First unit/post of the year

Well first post of the new year, to show off my first new unit of the year.

Yes I know its cheesy to provide photographic evidence of your painting progress but I feel the urge celebrate the return of painting mojo. It will also hopefully prompt me to keep up the painting during the  course of the year and by default the blog updates. Though hopefully I will have more to say than just flash pictures of my new toys.

Now for the dull bit, some information. The figures are 15mm sword and bucklermen from Venexia. They are part of the expansion of my old Burgundian Ordonnance army into Italian Condotta both for FoG & FoG:R. Hence the earlier post about the Renaissance, so there will ve more of those to come, not just at the moment. More painting is requirred.

As for the photo. The wife got a new camera for Christmas and they are truly idiot proof as witnessed by my photo above.

Fort Mackinac - July 1812

Now that naval operations for the year are over it is time to begin the land campaign. So we will go as far from the sea as possible to Fort Mackinac.
Now historically the British commander, Captain Charles Roberts received news that war had been declared. Promptly taking advantage of threat advantage he gathered his forces to quickly deliver the news of the outbreak of hostilities to the American commander a Lieutenant Porter Hanks.
If only it was so simple, there would be point in recreating it. There are a number of points in the narrative of this story that give us the chance to play with history.
The first are British intentions. Captain Roberts immediate superior, General Isaac Brock wrote three letters dated the 26th, 27th and 28th of June ordering him to attack, not attack and attack the Americans. General Sir George Prevost also wrote ordering Roberts to defend his Post. Finally Brock wrote to Roberts authorizing him to use his discretion. So there is a chance that Roberts is a little confused over what his commanders expect of him. So, there will a 1 in 6 chance of command confusion but throwing a five means that I don't have to figure it out.
Second is British mobilization. Fortunately Roberts was kept well informed about the approach of war if not the plans of his commanders. There is a chance that all the confusion will adversely affect mobilization in the area but with a 1 in 6 chance of having a smaller force and throwing a 5 means that the British are fully mobilized.
Third is the Americans tell Hanks that war has been declared and giving him a chance to be prepared. Another 1 in 6 chance of this happening but another five means that this does not happen.
The end result is that Fort Mackinac surrenders to Captain Roberts on schedule.

A New history of the Italian Renaisance

Wargaming is a hobby about history and wargame campaign is a chance to write or rewrite history. Usually we start we start with known battle or war as a starting point. But history is also about what could have been and this is one of those stories,
In July 1480 a Turkish fleet unable to take Rhodes descends upon the Italian port of Otranto. After a siege of about three weeks the city fell to the Turkish forces. For the rest of that summer various coastal communities along the coast of Italy were raided by the Turks. When Winter arrived it was difficult to supply such a large force so they returned to Turkish territory leaving behind a small garrison to defend their new conquest.
In 1481 a Neapolitan army gathered to retake Otranto, this included Hungarians sent by the King Ferdinand's son in law, King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary. The Turks were presumably awaiting a relief force to arrive so as to continue their advance. But the Neapolitan army arrived first. Then three days after the arrival of the Neapolitan force at Otranto, the Sultan died plunging the ottoman empire into a civil war. With no relief coming the garrison surrendered and left Italy.
The attraction for me is that I can put both sides into field, though of course I can always do with a few more troops to do it properly :-). So let us see what sort of alternative history can be written as the Turks attempt to push into Italy.
Forces involved - 1480
Otranto garrison

• 400 men
• 800+ civic militia

The garrison is reported to have fled while the Ottomans were summoning Otranto to surrender. This left the civic militia to defend the place. I have assumed this to over 800 men as it is reputed that this is number of citizens massacred when the Turks took the city. So there were definitely some interest in putting up a fight.
Turkish forces

• 700 cavalry
• 18,000 infantry

Two comments. The number of infantry is probably exaggerated and will include a lot of non-combatants. This could reduce the Turks down to about 9000 actual combat troops. Second a large percentage of the infantry are actually dismounted cavalry. Now while I don't have access to any breakdown for this force
Forces involved - 1481
Otranto garrison

• 500 cavalry
• 800 infantry

Neapolitan Forces

• Unknown at this stage but over a thousand Hungarians.

USS Essex versus HMS Guerriere

And now we come to the closing act of the year 1812 at sea. The encounter between the USS Essex and HMS Guerriere.
Now to the set-up. As the Essex is armed with carronades she will want to start the action at close range. If the Guerriere knows about the Essex and her armament then she will not want to close. The Guerriere will be given three chances to detect the Essex's carronades but only has a 1 in 6 chance of success. The Guerriere has overall an approximately 40% chance of success which feels about right, each individual chance represents the closing of the range until if she has failed all three she has entered the range of Essex and her carronades.
The Guerriere is either confident in her abilities or ignorant about the Essex's as she failed every chance given to respond. A couple more die rolls and Essex is placed directly astern of the Guerriere at close range with the wind directly behind them. So naturally the bow chasers of the Essex anounce that battle has commenced and misses.
Positioning Essex behind Guerriere means that their is no reason to fight instead it just remains a chase. Time for take 2, I will reposition the Essex a little bit off to starboard.
Now Guerriere turns to starboard and rakes Essex's bow causing damage and crew losses.
Essex turns to Port and rakes the stern of Guerriere causing damage but more importantly damaging her rudder. Unable to turn Guerriere must sail straight until she rolls a six. Essex caught on a different tack drops out of artillery range.
Then the fog rolls in ending the battle.
Well that was short and downright inconclusive.

Cambra1 1917 - Planning the campaign

Okay now I have my organizations mapped how man troops do I need? The following order of battle focuses on troops involved in the initial assault.

