Stop Press! Bordurians Invade Trans Syldavia!

The Bordurians have crossed the Trans Syldavian border in a number of places, their strategy seems to be to send a large column to try and set up blockades at the main passes over the Syldavian Alps so Syldavian reinforcements can't get into Trans Syldavia easily, while another column is moving straight for the port city of Szeszik, and a third is crossing at he area around Kustomz to follow the northern road, probably to try and go around any opposition eho is trying to prevent the direct advance to Szeszik.

Our Man on the spot  has ieced together what haoppened at Kustomz and filed thsi report befire having to leave in a hurry. The Syldavian forces at Kustomz fought well (see last post) but were eventually overcome by sheer numbers and had to retire.  (The Syldavians won the actual battle, but they had to achieve a  high kill rate to force Borduria back, so we judged - for this mini campaign - that the Bordurian 2nd wave would have over-run Kustomz.)

He deceded discretion was the better part of valour and retired back into Trans Syldavia, But the next morning was  manabegd to photograph Bordurian BT-5 tanks rolling through town he was staying in and decided to leg it again.

 

He retired as far as the hamlets of Velke and Male Klenplek where  Syldavian forces had set up a defendive line. But no sonner had he filled up teh car than Bordurians advance forces attacked. 

The Bordurians again had bigger numbers but the Syldavians have better armour.and training. Our man was ALSO very surprised to see a a small force of Burgundians from Italy fighting with the Syldavian forces (more on this later....)  

 (Above) Bordurian troops preparing to attack Syldavian forces n the hamlets.moving down the main road to Szeszik

Again the Bordurians struggled to make headway against the better equipped Syldavians in defence, and again the use of aircraft was effective. 

In this game we also introduced a Bordurian Mountain Infantry unit (aka better infantry than the poor quality Bordurian line troops) and they had more impact in assaulting built up areas.

Again it was a Syldavian victory in numbers, but the Bordurians carried the attack into Velke Klenplek, thus securing the main road forward and we judged the Bordurians would secure it and the Syldavians would retire again (and thus of course, another battle would have to be fought....).  

 (Below) Bordurian Polikarpov Po 2 attacking Burgundian troops. The Syldavians command were taken by surprise by the Bordurian invasion and have few air assets in TransSyldavia.

The Trans-Syldavian War of 1938 starts......

One of the things the Tintin books oddly do not cover is Trans-Syldavia, that region north of the Syldavian Alps whose history which has been covered in this blog over the years. Now as you all know, in 1867 Trans-Syldavia was awarded to Borduria as part of the Austro-Hungarian compromise and in WW1 Borduria supported the Austro Hungarian empire (when it looked like they would win) , whereas Syldavia had (belatedly) supported the Allies and was thus rewarded with Trans-Syldavia  at the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. 

Of course, ever since then, Bordurian foreign policy as been to get Trans-Syldavia back, as it had given that most coveted of things, a route to the sea. When the attempt of Anschluss failed (covered in the Tintin book "King Ottokar's Sceptre" and Kûrvi-Tasch putsched Musstler out of power, Borduria's aims were reduced to getting Trans-Syldavia back. Borduria has been "testing" the Syldavians by "exercising" on the border and occasionally "accidently" going across it.

But news hitting the wires today, it looks like phony war may be over.......our correspondent in Klow  was travelling to Szohod yesterday, and had just breakfasted at the Hotel XXXX in the Syldavian border town of Kustomzs and was travelling the to the nearby border post when Bordurian cavalry clattered past racing the other way, into Syldavia. On nearing border the post he realised it was now a Bordurian operational HQ and started to take some photographs when Bordurian troops ran up and put him in the cell at the border post, along with a the Syldavian Borders Officials and a few hapless civilians caught up in the affray.

 

Senior Bordurian Army staff at the border post near Kustomsz, as Bordurian armoured cars roll over into Syldavia

Fortunately the Bordurians were too busy with invading to pay them much notice, and in all the chaos no one had checked if the Syldavian border guards had keys to the cell (they did) and - no one is quite sure how - the guards and he made their escape while the Bordurian officers were at lunch, making their way back carefully across country as the action unfolded.

Arriving back long after dark (and nearly getting shot by jumpy Syldavian pickets near Kustomsz and wired this report.

"We escaped from the border post by crawling along a ditch for several hundred meters and them making a run for some woods .From there we saw Bordurian armoured cars and horse artillery racing into Syldavia along the road to Kustomz. Soon affter that Bordurian infantry started marching through. We were nearly discovered when Bordurian infantry started moving close to the woods on the other side. They were Mountain troops, the Syldavian customs officials said.

And last but not least, the Bordurian Air Force attacked in support, attacking the Syldavian positions around Kustomz.

