A Bloody Day at La Tourbière, Pt.1

"The French are fighting boldly
Men are dying hot and coldly
Give every man his flask of powder
His firelock on his shoulder"

                                               -Irish folk tune

As promised, a battle report for the game we had on November 25th.  This is a long one, so it will be in two parts.  I hope you don't mind a bit of a workout with the mousing finger as you scroll through them.

The verse at the top is from the old Irish ditty "Whiskey, You're The Devil" , and sums up our game nicely!  A good old dust-up in the best of gaming traditions, that had both sides sweating canister shot as the challenges of the scenario- and of course Lady Luck- made themselves felt as the game progressed. 

"At 'em, my brave boys!!!"  The Big Blue Machine surges inexorably forward.

Another Allied vs. French bash, but this time around the French had the assistance of a Confederation of the Rhine contingent.  In fact,  it was all rather "Hofshroeresque" in that the game featured a lot of fighting between Germans on the one side, and Germans on the other.  And doing so with considerable ferocity, I may add. 

This game stood out for a number of reasons.  

First of all, the butcher's bill was enormous.  We had very few units break, yet many battalions and squadrons on both sides were to take hit after hit after hit,  often falling back but rarely breaking.  In a number of instances units found themselves having to be rallied by their commanding officers, but still they would keep returning back into the fray.  Stout-hearted fellows all for the most part, regardless of whatever the nationality of the shot-up banners that were flying over their heads.

Secondly, "New Unit Syndrome" was much in evidence, and it proved to be a fickle condition.  Three newly painted units made an appearance,  with two ending up being sent off in disgrace while the last was to put in a performance marked by an almost insane ferocity.  Luckily for this particular unit, The Goddess of Fortune favoured the brave- but more on that in due time.

Thirdly, I think it was obvious that we have reached the stage where we have pretty much internalized Black Powder's essential rule mechanisms.  Consequently, we find ourselves concentrating more on the tactical picture. I noticed that we are all developing a better understanding of what the capabilities of each arm are, how we need to coordinate them, and of the chances of success of various manoeuvres.  There were few tactical mistakes this game (although no lack of double-sixes and blunders!), and as a result the game proved challenging for both sides.

Last- but definitely not least- this time for once the French didn't end up with their reputation dragged through the mud, nor were the Allies to yet again enjoy the sport of kicking sand in Gallic faces!  In fact, the game ended up with the French slowly- but inexorably- gaining the upper hand in the final moves, with only the coming of darkness saving the Allies.  

And the French got trophies!  Trophies!  Now, when can I expect to receive my marshal's baton in the mailbox?

THE SCENARIO 

I can't for the life of me decide it this was a Peninsular War scenario with the addition of some Brunswickers, or a Hundred Days scenario with Confederation of the Rhine troops thrown in to make up the numbers.  Let's just say it is a battle set late in the Napoleonic Wars between the British and their allies on one hand,  and the French and their allies on the other.

For this game, Rod couldn't make it as he was down with a cold that had been doing the rounds here in Tokyo.  Rod has a good number of British and Portuguese troops, so this time the French had a slight advantage once Giovanni's "Confederation of the Rhine" troops threw their hats into the French ring.  These were actually Bavarian and Prussian infantry, with the latter masquerading this day as a contingent from the tiny (but oft-inebriated) Grand Duchy of Anheuser-Busch.  

The Confederation troops also provided the French with- for the first time- a unit of rifle-armed Schützen who were to prove their worth to the French cause- in spades.

I've often thought that one thing we could do better has always been scenario design.  On arrival at club gaming days we tend to first spend some time chewing the fat and catching up on news as we set out the table and start taking out our miniatures. You know the drill; comparing notes, sharing news on new releases from the Perry twins et alia, and generally "ooh-ing and ahh-ing" over any recently painted additions to the order of battle.  Any scenarios tend to be decided quickly upon looking at the layout.  Sometimes this works, other times it doesn't as we realize that victory conditions one way or another weren't really realistic, or else the mission really didn't suit the terrain and numbers available.  

Anyhow we decided on a rearguard action.  The Emperor, in his great genius, has manoeuvred his army between those of the Allies, and has sent les plus braves des braves, Marshal Michel Ney himself, to catch and destroy a smaller force that has found itself separated from its main body.  An Anglo-Allied division has been tasked with holding off the French probing force before nightfall, so that the rest of the corps can rejoin the bulk of the army.  

