Dux Britanniarum - Big Game Warm Up

The club project for the next twelve months is for members to contribute a collection figures for an end of year dark ages clash.

The anticipated rule set to be used is Dux Britanniarum and a few of the chaps got together this month to test our the rules with  a view to using them for a big game.

I managed to grab a few pictures of  some of the figure collections already assembled, going at it in the play-test.

The (Sassanid) Empire Strikes Back - Sassanid Persian's vs Arab Conquest, early 7th Century, Hail Caesar.

Late Sassanid Warriors - Dariusz Bufnal. More examples of  great military art work by Dariusz can be found on his blog below.

http://dariusz-bufnal-imaging-battles.blogspot.co.uk/2013_05_01_archive.html

The (Sassanid) Empire Strikes Back

Chas and Steve commanded a large force of Arabs intent on conquering Persia - Chas commanding the a mixed force of medium cavalry and infantry while Steve led a massed horde of fanatics.

Against them Vince, Steve M and Andy deployed a mixed force of elite Cataphracts, horse archers, elephants and rather less than elite infantry.

The Catraphracts under Vince lined up on the Persian left, opposite Chas's Arab cavalry, Andy "held" the centre with a thin line of light cavalry & horse archers opposite Chas's infantry and with the Sassanid infantry under Steve M on the right facing the horde of Muslim fanatics under the other Steve (too many Steve's in this club!).

Move One saw Chas ordering everything forward (no, really) and we were off.

Hail Caesar's command rules rapidly got to work and the neat battle-lines broke up fast. Chas came forward with most of his cavalry but with every Persian, whether cavalry, infantry, cook or elephant, being armed with a bow a sporadic but effective reign of missile chipped away at his units.

On the Arab left Steve took a while to convince his fanatics that line one of their job description was "run fast towards the enemy" so the first few turns were quiet.

Vince waited until Chas closed the range and then launched the elite Persian cavalry straightforward, Kontos at the ready. It wasn't all one way traffic but with Sassanid light cavalry chipping away around the flanks the power of the elite heavy cavalry started to tell and two of the Arab cavalry units broke.

On the Arab left Steve got his Arabs going forward but was never able to bring enough to bear at the same time and Steve M fought off repeated piecemeal attacks, occasionally giving ground but always reforming the line.

By mid afternoon gaps were appearing in Chas's lines and one unit of Cataphracts charged forward. Three Arab units later they had carved their way to the opposing base line and the writing was on the wall.

Steve M pushed back a last attack on the Persian right and started forward. The Persian Empire had survived a little longer.

A good game, my first using Hail Caesar rules, & thanks to everyone, Andy.

To Defy a King, New Model Army vs Scots

Yesterday, Mr Steve brought his 15mm ECW collection down to Exeter to run through a game of "To Defy a King" as I was really keen to see how the rules played.
http://www.wargamesdispatch.co.uk/to_defy_a_king.html

Steve play tested the rules and reported on their basic mechanism back in May and having met the author, Keith Johnson, and seen them being played at Warfare in Reading back in November 2014 I knew they gave a nice looking game.
http://devonwargames.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/devon-wargames-defy-king.html

http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/warfare-2014.html

We decided to play the rules straight from the book and so after throwing some terrain down on the table set about selecting a force from the rules using the cards selector army creation process to generate our ten unit armies, a late period Scottish force against Cromwell, Fairfax and the New Model Army looking to impose Parliament's will north of the border.

Orders and quality level (T = Trained) chits placed

The card selections are detailed in Steve's previous post, so suffice to say as a Parliament man, I had the choice to include up to six units of cavalry in this army, reduced to five because we wanted an artillery piece to try out, leaving us with four infantry units to choose.

The cards are dished out in proportions that reflect the period of the war being fought, so for instance our infantry was mainly large to medium size regiments (6-10 bases) with various ratios of pike to matchlocks 2:1, 3:2 etc and mainly Veteran or Trained with very few Raw. We ended up with a large nine stand regiment, two six stand regiments and a four stand regiment with three veterans and one trained.

The Scots line ready to dispute Parliamentary sovereignty 

As a late New Model Army we were able to upgrade two of our units one morale level, so our single raw unit became trained and all our infantry ended up veteran with two of our five cavalry regiments veterans as well. We were also able to upgrade two of the cavalry to "Iron-sides" allowing them greater control when deciding to pursue a beaten foe.

