World Cup Wargame - Spain vs. Argentina

And now we come to the final - Spain vs. Argentina for the World Cup.

Let's see how they fare Dominion of-style. I am going to use a battle from the Argentine War of Independence. Fortunately, the Stronghold Rebuilt has a plethora of information on South American Wars, including some Dominion of battles. I'm using the Salta scenario from this post.

The Battle of Salta

The Patriots (Argentinians, in blue) are attacking the Royalist (Spanish) position at Salta.

An initial bombardment disrupts the Royalist infantry (right). General Tristan rallies his wavering infantry in the center.

Opposing cavalry wear each other down (left).

Similarly, the infantry (center) cancel each other out. The Patriot reserve cavalry overrun a Royalist battery (left).

General Belgrano tries but fails to rally his routing infantry (right).

Cavalry and infantry fight to a stalemate (left).

The Patriot artillery batters the Royalist infantry on the left flank.

The Royalist position is now untenable. Victory for the Patriots!

Notes

• And that wraps up my World Cup wargames.
• Does this mean Argentina will win the World Cup for real? Well, my battles have had the correct result 3/4 times so far. Do you like those odds?
• And just a note about rules. I planned to use Dominion of Napoleon Bonaparte, but I got lazy. I used my generic horse and musket version instead. It does not have all the modifiers designed to provide a Napoleonic feel, but it is just simpler. I still feel it gives a good game.
• My town fell over when I was setting up. I left it that way because it actually looked nicer (the top is just black).

World Cup Wargame - France vs. England

In keeping with my latest series, I offer you the World Cup third place game, Dominion of-style.

England vs. France gives me a plethora of battles to choose from. My first instinct was Agincourt, so I stuck with that. Agincourt is included in the first expansion of Dominion of the Spear.

Battle of Agincourt

The French (blue) knights charge the English line. On the right, the French knights are dismounted and stuck in the mud. Their attack stalled. In the center and on the left, the knights approach but they get cut down by English arrows.

French spearmen take the place of the slaughtered knights. They meet the same fate. On the right, the knights nearly reach the line before they too are cut down. Constable Charles d’Albret tries to rally the survivors, but to no avail.

A decisive victory for King Henry!

I Like Big Boards

With my new box, I can fit bigger boards (for me). So I added three 8 x 11 battle boards (grass, desert, and water).

I can use the little ones in my travel kit.

World Cup Battle - England vs. Argentina

As I mentioned on Monday, I worked up a Falklands War scenario using a variant of Dominion of Rice and Napalm.

I give you the Battle of Goose Green.

Here are the starting positions. Argentinians are green and British are brown.

The starting forces:

• Argentinians - 1 elite fortified infantry, 2 fortified infantry, 2 infantry and unreliable fire support in reserve.
• British - 4 elite infantry, 1 infantry, and 1 elite fire support + a leader.

I had AI generate the scenario. I did not check it beforehand but it looks like more than 12 points and different points per side. Oh well.

The AI also added a couple scenario-specific rules.

• British fire support is limited to 3 salvos.
• British get a leader to account for the actions of Lt. Col. Jones. I decided to use the leader like other Dominion rules; expend him and roll to rally a unit.

Here is a summary sketch of the battle.

1. The elite British infantry storm the Argentinian position in the center. On the right, the British sustain high casualties and their attack stalls.
2. Argentinian reinforcements retake the center but they are bloodied. There is a similar stalemate on the left.
3. A second push on the right finds the British breaking through.
4. Then the British also succeed on the left.

Some notes:

• I only used the British fire support once; it was ineffective.
• I never used the British leader.

Next

I played the two semi-finals.

• Spain defeated France
• England (Britain) defeated Argentina

But for the next World Cup battle, I'm going to use the actual finalists.

Roaring 20's Baseball League - The Championship Series

At the conclusion of the season, the New York Yankees and Pittsburgh Pirates had the best records in their respective leagues. They play a 3-game series for the championship.

Game 1

New York 2 - Pittsburgh 0

NYY    1-0-1-0    2

PIT       0-0-0-0    0

Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig get solo home runs. Pittsburgh threatened early but pitcher Waite Hoyt shut them down and shut them out.

Game 2

Pittsburgh 6 - New York 4

PIT        1-2-1-2    6

NYY     2-1-1-0    4

The Pirates and Yankees traded scores throughout the game. Then Pie Traynor (PIT) knocks in 2 runs. Ray Kremer (PIT) pitches a scoreless 9th to earn the victory.

The series is now tied 1-1. Next game will determine the champion.

