Bit of a catch up and an invitation

Yes, I know I've still got a couple of parts on the refight of Eckmuhl to blog, and thanks to those who've reminded me it's wanted. However I just want to give a quick taste of all the wargaming stuff that has kept me away from blogging for nearly 6 months (!). Please read to the end to see an invitation to join some of us for a game at Oakridge in the heart of The Cotswolds (not those chic fringes that are too near that London!) Very Soon.....

The "problem" (is an excess of actual wargaming a problem?) stemmed from wanting to use the basics of my nicely sculpted Eckmuhl table for lots of other games too. Building the Eckmuhl terrain last year

Many will have seen my first go was two 28mm SYW games in Feb and March  (Battle of Hohenburg).

After that in April I wanted to try to get my 10/12mm World War Two Russians and Germans out and imagined the terrain could be a variation of real events on the German approach to Stalingrad.  I called it the Battle of Hill 118.  Paul B and Dillon Browne were up for trying out my "Seb's Soldiers WW2" rules , which were sort of fit for purpose but converting rules for a 7 year old to suit two knowledgeable wargamer adults was not 100% successful. Here's a taste anyway.

Around this time Paul B made me aware he had a very nice collection of 15mm , mostly Blue Moon I believe, for the American Civil War. At my suggestion he agreed to put on a game if I remodelled the terrain to resemble an offshoot of the Shenandoah Valley for the 1862 campaign. Paul called in The Battle of Grenton and introduced me to the "Flames in the South" rules which uses practically entirely black and red dice (imagine for most things Red Die = Good,  Black Die = Bad - like old school 4,5 or 6 better than 1, 2 or 3). Various activities require different numbers of red or black dice results. Combined with a token system  for Generals' interventions, and some minor chance cards for variety it gave a very fun, yet realistic feeling game.  We were joined by another Cheltenham resident , but newcomer to my Oakridge den, Iain S. See what you think of the look:

Lots of blinds to start with 

Iain is an eager wargamer and quick learner

Well into it now 

Stonewall Jackson (without the beard) points to the scene of his success

Still a lot of Yankees on the ridge to frighten with my rebel yell!

Near the end - Union left flank is totally crumbling in the foreground

Could it have been because my Confederates won in fairly spectacular fashion (no disrespect intended for Iain , my plan was sound and I was lucky at the right times) that I got a bit excited afterwards? But we both enjoyed the rules and the troops (and the terrain) and I was inspired to think I might relieve my ACW refights from the 6mm days of c1995 to 2010 and so I'm now the possessor of around 700 or more ex Ebay, painted ACW figures to get ready to join Paul B's for something much bigger next year.

Iain had come to me, as a relatively near neighbour, who could help his revived wargaming post retirement surge, and introduce him to the joys of "Honours of War" for his  recently acquired large SYW armies. First he needed a training scenario. As luck would have it Dinos had the very thing needing testing with a genuine newbie, in planning for his next HoW scenario book. So I used parts of my 28mm collection and the southern part of the old Eckmuhl battlefield as a 6 x 4 area for "Attack and Defence". I've agreed not to blog that till Dinos has published the book, so keep watching this space.

But I can show you the next game and I really enjoyed redesigning the table for this one. Not using the two feet nearest the window but reinstating the marshy valley from Eckmuhl with a couple of ponds too, for good measure. I also was relatively fresh from our holiday in the Baltic States in May. I was completely enamoured by Tallinn, Estonia  - various hilltop church spires and castle towers joined up by almost complete Medieval city walls - I just had to have a bit of that, and so got the gloop out afresh to blend in city walls on a steep slope for gun batteries and ecclesiastical building boundaries! As stated, Iain has wonderful 15mm SYW armies and we used most of his Austrians and Prussians here.  I looked at history and mucked about with a campaign in Saxony in October 1758 where the town of Lobauburg was passed through by Daun's Army shadowing Frederick's over the Lobauerberg mountain. I set the scene for an imaginary Prussian holding action on the Lobauerberg.

Hot action on the table and it was hot in the room too!

Much to discuss near the end of the action. Iain's Prussians had lost a lot but held firm. 

That was mid-July. For mid August in my exhausting re-modelling schedule, it was back up the scale to 28mm and two more of Paul's magnificent collections. For this one he asked me to transport us to a supposedly Merrie England of 1654, where  King Charles still battled on, aided by Prince Rupert and the Duke of Buckingham, with French Royal Army mercenaries too. They faced a combined enemy of mostly English Parliamentarians but with Allies from the Orange Protestants of The Low Countries, all under Sir William Waller. Two collections because his ECW armies were mixed in very successfully with those of the Franco-Dutch wars of the 1670s. The scene was the rural villages of Tumpington and Brewood, with Tumpington Manor being one objective, but dismembering the opposing army was more important. Paul used "An Uncivil Affair" rules - the ECW variant of the aforementioned red dice, black dice system. Iain S. and I were the Royalists facing Dillon Browne's Roundheads with those austere and dour Dutchmen to help 😊.

