November 2011

Painting:

38 x Chewks= 38 points
Cargo Containers= 2 points
Walls = 2 points

TOTAL: 42 points

I have four small sci-fi groups primed along with 6 ancients units. Plan to focus on the sci-fi until the new year.

I also want to prime all of my building so they can be painted in 2012. Half done so far.

Overall November has been a slow month but I did get in some Force on Force games and another game in my main campaign.

End of the End

10 May- Count Wilhelm personally takes to the field and leads a combined force of Hippo-Heimer, Keck, and Doft troops in a final bid to destroy the rebels and invading Schluppty-Schlupp forces. As word of the advance spreads, rebels begin to desert the Army of Peace.

19 May- The Katzian host, fresh from the victory against Poo-Boochen in the South, trecks North to put further presure on the rebels and their allies. Desertions increase and some areas fall into rampant banditry.

1 June- Count Wilhelm announces a general amnesty for all rebels that return to their homes within the week. Over half the rebels desert in the first three days while the remaining ring leaders try to forge the remainder into some kind of fighting force.

9 June- The combined Alliance forces rout a rebel divison along the Iller River road. On the same day, Schlupp forces begin retreating towards the border.

14 June- The Katzain army arrives before Gwernhoff to find the Schlupp rear guard and an odd lot of rebels arrayed for battle. The rebels have taken too the field when they found the dilapidated defenses of the town would not stand a seige.

15 June- Battle of Gwernhoff---to be fought with the Die Fighting rules.

Peace of Hampton's Crossing

MG Grumm dispatched the light brigade and a regiment of hussars to pursue Schwartz's retreating command towards the border while moving the rest of the division to block the enemy lines of communication coming from Farthing Ford at the small river bridge of Hampon's Crossing. Burning the bridge and covering the downstream ford with entrenched troops and cannon, he patiently waited the oncoming Poo-Boochen forces. The dispirited enemy arrived the next afternoon to find their retreat route blocked. Initially deploying for battle, a flag of truce soon appeared prompted by the sounds of combat from the rear guard just a few miles North.

Trapped, Marshal Von Saxe of Poo-Boochen asked for terms and the campaign in the South came to an end.

The Peace of Hampton's Crossing-

- All Poo-Boochen forces would withdraw from the Grand Duchy in seven days.
- The main army would march out with honors of war.
- The border fort would be handed over on the third day.
- All Poo-Boochen forces would be removed from the Groening district along the border except for a single regiment of infantry and two squadrons of cavalry to keep the peace.
- Poo-Boochen would pay an indemnity of six million to the Grand Duchy and a further two million to Katzenstein.
- Poo-Boochen would raise a force of 10,000 men for independant action against the Barony of Schluppity-Schlup within six months.


The campaign in the North is still to be decided.

Battle of Featherstone's Farm

1 May - Poo-Boochen forces took the initiative under General Schwartz's able leadership. His cavalry advanced rapidly to screen the follow on infantry and it appeared the Poo-Boochen forces would be able to move on line with the farmstead garrison. It was not too be...The Prax Prarie Cossacks and Wha Hoo Hussars launched daring charges that caught the Poo-Boochen horsemen unprepared. The Katzain cavalry routed both their opponents leaving many on the field and taking even more prisoners. Supported by the Boober Bay Uhlans, the Katzian cavalry  forced Schwartz to deploy his infantry and guns short of the farm. This gave MG Grumm an opportunity to launch a brigade attack against the farm after blasting the defenders with close range cannon fire. Schwartz had one last chance to stave off defeat by bringing his eformed cavalry back into action. While they did overturn the Cossacks, the remaining Katzian cavalry proved too tough to break. With his cavalry in tatters, the farm lost, and his forces facing overwhelming cavalry numbers, Schwartz reluctantly ordered a retreat.

The river valley.

Forces of Katzenstein.

The light brigade looking for a crossing point...it was not to be.

The first cavalry clash won handily by the Katzian lights.

With the enemy cavalry neutralized, the attack on the farm begins.

Cavalry protect the flank and force the Poo-Boochen infantry to deploy.

Poo-Boochen Cavalry regroup.

The second clash...too little, too late.

The farm attack begins.

Victory!

Prince Noah's regiment fills in the gap in the center.

Time for a retreat.

Terrain

Painted up a few of my new terrain items- cargo containers and desert walls.

Force on Force

Played my first two games of Force on Force with my son. Kept it simple by making them all regulars but gave a TQ and MQ advantage to his forces and they wiped me out twice.

Still getting a handle on the reaction system but the basic game mechanics are fairly simple.

Krasnovian Reinforcements

These are the last of my modern skirmish figures. A mixed bag of police, rebels, thugs, pimps, civilians, and others that can be used for modern battles and in my future sci-fi project.



Field of Battle 2nd ed - pre battle

I used the pre-battle maneuver concepts from the new Field of Battle 2nd edition rules to help set up the next game in the campaign. This system could be used by itself for setting up a one-off battle, but it worked great to flesh out details for my battle.

The general scheme is that a Katzian division is marching to cut the line of retreat of the Poo-Boochen forces defeated in my last battle. The remaining P-B forces at the border have marshalled and are marching to stop this flank move.

The pre-battle system involves two parts. First each army rolls on some charts to come up with modifiers and some "key words" to work into the story. Then, each side assigns dice to roll off against each other in four catagories. The winner get certain advantages.

The catagories are:
Deployment
Recon
Strength
Tactical Adjustment

After making the roles, I worked up how they impacted the campaign story.

During the first part, the Katzian roles gave me: "march", "seize", and "consolidated". The P-B forces had "support distance", "cavalry screen", and "hasty (negative)".

The Poo-Boochen forces won all the role offs and gained some key advanatges... force the enemy to deploy two commands, gained one deployment zone, reposition forces in one zone, and an enemy command being delayed.

All this (done in a few minutes) worked nicely in the story.

The Katzain MG Grumm was quickly marching (march) his division along the valley road with the light infantry brigade screening the right flank across the stream. He planned to quickly seize (seize) a strong position across the enemy lines of communication. Mid-day saw the division approaching the objective with the troops formed up 9consolidated) ready for battle except for the light brigade still looking for a usable ford or bridge.

General Schwartz of Poo-Boochen had a small force protecting the critical border fort taken during the opening battles of the war. His grenadier brigade that had stormed the defenses was almost up to full strength, but there were few other troops available when word of the Katzian approach reached the border. Schwartz quickly gathered some troops and marched to meet the enemy. Luckily he had enough available troops (consolidated), and good intelligence from the two regiments of cavalry (cav screen). Schwartz's only weakness would be in the hodge-podge nature of his command (hasty)...a mixed bag of grenadiers, line regiments, and march columns.


The stage is set... a Katzian victory could place the Poo-Boochen forces in an untenable position and maybe even end the war in the South.