Through the Mud and the Blood - Early War Second Battle of Ypres scenario

Earlier this month I headed out to visit Curt of Analogue Hobbies Blog Spot who was also a founding member of our very own Fawcett Ave Conscripts group.  The visit was for a weekend of random gaming fun with Curt and his merry band of followers, or at least his Friday night gaming group.  We played several different miniature games and even strayed into board games as well over the few days.

One of the games I took out was the excellent Through the Blood and the Mud World War 1 game by the Too Fat Lardies.  I ran a scenario set in the early war during the Second Battle of Ypres. While not historically accurate or set on any one specific battle it was one made up of elements of several fights, rolled into one to make a good game.  I had done this for a few reasons, one of which was to help with traveling light so that I could take less terrain and make it work on the new mat I got from Cigar Box Games.  It allowed me to not have to pack as many trees, no roads or rivers at all, and use whatever hills Curt had as they go under the mat. 

The game started with the Germans setup at the crossroads and the Canadians
coming on the board, everyone started concealed as blinds

The basic idea of the scenario was that the Canadians had broken through the German lines on their first night in battle somewhere along the front between Kitchener's and Sanctuary wood.  They made their way forward disrupting the German lines and pushed through to the German rear lines.  The Germans are caught by surprise at a small group of homes near a crossroad but know they have to hold our as long as they can to ensure that fresh troops have time to move up into position behind them to repulse the attack.  I borrowed the random game length idea of a "Tempus Fugit" deck that I first saw in one of the published scenarios from the Lardies to add a random nature to how long the Germans would have to hold. 

Curt and Jeremy played as the Germans, while Stacy and Sylvain led the Canadian forces.

The German HMG along with a rifle team, revealed that they had setup in the
woods and opened fire on the advancing Canadians, inflicting heavy casualties
on a section and driving that section back over the course of two turns.

The Canadian rifle team was quickly torn apart and reduced
below combat effectiveness.

The Canadians would score points for each killed or captured German, while the Germans would score points for each killed Canadian or escaped German.  German soldiers could escape based on how far they were from any Canadian soldiers when time ran out.  To represent the fact that the Germans were desperate to hold out and beat back the Canadian assault, they would need to do twice as much as the Canadians to win (so each Canadian "point" was worth 2).

A small German rifle team tries to prevent the Canadians from crossing
a small stream and flanking the German right flank.

Curt with his artistic flair insisted on an "action" shot.

 On the German left flank, the Canadians massed units in the woods opposite the crossroads and then tried to suppress the Germans before launching an assault.  The German forces were dug into better cover though and were therefor harder to both hit and hurt than the Canadians were. This meant that the firefight across the road lasted many turns despite the Canadians outnumbering the Germans by two to one.

Two Canadian sections already setup along the edge of the woods,
and three more coming up behind to support them!

The Germans only had one rifle section in the farm house,
and a section next to them in the woods, but that section was also
dealing with units coming up the road.

The game initially went very much in the Germans favour with them ripping apart one section very quickly, pinning two others, and getting lucky on both the activation and the time flies card decks.  It seemed like they would wipe the Canadians out in short order.

As is true in many battles though, the tide turned unexpectedly and swiftly on them as they suddenly ran out of luck about halfway through the game.  At that point for several turns in a row, the Canadians got almost every activation card they needed, before the German card for the unit they faced.  Worse than that (for the Germans at least), the Canadians got hot with their dice, and the Germans dice froze over.

After a few hot Canadian turns the Germans got word (the time flies deck ran out) that their reinforcements were setup behind them and they retreated from the field of battle.  It was a little too late for the Germans though, as the Canadians had closed in close enough to capture a majority of the German soldiers.

The final score was 52 to 28 in favour of the Canadians.  As the games referee I had worried early on that the Canadians would not even reach the German lines let alone get enough points for a tie, and due to a run of luck in the late game they completely turned the tables on the Germans.

