Unfamiliar Ground, Me Boys - Fire and Fury

 I've just returned from a most pleasant weekend trip; I travelled to visit Baron Stryker and his lovely wife on their Northern estates. Apart from the quiet surroundings and splendid hospitality, I also enjoyed an ACW game - unfamiliar ground indeed for me these days. Although this period was the context for my very first involvement with wargaming, it has been a long, long time. I estimate that my last ACW miniatures game must have been in 1973... 

If you weren't around in 1973, you may find this difficult to visualise. Rest assured that you probably didn't miss much - especially as far as my prehistoric wargames go.

I think that Ian may put together a post on his own blog, so all I'll do here is present some of my own photos, just to show what a nice game it was. 15mm figures, and an OOP version of Fire and Fury's brigade level rules - I was the Confederate commander; this was all new to me. The rules are reassuringly straightforward, and Stryker made an excellent job of guiding me through.

 

Troops in my centre at the start; lovely armies - it's some years since I've been involved with 15mm, and I have to say I approve very much

 

My cavalry makes an inauspicious entry on my left. The rules put Confederate cavalry at a disadvantage, but these fellows exceeded my expectations...

 

Troops deploying in the early stages. Both armies were waiting for reinforcements around Turn 3 or so

 

I spy Tigers - I recognised these fellows from an Osprey book I haven't seen for 50 years

 

Enemy approaching, looking worryingly brisk and professional

 

Partly because I wanted to see what would happen using F&F, I launched an enthusiastic but wildly optimistic attack with my right flank infantry. This worked much better than I had any right to expect, wrecked two opposing brigades and captured two limbered batteries...

 

...Crikey!...

 

One of my successful right brigades - still amazingly fresh [official F&F terminology] moved across to threaten the Union centre

 

As the reinforcements came into play, it seemed likely that both armies would win on their respective right flanks, but things started to balance out, and towards the end of our day I had regained control on my left (I think so, anyway)

 

My thanks to Ian and Sharon for their kindness and my appreciation for a most enjoyable trip and a stimulating (and thought-provoking) game are supplemented by my sincere apologies for outrageously lucky dice-rolling. Can't understand that at all...

Hooptedoodle #493 - Cherry Cake - They'll Never Believe It

As I get older and less receptive, I am saddened to note the increasing importance of Schadenfreude as part of my life mission.

Despite my better judgement, I spent some time yesterday watching highlights of US Attorney General Bondi's Congressional Reality Show on TV. American politics is really none of my business, but decency and the future of the planet are certainly worthy of focus.

If the facts are against you, argue the law. 

If the law is against you, argue the facts.

If the law and the facts are against you, pound the table and yell like hell

― Carl Sandburg

 

It seems to me that, years from today, people all over the world may remember that there was once a very strange woman who postured and smirked and overacted her way through a very serious, very noble and very visible forum, and committed the most public career suicide in history.

 

I can only assume that she is getting paid an awful lot of money and has the promise of a very big piece of cherry cake. I doubt whether anyone will remember her name.

 

Speaking of names, I have a little list of them, and I have a special bottle of wine put aside for Prizegiving Day. 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

WSS: Action at La Jongleuse, Wallonia (1703)

 Yesterday I hosted the Zoom game I previewed in my previous post. My guest general was David, who has not played this game or this period before, and had no previous experience of remote gaming, though he is a serious Zoom user in his working life.

 

Spoiler picture. Very early in the action, the Earl of Cirencester is hurried into deploying his infantry brigade in the enclosures at La Jongleuse farm, in face of a full-on assault. He was lucky enough to get a "brigade bonus" with this activation which gave his troops extra movement to get ready

 Because the game was primarily going to be a walk-through of the rules, and because we knew in advance that we had limited time to play, I kept the army sizes down to a moderate size, and we set the required score for a win to 7 Victory Pts. We had a 2-hour clock on things; in fact we ran to about 2 and a half, but we never expected to complete the game - this was always going to be an introductory taster. It was, in any event, a lot of fun.

The commanders were provided with the briefest of briefing notes...

