AAR - December 3 - Shako, at the Hangar

Steve McCabe posted the following After Action Review of a Shako Battle, held at the Hangar on December 3. It was a refight of the battle of Salamanca, from 1812.

Everyone,

Just wanted to comment on this weekend's game.  Thanks to all who came. 

This was by far the largest Shako battle we have fought to date.  With the British numbering roughly 37 infantry battalions, 4 cavalry regiments and 3 artillery, while the French had roughly 50 infantry battalions, 5 cavalry regiments, and 7 artillery. 

The initial set up was Thomieres (Callahan), Maucune (Dave), and Cuto's Cavalry (Dave) swining around the left flank.  Claussel (Oscar) was marching straight down the center, with Brennier & Ferey in reserve, and Foy (Scott) waiting on the British right flank for something to happen.  That is when as per history, Marshall Marmont was wounded, and Bonnet (historically Bonnet was wounded as well, but the French lucked (?) out) took command at the end of turn 3. 

At the end of turn 1, Wellington sent send orders for Crauford (Carl) to advance against Scott.  Turn 2 saw Leith's 4th Division (me) advancing on timed orders against Oscar and Carl advancing against Scott.  While the French continued their flank movement. 

Turn 3 saw the trap enfold that Wellington had set up for Marmont.  Pakenham's 3rd Division (John) was waiting for for Thomiers in line.  The British Cavalry Division (I forgot the gentlemen who played this division) showed up on Johns flank.  The unexpected appearance of the 3rd Division and the cavalry shocked the French players as much their historical counterparts.  At this time, the British 1st Division began their timed advance up the slope toward the flanking units.  ADCs from the now Bonnet were dispatched, and each one met an untimely demise for the French. 

Turn 4 saw Calhan's fore units get destroyed by volley and charges, The British Cavalry charging Dave's lead cavalry elements and the rear brigade of Calahan's.  In the mean time 2 heavy french guns commanded by artillery master Scott, was blasting holes thru my portuguese and highlanders.  This pounding went on and on and on.  By the way Scott, did I tell you how much I DON'T like you!  :-) 

Turn 5 on...  The British 3rd division destroyed Callahan's lead division (which is historically what happend).  The British Cavalry division destroyed Cuto's division.  My division fertilized field with blood but eventually defeated Oscar's Claussal's division.  Another division, Brennier's followed up and even though I had a significant help from 1st division, eventually broke (historical note, the 4th division was the only division that broke in the actual battle, and this was done by Clausal's).  The British Cavalry broke against Dave's Maucuane Division.  Meanwhile, Carl's Light Division was beating up Scott's Foy Division.  Carl was on the verge of routing Scott's division, when ADC's finally made it to Ferey now led by Callahan, and started turning Carl's flank.  There were desperate cries of help from Carl, but there was no one near enough to help.  The closest division was mine and it was in its own death throes.  Callahan was relentless in advance, with two battalions of the elite 95th rifles routing.  Scott in turn counterattacked turning the table on the other two light battalions.  Scott, Callahan, and Carl ran the fight all the way to night time, where Carl's light division barely survived with two Portuguese Cacadores badly wounded but still holding their own.  They limped away, with the French unable to claim a victory there, but the casualties on the light were tremendous. 

For the rest of the game, we called the fight at the end of turn 11.  Dave's Maucune division was almost entirely gone between John's hammer blows and Justin's division in the center on the hill fighting Dave's rear and flank.  That division was ready to break.  Oscar's Ferey Division was badly mauled but was still fighting against Justin.  We ended the game with a 3-2 victory for the British.  The right and center was in pretty much a British victory but the left flank of the British was only being held with barely two battalions against two divisions, even though one was badly mauled. 

As a historical note, there were a lot more British divisions on the table then we played with.  There was also the 5th, 6th, and 7th... I did take the liberty to move the 1st division to the British right center (this was historically next to the light division) and boosted it with two additional guard battalions which did not make it to the division until 1813.  As for my 4th division, this actually was the only British division routed in the battle, but the new 6th division (which we didn't play with) ended up turning back Clausal's division.  The 3rd division in history did surprise the French on the flank and rolled up one division after another.  Instead of British KGL's on their flank, there were actually Portuguese Cavalry and in one of those rare moments, performed quite well, and routed the French light cavalry they went against.  Where the 1st division was situated, there was actually the British Dragoons.  This heavy cavalry charged over the hill and into the flank of the french.  With infantry and Portuguese cavalry to their front, and heavy cavalry on their flank, whole French divisions evaporated.  On the other side of the battle, both Ferey and Foy didin't get into the fight and acted as a rear guard when things went bad for the French.  There was only one division we didn't play with for the French, which was Bonnet (which I believe never was close) as well as the Army Heavy Cavalry (dragoons) that were never even on the maps...

So ended the Battle of Salamanca, 1812... Thanks everyone for joining in...

Search for the Quantum Eagle

This is an AAR from a Combat: Alien War Game from the 2011 Guns of August convention by Alex Hoover. I suspect that Alex and his crew will be back with more C:AW gaming at Williamsburg Muster 2012.

