What to do, what to do....

Hmmm - points to ponder....

It is no secret that the hours I currently work, in conjunction with the commute I undertake on a daily basis, leaves me with little time to tackle much in the way of gaming during the week. This in turn impacts on my weekend as I have to cram what I can into the odd few hours I have available. Over the last last nine months since I started in recruitment (which is essentially a sales based job) my gaming output has plummeted and the blog posts have diminished accordingly - mainly for the time-related reasons above but also, and this is probably just as significant, I have been exhausted. I am working though, which is the main thing. the funny thing is that my previous 'career' never seemed to take quite as much out of me as this does - or perhaps I am simply just beginning to feel my years!

Taking all that into consideration I have really had to sit down and think long and hard about what I want to do and how I want to do it. I need to ensure that my gaming time is more efficiently spent and so making some fairly ruthless decisions about which of the various parts of my collection I should focus on has been giving me much pause for thought.

It would be easy for me to just hang on to everything I have collected and roll it out every so often just as something inspirational appears - in a magazine, a new book, a film, a new range of figures (which is curious given my usual reluctance to take up a paintbrush!) or anything else that gets the creative juices going. I know from previous experience that once I have, for example, a book on a certain subject then my fate is usually sealed because it means the imagined potential for a war game is absolutely certain to dilute my efforts and resources going forward. This has been the pattern of my gaming since the very early days and is probably the main reason why I have never amassed a coherent collection devoted to a particular era.

Some gamers can be very disciplined in their pursuit of a particular period - perhaps with a secondary interest to act as an occasional diversion - but I have never subscribed to that worthy practice.

For the main part my interests have been - to use the wargames descriptions - ancients, horse and musket and modern. Obviously there is much variant within these notional types but they will suffice for my purposes. Drilling down into them I could probably say the wars of the Ancient Greeks through to the Roman Empire followed by the Napoleonic Wars up to 1900 and then anything past then up to 1945. That is a lot of history to cover.

Missing from the list above are the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the 17th and even the 18th century. Now I am not saying that I have no interest in these periods - quite the opposite if my library is anything to go by - but the simple fact is that over the years I have spent time, effort, energy and money on all of them but with little to show for my trouble. For someone of my goldfish-like attention span the easiest way for me not be distracted by any of the above is quite simply to exorcise them from my collection. If they are not there then I cannot be tempted to spend time on them!

I need to give this much in the way of very serious thought especially as some of the projected disposals may be difficult to replace should I change my mind at a later date - and this is something I have done a number of times in the past.

As the title says - What to do, what to do....

On the Road to Constantinople - First Catalca, 17th November, 1912....Game Number 47

A Bulgarian postcard depicting the earlier battle of Luleburgaz

The opening weeks of the First Balkan War were little short of disastrous for the Ottoman Turks. They had been comprehensively defeated by the Bulgarians at Kirkilisse and Lulaburgaz and were being steadily pushed back towards Constantinople in a state of complete disarray. The Turks were harried from one defensive position to another and were frequently overrun at bayonet point by the seemingly unstoppable Bulgarians. Fortunately for the Turks, the Bulgarians were somewhat tardy in following up having completely outrun their logistical support, so rapid and unexpected had their successes thus far been. The Turks were eventually able to disengage  relatively easily whilst the Bulgarians paused to draw breath and so were able to both consolidate and reorganise their shattered armies. Being a lot closer to their supply centre than the Bulgarians (Constantinople was a major centre of supply and was only some 40 kilometres from the Catalca position), they were able to take full advantage of the unexpected lull in the fighting and so the already strong position was rendered virtually impregnable. On the overall scale of things though, it was very much a damage limitation exercise as the war was effectively lost already. However, the Bulgarians would not be allowed to take Constantinople!

The Catalca position has been described as the strongest position in Europe and it is easy to see why. From the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara the peninsula has a single ridge bisecting the entire distance. In some places this rises to 200 meters above sea level and is fronted but flat and gently rolling grass land. The attackers would need to cross this and attack uphill in the face of a heavily fortified and dug in Turkish army - an army that was desperate to avoid the Bulgarians marching on Constantinople. At the Black Sea end of the ridge line (the right hand side of the picture) the Turks also had the support of the Turkish Navy although the gunfire, whilst morale boosting for the Ottomans, was largely ineffective.

