Airborne Armour - Multimedia!

Well, you have to move with the times. First published in hardback in 2004, the original print run of 1000 sold out a couple of years ago. The book is still available in paperback, but Helion are determined to move with the times, so you can now also purchase Airborne Armour as an ebook for your Kindle.

Check out the 5 star reviews on Amazon!

So, what is the life of a best-selling author on military subjects like? To give you an idea, I've just received my six-monthly royalties - 12 'real' books sold (hey, that's one a fortnight!), and 9 ebooks. Total royalties £21.18. A good steady income of £3.53p a month.

So it's off to the Porsche dealers tomorrow.

So long suckers! 

Giving Me The Corporate Creeps

I hadn't popped over to the Warlord Games forum in a while, but I did so recently in the hope of catching some interesting Black Powder posts (there weren't any). I was dismayed to find a new post from Warlord telling people 'Do Not Post Direct Links To Other Companies'. Such posts will evidently be deleted or edited.

Now, there is also a rule on the forum banning advertising by other companies in blog posts. This, I think, is fair enough. But how many times have you posted a link to some product in a forum post, merely in the spirit of sharing information with other gamers in a convenient way? I certainly have. Does this mean I can't even point out a useful book to read? I recently recommended Frank Chadwick's Benghazi Handicap scenario book on the BKC forum in response to another gamer's request for info.  Another poster helpfully added a link to the publisher's product page. This apparently would be verboten by Warlord

The post from Warlord is also locked, thus gagging any forum members who might wish to express disagreement with this policy. Now you may say that Warlord are entitled to do this - it's their forum, after all. Well, entitlement is not the point. The point is, this is not in the spirit of our hobby. In a phrase, it is just mean spirited.

Sadly I was reminded of two other examples of the corporate mind set from the past year. There was Games Workshop's attempt to punish a self-publishing author for use of the phrase 'Space Marine' in her book title. When you look at the details of the book itself, that phrase 'mean spirited' comes straight back to you.

Then there was Flames of War's ruling that only armies formed from Battlefront miniatures would be allowed to take part in official, Battlefront-run FoW tournaments. Apparently there were howls of protest on the FoW forum and some backtracking took place. Again, the 'it's their tournament, they're entitled' argument was trotted out, not least by FoW themselves. And again the response from me is, 'this isn't in the spirit of the hobby, and this isn't the way I want my hobby to develop'. And as someone noted, for some armies you need to use other manufacturers because Battlefront don't make the right models. It's well worth checking out that TMP thread for some of the quotes from Battlefront, which tend to the arrogant. See for example the lengthy quoted post from John-Paul towards the bottom of this page.

If readers of this blog have any more examples of the corporate tendency spoiling our fun, I would be pleased to receive them. In the meantime, well... at the end of that Warlord post there is a cheerful 'Thank you!' I can only respond to Warlord with an equally cheerful 'Screw you'!

Goodnight and God bless.

The Attack at Weissbach

Naturally, during a holiday weekend a wargamer's thoughts turn to, well... wargaming. Especially when the house will be empty due to wife and daughter being out each day attending the Badminton Horse Trials. My broken arm is getting steadily more comfortable so I reckoned I would be able to set up a proper wargame. With my old buddy Paul also available, we would have the luxury of a relaxed afternoon game.

My inspiration came from Warning Order, the online wargames magazine. Specifically, WO 34, which contains a SYW battle report between Austrians and Prussians played using the Age of Reason rules. The battle used a neat little scenario where a fairly basic attack-defence situation was enlivened by a flank attack taking place over a river crossing. This sparked my interest so I decided to steal the idea for my own game.

Laziness has prevented me from drawing a map this time, but the setup is pretty obvious from the photo below. Prussians attacking from the left. The name 'Weissbach' for the village or small town just popped into my head as I was going to sleep one night. I added a ford across the river near the Prussian baseline to give a little flexibility to Prussian movements should the bridge be too solidly held. I think my table (6' x 4') must have been smaller than the original, and my units bigger, because I found the table quite densely packed when I laid out the forces, which contained about the same number of units as the original battle.

