Tuesday, June 22, 2010

The Mighty Hoffhandel River

My recent Shako game at the Hangar on June 19 was a great time.

On the Italian/French side we had Generalissimo Callahan leading four divisions of Italians, with Marshal Dietrich coming on later with two divisions of French.

On the Prussian/British side we had Fieldmarshal Von Kidd commanding four divisions of Prussians, with Major-General Terry arriving with two divisions of British troops.

The game was interesting, with the two main forces taking different tactical approaches. The Italians were more hesitant than the Prussians, choosing mainly to hold onto the villages on their side of the river, while their divisions on the Italian left took up a defensive position to await the arrival of the British.

On the Prussian side, there was a very aggressive advance, on the Prussian left leading with two advance battalions of Guard Infantry, and in the center with charging columns of troops assaulting across the central bridge, led by Fusiliers but followed up by Regular Infantry and Reservist Battalions.

The British divisions arrived, and proceeded to take the upper hand (pretty quickly) against the Italians. At one point, an Italian battalion trying to withdraw to a defensible position between a forest and the river's edge, was ridden down by a unit of Royal Scots Greys.

Other action saw a battalion of French Grenadiers assaulting the village of Turnip, which was held at the time by some Prussian Reservist infantry. After a nasty firefight, the Grenadiers proceeded to oust the Prussian infantry, and the French held the town.

In the end it was a slight victory to the Italian/French side (13 VP to 10 VP), but might very well have changed if additional turns were played. The scenario was quite enjoyable, and deserves to be played again.

Some pictures are online at my Flickr site.

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Friday, June 18, 2010

Crossing the Hoffhandel - ODMS game June 19

This is a fictional Napoleonic scenario, set in 1813. An Italian Corps encounters a Prussian Corps, during the fight to relieve Germany. The two forces meet, north to south, in a river valley, fighting over the network of roads and towns surrounding a few bridges of military value (sturdy, stone bridges). The game will be played June 19, at the Hangar.

Both sides have allies, not in the immediate area at the start of the battle, but 2 divisions of French are arriving from the East, and 2 divisions of British are arriving from the West.

The decisions of the French and British commanders at the start of the game determine their starting positions and turn of arrival, but these data are not known by the other players at the start of the game.

Here is the terrain at start of game:

And here is the initial deployment:


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Saturday, June 12, 2010

Aventine Miniatures - Ancients in 28mm

There is some pretty nice wargamer porno over at Aventine Miniatures. These guys have lots of photos of their range of 28mm ancients - both in the gallery, the customer photo section, and the catalog.

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Friday, June 4, 2010

Knoetel's Uniformenkunde


There is a website presenting series after series of Knoetel uniform prints. It has a wonderful series of uniforms from a variety of periods (concentrating heavily on 18th century and Napoleonic era) for Saxon, Prussian, Austrian, Neapolitan and other. Very nice reference.


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Tuesday, June 1, 2010

A gaming weekend at Staff HQ

This past weekend (Memorial Day weekend) we had quite a few boardgames going on at "Gaming with Chuck" staff headquarters.

Starting out Friday with a game of Small World, for just the immediate staff members (me, Anita and Heidi). Very fun, very light, fantasy wargame. Everyone at HQ seems to enjoy this one.

On Saturday we had some lovely folks visit from out of town. We broke into two groups (the boys and the girls). The benefits were - (1) two game tables, so neither was overcrowded, (2) different game tastes. But I usually like playing with the girls, so next time we might split up different.

The boys played two games - Stone Age and Hansa, and then talked a bit (quite a bit) about wargames - old (Avalon Hill and SPI) vs. new (Columbia Games and Richard Borg). This involved taking a look at the old classic Napoleon, and the more recent "classic" Memoir 44.

The girls on the other hand, played three games and spoke of other things. They played Ticket to Ride, Unspeakable Words, and Apples to Apples. The event also included catered sandwiches and chicken, as well as lots of fruit and cheese. Since the youngest staff member at HQ was celebrating her 11 year old birthday, there was also Cake.

All in all, a great weekend, and some good times playing games with friends.

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