A Colonial on-table mini campaign.

Following the on-table blood bath that was our last evening with Men who Would be Kings, we decided to try out the Babbage rules.  The Dervish had struggled to challenge the Imperials, but under the solo rules the natives seem to have more of a chance.

To give the Dervish an even greater chance of success I have painted up a further two units of irregular riflemen, which will give the Dervish the following forces:

1 x Tribal Camelry @3
6 x Fierce Tribal Infantry @4
3 x Irregular Infantry (with modern rifles)@3
1 x Field gun, poorly drilled @4
34 Points

The Imperials are divided into two commands:

British Expedition
1 x RMLI, Elite Regular Infantry @7
1 x The Fusiliers, Regular Infantry @6

1 x Royal Dragoons Regular cavalry @6

Anglo-Egyptians
1 x Gatling Gun, well drilled @6

3 x Irregular Infantry Fellahs @3 
34 Points

Game One: Up the Pass!

The Imperial Forces have two objectives, the Village and the water supply at the wells.  The Dervish will defend both of these areas, using the Babbage rules, rolling to appear each time the Imperials move.  

To win the game each Imperial player must occupy the target terrain for one whole turn.  

Losses sustained in game one will be carried over into game two.

If losses prove too much the Imperials will be reinforced with:

3 x Rajput Regular Indian Infantry (obsolete rifles)@5

Having seized the objectives on the march route the Imperials close in on Jhaksi.  Having constructed a zariba of mimosa brush and encamped within, they must capture the hilltop town itself.  The camp however holds the water and supplies that the Force will need to face the march back to the Coast.  It must be well guarded before any attempt is made to storm the town.   

Mimosa defences are soft cover as well as providing a minor linear obstacle.  

Major Pyles, Hero of Umbongo Gorge

Volunteering to run a couple of Colonial games, using the "Men who would be Kings" rules has left me with a larger painting task than I imagined.  Things are however well on track, although I have pressed some ancient Nubians into the role of Dervish.  Nuff said.  So much on track am I that I have turned to planning the game itself.

Before the main mission I will demonstrate Major Pyles action at Umbongo Gorge.  This was of course where the gallant Major won his VC, against the fruit and sharpened stick armed Wonga natives. This should reinforce the players natural superiority as Victorian gentlemen.  After this they will meet the Dervish, a somewhat different proposition.  

The main game is a multiplayer, with up to three British players against the Mad Mustapha Liek.  Force cards, mission cards and at least one white feather will be delivered in sealed envelopes before the game. One player will command the main column of the Indian Army Rajput Infantry, one Royal Dragoon cavalry Squadron, and a third player the Anglo Egyptians.

The background:

The Mad Mustapha, Liek, has been revolting again, burning villages across the British Red Sea Protectorate.  

Meanwhile some of the Suakin Anglo-Egyptian garrison, under that loose cannon the Pasha, has marched out, been surrounded, and needs rescuing.  

In response the Governor, Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond has dispatched a column under Major Pyles to "get it sorted."  Three companies of the Rajputs, a Squadron of the Royal Dragoons and a (rather unsporting) Gatling gun.  Among the Officers of these units are such worthies as Peachy Whitemoor, Uriah Farthingdale and Danny Quilp.  

The Terrain.

A Zariba 1/3 table from one short edge, filled with tents and uninspired Fellahs. The Relief Column starts at the opposite edge.  A wadi or dry river donga crosses the table a third in from that side.  Several patches of rocky terrain, and some soft sand. A small village on a long table edge half way across.

It is a hot day, a damned hot day... Difficult to see the Dervish when they go to ground.  There may be an ambush.

The Anglo Egyptians start in the Zariba.  Two thirds of the Dervish start on their base line to attack the Zariba, but the rest may be in ambush in the wadi, village or rocky terrain.  Only Uriah the Dervish knows!

The natives will recycle destroyed units up to the points of the Imperial troops.

