The Bladé flashes in the woods!

The Bladé flashes in the woods! 

Once again our hero, the Bladé, has found himself on an impossible mission: to intercept the Paypal Nuncio (the so called Pope's Banker)   They are leading a select group of Savoyard Guardsmen.  The TV sub-plot concerning the ongoing siege of Casale is still rumbling away in the background!

I gave the Guardsmen three counters from the combat pool each.  The Blade was unaware of the presence of Diego Vigo Alatriste, killer of Frenchmen (and orcs) with a group of Spanish musket armed troops following the Nuncio, and also bent on kidnapping him.   Vigo takes no less than five counters from the combat pool, but only ever chooses attack.  Bsically he is the greatest killer En Garde has ever seen. 

The Nuncio was traveling in my nobles carriage.  The guards appeared to be French Musketeers, a shady lot of self publicists.  

The carriage has a lift off roof, handy for those furious chase scenes. 

The Bladé with some of his Savoyard mates started mounted.  I've not done mounted combat in En Garde before.  This would be an eye opener.

The initial encounter went well for the Blade. one of the Guard fired his pistols into the papal horse, killing one of them.  Some fast and furious attacks vs defence then saw two more of the papal bodyguard go down.   

 At this point Vigo appeared attacking one of the Savoyard Guard.  two sixes two fives, four hits from five dice.  The poor guardsmen was filled with holes in short order.  

  

 The Blade, who has had his horse killed under him, was faced with Vigo.  With a Guardsman beside him he went for a sensible two in defence two attack.  Not good enough by half.  Vigo skewered the Guardsman and then the Blade.  The Flashing Blade however gets an escape roll, which he successfully passed.  Dropping his sword he "legged it."

 The last of the Savoyard Guardsmen was caught by the papal cavalry.  Killing one he was finished by the second.  

I really like the attack defence selections in En Garde. 

The Blade and Lurkio his man servant were the last Frenchmen, and fled the table which was now filled with rampaging Spaniards.  

Great game.  Sooner or later the Blade will win one of these!

General d'Armee, a trial game

There are some good Napoleonic rules out there but I`v never found what I consider to be the perfect set.  I like Lassale, from the Honour system and the old standard Shako, but both seem to lack something for me.  The Toofatlardies Le Feu Sacre has always seemed a little unclear to me so I was keen to see what the new General d'Armee rules would be like.

My initial feeling was that these rules needed in game paperwork, which leaves me a little cold, or casualty/status markers.  A telling issue is that there are in game markers sold with the rules.  Well I like those in IABSM, and they aren't really necessary here.

The Lardies did a set of videos on the game (with loud and incredibly annoying music at the start)  and these help the novice (me) get to grips with the system.  So I dug out my 6mm Adler Miniatures Napoleonics and got down to some dice rolling.

 Setting up the game I gave the French two brigades, a three battalion infantry and a Cavalry brigade of two regiments of dragoons.

The French sent out a skirmisher screen and rolled for their ADCs, advancing in echelon. 

Setting up the British I made them an Elite brigade of Guards, two large Infantry units.  They too sent out a skirmish screen but did not move forward.


I like the fact that the brigade commanders sometimes just refuse to move!  I used ADCs to reroll the French and the dragoons surged forward 15cm against the flank of the British Line.

The British left flank battalion formed square.  I had already started wishing that I had these figures set up for this set of rules.  My Brigadiers and ADCs look exactly the same!  


I think I wasted the chance to explore artillery as my French guns attacked the British battery, who never actually got a decent shot in.

The French column approaching the Guards square deployed into line and volleyed. With the dragoons on their flank the Guards could do nothing but soak up the casualties.  I used the skirmishers here too, effectively surrounding the square. (although I did lose two bases of French skirmishers)

In the centre the French column routed at the guards volley fire, but the left flank column closed and attacked through the skirmishers.  

Having seen off one column the Guards fought hand to hand here and saw off the second column too.  The bad news for them was that the square had broken to French Volley fire and the dragoons were now menacing them too.

Pretty much game over.  I am still a little skeptical.  This is a game that needs a lot of figures, certainly for my double ranked 6mm Adlers.  It is probably more of a 15mm game, the rules seem written that way, but to be honest it worked well for me.  I really liked the ADC system once I got the hang of it.  I also really liked that troops can go hesitant, and just refuse orders... even the Guards!

Perhaps that 15mm Austrian army is still on the cards...

