Refighting The Battle Of Pfaffenhofen

THE Battle of Pfaffenhofen was fought 275 years ago last month, near the River Ilm in Bavaria, between a Habsburg army under the Hungarian Count Károly Batthyány and a French army under Count Henri de Ségur.
Habsburg troops had been forced out of Bavaria late in 1744 by Franco-Bavarian forces, allowing Elector Charles VII, who was also Holy Roman Emperor, to reoccupy his state capital Munich, where he died in January 1745.
This opened the way for peace talks between Austria and Bavaria, but when they stalled, Maria Theresa - Queen of Hungary, Archduchess of Austria and future Holy Roman Empress (by marriage) - ordered a renewed invasion of the electorate.
Bavarian forces fell back to defensive positions behind the River Lech, apparently without informing de Ségur.
He found himself with about 7,000 men, including Palatinate troops of dubious enthusiasm, facing some 10,000 Austro-Hungarians.
The town of Pfaffenhofen quickly fell, but de Ségur formed a defensive line between wooded hills and Scheyern Abbey, which had close connections to the Bavarian ruling House of Wittelsbach.

Overview of the battlefield with the Franco-Palatinate forces in the foreground between wooded high ground and the river - little more than a stream really - beside Scheyern Abbey

Batthyány's light troops - pandurs and hussars - got around de Ségur's flanks, prompting him to order a withdrawal, which turned into a rout, at least by his German troops. In all he lost more than a third of his force and most of his munitions.*
The battle knocked Bavaria out of the War of the Austrian Succession, although Charles VII's son, Maximilian III, was confirmed in his possession of the electorate, in return agreeing to support Maria Theresa's husband, Francis of Lorraine, in upcoming elections for a new Holy Roman Emperor.
*As usual it is difficult to be sure of numbers, both for the size of the armies and the extent of casualties. Numbers used here are those taken by Wikipedia from historian David Chandler.

Freeze!

THIS frieze in Euston's Triton Square caught my eye and made me stop to try to work out what it is showing.

I decided it might be an allegory. The figure sat on what appears to be a wooden wheelchair looks Roman, while the figures on the right seem to be dressed in the uniform of 19th-century Royal Navy officers.
Could it be a fanciful, patriotic depiction of how the 'burden' of Pax Romana was taken up by Pax Britannica?
The answer seems to be no. Rather it is a work by Edward Hodges Baily, originally intended for Marble Arch, showing the surrender of Francisco Javier Winthuysen y Pineda, a Spanish naval squadron commander, at the Battle of Cape St Vincent on St Valentine's Day 1797.
A British fleet under Admiral John Jervis defeated a much larger Spanish fleet under Admiral Don José de Córdoba y Ramos, according to Wikipedia.
The battle was famous for an incident when Horatio Nelson's ship, Captain, ran alongside the Spanish ship San Nicolás, which had become entangled with another Spanish ship, San José.
Nelson ordered his men to board and capture the San Nicolás and to cross it so as to also board and capture the San José, a manoeuvre that became jokingly known as "Nelson's patent bridge for boarding enemy vessels."
The frieze therefore apparently shows the commander of the San José, Winthuysen y Pineda, surrendering his sword to Nelson, the wheelchair perhaps indicating his mortal injuries. If so, the frieze shows Winthuysen y Pineda as having too many limbs - he lost an arm fighting the British when Spain joined the rebel side in the American Revolution.

Airfix Battles (part two)

My opponent chose to command the Germans, sinking his persona into that of Hauptmann Richard Wald, apparently a bilingual resident of Alsace conscripted into the German army following the Fall of France in 1940.

We each received five command cards - used for activating units - and I won the dice-off for deployment, choosing to be first to deploy a unit, not that it mattered much as we both deployed conservatively with the combined unit of captain and veterans sandwiched between our respective squads.

Both sides deployed

To avoid confusion, ID counters are added so it can easily be seen which unit on the table corresponds to which unit card.

