A Cunning Plan (or two...) for 2020!

So here we are again... 2019 has been pretty cool from a gaming point of view and huge thanks to Jim and Ellen at BIG for providing the facilities. If you are in Bristol or the surrounding area please support them in 2020 if you don't already... Thanks also to George for not laughing too much at my rubbish generalship!

So as 2019 comes to a close, what cunning plans do I have for 2020?

Sharp Practice:

This is a bit of a no brainer really, it is popular down this neck of the woods and I already have a Rebels and Patriots AWI army which has already tested itself against some Hessians under the Lardies rules. The French and Indian Wars seem to be the more popular period for SP around here, so I have started work on a British (albeit largely Provincial) army using Galloping Major's lovely figures.

New Jersey Provincials (photo Galloping Major)

Matt has a British Napoleonic Army sat in the display cabinets at BIG so I also have plans to raise an Italian army for the Peninsular once I get my hands on the new Perry French plastics. I also have plans for another OpFor for them but more on this after a bit of plastic experimentation...

Rebels and Patriots AWI will continue to be played as it is a great set of rules and I will continue to expand my Patriot army.

Infamy! Infamy!

No doubt you will have seen that the Lardies are releasing Sharp Pilum, sorry Infamy! Infamy! at Salute 2020, an Ancients game at the SP level. Having painted a pile of Celts almost a decade back I already seem to have a Celtic army for the game and the loft has some Roman Auxiliaries acting as insulation so this seems a bit of a no brainer to get some use out of figures gather dust.

Infamy! Infamy! play testing (photo Too Fat Lardies)

Chariots Rampant:

The Foundry sale (and price rise on the horizon) caused a big dent in the credit card, part of which was to fill in the gaps in my Indian Mutiny collection (more on this later) and a rash decision to play the chariot wars adaptation for Lion Rampant which resulted George and myself buying a couple of small armies to have a bit of fun with.

Chariots Rampant from WSS magazine

The Rebels Who Would Kings:

As you will have seen depending on the campaign George and I flit between The Men Who Would Be Kings and Rebels and Patriots, normally causing me to remember the wrong rules! :D

We both have half started colonial projects, one of which for me is the Indian Mutiny for which I have been buying figures for, one and off, almost quarter of a century! So I made use of the Foundry sale to fill in the cavalry and artillery gaps and intend to spend a goodly part of 2020 painting my figures up. As a lot are in white or khaki, I am hoping judicious use of Soft Tone dip will speed things up.

Other half-started colonial projects that might get some long overdue love are the Anglo-Zulu War, First Afghan War, Dahomey and maybe even Mars...

Mortal Gods:

Last year I mentioned Mortal Gods and I did pre-order this and start work on a first army. Unfortunately I have misplaced the game and the sprues to complete the army! Hopefully this will turn up as Steve is keen to play.

Mortal Gods playtesting (photo Footsore Miniatures)

Saga: 

I MUST finish painting my Norse army! (and play some more games...) :D

I'm sure there will be other stuff that comes along to disrupt these plans, there have been mutterings about 6mm Moderns and I still need to get back to WW2 and I haven't even mentioned fantasy... but whatever, it should be fun!

Finally, I must thank everyone who has left a comment over the last year, they are appreciated and I apologise for the general lack of a response, unfortunately my browser (Safari) doesn't like anything Google (like Blogger) and won't let me respond so I my new year's resolution is to remember to log into Chrome so I can respond to you all!

Merry Christmas!

Hoping everyone is having a great Christmas and that Santa brought you all lots of new toys and books and stuff...

Rebels and Patriots: The Catawaba Conundrum...

Back to North America and a great four-player Rebels and Patriots game played with Matt and myself on the brave, noble, Patriot side resisting the oppressor Tory George, assisted by Steve and his cabbage munching mercenaries...

As Matt's Native Americans had not managed to batter anyone with their tomahawks in the first game he and Steve played, I suggested we tried The Enemy's Enemy scenario from the rulebook with each player having 24 points a side and the Natives being neutral in the middle. In the scenario the two sides try and reach the Native village first and the occupants then dice to see if they become allies of one side or the other, or enemies of both...

On the American left flank, two units of Continental Line advanced to stop the Hessians moving on the village, whilst the Virginia Rifles occupied the woods...

