Onto the Galician plains 1914/15

Jon and I thought we'd try to get a little Great War Spearhead mojo back, so I set up a 1914/15 eastern front game between Russians and Austro-Hungarians. 

The Russians approached with a Corps of two under strength divisions (only two brigades each), and only two regiments of 76mm field guns in support, fielded on table.

The Austro-Hungarians fielded a single division with all four regiments, one on-table regiment of 76mm field guns, and an off-table regiment of 104mm. They also had an independent regiment of cavalry. One of their regiments was already on-table occupying light entrenchments, and the remainder of the division was racing to reach them and support them before the full weight of the Russian attack could be brought to bear. As a scenario specific rule, the AH cavalry did not need to be within the command radius of the AH division, as it was deemed to be independent.

We managed 6 turns before time ran out, so the action was inconclusive, although we felt that the scenario design meant that the Russians would be hard pressed to defeat the AH's. In retrospect the Russians should have been able to field much more of their divisional and Corp artillery.

The advanced AH regiment, waiting for the relief forces to arrive

An overview of the action early on, the Russians on the left.

Russian advance

Initial fire opened on the advancing Russians, the 104mm regiment causing first casualties

Fire is returned on the Russians. One regiment of Russian guns is firing over open sights (direct) while the other is 'brigaded firing under control of a FAO

The AH cavalry reserve arrives as a flank march .. scheduled for turn 3, this is turn 6

Russian Cossacks on the Russian right have dismounted and will face off against the AH cavalry

Casualties begin to mount of the forward AH regiment

A shame we miscalculated our time, but it was good to get some of the 20mm armies out onto the table.

An American Civil War game with Volley and Bayonet

We took the time last night to get the 15mm ACW armies out of their boxes for some Volley and Bayonet action. The game was loosely based on 1st Bull Run...  no AAR, but a few selected photos.

A water lurker for HotT

I felt like doing something a little more creative, in the midst of a lot of 6mm WW1 painting. For some years I've had a crocodile 'figure' in one of those boxes that we all accumulate, and thought .. ah yes, a water lurker for the Pirates (or the 'Lost Worlds' army). The problem was that the figure was too large for the base size, so I  opted to cut it in half and pose it as if lunging out of the water. It's mouth isn't suitably opened, but all the same I thought this is a reasonable posing of the figure, and it fits on the correct base size.

Hopefully you can spot the 'joke' on the base too, although arguably that's not what you ought to see on the base of an element in a pirate army, rather on the base of an element fighting against a pirate army.

Water lurkers may well be a troop type that is 'broken' (as are 'sneakers').  Alan Saunders (veteran HotT player and guru) suggested these changes for lurkers, in a post back in 2012.

A new'ish HotT player introduced, and naval elements ... again

Jim, a very experienced 'gamer, and a new HotT player, and Andy came around for a few HotT games. Jim enjoys the steampunk aesthetic so in his games used the VSF Turks, I used the Spiders, both of us in turn playing Andy with his Weird World War 1 German army.

No detailed AAR, just a few shots. 

Andy's first naval element for HotT, the base not yet finished

Andy's 'boat' up against the Spider 'boat' element, waterborne spiders

War of the Austrian Succession scenario ..

Adrian and I took the afternoon to play a War of the Austrian Succession game, using his 15mm armies and scenery...   it's too gorgeous not to show off a few photos. The action was between Spanish and Austrian froces.

Imperial Camel Corps

Back to the Great War Spearhead Middle East forces... and I've just completed 12 bases of Imperial Camel Corps. The figures are Irregular 6mm, as usual, base labels still to come.

They are clearly (I hope) not photographed in a game context here, just clustered together for the photograph ☺

The VSF world's naval elements in HotT

Andy and I have been talking for several months about how we might include naval elements into our HotT (Hordes of the Things) games. Why? Partly the aesthetic.. we both fancy the look of some suitable fantasy and especially VSF naval 'ships'. I'd also had a taste of the use of naval elements in some DBR games with Keith.. and liked what I'd experienced. This was an itch that needed to be scratched. I am careful to make it clear however that we are NOT looking for a naval game, merely an additional layer of 'flavour' in our HotT games.

Currently the HotT rules allow for 'water lurkers', but these are relatively limited in use (as are all lurkers). That is not to say they lack use, merely that they were not quite what we were looking for. That is just a matter of taste.

We decided to see if we could take the DBR rules for Ships, Boats, and Galleys, and adapt them to HotT games. This game was out first 'play test' to see what we had. We placed the games in the Weird World War 1 genre, with our WWW1 German and British armies.

My British army contained:

1 x Hero general
1 x airboat
1 x boat
2 x riders
2 x blades
3 x shooters

Andy's German army contained:

1 x shooter general

1 x Boat

1 x Horde

3 x Blades

2 x Behemoth

2 x shooters

Deployment, with the two boats in the 'waterway' deployed to the left

While the two Boat models look very different, there is no significance in their appearance, the are both simple 'Boats'

The opening round of fire forced one of the German behemoths back

... and a British shooter back

However more telling, was the opening of the naval action when the German Boat eliminated the British Boat. Both boats were carrying their compulsory land element, and so the loss for the British cost them their Boat and a blade

Action continues on land

The German Boat advances towards the British shoreline flank

The British Airboat attacks the German horde.. a mistake as it happens, as the airboat was to be tied up in this combat for the entire game

Action is joined on the British left

The German behemoth makes a break through against a shooter element

The German Boat prepares to disembark it's blade element. Andy placed the Blade element on the Boat base simply to remind himself that it was there.

It gets very messy in the centre

Repeated attempts to eliminate the German general fail

The Germans eliminate the left flanking riders

The British Hero general is eliminated, and the battle is lost for the British

So, how did we think this all went? Basically well.

• Our DBR adaptation requires naval elements to carry one land based element (as with DBR). If we assume that is necessary (we have included that requirement for now) then I learned that when the opponent has a naval element too, it is better to disembark the land element asap.
• The adaptations are probably not a tournament option because if you are the attacker, with a naval element when your opponent doesn't and if she therefore chooses not to pace a river or waterway,, that means you've effectively lost 3 AP (even though they don't count towards losses). The same thing happens with a water lurker, but that of course is only 1 AP
• The option of a Boat vs Boat combat is interesting
• We found several more areas that need consideration. The DBR rules include March moves which don't exist in HotT. Rather than add them in (an unnecessary complication, as we don't intend to change the fundamental nature of the rules.. they work just fine) we have another plan.
• We found we needed to add in 'waterway' as a terrain feature, again essentially mirroring the DBR rules. 

Once we are happy with progress, we'll post our suggestions for comment.