If the Dervish conquer the Zariba the Egyptian Fellahs will change sides, but remain unenthusiastic.  Their field gun will be brought into use immediately.

The Relief Column, and a Squadron of Royal Dragoons march to relieve the Zariba.  The dragoons have an option to include a  mule dragged Gatling gun with an RA crew.  

Mission cards (Random)

Return a white feather.  Do an impossibly brave deed.  

Make sure your old mate Peachy stays alive to enjoy his retirement, even if it kills you.

Prove the worth of the new fangled Gattling gun, by wiping out an enemy unit.

Capture a Mahdist leader and torture him into revealing vital intelligence

Make a charge! The papers will love it, the Queen will love it and Miss Kitten loves it.

Discover the identity of a European spy reported as part of the Mustapha's forces.  

Force cards:

The Royal Dragoons squadron, two troops, a Captain and Lieutenant.

The Rajputs, three companies under Major Pyles.  Three Havildars are also available, Charu Ghaunt, Dilip Fauirbanks and Vikram Manauaglan.  

The Royal Marine Light Infantry in their colonial greys.

Supporting units:

A single company of the RMLI with an Officer,
A Gatling  gun
The QMs wagon.  
These will be divided amongst the other forces.

The Anglo Egyptians of The Pasha have two companies of unenthusiastic, poor shot, mutinous Fellahs and a poorly drilled field gun.

The Mustapha has exactly the same points as the Imperialists, although he will have to recycle units to actually get them on table.  Expect veteran and fierce Dervish tribesmen, Jihaya riflemen and Beja mounted tribesmen.  They are a tough proposition.

There is also the possibility of a German spy dressed as a tribesman pretending to be one of Mustapha Liek's Amirs.

Rumours also abound of the Mustapha's French advisor, Capitaine La Pisse of the Legion, as played by Charlie Hawtrey in this movie, and no, I`m not taking La Pisse.

Down in the Valley, A proper old school Dux Bellorum mullering ...

Mullering, verb, present participle.
To grind down, in a pestle and mortar
From the Middle English molour, probably from mullen, to grind, to charge Romans uphill, to get your arse handed to you in a wargame...

Devious and sneaky, just two of the kinder epithets attributable to Quilp Esq, the Petain's Secretary.  Neither fully explains the devil inspired low cunning he produced for this game...  The terrain rules under Dux Bellorum allowed him to choose hills in both deployment sectors.  No matter what we did we would be attacking uphill.  "Its a valley" he claimed...

Well the truth is that if we had been repellers in this game it would have been a clearing between two woods as we maximised the terrain for our own armies.  An issue with the terrain rules I think...

Once again I was the Saxon King Tossa, son of Vank, this time leading a land raider foot army; My Foot Companion Warriors, two groups of nobles, lead by my henchmen Jarl Skvirt, the King's Hand and young Tugga, Son of Tossa, Prince of the Vanking Saxons.  These were supported by three groups of  ordinary Warriors.  The army is heavy on nobles since land raiders would maximise their best warriors.  The Saxons of Tossa, Tugga and Skvirt are a formidable force.

 The McWhitmore, Thane of Pelton, Lord of the Hairy Picts (but not the smooth ones) also took land raiders.

Due to a slight oversight on the part of the McWhitmore he had deployed four units of nobles plus his Companions and two units of archers (I was much impressed by his use of these but more of this later...)  That was exactly one group of nobles too many...

Of course the truth is that the Pictish King was struggling to order me an XXXL Durham Wargames polo shirt, and that is a lot of X rated shirt.  He was probably concerned that I would never fit into such a shirt and more correctly a specialist order to a purple tentage company would be needed.

 Tribunus Richus had deployed opposite my over aggressive Saxons. That meant I had 10 points of Noble cavalry on my flank.  
I sent out one of my Nobles with a Warriors to attack with maximum aggression.  It was about all I had.  It almost worked too...

In the centre the McWhitmore advanced his skirmishing archers.  
Quilpius Maximus had loaned his praying monks with their additional Leadership points to his Tribune.   That was going to cause me huge headaches, but it did mean that the archers stood a good chance of hammering that shield wall. 

