Cycling and CC:A

I drove down to Moscow on Saturday for cycling and a CCA game with Jake.

For CCA, Jake singled out the 2nd Battle of Beneventum. I took command of the Carthaginians while Jake commanded the Romans. The battle started off well for the Carthaginians as I pressed the attack on the right. The Romans took heavy casualties and two units were destroyed. Jake thought all was lost but he brought the heavy infantry up with Gracchus attached and stopped my attack. Romans then took advantage of the over-extended Carthaginian right by destroying two Carthaginian units. Both sides then closed on the Carthaginian left and the initial Carthaginian elephant attack was repulsed. Romans counterattacked and was stopped. Jake attacked again and this time broke through the Carthaginian left. In these attacks/counterattacks, the Carthaginian lost three medium infantry units. These losses dropped the Carthaginian offensive capability to near zero. The Roman player then picked off one more unit in the center and killed the attached leader.

Battle of Beneventum ended with a 7-4 Roman victory.

28mm Napoleonic Project:
In preparation for Kevin's Napoleonic game on the 23rd, I committed to painting two squadrons of British light dragoons. I also managed to complete one more British line battalion in time for the game. Well, not quite completed since I still have to dip and base the figures but will be completed by Sunday. Also nearing completion are 10 dismounted dragoons.

GBACW

Two more games from the GBACW series arrived in Wednesday's post. Now I can add Pleasant Hill (S&T 106) and The Horse Soldiers (S&T 119) to the growing collection. Both games are unpunched and in mint condition. I also found a second copy of Stonewall (S&T 67) in unpunched condition at a bargain price that will be arriving shortly.
Getting back to ACW, boardgames, and miniatures, one of the mechanisms that I favor from the GBACW that I want to port over to RFF is Brigade Combat Effectiveness (BCE). With this rule, a brigadier can only push his formation so hard before it begins losing cohesion, effectiveness, and the ability to conduct offensive actions. BCE is governed solely upon casualties; the levels of which are computed as number of stands remaining.

By adding BCE, generals are encouraged to fight a balanced battle with no, one brigade taking the brunt of the punishment. If done, that brigade will quickly lose offense capability. Rotating brigades in and out of 'hot' combat zones helps to prevent any one brigade from sustaining crippling casualties. While RFF does have Regimental Combat Effectiveness (RCE) in the Effectiveness Levels of Fresh, Worn, and Spent, there is no such mechanism at the brigade level. Of course, RFF's Heavy Casualties level does affect performance at the army level.
How will BCE levels be computed? My thought is to sum all of the Fresh, Worn, and Spent values within each brigade to arrive at the equivalent BCE. Using the RFF OB from a Cedar Mountain scenario, Gordon's Brigade is given as,

Gordon - 3 BDE	Able
27 Indiana	RM 16/12/8	VET
2 Maine	RM 12/8/5	CRK
3 Wisconsin	SM 16/12/8	TRN
Pa Zouaves d'Afriq	SM 6/5/3	VET
Sum(Fresh)	50	Stand Effectiveness (SE)
Sum(Worn)	37	Combat Effectiveness (CE)
Sum(Spent)	24	Lost Combat Effectiveness (LCE)

Summing over all Fresh levels yields 50 stands at maximum effectiveness (SE). When the brigade falls to 37 stands, the BCE drops to CE. Finally, when the brigade has only 24 stands remaining, BCE drops to LCE. the effects for a brigade being at SE is that the brigadier has a +1 DRM to rolls the Maneuver Table. Brigades at CE operate as they normally do. Brigades that have Lost Combat Effectiveness (LCE) have a -1 DRM to rolls on the Maneuver Table, may not initiate assault, and may not voluntarily move into small arms range of enemy units.

There are other limitations for BCE but these lay a basis for thought. Tracking stand loss for BCE may require too much bookkeeping for some. Since each of my regiments begin the game with three flag bases (one for each effectiveness level) and I use the number of flags remaining on the regiment to denote its current effectiveness, tracking flags per brigade may provide an easy alternative. In the example of Gordon's brigade above, when the brigade loses a total of four flags, the brigade drops to CE. When a total of eight flags have been lost (or when only four flags remain among the brigade), the brigade drops to LCE. I'll try this in my next game.

Now, back to painting...

