By Shot, Shock, and Faith - Intro

Some initial thoughts on By Shot, Shock, and Faith from Hexasim, a game covering five battles from the French Wars of Religion.

Freeman's Farm, 1777

The opening set up for the historical Freeman's Farm scenario from Saratoga, a game from GMT's "Battles of the American Revolution" series. This is the version from the tri-pack that was released last year.

Bunker Hill

Terri has caused some regrettable losses to my British regulars already and gained a victory banner. However and the grenadiers have managed to evict some rebel militia from their position behind the fence line, though.

Germantown - Conway at Mount Airy

Conway's Pennsylvania brigade deploying versus light infantry and artillery at Mount Airy, as Sullivan's division begins their advance on Germantown.

John Tiller Software Campaign 1776

Austerlitz - Rising Eagles

Scenario 1 covers Davout's defense of Telnitz and Sokolwitz on the French right

Grogbrother Jim has been expressing cautious optimism about Hexasim's Eagles of France series this weekend. He's specifically playing Fallen Eagles, which covers Waterloo. I have Rising Eagles, their Austerlitz game. Given Jim's praise for his early attempts at the system, I thought I ought to finally get it on the table and give it a try.

Wargaming Night - GMT Germantown - First session

Initial setup positions

Thursday evenings are wargaming night around here, and this past Thursday David and I tackled GMT's Germantown from their Battles of the American Revolution series. Game scale is an hour per turn, units are battalions with some brigades, 200 yards per hex. Given that I was slightly more familiar with the rules, I took the Americans and David played His Majesty's troops.

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.

Battle of the Boyne

The Danes cross the Boyne

(Continued from here) By noon, the tide has dropped enough to make the crossing at Yellow Island practical. The Danes swarm across the river, led by Fodgarden's battalion and Württemberg. The Clare Dragoons put up a fight though - enough to kill Württemberg! While the Danes have gained a toehold they haven't cleared the shore yet, and the embattled Irish dragoons hold on.

The League of Augsburg

The map for Nine Years, a strategic/operation simulation of the war

After I wrap up Rossbach, I'm going to take a break from the Seven Years War and return to an ealier time. Namely, the Nine Years War, fought from 1688 to 1697.

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.

Panzer Battles Demo

The new demo of Panzer Battles is out from John Tiller Software, and you should go download it now!

Hold the Line Frederick's War

The Prussians trying to reorganize into a more effective offensive formation while the Austrians rally their center

Had a great time today playing Hold the Line Frederick's War from Worthington Games with my friend Bob Ellis via Vassal.

Waiting for the Guns

Waiting for my artillery to unlimber before advancing at Aughrim

As wargamers, we are often guilty of taking actions with our pixeltruppen that no real general in his right mind would ever do. Casualties in wargames often exceed even the worst defeats real armies suffered, even when you win the 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.

A Famous Victory - Blenheim: French Setup

The Great Leaders series from now defunct gaming publisher Moments in History is a series of two games covering Marlborough's four great victories during the War of Spanish Succession, Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudenarde and Malplaquet. I'm about to start a the Blenheim scenario. In this scenario the Franco-Bavarian army sets up first. The above is an overview of the Franco-bavarian position. I've gone with a more-or-less historical setup, both because I prefer historical setups and to test out the game mechanics with a known deployment.

More from Kriegsspieler

Jim has a couple of posts near and dear to my heart today. First, he talks about his new Kriegsspiel dice. If you're interested in running any Kriegsspiel games, these are a must-have. He pointed them out in a post the other day at Grogheads, prompting me to purchase them as well. His post also provides links to the rules and other stuff you'll need to play. I've also dropped strong hints to the wife and kids that I would be overjoyed to find the Brandywine game under the Christmas tree...

Jim also covers the end of our recent Combat Mission Final Blitzkrieg game, where we've knocked the stuffing out of each other for the past couple of months. He tells the story well, so I'll leave it up to him to do so. Suffice to say that my advance was more impetuous than it should have been.

Scourge of War Waterloo - Sandbox Play

Marching my division across the Belgian countryside toward our objective, a small town

After playing The Last Success  much of yesterday, I finished the evening with a session of Scourge of War: Waterloo to have a slightly different Napoleonic experience.

Old School Tactical - First Play

For a variety of reasons, even though I received my copy of Old School Tactical while at Origins, I haven't been able to get it on the table until today.

Playing the "Brandenburgers" scenario in my new gaming room

2/Worcestershire at Gheluvelt

I think that the late 19th and early 20th Centuries are a particularly interesting period of warfare. Then, as now, rapid technological changes drove development of weapons systems that were far more effective than those of the past - but too often the thinking of the officers tasked with using those weapons was mired in the past. Frequently such thinking led to horrendous casualties and, by 1915, a stalemated war of attrition in the trenches that wouldn't be resolved until the invention of new tactics and new weapons like tanks.

2/Worcestershire preparing to advance from Polygon Woods toward Gheluvelt, near Ypres - 31 October 1914