The Battle for Gilly 1815

On Saturday we convened at Eds' place for a game of General D'Armee 2 with our recent 6mm Napoleonic collections, my Prussians featured in my last post.

Ed had laid out the table as the Battle of Gilly, but we would use the "Divisional Organisation" lists from the rulebook.

Ed and Liam would attack with the French electing to:

• Add the 7th Cavalry Brigade
• Upgrading 2 Light Infantry in 2nd Brigade to Grenadier and one Dragoon in 7th Brigade to Grenadier
• Adding a small Horse Artillery Battery to the 7th Brigade
• Upgrade 7th Brigade to Battle Cavalry

Mark and I would defend with the Prussians. I chose to:

• Add 5th Infantry Brigade
• Add small Foot Artillery Battery to the 5th Brigade and make it 12-pounders
• Upgrade 4th Brigade to Battle Cavalry

The Prussians had a great roll on their C-in-C ability and drew a Incomparable, while the French Campaigner was non too shabby. Both sides both had a Bold brigadier, both choosing to assign to the cavalry. 

The French had a rather splendid set of scouting rolls and two Infantry Brigades were deployed on table before the French deployed. 

The French went with two infantry brigades centre left and a cavalry brigade on their right, the remaining cavalry and infantry brigades in reserve. The Prussians also placed their cavalry in reserve.

The remaining Prussians were placed on their starting positions.

 

Early moves saw the Prussians attempt to redeploy their infantry against the cavalry threat in their left, if the French horse could push up, their reserves would swarm that side of the table and we needed to be ready.

The French infantry in the center came on at a steady pace facing somewhat desultory Prussian artillery fire. The French Legere stormed the bridge at Gilly ejecting the Prussian Landwehr who had drawn the short straw defending it.

As the battle developed the French cavalry brigade forced a crossing at the ford and the Prussian reservists were forced into square to await reinforcements. 

The fight in Gilly continued with the French holding on against determined attacks, but the Prussian artillery was coming more into play and the French casualties were mounting.

The French reserve on our left arrived at the same time as the Prussian troops redeploying to face them started to form a second line, despite the ongoing battle for the village, the focus would shift to our left flank.

The 12-pounder battery supporting the Prussian reservists was having a great effect against the French and as they advanced were sorely tested by the heavy gunfire. 

The cavalry charged and charged again but without any decisive victories going to either side. Both sides also suffered terribly with plans thwarted by brigades refusing to obey their orders.

On our right, the Prussian Line holding the stream line were being thoroughly battered by the opposing French artillery, as the French columns came on the Prussian lines facing them started to suffer gravely.

On our left the Prussian reserves started to tell on the French and what initially looked to be a imminent disaster was shored up and the French were in no position to push on their attacks.

Back in the center, the Landwehr again threw themselves into the village and were successful in dislodging the French Leger.

However disaster on our right, as the French columns closed on the thinned lines another round of artillery rained down, a Destiny result saw the brigade faltering at the most inopportune time. The French slammed home driving the Prussians back in great disarray. 

We did not get to the full number of turns, and as neither side was broken we totted up demoralizations, declaring a small victory of 8:5 in favour of the French.

A great day out with Ed, Liam and Mark, cannot wait for the next set to!

Waaagh Scrivs and the Stinkies

 

Yesterday Peter and I met up at Warhammer World for another game of Warhammer 40K. I took the Orks as usual, Pete spun the roulette wheel of selecting from his many armies and used his great looking Death Guard.

Both of us had forgotten to pack our rule books, what a pair of supposedly mature chaps we are, so we decided to use Tempest of War for our game instead, which was great as I've been hoping to do that for a while.

We ended up with opposite quarter deployments and a capture/scan for the primary objectives. I cannot exactly recall what Peter used, some Warlord, a Psyker, another character, a unit of Terminators, two units of Marines, two huge units of Pox Walkers, a large vehicle with a mortar, two floaty flamer things and a buggy thing with plasma cannons.

I took Warlord, Weirdboy, two units of Boyz, two units of Beast Snaggas, one unit of Grots, a Mek, a unit of Nobs, two units of Deffkopters, two Deff Dredds and for the first time a unit of Killa Kans and the newly painted Trukk.

Pete took first turn and had a great first psychic and shooting phase, pretty much wiping out one of the units of Boyz, a couple of Deffkopters and a Killa Kan, but was unable to get any points from secondary's. I "First turn Waaaghed" and was into him quickly, a unit of Nobs was Da Jumped into his rear and the Boyz let rip with the shootas into the Pox walkers and charged mob handed, the Nobs tore into the plague shooting mortar thing. By the end of the turn I had picked up 10 points of secondary's.

