War of the Austrian Succession Campaign - Table ready

It didn't occur to me that I had created the wrong impression about the campaign. Here are a few pictures which will explain what I am planning, as well was showing the set-up. Battles will be fought out on this table (all the 'action') taking place within a hex.

The campaign that inspired me on the Polemos blog was a campaign played on a table. In fact a whole war. One end of the table was Denmark, the other was Russia. This one stretches from France to Prussia and central Germany to northern Italy.

Austrian heartlands from the south. Danube at the bottom and the Elbe and Oder running northeast respectively. The Prussians are parading in Potsdam at the top !

Bohemia, Saxony and Prussia from the south. Prague at the bottom (the one building model in the correct place!) That's Dresden beyond the wooded 'mountains' - the Saxons are waiting for an opportunity.

France looking from Paris towards Strassburg. The French have two large armies, each with a siege train. Other major powers only have 1 siege train each. The problem for the French is they have 3 possible fronts - the Low Countries, Germany and Italy.

Talking of Italy, here's the view from the south. Florence nearest the edge.Venice top right with an Austrian force just beyond. Turin in the middle by 'the Alps' with the small Piedmontese army. Munich beyond the mountains with a small Bavarian army. A slightly bigger Spanish army is waiting at the bottom. 

The whole 'map' looking from the west to the east.

Anyway, it's now past 4PM and lots of chores, prevarications and preparations mean I am only now ready to start. Wish me luck!

The Wars of the Austrian Succession - a campaign in a few days

OK. This is going to be both ambitious and relatively ad hoc.  I have had this in the back of my mind since the Polemarch wrote about his Great Northern War in an afternoon. At the time I made a couple of comments along the following lines (with slight tweaks this evening).

Objective ‘cities’ that the powers have to hold at the end to win points.

• Austria: must hold Breslau, Munich and Florence.
• France: Brussels, Munich and one Italian city.
• Prussia: Magdeburg, Breslau and Dresden.
• Britain/Pragmatic Army: Antwerp, Brussels and Liege.

Loss of a ‘city’ during the game means a loss of influence, I.e. base(s).

Also, an idea from the board game Maria is to play the struggle between France and Austria for control of the Imperial Crown by ‘winning’ the majority of the 9 Electors. This second idea might make the game too complicated. When does the clock stop ticking on this and what effect does controlling the Emperor have.

The Map

I drew up a stylised hex map of the middle strip of Europe with France and the Austrian Netherlands in the west, Italy in the south, Germany in the north and Austria to the east. Here it is. The Alps are in black, and other ranges/forests in green.

Rules

What remains is to decide on the rules for movement, the size of the armies, army replenishment and of course combat. Here are my thoughts:

Turns

Each turn represents 1 month?

Campaign season is from April to November, except 1740 which starts in October.

Might have to revise this as that adds up to about 60 turns. Still, I have 4 more days off work.....

Movement

Open hex: 1 hex per turn

Cross rivers: 2 turns (or maybe dice instead to see if a crossing is successful?)

Cross forest/mountains: 2 turns (or 1 plus take a 'hit'?)

Alps and Adriatic/Ligurian Seas: impassible

Replenishment

Armies can sustain numbers based on the number of cities held.

France and Austria will have an extra allocation providing they hold certain key cities (e.g. Austria must hold 3 out of Vienna, Venice, Prague and Breslau: France must hold Paris and Strassburg).

Reinforcements start with any friendly army in the Spring, subject to there being an uninterrupted 'supply line'.

Size of Armies

This is a tricky one. Maybe 1 base per 20,000 in the army at the start. Prussia would get 4 bases. Maybe double that for France, and 1.5 for Austria.  Maybe 1 for Bavaria, Saxony, Piedmont etc and a couple for the Pragmatic Army.

Combat

This is even trickier. I suspect I'll start off with one system and it'll evolve through the game. Perhaps 5 points plus a D3 per base engaged, total up the points and determine the winner. Not sure how to determine losses yet. Loser to retreat 1 or 2 hexes depending on scale of defeat.

