TTS Remotely: Marian Romans versus Gauls

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Having now played in three remote games, I decided that I should try and run my own: seems only fair that I should host once in a while! I recruited a willing volunteer (thank you Bevan!) and set about, er, setting up.

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With the wargames room turned into a yoga studio until fitness clubs are open again, I had to set my tables up upstairs: plenty of room, but not as much light as usual. On the plus side, however, the wardrobe-like cupboard doors provided a useful place for the overall table camera to sit. This would give a bird’s-eye view of the battlefield whilst close up images were provided via a mobile ‘phone.

Connectivity was via Zoom. The laptop that you can see in the picture hosted the meeting, with the mobile ‘phone calling in as another participant. The overall camera gave a pretty rubbish picture, but it did at least allow Bevan to see everything that was happening, but his moves were mainly made based on the mobile ‘phone “roving camera” which I hovered over the table wherever the action was.

Testing the Set Up: this is what the remote player would see

Testing the Set Up: this is what the remote player would see

I had decided on To The Strongest as the grid-based system would mean no measuring and would be easier for Bevan to judge what to do. It would be a suitably un-anachronistic clash between my Marian Romans and Bevan’s Gauls.

In order to help Bevan keep track of his troops, I had bought a whole load of little stands to carry numbered tags. Although not really visible on the overall camera, they worked very well in close up, and allowed me to call out unit numbers rather than long explanations involving “this unit that’s near this thing” etc.

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The Sides

The Marian Romans consisted of four commands. The Proconsul commanded two legionary units (one veteran) and a unit of light archers. His first Legate also commanded two legionary units (one veteran) but with a unit of ballistae artillery. His second Legate once again commanded two legionary units (one veteran) but with a unit of eastern horse archers. Finally, he had an alae of two units of veteran auxiliary cavalry allegedly from Macedonia. I usually use Gauls as the auxiliary cavalry, but they were on the other side of the table so that I had to use some Persian-looking types instead.

Note the markers allowing Bevan to see which units were which

Note the markers allowing Bevan to see which units were which

Bevan’s Galling Gauls also had four commands. Two commands consisted of three deep warrior-warbands bristling with heroes; one command consisted of three cavalry units; and the final command was two units of iouantoues (youths) light infantry with javelins and another unit of cavalry.

There did seem to be an awful lot of Gauls!

The Battle

The battle opened with the entire Gallic line thundering forward, with the Romans advancing more cautiously towards them.

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The Gauls had their warbands on the left and centre, their light unit just to the left of the trees in the middle of the battlefield, and their cavalry on the far right.

The Romans had their Macedonian cavalry on the left, then a long line of legionary units with their associated light troops in front of them, except for the ballistae that were opposite the camp.

The Gauls come thundering forward

The Gauls come thundering forward

First action was on the Roman left, where the two cavalry forces clashed. The trees meant that the Gauls couldn’t use their superior numbers, and my horse was veteran, so I was hoping for some success here.

Regrettably, the Macedonians were obviously not enjoying the rather damper climes of Gaul, and were either pushed back in disorder or just disordered. Not a very good start!

Meanwhile, the two battle line drew together.

I quickly lost my light bowmen and horse archers to rampaging hairies, which meant that I would be one unit down in the main clash. On reflection, I should have sent my light bowmen into the trees on the right to threaten the left flank of the Gallic line, but unfortunately I didn’t think of that at the time!

Once the two lines clashed, it was actually all over pretty fast!

Although I held my own on either of the side combats you can see above, the warband in the centre moved forward towards the artillerymen (who were having a very bad day). I snapped one unit of legionaries backwards and left to plug the gap, which was quite impressive and shows the Romans’ manouevrability, but poor cards lost me a Legate and the nearest legionary unit.

Meanwhile, my left flank was crumbling. My usually impressive veteran horse were being very unimpressive, and the legionaries were getting surrounded. A foolish decision to help the cavalry didn’t help, and I lost the last of my coins to a charge from the rear!

Below is the position at the end of the battle. My left flank is just about gone: the legionaries having tried to help the cavalry out with, er, fatal results. My centre is holding, but Gauls have punched through and are about to engage the artillery hand-to-hand and then take my camp. My right could go either way.