The Scots were not not as well trained or experienced but opted for more infantry to cavalry and having a single heavy position gun to counter our more mobile light gun.

The New Model Army all lined up and ready to go

We then positioned our forces on our respective table edges, following the rules, that had the Scots with the advantage of positioning their forces after seeing where we set up.

With the two lines facing each other we settled into the basic sequence of initiative rolls to determine who activated first, issuing of orders, movement according to orders, combat, reaction and morale tests. My description, but I am sure you get the general idea.

Cromwell and Fairfax with their, "increased quality" dice on their bases

As the New Model we were quite keen to close with the enemy looking to bring our skill at arms to bear in both our infantry and mounted forces. The combat was very logical and seemed well modelled with the musketry as you would expect for the period, causing annoying small casualties that, if repeated, could start to debilitate the fighting qualities of your units.

We were working to roll 2d6 for each stand of muskets looking to hit on a basic score of 8 or more. modified up or down according to circumstance, most hits requiring a score of 7 - 8 or more. Once all hits had occurred on a unit you had a simple save roll to make on any hits over or under six, with six removing a stand selected at random

Thus with ten hits you would remove a stand of pike or matchlocks and needed to roll 5 or 6 to prevent the other four hits causing another base loss, a bit like "Fire and Fury".

The Scots lined up behind their "big" gun

The close combat worked similarly with extra factors included such as Pike vs Matchlock-men having a +1 advantage when units lined up opposite to one another. In combat you are looking to get more hits on the opponent than received, to cause them to have to react. A failed test will cause the enemy to be pushed back a number of inches according to the difference in hits inflicted. The different morale grades could stand greater or less push-backs before breaking, and in addition casualties would impact by forcing morale tests, once certain levels of loss had been sustained on a unit.

All good stuff and we started to get our heads around the process as we went along.

Two veteran regiments of New Model infantry

Our game was very much about seeing how the rules played more than the game itself but, in short, we played a usual ECW game with the Parliamentary army barrelling up the centre and ignoring the standing fire from the Scots, charging into their infantry and starting the push of pike melee, which resulted in them winning on one side of the road and being more equal and in the balance on the other.

Charge!!

The close terrain prevented too much cavalry action on the flanks, but the cavalry fought on the Parliamentary right with a balanced scrap going on at the end, between a large unit of Roundhead "trotters" and Scottish lancers, with the advantage swinging in both directions, but with the Roundheads having the advantage of a unit in reserve and ready to support.

The two lines prepare for a push of pike

The game, with the occasional stop to check a rule interpretation, rolled along quite seamlessly and seemed to me, on first impression, to give what you would expect to see in a battle of this period, with the respective commanders wielding the armies according to their strengths, with the Scots looking to resist the small but very professional veteran Parliamentary infantry, whilst using the terrain to nullify the cavalry potential, looking to numbers to compensate for quality.

Scots cavalry look to get around behind the Parliamentary right flank

I came away liking the rules, and particularly liking the very determinedly period design of them with the drama of selecting the armies using cards only adding to that. The rules had for me a very clear feel of, "these were designed specifically for the English Civil War", not suggesting that you couldn't, with a few tweaks use them for the Thirty Years War, but I found the period specificity in this era of "Black Powder" refreshing.

Roundhead cavalry move out the Scots right flank

So I would definitely play this set again, in spite of a few minor negative factors.

There was a certain lack of clarity about how to apply certain rules in certain situations

One particular situation to illustrate my point about clarity occurred towards the end with Scots Lancers trying to push around the woods on the Parliamentary right flank. The lancers advanced in column and then proceeded to fan out into line as they cleared the obstacle.

The Scots were desperately running a messenger to the brigade commander to change his orders from advance to attack at the same time. As the Scots rounded the corner the Roundheads charged in, with the Lancers still in the process of changing from column into line, ie they still had two of their six bases in column behind the other four in line.

