ECW - C&C Based Rules

Over on his lovely ECW blog, Lee has published the first working version of the ECW rules which we have developed, based on Commands & Colors: Napoleonics. These have still to be properly playtested, so are likely to change a bit over coming weeks. My ECW armies are not big enough to playtest anything at all yet, so such testing as I have done has been attempted with counters on the original C&CN board.

These are the rules which came from the sketches and preliminary posts I did while on holiday (here, here, here and here), and it is only correct to thank Ross, Martin, Ludovico, Pjotr, John C, Allen De Vries and - most of all - Lee himself for suggestions and discussion which helped to shape them and make sense of them. The biggest debt of all, of course, is to Richard Borg and the guys at GMT for the original C&CN game. The extra Chaunce Cards pack also shows the influence of Tony Bath, Doc Monaghan and The Perfect Captain among a host of others - if anyone detects some of their own intellectual property in there anywhere then thanks very much - you have always been a hero of mine...

Once again, bear in mind this game is just an amateur-produced freebie - I intend to use Victory without Quarter rules as well as these, but I strongly fancied the logical feel and quick cycle time of a Richard Borg-style game for the ECW, so am pleased to have been able to get a prototype game together. If and when Mr Borg produces his mooted 30YW period C&C game, I shall be happy to see our little effort blown without trace into the undergrowth.

The Command and Chaunce cards exist as pdf sheets which can be printed and cut out, and they are designed (when the playtesting suggests that they are pretty stable) to be laminated in 95mm x 65mm laminating pouches.

This is really only a fun game intended for Lee and myself, but if anyone would like pdfs for the extensions to the C&CN rule set and for the two packs of cards, please send me a comment with your email address (mention if you don't want it published) or email me through my Blogger profile. What you will get will be the latest version - there won't be any ongoing customer support (!), though naturally I'll be very pleased to get feedback or suggestions if anyone wishes to contribute them. Please, though, don't bother to take the trouble to tell me that it is not as good as Forlorn Hope, or that I am an idiot - I already know these things.

Late edit: I hope the following links to Google Docs work for you - if not, please let me know - you should be able to download the extension to the basic C&CN rules, the Command Cards and the Chaunce Cards - if you do not have the C&CN rules they are available for download from GMT Games' website.    

The Klutz’s Guide to Flag Texturing

Plain, untextured, “flat” flag

I’ve been drawing and printing my own wargaming flags for a few years now. It’s fun, it’s cheap, you can print them whatever size you want, and it doesn’t matter if you mess one up during the fiddly job of gluing them onto 20mm scale flagpoles – just print another!

Recently I’ve started doing some ECW flags, which – again – is fun, but the flags tend to be more plain than the Napoleonic ones I’ve done before, and the commercial stuff you can buy (and the best of the freebie downloads that are available) look all the better for a bit of texturing. Three personal observations about texturing:

(1) A mixture of textured and untextured flags on the battlefield doesn’t look good

(2) ECW flags were taffeta (which is sort of silk), so it is not going to be possible to get that effect by curling the paper flags a bit at the corners

(3) Although I’ve played around with graphics tools for years, I’ve never found out how to do textured flags. There are tutorials on YouTube and elsewhere which I’ve sat through, but they are always presented by enthusiasts for enthusiasts, and mostly I don’t even understand the jargon they use. If someone mentions “layered objects” or “the feathering tool” I find my attention starts to wander.

So I’ve produced some pleasing, but plain, flat flags, and I’d really like to be able to use some ready made ones as well, so I set myself I little objective – I have Photoshop 7, why not learn how to do texturing? Then I would be able to mix my own flags and other people’s with cheerful abandon. First big help here was that one of my grown-up sons does a lot of graphic design as part of his job, so I commissioned him to come up with a short tutorial which even I could understand.

And he delivered. I felt it might be a nice idea to share my new knowledge here – if you wish to have a go then you will need Photoshop or some graphic editor of similar functionality – what follows explains the job in terms of Photoshop. I will mention some types of graphic files, but only because I need to, not because I’m an enthusiast. OK?