Aftermath

All in all, a fairly conclusive drubbing for the Romans, but lessons learnt and I’m sure they will do better next time!

On the plus side, however, the “remote gaming” side of things worked nicely, and it is something I will run again…and I got to push some lead around a table for a change!

Robert Avery

SP AAR: Ball's Bluff at Virtual Lard IV

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Yesterday I took part in my third virtual game in ten days, this time as part of Virtual Lard IV: the equivalent of a regular Lardy Day, but with all the games being played remotely.

Today’s game was a re-fight of Ball’s Bluff. It’s the beginning of the war and a super-keen Union artilleryman has advanced his guns forward over the James river into Reb territory. The Rebs have cottoned on to the fact that the gunners are out on their own and have sent a force to capture the guns; Union high command have seen this coming and dispatched troops to bring the guns safely home. The stage is set for an epic clash!

Click on the picture below to see what happened:

Napoleonic AAR: Ostrolenka by Zoom

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Having very much enjoyed my first remote wargame last week, I took part in another last night: a Napoleonic clash between the Russians and the French based on the battle of Ostrolenka, 16th February 1807.

Re-enactors fight Ostrolenka

This was run quite differently to my last remote game. Three players a side, with initial briefings sent out a couple of days before the battle itself. Once all on Zoom and initial banter done, each side was put into its own breakout room, where we waited until our “Chief of Staff” (Edward: the gamemaster, or GM, for want of a better word) arrived to either (a) give a report on the progress of our troops and take orders or (b) escort us on a tour of the battlefield, or at least those parts of it that it was judged that we could see.

Screenshot of a battlefield tour

Screenshot of a battlefield tour

This last was particularly clever, as the GM had hooked up two mobile phones to the Zoom session, so each breakout room had four participants: three players and a camera. Rather than being the traditional wargame helicopter view, however, the ‘phone (with its camera) was only turned on when we elected to tour the battlefield, and was held in a way that showed us only what we could see from horseback. As it was a misty day, this meant that we could only see certain sectors of the battlefield each time we toured, and only see a short way in front of our most forward troops.

This meant that, as commanders, we really felt the “fog of war”: issuing orders based only on the reports we received and, if we did tour the battlefield, we had to wait until our next turn to issue orders based on what we had seen. A novel experience for those used to the traditional wargamer omniscience!

Introduction To The Game

Steve, Bevan and I were the Russians, facing Dave, Peter and Trevor as the French. Here’s an extract from the Russian briefing that sets the scene:

Following the costly battles, especially the blood-bath at Eylau, which drew the 1806 campaigning to a close, the opposing armies of France and Russia have both paused as the winter takes grip. Prussia has collapsed and Berlin fallen to Napoleon, but the French have found it harder to make headway against the Russian forces.

General Bennigsen, who has the bulk of the Russian army to your North, has ordered you to threaten and throw back the French right flank, which is anchored at Ostrolenka, so as to cause Napoleon to withdraw from his winter quarters. To achieve this you have been given a significant portion of the Army of Moldavia: Volkonski’s and Sedmarkatzki’s Divisions.

Well before dawn your two divisional commanders, who have their units ranged North of Ostrolenka on both sides of the River Narew, have arrived to receive your instructions.

They’ve both assured you that they are ready to move before sunrise, and that cavalry scouts have located French units at Ostrolenka. A captured enemy soldier says that they are not expected to break camp soon.

The Russian Plan

Seeking to achieve a concentration of force, we elected to keep all our forces west of the river Narew, effectively attempting to attack down the axis of the Kadzidlo Road. We didn’t necessarily expect to get that far west and south without first encountering the French, but the plan was to follow that strategy as much as possible until we did run into the enemy.

Our strongest division, Volkonski’s, would therefore march down the Zbotna Road until the end of the Sandy Hills, then loup around to the west. Our second division, Sedmarkatzki’s, would march down the line of the west bank of the river.

Once we encountered the enemy, we planned to deploy all our artillery and pound them to death, with Sedmarkatzki covering the guns and awaiting an opportunity to punch forward, whilst Volkonski kept edging around Ostrolenka to the west, pushing forward against what we assumed would be the far left of the French line.