Battle of La Jongleuse (1703) – Briefing Notes and OOB

An Allied army under Sir Charles Churchill has been sent into Wallonia to intercept a French force commanded by the Comte de Rabachière, which is on its way from Verviers to support the French siege of Huy. The armies meet in open country at the farm of La Jongleuse, near the River Meuse.

The action is a straightforward encounter. No-one has prepared any fieldworks, there will be no preliminary bombardment.

The game is to be played using CJ Lite rules. Any unit currently holding the (strongpoint) churchyard of St Gaspard l’Oublié will gain 1 temporary Victory Point. 7 VPs wins the day.

The forces are of very (extraordinarily?) similar composition. The very large Gendarmérie de France is fielded as two units, both being rated as elite; the British Foot Guards are also elite, and 2 of the British foot units have attached battalion guns. The Hessian troops are actually in Dutch service, and are considered to be equivalent to British regulars.  [The two commanders are both regarded as competent and experienced, so there are no advantages in the Activation process.]

 

All units and generals have a mini-dice attached to their bases, bearing the number (1 to 4) of the brigade to which they belong. These mini-dice are dark blue for the French, red for the British and white for the Hessian contingent in the Allied army. 

 French Army (Maréchal de France Clément-Alibert, Comte de Rabachière)
(6 horse; 10 foot; 2 art; 5 leaders)

Bourgeois’ Cavalry Brigade [1] (Marquis de Bourgeois)

Gendarmérie de France (6 Sqns) (elite)

Dragons de La Vrillière (3 Sqns)

Saint-Gervais’ Cavalry Brigade [2] (Marquis de Saint-Gervais)

Régt du Mestre de Camp (3 Sqns)

Régt du Roi (3 Sqns)

Régt de Tarnault (3 Sqns)

Pelletier’s Infantry Brigade [3] (Comte Pelletier de Montmarie)

Régt de Béarn (2 Bns)

Régt de Champagne (2 Bns)

Régt de Languedoc (1 Bn)

1 field battery

Coustine’s Infantry Brigade [4] (Marquis de Coustine)

Régt de Navarre (2 Bns)

Régt de Poitou (2 Bns)

Régt de Saintonge (1 Bn)

1 field battery

 

 Allied Army (Lt Gen Charles Churchill)     

(6 horse; 10 foot; 2 art; 5 leaders)

Pickering’s Cavalry Brigade [1] (Br Gen Sir Mortimer Pickering)

Cadogan’s Regt (3 Sqns)

Lumley’s (Queen’s) Regt (3 Sqns)

Hay’s (Scots) Dragoons (3 Sqns)

Whitstaple’s Cavalry Brigade [2] (Br Gen Lord Whitstaple)

Wood’s Regt (3 Sqns)

Leibregiment zu Pferd (Hessen-Kassel) (3 Sqns)

Spiegel Karabiniere (Hessen-Kassel) (3 Sqns)

Cirencester’s Infantry Brigade [3] (Br Gen Earl of Cirencester) [2 Bns have battalion guns]

1^st Foot Guards (1 Bn) (elite)

Chas Churchill’s (Buffs) Regt (1 Bn)

Ferguson’s (Cameronian) Regt (1 Bn)

Howe’s Regt (1 Bn)

Hamilton’s (Royal Irish) Regt (1 Bn)

1 field battery

Pentecost’s Infantry Brigade [4] (Br Gen Jan-Hendrik van Pentecost (Dutch))

Lord North & Grey’s Regt (1 Bn)

IR Leib zu Fuss (Hessen-Kassel) (1 Bn)

IR Erbprinz (Hessen-Kassel) (1 Bn)

IR Prinz Wilhelm (Hessen-Kassel) (1 Bn)

IR Stückrad (Hessen-Kassel) (1 Bn)

1 field battery

 

David took the role of the French commander, Rabachière, and I was Charles Churchill. In each army, the brigades were set out with No [1] the cavalry on the right flank, No [2] the cavalry on the left flank, No [3] the infantry on the right of the centre, and No [4] the infantry on the left of centre.