GBACW and 28mm Napoleonics

Painting totals for August have been amended to reflect the 24 French figures I forgot to add into the totals. So, August nows includes 2 x 12 figure French battalions for the Second Italian War of Independence. I also missed counting a gun and crew in July.

While I have long been a fan of the Gamers' Civil War Brigades series of games, my first, serial taste of ACW boardgaming was with Richard Berg's Great Battles of the American Civil War (GBACW) series. At one time, I owned Cedar Mountain, Jackson at the Crossroads, Corinth, Bloody April, Gleam of Bayonets, Guns of Cedar Creek, and Pea Ridge. From this collection, only Cedar Mountain and Guns of Cedar Creek remained. I kept Cedar Mountain since it is one of my favorites and Guns of Cedar Creek because it was a review copy I received from The Wargamer.

Also added to the ACW regimental collection was Road to Washington (RtW) by Command Perspectives. RtW is a regimental treatment of Second Manassas which I have been eyeing for more than 30 years after reading a bio of the designer and his designer's notes in an old issue of Fire and Movement. RtW infrequently appears for sale and I snatched up a used copy when I had the chance. RtW appears to be a game ahead of its time and The Gamers' CWB series seems to have its foundation on many of the concepts. My thought is to explore both series for ideas for translating into miniature rules.

28mm Napoleonic Project:
Painting progress on the British line infantry (to be designated the 26th) has been halted to make way for the British light dragoons. The dragoons jumped ahead of the infantry in order to have these troopers available for Kevin's Napoleonic game on 23SEP2012. The Front Rank cavalry will become two squadrons of the 14th Light Dragoons. Painting will resume on the infantry once the cavalry have moved off the painting table.

Arriving into my mailbox this week was an order from Brigade Games. In the package were French dismounted dragoons and French Gendarmerie from Lon's excellent early Napoleonic line. These are some of Paul Hicks' latest figures and they are the best to date. Exquisite detail and superb casting. Photos of these figures can be seen on Brigade Games website (http://www.brigadegames.com/French_c_346.html). In hand, these figures are even better than in the photos. Well done! The dismounted dragoons will become a welcome addition to the collection and I may field the gendarmes as consular guard or grenadiers.

I went back to the mounted command figures and gave each a treatment of the Minwax dip. The problem I am having is that a few selective, spots on a few figures are not being dulled by the topcoat. Repeating the process seems to work on some figures. What is going on? Is it a bad can of dullcote? The last batch of Dullcote I bought has a different label. I wonder if the recipe changed?    

Monthly Painting Tally AUG 2012

With no chance of completing any more figures in August, I'll close out the month a few days early. Production would have been quite low had it not been for the late addition of 96 6mm Romans.

Monthly Painting Tally for AUG 2012

Unit_Name	Nation	Era	Scale	Figure Cnt	Equip Cnt
Line Regiment	France	Italian War of Independence	15mm	24
6th Portuguese Cacadore Battalion	Portugal	Napoleonic Wars	28mm	16
Hastati	Rome	Punic Wars	6mm	48
Princepes	Rome	Punic Wars	6mm	48
German Infantry	Germany	WWII	28mm	10
		Totals		146

28mm World War II Project:
Ten BTD Germans are finished with a photo of four of the figures below. The BTD Germans are nicely sculpted with good detail and mix of poses and equipment.



28mm Napoleonic Project:
Added one battalion of Portuguese cacadores (6th) to the collection. The battalion comprises twelve formed troops and four skirmishers. The Portuguese are all Front Rank. On the painting table is one battalion of Brigade Games' British line. Up next for the project will be eight British Light Dragoons.

Battle of Zama with CC:A

Nick stopped Saturday evening for dinner, retrieve his daughter and play a couple of games of CCA. We gamed Bagradas twice using 6mm miniatures rather than the blocks. The first game, I played the Romans and then swapped sides for game number two. The Romans were victorious in both games despite my perception that the Romans should be underdogs in this scenario. In my solo plays, Carthage tended to win about 75% of the games so I expected the same tendency in FtF play. Perhaps, my sample size of two FtF games was too small to support my thesis. Anyway, the games were closely contested with the Romans winning 7-5, 7-6.

Next scenario up for solitaire play is Zama. Below is the initial deployment.

