Sunday 2012-10-07

US assault on Aachen in October 1944 by the US 1^st Infantry Division. Rule Set Rapid Fire.

The attacking forces comprised two US Infantry Regimental Combat Commands each supported by a tank battalion.  Mark supplied the specialised American armour, 2 Sherman flails, Sherman Aunt Jemima, Sherman Crocodile and a Sherman Jumbo. Great models!

The defenders were 6 battalions of assorted quality VolksGrenadiers supported by numerous flak weapons and one company of Stugs,

So how did it go? The American 9^th Airforce put in an early appearance with mixed results and then the American infantry entered the outer edge of Aachen. Initially, there were early American successes but as the game went on and they penetrated further into Aachen progress slowed and losses mounted. American tanks tried to support but became victims to panzerfausts and the advance halted. The Germans counterattacked skilfully in places. In the end, my US combat command was reduced to clinging onto the edge of the city! The other commanded by the more technically accomplished Mark was still making slow progress at the end but overall, Frazer and Phil the German players, held on.

The game served to test our amendments to the built-up area fighting rules and showcased Frazer’s superb WW2 ruined buildings to perfection.

Paul G

IX Airforce A-20 bombs the industrial sector

Thursday 2012-09-06

Game 1

FoG:AM

Mr Robinson’s Medieval German City Leagues (Swabian Wars options) took on Mr Adlam’s Spartans.

On a very heavily terrained battlefield (forest everywhere), the Germans split into two wings (with a largish forest down the middle).  A mounted (left)  wing (Welsche Guard knights, Georgschild League Lighter men at arms ie Cavalry and Mounted crossbowmen).  The other wing was Pike, skirmishing firearms and Med ft XB with more mounted XB.  Both wings hinged on a BG of 8 Pr XB light foot ensconced in the aforementioned forest.  Dave had a big long line of Hoplites, a mixture of Superior Armoured and protected and Average protected.  they were screened by 5 BGs of light foot, some were poor Javelins, some slings and some bow.  On his far left was a unit of Greek Cavalry (Armoured, Average with light spear).

The German cavalry wing advanced quickly to threaten the Greek skirmishers.  The latter advanced to very close range of the Germans and the Hoplites behind (Superior, with a mixture of Armoured and Protected) advanced in not too close support.  The Greek shooting made the Mounted crossbow go a bit wobbly.  So the German Cavalry (Lancer, Sw) charged the Javelinmen on the far right of the Greek skirmish line, they evaded but with a high variable throw the lancers caught them in the open.  They routed them and then pursued them past the far right of the Hoplite line (both skirmishers and cavalry threw sixes for their variable move distances).   So the Hoplite line had German light lancers behind them and Welsche Guard Heavy knights advancing frontally.  In response the Spartans went from “Walls of Sparta” formation to “Slithering Snake” (ie made a sharp right turn) and started to try and form “Trident” from “Slithering Snake”.  Unfortunately for them the Superior, Drilled, Welsche Guard with general charged (without orders) the head of the “snake” just as the prongs of what was to become “Trident” were behind the lead Spartan BG.  That was the start of the collapse of the Spartan right wing.  The cavalry turned and wheeled and charged the head of the snake in the flank as it struggled frontally against the Guard.  Just as the prongs of the Trident were starting to go back to “Wall of Sparta” formation the head of the snake routed and both German units pursued into them (one of the other Spartan BGs was burst through) and both routed in fairly quick order.  The German cavalry than pounced on the nearby baggage.  It has to be said at this point that whilst the Spartan left wing had excellent combat dice (see below), the right wing units fought averagely well but for Superior troops threw very poor cohesion tests.  The right wing was finished off when the German Mounted XB (also cavalry) shot a unit of light foot bow to fragged and then charged and routed them (the XB needing 5s and 6s to hit the light foot-it shows how bad it was for the Greeks in this part of the battlefield!)

The Poor German XB in the forest in the dead centre of the battlefield spent the game facing off a unit of 6 average slingers.  Neither side could summon enough dice to damage the other (no overhead shooting reduced the number of dice and the forest increased the number needed to hit!).  The Germans eventually wandered off deeper into the trees at the end of the game when some Hoplites started getting within spear distance.

On the Greek left/German right there was a clash of Pikes v Spears, with the German Pikes assisted by some dismounted knights.  The long and short of it was that the German Pikes could not fight for toffee but managed to throw just enough to avoid going disrupted and/or fragged on a number of occasions (helped by only being beaten by one casualty in nearly every round of combat!).  However the same cannot be said of deathrolls and a BG of 12 and a BG of 8 Pikes both lost their rear ranks!  However both were still there at the end of the game and in fact started fighting better once the burden of the 4th rank had been lifted!  On the far Greek left a unit of Greek Cavalry got themselves in all sorts of trouble by failing every complex move test.  They got shot to fragged by Med XB and then charged by a third Pike block.

Overall the Germans were satisfied they they had persuaded the Greeks to honour their commitments to the troika and then proceeded to put towels on all the deckchairs.   The Greeks muttering darkly retired to drink Ouzo and sat down to enjoy a large meze!

Mr Robinson

Game 2

FoG:R

Mr Parish’s Ming Vs Mr Stead’s Early TYW Swedish.

Lots of Ming cannon shot lots, killing a Swedish Brigade and with the help of MF Bow a unit of Determined Horse. However by now the Swedish Horse had closed in on the left flank and shot and charged a unit of Superior Cavalry Bow Sword. Result the cavalry one base down and fragged break off and 1 unit of horse take a unit of guns. In the Centre Another unit of Light Guns get too close to a Swedish brigade and death roll a 1 which double drops the unit of bow next door. LF bow also discover that consistent salvo volleys hurt and both units Frag and take 2 bases each off. The Dragoons, that have been tying up a significant number of Ming units on the right flank, are threatened by more Bow armed cavalry but shoot them down to fragged and then charge them. Result cavalry break back through a unit of Dao Heavy Weapon types (already disrupted by the Dragoons shooting) which Frag and then break when they see the Dragoons bearing down on them. So the Ming gained a total of 12AP Vs the Swedish 4 and so a 2:0.5 victory for Gustavus’s boys in Yellow.

Mr Stead

I’ve just designed an aggressive close combat version of the Ming (still with quite a few guns – but without my newly painted arquebusiers… bother!). I’ll give that a try and if that doesn’t work I’ll have to think again. By the way it was the Occasional Tables of Death that blew up. No wonder the adjacent unit collapsed to fragged – it would make anyone weep to see such beauty marred!

Mr Parish

Game 3

FoG:N

Mr Shaw Vs Mr Murton. No match report

Thursday 2012-08-23

Game 1

FoG:N

The game last night was interesting in that it was the first time I had used a cavalry corps – albeit supported by a quite strong attached division from the infantry corps of 6 units – 4 infantry plus one unit each of artillery and light cavalry.

The cavalry were divided into one dragoon division with support artillery and 1 light cavalry division also with supporting artillery.

The British were in 2 divisions each mostly infantry but with supporting artillery and light horse.  Attached to them was a division of Brunswickers.

The British defended the large hill in their center and held the open right flank with 2 infantry one artillery and a light cavalry unit, and the Brunswickers deployed behind a wood on the left to prevent the French light horse getting to the LOC.

The French pushed forwards in the center with infantry supported by cavalry, with 2 units of cavalry moving round each flank.  The superior numbers of guns and men forced the Britsh back over the hill, while a successful light cavalry charge at one end of the hill broke the Brunswick light horse.  (helped by a lucky 2 hits by the attached artillery on the move before the charge).  The retreating British left one of their units on the hill exposed to an attack by 2 French units who managed move up to close range and break them by shooting.  A final charge against the British light horse by the French Carabiniers (which should really have been a large unit of dragoons – my excuse being that I don’t have the 18 bases of dragoons required for this army – honest!).  This caused the final ½ casualty required to take Steve’s losses to over 30% and an army break.

Lessons learned – The Cavalry corps is much more powerful than it looks on paper.  9 units of cavalry will always put the enemy on the defensive – although I’m not sure how it would work in a defensive game…. although with an initiative of 5 that may not happen too often.

Mr Shaw

Game 2

FoG:R

In this game my Japanese fought Mr Parish’s Ming (in a historical match up).  Wary of the Chinese artillery park the Samurai fought on a very dense terrain; their right flank secured by 2 steep forested hills and the left by a plantation.  Between these sat two areas of Brush.  The Samurai deployed in the centre led by their Samurai.  The Yari armed Ashigaru deployed to protect the immediate flanks of their betters.  Two groups of Ronin secured the forested hills with some Yari armed Ashigaru and some light artillery in support.  Samurai dragoons and teppo armed Ashigaru screened off the Japanese left.  The Chinese deployed all their guns (bar a battery of light guns) angled inwards to “enfilade” the Samurai as they emerged from the gap between the hills and the plantation.  Their immediate centre was occupied by a delaying force of light foot archers.  Cavalry and light horse probed the Japanese left and the Guard Cavalry supported by Dao wielders and the spare battery of light guns probed the right.  The rest of the Chinese infantry took up various positions supporting the artillery.

Long story short; the 3 Samurai BGs stormed forward under heavy artillery and bow fire.  The BG on my left got to a unit of arquebusiers and captured the light guns next to it (which caused the Dao men behind the guns to go disrupted).  After a bit of luck the much reduced samurai routed the Aqubuesiers and pursued into the Dao men (who had in the meantime re-captured the guns), capturing the guns again (!) and routing the Dao men (actually the Hatamoto foot following up from the Japanese 2nd line routed them by charging them as they’d dropped to fragged).  The Samurai pursued and reached a unit of Poor Arqubusiers who had earlier been burst through by the original routing Arquebusiers and routed these new ones (so 3 BGs routed and 1 BG of light guns captured twice!).  This unit of Samurai had more heads than they could count! The Samurai BG in the centre got to within charging distance of a battery of heavy guns but went disrupted and stalled.  It contracted and jogged towards the light foot who had been tormenting them.  This cleared the way for the Ashigaru with Yumi (bow) who had been following the Samurai .  On their second shot they shot away a gun and so that heavy artillery BG disintegrated and the nearby light foot dropped to fragged (threw two ones and no pluses).  The third Samurai BG on the right captured a battery of Medium artillery and then charged the Chinese Archers behind.  After a long struggle the Samurai got the better of these Chinese (who were front rank light spear, as were all the Chinese foot except the Dao wielders who were hvy weapon).

On the Chinese left/Japanese right the game stalled.  With the Guard cavalry shooting at Ronin in a forest on a steep hill!  After a brief wobble the Ronin realised they could hide behind the trees.  And the Japanese artillery got in range to shoot a base  off the Guard cavalry.  The game ended as the other BG of Ronin got to charge range of the light guns on that flank and the Guard cavalry had moved to challenge them, with some Dao men arriving to take their place.

The comedy moment of the game took place on the Japanese far left.  Here the Dragoons (Armoured, Superior with Sword+Arquebus -so unlike normal dragoons!!) went out to skirmish with some Chinese light horse.  They shot at each other inconclusively for a while, with the Japanese bringing up some support in the form of a BG of Ashigaru with Teppo (Arquebus) and some with Yari.  The teppos shot one base off the Chinese Cavalry that came up to support the light horse and the Dragoons shot a base off the light horse.  The light horse and Cavalry charged the dragoons.  In ignorance of the factors and numbers of dice I decided to stand (my reasoning being that the Light horse had a good chance of catching me so if I could survive the impact I’d muller them in the melee (with my armour and sword).    I lost the impact badly.  However that was nothing that a 6 for the death roll and 11 for the cohesion test couldn’t solve.  In the melee we beat both units, each lost  a base and being average both auto-routed.  Banzai.

At that point Dave’s army cracked having lost 9 attrition points in a single bound!  The Samurai lost no BGS and suffered  6 bases lost spread though the Samurai BGs and 2 Ashigaru bases lost.  Overall Dave was unlucky to lose his army but hyper aggressive play by the Japs worked. (pressing headlong with the Samurai and supporting their flanks and protecting the flanks of the army overall with ancillary troops worked but only just and it was a fine line between victory and defeat).  My lesson was that the earlier version of the army (ie the one I didn’t use), where you don’t get the guns or dragoons is an easier army to co-ordinate as the whole army are Warriors.  In the later version the Ashigaru become Med Ft and thus move an inch slower than the Samurai.  With the need to advance quickly to reduce the killing time for the artillery the Samurai were left hanging for two turns while the support came up.

Mr Robinson

Thursday 2012-08-16

Game 1

FoG:AM

Mr Briggs (Persian) Vs Mr Adlam (Spartan).