28mm Forces and Characters for the Peninsular War

Back in Cyprus and having taken some small pots of decanted Army painter, I decided to tart up my Peninsular War characters.  With Vimeiro done they are facing the Campaigns of 1809, starting with the retreat to Corunna.  

I also dug out the reinforcements I had dragged over in my hand luggage... just as well they were mostly plastic.

The French currently have four groups of Line infantry with two skirmish groups.  Not bad, but I added another box of (Warlord) Infantry, who will be my Legere Force (the only real difference being the blue pants)

I also added a box of Dragoons to give me two groups of six plus an Officer.  I may have to add four more figures to this group to bolster it's numbers.

The cannon is a Perry miniatures French piece and the addition of that makes my French a good looking all arms Force.

The Allied Force consists of four groups of the 4th Foot, plus their skirmishers, and a mixed force of Oeels Jager and Rifles, 20 Figures, shown here as two groups of 8 and some spares.  This group is due some serious reinforcements next year.   

Reinforcing the allies will be the Portuguese and some more Line Infantry.  The Allies are a strong, but limited Infantry force.  Those Portuguese will start as Militia and gain in status battle to battle. 

First of my characters is Captain Quitte von Wiessmehr, veteran of Austerlitz, and former Jager Officer, who served in the Rifles during the 1808 portion of the Peninsular War, prior to his transfer to the Portuguese Cacadores in late 1809.  He is credited with bringing up the quality of the Portuguese, and famously seized the convent at Busaco, and stormed the second, less well known breach at Badajoz against fearful odds.  On the arrival of his old friend the Duke of Brunswick in the Peninsular Quitte was given a command in the Oeels Jager, fighting almost continuously until his death beside the Duke at Quatre Bras in 1815.     

Beside the captain is his Sergeant the redoubtable Wachtmeister Feuct, who once held the position of butler at the Schloss Wiessmehr.

 This Portuguese Officer is Fernando, Count of Pantalones.  He claims that his rank is Capitaino but it is his aristocratic status that holds sway in the Army of Portugal.  He is cowardly, lewd and corrupt, and those are only his good points.  Beside him is Acmet his body servant and former street urchin armed with a Portuguese Sea Service Boarding pistol.

 Sous Lieutenant Casse Toi Bâtard, is the commander of my French Grenadiers.  His hobby is killing chickens.  He carries two highly expensive and highly polished dueling pistols as well as a sword, and is a crack shot.  

He is probably the most evil man in the French Army. 

The Sous Lieutenant is pictured here with Sergeant Grande Jambe of the 27th du Ligne.  He usually commands my Voltiguers and is competent but has problems with his big leg.

Captain Quilp is the Commander of the light Company of the 4th foot.  He is short sighted, wearing thick spectacles, not really clear in the picture, and carries a telescope given him by Wellesley as a sarcastic gift.  He also wears high camp boots.

Quilp is a Parson's son but has risen to his rank by doing his job well.  His former Sergeant, Dick Wellhard, is now an Ensign in his Company.

 Major Finguin is the Chef du Battalion of the 27th du Ligne.  He is a long suffering and portly individual, who has run away from battle so many times that he is a veteran only by dint of his survival.  He isn't exactly a coward, but then again he never hangs around when a fight is going badly.

He has all of the honour a Frenchman requires... 

Hero of the 4th Foot is Ensign Dick Wellhard.  He was raised from the ranks for saving the life of Brian Wellesley, Arthur's less well known brother.  

As a former Sergeant he is good at shouting, and not very honourable since he is essentially just an efficient drill Sergeant! 


So those are my forces for for the 2018 campaign. I better get to work on my painting and base texturing!

The Fairmile D Motor Gun Boat in Trouble

Having carted some of my Coastal Forces warships back to Cyprus I intend to playtest my rules.  The vessels I chose were a pair of Vosper MTBs, the RAF Rescue Launch, a Fairmile D Motor gun boat and two of my S-Boats. 

Deciding to start with the gunboat I drew its mission card.  "A Patrol to the Broad Fourteens."  It was a moonless night, and the sea was at state 3. 

The Captain of the Gunboat was "sound."  He had two crew points and a specialist, us the three crew points that came with the MGB itself.  The Speacialist turned out to be a gunner, and was set to crew the two pounder up front, whilst the remainder of the crew were spread around the boat.   

The first encounter en-route, turned out to be a friendly convoy heading north.   The mission card had a possibility of encountering "E-Boats" or a U-Boat, but neither of these appeared.  