Order of Battle

Germans

Group Caudry

9th Reserve Division

• 395th Regiment – Not engaged
• 6th Reserve Regiment – Not engaged
• 19th Reserve Regiment

54th Division

• 27th Reserve regiment – Not engaged, Group Reserve
• 84th Infantry regiment
• 90th Reserve regiment
• 387th Landwehr regiment – from 20th Landwehr

20th Landwehr Division

• 384th Landwehr regiment
• 386th Landwehr regiment – not engaged

British

IIIrd Corp

• 12th Division
• 35th brigade
• C battalion
• 36th Brigade
• F battalion
• 37th Brigade - 2nd echelon

20th Division

• 59th Brigade - 2nd echelon
• 60th Brigade
• A battalion – less 1 company
• 61st Brigade
• I battalion

6th Division

• B & H battalions
• 16th brigade
• 18th brigade - 2nd echelon
• 71st brigade

IVth Corp

51st Division

• D & E battalions – less 1 company
• 152nd brigade
• 153rd brigade
• 154th brigade - 2nd echelon

62nd Division

• G Battalion + 1 company
• 36th Division
• 107th brigade – not participating
• 108th brigade – not participating
• 109th brigade

Commentary
If the Germans are deployed according to doctrine elements of 5 regiments each with a battalion in the front line are caught up in the attack, possibly closer to four if you consider that not not all units are being hit equally. The British are attacking with 11 brigades. It does quite match up for an easy game.
On the British left flank, the attack of the 109th brigade is almost entirely against the the 384th Landwehr. So we can reduce it to 4 versus 10. On the right the 19th Reserve is only partially engaged by the 35th brigade attacks it. This makes it 3 versus 9. That's the flanks taken care of.
In the centre each German battalion is attacked by three brigades, odds of six to one, just in the first wave with another six following up and that’s just the assault brigades. It might be easier to do them half scale. So three British battalions versus a half battalion of Germans. That’s possible with the troops I have got painted at the moment. So what more do I need to get and paint.
Now for tanks. Most assault battalions have a company of 12 tanks attached organized into 4 platoons. This could be upto four models, but for the moment both for aesthetic and financial reasons each company will be represented by two models.
So on that basis I will need the following reinforcements.
British
5x Tanks
1x British battalion
1x Trench Mortar company
1x MMG company
Germans
2x battalions
MMG
mortars
artillery
Damn it, I am not even half way. May need a simpler battle or to get my painting mojo back.

Cambrai 1917 - a British Brigade on the attack

Now for the other side of the hill, the British. The basic source I am using here is the British official history fro the Battle of Cambrai as well as Paddy Griffith's book "Battle Tactics on the Western Front".
The division has three brigades each of four battalions and at Cambrai was attacking on frontage of about 2000 meters with two to three brigades in the line. The brigade itself would attack with two battalions in the first echelon and one each in a second and third echelon. The first echelon battalions would have two distinct functions half the battalion would be supporting the tanks while the other half would become the trench garrison or stops. The second echelon battalion would appear to act as support for the first echelon battalions rather than have a distinct mission of its own.
A British platoon at this time has four squads, two machine gun each with a Lewis Gun and two rifle grenade. This gives a company a RoF of 4 of which two can be indirect. The lack of LMG's for each platoon will for the moment at least means that the battalion deploys only company stands and not platoon.
Brigade headquarters

• 1x Command stand

4x Infantry battalions

• 1x Command stand
• 4x Company stands

Brigade Trench Mortar company

• 1x Command stand?
• 2x 3" stokes mortars

Brigade Machine Gun Company

• 1x Command stand?
• 4x Vickers MMG's

There are several ideas that I am toying with. The first idea is to allow each company to be replaced by a platoon sized cadre if it is destroyed. This will require more figures so I don't fancy its chances at the moment.
Next is to allow for Tank-infantry teams to be formed. This would allow for the increased co-operation which is said to have occurred at Cambrai except for the 51st Highland Division.Needs more research first as I think some modern research is challenging
Finally the use of one battalion as porters does open up the possibility of using the ammunition rules. Warfare on the Western front would normally not require any ammunition rules as there is no shortages of ammunition worth worrying about. What you do have is a difficulty in moving it forward to the front line troops. Hence only the attacker has to worry about supplies and only for those troops who cross no mans land.
That's it for the moment, time to paint up some figures and build more trenches.

A terrain system

With both a table and too much time on my hands I spend a lot of time solo gaming. So naturally I have to set up tables to play on. Fortunately I am also playing games that include a terrain generation system. Yet of course one is never quite satisfied with the result so hence this modified system.

The idea behind most terrain systems is to provide a single layer of terrain. What I have provides for multiple layers so that terrain can be stacked upon terrain such as a hilltop town or a stream meandering through a wood. So at the bottom you have the base layer which are the folds and shapes of the land. Upon them you have the surface layer which are your woods and towns. Finally you can have a dynamic layer which can incorporate weather and other temporary changes to the terrain.

I have it based upon the one used in Flames of War in this case their Mediterranean table.

Base Layer

1-2 Mountain

3 Wadi or stream

4-6 Flat

Surface Layer

1 Orchards and Fields

2 Village and farms

3-6 Nothing

Dynamic Layer

1 Mud

2-6 Nothing

There it is. It does involve a bit more die rolling. There will also generally be more terrain on the table using this system.

The dynamic layer depending upon the effect could apply either to the whole table or to individual sections. Mud is an example of one where it could be applied to only parts of the table.

A final though have an eye to the narrative of the battlefield, how it hangs together and will shape the battle. Don;t be afraid to fiddle around with it, if it will make for a better and more enjoyable game.