First units for the Sudan

 I've decided to start this project with the Beja contingent which is now half, more or less, finished. I painted the figures using enamels.

So far I've done four of the seven spear/sword units, two of the four riflemen units and three of the four command command stands. There will also be a unit of camel riders and two 'captured' Krupp pieces. All figures are Perry Miniatures. 

When deciding to do the Beja I took a fantastic piece of advice from Kevin Calder and completely ignored his other piece of advice. 

I decided to copy his round base idea. Round bases are a very simple way of losing the regimented look of 'irregular units' when they are based on rectangular/square bases. The way they can be bunched together any old how is transformative. All of my irregular infantry units will be based on 50mm diameter bases (from Warbases).

I ignored his advice about picking a Sudan sub-period campaign. Sometime between the 1st and 2nd Suakin campaigns, the Mahdi prescribed an edict that all of his followers should shave their heads, wear a skull cap and sandals and, where practicable/available, don a patched jibba. In effect, from 1885 all early period Mahdist Ansar looked, more or less, the same. I've decided that my Mahdi will never issue such a decree - this will give my Mahdists an imagi-jihad feel but frankly, for the variation in unit look, I'm happy to go against history: I will have 'Fuzzy Wuzzy' Beja with 'ayrick 'air for the entire period and I will be able to do Kippling, in bad 'Michael Caine':

So 'ere's to you Fuzzy Wuzzy, at your 'ome in the Soudan;
You're a pore benighted 'eathen but a first class fighting man;

An 'ere's to you Fuzzy Wuzzy, with your 'ayrick 'ead of 'air -
You big black boundin' beggar - for you broke the British square.

My first three command stands with Osman Digna (centre) flanked by two other command stands; the mounted figure on the right has had a Beja head swap (originally bald in skull cap). Initially I had thought to do single mounted figure 'brigade level' command stands but, somehow one stand on a base hasn't done it for me for quite some time.

My sword and spear units will all be based around an average standard of six bases (50mm diameter). 

Initially I thought to put six figures on a base but discovered that a mix of six and five figure bases (three of each) actually increased the irregular look - six figures only really fit on a stand one way, especially when mixing metal and plastic figures.

Each base will represent about 100 men.

Each base has three metal figures and either two or three plastic figures.

I have a feeling that the plastic spears will prove to be fragile. In consequence, I have decided to place at least one metal figure on each flank of a base to protect them when handled.

I'm sticking to three basic colours for the clothing: White, dirty orange and tan. The tan will have a natural variation because I'm purposefully not noting the precise paint mix for each batch.

Flags are downloads that have been over-painted. They are slightly oversized for effect (and ease of painting).

Riflemen are based three to a stand (representing 50 men per stand). Fifteen of the eighteen men in a unit are metal, the other three are plastic.

I'm going to continue painting the Beja until they are done (six more units and two pieces of artillery). Then, I'll move onto do half of the British force before moving onto the Kordofan contingent (which is about the same size as the Beja with a few more cavalry).

This is never going to be a huge collection - I'm thinking one session games - but, if it plays well, I'll do an Egyptian army, the Camel Corps and add another half a dozen or so Mahdist units - especially more cavalry/camelry. 

Combat at Reichenberg 1757

My main source for this set up was the Kronoskaf SYW project aided with maps from volume 1 of Horace St. Paul and the Campaigns of the Austrian Army in the Seven Years War by Neil Cogswell.

Because my information isn't as complete as I would normally like, this set up has been a case of making the shoe fit. In consequence, I had half a mind to call this set up 'Combat at Reichenbrogue'. However, I think it's close enough to pass muster under its historical name - though I'm always happy to be corrected if I've got it all wrong.

Google Earth, note to self: For modern day Reichenberg see Liberec (Czech Republic).

The battlefield (12 x 6 table) covers the area between Reichenberg in the east (bottom left), westward along a spur of the Schwarzerberg (called the Jeschkengebirge on Kronoskaf) and the village of Franzesdorf to the forest on the eastern slopes of the Schwarzerberg itself (top left). The river Neisse separates Reichenberg from its outlying 'suburb' of Rosenthal and the rest of the field. The north-west corner (top right) of the battlefield is bounded by the substantial obstacle of the Berzdorf-Grund (a stream running through boggy bottomed, steep sided, water-cut).

