The Tale of the Tardy Tigers

Many months ago, when it seemed that the world couldn’t get any weirder, I began the ubiquitous Wargaming Lockdown Project.

Even further back in the mists of time I had acquired a large box of unpainted 15mm ACW figures at a Bring & Buy (I honestly don’t remember which one). Now seemed like an ideal opportunity to get them painted and, when we were finally allowed out of our homes, onto the table for a bit of good, old fashioned, lead-pushing fun.

I should not have to explain, dear reader, what happened next. An extra brigade or two became four or five which became at least a couple of ‘bargain’ army packs and so it continued. Like Topsy it growed and growed; the Uncle Tom’s Cabin reference seems historically appropriate. Eventually an eclectic mix of old school 15s was assembled consisting of, among unidentified others, Old Glory, Friekorps, Essex, Warrior, Lancashire, Minifigs, Naismith….

There is a plethora of American Civil War rules to choose from but, having the Lardy seal of approval and having recently played David Brown’s excellent ‘O’ Group, Pickett’s Charge was the strong favourite.

We needed something small and simple to ease us into the rules so The Battle of Port Republic was chosen from Bullets & Dirt, an old scenario booklet for Johnny Reb II now available again, I believe, as a download.

Only two Union brigades on the defensive against up to five Confederate brigades turning up in force arriving from the south but spread over time. The Rebs under Jackson are playing against the clock and needed to oust the Bluebellies as quickly as possible. Do they attack from the off or should they wait for more of their brigades to arrive?

This first game was played necessarily slowly with numerous pauses for reference to the rules but still managed to remain enjoyable and fun (there’s that word again).

A sparse battlefield before the fences were put down alongside the roads. The Shenandoah river is only crossable at the bridge. All land to the west is ‘Pache country!

The US forces line the fence.

At 7am the first Rebels to arrive were the famous Stonewall Brigade who, despite their depletion in numbers due to the recent campaign, took up an aggressive stance on their left next to the Shenandoah. Deploying their batteries and skirmishers to cover the advance they were a fine sight to behold.

The 27^th Virginia carrying the ol’ Stars & Bars. 

The second Confederate brigade (Taylor’s) arrived on turn 5. Five regiments including the famous Wheat’s Tigers (1^st Louisiana). 

Taylor placed the 9^th Louisiana on his extreme right in skirmish line and proceeded to toy with skirmish checkerboard and possibly skirmish hexagon before being ticked off by the umpire. Eventually the dancing Louisianans would be dispersed under constant fire and shell but by that time the battle was as good as over.

Now surely Jackson can make a rapid advance and take the field.

Sadly, Brig-Gen Taylor threw a series of utterly uninspiring dice resulting in several Hesitant markers and earning him the ironic soubriquet of Taylor “Swift”.

Undaunted by this laxity Brig-Gen Winder and his Stonewall Brigade pressed on towards Col Carroll’s Yankee 4^th Brigade.

The 110^th Pennsylvania await the onslaught.

With numbers on their side the US firing line should surely be able to inflict some serious damage. But numbers proved not to be the Union commander’s forte and their rolling was lamentable.

When things go wrong they really go wrong and they rarely went right for the Union.

The Stonewall brigade, led by the skirmishing 2^nd Virginians, come on a whoopin’ and a hollerin’. They crash into the 110^th and give them the baayy-oh-net! 

The Yankees evaporate and their supports fall back. Union dice scores for the Faltering Brigade tests along with their inability to produce the required staff Officer resulted in the 4^th brigade quitting the field in its entirety.

The 4^th & 5^th Virginia storm the position. 

            

The Tigers, resplendent in their red caps and baggy trousers, never managed to get to grips having spent most of the battle preening and combing their moustaches.  

Union 3^rd Brigade sends a regiment to the flank but things are looking grim.

The 4^th US battery who, despite their veteran status, managed to do as much damage to themselves as they did to the enemy. 

29^th Ohio defend the crossroads but are those more cursed Rebels hovering into view?

Stuert's Brigade finally arrives in the distance and the Yankee's fate is sealed.

So, a Rebel victory but not a decisive one as it took them until after 11am to settle the issue. This was thanks in no small part to poor Taylor “Swift” and his dodgy dice. No doubt the recall to Richmond will appear by the end of the week.

