With MacDuff to the Frontier BatRep

Initial dispositions

As mentioned in my last post, remote gaming has been going strong. A game last Saturday was a playtest for an upcoming convention game hosted by Ross of Battle Game of the Month blog.  Ross made a call for volunteers and I threw my hat into the ring to revisit Ross’ rules, With MacDuff to the Frontier.

The battle would be an action from the French Revolutionary Wars wherein the Allies (British and Hessian) would be defending the crossing at Belmont.  The British are drawn up at the bridge and in front of Belmont while the Hessians are positioned covering the ford.   I am put in charge of the Hessian contingent.  No disposition of enemy forces are given but the following instructions are provided:

General Freitag, The Emperor desires you to take command of the force guarding the ford over the St Croix river near Belmont.

Your immediate force consists of Col Ross's Freikorps consisting of a squadron of lancers and a company of light infantry, and a detachment of Hesse Darmstadt Jaegers.

A battalion of Hessians is on the march to reinforce you and should arrive by midmorning.

On your right there is an English force guarding the bridge but on your left, beyond the Bois Inconnu, there are no allied forces for 10 miles. At all costs the enemy must not seize the crossings at Belmont.

With that, the Allies await for the French to appear.

First, French skirmishers appear opposite the bridge near Belmont.

Followed closely by veteran infantry.  The Blancs.

Then, skirmishers and a section of guns appears on the right opposite the ford.  The French skirmishers come on quickly under support of their artillery.  Both sides begin to suffer casualties as the enemy presses on to the river.

As the French close upon both the bridge and ford, fighting intensifies with many a soldier dropping.  The French skirmishers attacking the Hessian light infantry at the ford are dispatched in a quick fashion.

But wait!  What is the commotion off to the Allied left?

The attack on the bridge and ford was a diversionary pinning action.  Much of the enemy has fallen upon the Allied flank!

The Hessians quickly redeploy to cover this new development.  The German lancers charge into the oncoming enemy to buy time while the Hessian jaegers take up a defensive position in the woods.

Outnumbered, the brave Hessians fight hard as ground is given up sparingly.  They fall back upon their reserves and reinforcements debouch from the town.  The Scot's Greys and Hessian lancers charge time and time again.  Have these horsemen bought the time needed to stabilize the situation?  Casualties are heavy as many are thrown into the tumult.  The Allied position holds.

To threaten the French guns on the left, the British file across the bridge to the opposite bank.  If Belmont cannot be held, these British infantrymen will be trapped on the wrong side of the river.  The Allies continue to fall back on Belmont and the bridge, fighting every step of the way.

The Greys charge against French infantry and are repulsed but the French have suffered as well.  The brave Greys have gained time for more Hessian infantry to come up into line and challenge their attackers.

Repulsing repeated charges from French cavalry, the Hessians stand firm.

With French guns under threat and British and German forces preparing to counterattack the now wavering French, the French commander recalls his troops.  The battle has ended with an Allied victory.  Belmont and the bridge remain in Allied hands.

That was a fun little action.  The colorful table and large figures made playing via Skype easy on the eyes.  Having to take both ford and bridge, this may be a tough task for the attacking French.  Hopefully, this playtest will offer some ideas in preparation for Saturday's Huzzah game. 

Thank you Ross and friends!

Two-Fer Tuesday: Spanish

Two-for Tuesday but two nearly the same.  After nearly four years from purchase, two battalions of Spanish infantry muster out.  These two battalions were a long time in coming.  Hopefully, the remaining three battalions of Spanish infantry will not require another four years before they reach the table.

Reina

These two, twenty-figure battalions of Spanish were purchased in October, 2017 in an introductory offer from Three Armies Miniatures.  Peter, (Blunders on the Danube), made we aware of these (at that time) recent releases so thought I would dive into fielding a few Spanish infantry for my own Peninsular War project.  I did not expect nearly four years to pass before these fine fellows made it onto the parade ground.  The first two battalions mustering out are Reina and Principe.   