To capture cities will require siege trains. These will move at normal rate up rivers, double rate downstream. Otherwise they'll require a 3,4,5 or 6 on a D6 for normal hexes. Sieges will take 1 turn plus 1 turn on rolling a 3 or 4, or plus 2 turns on rolling a 5, or plus 3 turns on rolling a 6.

The table is set, bar putting on the rivers/seas.

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Any suggestions would be gratefully received. As long as they don't involve going forth and multiplying.

First Zoom game.....and a belated Merry Christmas!

As trailed by Jonathan on Palouse Wargaming Journal, I hosted my first Zoom game this evening with Jon taking on the role of the Americans and Steve W the part of the British.

All was set for a 5pm start (GMT). I set the table up this morning and tested the visuals. All working. One laptop to host from, a linked large screen with inbuilt camera for the view from the American side and another laptop as one of the 'participants' to take video from behind the British lines. I even tested a phone as a mobile camera. So 5PM came and I logged in. Jon joined shortly after and....we couldn't hear each other. Schoolboy error. I hadn't set the meeting up with audio! In my defence I've only used Zoom as a guest and work remote meetings are with a different system and everything is automatically set-up. Still, live and learn. We actually managed to get a new meetings started at 5:30 and finished not long after 9.

The Scenario

The game chosen was set in the the American War of Independence, with an imaginary setting. The British had got intelligence that a nearby town had a stock of shoes awaiting the Continental Army to collect them. A blow could be struck against the rebels by seizing the shoes. And the town. The colonials wouldn't be able to march far in bare feet! As far as the British knew a small force of militia and riflemen guarded the approach to the town. Two brigades were despatched by Cornwallis - one made up of 1 light and 2 line British battalions; 1 was a small Hessian brigade of 1 line and 1 grenadier battalion. The British had 15 turns to exit the road at the top of the board. Unbeknownst to the British, a brigade of Continentals (3 battalions) had already reached the town and were able to join the battle after hearing reports of battle.

The game map. 4 feet by 4 feet. Most is self-explanatory except the black line is a fence, and the stream can be crossed (1 turn plus a disorder point).

The Game

The onus was on the King's men to attack, which they duly did with two battalions either side of the road and the lights and a light gun behind. Subsequently the Hessians entered on the road. On the American side, until firing broke out along the fence line no attempt could be made to bring the Continentals on board. This took a couple of attempts. Here are the few shots I remembered to take of the action.

The British have stormed over the fence to the left of the picture and chased the Militia off (right). The beads represent 'Disruption Points'. Each point penalises firing and melee and once a unit gets 5, additional points cause casualties (i.e. removal of bases).

The Continentals begin to arrive!

Meanwhile the riflemen have lined the stream as a second line behind the militia.

After a further assault the militia are driven across the stream with heavy losses, but the rifles begin to take a heavy toll of the British line in the form of Disruption Points. Troops can rally off these, but they have to remain inactive. As fast as the British rallied them off the riflemen added them back on again.

DP note the white beads) build up on the Brits). Meanwhile one unit of Continentals are lining the stream and begin a fairly ineffective fire on the British and Hessians. At this stage I thought the Brits stood no chance.

But I reckoned without the stout Germans and the aggression of the British commander (Steve). They stormed across the stream and push both he Continentals and the rifles back. In fact the Continentals got shredded over the course off a couple of turns.

By the end of 15 turns, the Americans had only two stable units remaining. The Brits had four, albeit slightly attrited numbers wise. The Americans had prevented the British from seizing the town before they could spirit the shoes away. But it had come at a very heavy cost. Questions would be asked in the Continental Congress about the loss of so many expensively trained and equipped troops! Overall, we agreed the honours were even.

The Rules

The chosen set were Loose Files and American Scramble by Andy Callan. If I were to characterise them, I would say they focus on 'battle management' by the opposing commanders. They are meant for small scale actions with say 6-9 battalion sized units as side. The challenge is to decide when to halt and rally and when to push on. All sorts of actions cause Disruption Points. Crossing obstacles, being shot at, close combat*, being interpenetrated by friendly troops , seeing friends rout and even wheeling! If you can have units sufficiently spaced out so that you can leapfrog rallying units, you can keep the pressure on. Easier said than done! Especially with limited Command Points (a brigade commander of general can only do so much).