The Austrians are defending this line in some force and have established several entrenched and barricaded positions along it. The Prussians are attacking from the north.

The high ground in front of Reichenberg is held by two battalions in an entrenched position.

The spur of the Schwarzerberg (shown as three individual heights on the St. Paul maps but as a long spur on the official German survey map) is defended by 7 infantry battalions, 11 companies of grenadiers and 3 batteries of artillery. In reality, only 1 battery was in the redoubts and entrenchments and the other 2 were in reserve on the reverse slope but, given that the Austrian player would immediately order them forward I saved him the trouble and placed them in the redoubts to begin with. Edit: I've actually changed my mind about this, put two batteries of guns on the reverse slope and shortened the two outer redoubts so that there isn't enough room for the guns and infantry to be in them together. Otherwise, the Prussian infantry will get (un-historically) slaughtered as they move up.

Rather than have individual heights I decided to put a saddle in the spur. Here the Austrians deployed 11 squadrons of cuirassier and 10 squadrons of dragoons.

In the forest, positioned behind barricades, are a battalion of grenzers and 2 battalions of infantry. On the road I have placed 2 battalions of infantry advancing from Gabel - this was for the picture, showing their arrival point, but they will start the game off table and arrive when activated (dice rolls, etc.).

The Prussians have advanced from the west and swung into line facing the Austrian defences to the south of them. Their main infantry force comprises 8 battalions of infantry, 3 battalions of grenadiers, 2 battalions of fusiliers and 2 batteries heavy of guns.

To oppose the Austrian cavalry the Prussians have advanced 15 squadrons of dragoons.

5 squadrons of hussars secure the Prussian right wing.

The entrenchments require some explanation and definition. In truth, these were designed with bastion like angles to cover every approach. This (because I use square bases for my figures) is always difficult to represent so I find it easier to 'square off' the redoubts and give them much better fire angles: troops within have a 180 degree frontal arc measured from the back of the position. Redoubts give hard cover and have no flanks. Whilst defending the occupying units fire separately, measuring from the redoubts nearest point; a unit firing at the redoubt can choose which defending unit it wants to target with fire; in melee the defender can choose which unit (infantry or artillery) will defend but, the attacker (if he wins) can distribute any UI loss. 

In front of the entrenchments the Austrians had dug wolf-pits (these were covered traps - deep holes with spikes at the bottom) which will cause attacking troops to go out of command. 

The barricades in the forest (most likely abatis - which I don't have terrain pieces for, so I've used my 'temporary barricade' pieces and cheveaux-de-frise) are treated in a similar fashion but they are soft cover and have no wolf-pits.

Zorndorf Battle Report 2

On the western flank, below Wilkersdorf, the cavalry battle raged on with the Russians finally gaining ascendancy.

Whilst, in the centre, the Prussians began to take up positions from where they could assault the Russians beyond the Stein-Busch and the Russians made preliminary moves to oppose them. 

Manteuffel continues his attack against Saltykov's troops between the Galgen-Grund and Zabern-Grund, then Gaugreben's cavalry intervene....

...with some success and the onslaught is temporarily halted....

....until Manteuffel's hard pressed grenadiers are reinforced by Marschall's dragoons.

In the centre, Galytsin's infantry secure their open flank on the Galgen-Grund and in conjunction with the Observation Corps launch a counter-attack against Kanitz and bring his advance to a halt.

At this point, Dohna's infantry march from Zorndorf, pass through the Stein-Busch and pour vollies into the open flanks of the Observation Corps. The action is now pretty much general along the entire front. The advantage swings back and forth with the initiative and both sides are nearing their break point.

The Russian advantage still lies with the cavalry under Demiku but they can't bring the Prussian morale points down quickly enough with what he has left.

In the eastern sector it is all up for the Russians: The Prussian cavalry is stacking up for the kill.

In the centre the action is becoming especially fierce but, it's all up. The Prussians win with a difference of plus nine morale points. 

The battle was hard fought throughout but Manteuffel's one sided local victory in the first session probably decided the issue - the Russians never recovered from the stack of morale points they lost there.




