Winging It

The Next Chapter of the Drake's Dragon's Campaign

The Dragons return to the air. This time, three pilots are on patrol in Goshawk fighters (average quality).

The pilots are veteran Al Hartley, and novices Randy Palmer and Josh Jenkins. Jenkins is brand new to the squadron.

Note: I randomly roll to determine who and how many fly.

Encounter!

While on patrol, they encounter 3 Cobras and an Adder (3 average and 1 obsolete fighters).

Hartley (green 1 - left) gets on the tail of the Adder. His shots rattle the enemy pilot. Meanwhile, 2 Cobras separate Jenkins. Bullets rip into his plane, damaging it. Jenkins flees the fight.

Hartley stays on the Adders tail and shoots it down. Meanwhile, Palmer (green 2) scores a hit.

Palmer finds himself in a bind. Evasive maneuvers! Whew, they missed!

But it gets worse for Palmer while Hartley tracks down another target.

With some nifty flying, Palmer turns the tables. His shots miss. Hartley manages to damage another Cobra.

With 2 planes damaged, the Imperial pilots decide to break off.

Final Tally

• The Dragons damage 2 fighters and destroy another while only having 1 damaged aircraft. They win this scenario.
• The campaign score stands at 1-1.
• Some Dragon milestones:
• Hartley gets his first kill, 
• With his third mission complete, Palmer rises to veteran status.
• Jenkins survives his first mission.

Drake's Dragons

Spurred by the dogfight I posted yesterday, I decided to start an aerial campaign. I resurrected a character and setting from my old blog.

The Lucranian War

The campaign is set in an imaginary world, where a diesel-era evil empire invades the democratic nation of Lucrania.

During this war, Devin Drake leads a squadron of brave aviators fighting against the might of the Empire.

Previously

The Dragons were marginally victorious in their last campaign, but suffered heavy casualties in the last two missions. They pulled out for some rest, but are now back in action.

I actually started a second campaign but it fizzled out. I'm considering that mission a one-off and am now starting a new campaign.

Mission: Intercept!

At the Dragons' airbase, the warning klaxons blare. Incoming air raid!

Only 2 Dragons, the commander Devin Drake and young Dewey Hobbes manage to get in the air.

Drake (green 1) flies a standard Goshawk fighter while Hobbes (green 2) pilots an obsolete Chick fighter. They face 2 Cobra fighters, an old Adder, and 3 Vulture medium bombers.

Using the heavy cloud cover, our heroes get a jump on the bombers. Hobbes damages one.

Then shoots it down. But the enemy fighters converge.

One gets on Drake's tail, damaging him. Hobbes takes damage in a crossfire.

Two fighters gang up on Hobbes and bring him down. Drake escapes into the clouds.

The cloud cover throws off the remaining bombers' aim. They do minimal damage.

They score 1 hit out of 4

The Lucranians are lucky the damage is not worse, but this goes down as a defeat for the Dragons.

Sadly, Hobbes did not survive the crash.

GAME NOTES

• Campaign Score - 0-1
• I determined the sides randomly. I think it was weighted a little heavily against the defenders. I will think about tweaking the randomizer.
• I use fictional planes for my fictional universe. There are 3 classes - obsolete, average, and advanced. I gave names for each class per nation.
• Lucrania - Chick (obsolete), Goshawk, and Peregrine (advanced)
• Empire - Adder, Cobra, and Viper fighters. Condor (light), Vulture (medium), and Buzzard (heavy) bombers.

A Nameless Battle with Nameless Foes

A few things have stimulated a desire to do a little aerial gaming:

• I watched a Crusty Colonel replay of an aerial game (Algernon Pulls it Off?)
• I pre-ordered Voidfighter. Although it is ostensibly a space combat game, I presume it will have many similarities to aerial combat.
• While de-consolidating, I had my aerial combat box out.

So now I take you over the fields of Flanders, as two nameless Allied pilots (green) run into a patrol of two equally nameless German pilots. All fly average planes.

