Cassano 1705

Ignoring the nasty "buzzy" things on the "Bag the Hun" table, the gentlemen of the club prepared for a re-enactment of the battle of Cassano.

In 1705 Prince Eugene crossed the Italian border to relieve the siege of the cities and castles of Piedmont. Success would keep the duke of Piedmont in the war, failure would surely lead to his defeat. Key to this plan was the bridge at Cassano.

At Cassano the French deployed in and around the Cassano redoubt which protected their supply routes. They were confident the series of irrigation ditches to their front would protect their forces long enough for them to move to meet any threat.

Eugene, of course, had other plans and was across the first ditches before the French knew what was happening.

It was at this point our scenario started.

I led the Allies, taking the cavalry, abley supported by Clive on our left and centre and Steve M on our right. Facing us was Malcolm holding the redoubt and left flank, with Chas taking the centre and right flank.

The Allies rushed to cross the remaining ditch, with Malcolm doing his best to frustrate this. Chas deployed a holding force and rushed the bulk of his army from right flank towards the left where it could cover the redoubt.

As the Allies scrambled over the ditch they were "pinged" by skirmishing dragoons and infantry. A couple of units were caught disordered by charging cavalry and Clive's men suffered at the hands of an infantry firing line.

Weight of numbers drove the French back, but the ditch was slowing our advance, as units halted to redress ranks (JJ would have been proud !). Elsewhere Chas's men made a steady pace towards the fortification.

Allied dragoons forced their way through Malcolm's line and blocked Chas's progress, as Steve pushed the French left back.

Despite Chas's best efforts, the arrival of large numbers of Austrian cuirassiers caused several French units to fire high, waiver and run, but a new line held strong and both sides released their cavalry reserves.

Meanwhile Steve's first assault on the redoubt was turned back by a face full of cannister.

By this time so many cavalry were crammed into the centre that no one could move and Steve renewed his assault on the redoubt.

Seeing the writing on the wall, the Adder waved to the defenders of the redoubt as he crossed the bridge in his coach.

Malcolm's men were last seen being cut down by the bayonets of Steve's fresh grenadier units.

A hard fought battle and the French could complain that had their muskets been on target when the cuirassiers charged things might have been very different.

When told of the casualties amongst his forces Chas was heard to say "More men will be conceived in Paris tonight than were lost on the field today." His report of the battle is said to be very critical of his subordinates and the Chardonnay served with dinner.

I thought it was a good game with around a thousand 28mm figures on the table. The rules (Rank & File) gave a simple, quick game, with a believable result and we played at least 20 turns. Not a competition set, but fun for club bash involving lots of figures.

On the other table JJ & Jason couldn't agree on the difference between the front and the rear of an aircraft (remind me never to fly with them !) and JJ's pencil case got broken.

Vince

The day is rapidly approaching.

Soon masses of 25mm figures will trade volleys of ill-aimed musket fire as Chas watches from his palatial carriage and sips his Chardonnay. Still none the wiser as to what is going on, just that its a bunch of lace-clad types picking a fight with a bunch of even more lace-clad types.

At the same time tiny little planes will be dogfighting over some corner of this green and pleasant land, as the valiant RAF attempt to hold off the nasty, caddish and downright mean Luftwaffe. Gus is setting this one up, using his planes on my mat.

March 13th Games

It's another month and another game or two. First up is a 25mm War of Spanish Succession game, by Chas, Vince et al. Not sure which rules it is, but I'll bet there are going to be loads of figures on the table and Chas will be in a carriage on a hill sipping fine wine.

The other game will be a first play of Bag the Hun 2. Chocks away, Tally Ho and all that. Dakka dakka dakka willl echo around the room as Gus fails to hit anything again.

And onto the Ancients game

A Warhammer Ancients battle, fought between Sassanids and Khazars. A report was received from the Sassanid commander, so please take into account the slight bias in his view. Over to you Vince.

The Sassanid king surveyed his army deployed on the plain. A horde of Parthian vassal horse archers, Iranian horse archers, Lakhamid horse, elephants, Arab and Iranian infantry all subordinate to the Sassanian Noble clibinari.

The nations of the empire were all here, the army was vast and it was a good day to slaughter the barbarian invaders.

Then the Khazar horde rode out of the heat haze onto the field. Innumerable horse archers were screening solid blocks of noble cavalry and a group of infantry with yurts. "Tents, why have they brought tents to a battle ?" the Shah of Shah's mused. No matter he thought and waved the Sassanid army forward to attack.

Battle was joined by the opposing horse archers and a swirling melee in the centre led to a large number of Sassanian cavalry fleeing the field. Clibinari charged horse archers along the line firing as they went and saw the retreating skirmishers feign flight as they fired over their shoulders.

On the left Steve M and the Khazar allies under Steve H danced around each other firing as they went. Many saddles were emptied but not one would come to close quarters.