* actually close range shooting plus the threat of bayonets.

The rules do have a number of holes which leave things open to interpretation. The players accepted my rulings on these without demure, but I will review these decision points again. I'm hoping that the relatively recently published "Live Free or Die" rules (which are based on LFAS) have tightened up these looser points.

On the positive side Jon and Steve found the rules easy to pick up, despite never having played them before. I was a little rusty, not having played them for a year or more, and Jon kept me honest with some good catches on points I missed! Both guys had an enjoyable time, I think it's fair to say. We got through 15 turns in three and a half hours, which is not bad for a ruleset new to the players.

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So in conclusion a reasonably successful first attempt at hosting. I will definitely do it again, and the guys are up for another game next week. Question is, which period and which rules?

A very belated Merry Christmas to one and all! I hope Santa brought you what you wanted. And thanks to all you bloggers, readers, commenters and friends for helping 2022 go much better than it otherwise would have!

"Who's that talking gibberish?"

A good pal gave me a DVD of the original (1955) version of Tuntematon Sotilas (Unknown Soldier), and I watched it through on Wednesday. With English subtitles on naturally - I'd be lost with normal conversational speed of dialogue especially as this has a range of different regional dialects. 

And what a great film it is. Very different in some ways to the 2017 version that I watched three years ago. I won't say it's any better or worse. Just different. 

Both capture the sarcasm and the moaning of the soldiers, and the divide between officers and ORs. Both also capture the humour. Some of it was laugh out loud funny. Another aspect that comes across well is the challenge of maintaining discipline in a democracy's citizen army. In essence "I'll fight but don't expect me to put up with bull."

There's more blood and gore on show in the later film. But unlike British war films of the 50s, this one doesn't entirely hold back on the 'claret'. In a way it is more shocking than the later version because it is used more sparingly. In one scene a character is shown coughing up copious amounts of black blood. In another, an NCO who'd rescued a young recruit, fell on top of him dribbling blood on the lad's horrified face when he too got injured. Another difference with British films of the same vintage is the "soldiers' language. Fewer euphemisms equivalent to "flaming 'eck" or "blighter".

One such was the morning after our heroes get blind drunk on hooch. In the morning one of them wakes up and utters the immortal phrase "Mun suullan on vissi joku syöny kissanpaska". I'll spare you the translation, but be warned if you pop it into a translation tool 😆.

I couldn't help but feel the film was partly a religious experience. The Via Dolorosa of the Finnish nation if you will. There was a lot more incidental music (as old films do). Often quite dramatic and portentous. It closed with a burial scene, the background music to which was an excerpt from Sibelius' Finlandia. Moving. But not in the jingoistic earlier nationalistic way. It seemed to have a bitterness to it. Traditionally shown on TV on Independence Day (6 December), the film is one of those common national experiences as far as I can make out. Everyone's seen it, has a view on it, and can quote chunks of dialogue.

There's some clever shots to portray the passing of the seasons or as a way to link episodes. Soldiers marching through sodden ground etc. Lots of shots of troops riding or pushing bikes, horse drawn carts and artillery, men yomping with heavy loads. Some scenes seemed to have wartime newsreel spliced in, in a way where it was difficult to see the joins. Very well done.

If you can get hold of a copy, I'd highly recommend it. Not because it's on a subject close to my heart. In its own right as a work of art.

Here's my previous post on the 2017 version https://horseandmusketgaming.blogspot.com/2019/09/tuntematon-sotilas-unknown-soldier-and.html

The answer to the question in the title (from the hooch drinking scene) was, "Koskela the Finn! Eats iron and shits chains."

The turning of the seasons

The weather continues to be a bit weird. November is normally dark, wet and miserable. December is just as dark, but a bit less wet and miserable. Except this year. Walks in mid-November were taken in sunshine. December turned cold. Really cold. -7 degrees Celsius last Thursday at 8 A.M. And it snowed, which is unusual in this part of the country especially away from January/February. 

This beauty in Richmond Park was about 7 inches across.

'White Lodge', Richmond Park, home of The Royal Ballet School.  The building was originally a royal hunting lodge. Not bad for a little place in the country.

Looking back the other way.

Oh dear!

