Zorndorf with 'Battle Command'

  As usual, le Duc is busier than the proverbial dog with the proverbial double appendage...

 However, one did manage to squeeze a game in with Sgt Steinahhhhh .

'Get on with it!!!'

As some may know (we keep talking about them), our favourite set is Brent Oman's Field of Battle. Battle Command takes the same basic mechanics, but changes how the cards work, with a view to extending the influence of the multi sided dice of the commander, such that he has more influence and thereby choice, in terms of what cards to play and - depending on even or odd roll - whether to apply the card play to a single brigade, or the entire army.

Now, I thought about trying to explain all of this, but instead, I have opted to outline why the rules and mechanics are much better than everything else (a bold statement, but it's a bold post). Well, perhaps it's not that they are much better - it's simply that they address the problems of wargaming with an elegant and highly efficient design, which pokes a finger straight into the eye of traditional wargaming rules.

There is no turn sequence

Why would that ever be an advantage? Surely we need a turn sequence? The sequence comes from the cards which dictate moves, firing, morale, leadership & rally - with opposed rolling - the deck is random, but built based upon commanders in FoB, and dictated heavily by command rolls in BC. I can't predict what my options, and in a sense, 'luck' will let me do when i get to activate. I have to work with what I have (what - like a real battle?), and the deck and my command roll does the rest. Now in BC, I get a little more choice than in FoB, but it still works roughly in the same way. I can't look at the turn sequence and know that I will get to do 'X' before my morale check. I can't know that my firing will have 'X' effect on that flank statistically speaking, before the opponent's turn. What? No predictability? Don't we get that sort of predictability in real battles dammit? I rest my case.

There are no modifiers

What? But modifiers help to simulate what happens in real battles?  Two aspects here. Multi sided dice - so if i get an 'up two' i may go from d6 to d10 and vice versa - this is genius in terms of probabilities. Conditions will affect dice ups/downs;  more genius is the fact that even rolls have more benefits than uneven rolls, including routs, rallies, movement 'bonuses' etc.

The Army Morale counts down to exhaustion

The only other rules I have seen which replicate exhaustion really well are V&B, with division exhaustion. In FoB it's at the army level, and you give morale chips, to their advantage, to your opponent once you are worn down, and subject to a poor army morale roll - you will quit the field - so you always finish a game in 2-4 hours.  Nope - there are no brigade morale checks and effects; to be fair this has never been a problem for me, though I know it has created issues for some.

To the game. This was played with Steiner's 15mm 7YW Russian and Prussian collection.

Prussian cavalry on the right flank, which would see its sneaky beaky move through the woods stymied by the Russians

Prussian assault in the centre

Prussian Grenadiers, hopeful of early gains, are pushed back

'I do not think zat zis is going to voork...'

Although the Prussians are forced back on the left, and take a lot of casualties, they do not rout

The Prussians start to make real gains on the right despite the cavalry debacle, with infantry hoping to turn a Russian flank. Thankfully, Russian musketry is ...erm...somewhat less than stellar

Steiner points at the problem...

...and then...just in the nick of time...Prussian Cuirassiers are unleashed, and flood across the river ready to support the right flank...huh? but instead make a speedy move toward the weakening Russian centre

The Prussian right

Impulsive Prussian horse gallop forward with intentions of raiding the Russian camp. 
 

I'd love to say that the cavalry action on the right was simply a plan whereby the Russian horse would find itself compromised by having to check the movements of enemy horse...but no...it was a simple cock-up

By game end, the Russians had survived one army morale roll, and another one pending (based on less cards and probability). It's a different mechanic and way of playing the mainstay of these excellent rules, but still very entertaining. It's hard to play other Horse & Musket rules while FoB/BC are in place, simply due to the fact that they are unconventional, lend themselves to simulating command decisions and simply work...

KlosterKamp 1760 ...with V&B

 After last month's basing exercise, we finally got to grips with a relatively small V&B game (it still took 4 hours though), based on the Allied / French battle of 1760 during the 7yw, near Wesel.

Again, the elegance of V&B shines through, and we had many reversals and nail-biting finishes to melees.

Some refresh and ref to the rules was necessary during play, of course.

French units line the river, but there not enough of them to avoid leaving a gap for Allied units to exploit.

The Allied/British centre

There would be a cavalry flank action on the French left.

Advantage for the French, as they adopt stationary positions on the bank - doubling fire dice

"ze thing about ze small buildings, is zat I can not fit inside when ze shooting starts..."

The French right, which would see a stalemate until near the end, when French units were urgently required at centre

The cavalry action does not go well for the French

British troops ford the marshy stream and start to hit the open French flank

...even shooting off some cavalry

The main event happens, as fronts change, in the centre

Things were looking to go the way of the Allies as we finished, though they still had a number of  brigades to rally. All in all, a great game.

