Nyenschantz 1656

Tonight my gaming buddy Alex and I got in another game of Tercios. Alex offered to design the scenario and bring the armies which sounded great to me as I just had to come and roll dice (and push lead).

Alex chose a battle from the Russo-Swedish War of 1656-1658, he took the "Defenders of the Realm" scenario and crafted it around the siege of Nyenschantz (1656). Historically, Pyotr Potemkin took his Russian army and laid siege to the Swedish-occupied city of Nyenschantz (present day St Petersburg). 

(Pyotr Potemkin)

For the scenario, as the Russian commander, I gained victory points for damaging the fortress. The Swedes needed to destroy Russian units and prevent the Russians from causing too much damage to the fortifications. 

The Russian army deployed. A streltsi unit on the left flank with two pike and shot units in the center with an artillery battery and cavalry on the right. Facing them are two Swedish pike and shot units and cavalry on the way to the rescue.

The Russian right flank comprised of two boyar units and a unit of dragoons (adorned in red).

The Russian right and center comprised of a unit of streltsi and two mercenary pike and shot units.

A Swedish defender of the realm. The Swedes start with two pike and shot units to defend their fort but could expect three units of cuirassiers to help push back the Russian horde.

A turn of cards during the opening rounds of the battle. My plan was to get the streltsi into an assault of the fort while the pike and shot pinned the Swedish foot. Alex decided the best defense is a good offense and moved his infantry forward.

A gap opened between the Swedish infantry units and my dragoons raced through towards the fort. My artillery moved forward and began to bombard the fort before getting wiped out by a Swedish infantry unit.

The pike and shot units on each sides lugged it out and the Swedish cavalry inflicted some wear points on the boyar cavalry. As the Russian commander, I was fine with this...the boyars needed to occupy the Swedish cavalry for as long as possible. To make this happen, the boyar cavalry executed several evades to stay alive and draw the Swedish cavalry away from relieving the siege.

As the Russian center held and the boyar cavalry played a delaying action, the streltsi and the dragoons assaulted the fort. At the end of five turns, the Russians had inflicted enough damage on the fort while keeping their army (barely) intact to achieve a victory.

The game was a blast, thanks to Alex's scenario design. It was a much smaller battle than Fleurus so it played smoother and quicker. I am a big fan of the rules, the cards create friction with the command and control. Units had orders but sometimes events on the battlefield made those orders less than ideal. I look forward to more games of Tercios in the future!

Balls Bluff Visit

On the weekends, my two dogs wake up like they are shot out of a cannon. If I don't get them exercised and worm out early, they will be harassing me for the rest of the day. 

This morning, I drove a bit to Balls Bluff (Virginia) Battlefield Park. It's a place that both I and my dogs have explored countless times. Back in 1861, a few months after the first Battle of Manassas, those grounds witnessed an interesting battle (large skirmish perhaps) when a Union force crossed the Potomac River on a reconnaissance in force with less than stellar results. 

Confederate forces quickly responded and drove the Union soldiers off the steep bluffs and back into the river. A US Senator, Edward Baker, died in the battle while leading troops from his native California. 

I've always toyed with the idea of wargaming the action. I have ACW armies in 10mm that I could use Years back I speed painted armies for a Longstreet project with my gaming buddy Frank. Incidentally, Frank's rebel forces were based on the Army of Northern Virginia. I think the biggest hurdle to refight it on the tabletop is recreating the undulating terrain and the steep bluffs along the river. 

Apparently there's a board game that allows players to recreate the battle in 2D. The game has pretty decent reviews, perhaps I will just try to find a copy of the boardgame. 

 

Fleurus 1622: Tercios

This evening, Alex and I got together for a game of Liber Militum Tercios using my 10mm armies. We'd refight Fleurus between the Protestant League and the Spanish. It was a pretty decent sized battle for Tercios but I think it handled it well. 

In the scenario, General Mansfeld (yours truly) is trying to navigate his tired army back to Dutch lands but is intercepted in Spanish Flanders by General Cordoba (Alex). The Protestants need to get over half their units past the Spanish or defeat Cordoba and his army. The Spanish must prevent this. The Protestant army is bigger but they are near mutinous (to reflect this, I rated most of their cavalry as mercenary) and the Cordoba can count on some veteran units. 

View of the battle array from the Spanish side. I chose fairly historical deployments for both sides.

The Spanish left commanded by Da Silva, three units of cavalry and the baggage train which is impassable.

The mighty Spanish tercios of the center. Two of them are "viejo" which gives them veteran status. Also some artillery.

And the Spanish right under Gaucher comprising of three cavalry units...

