Friday, February 25

"Stuff"...

Zounds!! Two weeks since the last post.... what the hell is going on... apologies chaps - "plenty" is the answer, but not all of it strictly wargame related (as anyone who visits my boat blog can see!)

So - plenty of action, but all available mental resources are fairly heavily aimed at getting "Papillon" (my boat) ready for the water - with the launch date set for the 21st March and an 'interesting' job list to complete before then (read "long" for interesting), I've been fairly focussed elsewhere...

It's not all been a dead loss however, DG & I continue to battle away at the American Civil war campaign, and having given him a bloody nose in the last engagement, we have now just met at "Waynes Junction" for what may be the deciding action in the campaign (but who knows!)

Last Saturday there was some much needed RnR with the annual/bi-annual (we'd like it to be bi-annual, but I'm not sure the current partners would agree!) pilgrimage to the home of Hop Back beers, the Wyndham Arms in Salisbury... an absolutely excellent day out (as usual), with all the usual culprits present, an astonishing (as in sized) full English breakfast to start the day, and then 6 or 7 pints of Hop Backs finest. We missed the "Winter Lightning" unfortunately, too late this year as it's only available in December, but on this visit I particularly liked their "Brewers Challenge" - a February 'special' brewed with Challenger hops (hence the name) but golden in colour and just packed full of citrusy bitter flavour - heartily recommended. All of this accompanied by large amounts of talking absolute rubbish about a vast range of inconsequential subjects (Free Happy Smileys), much laughter, and not a few games of "Shut the Box" which seems to lend itself to these proceedings like it was purpose made for the job.. which it is...



..a brilliant day out - looking forward to the next one already...

Which brings me to the picture top left - I hadn't meant to do a full review of "Wounds of Honour" as I don't do reviews for all of the books I read - it would get a bit tedious... in this case however, the more I look back on the book, the more I realise how much I enjoyed it, so by way of keeping the review to the left I decided to review it slightly more fully here..

This is the first volume in a series (have you noticed that no one seems to write single books any more!) based on the character Marcus Valerius Aquila, the son of a noted Roman senator, and a member of what was then called the equestrian class (the upper class, ruling types - what would later be called the aristocracy I guess - interesting that the name has horse/cavalry connotations though, it would imply that even in the Roman Empire, the home of the Legions, the cavalry/horsemen was noted as superior in some way).

The book is set in the reign of the Emperor Commodus (he of "Gladiator" notoriety), and a particularly "political" period of the Roman Empire - plots, denouncements, scheming, and an increasingly unpredictable emperor would have meant that Rome at the time would have been an unhealthy place to be a member of the equestrian class, and a senator. So it is that Marcus's father is put to death based on false evidence (and all of his family, who are also ordered to be put to death as was the way then) and Marcus suddenly finds himself the sole remaining family member...

All is not lost however, as by way of saving him from what he knows is coming Marcus's father has sent him north to Britain with urgent dispatches for one of his best friends - the dispatches of course are nothing of the sort - they give the word that he is about to be killed, with a request that the friend (a Legatus of an Auxilia cohort based on Hadrian's Wall) look out for Marcus and protect him if he is able.

Either way, having proven himself in a couple of skirmishes Marcus ends up as a very probationary centurion and soon sets about whipping his century into shape - just in time to take part in the revolt by the indigenous Britain's.

The detail on how the Auxilia is run is very good - roles and responsibilities of the centurions, how many there are (10 by the way), how many men in each century (about 80), weapons and armour (different to the main stream legions by the way - which I didn't know) - and all provided as part of the story so that you don't feel like you're being lectured to...

The language throughout is "soldierly", the battle descriptions are excellent (some of the best I've read since "Gates of Fire") and despite the initial implausibility of Marcus being accepted as a centurion, the strength and depth of the story and characters make it all entirely plausible in the end..

Well worth getting - Steve the Wargamer gives this one a nine out of ten - thanks DG! Free Happy Smileys

Monday, February 14

"The Fields of Death" by Simon Scarrow

At last some time to review this one... this is the fourth and last in the series, and although it was good I'll come right out and say it's not the best.... in fact in my honest opinion the best was probably volume one or two - I got the distinct impression that by the time this volume came round Scarrow just wanted to get to the end and had finally realised just how much he'd chewed off...

Wellington and Napoleon are true giants of history, but they really did have very little to do with each other until Waterloo - each of them fought the others nation for years but they never came face to face until the Hundred Days... so this idea of their combined story is a little strained, and none more so than in this volume despite Waterloo....

The period is so rich and so full of history and detail it must be really off putting to any author to face it and out it into a fictional context, and I think Scarrow has glossed over a lot of the detail here... how else can you cover practically the whole of Wellington's Peninsula Campaign, and Napoleon's invasion of Russia in just one of the four volumes??