Steve's Hessians themselves marched forward, deploying a screen of Jägers...

On the American's right flank Matt's militia advanced swiftly towards the village, aiming to get within 6" and trigger the Native Catawaba tribe reaction test gaining an Honour point...

Unfortunately his Militia took one look at the fierce looking Catawaba natives and refused to advance!

This allowed the Queen's Rangers to seize the initiative and close on the Natives, triggering the reaction test and gaining the Honour Point for the British! A d6 was rolled, what would the Catawaba do?

George rolled a 1! The natives side with no one and immediately attack the nearest unit - the Queen's Rangers who were beaten back having suffered several casualties!

(The scenario is unclear what the Natives are then supposed to do following this, so we decided they would fall back to their starting point and charge anyone who got within 6" if they passed an Attack action...)

Meanwhile on the American left the Continentals started a brisk exchange of musket fire with the advancing Hessians...

Unfortunately my dice rolling was pretty abysmal and Steve's not, and soon he started knocking huge holes in the American line.

With the gods of dice favouring Steve, I decided to bring up two units of Militia to support the Continental Line and move the Rifles forward to engage the Jägers...

However, despite killing some of the Jägers, Steve's Hessians concentrated their fire on the 1st Maryland taking it under half strength and inflicting a permanent Disorder marker on it. Taking a second, the unit was now Broken and in danger of Routing...

Fortunately it survived the Morale check and despite taking even more casualties, was now only Disordered.

As the Militia moved up to support, the Hessian artillery and Musketeers von Bose opened up on the 2nd Maryland, inflicting four casualties and two Disorder markers on it meaning this unit was now Broken!

On the right flank, things were slightly better. Matt when ordering a unit of Militia to advance rolled a double 6 and rolling on the appropriate table received 4 points of reinforcements. Fortunately I had a spare Militia unit not being used that now entered the fray!

A battle of attrition broke out on the right as Matt's militia fought George's British Light infantry and Shock Highlanders for control of a wood.

Despite some impressive dice rolling by Matt...

...he was understandably struggling to hold back the better trained British units.

In the centre, my Virginian Rifles, having taken a couple of casualties skirmishing with the Jägers and becoming Disordered, got a little too close to the centre of the native village and the Catawaba attacked them! Another failed test and the unit was now Broken!

Matters then got even worse, as the Catawaba Followed Up their Attack, inflicting more casualties on the Virginians who then Routed!

With the centre and left in disarray, Matt's forces on the right flank bravely tried to hold back the British, but soon found themselves Broken and needing some good Morale rolls to not join the Virginians in Routing off the table.

Would they have? We did not find out... After turn 8 you roll a d6 and if the score of that added to the number of turns played is 14 or higher then the game ends. It was turn 10 when I rolled a 4, so that was that.

Despite the battlefield performance of the Americans (well my flank), no one had been reduced below 1/3 strength (I was close!) so no Honour Points were gained there and no one was within 6" of the centre at the end so no Honour there either. In the end as George's Queen's Rangers had triggered the Reaction Test early in the game, the Honour Point gained there proved crucial giving the British oppressors and their Hessian cabbage eating mercenaries victory! (though in my opinion the true victors were the Natives!)

All in all another good game, the performance of my troops was pretty disappointing, the fault of the dice not their general I am sure. Matt's militia performed well and spent some time trading blows with the British Shock Infantry, not running away as they had done in the first game.

The Men Who Would Be Kings: They Marched to Death...

Amongst my numerous attempts to liberate the Thirteen Colonies from the oppression of the dastardly George III we managed a brief foray down BIG back to the baking deserts of the Sudan, sadly once again stained by Imperial blood...

George suggested we play the 'It's Awfully Quiet Out There...' scenario from The Men Who Would Be Kings,  me forgetting that it was not a scenario I've managed to do very well in! The Madhists had 36 points (including a cannon),  the Imperials 27 points, strung out in column of march, surprised by the appearance of loads of screaming natives on their flanks!



Who promptly surged forward towards the thin khaki line...



...into the crashing fire of the 66th Line who pinned two Beja units!



Mad Mullah George then opened fire with his (rather lovely Perry Miniatures) cannon with its captured Egyptian crew (wearing manacles)...



... killing five of the Bazingers and Pinning them! :-(



Suddenly things started to look a bit tense for the Imperials with Beja charging in from one flank and River Arabs from the other.



