Guest Contributor Issue - Jean-Marc's 18th Century Fort

Always good value; I was delighted to hear from Jean-Marc last weekend. Apart from being an invaluable and knowledgeable friend (he is, among other things, a noted author and Professor of History at the University of Tours), Jean-Marc is also my link to the obscure world of Le Kriegspiel, an early hex-based French miniatures game (not the German map-based game much studied by the Prussian Officer Corps and others). You may have seen photos of some of his Napoleonic 20mm flats here in the past.

Our exchange of emails this week was mostly about sources for the original rules of the game, which might be a topic for another post sometime, but J-M was also kind enough to send me some photos from his archives of what seems (thus far, at least) to be an unfinished project!

A brief quote from Jean-Marc himself: 

[I made] a good starfort for 18C games with 6mm Heroics and Ros. I have the troops (see attached pics, on one you'll see the Royal Ecossais regt), the guns for battles, but, alas, not the rest: siege guns, gabions etc. And no rules that I can remember any line!

Fantastic stuff, Jean-Marc - many thanks for sending these - I am impressed and fascinated by your work. 6mm scale sieges seems a very appealing idea; I am not sure where you might get siege artillery in this scale (maybe someone got into this in the interim?), but it looks brilliant.

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

Very kindly, Jean Mark emailed a follow-up to the comments sent in, so I've cut-&-pasted him into this edit:

Hi Tony, 

I have read the comments. As regards on how the Vauban fort was made :

a) I had tried first what you see on the left of the pic: wood frame parts for picture frame for walls. it's very hard to work with this kind of wood, damaging the parts is easy, the results was not very good though I liked the "old fashioned" look of these walls. I tried twice, and stopped, and destroyed the forts. I suppose the engineers were exiled or shot! I suppose this method would be better for 15mm or 20mm scale.

b) 3rd and 4th times:  the way I worked was completely different. From the beginning I wanted a starfort which could be put on a single 30cmsX60cms terrain tile I used.  I believed in very modular terrain at the time!

So, I used one of the simplest plan of a fort I could find, enlarged it to the scale you see, and worked from the plan and on the plan (I suppose this makes sense) with card, balsa, some pieces of light wood and some green stuff. The 3rd attempt was not that good but I was happy with the 4th. You just have to be careful to have at least 4/5 plans because, well, with blades and such, the plan can be quickly damaged. So it's a rather 1/500-1/600 model not 1/300 even if the walls are not to scale, (they are larger than they should have been, but it's deliberate).

I also made a few buildings in this scale (again card, balsa, and also plasticard) for "Army level games" and could reduce the scale of old H&R buildings card stuff or use tourist cards (the castle on the pics is a well known Loire chateau).

c) I never finished the siege project, as I have said no siege guns, gabions etc. Only the SYW troops are ready, (but many H&R WSS packs remain unpainted). On the right of the wooden picture frame-wall you see the prototype of an artillery siege emplacement using card and wood pencil round pieces cut in half , and masquerading as gabions of some sort. 

Best Regards, 

Jean-Marc

 

******************** 

***** Even Later Edit *****

Jean-Marc sent some more photos, of a different project, which I thought were interesting enough to add to this post:

Hi Tony, 

That's me again, 

Just for fun, some pics of a Canadian wooden stockade, SYW, way too much reading about Montcalm and the Last of the Mohicans when I was young and after. I loved the movies: Last of the Mohicans, North West passage etc. 

So in 6mm, the fort needs some repair, but you'll see that British and French troops can use it. If you look carefully you'll see Redcoats,  Rangers, French trappers and Canadian militias, and French regulars. Iroquois have a red piece of wood on their stands, Hurons have only a green one...

Best Regards, 

Jean-Marc

**************************

 

 

Sieges: Some Thoughts on Mining

 To start this off, I'd like to hark back [how does one "hark back"? - do you need a special harker with a reverse gear?] to 2010 (in fact I had remembered it as a year or two earlier), when Clive Smithers came to visit me and we spent a couple of days on a very basic Napoleonic siege game, which was a lot of fun, but even at the time very obviously wildly inaccurate.

