Battle of Hollabrunn

Last week we managed to get together for a mid-week game of grid-based Napoleonics. What's more, we hosted two members from another gaming group whom we got to know at a convention we went to the month before.

The scenario was Battle of Hollanbrunn, a rearguard action in the aftermath of Wagram that saw Massena's Corps catch up with the Austrians.

The game started with a Vincent's Division holding Hollanbrunn in the middle of the table, and the French cavalry arriving at their base edge. FG, commanding the cavalry on the French left, thrusted his squadrons forward and engaged the Austrian cavalry. In doing so, he crested a plateau and found another two other Austrian divisions behind the town.

The Austrians sent their cavalry and half of Kottulinsky's division to counter the French movement - a fatal error.

The opening set-up

On turn 3 the player playing the role of Massena, arrived late to the session but in perfect timing for the game. He quickly assessed these situation, and Neuenstein's Division on a march through the woods on the Austrian left, and then sent the light infantry from the Friedrich's Division to skirmish against Hollanbrunn's defenders while he organised a grand battery on the ridge overlooking the town.

While there are no national characteristics in these rules, the French had six commanders (albeit two being cavalry commanders that commanded only their respective squadrons), to the Austrians' four. In addition, Vincent had to command both cavalry and infantry and artillery. Having over estimated the importance of the French cavalry attack on their right, the Austrians were in addition plagued by poor dice rolls on the part of their artillery, and superb dice rolls on the part of the French which saw them moving through the woods on the flank at great speed. Belatedly they realised their peril, but with only three real commanders to speak of they could not redeploy their forces in time to counter the French, lost the town, and only by running down the game clock did they avoid a French major victory.

Mid-point of the game, with the French flank attack developing and the Austrians making their countermove

It was a fun game, and the timing was perfect, with the battle played to a resolution just as the game clock ran out and within the time we allotted for play.

In the discussions after the game one of the players was inspired to start painting 15mm Napoleonics, and Martin was motivated to paint up a few more units for his British-Portuguese army, which will allow us to play some Peninsular Wars scenarios in the future.

Kill Team

 Adrian hosted a game of the latest edition of Kill Team, where I pitted my warzone Bauhaus and Shieldwolf Miniatures figures against his Traitor Guard figures commanded by FG.

The rules are pretty standard to me, but the range is really helped by the beautiful figures and terrain. The gang have ordered several starter armies, but I have managed to pass the Saving Throw. I did scratch-build a Mekboy workshop shed for Adrian's terrain set, inspired by Orktober and GW's Mekboy Workshop terrain.

One peeve I do have with the system is the rather restrictive army lists, but hopefully that means that the lists have been playtested for balance.

I am tempted by the aesthetics of a Genestealer Cult army, so if we continue to play Kill Team, I may need to make another Saving Throw in the future.

The Men Who Would be Kings at Campus Game Fest 2024

Other than my usual home RPG group and my wargaming group, I have been gaming off and on with a public gaming group at a community centre these past few years. The group plays mainly RPGs and boardgames, and some Battletech Alpha Strike; I run the occasional one-shot RPG there, and play the occasional boardgame.

This year, the group was invited to take part in a games convention at a school, and I was invited to put up a historical wargame there.

This was when I realised that, while I do have many paired armies, most of them are sci-fi or fantasy, and the historical armies that I do own both sides of are not painted by me, but cobbled together from various ebay purchases. The only armies which look presentable are my Indian Mutiny forces, which were mostly painted by a single painting service.

Now while I do enjoy The Relief of Luckpore, I thought that a grid-based wargame would not be a good representation of most historical miniature wargame, so I went through to my library and decided on Dan Mersey's The Men Who Would be Kings, which I helped playtest with these same figures in 2015.

I modified the command rules a little to allow for five players - two on the British side and three on the Mutineer side - with three units each. I picked out a scenario from Colonial Conflicts: The Indian Mutiny, adjusted the set-up to fit, and with the help of a few friends tested the scenario, made some adjustments, and we were ready.

The set-up

Civilians in the village

The British train

We were scheduled for 4pm to 9pm, and I imagined that gave enough time to run two or maybe three games, each with five players on each side and FG and I umpiring. As it turned out the crowd were mostly there for the e-games and card games, and we didn't draw much attention apart from the other miniature wargamers who were there. One of them played the mutineers against me, and beat me resoundingly with incredible dice rolls.

We then had a student of the school walk by and he decided to take a swing at playing the British. He had better luck than me, and almost made it to the mutineer lines before his luck ran out.

The situation at the end of the second game

Over all the amount of gaming we did out of the session was probably not worth the effort of preparing the charts and cards and traveling down, but I did make friends with some historical wargamers and we might be getting some gaming in in the future, so that made the whole evening worthwhile.