The first picture, at the top of this post, is a flat flag called YellowTest. My flags are 1270 pixels wide by 600 pixels high, as it happens, which – as you will see – gives me a wraparound flag with a bit of sleeve in the middle (to go around the pole). If you want to try this out, right click on the flag picture, choose “open in a new window”, then – when the big version opens up – right click on it again and select “save image as”. That will give you a full size copy of my flat YellowTest flag, called YellowTest.jpg

Texture Samples

Now you need a texture sample – you can easily find good examples on the internet. You need one that has the right sort of look, isn’t too violently textured (if it looks like it has come out of the washing machine spin cycle, don’t use it). You also need one that isn’t watermarked, and is large enough to have decent resolution. At this stage, it doesn’t matter much what file format it uses, either, though it will have to be in Photoshop psd format before we finish with it. Oh – and it doesn’t matter what colour it is, as long as it is only a single colour.

You need to download your texture sample, and you will need to crop out a piece which is about the shape of one half of your flag – try to get a fairly calm side edge where the pole will be. I’ve supplied one here – it is the texture for the right hand side (or obverse) of my flag, and I’ve chosen a calm side for my left hand (pole) edge. I’ve resized it (that’s “Resample” in Paintshop Pro) so that it is 635 pixels by 600 (half-flag sized), made it grayscale, and darkened it a lot more than you would expect – it’s important that there is no white at all left in the texture sample, or you get some very strange highlighting effects in the final flag.

Right (obverse)

Righto – first really nerdy bit. Because Blogger does not allow me to put a psd-type image file on here for download, I’ve had to upload it as a bog standard jpg, but otherwise it is correct. If you download it (same way as for the flag image), you will have to open it up in Photoshop and then save it again as a psd file – keep the name the same, just choose psd as the file type when you save it. My file is called Flagtexture1_R.jpg (for Right).

[By the way, the small versions of the images on this blog post will not be to a constant scale – Blogger makes the images the same size – but the big versions you download will be fine. That is why the half-flag texture samples on this screen are not half as big as the full-flag one.]

Left (reverse)

The next thing I had to do was to produce a mirror image of my texture for the other side of the flag – here it is. It is Flagtexture1_L.jpg (L for Left), but you’ll have to resave it as Flagtexture_L.psd using Photoshop. Keep both the Left and Right versions. Next step is to make a big new blank image, say 2000 pixels square and white, and carefully copy and paste the right-hand texture and the left-hand one next to each other, so that the left one is on the left (duh!) and the join is the calm edge. I cropped it and resized it back to 1270 x 600, and I’ve now got the full flag texture file. The downloadable one is called Flagtexture1.jpg, but again you need to re-save it from Photoshop as Flagtexture1.psd. Here is my version.

Full texture pattern

Textured Version of the Flag

My flag – just textured

In Photoshop open up both YellowTest.jpg (the flat, basic flag) and Flagtexture1.psd and click on the Flagtexture window – from the menus at the top, choose Select > All and a dotted rectangle will appear around the edge of the texture image. Now choose Edit > Copy.

Click on the flag image, and then choose Edit > Paste, and your yellow flag will suddenly look exactly like the texture sample.

Now the clever bit – on the right hand side of the Photoshop screen you will see a series of little editing screens, and the bottom one should have a tab with the word Layers displayed on it.

There is a little pull down menu on that bit, which will probably say Normal. Click on that pull-down and select Hard Light. And you will get a nasty mix of the two images. There are two slider controls in that same area of the screen for Opacity and Fill – adjust them to 50 and 50 and things will look much better. Try 80 and 40. When you are happy with the textured flag, save it under a new name as a jpg file.

Displaced and Textured Version of the Flag

Displaced and Textured

The textured flag is fine – that is what most of the downloadable stuff is. There is an additional step you can take to distort the pattern a little, so that the ripples on the flag show both in the lighting and in a slight stretching of the pattern.

We have to do the distortion before we do the texturing. Now it would be nice if you could do this for the whole flag in one go, but unfortunately the distortion will probably cause the middle of the flag to shift a bit, which will give odd results when you try to fold it around the pole. So we have to do it as two halves – which is why it is good we kept the Right and Left halves of the texture files.

Open up the original YellowTest.jpg in Photoshop, choose the pointer tool (you should get a little cross for your cursor), and draw a rectangle to select the right hand side of the flag – doesn’t matter too much if the middle is not quite exact, as long as you get the whole of the right hand side.