Sada just recently painted this gorgeous vignette of Michel Ney,  who was to command the French this day.  His job was to re-roll the failed command rolls of his numerous subordinates.

Accordingly, the Forces of Privilege, Rapine and Reaction would be defending a ridge line against the Imperial Legions of Love & Liberation, and the object of the game for the plucky French would be for them to get three of their units off the Allied baseline to represent the beginning of an effective pursuit of their crestfallen foes.  

Click on map to enlarge

The French would have superior numbers, but not significantly so given that they were expected to be an attacking force.  And even the toughest and most battle-hardened of the Parlez-vous' were dreading the effects of that British first-fire rule!

The available table space was smaller that we would have liked, as Rod usually brings a third GW battle mat (I have two).  Without the third mat the space was more limited this time round, so we decided to settle for 2/3 ranges and movement, which worked well.

Even though we used a lot fewer terrain pieces than what we usually do, it wasn't long into the game before it was obvious to everyone that the French and Confederation troops really didn't have the forces necessary to get three units off the table in the time allowed, given the nature of the terrain and the allied deployment.  

But they were to give the Allies one heckuva run for their money!


INITIAL DISPOSITIONS

On the Allied right, Matt's two regiments of British light dragoons supported by his newly-painted battery of Brunswick Horse Artillery.

To the left of the cavalry was a brigade of Brunswick Light Infantry (two battalions), supported by a small detachment of Portuguese Caçadores.  The Portuguese were destined to take the brunt of the fighting on this flank, and to perform with great gallantry.

Sada took this picture of the whole table looking down from the Allied right.  In the centre were the British 74th, 88th, 45th, and 5th line infantry regiments, supported by the Royal Artillery and the ubiquitous 60th Rifles.
(Click on photo to enlarge)

On the Allied right, the 92nd Foot (Gordon Highlanders).  Sada surprised us all with this very well-painted unit of Perry highlanders!

For the first time, the French are to hear the skirl of the pipes on the battlefield. "Qu'est-ce que c est? Un chat échaudé?"

The Thin Red Line!

These were supported- naturally enough- by his unit of Scots Greys.

The French centre.  GdB Bouillon-Cantinat with four battalions of infantry, and to his left the German Brigade of two battalions plus a small unit of rifle-armed Bavarian Schützen.  

Bavarians chomping at the bit.

Giovanni's Bavarian Schützen lead the way.  These guys were foaming at the mouth for action, and were to give a very good account of themseves.

Matt relishes a target-rich environment!

The French left, with a large unit of hussars on the flank.

Marshal Ney exhorts the troops.

Wagon full of ammunition, powder, and some choice bottles of Merlot.

Looking down the French line from the left flank to the centre.

The French right flank was held by the 1/28e Légère, a battery of artillery, and the Red Lancers of the Guard.

Coming soon, the ball gets under way with the thunder of hooves.

Of Books, Battles, and Bling...

Lots to report.   Christmas has come early, my painting mojo seems to have been resuscitated, and last Sunday saw the West Tokyo Wargamers have one of our largest and hard-fought games of Black Powder to date.  Some pictures (with lots more and a report to follow), but first some recent book purchases.

I was very happy to receive my copy of Charles S. Grant's Peninsular Actions (Volume 7 of the Wargaming in History series) from Ken Trotman books. I have all Charles Grant's 18th C. titles in the series, and was eagerly awaiting this one, his first on the Napoleonic Wars.

I wasn't disappointed!  The book covers battles like Rolica, the River Coa and Fuentes de Onoro, as well as smaller and perhaps less well-known fights like the cavalry clash at Sahagun and- interestingly- the Battle of Barossa.  Barossa is one I've heard of, but which I seldom seem to come across being wargamed.  

There are also chapters on campaign uniforms (with illustrations by Bob Marrion), notes on the difficulty of attacking squares, and a chapter on whether or not there should be special rules for British (I'm not tellin'!).  He also writes on the ad-hoc provisional units frequently fielded in the Peninsular War.

It would have been nice to have seen more actions involving the Spanish vs. the French (Bailen or the street fighting at Saragossa would have been a welcome inclusion), but as his miniatures collection is pretty much French and Anglo-Portuguese, I guess that is what we would get in the book!