I swapped the sides around so that the Prussians were attacking. Forces were:

Prussians

Main Force

Grenadier Brigade

3  grenadier battalions

IR6 Garde Grenadier (1bn)

1 artillery battery

1 howitzer battery

Infantry Brigade

IR1 von Winterfeldt (2bns)

IR4 von Kleist (2bns)

1 artillery battery

Cavalry Brigade

2 cuirassier regiments

Independent hussar regiment

Independent jager detachment

Flanking Force

Infantry Brigade

IR33 de la Motte (2bns)

Freikorps le Noble (1bn)

1 artillery battery

Cavalry Brigade

2 dragoon regiments

21 units.    Army Break Point = 10

Austrians

Infantry brigade

2 grenadier battalions

IR kurfurst in Bayern (1bn)

IR von Morawitzky (1bn)

1 artillery battery

Infantry brigade

IR 10 Jung-Wolfenbuttel (2 bns)

IR 37 Josef Esterhazy (2bns)

IR 9 Los Rios (1 bn)

1 artillery battery

Cavalry Brigade

1 cuirassier regiment

1 dragoon regiment

Independent light infantry battalion

14 units    Army Break Point = 7

The bridge and village would cost the Austrians one point for each - i.e. losing either would be the same as losing a single unit towards the Austrian breakpoint.

The Battle in Pictures

The setup (1): Hungarians from 1st Battalion IR37 guard the bridge.

The setup (2): showing the Austrian right wing. 

The setup (3): this photo is mainly to show off my new Total Battle Miniatures 'Town Tower', now that it's been painted.

The setup (4): my opponent Paul had brought a bottle of Maltese Moscato  to help the afternoon along. He elected to command the Prussian forces. We cracked the bottle and hostilities commenced.

Move 1. The Prussian grenadiers had been allocated the task of taking Weissbach. Their brigadier threw a 6 for command (double move), and without further ado they commenced a headlong assault. The independent hussar unit (in yellow) had the same luck and also threw itself into the attack alongside the infantry. The supporting artillery had its line of fire immediately blocked, so no artillery preparation was possible. So much for tactics - rolling those 6s had brought a red mist before Paul's eyes!

The result on move 2 was this scene of carnage. The grenadiers charged in  against Weissbach whilst the hussars charged the Austrian artillery battery. The brigade of dragoons attached to the flanking force had crossed by the ford (assisted by yet more high command rolls) and joined in, crashing into the Hungarians at the bridge. The attackers were met by a hail of musketry and canister.

The Austrian line held. The Prussians, weakened by the fire received whilst closing their enemy, were thrown back in all the melees.

But still they came on. Move 3, and the grenadier brigade again rolled a 6 for command.  With a 'dashing' brigadier they had no choice but to renew their attack. The result is seen above. The Austrians seemed demoralised by the elan of their attackers - defending fire was weak, and the grenadiers won their melee and drove back the Austrians in Weissbach. The Austrian artillery battery was destroyed in another direct assault by grenadiers - all this despite the absence of Prussian cavalry support on this turn. The Hungarians defending the bridge had little choice but to give ground in order to avoid being outflanked and destroyed the next move. This was bad for the Austrians - Weissbach was lost and the way over the bridge was open. One modest cause for hope was the dithering Prussian commander of the outflanking force (foreground), who remained motionless for 2 moves trying to work up the initiative to force the passage of the bridge.

Events were a bit less torrid on the other flank for the moment, but things still went against the Austrians.  Artillery and musket fire forced back one white coated battalion of grenadiers. The woods in the background contain Prussian jager and cuirassiers making an outflanking move - hence one of the Bavarian battalions in the second line has turned to face the new threat.

Move 4. The thoroughly rattled surviving units of the Austrian left flank reformed a line behind Weissbach as the Prussians completed their occupation.

Move 4 on the Austrian right flank saw a further disaster unfold for the defenders. The Prussian cavalry emerged from the woods to destroy the Austrian artillery battery attached to the right flank Austrian brigade. Limbers and panicking artillerymen fled back through the Bavarian unit behind, who were already under pressure from a detachment of Jager which had been inflicting casualties on them from their right flank. Not surprisingly, the Bavarians also broke. The Prussian advances had opened up the lines of fire of their supporting artillery, and this was concentrated on the Austrian grenadier battalion still holding the line of the road. When they fled, they took the other Bavarian battalion of the second line with them. The Austrian cavalry in the foreground didn't move the whole game. They had been placed in reserve but an opportunity to intervene never presented itself, and they ended up standing idle whilst the infantry line in front of them crumbled.

So move 4 saw the Prussians score a notable victory. The Austrians had now lost 6 units plus Weissbach and the bridge, and so had exceeded their breakpoint of 7. Only 3 Prussian units had been lost. The reckless attack of the grenadier brigade had been the foundation of the Prussian success. Here we see that, having let the the grenadiers do all the hard work, the Prussian flanking infantry was finally led over the bridge.

