Polished In Poland

RECENTLY spent nine nights in Wrocław, a city in Silesia better known for hundreds of years by its German name of Breslau.

Despite the city's long history, there was nothing I came across of military interest, although I have posted a couple of photos of some historic interest at https://www.instagram.com/timspanton/

However I had plenty of time to read two books I took with me: Ottoman Odyssey - Travels Through A Lost Empire by Alev Scott, and Lostwithiel 1644 - The Campaign And The Battles by Stephen Ede-Borrett.

A pair of polished products

I nearly gave up on the Ottoman book as its concentration on massacres, mostly by Turks of Christians and Jews, but also of some atrocities against Muslims, is, to say the least, depressing. I was glad I kept going as I found the travel bits well worth the effort.

The Lostwithiel book was published 17 years ago by The Pike and Shot Society but has lain unread in my flat ever since; undeservedly so as it covers a little-known but fascinating campaign from the English Civil War.

Three Books

MY recent reads include Round Ireland In Low Gear by Eric Newby, Border: A Journey To The Edge Of Europe by Kapka Kassabova and 'An Ill Journey For The Englishmen': Elis Gruffydd And The 1523 French Campaign Of The Duke Of Suffolk by The Pike and Shot Society.

Three books

Round Ireland details Newby's cycling through remote parts of Eire with his wife Wanda, noting a lot of history on the way.

As a travel book it is not a patch on his Hindu Kush and Down The Ganges efforts, but then they were very good indeed.

But at least it is readable, which is more than I can say for Border. I managed fewer than 70 pages of the latter before giving up in frustration at tosh about the evil eye, psychic healing and energy fields presented as established facts.

The Pike and Shot book was published by the society in 2006, as an inducement to renewing membership, if I recall correctly.

It has taken me 15 years to get around to reading the book, which mostly consists of two accounts, the main one by Welsh adventurer Elis Gruffydd, of military campaigning in France by Henry VIII's troops in the 15th year of the English king's reign.

Some of the spellings and quaint - to 21st -century eyes - writing take a little getting used to, but I think were well worth it.

Two Mags

MY recent reading has included the July/August issues of Ancient Warfare and Slingshot.

These publications are consistently two of my favourite reads, and neither of these issues let me down.

Ancient Warfare and Slingshot ... colourful covers and excellent contents

Ancient Warfare is themed around  the Neo-Assyrian Empire, with interesting articles that managed to tell me things I did not know.

Slingshot has more of a mix, with my favourite being Michael Fredholm von Essen's on The Rise And Fall Of Nomad Military Power, marred only by having a ridiculous 80 endnotes (and this is only the first of a two-part series).

Some Slingshot contributors could do with studying how professional writers, such as those in Ancient Warfare, manage to produce an article without indulging in pseudo-academic extravagances.

Cruising

A BOOK called The Cruise Of The Snark may sound like a spoof from the Monty Python team.

In fact it is American author Jack London's account of building and sailing a large yacht across much of the South Pacific.

Since the journey was made in 1907, it has lots of historic interest, as well as being both fascinating and amusing in large parts.

My edition of London's book - a reprint from California-based The Narrative Press

It is a long time since I read anything by this author, but it almost makes me want to re-read White Fang and The Call Of The Wild.

 

Charity Find

I frequently look at book sections in charity shops - not so much to save money but because every so often I uncover a gem I probably would not otherwise find.

Such is the case with Lands Of Lost Borders: A Journey On The Silk Road.

It tells the story of a pushbike ride taken by would-be explorer Kate Harris, not long out of university, and her old school friend Mel.

They cycled from Istanbul to Nepal in what is a riveting adventure, only marred by Kate's insistence on coming up with numerous philosophical 'insights' into the state of the human race, etc.

Lost Borders - I 'lost' just £2 buying it in London's Bethnal Green Road

Despite her worst efforts, Kate cannot seriously detract from a very enjoyable read, and one which inevitably includes fascinating bits of history.

Cretan Treasure

AM visiting Crete.

While walking in the hills near the village of Fodele, I came across an interesting Byzantine church.

View while walking up to the church

Front view

View with mountains behind

It turns out the church is 11th century, built on sixth century foundations, and called Panagia (also transliterated as Panayia), ie dedictaed to the Virgin Mary.

Unfortunately the church is only open at weekends, but I may be able to return on Saturday, although it rather depends on matters not wholly in my control (I am playing in a chess tournament).