 

Zorndorf - Battle report

This game was set up three weeks ago. Unfortunately, players had commitments and we were not able to meet until last Wednsday night. In the first session we completed three turns - here is the report.

The Prussians opened the battle with a two hour preliminary bombardment: The Prussians chose six units of Saltykov's infantry and inflicted d3 unit integrity losses on each.

But, it was the Russians who advanced first: Demiku advanced his cavalry, supported by Cossacks, and they were met in the open fields below Wilkersdorf by Schorlemer, who in turn advanced to greet them. A ding-dong, back an forth, cavalry clash is about to happen and it will last all evening.  

On the eastern flank, Manteuffel's strong line of infantry (mostly grenadiers) advanced on the many lines of Russian infantry between the Galgen-Grund and Zabern-Grunds. The Prussian artillery, lines of sight now blocked by their own infantry are made redundant. 

What is about to happen here comes as a shock to all.

The contestants exchanged several volleys of musketry. The Prussian fire was lethally accurate - the return fire was desultory in comparison. The Russian first line, which had already reinforced by their second following the artillery bombardment, began to waver and crumble. 

Seizing their chance, the Prussians advanced to contact. They had rolled even on a Move card and the Prussian grenadiers crossed bayonets with their foe.

The Russians collapse!

At the end of the first evening's play, Manteuffel's attack has (so far) been a complete success

It was aided, it has to be said, by their far superior sequence deck - integrity loss and so forth was rallied on successive Leadership cards, whilst the Russians failed to daw a single Leadership card on which to rally their crumbling lines.

Following the success of Manteuffel's attack, the second line of infantry under Kanitz moved to attack Galytsin's infantry beyond the Stein-Busch wood.

The Russians have not been wholly inactive. In support of their western cavalry advance, parts of the Observation Corps have gone forward. 

You might also note Seydlitz's four cavalry regiments emerging from behind the Stein-busch.

Looking west the disjointed (to my mind) advance of the Observation Corps can be clearly seen.

Seydlitz's cavalry which, having rolled three 'even' moves on two successive march cards, has moved from east to west (a combined move of 72") behind the Stein-Busch and deployed from columns of squadrons into lines. Historically, he actually did this but, historically much later in the day (after stabilizing the eastern sector which historically had not gone in Manteuffel's favour).

Note: Because of my big table (6' x 14' 8") I have increased rule measurements by 50%.

At the western end of the field the cavalry battle played out for most of the session. Casualties on both sides were heavy. At first, the melees went for the Russians but, yet again, the Leadership cards told: The Prussians have five in their deck, the Russians only have three and the Prussians got to turn theirs where the Russians failed to do so (two turns ending on same initiative rolls). 

The Prussian cavalry's counter strikes stabilized the situation - honours were about equal.

And that was where the session's action finished. We will meet to complete (hopefully complete) the battle next Wednesday evening. 

Another shot of Manteuffel's infantry - heroes of the hour.

As yet not fully committed, Kanitz's infantry.

From behind the same, showing the uncommitted Russians beyond. The Russians are in trouble but, this is a Piquet battle and is not done yet.

Still ringing the changes: Zorndorf 1758

After so long playing the Napoleonic Peninsular campaign I'm still ringing the changes. The Ilkley Lads next battle will be a Seven Years War affair. Not wanting to have to set up something new every week, I've decided to do a big game that will last two or three sessions. That prospect lends itself to doing a big historical refight. To make life easy I decided to do Zorndorf - I know this battle back to front and could probably set it up blindfolded. It's also an excellent battle to base a wargame on.

The inconclusive Battle of Zorndorf, contested by Prussia and Russia, was a struggle of epic proportions and its historical casualties look like something more akin to a wargame than reality. At the start of the day Frederick could count on c. 37,000 effectives and Fermor could count on c.43,000. After twelve hours of bloody fighting, with both armies still maintaining the field, the Prussians had sustained c.13,000 casualties (34%) and the Russians c. 18,500 casualties (43%) - personally, I find those numbers astonishing. 

In my opinion, historical battles of the Seven Years War are generally easier to represent on a wargame table than those of other horse and musket wargame periods, such as Napoleonic or ACW, because their deployments generally require less table depth. The linear nature of SYW battles often makes them fit naturally onto a wargame's table without much need to compress depth. Zorndorf is a prime example of this feature.

