Slingshot - November/December 2017

ISSUE 315 of the Society of Ancients' Slingshot contains a fascinating in-depth discussion by Alastair McBeath of the original David v Goliath match-up.

Pyrrhus adorns the cover of Slingshot 315

Other really interesting articles include Patrick Waterson's rebuttal of McBeath's previous piece on the nature of Goliath's kidon and Perikilis Deligiannis's feature on the 280BC Battle of Heraclea.
I have renewed my subscription.

Ancient Warfare - Dec/Jan

MOUNTED war is the theme of the latest issue of Ancient Warfare, and once again it is an issue that really appealed to me.

Ancient Warfare...full of interest, and good value at £5.99

The only article I skipped was on Roman horse doctors (ie, Roman doctors who treated horses, not Roman horses who became doctors) - too specialist even for me.

Double Delivery

GOT home from Spain yesterday to find two magazines waiting for me - the January edition of Miniature Wargames and the December/January edition of Toy Soldier Collector;

Miniature Wargames issue 417 and Toy Soldier Collector issue 79

The former majors on reports from shows and has lots of sci-fi/fantasy coverage.
TSC has its usual emphasis on metal figures, but also finds room for plastics - including an article by me on a pack of Army Men I found earlier this year in the Channel Islands.

My article ... with four of the pix I sent in, and it even has my headline!

Miniature Wargames - December 2017

ISSUE 416 of Miniature Wargames arrived shortly before I flew to Malta for a chess tournament.


Usual well-designed cover ... but, just as usual, not one wargaming battle report inside

The most interesting article to me is Conrad Kinch's review of wargame/history-related instructional YouTube sites, including a favourite of mine: Military History Visualized (although he, or the magazine, manages to misspell the site's name).

Slingshot - September-October 2017

ISSUE 314 of Slingshot arrived sometime last week while I was in Exmouth, Devon.
You could say the best part of it is the cover, which features a striking photo of part of a refight of the 217BC Battle of Raphia, with what I guess to be 28mm figures.

Slingshot 314...great cover

But saying that would be unfair to the contributors of what is inside the mag, particularly David Karunanithy's description of Alexander the Great's Paionian cavalry, Nick Harbud's analysis of the hitting power of medieval firearms and bows, Mike Haran's look at China's Great Wall(s), and some interesting book reviews.

Wargames - Soldiers & Strategy Nov/Dec 2017

ISSUE 93 has an 80 Years War theme, with a nicely understated cover.

84 pages...not enough, apparently, to include an actual wargame

Themed articles include three scenarios, but not one battle report. I know I harp on about this, but I also play tournament chess and it would be inconceivable for British Chess Magazine or Chess to come out without a single game report.

Ancient Warfare - Oct/Nov 2017

IT has been some time since I bought a copy of Ancient Warfare magazine, but I could not resist the biblical theme of this issue.

Ancient Warfare...modern masterpiece

I was not disappointed. All the themed articles make great reading, for me at least. Indeed, I am keeping the magazine for future reference - something I do not normally do as I am pushed for space in my flat.

Tabletop Gaming - Oct/Nov '17

IT has been some time since I bought a copy of Tabletop Gaming.
I have always been put off by the belief that the editor/publishers do not really believe in tabletop games, which is why the cover seems to be invariably bereft of any tabletop content.
Instead we get illustrations more suitable to computer games, which is where I suspect most of the staff's expertise lies.
However, I bought issue 12 on the promise of an article on "60 Years Of Risk - Looking Back On A Strategy Icon."

Tabletop Shaming?...no tabletop contents on the cover

I was not disappointed - the article takes up four pages and made me think I'd got my money's worth (£5.25) whatever the rest of the content.
The magazine is packed with pieces about tabletop games, but not a single report of a game played.

Miniature Wargames - November 2017

ISSUE 415 of Miniature Wargames arrived while I was in Guernsey playing chess.

Miniature Wargames...eye-catching pix but a battle-free zone

Once again there are no battle reports, but I was much taken by Chris Peers' article on 19th century African kingdoms I had not previously come across.

Cowboys & Indians

I FOUND this "Western Rider Cowboy & Indian Play Set" for £2.99 in a gift shop in Paignton, Devon.