Principe

As noted in my prior post, remote gaming continues with great regularity.  So much gaming that the painting desk is laying idle more frequently.  Currently working on a variety of units but I would like to turn my painting attention toward 10mm ACW sooner rather than later.  I recently ordered seven bags Federal and Confederate Old Glory infantry (700 figures) to flesh out some units after a rebasing project.  I have my work cut out for me.  Undoubtedly, I will become distracted and tackle other projects before I make it through 700 infantry.  Perhaps I can stay focused by alternating between 10mm ACW and other projects?  

Oh.  Back to remote gaming.  I participated in Ross' FRW game on Saturday as a test for his Virtual Huzzah game on Saturday.  We used a version of MacDuff to the Frontier.  With four participants, we managed to fight to a conclusion in about four hours.  Also on the gaming slate is another Virtual Huzzah game using Test of Resolve to refight the WotR Battle of Towton.  Towton is scheduled for 0700 Saturday, my time.  Last but not least for this gaming week, the Tuesday night (Today!) UK group will see a return to the Jacobite rebellion in 15mm.  My hunch is that today’s battle refights the battle from a few weeks ago.  In that battle, the British fought to the last Dutchman while the Highlanders thumped the Government troops and then faded back into the Highlands.  Will the outcome be different this time?  Another busy week planned on the gaming front.

On the F2F gaming front, our State is relaxing restrictions for those fully vaccinated.  We can ditch the mask and larger group gatherings are permitted.  I must admit that it was a very strange sensation entering the grocery store for the first time without a mask this past weekend.  

Still, plenty of battle reports from recent games and cycling photos from recent rides to share.

Prussian Musketeer Regiment #34

The 18mm SYW project has not seen much in the way of attention over the last six months.  My plan prescribed working on a French army in the New Year.  That plan has not survived collision with other projects.  The main Project Interruptus has been building out a few Battles for the WotR in 28mm.  I did manage to field a handful of Bavarian and Irish regiments late last fall but the production line has been silent since.  Until now, that is.

Off the painting desk today is a 23 figure battalion from Prussian Musketeer Regiment #34. The figures are all Eureka Miniatures and the flag is one I made myself.  With David from Not by Appointment recently publishing his flag set for Musketeer Regiment #34, I will likely reflag this unit with one of his superb flags once I get enough of his flags together to print an entire sheet.

Also off the painting desk is a pair of German trucks in 15mm.  With Graham's recent SCW games loaded with transports, I figured I ought to do something about my own WWII transport situation.  To that end, two more Zvezda Opel Blitz trucks make their way off from the workbench.  Nice little models.

Finally, on the remote gaming front, I took to the skies Tuesday in the next instalment of our WWI aerial combat campaign.  The two German pilots added two more kills to their totals and returned safely to base.  Hurra!

Later today, I join Ross and friends for a playtest of one of his planned games to be presented at Virtual Huzzah on May 22.  We will be playing a French Revolution game using his MacDuff to the Frontier rules and 54mm figures.  I used an earlier version of these rules more than 25 years ago to fight both colonial and French & Indian War battles.  I wonder if I will remember any of it?  No matter.  Should be fun.    

In the category of It's A Small World, I signed up to take part in another virtual game on May 22 with the authors of the newly released WotR rules, Test of Resolve.  I did not make the connection to Ross' playtest and the Test of Resolve game both being a part of Virtual Huzzah until re-reading Ross' email and writing this post.

Player's Note: Activation and Resource Management

For Whom The Dice Rolls
Player Notes: Activation and Resource Management

Having been involved in some of the playtesting before publication and game play after publication, my appreciation for the ingenuity of the rules has grown.  Since Graham offers a very good summary of the rules on the For Whom The Dice Rolls homepage and Amazon.com offers a Look Inside including a Table of Contents and several reviews from readers, I will not venture down the review road.  What I offer today is a quick look at the interactions between unit activation and resource management.  I suppose, this could be considered my Player’s Notes.  I suspect more of my thoughts on game player may be forthcoming.

In miniatures’ rules, the turn sequence can be defined in a number of ways although most utilize one of only a handful of tried and tested methods for activating units.  Once the turn sequence method is chosen, an explanation is given on activating units and resolving actions in a linear fashion.  Other game sub-systems may be synchronous or asynchronous.  In a game system as this, play can become routine and one-dimensional.  Not so with For Whom The Dice Rolls (FWTDR).  FWTDR offers a multi-dimensional and non-linear approach to turn sequencing and process control.  In addition, FWTDR presents many opportunities for nuanced, optimized play.  Clever.