I like Grant's writing style, and his approach to gaming.  The book is well illustrated with photos of his own collection of 28mm miniatures (many familiar Front Rank models, I was pleased to see).  There are lots of nice buildings and terrain in evidence, and his terrain is what I would call attractive yet workmanlike; while I enjoy those well-crafted terrain boards created for demonstration games at shows like Salute, Grant's gaming tabletops are clearly more functional.  Yet they remain visually appealing, and are far closer to what perhaps the vast majority of wargamers are used to gaming on.  

So lots of eye candy- I found myself itching to paint more of my own French (a Légion de Midi would be very attractive!)

It's not a cheap book, and a lot of people may find it more that what they want to pay.  But I regularly find myself re-reading all the books I have in this series, so for me at least the enjoyment I get out of them more than vindicates the money spent.  

I really want to try out his River Coa scenario one day.

Another book, this one pre-ordered but not yet out.  It will come as no surprise to anyone reading this that I'm getting myself  a copy of Albion Triumphant, the latest Black Powder supplement by Warlord Games. It should prove a good source of ideas and motivation.

*****

I am currently working on two posts at once for Serrez les Rangs.  This one, and a report on the game we had on November 25th.  I took a wad 'o photos that day, and it takes time just to edit them through iPhoto, not to mention the actual write up!  It looks like being be a pretty long report, so rather than have it taking up too much space here, I will upload it as a separate post sometime during the coming week.  

In the meantime, here are a few photo teasers.

"Forward, the Greys!!!"

"Forward, Les Bleus!!"

 

 

More to come, when I will reveal the tales of rabid Bavarians, suffering Scots, and humbled hussars.  Suffice to say for now it was a real challenge for both sides, with some really nail-biting moments!

*****

As a matter of principle, I don't usually go for those kind of chain-lettery, mutual-congratulations love-ins that surface from time to time out there across the blogosphere.   However, today for the first -and maybe only- time I'm making an exception.

This is largely because I was honestly surprised and touched by the kind words from two antipodeans whose blogs I follow, "Rosbif" of the Monsieur le Rosbif & Johnny Frog blog, and by Scott from the aptly-named Scott's Wargaming Blog  when they nominated me for something called the Liebster awards.

Click on image to see Rosbif's blog!

I enjoy both their blogs, and it gives me pleasure that they would choose Serrez les Rangs as being worth a mention out of all the excellent blogs out there in the wargaming community.  In particular I was really pleased with Scott's comment, which I hope he doesn't mind me repeating here.

I am always so impressed with the amount and quality of Napoleonic work I see on the blog, and playing the rules I love for the period, Black Powder. I keep using this blog as inspiration to one day getting cracking on with my own Napoleonic forces!

This comment really means a lot to me, as over the years it was the enthusiasm generated by a number of wargaming sites on the Internet that helped me to maintain interest in the hobby, especially in my "wilderness years", the pre-West Tokyo Wargamers days in Japan, when it seemed all too likely as if the best of my wargaming days pretty much lay behind me.  

It's always nice to be appreciated, and the fact that people can find themselves getting similarly motivated about wargaming the Napoleonic period as a result of our own efforts here in Tokyo tells me we've been doing something right. 

And of course this blog wouldn't be possible without the efforts of the guys here at the club who provided the troops, terrain, and the enthusiasm.   I've been very fortunate indeed to find myself gaming in a foreign land with a bunch of guys who have pretty much the same gaming philosophy as I have.  Any accolade given belongs very much to them, as it does to me.

*****

So, it is my turn to nominate my own candidates for the Leibster award.  I need to pass the award one to my top five favourite blogs- they must have fewer than 200 followers- and to leave a comment on one of their posts to notify them that they have won the award, and to list them in my favourites.  No particular order, 

Sole Member of the Napoleonics Connoisseur Club:  I just love the look of the games that David in Sweden puts on.  Nice blog design too.  Looks like he's not so alone these days. 

Page of Sada's Hobby: Sada is of course one of the West Tokyo Wargamers, so yes, nepotism!  But aside from being an amazing painter and modeller (his Napoleonic ships are marvels to behold),  you have to give him credit for his willingness and effort to maintain a blog in English.  He is fast becoming a standard bearer of the hobby here in Japan to an international audience. 

