Blow from the Rear

The Batty Numppo Campaign

After his initial victory, Batty gets word that the British are sending a more powerful force. Batty is commanded to stop them at the river.

The British try to force two crossings. They fail at the east (left) crossing drive off some artillery at the west bridge.

Surprise! Some British forces have already crossed the river and flank Batty's position. He sends some cavalry to hold them off, but they fail. The British also make it over the east crossing.

Technically, the battle should have ended here, as the Americans only had 1 unit on the board, However, they were expecting reinforcements, so I let them come on.

I also should have tried to rally one of the units, but forgot.

American reinforcements plug the gaps.

The American right flank caves.

And then the left. Batty has no choice but to retreat.

Alas, the reinforcements make it to the British camp at Savannah.

NOTES

• This was an attempt to translate a One Hour Wargames scenario to Dominion of. I still had 3 zones, with the left being the flank.
• The specific scenario was Blow from the Rear. Both sides have reinforcements that arrive at various points in the game. With Do's speed of resolution, I had to reduce the number of turns before reinforcements arrived. 
• As I mentioned, the Americans should have lost before they received their reinforcements, I was going to hold them until turn 4 but then decided to bring them on on turn 3. Even then, they were technically a bit late as the Americans were down to 1 unit at the end of turn 2. But I rolled initiative, the Americans won, so I decided that the reinforcements arrived in the nick of time. Still did not help.
• Despite the reinforcement issue, I feel the experiment was a success and I will try more OHW scenarios.
• Batty is now 1-1 in the campaign. I'm not sure how many games I will play. Perhaps 7?

Batty Numppo in Action

I finally got my Revolutionary War skirmish project off the ground. Here is the first action.

Background

It is January 1776. The governor of East Florida, Patrick Tonedeaf, has outfitted an expedition to reduce that rebel stronghold of Savannah, Georgia. It is led by Lt. Col. Augustine Preboast.

The names are fictional but some are based on real people.

The British won an engagement at Sodden Slough, allowing them to march on Savannah and besiege the city.

Our hero, Batty Numppo, a renowned leader among the backwoods community, has been given a small command to disrupt British operations.

The Ambush

Numppo sets an ambush for British reinforcements marching north from Brunswick.

Numppo's skirmishers strike from the woods but are driven off. The Americans have more success in the center.

Reinforcements drive off the British light infantry, but with high casualties.

The Americans get the best of the cavalry action on the left.

This gives the American horse the opportunity to flank and scatter the British.

Victory for Numppo!

NOTES

• This is the first action for my skirmish counters. I envision each base being a platoon or troop.
• Both commanders failed the rally attempts. I did not bother mentioning it in the narrative.

Dominion of the Orc and Holger Carlsen

Steve Parker has done it again, this time with a fantasy version of the Dominion of rules.

Naturally, I picked it up immediately.

What Armies?

Now that I have, what armies will I use to test it? There is just an embarrassment of choices, I found myself suffering analysis paralysis.

The answer was right in front of me. I was reading this. Well worth reading!

The Armies

I'm currently working on statting up the armies for the two sides - Law and Chaos. Here are my notes so far (possible spoilers)

Law

• Knights (awesome?) - Holger Carlsen and Carahue
• Flyer - Alianora the swan-may
• Magician - Martinus
• I'd like to represent Hugi but not sure how. Thinking scout
• Supplement with Carolingian forces - knights and spears

Chaos

• Magician - Morgan Le Fay
• Knights - Duke Alfric and his retainers
• Assorted monsters - dragon, werewolf, troll, nixie (assassin?), the Wild Hunt, and a giant
• Warriors - the cannibal tribe

Representing the Armies

My current, generic counters will work for the most part. However, I am considering some "monster" counters with a single figure. Still pondering.

Bellicosus Strikes Again

Debacle in the East

The Parthians are stirring, Rome sends Crassus to deal with them.

• Crassus posts a legion on a hill on his left flank. The Parthian cataphracts charge uphill and sweep the legion away.
• Meanwhile, the Parthian horse archers shoot down the Roman cavalry.
• The cataphracts ride down some auxiliaries before slamming into another legion. This fight is a stalemate.
• The horse archers then take out more auxiliaries.
• The remains of Crassus's army flee the battlefield.

Bellicosus Joins the Fight

To rectify the situation, the Senate sends Bellicosus, conqueror of Gaul, to the East.

• Bellicosus commands 3 legions (armored) and ferocious Gallic cavalry.
• The Parthians have 3 units of horse archers, a unit of cataphracts, and some spearmen.

The Battle

• The horse archers advance on the flanks. The horse archers trick the Gallic cavalry into a precipitous charge. The horse archers scoot out of the way then shoot down the Gauls.
• The horse archers on the left are pushed back but their general rallies them.
• To no avail, they turn and flee after Roman legion peppers them with pila.
• The center legion is disordered but Bellicosus rallies them.
• On the left, the Roman legion routs the spears.
• Then the center legion routs the horse archers.

Victory for Bellicosus.

And honors for the legion on the right. It held off repeated attacks by the cataphracts!

GAME NOTES

• I took pictures of Bellicosus's battle, but I was too lazy to upload them. I opted for a schematic and narrative instead. I may do this more often. I like recorded game results but sometimes am reluctant to play because of the effort in fiddling with photos. Simplifying posts may alleviate this issue.
• Dominion of the Spear has two lists for Marian Romans - one for Crassus and one for Caesar. 
• I played with the Crassus list first, but with Bellicosus in charge. This was a victory.
• I was curious how the other list would do so I played the battle again. When it was a defeat, I decided to use that as the prelude to Bellicosus's battle.

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.