This situation might suggest an additional advantage would lie with the Roundheads having caught an enemy unit trying to change formation, over and above the number of elements able to fight in any ensuing combat; but the definitions about formations and charge to combat situations leaves this one unclear. So we played it as the Scots in line, and able to counter-charge bringing their lances into full effect, thus just leaving them to fight the first round two bases fewer as their only disadvantage. The rules are clear about what a particular formation looks like and how to change formation, but less so considering all the opportunities for disorder to occur, excluding crossing difficult terrain. Disorder can really impact on the ability of a unit to fight to its full effect and I have to wonder how, in reality, being between one formation and another with the commander just having received a change of orders and then having to react to a cavalry charge might present an opportunity for a modicum of disorder to occur.

We were a bit bemused by what seemed a strange design idea to have in some situations needing to roll higher than a given factor with 2d6 and in another situation lower. Not a major problem, but one that seemed unnecessarily designed to overwork the "little grey cells".

Scots lines left, New Model Army right, as the two lines close. Note the absence of Scots cavalry on this flank and my comments below.

Another area that might need a tweak is in the use of artillery. This period is early in the use of guns and their effect is generally thought to have been quite limited on battles from the era. The rules obviously look to model this aspect by keeping their numbers low and their fire-power and manoeuvrability somewhat limited. However my light gun needed to have a fire lane of four infantry bases (12cms) wide else they were unable to fire past friends. We had a four base infantry regiment on the table and I would have thought that this width requirement was rather excessive for a small light gun model firing round-shot. The balance is to keep artillery relatively ineffective but not to the point where a commander would not want to include it and might prefer to leave it out of battle on the home base edge.

The movement rates look about right for units moving tactically, although they are fixed rates and I would prefer an element of randomised movement that makes keeping those neat lines and determining charge ranges a bit more difficult to manage. In addition I would add in a grand tactical movement rate to allow units outside of "tactical range" of enemy troops to make extra movement and prevent them being ignored, This would give the cavalry their traditional role of feeling out the enemy flank. In the game our left flank cavalry were moving far too slowly to get into the battle and worry the Scots, tucked in behind their hedgerows, allowing all the Scots cavalry to move to one flank as seen in the picture above.

The rules are full of eye candy, which is nice but they could do with more attention to clarity of layout, rules intent and definition. The layout of the various subjects within the rule book seemed a bit strange or difficult to understand, speaking as wargamers who have thumbed our way through a lot of rule sets in our time. That said the basic concepts about movement, combat and morale appear sound and give a good game structure and in the absence of a specific rule or a clear definition it would be very simple to add your own house rules. or in one off situations with opposing proposals settled with the roll a die.

A quiet Scots right flank observes the fighting in the centre of the line, as Roundhead cavalry 'feels' out their flank.

I really liked the card selection process for designing armies around a period in the war for a one off game and it occurred to me that this process would work well for other periods and other rule sets. Anything to get away from the current fashion in many rule sets towards building points based armies, what-ever that means.

Scots cavalry can only look on as the infantry struggle gets going. The big red marker records the first Scots "push-back"

The only cavalry fight - in the balance but with Parliamentary reserves ready to join the fight

I really enjoyed the game and the rules. Mr Steve has put together two lovely ECW forces and thanks to him, Ian and Steve L for a very entertaining afternoon at club. I look forward to playing these again.

JJ

Red Coats and the Red Baron

We try and provide a mixed feast of entertainment at the club each month and whilst running the Pouppeville game, I managed to grab a few pictures of the other two tables with Steve M running his growing collection of French Indian Wars - Musket & Tomahawks game and Mr Steve getting the WWI aircraft out for some Wings of Glory action.

First up Steve's game with the wary Brits making slow and steady progress through the woods only to get ambushed on their way to the stockade. The French left that stockade well alone, I can't think why!

A formidable line of Redcoats garrison the stockade

Mr Steve et al took to the air over Flanders with some lovely WWI models. I remember when we used to have to buy plastic kits and put them together, but with this ready to go models why would you bother.

D-Day, Pouppeville - Utah Beach, Exit Causeway One.

This month saw normal service resumed at the Devon Wargames Group as the October gathering sported four games during the day, this following our absence last month due to the majority of club members away at shows and celebrating a club members birthday with a game or two and a few beverages in bonnie Scotland.

The little village of Pouppeville formed the stage and backdrop to our little "I Aint Been Shot Mum" (IABSM) scenario developed from one of the collection of D-Day scenarios put together by Richard Clark et al back in 2006.

