Neerwinden Play Test - part 3

 Another Wednesday night at the club, Mike and I fought Neerwinden to a conclusion (7th turn) and then I set up for a refight next week...

This has been my first scenario, so it's been a real pleasure just to get something drafted and played out.  A big THANK YOU to Mike and Ned, who rolled dice, asked questions and acted as "guinea pig" generals.  

The French did manage to take and hold the village of Neerwinden 😀 but the Austrians ended up in firm possession or control over the other 3 objectives.  The French also had morale issues, with disrupted spent raw troops regularly yelling "sauve qui peut"and legging it off the battlefield.  On the day of the actual battle Gen Miranda's French left wing collapsed, leading to a general retreat.  So, our game ended in a similar fashion to history.

In addition to my usual ability to roll 1s, or low enough to miss, I made the mistake of not putting my French units in depth, to simulate the "l'ordre mixte" formations used by the French at the time.  Thus my early charges stopped as the leading line of infantry took casualties, rather than diluting the Austrian fire with multiple unit targets in any charge.  Doh! (I fixed this on week two.... )

I have also been reflecting with Chris Pringle (BBB rules author) and Mark Smith (seasoned BBB scenario designer) on the widespread use of battalion guns by both sides.  Read Chris's blog here  and  Read about Mark's India scenarios here

Battalion guns were light (3 or 4 pdrs) issued in pairs to each battalion.  I had represented this extra firepower by classing the line units as EB (Early Breechloader), rather than SM (Smoothbore Musket).  This was too much extra firepower, so the one amendment I will make for the second play-test is to change the line infantry to SMBG (Smoothbore Musket Battalion Gun).  More effective than SM, but not wildly more effective.

OK, more eye candy...

The last turn - overall view of the battlefield.

Austrian line infantry - all neat and white and orderly.

French - a right mix of uniforms (only one base in the actually correct uniforms - but hey!) 

The Austrian killing machine on the left - line, reinforced by Grenadiers (nice colours on the bearskins) and dragoons.  The French General on the top right has now earned the brown counter (or smartie !) of being overrun.

The other unit of Austrian Grenadiers - moving in a menacing way to General Miranda & escorts - who win their own brown counter.  Shortly afterwards, Miranda heads for Paris to tell tales on Dumouriez, who is busy retreating and parleying with the Austrians before defecting to them later!

The fight for Neerwinden (Yes, my French got there!)

The French have Neerwinden !  The Austrians gather...  Green counters are for Aggression, Purple for K (Killer)

The new French owners are now being attacked to the sides and rear...

Meanwhile, to the French left, much close combat between the French, more spent Austrian infantry and Austrian Heavy cavalry.

The reset:  My cunning, linear, plan!

Finally, some close ups of the Austrians - they deploy first, the French will deploy on Wednesday.

Archduke Charles' advance guard - he gets the Lancers, the Hussars, the light infantry/frei corps and a useful 5 strong unit of Grenadiers.  Also some sheep.....

Karabiniers & Kuirassiers in Tricornes ready to charge any French who dare to cross the stream.

More Kuirassiers and Cheveaux Legere.  Yes, they are difficult to tell apart from behind at a distance!

So, another great week's gaming and a pleasurable evening.  I hope this inspires you to have a go at this not so well known period of history.  Figures are Baccus (of various periods!), rivers are S&A Scenics, buildings my scratch builds.  Thanks to the Leeds club for the mat, some of the roads and the hills.

As the battles all take place in Belgium, you can just use any "100 days" scenery with no problem at all!!

  

Neerwinden Play-test part 2

 Last night saw the next three turns (3,4 & 5) as Mike, ably partnered by Ned, continue the Austrian defence against my Revolutionary French.

I spent move 3 re-arranging my French into 2x2 unit blocks to give depth & firepower.  Ned's attack on my left flank saw a big cavalry punch up, drawing troops from further down the line to re-inforce the left and leave a thinner place.  Ned duly punched a hole in this with his 5 unit veteran Grenadiers.  

In the middle, my assaults across the stream made progress, but at some cost.  My fragile raw French were fine, so long as the Austrians missed, but tended to evaporate in firefights far too easily.

My right wing got bogged down on the stream and struggled to wipe out the Austrians on the other side.  

At the end of turn 5 we decided to play at least one more turn, reset and then swap sides for a further play-test in just under two weeks.

Eye candy!

Turn 4 photos:

French to the left, Austrians to the right.  Austrians surge across the stream!

The opposite end.  French on the right, Austrians to the left.

The photos below are all at the end of turn 4.

The Austrian Grenadiers, with cavalry support, cross the stream whilst the French, top right, try to take the hill.

The battle in the middle, the French have crossed the stream and are heading for the main Austrian forces.

A close up of the push to Neerwinden (Grey roofed building in the centre of the picture).

The French assault on the central hill crosses the stream and occupies the village!  Not, unfortunately, one of the "objective" villages.....

Ned's Grenadiers cross the stream, supported by more infantry to their left and a 12pdr battery on the hill.

Some close-ups:

Grenadiers - note the coloured patches on the rear of the bearskins.

Heavy Cavalry supporting the line to the North of Neerwinden.  Note the General, bravely commanding from the rear!

Turn 5 Overview

I hope that this has whetted your appetite for this period of history.  We plan to finish the game next week and then start the replay the week after.  Stay tuned for more updates!

 

Neerwinden - 18 March 1793 - refight November 2022

 It has been quite a while since I posted, so here's an update.