In the first game, Romans won 8-2 with a quick envelopment of the flanks and then the destruction of the elephants in the center. It was over before the Carthaginians got going. The only two banners the Carthaginians managed to gain were the result of one combat where one medium horse and an attached leader were taken. The loss of the Roman horse and leader prompted me to consider the action I took to destroy these two units.

The diagram below depicts the situation at the start of the Carthaginian turn. The Roman horse with leader faces a Carthaginian warband with leader. 

Carthage plays a 'three unit right' card and moves the light infantry two hexes to block the left rear retreat hex for the Roman while the warband moves two hexes to cut the right rear retreat hex.

The Carthaginian medium infantry moves adjacent to the Roman horse taking the position vacated by the warband.

With Roman escape blocked, the warband attacks since it must Close Combat having moved two hexes. The Roman horse took one hit and two flags and was forced to retreat. With no retreat, the horse was destroyed. The leader, alone in the hex, was killed on a single roll of 'helmet.'

After making this move, I wondered if this encircling tactic could be justified on the ancient battlefield. Should enemy units project a ZOC that would stop such penetrations or is this attack deserving for those units finding themselves over-extended?

Battle of Bagradas and CC:A in Miniature

BTD USA has been receiving a light barrage of orders from me in the last two months. Their frequent, deep-discount sales push me over the edge. The July 4th sale was another opportunity for BTD USA to drawn me into ordering more troops. With nearly 53% discount from retail, I ordered two platoons of WWII Germans and a second dozen Cretan archers. Luckily for me, the WWII figures paint quickly. Another recent purchase includes an order from Renegade. In the package were slingers and Roman cavalry. In an early order, two of the Roman cavalry horses were damaged. With this order, I noted the damage and requested replacements. This order contained four additional horses in excellent condition.

Not much painting has been accomplished thus far in August. Only 16 28mm Portuguese have been completed with nine 28mm WWII Germans on the painting table. Why has painting dropped so much in August? Family commitments have contributed to the slip but I've also been working on transferring Command and Colors: Ancients to the tabletop. I picked up a Woodland Scenics grass map from a local model train shop and spray painted the hex grid over the mat. The initial troop deployments from the scenario, Bagradas, are shown in the photo below.

Project Updates

BTD USA has been receiving a light barrage of orders from me in the last two months. Their frequent, deep-discount sales push me over the edge. The July 4th sale was another opportunity for BTD USA to drawn me into ordering more troops. With nearly 53% discount from retail, I ordered two platoons of WWII Germans and a second dozen Cretan archers. Luckily for me, the WWII figures paint quickly.

28mm American War of Independence Project:Hessian Fusilier Regiment von Lossberg (or alt-von Lossberg) is finished. Now, the German contingent comprises three musketeer regiments, two fusilier regiments, two companies or jagers, one combined grenadier regiment, and two guns. 

15mm Second War of Italian Independence Project:
Two battalions of Austrian line infantry (Freikorps) and one battalion of French line infantry (WTNW with Old Glory command) were completed by the end of July. My July Mirliton order arrived on the 31st containing more guns and cavalry. The Austrian guns and crew are especially well-done and surpass their Old Glory equivalents.

Since cavalry makes up a small proportion of the forces in 1859 OBs, I may switch to Mirliton for all remaining cavalry. What I will do with the Old Glory figures is yet to be decided. Most of the Old Glory cavalry are a bit spindly but some of these defects may be caused by mis-casting. On the painting table are two more French battalions using the WTNW/Old Glory combination and three Mirliton Austrian guns and crew.

18mm SYW Project:
Battalion #1 of Austrian IR#2 passed across the painting table in July.

Monthly Painting Tally for JUL 2012

Unit_Name	Nation	Era	Scale	Figure Cnt	Equip Cnt
Regiment von Lossberg Fusiliers	Hesse-Cassel	American War of Independence	28mm	24
Artillery and 4 crew	Piedmont	Italian War of Independence	15mm	4	1
Infantry Regiment #37 Bn 1	Austria	Italian War of Independence	15mm	18
Infantry Regiment #39 Bn 1	Austria	Italian War of Independence	15mm	18
Line Regiment	France	Italian War of Independence	15mm	12
Erzherzog Karl IR#2/1 w/mtd cmd	Austria	Seven Years War	18mm	23
Sailors	Spain	Spanish-American War	25mm	16
		Totals		115	1