Zorndorf can be set up at various levels of troops scaling but, I like to set it up with one wargame unit  equal to an infantry regiment of two battalions or five squadrons of cavalry. Incidentally, this is why my cavalry units are only 8 figures strong: Five squadrons of cavalry had almost exactly the same frontage as two battalions of infantry deployed side by side. This unit scaling still gives me a Russian line measuring approximately 13' long, so I need to raise the table's drop leaf (extending my table to 14' 8"). Fortunately, this is not a battle about insecure flanks, otherwise I might need even more. One thing I have done for this battle is to reduce the overall artillery numbers - not because I don't have enough guns, but because when I've scaled batteries more accurately they dominate this particular game too much - this is not an exercise in re-enactment, it's a game for fun.

In consequence of the extension being raised, it is impossible for me to take a photograph of the whole table from any part of my wargame room, so I need to take a shot from each end.

This first shot, looking east, shows the extent of both side's infantry lines, with the Prussians looking down onto the Russian lines from the higher ground to the north. Between the two sides is the Stein-Busch, a fairly open wood. The other key features can also be seen: To the left is the village of Zorndorf (which should be in flames after being torched by passing Cossacks), to the right is the village of Quartschen and, intersecting the Russian side of the field, are (west to east) the Langer-Grund, the Galgen-Grund and the Zabern-Grund. The Grunds are essentially natural water cuts that drain the land north of the river Metzel (which runs west-east behind the Russian position). The Grunds varied in depth, being no more than wet and boggy ground at their northern reaches, to steep sided 'ravines', at some points 10m deep, along their southern reaches - they are still very visible today (check out Google Earth for a very unspoilt battlefield. Modern day Zorndorf is called Sarbinowo). Seydlitz, having scouted the lower reaches of the Zabern-Grund, declared it unpracticable to cavalry so I'm counting the lower parts (defined on the table by streams) as impassable to cavalry and type III watercourses to infantry. I'm counting the upper reaches (defined on the table by boggy ground and pools) as type III watercourses to cavalry and type III terrain to infantry.

This shot, looking west, shows the two side's cavalry wings extending into the far distance. It clearly shows the extent of the Langer-Grund and Galgen-Grund. On the northern (Prussian) side of the table I have added the 60m contour. This high ground is not a hill, it is more the higher end of a long shallow slope that drops down 30m to the river Metzel some 3km to the south. Between the two lines there were several folds in the ground, notably around the Stein-Busch and to the west of it (the Fuchsberg knoll). These were enough to obstruct line of sight to certain low lying areas of the field but in reality the smoke, blowing south from the Prussian artillery and the conflagration at Zorndorf, did more to impair vision - apparently Manteuffel's infantry emerged from the smoke just 40m in front of the Russian line - so I choose not to portray them.

The Russian cavalry wing under Demiku. I've seen this wargame force deployed in several ways. Often it is deployed as a continuous line (I've done it that way myself) but to shorten it slightly I now deploy it in two lines. It comprises two units of cuirassier, a unit of dragoons and four units of hussars. There are also three units of Cossacks (generally, not much better than useless in this period): These are leaderless but are not out of command in consequence; they will each roll d8 for movement activation; they cannot rally; two cards in the Russian sequence deck (Special Event) prevent them acting on the next card turned - they really are quite unreliable, just as they were historically.

Bounded on their left by the Langer-Grund is the Observation Corps under Browne. This comprises four large units of line infantry, each representing a three battalion regiment, and a large unit of their combined grenadiers. All of these units have five unit integrity points rather than four and that is their only 'big unit' benefit - they actually performed poorly on the day. The Corps has an attached battery of artillery. 

To the right of the Observation Corps come the first and second lines of the regular infantry with units of combined grenadiers positioned between them. 

Historically, the first line was commanded by Saltykov and the second line by Galytsin. However, due to a quirk in the rules, the game will actually work better if the infantry is divided into right and left sectors - with the two divided geographically by the Galgen-Grund (pictured bottom right). 

Galytsin will command this, the left infantry sector. It comprises seven units of line infantry, two units of line grenadiers and two units of combined grenadiers; one battery of artillery is attached.

