Roughly Rolica: the AAR

"On the morning of Thursday last my forces came upon the French who were deployed on the heights above a village named to me as Rolica.  I report that at nine in the 'fore noon we commenced operations  in a most vigorous manner with General's Hill and Craufurd's brigades attempting to take possession of the heights from the French, whilst General Nightingall and Fane's Brigades made flanking marches to left and right of the French positions respectively.  The French immediately retired not wishing, as I conceive it, to be encircled by our men.  Whilst this was occurring our Spanish allies were making a wide manoeuvre with the intent of arriving well behind the French in the vicinity of the village of Columbeira a good mile to the rear of the initial French position.   I have the honour to inform you that we were eminently successful in these endeavours and defeated the French most wholesomely on the plains betwixt the two villages with only Brenier's artillery and two much battered brigades of foot escaping the field.

Being adverted to the fact that Marshall Junot was to the south and marching with all haste towards us with his entire army and mindful of the fact that the bulk of the army was not yet disembarked from the transports we did not pursue beyond Columbeira village."

Report from Sir Arthur Wellesley to the War Office (well it's what he would have reported if he had been at our roughly Rolica game anyway).

1. An 1875 illustration of the battlefield (via Wikipedia)

On last Thursday morning I arrived at Gary's house to play a game of Valour and Fortitude.  Neither of us had played the rules before and Gary's last figure game was over forty years ago!  As a result this was very much a learning game but it did give me the chance to give my new MDF toys an airing.  We played thirteen turns between 10.30 in the morning and 6.15 in the evening with time off for lunch and much chatting and debate on aspects of the rules.  All in all I'd say we had about seven hours at the game table so an average of around thirty minutes a turn.  Gary took the British and I had the French.

All units have a fire power rating, a melee rating and a tenacity rating.  The fire power and melee rating show how many dice they roll in that type of combat and tenacity shows how many hits they can take before being at risk of breaking.  Lost tenacity points can be recovered by rallying in the action stage but this prevents them from fighting or changing formation.  Some units have special rules for their starting factors which I will detail when they come into play.

The Spanish, standing in for Trant's Portuguese, would appear on the road to Columbeira some time after turn five (in keeping with the designer's note we took each turn to be around thirty minutes).  I used a dice roll starting on turn six with each following turn giving an increasing chance of them arriving on table until the were guaranteed to appear on turn 11.  I deployed four French brigades in line on the hill above Rolica with the Swiss (who are unenthusiastic), artillery and the half regiment of Chasseurs in reserve in the dead ground below.  Unenthusiastic troops start with a one point reduction in melee and tenacity rating compared to the statistics they would normally have.

2. The initial deployments French in line British in march column

The British elected to advance in March columns to close on the French as quickly as possible (white triangles denote the head of the column).

3.  The end of turn 1 British columns approaching but still outside musket range

In the face of the approaching, and overwhelming British forces I faced two choices.  Stand and fight here on the hill above Rolica with a near certain risk of my route of retreat being cut, or make a fighting withdrawal.  If I withdrew the timing was going to be critical.  I decided to retreat but thought I could stand long enough to make the British deploy into line, which would slow their rate of advance, before I started to 'advance to the rear'!  However, I did start the Swiss infantry moving straight away while moving the chasseurs and artillery to threaten Nightingall's Brigade around Rolica.

4.  After three turns I'm in march column and retiring

With hindsight I let the British get too close before I started to withdraw forgetting that the hills are classed as rough ground for this scenario!  Rough terrain doubles movement costs, essentially negating the speed advantage of being in march columns.  At the same time I moved the cavalry out to my left wing to see if Gary would decide to form square with Nightingall's two battalions in response, which would create a nice target for my artillery.  He didn't.

5. A turn later and the French have a problem

A problem you say, damn right!  The two British Columns to the left of the hill might not cut the French off but they will be closing into musket range before the French battalions can clear the rough ground.  I should have started my withdrawal sooner.  The Swiss are well away though and after Nightingall shook his battalions out into line my cavalry and artillery decided not to contest Rolica village with no infantry support.  Still being in line will slow the British advance on my right. Its my left where I have a problem!

6. The end of turn 6 and things are not looking good for the French

Three game hours in and things are starting to go badly wrong for the French.  One of the Infantry Brigades is lagging behind as they failed an activation check.  The only saving grace is that the British had an entire column fail as well so three battalions are no further forward either.  