 

At the very start of play, the gods of probability were having a laugh; the first 4 brigades activated in the first turn were all French, which meant that, whatever his initial intention, Rabachière found that he was attacking - here you see his army in motion, advancing across the table from our left. When the Allies finally got to do something, their first artillery shot rolled double 6 with 2 dice, and it was clear that something odd was going on. After this, things did calm down a bit!

 

Saint-Gervais' cavalry on the French left, moving up with the general advance. The Régt du Roi shows two hits, from that early artillery hit...

 

Here we see Churchill's response to being hustled, from the Allied right flank - Pickering's cavalry and Cirencester's infantry brigade move to cover the farm, before the the attack arrives

 

Down on the farm - Cirencester places his men to take advantage of what cover is available

 

On the Allied left, Whitstaple finds that he, with the Hessian Leib zu Pferd, is confronted by the entirety of the Gendarmérie de France, which is not what he had in mind. Note here that the French cavalry are uniformed in red, to confuse matters. This did not go well - the LzP recoiled, and kept on recoiling, right off the table. At such moments I still have to check the rules, to see what happens to the brigadier (p16 in this instance) - in fact he was left behind, to fall back on his own, and did well to rejoin his troops later!

 

Over on the other flank, things are going from bad to worse for the Du Roi lads (4 white counters and you are out) - this was one area where the Allies did fairly well

 

Back at the farm, this time from the French side; Cirencester had a few early disappointments, cover or not - two of his battalions were routed very quickly - Churchill's own foot regiment (later the Buffs, which I mention because it is traditional to identify British units by names they did not have until years later) and Ferguson's (aka the Earl of Angus' Regt, aka the Cameronians, which serves to emphasise how complicated this all is) 

 

Pentecost's brigade, mostly Hessians, belatedly start to assert themselves. If we had had more time, this might have made better progress, but in the first couple of Game Turns this brigade were left without orders when the turn ended early

 

The cavalry fight on the French right was still sputtering away when we ran out of time. The on-table VP markers show that the French were 5-4 ahead at this point - including a red counter for possession of the churchyard...

 

...a situation which they gained very early in the game, when the 1st battalion of the Régt de Béarn just walked in, and were never opposed

 

By the end of the day, Pentecost's boys were still in a nice straight line and might have done OK with more time, but the likelihood is that the Allies would probably have lost it elsewhere

 

General snapshots from the end of the game: Pickering's horse probably had the edge on the Allied right...

 

...2nd Bn of Navarre threatening the farm, with General Pelletier de Montmarie looking on from a safe distance...

 

...for fans of vintage Britain's farm pieces, here's a close up of a field which I think contains the British Foot Guards...

 

...and, calmness personified, le Maréchal Comte de Rabachière (on the left of this photo with his staff) finds - maybe to his surprise - that his lads have probably won the day

My sincere thanks to David for joining me for the session - it was great to meet up with him at last, and he performed well in unfaniliar surroundings. Of course, as required by our gentlemanly upbringing, we each came up at the close with reasons why, though it was technically undecided, the game had probably been won by the other side, but no - I'm happy to concede defeat on points; I got off to a poor start and only made up a little ground thereafter. Thanks David, and well played!

WSS: Some Actual Wargaming?

 I have a quiet week on my hands, and the weather appears to be relenting for a while, so I have a good opportunity to get on with some Other Stuff. 

One of the Other Stuff items is some hobby time. I have set up the battleboards, and have had an evening of solo noodling, to check out some suggested rule changes I scribbled down before Christmas. I have also been teaching a new laptop to do Zoom things without causing trouble - seems OK, so I have a remote game scheduled for Sunday. 

I include a couple of photos of the set up. More improvised history. The action is a moderately-sized clash between an Allied force, commanded by the notable Charles Churchill (for once freed from the shadow of his flaming brother), and a French army led by the little-known (though well-connected) Maréchal Comte de Rabachière. 