Now if you choose Filters > Distort > Displace a little menu appears. Keep the settings at 10 and 10 with 'stretch to fit' and 'repeat end pixels' highlighted.

Photoshop will then open a new window looking for a file to use for the displacement. Select the Flagtexture1_R.psd file you saved, and something a bit nasty will happen to the right half of the flag.

Now choose Select > Inverse and the other half will be highlighted. Go through the Filters > Distort > Displace bit again – just the same, but select Flagtexture1_L.psd this time. Your flag is now definitely looking a bit distressed.

Now choose Select > Deselect (so that the next job is done to the whole flag), and open up the full texture file Flagtexture1.psd. The rest of the job is the texturing, exactly as I described it above – copying and pasting the texture pattern on top of the (distressed) flag, then working with the Hard Light option in the Layers window and adjusting the sliders to 50/50 (or whatever you prefer). Job done – save your finished flag as a jpg under whatever name you like. You can lighten/darken it or alter the contrast to taste, and you can even use a Blur filter to soften the wrinkles a bit if you want – that is getting into the realms of playing with it.

I do not want to get into online support here, but if anything really doesn’t work get back to me.

Solo Campaign - Battle of Carpio de Azaba

Troops from D'Arnauld's brigade in Carpio Village

The Battle of Carpio de Azaba, 18^th June 1812

With a letter from the Minister for War in his saddlebags, urging him to press on, the new Allied C-in-C, The Earl of Aigburth (better known as General Banestre Tarleton), advanced very rapidly from Almeida, over the border into Spain, along the road towards Ciudad Rodrigo. His intention was to attempt to surprise Clauzel, with the portion of the Armée de Portugal which had been ordered to protect Ciudad Rodrigo, defeat him, and move on to attack the fortress before the French had time to make good the defences damaged during their own successful siege a month earlier.

Aigburth’s force comprised the Anglo-Portuguese Third, Seventh and Light Divisions of infantry, the cavalry brigades of Long, Viktor Von Alten and De Jonquieres, a single battery of foot artillery and no less than three troops of horse artillery, a force of 16,600 men with 22 guns. Some regiments in the Seventh Divn were severely reduced in numbers by their efforts in the campaign to date. The few remaining fit men of the Brunswick-Oels Jaeger battalion, the 51^st Foot, the 68^th Foot and the 2^nd Light Bn of the KGL were attached to other regiments. The army made good time on the march, the spirit of the troops was excellent, considering what they had been through in past months. On the night of Monday 15^th June the column bivouacked near to the old battlefield of Fuentes de Onoro, which was seen as a positive omen by the men. Always wakeful and urging more speed, the Earl impressed his staff by his energy and the clarity of his orders.

As had been the case just three weeks earlier, his army was opposed by Clauzel, with his own and Maucune’s Divisions of the Armée de Portugal, plus the cavalry brigades of Col. Picquet and Treillard and 4 foot batteries – a total 13,550 men with 32 guns. Having recently retreated from Almeida after being defeated there by Wellington (with a very similar OOB for both sides), Clauzel had assembled his force with considerable haste from its wide-spread billets. At 9:30 in the morning of 18^th June, with his infantry still shivering from fording the Rivera de Azaba during the night, Aigburth advanced to attack the French position – Clauzel had placed his line with its centre in the village of Carpio de Azaba.

[This game was played using CCN rules but, because the forces were rather too large for the Command Card system, an additional rule was added whereby the “Probe” Section cards could be played, instead, as a single move of all units and leaders in the named section – this movement could not result in contact, and the moved units could not carry out any combat. This option was exercised twice during the action. Being the attackers, the Allies had first move throughout, 6 cards each, and 10 Victory Banners for outright victory.]

The field is part of a plateau adjacent to the Spanish border. There are a number of small hillocks and some wooded areas, but the field is generally open. The village of Carpio was roughly triangular in 1812, with a population of approximately 250.

Aigburth positioned Picton’s Third Divn on his right, with the Light Divn, supported by all the horse artillery and with the Seventh Divn in reserve behind them, on the left and opposite the village. Clauzel had Berlier (with Clauzel’s Divn) on his left, and Maucune’s Divn in the village and extending to his right. Both generals placed most of their cavalry on the flanks – aware that the open ground would make cavalry a threat.

