Now They Are Horde-able

 This was a bit easier than I expected. 

Apparently I should add some armoured Spahis for the early 16thC, but it'll probably be awhile before I work that out. A few more artillery and infantry will come first before the next engagement.

Retraining

All the firearms are gone (to the dismay of the Turkish cavalry) and half the Spahis are now rearmed and practicing with their new (old fashioned) weapons. 

Once my new pack of really thin drill bits (oops broke another one) gets here in a day or so, I'll finish them off and add some Elastolin Janissaries and cast some more ordinary Infantry.....and shields....and gunners......oh!....and guns....and..............

Chanaaaaaaaa_ng Arms!!

The work will probably be intermittent and slow, but it has begun. The Turkish cavalry's pistols and carbines are being changed for bows or lances.

to be continued......

The First Encounter

Well..... its been "one of those"  weeks, well, two weeks to be honest. (it's June! Spring is easing into summer and there's planting and mowing and well,...."WINTER IS COMING!"...so there's firewood to be cut down, split etc). That's why the 12 turns I played took me 2 weeks despite each turn taking 5-10 minutes! 

Anyway, my late 18thC Mamluks have had experience of combat with infidel soldiers and they are keen to do it again, but in the mid-16thC now. They just need to rearm the cavalry with bows instead of firearms,  recruit some more troops and.....and....and, well, you know. 

However, both the Sultan and the Holy Roman Emperor are now determined to continue the fight. (What can I do to stop them?) I suspect some recruiting will end up being done by both sides.

Now, here is the brief illustrated news about this first clash (previous pictures not repeated...I think...).

________________

Rumors had started to appear about Turkish raids over the Emperor's lands and so a force was recruited and marched to the border. They managed to arrive in the nick of time as the Turks arrived at the little Blutaip river where there was a very small border guard at the main ford. (see previous posts for the early moves)

The Imperial forces arrive just in time to dispute the crossing.

The Imperial reinforcements pushed on while the Turkish light troops searched for fords and probed the strength of the defenders along the line. 

There were just enough Imperial troops to dispute the handful of river crossings but the Turks also had just enough troops. They sent their cavalry and skirmishers to probe for fords while the bulk of the Turkish infantry and artillery marched forward and began to deploy.

The Turkish light cavalry managed to cross the river on each flank, but not with enough strength to clear the Imperial cavalry and flank the Imperial infantry. Meanwhile, the infantry at the main ford fought a long bloody fight across the river, muskets, pikes, sword and shield and whatever was at hand.

At last, in the center, the Turks got their powder wet or they ran out of it, we'll never know for sure but the Imperial arquebusiers fired a deadly volley as the pikemen and halberdiers  pressed forward and some of the Turkish infantry broke.

With the sun sinking low, the Turkish commander recalled his cavalry. Time for a Truce.

 

And Now The Battle Has Come And Gone

A battle report to follow. 

Late in the Battle

I'm going to have to convert the Turkish cavalry's firearms to bows given that the setting is the early 16th Century, and then add more Turks and Imperials, and......

One Is Better Than None

 Its been one of those weeks. Here's a peek at turn 3.

Hopefully, the game will be played Saturday and a battle report posted on Sunday or Monday.

. 

And So It Begins

Due to brilliant commanders, the Imperial reinforcements arrived at almost the same moment as the Turks. As the armies deploy, the battle begins.

To be continued...

ALARM!!!

 In the mid 16thC, on the Eastern frontier of the Imperial lands, Turkish cavalry suddenly appear! 

ALARM!! STAND TO!!!

As reinforcements, already notified by scouting patrols, arrive, the villagers gather what goods and livestock they can, and head for the woods and hills!

"Get Up Daisy!!"

...To be continued...

For My Next Act.....

Holy Roman Emperor's army clashes with the Sultan's raiders.

Having decided that the Revolutionary French miniatures were not interested in returning to Egypt, it didn't take long to decide that the Mamluks and various infantry would serve a 16thC Turkish Sultan and march on Vienna. 

It took longer to get around to reorganizing and, in much of the army,  rebasing to match my 16thC armies. More cavalry, guns and infantry will follow if the first raids are worth it.

Now What?

Once upon a time......or 2 years ago to be precise, I set out to prepare a 1790's Caribbean wargame to take to Huzzah 2023. 

See "A Desperate Affair"

but somehow, by the time I got to Huzzah, it looked more like this:

Yup, here we are in Egypt.....some navigator......
No I'm not sure how these things happen but they do. 

Anyway, it was fun to put together but that campaign is officially over, the French and British troops have been shipped across the Atlantic to the Caribbean as originally intended and the Egyptian and Turkish troops are sitting around smoking their pipes and wondering what their future is. Me too (except for the smoking part). 