A progressive scenario of small sci-fi skirmishes where teams brave hostile terrain, natives, and each other to retrieve a mysterious alien artifact played at ODMS’ Guns of August convention, 2011.

Mission Briefing: Scientists have detected an anomalous reading originating from a remote world that has been of no particular interest to date. The signals are a closely protected state secret, so obviously, everybody in the galaxy knows about it. A squad of US Marines has been detached to locate and retrieve the source of the anomaly and will be racing against teams from rival nations, privateers, mercenaries, rebel groups, and "entrepreneurs" to be the first to grab the glory. This world, as uninteresting as it is, has been charted by the United States and volumes of data about it have been published in official ledgers. As such, nobody is sure what they will find there. This scenario used the following squad level teams:

USMC Squad (13)

• Squad Sergeant V NCO
• Team A Leader E NCO SSW
• Team A CAA E NCO ASSW
• Team A Member G
• Team A Member G
• Team B Leader E NCO SSW
• Team B CAA E NCO ASSW
• Team B Member G
• Team B Member G
• Team C Leader E NCO SSW
• Team C CAA E NCO ASSW
• Team C Member G
• Team C Member G

Mercenary Team (5)

• Merc V NCO G(1)
• Merc V NCO G(1)
• Merc V NCO G(1)
• Merc V NCO G(1)
• Merc V NCO G(1)

Alien Team (9)

• Jedun E NCO
• Soldier E
• Soldier E
• Jedun E NCO
• Soldier E
• Soldier E
• Jedun E NCO
• Soldier E
• Soldier E

Local Yokel “Militia” (20)

• Foreman G NCO (x 2)
• Yokel G (x 18)

The game was conducted in a progressive campaign of three vignettes. In the first vignette, a player had to get his squad across a 2’x2’ board, corner to corner. Another player played the local fauna, the Krgrgkrt (no guns, but pick the best of two dice during close combat), starting in the other two corners, whose goal was to eat the squad. The first vignette was run twice, with players swapping squad and bug play. In the second vignette, two players started their teams in adjacent corners and had to transit to their own opposite corner, obviously inhibited by the other team. Wounded combatants who made it off the board were given a stim-pack, so they were back to full up around for the second vignette. Wounded combatants left on the board became Krgrgkt snacks. The third vignette pushed all the boards together, with a hole in the center for the “Quantum Eagle” a millennial-old crashed space ship from an unknown alien culture. All the surviving teams started on the outskirts of the board and had to get a “scan” of the QE from each of the four corners. Scanning didn’t take a turn, it just required a team member to end is turn on a corner of the terrain piece. Three extra squads of six Krgrgkrt were added to the board and played by the umpire, since it sounded like a good idea.

a typical setup for a bug scenario

The terrain used had two effects. First running was limited to 3+d6 inches to simulate swampiness and to keep it from being too easy to dash across the board. The tufts of marsh grass both cut movement rate to half to cross and provided one level of cover. Setups varied board to board, and players swapped out to different boards for different vignettes.

While the idea for the three progressive vignettes was very structured and flowing, the actual play at the convention was a little less so. We had quite a few walk-ups, a few people who just played a quick one-off vignette waiting for another game (which says nice things about the rules that you can do that), and a few initial vignettes when one of the referees would play the bugs to accommodate the walkups.

The bug vignettes played out fairly well with players getting a good chance to exercise the rules in simplified combat (only one side with guns). All the squads played out fairly evenly and proved to be a significant over-match for the bugs, but at an expense of 20-25% of their forces.

The most common tactic was to first sprint to what looked like a good location for a stand, then open up on the bugs. Several Marine players discussed the merits of suppressing one squad of bugs and trying to outmaneuver the other, however, none actually did that. It is probably a little different in the abstract and when the bugs are up in your grill. A few players did successfully charge one element of bugs, raining lead, then blow through on that side. Falling back and picking bugs off at long range (even through the cover) was also effective. One bug player was able to eat an alien squad down to one solider left. We let that player have a try with another team.

After taking a few lumps and drawing a little blood, the second vignette ran fairly smoothly as well. While tactics tended to be a little more conservative (perhaps thinking ahead to the third vignette), taking a few potshots and lobbing a grenade or two, while keeping mobile was the order of the day. There was a little bit of confusion a time or two when a “Mad as Hell” retaliation during an interrupt action turned into a “Who the Hell’s turn is it?” Those were quickly sorted out after a couple of deep breaths. Only one player decidedly left a string of wounded behind (playing the alien team with the uzi titin’ monkeys pictured above, lower right), but a few early casualties were left behind to ensure a team would make it all the way across the board.

The four vignettes on the table. Tracks of the action in two of the vignettes . . .