I used some arial photos of my redesigned table to feed into the Nightcafe AI system and eventually got a pretty accurate output reminiscent of J.R.R.Tolkien's "The Shire"

The glowering, serious expressions were not typical, yet this was a game with many challenges for us all (I was King Charles) and with many hard nosed charges by both sides. It was an "Uncivil Affair" in name only and we all found it enjoyable and satisfying.  Maybe another one next year. (No captions for this set as, inexplicably to me, Blogger joined all the photos and deletes one photo if I try to write a caption!) 

And now for The Invitation

I hope you haven't been bored by all the variations on essentially the same tabletop as we have another one this coming weekend - but very different. James Fergusson asked for a chance to refight a Peninsular War battle.   So I've remodelled bits of it to make the two famous hills at one end and extend the long ridge at the other and we are all set to refight Albuera 1811 on Sunday 13th September at 1:50 figure/man scale and have the whole 5km battlefield in our 10 foot x 6 version. So around 1500 x 15mm figures mainly from James' collection but also Richard Newcombe is contributing, and I'm filling some gaps from my cabinet too. This is the one where Beresford commanded a joint British and Portuguese army with the Spanish working in close alliance (for once!) and used the terrain to try to thwart Marshal Soult breaking through to the Siege of Badajoz.

We have 5 players and two umpires but really need a sixth player to balance out on the French side. If you fancy joining us for the day and can get to Oakridge Lynch, halfway between Stroud and Cirencester, in Gloucestershire, then please email me (Chris Gregg) as soon as you can. I'll send anyone serious the precise location and rules and scenario info. We will be using my Napoleonic version of HoW called Abensberg to Wagram (A2W) which has just a few changes since Eckmuhl and here is a link to the current documents A2W 2026 version

Meanwhile here is a taste of that Peninsular stye battlefield:

Not many features compared with all the foregoing. Bare hills (in reality covered with arable farmland)  mostly dried up river and streams, some key roads to squabble over, Albuera village and adjoining orchards, and olive groves with small grape vines

3D printed buildings make up an interesting Albuera which should feature prominently in the game 

A boring photo, but those open hills should give plenty of tactical and strategic scope for a good wargame

So have a look at some figures - not in any way placed for the battle just for bit of scale and atmosphere. Each tactical unit is brigade size or an artillery battery

I hope you've found this snapshot of my last 6 months interesting. I intend to blog each in much more detail as time permits. And we haven't finished with it yet! JP of Youtube channel fame is back and he plans to organise one of his famous 28mm 

Napoleonic games on yet another variation in mid October.

best wishes

Chris G

Seven Years War - The Battle of Hohenburg : PART TWO

 A Dinos "Honours of War" scenario

Please see PART ONE for background (and thanks to everyone who commented on it). This was my take on Dinos' "Take these Guns" scenario and I played it twice with different players. This one I'm calling Hohenburg 2  for simplicity but it feels different to the first battle as I had to take the role of a player, and we had no neutral umpire. As I mentioned in Part One all the resources for this scenario are in the 18th Century Download section in the righthand sidebar here.

Based on my observations confirmed by player feedback this time I tweaked the Austrian/Imperial brief to allow the reserve units to come on in a much more random way. That would mean much less control for the Austrian player over where and when the reserves would arrive and slightly improve the game balance.  Paul B was the aged "Dithering" Austrian general this time and I played the "Dashing" Frederick II (The Great!) of Prussia.

Overall view of the visible units at the start 

Me enjoying the view from Frederick's baseline

Once again the permitted Austrian deployment zones
and the numbered potential entry points for reserves 

Due to our need to keep initial dispositions from each other
no formal maps are available, so this sketch will have to do,
plus the photos below

The Austrian dispositions. Paul has put all his cavalry on the left flank (one regiment is hidden behind the hill crest), one infantry battalion between the redoubts, and one well back hidden near the camp.

My Prussians are deployed with a strong cavalry brigade, under Zieten, on the right, The mandatory frontline Infantry brigade in line formation will switch to column and march round the left flank. Brigades in Lines 2 and 3 are already in march column and will push through strongly on the right behind the cavalry. At this stage I'm trying desperately to avoid a frontal advance against the guns.....the best laid plans etc....!

