Chocolate Box Wars Campaign Game #1

Saturday I played the first of what should be a series of five games in Ed M's Chocolate Box Wars Tournament. I'm looking at the tournament more as a way to play with a bunch of new opponents and less as a competition. I expect the others are as well. 

This first game came on the heels of me hosting a game at our Club's monthly game night, so I begged Ed to host our game as I wasn't sure what condition my game room would be in with an upcoming convention preparations and the tear-down of my game night game taking up space. The battle pitted my only completed CBW army, my 1859 Austrians vs. Ed's Hungarians with their multitude of different line uniforms - very beautiful, very CBW. The photo above shows the armies after deployment during turn one's marches. I anchored my right flank on the town and shifted some line units left with thoughts that if Ed defended, I needed flank pressure on that large hill he was occupying. More on that to come.

Ed stole a march on turn two (won the initiative roll) and surprised me by jumping forward with his class D line (militia) flanked by two of his class C line (regulars). I saw clearly his plan, to get in the plain between our hills and take up enough space that he could use his artillery to support his class D line while simultaneously preventing me from doing the same. I was planning on doing exactly the same. Ed's plan worked and he got the precious middle ground and started very effectively pounding my infantry. Just when I thought General Dice had abandoned me I got a clutch 3-casualty rally on my pressured infantry, extending their life....for a turn. They would later on succumb to the relentless pressure of Ed's combined class D infantry and artillery. 

Ed demonstrated against the town on my right, but chose caution over engaging my advanced rifles that were defending it. This allowed me to press my class B Grenzers into the center to put more pressure there. This forced Ed's left flank to engage the plucky border patrollmen. Ed pounded them for multiple turns racking up three casualties (one from flaking a stand) several times. With their B class morale, support from the CinC and General Dice, they were able weather the storm with multiple rallies of 3 and 2 casualties. I believe in the second to last turn I used seven of my 22 command tokens on rallies and at least FOUR of these were to support the Grenzers. At some point in there Ed did flake a full stand off them reducing them to a single stand. This was at a great cost in command initiative points. In the center things seemed to be holding on as a stand-off with my line infantry taking the worst of it eventually losing a full battalion.

With Ed's expenditure of initiative to wear down my Grenzers, it was time for his cavalry to engage my left flank. It was what he had left for the job, and it was a fine tool. Ed executed a wonderful cavalry maneuver, withstood my light cavalry's counter-charge and got off two solid attacks on my leftmost line infantry. Unfortunately these attacks yielded no casualties and Ed was nearly out of command points. With me holding a reserve of several command points my infantry and light cavalry were able to counter-attack to great effect, eliminating Ed's cavalry unit. With a few remaining command points my center was able to focus fire on one of Ed's class D infantry in the center eliminating it as well. Ed's final turn attacks were all excellently planned and executed. On the right I got effective rally rolls when I needed them and on the left it was all a matter of chance. I felt out-played most of the game, but was able to steal a victory. 

Below, a note on army size for Chocolate Box Wars. Here is my over-sized Austrian army in it's storage and travel containers, labeled and ready to play. This includes additional line infantry and all 'options' for cavalry ranging from Hussars through Curiassers, easily enough for two players per side. A large army in two medium-sized stackable boxes. I can literally carry the army under one arm.

First ACW Electronic Brigadier Game - Last game of 2024

We held our monthly game night this past Friday. It doesn't always work out that we can have December game night due to the holidays, but this year it did. The game I ran was a scenario converted from the "Caldwell Clears the Wheatfield" scenario from Volume 2 of the Fire and Fury Regimental Scenarios book. This scenario is quite well designed, and I look forward to using other scenarios from these excellent books in future games. 

For the Confederates, we had Rob and new-to-Electronic Brigadier player John. On the attacking Union side, Veteran players Phil, Kevin and Byron.

The obligation to attack is on Caldwell's 1st division shown here in the foreground. They must drive the surging Confederates from the Wheat field, oat field and back through the woods behind both. Although the Union have a significant advantage in numbers, there are some challenges bringing everything to bear in a coordinated attack. In our play test, Ed M did this marvelously, but also had the benefit of sole command of all of the Union forces.

Here about mid-game Byron's attack has carved a significant hole in the Confederate line, driving one of the Georgian regiments back. While Rob tries to rally them, John denies flank in the center preventing Byron from following up. John also brings in a large South Carolinian regiment from his reserve just in time.  As seen Phil's large green Pennsylvanian regiment charges through the Oat Field (left in the open) but was subsequently repulsed. John's follow-up counterattack driving the green regiment back over the artillery. At game conclusion John captured one section of guns on the road. 