GM’s Summary of the Action

(my thanks to Edward, who has also provided an excellent time-lapse video of the action, link below )

Before dawn the Russian leader General Essen sent both his divisions, led by Generals Volkonski and Sedmarkatzski, South towards the important town of Ostrolenka, in the valley West of the River Narew, hoping to concentrate his force and overwhelm the French. The strategic Russian aim was to threaten Napoleon’s southern flank, as he settled into his Winter quarters following the battle at Eylau.

The French corps commander, General Savary, made his dispositions as dawn broke, with Suchet’s division out to the East of the town, Gazan’s men to the North in the valley, Becker’s cavalry covering the left flank, and Oudinot’s three brigades of elite grenadiers held in reserve.

The Russians proceeded cautiously, deploying guns and spreading their rather crowded forces up onto the hills North-West of the town.

Becker’s dragoons mounted some charges up the hill, attacking Volkonski’s division, which was on the Russian right flank. Casualties mounted, with the Russians generally coming off the best and one of Becker’s brigades routed.

Savary, hearing that there were no Russians East of the river, eventually re-called Suchet back to Ostrolenka, but meanwhile the Russians increased the pace of their attacks and pressed on. Gazan came under increasingly heavy pressure, falling back, while Oudinot’s French grenadiers, which had been held in reserve, were committed by Savary to shore up his left flank. In fact, they took the attack to Volkonski’s forces with considerable success as the afternoon wore on.

As the light faded, Sedmarkatzki’s lead brigades pressed the attack more forcefully down the line of the river, advancing to within a few hundred paces of the town and capturing some French guns. Suchet having been inexplicably slow in coming West was too late to buttress the French position satisfactorily. Oudinot’s successes on the French left flank could not be followed up.

Although not a disaster for Savary, the French casualties were significantly higher, and as night fell he pulled his shaken corps away to the South, leaving Ostrolenka to the Russians. Napoleon, with the main French army to the North, was forced to detach a further corps to rescue his right flank. Historians have recorded this as a minor but important victory for the Russians under General Ivan Essen.

Historical Note

In reality Sedmarkatzki’s powerful division never made it to this battle, having been ordered North the day before. Essen none-the-less planned two separate attacks from the North against Ostrolenka. Savary, with the advantages of interior lines and numbers, was able to repulse the Russian probes in detail and secure the French position.

French Commander’s Report

(my thanks to Dave for this)

My Emperor,

I am hoping that Gerard has carried the news to you of our tactical withdrawal from Ostrlenka. Knowing how you planned to stetch the Russian Army and make it fight over too large an area for its pathetic logistic chain, I’m sure you will appreciate the efforts which have gone into this achievement.

I would wish to pay due respects to the brave men who fell for La France on the 16me, and also to the tenacity and audacity of Generals Gazan and Oudinot who fought against great odds with all their might.

Sadly I have to recommend to you that certain officers be recalled from their posts for not achieving the standards you so reasonable expect of your senior officers. Gen Debelle, although commanding one of the finest Light Cavalry Brigades in the Army, somehow failed to observe and report the entire Russian army being within a km of his position whilst Gen Becker sadly failed to maintain sufficient discipline of his Division, such that one Brigade of our finest heavy cavalry charged the enemy without orders and were effectively destroyed. Such indiscipline cannot be tolerated in the Grande Armee, we pride ourselves on not behaving like British cavalry!

You may well wish to interview Gen Suchet yourself, his tardiness in obeying his orders to withdraw cost us many casualties and compounded his initial error in advancing too far from his assigned position, although he did later make every effort to redeem himself and valiantly led his men into the fray.

I believe the Russians will now be critically extended and ripe for your offensive.

Vive La France

Anne-Jean-Marie-Rene Savary, General de V Corps

Conclusion

A narrow victory for the Russians and a great evening’s gaming. The fog of war experience worked really well, with our command team very much having to issue division-level orders as we didn’t really know the exact position of any of the brigades: ours or the enemy’s!