 

Charles Churchill (1656-1714) - just another podgy bloke in a wig, but his brother was a national hero and a great favourite with the ladies, as I'm sure you know

 

Clément-Alibert, Comte de Rabachière (1661-1722?) - his military career is sadly overlooked by history, though there is a story that he was never forgiven for laughing at an inopportune moment during Louis XIV's performance of his "Dance of the Six Planets" at a royal supper party

 

The action was fought at the farm of La Jongleuse, not far from Huy, on the Meuse, in 1703. As you see, it looks very much like my other WSS games - the generals of the day seem to have had a very stereotyped idea of what made a good site for a Square Go

 

Another lesser celebrity has a day out; this is Roland Crispe, 2nd Lord Whitstaple, in command of some of the Allied horse

 

The church of St Gaspard l'Oublié, with its walled cemetery, provides a relative rarity in my games - a strongpoint (as defined in the rules). This one can't be used by artillery though

 

More of this after Sunday. 

***** Late Edit *****

I received an email, asking for more details of the "Dance of the Six Planets". I confess I am not an expert, and this clip is a bit early, but it may give an idea...

********************* 

 

 

Hooptedoodle #492 - The Business Model of the Souq - a little Xmas karma for me

 I hope anyone who reads this has had an enjoyable, relaxing Christmas period. We've had a very quiet spell - my mother passed away at the end of November, so things have been a bit distracted, but I'm very pleased that she had such a peaceful end, and I do not have much to discuss about that.

It would be wretched to come up with a miserable, Scrooge-like theme for a Xmas post, but I thought I'd share with you a small, recent personal triumph from among the extended tangle of my coping with the way business works these days.

Here are a couple of parables - the first one is obviously fiction, and silly fiction at that.

Parable A: An elderly man takes a sliced loaf to the checkout at his regular food supermarket. The checkout girl tells him the cost of this loaf is £3; the old chap protests that this is very expensive, and that he can get the same loaf for £1.58 at the local ASDA store. The girl says, "Well, we can't match that, but since you are a regular customer, you can have the loaf for £2".

The customer is not happy, but he can't be bothered going somewhere else for his loaf, so reluctantly pays the £2, and leaves, muttering. He feels that this doesn't seem very fair.

Parable B: The setting for this one is about a year ago. I received a renewal reminder and quotation for my car insurance, from a firm I have dealt with for many years, and was disappointed by how high it was. I contacted them, and pointed out that I could get the same cover for about half the cost from another provider. The customer service rep on the phone never missed a breath, and immediately reduced the quoted premium to a figure which was rather more than half of the original figure. No problem at all - they obviously expected people to phone up and haggle. I was pleased that I had reduced the cost, but the system seemed unfair - especially in a world where the possibility to shop around online has apparently removed any slight concern that not everyone has the opportunity to do such comparison, and may in any case not be inclined to waste so much effort on a routine transaction. This unfairness was emphasised to me last year since the same pantomime had been acted out the year before.

My insurance renews on 16th January, and, sure enough, the quotation for my insurance for 2026 arrived a week ago. The insurer (let us say, for the sake of the story, that they may be called Direct Line) requires me to pay £697 for the year; I realise that this is just them chancing their arm with an opening bid, in case I am daft enough to fail to notice, but I am well tired of this game. I have no wish to waste time and blood pressure phoning to negotiate.

Without contacting them, this year I have arranged identical cover, online, simply and quickly, from the mighty Automobile Association, no less, for the cost of £395. When the documents arrive, next week, I shall ask Direct Line to place their esteemed policy where the sun does not shine. I have, in fact, merely shuffled out into the modern world and shopped around, but it still stinks. 

A small matter, but gratifying. The world does not muck around with Scrooge McFoy, I can tell you. 

WSS: Neues Ritterheim - noch einmal...

 Monday afternoon was the date for the second Zoom re-run of Neues Ritterheim. If you would like to see a map and the OOBs, you'll find them in the report of the original face-to-face game I played with Stryker, here.

My opponent for this second re-run was David, keeper of the very fine Not by Appointment blog. I am pleased to be able to confirm that the flags for most of the French units in our game were his designs, which is a nice touch - I am a big fan.

Once again I was the French commander, Marsin, while David took the role of Prince Eugène. Because I have now remembered that Zoom games run quite a bit more slowly than face-to-face events, we reduced the victory requirement from 9 points to 7. The game went well enough, though we had some technology glitches which were mostly my fault, as it happened, and we did run out of time, the Austrians being 5-4 ahead; we agreed it was a draw, though, since David was leading on points, held the village and had disabled one of my brigade commanders (Maulevrier), it could be argued that he probably had the best of it. We certainly agreed that neither army would have been in great shape to continue a campaign any time soon!