Byron and Kevin conducted one final coordinated attack on the Confederate right flank. This attack included some fresh reinforcements from Kevin's command. Unfortunately for the Union, the defending Georgians had just enough punch left in their defensive fire to force a firefight from most of the smaller attacking units, breaking up the attack and allowing the larger Georgia regiment to turn the one regiment that made it into close combat away.

A well played affair by both sides with one charge in particular being a very fortunate roll of the virtual dice in the melee resolution. The plucky confederate defenders turning a larger Union unit away with a roll of 97 (out of 100) vs a roll of 12. Anything less than this and I'm sure the union would have broken a second hole in the Confederate line securing a much different outcome!  Next time I'll run this scenario will be Saturday Morning at the Mayhem convention during the Saturday morning session.

'Approach to Monmouth' Scenario with The Electronic Brigadier

Two weeks ago I hosted a my 'Approach to Monmouth' scenario at our club's June game night. This was a 'do over' for my game that didn't go off at the April game night. This is one of my favorite scenarios. It's a twist on the historical battle under the presumption that General Lee convinced Washington's council of war in conducting a full assault on the British column as it approached Monmouth rather than the 'only volunteers' debacle that actually happened. There is no Washing marching to Lee's rescue as Lee has the force he needs to do the job. If you want more insight on my justification for this scenario, I highly recommend you read The Making of a Scapegoat by Thayer. 

This is a scaled-down version of the game that I will be running at Historicon in July (sessions S16:115 & S16:133). I was one player short, so Rob and Ed (shown left) having experience play testing the rules, offered to play short handed. The British were two beginners, Warren and John anchored by Electronic Brigadier veteran play tester Byron. 

The British plan was simple - overwhelm the New Jersey brigade that included the local militias. The Americans, to delay with the New Jersey brigade and attack with their other two higher-quality brigades. This was a case of the unstoppable force vs. the moveable object.....

 

The British assault went in on the New Jersey brigades. Initially they sent the Hunterdon militia running but the New Jersey state troops and the Monmouth militia held the line. The Monmouth militia finally broke, but not before the Hunterdon militia recovered just in time to cover the American's left flank. 

Meanwhile on the American right flank the Americans were doing a good job of getting some advantageous two-on-one firefights running. Towards the end of the battle, both the British First Guards and First Grenadiers had shaken and fallen back from the withering American musketry. 

Overall this was a solid American victory. Casualties received by the British were approximately 8.7% of their total force while the American casualties were under 6.5%. Considering the disparity in quality of troops this was a very nice win for Lee.

Falklands War with Dead Man's Hand

Last Friday I took a trip over to my friend Mark D's place to help him play test a Falklands War game he's going to be running at our club this upcoming game night. The rules used were Dead Man's Hand by Great Escape Games.

I haven't played this rule set before, but I was quite impressed with the elegance of the activation system. After the game I immediately ordered myself a copy of the rules.

We drew lots to see who got which side. I drew the British. They had a unit of paratroopers and a unit of mountain troops drawn from the military academy training cadre. My paratroopers had a sniper which was a fun figure to play with. Mark had the Argentinians. Our missions crossed paths in the middle of the board insuring conflict would be quickly manifested.

I had some excellent rolls early knocking out several Argentinians. Mark compressed his two squads together into a fire base and started to bring the casualties back towards even. During this time I pressed onto both of my objectives. In each case I secured the objective, then immediately had a casualty with the capturing figure. At the end of the game I had a narrow lead, although with a full six player game who knows.
 

The rules seem fun, the scenario is quite balanced. My only regret is I'll be running a game myself at the same game night so I won't get to play in this game myself when he runs it!

Hunt for the Goeben

 My friends at Wargames Tonight gave me the opportunity to participate in their on-line WWI naval campaign, 'The Hunt for the Goeben'. There's a great video by them below. Enjoy!

Another Italian Campaign Bolt Action Game at Adler Hobby

Last Thursday I played another game in the Adler Hobby Bolt Action Italian league/campaign. This was scenario #9 from the main rule book. It was one of the attack & defend scenarios and again I was lucky enough to defend.

My opponent Barry was super fun to play against. He had wonderfully painted figures, knew the rules well and had a great battle plan. He overwhelmed my left flank with nearly all his assets with a flamethrower engineer squad filtering through the town to eventually assault the left most victory point. The game extended into an extra turn and the victory point changed hands twice as we each desperately threw units into the fray. The end it was a single panzergrenadier NCO re-taking what he was originally defending for the win.

