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.

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.

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.

A Famous Victory - Blenheim: Battle is Joined

Warfare during this period certainly is a methodical affair. It takes Cutts from 12:30 until 2:00 PM to get his leading brigade across the Nebel and launch the first assault on Blenheim. Despite support from the battery next to the village and all three battalions of the famed French Navarre regiment holding the front edge of Blenheim, Rowe's men charge the barricades.  Their combined fire shatters the 1/Navarre, eliminating it. Return fire disrupts a British battalion.

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.

Why I took up Play By Email

Last night I played scenario "1914_0823_01s: The Creeping Tide" concerning a holding action by the German 37th Infantry Division at the villages of Lahna and Orlau in the JTS game East Prussia '14. I played the German side this time, and here was the result:

Gumbinnen - August 20, 1914 : A Review of East Prussia '14

A little over 100 years ago, the advancing troops of the Russian 1st Army met Maximilian von Prittwitz's 8.Armee at the town of Gumbinnen in East Prussia. It was the first German offensive of the the war in the east. Strategically, the battle was a German defeat. Tactically the Russians certainly didn't shine, but they held long enough, and did enough damage to the German XVII Corps to make von Prittzwitz lose his nerve and retreat. His corps commanders did not generally agree that they had been beaten.

Courtesy of the new World War I Campaigns game from John Tiller Software. East Prussia '14, I'm going to try my hand at managing a better outcome for 8.Armee.

8.Armee positions the morning of August 20th, 1914. IArmeekorps and XVII.Armeekorps are already in contact