Western Rider...colourful version of the Wild West

As for most modern toy soldiers, the contents are made in China. In this case they were "imported into the EC" by HTI of Fleetwood, Lancashire.
The contents consist of a horse-drawn covered wagon, five green cowboys, four brown cowboys, six brown Indians, four green Indians, a canoe, a tepee, two pieces of fencing and a tree (some of the green figures come across as blue in the photo below, but that is a trick of the lighting).
Note that there is no driver for the wagon or paddler for the canoe.

Good variety of models

As is usual with such figures, the value for money is excellent, but I will need more than is here to put together a decent Wild West wargaming scenario.

Toy Soldier Collector - issue 78

THE October/November 2017 edition of Toy Solider Collector arrived today.

TSC78 ... Napoleonic cover

The cover features Napoleon's retreat from Moscow, but the highlight for me is a review of the gone-but-not-entirely-forgotten LeMan toy soldiers which, despite being produced in the States as recently as the 1990s, retained the looks of an earlier era that I chiefly admire.

A Knight To Remember - the aftermath

A toy-soldier pack well worth looking out for

ONCE again, playing with toy soldiers produced a fun scenario that neither of us took too seriously.
My opponent said, given the same circumstances, he would choose to defend the river crossing rather than picking the Black army.
He had correctly realised the rules make mounted knights very powerful - more powerful than I expected - but that was not enough to overcome the disadvantage of having to cross a river to get to grips with the enemy.
Of course there was a lot of luck involved, as exampled by the eventually wonderful dice-throwing of my crossbowman compared with the worse-than-mediocre results of his opposite number.
The one thing that surprised both of us was the relatively poor shooting of the engines. We were expecting them to dominate the battlefield, but instead they turned out to perform much more like their real-life counterparts. I guess it is a case where pre-battle practice would have made a big difference.
All in all, excellent value for money since the only new things I bought for the scenario were the playset itself, which cost well under £5, and the £1 pack of willow edging from Poundland.

A Knight To Remember - the battle concluded

Turn Seven
The catapult tried yet another over-the-heads shot, and again with success - killing one of my knights around the bombard and knocking down the remaining walls of the ruined building. But in a shocking development, Lord Hall's bannerman turned to the seemingly easy melee prey of my crossbowman, only to fall to what must have been a quick thrust of the archer's dirk.
One of my knights tore down Black's now-unguarded banner, and my crossbowman followed up his meleeing success by shooting dead another Black knight crossing the bridge.

Looking along the river, which Black's knights are starting to wade across, having been cleared from the footbridge

Turn Eight
A quiet turn for Lord Hall. His men made slow work of crossing the river, and both his crossbowman and catapult missed their shots.
My bombard, at last able to shoot again, downed a knight in the river, and my crossbowman killed yet another Black knight crossing the bridge.

Carnage on the bridge

Turn Nine
A Black knight mounted the riderless horse, but the catapult again fired harmlessly into the riverside logged trees.
I engineered a pair of 2v1 battles, but lost both of them, fortunately only being forced back rather than suffering casualties. However, my bombard killed another Black knight.

Lord Hall personally leads a charge across the bridge, driving back two Grey defenders

Turn Ten
The finish came quickly as I engineered three 2v1 fights and won them all, including killing the courageous Lord Hall. With his remaining forces heavily outnumbered, my opponent graciously conceded.
to be continued

A Knight To Remember - the battle

Turn One
We diced to see who would go first, with Lord Hall winning.
He ordered a general advance of his infantry and cavalry, and fired the catapult - but missed.
I left my forces in position and fired the bombard at Black's mounted knights. I missed them, but laid low a foot soldier advancing from further back.

Lord Hall's right flank...the first casualty can be seen lying prone to the rear

Turn Two
Lord Hall continued his forces' advance. His catapult fired again ,but the force of the shot was absorbed by the logged trees by the river bank.
His lordship could be heard distinctly mumbling about having ended up on the wrong side of the battlefield.
The Black cavalry were now within range of my crossbowman, but he needed a 6 to score a hit, instead of the usual 5 at long range, as there was a hedge between him and his target. In the event, it did not matter as I rolled a lousy 1.
I also muffed the bombard's firing, with its shot rolling harmlessly along the top of the table and off the end.

