I ummed and arred  about getting this, but eventually jumped and it arrived today, intended as a Christmas present. It is a two map boargame covering the battle of Eylau 1807.

my reasons for indecision were that while the game components were reportdly lovely, there were said to be problems with the rules that raised questions about playtesting and also of the strength of the language translation.

it looks like behind the scenes, some goodly work has seen improved versions of the rules, with us being at 1.4 now and 1.5 about to be released any time soon.

It is true, the components look lovely, though it is a biggie of a game being a 2 mapper and over 1100 counters, but there are some single map scenarios. A flick through the original rulebook that comes with the game looks like it is quite slick, so the full game might be all the more playable for that.

I have the Vae Victis Eylau, so a comparison might be interesting. I note the system uses strength markers, so that counters are slowly reduced as they suffer the rigours of battle.

This basically means enough troops have been painted to play out the ‘Action at Mill Creek’ scenario.

Checking my records, I was somewhat surprised that I started painting units for the ACW Project in July. I have been putting a lot of time into them, but realising that this has still taken some 5 months just to get a basic project up and running is a little disappointing and makes me realise that for other similar Epic projects I really do need a faster approach to painting these little fellows.

I don’t particularly want a slap-dash look - I have done that before and regretted it every time I played with those. figures, but I think I should be ignoring a lot more detail than has been the case.

One of the problems is that I take a lot of pictures of what I am doing and digital photography can be a cruel medium as it shows all the detail (or lack of) in sharp images, so I want stuff to look nice ….. but also, I just want some figures on the table to get as many games as possible.

To carry on building the ACW set, I will need to keep the same standards, so that the army looks like a cohesive whole, but new ‘from scratch’ projects will give an opportunity to be less demanding on standards, getting the troops to the table will need to be where the emphasis falls.

I do have some Napoleonic Epic strips with a commission painter, to help give a boost to a planned 2025 project, so of course, that will set its own standard that I will be obliged to match.

You will note that the box of Union troops on the left, have a movement tray at the front with 5 bases in them. These sit outside the project and are just something that I found on e-bay that I thought would give me a leg-up to get the expanded second stage of the project going.

Anyway …… there are now enough troops painted for a game and in that regard the initial goal of the project has been realised. The above photo shows the collection for the Mill Creek scenario and you may agree or not, but I think they look rather nice.

There are a total of 42 bases, so perhaps the time taken to paint them is not so bad after all!

The important thing is that I can take my reward by putting a pre-Christmas game on. The terrain and everything else needed has been gathered.

I have updated the ACW EPIC PROJECT page, 6th tab down on the left menu and this outlines the project from inception to today and discusses the rules that I am favouring ...... at the moment :-)

I have been looking at doing a small WWII campaign for either figures or the Old School Tactical boardgame.

I was re-visiting some posts from my Battlefields & Warriors blog (which is currently ‘resting’), when I came across an article that I think is worth re-highlighting here and given a fresh airing.

It concerns a WWII campaign system, together with fast play rules.

Matt Irsik runs a free downloadable e-zine called Warning Order. In issue 58 he covers the topic of campaign and provides a supporting set of fast play rules.

It is obviously designed as a figure game campaign, but I have a number of stand alone small maps from my Old School Tactical system (Squad Leader boards could serve the same function), which could be used to build the campaign structure shown in the photo here.

Anyway, my blog post uses his systems to put down a quick game to highlight the essential campaign mechanics. It also includes a link to Matt’s site, which has issue 58 listed for download.

Further, in my example, a pinboard is used to play the game, so anyone strapped for space or wanting to play multiple campaign tables at the same time, might find that an interesting part of the post.

Re-connecting with the article has me keen to get a proper campaign up and running - hopefully in the first quarter of next year.

If you like what you see at the Warning Order site, might I humbly suggest hitting the donate button. His site can accept a one off donation of any size of choosing. He puts a real ton of effort into keeping each issue going and sharing that work and I get the impression that although his audience is quite large, there are relatively few people supporting those efforts with a ‘thank you’.

In one of the following issues, he takes this campaign system to the 80’s, Cold War gone Hot type campaign for anyone preferring the modern period and his fast play rules for that are great for those of us wanting to easily navigate the complexities of the relationship between modern guns and vehicle armour.

As an aside, if you have something like a hospital visit due etc, downloading an issue or two onto your tablet is a great way to pass some time in a waiting room :-)

Link

https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2022/07/campaigning-and-fast-play-wwii-tactical.html

Published by Academy Games, 878 is a board game covers the Viking incursions against England.

Each turn the Vikings get a new invasion force to attack the coast of England and over a number of turns the Viking player will hope that these incursions collectively will have imposed increasing control across the English landscape.

The picture on the left shows one of the cards played each year to create the invasion force. This card will see the Vikings get 11 Norsemen and 4 Berserkers under the leadership of Björn Ironside. This force is allowed to attack any coast - not just the North Sea, so he successfully assaulted Wessex (south) which meant that the english army now had Vikings in front of them and at their backdoor!.

The English force will attempt to maintain control of England by fighting the Vikings and reconquering territory that has fallen to the Vikings and they do this with nobles, the thegns and local militias.

In our game, the Vikings initially landed in Northumbria, with a plan to take the main centres of influence and that with Northumbria secure (i.e. nobody to their rear), start to press deeper down into England.

Despite a successful Viking opening, a swift english counter-attack saw them pushed into the very top part of Northumbria and an early total defeat looked likely.

However, the system is quite forgiving and in our game, events quickly flipped and the Vikings first dominated the north and then central England. In a desperate bid to change the balance of superiority before the game ended, the English player launched attacks against the weaker held towns and with two victories, brought the Victory Point tally just within their favour.