...and a company of shot deployed in the fortified farm.

The Protestant right commanded by Christian of Brunswick. It looks like a lot (eight cavalry units) but most are mounted harqbusiers and also mercenaries. This means less hitting power and a bit more brittle than you'd think.

Another angle of Christian's cavalry flank.

The Protestant center comprising of 6 units and some artillery.

The Protestant right flank of Johan Streiff. Three cavalry units.

Turn one (from the Protestant point of view), the Protestants surge forward with "Ready" cards and Alex gets exotic with his plan. The Tercios move to the flanks and the cavalry swings toward the center. Interesting...

The beginning of Turn Two. The Protestant center manages to fire off some salvoes of musketry and cannon fire causing some wear. The Protestant right flank moves toward contact.

The Protestant right flank and the Spanish left flank surged into a large cavalry action. My poor decision-making and even worse die rolls made this a bloodbath. Here, Lintzow's mounted harqbusiers are driven off by Losada's mounted harqbusiers.

The punching power of veteran cuirassiers smashed Fleckenstein's mounted harqbusier unit.

The Protestants even managed to lose combats they should have won. Here Streiff's personal unit of cuirassiers is defeated by Benenguer's mounted harqbusiers.

Streiff's right flank dissolved with two units smashed and one disordered and in shameful retreat. "Mercenary" units are automatically removed from the table once they hit break point, whereas regular units have a chance to stay on the table.

The Protestant center was slightly more successful, driving off some Spanish cavalry and inflicting some wear markers (red or white puffs). The Protestant left was fairly indecisive, despite a numerical superiority, the Protestant mounted harqbusiers attempted ineffective carracole maneuvers and avoided coming into melee with the Spanish tercios and cavalry.

The Protestant Liebgarde infantry unit managed to shatter a foolhardy charge by Roblas mounted harqbusiers. The Spanish cavalry unit was shattered in the process...

However, Mitzlaff's "Blue" regiment of infantry was not so fortunate. They were charged by Tercio Isenberg in a bloody struggle that saw several rounds of combat. In Tercios rules, pike armed infantry combats can be declared "bad wars" by either side which extends melees. Alex invoked "bad war" over and over again until finally Mitzlaff's unit was broken.

At this point, my entire right flank was essentially gone. I had lost two cavalry units and an infantry unit on that side of the battlefield. My left flank was a swirling mess of ineffective caracoling and my center was no closer to pushing thru the Spanish opposition. At this point, Mansfeld conceded a clear defeat. Alex and his Spanish host had wone the battle.

I had a blast even though I was thoroughly thrashed. The battle played out somewhat similar to the historical outcome. Poor cavalry performance doomed the Protestant infantry in both reality and on the tabletop. Alex and I got through four turns of combat in about two hours. It was the first time playing for both of us and we chatted a bit throughout the game. The combat felt right and it was fairly simple mechanics and lots of fun. The cards littered the battlefield which some may find untidy but I didn't mind so much. I will definitely play again.

Badger Games Painting Contest

As previously mentioned, I entered the Badger Games painting competition where attendees of Adepticon voted for the winners. Badger requested participants not to post images of their entries but since Adepticon is over, I think it should be okay to post now (even tho results haven't been announced).

Without further ado, here is my entry:

Since the Space Gobbo had a retro feel, I wanted to paint him as such. I gave him a pink boom box stereo, denim pants and bandana with red star.

The back of the boom box has some retro stickers with the anarchy and NOFX stickers. Rules didn't permit modification of the base but you could decorate it. I added some mushrooms and a few spent shell casings made from plastic rod. I liked how the red armor came out, overall I was pretty pleased with the little green fella. 

I didn't get the results I wanted in the Pendraken painting competition (completely shut out from placing) and I don't expect to place in the Badger competition but I enjoyed painting the models. 

6/10mm Italian Village

In the third and final (for now) installment of posts focusing on Total Battle Miniatures villages, I present an Italian village. I anticipate this village will feature heavily in my Risorgimento battles. I have Baccus 6mm armies (unpainted of course) for the 1859 war between France and Austria. I have 3mm building options for my 6mm armies but I could just as easily use this one. 

As mentioned previously, this village is a one piece resin casting where the buildings and base are all together. 

The fact it is one piece made painting a bit of a challenge, it was tricky to get the brush to hit certain details in awkward areas 

Here I have deployed a 10mm unit of Garibaldi's redshirts into (or rather on top of) the village. Because you can't remove buildings like their other villages, the unit fits in awkwardly. 