Ancient Warfare Vol XIV Issue 5

THE May/Jun 2021 edition of Ancient Warfare magazine is themed around "breakaway empires of the third century AD."

Ancient Warfare ... breakaway edition

In particular it looks at Britain and Palmyra (now part of Syria).

Much of the magazine is devoted to other topics, but is none the worse for that.

All in all a very satisfying edition.

Happy Wanderer

PAUL Theroux is arguably the best-known living travel writer.

His books contain a fair amount of history, and that is especially the case with The Happy Isles Of Oceania: Paddling The Pacific.

It tells of trips he made from Australia to Easter Island, taking in the Solomons, Fiji, Samoa, Hawaii and other island groups.

I put off reading Happy Isles because it was travel in a part of the world I was not particularly interested in.

Happy island-hopping

But Theroux made me interested, even though the book contains much of his usual mix of carping - his complaints include a tirade directed at a taxi driver who wants payment for waiting time - and intellectual snobbery.

The bottom line is Theroux is a good writer, and his stories of paddling across the Pacific, while stopping off to camp at numerous islands, rarely tire. 

Recent Reading

TWO magazines I read recently are the May/June issue of the Society of Ancients' Slingshot and the June/July edition of Toy Solider Collector.

It is quite a milestone for the TSC as it is the magazine's 100th edition .

Slingshot #336 and Toy Soldier Collector #100

TSC has its usual large number of mouth-watering photos, while Slingshot has lots of interesting articles, although for me this Slingshot has rather too much emphasis on computers in general and lockdown play in particular.

Top-Notch Book

RACED through George Orwell's Homage To Catalonia - the most interesting book I have read for a long time.

For those who do not know, it tells of Orwell's time fighting for the revolutionary communists in the Spanish Civil War.

He survived, despite being shot in the throat, and also survived a purge of his 'Trotskyist' comrades and their anarchist allies by pro-Stalin communists.

The book is exciting, fascinating, moving and shocking in equal doses.

The biggest surprise is not that it sold so few copies on publication in 1938 - its anti-Moscow line was unpopular among those opposed to Franco's fascists - but that despite all he saw Orwell seems to have still believed the Left would win the war.

Brilliant

Oh, I forgot to mention it also has lots of humour.

Here is Orwell describing how his accommodation was searched while he was not there but his wife was:

The police conducted the search in the recognized Ogpu or Gestapo style. In the small hours of the morning there was a pounding on the door, and six men marched in, switched on the light, and immediately took up various positions about the room, obviously agreed upon beforehand. They then searched both rooms (there was a bathroom attached) with inconceivable thoroughness. They sounded the walls, took up the mats, examined the floor, felt the curtains, probed under the bath and the radiator, emptied every drawer and suitcase and felt every garment and held it up to the light. They impounded all papers, including the contents of the waste-paper basket, and all our books into the bargain. They were thrown into ecstasies of suspicion by finding that we possessed a French translation of Hitler’s Mein Kampf. If that had been the only book they found our doom would have been sealed. It is obvious that a person who reads Mein Kampf must be a Fascist. The next moment, however, they came upon a copy of Stalin’s pamphlet. Ways of Liquidating Trotskyists and other Double Dealers, which reassured them somewhat. In one drawer there was a number of packets of cigarette papers. They picked each packet to pieces and examined each paper separately, in case there should be messages written on them. Altogether they were on the job for nearly two hours. Yet all this time they never searched the bed. My wife was lying in bed all the while; obviously there might have been half a dozen sub-machine-guns under the mattress, not to mention a library of Trotskyist documents under the pillow. Yet the detectives made no move to touch the bed, never even looked underneath it. I cannot believe that this is a regular feature of the Ogpu routine. One must remember that the police were almost entirely under Communist control, and these men were probably Communist Party members themselves. But they were also Spaniards, and to turn a woman out of bed was a little too much for them. This part of the job was silently dropped, making the whole search meaningless.

Good Fortune

AS promised in an earlier post (http://timspanton.blogspot.com/2020/10/another-entertaining-historical-read.html), I bought the earlier of two books written by botanist Robert Fortune, having thoroughly enjoyed his later A Journey To The Tea Countries Of China.

The earlier book is an illustrated edition of Three Years' Wanderings In The Northern Provinces Of China.

Fortune went hunting flowers and other unusual (to Western eyes) plants in the 1840s, following China's partial opening up to foreigners after the First Opium War.

Although there is some sense of adventure, especially towards the end when he has to fight off pirates, this first book has less travel and less skulduggery compared to the second, when Fortune was effectively part of a plot to seriously undermine China's dominance of the tea trade.