The game once again reinforced for me how extremely simple the rule system by the Too Fat Lardies is, yet how well it seems to capture the real ebb and flow of battles.  It more than any other rule set for WW1 that I have played really gives me the feel of that grinding battle, yet allows for heroic changes in fate. 

Thanks to Curt for hosting and to Sylvain, Stacy, and Jeremy for playing.  It was an awesome visit and game, and one well worth repeating!

Byron's Mad Plan - Final Update

A while back I published a listing of my Mad Plan, and then my Mad Plan - Update 1 for the Curt's 4th Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. Well, since the challenge is now over, I felt I should give one final update on how it all went before moving onto other things.

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 Before going into specific pieces, here is an image of everything that I got painted for the Challenge.

That's a whole lot of figures! I think it is probably more than I have ever done in 3 months before!

Total count was:

• 171 28mm figures
• 2 28mm tanks
• 1 28mm demon prince
• 9 tiny ships
• 80 15mm infantry
• 21 15mm vehicles and guns

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 The first goal I had was to get 8 infantry sections of Canadians and 3 infantry sections of Germans and 2 HMG's done for my WW1 force for Through the Mud and the Blood.  We'll on a pure number basis, that didn't happen, but I had mixed thoughts on if I would get them done entirely anyway as gamer ADHD sets in to quickly to stay on target for that many figures.

I did however get 6 Canadian Sections done, 3 German sections, and 1 HMG.

Even though I fell short by 2 Canadian infantry sections and a German HMG, I count the goal complete as I managed to get a game in with them, so it was all good. More pictures of the game can be found here: WW1 Take the Farm.

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My second goal was to get at least one unit of 28mm French Napolionic figures done, so that I can actually contribute (in a VERY small way) to Napolionic games that Curt brings our way.

I left these way to late in the challenge and had a hard time with them, not knowing the period in detail enough to get specifics correct without bugging Curt and Greg a lot. I did however get them done, just in the nic of time, a complete unit of 30 infantry with a mounted commander.

While not perfect, and I see flaws on individual models, as a whole group they look pretty damn impressive! Even if I do say so myself.  Greg and Curt have been supportive of this saying in this kind of game with mass infantry it is about the overall impression not having each individual absolutely perfect.  Coming from 40k I have issues with that, or maybe its my OCD, but I do have to agree when looking at the whole unit from table distance they are impressive.  I guess I have to try to get over the little things..... not very likely, but oh well.

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My third stated goal was to clean up a lot of the stuff sitting around gathering dust. I started out OK with this but then kept adding more to my collection.  Greg especially was a bad influence with a venture into the 30k universe (more on that in a blog update later today).

I did however get a bunch of Zombicide figures painted in grey scale (picture in the fourth goal area below) and a complete Chain of Command Canadian WWII force done in 15mm, so I feel good about cleaning some things up at least.

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My fourth and final goal was to submit at least 5 entries out of the 7 possible for the different bonus rounds.  I did even better by managing to complete a perfect 7/7.  This netted me a total 350 bonus points and really helped my overall score.  Even more importantly, it let me try different things and break our individual miniatures that I may not have gotten to otherwise.

• December 22: Non Combatant(s) – Old Woman 
• January 5: Villain(s) - Nurgle Demon Prince
• January 19: Vehicle – Some brand new and shiny Rivet Wars tanks
• February 2: Hero or Heroic Group - Dark Angels Space Marine Hero
• February 16: Casualty / Casualties - WW1 Canadian Casualties 
• March 2: Favourite Character - James Richardson - Piper for the 16th Battalion
• March 16: Last Stand - Zombicide in Grey Scale

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When the challenge started out, I initially wanted to complete 750 points worth of figures.  A 28mm standard trooper counts for 5 points.  This meant that I would have to paint roughly 150 figures in about 3 months, a lofty goal.  Then Curt added the fortnight challenge goals, each of which could add 50 points, so I upped my goal to 1000 points, with the thought that just maybe I could hit it.

By the end, I hit 1643 points and placed 10th out of 61 for pure quantity of work completed.  Overall, I am pretty damn happy with that!  Sure I could probably have painted more, but not while keeping to a table top quality for gaming that I would be happy with.