On June 6th 1944, Pouppeville found itself in the front row seats of arguably the greatest amphibious landing in history when during D-Day the US forces tasked with landing at the bottom of the Cherbourg Peninsular found themselves landed on the wrong beach, codename "Utah", and in the best traditions of "making do" decided to start the war in North West Europe from there.

The German defences in this area were not as extensive or complete as along the other landing beaches but did have some significant obstacles created by the defenders with the principle obstacle being an extensively flooded area behind the beaches that restricted access inland to several distinct causeways that led across the flooded lowland.

The first of these causeways led from Utah beach via a small village called Poupeville which was held by a small garrison of German troops determined to deny the invaders access further inland as both sides sought to win the build up race to reinforce or seal off the allied landing zone.

The US forces were only too aware of the importance of winning this race and of clearing potential blocks to their progress as quickly as possible and to this end members of the US 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions were dropped in the areas behind Utah beach to help in the clearing and securing of the area prior to the lading of the seaborne troops

US aerial photo after the war showing the village of Poupeville, its road pattern and the outlying fields.

The original scenario used a 6' x 5' playing area so I had to make an adjustment for my 6' x 4' mat and decided to produce my own map of the set up with a grid reference to aid play and set up.

In addition the original scenario gives the basic parameters of the forces and their objectives, but given the nature of this battle being a very one sided affair in terms of numbers, the German defenders will be cleared out in time, thus the victory conditions needed to be more defined around the time objective, in that the German commander would fulfil his objective by denying the US forces control of the village for a set number of turns. I decided on setting that number at ten turns of a blank card in the IABSM card deck, but with the added spice of variability at setting the game to last 30 "time pips" with the roll of a d6 deciding on how may pips had passed at the turning of the blank card. In that way the scenario could last from five to thirty turns with the average set at ten.

My map based reconfigured to my 6' x 4' mat

I followed the briefing notes for the umpire by giving the German commander the distinct impression he should expect the first US troops to challenge his hold of the village to arrive from the direction of Utah Beach and looked on with pleasure as the German blinds were set up accordingly.

That pleasure was only increased with the look on the German commander's face as following his deployments US blinds were placed on the table from the exact opposite end from that which they were expected and on the cry of "foul play" from said German commander, pointed out in the briefing document the warning about US Fallschirmjagers landing in the area and the need to take precautions against them.

Poupeville looking east towards Utah beach with US blinds moving into the western edges of the village and the blue German blinds relocating to prepare to meet the threat

The German briefing and force orbat was:

"The Americans are landing on the beaches just up the road. Your position in the village of Poupeville is critical to our plan of defence as it blocks the most southerly causeway through the flooded countryside that comes from the beach. Whilst the enemy is confined to the beach our artillery can destroy them as they disembark, if they are allowed to advance inland then there can be no certainty that we have sufficient forces to oppose them.

Your force, a reduced strength company of the 3rd Battalion 1058th Grenadier Regiment, part of the 91^st Luftlande Division. Until now you have been stationed just to the south of the village, but now that the invasion has begun you have moved into the buildings and gardens. Unfortunately you have not yet loopholed or prepared your new positions, the tools are not available here, and the countryside is teeming with American fallschirmjagers."

Your force is as follows:

Big Men

Leutnant Fritz Siegelmier (Level III)

Feldwebel Albert Innsbruch (Level II)

Company Headquarters

Two MMGs (3 crew each)

One Panzerschreck (2 crew)

One sniper

Platoon One to Two

Three rifle Zugs (8 men each) 2x Panzerfaust 30’s per Zug – Rating 4

Mortar Platoon

Three 50mm mortars (2 crew each) Roll 1d6-1 for Ammo limit which reduces by one for each “6” rolled during firing

Objective

Hold Pouppeville, do not allow the enemy to move inland from the beaches.

