At Last! He says.

I have just completed enough of the Warlord Games Epic figures to get my ACW Graysville Campaign going.

Yesterday, I based 6 Union mounted cavalry bases, 2 Union artillery bases, 2 Confederate mounted cavalry bases and 2 dismounted Confederate bases.

The artillery are on the supplied 30mm x 40mm plastic bases, but everything else has been put onto 55mm x 25mm MDF.

While this painting fury has been targeted to get the Graysville campaign up and running, the consequence has been that it has also significantly moved the main ACW Project forward, which has Phase II tasked with getting the numbers ready for the McPherson’s Ridge scenario, as described over on the ACW Project tab, so the next few months should see quite a bit of Blue & Gray gaming.

This just dropped through the letter box ..... Vae Victis issue 178 covering the Imperial Guard at the battle of Eylau 1807.

Based upon the Jours de Gloire system, but modified for the lower scale of battalions, we get two scenarios.

The first has an A3 map that takes in the lower part of Eylau town and the cemetery and this deals with French Guard Infantry plus support.

The second has a map on the flip side of the main map and being a smaller affair, the map is just A4 and this one deals with French Guard Cavalry (cuirassiers).

The scale is reduced to 100m per hex.

While I wait for the English version of the rules to appear on the VV website, I have used Google Translate to pick out some things and it appears that rather than formation activation being based upon blind chit draw from a cup (as in JdG), there is an alternating method of formation activation.

The French have 5 higher formations on the counter sheet and the Russians 4.

The blurb says this is playable in 1 - 2 hours, so it looks like something that will hit my table soon. I hope the system is only slightly modified from JdG, as I know that system quite well and have the professionally produced English version of the rules.  

Things are racing along! But I knew this would be a brief fight as the German intention was to withdraw from the outset, so I thought I would squeeze in aniother game.

Never-the-less, despite my 'I know where this is going' thoughts before the game, it still gave an interesting fight with surprises and the potential for prisoners this time. The Krosnogord Campaign tab has been updated.

The campaign doesn't actually have a functional night turn as such, however, I am using the night period for some campaign function and a brief update will be added to the campaign folder just to keep the chronological sense going. I will update that tomorrow.

After that, I will likely pause the Krosnogord Campaign, while I get the ACW campaign (Graysville) up and running. Both campaigns will then proceed with equal time given to each.

The post Christmas plans are certainly moving at a pace with campaigns and shorter games getting thrown into the mix

The afternoon game has now been played and the Krosnogord campaign folder on the left has been updated. We end up fighting in more marsh, but I like that even with random selection of the maps, we have a bit of consistency here with bad terrain.

The map here shows how with the map for the second game (top) inverted, the Soviet forces in the centre, due to the restrictions caused by the marsh, now have to attack on a very narrow frontage across that neck of land.

In other news, the Epic Confederate cavalry (mounted and dismounted) got their mat varnish this morning, so by tonight they can be added to bases, awaiting basing paste and flocks. Once done the ACW camaign should be able to start.

This is a home brew fictitious campaign. I came across a campaign system in a figures wargame book and saw a similar situation on one of my boardgame maps that involved a valley, intersected by a river. Taking the two things together as a base for campaign and then using a tactical boardgame system to game out the campaign provides a marvellous opportunity to get some bigger theme gaming done through a series of smaller games.

Campaign setting

July 1944, while fighting in southern Poland, Soviet forces have come up against a mountain range, where the German positions on the high ground dominate the ground below, bringing accurate artillery fire onto anything that moves. Looking for a way to break through, 1st Brigade  have been ordered to advance into a mountain pass. Their objective is to probe west and take the town of Krosnogord at the far end of the valley. To reach it, they will have to cross the River Wislok, which could be well defended. If they can push beyond Krosnogord, the break through will be complete.

I will be using the tactical WWII boardgame, Old School Tactical published by Flying Pig and designed by Shayne Logan, to fight the various actions, but with a figures system to manage the campaign.