Again to Curt, a big thank you for running the event, it was a lot of fun and got me painting more than I have in probably forever!  I can barely wait for next year, already formulating a even madder plan for my second run through.  I am not sure if I will attempt to up my points goal, as I would rather go for more quality than quantity and keep the painting to a level I feel is worthy of seeing a tabletop, rather than just paint on a figure for points sake, especially since this is only for fun, there is no real winner or loser.

So I wrap this up with a comment to all the other Conscripts, especially those that did not enter this year:  Get Ready!  It was a lot of fun and something that should not be missed, make sure you plan ahead and let's see what we can get done as a club for next year.


You can find all my entries with this link: ByronM Entries for the 4th Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.

Battle Report - 28mm WW1 In Greyscale, 28mm

Is that 28mm WW1 in grey scale? Yes - it is.

I am very fortunate to be part of an amazing gaming group here in Winnipeg, and one of the things I enjoy the most is when one member of the group all of a sudden rolls out with some awesome project and you get to game it on the table.  I remember when Dallas suddenly rolled out with his FuturKom lads, and Mike F suddenly revealed an awesome force of modern Russian Federation troops (something we need to hit the table with soon...).  It's cool to see new project, new inspiration, new ideas.

The 6'x4' table - the lock is at the bottom, and the bridge towards the top

The Entente's objective - the locks

German Uhlans scout things out

Fawcett Ave "founding director" Curt C - proprietor of the Analogue Hobbies blog - was always a master of this - new, awesome projects were common on Fawcett Avenue.  Although he now lives a few hours down the highway, he has not lost his penchant or passion for very unique, very ambitious and very compelling hobby projects that look really f***ing cool.  Who else could convince me to paint 40-man 28mm Napoleonic infantry battalions? His latest project is 28mm WW1 in grey scale, and we got play this game when he visited Winnipeg a couple of weeks ago!

German Uhlans charge the Belgian armoured "car"

The Belgian Minerva armoured "car"

The Uhlans confront the Minerva

Lone survivor of the Uhlans' crazy charge

I lack the coolness or cultural depth to explain Curt's motivations and inspirations for this undertaking, but the photos you see in this post speak for themselves - and Curt articulated it very well when he first introduced it - see here. Curt is not one for half-measures with his projects, and he is whole-hog on this one.  Troops, terrain, everything. Bottom line is that we got to have an awesome game earlier this month, one the group will certainly remember for a while.

Most maneuvering early in the game is with blinds - you can see the Entente ones taking position, while sinister Kaiser-loving blinds move up from the opposite table edge at the top of the photo

A view of the blinds from the German side

We played using "Through The Mud And The Blood" rules.  The scenario was set in the closing stages of the early phase of WW1 - armies on both sides were driving to the sea in 1914.  Belgium, desperate to hold the Germans back, was flooding its own countryside to slow them down.  The scenario imagined and encounter between the leading elements of both sides but with slightly different goals - the Germans were out to capture a bridge over a Belgian canal so they could try and turn the Entente flank, while the Entente troops were out to blow open a canal gate to continue with the flooding.  These mutually exclusive objectives would lead to carnage on the table...

German HMG team

Dallas, Frederick, Dave and Mike F would play the German side.  Kevin H and Byron M joined me on the Entente side. Curt ran the scenario with his customary meticulous attention to detail and well-developed, multi-layered plot.  The card-driven rules system seemed to lend itself well to narrative development as well as engagement in the game.  We would maneuver using blinds at first, which would be revealed either through spotting, or if they decided to shoot or take a similarly unmissable step that would single them out.  Cards determined if reinforcements came, and provided the chance for any revealed characters to add some extra oomph to attempted actions.

French troops occupy the buildings in the village - the flash of colour represents an officer

Another view of the French position

The rules revolved around the idea of "big men" - in this case unit leaders.  They are ranked at a certain level, with higher ranked leaders able to order more troops, or add more "oomph" to attempted actions.  The units themselves had two actions once activated, and could be either firing or moving, or attempting both.