The Picts went forward in echelon.  Their noble general still insisting on using cows to indicate leadership points.  The single unit of Roman Noble cavalry on that flank danced backwards in moves worthy of the Roman version of Strictly... 

I launched the Saxons against the hill top position of the Roman shield wall.  

As tactical choices go it was a pretty poor one, but manoeuvring Dark Age warbands onto a flank position in the face of aggressive Noble cavalry didn`'t seem like an option either.  

Meanwhile I had troubles.  The Noble cavalry on my flank got stuck into me, hitting flanks and taking down my cohesion.  
I had actually whittled one of these units down to one point, so whatever happened it would be close.  It was also the Roman Tribune himself, so I could possibly have taken all of his LPs if I had managed it, but alas, they gave me a proper mullering...

 The fight on the hill was equally bloody, and I suspect that my hard hitting Warriors may have actually won this but for the effect of the additional Leadership points provided by his praying Synod of Monks.  The Saxons attacked and were pushed back time and again, in a slogging match but I just couldn`t get any results.

In the meantime, back on my flank the Saxon War bands dancing with the Roman cavalry were finally killed, releasing that cavalry behind my lines. 

One of these units was of course almost finished after the battle with my nobles, but even so this wasn`'t going to end well.

 Down among the Picts things were going equally badly.  The brilliance of the archery in the centre could not cancel the uphill attack disadvantage.  

It was touch and go as to who would be killed first, the McWhitmore or me!

I lost over 50% (3) of my units but passed the bravery tests to keep fighting.  Finally however I was left with only my Saxon Warlord surrounded by his Vank-Guard.  The Saxons needed to lose 5 of their 6 units to go over the 75% rout level and I managed it!

The end of the game, and with Tossa surrounded and the Picts reeling it was a huge victory for the low trickery of the Romans. 

Actually it was a game I really enjoyed.  A proper fight to the end and Tossa went down like a Dark Age Wargames King should; struggling to stay upright on the slope of a stepped hill!

Tossa's end, surrounded by enemies.

In true Petain style I shall sacrifice a d6 to Vectron and plot my revenge!

The Campaign of the Great Barbarian Conspiracy

In the dim and distant past, a past so far away that my memory only recalls it in black and white, the Petains followed the way of WRG and the works of Phil-Barka the Zorka expert.  Our primary and pretty much only playing period was ancients (until that fool of a treasurer bought some Napoleonics, but that is something best glossed over)  The Holy books were the biblically complex WRG 5th edition and the New Testament of Phil's Army lists.

As historical fiction goes these were quite imaginative.  Leaving aside the 3000 years of Chinese history in one list, there were some very odd forces listed in there, armed with a very strange and detailed collections of fictionalised weaponry.

One of our favourite lists was the so called "Barbarian Conspiracy."  loosely based on the reported events of 368 A.D the list imagined a collection of Picts, Scots Irish and Saxons gathered as a single allied army.  We never actually gamed this, and even in our callow youth we realised that this was probably nonsense.

Revisiting ancients with Dux Bellorum the Barbarian Conspiracy idea once again raised its somewhat fictional head.  Since the club Secretary had dug out his time capsuled Minifigs Late Romans, as well as untold Saxons, and our Chairman revealed his magnificently painted Picts, we plotted to use Dux Bellorum to run a campaign.

There is a limited historical basis for the conspiracy.  In the spring of 368, a relief force was sent by Emperor Valentinian,  with the mission of reclaiming the Province of Britannia which had been overrun by "barbarian" raiders, described as a conspiracy of Barbarians and revolting Roman units.  The army included four units, Batavi, Heruli, Iovii and Victores.

In our game the Roman relief army is commanded by Flavius Quilpius, (well the Minifigs are his after all!) and have gathered in Gaul. Landing in Britannia the Romans face a series of battles against conspiring rebels and barbarians in a ladder campaign.