Horsemen close in on Baron Spital's bombard

Turn Three
The cavalry plunged into the river and the rest of Lord Hall's forces did their best to keep up.
This time he fired the catapult with extra vigour, but only succeeded in hitting my sitting-room radiator. We have not been able to find the shot ball - I guess it will turn up in due course.
I moved some of my knights forward to support the bombard which, firing at almost point-blank range, brought down one of the mounted knights. The force of the shot threw the horse and rider into the westernmost hedge, bringing that down too.

Close-up of the bombard's second success

Turn Four
Showing a little desperation, Lord Hall fired a catapult shot over his men and into the ruined building. He did not hit any of my knights, but brought down my banner, meaning it cannot give any melee bonuses.
His surviving cavalryman crossed the river and rode down one of the bombard crew (rolling a 5 and a 1 against my man's 3).

One of the bombard crew is ridden down, while you can just see my downed banner in the ruined building

My bombard could not fire as its crew were being meleed, but I moved some knights in position to hopefully pair up against the cavalryman next turn.
My crossbowman successfully fired at Lord Hall's banner carrier, but could only roll a 2 on the follow-up kill throw.
Turn Five
Lord Hall's catapult returned to its previously dismal record of misses, but his cavalryman rode down another of my knights (just: 3+2 v 3) and his bannerman bravely started to cross the footbridge.

Lord Hall's bannerman charges the footbridge

My crossbowman, apparently getting nervous at the approaching Black forces, missed his shot. But there was a better result for me when I was able to get two knights to simultaneously melee the remaining cavalryman. They won the battle, killing the rider.
Turn Six
Lord Hall's bannerman charged into a knight I had sent forward to hold the bridge. Both men threw a 6, which meant my man was forced back 3" as the Black knight received a bonus of 1 for being with his army's banner.
The catapult crew tried another risky shot, aiming over their friends' heads at my bombard, knocking over one of my two-handed pikemen.
I could not mount the riderless enemy horse as the Grey figures have no riders, so instead I moved my victorious knights to man the bombard, ready to fire next turn.
Two of my knights confronted Lord Hall's bannerman, but their 3+1 was easily beaten by his 6, even without the banner bonus, so one of my knights was downed and the other forced back 3".
But my crossbowman raised his game, shooting dead the next Black knight that tried to cross the bridge.

A bird's eye view of the battle for the footbridge. Lord Hall is winning, at least for now, as Black's knights control both sides of the bridge

to be continued

A Knight To Remember - part two of a medieval WINTER skirmish scenario

Lord Hall won the dice-off and chose to command the Black army. That left me with the slightly outnumbered Grey forces, but having only to hold the footbridge until the end of turn 15.
As the defender, I had to set out my forces first, and we soon discovered an unexpected problem - stability, or rather the lack thereof.
The figures had stood up perfectly well on the table in my hotel room in Olomouc, but they showed no such desire to do the same on a green cloth, no matter how flat it appeared to the naked eye.
We tried using small blobs of Blu-Tack under each figure's base, but this did not make much difference.
In the end we agreed to dispense with the green cloth, which is why this has become a medieval winter scenario.
The battlefield is much the same as in my previous post, but the ground is now considered to be covered with snow - enough to hide any signs of grass, but not enough to affect movement or combat. Also, there is no high ground to the north.

The Grey forces, with the figure of Baron Spital, holding a pennant, in the right-foreground

I placed the bombard west of the ruined building, so its crew would have a largely uninterrupted view of the Black forces' advance. An engine needs a minimum crew of two to fire, but I have given it three so it can continue in action even if one man falls.
I put the crossbowman in position to cover the footbridge, and spread out the rest of the men to try to minimise casualties from the Black catapult.
Then it was Lord Hall's go to lay out his troops - anywhere north of the larger pile of logged trees.