Some jocks occupy the woods - that would not work out well for them...

The scenario imagined the ground already covered with mud, shell holes from earlier fighting, and a layer of water from previous flooding efforts.  So it was SLOW going.  Both sides moved along and reinforced as the cards allowed.

Germans move toward the village

Early on the Belgian Minerva armoured "car" made an appearance, as did some German Uhlans.  The Germans managed to charge the Belgians, and succeeded in knocking out the vehicle! A quintessential early WW1 encounter.  A French HMG ensured the Uhlans would not live to brag about it, however.

Germans take cover in a church grave yard

Another view of the German advance - Highlanders in the distance

Eventually it became clear that we would not be able to make it to our objective - too much mud, too many Germans!  I managed to set a French squad up in the ruins of the village while the Germans advanced along both sides of the canal.  Byron set a squad of hard hitting Highlanders in a forward defensive position in a shattered wood, while Kevin drove his Belgian infantry and dog-led HMGs toward the locks.

Germans under fire in the ruins of a church - the "spray" markers represent shock on the unit

Both sides ultimately contacted (I was needling/nagging everyone to drop the blinds and "reveal" themselves) and soon the battle was joined. My French troops and Byron's jocks were driven back by the weight of German fire, but eventually settled into defensive positions that the Germans could not unlock.  Kevin led the Belgians in a brave and futile advance/charge up the village side of the canal, but the weight of German fire was too much.

Kevin H leads the Belgians in a brave charge...

The charge goes pear-shaped, and the Belgians are driven back

In the end the battle was a draw.  The Germans got nowhere near the bridge, and we were nowhere near the canal gates.  Both sides stuck in the slow going, confused battle, fighting to a draw with serious losses on both sides...sounds like WW1 to me.

Highlanders have fallen back to a better defensive position, supported by the French HMG

These photos don't do Curt's WW1 project justice.  I encourage you to check out his blog for more pictures of the various stuff he has painted (examples here and here).  This stuff looks unreal when you see it up close.  Just contemplating all of that relativity for the different gradients etc. makes my head hurt, but Curt has pulled it off.  It's really something, a totally cool and unique game! It was just great to have the chance to play with these awesome figures and terrain.

French troops, supported by Belgian HMG team

Thanks again to Curt for running such a magnificent game, and to the large number of Fawcett gamers who came out to play.  I hope Curt can visit Winnipeg again soon!
**UPDATE - I added some photos from Dave V.  Thanks Dave!

Battle Report: Vandamme's Assault on the Stare Vinohrady - Austerlitz, 1805

Note: My apologies for cross posting from my blog but I wanted to get maximum press coverage for Greg's gorgeous Napoleonic Austrian collection and celebrate the inauguration of my new gaming room here in Regina.


Last weekend Greg and his lovely wife, Linda, came to Regina for a holiday weekend visit to which we all ate and drank to excess and caught up on our sleep. Greg and I also took the requisite time to game like men possessed. On top of a suitably bloody game of SAGA, and reacquainting ourselves with 'Conflict of Heroes' we also played a cataclysmic 'Spearhead' scenario set in the opening hours of Kursk (see Greg's excellent batrep below). These were all great fun, but undoubtedly the main event was our Napoleonic scenario based on the French attack on the Allied center at Austerlitz in December 1805.

Historically, Vandame's assault on the Stare Vinohrady was virtually a non-contest. The remnants of the mauled Allied IV Column, composed of six battalions of the IR#23, five severely reduced Russian battalions and their attached artillery, tried to hold the heights, but the French had both the numbers and the quality to quickly overwhelm them. Nevertheless, in reading the numerous accounts of the engagement I thought there were a few 'what-ifs' that  if cobbled together could make a viable, if somewhat asymmetrical scenario. The following is what piqued my interest:

• Scott Bowden's 'Napoleon and Austerlitz' describes the Austrian and Russian contingents as separate actions even though they occurred very close to one another on the Pratzen Heights. I think much of this had to do with both the difficulty of communication between the Austrian and Russian partners along with the fact that the Allies wanted to cover-off as much of the heights as possible. Nonetheless, what if the Allies had drawn themselves closer together to better support one another, would it have helped?