Change of Fortune

However I am glad I read the books in the order that I did as, if I had read Three Years' Wanderings first, I probably would not have bothered seeking out A Journey To The Tea Countries, and that would have been a considerable miss.

New Editor - New Look

TOY Soldier Collector has a new Editor, along with a bigger typeface and increase in pagination.

April/May's TSC and March/April's Slingshot

Meanwhile the Society of Ancients' Slingshot continues to be my favourite wargaming magazine, with every article in issue 335 of interest to me.

Homage To Orwell

I CANNOT claim any connection with wargaming for my latest read, but George Orwell's Down And Out In Paris And London certainly has historical interest.

It took me less than a day to read Orwell's even-more famous Animal Farm at school, and not a great deal longer to read his Nineteen Eighty-Four when I was in my 20s.

Down And Out required the best part of a week, but mainly because I had limited time each day.

The book would not be harmed by leaving out the unsettling chapter two and the pontificating chapter 22, but otherwise I rate it on a par with his better-known novels.

All's well that is Orwell

It has inspired me to seek out Homage To Catalonia ...

Read Attila

I FAIRLY raced through Attila The Hun - Arch-Enemy Of Rome by Ian Hughes.

The book, which was published two years ago by Pen & Sword, is really more about Huns in general than Attila in particular.

This is because the sources are, to say the least, somewhat limited, so much of the book consists of Hughes discussing fragments and trying to reconcile conflicting accounts.

Such a read is not to everyone's taste, I am sure, but it is precisely the type of detective work I find fascinating.

A Tale Of Two Mags

MY recent reading includes issue 334 of Slingshot and issue 98 of Toy Soldier Collector.

Two magazines ... two colourful covers

The Society of Ancients' journal is top notch as usual, with my favourite article being Justin Swanton's look at Roman dispositions at Cannae in 216 BC.

TSC includes an article on Canadian military history, quite a bit of which was completely new to me.

Procopius Part Three

HAVE finished the third of my books by Procopius on the Eastern Roman Empire's wars under Justinian I

Book Three

The author was again with General Belisarius as the Greek-speaking Romans conquered Sicily, Rome and much of the rest of Italy from the Ostrogoths.

A large portion of the book deals with the Ostrogothic counter-siege of Rome, which lasted for a year and nine days.

At one point Procopius is sent out of the city to bring in succour, although he does not seem to give undue prominence to this part of the story or to his involvement in it.

All in all, these books, each originally published in two parts, make a great read. But if I could only read one again, it would probably be the book on the Vandalic War as it has, at least to me, a fantastic immediacy.

Procopius Part Two

HAVE finished the second of my two books by Procopius on wars during the time of the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I.

This one covers the Romans recapturing Carthage and much of North Africa from the Vandals.

Procopius on the Vandalic War

What helps make this book so good is that Procopius was an aide to the Roman chief general Belisarius and so witnessed many of the events he writes about. 

A Fool And His Money ...

... are soon parted, but I just could not resist forking out £1.50 for a toy-soldier set from a pound shop in Watney Market, which is just off Commercial Road in East London.

"Armed Forces - give infinity happy memory to your childhood"

The set is made in China and imported by Kingstar International of London E12.

The contents

The infantry are 40mm scale, ie 1:43, and I guess the guardtower is similar, but clearly the tank and especially the helicopter are not.

It is quite possible I will be able to use the tank for an Airfix Battles scenario, and maybe the infantry (one of the green men is quite useful in being armed with an anti-tank launcher).

All in all, a fun set.

Procopius Part One

HAVE finished the first of my three books by Procopius.

Procopius on the Persian Wars

It covers the Eastern Roman Empire's wars under Justinian I against Sasanian Persia, including the famous AD 530 Battle of Dara, for which Procopius is the main source.

The text, which is a reprint of a translation from the early 1900s, is an exciting and generally easy read, but I could have done with having maps to hand.

Fiddlesticks

I BOUGHT the February 2021 edition of Wargames Illustrated because I was excited by the cover mount of Greek hoplites.

February's Wargames Illustrated

Unfortunately the figures need assembly, and this turned out to be so fiddly that I soon gave up.

The hoplite 'kits'

I have not binned the mount, as I did with the magazine's previous American Civil War offering, as I may be able to use the spears and shields to adorn a temple, for example.

As for the magazine, well, it has lots of glossy photos, but nothing much to interest me, I am afraid.