The Allies spot the Germans first.

In game terms, the Allies had the advantage and got a bonus on their initial maneuver rolls.

But the Germans recover quickly and turn the tables on the allies. One plane is damaged.

A German gets on the tail of the second Allied plane, damaging it.

That plane decides to flee, and escapes into some clouds.

I initially placed the terrain down just for looks. But when the Allied pilot fled, I figured he'd head for the clouds.

The Germans gang up on the remaining Allied plane and shoot it down.

A decisive victory for the Germans!

A Naval Outing

Thanks to a message from the future, I discovered at the last moment that yesterday was International Naval Wargames Day. Thanks, Kaptain Kobold!

I decided to do a quick naval game. I settled on a Dominion of series variant called Dominion of the Oar and Ram by Mark Cordone. I found it on The Portable Wargame Facebook page.

I used my squadron counters, which come in 3 sizes. In addition, I have a couple of transport counters (such as the top center counter below).

I did not keep a record of the game. It's a generic Red vs Green battle. Red is trying to capture Green's transports.

Here you see the final turn. Red's large galleys flank and  board the transports, ending the battle.

Anyway, thrown together quickly so it did not capture my imagination. Hence the abbreviated report.

Some Thoughts on a Little Lissa

As I was toying with a backstory for last night's game, I thought about doing Lissa. After all, I've been in an 1866 mood. Ultimately, I choose to put Lissa aside for the moment. But now this whole experience has me thinking.

• A Dominion of variant should be able to handle Lissa.
• I'm not sure if my current squadron counters (seen above) work for later naval conflicts. I worked up some counters in line formation. They might work better.

• I also need more flag tokens to mark defeated squadrons.

MicroBattle 2025

These are the latest iteration of my MicroBattle rules for big battles. They're pretty much dead at this moment; I'm totally hooked on the Dominion of series instead. I just want to put these here for reference.

Basic Concepts

I designed MicroBattle for quick solo wargames where I don’t need to spend much time looking up rules or modifiers.

The TEST

MicroBattle’s key mechanic is the Resolution Test, or simply the TEST. A unit or figure makes a TEST whenever it engages in an uncertain activity, such as combat.

A TEST is a roll of a D6. The testing unit passes on a roll of 4 or better.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Circumstances may make an action harder or easier than normal. In these cases, apply modifiers to the TEST if the unit has an advantage or disadvantage.

Circumstance          Modifier    Target

Extreme Advantage        +2             2

Advantage                 +1             3

Normal                         0             4

Disadvantage                 -1             5

Extreme Disadvantage    -2             6

Another way to visualize advantages and disadvantages is that they change the target number to succeed. The Target column shows the resulting numbers.

Multiple Advantages or Disadvantages

An advantage with a disadvantage will cancel each other out.

Multiple advantages or multiple disadvantages do not necessarily stack. If they did, the target could go off the chart. Instead, I assume that it takes 3 or more advantages or disadvantages to result in a extreme.

Eyeballing

I do not have a list of every possible advantage or disadvantage. Instead, I generally eyeball the situation and make a judgement on where a situation lands on the circumstances chart.

 

The Battlefield

I use a square-gridded battlefield, usually 6 x 8 squares.

Rules for Big Battles

Rules for clashes between armies. Units are divisions or corps, although it is possible to scale down.

Set Up

Use these tables to generate random scenarios.

Scenario and Terrain

Roll Scenario                                                                                                         Terrain

1 Clash – cause the enemy to break                                                                 Clear

2 Breakthrough – move 1/3 of units off enemy’s base line                         Hill

3 Escape – like Breakthrough, but defense starts with small blocking force Hill

4 Defense – hold a prepared position                                                         Woods

5 Seize – both sides try to seize a strategic point                                         Rough or water

6 Retrieve – retrieve and return to baseline                                                 Built up area

Army Order of Battle

Roll for number of units per army based on unit type.

• Primary - 2 to 4 (D3+1)
• Secondary - 0 to 2 (D3-1)

You can add or subtract units to get the sides relatively equal.

