First Game In...........................

 Finally got a game in and it was against Matt, a Macedonian V Seleucid tilt, only 500 points to get back into it and were we rusty!

I had the Macedonian's and wondered why I had so many more troops, his cataphracts cost more but I was starting to worry I had miscalculated. Turned out I had not and some of Matt's choices are point heavy. This was to tell at points in the game.

Both of us really struggled with getting troops to move forwards with my left wing flying ahead before stalling and started to really suffer from skirmishers nipping at my now exposed cavalry.

My far right faced off against the same light cavalry and whilst Matt won the first two rounds he was unable to break me and in the end we both well back shaken and disordered.

Matt would regain his order before me but neither had the opportunity to challenge the other for the remainder of the game as rolls were getting worse not better.

Still on my right and still unable to move a thing! My only saving grace was Matt was not able to move either. Matt would like you to know at this point I had moved most of the way back to my start position, he was not wrong.

Meanwhile half of my phalanx had been moved forward to threaten Matts Cat's, the rest was struggling as much as my cavalry.

The big face off would be on my left as I faced four units of Cats with my three units and a light cavalry unit, see above left as he threatens the mighty Cats.

A close up as he did so well. Not getting many casualties dealt but was the king of disorder on those Cats.

I had some success driving back Matt's annoying lights but the damage was already done.

Meanwhile the only movement seemed to be my lights pushing the Cat's back, I was fortunate that Matt failed a few pre move disorder removal checks or I would have had both flanks crumbling at once.

It's a funny old game, if I could just have attacked I could have taken advantage of this situation but alas.

In the end I against probability drove Matt's right most unit back disordered. I had support in the other but Matt rolled well, I rolled the opposite and oh well scrub one unit of mine.

It was my turn but Matt could make a move and so positioned himself for a flank charge, looks very much a bad situation but the rules whilst not allowing me to counter charge did allow me to wheel and meet him halted and not in my flank. It would have been different if it had been an infantry unit.

Back on my right things continue to not do a lot.

Finally the blocks crash into each other, well as I can't counter I stood and took it on the chin. My supports helped to keep it close as whilst I lost more casualties it still counted a draw.

Round two would have favoured me as long as I got my other two blocks into the scrum. I suspect the melee would end up splitting down the middle with both sides more or less spent and little to offer the rest of the battle.

I had survived the almost flank charge but could not afford to be pushed back which was a real possibility having lost the first round of combat. Given that we stopped at this point it's a mute point but we both agreed that no matter what happened here the game was up for my guys as both flanks had to go Matt's way whilst the centre was going nowhere at best.

No doubt we could have done better, both failing to get round to reading the rules and I especially should not have been pushed around as much as I was. Got to get better at owning the edges but I will say the dice did not like either of us but seemed to dislike me more. Matt though did make the best out of the chances he had.

First Game in About Two Years

FINALLY I got to play again :-) So Wednesday night I went over to Matts and we played a SYW Blackpoweder game of 777 points.

I was the Prussians (on the left) and Matt had the Austrian's. Lee and myself had based our units to our own base size and unit size so Mat and my bases did not all marry up and Matt fielded two battalions together to look a bit more like mine.

Matt had loaded one flank with cavalry whilst I was mostly even. This meant I had to turn round one flanks worth and fly across the rear of my infantry to give them a hand. Meanwhile I was trying to fend off Matts dragoons with a dragoon and a hussar unit.

My Hussars lost the first round and Matt did a sweeping advance and against the odds then lost the melee becoming shaken. I lost the dragoon v dragoon one but not the unit.

This however allowed me to charge both his dragoon regiments sending them from the field but I did take casualties making myself vulnerable to his cuirassiers.

I should have been in a great position with three fresh regiments turning up but on charging his hussars I did really poorly and this left the whole of my cavalry with fairly high casualties. This was made worse when my C-in-C blundered.

One battalion of infantry had been disordered and I failed to get two moves so unable to pass through the forward unit and things would start to go bad for them from this point on.

Matt got two units of light infantry round my flank, of course I got disordered and suddenly nothing on that flank could move. Time for another blunder methinks.

Just before Matts cuirassiers carve me up my cuirassiers are shaken by Matts very expensive hussars. He was a very happy chap they had done so well. Lots of laughing in our game but at this point mostly Matts lol.

One of my battalions blundered (I referred to it above) and he moved right into close range for Matts artillery and a battalion of infantry and that is all she wrote for those guys.

We made a few mistakes and had heads in the rules as neither of us had done enough pre-game reading and remembered things a bit less than we thought but we still had a heap of fun. Next time I think we will have a better idea and should get a better balanced game.

SYW Prussian Guns 1st Entry Into This Years Challenge

I wanted to get something finished on the first day of the challenge and was lucky enough to get the day off work so rushed these over the line.

Two are Old Glory via Timecast. As you would expect the figures and guns had a good level of detail which was nice to paint up.