So having said that, did I enjoy it?? Damn right I did - on two counts... while I never thought the portrayal of Napoleon in these books was particularly convincing, I really did think that Scarrow had got inside Wellington's head, and his fictional portrayal of the iron Duke was brilliant... completely torn, and despite his certainty on the battlefield, completely the opposite in his private life..

Second, despite having read a number of books about Waterloo, Scarrow really (really!) describes the battle well and shows how it really was a "very close run thing".....

Steve the Wargamer gives the series as a whole a solid 8 out of 10, but this one only a 6, oh go on then, 7.

Sunday, February 13

Wow....

Spotted this in the paper today... fantastic.

This is called "The Chariot Race" and is Alexander von Wagner, painted in about 1882, and possibly inspired by the book "Ben Hur"...

NB. Since the original post I've replaced the image with the copy Legatus [click here] posted on his blog's website - far bigger and more impressive image - make sure you click on it to get the bigger view... quite astounding...

Wednesday, February 9

Battle of Rogersburg ... ACW Campaign

So here we go, as mentioned previously, a little run through of the recent battle that DG and I have just completed in our ongoing American Civil War campaign.. we started the battle on December 12th, so although virtual games across the ether are a definite possibility, they aren't quick...!

We used Battle Chronicler for handling the movement, as the level of granularity is just phenomenal - we used a table top that was measured in "real" inches, allowing us to represent units in "real" size. The rules were Regimental Fire and Fury, and DG and I tended to exchange move files once per day. In many ways this explains how long it took us to play the game, which only lasted for 12 turns, but took approximately 50 days to complete...! A Regimental Fire and Fury turn comprises 8 phases - so a minimum of 8 days/move - faster if there was no melee or shooting by either side...

Terrain was as above (click on any of the pictures for a bigger view), and as DG was already present he was allowed a short time to create some quick defences represented by the line of fences and logs just north of the station.

The objective of the game for me was to push DG out of the town whilst not taking too many casualties... (there were other tactical and strategic imperatives, but DG reads this blog so I'll not expound on them here!)

Forces available were one brigade of infantry for DG, two brigades for me - the second of which would not arrive until later in the game. No artillery on either side - I had a half squadron of cavalry....

The following shows the progression of the game, which you can download the first nine moves of here [click here] and the end of the game from here [click here] - all you need is Battle Chronicler, open the file with that and you'll be able to see all the game mechanics, dice throws and everything else DG and I discussed... clicking the move advance button shows the units magically marching across the pixels as if by magic... well electrons anyway...

Move 1 (and I'm only showing the Confederate moves) and I enter the table - I made full use of the available room for a daring (for me) flank march, successfully bypassing the fortified walls/logs etc. I like to think DG was worrying at this point!

A combination of moves from DG, on balance though I drew from this that he was worried - half of his infantry withdrew while one advanced looking to take me on, and the other (huge!) regiment about turned...

...and time to attack - short moves to go from column of march to double lines and away they go - Georgia boys to the fore... in the ensuing melee the Union 12 New Jersey regiment breaks and routs... in the subsequent Union turn they fail morale and retreat again..

Turn four and it's the turn of the Confederate cavalry to keep the pressure on the 12th New Jersey - a mad dash across the battlefield, they contact and drive the 12th back in such disarray that they carry on and also attack the 108th New York and drive them back as well! They did well, but truth be told I knew they'd overextended themselves... elsewhere you can see that the 60th Georgia are wavering...

Turn 5 and my reinforcements arrive in the form of my second infantry brigade - with the hurriedly fortified positions now clear, I send them straight into the fray.. their combined shooting is almost enough to finish off the 108th NY, and the subsequent charge by the 13th Georgia sweeps them from the field.. elsewhere the 1st Delaware and contacted and forced to surrender.. to be honest - I could no wrong this turn, and I suspect DG thought he was on the wrong end of a tsunami - the dice went my way, and the arrival of my second brigade was timely..



Closing in... the field is mine... 14th Carolina caught and finished off..

General pursuit - and at this time we recognised that we needed a bigger table - which with Battle Chronicler is a synch... we just increased the size! Switch to the second file I linked to above for the rest of the game...

Pursuit..

More pursuit...

Caught him... firing...

End of game just before this turn...

Post Match Analysis:

  • A good game for me - it was one of those games where certainly in the middle phase I could do no wrong - the dice were definitely rolling my way
  • Having said that, I think my tactics were sound, and I outnumbered DG so I really should have won - I wasn't expecting to do it quite so resoundingly though..
  • Casualty recovery occurred overnight and was diced for - I recovered ... well if I told you I'd have to kill you - I have no idea how DG did, but I hope it was worse then me!
  • Something like our third game with these rules, but the first time with the published full set (we've been using the beta up until now) and again no real issues... surprisingly few differences between the beta and full versions - obviously we had a late beta version or the rules were just good in the first place!


In the meanwhile the campaign rolls on...