Pages

Wednesday 22 April 2015

A game, Salute and an update

Update


Unfortunately there has not been much progress to report on the sculpting and production of the SYW range for the last month or so - hence very few posts.

I'm told that the reason for this is that Prince August are concentrating all of their efforts on upgrading their visitor centre, and their Waterloo game/project. This has delayed putting the Russian moulds into production and sculpting the cavalry - hopefully things will pick up again in the not too distant future.


Salute


If anyone is going down to Salute and wants to have a chat then I will be helping out on the Guilford Courthouse demonstration game on stand GA15.

If you want to see examples of the new range let me know and I will take a few down.


Field of Battle Game


Yesterday evening we had another game with the semi flats at my local wargaming club - they are not the lightest things to cart around!

This was a 'pick-up' game using the 'Field of Battle' (FoB) rules, which are a quicker and simpler version of the 'Piquet' system. The unit sizing and basing are identical to the last game we played using 'Maurice' a few weeks ago; and we tend to use both as takes our fancy.

The forces are based around Prussians and Austrians/Russians, with some friends thrown in as I don't have enough of the new figures finished yet. Both armies had two infantry brigades and a cavalry brigade.

We set up a random terrain and then drew maps for hidden deployment. The Austrians (my good self) massed the infantry in the centre and the cavalry on the left. Opposite this, the Prussians (Greg Chambers) had the infantry brigades widely spaced, with the musketeers and fusiliers in the centre and the grenadier brigade on the right hoping for a flanking move, the cavalry were on the left facing their Austrian counterparts.


After the first few impulses (FoB is card driven not a conventional move system), the Austrian infantry are advancing in the centre and the Prussian (mostly Saxons) grenadiers advancing around the flank in the far distance.











Later on in the game with the Austrians pushing forward in the centre and on their right, and the Prussian grenadiers advancing on the far flank.


Unfortunately for the Prussians; just as the grenadier brigade was about to attack into theAistrian flank, their commanding officer was shot (a 1 on a D12), which held up the advance. (The green markers indicate they are 'out of command' which restricts movement).

The command generated a new officer shortly afterwards (turning a 'Leadership' card), who showed his bravery by almost immediately getting shot as well, A third officer stepped up to the mark later on, but by then the chance had passed as the Austrians and Russians had redeployed to face them.







The Prussian infantry in the centre advanced to meet the Austrian Advance and a general firefight developed. (The smoke indicated that the unit has fired and cannot fire again until a reload card is drawn.) This firefight proved relatively inconclusive.






The really decisive moment occurred when the Austrian cavalry put in their attack on the right flank.........


 ,,,,,,,,were counter charged my the Prussians................


.....and decided to head back to Vienna.


The loss of this cavalry shattered the Austrian army's morale, and shortly afterwards the game ended.

Overall a very enjoyable game (even though I lost), and Field of Battle is well suited for this period, if you haven't tried them give them a go.

As usual comments welcome.


For Rahway................

The Russian grenadiers break through in the centre, in front of them are a battalion of Prussian garrison troops. Give them a soft target to build up their confidence!




6 comments:

  1. I like the look of the tabletop with all those colorful units deployed. It looks like the poor Russian Grenadiers have lost their place in the order of battle Hopefully they will redeem themselves in the future.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Not so - if you look at photos 9 and 10 they are in the centre just beyond the building. They went on to break through the centre; they were only facing some garrison troops - but it did help them get some confidence back.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've added a photo showing their glorious breakthrough (not all that clear as zoomed in on a shot of the whole table).

      Steve

      Delete
  3. That's encouraging. They can build on that.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Exquisite and exciting are the two words that come to me. Also- shiny. Sorry I got to this post after Salute, I would have loved to say hey.
    Cheers
    Thomas

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thomas

      Thanks, I find that they are the Marmite of wargaming, people either think they are great - or just don't get it.

      Please keep comments coming.

      Steve

      Delete