On the right Andy meleed the Khazar light cavalry under their war leader Chas and both sides saw warriors flee the battle.

Frustrated at chasing shadows, a unit of clibinari rode down the yurt guard only to lose half their number to a cloud of arrows from skirmishing horse archers. The elite of Andy and Chas's army came to push of kontos, Andy's elephant stampeded (surprise, surprise !) and Steve M started to get the better of Steve H's cavalry in the shooting contest.

End game came with Steve H's forces boxed in and losing the resulting melees. My clibinari joined in and were glad of the rest from the continual pinging by nomad cavalry commanded by Malcolm. Chas had routed Andy's clibinari but, seeing no answer to the large blocks of untouched infantry, quit the field roundly cursing his allies.

The Sassanids held the field and remarkably their infantry was intact, but neither side had got off lighly.

I thought it was an enjoyable game, played in a good humoured fashion and it reminded me why I hate being pinged by nomad horse archers !

Vince

February is over, many dice were rolled

And hopefully much fun was had. Two games were put on, 15mm WW2 by Jon and a 25mm Ancients by Chas and Vince. WW2 first, so here is a brief report.

Here is a picture of the WW2 game set up. A small German force had to hold off hordes of veteran British paratroopers. Outnumbered over 10 to 1(or not), the gallant defenders of the Reich were in for a hard time.(can you tell which side I was on?). The British had to secure the town and hold out until the armour arrived. The Germans had to wake up, defeat the British, capture London and win the World Cup.

After the first couple of turns some of the Germans had been rudely awakened by a British hand grenade. They promptly rallied themselves and lay down some withering fire, pinning down the Imperialist lackeys and stopping their advance.


As the rest of the Germans awoke, a British section rushed forward to free the local Mayors daughter from her skirts. The gallant defenders saw this and poured a deadly rain of fire on them, wounding or killing them all. They then advanced and gave first aid to the wounded, despite the evil nature of the British Paratroopers. ;)


As the game came to an end the Germans held the town, but had not driven the British off. The British did not hold their objectives but had survived until the armour arrived. Losses were very heavy for both platoons of the British, while the German 1st platoon had taken 40% losses.

I enjoyed the game, despite only getting to move 4 times in more than 11 turns. The rules used were an adaptation of IABSM, PBI2 and FoW.

13th of February is fast approaching.

And much mayhem shall ensue. Jon is putting on a 15mm WW2 game, no doubt involving far too many well painted figures and vehicles. Vince and Chas are playing some sort of olde-worlde game involving bits of sharpened wood and pit ponies. I think the official description is Vince's Sassanid's fighting Chas' Kazar horde, but I may be wrong.

Yes, I am very occasionally wrong.

In other news several of the club members managed the pleasant trip to Cardiff today and spent copious amounts of money on 15mm buildings at the Penarth clubs Crusade show. Rather a nice day out, spoilt only by the absence of many traders. I think the recession is hitting smaller shows quite badly.

Looking forward to the club meet, especially as I won't be able to go to the Plymouth show next Saturday.

Mexico vs America! Hmm, history rewritten

After Chas stood me up, Brett stepped into the breach with his Mexican American War game in 28mm.

Brett & Steve M took the forces of truth and justice and I played the land grabbing Imperialists.

The Mexicans occupied a couple of redoubts and a village with infantry and guns. The boys from the good old US of A formed advanced in line as their guns played along the Mexican positions and a couple of cavalary units covered the flanks. At this point a horde of Mexican cavalry made an appearance on my right and a single unit of horse on my left.

The brave US cavalry met their opposite numbers on each flank and promptly decided to go home.

With first blood to the Mexicans, the US artillery evened the score with some accurate fire sending some of the Mexican horse packing.

On my left my main attack went into a redoubt and promptly came back again. The supports decided standing off and shooting was the best option.

In the centre and my right a vicious fire fight developed and the Mexicans managed to send some cavalry in column around the flank.

With the main battle lines looking very worn and multiple units routing, the Mexican guard came into sight, received an ineffectual volley and regrouped to the rear.

Eventually I carried the redoubt held by Steve's troops on my left, but ground to a halt in the centre and faced advancing Mexicans on my right.

Both sides had received a beasting and retired to their lines to lick their wounds.

The Mexicans had done better than in any of the historical battles. Plans by the "Land of the Free" to rename half of Mexico as California, Utah, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Arizona, not to mention a doubling of the size of Texas, would have to wait.

Man of the match went to Steve, who sold his soul for a supernatural set of die rolls. His unit in the redoubt single handedly threw back a third of my army.

A good game was had by all and it was nice to play an unusual period to a free flowing set of rules.

As an aside, if Brett offers you a transparent red D10 to roll, hand it back. I rolled 4 ones on the trot with it. It is the devil's dice.

Vince