Vauban's Wars Status Update

Hi folks,

I have been getting a lot of email and posts lately asking about my Vauban's Wars rules.

They have just finished their last playtest and I hope to complete them in the next few months.

I have to finish the editing and layout, along with graphics for the rules.

I hope to have them published in 2015.

Thanks for all the interest!

Nice photo from Bing.com:

Eric

SYW - Battle of Vorst - Part 1

This is part 1 of an ahistorical battle pitting my French army vs. my newly acquired Hanover-Hesse-Kassel army.

There were 5 players in this game:

Eric C. - French left wing
Eric B. - French right wing
Mike J. - Hessians (right wing)
Charles C. - Hanoverian (left wing)
Steven H - Hanoverian (center)

It was Steve's first Piquet game so we took some time to explain the basic rules and he caught on extremely fast.

There were about 21 to 25 units per side, with the Allied army's objective to destroy the French army.

Here is a photo of the crew taken after we finished the evening: (L to R) Eric B., Eric C., Mike J., Steven H., and Charles C.

Charles used his iPod to do a stop motion video, by taking over 300 photos over the course of the evening, which he put on his YouTube channel which you can watch here (French on left, Allies on right):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aajjjkucyRE&list=UUF8A6KmOxJMVUCkTKILvOVA

Keep an eye on my French cavalry in the bottom of the screen just get HAMMERED by Charles' Hanoverian Horse!!

Charles, posted a fly-by across the Hanoverian front looking at the carnage during the game:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqzS-rXyDkg&list=UUF8A6KmOxJMVUCkTKILvOVA&index=2

Here are some photos of the game which I think you will enjoy.

See the prior post to see the "Lay of the Land" before the battle started.
http://dinofbattle.blogspot.com/2015/02/syw-western-theatre-french-vs-hanover.html

Shows 3 of the 9 Hanoverian regiments arrayed in front of my French right wing position.

Doesn't take long before the Hanoverians advance and tear through one of my French regiments (see the two black casualty makers on the left of the French battle line?)

Hesse-Kassel Prinz Karl regiment attempts to take out the French Heavy guns on a rise and gets pummeled in return. Yellow poker chip are our Opp Fire chips.

Meanwhile, my French cavalry on the right wing advance to threaten the Hanoverian line.

Nice shot of the Hanoverian advance, as I slowly pull back my French line to regroup.

Love this angle of the French cavalry (2 Dragoons, and the Heavy Cuirass Berry Regiment). Note, the French Cavalry pulled an UP1 in melee card during the Army Characterization process. You will see that it did little to help them so far in the battle.

In the center left, Eric C's Swiss and French are pounding on the Hessians. Not pictured was the du Roi regiment of French cavalry getting completely annihilated by Hessian Grenadiers from volley fire. It was ugly, lost all four stands in one shot. The Hessian infantry commander, Major-General von Kielmansegg, was shot from the saddle leading the attack, which through the entire Hessian infantry into confusion (out of command).

Good angled view of the Hanoverian attack against my French on the right.

General view of the Hessian (foreground) and Hanoverian (background) attack.

Hanoverian Heavy Horse rides into my French cavalry

The scrum!

Hanoverians have dressed their lines and are coming in for the kill.

Disaster (must watch on the video) for the French Dragoons!!! Both French Dragoon regiments are routed by the Hanoverian Heavy horse. There are four black casualty markers on the ground where the one-sided melee occurred.

Berry Regiment charges the weak Prussian Seydlitz Hussars (red) and only managed to inflict one stand of damage and force them to retreat. Not a good day for the French cavalry at this point in the battle. Also, my right flank of the French infantry line is exposed to a flank attack by these Hanoverian cavalry regiments.

Here come the Hanoverians

On the French left flank Mike and his Hessians attempt to out maneuver the French heavy battery, but can't seem to get the angle right. One Swiss regiment has been lost to Hessian Grenadier fire near the woods in the bottom right. I'm going to take my limbered gun battery and try to plug that hole before the Hessians can take advantage of it.

My Berwick (Irish) regiment in French service anchoring my right flank takes heavy damage from Hanoverian musket fire.

Here you can see that the French and Hanoverians are wearing each other down with musket volleys.

Charle's von Post Regiment (Hanover) attempts to launch a direct assault against the French medium guns. Both have fired and we are awaiting the Melee Resolution or reload cards to see who can get the victory here.

 

More general fire as the French attempt to retreat to by time and shore up their right flank.

Shatter of musket fire can be heard all along the valley.

We had to halt the game after a couple hours of fighting due to time. We will finish the game this coming week. Here is a shot from the Allied point of view. This is the Hanoverian sector of the attack.