The Bulgarians, under Lt. General Radko Dimitiev, outnumbered the Turks but not excessively so. In truth, their hard fought but easily gained victories had served to make the Bulgarian high command somewhat over confident in their abilities - it was felt that cold steel would carry the day as it had done so far. They had not reckoned on the Turkish obstinacy when defending a secure position - a position flanked by the sea at either end and with forts and trenches in between, all overlooking the gently rolling countryside over which the Bulgarians would have to advance.

The Battle

I used Bob Cordery's Memoir of Battle rules to fight the action - the version with the use of the Battle Cry/Napoleonics combat dice to determine how many units could be activated each turn. The only amendment I incorporated was to allow any rolled pairs of icons to be exchanged for a single unit type of the players choice e.g. two cavalry symbols rolled could be changed for a single infantry figure. The net effect was to lose a symbol from the number rolled (in this case 6 dice each side) but with a slightly better degree of control over the orders of a game turn. The action was fought on a 9 x 8 hexed playing area and with the majority of the Turks on the ridge. The infantry and machine guns were in trenches with the artillery in the two fortifications. I chose to have the action starting at relatively close range as the actual battle started under a morning mist which served to disorder the advancing Bulgarians.

The Turks

1 x 1 Commander (Nazim Pasha)
6 x 4 Infantry (elements of the 1st and 2nd Eastern Armies - regulars in the front line, reserve or Redif infantry in the rear)
1 x 3 Cavalry
1 x 2 Machine Gun
2 x 3 Field Artillery

33 strength points with an exhaustion level of 16.

The Bulgarians

1 x 1 Commander (Lt. General Radko Dimitriev)
8 x 4 Infantry (1st and 3rd Armies)
1 x 3 Cavalry
2 x 2 Field Artillery

40 strength points with an exhaustion level of 13.

The Catalca, European Turkey, 5am the 17th November, 1912....

The initial dispositions with the Turks deployed behind their formidable and extensive defences with the Bulgarians drawn up to face them. 

Turn 1. The Bulgarian right advances under artillery support and is immediately met with massed Turkish rifle and heavy gunfire. The extreme right hand Bulgarian infantry units take minor casualties but is forced back by the charging Turkish horsemen. Meanwhile the central infantry units suffers grievously from a deluge of rifle and shellfire. The attack grinds to a halt.... 

Turn 2. The Bulgarian artillery continues to hammer the Turkish positions whilst the victorious Turkish cavalry falls back to the main line. The Bulgarian infantry takes the opportunity to reorganise and ready itself for the next attack.

Turn 3. The Bulgarian artillery continues to hammer at the Turkish positions. Sensing an opportunity, the Turkish cavalry, with supporting fire from the artillery, once again charge into the fray. With a crash they charge into the Bulgarian infantry and despite devastating casualties, put the Bulgarian invaders to the sword! With the casualties sustained thus far the Bulgarian attack on the southern end of the Turkish position has failed.

Turn 4. In the south the Bulgarians manage to reorganise their infantry but the damage has been done and they are no longer strong enough to trouble the Turkish defences. Whilst the Bulgarian artillery continues to plaster the forward Turkish positions their cavalry manages to destroy the last of the Ottoman horsemen but for now all eyes are turned to the north.

Turn 5. the Bulgarians launch three infantry units into the attack but the combination of Turkish rifle, machine gun and artillery fire proves to be too much. One unit is reduced by half and pushed back whilst a second manages, in the face of a veritable maelstrom of fire, to hold their position. From his command post n the centre of the Bulgarian start line Lt. General Dimitriev reluctantly gives the order for his infantry to fall back - the advance of Constantinople is over.

Final score: Turkey 7, Bulgaria 14

Aftermath

By no stretch of the imagination was this the most enthralling of scenarios but I was really glad to have fought it. Essentially it was a frontal assault against a very well prepared defensive position - the shape of things to come in the Great War - and the end result was hardly surprising. Historically the Bulgarians were very over confident but were beginning to suffer the effects of Cholera and so their previous elan was on the wane. Their approach to the position was lethargic and the Turks were ready for them with pre-ranged artillery and masses of fortifications. The Bulgarians in the actual battle managed to bypass one of the ten forts and penetrate the Turkish lines to the depth of some 500 yards before the Turuks were able to eject them. This particular attack was actually at night. I want to fight this action again on a larger and more representative scale (representing some 25 kms of terrain on 8 hexes is a little extreme even for me!) at some point but for now the action ensured that the Turkish military could extract at least a crumb of comfort from a war that was already lost.