 I have painted the smallest one as a battalion gun with two crew and the other much larger gun with four crew to represent a large gun. Medium guns will have three crew. I have rather more guns and crews than I expect to use as I also bought the Old Glory Jagger and Horse Artillery pack and having since bought the army pack from Lancashire games I had a load of guns from them. Still if the army gets huge I can always use them.

The figures are not quite this bright just the amount of light from outside on a clear winters morning.

The Lancashire Games light gun is even smaller and looks the part of a battalion gun. Blackpowder rules make battalion guns rather useful as normal medium and heavy guns can not move once set up so on the attack can quickly be left behind. 

I had already stuck the figures to their bases prior to painting (not the guns) this made it a little tricky to paint up the interior detail, especially on the four man crew. To get round the drying time of the sand and exterior paint mix I made use of a warm oven. This sped up the drying time no end though I found it still to be a little tacky in a couple of places. 

Other than that the usual finish of two highlights to mix (coffee and light flesh by MP Paints) some mixed static grass and a few tufts from Tajima1. This will give me all the artillery I need for now, though I will have to add more as the army grows. This challenge will see a growth in the SYW army as I plan to keep going back to the army. The two new cavalry units I have received will also help to expand my force and I have a pair of battalions on the table which should be finished before the end of the week.

Third Black Powder Game

I was over at Lee's again last Friday playing our third game of SYW Blackpowder and it was another fun game. We have increased the number of units available, me by painting them, Lee not so much. He has bought yet more figures so will have a rather nice collection of Russians and Austrians. The Russians I think are up to 20 battalions of infantry but Lee has had little time to get behind a paint brush so I am safe for the time being.

Neither of us have enough cavalry to have more than one big brigade or two small fragile ones so we both set up our cavalry on the one flank, a clash is in the making.

My right flank is protected by a woods and a cornfield. Both of us would make a play for that field though in retrospect it would have been better for me to position myself behind it.

A view showing both forces, mine is on the right. Lee has one division of Grenadiers, this is the first game we are using the special abilities of the troops, though not all of them were called into play.

I moved first but critically my cavalry refused to budge, after the previous game where my cavalry had a torrid time this did not give me much confidence.

However on my right flank I started with three moves that saw me take the wheat field and make use of the woods to secure my flank. One battalion is still in march column whilst Lee is running two battalions around the woods.

Lee charges in with his cavalry whilst I counter charge. I win the battle between the hussars even though Lee got to re-roll all missed dice. He took three casualties to my one and becomes shaken. Obviously painting the figures helps. The clash of our heavies leaves a couple of casualties each but Lee is considered the winner as he has support.

Lee then attacks two of my battalions of my right most brigade getting a bit of a thumping on the left hand one. Lee was more trying to break the rules to see what happens more than win the game. Here he had the supports  but not the dice.

On the extreme right the melee is a draw even though I had the support, though the fault was my dice rolling this time!

Just to the left of this melee we were both enjoying hot work with a battalion each shaken but my advantage is being supported by artillery.

The melee kept on going for a number of rounds but I was slowly taking advantage of not being shaken or disordered. My one supporting unit remained supporting my right hand battalion so that I was now winning both melee's. Lee was failing to manage to get a third battalion in to plug the gap.

However Lee was making his presence felt as he brought the two battalions around the woods. I was just not making a dint in them whilst I was slowly taking casualties.

Then a bad roll and I was down a battalion, that hurt, yes I could plug the gap but it was a very poor roll and such things often come back to hurt you.

Lee managed to bring my right hand battalion into shaken status to join his. By now this melee should have been finished but I could not quite finish him off.

On the other side of the line I remained in the driving seat and was finally rewarded with the destruction of the Austrian Battalion.

The cavalry battle was far more one sided with his hussars broken and his dragoons all shaken. Only one of my Cuirassier regiments was shaken, otherwise I was almost untouched.

On my right flank Lee shakes out his two battalions and failing to inflict a single casualty in return my flank protecting battalion breaks leaving my right flank hanging in the air.

It just got worse, after finally forcing the attacking battalion to retreat Lee's artillery broke my battalion before I had a chance to reduce their loss level. Again I rolled really low so it was disappointing turn of events.

Another view from my left flank, the grey white line behind the wheat fields is Austrian and clearly shows I have a problem.

At this point my right hand brigade was broken and Lee just needs to swing round to attack my centre. I need to do something fast. Lee still has his Grenadier brigade so I know I have a tough fight ahead.

Fortunately I broke Lee's cavalry brigade and started to move them over to protect my centre. Thinking about it I would have been better to have thrown all I had against Lee's centre sweeping my cavalry behind the Grenadier line and thus attacking them from front and rear at the same time.

The last two regiments that are to move to the centre took a bit more time to organise forcing the front two regiments to halt (retiring infantry also got in the way). One cuirassier regiment stayed to threaten the grenadiers flank.

The cavalry and one battalion cover my centre, these would have fell back giving Lee the field. It looked so much to be going my way. But on the bright side from the minor loss I have a idea I think will work well. Just need to try it out tonight, wish me luck.