• Bowden further describes that the two Allied contingents did not make good use of the available ground, which had several vineyards below the summit (thus the name 'Vinohrady'). These would have slowed down infantry attacks and pretty much nullified threats from cavalry. Historically the Allies deployed well back from the vineyards, surrendering their advantages to the French light infantry. So what if the Allies had positioned their forces to take better advantage of the available ground, could it have aided their defence of the heights?

• In David Chandler's 'Austerlitz, 1805' he obliquely mentions another unit of Kolowrat's command, Infantry Regiment #24, being in support of IR#23. Reportedly this was a depot battalion of around 400 conscripts, but I reasoned that every man would have helped to spread out the line on the Heights and so included them in my Order of Battle. I also added cavalry support to both sides. The French had access to Boye's Dragoon brigade (which was historically on-hand) and the Allies now have two regiments (Dragoons and Hussars) originally from Liechtenstein's V Column of cavalry and Wodiansky's Advance Guard. So, finally, what if the Allied High Command had released more cavalry assets to the defence of the Heights?

So for our scenario I incorporated the above conjectures and worked with the hypothesis that Kolowrat and Miloradovich have decided to concentrate and coordinate their efforts thereby bringing their forces together - forcing Vandamme to engage them as a combined force on the summit, on advantageous ground of their choosing. 

A map of the rough dispositions of the two armies as seen at the start of the action. 

For our game we used our home-grown rules, 'Food for Powder', which do a very good job of reflecting unbalanced engagements. This battle was actually fairly large for a battalion-level game (24 battalions, 4 regiments of cavalry and 3 batteries of guns) so we played it on a 6x10 surface to give us enough room to maneuver. Some may notice that I did not model the Heights on the tabletop - in my reading it seemed to suggest that the path Vandamme took on his assault was along a very gradual slope and therefore would not have granted much tactical superiority to the Allies so I decided to leave out modeling the Heights for sake of clarity.

The Stare Vinohrady today as seen from Vandamme's initial positions.

For our battle we had John and Dan on the French side, while Greg and Sylvain ran the Austrians and Russians respectively.

Here the French commanders, Dan and John, look on with Stacy (on the right) assisting as umpire.

Greg and Sylvain commanded the Austro-Russian force.

The first turn was fairly quiet, seeing the French move towards the heights along their entire front, including their guns. For the Allies, they stayed in place but were very lucky in their reinforcement roll and an composite brigade of cavalry (Austrian Hussars and Dragoons) arrived on their right flank. Greg formed them up in column of squadrons, with the Hussars leading and the Dragoons in support.

In the second Turn the French brought in their own cavalry in the form of Boye's bigade of Dragoons (under Dan). They deployed on the French right flank, in extended column of squadrons, diagonal to the Austrian cavalry. This choice of deployment had a critical impact in the following turns for both sides as the cavalry had free reign in each of their sectors. Eyebrows were duly raised with this heap of snorting cavalry showing up on the tabletop all at once.

Boye's Dragoon Brigade heading towards the Russian line.

Amongst our group, Sylvain is legendary for his caution so you can imagine the hoots of derision when he began to retrograde his Russians in response to the arrival of the French Dragoons. (As you will see Sylvain had the last laugh as his refusal of the left flank probably saved the Allied line.)

Shown here are three of the five understrength and exhausted Russian battalions that held the Allied left flank.

The third turn was a corker. First thing you have to understand that Dan is the antithesis of Sylvain. I like to think of Dan as the General Haig of miniature wargaming. To Dan's way of thinking 'If the first assault does not break them then the twelfth will certainly do the trick...' As such Dan's French Dragoons duly charged the Russian left flank as soon as they got the chance. Since the charge began from a long distance away (practically in Vienna) the Russian battalions had enough time to form squares. Undeterred, Dan noted that most of the Russian squares were not well-formed (our rules differentiate between 'solid' and 'hasty' squares) and so sent in the leading regiment of Dragoons to see if the Russians would loose their bottle. It was not meant to be. The Russians held their position and repulsed the Dragoons, but not without suffering some casualties and disorder in their ranks.