Looking from behind the Black forces, with Lord Hall of Vaux holding a pennant bottom-left

He put the catapult on the eastern side of the battlefield, with the figure of himself well to the rear. His cavalry were placed directly opposite my bombard.
The Rules
Movement
Knights on foot: 6"
Knights mounted: 12"
Engine: 3" (minimum crew of two)
Crossing the river slows movement by half
Engine Shooting
An engine can fire one shot in any turn in which it has not moved and its crew are not involved in a melee. It can be pivoted 45 degrees right or left before firing.
Crossbow Shooting
A crossbowman can fire in any turn in which he has not moved and is not meleeing. He can pivot 45 degrees right or left before firing.
Range............Score needed for a hit
Under 12".....4 or more
12-24"...........5 or more
Target behind cover: -1
If a hit is scored, roll a second die, needing a 4 or more for a kill.
Target 0-6" away: +1
Target 18-24" away: -1
Target has no shield: +1
If a mounted knight suffers a kill, roll a die to decide if the horse or the man is out of action. A riderless horse can be mounted by another knight, taking half a turn to do so. A mounted knight can continue on foot if his horse is killed.
Hand-to-Hand Fighting
When enemy figures come into contact, each rolls a die. A difference of two or more is needed for a kill. A difference of one means the loser falls back 3". An equal score means the melee continues next turn.
Modifiers
Two-handed weapon on the first turn of a melee: +2
No shield: -1
Behind cover on the first turn of a melee: +1
Meleeing while in the river: -1
Meleeing within 3" of own flag or banner: +1 (this takes the place of any other morale rule)
A mounted knight rolls two dice if fighting a dismounted knight. Similarly, two dismounted knights roll two dice if fighting one enemy (larger odds are not possible). Two dismounted knights versus one mounted fight on equal terms.
To be continued

A Knight To Remember - medieval skirmish scenario

IT has been more than a month since I bought the Knight Playset in the Czech Republic, but we are at last ready to do battle with it.
I am taking on the persona of Baron Spital, while my opponent, who is my regular wargames adversary, has sunk his identity into that of Lord Hall of Vaux.
The Battlefield
One army will defend a footbridge over a river. It runs through what was heavily wooded land, but has been cleared.
On the south side of the river is a ruined building and a pile of logged trees. The northern bank of the river is partly hedged, and there is another pile of logged trees at the bottom of higher ground to the north, which is where the attackers will come from.
The river is fordable by foot and horse at half-speed; the hedges are made of thick thorn and are impassable.

The battlefield viewed from the south

The Armies
You may recall from an earlier post (http://timspanton.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/czech-out-these-knights.html) that the two armies, Black and Grey, are unbalanced.
Black has 16 dismounted figures, two mounted figures, a flag depicting a lion or (gold) rampant on a field of gules (red), two mounted figures, and a large catapult.
Grey has 16 dismounted figures, a flag depicting a lion vert (green) rampant on a field of or (gold), and a bombard.
The Set-Up
The two players will dice for the right to either a) defend the river crossing, or b) choose which army to have.
Victory
The attacker has to capture both ends of the footbridge by the end of turn 15.
Technical Information
The table is 6ft by 2ft 6in.
The river is made from blue tissue paper from Ryman, the logged trees are Charlie Dimmock willow edging from Poundland, the hedges are from the 4D model shop in Tower Hamlets, and the footbridge is a 10mm-scale wooden bridge from Pendraken. The ruined building is the remains of the deer park I built from model bricks for our refight of the Battle of Chotusitz.
To be continued

Miniature Wargames - October 2017

ISSUE 414 of Miniature Wargames was waiting for me today when I returned from a trip to Bradford.

Plenty of gloss for £4.50

I cannot say there was anything to greatly interest me in this month's edition, but there are some nice pix of real wargames...along with the usual posed dioramas,

War On Error

HERE is a fun find - well I think so, anyway.

Pack of six Army Men erasers

I came across this £3.99 pack of erasers while browsing today in Blackwell's bookshop in High Holborn, Central London.
In time they may serve as an elite commando squad, perhaps operating behind enemy lines with instructions to rub out a high-ranking Tan general.
For the moment they are helping my Prussian jäger band to guard my collection of wargaming books.

Green is the colour...guarding is their game

The erasers are made in China for the London-based Mustard, who seem particularly po-faced - each pack comes with a predictable swipe at American foreign policy and a warning: "This is a novelty item and not a toy." The erasers are not for children under 14 "due to small parts, choking hazard."