The magazine after the cover mount has been removed

Bringing Cities To Book

I HAVE walked through part of High Holborn, or at least very close to it, almost every day during Lockdown 3.

It turns out to be the road which houses the headquarters of Thomas & Hudson, publishers of the latest book I have read: Great Cities Through Travellers' Eyes.

Compiler Peter Furtado has edited together accounts of some of the world's famous urban centres, as they have been viewed over the centuries. 

Highlights from High Holborn

Inevitably, in a book that covers 38 cities, some destinations are more interesting (Alexandria, Baghdad, Jerusalem) than others (Sydney, Washington).

But very few of the traveller's excerpts are uninteresting, and many have given me ideas for future book purchases.

The Pen Is Feebler Than The Sword

I WAS excited to receive through the post from military books specialists Pen & Sword their spring catalogue.

Pen & Sword's catalogue

But my pleasure soon turned to frustration at the contents:

In WWI, Scandinavian countries proclaimed their neutrality but pitched the two warring sides against each other to protect their trades. [No they didn't!]

Using veterans own words ... [Missing apostrophe]

The Author sets the scene ... [Why Author rather than author?]

A Wargamer's [sic] Guide to the Early Roman Empire ... the dramatic events of the Norman conquest.

This is a unique and original material.

In 73 AD [AD stands for anno domino, the year of our Lord, so correct is AD 73]

This is the story of how the company began, how it grew, and how they diversified ... [Why switch from singular to plural?]

My point, and I have only looked at bits I thought might particularly interest me, is that I very much hope the catalogue is not typical of the care exercised at Pen & Sword.

Geographic History

IT is a long time since I bought National Geographic's History magazine - indeed I am not even sure if I have ever bought it before the latest issue, January/February 2021.

But I found it hard to resist the cover, which promised articles on Homeric weapons, a long-lost Bronze Age culture in what is now Iran, Roman roads, and Napoleonic science in Egypt.

The latest National Geographic History - I had great expectations

The articles did not let me down - I found all of them, including ones I have not mentioned, very good reads.

A highlight was an amusing inscription on a Roman roadside innkeeper's gravestone, which relates a conversation between the deceased and a customer.

Paraphrased, it reads: "The inn's prices are one coin for wine and bread, two for stew, eight for the services of a young woman and two for hay for your mule. The traveller replies: 'This mule will ruin me'."

Spooky Historical Cemetery

FORCED to take a detour because the route I wanted to use was blocked by workmen, I cut through a cemetery near Old Street in EC1

What with its large gravestones and numerous tombs, it looked like a film set from a teen horror movie - and this was in broad daylight.

In fact Bunhill Fields is a burial ground that saw more than 120,000 interments from 1665 until it officially closed in 1854.

Among the graves of the well-known are those of Daniel Defoe, John Bunyan and William Blake.

But the one that caught my eye was a monument to Dame Mary Page, who came to an unfortunate end. 

Mary Page's tomb

The inscription in the photo above reads:

Here lyes Dame Mary Page

Relict of Sir Gregory Page Bart.

She departed this life March 4 1728

In the 56th year of her age.

Notable are the archaic spelling of "lies" and the use of "relict" to mean widow.

The reverse of the tomb is also interesting.

The other side of Dame Mary's tomb

In 67 months she was tap'd 66 times.

Had taken away 240 gallons of water

without ever repining at her case

or  ever fearing the operation.

It has been speculated she suffered from Meigs syndrome: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meigs%27s_syndrome

15mm Plastic

IT is some time since I bought Wargames Illustrated, but I could not resist when, on visiting WH Smith in Holborn, central London, I saw the January issue of the magazine has a free 'frame' of plastic American Civil War figures.

In fact there are two frames - one of figures and one of bases for the figures.

January's Wargames Illustrated with its cover mounting

When I returned to the same branch of Smith's a few days later, the magazine had sold out, and I am not surprised.

The two ACW frames

What you get from the frames, which are part of a new line by Warlord Games, is 10 sprues of infantry, each with 10 figures, one gun with four gunners, and a mounted officer (described inside the magazine, rather bizarrely, as "cavalry").

So far so good, especially as the figures are superbly proportioned - metal figures in the same scale would, for example, have much clumsier muskets.

But what scale are they? Makers Warlord Games are, again rather bizarrely, being coy about this.

They have a two-page advert in the magazine, describing the figures as "Epic Battles scale."

Photos of painted figures are shown alongside a 1p coin "for scale," although this may be of limited use to non-UK readers.