I've been concentrating on getting a reasonable Austrian army (1792-98) ready for the French revolutionary wars.  I've also created my first BBB scenario - Neerwinden - 18 March 1793.  This was the Austrian successful attempt to stop the French invading Holland...   well, for a while, anyway!

Neerwinden pits two almost equal sides on fairly flat terrain - so the trained Austrians with linear tactics will be pitted against the raw revolutionary "l'ordre mixte".  Enthusiasm vs. professionalism.

The scenario is pretty much as per the BBB rules, the only changes made are:

1. The Austrians can only form lines or columns - the only way to get depth is to put two lines of troops together.

2. Both sides, apart from skirmishers, are rated EB (Early Breechloader) rather than SM (Smoothbore Musket) for firepower.  This is to represent the large amount of battalion guns present - these were light artillery (3 or 4 lb guns) attached to battalions in ones and twos.

We set up on Wednesday and have played two turns.  Mike, my regular opponent, took the Austrians and I decided to be the French.  Mike has to deploy first, which he did along the Little Geete stream.  

I formed into visually spectacular blocks and attempted to ford the stream.

OK, on with the eye candy!  All photos are mid game, so not tidied up for a photo shoot.

Set up.  The scenario map:

On table.

Looking North East

Looking South West

Turn 2 (as far as we got):

Looking NE - the French advance across the Little Geete stream.  Or not!

The French right wing and reserves - having problems crossing the stream.  Yellow counters = disrupted.  White counters = Victory point locations.

Gen Louis of Chartres pushes forward in the middle.

Austrian Cuirassiers & Chevaux Legere.  The purple & green counters show the Austrians as both aggressive & "K" - an OWS house rule that adds a further 1 in the assault (normally either armoured cavalry or lancers).  Two flag bases mark the Cuirassiers as Veteran.  Scary! (if you are French).

Austrian Dragoons and Cheveaux Legere - this time the Cheveaux Legere have white jackets.

The sneaky Austrians (Mike) have crossed the little Geete and are threatening the French right.  The Lancer & Hussar uniforms of 1793 are near enough to those of 1809 (at least in 6mm scale) that I used my 1809 cavalry.

Austrian grenadiers of the Archduke Charles' Advance Guard under the gaze of Cleyfert, the Austrian CinC.

More Austrian grenadiers, this time from the Reserves, defending the left flank.

The Austrians under pressure - but after the hand to hand the unsupported French line has been repulsed by infantry and a 4 unit block of Austrian Cuirassiers.  The Cuirassiers nearest the camera are Carabiniers, so get a yellow trim to their tricornes.

Detail of those hats...

Wednesday will see another few turns and another photo report.  It has been really satisfying to get the scenario drafted and being played out on a table!  😀

Credits:

Figures - Baccus (SYW & AWI figures with some minor modifications)

Bases - Warbases

Terrain cloth, roads & hills - Leeds Wargames club

Streams - S&A Scenics

Houses - scratch built by me.

Sarah W - drawing the map, encouragement & cups of tea!

 

Baccus Open day

A couple of weeks ago, on the first Saturday in July, Sarah and I took the Baccus factory tour - organised once a year on the day before Joy of Six, the war-games show that promotes 6mm games and that runs on a Sunday.

As we are now based in the North, it was an easy run down from Bradford to Sheffield and the Baccus HQ.

Peter on the factory floor

The tour took us through the history of Baccus, showed us the factory building and the process of making all those lead soldiers.  It was really interesting, with Peter and one of his casters giving a great lecture and fielding our questions in an engaging and enthusiastic manner.

Here's how the process starts - a single soldier is sculpted:

Four of these become a strip, a series of strips and components (especially for WWII) are then put in a pink mould to create the right number of highly detailed miniatures needed:

This mould has WWII vehicles and various earlier soldiers.  Once 24 strips of 4 figures are ready, they are put in a production mould.  The mould is heated under pressure to create a dull black mould that is ready for high speed production.  If you forget to dust the two halves of the the production mould with talcum powder, they fuse with all your figures inside.  Apparently all casters have done this at least once!

This is the casting - molten metal is poured into the mould as it spins.  

The finished product - shiny new soldiers 

It was a really interesting and informative morning - if you are at all interested, I would book on the next one - in July 2023!

It's good to see someone happy in their work....

Chocks Away - Friday Night WW1 Aerial Combat

 A couple of weeks ago I hosted a friend, Luke, for a Friday evening's World War 1 air combat.  We used 1/600 Tumbling Dice planes and used "Chocks Away" - a set of really simple rules written by myself.  This is not so much an AAR as a sample of how our two games progressed on the night.

Luke chose to be the Allies, with RE8 Bombers, Bristol Fighters and Camels.  I fielded Albatross III fighters and Fokker Dr1 triplanes.  Yes, two Richtofens were present.

The dice colour represents skill - Ace = red, Trained = yellow/clear, Raw = green.  Height is in 6 bands, related by the dice pips.  Counters represent factors - bombs on board = blue, jammed gun = black, moved this go = red, damaged = yellow.  The white and purple counters were to help Luke work out what sort of similar looking Olive drab plane he was looking at!  :-)

So, here are the pictures!

British bombers, game 1.

British Bombers in the 2nd game

German start - 

Close Combat - getting stuck in!!!

All in all we had two really fun games, with Luke doing much better in game 2 and getting his bombers off the far table edge.  A great way to end the week.  !

As ever, I hope this inspires you to have a go.