We await more information...

 

 

 

Interbellum Imagi-Nations in the Balkans - O Group Rules

Yesterday saw the clash between a number of our Interwar Imagi-Nations being built - Syldavia and Burgundy faced up to Borduria and the Austro-Bavarians somewhere in the Balkans, using O Group rules.
 

Burgundian Independent tanks and Rolls Royce armoured cars support Syldavian infantry. In the far disance, Bordurian AH-1V tankettes advance along the main road to Sprodj

This Imagi-Nation project is mainly concocted to allow troops dressed in unlikely uniforms from countries that never existed to use weapons that never fought. The background assumes a somewhat different Treaty of Versailles, plus some regions of Europe unilaterally declaring indpendence in the chaos after WW1, yet another Civil War in the US, plus Red Russian attempts to retake their territories on the North American West Coast. So far Syldavia, Borduria, Byzantium, Burgundy, Austro-Bavaria and both sides the US 2nd Civil war have taken the field. 

In the spirit of Imagi-nations, it's locate your country, design your flag and uniform, pick your tanks and guns, and assert your right to rule!

 

Burgundians with tankette support moving through the cornfield to attack Bordurians in the woods

 For the cognoscenti, the battle pitted Burgundian Char D's, Independent Tanks, Rolls Royce armoured cars and Polish TKS tankettes and 2 pounder guns against the Indiana Jones tanks of Austro-Bavaria (ever cautious, they have gone for upgrading trusted technology) and the Czech-equipped Bordurians with AH-1V tankettes, Vz 30 six wheel armoured cars and Lt 35 tanks,  with French 25mm and 47mm AT guns

 Czech vz 30 armoured cars of the Bordurian Splozh  Huszars attempt to outflank the Burgundian left

 And by the whiskers of Kurvi Tasch, it was a glorious Bordurian victory!

We had to build a fairly comprehensive set of data on all the 1920's/30's equipment used (getting data on the Indiana Jones Tank was tricky) but O Grou is vfairly good for thi as  ts a "category" based ruleset - you just have to decicde whether the tanks had thin armour, negligently thin armour, or ludicrously thin armour

Next time - inventing our own army org structures...

Borodinette - Valour & Fortitude, 1812

 

 Played in glorious 25mm on a 12 x 6 table. Russians on the left, French on the right.

Borodino refought using Valour & Fortitude rules, with about 1/3rd of the battalions / cavalry regiments actually used. Biggest game we have tried so far with V&F, c 20 Brigades on table for each side. Scenario plan & layout was adapted from a Command & Colours one.

It was maginifcent, and it was (model) war!

Rules flowed very well. At this scale it becomes all about retiring units and entire brigades before they collapse so you can reform them in the rear, and anticipating where pressure will come in advance. You also really undrstand the value of heavy cavalry, as you can move them around the field quickly to solve problems.

 

In the game, the Russian error of over-egging their their well-protected right flank (bottom left in picture) was really noticeable. This was pounced upon by the French, who did not copy Napoleon's error of charging up the centre in the face of 2 hilltop fortifications but instead mounted a huge assault on the Russan left flank (top left of picture) and a big feinting attack on the right flank.

 

With the home fronts calling we had to stop after c 6 hours of hard pounding. But it was already clear that the main Russian objective in reality, of killing enough French to seriously damage their campaign, was being achieved and in fact at this point in reality the Russian army started to retire to achieve their 2nd objectve of keeping an army in the field.

 

Historically Napoleon refused to commit his Imperial Guard and (maybe) destroy the Russians at the end of the day, which some of his generals and many armchair generals and historians see as a big error. If our game was anything to go by, with parts of the Guard already committed and the Russians still a viable force, Boney may well have also wanted to make sure he also kept an army in being!

 

Fortitude before Valour, and all that.... 

 

 

Valour & Fortitude in the Peninsula

 

Valour & Fortitude game, 25mm Anglo-Portuguese vs Franco-Spanish on 12' x 5' table

2 Corps of a Franco-Spanish-Italian-Wurttemburg-German army attacked 1 1/2 Corps of an Anglo Portuguese army (complete with Brunswickers). And when we say Corps, we mean each battalion on the table is 16 - 24 figures. None of this 1 stand = 1 battalion stuff....

 

The British were on the Heights, but they had to take the town - only problem was a French army had arrived, and - worse luck - its Spanish allies arrived in bound 1. 

 

Though outnumbered the plucky British were doing quite well - until a Spanish priest saw a vison and incited a bunch of peasants to attack a Portuguese gun battery, which they destroyed and they then proceeded to sweep down the line helping destroy a Portuguese infantry battalion and a British Hussar regiment, which set off a domino like collapse of the Portuguese Division, and then the British right flank. (Lesson - do not ignore Spanish Guerillas that dice 6 on their "Unpredictable" score….)

