Battle of Platea 479 BC

After all the muskets and smoke over the last few weeks it felt like time to throw some spears. With the weather set fine on Saturday a big game was in order. We have played a Platea scenario before and as it gave a good close game I thought it would fit the bill. The benefit over some other famous Persian battles eg Marathon is Platea allows a much wider range of troops (sadly no elephants though) and has the huge bonus of getting all the various Greeks on the table. So on Saturday we went big in the shed. 

The Persians on the left, split into three groups, in the distance the main Persian army led by Mardonius are facing off against the Spartans who have become separated from the rest of the Greek forces. In the middle mixed Persian allies and troops from their many satraps, these face mixed Greek allies. Finally in the foreground Greeks who have sided with the Persians including the Thebans are facing off against the Athenians and their closest allies. Pausanias is the Overall commander of the Greeks and specifically the Spartans. The Spartans are unable to move until the correct omens have been received from the gods. Whilst the forces are broadly equal in infantry, the Persians have significant cavalry as well, the Persians as to be expected have a different balance of forces focussed mainly on archers.

The Persians and their allies advance to get into bow range

The Athenians push upto the river

And both sides skirmishers engage in frantic fighting 

All along the line arrows are ranging down on the Greeks, 

Finally after sacrificing six sheep the gods say the Spartans can join the battle (I had a simple mechanism for this the Spartans needing a double six but getting an extra dice each turn)

The Persians have been firing at the Spartans who have just been hiding under their shields

With the Spartans now entering the battle, the Thebans decide to get stuck into the Athenians, but the attack falters crossing the river

The Spartans push forward but have several more rounds of arrows before they can get to the weakly armed Persians

Blocks of Hoplites thrust at each other over the river

Ouch…eventually the Spartans crash into Persians this is not going to end well

After some really tough fighting the Athenians get the better of the Thebans in a very close fight

In the centre the Persian allies are winning have beaten back the bulk of the Greek allies

And not surprisingly, now they are stuck into the fight, the Spartans are making fairly light work of the lightly armoured Persians. So overall the battle has gone to the Greeks. History has been repeated and the future of western civilisation has been saved. In 2500 years we will all be able to sit and watch Love Island thanks goodness 😂 a fine and very fun battle which played out very close.

Well that’s it for now and no planned battles for this week so a rest at least and a chance to tidy up a bit.

Thanks as always for taking the time to pass through the blog.

Matt ❤️

Battle of Germantown 1777 : Part 2 American War Independence

After a hiatus we returned to our AWI campaign this week with the second part of Germantown. Keen followers may remember we played the Battle for the Chew house as a separate skirmish. Given the size of Germantown and the restrictions of remote gaming and R&P rules this battle focussed just on the main American assault by Sullivan and Wayne. Fog played a part in the battle so visibility was reduced but gradually increased. 

With our experience of the rules and given the forces are fairly equal without the addition of reserves (I would like to play a bigger version of Germantown some time when I have enough forces painted up) I gave the Americans a number of advantages. The British would take time to activate as they were caught in camp, some of the Americans would have first fire, we reduced the movement restrictions over fences and gave the Americans two commanders improving their morale. They also had a numerical superiority in artillery 4 to 2 which normally doesn’t make much of a difference !

The church and town square of Germantown, the British lights are running back from the initial contact with the American attack around the Chew House

Sullivan advances on the American right 

The British are disorganised and in camp, their left wing is particularly slow to activate

The American right advances quickly over the fences dragging their artillery with them, but at this stage the fog is still limiting visibility

On the American left Wayne’s troops push into the woods

The fog lifts slightly and both side immediately start to open up, the American cannons are now in a good central position whilst the British have failed to activate and move their guns in the square !

On the British right they are in a strong position and concentrate fire into the woods, no rebels are coming through that route

But on the American right the tables are reversed and supported by their artillery who can now see the enemy the British are struggling

The British have finally worked to the danger and rush to form a defensive line

The American pounding away ! It’s bloody work this day

The central cannons prove really effective

The British do have some luck when two double six activation bring on reinforcement, would you believe it two units of grenadiers !

The British right is holding well

In desperation the British light cavalry charges across the table to try and take out one of the American cannons, dramatic maybe but ultimately a failure 👎

The British pull back slightly to regroup but the Americans just keep pushing forward

It’s already looking like a bad day for the British so in a desperate charge the grenadier rush forward to attempt to drive the rebels back

The battle breaks down into a series of bloody fire fights….but the Americans are gradually winning the day

The British guns having been pulled back are now firing but it is too late to impact the outcome

The British are gradually being driven back and they need to call it a day giving Germantown and their camp to the Americans.

A fun game although it did turn into a bit of a slugfest with little chance for manoeuvre. I probably gave the Rebels slightly too many advantages, but they failed very few activations (apart from their skirmishers) and the cannons were devastating as they were able to concentrate their fire. As mentioned I plan to run a larger Germantown scenario when I can paint up a couple more units as I think it makes a fine battle with reinforcements arriving for both sides. 

Last week I also visited George for a resumption of our Early War WW2 CoC campaign. He has already blogged the battle in some detail so just a couple of shots from me.

The wily British deploy in the woods and capture one of my JOP

Despite my abundance of tanks the Germans make a complete hash of things, giving the British a good win. We discussed at some length some of the problems with CoC and the games it seems to generate. The rules which I do like seem to have many devotees but I question why none of them seem to discuss the problems we seem to encounter ?