Final Thoughts on a 19th Century Grand Tactical Wargame

Some rather dashing Gallic colonial types (depicted for reasons soon to be revealed....)

I found this under the Crimean War images on Google but I reckon it is from the Russo-Turkish War - any thoughts would be appreciated!

Sometimes you just have to take things on the chin and accept the inevitable. That is what I have decided to do for the time being as my attempt to formulate a set of Grand Tactical rules for the 19th century is causing me a certain amount of pain! I am just not able to make anything stick in respect of the ideas I have - it is as though they are there but for some reason I cannot translate them into a meaningful set of rules. I suppose you could almost call the wargamers equivalent of writer's block....;-)

I need to be a little more disciplined in how I tackle this idea and so further research is needed  - which is a rather cheeky way of saying that I need to read some more sets of rules for inspiration!

I shall step back from this for a while and do something completely different. Whenever I have experienced a wargames land battle overload my thoughts inevitably turn to the sea and so, in order to cleanse my palate so to speak, that is where my next efforts will be directed.

Mention of matters naval related of course raises the looming spectre of painting as I have rather a lot of 1/2400th scale WW1 ships to finish off for Fezia and Rusland so I am hoping that a quick game will serve to reignite the enthusiasm.

We shall see!

More Thoughts on a 19th Century Grand Tactical Wargame

A Peninsula diversion. The action was fought on a 9 x 8 hexed playing area with the sides equating to roughly a division apiece. The units represented brigades and you can clearly see the skirmishers deployed to the fore of each formation. The Allies have a battery of artillery in support of the two British brigades whilst the French have massed their artillery into a grand battery on the hill. The brown troops are the Portuguese and the two green blocks in the the small farm are the men of the 95th rifles. 

I planned to have a test today of the various ideas I have been messing around with for a set of Grand Tactical 19th Century rules. Messing around with turned out to be an apt description of the game I tried for a number of reasons that I had not considered. I will not describe the action in detail but will summarise it after I have listed the points arising from the test.

• Skirmishers - These fight first - either each other or against any other enemy. I have assumed that equal numbers of these would largely cancel each other out. The problem though, was considering what they should do as their part of the action. My thinking was a little fuzzy on this but I have allowed them to only be destroyed on an infantry hit (I am referring to Command and Colours type combat dice). If hit by an enemy skirmisher with a flag result they are assumed to have fallen back on their supports (if present) and take no further part in the combat. If they survive (and the enemy skirmishers do as well) then they cancel each other out and take no further part in the action for that turn. In a nutshell, skirmishers can only be destroyed by enemy skirmishers or cavalry. If only one side has skirmishers then these can be added to the defending infantry strength.
• Formations - Halving the number of combat dice for an attacking column in conjunction with the defending unit 'firing' first means that the columns are invariably shot to pieces before having a chance to fight back and when they do it is at a greatly reduced effect. I have no real problem with this per se but it does mean that attacking in column can be an expensive business unless well supported - again, this makes sense from a historical perspective. For the psychological effect I am tempted to allow the attacking column to double the number of combat dice it eventually rolls.
• Artillery - No real problems with this - at close range it was suitably effective.
• Facing - This is something I need to think about as attacking an enemy in the flank or rear should be more effective - perhaps some bonus combat dice may be the answer.

The only cavalry combat was fairly straightforward - the British charged in with their usual gusto and were duly chased off. The French columns, no doubt with much 'Vive L'Empereuring' and other such Gallic joie de vivre rolled up to the thin red line and were driven off in the same old style - although not without some hairy moments - in fact one British brigade (the one with the cavalry next to it) was pushed back over the other side of the hill but managed to regain its position, aided in part by the neighbouring Portuguese. If I am honest the game felt like it should do for an action in the Peninsula so must be rated as a success although the combat sequencing needs a little more clarity. I will take away the results from today and see how the next version shapes up but I am thinking that I am on the right track.

One thing that this test did serve to prove though was that a couple of ideas I wanted to incorporate will not now be needed - at least not in their original form.

The size of playing area worked surprisingly well and will certainly feature as a regular fixture from here on in.

