wargames Nemesis Dave Fielder. Nice to take part in a game with him again and just shoot the breeze for a bit once the game had finished.
• Seeing Will's lovely, lovely 'Old School' figures that I have heard about, but never seen in the flesh before.
• Karls' British were a joy to behold and I'm really tempted to get some Pendraken 10mm ones for my SYW Armies.
• The Bring'n'Buy became more like a free give away for books and I came away with some nice stuff, so was very happy. Also some of my surplus books found a good home which was great.

So all-in-all a success I feel and I think the consensus was that we all hope Keith is able to organise another get together for next year.