Albedo Combat Patrol 164 - The Jika Campaign

In an inspired way to keep us all busy during the Lockdown Mike Wilson over at ACP164 has decided to run an ACP164 campaign. Eight of us are signed up, 4 per side, I'm playing EDF (mostly non-rabbits). The two sides are fighting for control of the erbium mines on the remote planet of Jika.

The neat thing is that whilst the weekly campaign turns are being run collaboratively (lots of Facebook Messenger), any combats that result will be played out as two solo games, one by each side, with the campaign result being based on the combined/average result of the two.

I'm mindful of OpSec so won't post any more details here until I'm sure that facts are known to both sides. But expect lots of combat AARs from this excellent system.

I've also ordered up some ILR (rabbit) reinforcements from Sally4th so as to have a balanced set of figures for the solo games.

You can see my review of ACP164 at https://newconverj.blogspot.com/2018/10/skirmish-rules-testing-part-7-albedo.html and games since then at https://newconverj.blogspot.com/search/label/albedo.

Skirmish at Gembloux - Blucher 100 Days Campaign

Nick and I finally got to play the Gembloux Skirmish for our 100 Days Blucher Campaign this weekend.

The encounter takes place on  the same day as the 2nd Day of the Battle of Sombreffe. A French Division had been pushed out East with the aim of cutting the Prussian supply lines (which would reduce their ability to recover unit strengths after battles). To get to the interdiction points it had to move N up and around a river beyond Gembloux, and it was there, between Gembloux and Walhain that the Prussian Division tasked with protecting the supply lines managed to intercept them.

I have an odd relationship to the encounter since I was Prussian when it was set up, but now with Alan’s death (BTW see his wonderful collection of figures and scenery and buy some it at http://saswargames.blogspot.com/p/the-alan-martin-collection.html), I was playing the French trying to break-through.

The Prussians (Nick) placed their line troops in Walhain, and their Landwehr just N of the river around a small copse. I (French) could have played it purely strategically and just screened my troops with may cavalry, snuck them round the top of the river, and then legged it off the map. But Nick and I had been trying to play this game for ages, and I’d come down a day early from Brum, so to do so would have been a bit of a damp squib.

So my cav took on his, and got the better of the exchange, and my infantry piled into his Landwehr, but got raked by his gun (the only one on the board). His Landwehr held firm and sent my first line packing. With the second line I tried to soften him up with musketry and my Brigade guns (effectively just a +1), but took casualties myself and whilst I managed to see off a couple of battalions the attrition was just getting to much, so it was time to get off the board (in the right direction) whilst still in reasonably good order.

Early moves, most units still on blinds

I can’t say the Blucher rules grew on us any better. In fact there were several incidents that just didn’t seem right, the worse being a French Dragoon unit, more of less undamaged, bouncing off a charge against the REAR of a Prussian infantry unit in column. Very odd.

Congestion in the French ranks as the 2nd wave comes in

So we can now move back to the main maps moves, and probably move towards the final battle – whether my flying column can cover off both supply points remains to be seen. We have though decided to switch to SLS for the remaining battles, Blucher just doesn’t give us the game we want (although we may still use the Momentum dice system as that’s not bad).

Battle of Sombreffe - Day 2

This is the latest chapter in a Blucher 100 Days Campaign that Nick, Alan and I started, and now Nick and I continue. Previous posts under the 100 Days tag.

The story so far...

The French crossed the border on 15th June, but rather than split their forces made a bee-line for the Prussians en-masse. Luckily the Prussians were heading W will all speed to link up with the British, leaving a sole Division to guard their supply lines. A tardy Prussian picquet meant that the French caught the Prussians a day too early, and battle was given at Sombreffe on 17th. It was the reverse of Waterloo with Blucher being heard to say "Bring me Wellington or bring me night!" and Wellington duly arrived on Bluchers right flank in time to stabilise the situation with a wonderful whirling cavalry melee.

At night fall neither side was broken, and no one had all the objectives, so the troops spent the night on the field, and at dawn Napoleon attacked again.

Now read on...

Turn 2 underway

Both sides started with densely packed blinds. As French I decided to attack on the flanks, and its probably simplest to describe each sector in turn rather than tell the story chronologically. All directions relative to the French.

Eddie Izzard's Own defend against French Chasseurs (OK Hanoverian Militia!)

Far Left

Aware that yet more British were expected the French pushed fast up to and into the woods, pushing back light British opposition. However the British rolled for the reinforcements at the earliest possible time, so they counter-attacked and push the French out of the woods. A fresh French line moved forward but the British were dogged by low Momentum dice for the whole game and so were never able to capitialise on their advantage on this flank, and both sides troops pretty much then sat out the game.

