Frustration at Wertingen

In between work, my week has been filled with the command of vast 19th century armies in Germany. Chris and I have been enjoying a PBEM game of the battle of Gross Beeren in 1813, which is speeding toward what looks to be a climactic clash after half a game of maneuver.

I've also been playing a great deal of solo Napoleonic goodness, set mostly during Napoleon's Ulm Campaign of 1805, during the War of the Third Coalition. This is the campaign that led eventually to the Battle of Austerlitz, probably Napoleon's greatest victory.

The battlefield at the start of the action.  The lead elements of Beaumont's 3rd Dragoon Division are entering along the road from Frauenstetten. The game is John Tiller's Campaign Austerlitz.

Operation Husky JOSS Force Day 2

This post is a continuation of my playthrough of the HPS Sims Sicily '43 scenario "0710_01 ALT JOSS Beach." The first part of this post can be found here.

Dawn D-Day+1

At dawn the situation has not changed a great deal as I've left most of my troops rest over night. An early morning attack by the 177th Bersagliere and a battalion from the 179th Panzergrenadier Regiment pushed 2/7 and a battalion of combat engineers out of the trenches along Highway 115. Otherwise, most units were static overnight, only moving to maintain contact with known enemy formations.

Operation Husky JOSS Force, Day 1

I learned this week that while I may own a number of Tiller/HPS games, I've mostly "played around" with them rather than actually learned to play them. I picked up Sicily '43 a couple of weeks ago and started to work through the tutorial scenario - where I found I very quickly that I didn't really understand this game engine nearly as well as I thought! This past week is actually the longest stretch I've actually played any of the games - and I really am beginning to understand what people see in them.

After playing it a few days, with frequent restarts to compensate for totally botched attempts at various scenarios I think this weekend I understand it well enough to try a play through worthy of an AAR. I'll be playing "0710_01 ALT JOSS Beach" which covers the initial assault of Truscott's 3rd Infantry Division at Licata on July 10th-11th 1943. From the Designer's Notes:

Operation Husky, JOSS Beach, in the early morning hours of July 10th 1943: The easiest of all the landings occurred at Licata, where Truscott's JOSS Force encountered feeble resistance from the Italian 207th Coastal Division. The first wave came ashore in 45 minutes but, once ashore, quickly by-passed the enemy gunners. By 1000 it had successfully established itself on its objectives and broken up a lackluster Italian counterattack against a roadblock established at Station San Oliva. By the evening of the 12th July, the force beachhead extended from Palma di Montechiaro, inland to Canicatti, and northeast to Riesa.

Lots of shiny, shiny optional rules

Ancient Warfare Month

October turned out to be a month that took me three falls out of five due to work activity.  Its a great thing to own your own business, except that sometimes that business owns you, too.  So, apologies for the lack of posts the past couple of weeks.  I'm going to try and make up for it with a series of posts this month focusing on Ancient Warfare, principally through AGEOD's Birth of Rome and Alea Jacta Est strategic simulations, and through the excellent but complex Ancient Warfare series from HPS Simulations.

Note that while I have an interest in ancient warfare, I'm by no means a budding Caesar.  I expect to stub my toe and take a bit of a thumping against the AI, particularly in the Ancient Warfare tactical games.  Also, while I'm at least as interested in Greek, Alexandrian, and Hellenistic warfare as I am in Roman warfare, I'll probably stick mostly to Roman this time around due to the games I have available.  I need to dig out my copy of Hegemony Gold and get it re-installed on the new gaming system...

For our first excursion, we're going to command Rome in the Third Samnite War.  This war began in 298BCE, pitting Rome against the Samnites and their allies: the Etruscans, the Umbrians, and the Senones Gauls.  Rome's victory secured nearly the entire Italian peninsula for the Republic.

Initial Samnite positions

 The Samnites dominate much of central and southern Italy.  Rome is also already engaged with the Etruscans to the north of the city.

I'll need to try and take as many of these cities as possible over the course of a decade of war.

On the tactical front, I'm going to try one of the Samnite Wars scenarios included in Punic Wars.

I should also point out that if you're not a big fan of ancient warfare, Chris over at The Sharp End and RangerX3X are going nuts with great new scenarios for Command Ops.  Chris' new scenario, "The Fight for Best." is available here, and Tim's new scenario, "St. Oedenrode" can be downloaded here.  I suspect playing both of these fine scenarios will interrupt my Roman excursions over the coming weeks.