 

It is hard to pick an MVP for this battle. My mortar disabled Barry's M8 Scout Car with a lucky drop right into the open top of it. One of my infantry squads held and eventually re-captured the objective, and my flamethrower heroically destroyed a whole infantry squad on its own. 

Tooth-and-nail fight for sure!

 

More Bolt Action at Adler Hobby

Yesterday I got my first game in for the Adler Hobby Bolt Action Italian campaign. My opponent, Dan, and I selected 750 points and rolled up one of the attack and defend missions from the core rule book. It took a while for me to blow off the rust and get back into the hang of playing Bolt Action V2. Dan was a great opponent: fun to play with, knew the rules better than I did and was good tactically. The game ended up in a draw after the prescribed seven turns for the scenario. The scenario had a variable end turn of six or seven. At turn six I had the win sealed up, but in turn seven Dan got aggressive with one of his squads and assaulted my anti-tank rifle team that was holding the center objective eliminating it. That sealed the draw. Good play and it came down to which dice came out of the bag first. Had it come up mine first, it could have been a different story.

Dan pushed British paratroopers. Veterans with captured German LMGs. The veteran status saved him MANY casualties. I was able to get hits, but his veterans resisted casualties quite well. 

My deployment as the defender. Note the purple pin markers across the board. The scenario called for an initial bombardment by the attacker that was quite effective. I used all of my dice in turn one on rally orders across the board.

The other, more densely terrained table had another campaign game going on using Bolt Acton Firefight rules. I was too engrossed in my game to get more photos or an outcome.

Blitzkrieg Commander 4 in the "War Barn"

My friend John invited a bunch of us to his gaming space that he affectionately calls 'The War Barn'. It's a loft space in his post and beam barn from the 1600s. Some day I'd love to play an AWI game in a barn that was here during the AWI! It was a chilly day but John got the place nice and comfortable. I ended up taking my coat off and opting for just a sweatshirt. The game table was beautiful and the scenario was very interesting. 

 

This is the first in a series of 'Russian Front' games John is hosting. This game I played the Germans with Michael and John. Opposite us as the Russians, Paul, Earl, Byron and Charlie. 

Photo left: John Michael and Paul. Photo below Byron, Earl and GM John. Charlie hadn't arrived quite yet, but already knew the rules.

 

German left operational group. Michael followed our plan to descend on the town from the left in a sweeping flank, capturing the left-most objective. A bit later on Paul's T-34s showed up, threatening Michael's Panzer IIIs. I tossed a Nebelwerfer strike on top of Paul that took out one tank. Prospects for Michael's attack were good for the last couple of turns, but at four inches per move, his infantry was going to have a tough time getting to the town before dark. He did capture his objective though and was definitely going to keep it.

 

Left center kampfgrouppe was one of my commands. I was opposite Earl here. My turn 1 Nebelwerfer strike here put Earls troops into disarray and allowed me to run up to the center objective with a small group of SS panzergrenadiers supported by my three Stug III assault guns. Although I captured the objective, Earl's infantry was triple the size of mine and once he got his command recovered it looked like he was likely to get the center objective back as Michael's infantry didn't look like it would get to the town in time to help save me in the middle.

 

Right center Kampfgrouppe, also mine are left of the town. These guys initially had line of sight issues approaching the enemy KV-1 tanks that I couldn't work out acceptably to not get cut up piecemeal. Then my command blundered which forced the whole command forward costing me two trucks, two towed Pak-40 AT guns and a Stug.  On my right John didn't fare better. His infantry got hit by tank fire as he advanced, then his command got wiped out assaulting a town held by fresh defending infantry supported by half tracks. Again leg infantry just too slow to be where then needed when. 

This was a beautiful game with great friends. John runs a tight game and knows the rules very well which helped all of us have a better time. I'm still looking forward to more Blitzkrieg Commander 4. Hopefully the rule book re-print will be finished soon.

Bolt Action At Adler Hobby - 2/18/2022

Last Friday I played in a WWII Italian theater game at Adler Hobby. The rules used were the popular Bolt Action 2nd Edition. This was a kick-off game for the upcoming Italian store campaign 

There were two games. I played in a Germans vs. British game and the other table was a scenario game with Americans vs Italian captured R.35s from the Warlord Soft Underbelly campaign book.

Good night had by all! Additional photos are available on this google photos gallery. 

February 2022 Northern Conspiracy Game Night

I'm about a week late posting this. Earlier this month the Northern Conspiracy got together for our February game night. We had an excellent turnout. My game was a fill-in game for another from a host that couldn't attend. 