Looking at the Americans with their unit cards and the smaller command cards

The Germans with their unit and command cards

Note that although each player has four unit cards, there are only three units on each side as the captain and veterans have to combine to form a single unit.
Since I won the first-to-deploy dice-off, Wald gets the valour counter. This can be used to re-roll any one of his dice rolls he does not like. Once Wald has used it, the valour counter will pass to me so I can re-roll any one of my dice rolls, and so on.
As usual, I will be writing the game up turn-by-turn.
TURN ONE
Wald won the dice-off for initiative and moved both squads forward one square - terrain restrictions prevented them moving further forward.
My five command cards consist of an interrupt (they can only be used when the opponent is moving) and four orders: mechanised assault, infantry assault and two rapid advances. I used one of the rapid advances to send my left-hand squad into the wood.
Wald advanced his captain and veterans along the dirt road so they regained being in line with his two squads.
I used my mechanised assault card to give a basic order. This can be done with any command card, and in scenario one the two possible basic orders are move or fire. I chose to advance my right-hand squad so it is behind the white house.
All three of Wald's units have received orders this turn, so he has to pass.
I used my infantry assault card to give a basic order, moving the captain and veterans off the dirt road and directly behind my right-hand squad. This ended the turn as my play value is three - meaning I can use a maximum of three command cards in a turn. As it happens, the turn would have ended anyway at this point as all my units had received an order.

Situation at the end of turn one

TURN TWO
Both players start by drawing enough command cards to bring them back to their hand value - the number of command cards you have at the start of a round. I drew an interrupt and two orders: lightning strike and infantry assault.
We diced for initiative, and this time I won. I used the rapid advance card to occupy the white house with my right-hand squad, which was then able to fire their rifles and light-machineguns at the German captain and his veterans. My squad is at full strength, so I got to roll 10 dice - one for each man - plus one extra die, which represents the greater firepower of American squads. I needed to roll a 5 or 6 to score a hit. Much to my surprise, and Wald's consternation, I rolled six 6s, meaning the captain and the veterans were all killed. Since the captain is worth three stars, and the veterans one star, and victory goes to the player who gets three stars, I had well and truly won.

Game over

AFTERTHOUGHTS
Wald looked suitably sheepish at what transpired.
I tried to console him by admitting I had been extremely fortunate with my dice rolling but, as he pointed out, advancing in the open against troops armed with automatic weapons is not exactly the brightest use of resources.
Since this was both players' first go with Airfix Battles, it would be challenging to give a review on such a short experience. But, perhaps strangely, we both thought the game felt very promising - in some ways the quick and brutal resolution gave a sense of realism, rather than leaving us deflated.
One thing is for sure, however - 5in squares are not big enough for Army Men. If we, and we probably will, play another scenario, I will set-up both my wargames tables, enabling me to use a seven-by-five grid with 10in squares. Since a 10in-square has 100 square inches, compared with 25 square inches for a 5in-square, this will give four times as much space for each square.

Airfix Battles

SOME four years ago I took out a magazine subscription - to Miniature Wargames, I believe - mainly because the enticement to subscribe was a free boxed set of Airfix Battles: The Introductory Wargame.

Nice box ... interesting contents

The game is card-driven, and comes with terrain maps and counters for troops and vehicles.
Although it is described as an introductory wargame, the rules are more complex than many eurogames, while being a lot simpler than the old classics from SPI and Avalon Hill.

Inside the box ... after the contents have been sorted

I never played Airfix Battles as I could not get enthusiastic about playing a tactical wargame with counters (having said that, one of the SPI/Avalon Hill games I own is Sniper!, which is not a strategic game by any stretch of the imagination).
My extensive collection of Airfix 1/72nd soldiers is long gone, either given away or disposed of in a clear-out, and I never got round to buying replacements to be used in fighting Airfix Battles.
But it has occurred to me I could just as easily use larger figures, specifically Army Men I bought three years ago in Jersey (https://timspanton.blogspot.com/2017/04/50mm-and-all-that.html) and used for a D-Day scenario (https://timspanton.blogspot.com/2017/04/d-day-scenario-for-plastic-army-men.html).
The plan is to try out the first Airfix Battles scenario against my regular wargames opponent - we both have plenty of spare time in current circumstances.
By coincidence, scenario one is located in Normandy and dated June 6 1944, ie D-Day.