Once he had returned to Durham, Clive recorded the day on his blog (see here, and a few subsequent posts). I didn't have a blog in those days, though I often wished I did! I have borrowed a couple of his photos from his blog, without permission, alas, but as a taster if you wish to see how far out of our depth we were on that happy occasion.

 

Early efforts - 2010. On this occasion the fortress sat at one end of my table; I usually place it on a long side now, but since that time I have also rotated the hex-grid markings by 90 degrees, so the orientation of the hexagonal fort in the hex grid is now once again the same as it was in this picture. Plus ça change

 

At that time, we used wooden blocks from cheap copies of the kids' Jenga game as trenches. In passing, note that the Portuguese troops in the foreground were Clive's, and he had bought them from me a few months earlier; I am pleased to say that these particular chaps are now back in my possession, since I bought them on eBay after the auction of Clive's collection

Our preparation for the 2-day session was that I had bought a ready-painted fort, we pooled all the suitable troops we thought we would need, and the rules were based on a collective speed-read (and very sketchy understanding) of the famous "Sandhurst Game" in the appendix to Chris Duffy's Fire and Stone. One of the huge distortions in our 2010 effort was that we made mining so effective that bombardment of any kind was almost a waste of time. Clive describes this - we had miners digging galleries underground at something close to charge speed, and huge loads of powder being planted under key points with watch-like precision. Very exciting, but bonkers.

So, whatever else I learned from that early session, I came to realise that mining wasn't like what we had thought it might be like. Since then, the topic has always appeared in my sieges as an apologium in the scenario notes - "because the fortress is built on a marsh/next to a lake/on top of a rock, mining is not possible". I have, in fact, swerved it.

Righto. Since I am pleased with the fact that most other aspects of my still-experimental siege rules seem to be working themselves out now, I am honour-bound to revisit these underground efforts. One logical starting place for ideas has to be the appropriate sections of Vauban's Wars, in which the advance of a tunnel is driven by the roll of (yet another) trick die, numbered 0-1-1-2-2-3 (inches), in the mining phase of each turn. Since VW's turns are half a week long, same as mine, it seems it would be simple enough to borrow much of that. However, it might be an idea also to read some material which was not published by Piquet.

So I went again to the obvious place, Duffy's Fire and Stone, and on p.137 he states:

The miners were chosen from among skilled civilian employees of coal or mineral miners. They worked in squads of four or more at a time, one cutting the earth with his pick, one scooping up the spoil and piling it on a wheelbarrow or trolley, one wheeling the container to the entrance of the tunnel, while the fourth dumped the material in a concealed spot. A carpenter and a number of mates saw to the positioning of the frames and the driving of the planks. 

Experienced teams of miners and carpenters could progress between fourteen and eighteen feet in twenty-four hours, and could even drive a tight gallery beneath a water-filled ditch.

And then he goes on to discuss the limits to what the diggers could achieve without special arrangements to provide ventilation. It becomes obvious that mining, though it clearly was used, was a very short-ranged weapon, and slow. Clive and I would have been very disappointed with the possibilities back in 2010, and it seems that the best digging possible in Vauban's Wars is still very optimistic.

Let's look at these distances. Duffy's estimated digging rates would work out around 20-25 paces in half a week, which is about 1 inch on my table, or one-seventh of the way across one of my hexes, and this is assuming that the crew have not been interrupted, or frustrated in their efforts by big stones or enemy action. 

The history of siege warfare is filled with impressive (and horrifying) extreme examples to distract the reader [if you are not familiar with the event, check out the mining activities at the siege of Alicante, in 1708-09]. It is as well that we should be aware of such things, but we must also remember that most sieges were not like this - especially in the WSS.

Thus I am coming round to the idea that mining was potentially useful, but should not be contemplated as an attack on a target more than 100 paces away, unless you have no choice, or a few months to devote to the task. Maybe the 3rd Parallel could be a possible kicking off point?

Meanwhile, I am also developing ideas on a workable game system which protects the secrecy of mining and counter-mining without the need for an umpire - thanks to everyone who contributed suggestions - it seems that it is possible, but requires the players to maintain a paper-trail of mining work so that they can prove that they have actually done what they say they have done. I'll discuss this on another occasion.