The Allied attack began on the left – riflemen and horse artillery to the fore, in a style which must have been very different from Tarleton’s experience in America 30 years before. The Rifles came into their own, using their extra range to harass the French gunners and cause loss to the French infantry. This stage of the attack was mainly an exchange of artillery fire, while some rifle units on the Allied left flank cleared a wooded area of French infantry, but progress was halted abruptly when the French, led in person by Baron Maucune, rallied strongly and pushed the Allies back again. This counter-attack was so vigorous, and for a while so successful, that at one stage it was difficult to see which army was the attacker, but – once again – the unsung heroes of Eustace’s Chasseurs Britanniques held things together, established themselves in one of the disputed woods and allowed time for the reserves to come up. There was some frenzied cavalry action on this flank at this point – the Duke of Brunswick-Oels’ Hussars performing in outstanding fashion, defeating both the 14e Chasseurs a Cheval and the Lanciers de la Vistule, who were routed very quickly – admittedly General Cotton was present in person, [and he brought a fine Cavalry Charge card with him].

Once again, the cavalry conflicts did little but wipe out most of the cavalry [mental note: I really must try to have a solo wargame some time which does not involve so much pointless slaughter in the cavalry]. However, the combined Portuguese cavalry unit did well to force one of the battalions of the 82e Ligne into square, a situation from which they were chased by the combined fire of Ross’ Troop of the RHA and a battalion of the 95^th Rifles.

At this point, as a result of artillery fire on the advancing British, and of the cavalry actions on the flanks, the French held a 7:2 lead in Victory Banners, a situation which did not really reflect the balance of advantage. The French were defending stoutly, and Clauzel was generally successful in pulling tired units out of the firing line and bringing in fresh ones, but – despite his apparent advantage in Victory Banners – he now had many units which were reduced to a single base/block, and were no longer able to contribute to the battle. If the Allies could avoid suffering the critical 10^th Banner, they had enough troops to win the day.

In the end, the result was (in boxing terms) a points win. The Allies never did roll over the French line, nor break into Carpio village – as the attack developed, the Victory Banners score came to 8-all, then 9:8 to the Allies as a battery was put out of action, then 9-all as the French replied in kind, and silenced MacDonald’s RHA troop. Then the last of Montfort’s battalions on the right were broken by the Allied fire, and it was 10:9 to Aigburth. Rather closer than he would have hoped for, but a clear enough win in the end.

Clauzel withdrew in good order, the 3 battalions of the 15e Ligne determinedly holding the village to cover the retreat, but his lack of cavalry meant that most of the wounded had to be left on the field, and there was an element of panic among the troops as they fell back – leaving the fortress of Ciudad Rodrigo exposed and heading to join with Jourdan’s forces at Salamanca.

General de Brigade Berlier, commanding Clauzel’s Divn on the day, was seriously wounded late in the day, and  General de Division Maucune was struck by a canister ball while at the head of the 86e Ligne, and he died within minutes.

The Earl of Aigburth was clearly elated at the end of the action, but was shaking with fatigue. The Portuguese cavalry, the KGL heavy dragoons and the heroic Brunswick Hussars were dispatched to keep the retiring French moving, and to assess the situation at Ciudad Rodrigo.

    

OOBs

French Force – Gen de Divn Bertrand, Baron Clauzel

2^nd Divn, Armée de Portugal (Gen de Bde Berlier, acting)

Bde Berlier (Col. De Conchy) – 25e Leger & 27e Ligne [3 bns]

Bde Pinoteau – 50e & 59e Ligne [4]

15/3e Art a Pied (Capt. Pajot)

5^th Divn, Armée de Portugal (Gen de Divn Antoine-Louis Popon, Baron Maucune)

Bde Arnauld – 15e & 66e Ligne [4 Bns]

Bde Montfort – 82e & 86e Ligne [3]

11/8e Art a Pied (Capt. Genta)

Cavalry

Bde Col. Picquet – 6e Dragons & 1er Dragons Provisoirs (4e & 11e) [6 Sqns]

Bde Treillard – 14e Chasseurs, 7e Chev-Lanc (Vistule), Dragoni Napoleone [9 Sqns]

Reserve Artillery

10/3e & 19/3e Art a Pied (Capts. Dyvincourt & Gariel)

Total force engaged approx 13550 men with 32 guns. Loss approx 3200 infantry, 875 cavalry and 10 guns. Gen. Berlier was severely wounded, though he is expected to recover. General Maucune was killed leading his Division.

Allied Force – General the Earl of Aigburth

Third Divn (Maj.Gen Sir Thomas Picton)

Col. Wallace’s Bde – 1/45^th, 74^th & 1/88^th Ft + 3 coys 5/60^th

Col. J Campbell’s Bde – 2/5^th, 2/83^rd & 94^th Ft

Palmeirim’s Bde – 9^th & 21^st Ptgse + 11^th Cacadores [5 Bns total]

10/9^th Bn Royal Artillery (Maj. Douglas)

Seventh Divn (Maj.Gen JHK Von Bernewitz, acting)

Col. Halkett’s Bde – combined Lt Bn (1^st & 2^nd Lt Bns KGL & 68^th Ft)

Von Bernewitz’ Bde (Col. Eustace) – Chasseurs Britanniques & Tomar Militia Bn (attached)

Troop E, RHA (Capt. MacDonald)

Light Divn (Maj.Gen Karl, Baron Von Alten)

Col. Beckwith’s Bde – 1/43^rd, 1/95^th & 3/95^th + 3^rd Cacadores

Vandeleur’s Bde – 1/52^nd & 2/95^th + 1^st Cacadores

Troop I, RHA (Maj. Ross)

Cavalry (Lt.Gen Sir Stapleton Cotton)

                Long’s Bde – 3^rd Dgns, 5^th Dgn Gds [6 Sqns]

                Viktor Von Alten’s Bde – 1^st Hussars KGL, Brunswick-Oels Hussars [6]

                Provisional Bde (Col. De Jonquières) – 1^st Dgns KGL, Prov Ptgse Cav (dets 1^st & 11^th) [6]

Troop A, RHA (Maj. Bull)

Total force engaged, approx 16600 men with 22 guns. Total loss approx 1100 infantry, 725 cavalry and 4 guns disabled.

Detail losses:

French – 1/27 (-3 blocks), 2/27 (-1), 2/50, 3/50, 4/66 (-2 each), 15/3 Art a Pied (-1), Arnauld’s tirailleur bn, 5/82 (-2 each), 1/86, 2/86 (-1 each), 6e Dragons (-2), 11e Dragons (-1), 10/3 Art a Pied (-3), 4e Dragons, 14e Ch-a-Ch (-1 each), Lanciers de la Vistule (-2)

Anglo-Portuguese – Wallace’s combined lt.coys (-2), 5/60^th (-1), Troop ‘E’ RHA (-2), 1/95^th (-1), 1^st Cac (-2), 1/52^nd, 2/95^th (-1 each), 3^rd Dgns (-3), 5^th Dgn Gds (-1), KGL Hussars (-1)

General view at the start, from the South-East (behind the French left)

Clauzel's position, from his left - Picquet's dragoons in the foreground

Treillard's light cavalry, on the other flank, with the Vistula Legion

Lancers in evidence - they did not have a good day  

Hanging about - some of Picton's troops

First time in action since the previous century - the Earl of

Aigburth watches anxiously

State of the Art - rifles and horse artillery - slow going, though

95th Rifles - the Qualiticast Battalion

Cotton supervising the Riflemen clearing the woods...

...with the odd setback

Fine fellows all - the Chasseurs Britanniques, who have done very well

throughout the campaign

Assault Center - and about time too

The Brunswick Hussars upset some elite opposition.

Bearing in mind his fondness for a bet, we can only hope

the Earl had some money on this one

With everything updated for the battle, here are the returns and the map for 21st June 1812 (Week 22)

ECW - The Rabble

I believe I may have mentioned this matter here before. I have already had some valuable advice from Clive, John C and others – for which many thanks – and I have a short term plan which I shall say more about in a moment, but I thought it might be a good move to air the topic more widely, to see if anyone has some good ideas.