What does this mean?

To begin, the two driving principles of accomplishing tasks and goals within the game are unit activation and resource management.  Unit activation and resource management are both controlled by a hand of playing cards.  A brief primer on these two system processes is helpful.  Some of the foundational components to unit activation and resource (hand) management are:

• Activation is governed by the playing of a card from a regular, 52 card deck with or without jokers.
• Jokers are added into the 52 card deck to denote the arrival of Off-Table Assets.  The number of jokers available and viable missions vary by scenario.
• Hand size is governed by the sum of Army Effectiveness, number of units in play, and an initiative die roll.  The player with the largest sum of these three components is awarded the initiative for the turn.
• A player’s impulse is limited to either the playing of one joker or the lesser of Army Effectiveness and the number of cards in one suit.
• When a player exhausts all cards in hand, the opponent is allowed one more impulse before the turn ends.
• Factions may only activate on specified playing card suits.  Some may activate on all suits. Others may activate only on one or two suits.  Better troops may activate on more suits.
• Each card played allows one unit to activate one time.
• A unit may activate up to three times per turn.  Notice distinction between “impulse” and “turn” in this context.
• Activations need not be sequential whereby one unit performs all of its activations before another unit is activated.
• There are never enough resources to accomplish everything on every impulse or turn.

The above list of bullets is a lot to consider.  Where to begin? An example, of course!

Standard Activation Table by Type and Suit 

Suppose one army is composed of Spanish Foreign Legion and Moroccan factions with four units on table.  With the Legion and Moroccans being highly trained and motivated, one might expect Army Effectiveness to be high.  In this situation it is, with the Nationalists having an Army Effectiveness of ‘6’.  With a 1D6 roll of ‘4’, the Nationalists’ hand size for this turn is ‘14’ (6+4+4).  Foreign Legion/Moroccans can activate on all suits.

The Nationalists are opposed by a mixed force of Anarchist Militia and Communist Militia each having three units.  The Republican army in this case has an Army Effectiveness of ‘4’.  With a 1D6 die roll of ‘3’, the Republicans have a hand size for this turn of ‘13’ (4+6+3).  The anarchists may only activate on hearts and diamonds.  The communists may activate only on clubs and diamonds.  The Nationalists will hold the initiative for this turn.

Suppose that in this example, suits are distributed evenly within each hand.  The Nationalists will have four cards in two of the suits and three cards in the other two suits.  The Republicans will have four cards in one suit and three cards in each of the remaining suits.

Since the Nationalist factions may activate on any suit, all cards will be usable by all units and the Foreign Legion and Moroccans will be able to coordinate actions with one another within the same impulse.  In contrast, the Republican militias have a much more difficult task activating and conducting coordinated actions. Neither the communists nor anarchists may activate on spades.  That makes one-fourth of the cards in hand unplayable in this impulse.  To compound this constraint, diamonds are the only suit in which the two militia may coordinate activities.  Only communists will be activating on hearts and only anarchists will be activating on clubs.  One quickly discovers that playing the Republicans in this scenario offers up a much different experience and challenge than does playing the Nationalists.  The use of suit activation tailored to faction provides a very interesting and asymmetrical set of problems for one player over the other.  This simple, game mechanism offers much depth to game play.  Brilliant!

With a player’s impulse limited to at most four cards in this example, is it advisable to activate one unit three times?  Three activations would exhaust that unit’s capabilities for the turn (and impulse).  Would it be more advantageous to activate several units one or two times each?  Does the active player exhaust the suit in this impulse or save some cards for play in a later impulse?  These decisions are situation dependent and introduce even more decision-making into the process.  As the Nationalist player, perhaps, coordination among units within an impulse is top priority rather than a prolonged, three-activation strike by one unit?  Can a player take the risk of holding cards back for later impulses when the opponent may run out of playable cards before all of his own cards in this turn can be played?  More decisions to keep in mind.