Elsewhere in the magazine is a reference to the figures being "about 13mm," but according to my measuring they are true 15mm.

The problem comes when you detach the sprues of infantry and attach them two to a base.

Two infantry sprues on a base

They look great ... or would if they were meant to be soldiers from the Napoleonic Wars or earlier. But who wants ACW infantry marching literally shoulder-to-shoulder?

As for the paid-content of the magazine, well that is a matter of taste.

The magazine without the cover mount - a good read IF you like fantasy gaming and/or logistics

Lockdown Treat

IT has been some time since I read Wargames Soldiers & Strategy, but as a treat during Lockdown 3 I bought issue 112, which covers January to February.

The magazine has lots of battle scenarios, which make reasonably interesting articles even though they are illustrated with rather disappointing mini dioramas.

Even more disappointing is that none of the battles is recreated on the tabletop, so they come across as  nothing more than could be gained from Wikipedia and a cursory internet search. 

WS&S ... trick or treat?

All in all it will probably be some time before I buy another copy of the magazine.

All Booked Up

I MENTIONED in an earlier post (http://timspanton.blogspot.com/2021/01/lockdown-irony.html) how a highly favourable review in Ancient Warfare magazine persuaded me to order Ian Hughes' biography of Attila from Pen & Sword.

It arrived on the same day as I went to a local Post Office to collect three books bought from Amazon.

These are Procopius's History Of The Wars, which covers the Roman Empire (aka the Byzantine Empire) under Justinian I taking on Persians, Vandals and Ostrogoths.

I have tried many times to buy the books in a bookshop, especially Foyles in Charing Cross Road.

But the only Procopius volume I have seen there is his Anecdota, published under the title Secret History, which has very little military content.

True, Foyles stocks the Loeb editions of classical works, where the English translation is printed alongside the original Greek (or Latin).

But Loeb books are expensive and somewhat irrelevant if, like me, you have no knowledge of ancient Greek and your final Latin exam score of 11% included 8% for drawing a Roman underground heating system.

Anyway, I am pleased to have made these four purchases and I look forward to reading them, perhaps in a Greek or Italian taverna, when the government restores our liberties.

Books to enjoy

Refighting Wissembourg/Weissenburg (aftermath)

THERE is no doubt refighting the Battle of Wissembourg cannot by any stretch of the imagination be called a balanced scenario.

Indeed the battle would not get the attention it does in the Franco-Prussian War were it not for having been the first battle of the conflict.

But the lack of balance is not something that unduly worries me or my regular wargames opponent - we both enjoy recreating history more than fretting over the outcome.

However there are ways to make the scenario more 'fair'.

For starters the French could be allowed to receive reinforcements during the battle in a similar way to the German side.

There were French units within the sound of the guns in 1870, but their commanders, without orders from above, did not react in the same way as their German counterparts.

Allowing French reinforcements would certainly be an alternative history.

Another method of introducing balance is to refight the battle twice, with victory going to the player who beats the French in the shorter number of turns.

Naturally this assumes the French will inevitably lose, which is probably a fair assumption - the Prussians and Bavarians do have overwhelming numbers.

In our refight my opponent chose to more-or-less keep his forces in their opening dispositions, apart from manoeuvring with his dragoons.

But it could be interesting to see if General Douay would be better off reinforcing the town of Wissembourg rather than keeping the bulk of his forces on the heights.

One thing that did please us was that the rules, adapted mainly from Bob Cordery's The Portable Wargame, with a big assist from Neil Thomas's Wargaming Nineteenth Century Europe, worked well and do not seem to need further tweaks.

Refighting Wissembourg/Weissenburg (part five)

TURN 11

Overview from behind the French lines at the start of turn 11

My rolls for reinforcements bring on to the table a unit of Bavarian lancers for 1st Corps.

My troops continue advancing towards the heights, with one unit occupying Wissembourg. This unit opens fire on the French infantry on the Geisberg and, despite having moved and the target being behind cover, scores a hit, which means the compulsory loss of a strength point.

Douay's gun misses, and so do the infantry next to them (the infantry on the Vogelsberg, behind the sand-coloured emplacement, are still out of range), but he is able to activate the dragoons, who charge my most advanced, and very isolated, infantry in the flank. However, Douay rolls a 1 in the subsequent melee, which, despite +1 modifiers for attacking in the flank and for being cavalry fighting infantry, is not enough to score a hit. The infantry, much more reasonably, also fail to be effective.

After 11 turns the Germans have lost 11SP and three units, the French 5SP and one unit.

