Thursday, September 4, 2014

Maximilian Adventure - Battle of Morelia - Dec 18, 1863

Battle of Morelia - Dec 18, 1863

The Republican forces of General Uraga have decided to attack the garrison at Morelia to secure their lines of communications and their supply route through the territory.

General Berthier and Marquez of the Imperial forces have arrayed their army to defend the town and the ridge to the right of the town.

This was a very enjoyable battle, with both sides going through the emotional swings only a Piquet game can deliver.

At one point the Imperialist thought the game was over, but the Red Hussars of the Imperial army saved the day. True drama at its best.

Mike Johnson - Imperialist Commander
Charles Caball - Republican right wing commander
Eric Burgess - Republican left wing commander

Note - I had two other players that couldn't make it.

Here are some photos of the game. Enjoy and we will be fighting the battle again next week with about 4 more units on the Republican side.

Here is the initial setup from the Republican point of view. Town of Morelia is the one in the middle of the battlefield.


View from the Imperial side.


Nice look at the Republican army ready for the assault.


Imperial infantry stand ready


7th Line of the Imperial Mexican Army


Turcos (light blue) and King's Battalion of the Belgian Foreign Legion defend to the front of Morelia.


The ground level view from the Republican side.


Here we can see that right flank of the Republican army advancing on the town. The yellow chips are Opp Fire chips the Imperials are using to blast the Republicans as they advance.


Turcos unleash a volley that kills two stands of the 1st Line regiment, and routs them!


Republicans attack the Turcos with the 4th Line and 3rd National Guard, destroying the Turcos and forcing them to rout! The Republican Morale is sky high now! One of the best Imperial units was just routed.


Republican 4th line ready to follow-up on the Turco's rout!


Strange looking tumble weeds blowing through the battlefield.


The Imperialist have other plans. They advance the Emperor's battalion (left) and the Red Hussars to stem the tide. The Red Hussars will earn glory  on this battlefield today!


Notice that there are not units around the Red Hussars as they keep hitting the Republicans in the flank and rolling up their forces. The Republicans are desperately trying to find anybody that can stop the carnage the Red Hussars have unleashed upon them!


Republican Army Roster for the game. They started with 20 morale chips and 19 units. Ouch! they did have an Army bonus of UP1 to all cavalry melee for the battle. This was all determined by the ACD (Army Characterization Deck) in the Piquet rules.


Oh crap! The Red Hussars get a Heroic Cavalry Move and smash into my Republican guns on the flank with very predictable results! Curse you Red Hussars!


Just before the overrun.


Mike's admiring his new captured guns.


It gives great pleasure to the general.


Nice ground level shot of the battlefield.


Republicans try to advance up the hill to attack the Imperials 1st Cazadores (Charles' new favorite word), but were sorely disappointed.


Feeding the beast!


Republicans get their light guns in action on the  right flank, but are unable to convince the Imperialists that they mean business.


Eric has finally had enough of the Red Hussars and brings in the D12 3rd Cavalry Regiment to dispatch them!!! Payback is a bitch!


Eric rolls and "Oh nooooooo", the Red Hussars rout the 3rd Regiment!!!


This effectively ends the game even though the 2nd Regiment of cavalry that followed did rout the Red Hussars, the damage they did was devastating.


The view from the church. The burial detail will be busy tonight.


The market continues with business as usual. :-)



Great game and can't wait to play next week!

Playtesting New Fog of War Series Title on the 1950-51 Korean War

Hi folks,

As per my prior post, I was discussing that my group is playtesting a new game in the Fog of War series by Academy Games.

Just wanted to share some of the Playtest graphics with you.

!!! PLAYTEST GRAPHICS and most likely to change (especially the map) !!!

Here are some of the North Korean blocks. Notice the different color squares (black, blue, white), represent different types of units foot, motorized, and armor.


Some PRC blocks with Peng leading them, with several USSR and USA blocks from a "what-if" the Soviets got involved.


Some of the USA blocks


South Korean blocks on the playtest map!

 
 
I will post more when I get through a couple playtest games.

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Maximilian Adventure - Battle of Morelia - Dec 18, 1863 - Setup

Battle of Morelia

I'm going to do a scenario loosely based on Republican General Uraga's attack on the Imperial held town of Morelia in Mexico. The Republicans were repulsed, but I'm not sure how it will work out when we play.

I'm using my 15mm collection, and Piquet rules.

Here is a photo of the battlefield. As usual, click for larger photos.


Imperial C-in-C:


I will post more photos once the battle begins.

Other News

1. I'm involved with playtesting two new Fog of War series games from Academy Games. The first one is about the Korean War, while the second one is about Burma. Both fantastic subjects for the FoW series! I hope I can post some approved photos in a future blog post.

2. I'm going to be playing Empire of the Sun (GMT Games) with a good friend this weekend, which should be thoroughly enjoying.

3. I've made a lot of progress on my SYW collections with more Swiss (in French Service) and Hanoverians arriving. Some shots below.

Hanover Behr Regiment

Swiss Boccard Regiment: