A Return (FINALLY) to Bloody Big Battles

My friend Dave introduced me to Bloody Big Battles, the wargame rule system covering the vast conflicts in what I've always thought of as the Age of Rifles, 1840-1900. I've talked about it before, but basically it's for the really massive battles of history, the kind that you just can't play in a single day, if every battalion or regiment is it's own unit, and you have to deal with all the minutiae. Each unit is a brigade or division, depending on the scenario, each 1"x 1" base represents between 500-1500 men, 24-48 guns, etc. etc., again depending on the exact scenario. 

Dave was lured away by the dark side, he's spent months focusing on fantasy miniatures, and I finally got him to come back into the fold and play a Real Man's Wargame. So we pitted Prussians and Bavarians, under Feldmarschall Ernst, against ... Dave's french. I can't think of a french-ified version of Dave, sue me.

On the left, four divisions of Prussian veterans, making up for the shortcomings of their needleguns with sheer nerve and tenacity. Behind them, 5 bases of veteran Cavalry, two divions worth, and four bases of Breach-loading artillery, my true edge against the French enemy.

On the right, three large divisions of Bavarians. Not as experienced as their Prussian allies, but armed with the superior M1858/67 Podewil rifle, they are still outgunned by the French, but are well supported by three more bases of Breach-loading artillery.

Opposing me, the French. About half veteran and half trained, all armed with the deadly Chassepot rifle, easily twice as effective as the needlegun, but with muzzle-loading artillery.

The five villages were our objectives. With three of them close to the French table edge, it was going to be an uphill battle for the Germans arrayed against them.

Unfortunately for me, Dave's entire army arrives in good order on turn one, advancing swiftly to take the nearest villages.

Luckily, my own army arrived on turn one as well, save for a single division of Prussian infantry, who would arrive next turn.

In true French fashion, Dave advances his cavalry unsupported, and the bold cuirassiers find themselves facing the brunt of the Prussian left flank. The lead cavalry division is cut to pieces by massed rifle fire, and, threatened by my own advancing cavalry, rapidly falls back.

In the center of the field, our massed columns shake out into line and prepare to fight over the central village. My plan for the battle was to hold with my right flank, ceding the far village, and pushing strongly with my left to seize 3 of the 5 objective sites.

My artillery blows great, bloody swathes in the French troops protecting the central village, destroying two bases in a single roll. However, working the guns that hard comes with a price, and all four artillery groups run short of ammo (marked with red tokens), right as my infantry assaults move in on their target villages.

On my far left, French defensive fire proves stronger than expected, disordering my combined infantry and cavalry attack, right as it begins it's charge.

Prussians fight Frenchmen, who are cleverly disguised as Italians (we didn't have enough painted french, so...close enough)

In the end, Dave manages to cause too many casualties amongst my Bavarian corps, while stymieing my Prussian assault, preventing me from taking a third village, and thus costing me the game. 

Bloody Big Battles is truly one of my favorite rulesets, and I can't bloody wait for my Pendraken order to come in. I've been waiting months to receive some more miniatures through my local shop, and if my poor judgement gets the better of me, I might just have to order some Austrians online, to oppose my Prussians. 

A Birthday Battle of Beneath the Lily Banners

The day after my birthday, I made the trek to Austin for a game of Beneath the Lily Banners with the Great Hall Games crew, and my best friend Evan. I'd cooked up the scenario a week ago, and Lance thought it sounded solid. The outnumbered Franco-Bavarian army, through superior generalship and daring maneuver, had managed to catch the Dutch and their British lackeys before their armies could combine. Stronger than either individual force, but weaker overall, the French left a token force (commanded by me) in place to pin the first army down (Randy), while the majority of the French and their Bavarian battle buddies (Evan and Wayne) moved to crush the reinforcements rushing to aid their beleaguered friends (Commanded by Lance and Biff, though Lance was called away before the game even started, due to a family emergency. All thanks to Lance, for lending us his beautiful minis to use, and we wish his wife a speedy recovery.)

Wayne, in the colorful shirt, commanded the French infantry and artillery. Evan, bottom right, only arms visible, commanded the French Cavalry and Bavarian infantry.

The French main force.

Lance/Biff's troops, British and some German minor principality forces, realize that They are our main target, not Randy's army.

The aforementioned Randy's army, at the other end of the board.

He formed his cavalry on his right flank, and split his infantry to march around the woods.

Close up on some British infantry, because damn that's a good paint job.

My blocking force facing Randy's army consisted of 4 battalions of Infantry, three regiments of Cuirassiers (seen above), 2 of Dragoons, and one of Bavarian Hussars (worthless).

When I initiated my cavalry charge, I rolled quite poorly, and 2/3 of my Cuirassier shock cavalry went from good order to 'Shaken,' halving their close combat dice and getting them utterly slaughtered right off the bat.

A few turns in, and my casualties are really starting to add up. The French line infantry (seen to the right of the photo) kept barely hanging on, slowly getting whittled down by the English and Dutch foes.

The British cavalry cuts through the French Dragoons like a hot knife through butter, and move towards the village anchoring my left flank.

A view from the British side of the river. All my infantry had, by this point, lost at least a third of their effective strength. But their job was to hold the enemy long enough to crush the Other allied force...

Which was going rather well. Evan's good dice rolls and natural cavalry elan made short work of his English/whatever foes, driving them back and slicing deep into the infantry columns behind them. Meanwhile, his Bavarian infantry summitted the hilltop and began to deploy into line, while the beleaguered allied army rushed a few infantry battalions uphill to meet them.

Here you can see Biff's infantry attacking the Bavarians atop the hill, while the French cavalry (right) pushes deeper into enemy lines.