This look at activation and resource management only scratches the surface of the array of decisions players face in FWTDR.  Much more can be explored on this topic alone.  For now, I end this Player Note with the conclusion that FWTDR offers up a decision-rich environment that handles the complications of activating and coordinating disparate forces in a parsimonious manner.  When one pulls back the layers and looks a little deeper, there is much interesting and thoughtful design work behind the scenes.  Perhaps an element of Poker and risk management thrown in for good measure.

If these insights are of interest to even those not familiar with the rules, please post a comment.  If not, I may keep these ramblings to myself.

Thanks for reading!

BatRep Long Island: Grant Attacks!

Gowanus Road
photo courtesy wargamesinthedungeon.blogspot.com/

Before the armies arrive, the road from the Red Lion Inn to Brooklyn is quiet.  General Alexander will be deploying his force on the heights expecting a British attack from the south.  The British will be attacking to the north (from right to left in the photo above).  Outnumbering the Americans and with artillery in support, General Grant figures he has a chance to turn the American right before General Howe fully engages and outflanks the American left.  Will this day see a long awaited British victory?  We will see.

Initial deployments

The Americans await

Alexander arrays his command of five regiments facing south as shown in the photos above.  The sharpshooting Penn. riflemen are deployed in the woods anchoring the American left.  The two militia regiments are deployed upon the crest of the hill with the two Continental regiments forming a second line.

The Continentals move up in support

as the British prepare to attack the heights

Alexander's plan for defense does not survive contact with the enemy.  With Grant seemingly putting more weight to attacking the American right along Gowanus Bay, Alexander begins shifting his second line to the right.

Smallwood shifts to the right

The British assault the American right

The artillery has been ineffective thus far in softening up the American positions before the attack goes in.  As the lead regular regiment reaches the crest with grenadiers in close support, the lead regiment is stopped by a volley from the militia.  Falling back, the regulars allow the grenadiers to carry on with their work.  Unfortunately, the orderly retreat turns to rout and a regiment of regulars is done for the day.

On the American left, the riflemen stationed in the woods maintain a steady, harassing fire upon the British advance.  Little progress is made in advancing upon the American positions from the British right. 

Grenadiers charge!

The grenadiers, upon reaching the crest of the hill, charge into the militia defending the crest.  The initial attack leaves the grenadiers short of their objective.  Stunned by the attack, the militia remain motionless, unable to respond.  Matt, in great relief lets out a cheer.  The grenadiers charge home in a second effort.

Militia recoils

The grenadiers are stopped

In hand-to-hand fighting, the militia falters and is pushed back.  The grenadiers follow-up and attack the militia second time.  In this clash, the militia is defeated and seeks succour as it retreats through the ranks of its support.

Smallwood gives the grenadiers a volley

A close range volley into the face of the grenadiers

The grenadiers break and run!

With momentum exhausted, the grenadiers stare down a solid line of Continentals.  The Americans loose a volley into the face of the grenadiers and they break and run toward the rear.  Their day is done.

Artillery finally finds a target

driving off the militia

American resolve is weakening

After spending much of the battle either failing to activate or missing its target, the British artillery finally finds its mark.  One militia regiment is sent packing to the rear in disorder.  This success is short lived as the determined riflemen send a second British regiment routing to the rear.  

Another American regiment breaks

Americans bent but not broken

Grant calls off the attack

A volley from the British regiment stationed adjacent to Gowanus Bay hits the American regiment nearest the crest.  Another well-placed volley drives off another American defender.  

While much of the American right is in retreat, two American regiments remain virtually unscathed while much of the British force is in tatters.  With no British reserves and the Game Clock striking 15 turns, the battle comes to a close with an American victory.

As seen before, attacking in Rebels and Patriots is a difficult proposition against a formed defense.  If not for the poor start by the British artillery and the British right, the outcome could have been much different.  The Rebel riflemen proved to be a huge thorn in the side of the British throughout the battle by controlling almost half of the entire battlefield.  While the Americans were badly battered in the fight, the British simply ran out of fresh troops with which to push the assault to victory.  The final Honor count was 7-4 to the Americans.

Does the British player have a path to victory in this scenario?  I think so but perhaps General Grant could have an option of bringing on one more regiment at a cost to an Honor Point or two?  I would enjoy a replay of this scenario to see.