Units can always shoot but taking any action requires the passing of an activation test.  Actions include movement, rallying of tenacity hits, and assaults.  Most units can also change formation at the start or end of their movement.

Worse yet though the Spanish have passed their entry dice roll and will begin arriving next turn!  To counter this I send the unenthusiastic Swiss racing for Columbeira village (Bottom left of image 6).  If nothing else they can act as a speed bump.  The incoming Spanish brigade consist of a Line Infantry battalion which this early in the war counts as 'unpredictable', a Light Infantry battalion which is fairly steady and a Militia battalion who are poorly trained and equipped.  The Swiss are going to struggle against them.

Each major nation has it's own army sheet detailing the troops available and any special abilities (or for some nations disabilities) their troops have.  Spanish Line Infantry have unpredictability as one trait which means that on first combat they must roll a D6 before fighting.  On a roll of one their initial factors are reduced and on a six they are increased.  Sometimes they fight like lions but other times, well, not so much!  The Militia don't have variability but can't use skirmish fire and their volleys are not as effective as those of line troops.

Elsewhere I dithered about what to do with the artillery and deployed it in the hope that I might get a couple of shots off on Nightingall's troops.  The cavalry continue to withdraw  and will eventually move to support the Swiss.

7. At the end of turn 7 and things are starting to hot up!

After three hours (game time) there has not been any significant fighting just move and counter move as the French attempt to slip away from the British.  There has been some desultory artillery fire but with no noticeable effect.  But this is about to change as one French battalion fails to activate for a second consecutive turn and stays partially in the rough ground.  Delaborde (thats me) realises his (my) gamble has failed and he must now fight at a disadvantage.  Accordingly I reform from March column into line.

V&F is an I go - U go system and uses a game sequence of Fate cards (we didn't use these in this game), then firing, then actions (which include movement and assaults) followed by resolving melees.  Then the other player cycles through the same sequence.  This forces some decisions on when to change formation (an action) as it happens after that turns firing for your side and the other player may get a chance to shoot before your next turn.

Gary has his own problems as he is also forming into line but finding that he has an issue with troop congestion and only three battalions can form a firing line.  This is as near to parity as I'm going to get.  On the British left Nightingall has taken Rolica without a fight but has no enemy within easy reach as I have bugged out!  An interesting situation now arises.  Gary has to advance his three battalions into musket range but then cannot shoot until his next turn.  So I take the opportunity to shoot with two battalions at one of his and score maximum hits and then I retire out of musket range unscathed. 

Meanwhile at Columbeira the Spanish have entered the table and deployed two battalions into line.  My Swiss battalion has reached the outskirts of the village but can't occupy the houses in the same turn.  they are now supported by the Chasseurs.

8. Turn 9 at Columbeira.  Who will win the race for the village?

Things are looking increasingly difficult for the French.  Although I have changed back into marching columns on the plain, Gary has realised that if he can keep units within 9cm of the French they can't use double movement to escape and that his rifles out range muskets so can harass the slowly retiring French columns.  It has become a foot race towards the ridge below Columbeira and even if the French get there first they will be shot to pieces as they climb the rough ground towards the crest.  That is of course assuming they get that far as the Spanish seem well placed to brush aside the Swiss and Chasseurs and cut off my line of retreat!

9.  An overview of the situation at the end of five game hours (Turn 10)

In the image above the red line is the divide between the Anglo-Spanish and French forces, while arrows show marching columns and their direction of travel.  It clearly shows one French battalion still marooned at the top of the picture having failed to activate for two consecutive turns.  The Swiss and a battered Chasseur unit are still holding off  the Spanish flank march and the bulk of the French are beating a hasty retreat.

The following turn saw the Swiss continue to a good account of themselves by breaking a second Spanish Battalion in a musket duel.  To balance that the Spanish Militia shot down the French cavalry in turn.  The French continued to head for the hills but Hampered by Gary cleverly keeping units within 9cm to stop the use of doubling.

One of the available actions is 'Doubling' which allows any unit a move of double distance as long as they are not within 9cm of the enemy during the move.  This is a very useful option for moving up reserves or as in this case, running away!