Luckily Zieten got a double move to start so I could deploy his cavalry into line, press up the hill, and was met by Paul's Cuirassiers counter-attacking.

My Wurttemburg Horse Grenadiers were repulsed back to reform, but luckily the double moves were coming for the infantry helped by Fred, and my two flank movements were going to plan........

.....Sufficiently to get Paul looking pensive.....
Actually he is thinking how best to use his hidden cavalry regiment!

At this stage I was hoping Paul had spread his cavalry and expected a regiment to be coming over that crest against my left flank Hussars. 

But then he brought that hidden regiment forward with his "gotcha" expression as a rare crack in his poker "game" face. 

The Imperial Cuirassiers have retreated, but a Dragoon regiment takes on my Grunburg Dragoons. Time for my Hessian Fusilier brigade to start  changing to line in case his cavalry break through 

So now it seemed unlikely my left flank move would be opposed but I'm trying to keep the range from the artillery as long as possible

It was actually part of my plan to split his artillery fire as I felt the left flank could sustain the odd Hit from one battery. But Paul is now manhandling his middle battery to  confound my right flank even more. The cavalry action is now intense.

There are mutual 4 or 5 Point Hits forcing withdrawal of our cavalry but the Imperial force still holds the crest and the hiatus gives the artillery a nice open view! 

It's still looking promising in theory as the all-Grenadier 2nd infantry Brigade came forward in column of march  

The Hanoverian Grenadier battalion at the end is only small and, deliberately, in this scenario orbat, only standard effectiveness . I always think these RSM figures are cute and "classic".

2nd Brigade starts to form line - facing left as I'm still trying to split the guns' fire. In the distance my third cavalry regiment has suffered a reverse

A closer view shows the fusiliers in line shielding the cavalry who are being helped to recover their Hits by Frederick (2 at a time for a Dashing Commanding General)

My left flank attack has at last pulled Paul's static infantry battalion over to that flank

I like this picture as it looks like an organised 18th Century battle; but in reality I'm struggling. By now the cavalry were supposed to have forced back the opposition to give the infantry a chance to be deploying right on the flank of the large redoubt....but still I've got it all to do! 

The view from the Imperial Colonel von Muddel's brigade position towards my left flank column

Another cavalry clash on the riverside flank. At last I've managed to break one of Paul's regiments (the red dragoons in the centre spot) but my Prussian Dragoons (light blue) have been forced back to reform around the bridge (I'm secretly fingers crossed Paul doesn't get a random reserve unit here now).

In fact that reserve turned up on the other flank. A Dragoon regiment came through Hohenburg town and deployed behind the infantry. I'd now have to be a bit canny how I pressed on this flank.

This rather poorly lit photo sort of reflects the depression setting in over the Prussians! The combination of setbacks, reforms, erratic initiative rolls and trying to avoid the cannon fire has truly split my force badly by now.

2nd Brigade is hoping to get past the guns with minimal losses but, as luck would have it, only a single move was rolled which gave Paul time to turn one battery and hit them with canister fire in enfilade. I'm firing back at the other battery with musketry and battalion guns but the odd Hit will not dislodge them.

Paul's own slight setbacks have forced him to reform a line from the big redoubt down to the camp. But I'm in no position to exploit it properly, constantly under close range cannon fire. 

Another sign of my desperation. As stated in the Prussian briefs there are Victory Point penalties for bringing forward or sustaining losses to the "Reserve line" represented in my game by the Grunburg Foot Guards (foreground). But I'm throwing caution to the winds and trying to give those Austrian guns too may targets, hoping to keep them shifting and deducting 1 from their firing. Up ahead the Hussars and 1st Grenadier Brigade are squaring up for a fight.

Hessian Musketeers are attacking the redoubt gunners with the bayonet as the cavalry clash again on the right. Action is hotting up in the distance by Hohenburg town; but in the foreground the Erbprinz Grenadiers are still struggling to recover Hit Points 

At Hohenburg town my infantry are trying to find ways to advance and fire yet still negotiate the stream and bridge. To ease the pressure I was very happy to counter-attack Paul's reserve Dragoon regiment  with my competent Standard quality Prussian Hussars 

An overhead shot of the same situation - action all along the front now. At right I'm still reforming Prussian Dragoons but in front of them the Grunburg Dragoons are pressing and being met by a now reformed Imperial Dragoon regiment

The outcome was that the Hessian Musketeers got beaten off at the redoubt; so yet another battalion rushes downhill to reform in dead ground. The cavalry melee is resolved by mutual retreats - this backward route becoming familiar territory to the Grunburg Dragoons. Fred watches them go by like a frustrated football manager seeing a key striker limp off the pitch.