I also saw the beauty of the fire-counterfire system at work, in line with turn sequence. Said sequence does mean that there is a lot happening in these rules as the units numbers increase - although getting used to things again does make things go remarkably smoothly.

Warburg 1760 - the Christmas Bash

Assembling once more for a long game, in the fine traditions of the Christmas Bash (with an Indian meal at the end) the members of the Wobbly Warchest greeted each other once more in John's bunker.

There is no truth to the rumour that the the French players brought some national delicacies, in terms of stinking cheese, in order to psychologically undermine the Allied players... (but it was quite whiffy)...

Warburg 1760 is a Seven Years War battle, seeing a clash between Du May's French and Spoercken and the Erbprinze's British/Hanoverian contingent. The French have seen some success in Hesse, and it is time for the Allies to turn a strategic flank...

The finest Calvados brandy; purely medicinal of course...

Rules used were Koenig Krieg 2 (2nd edition 1986 Frei Korps version (with addition of material from the full blown US published original 2nd ed.)), with some excellent amendments, to suit group play and general sensibilities, from our Umpire Stephen.

Figures are from the fantastic 15mm 7YW collections of John & the 2xSteves. 

No figures were harmed (though some may have been splashed by beer) in the making of this blogpost.

The French right, with 3xBrigades on the ridgeline, skirmishers in Warburg itself, and some out of command horse elements defending the flank along the line of the Diemel River all day long. Though these troops were a bit of a glass hammer themselves, they acted as an effective anvil against British and Allied troops - who would take Warburg, then lose it. The tragedy is that I held a Brigade of troops (albeit poor morale) on the back of the hill, when they might have been used in the centre/left  -  where John got his nose bloodied by Allied charges and very accurate musketry.

Allied assault starts to go in on the French right

French horse on the left

Swiss troops in the French centre - who would be mauled and battered by Allied cavalry and infantry all day

Allied troops advancing in the centre

'Les voici mes amis. Tenir! Vous devez Tenir!!!'

The French centre and left will be bloodied - no question

It's quiet down by the river, where Allied horse will sit at the Warburg bridge

, looking sternly (very sternly) at their French counterparts sitting across the riverbank...all day long.

Though, on the French right, Warburg will change hands a few times. 'Pour La Gloire mes Amis!!!'

A view of the battlefield - you can see the ridge on the French right, the bloody crucible in the centre; what you can't see yet are the thousands of Allied horse, assembling just off camera, in a suitably sized box...

John points out the problem...

Musketry duels in the centre - where the Allies do not hold back.

'Cavalry sir...Mon Dieu!' The Allied right starts to flood with horse.

A view of French centre and left. French troops move and bend as required, in order to stem the tide.

Things remain relatively quiet on the right, bar vicious fighting for Warburg itself, some skirmisher actions and hard looks from each side. The British troops here hold back, not attacking toward the ridgeline ...just yet. This helps delay a brigade of reserve French troops, which might have moved to centre.

The centre becomes a desperate fight.

...and the French left becomes a war of manoeuvre, against very effective British musketry and rapidly approaching Allied horse...

BREAKTHROUGH!!!   Allied horse flanks and destroys Swiss troops in the centre.

...even as the Allied assault goes in at centre and partially on the French right

Tension ...as ranges are checked, and firing arcs verified ...

*sighs* 'quiet on the river today, eh Pierre?'

Desperate action on the French left

On the French right, at the ridgeline, a staring contest moves to its 2nd round...

The French left - Allied cavalry emerge in wave after wave from the treeline, west of the woods

It's not going to end well...

Allied might in the centre

View from the Allied centre - a tough nut to crack - but with continued pressure from the horse on their right, it just might work...

Staring contest over, the Allies start also to clear out skirmishers on their own left...

...also with a second demonstration against Warburg

Freytag's skirmishers ... 

French cavalry suffer horribly on the left - shot in the back, trampled by numerous allies - and bloody good dice rolls

French infantry move to the centre. There is only one option remaining now. Hold the line of the river - and buy time for the horse to cross it. Thereby, the French can form a secondary defensive line.
'Retournez à la rivière ! Retour à la rivière !'

'Hold ! Damn your eyes!!!'

Yawn... at the river crossing on the the flank, what could have become the crucible for desperate action becomes a holding pen for dice and markers. Ahhh, the vagaries of war.

No such peace on the French left

British attacks on the right, as they finally get onto the ridgeline, however...

By this stage, three French brigades were broken and one (or two) British. It was time for Army Morale rolls - which ended up resulting in a withdrawal for both armies. They had bloodied each other (some more than others ;)  ) and decided to call it a day.

A great game in great company as usual. There might even have been some (minor) discussion of rules mechanisms, which hardly ever happens. ;)