Rules for Conducting the Battle.

Turn Sequence

1. Initiative: Opposed roll. High roll first.
2. Side 1 Turn
• Activate: Activate D6 units, modified by commander quality (-2 if army under 50%
• Move: 1 space for infantry and artillery. 2 spaces for cavalry. Move orthogonally only.
• Light may TEST to move an extra space.
• March – move +1 space if 4+ spaces from enemy
• TEST to move through rough terrain.
• Combat: See below
• Rally: 1 attempt per turn per commander. May attempt in lieu of other actions for the unit. TEST to remove a disorder marker.
3. Side 2 Turn: Same as Side 1 Turn

Combat

• Ranges: Melee = 0 (unit moves into enemy square), Volley Fire = 1, Skirmish = 2, Artillery = 3 (count ranges orthogonally)
• To Hit: TEST to hit (1 TEST per defending unit)
• Combat Results
• Attacker passes TEST - Defender defeated
• Attacker FAILS TEST - Attacker defeated IF defender can counter
• Defeat
• Defeated unit makes 2 TESTs
• Disorder TEST Fail - Add a disorder marker. 
• A light unit may TEST to retreat instead
• Retreat TEST Fail - Retreat 1 space (diagonal OK)
• Take a disorder marker if cannot retreat

Following Up

Victorious units may move into a vacated space. Cavalry may make an additional attack.

Army Morale

TEST when an army reaches 50% casualties or loses another unit beyond 50%.

Failure = army defeated and retreats from the battlefield.

The Austro-Italian War Continues

I had some free time so I decided to follow up from the Battle of Custarda.

The Battle of the Carbonara River

After defeating the Italians at Custarda, the Austrians pursue. The Italians take up a defensive position behind a small fordable river called the Carbonara.

The Austrians (white, bottom) initiate the attack by sending their elite jaegers in a probe across the river. The Italian line infantry sends them reeling back. Then an artillery duel begins; the Austrians get the best of it,

The Italians send some Bersaglieri against the Austrian artillery. The Bersaglieri succeed, but at such high cost that they are also rendered ineffective.

Note: The Bersaglieri are not elite in this game. Still hurting from the last battle, I guess.

The Italians try to plug the gap with some unreliable cavalry. The cavalry bolts instead. Then the Italian infantry on the left attacks the Austrians Grenzers. The attack devastates both sides.

Decimated, the Italian army retreats.

Aftermath

With two shocking defeats, the Italians sue for peace. Venezia remains in Austrian hands.

GAME NOTES

• I think I will close out this campaign with a 2-0 Austrian victory.
• The river provided a defensive bonus to the Italians. It did not apply against artillery, however.
• Forgot to deploy my generals, which means I forgot rallies once again. D'oh!
• I've been getting confused shuffling back and forth between different versions of Dominion of, so I created a generic horse & musket version. I used this version for my battle.
• I also created a random army generator - loosely based off the one in Dominion of Frederick the Great, but tweaked a little so armies without elites are possible. I used my generator to come up with these armies.

An Italian Diversion

Rather than return to my version of the Italian campaign of the Seven Week's War, I now turn my attention to Napoleonics. This recent distraction occurred because of this post on The Wargames Website.

Because I'm just getting my feet wet with the Dominion of Napoleon Bonaparte rules, I decided to use one of the published battles. The first one in the book includes Austrians, so there we go.

Battle of Montenotte (1796)

The Austrian general Count Argenteau leads his corps in an attack on a French position. The French are in redoubts.

Notes: I used gray markers for defensive advantage; I could have put down some walls instead.

The initial Austrian attack (right) routs the French infantry. An attempt to rally fail.

But the French line infantry rout the Austrians in the center. Argenteau fails to rally his men.

A disaster for the Austrians! The French rout two infantry units.

Argenteau brings up his reserves and launches his Hussars against the French line infantry. The French break and flee. Alas, an Austrian infantry column on the right also breaks.

