Operation Zorndorf - first play test

 Last night I though it might be a good idea to run through a Zorndorf game. Not everything is finished but by the time it is Sheffield Triples will be upon us and there might not be time to do a full run through. So, now is as good a time as any. So Having filled the gaps in the Russian lines with some temporary Austrian stand-ins, turned a blind eye to the glint of bare metal and dullness of unfinished basing, I sorted out the sequence card decks and army characterization cards (for modified Classic Piquet) and the game began. 

I'm not going to do the card decks randomly. They will be made up as umpire's choice so that they are tailored to fit with historical precedent.

Graham was Prussian, Peter was Russian, and I held out the domino bag.

After the Prussian preliminary artillery bombardment was resolved on the Russian right (by rolling dAv -3 for stand loss for every unit right of the 'kink') in which the Russians lost about a dozen stands, the battle started with the Prussian hussars under Seydlitz (left) a chasing around after some rather unenthusiastic Cossacks - it was like watching 'kiss chase', only it was hard to tell which ones the girls were.

 Then it got down to the nitty-gritty with Manteuffel's and Kanitz's attacks going in. 

The Prussians are not, by scenario ruling, allowed to hang around. They must move these commands on every available move card. Kanitz's command cannot move further to the left until he reaches the Galben Grund - at which point he is totally committed anyway.

 It was chaotic. The Prussians came under cannister fire. The Russian guns were overrun. A ferocious firefight ensued. The Russian infantry came off worse. The Russian infantry counter attacked with a charge. The Russian front line began to disintegrate.....

 ..The situation was restored by Gaugreben's cavalry and the 1st Grenadiers which charged to great effect. Manteuffel's command buckled then broke completely. Round one to the Russians, but their fighter is staggering in the ring. Most of their units have lost stands.

 Kanitz reaches the Galben Grund. Manteuffel's command has disintegrated so he refuses his left whilst the rest press on.

 An overview of the positions at end of play. Next week the battle will continue. 

Hopefully, for the umpire's sake, not to mention the sake of history, Seydlitz will turn the stratagem card that will allow him to redeploy any uncommitted cavalry to the other side of the Zabern Grund. This move will require no actual wargaming movement; he just shifts his cavalry where he wants them, in any formation, in a single bound. 

A shot of 'the gap'. When my table's drop leaf is brought up (making the table 14' 8" long) there isn't much wiggle room at the end. At Triples the table will be 16' long but the extra room will be counted 'off table' for handouts, the gubbins and detritus of play, drinks, etc.

On the to do side of the game, I started making up the flags required. These were downloaded from kronoskaf, manipulated in MS Paint, sized in MS Word, printed off on cheap photocopy paper. After that, they were cut out, folded and glued to wire pins, bent to 'fly', then coated in PVA. Next I'll overpaint them with enamels. It sounds a complex way of doing things but it looks quite good and works.

Operation Zorndorf - Deployment Decisions

The process of painting the figures for the game is drawing to a close. There will be a week spent basing and a few evenings spent painting flags but the units are all but completed. I have exactly 100 figures to do and 36 of those are nearly done. I also have some terrain to make to represent the 'Grunds' but these are pretty straight forward - ten feet of purpose made stream and ponds - they should be doable over a weekend.

With this in mind, I have spent some time going over accounts of the battle, studying maps, and thinking about how the battle should be represented. Given the usual restrictions of table-top gaming, namely the maximum playable depth that a table can be, I have decided on a quite radical solution to the initial game deployments. This was not my first plan (see earlier posts), but I think it is the best one. To explain why I've come to this conclusion it might be a good idea to briefly go over the start of the battle.

Initially, Fermor had deployed his Russian army in a large square formation facing north across marshy ground in the direction of Frederick's expected approach. Using local guides, Frederick made a night march (starting at 3 am) around the Russian flank so as to approach the Russians from the rear. At 5 am the Prussians emerged from woods on the eastern flank of the Russians (east of Zicher), and whilst the Prussians continued marching around to the rear, Fermor rearranged his army by the simple expedient of repositioning his artillery and getting each unit to simply about face to the south (The front line became the rear and vice versa).

Diagram from Kronoskaf

At 9 am, the Prussians shook out into a battle line in front of the village of Zorndorf and a ferocious artillery bombardment began. After two hours, the Prussian infantry on the left flank advanced. Almost immediately, Fredericks plan to attack the Russian right began to go wrong. The front line [Manteuffel] advanced according to plan but the second line [Kanitz], instead of following in support, began to veer off to the right, towards the Stein Busch and the Russian centre; this was partly because of poor visibility caused by the smoke from the cannonade and the burning village of Zorndorf, and partly due to Kanitz trying to reach out to the refused right wing infantry with his floating right flank.