Too hot for November

A week later and the weather is still pleasant. Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council now employ goats to 'manage' the plants on the cliffs.

We were down on the south coast for the Margravina's birthday. For too brief a time.

Mudeford Spit, viewed from Hengistbury Head.

Christchurch across the harbour.

A few weeks later, Richmond Park is looking distinctively different in the mist and frost.

But it's still Autumn, or more correctly to Anglo-Saxons, Fall. Those dark shapes in the sky are leaves. We stopped to watch them fall. Every know and again, masses would flutter to the ground.

This fellah seems to be disdainful of those puny animals on two legs.

A day or two later it snowed. Olive looks beautiful in white.

One of Olives relatives

And another

The youngest of the four.

A couple of days of not being in the cabin, and this beautiful frost pattern formed on the north facing doors.

This evening, when the temperature had soared to a whopping 8 degrees. Opposite New Malden Methodist Church. This reminds me of some of the pictures Alan (a.k.a. Tradgardmastare) has posted.  

No gaming since my defeat on Monday. But I'm hosting a remote game after Christmas. I have some ideas for a scenario, but I just need to crystallise them and reduce them to a playable game. More anon.

Much ado about not very much. And a movie

You can blame Steve for the title. I was inspired by/ripped it off from here: http://wargameswithtoysoldier1685-1985.blogspot.com/2022/12/all-quiet-on-gaming-front.html

The past few weeks have been rather quiet for me too on the wargaming front. Since the Battlefield Trust walks a month ago, I have 'only' taken part in one game. Mind you that was a corker, hosted by Jon, and enlivened by fellow participants Steve, Richard and Tony. Other than that, there's been no solo play, barely any reading and no painting.

The lack of wargaming activity isn't due to anything serious like too much work, or illness. It's not even the World Cup. I've only watched England v Wales and England v Senegal and 15 minutes of USA v the Netherlands when we got to a pub post match* last Saturday. I suppose that indicates a little bit of a reason for not doing much wargaming-related. Unusually for me I had 4 'social engagements' in a month., counting going to football and the accompanying socialising before and after. Which is actually a big part of the match-going experience for me. I saw and chatted to a lot of people I've known to varying degrees over many years and made a new acquaintance.

* i.e. Grimsby's defeat at Wimbledon. 

One of the social engagements was a cinema trip with Lincolnshire Tom and Mrs LT to the cinema (the Margravina being indisposed). The trip was to see the low-budget film on the right, Three Day Millionaire. The reason for going was 'duty', but the experience was much, much more enjoyable. The term 'Three Day Millionaire' was coined back in the hay-day of the fishing industry when the deep-sea fishermen of Grimsby and Hull** had a brief three days between trips in which to blow their wages. The film is set in the current day however, and therein lies the theme. Shot entirely on location (and using local resources as far as possible, whilst having recognised actors from outside***) you can see why I felt the need to go. It's sympathetic to the town, whilst not showing the 'prettiest' side of it, in a way the last big screen film with Grimsby in the title definitely wasn't. Incidentally THAT one was filmed in Essex! At one point I must have got some food stuck in my throat because I had a lump in it. It's odd because at that moment in the film wasn't particularly poignant, it was just the connections my brain was making to family members no longer with us. (Grandads and uncles were fishermen, dad worked in the dockside industry). People and places.

** the novel it was based on was set in Hull, but the director and main driving force behind it (the son of an exile) insisted on changing it to Grimsby.

*** Colm Meaney was quite a coup, along with a recent Robin Hood and someone off a soap.

Well this evening I reached the bottom of the trough. I experience this periodically when I have a spell of inactivity. I know I've reached the bottom when I get angry with myself. The anger is a sign that energy is beginning to creep back in.

So what comes next? Well I have the week off after Christmas Day, so there's plenty of time for some fun. One option is to use the French and British armies I painted for Fontenoy/Hastenbeck/Minden. Another is to resurrect the idea of the ECW mini-campaign I first floated 18 months ago. A third is to set the table up and use it for games in successive periods like I did before with the ECW/AWI and CW, except maybe adding the WAS/SYW as a fourth period. Whichever option, I have a couple of weeks to plan and get organised.

A bientôt!