BBB Bash Day IV - Leeds, Saturday 1st July - Update 28th May

 BBB Bash Day in Leeds is less than 5 weeks away.  Two of my regular wargaming friends have played one of the games from the day, Aspern Essling, so they can get back up to speed with the rules.  You can see how the first evening's gaming went here and the second here also here

Here are the details for the day correct to last night!

BBB BASH DAY IV -   The key info in one handy place (27^th May)

 

When:            

Saturday, 1^st July 2023

 

Where:            

Leeds Wargames Club - Hicks Hall, 60 Bankfield Terrace, Burley, Leeds LS4 2JR

Timings on the day:

09.00 - 17.00  (though this may be more like 9.30 to 10.00 to actually get started!)

 

Price £5.00, £2.50 for Leeds club members (as you’ve already paid for the hall).

 

Format:

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. We will do our best to accommodate walk-in participants on the day.

 

The Games on Offer:

 

1.     ACW – Chancellorsville – host Chris Pringle (author of the rules, scenario books, etc.)

2.     FPW – Sedan – host Mike Brown

3.     ACW – 2^nd Manassas – host Tim Carne

4.     Austro-Prussian War – Kissengen – host Dave Whaley

5.     Anglo-Sikh War – Gujrat (1849) – host Mark Smith (author of BBB India scenario book)

6.     Zulu War – Nyezane – host Bruce McCallum

7.     Napoleonic 1813 – Lutzen – host Mike Brimacombe

8.     Napoleonic 1809 – Aspern-Essling – host Ned Dye

 

Parking:

It’s a residential area, so free, but there’s a lot of housing, so expect to spend a few minutes finding a space and walking to the club.

 

Tea & coffee will be provided, please bring your own lunch. 

 

Links: 

 

Bloody Big Battles - blog

http://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.com/

https://groups.io/g/bloodybigbattles

 

***Leeds Wargames Club

https://leedswargamesclub.com/

https://www.facebook.com/LeedsWargamesClub/

 

Email – bbb.bashday@gmail.com

 

Colin & Chris

Bleeding Big Bash Day Team

 Please email me if you have any questions, comments or if anything is incorrect!

BBB Bash Day IV - practice at Leeds club - moves 5 to end of game

 Another busy night in Leeds on Wednesday - we finished the Aspern-Essling playtest for BBB Bash Day on 1st July.

The French failed to get re-inforcements and the Austrians had all their troops on table, so both sides had to use what they had.  Here are the photos from early on - both sides had a huge scrap for possession of Essling - which the French retained.

Here's the view from my side of the battlefield - I had taken Aspern (as the Austrians) but failed to make further gains.....

A great couple of evenings gaming.  By turn 7 both sides were holding on, but without the ability to go over to the offensive.  The Austrian assault on Essling had failed but the French could not counter-attack, so we declared a draw at the end of turn 8.  

My thanks to my regular opponents Mike & Ned, my newbie fellow Austrians Stephen (day 1) and Colin (day 2).  

Everything supplied by me.  The eagle eyed will see that the Danube has grown as we used my "big river" terrain from S&A scenics.

BBB Bash Day IV - practice at Leeds club - Aspern-Essling (Austria 1809) moves 1 - 4

 It's just under 6 weeks to Bash Day.  

As part of the preparation, my regular opponents Mike, Ned and I have been playing Aspern-Essling (French v. Austrians, 1809), partly to familiarise Ned with the scenario, partly as a refresher of the BBB rules as both Mike & Ned have kindly offered to host games. 

In summary, Aspern-Essling is Napoleon's hasty river crossing of the Danube, relying on a single makeshift bridge to get his army to grips with the Austrians.  The Austrians start with a considerable superiority in numbers, but a slow command and control system means units tend to move slowly, or not at all.  As time rolls on the French get re-inforcements (whose composition and timing is affected by Austrian attempts to destroy the bridge) but will these be enough to swing the tide of battle?

Here are some photos I took at the end of Wednesday - 3 turns of day 1, the night move and turn 4 (1st of day 2) completed.  The Austrians went in hard - well, as hard as you can with passive troops and no generals.  The French defended well and re-inforcements have crossed the Danube to get into the fight.

The Austrian Assault on Aspern (the tall grey building in the centre).  

Austrian troops (lines at bottom of picture) have been delayed by die rolls low enough to halt or cause retreats.....  The French defensive ring looks a tough nut to crack!

Austrians to the left, French to the right.  The black strip is a dried up gully between Aspern & Essling which gave troops in it a cover advantage.  The grey felt square is Essling, currently stoutly defended by the French.

Looking down the Front lines - the Austrians in a big ring as they come from all points of the compass!

Austrian Grenadier columns head to the fray....

The Austrians nearer to Aspern.  Austrian HQ & supply wagon in the foreground

Baccus figures, 1/300, based for BBB.  Here's the link to the 2020 epic refight of Aspern-Essling in Oxford....  Aspern-Essling at OWS

Leipzig 16-19 October 1813 - Birthday refight 21-24 April 2023

 As part of my recent birthday celebrations my friend Mark laid on one of the big Napoleonic Battles - Leipzig.  The real battle was fought over 4 days, our refight also accommodated other birthday related activities, so it lasted 4 days as well.

Wikipedia tells me it was the largest European Battle before WW1, so it's a must for any gamer interested in the Napoleonic wars.

Mark set up his games table and I took the Allies.  I had a number of strategic towns and villages to capture in addition to Leipzig.  There was a scenario option to threaten the French escape route over the causeway at Lindenau , which I took.