10. The Swiss proved difficult to evict from the village

This was the point just after my unenthusiastic Swiss battalion suddenly decided they actually wanted to fight.  They watched as the 26th Chasseurs launch a death or glory charge against the Spanish line infantry and in a vicious melee rout them, mainly because they hit them while they were still deployed in line.  It was actually a draw but the phasing player wins draws and infantry not in square beaten by cavalry rout!  Spurred on by this display of elan they occupy the village and decimate the Spanish light Infantry facing them, reducing them to a tenacity of two.  In response Gary rushes the 5/60th Foot (The Royal American's Rifle battalion) towards the village.

The Swiss prove difficult to shift and a desperate fight ensues with the Spanish light infantry making an assault that weakens the Swiss but can't dislodge them.  More positive is the musketry of the Spanish Militia who close up to and then destroy the remnants of the Chasseurs.  It's the last positive act for the Spanish as their accompanying light infantry are destroyed by Swiss musketry.  It needs another turn for the 60th to avenge the Spanish losses  when they finally are able to close into rifle range and defeat the Swiss.  Still for an unenthusiastic unit the Swiss held the flank while the Surviving French head for the hills.

11. and just like that it is over. 
Two very battered French battalions literally head for the hills

The end came after 13 game turns (Seven and a half game hours) and almost the same real world elapsed time.  The British without cavalry cannot close down the retreating French and sunset is approaching allowing them to slip away in the dusk.  The French have held out for the same time they did historically but with higher losses.  I consider this an Anglo-Spanish Victory  with two Spanish Battalions lost v three French plus a cavalry detachment.

Conclusions after actually playing a game

Firstly and most important the rules give an enjoyable game with lots of decision points for both players.  Secondly, it feels like a Napoleonic battle to me.  Players have to consider things like when to change formation to line from march column, when to form square and the timing of when to do it.  For a simple set of rules they keep you fully engaged.  They are not perfect and some of the design mechanisms are different to those I might have created, but they work. I tend to test a a new set of rules by refighting a historical battle.  This allows me to see how the mechanisms cope with recreating the events and how closely the actual result is reflected in the game outcome.  I don't expect a 100% accurate match up but it shouldn't be wildly at variance with reality either.  This refight was a decent match up and where it differed I could see why that was. 

There are two things I have suggested looking at and one change Gary and I agreed on as the game unfolded.  The agreed change is that when battalions from the same brigade are following each other in march column and are in contact nose to tail (so akin to a DBx group) only one activation test is required that effects all units in that extended column, it speeds up play and seems logical.

The two potential changes stem from something that happened that seemed 'gamey'.  I was able to get the timing of deployment and shooting so that I could shoot, and them move back out of range.  That meant that the British had to advance to get into range but of course the game sequence meant that they can't then shoot as firing happens before movement.  I could have fired and retired several times if I had space without the enemy ever getting the chance to return fire.  As I say that seems like a 'gamey' tactic.  So some form of restriction on marching fire to the rear seems to be required.  After all in the real world time isn't sliced up so neatly into shooting time and moving time, there is just time and you have to decide how to use it.  I'm considering a reduced move for units that shoot or some form of interrupt fire as a solution but will play a few more games before deciding.  It may be that the fate cards will help or that this is an edge case that doesn't occur in most games, especially with C2 rules in play.

Lastly after writing up this AAR I began to wonder about all that running around at the double.  Some units seem to have spent all day doubling across the Portuguese landscape and apparently no one got so much as a stich!  I reread the rules and found we were not playing retreat moves correctly which would have stopped the French getting away so easily and reduced the need for the British to double so much.  I may come back to this issue after another test game.

Other than that I'm sold on V&F for Napoleonic's, how the rules match up to some of the other periods they claim to cover is as yet unknown.  I'd guess that for linear periods such as horse and musket and perhaps Pike and Shot games it should be fine.  Earlier or later I'm not sure about as yet.

Final opinion.  They are decent rules and worth giving a go.  Especially as they are free!

V&F - Roughly Rolica

I couldn't really spend all this time building armies and then not use them, so following my recent board gaming session Gary said he would like to try some figure gaming.  So here was a chance to put them on a table with an actual opponent, how could I resist.  I had to proxy some artillery bases as I haven't bought any of them yet but other than that the troops are all Commission Figurines MDF.  I, of course, made some changes to the Valour and Fortitude rules to accommodate the use of 6mm figures on single bases which changes some distances for moves and firing, but mostly the rules remain as written. 