Pickett's Charge are a fine set of rules and we look forward to more battles over the next few weeks. Now where did I put my Hardee hat?

A Birthday on the Grid

 Well it's that time of year again and, whilst it's nice to have a special day, they seem to come around at a depressingly fast rate these days.

Normally, I take a day off work to get in some birthday gaming. Last year we were still in lockdown, so I had to resort to a solo game of Bloody Barons. This year, my birthday fell on a club day, so arranging a game seemed a bit superfluous. I still took the day off and played a solo game though. This year, it was another grid based game and another classic; Lost Battles to be precise.

I set up the Magnesia scenario, from the book, and, as I was playing solo, commenced from turn two, using the historic deployment. I'd played this scenario before, using Lost Battles predecessor Strategos. That game had been a walk over for the Romans but this time around it was far different. It was a tense game and could have gone either way - possibly helped by both sides repeatedly rolling 6 for morale at numerous critical stages. 

Initial Deployment

The might of the Seleucids

Rome looking a tad outnumbered

Dahae envelop Roman left flank

The scythed chariots trundle forward, promising so much and delivering so little.

I was so engrossed in the battle that I forgot to take any midgame photos but essentially both centres ground themselves to a halt whilst the action was decided on the flanks. The Roman right flank, consisting of Eumenes and the allies, defeated their opposite number despite being heavily outnumbered. However, the Roman left was surrounded and massacred, prompting a general collapse in morale.

Eumenes successful in the far distance, but the Roman centre is surrounded.

So, all in all, a great game that I'm keen to play again sometime. A nice way to spend the day on ones birthday.

In the evening it was off to the club, for our first go at 'The Age of Penda' - another grid based game. I used my venerable 25mm early Saxons for this. A mix of manufactures, but Minifigs and Irregular featured prominently. There are some distinctly dodgy figure designs in there but they are of their time and older than one of the players! The core of the armies were based for Dux Bellorum but I supplemented these with figures from my Longships collection. Two Longships bases are close enough to one Dux Bellorum base and as it's a grid based game the exact frontage of a unit doesn't really matter.

Before we commenced there was a surprise appearance of family and friends proffering cake and booze. A nice interlude, in which I got to show off my birthday present - seemed appropriate for the game!

Sutton Who - why me of course.

After a slight delay, we got down to the game with 2 Saxon armies facing off on a standard off set grid. It didn't take long for the players to pick things up and a great game was had.

Gridded cloth showing the offset grid.

Despite a late start and demoing a new game, we still had time to play a second game. This time we went large, with four players each commanding a standard sized force. For this we also used a standard 'square' grid and allowed diagonal movement to approximate the original off set system.

A 6 ft by 4ft table gave us a playing area of 6 rows and 8 columns - or 48 'squares'. This is actually quite versatile as we only needed 6 markers to mark out 12 large squares. Each of the larger squares consisted of 4 smaller unmarked squares. It was relatively simple to envisage which square troops were in by imagining the 4 quarters of the larger square. 

The virtual grid.

All in all the game was a success and the players were keen to give it another go the following week.

Once again we played 'doubles' on a virtual grid.

This time around, I came up with a simple system to generate armies of differing sizes and abilities.

Hence, we saw the Mercians, under Pidla son of Panda, allied with the high king of the Picts, Bran Mak Morn. Opposing them were Earwig of Bernicia and Tarmac McAlpin of the Scots.

Bran Mak morn had an average sized army but was heavy on skirmishers, whilst Tarmac also had an average sized army. Earwig had the smallest army but had 5 tactics tokens. Conversely, Pidla had the largest army but only 3 tactics tokens.

We generated the terrain, from the rulebook terrain chart and ended up, fighting across a stream amongst hills, woods and marshes.

The battlefield

In time honoured tradition, Pidla opened the battle by seizing the central hill - the O'Finnigan would have been proud.

Pidla on the hill

The fight around the marsh

Picts emerge from the woods, whilst the Scots struggle to cross the stream

The Mercians force the Bernicians back across the stream

Death by Pidla - Earwig meets his fate.

A great game and several players have commenced scouring the internet for old school 25mm figures. I feel a campaign is in the offing.