I don't have the BBB scenario map, so here's the map from Wikipedia to give some idea of the scale of the battle and the forces involved.

I opted to be aggressive on day 1, which had mixed results - Gyulai spent the day sparring with Bertrand for Lindenau, Blucher got half his army to move forward, Schwarzenberg tried to assault over the river and got rebuffed.

Day 1 pictures here:

Slightly out of focus - the battle for Lindenau.....

Schwarzenberg- held at the river line, with large numbers of troops but too small a deployment area to make their numbers tell.

 Schwarzenberg's left, with the 7 strong Silesian Landwehr in the middle attacking the aggressive Poles in the village on the river....

End of day 1 here:

Schwarzenberg slipped troops into the wood to threaten the French left.  Mark "that's an impassible river"  Colin "not according to the map - the river starts in the wood"  Mark "bring me the head of the imperial cartographer...."

Schwarzenberg's left - in the centre the 7 strong Silesians have evicted the Poles and crossed the river, but in the centre the French still hold the river line. 

A view of Schwarzenberg's gains and losses.  The French still hold the river line in the middle, but with the Allies in the woods to their left and the Silesians across the river to their right, it may be time to withdraw....

Meanwhile, Blucher's army has assaulted the French frontally (mainly shooting rather than assault) which has enabled a mixed infantry & cavalry force to arc left and get over the river line.  In the top centre of the picture Mark has sent his reserve cavalry to counter this threat.

Overall, as the sun set on the first day of the battle, the Allies had much to be pleased about.  The French river line defence was broken in three places, the Emperor has had to commit all three Guard units already.  In the distance more Allied troops can be seen.....

In the scenario the second day is a night move, as both sides in reality had some minor skirmishes as they consolidated the gains made / shored up the gaps in the line.  Mark duly readied the Grand Armee for day three......

Day three dawned with the French in new positions, hoping that shorter defence lines will counterbalance the huge numbers of Allied troops advancing from all points of the compass.

Bernadotte arrives

To the left, the French hold the hill.  The raw Allied troops occupying the lower left village have opted to "stoutly defend" rather than charge the Middle Guard and 4 batteries on the hill.  This increased their chances of getting a medal at the end of the campaign considerably.

Schwarzenberg gets more troops.  Mark is stockpiling disrupted markers in the middle of the battlefield....

The Lindenau refight starts again.  The blue and white buildings are Leipzig, now full of French defenders.

Finally, Blucher - whose army is now facing an undefended river.....

Day three saw the Allies advance to within musket range of Leipzig, which triggered a die roll to see if the French engineers, worried about the pressure on Lindenau, blow the road on the causeway over the marsh.  

The Allies assault Leipzig

The winning dice!

We fought the battle over 4 real days, it was a lot of fun and a great way to celebrate my birthday.  

We agreed that there were a lot of troops to manage - with only two players we spent a lot of time moving around the battlefield.  It would be an ideal battle for 4 or 6 players - it would probably have gone a little faster.

BBB worked well - there were a number of hand to hand battles that were closely fought, no results were wildly unrealistic.  

I would definitely play it again!

Workbench today.

After a long hiatus, here are the latest models I am working on - British forces for Flanders 1793-5.  

The British sent two Brigades, one of three battalions of line infantry and a Guard brigade - one battalion of Grenadiers, Coldstream and Scots Guards.  There was a composite battalion of skirmishers.  

The cavalry were regiments of Light and Heavy Dragoons.  

Here are the models completed to date:

Line infantry

10th  Light dragoons

6th Heavy Dragoons

These will be based and made game ready... soon.

BBB Bash Day IV - Leeds 1st July 2023 - Update 11 March 2023

 Bash Day update – 11 March 2023

 

Dear All

 

As available on other forums/media......

Here is the latest update for BBB Bash Day, 1^st July 2023.

 

1.     Dedicated email.  We’ve set up an email for booking the BBB Bash day.  The address is:  bbb.bashday@gmail.com

2.     We are now opening the sign up lists for games – just send an email and we’ll add you to a game.  As this is early, everyone should get their first choice.  We’ll book people in to the morning session unless notified otherwise.

3.     We’re pleased to announce that Bruce McCallum will be bringing his 28mm Zulu game.  Chris Pringle recently provided an AAR on the “Bloody Big Battles” blog.  Bruce is offering Isandlwana or Nyezane.  It looks fun!

 

We still have room for more games, so if you are thinking of hosting a game, please do not hesitate to contact us.

 

We trust that this is clear, if not, please do not hesitate to contact us on the new email!!

 

Cheers

 

Chris and Colin

Bleeding Big Bash Day Team 

 

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

 

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.....

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.

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

https://www.baccus6mm.com/news/09-01-2023/TheJoyofSix2023/ 

 

***Leeds Wargames Club

https://leedswargamesclub.com/

https://www.facebook.com/LeedsWargamesClub/

 

 

OWS website

https://www.oxfordwargamessociety.org.uk/

 

Practical information:

Venue address

Leeds Wargames Club - Hicks Hall, 60 Bankfield Terrace, Burley, Leeds LS4 2JR

 

Timings

Date – 1st  July 2023 - 09.00 - 17.00

 

Parking

It’s a residential area, so free, but there’s a lot of housing, so expect to spend a few minutes finding a space and walking to the club.

 

Tea & coffee will be provided but please bring your own lunch. 

 

Other details will be added in due course – watch this space!

Photos