At the second table I rolled the encounter dice and the enemy were definitely around me somewhere.  The MGB was moving at 30 knots, throwing up a plume behind her, making her easier to spot.  The dice generated an S-Boat lying in wait off the reef.  

 I added a disc of yellow plastic under the Gunboat to indicate that she was seen.

This allowed the Kriegsmarine the first shots, and a devastating fire it proved to be.  The 20mm rounds roared into the gunboat damaging the engines and disabling the two pounder, killing my gunner.  Two more crew were lost in just this one salvo.  

The tracer was shown by the use of lines of orange plastic.  It looks quite effective.

The gunboat returned fire but those opening rounds from the S-boat had done their work.  The German orders from the mission card were hit and run, and the S-boat opened the taps and fled.  Even without her engines damaged the MGB had nowhere near the knots to give chase.    

The third encounter was an air attack on the run back to HMS Beehive.  I used one of my ME110 Desert war planes, and conducted the attack.  With then MGB at half speed she couldn`t evade and another crewman was lost.

Not the most successful of missions!

Coastal Forces Warfare Rules draft v1

The S-Boat menace...

Having finished the first three of my S-Boats this afternoon I decided it was time to have a look at my rules.  

I set out certain requirements for the type of games I wanted in a previous blog post.  As a reminder:

• The rules should be quick to play and easy, to learn, but give a simulation of Coastal Forces warfare.
• Personalities and leadership should be a factor in the game.

• Avoid book keeping and excessive detail. 

• Make the game mission driven. 

• I want my games to be playable as solo games, in a similar vein to Dan Mersey's Babbage rules.

•  My rules will have to work equally well on  a tiny table...  difficult one this.

• D6 is the only dice type I will allow.

Looking at some of the mechanisms I`ve come up with to address some of these points...

• Personalities and leadership should be a factor in the game.

The individual boat Captains would be the key to the game.  The declare their orders at the start of a turn before rolling d6 to implement each action.  Captains are assigned characters with a simple d6 roll. 

6  Inspirational Hero 3 Crew points, 3 Specialists

5  Bold Brass Balls 3 Crew points, 2 Specialists

4  Solid and dependable, 2 Crew points, 2 Specialists

3  Sound  2 Crew Points, 1 Specialist

2  Wobbly.  Losing it, 2 crew points.

1  Pretty raw, 1 Crew Point.

• Avoid book keeping and excessive detail. 

Crew points and Specialists are used to carry out an action in a turn.  Specialists gain a +1 on the dice for their action.  They are allocated in a blind draw from the depot ship. (or an opaque pot!) 

Individual boats get a number of free crew counters depending on their status.  For example an MTB is Trained (2) and automatically has a Captain and 2 crew.

The prototype

Specialists are:

1^st Officer

Torpedo man, 

Gunner, 

PO Motor Mechanic, 

Coxswain, 

Signalman, 

Leading Seaman, 

Specialists always roll at +1

Able Seaman  0

Trained Hand -1

The crew slots on the control panel are allocated to crew members and Specialists at the start of a turn.  If damage occurs to the section they are allocated to they may be exchanged for hits.

The mechanism to achieve this is right there on the control panel.  For example to increase the speed of the boat a Crew member is placed on the Wheel House Crew space.  

D6 is rolled during that turn and the boat will increase speed as ordered on a 3-6.  

A Coxswain on the wheel will give a +1 on this roll.

It is designed to be used independently of the Umpire, almost as a recording of use of resources and game status device.  Great for my solo gaming too!

With more combat there is a necessity to track ammunition use, and crew counters to enable the Captain to use the boat's equipment, as well as command counters.

Damage is also recorded on the panel, and crew can be allocated to hold damage at bay in Damage control.  The dice frames record levels of damage to hull/buoyancy, engines and weapons. 

Evening the odds:
My Fairmile B Gunboat

I have an unused dice frame I can't decide what to do with but have a vague idea of using a system of Command points similar to Dux Bell for the flotilla commander to issue orders to his boats. Heroic Johnny Quilp would have 4 command points that he could allocate as crew to his boats, but poor Horatio Farthingdale only two etc...

I think a player could control up to 4 boats, but typically the game would have two boats per player.

The weapons will rotate to track danger, if crewed, using the bow of the boat as a reference point.  Torpedoes to look and fire in a similar way to the E-Class sub over the bows... usually.

A work in progress...