I believe the Persians eventually won but other than seeing that Mr Briggs’s flank march arrived and Mr Adlam’s Hoplites boars head formation turning into Hydra’s head formation I didn’t see enough of the game to comment on it.

Mr Robinson

Game 2

FoG:R

The game turned into a bit of an artillery fest with 8 Ottoman Heavy Cannon versus 4 Ming Heavies, 2 Mediums and 4 lights (the infamous “occasional tables of death”).  So destruction was rained down from a distance by both sides from Game Turn 1.  Action in the centre was effectively limited to long range bombardment by the Ottomans (which eventually shot a BG of 8 Arqubusiers to rout).  On both flanks Ottoman Cavalry and/or light horse plunged forward under artillery fire and enjoyed mixed success.  The Average and Pr quality troops on the right routed two units.  The Superior on the left ended up needing to be fully recruited back up to strength, ahem.   The Ottoman’s Wallachian Ally’s Boyars (Hvy armoured Gendarmes) accelerating off form the word go plunged through the Ming centre right reached the base edge and turned round to come back for more (taking out two units in the process).  They were last seen heading towards the rear of a Ming heavy gun battery.

The Ottomans had quite significant early success but overall the fact that the Ming army was 2 BGs bigger and a most of its units were 6-8s (the largest Ottoman was a 6 of Janissaries and a 6 of Pr Med Ft BW) meant that the long term wearing effect of the artillery left a large number of Ottoman units 1 base loss away from routing.  So overall the Chinese won what was effectively a battle of attrition using the new fangled technology of the Renaissance.

Mr Robinson

BRITCON 2012-08-10/12

General Report

Well organised, some nice new features such as fancy signing and maps.  No disasters or problems discernable to me as a player.  Bit of a cock up in the time advertised for the Pub Quiz.  They said 2100 but apparently meant 2230.  Attendance at the Quiz was down surprisingly!  Not quite as many traders as previous years but those that were there occupied the same space so it didn’t look empty.  Didn’t look like a huge number of punters through the door but hey I was playing games.  Didn’t stay for prizes etc as I had a train to catch.  A cautious thumbs up overall.

Mr Robinson

After Action Reports

 Report 1

FoG:AM

Game 1 Ottoman v  Ottoman – I think an 11-9 loss.  Point of interest was mass Janissary shoot out, my 2 eights versus his 2 eights.  I routed both of his but one recovered and survived the game, the other I pursued to destruction after shooting its rear rank off and charging it.

Game 2 Ottoman v Ilkhanid – I think this was an 11-9 win.  Played a Frenchman. Point of interest and comedy moment was charging a Cavalry block with Serbs.  Cav evaded and I caught them.  In the process caused another Cav BG to evade.  Broke the 1st Cav BG on impact and pursued it, causing the 2nd Cav BG to evade.  Pursued again in JAP causing 2nd Cav BG to evade for third time.  Quite close to his table edge by this point 🙂

Game 3 Ottoman v Moldavian (with Pole Ally) 10-10 draw.  Point of interest was his Superior Javelin, Sword, Bow light horse standing everytime I charged them with Janissaries.  Not sure myself how good a tactic that is but he got away with it on numerous occasions (ie passed cohesion tests and death rolls).  Fled 2 of them off table by the end of the game and the Janissaries looted his baggage (obviously he got a couple of my BGs and baggage).

Game 4 Ottoman v Swiss.  A 13-7 win.  Point of interest.  Shot one Pike block to rout with 2 units of average LH.  Charged a second in the flank with 2 Elite Cavalry elements.  It was fragged as time was called!  Comedy moment was the terrain.  He put down a coast and 2 elongated Impassables (we fought in the Mountains).  I moved the latter so they screwed him more than me and added plenty of crap terrain of my own. (my army was stuffed by the terrain anyway).  All my LF and Janissaries had a field day v his LF (all XB and firearm armed).  And my LH jumped in and out of the gaps causing mayhem.

Game 5 Ottoman v French Ordnance – 13-7 win.  point of interest and comedy moment was his attempts to hold a steep hill on his otherwise open right flank with a BG of longbow, a BG of 4 LF javelins and a BG of poor Undrilled longbow.  Surrounded hill with light horse, Janissaries and handgunners.  2 of his units shot to rout with no damage in return, the third just got away recovering (poor quality) from fragmented and eventually got to safety..  Main issue was he couldn’t get his general in to rally at key moment because of movement reduction on hill.