However, the Viking player had the final activation and likewise took two areas, regaining the advantage in territory held and calling a win.

The ending pushed towards something on the gamey side of things, but regardless, it was one of those games that played in a single session (2 hours)  and went down to the last attack, which are both things we favour in our face to face games. 

The second release this year from the Rapid Fire people.

The Road to Carentan gives us four 101st Airborne scenarios covering the period 6th - 11th June 1944 as follows;

Angoville-au-Plain (D-Day).

Vierville (D-Day +1).

Saint-Comr-du-Mont (D-Day +1).

Purple Heart Lane Breakout (D-Day +4)

The 36 page booklet will be familiar to those that collect the books in the series, good heavy card stock paper, plenty of colour photos with the scenario format having the usual colour schematic map, orders-of-battle and special rules.

New to the presentation of this volume is;

1. Each scenario includes a page of modern photographs of some of the key buildings that will be represented on the table.

2. A photograph of a rather nice wargame table for the scenario is now included with each scenario (I assume that each are the tables that the scenario was play tested on).

3. The usual scale is slightly altered here, with 1 infantry figure on the table representing just 5 men.

4. Very usefully, at the rear of the book, is a list of all the figures and vehicles that players will need if all four scenarios are to be played. This is easy enogh to do oneself, but it is nice to have it as part of the booklet. So for example the most 60mm mortars that the scenarios demand of the Airborne is 2 bases and of Panzerschreck teams, just two bases are needed.

The scenarios use U.S. paratroopers, German Fallschirmjägers and German infantry, though for now, as I don't have paratroopers, I will just use ordinary infantry as proxy.

I had no idea that the booklet had been released until I saw it being plugged in the latest Wargames Illustrated magazine. It arrived within two days of ordering on first class postage (UK).

These booklets are lovely, if you are looking for a rather nice stocking filler! this might just fit the bill. 

It has been a while since I have looked at my Airborne module for the Old School tactical system.

The module has 6 scenarios associated with the D-Day paratroop drops, mainly relating to the town of Sainte-Mére-Èglise.

The first Scenario - Drop Zone Charlie is actually covering the attack on Le Chemin by those units of 101st Airborne that had managed to land in some good order (rather than widely scattered!).

We played it as a face to face game. The system makes the Paratroopers very powerful. They have good morale, are treated as elite and claim an extra points worth of cover, probably due to their field craft.

Anyway, they pressed hard on the initial German defence and formed a couple of 'power stacks' that basically gave devastating fire and raked the defenders, taking out their HMG and reducing a couple of sections.

But then the German reinforcements came on and at first sight, we both thought that the fight for the Airborne would now be a struggle ..... but their stacked units continued to carve up the defence.

In the end, the Airborne took 2 of the 4 objectives, but the casualties inflicted are added to VP's and in this regard the Airborne soared ahead on points to a decisive win.

Scenarios 3 and 4 are the big scenarios in this package and cover the landings and battle at Sainte-Mére-Èglise, with waves of German reinforcements arriving. These pair of back-to-back scenarios look very inviting to do as a Christmas game. I might even set up a Sainte-Mére-Èglise folder, so that the action can be given a bit of depth here with extra pictures.

These arrived today from Anschluss Wargames. They are resin (3D print I think) 1/144 (12mm) WWII models. I occassionally order just a few at a time to fill out various gaps in my collection, hence the eclectic mix here.

You are looking at a platoon of 5 x T34/76 early, 1 x Panther G, 1 x StuG III, 1 x JSII and 2 x Universal Carriers.

Anschluss are doing a 15% Black Friday discount at the moment, which on a small order of this size, basically covers the postage charge (internally within the UK).

The detail on the models is nicely done and those with a turret come in two parts, the body and turret. The Stug and Bren carriers are single prints. 

I never know whether this kind of material needs priming, but I do it anyway with vallejo poly primer, brushed on.

Just something else to add to the painting queue :-)

In the background the Gettysburg 'Day One' battle rumbles on, with some nice moments making for compelling play.

Gettysburg game from Worthing Publishing sits on my table.

I am going for the three day battle and yesterday I managed to play the morning of the first day, which is 6 one hourly turns. 

It has opened in much the same way that Gettysburg games generally do. Heth has been pressing in what becomes the centre, but a whole series of really low die rolls (equals poor firepower) by both sides has allowed the Union cavalry to avoid being crushed by the advancing Confederates by repeatingly withdrawing.

The photo on the left shows first contact with the Confederates defending Herr Ridge. Archer (green square means below average morale) will be sent reeling back after facing canister fire from Tidball's guns. However, Davis does put Gambles cavalry to flight and he gets a foothold on the ridge. This unhinging of the Union defence will see Bufords cavalry and guns voluntarily fall back towards Willoughby Run. 

By noon, the result of the cavalry repeatedly falling back is that the cavalry are now pretty much intact, apart from Tidball's artillery, which has not fared well in the repeat withdrawals. In my last game, the Cavalry had fought a harder battle and were largely exhausted by this point. It is also true that Heth's brigades remain relatively fresh!

Now, Rhodes is arriving to reinforce the Confederate left and of more urgent concern to the Union is the fact that Pender’s division (Confederate) is moving out to the right …. Stretching the Union defence along the flank position of Seminary Ridge.

It is turning into something of an ACW week as I ‘up’ the painting session to try and make my end of month goal for painting the Epic Confederate figures. I might just do it, but we are in the last three days of this shorter month …… serves me right for having the middle of the month off :-)