The Hussars flank the French position and drive the infantry away.

A bloody victory for Argenteau and the Austrians!

GAME NOTES

• This was actually a fairly long battle. There were 2-3 turns where nothing happened, so I did not take photos.
• Just realized that I should have marked the Hussars as unreliable after their first  victory. Oh well, fog of war.
• This reminds me that I need some more counters and markers:
• I used light infantry counters for line infantry. But I should make some dedicated line infantry counters.
• I should make some markers to indicate unreliable infantry.

De-consolidation

Back in December, I consolidated all my MicroBattle stuff into 2 boxes - one with the game components and another with spare armies.

One benefit was that I could fit a bigger battlefield into the bigger box. I planned to reuse the battlefields for land and aerial combat.

Then in January I discovered Dominion of the Spear, which completely revolutionized my gaming. As a result, I am now de-consolidating. Fortunately, I held onto my smaller boxes.

Here is my latest setup (sans my naval box).

• My original MicroBattle Big Battles box (left) now houses the Dominion of materials, including brown and green battlefields, some terrain, marker, armies, dice, and QRS cards.
• I moved my aerial combat stuff back into a small box (right).
• I even have a new box (circular box bottom center) for my "gladiator" games.
• Online, I saw someone had a round gladiator box that they decorated to look like a Roman colosseum. Love it! So I bought a small round box that I plan to turn into an arena. I haven't done it yet.

The Austro-Italian War

While the Prussians invade Bohemia, the Italians march on the Imperial-held city of Venice. An Austrian force awaits them.

The Battle of Custarda

The Italians (top) advance on the Austrian defensive position near the (fictional) town of Custarda.

The opposing forces:

• Italians: Bersaglieri (elite skirmishers), artillery, elite cavalry. 2 line infantry in reserve
• Austrians: Cuirassiers (elite, disciplined cavalry), 2 line infantry. Jaegers (skirmishers) and artillery in reserve

The Italians open with an artillery barrage on the hill, but the Austrian infantry unleashes a volley that drives off the gunners. Meanwhile, the Austrian Cuirassiers (left) charge the Bersaglieri. The skirmishers' firepower is not enough. The cavalry ride them down.

The Italian general tries to rally the Bersaglieri to no avail.

The Cuirassiers continue their path of mayhem.

Then they flank and rout the Italian infantry.

The Italian army must retire!

GAME NOTES

I played this game (using Dominion of Spear and Bayonet) to try out an idea. It actually solves 2 problems.

• Problem 1: Since Dominion of came out, I tried to find a role for generals. But nothing ever really worked.
• Problem 2: I keep forgetting to use the rally rule.

To solve problem 2, I decided to create some rally tokens to serve as reminders. But then I had an epiphany - why not use generals as rally tokens! I'll place a general in reserve and then remove it when I try a rally.

Rewriting German History

My Own Version of the Austro-Prussian War

Sometimes I get a random hankering for a game set in a certain period. That's what happened with this report. I was perusing George Gush's A Guide to Wargaming (available thanks to John Curry's History of Wargaming project). Gush includes a Franco-Prussian battle report. This got me interested in gaming the 19th century, although I decided to swap the French for my beloved Austrians.

Here is my version of the Austro-Prussian War using Dominion of the Spear and Bayonet.

Background

Because of disputes over the governance of the provinces of Schleswig-Holstein, Prussia invades the Austrian Empire.

Battle of Eichenwald Hill

The Prussian advance meets resistance from the Austrians.

Note: I am not recreating actual battles. These are all fictional.

The opposing forces:

• Prussians (dark blue) - Front - cavalry, artillery, line infantry. Reserve - elite line, skirmishers
• Austrians  (white) - F - line, artillery on a hill, elite disciplined cavalry. R - skirmishers, infantry

Firepower sweeps away both sides' cavalry.

The Austrians win the artillery duel.

The Prussian line sweeps away the Austrian jaegers.

The Austrian line and Prussian elites grind each other down.