Thanks to Matt for presenting another terrific looking game and for absorbing another British defeat in good spirit. 

Look out for Matt's account of the battle at:

wargamesinthedungeon.  

Battle of Long Island: Grant Attacks!

Battle of Long Island, 1858 by Alonzo Chappel

After a few weeks reprieve from the ongoing series of fighting through the AWI using Rebels and Patriots, the next battle is on the schedule with me at the helm for scenario design.  Having been rebuffed at Great Bridge (see: Action at Great Bridge), the British try another frontal attack.  This time, the British attack toward the Brooklyn Heights with a points advantage of almost 3:2.  The Rebels stand ready for battle without earthworks or artillery to offer succour.  Although the entire Battle of Bunker Hill was recently fought using Rebels and Patriots (see: Battle of Bunker Hill), given the size of the battle and the scope of the rules, only a portion of the battle will be tackled.  

An overview for the area of this action is highlighted in the map below.   

Area of battle highlighted

The Map: 

The map shows the approach to Brooklyn along the Gowanus Road.  Each grid is one foot square and the battle will be fought in 28mm. 

Game Map

The British force under Grant marches up the Gowanus Road toward Brooklyn fortifications to make a preemptive attack against the American right in the earlier morning before Howe can get all of the army into position to attack the passes protecting Brooklyn. Driving back the Americans pickets, Grant marches north past the Red Lion Inn and toward Lord Stirling’s quickly forming defensive line. Lord Stirling (Alexander) has arrayed his command upon the heights overlooking Gowanus Bay. His left, he anchors on the wooded heights and his right is anchored against the bay.

SPECIAL:

• Game Length: 12 turns with variable end.
• Gowanus Bay is impassable.
• The high ground offered plenty of undulations and opportunities to secure cover. Fences could be in abundance especially near Vechte-Cortelyou House.  Units on high ground are considered in cover for firing purposes.
• For melee, defenders are considered uphill until attackers have passed the crestline (top edge of woods mark the crest line).

OB:

British: Grant

1 x Grenadiers: Shock (8pts)

1 x 42nd Highland Foot: VET (6pts)

1 x 23rd Foot: VET (6pts)

1 x 33rd Foot: VET (6pts)

1 x 44th Foot: VET (6pts)

1 x Light Artillery (4pts)

total = 36 points

Americans: Alexander

1 x Lutz’s Penn. Militia: (4pts)

1 x Hay’s Penn. Militia: (4pts)

1 x Kachlein’s Penn. Rifles: Sharpshooters (6pts)

1 x Smallwood’s Maryland Continentals: VET (6pts)

1 x Haslet’s Delaware Continentals: VET (6pts)

total = 26 points 

OBJECTIVES:

American:

+2 Honor for each British unit destroyed.

+1 Honor for each British unit at half strength.

British:

+2 Honor for each full strength British unit exited off north side of table.

+1 Honor for each half strength British unit exited off north side of table.

+2 Honor for each American unit destroyed.

+1 Honor for each American unit at half strength.

Let's see how Matt translates this sketch into the actual battlefield.  

I may even set this up in 15mm and give the scenario a whirl but not likely before Sunday's contest.  If anyone else wants to test the scenario using your preferred rules, please report back.

Two-Fer Tuesday: Ancients

Off the painting desk today is another double shot of units.  This time, I return to ancients and the Punic Wars project. 

First up is a fourteen-figure stand of Aventine Miniatures' Roman Principes. Great figures. It has been a long time since any Aventine figures crossed over the painting desk.

Next up are three, four-figure stands of Renegade Miniatures slingers.  Again, super figures that are a joy to paint.  I likely had a sufficient number of these slinger units already painted and present for duty but a dozen remained in The Lead Pile so why not paint them?  Yeah, that is what I thought too!

Finally, I have been out of town for a long weekend getaway to celebrate the latest grandchild's first birthday. Having been more than a year since our last journey away, it was a pleasure to experience a slice of a more typical lifestyle of weekend adventures.  While the trip was only a 600-mile cross-state road trip, changing landscapes if only for a few days was a pleasure.  Below is a view of the Seattle Space Needle at sunset as seen from the 41st floor of my daughter's condo.  Nice view, huh?