BAR Napoleon Playtest

A Prussian square, artillery at the corners and some skirmishers: all are essential elements of Napoleonic warfare and wargaming. Click the pix to enlarge the view. Elite Miniatures figures.



French voltigeur company deploys into skirmish order in the light woods. Elite Miniatures figures and The Terrain Guy game mats. Please click all pix to enlarge the view.

On Saturday July 18, 2009 we conducted our first official play test of the Napoleonic variant of Bill Protz's Batailles de l'Ancien Regime ("BAR"), which we unofficially call BAR Napoleon. We had four players for the game with 5-6 battalions per side, 2 heavy cavalry regiments and 2 light cavalry regiments per side, plus a battery of 4-5 guns each. Bill and Earl commanded the French while Mike T. and Der Alte Fritz commanded the Prussian side.


The French 51e de Ligne advances in colonne serre formation (column of open companies or grand divisions) with some Baden Jagers screening their front.

Prussian heavy cavalry brigade, lead by General von Blucher, was comprised of 40 dragoons (DR5 Konigen Dragoons) and 36 converged cuirassiers from three different regiments (that I bought at the Historicon Flea Market - Bring & Buy- in 2008). Figures are from Imperialist Enterprises, now sold through Outland Games in Dayton, Ohio.

Mike T.'s Prussian infantry brigade supported by two 6-pound sections of artillery. IR5 von Kliest is the nearest battalion. All figures are from Elite Miniatures.

Since this was only a playtest, and we were seeking to try out various aspects of the rules, the course of the game action and a description of what happened are not really significant, although a few tabletop miracles and humourous events did occur throughout the game. Suffice it to say that the French lined up on one side of the table, while the Prussians did the same and both sides advanced to the center of the table to secure the first bragging rights of the 1806 Campaign.

The game table was bifurcated (how is that for a big word?) by a large wooded area in the center of the table. From the Prussian point of view, the light cavalry battle occurred to the right of the woods; the main infantry battle took place to the left of the woods, in the very center of the table; and a large cavalry fight took place on the wide open left hand side of the table, fought between the French dragoons and cuirassiers against an equal number of like troops for the Prussians.

The light cavalry battle to the right of the central woods. Three squadrons of Prussian hussars, supported by two 6-pound horse artillery guns with crew, take on the French light cavalry (5 sqds) and a battalion of infantry. Two more squadrons of Prussian hussars and a battalion of grenadiers are just out of the picture. The picture is a little blurry because I did not use my tripod for this shot, as I usually do. Pictures without tripods are a waste of time.

A closer view of the French 12e Chasseurs a Cheval (2 squadrons of 12) from Elite Miniatures. Note the light cavalry brigade commander to the left on the round base. Brigade commanders are always mounted on round bases, while regimental colonels and ADCs are mounted on rectangular bases.

The columns of French infantry and their supporting artillery were moving forward in the center, so I decided to go at them at full tilt and hope that my one battalion of musketeers could crash into the whole lot before they could shake out into a battle line. I move up to point blank range and then hoped to get the first movement card.

Sometimes bold moves pay off. This time it appears that they would not. The French got the first first movement card, enabling them to deploy their artillery, and they also got the first firing card, giving them the first fire into my battalion of IR19 musketeers. Here is what was left of IR19 after taking a "double shot" of cannister from 4 French guns. I was not a big fan of the new "double shot" rule, to say the least.

IR19 survived the French cannister and charged home and put all of the French artillerists to the bayonet. Huzzah! Now you see IR19 von Winning (appropriate name as it turned out) advancing to support IR19's success. The French 51e de Ligne counterattack in column formation.

IR23 von Winning regiment gets attacked from the front by the 51e de Ligne and on the flank by the 24e de Legere. Miraculously, von Winning drove off both attacks, not once, but twice during the course of the game. Poor die rolling by your opponent can often bail one out of a tight spot, so it would seem.

The French 24e Legere regroups and comes back a third time, this time with success as IR23 von Winning found a battalion of the 12e de Ligne (top of the picture) advancing through their rear and they fall back.

The Cavalry Battle


Bill (left)advances the 20e Regt. de Dragoons forward to protect the right flank of Earl's (right) infantry. The Baden Jagers (Pontoonier Miniatures) provide a skirmish screen against some Prussian scheutzen doing the same.


This is what Bill saw in front of his dragoons and jager screen: Prussian infantry supported by Prussian dragoons and cuirassiers.


Cavalry commander von Blucher rolled a Poor charisma rating prior to the great cavalry melee, so the Prussian players let Blucher wander off on his own since he would add a -1 to the morale of any unit that he might be attached to. This was done via a D6 die roll, with 1 being the worst and 6 being the best (+2 to morale).



IR5 von Kliest got slaughtered by two squadrons of French dragoons because the infantry was in line formation. So this part of the rules appeared to work just fine. As a result, the other two Prussian infantry battalions commanded by Mike T. went into square for the rest of the game. The Prussian squares await the outcome of the cavalry melee (top of the picture) between the French and Prussian dragoons. Prussian cuirassiers squadrons are seen within supporting distance of the melee, which the Prussians won.


Another view of the dragoon melee and the Prussian squares, who watch some French cuirassiers, off camera to the right, advancing forward.


More of the dragoon melee. Blucher can be seen in the background while his French cavalry commander counterpart is seen in the thick of the melee at the bottom of the picture.


Three squadrons of French cuirassiers now move into melee position. Elite Miniatures cuirassiers.


French cuirassiers (left) close upon the Prussian dragoons (right).

A Few More Random Pictures


This looks bad for the Prussian grenadiers, n'est-ce pas? Mais non, les hussards recule! Earl's hussars were roaming around the Prussian rear table and found a juicy flank to charge into. The trouble was, the hussars were still disordered or unformed from a previous melee and so the Prussian grenadiers were actually able to win the melee and drive off the hussars. I will take hot dice and luck any day over sound tactics. Hee, hee, hee.


Bill's two battalions of Dixon 25mm French infantry fit in well with the other figures. They are smaller than the Elite Miniatures, but as you can see from the various pictures, one doesn't notice the size difference when fielding 72 figure units.


Some of the older Dave Alsop sculpted Old Glory limited edition French, painted as legere unit, seen operating in a colonne serre formation.


French voltigeurs stream over the crest of the ridge in advance of the first battalion of the 12e de Ligne regiment. