Game 2 - 2012 - First Carlist war

The second game of 2012 here at OHQ was a First Carlist War game using Black Powder rules. Dave took command of the Isabelino's this time, his force consisted of 2 battalions of  the British Auxiliary Legion with a Royal Marine Rocket Battery attached, a battalion of Spanish Line and a battalion of Spanish light infantry together with a squadron of line cavalry. I commanded the Carlist force of four infantry battalions, a squadron of lancers and an artillery battery.

The Carlist artillery battery was "dug in" on Rawnsla Hill together with an infantry battalion, which in turn was protected by another battalion to its right flank.

  Dave began the game by advancing the Spanish line and light battalions into the corn field, unfortunately they did not follow the instruction to form line once there and so became an easy target for the Carlist artillery stationed on Rawnsla Hill.

There must have been some mix up over on Dave's right as the British Auxiliary Legion appeared not to receive the order to advance

Meanwhile their Carlist adversaries began their advance but the lead battalion had to form square due to the threat from the Isabelino cavalry tasked with supporting the British Legion.

Finally the one battalion of British Legion commenced their advance, encouraged by this the Isabelino line cavalry prematurely charged the Carlist square, as you would expect this was repulsed by the steadfast Carlist square but not without loss, indeed the Carlist brigade commander had to join them to steady them. Meanwhile the Isabelino line and light battalion charged the gun battery and Carlist battalion on Rawnsla Hill. Fighting there began in earnest, but became a side show to the tussle on the left of the Carlist line, some surprisingly accurate rocket fire coupled with fire from the now advancing BAL caused the Carlist square to become disordered and shaken the Isabelino line cavalry seized the opportunity and charged again this time destroying the square but, becoming shaken themselves were not able to follow up their success, and falling prey to fire from the supporting Carlist battalion were themselves forced to break. Meanwhile around Rawnsla Hill one of the Isabelino battalions was destroyed and one of the Carlists also, leaving the remaining Isabelino battalion the unenviable task of assaulting the earthworks again, in the event they were seen off by the combined fire of the artillery and infantry battalion. Over on the Carlist left the Isabelinos without cavalry support and the threat of the Carlist  cavalry were unable to advance on the remaining Carlist battalion so quit the field. Although we only had four battalions and one cavalry and artillery unit a side on a 4x4 table the game lasted one and half hours, so although the Black Powder rules do come into their own on large tables and with several brigades smaller games are possible and certainly enjoyable.

TTFN

Completed Stuff 2012

Just a small post, more to follow the weekend or sooner. I have at last completed my uhlan unit for a joint 1914 project I am doing with Dave, the target is completion for 2014. Dave has completed the Brits, just awaiting Aly and Dave to add some more bits to the range and hopefully I will have my Germans done too by the time new items come out. We will be writing our own rules for the 1914 period based on the ones we had published in Wargames Illustrated a few years a go.

I have also been busy with commissions below is an artillery supply waggon (Front Rank) for an ongoing War of the Spanish Succession commission, I have also done some early Great War Brits (Great War Miniatures) and some rather splendid  Napoleonic cavalry I cannot elaborate on these as they are not yet on release.

My next post will be a write up of game 2 - 2012 here at OHQ, a First Carlist War set to using Black Powder rules..

TTFN



Game 1 - 2012 - The Great War

For the first game of 2012 at OHQ a Great War game using "Through The Blood and The Mud" was decided upon, given the time of the year the only game we could play was one from the "Winter Sports" article in the Too Fat Lardies " 2010 Christmas Special". The mission diced for was the Bunker Demolition.

Lt. Reginald Rawnsley leads the way with engineer Burton Joyce and a bomber section under cover of darkness.

The British had managed to create three gaps in the German wire which they did without alarming them, Lt. Rawnsley sent Cpl. Oxley's rifle bomber section over to the flank to give covering fire when needed.

Sgt. Stan Stafford Lewis gun section advance along side Lt. Rawnsley's section to take and hold the German front line trench whilst they locate and destroy the MG post. The Germans failed to spot most of the British movement during their advance, indeed both groups were able to enter the front line trench and over power them.

While Sgt. Stafford's group attempted to silence the third German sentry the Lt. lead his group down the German communication trench to locate the MG post.



Whilst the section kept guard, Burton Joyce began to set the demolition charge, meanwhile feeling that something was not quite right Feldwebel Max Lehrmann left the comfort of the command dugout to investigate, heading towards the nearest troop dugout thereby missing the chance to discover the demolition group. Over in the opposite trench section Cpl. Willie Liecke emerged from the troop dugout with his section and soon encountered Stan Stafford and his section a fierce melee then ensued with Liecke's men being forced back. Meanwhile Burton Joyce had set the fuse for the demolition charge, time to withdraw, but disaster struck the fuse had been set to short, BOOM! six of Lt. Rawnsley's group were hors de combat and Burton Joyce seriously wounded,  Lehrmann had also alerted the other German section. Rather than follow up the retiring Germans, hearing the explosion Stafford lead his men out of the trench to make their way back to the British trenches knowing, that Oxley's rifle bombers would cover their withdrawal. The remnants of Lt. Rawnsley's group knowing that time was against them leaped out of the remains of the bunker (or maybe they were blown out) and went top side rather than risk meeting opposition in the communication trench, this was perhaps the better option has they would have been helplessly outnumbered. It did come at a cost though, losing another two men in the process and leaving Rawnsley to carry the wounded Joyce out into No Mans Land. Lehrmann ordered his men after them but they were slowed up by covering fire from Stan Stafford's section's Lewis gun, this gave time for Rawnsley to put a decent distance between himself and his pursuers. 

 Over on the other side the Germans were still being held at bay by accurate rifle grenade fire, finally the German reinforcements arrived but by the time they reached the forward trench line the British were either in their own trenches or near to being.

Capitan Weiss is not a happy kaninchen and has ordered an immediate retaliatory attack on the cursed Englanders (our next outing in the Great War of course, need to get a few more Germans painted up first though). There you have it, a rather brief report on what was a more challenging and involved game than it seems in my report, if you play TtheM&B and don't have the special I highly recommend you get it, its worth every penny even if you don't use any of the other excellent pieces in it.

TTFN

A Splendid Gift

For Christmas I was given a rather splendid book by my long time friend and wargames opponent, David Bickley (if you have not already done so check out his blog - here  ). It is entitled "The British Legion, A Tale of the Carlist Wars" by Herbert Hayens, published in 1898.
I have not had chance to read it yet, only snippets, but it seems like it will be a great read, spying, battles etc. a 19th century Sharpe novel perhaps? More when I have read it.

The Front Cover

An illustration

Yesterday evening at OHQ we played our first game of 2012, a seasonal Great War game using "Through The Mud And The Blood". I will post some pics and a short report at the weekend, here is a teaser

TTFN