Wargames - Soldiers & Strategy

I PICKED up the September/October issue of WS&S at WH Smith in Torquay.

Britain in the Napoleonic Wars is the theme of WS&S issue 92

The most interesting article, to me, is James Morris's on an Iberian ambush of ancient Romans.
I like WS&S but it I find it stunning that a wargames magazine can be published without even ONE battle report.
It also has the common glossy wargames mag's fault of printing photos that are implied to be of wargames when they are really posed dioramas.

Toy Soldier & Model Figure

THE latest issue of Toy Soldier & Model Figure is a "special edition," and has a Wild West theme.

TS&MF...sold in larger branches of WH Smith

As usual, the best bits for me are not so much the articles themselves as the glossy pix of toy soldiers, old and new.
Having said that, I did particularly enjoy Steve Rhea's piece on Two Battles Of Adobe Wells.

Miniature Wargames - issue 413

SEPTEMBER'S issue arrived while I was in the Czech republic.

Miniature Wargames...includes "free" Colonial rules

The most interesting articles, for me, are Chris Jarvis's ideas for a grand-scale Colonial campaign, Jon Sutherland's reminiscences about an old set of Ancients rules, and the first part of Conrad Kinch's piece on the Peninsular War Battle of St Pierre - a battle I cannot remember previously reading about. 

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines

I HAVE been testing the engines that came with the Knight Playset, and I am pleased to report that I earlier significantly underestimated their range.
In my previous tests I shot them while they were positioned on my hotel bed's duvet - not a stable platform.
Today I tested them on my hotel room floor, which has a very short-pile carpet. The results were spectacular - so much so that I still do not know their maximum ranges.

Photo taken from the hotel room door, which both engines - they can just be seen in the distance - reached with ease

What I can say is that accuracy is much easier with the Grey bombard and, as is to be expected, the Black catapult could not hit targets at extreme short range. This will to a certain extent offset Black's advantage in mounted figures.
As to the scenario in which I will be using the playset, I have decided that a generic medieval skirmish battle is to be preferred over trying to refight a specific battle (the absence of longbowmen makes my first thought of a War of the Roses scenario rather foolish).

The Great Wall of Olomouc

OLOMOUC was the capital of the short-lived Greater Moravian Empire, and later withstood sieges by the Mongols and Frederick the Great.
Most of the city fortifications have long gone, but what remains is pretty impressive.

Czech Out These Knights

I WAS hopeful that a visit to Olomouc in the Czech Republic would prove fruitful from a toy-soldier viewpoint, and I was not disappointed.

Knightly array

This Knight Playset, made in China and distributed in Europe by a Dutch company, cost 119 Czech crowns - well under £5, even at today's unfavourable (from a British perspective) exchange rates.
The pack is divided into two armies - Black and Grey.
Black has 16 dismounted figures, two mounted figures, a flag depicting a lion or (gold) rampant on a field of gules (red), two mounted figures, and a large catapult.
Grey has 16 dismounted figures, a flag depicting a lion vert (green) rampant on a field of or (gold), and a bombard.
Remarkably, perhaps, both the catapult and the bombard work. That is, the catapult hurls a "stone" ball a considerable distance through the air, while the bombard has a spring-loading mechanism that allows it to fire a similar ball along the ground.
The bombard's range is shorter, but the flat trajectory of its shot could well make it deadlier.

The two armies, Black and Grey, lined up on a table in my hotel bedroom

The dismounted figures come in a pleasing variety of poses, while the asymmetry created by the different artillery, and by Black being the only side to have mounted figures, should pose interesting problems when the armies go into battle.
I am leaning towards a War of the Roses scenario, to account for the huge percentage of dismounted figures, with Little Wars-style rules, but will give it some considered thought before I return to England.

Toy Soldier Collector

I HAVE taken out a two-year subscription to Toy Soldier Collector - not least because it is next-to-impossible to find a newsagent that sells the magazine (larger branches of WH Smith, for example, stock the similar, but more American-focussed, Toy Soldier & Model Figure).