Concluding positions. The Austrians are pressed against their baseline all along the table, with a great crowd of panicking Bavarians ruining the Austrian right flank in the background. Both objectives are firmly in Prussian hands.

On The Question Of Moves

As you can see, the game was concluded in just 4 moves, which took about 2.5 hours to play. My rules seem to generate this type of game - a relatively low number of moves but lots of action in each one (see this post for example). This was not intentional - I just tried to develop a set of rules that would produce a fairly simple and brisk game. Doubtless the scenario contributed to such a vigorous action - the table was of a modest size and was well packed with units, which were therefore likely to go head to head without too much delay. 

Nevertheless, there is a strong contrast with rules like Charge!, where 20 moves to get to a conclusion seems common even where fairly small forces are in use. The move count in the Table Top Teasers in Battlegames bears this out. Whilst Charge! can hardly be considered a complex set, it seems to me it can be time consuming. I have always thought this was linked to the availability of a permanent wargames room in the author's home, and the consequent ability to wargame at a relaxed tempo. 

I'm not sure whether to regard the low number of moves usually required by my rules as a good or bad thing. I have achieved my objective of creating a set that will allow me to conclude a game in an evening (say 3 hours of play) whilst using most of my toys (about 350 figures of all types per side organised into around 25 units per side). What seems to catch some people by surprise is that players start to lose units quickly - melees are always concluded in one move, and firefights rarely last more than 2 moves before one side or the other retreats or is lost completely. Other rule sets I have used in the past tend to give players a slower build up to the point where they start losing units - I am thinking here, for example, of Rank and File, Minden Rose or Maurice. Black Powder is more akin to my own rules - the action flows thick and fast and desperate situations can occur right from the start of the game.

Whatever my eventual conclusions about my rules, the important thing with developing your own set is that the journey is so much a part of the pleasure. Whether I suddenly gain inspiration and decide to change the way my rules work doesn't imply an admission of previous failure - it is just the next step in a pleasurable process. Unless of course you're daft enough to try and develop a set for commercial release, in which case time pressures presumably make things rather more like work.

On Setting Up The Table
As in some other recent battles, I set up both sides in advance, giving my opponent choice of forces on arrival. This means battle can commence immediately, but of course it precludes the tactical interest of each commander making his own choices about deployment. This game was a natural for setting up on each side of a curtain, but with my broken arm, rigging the curtain in advance would have been too much of a trial.

But to be honest, I love to set up both sides once the terrain is laid out, just to see how things look and to complete the spectacle. So it's time to be a bit less selfish, I think, and allow opponents to choose the deployment of their own forces.

Anyway, this was a fine, agressive and action-packed game. No real alterations to my rules presented themselves. I think perhaps the advantage of forces was a little too much in the Prussian's favour, so I would probably remove their independent hussar regiment if I played the scenario again. It would also be interesting to play the game again using Black Powder, as comparisons can be very useful, but whether time or motivation will allow remains to be seen.

I Don't Believe It!

Who'd have thought it possible. The wargamer who's 'perfectly happy with two periods' has started a new period! Butterfly wargamers of the world unite! And furthermore, the time from inspiration to first game was five days. Cost? Zero. Is this a record?

Well, no, to be honest. This has been brewing for a long time. I've been looking for an alternative wargaming experience that gave me a genuine miniatures game, but with a quick set up that didn't involve lots of scenery, scenario development and rearranging the dining room. You know how it is sometimes - middle of the week, back from work, rush that early tea then usher family out of 'gaming room'. Maybe an hour or more to get the terrain how you want it and the figures and scenario paperwork prepared. By the time everything is ready, you just want a rest. And the whole lot has to be put away once the game is over, before you can retire to bed. It's all a bit too much like hard work.

So I've been looking for a 'dining table game', for those occasions when I just can't be assed. My acquisition of the 'Bridge Too Far' boardgame was a move in this direction - a game I continue to enjoy, but it's not toy soldiers. Of course, some of you will be thinking that small scale figures (6mm or even less) are the answer - a full battle on a 4' x 3' board. Get thee behind me Satan! These days I need proper size toy soldiers to scratch that itch - perhaps it's my failing eyesight. To cut a long story short, DBA became my favoured solution.

