Two refights, two conventions and a campaign game, it’s all happening in May!
Our first game of the month was the first on table clash in our Iran Iraq campaign.
In order to facilitate some battles that weren’t of the equal points variety I set up a campaign based around ‘Operation Howeizeh’ the Iranian counter attack of January 1981. Although we have a goodly amount of kit for a small group a certain amount of ‘creative accounting’ had to be done to make what we had fit the general historical setting – frankly this wasn’t a problem, the idea was to create a different way of getting models on the table and have some off table decisions to make. The excellent Helion soft backs on the conflict were invaluable for maps and forces involved.
The initial manoeuvring gave us our first big battle when the Iranian 92nd Armoured Brigade approached the town of Dub-E-Said defended by the Iraqi 15th Mechanised Brigade. The 92nd were constrained by a single highway approach between a large marsh but confidence was high with 2 battalions of Chieftains leading the way.
As we were using our rules of choice, Cold War Commander, we decided to use the optional weather rules and the optional air superiority rules and boy what a difference it made!
First off the air superiority roll was decidedly in favour of the Iranians which resulted in the Iraqi’s struggling to get any of their air assets off the ground – I liked this as a rule mechanism and will use it for all our games going forward.
The weather rules were wild! Basically we had a raging storm throughout the battle and despite many umpire rolls it never abated. In game terms this reduced visibility and negatively affected individual command rolls which for this particular battle favoured the Iraqi’s as in a straight fight they were going to be hard pushed to do much against the Chieftains.
The game turned into quite the slog with the Iranians never getting off the end of the highway by the time night fell and they fell back with zero casualties having inflicted some losses on the Iraqis. Full marks go to both the commanders for playing the game through with all the disadvantages rather than saying ‘screw it, we’ll delay the attack for the next day’. Personally I really enjoyed it, the game was completely different and the tactical problems posed a real challenge. What will happen next remains to be seen, it sure as hell can’t be stormy two days in a row 🤔
Next was our first refight of the month and our first convention when we refought the battle of Sagrajas1086 at Partizan.
The battle was a decisive in stopping what had been a steady advance by the northern Christian forces of Alfonso VI down Al-Andalus picking off the disorganised Muslim emirates one by one. It ushered in a century of Muslim recovery spearheaded by the Almoravid dynasty of Morocco.
We set our game up with both sides advancing from their camps heading towards the slight rise in the ground between both forces.
The Almoravid ace in the hole was their Black Guard infantry which were held back as a reserve should the Christians break through.
Our refight was a tale of two wings. On the Christian left the Andalusian cavalry facing the Christian knights fled after a brief melee and their fear spread even to the Black Guard who halted in camp. On the Christian right however the reverse result appertained and the victorious Muslim cavalry started turning into the centre to cut up exposed crossbowmen and archers as the Christian cavalry fled to their camp with tales of disaster.
You never get to finish a game at a show and this was no exception but all the kind words and conversations that halted proceedings were gratefully received and we thank everyone who made the effort to stop by.
As to the show itself their were some fine efforts on display, my personal favourite was the 6mm Wagram game – and I don’t even like Napoleonic’s 😂
There were some not so fine games (in my opinion) so I didn’t take any photos of them and perhaps too many which were essentially a static display which for me is not what wargaming is all about and doesn’t do much to promote the hobby. Of course this is just an opinion and has no more validity than the next persons.
Many thanks to Lawrence and Richard for organising and we look forward to a return visit – we might even get our Minden effort on the table!
Next was our second refight and the second in our 1809 north Italian campaign refights. This time the battle of the Piave whereby Eugene raced to cross the river Piave before flood waters swept away his crossing points and his opponent Archduke John could consolidate his defence.
Our rules of choice for Napoleonic’s have become Volley and Bayonet and we followed the layout for the battle contained in the scenario book. In the actual battle Austrian losses were between 3,600 and 3,896 and the French between 2,000 and 3,000 – remember these figures for later.
A lot of the early moves were spent by the French in traffic management (and as it turned out managing the wrong traffic 🙄) which meant the Austrians were able to get up to the edge of the dike and stream further in from the main river.
First across were Grouchy’s cavalry who should have spurred on to threaten the Austrian centre as the French infantry attacked. Instead they went off on a magical mystery tour on the extreme right flank and were of no use for several moves. When they did get into action they redeemed themselves against the Austrian cavalry but it was too late an effort.
On the French left and centre it was hard going and it was late in the game before holes began to appear in the Austrian front.