Game 6 Ottoman v  Ottoman – a 13-7 loss.  Played another French man.  Point of interest was his army design.  Pretty standard with Serbs  other than 6 field fortifications and a 6 of Superior Light Horse lancers.

Mr Robinson

Report 2

FoG:R

9-16 vs. Scots Royalist (ECW) Two pike Kiels went straight through the Scots left (eventually taking out 12 attrition points. However the Irish pike and shot in the centre were tougher and held the other two Kiels until one was dragged down by numbers exposing the other and the gendarmes. Had I more experience I would probably have sent the gendarmes to exploit on the flank where we were doing well – I underestimated the time it would take the pike to get back in the fight. Getting the timing right proved to be a bit of a theme.

17-3 vs. 30 Years War French. Much more to plan with pikes crashing through the main line and into soft bit behind. Enough got away to save his army.

16-9 vs. Late Imperial Spanish. Bit of an odd game this. Quality pike and shot decided to take the charge of all the Kiels before the flanks do much. The only real danger for me is just before I charge they get in some close range musketry. Unfortunately, this disrupts a central Kiel. We charge anyway as we’re up at impact, win but lose the general on a 12 so we frag. Since the other generals are committed it breaks and the elite unit next to it gets flanked and ground down. Meanwhile the gendarmes have also gone down. So a bit of a problem – 8 points down, not many to go and he’ll get the camp soon. Plus the only two fighting units remaining aren’t fighting enough to do much damage. However, help is at hand in the form of enemy units charging the flanks. Now there is enough to take out his army, and in a few turns that happens. Perhaps attacking in echelon would have worked better.

11-9 vs. Late imperial Austrian. One of Alistair Harley’s ‘mounted plus heavy artillery and minimum infantry’ combos. We march the whole army out of range of the guns. Two Kiels pin a mounted unit each into different corners and kill them and he takes my camp. Still 90 mins to go but it’ll take 6 turns to reform my army then another 6 to catch him so we call it there.

3-22 vs. League of Augsburg Anglo Dutch (massed muskets). The Dutch spread out and moved forward to secure some bad going on their left with a couple of shot units. After doing so, Richard read his rules and realised I’d get a POA in melee for 4 ranks of pike. All looking good as he’s committed, with artillery and camp behind. So much so that I think 2 Kiels should be plenty enough and aim the other two to exploit into his centre. When lining up to charge the two shot units I make a mistake and get one of the Kiels a bit too close. They disrupt from Musket and artillery fire when the shot close the range. Better to charge than to take another two shots but we fragment at impact. I compound the error by holding another Kiel back to clear up the mess. That leaves the last of my Kiel facing too much fire (20 close range musket and gun dice at one point!) and that’s that. Again I think an echelon might have been better.

20-5 vs. Scots Covenanters. A more straightforward battle where the Kiels power forward into pike and shot and horse and butcher all before them.

Mr Briggs

Thursday 2012-08-09

Game 1

FoG:AM

Mr Briggs (Persian) Vs Mr Adlam (Spartan). Big Persian win despite Mr Adlam being slightly over on points.

Game 2

FoG:AM

Mr Shaw Vs Mr Robinson. No match report

 

Thursday 2012-08-02

Game 1

FoG:R

Mr Briggs and Mr Stead exercised their Swiss and Swedes for the 3rd time. The Swedish line hinged on a unit of commanded shot and swung 2 Swedish Brigades into an “L” shape around a Kiel. Shooting and charges to front and flank, with Horse to the rear, cracked one superior and one elite Kiel.

Mr Stead

Game 2

FoG:AM

Mr Broomer Vs Mr Robinson.

No match report.

Thursday 2012-07-26

Game 1

FoG:AM

On the plains of Negroponteen Greece the armies of the Grand Catalan Company and that of the Great Turk met.  The Prince of Achaea had been cruelly slain by his erstwhile ally, Roger de Flors of the Company.  And now Catalan and Turk fought over the remnants of Latin Greece.

