Some observations on cavalry

I am currently reading "His Britannic Majesty's army in Germany" and I just read his section upon the Battle of Minden. The battle is unique because of the attack of the British and Hanoverian infantry upon the French cavalry and its defeat of them.

This is considered an unusual feat of arms as infantry rarely attack and defeat cavalry. So how could it happen? Cavalry's power lies in its mobility and if you rely upon the sword as did the French cavalry it is specifically the ability to move forward and charge. The redcoats are described as moving swiftly forward and by moving across the front of another French unit achieved a measure of tactical surprise upon the cavalry. The French cavalry had to either charge or allow the redcoats to close to musket range, well I suppose they could also have have retired. Forced to charge the now stationary infantry a single volley was enough to defeat these cavalry for the day. This was no fluke as the French committed their second line and it suffered a similar fate. After this the redcoats moved forward pushing a bulge into the French lines and allowing access to their flanks and rear. The French now launched a third attack with their reserve cavalry to take advantage of that opportunity. Now assailed on all sides the redcoats held firm while supporting troops came upto their support and helped drive off the French. Three times infantry defeated fresh cavalry including some of the best in Europe.

Well again how could it happen? The thing that struck me was that the infantry were moving forward and forcing a response from the cavalry. Normally we assume that cavalry as a shock weapon gains its benefit as moves into contact with the enemy and functions as a single fixed value that never changes. But cavalry is a weapon based upon mobility what if as the speed of the horse changes so does its combat power. So it functions more as a ranged weapon with a short range of reduced efficiency as the unit accelerates to the charge, a medium range of maximum efficiency as the unit is at full charge speed and long range as the unit fails to maintain speed and cohesion.

Just something to think about for the moment.

A command system

Here is an idea for a command system.

It explores a couple of ideas that interest me as capturing the nature of fighting a battle.

The first is that a small unit activates easier than a large unit, the counter to that is that a large combat unit has greater combat power.

Second is that players are generals and that they are now in direct competition as commanders not as fighters. 

Third the level of combat intensity is to a degree within the players control.

Now to illustrate this I will use a stylised representation of command  with a major general commanding a brigade, a lieutenant general commanding a division, a full general a corp and you the player controlling the army.

Give each player an activation chit for each general in his army.

Players roll a competitive die roll. Winner selects a command to activate.

Roll a D10 to activate general and his command

• 10 all fail
• 9 MG activate
• 8 LG  and lower activates
• 6 General and lower activates
• 1-6 all commanders activates

A failure to activate means the chit is lost and the cycle begins again.

A successful activation allows that commander to move all his units. A higher level general will be able to exclude sub-commanders and their troops from the move. All those troops selected to move will conduct a single move with everybody moving the same distance and direction.

If there is no combat then you begin again.

If there is combat, begin resolving them. Now if the non-activating player wins a combat they will get the opportunity to force the active player to lose his activation chit by asking for another activation test. This will force the current chit to be lost. The currently active player must select the general he currently has engaged in combat.

If the active player successfully wins all combats  the activation chit is lost and new test begins. He will have the option to use that command again.

Once all the chits are used then the turn is over.

There that's the basic idea. I think it has some merit and it is ready for scrutiny.

The lure of pretty metal baubles

Welcome to a new period, well the return to an old one.

Like many gamers, I have a small pile of bits and pieces that may one be useful. They are those things gathering dust in the five corners of the games room and anywhere else they can be hidden away from prying eyes. The guilty parts in this case were two off cuts of MDF and some polystyrene, just waiting for some inspiration to become terrain. Inspiration finally came after I had finished off some fieldworks for my WWII desert forces, they would become trenches. Nothing wrong with that you can always use trenches, perhaps I might get onto building that Lace wars fortress I have always fancied.

No it was not to be. First I dug out some some old 15mm Minifigs and Irregulars that I had collected from previous explorations of this period. They weren't enough for an army but they had been a taste of the period. Finally last weekend there was little wars down here in Melbourne and the bloke from MikesMetalModels showed up with his Peter Pig figures. Now I did go there with plans to get a few packets of Peters figures, because I had never had any before. I will also freely admit that the figures I was planning to get would be either for WWI or the SCW, but no it would not be that simple.

The only figures he had on display were German WWII. Beautiful I say I can get some some novelty packets such as Germans surrendering, some Volksturm and a dug in Panther turret but just as I was preparing to hand over my money I looked down and asked innocently about some non-descript limps of resin sitting in plastic bags. Why they were British Mk IV tanks and were very pretty. This then led to an inquiry as to if he had brought some infantry with him, which were duly added to the growing pile.

Yet this is not an end to my tale of new love. At another stall there was Olympian games offering QRF at 50% and he had a German A7V tank and I had enough change in pocket for it.

Suddenly I have more figures and I am gluing the tanks together. This is my fourth attempt to get into this period. You think that I would have learnt my lesson by now, but no I can still be seduced by an unpainted figure.

Oh, I am a weak, weak man, I am a wargamer.