The cynical amongst you will probably blame my enforced sojourn at home, due to an arm broken whilst skiing. I can only reply that you're probably right - reading about and reflecting on wargaming has filled much of my time over the last week and a half. So, staring at that dining table and considering the options, the decision was made. What finally swung it was the prospect of expansion into 'Big Battle DBA', where you use 3 x 12 element DBA armies on each side, on a 4' x 2' battlefield. A real wargames battle could take place on any kitchen or dining room table. My own dining table measures 5' x 2.5', and with a Games Workshop battlemat thrown over it would form a battlefield just a bit bigger, to allow for more manoeuvre. So this was a rules choice with a future.

I already had the DBA rulebook (v2.2), purchased a couple of years ago when similar thoughts were brewing. I chose the normal 15mm size of troops. My Polish WW2 wargaming in 15mm and my previous flirtation with DBR (see below) would provide me with all the terrain I needed (which isn't much for DBA). Choice of period was between Rome vs Carthage, or Rome vs Ancient Britons. For me, ancient wargaming always had to include the Romans. Eventually the Ancient Britons won out - the choice would give me two contrasting but equally capable armies. And I think I had fond childhood memories of the Airfix figures in my mind as well.

Of course, I wasn't intending to paint my own armies. My goodness no. There's still lots to do for my other two periods. The internet led me to a UK painting service with a high standard and prices comparable to those charged by asian-based companies, namely Mount and Blade. A commission has been agreed, and it looks like my two armies will be around £65 a piece, all in. But I will have to wait until July for delivery. With time on my hands, the Fanaticus DBA resource site led me to some printable paper armies which I could mount on card and which would allow me to get going with some games. The left arm was just about serviceable enough to allow some sticking and cutting to take place.

And so, within a week from deciding I would add DBA to my wargaming world, my old buddy Paul was round for a game or two.

Paul deploys his Romans

Now I'm not going to pretend that cardboard counters fill the shoes of real toy soldiers - they're fiddly to move and position, and much more importantly the visual appeal just isn't there. But two very enjoyable games were had, and the counters are better than nothing. I really do like DBA. DBM and DBR can be a little complex, but DBA v2.2 retains the simplicity of the original. The battle rules cover just 4 pages of a small booklet. It's a shame you have to get past the famous 'Barkerese' to access this delightful and unique game, but careful reading usually does the trick. The 'Unofficial Guide to DBA' is invaluable in helping you through.

I've Been Here Before

As already mentioned, the world of DBx is not entirely new to me. Around 2006-2007 I owned French and Spanish Imperial armies for the Italian Wars. I was lucky enough to hook up with a very experienced DBM player and we had some excellent games, although my opponent's guidance was vital in keeping things flowing. In the end, however, they became an 'army too far', and were sold off.

Blog posts need photos, so here are a few images of the armies taken before their sale on eBay. Not painted by me, of course - another pro job.

Italian Wars French Army

Gendarmes and generals

Spanish Imperial commanding general

Spanish pikes

Don't expect to hear too much more under the DBA label until the figures arrive. Blow by blow accounts of DBA battles with counters would be of limited interest, I reckon. But rest assured I will be filling some pleasant hours battling away on my 2' x 2' tile.

SYW Rules v.8

Having some time on my hands, I decided to make the latest version of my SYW rules available for free download. They can be found here on Mediafire. Just some minor amendments over v.7 but it's only fair to make the latest version available. Don't be downhearted if you use the 'view' option on Mediafire and the formatting looks crap - if you download, everything is as it should be. All comments/questions/howls of derision cheerfully accepted.

And to make the post a little more worthwhile, here's another shot of the groaning table at the commencement of the recent game from the post Story of a Scenario.

More Reinfoircements

Two more SYW units are recently arrived from the Dayton Painting Consortium. My Prussian forces have received a unit of Freikorps, whilst the Austrians are better off to the tune of a Bavarian battalion.

These units were freshly painted to order, and so arrived unbased. What a pleasure to spend my weekend spare time basing up these units - a few hours work and two new battalions are available. Painting them myself at my usual speed would have taken a couple of months.

The only fly in the ointment was a demand to pay customs charges and a handling fee to the Royal Mail. The former I don't mind too much (as I understand it covers unpaid UK VAT) but the latter just adds insult to injury, and reminds me of the bank charges racket. But even with these extra charges, total cost per figure (and I mean total) was only around £2.80p.