Meanwhile, on Ben's end of the table, the British push into the village and my remaining forces begin to withdraw. But help was coming! A full brigade of fresh French forces had turned from the attack to help shore up my failing lines. (See the road, leading away from the village)

Evan's Bavarians making short work of their foes, begin turning the enemy flank.

Since the store was close to closing, we decided that night had begun to fall, ending the day's battle. I'm pretty sure we ruled that Biff's army had taken a severe pounding, and was in danger of being overrun. However, the holding force had taken far greater casualties than had been hoped, though they weren't wiped out. Overall, I think a tactical victory for the French, though not the overwhelming strategic win we'd been hoping for.

Maybe the next time we play, we can pick this up again sort of where we left off, determine what forces remain, how many reinforcements the depleted units would have gained, and see if the French can survive the counter-attack of both forces? Or maybe the partially mangled French army drives Biff's troops into route, but then has to turn and face the nearly un-touched Anglo-Dutch army under Randy's command?

The Battle of Loigny-Poupry- Pt 1.

I'm demo-ing Bloody Big Battles for LSHM's open play event, so a friend and I are going to run through the scenario tonight. This is just a placeholder really, and an excuse to post These pictures:

As a handy, dandy reference when I set it up again at Adam's place.

Here, too, are the starting armies:

The Bavarian Korps, in light blue on the right, deploys first, while

the Prussians in darker blue rush up from reserve.

And here, the French Republican forces.

In the foreground, you can see that some of our intrepid French troops are,

in fact, being played this weekend by Turks and Italians.

An Army is Completed!

This might be a new record for me. I painted my complete Prussian starter-army pack in like, two or three days. Now to get started on the French, to oppose them. The miniatures are all Pendraken 10mm, and they came in convenient $40 starter packs.

My Prussians make up five infantry divisions, one Cavalry division? (If they fielded complete divisions, probably not. But four bases, anyways) and three battalions of artillery (three bases) 145 infantry miniatures, 12 cavalry, 12 artillery crew and three guns.

Prussian Dragoons! With the advent of bolt action rifles, the days of the cavalry were nearly at an end. Still, in the era before the use of automobiles in warfare, cavalry was vital in it's role as Scouts, and to screen your own army's movement from the enemy scouts. In our most recent battle, they didn't exactly do a whole bunch, except when they operated closely with friendly infantry.

The flags came modeled on, which is terrible unless you can free-hand amazing looking flags, which I can't. When I order some standard bearers w/ just the flag pole, I'll pry these guys up and swap them out for something more professional looking.

I slapped some white on the flags so that at least from a distance they look reminiscent of Prussin banners.

Krupp guns! In the Franco-Prussian war, the superior French Chassepot rifle had double the range of the Prussian Needlegun, but Krupp breech loading artillery was miles ahead of French muzzle-loading cannons.

Also, my Dad visited this past week, but before he came he was kind enough to print off some Bavarian flags for my Beneath the Lily Banners army of Bavarians. I think it looks pretty damn snazzy, if I do say so myself.

The regiment in the lead there is, apparently, the Leibgarde Rgmt., or Life Guards

While the regiment with red facings is the Regiment de Mercy.

And these guys are French. Still no banners for them yet. Really could use some colored ink.

Bloody Big Battles! Wargaming in the Age of Rifles, 1850-1900

Thank GOD I enjoyed this game, because I bought a French AND a Prussian army starter pack for the Franco-Prussian War in 10mm, without having played the game or even looked at the rules. Stupid? Yes! But I did it anyways. The Prussians in the picture below are what tricked me into playing it, they looked so damn cool. I bought French, too, because the store needs more French players and with two armies I can demo the game to others.

(once I get the rules, still waiting on those.)

These are, I'm pretty sure, Dave's Prussians. Gah, love them. 10mm is so fucking small, but honestly they're not hard to paint. You don't have to go into much detail at all to make them look good.

Here, the table! And Rob selecting his French forces. The objectives are the bridge in the far upper left corner of this picture, and other bridge to the center right (halfway covered by the paper), and the third was the crossroads in the woods.

A Bavarian division under my command. I love Bavaria, and I'm going to buy some asap, but sadly they're kind of shitty in the Franco-Prussian war. Oh well, some cheap troops to fill out a Prussian army.

The Prussian Right flank

A French Infantry division crests a hill, somewhere.

French Cavalry and Infantry advance onto the table in column.

The French general directly opposite my own Corps had Terrible rolls for movement, his only unit that really hoofed it was a veteran division, that beat the Prussians to the crossroads and deployed in the woods. (The woods Really limited movement and weapons range, negating much of the French firepower advantage) (The French Chassepot rifle had literally double the range of the Prussian Needlegun.) But you can see that they have their work cut out for them, with three full Prussian division advancing towards them.

My Corps advances. My Bavarians were 'raw' troops, but they managed to avoid much fire until they were in a position to do some good.

The fighting in the woods was brutal, with ammunition running low for both sides several times. The French took heavy casualties, and the Prussians charged!

Dave's Prussian Division slams into the French, supported by one of mine.

Another pic of the above situation.

My Bavarians cross the field without taking any fire, forming line and advancing on the French artillery! Solid dice rolls see them driven back.

The French are driven back, taking fire all the way!

The Bavarians advance after the fleeing artillery, preparing to confront the cowardly French cavalry...

I didn't get pictures of the final turn or two, but the Bavarians got a bloody nose as some of the French finally decided to fight back. The Prussians won in the end, with two objectives to the single French-held victory point. It was an absolute blast, and I'll have pictures of my OWN miniatures next time I update this blog.