Game 3

New York 4 - Pittsburgh 2

NYY    0-3-0-1    4

PIT      2-0-0-0    2

Eddie Moore (PIT) puts the Pirates up early. Then Bob Meusel hits a 3-run home run in the mid innings and finishes off with an RBI in the 9th.

Series MVP Bob Meusel

Yankees are the first Roaring 20s Baseball League champions!

World Cup Battles

While watching the World Cup, I joked that England and Norway had a 1,000 year rivalry. Which gave me an idea - England and Norway using Dominion of the Spear!

Battle of Stamford Bridge (1066)

I decided to fight Stamford Bridge from the 2nd expansion for DotS. I played on a virtual board but I rolled real dice.

Here is a summary snapshot of the battle. I distinguish the sides based on their jersey colors (white for England and Red for Norway).

1. Harold's huscarls attack in the center. The Viking spears hold them off, but at great cost.
2. Harald advances in the center, but his huscarls get beaten by the Saxon fyrd. On the left, the Saxon select fyrd drives off Viking spears.
3.  Then the select fyrd drives off more spears.
4. The select fyrd then flanks the Viking archers. They flee the field. 

Harald and the Vikings are defeated (much like Saturday's soccer match).

Battle of Rocroi (1643)

I then noticed that Spain and France are playing next. This also calls for a battle. I chose Rocroi from the Dominion of Pike and Shot expansion.

Here is the summary snapshot (France is blue and Spain is red).

1. The Spanish lancers and French cuirassiers fight to a standoff,
2. French cuirassiers charge a Spanish tercio (left). The charge fails miserably. Meanwhile, the Spanish tercio (center) drives off French pikes.
3. The center tercio defeats more pikes.

The French army is in rout. Spain wins!

Up Next?

Next, I'm doing a Falkland Islands (England vs. Argentina) scenario adapting Dominion of Rice and Napalm.

After that, I have visions of notable battles.

• England vs. France - Agincourt
• England vs. Spain - Spanish Armada using a naval variant of the Dominion series.
• Argentina vs. Spain - something from the liberation wars
• Argentina vs. France - at first, I think this was nothing. But then I found this.

Rev War Skirmish Project

I have begun to make progress on my skirmish project.

Background

The project began in January. I made some new counters and even did a big battle scenario as a prelude.

Then the whole project stalled. My printer ran out of ink. By the time I ordered more, the tablet connected to the printer died. And by the time I got a new tablet, I moved on to other things.

Recent Progress

As I mentioned last week, I saw that there is a new edition of Long Rifle in the works. That got me interested again and I began to take positive steps forward.

First, I updated my counters. Here are the counters for the British.

I moved from 1/2" square to 3/4" by 1/2" rectangles, with more figures per counter. The idea is that each counter represents a small detachment of troops. Once again, I went with an impressionistic style rather than realistic. It just makes the counters easier to see on the tabletop.

I also made armies for the Continentals (blue), Loyalists (green), backwoodsmen (brown), and natives (dark red).

I also made some wagons and downloaded some buildings from Junior General. The buildings will sit upright instead of being top down.

My printer is still disconnected, but I sent the file to Office Depot for printing. I also ordered bases from Litko.

Rules

As you can probably tell from the counters, I opted to do a small unit skirmish rather than a man-to-man skirmish. Each counter represents a unit. My main character will command 4-6 units.

I'm still up in the air about rules, but I'll probably just use Dominion of with tweaks. I'd like to use some One Hour Wargame scenarios, so I'll need to figure how to make them work.

The Campaign

I am elevating the main character of this campaign, Batty Numppo, to 2nd Lieutenant. He will command a mixed bag of troops - mostly militia and backwoodsmen with a few natives.

Following up on January's prelude, I'm assuming that Lt. Col. Preboast is besieging Savannah. Batty will conduct a series of raids against British supply lines and against Tories in the interior.

Stay tuned for more updates.

The Goblin Cave

My Keep on the Borderlands Campaign

The continuing adventures of Aldric the fighter, Corvin the mystic, Rook the rogue, and Lothariel the elven pathfinder

After their previous victory, our heroes return to the Caves of Chaos. This time, they explore the goblin cave.

Encounters:

• Giant rats - L bit. A hits. R takes out 2. bandage L but she is weakened.
• Rock trap - A and L hit. Use 2 more bandages.
• Goblin urchins - A hit. Rest wipe them out.
• Goblin guards - A and R hit. L hits then gets hit. A hits. C casts Fear; 1 runs. R hits then takes out last one. L recovers.
• Goblin king and guards - L hit. A hit. C hits. A and R hit. King flees!

Once again, a successful excursion!

Note:

• There was a chance to meet an ogre, but the encounter did not come up. Whew! But they will need to fight the ogre at some point.