Barrage Battalion Scale and Lots of Board Gaming

Supply Cut

We fought this battle twice, with a early war German Division assaulting a Brigade(+) of Belgians holding their supply line. August 1914 timeframe.

The goal was for the Germans to take both villages in 4 turns (2 hours of battle time), thus cutting the Belgian supply line to Liege. We used my Barrage WWI rules, but altered to Battalion Scale (each unit is a battalion).

First Playtest
Here are some shots from the game. Since this was the first playtest in a while we didn't quite finish this game in the evening. Germans were making very good progress, but were taking some punishment. Germans started with two Brigades on the board and a third arriving later (randomly on an Assets Arrive card)

• Eric and Mike (Germans)
• Jan and Charles (Belgians)

General situation: Germans have to take the two towns located on the main supply road (far side of the table)

Belgians ready for the attack. Although the Belgians looked entrenched the earthworks only represented hasty works: logs, dirt, furniture from town, etc. We rated at as CLASS II terrain for game purposes.

Photo from the Belgian perspective:

German 18th regiments advances in extended order towards their objective.

German machine gun company lurking in the fields.

German Jaegers advance in depth along a tree-lined road.

Belgian 75mm Krupp guns shatter a German column!!!

German artillery shatters the Belgian troops hold up in the town, while smoke is laid down to screen the assault. German MG company (left) opens up on the Belgian troops manning the hasty works.

 
Silly Belgian Commander (Charles)

Link to 90 more photos!


Second Playtest

The second playtest, the Germans were able to take the smaller town from the 2nd Carabinier regiment that was defending it, while the 8th German regiment breached the middle of the Belgian line overrunning 2 batteries and a Belgian infantry battalion, then rolling up the flanks of the other Belgian units holding the line. Suddenly another German brigade arrived on the battlefield to confirm the victory. We really had a great time. Game lasted 3 turns.

• Eric and Mike (Germans)
• Jan and Charles (Belgians)

Here is a quick stop action movie of the latest Barrage Battalion Scale game we played with a couple of cool photos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezZHHqE8nes

1st Battalion, 2nd Carabinier (Belgians) await behind hasty works for the German assault!

 

LINK to more photos and another time-lapse movie from the other side of the table.

Cool photo of one of the battalions from the German 8th regiment storming the Belgian hasty works

Here you can see the German 8th regiment breaching all along the Belgian defensive line:

Just a spectacular game!


On the Board Gaming Side

We have been continuing to playtest When Whales Fight (1950s Korea) the block game to be Kickstartered as part of the Fog of War series from Academy Games. Top notch fun!

Also playing Crusader Rex (Columbia Games) and Command & Colors Napoleonics.

Cheers
Eric

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.

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:

SYW Prussian Reinforcements Arriving

Well, I'm scaling my collections back and focusing on completing some key collections like my 15mm Seven Years War collection.

I found a fantastic painter in Spain named Pep, that is working on my Prussian reinforcements!

Here are the first two shipments for your review!

Cuirassier Regiment No 2 - Prinz von Preußen

Musketeer Regiment No. 3 - Anhalt-Dessau

Hussar Regiment No. 4 - Puttkamer

Musketeer Regiment No. 5 - Braunschweig Regiment

Hussar Regiment No. 6 - Wechmar Regiment

Musketeer Regiment No. 7 - Braunschweig-Bevern Regiment

Musketeer Regiment No. 10 - Knobloch Regiment

Musketeer Regiment No 13 - Iztenplitz Regiment

1/23rd Grenadier Battalion

5/20th Grenadier Battalion

13/26th Grenadier Battalion

I have 4 more musketeers, 1 Grenadier, and one more Hussar regiment to go, then I should be nearly completed with regards to my Prussians.

Next, I have to chose between Saxons, Hanover, Brunswick, or Hesse-Kassel reinforcements! I just maybe I will do them all!

Historicon is around the bend and I can't wait to see everybody there. I'd like to run a game or two, but as of now I'm just not motivated. Our group has been playing boards games almost every week and really having a great time with that!

Eric