While reading about the ECW in Lancashire and other, similarly provincial parts of Up North, I have come to understand that a proportion of the infantry - especially Parliamentarian town guard and militia units, were often just citizens armed with anything they could get their hands on. Of course, there are no suitable figures available in 20mm (which serves me right, I guess), so I've been having a good think what I could use for such characters. The idea is that they should be compatible with my Les Higgins/Hinton Hunt armies – a size range that also includes SHQ and (some) Tumbling Dice things.

Irregular are too small, as are Niblet. Mainstream old-style 25mm such as Minifigs S-Range (and there are two very nice armed peasants in the range) are too big, as are Art Miniaturen and the forthcoming Falcata 30YW figures, and so are all 1/72 plastics, sadly – I was impressed by Dux Homunculorum’s clubmen converted from the Imex “Pilgrims” set. I am happy to consider figures from a different (though similar) period.

My present plan is to convert some Les Higgins ECW artillerymen, and maybe some Hinton Hunt artillerymen if I can find spares – give them the odd new hat, remove their artillery tools to give them open hands, animate them a bit and fit them with pole arms (bits of florists’ wire, plus any suitable axes and bits and pieces I can get). I probably need 2 or 3 units – I would go for normal ECW figures for the command, on the assumption that the leaders would be better dressed, so I would need about 60 suitable clubmen, preferably in a suitably disorganised mixture of poses (i.e. at least 3, for preference).

If I can make up some decent converted prototypes I can arrange to get some copies made, but this is all a bit of an unexpected challenge. I knew I was going to have to obtain some Scots at some point, but there are suitable figures by both Hinton Hunt and SHQ. If you are aware of any (21mm tall) 20mm ECW figures which I haven’t mentioned, or you have any good ideas on good donor figures for cunning conversions, I’d be very pleased to hear from you.  

Solo Campaign - Week 22

Iglesia Parroquial de la Asuncion, at Carpio, which was used as

a French field hospital during the battle on 18th June 1812

Well, it's possibly going to end in tears, but General Tarleton is going for it in style. He has entered Spain, and is attacking Clauzel's force near the village of Carpio, not far from Fuentes de Onoro. I hope to fight the actual battle next weekend, so will produce the necessary map and returns after that, along with the batrep, of course.

Week 22

Random Events and Strategic Notes

Completely coincidentally, but appropriately, the Earl of Aigburth (Tarleton) has been given official orders to adopt a much more aggressive strategy [than his predecessor].

The Central Junta has now made a formal request that Wellington might be seconded to the Spanish service. The exact nature of the role he could play is unclear. There is a theory that aid for the Spanish army in the form of money and equipment would be more readily available if Wellington were actively involved.

Housekeeping

The 3D3 activation throws give both the Allies and the French 3 – a remarkable thing to witness! Since they moved first last week, the French take the option to do so again.

Moves

French (3 allowed)

1 – N (Marmont) marches from Zamora to Leon

2 – E (Abbé, with Rabbe’s bde of his own Division of the Armée du Nord) marches from Tudela to Zaragoza...

3 – ...and G (Lacharrue’s bde of the same Divn) marches from Sadaba to Zaragoza, thus threatening Morillo’s Spanish force

[Intelligence step –

• no scouting orders]

Allies (3 allowed)

1 – Sp C (Morillo) retreats from Zaragoza back to Alcaniz. Since the advancing French force has no cavalry, his retreat is not hindered.

2 – D (Framlingham, with the Allied siege train) marches from Elvas, across the Tajo to Abrantes. This is a difficult (brown) road, so a test is required:

2D3 = 4 +2 (Framlingham’s rating) -1 (brown road) = 5   - march is completed with no problems

3 – A (Aigburth, with the Anglo-Portuguese 3^rd, 7^th and Light Divns) advances over the border into Spain, from Almeida to the Ciudad Rodrigo area, where he attacks Clauzel’s portion of the Armée de Portugal

[Intelligence step -

• no scouting orders]

Supplies and Demoralisation

All units are in supply. No-one is Demoralised.