The right infantry sector, commanded by Saltykov, lies between the Galgen-Grund and the Zabern-Grund. The command comprises eight units of line infantry, two units of line grenadiers and a unit of combined grenadiers; two units of artillery are attached. 

Another shot of the same sector showing the southern end of the Zabern-Grund and Quartschen. The army's right wing cavalry, under Gaugreben, are also stationed here: they comprise a unit of cuirassier, a unit of horse grenadiers and a unit of hussars. Guarding the crossing over the Zabern-Grund is a unit of Cossacks.

Starting left to right, at the eastern end of the field are two Prussian cavalry commands. These begin the game off table but are positioned at their predefined points of arrival. Beyond the upper reaches of the Zabern-Grund is the command of Malachowski, this comprises four units of hussars. In the foreground is the command of Seydlitz; it comprises three units of cuirassier (including the Garde du Corps and Gendarmes) and a unit of dragoons.

This shot clearly shows the upper reaches of the Zabern-Grund - streams, pools and ponds.

To their right, to the left of Zorndorf and above the 60m contour, is the main infantry strike force. Leading is Manteuffel's command, comprising a unit of line infantry and three units of combined grenadiers; it has a battery of artillery attached. Behind them is the command of Kanitz, comprising five units of line infantry, two units of fusiliers and a unit of combined grenadiers; it has a battery of artillery attached. Behind them all is Marschall's command of four units of dragoons. Frederick the Great, commanding the Prussian army, can be seen just in front of Zorndorf - I should have painted him foolishly licking his lips.

Behind Zorndorf, refused, is Dohna's infantry command comprising three units of line infantry, two units of fusiliers and a unit of combined grenadiers; a unit of artillery is attached.

On the far right is the cavalry wing of Schorlemer. It comprises three units of cuirassier, a unit of dragoons and two units of hussars.

Note, the yellow star between the infantry lines. There are three of these, one in each infantry sector (Observation Corps, left and right). These are Prussian victory objectives. They will each cost the Russians six army morale points if contacted by a Prussian unit - this will encourage the Prussians to press an attack and might be the only way the outnumbered Prussian infantry can win; no such objective points exist on the other side of the table.

I have stationed Fermor, commander of the Russian army, in the right infantry sector. Here he is alongside his sumptuous coach. The coach was scratch built, in a moment of madness, from Milliput (chassis) and old postcards (coachwork) after purchasing some Foundry draft horses and various wheels (in a bring and buy odds and sods box) at a show.

One last shot of the Prussians - doomed men?

For the first time, we will use Field of Battle (2nd edition) rules for this battle. 

Here, the sequence card decks have been sorted out before shuffling: 27 basic cards in each deck. The Prussians have a skilled army deck, the Russians a poor army deck. 

I've added two Special Event cards (Cossacks) and a Blunder card to the Russian deck. I've added a Sieze The Moment card and an Event card to the Prussian deck. The Prussian Event card will activate Seydlitz and Malachowski - possibly Marschall and Dohna too - though I'm yet to decided exactly how.

Our new to group player Nigel H. will like these cards because they have instruction notes on them. Less to his liking, the game does use the full gamut of polyhedral dice.

To decide the Army Morale Points for each army I added up their unit integrity points and divided by 3. This gives the Prussians 44 AMP and the Russians 54 AMP - this should be enough to get a historically bloody result.

Because there are so many units, I'm not going to dice up the unit quality (combat and defence dice) for every individual unit. I'm simply going to assign CD and DD by unit type (Prussian cuirassier, Russian cuirassier, Prussian combined grenadiers, Observation Corps grenadiers, Russian line grenadiers, etc.) and let the dice do the talking - with 84 units on the table that should be enough variation.

Note: This shot was taken before I finally decided how I would deploy Demiku's cavalry this time around.

Sources: 

Zorndorf 1758 by Simon Millar (actually one of Osprey's best books, IMHO). 

My well thumbed copy of The Army Of Frederick The Great by Duffy.

Opened, my dust jacketless (I've never seen one with a jacket) copy of Russia's Military Way To The West by Duffy. 

Also, free on line, and an invaluable resource for anyone interested in this period, is the Kronoskaf Seven Years War Project site: Here is a link to its excellent piece on Zorndorf.