All in all then, it was not a bad way to spend a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon

Thoughts on a 19th Century Grand Tactical Wargame

Needle guns to the fore - Prussians in action in 1866

Work on the grand tactical 19th century rules has continued but it has taken rather a swerve in one respect. As I am naturally using a hexed grid (with my trusty Hexon terrain being the playing surface of choice) it occurred to me that at the level I want to fight combat is, in effect, almost on an area effect basis - essentially the contents of hex A versus the contents of hex B. This means that with a hex containing a potential mix of unit types - infantry, cavalry and artillery - should ideally have the combat subdivided to allow for any such differences.

So no more lumping the combat dice together then....

The system I am working on uses a mixture of  individual combat dice for infantry and cavalry and progressive dice rolls for artillery. This works well and is in fact what is used in Command and Colours Napoleonics so its pedigree is a known quantity. I thought about what a hex versus hex combat represented and whilst it readily includes elements of local low level tactics, essentially the process could be pared down quite readily into a minimal number of dice rolls.

It would be easy to just lump the total number of combat dice together and roll away but I wanted to add a little tactical flavour to the process. My thinking thus far covers the following:

• Skirmishers, if present, conduct their combat first with any casualties being removed before any other combat and thus unable to take any further part.
• Artillery, if present, conduct their combat next with any casualties being removed before any other combat and thus unable to take any further part
• Infantry and Cavalry then fight with Cavalry fighting first - to allow for the potential of shock.
• Cavalry will have the opportunity to counter an opponents intended action

Taking the above as a set of bare bones I will factor in - matrix-style - what happens to whom and when so that a round of combat between two hexes full of varied troop types will have the ebb and flow of a tactical engagement - almost on a 'rock, paper, scissors' basis.

Does this slow the game down? Possibly, although I want to make this very simple in execution.

Will it add to the all important flavour? I really hope so as one of the problems with games set at a high command level is that the low level action becomes even more abstract. 

It should hopefully serve to address the perennial wargamer's dilemma of wanting to be an army commander that still controls every battalion/regiment/battery in the army!

Butchers in North Africa....Part Two

A rather unusual souvenir of Tunisia - actually purchased in the UK! 

You may recall that back in January I took delivery of four 15mm scale German WW2 FW 190 fighters from the Axis and Allies Bandits High expansion of their collectible aerial combat game - see Butchers in North Africa for details. The models are ready painted in a fairly underwhelming desert colour scheme and merely need some minor detailing to be ready to use - some identification markings and the addition of the missing tail swastika would suffice. I wanted to learn more about the operational use of this aircraft during the Tunisian campaign so was absolutely delighted to come across the title you see above - so much so, that I immediately ordered a copy which arrived whilst I was in Tunisia.

The book comes across as a real labour of love in so much as the two authors have managed to come up with complete operational histories of all the 190 units deployed in Tunisia and with a day-by-day breakdown of the missions undertaken. There are tables of the fates of all the aircraft deployed as well as the records of individual pilots. There are maps (interestingly enough an airbase was located not far from Hammamet) and some very good side view colour plates of not only the FW 190 but also assorted Spitfires and P40s as well as Me 109 Gs. At full price this title should have been £29.99 but I picked mine up for £9.99 so was doubly pleased.

I hope to achieve two things by the acquisition of this book - to draw up some scenarios to game at the club and to also find the appropriate details for my models.

It also serves to give me a deeper insight to the Tunisian campaign....but that is a story for another day!

" A Quadruped of Singular Deportment"

Jacqueline the she-camel. She was a splendid beast.

SWMBO and I have just returned from a very relaxing week in Tunisia; staying at the popular resort of Hammamet. I did very little other than relax on the beach and catch up on some reading with only a single venture out of the hotel to visit the nearby town and Medina (incorporated in 16th century fort - with only the perimeter walls remaining). I had plenty of time to think about many things - gaming related and real world - and the fruits of this will be appearing in due course on the blog.

One of the towers at the entrance to the Medina

The camel above became a regular feature of our days on the beach (and for the record not only did I take a ride but I also swam in the sea - the Mediterranean in February is 'bracing' to say the least!) and she was a placid and docile well mannered beast. SWMBO and I became quite good friends with her and her owner, Mahmoud during our stay and she often observed with apparent interest the regular games of Petanque I played on the shore.

There is not a great deal to tell about the trip to be honest but the week of relaxtion coupled with good food and drink and also some welcome sunshine was just what SWMBO and I needed but now I am back to the real world. Until the next time, that is.