48 points of Late Romans as Flavius Quilpius army, with his son, the future Emperor Quilpius I (Quilpius Minor) and the later usurper Maximus Minimus as subordinate officers and leaders.  Roman losses will be replaced as the rebel units scattered throughout Britannia come back into line and more units arrive from the continent (for a replacement pool of a further 48 pts).

The game is a ladder campaign, comprising four separate territories, reflecting the Roman's march northwards to reclaim Britain.  The Romans must win at each battlefield to push through the Barbarians and reach their ultimate goal, to relieve (or possibly punish) the units at Hadrian's Wall.  They have only two opportunities at each battlefield, although they may retreat further down the ladder if defeated, until they are pushed back to game area 1 and forced to retreat to Gaul.

The Romans will field 48 points in battle, unless victory cards allow the conspirators to whittle them down.  Their commanders being Quilpius Maximus and his Tribunus, Richus.  In game 4, the great showdown each army may field an additional 24 points, ie... 72 points between their two wings..

The Conspirators will field 24 points of:

Saxons... Tossa son of Vank, Lord of the Vank-Guard, (Me)

Picts...  the McWhitmore (What bloody man is this?)
Scotti ...  the Mad O' Finnigan
Rebelling Romans from the wall... The revolting Quintus Whitmorus in a purple Toga and speedos, who has declared himself Dux Bellorum.

Losses by the forces of the conspirators are not made up, since these are essentially raiding, and not on home territory.  They must be faced in turn, as the Romans march northwards, but since this is a conspiracy they will be able to use 48 points.  Thus if the Saxons lose half their forces the next battle may include 12 points of Scotti to make up the numbers.


The campaign game uses the scenarios from Dux Bellorum:

Open battle x2
Dawn attack
Village attack
Siege
River attack
End of Reign
The Bard's Tale
(the poet Marcus Obsequilis or the bard Catweasle of Lugvallium)

Cards from spoils deck at the commencement of the campaign, randomly, one to each of the conspirators, four to the Romans.  Each side may play up two two cards for a battle, one for each command.

On dicing to determine Aggressor and Repeller it is the Repeller who has the option to play a scenario card for this battle, if they have one, otherwise the Aggressor may play a scenario card.  If no scenario cards are played the game is a fair and open battle (or a normal battle under the rules)  Repeller's strategies are revealed first.

A victor in battle can draw more cards from the spoils deck, a selection of scenarios, strategies, unit upgrades, additional resources and bonus LPs that you may add to your army, or remove from your opponents.  A Maximum of four cards may be drawn by each side following a battle.

Destroy a unit of Nobles 1 card each unit.

Rout the enemy army. 2 cards
Win scenario conditions 3 cards.

If Quilpius can destroy all four of the conspirator's armies he becomes Dux Bellorum.

If the conspirators destroy all possible 96 points of Quilpius' Romans the Province is lost.  The largest of the conspirators forces remaining is the winner, and may be crowned Grand Mugwump of Britannia, Dux Bellorum.

The Terrain Rules.

With the Petains unhappy about the (lack of) terrain rules we will standardise on the following...  Each of the four players rolls 1D6 to position the terrain, and 1D6 over each played piece for terrain adjustment:

Terrain Position:

1  Left table edge  Terrain piece is placed where the player chooses, in contact with the specified table edge. 
2  Right table edge
3  Player’s base edge
4  Opponents base edge
5  Opponents choice  Terrain piece may be placed anywhere on the table.
6  Player’s choice

Terrain adjustment 

1  No change
2  No change
3  Adjustment move 3 BW
4  Adjustment move 5 BW
5  Adjustment move 7 BW
6  Player who did not place it may either move it up to 7 BW in any direction or remove it

 -------------------------------------

The actual history bit...

In the spring of 368, a relief force sent by Emperor Valentinian, commanded by Flavius Theodosius gathered at Bononia. It included four units, Batavi, Heruli, Iovii and Victores as well as his son, the later Emperor Theodosius I and probably the later usurper Magnus Maximus, his nephew.