 

By day's end, (literally - took us c 11am - 6 pm to play) with Spanish cavalry pouring into the British rear and nearly all the Britsh brigades wavering or worse, it was all over and the Britsh ran for the hills.

 

This game let us try out the British and Spanish army lists which we havent used before, as well as the new French & British Allies list with Portuguese, Brunswickers, Italians, Wurttemburgers / Germans and Guerillas - and a Congreve rocket!

Very happy with the V&F rules, they handle these big battles well, though I think they may need to expand the 4 pages of the rulebook with another page to add a bunch finesses

Triumph!

 

 

 

Above  - glorious Atlantic & Airfix plastic figures, source of many ancient starter armies in the 70's

 

Went to the RAF Wargames Association annual day to play 2 days of Big Triumph, the Triumph ancients rules expanded for larger armies. This was played in 20mm which meant I could get out my old skool Atlantic plastic army, consisting of their Greek, Roman and Trojan sets plus Airfix & Revell Gauls - all modelled as that great "anything goes in it" of Ancient armies, the Carthaginians,.

The scenario was "Africa v Rome" - what would have happened if the African nations united against the Roman boot. This pitted Carthaginian, Numidian and Ptolemaic Egyptian Triumph armies against Roman legions, who also recruited a bunch of Galatian mercenaries for that phalanx cracking task.

Anyway, in an enjoyable series of 3 big games it was Rome 1, Africa 1, Inconclusive draw 1. For the Galatian v Phalanx action, it was 1 - 1. Whoever got the advantage early on won the fight, and getting the advantage early on was also a function of messing up the other sides' advance to contact. 

So, for the Carthaginian general the fiery furnace was avoided for this campaign, and Roman strategy shifted to seducing the Queen of Egypt, which would turn out to be a winner one day. 

The rules are fast play and on the surface very simple, but once the armies are large like the ones  we used, the "simple" game becomes more about anticipation, moving reserves and - as always - throwing better dice when it counts ;)  Net net, a good set of rules for playing the big games we like, we have found time and again that simple fast play rules are the best way of playing large games, the devil moves from the details to the deployment and decisions on the day. 

 

 

Valour & Fortitude Napoleonic Rules

 

 

Action somewhere on the endless Russian steppes!

We've been trying out the Perry Valour & Fortitude rules for our big battle obession, and they work pretty well. They are a 6 page free ruleset and each army also has a 2 page ruleset (see page here). 

This is the entire Austrian Corps in Russia, 1812 fighting equal points of Russians, c 600 points.The armies are built up from battalions / cavalry regiments / gun  batteries, which are then organised into brigades, each brigade has a commander and these brigades are the main operating elements of the game.

We used ground scale at 2/3 the Perry rules scale, it worked well even on the 10 x 6 table we were using.

Because shooting happens before you move, and often you can't move after you shoot, we used cotton wool to represent unts that had shot, which gives the table a realistic-ish look (see pic above). You also need also need battalion casualties, shaken and wavering markers.

Shooting and combat are handled very elegantly, but the game really runs off the morale rules ("Valour" is the degradation of a battalion in action as it moves from fresh to shaken, and "Fortitude" is what the Brigade commander needs as more  of his battalions become shaken. Bad things happen when already shaken battalions are hit again, and wavering brigades have to deal with these new shocks. Units then disappear quite fast, and ditto brigades break and run quickly too. 

The main role of artillery and skirmishers is to degrade units, if you can put a first casualty on a unit it is no longer fresh which impacts its ability to take more shooting, and its melee capability. Small skirmish foot detachments and cavalry vedettes using carbines are also quite useful for this reason, and they are hard to hit but need to be dealt with, wasting time and resource. 

This is great as a big battle ruleset, as individual unit actions are quick to resolve and disappear quite quickly, so it plays well to armies with lots of units on the table. You have to start thinking about reinforcements, about retiring units etc - the battle starts to resemble the books that talk about how senior commanders saw the battles.

Also, little touch - you have to have gun limbers to represent moving/stationary and direction of travel. Just makes the battlefield look more complete.

The game at present only has one general, and he has an influence range of 4' (at 2/3 ground scale) so on a 10 x 6' table we used a simple CiC + Sub Generals structure, each sub General counting as a V&F General, so we could command brigades over the whole table, and we played you just handed over reseve brigades from one general to another as they moved (mainly the cavalry brgades). It worked well, we may make something a bit more structured (maybe handovers need a messenger test) but this level of simplicity sort of fits the high level view of the rules.