Here we have the redshirts putting on a demonstration in front of the village. I definitely prefer the village sets with removable buildings but these aren't bad either. As I neared completion of this project, I decided to order some more buildings from TBM. This scenery emphasis the past few weeks was a nice diversion and I think I am ready to resume proper miniature painting. I have some 10mm Fenians on my paint desk that I need to tackle.

6/10mm Russian Village

As I mentioned previously, next up would most likely be another Total Battle Miniatures village set. I decided to tackle the Russian village I plan to use for my Crimean War games. So here it is finished. 

In my post on the pike and shotte village, I neglected to include a picture of the village "footprint" sans buildings. As you can see there are recesses for the buildings to fit into. I believe these are in multiples of 30mm (e.g. 30x30, 30x60, etc.). 

Here we have the village with all of the buildings. The footprint was painted with brown craft paint as a base and highlighted. The shrubbery was painted olive and given a few gradually lighter green highlights via wet and drybrush methods.

And a different angle. I used a 50/50 mix of Vallejo Shield Brown and Neutral Grey as the base color for the buildings, I drybrushed them with the same mmix but some off-white added to lighten them up and make raised details and edges pop a bit more. Once painting was done, a gloss varnish was sprayed on all parts followed by an ink washing and matte varnish. The buildings also received some diluted Army Painter military ink to give the impression of vegetation growth (moss, lichen, etc) on the natural wood.

The village with a 10mm Russian infantry battalion marching through. The figures are Magister Militum which are no longer in business. 

Now some Russian Hussars (also Magister Militum) make a visit. 

The parade of Hussars from another angle. The figure bases are 30mm wide and just sneak thru the road running thru the village.

I started working on the Italian village which I hope to finish next and display in a subsequent post. The Italian set is all one integral piece and doesn't have the advantage of modularity.  

Playtest of Liber Militum Tercios

I plan to refight the battle of Fleurus (1622) from the Thirty Years War with my gaming buddy Alex sometime in the next couple of weeks. The rules will be Liber Militum's Tercios, and while I've read through them a few times, I have never actually played them. I decided tonight would be a quick run-through of the mechanics using a few infantry units a side. 

Here's the setup: three protestant classic squadrons (left) versus two Spanish tercios (right). This is about 50% of the infantry that will be fielded in the proper battle. To keep it simple, the units are plain with no veteran, mercenary or raw status. 

One of the major components of the game mechanics are hidden order cards that are turned over alternately. The order has an action and a reaction option. The cards have less impact since I'm playing solo. For my playtest, both sides will advance initially but the tercios plan to move into melee and the protestants will stop and fire salvoes. 

The protestants (blue dice) won initiative over the Spanish (yellow ) with a score of  4-1. The protestants can choose to activate first or second. They chose first. 

At the beginning of the 2nd turn the left flank unit of the Protestants turned over a fire card, since the distance was less than 8 inches, both arqubues and muskets were in range giving them 3 dice which needed to match or exceed the tercio's defense against salvoes (which was a 4), they rolled three 6s! The tercio rolled to save the hits, using their courage rating (a 4) which meant they had 4 dice in which they needed a 4+. They only got one successful save, two hits (those red puffs) were inflicted in the tercio. Had the tercio not made any successful saves, they also would have been disordered ( a reduction in their discipline). I inadvertently gave them a white puff to denote disorder but I quickly removed it when I reread the rules. 

The other tercio surged forward to try and close into melee. The protestant middle squadron revealed their "fire" order card as a reaction. The advantage of this card is that there is no penalty for reactive fire. The protestant squadron inflicted a few hits as the tercio closed into melee. During the subsequent push of pike, the protestants got the better of it and the tercio was pushed back with a total of 4 wear markers (i.e. hits). 

The tercio with two wear markers used a resist card to remove one of them (one always stays) and the other tercio with four wear markers was able to remove one as well. Unfortunately they were charged by a protestant unit and suffered badly with 3 more hits (or wear markers) while only inflicting one on their enemy. The tercio had more hits than they had stamina and had to take.a break check. They passed this time. 

At this point, the protestant squadron decided to declare a "bad war" which can be called by either side in a melee of both units are armed with pikes. In the event of a "bad war", melee is continued for another round. This happened a few more times until the tercio failed a break check and was broken. At this point, I called the playtest complete. 

I did some things wrong but I got a good idea of how the basic mechanics work. I imagine there will be more to learn with cavalry, artillery and terrain on the tabletop (especially all of it present at the same time). The Spanish performed poorly because of bad dice rolls and my assumption that tercios would be significantly more devastating in melee. They aren't. The tercios benefit from being more resilient and harder to flank but that is about it. I enjoyed the rules and look forward to more playtest and a proper game.