This, to my mind, is the crux of the battle and what makes it the battle of Zorndorf. Without this critical mistake being made the battle will not be like Zorndorf at all. Consequently, I have chosen this time, about 11am, as the start point of the battle. This deployment means that the battle begins with some of the main tactical decisions having been made; a table-top teaser with a "get out of that" element is quite often rather good fun.

This initial game deployment has several distinct advantages over one for 9 am and, except for the battle starting two hours after its historical kick off, I can't find a reason that this deployment (especially as I'm using 28 mm figures) is not the one to be used: 

• It means that the ground scale need not be over compressed to fit in the four villages that fringed the battlefield (which often appear in games) that had no tactical impact on the battle after 11 am (the smoke from a burning Zorndorf had an effect before this time but not after). 
• It means that there is no chance of an initial lull / boring phase as the game starts with the action under way - not a bad thing for a demo game. The preliminary bombardment will be quickly resolved before the action starts by some dice driven expedient - it need not be gamed step by step. 
• It means that the Russians can be deployed slightly further forward and the gap between their first and second line need not be overly compressed to allow a decent deployment depth for the Prussians. 

So what will it look like? Well, something like this:

 Most of the field from behind the Prussian right. Except for some cossacks slightly out of shot, there are 1500 figures on the table.

 Manteuffel and Kanitz going forward whilst the refused right stands back. 

Just visible in the top left corner of the shot are Seydlitz's four heavy cavalry regiments in deep formations (he actually formed his squadrons into deep formations later than 11 am to attack across the Zabern Grund  but doing it at the start allows this flank area to be slightly shortened).

 The Prussian line beyond the Zabern Grund from the left. 

 Manteuffels Grenadiers - Frederick led trumps. 

There is a unit of Russian cuirassier missing from between the Russian infantry lines (It will stand next to the horse grenadiers).

Prussian artillery in this sector will start the game 'unloaded'. It will probably have done significant damage in the initial bombardment (determined by simple die rolls on all enemy units in this sector). The Russian counter fire was largely ineffective and be ruled so; it became deadly as the Prussian infantry emerged from the smoke - those grenadiers are going to get a taste of it.

 The Russian infantry. The gap in the centre of the rear line is where the last three Russian infantry units will fit.

The Russian left. There are three units of cavalry missing, a second line behind the first, but the frontage is correct.

There are lots of cossacks floating about the field (7 regts) but they are rubbish and shouldn't feature much.

Absolutely missing from the Russian OOB is the single battalion of dismounted dragoons - I can't be arsed, simples.

Old and new and changing styles

This week I have finished the Prussians for Zorndorf with the addition of the 7th Hussars (Die Gelben / The Yellows). Funnily enough (having discovered that there are two versions of the Prussian OOB for Zorndorf - one gives the 3rd Hussars as present, the other the 7th Hussars), it looks like I might accidentally have the right unit after all.

I have only had to paint half this double strength unit as I already had half of it in the cupboard. I painted the other half over fifteen years ago. This gives an unmissable chance to compare my painting styles, then to now (even if the figures are by two different manufacturers - Front Rank and Foundry - the difference is unmistakable) . It would appear that I have become bolder and steadier and I have a better grasp of horse flesh, and colour generally. It also appears that I have given up doing 'small detail' such as eyelids and fine lacing on pelisses. I prefer my style now to then. It is quicker. It has more visual impact at a 'war gaming distance' of a few feet.

Next up, I will finish the Russians - 70 infantry, 30 Cavalry. 

I think that means that I have already painted: 446 Infantry, 114 Cavalry, 14 Guns and 56 gun crew since mid November last year - wow that is over 100 figures a month.

Prussian 2nd Hussars (The Reds)

This week I've done the 2nd Hussars (known as 'The Reds', later 'Zieten's Hussars') which must be one of the most beautiful Seven Years War uniforms around. The combination of red, white and blue, especially with the white fur on the pelisse, is just wonderful. As with all Prussian hussar regiments, The Reds were ten squadrons strong, and consequently this unit is 16 figures strong and will be fielded as two units of 8. The figures are Foundry.

Next up, 7 figures to make the 7th Hussars up to ten squadrons - I know the 7th was not at Zorndorf, they will be stand-ins for the 3rd Hussars (it's a cost saving thing). This is an important moment as they are the last Prussians I need, and that will only leave exactly 100 Russians to do. The end is in sight.

FOR SALE - Mussolini's Clangers

These ten models are Battlefront / Flames of War M13 tanks (code IT040). The vehicles were painted with enamels (by me) and are based on 2mm MDF. Note that the vehicles were glued to the bases after the bases were done, so they will come off fairly easily if required - and I'm happy to do that for you. There are ten tanks including a command tank.