The battle unfolded over a relatively open plain.  The only feature of any importance was an area of open fields in the centre, nearer to the Catalan lines than the Turkish.  The Turks rushed forward on their left with a strong force of Ajinkis and Timariot heavy cavalry, supported by the Qapu Khalqi and Janissaries.  The centre, as traditional was held by poor quality foot archers supported by a few men with bang sticks.  the right began with some more Janissaries with a group of Timariots and Ajinkis flung out on the far right.  A tasty bait dangled to urge the Catalans on into a foolhardy advance.  In reserve were the Serbian Heavy Knights led by Duke Simeon.  The Catalans had packed their centre with the ferocious Almugahvars, armed with long spear.  They were screened by Javelinmen and some poor quality Greek archers levied form the local villages.  The Catalan left consisted of heavy cavalry, knights and some Turkish mercenary light horse (strangely they seemed better able to handle their swords than the ottoman light horse!).  Another unit of Almugahvars supported this mounted wing.  On the right facing the massed Ottoman mounted were two more light horse units.

The Ottoman left pushed the Catalan right back past and behind the openfields and so the Catalans reinforced this wing with two units of Almugahvars who held the ploughed fields and denied the Ottoman cavalry further opportunity to swing round the flank.  The ottomans therefore marched the Janissaries back to the centre to reinforce that part of the battle and eventually, on their left, started to fall back under pressure from the Catalan foot.

In the centre the Catalan Javelinmen drove off the Ottoman light foot bow  but as their supporting Almugahvars got drawn off to the left and right flanks and with the arrival of Ottoman reserves (Janissaries from the left and Timariots from the right) the Catalan light foot fell back in turn.  Some nervousness was caused by the Azabs with bang sticks!.  The Ottoman right and Catalan left was a much more confused affair.   An early skirmish between the Timariots and the Almugahvars resulted in a lost Ottoman base and a disrupted unit of Cavalry which made a quick getaway to re-emerge in the centre of the battle.  The Ottoman light horse had a narrow escape when evading a charge from the Catalan Turks and were rescued by the arrival of Janissaries and the Serbs. With some Janissary bang stick shooters running interference the Janissaries and Serbs caused a major re-deployment of the Catalans buying enough time for the Ottomans to re-organise this wing-which looked at one point like they would lose two units very cheaply.

The Serbians deployed in line and the Catalan heavy cavalry couldn’t resist charging without orders.   The Janissaries moved up and started to shower the Almugahvars unit that was now resting its flank on the table edge (one assumes the Aegean?) with mucho arrows.  This eventually led to the Almugahvars breaking on morale alone.  As this was happening the Serbs eventually took out the heavy cavalry but were also charged by the Catalan knights.  The latter could only get two bases fighting and so the damage the Serbs were inflicting on the Heavy Cav compensated for what they were receiving from the knights.  However as soon as the Heavy cav disintegrated the Serbs went all to jelly and were soundly thrashed by the Catalan knights, eventually breaking (they took 2 of the Catalan knights with them).

Meanwhile just to the left of this action (from the Ottoman perspective) the Timariots that had escaped from the right flank combined with the Janissary bang stick men to shot a unit of Almugahvars to fragmented.  The Timariots charged and routed them and pursued them across the rear of the of the knightly melee.

Here the battle ended as the sun went down (it was getting late down the club!).  The Catalans fell back to Athens to lick their wounds, the Ottomans wondered where they were going to get some replacement Serbs from in high season.  They ruminated over some feta and a frapuccino.  The Catalans were last seen downing Ouzo slammers and wishing they’d gone to Majorca this year instead ……………

Mr Robinson

Game 2

FoG:R

Result from Mr Stead and myself was circa a 13-7 or 14-6 to Mr Stead– so 2 to 0.5.

The main body ploughed into the Swedish foot line, and picked up 5 attrition points (must try harder).

A Kiel was distracted by Horse, dragoons and salvo commanded shot. Went disrupted due to shooting, rallied and charged the Hors and commanded shot (the latter in clag). I stuck the general in to make sure. 4 dice at a plus against the average horse; 2 at a double minus against the superior shot with regimental gun. Ahh, we lose 5-1 and disrupt – rubber pikes. Then we frag later on and have lost 4 bases so we’re not a Kiel anymore. Dragoons now lining up a charge on our rear. We survive one bound; then bolster (meaning the dragoons can’t charge us). At the end of the game we’ve fragged the horse – hurrah.

Of course we lost the camp. Losing the arquebus light foot on the left was a blow. My fault though – should have kept them closer to the gendarmes. The gendarme vs. dragoons fight that resulted was an amusing sideshow. We had to keep charging to avoid the lead, and eventually ended up in rough going where we’re really bad. Still, some good lessons there before we routed.