The scenario orbats were amended to IABSM v3

Poupeville on the narrow road inland from Utah

The US briefing and orbat was:

"Due to the Germans flooding much of the country just in from the coast of Normandy the Allies were obliged to plan carefully where and how they could exit from the beaches. At Utah they selected four exit routes where the elevated roads formed causeways running from the beach inland. At 09.00 on the morning of D-Day troops from the 1st Battalion of the 501st, part of the 101st Airborne, began clearing the German defenders out of the village of Pouppeville that stood at the western end of Exit one. Led by Lieutenant Colonel Julian Ewell a party of around sixty men had been ordered by Major General Maxwell Taylor to clear the village that was held by elements of the 1058th Grenadier Regiment of the 91^st Luftlande Division."

The General has ordered us to advance east from the drop zone and clear the village of Poupeville which commands Exit 1 at the southern end of Utah beach. The drop last night was chaotic, and the men under your command are a mixture of many different units, from both the 101st and 82nd. You have organised them as best you can into platoons, and put the most likely looking men in command.

You must clear Poupeville to enable the troops landing on Utah beach to move inland."

Your force is as follows:

Big Men

Lieutenant Colonel Julian J. Ewell (Level IV Dynamic Commander)

Lieutenant John W. Atkinson (Level III)

Platoon One

Sergeant Henry Beall (Level II)

Three carbine squads (10 men) - Rating 4

Platoon Two

Sergeant William Burns (Level II)

Three carbine squads (10 men) - Rating 4

Objective

Clear Poupeville, and clear it fast.

"Achtung Ami Fallschirmjagers raus!!

Umpire initiated US reinforcements which I decided to randomise in terms of the actual force that showed up - confused landing and all that!:

Turn Five. Arriving on the western end of the main road.

Platoon Three

Two rifle squads (10 men each) - Rating 3

Two 0.30 cal MMGs (3 crew each)

Turn Eight. Arriving on the eastern end of the main road (from the beach)

Armour One

Three Sherman M4 tanks - Rating 3

Platoon Four

Three rifle squads - Rating 3

One Bazooka team (2 crew)

These represent the lead elements of the 70th tank battalion and Company E of the 8th Infantry who are advancing from the causeway inland.

The staccato of small arms fire erupts as Colonel Ewell's men enter town

So how did our game play out?

After getting over his surprise at getting reports from his 50mm mortar platoon commander, based in the orchard on the western edge of the village, that they were taking small arms fire from US Paratroops, Lieutenant Fritz Siegelmier moved swiftly to counter the sudden threat to his positions. Ordering Feldwebel Innsbruch to bring the 1st and 2nd zugs to the western edge of the village he ordered the mortar section to hold its position and await the reinforcements whilst detailing Schmidt the Kompanie sniper to move to the west of the village and attempt to slow the Amis down whilst he redeployed the men.

Colonel Ewell and Lieutenant Atkinson observed the western outskirts of Pouppeville carefully as they formulated their plan of attack. Time was of the essence and it seemed the German garrison were well aware of their presence as small arms fire broke out from the orchard at grid reference (gr15) south of the first crossroads.

"Lieutenant, I need your boys to clear that house, gr14 to act as a fire base whilst Sergeant Beall swings his platoon in through that orchard gr15 to press in on the eastern crossroads at gr11. I don't need to remind you that we need to get going, the boys on Utah are relying on us to get this place cleared, let's move."

Sergeant Henry Beall leads his combined platoon of 82nd and 101st Paras into the western outskirts of Poupeville

Beall's men closed in on the the large house and quickly shot, bayoneted and grenaded their way into it as the German infantry fell back shocked and dazed from the aggressive assault. However the German response quickly followed with a devastating mortar stonk from the 60mm mortar section based in the southern orchard that caught one of Beall's squads in the open on the crossroads and killed six of its men, sending the survivors reeling back into the cover of a nearby field. That would prove to be the only mortar attack that afternoon as the section expended all its ammunition and throwing the mortars aside reverted to being infantrymen.

The three moves leading up to this initial clash had slowed the US attack up with the German commander managing to roll a 6, 6 and 5 on the time pips immediately reducing the time allowance from 30 to 13 pips and putting the pressure right back on the Americans.

The first exchanges of close up rapid fire starts causing casualties and shock. The big house that formed the centre of the German defence at gr14 is pictured right.

As the forces were starting to spot and deploy on to the table more cards were being added to the deck and the battle for control of the village quickly focused on the battle to advance from the house and crossroads at gr's 14 and 19 with both sides desperately rallying off shock to keep their troops fighting a battle of attrition with both giving as good as they got.