The only thing that comes in mind is to pit them across my 16thC Imperial forces, Landsknechts, etc but at that time, Turkish cavalry spurned firearms and, well, most of my Mamlukes have them and none have the bow that was a major weapon for Turkish cavalry. The infantry is fine, its just a bit ironic because my original homecast Turkish infantryman was sculpted 20 years ago for just such a setting. A project which never got off the ground then, and which I don't feel like tackling now. 

 

Took along time for these guys to get dressed and on the table but at least I didn't have to worry about the fragility of the too thin bows they were sculpted with.

Trying to sell them is a very tempting option, if I can find a buyer, as it would put an end to that temptation when I'm trying to reduce and finish what I have I've been working on for the last 20 years........... I think I'll put up a page with pictures and see if anyone is interested in this motley crew of some 40 odd Mamluke/Turkish conversions, mostly home cast with the cavalry being semi-flats.

I also hemmed and hawed about my French camel company but I decided that I like the troopers enough to take away their camels for some other use, and ship them to the West Indies as local volunteer light infantry.(at the moment, Prince Valiant's Persian enemy Satrap has claimed the camels to keep his elephant from getting lonely).  

My hastily improvised Chouan Royalists will also be disbanded, part to go back to their original role as Canadian 1837 Patriotes and rebels, part to go back to being ex-slave guerillas. (see below)

Royal Navy attacks an inconvenient French shore battery in the West Indies.

Yeah, this means I'll be going (virtually) to the West Indies in the heat of summer rather than going in winter. Oddly, the only times I got close to the Caribbean were also  in summer, (as a young Naval officer) a stop in Bermuda while on exercises and a stop at Cuba when I was an exchange officer on a US Destroyer in '76 and as a foreigner was not allowed on shore at Guantánamo Bay! Ah well, it was also summer when I watched icebergs go by off the coast of Baffin Island.  

Renovation Time

 I'm going to be running my Syrian game at a local event next week. Having decided to go back to the Square Brigadier, I decided to update my motley collection of adobe buildings. Most of them had been done last century for 25mm Colonial games with a few newer ones meant for the 40's. None had been designed for play on a grid using figures on 60mm square bases,

So, with some chopping and modifying and some new  additions, I have a renovated village.

Another town, another battle.

 

Stay tuned.

At Aboukir and Acre (Pt2)

As the main French assault on the village began, a scout came galloping towards the General: "Mamlukes approaching our rear sir! Moving fast!"   

There was no time to lose. "Ride to your Brigadier  and tell him to take two squadrons and protect the army's rear!",  "Lt. Leblanc, ride to the 3rd battalion and order Chef de Battaillon Desjardins to fallback to protect the artillery and the rear of the army".   
"We will NOT! let these barbarians disturb our attack! 

On the far side of the field, the fighting was hot and heavy but though several assaults had been repulsed,  French numbers were beginning to tell. The Turkish commander had been wounded repulsing an assault with the bayonet but his twin brother who was 2ic, took his place. 

Assault after assault was sent forward against the Lobsters and the Naval Battery, but led by their brave Captain Trumpeter, they repelled every assault despite their own heavy losses. If only the 3rd battalion had not been drawn off to face the Mamlukes, the attack might have been successful, but the 3rd had their own battle, along with the cavalry, against the Mamluke cavalry.

Vive Bonaparte! A third assault from two directions finally drove the remainder of the Turks from the low wall, abandoning their canon as they retreated. But the pursuit ran into the Marines and a determined battalion of the new Turkish army. The fighting was fierce and prolonged.

Suddenly, it was too much, the sun was sinking, casualties had been high and the French soldier would be facing street fighting to get to the wells against some of the toughest soldiers their enemy had. It was time to fall back before darkness caught them surrounded by increasing numbers of the enemy.

As hard as the French and Turkish soldiers and irregulars fought, in the end, it was Lt.(N) Trumpeter and his sailors and marines that had made the difference in a battle that had come close to being a defeat followed by a difficult retreat for our hero.

(Note: The die rolling was not fudged but those sailors and marines always rolled up in close combat!)

At Aboukir and Acre (Pt1)

Ahhhh,  G. A. Henty! Bless him and his historical novels for young folks! How much I enjoyed them and how much I learned from them and what a thirst for more they inspired! 

(Disclaimer) Now, this scenario is NOT based on anything G.A. Henty (or anyone else) wrote OR anything that actually happened (that I'm aware of anyway), but nonetheless, I have set it during Bonaparte's Siege of Acre with our intrepid hero, Lt(RN) Trumpeter, having been ordered to take a Naval gun crew and a party of (not yet royal) Marines inland to assist the Turks to deny a crucial well to the French and to keep open communications with Syria and Palestine. 