 

Yes, once again the action started with the cavalry on the flanks trying to assert themselves. From behind the Allied left you can see Kegel bringing forward his horsemen against the enemy, while beyond him General Backer, with infantry from the Duke of Lorraine's regiment and from Hessen-Kassel, moves to occupy the village

 

On the other wing, Niederhammer faces up to the French, and his Cusani Cuirassiers suffer an early thumping, which discouraged them somewhat. Over the day, the Austrians won this flank

 

I had some early doubts about how useful it was to throw a lot of effort into possession of the village; after all, if the village is worth 1 victory point and you lose 3 units contesting it, what have you done? However, when Backer's Austrian brigade advanced toward it, my chaps in Bligny's brigade found themselves shuffling forward to stop them. So much for analysis?

 

The remainder of the Austrian forces - Furneburg's infantry brigade - were withheld while matters elsewhere developed. Accordingly, the French troops opposite them waited to see what happened. If this sounds uninspired, the reality is often that, since a turn normally ends before all brigades have been activated, anyone who is a second priority may miss out on occasions

 

 

Back on the French left/Allied right, the early French cavalry success stalled very quickly. Niederhammer employed some skillful evading manoeuvres in this area

 

The Austrian centre, still developing relatively slowly, about an hour into the action...

 

...here's a closer view

 

 

The infamous ploughed field - this time occupied by dismounted French dragoons. No, they achieved nothing in particular, but at least they did it in the approved manner. What's in the sacks? - no idea, but it might be turnips

 

At last the Austrian centre advances - note that the command base behind the leftmost battalion in the second line is Prince Eugène himself - some say he was becoming impatient...

 

By this stage, Kegel's Austrian cavalry on the left flank had a short pause, during which they got their breath back and glared at the French Gendarmérie...

 

...who were far too superior to glare back...

 

General view from the French right flank

 

View from behind Furneburg's Austrians. The artillery unit in the left foreground actually scored a hit on the dragoons in the ploughed field from 800 paces, which is not bad at all, considering they hit little else all day

 

The Victory Point markers on the table edge indicate this is around the end of the day, and the action on the Allied right peters out with protracted bickering (between the toy soldiers, I hasten to clarify...)

 

General view along the field from behind the French left 

 

As it became obvious that a draw was imminent, both sides were careful to avoid throwing it away late in the day - battered troops were pulled out of harm's way, and no risky attacks were undertaken. Here in the French back line, 2/Navarre is conspicuous by the 3 loss markers - they had obviously been withdrawn from a hot spot at the front. This is Maulevrier's brigade, though by this stage the brigadier had been seriously wounded and removed from the field

 

The cavalry action on the French right had gone very quiet - the troops watching each other but avoiding unnecessary risks

 

 

More general views, to show where the troops were at the end

My thanks to David for an enjoyable game, and my apologies for the techie problems, which I shall explain here, not least so that they can remind me of things to be careful about...

Technology hiccups. For a start, the first one was my fault. I got all the cameras set up and everything running about half an hour before kick-off, but I forgot to switch on the mains supply for my laptop (which was serving the East camera), and it has a duff battery, so about 5 minutes before David was due to check in it went flat, made a pathetic chiming sound and shut down. As I recall, in this situation the laptop is supposed to go into hibernation, so switching on the power should get everything back to where you were, but no - the camera was signed off - gone. In the ensuing fiddling around, I did get the East camera admitted to the session again, but managed to knock out the close-up camera in the process, so decided to run with just the two main cameras [the close-up camera would have been useful, so that was a bit of a nuisance - I may have uttered an oath or two, for which I apologise as necessary..]. 

Late on there were 2 momentary power failures, about half an hour apart (thank you, Scottish Power) - the Zoom session kept running, but the Bluetooth switched off both times, so I had to poke about in System Preferences to get the audio working again! Ach well - war is hell.