TURN 12

No German reinforcements arrive this turn.

I continue advancing and firing, where possible, against the heights. The unit in Wissembourg, following up their success last turn, again inflict a hit on the defenders of the Geisberg. Douay could let his unit drop back a square but, presumably fearing his artillery is about to get overrun, accepts the loss of a second strength point. The only other unit able to fire is infantry at the foot of the heights, but they make no impression on the French artillerymen.

In the second round of the cavalry-v-infantry melee, the dragoons, although no longer getting a bonus for attacking in the flank, score a hit, which means a forced loss of a strength point for the Prussian infantry.

Douay's gun scores a hit on my infantry, and I accept the loss of a strength point. His unit on the Vogelsberg moves east along the ridge to support the Geisberg infantry. Both infantry units open fire, with the the unit that moved scoring a hit on my infantry, and I again accept the loss of a strength point.

The dragoons inflict another hit in the melee, and I have to accept another SP loss.

German ranks are starting to noticeably thin

After 12 turns the Germans have lost 15SP and three units, the French 6SP and one unit.

TURN 13

I receive another unit of reinforcements - infantry for 1st Corps.

My units keep advancing, and the infantry at the foot of the heights score a hit on the French artillery, with Douay accepting the SP loss.

In the melee the sole remaining Prussian infantryman, an officer, rolls a 6 against the cavalry's 1. There are -1 modifiers for being understrength and for being infantry fighting cavalry, but it is enough for a hit, which is resolved as the compulsory loss of an SP.

Douay's gun rolls a 4, but the only modifier is a -1 for being French Imperial artillery and so no hit is scored. His infantry inflict one hit, which is resolved as the loss of an SP.

In the melee my Prussian officer again inflicts a compulsory SP loss, thus eliminating the dragoons.

After 13 turns the Germans have lost 16SP and three units, the French 9SP and two units.

This dramatic turn seems to have turned the tide against the French, who will lose the battle if they suffer another SP loss

In fact, with defeat now inevitable, my opponent concedes.

(To be continued)

Refighting Wissembourg/Weissenburg (part four)

Overview from the south-west at the end of turn seven - the French position on the heights is unchallenged, but the zouaves in Wissembourg are unlikely to hold out much longer

TURN EIGHT

My most successful rolling for reinforcements - a unit of infantry for 1st Corps and a unit of Prussian uhlans for 2nd Corps.

My artillery is still masked but I am able to activate all my other on-table troops, ordering two units of infantry to turn away from the town and instead aim for the heights.

Prussian infantry prepare to ford the Lauter

I still have two infantry units able to fire at Wissembourg, and they score a hit, but Douay is again able to ignore it by rolling a high enough die (a 6 in fact) for resolution. Another unit is able to fire at the dragoons, but a -1 modifier for having moved that turn means it misses.

Douay's artillery at last finds the range of my infantry, scoring a hit that cannot be negated by withdrawing.

The dragoons pull back behind the easternmost heights and so out of harm from Prussian rifle fire.

Zouave firing from the town narrowly fails to score a hit (Douay rolls a 4 but suffers a -1 modifier as the unit is understrength).

After eight turns the Germans have lost 8SP and three units, the French 3SP.

TURN NINE

2nd Corps received more reinforcements, this time an infantry unit.

I do not know why I had not thought of this before, but I activated the 1st Corps gun and advanced it in the hope it can play a role in capturing the heights.

Menwhile I had three infantry units able to fire at Wissembourg, and between them they scored two hits. Douay was able to negate one with his roll to resolve the hit, but the other was fatal, laying low the last of the zouaves.

Wissembourg has been emptied of French troops, and the first Prussian infantry are fording the Lauter

Douay's gun again scored a hit, and again I was forced to remove a strength point from an infantry unit. He had no other moves to make as the infantry next to his artillery is just out of range of the Prussian infantry.

After nine turns the Germans have lost 9SP and three units, the French 4SP and one unit.

TURN 10

Another infantry unit from 1st Corps arrives on the battlefield - the 3rd Garde-Regiment zu Fuss, no less - and a gun from 2nd Corps.

I advance on the heights as much as possible, with two infantry units able to fire, albeit unsuccessfully, at the French artillery.

A race against time as the Prussians approach the heights

Douay's gun again scores a hit on my infantry, causing the loss of a strength point. He is unable to activate his dragoons, which is a missed opportunity as he could have charged my leading unit in the flank. His infantry on the Geisberg, which has the green emplacement, scores a hit on my infantry, causing another strength point to be lost (the unit had nowhere to withdraw to even if I had wanted to do so).