Note: I used the wrong marker for the Prussians. They should have a gold marker. I played them correctly, though.

Then the opposing line infantry wipe each other out.

This leaves the Prussian offensive in the hands of their jaegers. They come through, driving off the Austrian artillery.

It is a bloody victory, but the Prussians pursue the defeated Austrians.

Battle of Bergheimdorf

The Prussians catch up to the Austrian army near Bergheimdorf and launch an attack.

The opposing forces:

• Prussians - F - skirmishers, line, cavalry. R - elite line, artillery
• Austrians - F - cavalry, line, skirmishers. R - elite line, infantry

Looks like I'm missing some markers. Each army is 11 points. This was accidental.

The Prussian center advances but gets driven off. On the left, the Austrian cavalry charges, and gets cut down.

Likewise, a Prussian cavalry charge (R) fails. The Prussian jaegers hold tight on the left flank.

Note: Once again I'm using the wrong markers. In this battle, gray = elite

Skirmishers battle artillery on both flanks. In both cases, the Austrians prevail.

Now it is the Prussians who must retire from the battlefield.

Battle of Grünthal

The Austrian are the pursuers. They seek to drive the Prussians out of the Empire.

The opposing forces:

• Prussians - F - Skirmishers, artillery on a hill, cavalry. R - 2 elite line
• Austrians - F - line, skirmishers, elite cavalry. R - artillery, elite line

The Austrian cavalry drives off the Prussians, but they leave the battlefield in pursuit.

The Austrian attack wipes out the Prussian center and left flank.

The Austrian line flanks the Prussian elites on the hill. The attack succeeds and the Prussians are defeated.

With this defeat, the Prussian king sues for peace.

But now, the Austrians must deal with those perfidious Italians!

GAME NOTES

• I debated which Dominion of rules set to use. I wasn't sure if Spear and Bayonet is designed for regular vs. regular warfare. I pondered using Napoleon Bonaparte but ultimately, I just stuck with Spear and Bayonet.
• Again, I forgot to use the rally rule!
• I used the random army lists in Frederick the Great, dropping one cavalry unit for skirmishers. Using random lists gave a little variety to the games.
• I used my counters from MicroBattle. I was worried that I would not have enough infantry, but the my armies were sufficient for the random lists.
• I'm loving my approach to gaming:
• Generic armies let me jump into random periods without delay. I normally would not collect 19th century armies so it would require a project to do the Austro-Prussian War. But with my generic counters, I can do it at a moment's notice!
• The Dominion of series lets me do an entire campaign in a morning. This encourages me to try different eras because I know I won't likely have an unfinished campaign.

The Hyenid War

Time for a new campaign for Dominion of. I decided to resurrect one from my old blog - a fantasy campaign set in my LARP's game world.

This world is a loose parallel with early medieval Europe, with an Empire similar to the Late Romans. The Empire controls the province of Palmyra (akin to Egypt). South of Palmyra are bestial, hyena-like humanoids. The Imperials simply call them the Hyenids.

This campaign will cover a war between the Empire and the Hyenids.

The Sack of Soketh

Suddenly, out of the wilderness south of Palmyra, appears an army of bestial raiders. The Hyenids!

One Hyenid (brown, top) warband descends on a small Imperial outpost at Soketh. The Hyenid force consists of (L to R) beasts, spears, fierce warriors, and javelins (missile infantry).

I'm using cavalry for the beasts, and am treating them like melee mounted. 

Lore note - horses are extinct in this world so you won't see actual cavalry.

The Imperials defend with 2 auxiliary centuries and 2 archer centuries.

The beasts (L) charge, overrunning some auxiliaries.

Then the Hyenid spears wipe out the archers in the center.

The spears flank the remaining auxiliaries but they hold firm. However, the beasts continue their rampage, routing the archers.

With this, the auxiliaries retreat. The Hyenids then sack the outpost.

Defense of Hecate Hill

The raiders continue moving north, with more Hyenids joining the horde. Imperial forces take up a position to block them at Hecate Hill.