Issue 77, the first of my subscription, arrived today

Issue 77, which covers August/September 2017, is full of inspiring photos. But as usual the fact that stands out the most is how ridiculously expensive most "toy soldiers" are.
I use quotation marks because the vast majority of so-called toy soldiers are not meant to be played with as toys and are well beyond pocket-money prices.
But as the author of https://poundstoreplasticwarriors.wordpress.com/ points out, real toy soldiers at very low prices are still available, albeit mostly in pound stores and the like.

Literary Review

AUGUST'S issue of Literary Review has, as usual, many reviews of books covering historical subjects, including Martin Luther, fascist Brits in WW2, Robert Louis Stevenson in Samoa - by coincidence, I am reading a collection of his travel books - German military activity in Africa in WW1, and poor little rich terrorist Patty Hearst.

Lots of history for £3.95

OK, some of those subjects could be more accurately described as current affairs rather than history - there are people alive who lived through the years covered - but they still greatly interest me.

Slingshot Jul-Aug 2017

THE July-August issue arrived yesterday, meaning the Society Of Ancients is catching up with its publishing schedule.

A striking cover...showing a Roman sentry looking "towards the Rhine and the oncoming Vandals"

Unusually for Slingshot, there are no detailed battle reports - usually the highlight of the magazine, at least for me.
However, I did much enjoy Simon MacDowall's potted Vandal history and Nicholas Spratt's account of 17th century Tibetan invasions of Bhutan.

History Today

I HAD not read History Today for many years until I recently spotted a copy at WH Smith in a new, eye-catching format.
Having caught my attention, a brief perusal of the contents turned me into a buyer again.
The latest issue, August 2017, has been out for at least a week - I bought it while playing at the Scottish chess championships in Dundee earlier this month.

 

History Today...revised interest

Nearly every article was of interest to me, even if at times there is a tendency to be overly revisionist. The cover, for example, may be clever but the fact is that in any normal usage of the word, it was Columbus who "discovered" indigenous Americans, not the other way around.

Mid-18th Century Wargaming Rules - Updated Summary

Action from our refight of the Battle of Chotusitz

New bits, including bits accidentally omitted from previous summaries, are in italics

COMMAND & CONTROL
Players move alternately. When it is his turn, a player should use the following sequence.
1. Roll a 10-sided die and two ordinary, but distinguishable, six-sided dice to determine how many Pips, also known as activation points, the centre and each flank get. Then, for each sector in turn, use the pips in the following sequence.
2. Try to rally retreating units.
3. Fire guns (a gun that is fired cannot pivot, limber or otherwise move in the same turn).
4. Move units.
5. Calculate the effects of musketry (and carbines and any other missile weapon).
5. Resolve melees.

MOVEMENT
Foot in firing order and so able to fire volleys: 6cm
Other foot: 8cm
Limbered guns: 6cm
Heavy horse: 10cm
Light horse and generals: 12cm
It takes an activation point to adopt firing order, and the unit may not otherwise move or fire.
Horse take an activation point to mount or dismount and may not otherwise move or fire.
Guns take an activation point to limber or unlimber, but the gun may be pivoted as part of unlimbering.
One about-face of 180 degrees is free, but a second in the same phase reduces movement by half.
All troops can pass through light infantry without penalty, provided they have enough movement to take them beyond the light infantry. Similarly, light infantry can interpenetrate any friendly troops.
The Variation
Roll a die if a unit is moving three-quarters or more of its maximum move distance. 6, add 25%; 1, subtract 25%.

MUSKETRY
45-degree arc.
Muskets: 8cm. Carbines 6cm.
Roll one die for each 25% of effectiveness remaining and in a single line of bases.
Minimum score for a hit: Regular foot in firing order, 4; Light foot, 5; Dismounted horse and regular foot not in firing order, 6.
-1 if unit moved that phase.

ARTILLERY
45-degree arc.
Canister: 0-6cm. Roll a die and halve the score to get the number of potential hits.
Roundshot: up to 24cm. Roll a die and quarter the score.
Halve the number of potential hits if unit effectiveness 50% or under. Round to nearest fraction, but an exact half has a 50:50 chance of becoming a potential hit.
Dice for each potential hit. 4 or more becomes a hit on infantry and cavalry, but 6 is needed if the target is a gun.