Guard Horse - this was certainly a battle of forward artillery

Left

A bit more open ground here made it ideal for Cavalry. The French cavalry pushed forward and ran into a couple of British guns. Their horse gun started inflicting damage, but was then charged by British cavalry and the whole day became a tit-for-tat of cavalry charges and artillery pushed forward, of which the French probably got the better of it, ending with all Allied guns gone, and the (weakened) Household Cavalry being seen off by a 1st (Light) Cavalry Division chasseurs!

Centre

Nothing to see here. The woods had seen a bit of fighting on the previous day, and a whole weakened Prussian Korps spent this second day hiding behind then until the very last turns. The Imperial Guard also started centrally with the idea that I could go and exploit whichever flank was going best, and so from mid-game onwards it moved to the right.

Cuirassiers about to charge the Scots Greys

Right Flank

The small hill on the Prussian line had seen a lot of blood shed the previous day, and it would be the same today. The initial French move was a bold reconnaissance by a Lt Cav Bde and a Foot Battery (!), the latter coming a cropper as it passed the edge of the wood (bottom right in table photo) and was ambushed by Prussian cavalry. Once the Lt Cav all saw each other off it was Inf and Arty from the French that pushed forward, a delay from some fresh Lt Cav that had to be cleared away, a Prussian counter-attack and then the assault on the hill , the first wave failing but the YG and MG (and even OG) finally carrying the day. One Chassuer unit it to within 2 hex of the Prussian base-line, and again all the Prussian artillery was destroyed.

The French Guard capture the hill on the last turn

At night fall there was no clear victor, a lot of casualties but certainly a sense that the Allies had come off worse as they had lost almost all their artillery and most of their cavalry was weakened.

ENDEX

Conclusion

The final bill was:

French:   4 destroyed , 5 made understrength, 10 reduced in elan (already under)

Brits:   2 destroyed , 6 made understrength, 0 reduced in elan (already under)

Prussians: 5 destroyed , 6 made understrength, 2 reduced in elan (already under)

Allies Total:   7 destroyed , 12 made understrength, 2 reduced in elan (already under)

So whilst the French suffered less damage than the Allies it was close (19 to 21), but the real hit was a) the loss of most of the allied artillery and b) the Prussians now have 14 units destroyed, once they hit 20 the French have won!

Rounding up the sheep ahead of the French advance!

A few comments:

• Still not in love with the Blucher rules, particularly with different mechanics for firing and melee so you can't remember if your changing dice or DMs
• Still odd how fast artillery fades
• Should have had four M0 dice, as for most of the game large swathes of troops (esp Brits) were never activated
• Played nice and quickly though and we were finished in time to the wives out to a pub lunch!

Rather than risk a Sombreffe Day 3 it was decided that both sides would retreat 1 square on the campaign map, and that the battlefield squares would be out of bounds for the next days moved whilst bodies were recovered or plundered.

Before the game moves on though there's a small skirmish up at Gembloux to deal with where a French flying column has hit the Prussian rear guard!

A few final photos:

Chasseurs at the charge!

The fight on the Right Flank

Prussian Guard defending the wood

Whole table shot around mid-game

Scots Greys try to take out the gun

But are counter-charged by Cuirassiers

Dutch-Belgians defend the left wood - whilst  fox sneaks away behind them!

Prussians and French clash

Blucher 100 Days Campaign - The First Phase

The first phase of our Blucher 100 Days campaign has reached it's climax at the end of 17th June with a major battle outside of Sombreffe. In fact what we have is almost a mirror of Waterloo, the outnumbered Prussian line having to hold against the near full might of the French whilst the British are all set to come on as reinforcements during the game.

The starting board will take in columns H/A, I/D, J/E and F/C of the French, and K/L and N/M of the Prussians. However Prussian O will come in onto a friendly square to support N/M and British T likewise to support K/L. Most interestingly British S and U will come onto a hostile square on the flank and rear of H/A!

In a rather bold move Prussian Column P decided to fix French B, since B had stopped it also reinforcing the battle, and to ensure that B didn't go against the Prussian lines of communications.

The other British reinforcements are again too far out to help.

So a reverse Waterloo just NE of Ligny. We hope to fight the game in August.

Blucher 1000 Days Campaign - STARTEX

And the game is underway. I drew Prussians, Nick British and Alan French. In the opening moves Alan has pushed two columns up the road towards Quatre Bras and I've moved column N across to be closer to the potential fighting. Will post another shot at the end of Day 1/15th June. To limit collaboration between Nick and I we're allowed one "tweet" each (140 chars) and it must be sent in Google Translate Russian for the other player to decode (German was too easy!). In true Wellington fashion Nick was at Hay for the weekend (the booksellers ball?) so will be coming in late with his initial move.