Several problems I would identify, firstly it rarely gives close games I would estimate on average out of 10 games only 2or 3 would be close. The rules can excessively punish a mistake, which I would liken to chess where a single blunder and you may as well pack in. This encourages very cautious gaming. Don’t get me wrong I actually like the rules and love much of the detail that has gone into them. But I can’t get over thinking there is something not quite right either in the rules or perhaps the scenarios? 

The game above was a good example. The game ended after about 3 hours of play I didn’t count but would estimate about 8- 10 turns per side. Both sides had deployed less than half their force, in fact only two squads on each side actually got involved and my PzIV which actually had no effect. the German morale by some unluckily rolling had dropped to 3 the British remained on 10, I think the Germans had actually only lost one Machine gun team and about 4 Riflemen, but because I had two junior leaders wounded, one senior leader wounded and then killed and lost a JOP the game was over. Hard to square this really as the campaign we are playing would now suggest the Germans get an additional 4 points and having discussed this we both feel if the Germans played in a  different way they would effectively be unstoppable so we are skipping this scenario and moving to the next one. All of this reminds me why a do quite like Bolt Action !

Anyway enough cogitation , thanks for checking I have another game to post from Saturday when I get a chance.

Thanks 

MAtt ❤️

Battle of Rolica 1808

Two games from last week to post. First up Rolica which George has already posted on his blog. Looking for some revenge after the Italian wars we had agreed to get out My peninsular Napoleonics and introduce him to Valour and Fortitude. Rolica is famous as Wellingtons first proper battle in the Peninsular and therefore fairly well known. My scenario came pretty much straight out of the Albion Triumphant black powder campaign book. It is relatively small although the forces are unbalanced giving a challenging battle for both sides. 

The scenario covers the second British assault up the very steep and difficult ground known as the heights of Columbeira. Historically Wellington had planned to outflank the position on both sides but the 29th Foot ended up attacking too early directly up the slope, when this was repulsed it prompted a full scale frontal assault. The scenario needs a couple of special rules, the Heights are difficult for movement and troops moving up hill have a disadvantage fighting up hill. Cavalry are are harder to activists in the difficult ground. The ground constricted historically by a series of gullies means the British can only assault in attack column rather than the normal line formation. As this was the first run out for George with V&F and being ‘very friendly’ I didn’t push the french defence who can also gain an advantage fighting down hill. Depending on the tweaks you can make increasingly impossible for the British to get up the hill so it needs some balancing.

The French only have two brigades fighting on the heights, formed up in line they prepare to defend, their artillery opens up. The British break up into mixed formation to attempt the assault

The British reach the crest and take quite a battering, volley fire and canister

Weathering the storm and with Craufurds brigade arriving in reserve, the British line pushes despite the growing losses, the British manage a couple of key morale saves holding the line together…

Just long enough to surge up the hill

The french on the other hand roll poor morale and their line begins to break. You can see them in the distance but already the french cavalry protecting their right flank has broken and fled to the rear !

With the french cavalry gone the Light Brigade of Riflemen and British light cavalry is closing in on the French right.

As the french line contracts the British bring up their reserves. Still the french pound away causing casualties all along the line but not quite managing to break the British brigades.

Eventually the french is reduced to a single regiment and the remaining troops (not many) are forced to flees the field, the British have taken the heights.

A fine battle and hopefully a good introduction to V&F a good win for the British, but they probably had the better of the scenario with the balance in their favour. I’ll look to play this one again sometime with the other advantages built into the Scenario which will make it much tougher for the British !

Last week also saw a trip to Erik’s for another battle with hi ECW collection this time Braddock Down near Plymouth. Not a battle I knew anything about and in fact historically the Parliamentarians pretty much ran away after the first shot. However, Erik meticulously researches the battles to make them as accurate as possible.

The Royalists (me) choose to attack as they have the numbers  and are looking to make this count before the enemy are able to bring up their artillery.

The Royalist force 

Given the terrain I thought I would try and refuse my right, ‘feint’ with the centre but drive up the road to try and get the advantage of the wind and the hedge turning the Parlimentary right ?

Now fair to say the Royalists didn’t have the favour of the dice gods this day. We managed to drive off the dragoons but despite all the odds in their favour my infantry struggled to drive off the Parliamentary cavalry, in fact they started to win.

Eventually numbers counted but the surprise and speed of the flank attack had now been blunted by the cavalry giving them time to prepare. Still the Royalists have managed to create a significant advantage in numbers, this should have been enough but in at least five combats I rolled appallingly scoring 2 or 3 (total) on two dice while the Parliamentry forced rolled 10’s and 11’s. Any hope of a quick and decisive win was lost.

After several hard fought turns and with both armies really exhausted the battle came to a close, at best a very minor Parliamentary win or perhaps a draw, the Royalists had taken the high ground but had nothing left to press the advantage, similarly much of the Parliamentry force was retreating or close to being broken. A fine battle and if it hadn’t been for the very poor rolling the Royalists might have taken the day. A pleasure of course to play with such a lovely collection.

Not sure if the hot weather is coming back this week ? But I was out for some more walking this time the Howgill Fells, for those not aware these are to the East of the Lake District within their own smaller National Park they have a very different nature to the Lake District smaller and quieter, but lovely hill walking on a good day. Some lovely wargaming 🙂

Looking North

Looking south from the highest point the Calf as the Fell is named

Well that’s it for this catch up, we’ll see how long blogger takes to post this up ? Maybe I will have played some more games before it does 😀

Thanks as always for checking by ❤️

Matt