Ouch! A "Lost Day" --

Monday afternoon my dear wife started feeling poorly and as she got worse I had to take her to the Hospital Emergency Room.

Well, without going into details, they were able to deal with her problems and we got home about 2 am. And due to the stress of it all, we were both still "wiped out" today (Tuesday) . . . but at least she is on the mend and does feel a lot better (although she's having to take it VERY easy).

About all that I accomplished today (as far as prepping for the game is concerned) was to get some foam cut to create the hills for the Battle of Wollmitz.

I've drawn a very rough approximation of the map (those who have access to THE WAR GAME will see a better rendition). It is, of course, based on the battle of Mollwitz.

Saxe-Bearstein will have the "Prussian" position (entering from the bottom of the map); while those vile Stagonians will be defending the upper portion ("Austrian" position).

Since the Grants did not follow the historical deployment, I'll certainly not limit either side's choices.

By the way, we deploy by taking turns placing Brigadiers down on the table. Once these are down, then troops are deployed anywhere (presumably within the brigadier's command radius -- but if not, they'll have to wait until he gets to them). After troops are deployed, the Generals are positioned.

One of the things that has been delayed is the completion of my "ground cloth". I couldn't find any more of the cloth that I originally purchased (I had purchased all that they had before) . . . but I was able to find something fairly close that we've cut and my goodwife has been piecing it together for me. Hopefully she will be able to finish sewing the added pieces so that it will actually be big enough to cover the table.

Still, there is a great deal of other preparation to do before Sunday . . . and I'm currently so worn down by the stress of Lani's illness that I didn't have the energy today . . . but at least my dear bride is feeling better (which is a great relief).

It will get done, of course. I might not have all of the "bells and whistles" that I wanted to have, but we'll have troops and terrain.


-- Jeff

A Punitive Expedition is Planned

Saxe-Bearstein's ruler, Furst Bruno von Ursa, has determined that the vile Stagonian menace needs to be reminded that their nefarious actions incur repercussions.

In other words, he has decided to send an army into the very lair of their viciously cruel country. He has therefor detailed the following officers and units to effect this punitive expedition (note: with their "Tricorne Wars" information in italics):

General Baron Helmut von Pilsner -- (Aggressive, inertia 3, initiative 3 -- 10" command radius -- 2 AdC)
Lt. General Hertz von Stout -- (Steady, inertia 2, initiative 1 -- 14" command radius -- 1 AdC)

Brig. Ernst von Bruin -- (Steady, inertia 2, initiative 1 -- 11" mounted command; 6" if foot)
Brig. Dieter von Maltz -- (Careful, inertia 1, initiative 2 -- 10" mounted command; 5" if foot)
Brig. Wolfgang "Bud" von Weiser -- (Aggressive, inertia 3, initiative 1 -- 13" if mounted command; 8" if foot)
Brig. Baron Viktor von Zendabrau -- (Political, inertia 2, initiative 1 -- 11" if mounted command; 7" if foot)

The following troops have been assigned to fill out the various commands as Gen. von Pilsner sees fit (along with their rating in italics):

"The Bears" Foot Guards (guard)
IR-1 von Becks (veteran)
IR-2 von Grolsch (veteran)
IR-3 von Urquell (veteran)
IR-4 von Schlitz (veteran)
IR-6 von Carling (veteran)
IR-7 von Molson (elite)
IR-8 von Doppelbock (raw)
IR-9 von Veltins (raw)
IR-10 von Lowenbrau (raw)

von Comocks Kuirassiers (veteran Trotters)
von Eigerbrau Ritters (raw Gallopers)
Wildschwein Dragoons (elite Dragoons)

Furst Bruno has also assigned considerable artillery to the army. (Note that all are crewed by "veteran" class gunners):

3 x Medium Gun batteries of 6 pounders
3 x Light Gun batteries of 3 pounders

============

The above are the forces for our upcoming (June 15) quasi-refight of the Battle of Mollwitz from Charles Grant's book "The War Game". Stagonia will be taking on the "Austrian" positions and Saxe-Bearstein will be serving as the "Prussian" attacker.

As currently envisioned, Murdock will be in command of Stagonia and Ross Macfarlane, visiting from eastern Canada, will be the Saxe-Bearstein commander.


-- Jeff

Planning the Battle of Wollmitz --

Yikes! It is only a little over three weeks until Ross Macfarlane will be visiting Vancouver Island. The plan is that he (and perhaps a friend or two) will drive up to Courtenay and we'll get a game in.

So Saxe-Bearstein has decided to teach those vile Stagonians a lesson. The plan is to capture the key area surrounding the town of Wollmitz.

This battle will be based on the "cut-down" Mollwitz battle from Grant's "The War Game". Of course we won't be using Grant's rules since our forces are much smaller (25-man infantry battalions instead of 53 for example). In addition my table is 5'x8' (instead of Grant's 7'x9' table).

We will use my "Tricorne Wars" rules and give the scenario a try. Saxe-Bearstein will take on the "Prussian" role with 10 battalions of foot and 3 cavalry regiments. Stagonia will have the "Austrian" mix of 7 battalions of foot and 6 cavalry regiments. In addition the vile ones will be on the short end of the artillery mix with 3 guns to the 6 for the good guys.

So now I have three weeks to make sure that all of the pieces are in place. It won't be the same as Partizan re-fight of last year when a number of gaming luminaries used the original buildings and figures . . . but I expect that we'll have a good time anyway.