The final chapter in Charles Grant’s book ‘Programmed Wargame Scenarios’ (2nd Edition) has a generic campaign called Reconnaissance in Strength and essentially works as a ‘ladder’ campaign.

It is actually a reconnaissance in strength type scenario that deals with an advance along a mountain pass / valley by the Blue Force (Soviets for us), which will fight over eight game tables, before reaching the final table - the town. We shall replace the individual tables with the small maps that come with the boardgame’s various support modules.

Red Force (Germans for us) is defending the main town at the end of the pass, but they also have detachments further forwards in the valley, with the intent of delaying and disrupting Blue Force.

I will run this campaign with a series of short After Action Reports, so that the reader can follow the progress from map to map. It will probably be played over several weeks or months. I have opened a campaign tab in the menu on the left, to provide an ongoing chronological account.

The order that the paper maps will appear in the chain of advance will be chosen randomly. The final map is fixed and will be map number 1 from the ‘Phantom Division’ module, as this has concrete type building structures that will represent Krosnogord.

There are various mechanics in Grant’s book that will be used in the background to manage the campaign. Red Force can be ordered by the system and accordingly although I am handling both sides in each battle, for the German forces, the programmed system will be used as I sort of ‘Game Master’ things along. 

The record will be written mostly from the perspective of the Soviet attacker, so that the reader gets a vague idea as to the German player’s intentions and strengths, which are only revealed as the campaign unfolds.

The order-of-battle here reflects ownership of mainly 1st Edition OST Vol I upgraded to 2nd edition (east front) and the Red Blitz module, hence there is something of a hodge podge collection of unit types in the Soviet Infantry battalion, with companies of standard rifle sections, Irregulars and Guards, which is an unrealistic mix at this formation level, however, the game’s counter mix is what it is and those variables should give the Soviet player some interesting choices as to which troop types should be used at any one time and place. Just think of them as green or veteran etc.

Here are your available forces ……….. Captain Voronin

Soviet Order-of-Battle

Commander of 1st Brigade - Captain Voronin (You the player)

1st Infantry Battalion

Captain Sokolov

1st Company

Lt. Grenko

9 Rifle sections, 1 sergeant, 2 LMG, 1 Molotov, 1 ATR

2nd Company

Lt. Balakin

1 x Commissar

9 Guards Rifle sections, 1 sergeant, 2 LMG, 1 Molotov, 1 ATR

3rd Company

Lt. Aliyev

9 Irregular rifle sections, 1 sergeant, 2 LMG, 1 Molotov, 1 ATR

Heavy Weapons Company, 2 HMG, 2 x 57mm A/T guns with 2 trucks to tow

1st Tank Battalion (understrength)

Lt. Ivashin

1st Company - 10 x T34 / 76

2nd Company - 4 x T34 / 85

3rd Company (attached) - 5 x JSII

1st SMG Company (attached) 7 Shock sections, 1 Lt. Chekov, 1 sergeant, 3 satchel charges,

Reconnaissance Company 1 x Lt (spare), 2 BA-10 armoured cars, 3 trucks, 3 x 1st line rifle sections, 3 x sapper sections, 2 LMG 1 Sgt 1  flamethrower (sapper only)

Artillery support is randomly determined at the start of each battle.

All Gut Check ratings are 7 with the following exceptions.

Guards and Pioneers are 6, while Irregulars are 8.

Impulse Points - For each battle, the Soviet army gets a basic 4D6. After the first battle, this is always modified. At the conclusion of each battle, check how many casualty points the force lost during that battle. If it has been 12 or more then in future battles the Impulse allowance is permanently reduced by 2 points. These are cumulative modifiers, so if the Soviets have taken 12 or more casualties in two battles, their Impulse allowance for the fifth battle would be permanently lowered to 3D6 +2. Note in the final battle, regardless of any loss, Soviet Impulse Points are always returned to the full 4D6.