After 10 turns the Germans have lost 11SP and three units, the French 4SP and one unit.

(To be continued)

Refighting Wissembourg/Weissenburg (part three)

TURN FIVE

The situation at the start of the turn

I again fail to receive any reinforcements.

My gun scores a hit on the defenders of Wissembourg, and Douay rolls a 1 when resolving it, meaning the zouaves lose a second strength point.

I advance those units that are active and not in firing range, which means all bar two of 2nd Corps' infantry units, which each rolled a 1. Infantry rifle fire directed at Wissembourg proves ineffective.

Between the heights and the wood my unit of Bavarian chevaulegers is one square short of being able to intervene in the cavalry melee, which ends when my unit of Brunswick hussars suffers a second hit, which means losing a strength point as there is nowhere to retreat. The hussars are therefore eliminated.

Looking from the south halfway through turn five after the hussars have been destroyed

Douay's gun fires at the 3rd Corps infantry attacking the town, but miss.

His dragoons fail to activate, meaning their left flank remains exposed to a possible charge next turn from my unit of Bavarian chevaulegers.

The zouaves fire at the much-depleted unit of 1st Corps infantry, but miss.

After five turns the Germans have lost 5SP and one unit, the French 2SP.

TURN SIX

At last some Prussian reinforcements arrive - a unit of 3rd Corps infantry.

My 1st Corps gun fails to score a hit on the Wissembourg garrison, but the Bavarian chevaulegers are able to charge the French dragoons in the flank.

All my infantry units are able to advance, but the two already within rife range of the town again stand still and fire, but again unsuccessfully.

In the cavalry melee my chevaulegers, although outnumbered, make good their flanking advantage by inflicting a hit while not suffering one in return. Douay rolls a 4 for resolving the hit, and chooses to have the dragoons fall back a square. We decide this would be directly away from the Bavarians, rather than backwards from the direction they were facing, and would end with the dragoons now facing their enemy.

Douay's gun again fails to score a hit.

The zouaves fire at the 1st Corps infantry and roll a 4, which would normally be a hit, but the zouaves suffer a -1 modifier for having fewer than three strength points.

His dragoons charge my unit of chevaulegers, but neither of us manage to score a hit.

The cavalry melee continues in the foreground, while in the distance Prussian infantry close in on Wissembourg

TURN SEVEN

No more German reinforcements arrive this turn.

My gun is partially masked by Prussian infantry and so has to fire at the western side of Wissembourg, but it scores a hit on the defenders, although without destroying the fortifications in that part of town. Douay's resolution roll means the zouaves have to lose a strength point, reducing them to just 1SP.

After movement I have four infantry units within firing range of the town, including two that had moved that turn and so would suffer a -1 modifier. However only one unit scores a hit, and Douay is able to ignore it under the special rules for Wissembourg by rolling a 4 for resolution.

The cavalry melee again results in no casualties.

It is looking desperate for the defenders of Wissembourg, unless General Douay sends a unit from the heights to bolster their numbers (my opponent explained after the battle that he thought of doing this but felt any such unit would soon be overwhelmed, hastening a French defeat) 

Douay's gun again misses but the gallant zouaves score a hit on the 1st Corps infantry, which loses its last remaining strength point. There is a further setback for the German cause when the French dragoons destroy the remaining strength point of the Bavarian chevaulegers.

After seven turns the Germans have lost 7SP and three units, the French 3SP.

(To be continued)

Refighting Wissembourg/Weissenburg (part two)

COMMANDING the French forces, and sinking his identity into that of General Douay, is my regular wargames opponent, whose love for all things French I have remarked on before.

As usual I will be writing up the battle as we go along.

The battlefield at the start

TURN ONE

As the attacker, I go first, and my first action is to fire 1st Corps' gun at Wissembourg. I roll a 5, getting +1 for being at full strength but -2 for the defenders being behind fortifications. That results in a 4, meaning a hit. To resolve the hit, Douay rolls a 4, so it has no effect in the special circumstances of occupying a fortified town. My second die for having fired at a section of the town with fortifications is also a 5. There is a +1 modifier for being at full strength, meaning a section of fortifications has been destroyed (the fencing is removed).

I fail to activate 1st Corps' Prussian infantry (I roll a 1, when 2 is needed) or the Bavarian chevaulegers (I roll a 2, when 3 is needed).