Theodosius took advantage of a break in the winter weather to cross the Channel to Richborough, leaving the rest of his troops at Bononia to await better weather. This enabled Theodosius to gather vital intelligence.  He discovered that the British troops had either been overwhelmed, refused to fight or deserted; many also may not have been paid.

Once the troops landed, Theodosius marched with them to Londinium which he made his base. There he began to deal with the invaders:

There he divided his troops into many parts and attacked the predatory bands of the enemy, which were ranging about and were laden with heavy packs; quickly routing those who were driving along prisoners and cattle, he wrested from them the booty which the wretched tribute-paying people had lost. And when all this had been restored to them, except for a small part which was allotted to the wearied soldiers, he entered the city, which had previously been plunged into the greatest difficulties, but had been restored more quickly than rescue could have been expected, rejoicing and as if celebrating an ovation.

An amnesty was promised to deserters which enabled Theodosius to regarrison abandoned forts. A new Dux Britanniarum was appointed, Dulcitius, with Civilis granted vicarius status to head a new civilian administration.

After discovering that the local Areani had collaborated with the invaders, Theodosius removed them from their positions.

By the end of the year, the barbarians had been driven back to their homelands; the mutineers had been executed; Hadrian's Wall was retaken; and order returned to the diocese.

Theodosius also overcame and defeated the force of Valentinus, a Pannonian who had been exiled to Britain and joined the invaders.

Considerable reorganization was undertaken in Britain, including the creation of a new province named Valentia, probably to better address the state of the far north. Claudian suggests that naval activity took place in northern Britain.

It is possible that Theodosius mounted punitive expeditions against the barbarians and extracted terms from them. Certainly, the Notitia Dignitatum later records four units of Attacotti serving Rome on the continent. The Areani were removed from duty and the frontiers refortified with co-operation from border tribes such as the Votadini, marking the career of men such as Paternus.

The Prelude to the Great Barbarian Conspiracy.

Once again the Marshal Petain Gentlemen's Club came to grips with Dux Bellorum, using figures last seen during the 1980s.  The forces of barbarism represented by the alliance between myself and Quincy, the Petain's chairman for life, against Quilpius Maximus and his sidekick Richard.  

Taking up my character in the Saxon guise of Tossa, son of Vank, I lined my boys up.  Having taken an all warrior army that was about all I could do with them.  With four x 24 points armies on table I had taken a unit of foot companions (the Vank-Guard) two units of noble warriors and three of ordinary warriors.  The Romans pointed out that this lot were probably going to be uncontrollable.

The Picts of the McWhitmore, Thane of Pelton, took the right flank,  with the Romans of Quilpius Maximus on a hill opposite.

I took the hill on our left, knowing that I would be launching army across the table, or more precisely that it would be launching itself.  Tossa took the central position with his Vank-Guard and a line interspersing nobles and ordinary Warriors.  I would be able to control the army as a group, until I was close enough to release them.

The Picts chose some interesting options here, Shieldwall, skirmishing cavalry, skirmishing archers.  Facing an enemy perched on a hill to his front he had it all to do.  

The Colonial Power also relied on Shieldwall, but would also use effective cavalry.  This however is not DBM, and cavalry are not necessarily the killers they are in some games.  That seems right to me, even though my current project is a Norman army.

The McWhitmore placed his archers out in front of his lines.  Compared to Tossa and his boys the Picts put on a slick deployment.  Clearly he knew what he was doing... or so we all thought...

Certainly he deserves the traditional Petain acolade for a good looking deployment... "lines, lines, lines..." 

The cowardly Roman Quilp placed his whole army on his hill.  I looked on with envy. .. He allowed his colleague to deploy on the flat ground to his right, and it was this wing of the Romans that would be my target. 