The adventures of Commordore John Rodgers pt 1

The first offensive launched during the war was not at land but at sea when the US Navy sortied from its base in order to take the war upto the British. Got across the Atlantic, had a rethink of their strategy and turned round and sailed home again.

From a wargaming perspective it is a boring campaign as there no actions or battles at all. But from a strategic perspective it interesting and it is that viewpoint and what could have happened that makes it worth exploring.

Historically the nicest thing most historians most say about the Adams cruise is that it forced the British to start protecting their own merchantmen thereby allowing the American merchant fleet to get home safely. This then allowed for American privateers to then go to sea to give the British a headache at sea.

But what else could have happened to the squadron that could have impacted on the course of the war. Firstly and perhaps the most interesting was that Rodgers set sail before an order arrived that would have tied the fleet to harbour defence duties at New York. This at the very least would have led to the blockading of the fleet by a larger British squadron. Probably meant no offensive actions until 1813 at the earliest and possibly broken up those elite crews that the Americans have.

Secondly there was the strategy behind the cruise in the first place. While the senior officers of the navy including Rodgers had favoured this expedition across the Atlantic. The long lonely sail across the Atlantic caused a rethink of this strategy and they turned around and arrived home safely. So while they lucky enough to avoid contact they were also clever enough not to push their luck. So there is plenty of room to explore the squadrons adventures in Europe if they had not turned back. Though I think the most likely outcome is either sunk or bottled up in a French controlled port.

Most options seem to involve the early demise of the the American fleet. So what would this have meant to the war. Well the first is no victories over single British frigates, except for the USS Constitution over HMS Guerriere. These victories were pretty much the only good news for the Americans until 1814, so the war may end quickly as the American will to fight collapses. Another point to consider is that many of these crews would eventually make their way to the Great Lakes to assist in winning the battles of Lake Erie and Plattsburg while also ensuring a stalemate on Lake Ontario. So if they are not available? Though if they are on the other side of the Atlantic they may encourage a French naval adventure.

So there are many options to explore as we recreate the adventures of Commodore John Rodgers.

Some thought about gaming the naval war

I have just finished reading the "Lords of the Lake", Robert Malcomsom's book about the war on Lake Ontario. So here follows some thoughts about what I need in a set of rules in order to fight the battles or at least the represent the character of these battles.

Scale
Ignoring HMS St.Laurence for the moment you need a set of rules that goes from gunboats to frigates. This is smaller than any set of rules that I have seen. It does reverse the order of most age of sail which focus on the battleships and not the little boats. Here they are the centre of attention and not an add-on.

Cannons & Carronades
Each fleet developed a unique characteristic in its armaments with Americans favoring cannons while the British carronades that influenced their tactics.

I think the most the extreme example that needs to be modeled is HMS Detroit at the battle of Lake Eire which carried the following armament.
Carronades

• 1x 24s
• 1x 18s
  

Long Guns

• 2x 24s
• 1x18s
• 6x12s
• 8x 9s
  

Sailing qualities
Both fleets could include the traditional square rigger, schooners and even row powered gunboats.

Crew Management
Both sides could find themselves short of crew thereby restricting the ability to fight their ships. Most rules I can think either ignore crew management as being to complex or include as an add-on

There that's it for the moment. I will look at the various rules I have got to see if they will do the job or can be bashed into shape. This ship has just set sail.

Small thing amuse small minds

Hello all.

I have been experimenting with a new graphics package. In this case, Inkscape a vector graphics editor. Now, I have been involved with computers for many years but I have never ever completely got my head around how to use a graphics package. So I am quite pleased with these first efforts and I feel encouraged to try some more.

The War of 1812 campaign: Introduction

Many years ago when I was a teenager, there used to be a magazine called "War Monthly" which I would read in the newsagents as I was to cheap to buy them, though one of my friends did. One of them contained an article on the battle of Lundy's lane which described it as the bloodiest battle of the Napoleonic Wars. I cannot remember a single thing about the article but it certainly left an impression and a longing. Much closer to the present day I come across "The Incredible War of 1812" and a monster was born.

The appeal of the War of 1812 is its size as there are no large battles requiring lots of troops. Further most of the battles are suitable for play with units representing battalions which is a scale that appeals to me especially big units. It is also a bit obscure but all its participants wrote in "English" so it is easy to research. Unfortunately its appeal is lost among the rest of those I game with. So I am going to do this as a solo project.

I would also like to explore a couple of ideas in its execution. One of the problems I have experienced in several campaigns was declining player interest. The approach that I am going to take is to split the campaign into years and theaters of war and each will be played out as sub-campaign that forms part of the greater picture. So we will start in 1812 with four sub-campaigns covering the sortie of the American Navy and three invasions of Canada. Each campaign will continue until either it has achieved its objective or admits failure. Now if time permits and the troops are fit enough a second campaign may occur in theater such as what occurred in the West after the defeat of Hull's invasion of Canada. Of course if you are like Dearborn then the whole campaign season will be wasted and nothing of import will occur.

So thats all for the moment. Next will the sortie of the American navy.