WWII Central: I have always enjoyed WWII wargaming and modelling, and there is considerable modelling skill evident in this blog.  Puts my own efforts to shame, but inspires me to try harder! 

Service Ration Distribution Hobby: home of some of the most entertaining -and really funny- battle reports out there.  I come back to this one again and again.   

Sparker's Wargames: Sparker games on a big scale, and his enthusiasm really comes through. Napoleonics done in a big way.  A right Jack Tar, his nautical references are often lost on this landlubber, despite the fact that my mother was in the WRNS and my father a Royal Marine.  Great site.

These are just five, pretty much randomly picked as there are many, many other blogs I enjoy out there, so if yours isn't included here, don't feel slighted!

The Boys of Summer

GdB  Guillaume Vendredi du Bonton, 6e Légère.

A disgraceful lack of new posts over the last quarter, but time for blogging has been at a premium these past few months.  With an office move in early October, as well as the usual increase in workload that comes about this time of year, work once again showed a blatant disregard for my hobby time (and sucked a lot of the life force from me in the bargain).   

On the home front, late last month the hard drive of my old- yet beloved- iMac G5 finally (and quite suddenly) bought the farm after years of sterling service.  

Thank the Gods I had gotten myself an external hard drive in June.  With all the data having been backed up properly using Mac's Timemachine, moving everything lock, stock, and barrel to my new MacBook Pro proved to entail a lot less bloodshed than I had anticipated.  But it was still tedious going.  Not everything was compatible with the new OS, in which cases I had to download a number of updates and/ or alternative applications.  A goodly number of weekends and evenings ended up being consumed getting everything up and running again.

Still, despite all this it was a relatively active summer on the gaming front, and I was able to get in a least some painting/ modelling time for our Napoleonic games, at least up to the end of the summer season.  October saw no gaming at all for me, but we had some classics in August and September.

It was the blogging that I really let slip.  I had intended to write up battle reports for the games we played, and took a lot of pictures with that in mind.  But you can't always find time for everything, and besides, I was rapidly getting fed up of typing away at computer keyboards and staring at monitors.   

But another games day approaches, and I'm beginning to get "the itch" for rolling dice and for mocking my opponent's martial blunders again.  The new computer is proving itself to be everything it promised, so what better time to update the blog with pictures from the games we played these past three months or so.

*****

As time marches on, and as memory plays false with all that happened in the whirling dust and fearsome noise of combat, I've now forgotten many of the details of how the games played out.   The more cynical of you out there may infer that this is a result of the French not having achieved, shall we say, their fullest potential (ahem...), but I'm sure none of my readers would be so ill-bred as to speculate publicly on such things.  

I can testify that they were great fun to play- and that the tabletop looked fantastic. 

So today, and in no particular order, I'll just post some selected eye-candy from our August and September slugfests. Rules used were, as usual, Warlord Games' Black Powder.

Prusskis and Crapauds duke it out over a farmhouse.

 

Muzzle-to-muzzle...

 

 

 

Prussians in the French rear.

 

 

Beaucoup des Frenchies.

"No magic spells?!?  What kind of game IS this!!!?"  
This was only Giovanni's second game of Napoleonics.

Commanders of Giovanni's new Bavarian contingent.

Giovanni has a thing for "retro" figures, and didn't hesitate to paint up and field these home-cast figures from Prince August Castings.

Although more like true 25mm figures, they turned out looking just fine on the tabletop alongside their more "sexy" Perry brethren.  Did creditably well, too...

...ditto these Hat plastic Bavarians.

Oktoberfest!

Lots of nicely painted troops, good looking terrain, and plenty of excitement, as in both games the fortune of battle ebbed back and forth until the very end.  Reputations made and lost, cowardice and courage on display in equal parts, and the Dice Gods were, on the whole, pretty balanced: making a mockery of the aspirations of all commanders with considerable maliciousness and disdain!

We have a big game coming up next Sunday, so hopefully I'll be able to post something more in the way of a proper battle report. It should prove a big one, too.

*****

Finally, I would be amiss in not announcing the talented winners of the La Bricole SALAMANCA CHALLENGE painting contest!  

Congratulations to Kerry ("Valleyboy") and Burkhardt ("14th Brooklyn") for placing first and second respectively in what turned out to be a very fierce competition, with loads of talent in evidence.

You can see their splendid entries here.