The Hyenids muster javelins, fierce warriors, and beasts with more fierce warriors and javelins in reserve.

The Empire defends with two auxiliary cohorts on the wings and archers on the hill with more archers and Imperial legionaries in reserve.

The fierce warriors charge the archers on the hill. The archers' aim is precise, and they wipe out the warriors.

Next, the beasts charge. But the auxiliaries impale the foe on their spears.

More Hyenid warriors unsuccessfully charge the hill. But then the Hyenid javelins skewer the auxiliaries.

The remaining auxiliaries charge and rout the javelins.

The Empire has repulsed the Hyenids.

What happens next? Stay tuned for the next chapter!

1922 World Series

Bringing the 1922 season to a close. The National League champion Cincinnati Reds meet the American League champion New York Yankees.

The Yankees were the top seed in the AL while the Reds were 2nd in the NL. Yankees have home field advantage and are favored.

Game 1

• Cincinnati: 2 runs, 7 hits, 0 errors. LP - bullpen
• New York: 3 runs, 9 hits, 0 errors. WP - Bob Shawkey

The Yankees take a 2-0 lead on a Wally Pipp key hit and a Babe Ruth home run. The Reds tie it in the 8th on a clutch hit by George Harper. Babe Ruth then wins the game with a solo homer in the 9th.

Yankees lead 1-0

Game 2

• Cincinnati: 22 runs, 29 hits, 1 error. WP - Johnny Couch
• New York: 10 runs, 16 hits, 0 errors. LP - Waite Hoyt

The Yankees take a 5-0 lead after 1 inning. In the 2nd, the Reds storm back with 4 homers and 9 runs. The Yanks tie it up in the 7th with 4 runs sparked by a clutch Wally Pip hit. The Reds take the lead with a Jake Daubert hit. Then they shut the door with 11 runs in the 9th inning.

Series tied 1-1

Game 3

• New York: 2 runs, 6 hits, 0 errors. LP - Sad Sam Jones
• Cincinnati: 8 runs, 13 hits, 0 errors. WP - Dolf Luque

The Reds get 6 runs in the first two innings. A George Burns hit and a Bubbles Hargrave home run power the offense. Then the Reds cruise to victory.

Reds lead 2-1

Game 4

• New York: 5 runs, 10 hits, 0 errors. WP - Bullet Joe Bush
• Cincinnati: 1 run, 6 hits, 2 errors. LP - Pete Donahue

The Reds take an early 1-0 lead but the Yankees get 3 runs on a Babe Ruth hit to pull ahead.

Series tied 2-2

Game 5

• New York: 3 runs, 6 hits, 0 errors. LP - Carl Mays
• Cincinnati: 4 runs, 7 hits, 1 error. WP - bullpen

Jake Daubert puts the Reds up 2-1 in the 2nd inning. Whitey Witt and Aaron Ward each knock in a run, giving the Yankees a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the 9th. Carl Mays tries to close it out, but he gives up a key hit to Pat Duncan. The Reds get 2 runs to rally for the win.

The hero of the game, Pat Duncan

Reds lead 3-2

Game 6

• Cincinnati: 5 runs, 11 hits, 0 errors. WP - Eppa Rixey
• New York: 2 runs, 7 hits, 1 error. LP - Bob Shawkey

With their backs to the wall,  the Yankees start poorly. The Reds get 4 runs in the 1st inning, sparked by a Sam Bohne hit. The Yankees get 2 in the 4th inning but they fail to threaten after that.

Reds win the 1922 World Series 4 games to 2!

WHAT NEXT?

Just some thoughts

• I think I satisfied my baseball craving for now. I'll be taking a break.
• This tournament format took too long. I think I played about 34 out of a possible 37 games. This equates to about 340 minutes, or nearly 6 hours. I'm considering different formats.
• Also, I don't plan on doing 1923. I don't have much interest in playing games with the lousy teams. Instead, I'll go to my original plan from 2022 and create a league from the best MLB teams of the 1920s.