Steady rifle fire inflicted a number of casualties on the Mahdists, Pinning two units of Beja and one of the River Arabs!



However one of the other Beja charged through their reticent comrades into the 1/66th...



...and whilst a number fell to the polished bayonets of the brave Brits, they cut down a number of them forcing the Imperials back.



The 2/66th suddenly found itself alone facing three units of Beja!



Who charged in, in turn, Pinning and reducing the noble Berks...



...before a final assault...

...wiped them out!



The River Arabs then charged into the 1/66th...



...and with the help of the Beja destroyed a second unit of British regulars!



The Madhists scented victory on the blood soaked battlefield and followed up...



...smashing into the 3/66th, killing four and Pinning them!




Under attack by Fierce Beja and River Arabs, the pluck Brits tried to fight back, but failed their Morale role and remained Pinned reducing their melee dice by half...

The result was inevitable, leaving the 15th Sikhs to face the Mahdists. Unfortunately they failed a Morale check caused by the destruction of the 3/66th and whilst there were a lot of dead natives scattered across the desert sands, there were still enough live ones armed with stabby spears to guarantee a Native victory!

A sad tale to report to GHQ... I've yet managed to win this scenario (3 defeats out of 3) and to be honest I'm not 100% sure it is winnable for the defender when the attacker has more units than they are able to target with rifle fire. Sure a lot of casualties were inflicted on the Mahdists but they always seemed to have one more unit to charge through into hand to hand combat were they excel. Perhaps the scenario might work better if the attackers entered via the short table sides, or the forces were balanced? That all said it was still an enjoyable game.

Rebels and Patriots: The Battle of Guilford Barn

I've been a bit remiss in updating the blog with battle reports over the last month due to work etc, but hopefully normal service will be resumed now...

In October Andy introduced us to the delights of Sharp Practice so we thought it only fair to return the complement and introduce him to Rebels and Patriots...

With George in command of the nefarious British oppressors, Andy took command of my brave Patriots whilst I acted as his French military advisor (not that he really needed much help!). We decided to play a similar game to that we played with Steve and Matt, with the British attempting to capture the road junction, though this time we restricted the forces to 36 points a side.

Andy set up his brave Patriots with Militia and a cannon forming the front line with two units of Continental Line...



Meanwhile George loaded his left flank, keeping the bulk of his force away from the enemy artillery.



Initially he sent his Light Infantry forward on the right, Andy's artillery opening fire and inflicting one casualty...



Then another...



Then, with the assistance of a Continental Line unit, even more, inflicting a permanent Disorder marker on them!

The other Continental unit with the Army commander attached positioned itself to support the Militia and Rifles faced by the bulk of the British army...



Where battle commenced, the Patriot Rifles engaging a British Line unit in close order.



Having forced the Rifles back and inflicted casualties on the Militia, the Queen's Rangers charged forward to try and rout the Disordered Rifles, but came up fractionally short...



The Rifles and Militia wiping them out in two subsequent rounds of musket fire!



Things were looking really good for Andy, but not everything went his way as an attempt to order a Militia unit forward on the right saw them roll a double on and then roll a double move retreat!



The right flank saw the two forces engage in a couple of rounds of musketry...

The Rifles inflicting a number of casualties on the British. Matters were looking grim for the forces of the Crown...

But perhaps fortune favours the brave. In a desperate move George charged his Shock infantry into the central Continental line unit...



Causing a large number of casualties...



And then routing them in the follow up, killing the American commander as well!

In a flash, fortunes had turned, the British punching a big whole in the American line and even more surprisingly the Disordered remnants of the Light infantry on the right inflicted casualties on the artillery, Disordering them!



The British Shock infantry charged into the nearby American militia...

Wiping them out in one turn of melee combat!

They then switched targets, taking out the enemy artillery before advancing on Andy's remaining Continental line unit...

Smashing into their flank and defeating them in turn.



Wow, what a battle!

For a long time it seemed victory was destined for the Americans, but George's desperate charge with his Shock infantry turned things completely on their head and the loss of the American general saw the remaining troops start to fail rolls they had previously been passing with the +1 modifier when he was present.

Despite defeat Andy seemed to enjoy the game and a different experience to Sharp Practice which was good.