Our plan worked, although not as overwhelmingly as we had thought it would. Our guns, although acting to the overall plan, could have done with a better deployment tactically to maximise the effect of their fire; and we needed to keep better control of Volkonski out on the far right. We only just got Sedmarkatzki into the fight in time, although that did mean that our reserve cavalry were perfectly positioned to repulse the French infantry crossing the frozen river. The French Grenadiers, under Oudinot, really caused us problems. Without their intervention, or rather their highly successful intervention, we would have won a more resounding victory.

An excellent experience, and one I’m looking forward to repeating soon.


IABSM AAR: IABSM via Zoom!

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With no sign of any real-life games on the horizon, I decided to bite the bullet and ask to join a virtual game of I Ain’t Been Shot Mum run by my friend Bevan.

My previous reluctance to try anything virtual was mainly down to the fact that I spend a lot of the day working via Zoom now, and although it is truly a marvelous communication tool, it’s also quite draining to use. Nevertheless, with the Beardless King (daughter #2) busy with schoolwork and Kavan (daughter #1’s boyfriend) back at Uni, it was Zoom or nowt!

The scenario was a simple one set in France 1940. I would play the Germans, and would start the game in situ defending a bridge against an anticipated attack by a French armoured column. At my disposal I had three Big Men, a platoon of infantry, a platoon of anti-tank guns, and a support platoon consisting of a couple of MMG teams.

Click on the picture below to see what happened:

TTS AAR: Classical Indians versus Caesarian Romans

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After six weeks of hard painting, helped by Lockdown 2 and the Christmas holidays, the Classical Indians are ready to hit the tabletop, and what better occasion to test them out than what is almost certain to be the final battle of the year.

My usual wargaming opponents were again unavailable due to the lockdown (it’s about two degrees Centigrade, so a little cold to game outside) so I fell back on the ever-reliable Daughter #2. We decided to play a straight up, 130 points a side game of To The Strongest: I obviously wanted to play with my newly finished Indians, so she decided to fall back on her favourite Caesarian Romans, once again adopting the persona of the Beardless Proconsul.

So a loss for their first outing, but actually not as bad a loss as I had thought. My massed longbow fire did cause the Romans real problems in the initial stages of the battle, and had that unit of legionaries on my right not held out against overwhelming odds, then I think the day would have been mine.

Lots of lessons learnt: the most important one being to put a unit of elephants on the wing where the chariots aren’t: an elephants versus Gauls match up might well have gone my way as the Gallic horses don’t like pachyderms and suffer big penalties in combat.

Anyway, another cracking game of TTS, and a fitting end to a great year’s gaming.


IABSM AAR: Barbarossa 1941 Solo

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Here’s another excellent I Ain’t Been Shot Mum AAR and video AAR from Alex Sotheran, this time set in 1941 as Operation Barbarossa gets under way. The game is taken from Alex’s very readable Storm of Steel blog.

Unusually, it’s not the Germans that are facing off against the Soviets, but the Roumanians: some nice-looking infantry supported by R-2 tanks.

Click on the picture below to see all:

IABSM AAR: Kursk 1943 Solo

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Here’s a great After Action Report from Alex Sotheran, taken from the IABSM Facebook Group and Alex’s equally excellent Storm of Steel blog.

It’s Kursk 1943, and Alex plays through a solo game with the Germans attacking a Soviet-held village. There are plenty of “big cats” out to play, and there’s even a link to the YouTube video of the game.

Click on the picture below to see all. Highly recommended.

IABSM AAR: Poland 1944

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Over the last couple of weeks, Des Darkin has been playing out an excellent looking game of I Ain’t Been Shot Mum on the IABSM Facebook Group.

I say IABSM, but Des has actually been playing using his variant I Ain’t Been CoC’d Mum Yet, which uses dice rather than card activation. That variant is available in the Lard 2019 Magazine.

Click on the picture below to a full AAR, combining the four posts that Des made as he played through the game…

TTS AAR: Romans vs Sumerians

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With lockdown back upon us and Daughter #1’s boyfriend back at University, my only potential opponent for a battle was Daughter #2. A little bit of gentle arm-twisting persuaded her to abandon the questionable delights of K-Pop YouTube videos and join me in the wargaming room for a game of To The Strongest.