Richard at DPC didn't name the units that were sent, but working from uniform guides on and offline I have judged the Freikorps to be the Freibatallione Volontaires de Prusse, whilst the Bavarian unit is a battalion of Regiment von Morawitzky, which conveniently was one of the regiments assigned to the Austrian Auxiliary Corps fighting the Prussians.

1st Battalion, Regiment von Morawizky.

1st Battalion, Regiment von Morawitzky

Freibattalione Volontaires de Prusse

Freibattalione Volontaires de Prusse

Two points are worth mentioning. Freikorps units didn't have flags, but the flag bearer provided was so nicely done that I have kept him for the minute. I think that I will eventually take away the flag and replace it with a musket - individual weapons are available in the RSM95 range, and I have a selection in my bits drawer that Richard has sent me from time to time, for no other reason than that he is a generous soul. The other point is the shade of blue chosen for the Bavarian coats. This is significantly darker than the shade of the Bavarian battalion that I painted myself a while back, but I don't mind this. The exact shade of 'cornflower blue' used, or whether cornflower blue was used at all in the SYW, seems to be a subject of continuing debate. That the shade may have varied between regiments seems entirely believable.

Command Markers
Wargamers love their markers and tokens, and I am no exception. Overall, of course, table clutter should be kept to a minimum so that the toy soldiers and terrain may be duly admired. But recently I felt the need for some professional-looking markers to designate my brigade commanders, which under my rules are either Dashing, Dependable or Dithering. I needed to look no further than Warbases who do a range of acrylic tokens you can order directly from their website. Wanting something a bit stylish, I eschewed the MDF and opaque acrylic options, and went instead for the 'transparent ice blue' (dithering), 'fluorescent acid green' (dependable) and 'fluorescent yellow' (dashing).

Fluorescent acid green doesn't sound very SYW, but as I hope you can see these markers catch the light nicely and I am pleased with my choice. I was able to choose a custom font for the writing, which matched the antique-looking font I have used in my rules. Such are the satisfactions of the true geek.

Retired Hurt
Last week I went skiing in the Alps, but like a damn fool I fell and broke my left arm quite badly. I now sport a rather fetching metal plate near my shoulder holding everything together, fitted in a French hospital. Real wargaming and painting will therefore be suspended for a while, but whilst convalescing I am catching up on my reading and passing the time with some blog posts, which just goes to show that every cloud does indeed have a silver lining.

Total Battle Miniatures

We all know that the scaling down done in wargames doesn't just apply to the miniatures. When it comes to terrain, a dozen model trees must represent a wood, and a few model houses a village.

When it comes to buildings, I try to help this process by using models a scale smaller than my troops, so that the footprint of the models on the table is reduced. If I used 25-30mm size buildings with my RSM95s, I would often be stuck with using just one building to create a 'village'. But if you match 15mm buildings with 25-30mm figures, 2 or 3 buildings can be used, which I think creates a more pleasing effect.

One company has taken this process a little further by producing model buildings that have a deliberately minimised footprint on the table, in relation to their nominal scale. The company is Total Battle Miniatures and I finally got around to buying a couple of their products recently, namely the 'Town Tower' and the 'Three Storey Single House', from the 15mm Black Powder range. My idea was that these 2 models could be added to a built up area to make it seem more like a large village or small town, whilst adding only a very small amount to the space taken up on the table. Each model is only 50mm wide by 50mm deep, but has a good height of at least 100mm.

The photo shows the models as they arrived. The Total Battle website shows how they look painted up. They are cast in what seems to be a durable resin, and are good quality castings, although a few minor holes from air bubbles are present. Only a tiny amount of filling will be needed. For their modest size they are not particularly cheap (see the website prices), and postage is charged at a fairly high rate. They also took about 2 weeks to arrive, which is slow by contemporary standards. Nevertheless, I definitely think this company is on to something and the product range is well worth looking into. I'm looking forward to getting them painted and on the table.

However, any minor price reservations about Total Battle Miniatures fade into nothing compared with Hawk Wargames. If you haven't already heard about them, check out this link. Quite frightening really.

For Stokie Steve (9th April)

Hmm... Yes, it would have been a good idea to have some figures in the photo to show how they match up with the buildings. Readers should note that these Total Battle models are very compatible with the JR Miniatures 15mm buildings which can be seen in the photos of my SYW battles throughout this blog. In the picture below the figure is a Minden Miniatures 1/56th scale officer, 30mm from bottom of boots to top of tricorn.

I hope that helps Steve. Personally I think these buildings would work very well with your smaller 1/72nd scale figures.