I put the starter scenario to the table today just to get a feel for the game's processes and mechanics.

This is just a five turn scenario and covers the fight at the end of 7th February for the town of Eylau, which starts the game occupied by Baggavout, supported by Essen and Markov.

Pounding up the road and passing through Freiheit is Laval with 2nd Division (IV Corps), who are under attack orders and making heir way to Eylau.

It is 2 PM, other significant French reinforcements will reach the field on turn 2 (3 PM).

Well, so far January has not yielded any 'real' on table gaming, but hopefully the desert will become an oasis in the coming weeks as campaign planning  and painting start to pay off.

The ACW Graysville campaign progresses. The Photo shows a Confederate order sheet. The first column will show ongoing unit losses. The rest of the the sheet is for unit orders .... the current order and if a replacement order is due, then the time / turn that the new order will replace the old and this is based around distance from the brigade commander, so hopefully that will bring a discipline of keeping the brigades together, rather than a free for all!

24 Union cavalry from the Epic range have just had their wash, so need a small highlight, matt varnish and then basing. These have felt harder work than hoped, but I think it is the batch size that has caused that.

Once the varnish is dry, I will get these straight off the sticks and put 8 Confederate mounted cavalry and 8 dismounted cavalry plus spare horses for horse holders onto the painting sticks and hope to fly through them within a week, while I get the Union cavalry based.

I am quite keen to get the ACW done, not only for the sake of the campaign, but I have had a nod that a small commission that I have put out for some Napoleonic French is close to completion and I will soon need to press on with painting some Prussians to fight them! .... another future project!

At the conclusion of getting the Confederates painted, I will be fully campaign ready. I am just reading a couple of Osprey books from their campaign series covering Shenandoah 1862 and 1864 with a view of capturing anything from divisional actions that I would like to see represented in the campaign - just to give a feel thing.

The WWII ladder campaign is pretty much ready, so some Old School Tactical games should start to flow shortly.

Also on the boardgame side of things, I have just done a first reading of the Eylau 1807 rukles and punched enough counters to set up the intoductory scenario, which covers the initial contact / fight for overnight quarters.

It is a cut down action that doesn't involve all of the system, but it is enough to give a feel of tempo and casualty rate etc, together with all of the base mechanics. This should reach the table over the next couple of days.

The quality of the components is very good. In all my years of boardgaming, I have never seen counters push out so easily from the frame and without any side or corner nibs!

Our face to face game was cancelled last Friday, due to snow / ice, but with everything thawed and a respectable warmth in the air, this Friday should see the first face to face game for 2025.

So all things considered - at last! the gaming dice should be rolling soon.

My Christmas boardgame gift was Eylau 1807 by Sound of Drums.

I was already aware that there some concerns about the rulebook supplied, but the designer and others had been working together to get things sorted and the result was that a v1.4 download was already available ..... but there was news of a v1.5 on the horizon, that was to be considered the final text around which a V2 rulebook would be presented in the next release (Quatre Bras) with expanded examples of play etc added.

The designer has said that once V2 is ready and in print, he will send all owners of Eylau 1807 a free replacement rules and play aid pack. Thank You.

I do like to play with a proper rule book in my hands, especially if the one supplied is so nice, so in the meantime, I like the look of the game so much that I decided to send off the new v1.5 PFDF download to a print on demand  firm and my 'new' rule book arrived today - I must say, I am very pleased.

I have used a low res image here, the real thing is lovely, just like the original.

Printing plus postage came to just over £12 not a sum that you want to spend on top of having bought a game, but there are times when it just begs to be done!

The power of print is universally with us all these days - marvellous.

I continue burning the midnight oil to get the ACW campaign up and running. This time with a set of counters to use with the campaign map.

I have raided the Shenandoah Valley 1862 campaign for an Order-of-Battle, though I am setting the Graysville campaign in 1863, not that it matters much except, using my own rules, units roll pre-battle (or pre-campaign in this case) on the Arming Table to see whether they get smoothbore or rifled muskets.