Scenario one terrain map

To the map for scenario one you add four square cover counters representing "woods or buildings that block line of sight," and four rectangular rough-terrain counters representing "mud, craters and other obstacles to movement."

Map with cover and rough-terrain counters

It may just be possible to see that the map consists of 35 squares marked out in five rows of seven. This is easy to turn into a grid on one of my wargames tables.

Gridded for Airfix Battles

Having the right range of suitable terrain was a little more problematic, but I managed what I reckon is a decent-enough job.

The completed battlefield

The dirt track is made from tissue paper, three houses and a wood replace the square cover counters, and the four rough-terrain rectangles are replaced by various other items of terrain.
In this scenario each player receives four unit cards representing a captain, a four-man team of veterans, and two 10-man squads each armed with rifles/light machineguns and two anti-tank guns (bazookas for the Americans; panzerfausts for the Germans).

The cards detail each unit's combat capabilities

In the game, infantry are represented by round counters, but I have replaced these with Army Men.

The Americans ... the captain with his veterans are in the foreground, with the two 10-man squads behind

The Germans ... apparently still wearing the uniforms of Rommel's Afrikakorps

Note it does not matter, apart from aesthetically, what weapons the figures have. As the rules sate: "Don't worry if your figures don't have exactly the right weapons, as it's only the number of figures that count. All other information (weapon stats and unit abilities) comes from the unit cards."

Slingshot May/June 2020

ISSUE 330 of the journal of the Society of Ancients has a good mix of articles, my favourites being Nicholas Spratt's account of a war between the Han Chinese and Xiongnu nomads, David Kay on wargaming mechanisms, and Chris Hahn on the Battle of Bosworth.

Slingshot 330 has a standard cover ... but above-standard contents

I was somewhat less impressed by an attempt to defend Herodotus's estimate of Xerxes' Persian army at having more than five million men ...

The Battle Of Colonieblanche (part five)

TURN 10
My gun scored a hit, but the French infantry unit was able to withdraw rather than lose a strength point. I scored two hits with rifle fire, killing a Garibaldi Redshirt and forcing the French to retreat from Colonieblanche (accepting a strength-point loss would have taken French losses to 15, meaning de Saxe would have lost the battle). I chose to fight the melee around the gun first, but no hits were scored. In the cavalry melee, it was the turn of my chevauleger to be forced back.
The French reoccupied Colonieblanche, and the battle ended in a German defeat when the last member of the 3rd Garde-Regiment zu Fuss was killed, bringing German losses to 15 strength points - more than half their starting total.

The end ... a final view of the battlefield

AFTERTHOUGHTS
One thing we could certainly agree on was that it had been an exciting battle, with the result in doubt to the very last turn. Indeed, had my uhlan unit inflicted a kill on the French artillery in my half of turn 15, it would have been a German victory rather than a French one.
As it was, the French victory was by the narrowest possible margin, and in terms of units eliminated, as opposed to strength points lost, I was ahead at the end. But however narrow a victory, it was a French one, and those were rare in the Franco-Prussian War.
How can the French victory be explained  - are the rules to blame, was it my poor generalship or was it the choice of scenario?
I like to think, and my opponent agreed, that the rules seemed fine. Most of the credit for this goes to Portable Wargame designer Bob Cordery, but we felt my adaptations to give more of a Franco-Prussian feel also worked well without swamping the core rules.
Poor generalship? Always a possibility, of course! I thought I was a little unlucky with dice throws for my gun, causing its siting on Petit Haut Rond to take longer than it should. But perhaps it was a mistake wanting to site the gun there as it can reach targets by firing from the baseline if necessary. Some credit should certainly go to de Saxe. By concentrating his forces on the west flank of the battlefield, most of them were masked from my army by La Grand Colline and the town of Colonieblanche. Meanwhile, his centrally-placed gun had an uninterrupted view of a large proportion of my army.
The scenario was certainly French-friendly. A major reason for the successes of the Germans on the battlefields of the Franco-Prussian War was the pre-battle staff-work of the Prussian high command. Their superior organisational skills meant the Germans often had more units on the battlefield, rather than equal numbers as in the Battle of Colonieblanche.
In any event, my opponent and I are agreed we shall use The Portable Wargame as the basis for our Project Kaiser 150th anniversary refight of the Franco-Prussian War.
The only aspect we felt needed further tinkering is the rules for melees, which we felt dragged on too long. In future a 4 rather than a 5 will be needed to score a hit, which brings melees into line with my amendments for rifle and artillery fire. I hope my amendments, making the rules a Franco-Prussian War Portable Wargame, may find an honourable place among the increasing numbers of Portable Wargame adaptations.