Contacts

The Earl of Aigburth, directed to take the offensive, and wishing to set up an attack on Ciudad Rodrigo before the French could complete their repairs to the badly damaged defences, led his force which was at Almeida over the border into Spain, towards Ciudad Rodrigo. This force consisted of The Allied Third, Seventh and Light Divns, with three attached cavalry brigades – a total of approx 16600 men. On the night of Tuesday 16^th June the army halted near the old battlefield of Fuentes de Onoro, which was hailed as an omen of coming victory by the troops.

Clauzel

The area ahead was occupied by Bertrand Clauzel, who had his own and Maucune’s Divisions of the Armée de Portugal, plus cavalry, and could field approx 13500, with something of a superiority in artillery. Clauzel was surprised by the advance – largely because a lack of orders [as a result of the dreadful Activation dice roll!] had not allowed for any scouting patrols to check the border – and he was further handicapped in that his troops were spread over a wide area to secure adequate quartering in the poor countryside. By the time the presence of the Allied troops was reported, there was a further delay while Clauzel collected together his force, which allowed Aigburth to effect a daring crossing of the little Rivera de Azaba (a tributary of the Agueda) during the night of Wednesday 17^th.

The armies met in the early morning of Thursday 18^th June, in an area of poor but fairly level farmland. Clauzel, obliged to stand his ground to protect Ciudad Rodrigo, placed the centre of his line in the village of Carpio de Azaba, which was to give its name to the battle fought on that day.

Engineering at Ciudad Rodrigo

Each battalion present with the garrison rolls 1D6 each week, giving 4D6 – every 6 rolled adds 1 to the Fortress Value, which is currently 3 – aiming to be repaired to a full value of 6.  This week, the dice come up 6 4 4 3, so the Fortress Value regains a further 1, becoming 4.

Activation Systems - Again (contd)

A rare and highly-prized example of a C&CN "Tactic" Command Card 

This follows on from the previous post about Activation Rules – I got some useful input from Comments and also through email - thanks to all who contributed so positively - and I felt it probably justifies a short additional note.

The chief problem I was interested in was how to allow movement of a mass of troops in a C&C-type game, in which the Command Cards normally allow for only a small number of units to be ordered in a turn, and the fall of the cards will not normally support the movement of a large formation in a coherent manner. A classic example might be a division marching onto the battlefield, or any kind of strategic march.

First thing to note is that C&CN (the Napoleonic member of the Borg family of games) includes a Force March card – there are 2 of these in the pack, and they allow all the infantry (only infantry) in one Section (Left, Centre, Right) to be ordered together. Units with a Leader attached may march 2 hexes and battle, other infantry may march 1 hex and battle, or march 2 hexes and not battle. This is the right sort of idea, but it applies only to infantry, the 2-card allocation makes it too much of a special event, and it is quite a powerful card when it is played.

I very much liked Ross’s suggestion that an alternative meaning could be added to some of the existing Section cards. I think that marching should not be a rare or specially-privileged act. I propose to make a scenario-specific tweak, and it should be a fairly routine option with rather less inherent advantage than the Force March card – “common but not very powerful” is the aim.

The Probe cards in C&CN might be just the thing, which – again – was Ross’s idea. As an example, the Probe Left Flank card reads:

Issue an order to 2 units or Leaders on the Left Flank

and there are 4 of them – there are also 6 Probe Centre and 4 Probe Right Flank cards. My idea is that a footnote be added to these cards, similar to

Alternatively – if the scenario permits it – you may, instead, use the card to order each unit or Leader in the Section to make a normal move. This move may not bring them into contact with the enemy, they may not carry out any combat, and infantry may not form square or come out of square. Normal terrain rules apply.

Thus it does not allow any specially fast movement, but it does allow a lot of troops to be shifted together, which would be a simple enough order on the real-life battlefield. And, of course, if the opponent followed up with Counterattack, which mirrors the previous order, things would really start moving. Worth a try?

Adding a footnote is actually a physical possibility for me, since my C&CN Command Cards are in plastic sleeves, so I can put anything in there – bus tickets, you name it...

For the home-brewed ECW variant of C&C which I am working on, since I envisage the ECW as rather more static than Napoleonic warfare, I propose simply to enlarge the Command Card pack by adding (say) 3 cards which say something like

All the units and Leaders in any one Section may be ordered to make a normal move. This move may not bring them into contact with the enemy, they may not carry out any combat, and units of foot may not form (or come out of) Stand of Pikes formation. Normal terrain rules apply.