-- Jeff

What I've Been Doing --

Last Sunday Pete came over for our weekly painting session. Since I didn't have any primed SYW figures . . . and since my thoughts had turned to the Colonial period lately . . . I dug out a couple of boxes with some partially painted 28mm Old Glory Colonial figures.

Mind you, I wasn't starting from scratch. All were primed and most had some paint on them. Anyway I've been busy. Except for flocking the bases, I now have:

60 painted Sepoys
35 painted Egyptians
30 painted Sudanese
10 painted Egyptian cavalry
10 painted but not yet based Pathan Swordsmen

All of the above were finished this past week. Add to these the 40 Pathan Jezailmen I already had finished and I've got quite a good start on my the period.


-- Jeff

A Future Project --

I long ago realized that it is a good idea to take a break every now and again from one's main gaming focus . . . and, when doing so to go to something very different in feel.

Yes, the 18th century is my primary focus . . . but I know that I'll eventually need something else for a "change of pace".

To the left you will see the image of an imaginary continent somewhere in the Indian Ocean.

It is known as Afristan and has, late in the 19th century just become known to the "civilized" world. (Note -- if you click on the image you will get to see a larger version of it).

Of course it is far from being uninhabited. There are at least a dozen different "tribes" living here. Some are of African descent; some of various "Islamic" peoples. And there are those persistent rumors of some mysterious peoples living high in the mountains.

My hope -- once we develop more miniature gamers in our area -- is to have at least four main "European" nations attempting to explore and exploit this previously unexplored continent.

My thought is to have one player each for the British, French, Germans and Turks. I've already got British and Turks (mainly Sepoys and Egyptians). I'll use French Foreign Legion troops for the French; and find something for the Germans.

For rules, I'm currently thinking of a sort of mixture of "The Sword and the Flame", "G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T." and some of my own ideas, which I've been putting together as my own Colonial rules called . . . "Khyber Knife".

Yes, the title is taken from some of Kipling's verse. In this case, from "The Ballad of East and West":

They have looked each other between the eyes, and there they found no fault,

They have taken the Oath of the Brother-in-Blood on leavened bread and salt:
They have taken the Oath of the Brother-in-Blood on fire and fresh-cut sod,
On the hilt and the haft of the Khyber knife, and the Wondrous Names of God.

Of course this project is quite some time in the future, but the skirmish-style of the action should provide a good change-of-pace from our "Wars for Arcadian Glory" SYW actions.


-- Jeff

Something Different --

Well, I played something different this evening. I played in a Savage Worlds game that someone started up here on Vancouver Island.

Sure, it is a "role-playing game", but it has a heavy miniatures aspect to it. Indeed, there is a miniatures version called Savage Worlds Showdown . . . and although we officially played the RPG, the Game Master likes to use tabletop setups.

Our group of six currently finds ourselves aboard an apparently abandoned (and sabotaged) Zeppelin somewhere over the western Atlantic.

Since we are playing in the "Pulp" genre, is it any surprise that we are currently under attack by Nazi Zombies? (Okay, the GM says that they're really ghouls . . . but that lacks the vocal flair of Nazi Zombies).

All of us (except the GM) were new to these rules, so a fair portion of the evening was allocated to explaining and outfitting our characters.

Still, we started in Rio; had some encounters with local toughs and some unpleasant Germans at the mouth of the Amazon; learned some information in Panama; were intrigued by a strange pyramid in Belize; and dropped onto the Zeppelin at nightfall from a flying boat . . . all of this before we encountered the NZs.

No, not New Zealanders . . . Nazi Zombies.

I enjoyed it and see some interesting possibilities with these rules . . . one of my thoughts has been a VSF campaign . . . or possibly just a Colonial campaign. Anyway, we will meet again in a fortnight and pick up where we left off (with swarming NZs and weakening flashlights).


-- Jeff

2nd "Victory Without Quarter" Game --

Well Pete came over and we played our second game of Clarence Harrison's ECW rules, "Victory Without Quarter" . . . although, once again, we were playing on the continent in the mid-17th century instead of on England's green fields.

This time we played with those "corrections" which Clarence mentioned in his comment to me after the previous post. Thus only the side moving got to shoot. It worked fine that way . . . uh, I mean that it was horrible (translation -- I lost the game).

We set this up as a Duchy of the North vs Kingdom of Stagonia battle. The forces were equal, but we randomly pulled one mounted unit and one foote battalion from each side for later random reinforcements.

With shooting only from the "acting" side, there was a lot more "see-saw" action, with the advantage teetering back and forth. We also had a number of events. Pete's C-in-C felt that his safety must be insured and abandoned the battle on turn 4 (we played 14 full turns -- three of which went to either the last or next-to-last card in the deck -- before Stagonia conceded).

Speaking of Events, the Brigadier who assumed command of the Duchy's forces later fell off of his horse and was stunned for a turn. He also had a cavalry unit lose movement because they were too tired . . . and even on the last turn, one of his foote battalions decided to go home.

So, with all of these bad things happening to Pete, how did I lose?

Anyway, our biggest rules question had to do with "continuing combats". What happens when a fight doesn't end after the first round? Do we fight the second round immediately? What if troops are still in combat?

Another question occurred when one of my cavalry units destroyed its opponent (another cav unit). They were supposed to "pursue" . . . well, figuring that not every rider was killed in melee (although the unit was picked up), that there must have been some riders fleeing, we decided that the pursuit was proper . . . which slammed us into the new unit waiting just 3" back (directly behind the new unit).

So, just when would this combat be fought?

Still, all-in-all we had a fun contest (even though Pete beat me -- despite having lousy luck with the Events). We will undoubtedly play this again.


-- Jeff