The US Paras with their strong squad numbers and added Bar's and 30 cal machine guns caused the German defenders to keep their heads down. The defenders in the house at gr10

For Lieutenant Siegelmier, the time couldn't tick off quickly enough as he sought to keep his men contesting for long enough, whilst Colonel Ewell sought for a way of breaking the resistance. As the firefight reached a crescendo around the house, Beall's third squad launched itself over the wall into the orchard at gr15 killing three German soldiers from the former mortar section and driving them back to the eastern crossroads at gr11 thus allowing them to bring more American fire to bear on the German stronghold in the big house at gr10.

The German MG42s returned the compliment of the US firepower. The first house taken by Beall's close assault

The clearing of the orchard by Sergeant Beall's third squad seemed to herald the big push by Ewell's men as by turn five and the arrival of tanks and infantry from Utah the possibility of deploying the second Para platoon under Sergeant Burns to drive at the German defenders and force them back to wards the US troops from Utah would enable the attackers to snatch a victory before game end.

Much needed reinforcements from Utah beach as the Sherman tanks of the 70th Tank Battalion crash into town and join the fight.

On the German side of the hill the situation was finely balanced with the infantry still firmly controlling the houses in grs 10 and 11 but with several sections carrying significant levels of shock which would require rallying off and now with the added concern of US armour and infantry moving into the village along the eastern road at gr3.

Schmidt the sniper was working his magic and caused two US attacks to falter with his well directed fire and at least the mortar section was not wiped out in the attack on the orchard so could still bring some extra fire to bear. The key German advantage was that with only 8 pips remaining on the clock, the action should be over in two more turns so they just needed to hold on by having an un-shocked squad in position in the village at game end.

German infantry set up to hold the eastern crossroads at the centre of the village

With what would happen and when being critical over the next two moves, the US got the first swing of the initiative in their direction, with the American tanks getting the first move followed up with an armour bonus move.

The US Sherman tanks crashed into the eastern orchard at gr8 and 12 machine-gunning their way in to wipe out the German mortar section on their way. Then the 75mm guns were brought to bear on the German infantry holding the house on the crossroads at gr11 leaving them reeling with multiple shock and casualties.

US Paras held up and stymied by determined German resistance 

Next up the US Paras brought up three squads in and around the house at gr14 and plastered the Germans opposite with massed small arms fire almost wiping out one squad and forcing another to vacate to the back of the house leaving a lone MG42 team to contest any US advance.

The battle at its height as US troops from Utah move in at the top of the picture

The German infantry replied as best they could and were able to repel the Paras attempts to close with and clear the buildings they were defending. Both Lieutenant Siegelmier and Feldwebel Innsbruch were occupied in moving to various units to rally off shock to keep their men in the fight.

The Paras regroup for another push forward

The clock ticked remorselessly on and with the German defence creaking under the strain, the seventh and final blank card appeared from the deck and with just 3 pips remaining the German commander rolled a 5 and closed out the game with two of his squads shock free and under command.

Those first three turns and the removal of 17 pips on the clock had been pivotal reducing the Americans time to clear the village by at least three more turns which would have most likely been more than enough with further US infantry set to arrive that turn.

The US Paras clear the western orchards and force the Germans back towards the US armour but is it too little too late?

On reflection the US Paras may have been better advised to have deployed from blinds earlier in the game allowing them to load the deck with more of their advantage based cards which should have allowed them to get more done with their troops in the time available. It would have also forced the Germans into deploying more of their units to counter the US move.

That said IABSM gave a very entertaining game which has lots of re-playability given the variables it offers. The US Paras were irresistible in the two hand to hand combats they initiated, but the German troops ensconced in their stone built Normandy strongholds proved a stubborn opposition that needed to winkled out one by one and the Sherman tank is quite a useful piece of kit for doing that.

Thanks to Nathan, Andy and Ian for a thoroughly entertaining afternoon of good banter and gaming, and if you would like to read some more about my pre game inspiration for this scenario and my trips to this part of France that fires my own interest in the battle for Normandy then pop over to JJ's Wargames where I have put together a post covering my thoughts and ideas.

http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/preparation-for-pouppeville-devon.html