I wanted to use two of my newest armies: the Sumerians and the Marian Romans. I politely gave her the choice, thinking she was bound to go for the Sumerians with their exciting four-onager chariots, axemen etc, but instead she chose the more space-invader like Romans. I felt a little disappointed here, as I’d wanted to play them, especially as I know hoe good they are. Competitive Dad? Well, you have to take your victories where you can!

Both sides deployed. The Sumerians looked their usual impressive selves: the blocks of citizen spearmen supported by light infantry; the aforementioned chariots; and three units of axemen or archers.

The Romans, under the so-called Beardless Pro-Consul, looked a little ragged by comparison, which just shows that appearances can be deceptive:

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The Game

Both sides opened the battle by advancing forward smartly.

In the centre, my heavy chariots headed straight for the oncoming Romans, hoping to hit them whilst they were deployed with gaps in their battle line. Apparently not all my chariot units were equally keen on getting stuck in, so there were holes in my line too, but I didn’t think this was a problem as I reckoned that being mounted meant that any stragglers would catch up fast.

On my right flank, some equites saggiarii tried to sneak past my flank, but were blocked and eventually destroyed by my lights:

On my left, however, two units of Gallic Cavalry had a bit more room to play with, getting past my flank, and causing me (along with some Cretan archers) huge problems for the rest of the battle.

Note the Gallic horse right out on the right of the picture. They have got past my flank and forced me to deploy my reserve to face them.

Back to the centre, and the two lines came together with a mighty crash. Unfortunately, the mighty crash mostly involved smashing chariots as, using their excellent manoeuvrability, the Roman legionaries snapped into an unbroken and pilum-toting line of heavy infantry. Who new Daughter #2 knew what she was doing!

I pulled back in an attempt to re-organise but, of course, this just gave the Romans a chance to reorganise themselves and to then slam forward once more, again using their quality and agility to always be in the right place at the right time with the right units. I tell you, if you can’t get round the flank of the Romans (which I had singularly failed to do) then you are in big trouble: the Roman mincing machine makes, er, mincemeat out of anything it faces!

Here’s a series of pictures showing what happened in the centre:

I did have a couple of light units pushing past the Roman left flank but all that happened was that one double cohort of legionaries swung neatly sideways to face them, and without the help of the other light unit (who had been previously occupied in finishing off the horse archers) I was not going to get anywhere anytime soon.

But it was on my left flank that I was most in trouble.

I had managed to get my reserve into play in order to head off one lot of Gauls from rolling me up but, just at the critical moment, luck deserted me, and two of my brigades drew consecutive Aces at the start of their activations.

This left me unable to get anything done, and the Gauls closed in, hitting my blocking force from both front and back:

And that, really, was that: my left collapsed, my centre crumpled and I haemorrhaged coins faster than you can say “bloody Romans”!

Aftermath

A great game of To The Strongest despite my somewhat embarrassing defeat! Showcased how good the Romans can be in a straight up fight where their flanks are safe.

IABSM AAR: Operation Compass #13: Bardia III

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Here’s another I Ain’t Been Shot Mum battle report from the A Wargamer in Cyprus blog. It’s another adaptation of one of the scenarios from the Operation Compass scenario pack: a third scenario from the Australian assault on the Italian fortress of Bardia.

16th Australian Infantry Brigade are within the Italian perimeter and have made some progress against a fairly irresolute defence.  The Aussies have followed a wadi and discovered a second line of Italian defences ready for them.  Click on the picture below to see what happens next:

FK&P AAR: Cock Marsh

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After the battle for Cookham Moor, the Parliamentarians have retreated in some disarray: falling back to a position where their rear and one flank is protected by the river Thames.

This protection, however, forms two sides of a potential cage, so the Royalists have hurried forward to do battle again, knowing that if the Roundheads break, there is nowhere, at least on two sides, for them to run.

Could this finally be the decisive battle that both sides have been seeking?

The Field of Battle

The action takes place on Cock Marsh: a bleak, wind-swept area of open ground between Winter Hill and the Thames. The lower slope of Winter Hill borders the south side of the battlefield. The north and part of the east side of the battlefield are bordered by the Thames i.e. impassable terrain. Any unit that is forced off-table into the Thames is lost.