I'll leave a discussion of rules and so on for another post except to add that the game was played using the latest update of "The Square Brigadier" on a 5" square grid. 

(Note: I apologize for the lack of quality of the photos. I need to work on my lighting as the mix of sources confuses my poor cell phone which is my sole camera these days.)

___________

Turkish cavalry scouts have been keeping an eye on the French column as it approached Ta Bel so the British and Turkish garrison was ready, including the local villagers with their Jezails who had taken to the hills.

.

Supported by a squadron of Hussars, a detachment of the Camel Corps was sent to clear the hills only to surprised by a detachment of pack artillery.

These were Bonaparte's men though, and they were not dismayed by a few brigands on their flank. The main attack pressed on.

<<To be continued!>>

 

A Turn Or Two A Day.....

Its just been one of "those" months. However.... 

.......a couple of turns a day is better than nothing. 

French and Turks Square Off (Teaser)

 Yup, I'm back on the grid.

Report and reasoning to follow. Hopefully in the Sunday 'papers'.

Minnow At The Oasis

Some enterprising folks (not me) have been busy organizing a weekend gaming convention in Halifax at the end of September and I've volunteered to run a semi-historical miniatures game. 

Minnow drives off the Mamlukes by using her silent stare.

Its a long boring story, and the bar is shut, so let me just say that, in essence, this week I realized that I missed the ease and smooth of the gridded games I had been largely playing until I decided that I needed to go off grid for Huzzah. So I set up the game I plan to run,  hauled out my Square Brigadier rules, and..... yup, that works for me. I think it'll be easier to learn and understand for many non-miniature players.

A battle report on the play test will follow and soon after, a copy of the updated rules, or at least a Quick Reference Sheet if the full thing is taking too long as I keep adding things, trains, balloons, amphibious ops, etc etc.

D-7

Yikes! A week since the last post! Not much hobby time this past week, partly to do with spring chores, partly community volunteering and so on, but, I now have a start on the last minute recruiting.

Cuirassiers, Cowboys, Hussars and Uhlans, all joining the Mamlukes.

A week from today, I need to be packed and ready to go!  I could just pack up now and fudge standings for the not yet painted miniatures,  but I'll be much happier if I can finish another dozen Mamelukes (to replace stand-ins ) and 10 more French infantry....and a few more buildings, and......

May I Proceed?

Yes, I may, after all, it is May!  Taxes are done with, (including my wife's business), next winter's firewood is partly stacked and partly too wet to stack and Huzzah is only a few weeks away. That means...... hobby time! 

I went down some pretty strange roads hoping to solve the conundrum of making the game fun, simple but engaging, original and neither too slow nor too quick, with an emphasis on player decisions rather than luck.  However, finally, yesterday, I metaphorically whapped myself in the head and stopped trying to be clever and original and went back to OS basics. One hour in, its very encouraging.

There will be time in the next 2 weeks to play test both scenarios and to convert and paint the last score or so figures. There is yet hope! 

Testing, Testing, 1,2,3

Time is getting short and the days are busy with extra diversions (like the Porcupine high up in the old Willow in our dog yard, munching on new, crisp, green Spring Willow tips, as is his wont in Spring), but things are coming together. 

Much time was lost on the weekend when I saw the grid on the cloth I'll be using and I got nostalgic for the days when there was no fiddling with tapes required.... The first solo test was too quick, the next boring and so on. I was tempted to say screw it, rip the guys off their  bases and call MacDuff back into service until I remembered the near impossibility of setting up and playing to a conclusion a multi-player MacDuff scenario in 4 hours.  So, the fourth? fifth? abandoned playtest was reset and it all began again.

So I persevered and the current version, on grid, inspired by Morschauser's rules but based on Hearts of Tin (nee Morschuser Meets MacDuff). seems to be working. The aim is to have players making decisions, with nothing guaranteed but with player decisions usually outweighing die rolls  not so quick that its all over in an hour, not so slow that it's unlikely to reach a conclusion in the allotted time. 

Once I take myself hostage and staple gun to my head, force myself to sit down and finish the required book work for my wife's business, and then finally, file our taxes, (One more broken promise that THIS YEAR I would not leave it till the last minute...)   I'll have to do another test of the Frogs & Lobsters game, this time using these rules instead of MacDuff. 

Playtests can be useful

 I had a chance to test my 1799 Syrian game today. 

Half way through the game.

By and large I was happy with most bits, but there were a couple of things that hadn't been thought out.  For example, each stand is supposed to be a unit but  4 stands will fit in one square and I hadn't decided on how that would work in practice, especially for melees.  So, I finally stopped the game, started considering the pros and cons to various solutions to the fuzzy bits, and some other things that didn't feel quite right. 

The play test will restart on Sunday.