For a first time try out C2 remains as in V&F (all that hard thinking time and then I go and ignore the results, how typical!).  I will trial them next time out, honest.  We used a fairly small table and kept things simple so a French rear guard action against newly arrived British Troops seemed to be a decent script. I based this on Rolica 1808 (roughly).  Around about a brigade sized force for the French with an attached small cavalry force from division trying to delay a British force of around four infantry brigades (remember these are smaller than their French equivalents though) including some Rifles.  It actually comes down to 

Off table Portuguese troops, or in this case Spanish (well I did say roughly Rolica and I don't have any Portuguese painted yet) are moving round the flanks trying to arrive to the rear of the French rear guard.  This is was Wellesley's (he isn't Wellington as yet) actual plan at Rolica, to either trap the French or to force them to retire.  The French have to play a careful hand balancing the need to delay the superior British force against the risk of being trapped and destroyed.

Order of Battle

Anglo - Spanish Lt General Arthur Wellesley

Wellesley's Centre Division of four brigades plus Negrete's Spanish

Hill's Brigade 

5th Foot (Northumberland)

9th Foot (East Norfolk)

38th Foot (First Staffordshire)

Fane's Brigade

5/60th Foot - Royal American Rifles, Light Infantry

2/95th Foot - The Rifles, Light Infantry (small unit only a half battalion present)

Nightingall's Brigade

29th Foot (Worcestershire)

82nd Foot (Prince of Wales Volunteers)

Craufurd's Brigade

45th Foot (Nottinghamshire)

50th Foot (Queen's Own)

91st Foot (Argyllshire Highlanders)

Artillery

2 Batteries of 6pdrs

Negrete's Spanish Brigade (off table at the start)

Cazadores de Antequera, Light Infantry

Provinciales de Badajoz, Militia

Regiment Reina, Line infantry

French General de Division Delaborde

Brenier's Brigade of Delaborde's Division

Brenier's Brigade

1/70th Line Infantry

2/70th Line Infantry

4th Swiss Line (unenthusiastic so factors reduced)

3/2nd Light Infantry

3/4th Light Infantry

2 squadrons 26th Chasseurs de Cheval

Artillery

1 Battery of 8 pdrs

Next post will cover the AAR of the battle

It was fifty years ago today....

 ......well not exactly today but close enough for jazz.

Last week I spent three very enjoyable days with some of the alumni of Hull University Wargames Club, the 1973 - 77 vintage.  Some of them I haven't seen since leaving university or very shortly after.  Back then the club was a mix of figure gamers and hex map board gamers, especially the SPI monster games like War in the East.  In fact it was the golden age of SPI games in some respects which made life a bit harder for the figure gamers as everyone seemed to have an SPI game they were desperate to try out!. 

The group which assembled last week was from the hex map game side of the hobby so the three main games were all of that ilk, but we also played a couple of slightly odd card games, well odd to me as I hadn't played them before.  To be honest I was so wrapped up in the occasion I only took one picture so bear with me.  So it came to pass that a rather greyer and creakier (than last time we met) bunch of wargamers gathered together comprising: Stephen Thomas, Dave Harbud, Gary Derrick (our host), John Staniforth and John Digby.  Dave H had to leave before any serious gaming got started as he had a trip abroad planned but the rest of us were there for the entire three days.

On day one we played 'Spies' a 1980's SPI game, set in the late 1930's in the run up to World War Two.  It's a typical experimental SPI game from the period, with no combat result table, no dice and no hexes.  players deploy police units to locations in their home country who try to intercept incoming spies or hunt down emplaced ones.  You also have your spies who move around Europe trying to collect secrets from other player's cities.  There are also event cards that are played by each player each turn and which may grant benefits to your side but also to the opposition.  It's an interesting concept but slightly flawed as the lack of a random element means some aspects of face offs between spies and police can be precalculated based on the known values of the police and spies.  In fact it is possible by stacking police units to create locations where a spy cannot avoid detection and can only escape capture by playing a skill chit.  Still it kept us entertained for an afternoon.

This is the one an only picture I grabbed.  Exciting isn't it.