 

Sieges: Digging and Fiddling About!

 I have the house to myself this afternoon, so I can spread out and make a bit of a mess. Good opportunity to play around with trenches and glacis slopes [flat glacis slopes...].

First off, I did an audit of my trenches and battery emplacements. There are some cast resin pieces in there, but most of the stock is hand-made by Fat Frank, of whose work I am very fond.

 

Here's the full stock - the straight trench pieces are 150mm (6 inches in old money). It becomes obvious why real besieging armies dug their earthworks on-site, rather than arriving with them ready-made...

 

Fat Frank must have made many thousands of these, but the general build quality is very nice - I ordered mine without modern sandbags

 

 

Then I played around with my Vauban fort, to see what could be done with glacis "plates"

 

This is the basic fort, as supplied by Terrain Warehouse (years ago) - all this is made in expanded resin foam - see how pleasingly the glacis slope fits with the walls and bastions. This is all fine, but attempting to vary the layout (add a gate, for example) is complicated by the implications for the glacis, and digging trenches across the glacis is always a bit of a balancing act. Bear in mind that the vertical scale (15mm, or 1/100, for my buildings) is about 10 times the horizontal scale (1mm represents a metre), so the slope of the glacis is very much exaggerated 

 

Here's a drone shot of this same basic fort - note that the brown areas are the terreplein, behind the parapet, and covered way, not the moat/ditch - the ditch is green

 

So I removed the moulded glacis pieces, nudged the ravelins out a little, and laid out some hex tiles for the glacis, just to see what happens. I've used unpainted mdf tiles for the moment, just for visibility; the idea is that a working version would have the glacis painted a grass green shade which would contrast a little with the baseboard colour. The glacis slope is about 200 paces deep, which is sensible

 

 

And here is the adjustment if we remove the ravelins - it's still looking all right. In fact it could be used like this, but there are some things to remember: (1) however it may look, the wall behind is sheltered by the glacis; (2) the edge of the glacis nearest the fort is the covered way, with a firing platform. Troops behind the edge of the glacis are hidden/protected. It would please me to add a simple trench element at the edge of the glacis, to remind me of these properties, but I would have to remember that any trench pieces in this position would not be a valid target, since they don't really stand above the glacis...

I'm having a think about the paint colour, and also about possible terrain pieces to represent the covered way. Some numbers: my hexes are 7 inches across the flats, which is near enough 180mm. A 7 inch hex has sides which are 4 inches long (close enough for jazz), so I'm considering getting some custom trench-type pieces 90mm long, with rounded ends and a pretty low, flat profile to represent the covered way. I've sounded out Adrian at Fat Frank, to see if he would consider doing some made-to-order trench pieces; that's as far as I've got today, but nothing is scary yet.

Sieges: The Siege of Toro (1811) - Part 2 (of at least 2)

 Two further days of solo play (and a lot of rule reading and checking) brought my second "practice" siege game to a close. The result will become apparent in the photo gallery.

 

View of the siege from the British No.3 24pdr Battery

I resumed the game with the British pushing ahead to develop their 3rd Parallel.

 

British Sappers zig-zagging forward to mark out the beginnings of the trenches for the 3rd Parallel

 

 

And, because of one of my Peninsular War tweaks, the trenches themselves are dug by infantry units, with Sappers in support

 

 

The new trench starts to grow some gun emplacements

 

 

...on both flanks

 

 

Confronted by this fine display of digging, the French couldn't resist sending out a Trench Raid to try to destroy one of the new emplacements before someone occupied it

 

 

Just like that bad boy who used to flatten your sandcastles at the seaside, they wrecked the emplacement, and then scampered off back to the fortress, giggling hysterically

 

 

The British were assembling their big guns in the 3rd Parallel now, while the French fortress guns tried to do as much damage as possible

 

 

The British 24pdrs now started to bombard the old stone wall - you can see the damage chips building up - the big ones are 10 hits each, the mummy-sized ones 5 hits. The British were supposed to be unaware of the true strength of the wall, but an early piece of successful espionage found out that 40 hits would create a breach. The spy in question was, very unusually for the British, of excellent quality. Sadly, he was subsequently captured and "persuaded" to reveal the size of the British powder stores to the enemy

