Colin the Wargamer: February 2023

Friday 24 February 2023

BBB Bash Day IV - 1st July 2023 - update 24 Feb 2023

Bloody Big Battles – update 24^th Feb 2023

We are pleased to announce that a number of BBB players have offered to host games at the Bloody Big Battles Bash Day, which will be held at Leeds Wargames Club on 1^st July 2023. If you fancy two battles (one in the morning, one in the afternoon) in one day, then here are the games on offer so far:

ACW Chancellorsville

Crimean War Inkerman

Franco-Prussian To be confirmed

ACW 2^nd Manassas

Austro-Prussian Kissengen

Anglo Sikh War Gujrat (1849)

Napoleonic 1813 Lutzen*

We are hoping to get a couple of other games hosted, but fear not! - we still have spaces/tables available if you have a BBB game that you’d like to host.

Our hosts include several veteran BBB players, including Chris Pringle, who wrote the rules and at least two scenario books and Mark Smith, who has just published the Bloody Big Battles in India scenario book.

As mentioned before, we are running this event on Saturday 1^st July, so you can have a further day’s wargaming at the excellent Joy of Six show, on Sunday 2^nd July. You don’t even have to leave Yorkshire!!

Colin & Chris

Saturday 11 February 2023

Sharpe Practice - introduction game

Whilst I was away from Yorkshire over Christmas, my two regular opponents Mike and Ned played a number of Sharpe Practice games. It's 28mm and set at a very low operational level - so completely opposite to BBB - a bigger scale but much smaller part of a battle.

Week one saw Mike and I command an Anglo-Spanish force, with the simple (!) task of escorting a wagon up a road and off the opposite table edge. What could go wrong? I took charge of two 8 man units of British line and three 8 man units of Spanish. I also got the wagon. Mike had Brits and Spanish light infantry, plus the force commander.

Sharpe Practice is driven by card (or poker chit) activation per unit, with special cards allowing you to save actions or act out of sequence. Each turn is ended by a counter as well, so turn length is also random. The rules are produced by "Two Fat Lardies" and are meant to give an interesting game with a bit of theatre, rather than a strictly historical refight of a particular action (or at least that's what I reckon) 😀.

Mike was a useful source of information/rules clarification as my Spanish took the left flank, with my Brits in the centre. Mike took the right. We advanced solidly, with the wagon slowly plodding behind us. We got half way up the table and my Spanish, harried by French voltigeurs, decided to open fire. Unfortunately this meant they went un-controlled, so they stood there, firing away, not hitting much but resolutely ignoring orders. Oops! In the middle my British troops were having issues deploying, whilst Mike was beating down Ned's troops to his front.

1st week photos

My Spanish, to the right, advance

Two lots of Voltigeurs take cover behind the standing crop to harry the Spanish line. Now I know why doormats go missing.....

On the second week my Spaniards started to break up, my Brits took casualties whilst Mike also slowed down. Ned and Johno (4th player - turned up for week two) kept up the pressure until a final bayonet charge slammed into my Brits and broke through to the wagon. It was an interesting game that certainly incorporated a lot of Napoleonic flavour. Interesting to fight at this level, given my usual big battle/small scale preference.

Photos from week 2

The thin red line, Spanish reeling from the voltigeur needling, whilst French slam into my Brits. The final move of the game.

Mike's thin red line

My Brits mid picture, with Mike's troops at the top. Spanish taking hits and officer unconscious....

All in all it was an interesting break from BBB. The figures are big enough to go to town on detailed painting and the emphasis is on action and dice rolling.

It will be interesting to see players use these rules for re-creating small scale historical actions - and with what results. Does it work historically, as well as being a fun game?

So, despite getting quite severely mauled by game end, it was fun and the rules started to go in.....

Monday 6 February 2023

Neerwinden Playtest 2 - 2023-01-08

Started the second play test this week - Mike was French, with new player Richard, whilst Ned and I defended as Austrians. Mike explained to Richard that my usual rubbish dice throwing was already established in the Leeds club so he should be OK.