I dug out the downloadable rules for Anubis Studios’ White Mountain, which is a 30 Years War game heavily based on C&C Ancients, and, as I thought, it includes an extra rule for Standing Orders which is interesting. So that I do not misrepresent it in any way, I reproduce it here – the game is freely available from Anubis’ website anyway:

ISSUING STANDING ORDERS

A standing order is an order for a nominated group of

units who will continue to carry out that order, turn

after turn, in addition to any other orders you perform

elsewhere.

You may only have one standing order in play at any

time.

Units operating under a standing order may remain in

place or may move only toward the objective marker.

If any unit affected by the card makes a move away

from the objective marker for any reason the standing

order is broken and the Command card is removed

from play.

You may also cancel a standing order by removing the

Command card without acting on it, and then take a

normal turn instead.

To issue a standing order:

1 Play a Command card on the table in the

nominated zone (left, centre or right). This is the

order that you want to units to act on automatically

in future turns.

2 Mark each unit affected by the order with a

[blue] token.

3 Place an objective marker anywhere ahead of

the affected units in the same zone. This is the

point where the units, if they move, must move

toward.

4 The units may now be moved or otherwise

acted on in accordance with the Command card

played.

5 Draw a card to replace the one just played.

Your turn now ends.

6 On your next and all subsequent turns until the

standing order is broken, you may act with the

nominated units as if you just played the standing

Command card.

In addition to this continual order, you may play

Command cards elsewhere and act with other units as

usual.

Standing orders may not be used to manage away

disruption.

To finish off, I thought I’d repeat a point I made in my comment to Lee in the previous post. C&CN’s cards can be a bit limiting for a larger battle, but I have used – with decent results – a scenario-driven tweak which offers a two-for-one option. Instead of playing a Command card, the player may play ONE Tactic card or UP TO TWO Section cards. He may not play one of each. (Section cards are those Command cards which refer to movement in – you guessed it – a Section of the battlefield. Tactic cards are all the rest). This allows more action in each turn.

And that’s probably more than enough of that.

Hooptedoodle #63 – The Hedge You Could See from Space

...and other gripping tales.

On the South boundary of our garden there is a very big hedge. It is a Leylandii, and it has been there since about 1985. The previous owners of my house had some problems with an elderly neighbour, who liked to watch them sunbathing though his binoculars. Their response was to plant the hedge.

I don’t know how big it was when they planted it, or exactly how fast these things grow, so I am unable to tell you when they were able to resume sunbathing. I do know that when I moved here, in 2000, it was about 12 feet tall, and in an excellent state of maintenance. It has occasionally been a source of a little neighbourly friction, since it shades a part of next door’s garden in the late afternoon. Accordingly, we have lopped a bit off the top – it is now around 11 feet, and we also had it shortened at its Western end by some 7 feet, two years ago, when we had tree surgeons in removing our legendary eucalyptus tree. The present neighbours, by the way, have nothing to do with the gent with the binoculars – he died years ago.

So we inherited the hedge, but we like it because it maintains a nice measure of privacy. It costs a bit to keep it groomed, but overall it’s worth it.

In recent years, a vigorous Virginia Creeper (from next door) has begun to grow through the hedge, and it produces a most attractive show of red foliage in the late Summer. When it first appeared, we were surprised, but very pleased with the look of it – “How lovely!” we exclaimed, clapping our hands in childlike delight.

Three years later, the creeper has taken over, and has removed so much light and so much water from the hedge that the poor old thing has turned brown, and is not well at all. Yesterday was vengeance day. I put on my oldest clothes (which may also be my third newest clothes) and burrowed into the hedge to see what could be done. I found it was stuffed with creeper vines, some of them an inch and a half thick – a real tangle. So I got to work with secateurs and branch loppers and a pruning saw and gritted teeth, and I howked out [Scots] a very large amount of tat – 2 or 3 big builder’s bags – maybe a couple of cubic yards. With luck, the creeper will die off – it is certainly drooping badly this morning. With even more luck – and maybe a little bonemeal – the hedge may recover.

Sitrep as of this morning – the hedge looks a bit scorched, but the

creeper hanging from the top is clearly withering...