Opening moves, and I went at them in an outrageous charge across the table.  Onlookers wandering past looked a little disconcerted, since the Romans did not move.  They probably also misunderstood the McWhitmore's use of cows for his leadership points. (He had promised to replace these with sheep, but then again he is a Pict!)

At this point I must also report a rules interpretation that the Romans (wrongly) insisted on.  Under Dux Bellorum Warriors may make an uncontrolled charge, and dice to fail that charge if they do not want to make it.   With all of us unsure of the rules I diced, even though I wanted to charge, and the result was a unit of Warrior foot left hanging about in my rear.
Note to self... keep an eye on that unit.  Those boys were not true Sons of Vank, and did little for the whole battle.

Two of my units went after the Roman Cavalry.  I was expecting this to fail, but they hit him repeatedly, causing him to break off.  

On the right the Picts brought up thier bows and tried the Senlac Hill tactics.  The problem is that this takes time, and that the Romans had used a Synod of praying priests to add Leadership Points.  Whilst his brave colleague took on the wild and vicious Saxon warbands, Quilpius hogged all of these Leadership Points to negate the effects of the Pictis shooting.

This meant that the Picts were not going to be able to do much on that flank, and the Pictish light cavalry were switched to reinforce the success on the right.

The fight on the right continued.  The Roman cavalry was very well handled, tying up  two of my units, and then swinging onto the flank of my line.  The Saxons were winning however, smashing through the Roman shield wall.  

The push and shove of the rules impressed me.  They have the feel of Dark Age war.  I think that there are still subtleties in these rules I've missed, but this was a really good game with a good look in terms of figures.

Tossa will march again.
Old Vank would be proud of us!

Dabbling with Dux Bellorum

The Dux Bellorum rules by Dan Mersey were a set that passed me by.  I hadn`t even read them  During a meeting of the Marshal Petain Society in the snug at the Colliery Inn Pelton Fell that trouble maker Secretary Quilp voiced the opinion that these may be a good set to explore some Dark Age games.  He even offered to produce his Late Romans.
This was somewhat surprising.  We had all assumed that the fabled Late Romans were in a vault somewhere, locked away in a 1980's time capsule.  Turns out not.
I did bring up the touchy subject of the origins of some of these figures.  Not to put too fine a point on it there are Minifigs among them... but then again, who among us does not have a few Minifigs hidden in a box file somewhere.  

Some pictures of the game below.  A learning curve, but enough to show us that it has possibilities, and also enough to intrigue me as to the possibility of extending the dates to use 11th or even 12th Century armies under these rules. 

Ajax puns his way into battle. The Trojan War part 2.

In my second game of the Trojan War, using a variant of the TooFatLardies Dux Brit rules, I drew the Hero Ajax.  This time Achilles was to be on my side!  

 Taking the right flank I faced off against the left flank of the Trojan host.  
The village presented me with some problems. The civilians  inside the village would be targets for my raiding Greeks, but more to the point were the issues that the difficult terrain it represented would give me.   I decided that I would have to base my flank on this and squeeze up the table edge.

The Trojans!

 Facing me the Trojans lined up a minor hero.  This meant I would be outnumbered.  Sitll I was Ajax.  I would clean up.  I would scour the flank and leave it spotless.  I would disinfect the entire flank.
*Any complaints about unnecessary punning may be directed to Captain Quincy W, care of the Admiralty.

Skirmishers anyone? 

 The Trojans advance their skirmishers.  Pesky little blighters.

 Out in the main battle Achilles began his rampage against the Trojan centre.  

 Meanwhile the valiant and punning Ajax got off his chariot and waved his chopper in the Trojan`s faces.

Achilles rampages in the centre. 

The view of the city, and Hector`s elbow...

 

The Trojan's close in on Ajax.

Ajax knocked the Trojan down but failed to kill him.  Unfortunately I lost most of my men!

Achilles kept up his rampage, with the action swinging backwards and forwards ... 

Both sides lost men, and the game came to a natural halt.  A real Bronze Age bloodbath.

The Trojans turn back to their city and Ajax returns to his puns...