The on-table units of 2nd Corps to the north-east and 3rd Corps to the east prove to be more energetic, advancing towards Wissembourg, with the Brunswick hussars turning to cross the River Lauter.

Looking from the north-west after a section of the Wissembourg fortifications has been destroyed

The French gun, being Imperial artillery with a range of six squares, cannot quite reach the troops of 1st Corps. Similarly, the rife range of the zouaves in Wissembourg also falls one square short of reaching 1st Corps, so Douay stands pat.

TURN TWO

I dice for reinforcements, but only 2nd Corps in the north-east receives any, and it is a unit of infantry.

The 1st Corps gun fires at Wissembourg, but a throw of 3, with modifiers of +1 for being at full strength but -1 for the target being behind cover, means a miss. Both the other 1st Corps units on the table, the Prussian infantry and Bavarian chevaulegers, are activated - the infantry advance on the town, and the cavalry move straight forward.

All the other on-table German units are activated, apart from one unit of 2nd Corps infantry, and all advance in the general direction of Wissembourg.

Looking from behind the French lines

Douay fires his gun at the Brunswick hussars beside the wood, rolling a 4. Modifiers of -1 for being French Imperial artillery and +1 for being at full strength keep the score at 4, and so a hit. To resolve the hit, I roll a 6, giving me a choice of letting the hussars lose a strength point or withdraw a square, and I choose the latter.

The zouaves in Wissembourg easily score a hit on the 1st Corps infantry. My die roll to resolve the hit is a 2, so the infantry have to lose one strength point.

Douay stands pat with his other units, so the situation at the end of turn two is that the Germans have lost 1SP and the French none.

TURN THREE

My rolls for reinforcements are unsuccessful.

The 1st Corps gun scores a hit on Wissembourg, and it turns out to cause the zouaves to lose a strength point. The 1st Corps infantry fire at the defenders of the town, but narrowly miss scoring a hit (a roll of 4 is reduced to 3 by a -1 modifier for the target being behind cover). The Bavarian chevaulegers fail to activate.

All the on-table units of the other two corps advance, with the exception of the newly-arrived 2nd Corps infantry who, perhaps hesitant after getting their first sight of the battle, fail to activate.

Close-up of the French position on the eastern heights, with the Brunswick hussars in the distance

It was only after I took the above-photo that we realised the French gun should not have been able to fire at the hussars last turn as the cavalrymen are not within the gunners' arc of fire. This turn the gun fires at the Bavarian chevaulegers, but misses.

The zouaves again score a hit on the 1st Corps infantry. This time I have a choice of falling back a square or losing a strength point. I choose the former because I do not want the infantry to be out of firing range (German rifles only having a range of three squares, compared with the four squares of French rifles).

Douay again does nothing with his other units, so the Germans have now lost 2SP and the French 1SP.

TURN FOUR

My rolls for reinforcements are again unsuccessful.

1st Corps' gun fires at Wissembourg, but misses.

I am able to activate almost all the German units, with the hussars lining up opposite the French dragoons, while the chevaulegers cross the River Lauter.

1st Corps' infantry fail miserably to inflict any hits on the defenders of Wissembourg, but infantry from 3rd Corps almost do better. Arriving within firing range of the town, they roll a 4. They get a +1 modifier for being at full strength, but -1 for moving and -2 for firing at a fortified part of the town.

Looking from the east as German cavalry approach the heights while German infantry advance to within firing range of Wissembourg 

Douay's gun scores a hit on the chevaulegers, who lose a strength point (I roll a 2 for resolving the hit and so cannot choose to fall back a square).

He activates the dragoons, who charge my hussars. Before fighting the melee, the zouaves fire at the 1st Corps infantry, again scoring a hit, and I again choose to lose 1SP. This might seem strange, but the Germans have no shortage of manpower, and if this unit falls back it is out of range of being able to fire at the town but can be fired at by the longer-range French rifles.

The cavalry melee is on level terms, but whereas the dragoons roll a 6 and so emphatically score a hit, the hussars roll a miserable 1. I resolve the hit by rolling a 4, which would normally allow me to avoid a strength-point loss by getting the hussars to fall back a square. But their backs are to the wood, which is impassable to cavalry, and so they must lose a strength point. It is hard not see my handling of the hussars as being tactically dubious (a more-accurate word might be inept).

After four turns the Germans have lost 4SP and the French 1SP.

It is fair to say that the early stages of our refight are going rather like the original battle in that the Germans are suffering disproportionately heavy losses in assaulting the strong French defensive position.

(To be continued)