The main part of the tabletop consists of moorland separated by hedgerows and the odd patch of trees. All hedgerows count as linear rough terrain. All wooded squares count as rough terrain. There are two Iron Age burial mounds on the Parliamentarian side of the field.

The Game

Postscript

I’d like to say that my (extremely heavy) defeat was all my fault, but that would be to underplay John’s skill at exploiting my errors.

I am now writing out one hundred times "Do not throw away your cavalry on a frontal charge against even or worse odds” whilst Sit Christopher and his surviving men drag themselves out of the water on the far side of the river!

A great game of For King & Parliament despite my defeat: 150 points a side played out in just over 90 minutes.

Robert Avery

IABSM AAR: Anzio 'Wildcat to Whale' #02: Carroceto

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Here’s a great I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum AAR from Tim Whitworth and his friends at The War Room featuring the second scenario from the Anzio ‘Wildcat to Whale’ scenario pack.

At dawn on 25th January 1944, the Guards Brigade, headed by Number 1 Company of the Grenadiers and with Shermans from one squadron of 46th Royal Tank Regiment (crewed mainly by Welshmen from Liverpool) in support headed back towards Aprilia. Using the embankment of the disused railway line (the “Bowling Alley”) as their start point, they first had to take Carroceto.

Click on the picture below to see how they did…

FK&P AAR: Cookham Moor

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After the encounter at Whyteladyes Lane, the Royalists retreated to the small hamlet of Cookham. The Parliamentarians, however, rather than withdrawing to regroup, have followed them.

Cookham, a pleasant place mostly home to farm labourers, is split by the Moor: an open piece of land crossed one way by a small stream, Strand Water, and the other way by Dean Lane, now more of a road.

Unwilling to surrender the Moor, “Little John” Boulters leads his men forwards to the eastern edge of the open ground only to see Sir Christopher and his men just arriving on the other side. The stage is set for another epic For King & Parliament clash!

And that’s where I ran out of coins!

Snatching Defeat…

Well that was a game that was really going my way when a sudden paralysis amongst my troops caused by the loss of my Colonel of Cavalerie and Sir Kavan’s defection (I can see no other explanation as to why Aces suddenly appeared all over his brigade!) meant that the Roylaists were given a chance to rally, catch their breath, and then move forward and concenrate their numbers with devastating effect.

It didn’t help that my CinC, Sir Christopher, led a sorely-needed Scots mercenary battalia on a complete Jeb Stuart-like perambulation up the wrong side of the left hand wood, effectively taking them out of the battle at the moment of decision. That was deffo my fault though!

A great game that saw John keeping his nerve as I scored early successes, pulling back and then seeing an opportunity and taking full advantage. Just to emphasise the point: at one stage of the game (after the early clashes) I was something like eight coins in front!

Time for the Parliamentarians to retreat and regroup!

Robert Avery

Pictures from Virtual Lard 3

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What with COVID-19 putting paid to wargaming shows across the country, it’s good to see some remote events still taking place. One such that happened last weekend was Virtual Lard 3, and one game run there was an I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum scenario by Mike Whitaker.

The game was set in the Italian theatre. Here are some photos:

FK&P AAR: Whyteladyes Lane

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Time for the next encounter in my North Wessex For King & Parliament English Civil War campaign.

After the battle just north of Bisham Abbey, Sir Christopher Grey has led his Parliamentarian army (reinforced with more Scots mercenaries) east in an attempt to loop around the Royalists whom, he believes, are regrouping before moving north on their existing axis of attack.

The Roundheads get as far as Cookham Dean before they realise that the Cavaliers have been tipped off and have managed to get a blocking force across the Parliamentarian line of advance.

Battle will once more be joined!

At this point the Parliamentarians finally ran out of coins and I was forced to admit defeat: a fairly crushing defeat!

Aftermath

It had been a great game, even if I had lost!

The truth was that I never really got the Parliamentary battle line properly sorted, which allowed the Royalists to defeat my brigades piecemeal. Annoying, as before the battle I’d specifically told John that I needed to avoid that happening!

Robert Avery