Day two saw us play a more traditional and rather newer game from 2013 called 'Hinge of Fate'.  This covers the Poland campaign of 1939 but with a twist.  the twist being that you can choose to also play a French intervention on the Franco-German border.  While this actually did happen it was a half hearted attack that quickly fizzled out.  In this counter factual version of events the French after delaying three turns (six days) actually make a proper assault.  This puts the Germans in Poland under time pressure to capture all the Polish cities and fortified hexes before French advances start to trigger random events.  Now I know Hitler believed that a vigorous assault in the west could have defeated Germany and ended the war before it got properly underway but the possible impacts of French success in the Rhineland seem a bit extreme in this game.  Still it was a fun game and went right down to the wire.  The Soviets came into the war on the allied side and then the following turn the French also triggered a coup in Germany, Hitler was killed (yay!) and Germany lost.

The bit of the map I was playing on, no wide open plains with Panzers for me!

Day three saw us trying 2025's SPI game 'Eagles of Rome 1: Caesar', we played the opening scenario Orchomenus 85 BC, Sulla's Romans versus  the Pontic Kingdom.  The initial deployment didn't favour the Pontics as they have a big army and a restricted deployment area.  Once the legionaries get to grips they almost always force retreats or kills which cause disruption to units behind the retreating/killed front line troops.  I quite liked the system but then again I was in control of the Roman infantry.  The Pontic players seemed much less keen.  So much so that after we broke for lunch we didn't return to the game and instead played a few hands of Bandito and  6 Nimmt instead.

Eagles full map, our game used area III making it similar to a Folio game

All in all a great few days of gaming and catching up on who had done what over the last 40 - 50 years (God but that sentence makes me feel old!).  Hopefully we won't leave as long before the next get together.

The Bots are back

 If my hit rates to the blog are to be believed one of three things is going on!

1.  I have become increasingly popular as a blogger

2.  There are far less blogs to read out there, or

3.  AI bots are trawling blogs for data to use in large language model AIs.

I have gone from barely crawling into the 20 - 30 hits per post to a steady 150ish and those hits are almost instant after I hit post!

I don't really think I have become better at blogging as unlike Mary Poppins I'm not "practically perfect in every way" and the content can't be that interesting to a general reader with no interest in wargaming. I also haven't noticed a major falling off of blog posting either, which leaves me to believe that the AI web crawlers are back.

Is anyone else finding the same thing?

Looking at Command and Control again

In the comments in my first post about this topic  (You can find it here >Small but Perfectly Formed: Command and control in wargames.<) Rob pointed me in the direction of a long out of print set of rules which had looked at the same points I was mulling over.  These are 'Napoleonic Rules for a Large Scale Action with Small Scale Miniatures'.  The rules were published in 1980 and had come up with a set of mechanisms to cover pretty much the exact issues I identified.  No point reinventing the wheel I thought and promptly hunted down a copy on Scribd.  After a read through and some note taking I was in agreement with Rob, almost half a century ago the same issue had come up and been solved by smarter minds than mine!

(AI image) This is the chain of command...don't make me use it!

The rules use a variable bound mechanism which was in vogue back then and which has fallen out of use since but it doesn't make much difference to the C2 rules involved.  It listed change of situation triggers, possible reactions to those changes and who can act on the triggers.  It also gives guidance on ranges over which triggers can be identified.  The core concept is that command and control are exercised at separate points in the chain of command and no one  (other than the CinC) can simply issue orders to attack, unless it is for a counter attack to defend the subordinates formation.  

Each link in the chain of command consists of a superior who issues commands and a subordinate who must execute them but can determine how that is done.  Orders have to pass down the full chain of command between an officer who is entitled to give a command and the officer who executes it,  and that takes time.  Essentially this consists of time in transit and time to read and execute the order.  In the absence of new orders a formation simply gets on with the last instructions unless attacked when it is entitled to defend itself.  I rather like the simple underpinning concept of "If tell you to jump all you are allowed to do is ask 'how high'."

The basics of the rules are as follows.

1.  The game starts with the CinC writing orders for the overall objectives of the subordinate commands.  These are broken down by Corps, Division Brigade objectives as required.  I can see fun and games arising in multi player games where three or four players are acting as Corps or Divisional commanders and have to translate Army level orders to their own subordinates objectives.