The Battle Of Colonieblanche (part four)

TURN SEVEN
My gun scored another hit that could not be negated by withdrawing. My uhlan unit charged the French near Villejaune in the flank, meaning there would be two melees to resolve this half-turn. Rifle fire was unsuccessful. The cavalry melee saw one of the Chevaulegers fall. In the melee outside Villejaune, both sides rolled a 6. The uhlan unit received +1 for attacking in flank, -1 for being cavalry with fewer than two strength points and +1 for being cavalry fighting infantry, meaning a final score of 7 - a hit. The French received -1 for being attacked in the flank, -1 for being infantry with fewer than three strength points and -1 for being infantry fighting cavalry, meaning a final score of 3. The hit cost the French a strength point.
The French gun scored a hit on the 3rd Garde-Regiment zu Fuss, but I took the option of having them fall back rather than lose another precious strength point. De Saxe was unable to activate Garibaldi's Redshirts to face a Prussian unit coming from around La Grande Colline, but a unit of regular infantry alongside them dropped back to face the danger. The French unit occupying the town turned and fired at the 3rd Garde-Regiment zu Fuss, who had to lose a strength point. The cavalry melee was indecisive, while in the melee near Villejaune both sides again rolled a 6. This time there were no modifiers for attacking or being attacked in flank - I only count that for the first turn of a melee - so the uhlan unit ended with a score of 6, meaning a hit, but the infantry ended with 4. The hit suffered by the French could not be negated, and so the unit was eliminated.
Standings: the French have lost eight strength points and two units; the Germans have lost 12 strength points but no units.

Looking desperate ... Germans on the brink of defeat

TURN EIGHT
My gun again downed a French infantryman. My uhlan unit about-turned and charge the flank of the French gun, meaning there would again be two melees to resolve. Garibaldi's Redshirts suffered the only casualty to German rifle fire. There was another twist in the long-running cavalry melee as this time a French dragoon had to be removed. In the other melee, the artillerymen rolled a 5 to my 2. The 5 was modified by -1 (attacked in flank), +1 (more than three strength points) and -2 (artillery fighting cavalry), giving a final score of 3, so no hit. The 2 was modified by +1 (attacking in flank), -1 (fewer than two strength points) and +2 (fighting artillery), giving a final score of 4, so also no hit.
The French gun obviously could not fire as it is still in a melee, but de Saxe's infantry made up for this by scoring three rifle hits, although I was only forced to lose one strength point, taking the option to retreat in the other two cases. No hits were scored in the ongoing cavalry melee. We both rolled 4s in the other melee. His 4 was reduced by modifiers to 3, while mine was increased to 5, scoring a hit, which removed an artilleryman.
Standings: the French have lost 12 strength points and two units; the Germans have lost 13 strength points but no units.

Gunning for it ... the battle for the French gun

TURN NINE
The battle has suddenly become unexpectedly close!
My gun failed to score a hit, and I only achieved one hit with rifle fire, which de Saxe was able to negate into a one-square withdrawal. My chevauleger scored a hit on his dragoon, but the latter was able to withdraw. I naturally followed up to keep the melee going - his cavalryman now has its back to the edge of the battlefield. My uhlan killed a second French artilleryman.
In de Saxe's turn, French infantry scored two hits, only one of which I could negate by withdrawing. The cavalry melee was inconclusive. I scored another hit in the melee around the French gun. De Saxe chose for the artillerymen to abandon their gun, and my uhlan followed up to keep the melee going.
Standings: the French have lost 13 strength points and two units; the Germans have lost 14 strength points but no units.

