Games Marathon, 7th/8th Nov

 During the latest of Dave’s excursions South, we mounted 3 games;

1. 1.      General d’Armee 2, Battle of Gilly, 1815
2. 2.      Never Mind the Billhooks, Battle of Stoke 1487
3. 3.      What an Operator/Zombie

Very briefly, these games went as follows;

General d’Armee 2, Battle of Gilly, 1815: Napoleon’s attempt to brush Prussian rearguard aside, prior to Wavre & Waterloo. The French mounted a rapid & bold two pronged assault, first against the village around the road river crossing, closely followed by a push to secure the ford on their left flank and so open the path for the cavalry division reserves.

The French mounted two frontal assaults on the village, but both were brushed aside by the Prussian defenders. OK, we got the rules wrong on the assaults on a garrison, but likely balancing out the garrison skirmish fire Unforming the attack column, against the support provided by the flanking French columns.

Over on the river ford flank, the French boldly pushed an infantry regiment across the stream, but a timely use of Prussian Artillery Assault & devastating infantry volley fire, completely wiped out the French Grenadiers.

This left two French divisions Faltering and Napoleon’s hopes in tatters.

Never Mind the Billhooks, Battle of Stoke 1487: The Yorkists shuffled up to the crest of the low hill commanding their side of the field. The Lancastrian forces mounted a cavalry sally on their left, only to be met by a few Irish Kerns chucking sticks! Surprise, surprise one knight unhorsed by a javelin through his open visor! The knights closed their visors and trotted forward to a stand-off with the German Mercenary pike block on the hill, while the kerns withdrew, laughing!

Over on the Lancastrian right, Chris pushed his combined Longbow/Men at Arms company forward, against the extreme Yorkist left. A vicious exchange of arrows left the Yorkist archers flowing to the rear, but most of the Lancastrian archers lying in the field. However, the Lancastrian morale held and the Lancastrian Men at Arms marched over the bodies of their archers and up the hill and into a vicious melee with the Yorkist billmen, seemingly getting the upper hand.

Sensing victory, the Lancastrian centre surged forward. A brief exchange of fire and the Lancastrian Men at Arms pushed up the hill, smashing through a unit of Yorkist Billmen, but suffering significant casualties in return. The Yorkists rapidly moved their Men at Arms across, to cover the gaping hole in their lines. The Lancastrian Commander, realising that he would be unable to shift this fresh unit, challenged the enemy leader to a dual. But, the underhanded Yorkists had not put their Commander in the centre of the line, but some lumbering brute of a man, who despatched the Lancastrian Commander in two sword blows! Game over!

What an Operator/Zombie: A first try-out of Phil’s version of John Savage’s “What an Operator”, but with Zombies! Four Russian Spetsnaz and four British SAS were racing to recover a vital new vaccine package. The vaccine package was located in one of two vehicles, that had been involved in a unfortunate road traffic accident, in a zombie infested suburb!

The Russians rushed forward, seizing forward positions, but also drawing the zombie herds onto them. However, Sergei rapidly chopped the first Zombie herd down with his AK74 and all the racket somehow not drawing any further herds!

The SAS went more slowly, with two men moving down the road, toward the target vehicles, while one flanked right and the fourth sought to take up an overwatch position in some flats.

The Russians had other ideas, with two men proving covering fire, a third rushed the vehicle wrecks (the forth playing around with the 2^nd Zombie herd!). The Russian quickly searched the vehicles, while simultaneously exchanging fire with the SAS (Bonanza tokens all round!). Vaccine case located, the Russians excited ‘stage left’ (4 movement dice does help!). All the SAS could do, was to chase after the Spetsnaz, but failed to get any clear shots.

General D’Armee: Vitoria Campaign: COMBAT AT OSMA

Our first game of Dave Brown’s General D’Armee rules (Reisswitz Press).

This was a slightly scaled down version of the ‘Combat at Osma’ scenario, from the Vitoria Campaign book. I didn’t have enough 15mm battalions, to furnish the Reserves on both sides, so just went with the on-table forces, for this trial run.

The French, who were supposed to be on the defensive, went with a forward deployment. The stronger Brigade {Fririon} on their left, the weaker Brigade {Gauthier}, with the Artillery, in the centre and Menne’s Brigade screening their fairly open right flank.

The British deployed Halkett’s Brigade on their right, Haye’s Brigade on the centre and Spry’s Brigade on the left. Finally Ompteda’s Brigade was held in reserve, on the road.

On turn 1, the French successfully rolled all their ADCs, while the British only rolled for 2 of their 4 ADCs. The British subsequently lost the initiative roll. This was a trend that was to follow throughout the rest of the game!

Both sides pushed their skirmish screens forward, while the British galloped their horse artillery forward, to bombard French centre. However, Haye’s Brigade refused to move up in the centre (despite a Brigade ADC roll), leaving this artillery exposed.  Gauthier’s Brigade moved up, to engage the gunners, with volley fire. Things did not go well for the gunners!

The French then pushed Fririon’s strong Brigade forward on the left, and this crashed into the far left of the Allied line, in a Brigade massed infantry column attack. The left-most French battalion charged, supported by two other Battalions and despite sustaining significant casualties from the British musketry, succeeded in carrying the British position.

Spry’s Portuguese Brigade started to try to envelop the French right, but the French skirmish line was being effective here and the French right flank battalions moved to prevent the flank being turned.

In the centre, not much happened!! The British artillery continued to get a hammering from the Gauthier’s infantry, while Haye’s Brigade still refused to move up to support.

On the French left, Fririon pulled back the battered left-most battalion, while he himself led a further massed infantry column attack on the next British battalion in line, with the same result, with the French just carrying the British position. However, this now left Halkett’s Brigade ‘Faltering’.

The British deployed Ompteda’s reserve brigade, to shore up their crumbling left and to try recover the initiative, Spry’s Portugese launched an infantry column attack on the far left flank. However, the French had anticipated this, deploying their right-most battalion into line. In a reverse of the normal line-vs-column, the French drove off the attacking Portuguese. At this point, the British called off the attack and withdrew.

General D’Armee seems to play well. Pretty frequent reference to the 4 page QRS, is needed, plus looking up a few things in the rules, but this was our first play. General D’Armee does seem to be one of the few rulesets to successfully reflect massed infantry columns, which is no mean feat! Dave’s British were VERY unlucky, with both ADC rolls and Brigade activations. So much so, that one Brigade (Haye’s) did not move at all!! This can be pretty frustrating aspect of the rules. Simon’s French had a better time of things, twice successfully running a knife edge of massed infantry column attacks on British line. Both of these could easily have been driven off, massively exposing the French left, but fortune favours the brave.