2. These initial orders are followed unless a change of situation is seen by an Army, Corps or Divisional Commander.  Brigades and Battalions can only deviate from orders if forced to act in self defence when attacked.  In that latter case all they can do is defend and/or or seek new orders from above.  Only the CinC has full freedom of action.

3. Change of Situation triggers are restricted to ten cases, see the tables below.  Each one has a limited set of responses available (also shown on the table below).

4.  Most responses only allow the parent formation to change orders but that requires a message moving from them to the subordinate formation and in some cases vice versa all of which takes time.

5.  Units engaged in firefights or close combat cannot respond to changes in situation or seek new orders.  This means that generals need be able to see what is happening to their commands to be able to influence the fight as the units at the sharp end are locked in place.

Permitted Responses to a change in situation

These possible changes are not mutually exclusive.  They include options for both the affected unit and that units superior.  So (for example) the subordinate unit could go on the defensive and seek new orders while the superior commander seeing the situation could send orders to other units in response

Triggers and options

The rules don't take into account failures to follow orders correctly and other areas of friction as it seems to be assumed that orders are not open to interpretation and are followed to the letter.  While this may be the case in most situations there are always occasional  'outliers' where subordinates have ideas of their own, for good or ill!  They also don't appear to be written to cover Army through to Battalion chains of command or the freedom of action granted French Corps commanders (Q was that really a thing on a big battlefield or just while Corps were acting independently?)

That said, looking at the above I think I have enough to work with to create some simple C2 rules.  Lets see how it goes.

And just like that

 Like what you may wonder?  As well as what happened 'just like that'?  Or maybe not of course.  You may recall that I was bemoaning the lack of local wargaming opponents and saying how I had taken a chance on sticking my head over the parapet to ask on a local Facebook page if there were any local wargamers in my small slice of North Lincolnshire.   The answer appears to be no and that the nearest historical gaming groups are either in Hull or Grimsby.  As a result I resigned myself to solo gaming for the foreseeable future.

Well 'just like that' I had a message from an ex member of Hull University Wargaming Club firstly asking if the same chap who had been a member back in the mid 1970's.  The answer being yes I was indeed a member some fifty years ago.  It turns out the ex member (no names no pack drill applies as not everyone wants their details splashing all over the net) was still in touch with a couple of gamers from back then and that they had been getting together for games meet ups.  The amazing bit being he lives less than fifteen miles away.  As a result I have an invite to a three day gaming session later this month and I'm in touch with some friends I haven't seen in half a century!

I don't think it will be figure gaming as the people concerned were fans of the hex map strategy games especially the really huge ones.  War in Europe was a favourite although they did draw the line at SPI's Campaign for North Africa.  But hey a wargame is a wargame on a table with figures or on a hex map with counters.  Watch this space for a follow up game report towards the end of the month.

The grand parade of recycled wood dust

Also known as MDF, a strange material made of wood fibres, resin and wax.  It contains Formaldehyde which is not a pleasant substance and sanding is not recommended as the dust is potentially hazardous,  On the other hand it does make some excellent miniature figures and it's cheap (a recuring theme in my thinking you will have gathered by now!).  Once laser cut and engraved by the talented Walt of Commission Figurines, painted and based by yours truly they create a rather nice effect for not a lot of time and effort.

As always with 6mm figures the trick is to paint for the overall effect of the unit once it is based up, rather than creating individual masterpieces.  This especially so with the MDF figures and I have realised that painting them in an almost toy soldier style works well.  To be honest there is almost no scope for traditional high lights and ink washing is pointless as there is nothing to pick out.  A little creative paining of brighter shades along arms legs and shoulders some darker creases on the legs is about the best that you could do an guess what?  At arms length it hardly shows up so I didn't bother.  Even if I did I'd limit it to the front of the front rank and the rear of the rear rank and perhaps the left and right files outer sides.

So having made my excuses for a only using a limited paint scheme, here's what the result looks like massed together.

The Anglo-Spanish Army as it currently stands

The gallant losers, er,  I mean the French

Last but not least I have my first unit of French foreign troops the 4th Swiss Line Infantry.  Included in the front line of the above picture.

The Swiss, they look better at table top distance

Swiss rear view

I ran out of grenadiers in bearskins so sneaked an elite in shako figure into make up the shortfall.  I'm quite taken with the red and sky blue jackets.

All for now the next post is about something completely different.