MELEES
A melee happens when the bases of rival units come in contact. The second half of the attacker's move to make contact must be in a straight line, ie it cannot include wheeling.
Foot may not initiate contact against horse.
Guns and light foot never initiate contact and never inflict melee casualties (exception: light foot in a wood or built-up area melee as regular foot).
Guns can only be contacted if they have no friendly close-order foot within 4cm. Guns so contacted are automatically eliminated.
Infantry frontally contacted by troops whose move began outside of musket range may fire before the melee is calculated. Casualties inflicted by the firing are included when calculating who won the melee. Troops armed with carbines have a similar rule but must roll a die score of 3 or better to fire.
Roll the following numbers of dice per 25% of a unit's remaining effectiveness.
Enemy unit...........Hvy Cav...Lance...Lt Cav...Inf fir ord*...Other Inf...Lt Inf
Own unit
Heavy Cavalry.........1................2..........2...............1.................3................2
Lancers.....................1................1..........1...............1.5..............4................4
Light Cavalry...........1................2..........1...............1.................2................3
Inf (not Lt)................1................1.........1................1.................1................1
*Infantry in firing order and attacked frontally
+1 die per 25% when attacking in flank or rear, on higher ground, defending a river bank or defending a built-up area from troops outside the BUA. Bonuses are cumulative. An exact half has a 50:50 chance of becoming a potential hit.
A unit meleed from the rear loses half its number of dice in the initial round of combat.
For each die rolled, a 4 or more is a hit.

SAVING THROWS
Behind cover: 4 or more cancels a hit.
Cuirassiers: 6 cancels a hit.

MORALE
Test at the end of any half-turn in which a unit has lost effectiveness to firing or has lost a melee.
Roll a die, needing the following minimum score not to lose a further 25% effectiveness: Elite, 3; Regular, 4; Poor, 5.
+1 if a general is attached to the unit. He is eliminated if the unit is eliminated.
+1 if a friendly unit (not light infantry or guns) is to the rear and could reach the unit in two moves. Such a supporting unit can only influence the morale of one unit per half-turn.
A unit that fails its morale, and a unit that loses more hits in a melee regardless of whether it fails its morale, retreats one move (with the normal possible variation), ending with its back to the enemy.
A retreating unit is eliminated if the first move of a retreat is obstructed by regular foot (not light infantry) or horse. If the blocking unit is friendly, it must take a morale test unless it is horse retreated into by foot.
On subsequent turns in which a retreating unit's army has activation points, it will be rallied for at the start of the army's turn, requiring a 5 or better to halt and being able to subsequently return to normal action. A general with a unit adds one to the rallying throw.
Note that regular foot lose firing order when retreating and so have an 8cm move.

VICTORY
General, 3pts; Infantry battalion, 2pts, Other unit, 1pt.
Army is defeated when points fall below half the starting total.

Miniature Wargmes

THE August issue of Miniature Wargames arrived while I was away.

Articles include a long and very positive review of Bob Cordery's Portable Wargame books (enough to make me skim through the second book again) and some light ideas on campaigns.

Battle of Eckwelt - part four

TURN FOUR
French musketry belied its poor reputation by eliminating the Wickradt Foot and causing the Brandenburg-Schwedt battalion to flee. The French did not have it all their own way, however, as the Navarre Foot also broke.
The cavalry melee was more even this turn with my Posadowski Dragoons and the French Gendarmes wiped out, but that leaves my east-flank cavalry heavily outnumbered.

Saxe encourages the French foot to advance

Remaining Army Points at the end of Turn Four:
Prussia: 24/30
France: 28/29
TURN FIVE
The Cuirassiers du Roi caught my Porzellan Dragoons in the flank and destroyed them. But the superior Prussian musketry, combined with some artillery, came into its own this turn, wiping out the Picardie Foot and the Grenadiers de France.