Conquerors and Kings

We played another game of Peter Pig's Conqueror and Kings. Despite revising the rules briefly before the session, I still managed to get the multiple combat wrong by confusing the rules with those of an ACW set I am working on (also a grid-based game) 

View from the Ayyubid line

We fielded my generic Saracen army (mostly painted figures bought off ebay) against my anachronistic Late Byzantine army, using the Ayyubid list and the Crusader list.

Adrian, playing the Ayyubid, saw that his advantage was in cavalry, and that he would be at a disadvantage if the battle became an arrow duel, and so launched an all-out charge on turn one, using the 'Advance' Battle Tactic. wahj, playing the Byzantines, managed to survive the initial onslaught, and even managed to launch a counter-attack on the Ayyubid cavalry that were now outflanked. But dice luck determined the eventual outcome, and the Byzantine units that were pushed off the table failed to rally and return in time to shore up the line, and we called it an Ayyubid victory.

Byzantine counter-attack that ultimately failed

The game was quick because we did not do the whole pre-game sequence and the 'Piggy Chase', and while the strategic choices seem limited once the army list is made and terrain placed, there are still tactical choices to be made like whether to push forward on a sector where the attack is more successful, or pull back and reorganise the line to prevent outflanking.

This game was a little lopsided due to the list-making - my fault - which in turn was limited by the figures I have at hand. Perhaps in the future I should field a list with Close Order bowmen, using my Norman figures.

The next game of C&K is scheduled for November, when we hope to pit Late Romans against Sassanids. Stay tuned.

Lone Wolf - Adventures in Magnamund

I have sworn off Kickstarter after a few bad experiences, but I have made an exception for this new project.

I own at least three iterations of Lone Wolf RPGs, and have played two long campaigns in the Lone Wolf setting, and they are both memorable ones. There is something about the dualistic cosmology and the heroic narrative of the characters that instantly lend gravitas to the campaigns. Lone Wolf RPG characters can't help but to be heroic because the stakes are so high - all they need are a campaign premise to allow them to shine.

This current iteration is for the Dragonbane rules, which I do not own nor plan to buy; I am backing it chiefly for the fluff, the art, and most importantly the modules. The delivery date for the project is Nov 2025, although with the number of stretch goals being hit I will not be surprised if it will be late. It is too far ahead to plan, but hopefully I will have a stable of players ready to take on the Darklords when it arrives.

Catching Up and 3D printed resin figures

I apologise to my readers for the long absence. Recent changes in my living circumstances, work demands, and a dislocated little finger have all eaten into my leisure time, and while I have continued to spend on the hobby and play, it has left me no time to update this blog.

Our Three Worlds RPG campaign has ended, but I have yet to write the AAR for the final two sessions. We have taken a break from RPG due to the attrition in player base, with most of the players for that campaign now in other countries, but we may be cobbling together a group from our old players and getting some gaming in with a new game master.

Wargaming has therefore come to the forefront, with several purchases being made, figures painted (some by me, but most by a professional painter I engaged), and convention game being put up this coming weekend.

I will try to post the AARs for the sessions we had the previous months in the near future; in the meantime here are a couple of photos of 3D printed resin figures painted by me:

15mm Arab Civilians by Red Copper Miniatures, via Proxy Wargaming Aus

15mm Carthaginian Poeni Cavalry by Cromarty Forge, via The Plastic Soldier Company

Conquerors and Kings and Warmaster

For our August session we played Peter Pig's Conquerors and Kings (2023 edition) for the first time. Wahj brought his Romans and Carthaginians and some hills he build specifically for these rules, and we spend the afternoon working through the rules.

As expected when trying out a new set of rules, we got some stuff wrong, but I think over all we got a sense of how the game plays. I played the Romans, which I did not handle boldly enough, and by game end I had failed to occupy enough grids to win.

I also realised that the Battle Tactics are an important consideration not just during play, but also during army-building (and vice versa I suppose), since some tactics mean you can get more mileage out of cheaper troops.

I like the more abstract way combat and positioning are handled in this game. I hope to get a Roman vs Sassanid game on soon. In the mean time I have ordered some Tribal Germans to be painted (an opponent for yet another Roman army!).

For our second game FG and I played Warmaster. It's an old game which we used to play a lot back in the day (especially the Ancients version) but I am unfamiliar with the Goblins list, which seems to be quite weak. Nevertheless it was a joy playing with the well-painted figures.

I have been very busy with life and am three RPG reports behind. Various factors have caused attrition to our player pool, and I have made the decision to stop my weekly RPG sessions for a while until we have a more stable pool of players. This may mean more wargaming in the coming months. Stay tuned.