Much to everyone's surprise I managed to roll high quite a lot, so Richard did not get the easy battle he expected. At the end of the first week Ned and Mike were trading insults and blows at their end, whilst I had stopped Richard, with my heavy cavalry rushing here and there to fill gaps and stop the French in their tracks. I did manage to get my Grenadiers mangled and other units got whittled down on week 1.

In the second week my dice rolling returned to it's normal "sub-optimal" standard, Richard started winning more and, in the end, managed to get and hold an objective. Week 2 saw more Mike/Ned banter followed by Ned pushing Ned back beyond the start line.

We tried a suggested "battalion guns" rule, but all the participants agreed that it was too complex, so we will use a much simpler rule from now on.

It was interesting that at the end of the first week, Richard had been quite discouraged by his troops stopping as they got disrupted, whereas I could see my line fraying and being held together by the mass use of most of the heavy cavalry.

It's a tough game for the French, whose troops are all fragile and predominantly raw, but with better French rolls (or worse Austrian ones!) the game can produce a draw or maybe even a win.

I have really enjoyed play-testing my first scenario and getting my FRW troops on table and in combat. It has inspired me to start looking at more FRW battles to play in BBB!

Photos from week one:

Austrian Heavy Cavalry face off the French mob....

which leaves a gap on the Austrian right....

Further down the line, the French push into the Austrians

Ned, on the left, pushes back Mike's advance - much banter over this....

A little later, the French push through the porous Austrian right.

Photos from week two:

Richard gets to the main Austrian route and sits there..... one vp (victory point) gained.

Final thoughts, lessons learned:

1. Firstly a big THANK YOU to Mike, Ned and Richard for fighting this twice, and for the feedback!

2. It was interesting to write rules to constrain the players to historical tactics.

3. It was hard for the French to get victory points, but then the real battle ended up in a complete rout, so still being there at the end of the battle is an achievement for the French!

4. KISS. My play testers struggled with the battalion guns rule - so I am going to massively simplify it.

5. Asymmetrical battles can be fun and interesting!

6. Keep the number of special rules low - the players did best when they were using tactics they already knew from the other BBB games we have played.

Friday 3 February 2023

Bleeding Big Bash Day - BBB Bash Day IV in Leeds

I have, at last, got all the bits together to kick off Bash Day IV in Leeds. Here's the advert!

BBB BASH DAY IS BACK!

The fourth Bloody Big Battles* BASH DAY will be held in Leeds on Saturday, 1 July. This is deliberately planned to be in conjunction with the Joy of Six** show run by Baccus in Sheffield on Sunday, 2 July. (Our thanks to Peter at Baccus for his kind blessing for this plan, and to Leeds Wargames Club*** for making their fine premises available.)

The format is entirely participation games based on historical battles and using the Bloody Big Battles (BBB) rules. For the best chance of playing the game that interests you most, please sign up in advance. However, we will do our best to accommodate walk-in participants on the day.

Games offered will include Napoleonic, American Civil War, Franco-Prussian War, Sikh Wars, and other C18 or C19 conflicts. Please look out for the list of available games, which will be posted on the BBB Blog*. The intention is that players should be able to play an entire game in the morning and/or another entire game in the afternoon. A post-battle team curry is also on the agenda.

Invitations have been sent to our existing list of potential gamemasters, but we welcome proposals from others interested in running games at Bash Day IV.

Go on, treat yourself to a wargaming weekend in Yorkshire - come to BBB Bash Day IV and Joy of Six on 1-2 July!

Colin & Chris

Bleeding Big Bash Day Team

Contact us by PM on Facebook, write a message on the bloody big battles io group (see below) or put a comment on the BBB or Colin the wargamer blog.

Eye Candy

We have posted some pictures taken at previous bash days and of other BBB games.

Thanks to Matt Bradley, Crispin Matson, Alan Millicheap, Chris Pringle and Colin Wilcock for their kind permission to use these.

Links:

*Bloody Big Battles

http://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.com/

https://groups.io/g/bloodybigbattles

**Joy of Six announcement