Great Northern War Playtest

I finally got around to completing my playests for the Renaissance Pike & Shot
Rules. This time a venture into the icy north with a close encounter between the
aggressive Swedish Army of General Sverige and the Grand Duke Kasarov's Russian
contingent.

Both sides deployed in their regular formations. Specific rules impacting this
playtest were the Swedish Ga pa tactic and steadfast classification for firing
casualties. The Russians had more shot stands per unit but not the same
resilience to both shooting and close combat casualties.

The Swedes took the initiative and swept their Horse around the left flank,
surprising a cumbersome Russian Guard's unit trying to redeploy into the centre
and a lone Dragoon Grenadier unit. In the ensuing combats the Swedes prevailed
and managed to eliminate the Russian artillery, poorly sighted to the right of
the battle line.

Elsewhere the Russians were doing OK but the Swedish advance of four infantry
units (including Guards) looked thoroughly menacing. As the lines collided the
Ga pa rules kicked in giving the Swedes a first round edge or compensating for
Russian defensive deployments - in future I think I'll give them more redoubts
and linear obstacles. The higher proportion of pike stands also helped the
Swedes despite the heavier fire they had to endure in the approach.

There was a gradual run of outcomes to the Swedish side with some very bloody
fighting as represented by extremely high hit rolls - both for shooting and
melees.

The Russians reduced to two units conceded. The Swedes held the field with five
remaining units.

An excellent simulation - looked good - the units look nice with neat ranks of
shot and the occasional pike base. Lots of fir trees and some high dice rolls
made this an exciting and bloody encounter.

SIP Game: Napoleonic

I've just completed a massive SIP Game set at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. I
used the Shako scenario book Fields of Glory and chose the Plancenoit, Waterloo
1815 scenario which involved 28 French units vs 45 Prussian. I had to enlist
some of my Confederate ACW infantry to simulate landwher infantry - there were
so many four stand units!

The setup looked impressive with the French ranged in a sweeping defensive
formation supported by the elite Young Guard and the even more elite Old Guard.
Both had distinctive advantages re DPs and I made the Old Guard particularly
well bestowed with positive factors to reflect their perceived invincibility.
That being said one of their battalions was eliminated but this took a while and
overwhelming numbers to achieve.

The Prussian corp was in a very deep march column and the problem of getting
their combat power deployed was a key factor early on.

The French typically seized the initiative and made an aggressive move to
outflank the Prussians and pincer their advance between the village and the left
flank.

This didn't go too well - the French consistently had poorer rolls especially
throughout the early stages of the game and so were unable to make any decisive
inroad against the Prussian flank. The Prussian cavalry won the cavalry duel and
the tables were reversed. Superior numbers began to tell and the French defences
around the village started to falter. The Young Guard was hampered by a narrow
deployment frontage, otherwise the inclusion of these elite troops earlier might
have been decisive. After a further few rounds of heavy fighting the Prussians
managed to remove the 14th French unit which I deemed to be the breakpoint for
the French.

The rules worked really well. The game was big, yet combat resolution was quick.
Melee is decisive. I've decided to allow interpenetration for retreats but now
inflict 1DP. There were a few other tweaks I might build in. The rules are so
simple a few additional refinements shouldn't cause any problems.

First Crusade Game

I played a First Crusade game this evening with an Early Crusader army ranged
against a Seljuk Turk force blocking the progress of the Christians to Antioch.

The Commander of the Crusaders, Lord Tancred had at his disposal a hardened
force of three mounted and two dismounted knight units supported by a couple of
units of solid infantry, sporting some crossbows aswell as spears and a massed
rabble of pilgrims.

The Seljuk Caliph had a far more mobile force of Cavalry and Turkoman Light
Cavalry with a couple of heavy archers. Loads of missiles.

The tactics seemed clear but got a bit blurred as the Seljuk Caliph decided to
press forward a bit too much and allowed the Crusaders to engage with their
shock troops. This is exactly what the Christians wanted. All their units were
heavily armoured and with elite status and for the mounted additional first
round impetus, really started to carve up the Muslim forces.

With the collapse of the Caliphs heavy cavalry and elite troops and the mowing
down of the remaining archers the game was up. The Crusaders in contrast were
largely intact having only lost one unit surrounded by Turkomans. This, however,
was a risky tactic for the Muslim general to allow their fast and mobile horse
archers to be lured into close combat.

Overall a convincing display of the power of the Crusader lineup. It proved to
be a bit one-sided as the Crusaders had some remarkable dice rolls while the
Muslims were only favourable in the use of activation dice - I took the idea of
2D4 rolls to activate units for movement at the start of the turn. It generated
some interesting initial moves and choices over which unit to activate.

Next on the list of to do's is the Great Northern War - I still haven't tested
my Ga Pa rules yet.

Skirmish Game: Sci-Fi

While playing my recent Skirmish Game set in late WWII, I had noticed an absence
of the effects of suppression and high volumes of fire restricting enemy
movement etc. Having corrected this with some suppression, pinning and rallying
rules, I needed to playtest these.

I've just completed a successful playtest of them using my Sci-Fi universe based
on Mark Ratner's Space Marines. On the planet Kasarian IV the Hiss were making
another land grab expansion. Only a few Terran elite Guard units stood in their
path. The specific scenario was set on an arid plain with scattered dunes,
depressions and rocky outcrops. A couple of research facility buildings and an
oasis were the only elements of colour in this otherwise desolate landscape.

The forces involved were a Hiss Claw composed of five Talons on two bases each
and a couple of PML Teams in support. They were armed with outmoded cone rifles
but were fast, tough, with incredible morale due to their disregard for
sacrifice. Their tactics were clear - rush the enemy, overcome them by weight of
numbers, destroy them hand to hand (or claw to claw in their case). The Terran
Union had one Guard Infantry Platoon. Although far fewer in numbers, these were
elite troops, equipped with cutting edge technology: power armour, power rifles
and superior vision aids.

The Hiss started the game making a rush for the research station. The Terrans
had similar objectives but decided to peel off their flank squads to provide
fire support to their central thrust on the Research Station. The rules started
to kick in really well here with the high volume of fire from the power rifles
suppressing and pinning the Hiss advance at several key points. The Hiss did
surprisingly well to continue their rush and make the Terran line engaging in a
couple of critical house to house battles, however, the Terrans had the edge in
defence, with the power armour giving them considerable endurance despite Hiss
numbers.

After an exciting exchange of fire and close combats the Hiss finally reached a
50% morale check with enough of the remaining bases having to be removed and
forcing the Hiss Claw Master to concede to the Terrans.

The rules worked very well and I liked how this added an additional dimension
based on the high fire volumes of automatic weapons.

Long Live the Union!