And the fourth one

The final vignette, the all-in race to capture the data on the Quantum Eagle for your side, ended up playing relatively smoothly. Major questions were ironed out in the initial play, so the players were pretty much autonomous. The militia squad was able to use their numbers effectively, both in spreading out and using a little bit of meat-shield tactics. The mercs were able to effectively press their skill advantage by just muscling at everything in sight (including charging into close combat with bugs!). The multiple SSW carried by the Marine squad was put to good use clearing them an open path to the objective. The alien team found it relatively easy to split up and hit the corners of the QE, securing the first couple of scans. While the Marines did a good job taking out the bugs at range with heavy firepower (and were the only team to have all their combatants who entered the final scenario survive), it bogged them down a little, so they were late getting to the objective. The mercenaries pretty much brute forced their way to getting three scans first. However, the militia made a mad sprint (with some excellent 9” run rolls) late in the game and was able to secure three scans in one turn, winning the game.

From Alex: lessee ... i ‘member the bugs are yellow and the “vikings” were the minis for one of the merc teams ... ~ a 50min scenario ... X’s are killed figures and W’s are wounded ... dotted lines are for “tactical repositioning to the rear ... also, though I thought the shirtless tattooed minis I made were rednecks, but everyone else was calling them “pirates,” hence the “P” ... everything else is self explanatory, right?

A referee providing some guidance on the finer points of bug-slaughter.

Peanut butter logistics were key to keeping the forces marching in the marshes.

The militia readies for a final push to win the game!

John Snelling Collection - Sale

Hello - John Snelling is trying to move a pretty large collection of miniatures. Write to him for lists and details - johnsnelling@live.com

He has:
Napoleonics
Russians
Swedes
Prussians
Bavarians
French

Ancients
Gauls
Romans
Persians
Spanish

Write to John for details...

All-American Gamers doing a FLAMES OF WAR tournament - August 6

On 6 August 2011 the All-American Gamers will host a 1000 Point Late War, Italy Themed FOW Campaign-Tourney: "Tough Old Gut".

Location is Southern Pines, NC. (one hour south of Raleigh).

Details are in the updated sign-up thread at:
http://www.flamesofwar.com/Default.aspx?tabid=126&aff=14&aft=529906&afv=topic&afpgj=2#840304

This is just one week before our convention, so would be a great warm up event!

Apache Pass Scenario Notes for Guns of August 2011

These are the expanded scenario notes for Cliff Creech's scenario, Apache Pass, that he will be running at Guns of August 2011. There is a great article online discussing the battle. Cliff will be running his game on Friday and again on Sunday morning.

At noon on July 15, the Union column was attacked by some 500 Apache warriors led by Mangas Coloradas and Cochise. Geronimo, sometime before his death in 1909, claimed to have fought in this battle but this has never been confirmed.

The Americans were not in a good position to fight. They had just walked dozens of miles across the hot Arizona desert, they were heading for the spring at Apache Pass which was now beyond an army of well armed Chiricahua warriors.

Lacking water, and with the risk of losing dozens of men by retreating back to Tucson without water, the column's commander, Lt. Thomas L. Roberts chose to fight. The natives had constructed defenses, several breastworks made of stone. They also had set up an ambush, they waited until the Americans came within thirty to eighty yards of their positions, then opened fire.

Behind almost every mesquite tree and boulder hid an Apache with his rifle, six-shooter and knife. At first the Union troops could barely see the natives firing on them. After a few more moments of intense combat Roberts ordered retreat, so his force withdrew to the mouth of Apache Pass, regrouped and unlimbered mountain howitzers for a second advance.

This was one of the first times the United States Army had been able to use artillery against the native Americans. Roberts ordered his infantry to take the hills overlooking the pass, while he, his officers and howitzers stayed inside of the pass to direct artillery support. The skirmishers moved forward, where they came across an abandoned Butterfield Overland Mail station, which was then used to provide cover from the accurate Apache rifle fire. The infantry was now about 600 yards from the spring, overlooking the water supply were two hills, one that overlooked from the east, the other from the south. On both of the steep hills sat the breastworks, manned by Apache riflemen, doing their best to keep back the American skirmishers.

Roberts moved his howitzers forward and commenced fire along with his infantry, the shots were not very effective because of their position some 300 to 400 feet below the Apache defenses. The artillery would have to be moved again if it was to be effective in this battle. So again the artillery was movedforward, under heavy enemy fire.

Once the guns were in effective range, the commanding sergeant ordered his artillerymen to engage.

Until nightfall the Apaches were bombarded when they broke and fled the engagement in all directions, abandoning the breastworks and leaving the Union troops with a victory and access to the spring.

Guns of August - coming up in just a few weeks!!

Lots of up to date information at the Guns of August website.

Over 60 events in our Preliminary Event Listing, covering miniatures and boardgaming.

Over 20 events in our RPG listing, covering all sorts of RPGs.

See you there!

Upcoming Conventions and Events

Here are some upcoming events - conventions and so on - that might be of Particular interest to ODMS members.

Swap Meet 2011 

June 11

Historicon 2011 

July 7-10

Guns of August 2011 

August 12-14

Southern Front 2011 

September 23-25

Military History Weekend 2011 

October 15-16

Fall In 2011 

October 28-20

Williamsburg Muster 2012 

February 3-5