The price for this lot is £135.00 including postage by Royal Mail Special Delivery (insured next day delivery). If you wish to express an interest you can contact me at:

jlaroach@blueyonder.co.uk

Payment must be by PayPal. The lot will be sold on a first come first served basis. Thank you for looking, and BTW, any money generated will be redirected towards a 'terrain' purchase.

Easy eight or silly seven

The Punic War campaign is continuing (report to follow later this week) but, in the background, work towards Operation Zorndorf has not been forgotten. Normally I would wait until the end of the month to do a progress report but, to be honest, I need to encourage myself with an early one - my enthusiasm gave way some time ago, and now it's all just a grind. In the last 23 days I've painted......

 96 Prussian infantry. Battalion Alt-Billerbeck is at the front - the waistcoats and breaches clearly indicating this is a unit of combined grenadiers.

 Combined Grenadier Battalion 8 / 46 Alt-Billerbeck.

Standing Grenadier Battalion IV Lossau.

Standing Grenadier Battalion VI Plotz.

Musketeer Regiment 4. I liked the button lace on the front of the coats of this unit very much.

Four units of cavalry.

Cuirassier Regiment 8 with blue facings and white shabraques.

Cuirassier Regiment 2 in their distinctive yellow coats and red edged cross belts.

I love this uniform!

Finally, Hussar Regiment 5 the Black or Death's Head Hussars. I hadn't planned on ever doing this unit as it always struck me as a very "1980's in a Motorhead T-Shirt" war game unit. But, it fought at Zorndorf so here it is - double strength of course. 

Except for the shabraque, which is very classy looking......

......there is far too much black. In the early stages they were eye achingly awful to paint.

You'll also note that this unit has 14 figures rather than 16 figures. I somehow forgot, when ordering, that Prussian hussar units do not carry flags - and I ordered command packs with cornets! Doh! 

I'll base and do the flags, for those units needing them, in May.

All figures are Wargames Foundry.

Next up, twenty three more Hussars for the Prussians. Sixteen figures for HR2 which was at Zorndorf. Seven figures (to make up a pre-existing unit) for HR7 which wasn't - it will be a stand-in for HR3. That will finish the Prussians.

And now for something completely different-

There was no campaigning this week as Graham H. had more pressing business elsewhere - I know, what's more pressing than war gaming? - so Peter brought some of his stuff over. Last night, in a galaxy far, far away...............

We played X-Wing by Fantasy Flight Games. This was a boxed starter set containing three space craft (2 Tie Fighters and an X-Wing) and all the other bits and pieces needed to play the game. I was especially impressed at the level of thought and quality of everything, such as the models, movement aids, cards and the like. The models are wonderfully detailed for their size and pre-painted to a very good standard. Peter also brought his vinyl play mat (the saucy devil) which set everything off very nicely.

So what of the game? It was excellent! There is a great deal of fun to be had with this game. Everything has been well thought out. It is easy to pick up and it plays with a good pacey move turn around. For a game without hexes it leaves little room for any disputes. Although science fiction gaming isn't usually my bag, I will play this game again, and I might even buy it - as a Birthday present for my son, perhaps (grin) - as a 'quick set up', 'hour to kill', game.

The Battle of Heraclea - Rome strikes back

Paulus marches his army out of camp and offers battle to the Carthaginians (deploys first). Hanno accepts the challenge.

The initial deployments. Rome masses its legions in the centre and details its velites to the flanks in support of its cavalry. Carthage sets its Bruttians in the hills, its African, Spanish infantry and elephants in the centre and a strong cavalry wing on the right (foreground). The Romans begin the battle here, taking the settlement and launching a series of cavalry charges. Honours are about even but the Romans remain in possession.

 The Roman legions advance in the face of the elephants. 

 The elephant attack is poorly timed (Romans battle first) and they cause as much damage to their own side as the enemy. Here an officer rides up and down the line inspiring his men against the beasts - moments later he is flattened under the dead body of one of them (C&C: double helmets!).

Carthage will lose both of its generals in the battle.

 Carthage spreads the attack over to the hill country.....

.....and sends a sneaky attack around the rear of the advancing Romans, cutting their line of retreat (this road exit is worth 2 victory flags to the owner).

 The Romans finally lose the village (2 victory flags). They have to send troops to recapture the village and the road exit.

 The Carthaginians are pulling the battle back but at heavy cost: They consolidate their right wing.

 The Roman counter-attack in the hill country. They beat the Bruttians easily. Rome is gaining ground and the battle begins to swing in favour of the Romans. They capture the Carthaginian hill (worth 1 victory flag) they need three flags to win.

And here, in one card, they are - one for the unit of surrounded, hapless Spaniards; two for the road exit (far distance) recaptured by a unit of triarii.

Following the battle, judged to be long fought (attrition on the 7-9 column) and a normal victory (no adjustment on the retreat table) Paulus takes 1 CU loss. Hanno is wiped out after rolling very badly.