Against the odds! Only one unit gets armed with smoothbore musket, Elzey's 25th Virginia (Confederate).

Next, I rolled for brigade commander attributes. The Confederate commanders didn't get any, so they remain standard commanders, but for the Union, the dice went a little crazy.

Kimball has the Lucky attribute (so some re-rolls for him) as does 3rd Brigade's Tyrer. Colonel Sullivan was less fortunate and he rolled 'Exhausted'. This will bring him some command and control problems, so perhaps Shields might prefer not to give his brigade a leading role.

Some units have had to be described as 'small'. This is because Grant's book, which I am using to run the campaign, makes use of smaller detatchments and refers to 5% of the force being given such and such task / deployment and small units seems to be the best way to handle this - we shall see!

In the background, I am furiously painting Warlord Games' Epic mounted cavalry. I need two regiments worth. The dismounted elements are already done. For the Confederates I need one regiment of cavalry painting, both mounted and deployed versions - so still a bit of work to do.

The second gun battery needed by the Union have just come off their painting sticks and will get based today. The batteries may never end up in the same battle - but you never know, no doubt they would both like to be there for the final assault to capture Graysville :-)

I have started setting up my second mini campaign for 2025. This one is for my ACW figures.

Charles Grant's book of Programmed Scenarios has a chapter covering two styles of mini campaigns. One is a ladder system, which I am using for the WWII campaign and the other is grid based, which I will adopt for the ACW.

Rather than compromise his copyright here by detailing his map and system, I have made up my own campaign map, but the total inspiration for doing this is down to the Grant book and I will be using all of his ideas to manage the campaign and using the programmed element to it, which supports solo play.

As an example, Grant's map has two main roads, an east and a west road. At the start of play a dice is rolled to determine whether the attacker will drive down the east and screen the west or drive down the west and screen the east or do 40 / 40 down each road with 20% of the force given other tasks, including a reserve etc.

By also randomising to a degree the defenders 'deployments' and 'responses',  the campaign should start to get a character of its own and feel fresh to my eyes despite all of the planning. 

The map has some made up names, plus a few borrowed from various boardgame maps that I own, so it is typical rather than actual.

Next up I need an Order-of-Battle. I see the campaign being based around a division per side, with the attacker having a 3:2 benefit in numbers. The defender will be dispersed around the map, so the immediate effect will be greater than 3:2 as the attackers meet various outposts and blocking forces etc.

I will likely choose a division each from a historical campaign such as the Shenandoah in 1862 or 1864 or I might mix that up a bit as you also roll for leader character traits, such as whether a commander is bold or cautious etc as this plays into some of the programmed responses in the game.

Anyway, little steps, but with two campaigns now planned, the ambition that I set at Christmas to get some big picture stuff going, but using smaller games along the way is starting to take shape.

In the early hours of 6th June 1944 (D-Day), U.S. paratroopers landed on the town of Sainte-Mére-Èglise. The town sat astride Route N13, an approach that the Germans would have used to counter-attack American forces landing at the Utah and Omaha beaches.

Holding the town would be an obstacle to German efforts to oppose the landings, but the lightly armed paratroopers would themselves need the troops on the beaches to move out promptly and link up with them.

Historically this happened the following day, when U.S. tanks approached the town.

A few years ago, Flying Pig Games released a module in their Old School Tactical series that covered these events.

The ‘Airborne’ game has 6 scenarios, two are linked back-to-back to represent the main even ..... the actual drop and fight for the town in during the hours of darkness and then with all of the pieces from scenario one  staying on the board, part II goes on to deal with the German counter-attacks the next morning.

Having just played the game, I have put up an AAR on BoardGameGeek, which can be accessed via this link.

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3435058/scenario-3-and-4-combined-the-big-drop-sainte-mere