Napoleon's Rules of War First Game of the 2nd Half

Well, it didn't take long to get the first game of the official 2nd half of the season in the record books. Played a game of Napoleon's Rules of War at a club game night the other night.

Great game put on by the rules designer - Charlie.  The scenario was the battle of Bailen.  I was one of the Spanish players commanding a division on the southern flank.  In this battle, the Spanish had seized the town of Bailen with one force while two other forces moved in to help reinforce them.  The two moving forces were also slowly encircling the French forces.  While the Spaniards held the town, the French were trying to retake the town whlile preventing the Spanish from encircling them.

The forces were pretty equal in that the Spanish had superior numbers while the French had a slight advantage in quality.

Here are some photos of the game:

My division deployed along the river just south of the French attempting to attack into Bailen.

My Spanish light and militia troops attack from the West into the flank of the southern French attack.  It ended up being a pretty successful spoiling attack.  It was never going to stop the French outright, but it did slow them down enough to hold out until night fall.  

The French in the south had to face south in reaction to my division at the river as well as north to attack into Bailen.  It was not an easy tactical situation.

The French move on Bailen from the south.  A small Spanish brigade attacks from the west.

Our valiant French foes! (l to r) Kevin and Byron were commanders attacking from the North. Charlie, the GM.  Ralph, commander here on the southern sector.

Overall, I had a really good time playing the game.  Charlie is making some changes to his rules to help make them a bit easier to play.  I think he is getting very close to finishing all of the edits for Version 2 of the rules.

Gaming for the 2nd Half of 2019

As I was looking at my Hobby Activities for the Year (See Below), I noticed that so far in 2019 I have played the largest number of different rule sets than any other year I've been in the hobby - by far.

It just seems that I have been willing to go out on a limb and try new things (such as Star Wars ver 2, Warlords of Erehwon, and GW Kill Team).  More so, it seems, then ever.  I'm not really sure why this is, it just seems to all be piling up this year.

And I don't think that the trend will be slowing down either.  Right now I am planning to play in a game of 'Fistful of Lead' later this month (I'm painting up some US Cavalry and Plains Infantry, complete with Gatling Gun for that game!).  I also have planned to try a game of Black Ops from Osprey War-games sometimes later this summer.  And right now I am reading another set of rules from Osprey, Rebels and Patriots, that I want to try out for that all elusive 'great' rules set for my War of 1812 skirmishes.

So many games, so little time!  I really want to settle on a rules that I enjoy playing and that I have enough painted minis to do effective games and/or campaigns.  There will always be one off games like the Fistful of Lead at my local hobby store, but I am talking about rules that I play enough to get comfortable with, or that I 'work harder' at so I can become somewhat proficient.  I don't ever want to 'work' on game system to be a competitive player, but I would like to develop a feel for some game systems so I can game master a game or campaign and be do a pretty good job.

Right now I think that is the following games in the indicated period:

Napoleonics
Volley & Bayonet Wing Scale
Napoleon's Rules of War

War of 1812
Volley & Bayonet Wing Scale (Ed's Edits) - For battles
Rebels and Patriots - For skirmishes

WWII
Cruel Seas - Naval
Blood Red Skies - Air
Bolt Action - Skirmishes

Modern
???

Sci Fi and Fantasy
X-Wing ver 2
GW Kill Team
Warlords of Erehwon

Ten sets of rules plus at least one for modern gaming!  Too many, I think.  But these are all rules that I have tried out and I really have enjoyed each one of them for their own reasons.  I think that I will have to consider them one-by-one and pair out the ones that I really don't want to play on a regular basis.

I have figures for most, if not all, of them so painting isn't really an issue - just have to finish off lead that I already have as I go along and then get stuff out to the table.  Terrain is also not an issue as I have all types of terrain already made for all of the scales of figures that I have and for all of the time periods and settings (Europe, N. America, etc.).

I will update the blog as I play through these.

Post Napoleonic Wing Scale Volley & Bayonet

Had a really good time at Ed's house yesterday playing a game of Volley & Bayonet in Wing Scale.  They rules have been used in our club for many years and they really have passed the test of time.  We tweak them, but in many cases we return to the base rules when something different does not work out.

The scenario we played was the Hungarian Uprising against the Austrians in 1848.  Ed has become quite the expert on the time period.  He has researched and painted an extensive set of forces for both sides and the armies are a sight to behold!  The scenario we played was challenging for both sides and ended up being well balanced.

I played one of the Hungarian divisional commanders.  My forces consisted of three balanced brigades of two infantry battalions, a light infantry battalion and a squadron of cavalry.  My mission was to defend two ridge lines in front of a town that we had to defend.  If the Austrians could take our town under fire, we would lose the game.  Large numbers of Austrians under George and Ralph attacked my positions and eventually wore my units down.  I had to give ground but I was reinforced by another division similar to mine under Charlie and we ended up holding the line.  Meanwhile, Byron entered the table on our right flank and crashed into Mike C. scattering his units and making for the Austrian town which were tasked with taking under fire.  Due to Byron's ferocious attack, we ended up squeaking out a victory.  Here are some photos of the game with Ed's great terrain and even better Hungarian and Austrian armies of 1848.

The first attacks from George come in.  Note that I established a reverse slope defense in the hopes of staying away from Austrian artillery fire and a coordinated charge.

My initial dispositions with Charlie as the last line of defense.

Heavy pressure on my center number one.  George and Mike had a well coordinated attack 

Heavy pressure on my center number two.

The Austrian juggernaut pushes us back.

The Austrian are forced to react to Byron's attack from our right and Ralph and George pull back to save their town.  The Hungarians are victorious!

Overall, I had a great time and being with good people over the fields of friendly strife is always a great way to spend the day.  Thanks to Ed for an excellent game!