Still haven’t got the trick of getting this army into the enemy early enough in the game to win it.

Mr Briggs

Game 3

FoG:AM

Mr Broomer got 3 points off my Spartans

Mr Adlam

 

Thursday 2012-07-19

Game 1

FoG:R

I managed to sneak a 12-8 by dint of slowing the Kiels up so they did not have time to kill my main battle-line while sneaking around them and sacking the camp and killing all of Mr Briggs’s mounted troops.

Mr Stead

A typical low Swedish trick. However, was good to see what happens between Kiels and salvo foot (ride out the impact then back to normal)

Mr Briggs

Thursday 2012-07-12

Game 1

FoG:AM

The Grand Gurgan of the Seljuk horde received news of an incursion to the south of the land his tent was pitched on.  He headed with his Ghilman, Turcoman tribesmen, foot slaves and Dailami mercenaries.  Also he took the elephants he’s been keeping safe for a rainy day.

He met the invaders on the Steppes; the battlefield punctuated only by a few areas of scrub and broken ground.  What a sight the enemy were, dressed in wild costumes, exotic feathers adorning their bodies and not a horse amongst them.  Aha an easy day’s hunting for his men!

The invaders advanced quickly forward in multiple lines preceded by a few skirmishers.  The Gurgan massed his heavy cavalry, elephants and Dailami on his left and with a few skirmishers in the centre and right aimed to flank the enemy – a pathetically easy task them all being on foot.

The enemy skirmishers despite being outnumbered charged the Seljuk foot in the centre of the plain.  They stood confident in their numbers and joined by the Gurgan’s son, the Lesser Gurgan.   Alas the enemy, who spoke a strange and indecipherable tongue, were seemingly heavily armed and tore through the Seljuk archers.  The Gurgan, regretting arming them with nothing more than a stick, a piece of string and several sharper sticks saw them flee past the camp and off back to the goat grazing lands.  Perhaps training them in the use of the sticks and string may have been wise.

Still the might of the Seljuk tribesmen and Ghilman flowed around the enemy flank.  However the enemy showed a remarkable level of manoeuvre for an army with no horses.   And the Seljuk force feeling its way round the enemy right flank soon found itself being outflanked around where its centre once stood.  One group of Ghilman shot in by Turcoman tribesmen charged a large group of the enemy.  They shot pack with some strange dart like weapon launched from ornately carved pieces of wood.  These would make interesting decorations for the yurts.  However despite charging on fully armoured horses and having the best armour for the men that money could by the Ghilman failed to make an impression on the enemy and indeed lost numerous casualties in the melee and broke off.  Strange how effective the enemy’s weapons, which appeared to be made out of a shiny stone, were!

Elsewhere the Dailami charged a group of the enemy with strangely shaven heads.  A fierce impact resulted in a stalemate as did the subsequent melee despite the Dailami being armoured and the enemy clothed in simple cotton jackets.  More of the shaven headed enemy then charged the elephants who had come upto support the Dailami and these warriors also caught the Dailami in the flank,.  The Garlic eaters broke under the onslaught of these men who fought like dervishes and fled through the Ghilman and Turcoman warriors who, despite being some way away, became hopelessly entangled.  The elephants were left surrounded.  This was unfortunate thought the Gurgan as he was with them.

At this point the Seljuk army elected a new Gurgan and decided that they would love to visit the Caspian sea region and meet the locals there instead.

Postscript:  On reaching the resorts of the Caspian the new Greater Gurgan sent back scouts.  The news they brought back made his blood run cold!!!  He could hardly envisage the sight of over 100 elephants being pushed and pulled up some great manmade mound and then sacrificed.  However he smiled wryly at the detail that many of the elephants had fallen back onto the enemy soldiers who were behind them and of them no sign could be seen.  Muffled cries could be heard from inside the elephants ………….

Mr Robinson

And very tasty they were too. The Speaker had to have all his friends round for tea to eat the 40lb elephant heart but said it was yummy.

Mr Briggs

** Looking for an early Xmas present? **

Love elephants?

Love food? Love to Cook?

Well available now from Faber & Faber “One Hundred ways to Cook Elephant Hearts” by The Speaker Lord Corduroy Burping Frog Trousers

Mr Robinson