Carry on ... the melee by the gun continues

The Battle Of Colonieblanche (part three)

TURN FOUR
My gun at last mounted Petit Haut Rond. There was more good news for the Prussian cause when my 'reserve' infantry advanced and fired at the 2nd Hussars, scoring a hit that claimed a strength point. One of the French defenders in Villejaune was also felled.
The French gun scored a hit on the Prussian infantry directly in front of it. I had the choice of losing a strength point or falling back a square, choosing the latter. The 2nd Hussars charged the infantry that had just fired at them. The cavalry were heavily outnumbered, but the melee was inconclusive. No less than four units of French infantry opened fire on the Prussian infantry that had been forced back by artillery fire. The unit lost two strength points and had to retreat a further square. The infantry in Villejaune, perhaps rattled by having  lost a strength point this turn, missed when they fired at my uhlans.

General view ... the melee is in the near-foreground beside La Grande Colline 

Prussian attack ... on Villejaune

TURN FIVE
My gun fired from the top of Petit Haut Rond, but missed. I cannot help but think poor generalship must be partly to blame for that fact that it has taken me this long to get off even one shot with the longest-ranged weapon on the battlefield. The chevaulegers charged towards the French dragoons, while the nearby melee went in my favour with the last hussar downed. The French in Villejaune lost one strength point and retreated from the town rather than lose a second.
The French gun again scored a hit on my infantry, and I again chose to fall back a square. The dragoons countercharged my chevaulegers, but neither unit scored a hit. French rifle fire from the vicinity of Colonieblanche reduced the nearest Prussian unit by two strength points. The infantry that fell back from Villejaune regained their composure enough to down an uhlan.
Standings: the French have lost four strength points and one unit; the Germans have lost seven strength points but no units.

View from behind ... the massed French units around Colonieblanche

TURN SIX
My gun downed one of the French infantrymen around Colonieblanche. My uhlan unit failed to activate and so missed a golden opportunity to charge the Villejaune infantry in the flank. My two infantry divisions that had been alongside the uhlans turned left to attack Colonieblanche. None of my rifle fire was successful, but in the cavalry melee my chevaulegers scored an unanswered hit on the dragoons, who chose to fall back a square. I exercised my option of following up, meaning there would be another round of fighting in de Saxe's half-turn.

Fighting ... is centring on Colonieblanche

The French gun knocked a strength point off the 3rd Garde-Regiment zu Fuss. De Saxe could have tried putting his left-flank infantry division into the relative safety of Villejaune, but chose instead for them to open fire on the uhlan unit, but they missed. One unit at Colonieblanche turned and fired at the 3rd Garde-Regiment zu Fuss, claiming another strength point, and I lost another strength point from my nearest unit to the town. The swirling cavalry melee continued, but this time it was my chevaulegers who suffered a hit, and I chose to withdraw them. The dragoons followed up, ensuring yet another round of hand-to-hand, or sabre-to-sabre, fighting.
Standings: the French have lost five strength points and one unit; the Germans have lost 10 strength points but no units.

Mounting casualties ... have left the Prussian centre looking rather hollow

The Battle Of Colonieblanche (part two)

TURN ONE
I ordered a general advance, only to find the first two infantry units I tested failed to activate. The gun also refused to budge. Presumably something had gone wrong with the fabled Prussian staff-work. I advanced the rest of the army, though, as I saw no reason to hold them back.
De Saxe also ordered a general advance. He also had mixed success, but on the west flank both his cavalry units charged forward, and the Garibaldi Redshirts got within extreme range of my Bavarian horse thanks to being armed with the Chassepot rifle. This was rather careless of me as I had no need to advance the chevaulegers so far, since they are on their own and cannot hope to take on the entire right-wing of the French army. The Redshirts rolled a 3 - they got +1 for being at full strength, but -1 for having moved, so narrowly missed (a 4 being required to score a hit).