The nervous Austrian line, jammed full of conscripts and raw troops.

Meanwhile in the center, one French battalion decided to take the bit by the teeth and move ahead of the advance in line formation... While up the slope the two Allied artillery batteries hammered away at the approaching French columns, who inexplicably neglected to shake-out into less target-rich line formations and so consequently paid the price.

Back to the Allied left, Greg noted the impetuous advance of the solitary French battalion with an arched eyebrow, and thought it was too good of an opportunity for his Austrian Hussars to pass up. Greg knew he'd have to 'roll Vegas' to get the requisite moves in order to close, but he rolled the dice hoping they'd be kind to him. Well, the dice gods were smiling on Austria and Greg managed change formation, sound the charge and head for the French battalion.

The Austrian Hussars receive their order to charge...

Several French squares watch apprehensively as the Austrian Hussars begin to move across their front...

Again, as the charge originated from so far away the French battalion had a very good chance to form square. In 'Food for Powder' there are Impetus Dice (good mojo) and Friction Dice (bad mojo). Both Impetus and Friction are drawn from unit quality, officer rating and environmental conditions. Both are rolled simultaneously and you literally have to take the good with the bad (or vis a vis). Well, John rolled well enough with his Impetus dice, but the Friction roll was completely off the register - to the extent that the French battalion continued to trudge along, wondering why the ground was shaking, trumpets were blaring and their comrades to the rear were waving their arms and shouting...

'Ah! Zee target is in sight - Sound ze Charge!!'

A French ADC tries to warn the battalion of its imminent danger...

As John would say later, his battalion 'had the distinct misfortune of being ridden down by the 'flyboys' of the Horse & Musket era'. The only thing that saved the French battalion from complete annihilation was that the Austrian Hussars were at the end of their tether and very fatigued, so the mauled survivors were able to make their escape.

... but too late - the Hussars are upon them!

Turn four saw the French grind forward, closing with the Allied positions while the Russian and Allied guns gutted a French column. Nonetheless, the 1st of the 57th 'Le Terribles' got into action against the Russians and quickly broke a battalion that had been forced into square by the nearby French Dragoons. The French guns were dragged forward 'by bricole' and unlimbered in preparation to punish the tightly packed Russian formations. I'm sure there were many muttered prayers in those formations...

The unlimbered French artillery ranging in on the Russian squares. 

In the center Greg knew his victorious Hussars were desperately exposed and winded so he committed his remaining cavalry, the Dragoons to try to cover their retreat.  This turned out to be a little Pyrrhic as the Dragoons were shot to pieces by every French battalion's voltigeurs on their 'Death Ride' to the Hussars' support. Nonetheless, the exhausted 'flyboys' of the game managed to get extricated and began their ride back to Austrian high command to present the French colours they had captured.

Kolowrat receiving the news of the capture of a French eagle.

I'm sorry I cannot give a final account of the scenario as this is where we decided to break for the evening (we spent a lot of time laughing, eating and drinking.) Nonetheless, we looked over the field at 'halftime' and surmised that while the French had certainly been rebuffed in a few areas they were still in an excellent position on the Allied left flank to start an envelopment with combined arms. The fragile Allied line composed of reduced battalions and conscripts had not yet been truly tested and it would be touch-and-go to tell how it would turn out for them. It was really anybody's game.

Looking from the French left across the battlefield.

It was great fun, and all of it due to an excellent bunch of guys to game with. I extend my thanks to them all for making the night so entertaining. A special thank you goes to Greg and John who both travelled great distances to attend and brought many beautiful toys from their own collections in order to make the game that much more colourful - bravo! 

I had such a good time that I'm already planning for the next Napoleonic weekend...