Between the redoubts Paul has outwitted me again, turning both guns on the Grunburg Grenadiers - they didn't stand a chance......In the background the Hussars and Dragoons are fighting.

On the right flank a Hessian Fusilier battalion is down to 3 Hits (orange marker) and is about to get charged........

.......no surprise that they are broken by a Superior and Large Cuirassier regiment. By Hohenburg my Hussars have been pushed back and Paul has withdrawn his Dragoons to between the redoubts 

It's all happening over there now. The Imperial infantry regiment breaks (yellow marker) under combined fire from two Prussian Grenadier battalions. Those Dragoons charge the Hanoverian Grenadiers and are repulsed but not before they have weakened the Hanoverians, who have to retreat. This cannon has turned on the Grunburg Foot Guards and causes a 4-Hit Retreat on them too. So much for my effort at a pincer movement on this redoubt!

The other Hessian fusilier battalion breaks during a further attack on this battery in the big redoubt. Beyond them the Imperial Dragoons by the camp have received a charge standing and opted to fire instead of counter charging. The 1 Hit inflicted couldn't save them though.......... and the melee sent them racing off the table - Done For

..........However, it contributed to my Horse Grenadiers having to retreat back whence they came, once again, and leaving the Prussian Dragoons isolated

A round up of photos at the end of Move 8:

At the top is my only success. The Hussars are about to sneak through Hohenburg's streets in column of march to see if they can loot the camp. 1st Grenadier Brigade will inevitably overpower the gunners in the small redoubt. The Imperial Dragoons have withdrawn to cover the camp. Seven other Prussian units are visible but they have all suffered badly - retreating, rallying  or just "dazed" - well that's how it felt after so many setbacks from the redoubts.

The Grunburg Foot Guards and Hanoverian Grenadiers are both in retreat, trying to get as far away from those guns as possible!

To make matters worse Paul had succeeded in getting another reserve unit. This time a Grenadier battalion from over that bridge on the Schmidafluss. Now he would be well placed to ensure my units on this flank could not escape the "no recovering Hits within 30cm of the enemy" rule.

And so the sun sets over a now peaceful Imperial encampment as they can hear the distant drums of the main army relief column approaching. Major General Holzenkopf has managed to secure his pension through a notable victory.

Army Points lost (my system not the HoW rulebook) - 11 AP each - could not be closer on this statistic alone, reality on the ground tells a different story.

Conclusion

It was now after 5pm and we'd achieved 8 Moves. Both armies theoretically had a long way to go to "break" (Prussian 28 APs, Imperial 22 APs). But, seriously, look at the way my Prussian army is spread in relation to the main objectives - both batteries and the camp. Would you carry on, or retreat to fight another day? The Prussians had lost 3 units "Done For" and those Dragoons by the big river bridge had not recovered points yet, could not rally, and would be forced to surrender by continued proximity to the enemy. I could imagine how a real Frederick might have felt - so much effort and loss for so little gain. The scenario would force him to leave the field next move, so why wait? Only two moves till the Imperial main force arrived and the objectives would not be achieved, nor the Imperial force broken. I was content to concede and pull back the 10 remaining units. Paul had cleverly used just enough of his stretched resources to "fight the fires" as they occurred, and thwarted me at nearly every point.

It had been one of hardest fought games of Honours of War that I could remember. An exciting game full of incident in which the actual losses, in both games, were disproportionate to the tactical situation gained, making the outcome in doubt for a long time. As I said at the beginning of Part One this scenario looks like a walkover for the Prussians, on paper, but the reality proves very different. I thoroughly recommend you try it - a different rule set might of course switch the balance but for HoW I've got to compliment Dinos on a very clever  idea. If you think you are a "been there, done that" 18th century wargamer, maybe tired of conventional games then give this a try - you will be surprised. The opening conditions on the Prussians in particular force a Frederician style of infantry lines and oblique attack, and the Austrians have strong artillery and cavalry to meet it. To me it felt convincing and thoroughly satisfying for that, even if the outcome was dire. Richard's Prussians in Game One were universally noted to have been unlucky with the dice, but with me as their commander I cannot say the same, so it must be a genuinely difficult challenge. My main advice would be that my tweaking to suit my battlefield, and my maverick attitude to slavishly following a set scenario, probably let us down this time, so stick as close as you can to the book. Dinos evidently knows what he is doing!

Finally, grateful thanks to Richard, Ken and Paul for giving me two great days of entertainment and socialising and I hope they all enjoyed it. I loved the opportunity to get some parts of my esoteric collection down from the shelves. What a great hobby we have, and how lucky we are to have Keith Flint and Dinos Antoniadis to help bring the 18th Century to life via "Honours of War".