End of turn one ... the French have occupied Villejaune and seem about to enter Colonieblanche

Close-up on the west flank ... the Bavarian chevaulegers are seriously outnumbered

TURN TWO
I pulled the chevaulegers back to shelter behind La Grande Colline, while the rest of the army, with the exception of one out-of-touch infantry division, lined up behind Petit Haut Rond.
The French continued their fierce forward movement in the west, and occupied Colonieblanche. Perhaps de Saxe's plan is to hold the towns while swinging a right hook against my left flank in general and the Bavarians in particular. There was a hiccup in his progress, however, when the French gun was ordered to unlimber but remained stationary for a second turn.

A right hook ... looks very likely

TURN THREE
All my troops activated this turn, except for the gun, whose crew failed to climb Petit Haut Rond. The chevaulegers lined up alongside the one infantry division which, perhaps fortuitously, had previously refused to budge (if I were not writing the battle up turn-by-turn, I might have been able to claim this as a strategic masterstroke).

What the French will see ... if they charge round La Grande Colline

On the German centre-right, everyone advanced (apart from the gun), with the extreme left and extreme right infantry divisions getting in range of French infantry. Both my units had a +1 modifier for being at full strength, and -1 for having moved. The right-hand firers had a further -1 modifier for their target being in cover. I rolled a 3 for the left-hand unit, and a 4 for the right-hand unit, meaning both narrowly failed to score a hit.

German advance ... against both towns

De Saxe successfully unlimbered his gun - shown by turning its barrel to point towards the enemy. His cavalry continued forward and turned to face what could be called the German left-flank reserve, but the Garibaldi Redshirts failed to activate.

General view ... after French movement

French rifle fire on the main body of the German army scored two hits on the left-hand division and one on the right-hand division. I negated one of the left-hand hits by retreating the unit instead, but had no such choice with the other hit, and so the unit lost a strength point (ie a figure was removed). There was no choice with the right-hand unit - it had to lose a strength point.

The Battle Of Colonieblanche

HERE is the set-up for our first trial of my Franco-Prussian War variant of the Portable Wargame, using a 14x11 5in grid.
The hills remain in position from where I placed them for yesterday's post, and I have added two towns and a wood.
We diced for choice of long table-edge. I won and chose south, which is near the hill that covers three squares, which we named La Grande Colline, and near to the lone hill, Petit Haut Rond.
The town nearer the camera is Colonieblanche and the town taking up two squares in the distance is Villejaune, which is next to Boisvert wood.
I knew my Francophile opponent would want to command the French forces - indeed he said that, for the purposes of the battle, he was sinking his persona into that of Richard de Saxe, a previously unheard of descendant of Maurice de Saxe, my opponent's great hero.
He - Richard de Saxe, that is, from now on to be referred to as de Saxe - has a republican French army consisting of four units of regular infantry, Garribaldi's Redshirts, the 2nd Hussars, a unit of dragoons and a gun.
Because it is a republican rather than imperial French army, the gun has a range of nine squares and does not have the -1 modifier for firing that is suffered by imperial French artillery. Garribaldi's Redshirts activate on a throw of 2 rather than the 3 of other French units.
My army consists of four units of regular infantry, the 3rd Garde-Regiment zu Fuss, a unit of Prussian uhlans, a unit of Bavarian chevaulegers and a gun.
The guard infantry do not get an extra strength point, but their superior standing is reflected in not needing a die throw to activate.
Each army has 28 strength points and eight units, and so will lose if strength points fall below 14 or units below four.
Each general was allowed to deploy his forces anywhere in the two rows of squares nearest his baseline - their exact positioning being written on a piece of paper prior to deployment.
The result was as can be seen in the photo below, with my Germans nearest the camera.

Ready for the off ... initial deployments

I chose a fairly conventional lime-up, my plan being a general advance by the infantry, with Petit Haut Rond to be occupied by the gun.
The infantry's left flank will be covered by La Grande Colline and the chevaulegers, while the  uhlans will guard the right flank.
De Saxe went for an asymmetrical line-up, with all his cavalry on his right flank together with all the rest of the army, apart from a unit of infantry posted behind Villejaune, presumably with orders to occupy the town.

The French line-up ... dragoons nearest the camera

Bird's eye view ... of the German army and the hills

The only thing left to do before battle commenced was to dice for first move, which I won 3-2 after a 6-6 tie.
As usual, I will be writing the battle up turn by turn.