 

As the damage to the wall worsened, Thiébault sent his Sappers to attempt to repair it, while it was still under fire. These brave chaps managed to repair about 3 hits-worth, but it was hopeless, and when the total damage passed 30 hits the wall was technically unreparable anyway, so the Sappers - miraculously unhurt - withdrew back into the town

 

 

I'm not sure what was going on here - Thiebault had a great idea about shifting his biggest mortars into the old castle, but it wasn't very useful. Thiébault himself was killed around this time - reportedly by a shell fragment - I think I may have a look at the mortality rates for general officers in Vauban's War - maybe this can be calmed down a little - that's two commanders lost in 2 games thus far!

 

 

When the next "Leadership" card was turned up, GdB Valladière was duly promoted to CinC, but the French Leadership Dice now went from a D12 to a D10, because of the less experienced Governor

 

 

Inevitably, the wall was breached, and the British 24pdrs turned their attention on the earth "Fausse Braie", which was rated at only 20 hits

 

 

Belatedly, the French heavy guns started to inflict some damage, and silenced two of the British 24pdrs (the ones with two white counters)

 

 

A smart move - on a "Siege Move" card, Sir Thomas Graham withdrew the two damaged 24pdrs, sending them to the rear where the chances of rallying/fixing them was better, and replacing them with a couple of 12pdrs to keep up the bombardment of the earthen bank

 

 

Almost for old times' sake, Valladière sent out a couple of Trench Raids, to try to inconvenience the bombardment as much as possible, but they were sent packing very quickly

 

 

The Morale Points indicator (which is supposed to be a secret to both parties, which is a bit tricky in a solo game!) shows that the French are not in good shape - 6 pts from disaster. On the other hand, the British were rapidly running out of powder, much having been consumed during their extended (and disappointingly ineffective) long-range exchange with the fortress guns. Thus an assault was becoming a pressing necessity, and the optional "Assault" card was duly placed in the British card deck.

 

 

However, an assault was not possible until the Fausse Braie had been breached - still progressing - I think we're up to 13/20 of a breach at this point

 

 

It collapsed soon enough - the stand-in 12pdrs were useful in getting this job done

 

 

The way is now open - Valladière had everyone rushing around inside the town, and got some of his Infantry to make a warlike appearance on the walls. The Sappers were commissioned to go to read the rule book, to see if they could barricade the back of the wall, or demolish the houses inside the breach 

 

 

The "Assault" card arrived too soon for much to be done by the defenders

 

 

Graham was allowed to call up an extra 6 battalions from the troops outside the Lines, to bolster his assaulting force - the British now had a huge numerical advantage

 

 

At this point, the game had become a tactical wargame, using Commands and Colors - the heavy siege and fortress guns, and the heavy mortars, may not be used in the tactical game. Two British battalions, including the 88th Foot, took one of the hornworks by escalade, and captured a battery of 24pdrs

 

 

The French garrison were right on the edge now...

 

 

...and the final touch was applied when the 74th Foot stormed the breach, and eliminated the last Morale Point. With a practicable breach and zero Morale, the French were obliged to surrender. Toro was in British hands

I'm still a bit shell-shocked by the experience - good fun, and very educational, but a lot of work and I have a big long list of things in the rules I need to look at again. As a siege, the narrative is pretty reasonable, I think. I got to the 8th turn (the British had enough powder left for about 2 more turns, accidental explosions notwithstanding). Since I started with the 2nd Parallel in existence as a trench, and my previous game suggests that it takes about 5 or 6 turns to get that far, at two turns to the week the Siege of Toro took about 7 weeks from starting the 1st Parallel - again, reasonable for the Peninsular War.

I may add another post to discuss the rules, and how the game went, but I'll give that some thought. At the moment, I am left to ponder what earthly use the Coehorn Mortar is. I decided to purchase some for the British, and they were a waste of time. Potentially lethal at short ranges, but useless for anything else - maybe the Coehorn Mortar is a weapon for the tactical game? Hmmm.

If you have read this far, you have my considerable respect - thank you very much.