Turn two and things got a bit messy, the terminators and unit of marines in reserve were bought on and the Trukk was badly shot up along with most of the Nobz, but remained in the game holding the objective. The damned pox walkers and some orb thrown at it put a ton of mortal wounds on my Warboss who expired, but the lads were generally still in the game. Peter was still unable though to score any of his secondary's and was rapidly burning through his CP.

In retaliation the remaining couple of Nobz mashed up the mortar thing some more and the Pox walkers were pretty much wiped out to a man, the Marines that charged my Trukk full of shooters took three wounds from opportunity fire, who says Orks cannot shoot, well me mostly!

Mission rules meant no Warlord, no CP for me so Deff Dredd and Kopters joined in the big mash up in the middle and put paid to a pair of the Deathguard characters while the other Deff Dredd joined in the Trukk fight and the Orks debussed into combat. Mush mashing up ensued.

The Deathguard Psyker survived but double sixed is next psyker test putting six wounds on the Deff Dredd and three wounds on himself!

We had to call at the end of turn four as I needed to get back to work, I'd been slowly racking up the primary points, but had really scored big on the secondary's giving the Orks a solid victory.

Great game again, we usually play every other week, but Peter is away next time so it's likely to be late June or July before we get to battle again.

Waaagh Scrivs meets the Death Wing

Thursday evening saw Matt and I playing 40K again. Last time we played Matt shot me to pieces with his Crimson Fists so I hid to win the game on objectives. This time he had bought his Dark Angels Death Wing and we would be fielding 1000pt forces.

Matt had a Chaplain, six Angels of Death thingies, one large squad of Terminators that he chose to break into two and a squad of Terminators with hammers, shields etc. I had my Warboss in Mega-armour, two mobs of 10 Beast Snaggas, one mob of 10 Grots, one mob of 6 Nobs, two mobs of 3 Deff Kopters and a Deff Dredd 

We rolled up the Divide and Conquer scenario. Matt elected to deep strike with his Chaplain and Angels of Death while I put everything on the table.

Matt won the first turn roll-off and elected to let me move first, I moved out to snag objectives. The Deffkopters plastered his Terminators and Matt made seven three-plus saves, this would become a pattern. I War-pathed my Nobs and then Da Jumped them behind the Terminators on my right. 

Skorch, charge, crump, crump, crump and a single unsaved wound, bugger, return strikes saw the Nobs all mashed up. I also buffed the Deff Dredd and tried to join this combat, but, needing 10+ on 3d6 with a reroll failed, buggeration!

Matt did not have a lot of shooting, so his fist turn just saw some wounds piled onto the Deff Dredd. 

Normally in my second turn I'd declare Waaagh, but as the Angels of Death had yet to appear and me being quite a way away it was not worth it. The Deff Kopters continue their onslaught against the Terminators, again Matt makes a bucket load of 3+ saves!

Turn two and the Angels of Death beam down and manage to make a 9" charge against my Warboss, who fortunately makes his saves and stays in the fight. More desultory fire from the Terminators.

Turn three and it's time to Waaagh! 

I've not caused a wound since the Nobs messed up their charge in turn one, and the next wound is inflicted by a Grotblaster! The Deffkopters also finally come good when they dispatch two Terminators with their Rokkits, but they really should have been doing at this rate every turn since the first turn.

The Warboss is joined in combat by a couple of units of Beast Snaggas, but my Weirdboy fails his Perils of the Warp and puts three mortal wounds on himself!

I thin out the Angels of Death a bit, but "Mace boy" cuts a swathe through one of the mobs. 

By turn four it's pretty much over, the inability to thin their ranks in the first few round tells and the writing is on the wall, by the end of the Deathwing phase there are no Orks left on the table and Matt secures a solid victory.

Thanks to Sam for the photos, I hardly took any and what I did came out rubbish.

Antietam: Bloody Lane

 

On Saturday I hosted a game of American Civil War using the Pickett's Charge rules for Martin and Nick. 

We played the Bloody Lane scenario from the rule book as I've got pretty much all the figures I need to play this, although Nick also contributed some Union Generals and a battery of Union Artillery to the game. 

What follows is more of a photo-dump rather than a full report of the game.

The Union Generals struggled to get their troops moving in the early, with every Brigade Hesitant on turn one! In the early stages we looked to be heading to a solid Confederate victory as casualties racked up on the uncoordinated advance.

The Union troops finally seized the initiative and in the middle third of the battle Kimball, Meagher and Morris all had units in the lane and the Rebels were facing disaster. 

It was not to be though, the Confederacy took back the lane at bayonet point and in the last turn of the game the Union troops were back on their start line with three faltering brigades.

Martin has also added a report of the action on his blog.