Chasseurs de Fischer enter the Tannenwald, clearly intent on outflanking my right wing

Remaining Army Points at the end of Turn Five:
Prussia: 21/30
France: 24/29
TURN SIX
On my right my Garde du Corps cuirassiers came under fire from two of the French guns, losing 25 percent effectiveness but passing a subsequent morale test. There really wasn't room to withdraw them, and they could not stay where they were and survive, so I sent them charging at Saxe's now-advancing Wittmer Foot.
The remaining soldiers of the Brandenburg-Schwedt fled the battlefield after failing to rally. This was incompetence on my part as I should have sent the figure of Frederick to intercept them, but somehow in the heat of battle it did not occur to me.
On my left there was excitement as a diminished squadron of the Royal-Cravate Cavalerie, fleeing from my Buddenbrock Curiassiers, threw a one on their movement die, reducing their move to 7.5cm under the Move Variation rule. It seemed as if my cuirassiers must catch them from behind, but Saxe had time to interpose the Languedoc Dragoons. The cuirassiers charged them, but could only inflict one hit. The dragoons replied with two hits, but both were cancelled when the cuirassiers' saving throws turned up a pair of sixes! This meant the dragoons had lost the melee, and they fled.

This will surely end in tears - my Garde du Corps begins what must be a death-or-glory charge

Remaining Army Points at the end of Turn Six:
Prussia: 19/30
France: 24/29
to be continued

Battle of Eckwelt - Afterthoughts

As night falls, Maurice de Saxe, escorted by the Cuirassiers du Roi, triumphantly enters Ekwelt

The first thing to say is that the new Command & Control system was all we hoped it would be. It provided a sufficient degree of uncertainty without allowing the lopsided swings of my previous card-based scheme.
I did not keep a record of how many pips we each received, but I think any edge to the French was minimal. My opponent felt the pips fell evenly...naturally.
So what can I blame my loss on, especially bearing in mind that the defeat was pretty comprehensive?
Certainly, the terrain greatly favoured the French, as the woods seriously disrupted my formation. But I have to tip my hat to my opponent's shrewd strategy. He correctly realised I would be forced to place the bulk of my cavalry on the eastern flank, so he placed ALL of his horse there and trusted that I would not be able to outflank him on the western side of the battlefield.
In hindsight, and perhaps it did not need hindsight to spot, I made a serious mistake in putting two squadrons of cuirassiers on my right. Because of the two lines of bluecoats in front of them, they could not get into the battle until it was too late.
What was gratifying is that the battle seemed, at least to us, to play out just as a mid-18th century battle should. And that, for me, is the main point.

Battle of Eckwelt - part five

TURN SEVEN
Defeat seemed inevitable for me as I lost two more battalions - the 1st Winterfeldt and the Grevenitz - reducing my Army Points to 15.
One more point lost and my army would break, and that seemed inevitable when my Buddenbrcck Cuirassiers were charged in the flank by the Dragoons du Roi.. The Dragoons got eight dice to roll thanks to their flank attack, but only managed one hit (a hit requires a score of four or more). The cuirassiers rolled four dice, and scored a hit with each one, destroying the dragoons.
In my half of the turn, I eliminated the Alsace Foot.
The Garde du Corps charged home on the Wittmer Foot, who had been unable to fire in their half of the turn as Saxe had used all his left-flank pips on artillery fire, mistakenly forgetting to leave one for the Swiss infantry - another example of incompetence in the heat of battle! But it hardly mattered - the stout Swiss held firm and repulsed the horsemen.
On my left flank, the Buddenbrock Cuirassiers, elated after their unexpected defeat of the Dragoons du Roi, charged the rallied Languedoc Dragoons, but the melee was indecisive.

The redcoated Swiss foot have seen off Frederick's Garde du Corps, which can be seen fleeing towards the friendly yellow uniforms of the Prinz von Preussen Cuirassiers

Remaining Army Points after Turn Seven:
Prussia 15/30
France: 21/29
TURN EIGHT
The weather remained fair, which is more than could be said for my chances of victory.
In fact I was beaten almost immediately when the Wittmer Foot followed up their melee success by advancing and pouring a devastating volley into the backs of the Garde du Corps. That eliminated the Garde, and brought my Army Points below half of their starting total.

The final scene. It was a truly "French" victory in that the Bavarian contingent of Saxe's army, two squadrons of Hohenzollern Dragoons, can be seen in the foreground in the same position as when the battle started

Next: afterthoughts