Seneffe

The French right begins their advance on the Dutch positioned at Seneffe

By Shot, Shock & Faith

Montpensier's column opens the battle with an attack on Aubervilliers using argoulets and cannon.

All is Lost Save Honour

I'm in an Italian Wars mood. I'm working on learning the rules for All is Lost Save Honour, an operational/campaign treatment of the period. The system is based on OSG's Campaigns of Napoleon, but heavily modified.

The rules are very wordy. Still, it seems interesting and the map is to die for. Looking forward to giving it a try tomorrow during regular Thursday night gaming.

Wars of Succession: The Best Marlborough Simulator Around

Eugene in Mantua at the end of 1701. He's already beat the pants off the French in two battles and taken Modena

I think Wars of Succession may be the best game AGEOD has ever produced, despite having some "fit and finish" issues. Granted, I'm biased toward the period, but this game takes the best of the new features introduced in Wars of Napoleon, discards what didn't work, and marries it to what did work in games like Thirty Years War  and Rise of Prussia.

Campaigns on the Danube - 1809

Rain will slow down my offensive. The last thing the Austrians need is to be slower!

In honor of "Spring in Munich," our 1809 campaign Kriegsspiel getting underway today, I've been playing the same campaign in the nearest thing to a computerized Napoleonic operational Kriegsspiel currently available.

Spring in Munich: Ready to Go

The armies are ready to place on the map. Final dispositions are due today. First orders are due tomorrow.

As much as I like Jim's Dalek stickers, I wanted to go with something more reminiscent of Berthier's chest of blocks. Conveniently, the width of one of these blocks equals 2km on the map, and the length equals 4km, the marching speed of the Austrian and French infantry respectively.

"Spring in Munich" An 1809 Kriegsspiel

Where I'll be spending many evenings for the next year and change

The 1705 Moselle Campaign - Part I

Marlborough poised on the Moselle for an attack on Saarlouis, waiting on Allied reinforcements

A few weeks ago I responded to a question on Facebook concerning artillery organization during the 1705 Moselle Campaign during the War of Spanish Succession. After doing a little research from my ever-growing library of books on 18th Century war, I was intrigued enough to want to game out the campaign itself.

Turenne's 1645 Campaign - March 1645

I didn't get to it last week, but this week I am playing Won by the Sword, a game simulating operations during the Thirty Years War.

Scenes from Lens, 1648

A couple of scenes from the Battle of Lens, fought between the French under Condé and the Spanish under Archduke Leopold on August 20 1648.

The Campaign of 1645

Turenne's army preparing to leave Phillipsburg and begin the campaign of 1645. Won by the Sword. I'm planning to start this in the coming week, assuming I finish my game of Nine Years.

Under the Lily Banners

Mercy's Bavarians surprise Turenne's French at Mergentheim

I have been interested in the wars of Marshal Turenne and the French armies from the end of the Thirty Years War to the Nine Years War. This is an overlooked period in gaming but an interesting one as it comes during the conclusion of the Pike & Shot Era. There are significant changes in tactics and advancements in weaponry during this period that make the various armies very different. These are the early wars of Louis XIV and were marked by the overwhelming presences of two French generals, Turenne and Condé.

Playing Nine Years

A French army lays siege to Tournai

I'm not ready to do a full-blown walk-through of Nine Years yet because I'm still learning it. What I am prepared to say is that I'm enjoying this game immensely!

Rossbach: The Battle

11:30 and Frederick is on the move

I hinted that the Prussians had made a subtle, but serious error in my previous post. In this entry we'll see what they did, and how that combined with another unfortunate happening led to a surprising outcome at the Battle of Rossbach.

Rossbach: The Flank March

The aftermath of the French attack on Schortau

Historically, Rossbach was a Prussian triumph, a battle fought not just against inferior French and Imperial troops, but by Frederick against a pair of French and Imperial generals who probably had no business being on the field.

That may not be the case on my table.

More Books

This weekend's haul from Half-Price Books. The one clipped off in the upper right is Chandler's The Military Maxims of Napoleon. I'm most interested/excited though in the book in the center, Conserving the Enlightenment, a scholarly work on the early French engineering corps.

The book on Marlborough is a little light, but it has some nice maps and seemed like something I could give someone as an introduction.

1691 - The War of the Two Kings: Aughrim

Williamite foot and horse move to seize the Attibrassil Bridge and the village of Kilcommadan.

The period of European warfare from about 1670 to 1763 holds great fascination for me. In fact, I haven't been this engaged in learning about a historical period for probably the last 25 years. This is the period of transition from pike & shot warfare to the innovations of Napoleon. It was a period of constant, though in many cases limited warfare; a period where cautious generals avoided open battles and great ones sought to force it. It's a period filled with interesting personalities, fascinating campaigns, and dramatic battles.

Scourge of War at Dogs of War

Despite what posts over the past several months may make it look like, I don't just play board games. I still play quite a few computer wargames as well. This past weekend I played a great game of Scourge of War: Waterloo with the team over at the Dogs of War VU, a group dedicated (among other things) to playing multiplayer sims and wargames. The game was very enjoyable, and the DOW crew are great people. Be sure to drop by and read the AAR from this weekend's game.

A Famous Victory - Blenheim: Reset

Blenheim setup overview

After doing a lot more reading about Blenheim and getting in a couple of turns to familiarize myself with the rules, I've decided to reset the game and start over. This time I'm using a much closer to historical setup, based on the OOB and maps from Obscure Battles. Not only is the distribution of units more correct, the actual battalions and regiments are mostly in the correct locations. The OOBs from the game and web site don't entirely line up, but they're close.

A Famous Victory - Blenheim: Anglo-Allied Setup and First Turns

Now for the Anglo-allied setup. Again, this is a quasi-historical setup. The commands ("lines" in game terms) are composed of roughly the right mix of units, and are in roughly the right places - as far as anyone knows. For a future game I will probably use the positions as illustrated here for what may be a more historical setup.