Eventually the sightseeing French cavalry made a difference and the French crossed the stream in a couple of places where Austrian numbers were weaker.
Ultimately the Austrians gave way before their entire force was surrounded but the butchers bill was high; French losses equated to 12,750 and Austrian losses to 8,750.
Our penultimate game was Republican Roman v Later Seleucid as I trialled some more amendments to the core rules. This game, just like the previous one featuring Romans, served to confirm my view that representing the intricacies of the early Republican formations is dammed difficult and I was right to cut off the rules prior to serious Roman/Macedonian interaction.
Be that as it may, we’ve got some nicely painted Romans so we will persevere until we get something that works well enough.
The Romans significantly out scouted the Seleucids and so got the pick of the terrain but unfortunately didn’t make the best use of it.
The Seleucids opted for a ‘different’ strategy. On the left they deployed their 4 pike battalions fronted by skirmishers and gave the whole division orders to hold. The elephants & Tarentines deployed in the centre aimed between two vineyards with their right covered by 2 regiments of line cataphracts while out on the far right the Agema cataphracts and the royal hetairoi deployed.
The Romans had 3 legions, 2 Italian and 1 Roman. One Italian legion and the Italian cavalry were deployed out on the left behind a ravine which ran from a hill back to the baseline effectively cutting off this third of the battlefield, the only way out was over the hill – after the battle the Roman overall commander couldn’t offer a good reason for this deployment other than ‘it was there’. The other Italian legion and the Roman legion held the centre and the Numidians and Roman cavalry the right.
The first serious action was on the Roman left where the Italian cavalry took on the Hetairoi and the Agema, predictably they lost and lost badly, both units being destroyed.
In the centre the elephants and Tarentines clashed with a unit of Cretans who did remarkably well given the disparity in strength but eventually the Cretans fled and what was left of them died in in the ravine. Out on the Roman right the cavalry realised there was nothing to fear from the pikes for a while and so joined in the developing action in the centre.
Returning to the Roman left the Seleucids played to their strength (high morale) and threw themselves against the legion. Actually it was the Hetairoi who did the heavy lifting as the Agema spent 5 turns trying to rally from being Shaken (and therefore unable to charge) – Gerard worked out that the chance of failing that particular test 5 times in a row was 1 in 1024! Oh how we laughed 😂
Ultimately the Hetairoi were successful, the Hastatai routed, the legion commander was killed and the legion was paralysed. The action had no bearing on the rest of the battle and was almost pointless but it did allow us to play out the rule amendments which facilitated the legion rotating troops in and out of the fighting line which worked fairly well.
Back in the centre the elephants made their habitual mess, one panicked and ran into the back of the Italian legion, all 3 eventually died.
The Italian legion saw off attacks by the line cataphracts and by the end was battered on top of a hill.
The Roman legion so nearly broke the pike battalion it eventually ended up facing off to, it just didn’t quite get the full effect of it’s pilum volley thanks to some clumsy positioning. What we saw of the mechanism changes seemed to point in the right direction, a one on one across less restricting terrain will be the real test.
In other news the Roman cavalry sacked the Seleucid camp.
The second convention was the annual visit to Games Expo, this time spread across 4 halls at the NEC. This event is huge and is a fantastic look into the wider gaming world.
This was my 6th visit and I did teeter on the edge of not bothering but I’m glad I did, the vitality of gaming in the wider sense gives a real buzz and lets you know just how many people are into gaming in all its forms.
For me the fun of a visit is the taking part in the myriad of 20 minute to half an hour pick up games demonstrating new products, forthcoming kick-starters or just pushing an established game. I’ve learnt now to stay in my lane when it comes to being tempted to purchase something I’ve just played, I’ve got enough distractions on the figure front never mind card games, board games, horror skirmish games, etc, etc.
If you want to have a look at what do all those other types who we call fellow gamers do the take a visit next year.
Final game was an away day with some once every now and then local gamers, this time a mass modern skirmish somewhere in a fictional African state.
The rules were Wars of Insurgency. Simple and effective, these aren’t designed for detailed play or catering for weapon differences and for the scale of game we were doing worked perfectly ok.
The game essentially revolved around stopping or assisting the President getting to the airport and/or killing him. He survived despite the best efforts of 6 different factions. Dice were rolled, beer was drunk, sometimes that’s all you want 😀
So another month draws to a close, Holidays next month so the volume of games might be down a bit but a report will follow as always. Thanks for reading and have a good June.
Westbury Wargamers 