My concept for this game was to make Saga accessible to newer or first-time Saga players. I created a set of generic battle boards. Each had the same six advanced Saga abilities. I chose them from all of the Crusades battle boards. The six abilities were chosen mostly based on how easy to understand they were and how universally useful they were. This would allow each player to learn Saga without being overwhelmed by a full, complex battle board and an opponent's battle board that is also similarly overwhelming. 

The game was Michael and Kevin helping me test out the system. Both received the simplified battle boards well, with some constructive input. Kevin is a newer Saga player, Michael very much an expert. 

Both players played the simplified battle boards well. In the end, Kevin's crossbows in the ruin carried the day for the Eastern Princes. 

15mm Napoleonics at Robert's

Last week a bunch of us played an excellent game of 15mm Napoleonics using my friend Robert's rules which he's been working on for the past couple of years. The games are coming along more frequently as the rules approach a state of completion. 

This was a large, 7-player game. There were four French players and four alliance players. The alliance army features Austrian, Prussian and Russian forces. Robert's collection is quite complete!

The French got the first march and we set off to capture the center of the battlefield including the central town and windmill hill. I was tasked with holding the left flank against the Allied reserve of heavy cavalry and converged grenadiers commanded by my carpool partner, Byron. I also had the left section of the battle line opposite Mike. 

Here the rules author Robert, new friend Kurt in the middle, and CinC Charlie on the right. Kurt pushed the right flank quite successfully as Charlie pushed the right center. My task was to hold my own on the left and eventually deny the flank.

Here the French get stuck in.

The aftermath of Byron and Mike's attacks (two photos). Mike destroyed nearly the entire right-half of my command in a Pyrrhic effort. Byron, with the elite reserve corps, fared much better eliminating a majority of my left wing with acceptable casualties to his infantry and his heavy cavalry untouched. 

In the end, I bought enough time for Kurt and Charlie to edge out a minor French Victory, their efforts being more effective than mine. 

Left, the result of Mike's efforts for the battle. Remaining of my command, a small battery and a single stand of infantry. Certainly not enough to hold off Byron's command on the flank.

Northern Conspiracy Game Night - January 2022

Last Friday we had the first Northern Conspiracy game night of 2022. With Omicron looming large here in New Hampshire the club members opted to return to masking up for the event. We also had a winter storm that made travel difficult so we had a smaller than usual turnout - 11 members. We ended up running two of the three scheduled games. 

To the left, a photo of Michael's Crusades 'Saga Big Battles' game with his beautifully painted 28mm figures. 

I was engrossed in the game I was playing, so I was remiss in my duties as photographer and only got this one additional photograph of Michael's game, part way through the setup.

By the time my game finished, Michael and his players were also picking up his game, so I assume it went well and played to conclusion.

 

I played in John's Blitzkrieg Commander 4 game which was a historical WWII Eastern Front scenario in 15mm. Charlie and I were the Russians, with Ross and John as the Germans. The scenario is to capture the village in the center of the table. 

 

 

Charlie had T-34/66 tanks and infantry riding on them and some unarmored trucks with a mortar team. Opposite him John had Panzer IVs and some Panzergrenadiers in halftracks. 

I had three KV-1 heavy tanks and three T-70 light tanks - all with infantry riding on them. 

Opposite me Ross had three Panzer III tanks and Panzergrenadiers in halftracks. He also had a tripod-mounted MG-42 MMG team which was quite effective.

On the Russian right flank, Charlie races to the ravine and the cover it offers. He ended up dueling with John's Panzer IVs. The German tanks earned a Pyrrhic victory in that duel. Charlie's infantry later diverted to take the German side of the town as I was occupying our side and contesting the central building. 

My assault's initial stages. I opted to press forward with my KV-1 tanks. In hindsight they would have been better off in the rear on a hill overlooking the town. This would have taken advantage of their longer range and heavier armor. My T-70s scored an early destruction of one of Ross's halftracks, then they got systematically destroyed one at a time by Ross's Panzer IIIs. Ross' HMG and remaining halftrack MGs out-ranged my infantry and eventually all but wiped them out. My SMG tank riders from the KV-1s were all I had left after I assaulted Ross' Panzer-IIIs with infantry and took one out in a mutually destructive duel with one of my KV-1 tanks. 

In the end, the Russians held the majority of the town's building and had all but eliminated the German Infantry. We had two KV-1 tanks at the crossroads and only one Panzer III and one (or two?) battered Panzer IVs opposing us. General consensus from John was a minor Russian victory. 

In typical Russian style, my command suffered over 60% casualties in the 'victory'. I think Charlie fared better staying under 50%. No matter the costs, it was a VERY fun game. Thanks to John for running it!