Here is the Hessian sector, where the French infantry commander, Marquis d'Armentières, was killed leading his troops into the gap the Hessian Grenadiers had created. You can see his overturned stand right in the gap above the woods in the bottom left of this photo. He was the only "skilled" French commander:

Parting shot. Love those scarlet coats of the Hanoverian infantry!

See you next week!

NOTE: my blog now has over 200,000 hits. I must admit that it is pretty cool.

Eric

SYW Western Theatre - French vs Hanover and Hesse-Kassel

Seven Years War in Hesse-Kassel

Well, I have finally have enough Hessians and Hanoverians to fight my French so I'm running a nice battle this week for my gaming group. I've really been focusing on the Seven Years War and have started selling seldom used games and miniatures to fund this project.

As usual, we are using Cartouche 2nd Edition from Piquet Inc for the rules.

Here are some shots of the game before the battle starts.

General Scenario: Hessians\Hanoverians have surprised the French with an early morning attack. Some French units are out of position (I've changed that since the photos were taken) and some are "unformed" trying to rush to the field.

I will post a full battle report later. I'm using my custom terrain boards that I made in 1991 or 1992. They are four different 2' x 4' boards that can be arranged in 8 different combinations. I haven't used them in several years, but they have held up extremely well.

First shot is of the French battle line with the Hanoverians on the hill.

Hanoverians mass for the attack.

Here is the Hanoverians (close) and Hessians (far right) ready for their attack.

Long view of the table. French on the right near the small town.

Hanoverian command inspiring the lads!

Nice overall shot of the battlefield with the French closest to the camera.

More goodness to follow!
Eric

Siege of August and Impudent Mortal

Siege of Augusta

(click on photos to enlarge)

In mid-January I went to Siege of Augusta (Augusta, GA) for some gaming and to sell some of my excess games and miniatures in the flea market.

I arrived Friday night and had a great dinner with friends and then played a game of Silent Death (I hope that is the name). It uses Fantasy Flight's Star Wars ships, but seems to be a better set of rules. My Imperial Tie Fighters were eventually wiped out by the X-Wings and Y-Wings. Those guys are tough. Photon torpedoes are supper deadly if they hit and a Tie Fighter can't survive that.

Saturday I carried all my gear to the flea market. I had the trunk and back seat filled up with goodies to sell on the way down to Augusta. I'm happy to report I came back with less than half of what I took down there. I sold over $400 worth of goods in the flea market which made for a great start to Saturday!

Mid-afternoon Jerry and Kim (Local Charlotte guys), ran a Victoria Sci-Fi game called Valor, Flesh, and Steel.

I'm not into skirmish level gaming, but the flavor and rules for this one where outstanding. My Martian Rebels managed to hold of an onslaught of Imperial trash including some nefarious Martians that chose wealth over honor to their planet!

The figures were from Parroom Station and were outstanding sculpts and Jerry and Kim are fantastic painters. Thank God they don't make them in 15mm as I would dive into this one pretty quick. :-)

Here are some photos from the game.

Later that night after another awesome dinner with friends (Brian and his family), we got into a demo game of Battlegroup in 15mm.

The terrain and figures were superb, but once again it was a skirmish game with some unique rules which made them hard to figure out quickly. I would think if you had a club and played them regularly they would run smoother and make more sense. Of course, it could have been the martinis I had before we started to play! A couple photos of that game.

Impudent Mortal

This was a new vendor at Siege and I had never seen their product before. Once I looked at the terrain I fell in love with several of the packages. They make terrain for 28mm, 15mm, and 10mm.

Here are some links:
www.impudentmortal.com
www.twitter.com/ImpudentMortal1
www.facebook.com/ImpudentMortal1

I picked up the Bunkers, Pipe Walls, and Horizontal Tanks all in 15mm.

I plan to put together the Horizontal Tanks and Pipes and use them for my Sci-Fi gaming. The bunkers can be used for WW1 - Sci-Fi eras, and I have just finished putting them together.

Horizontal Tanks:

Pipes:

The packages came with six bunkers, and I assembled the first bunker to see how to do it, then made an assembly line to do the last five. All total, it took about 2.5 hours to assemble, while I watched TV. Because they are made of wood and cardboard, they look good as is and can be used now and painted when I have time. They almost look like concrete straight out of the assembly line!


They don't necessarily open from the top, but you can place a stand of infantry or MG on the table, then put the bunker over them and they will hide nicely. You could add some simple additions to make it so that you could lift off the roof. I glued all mine down. Some shots of the bunkers:

Wood frame, top of bunker, and the sides (still in the card frame)

Close-up of the assembled bunker:

Shot of the five I had completed, now they are all done and I hope to pain them soon. I plan on buying several more of their kits as they are easy to build and fit some niche terrain I don't have already.

Siege of Augusta was very well attended and it was nice to see some of my gaming buddies there from around the area.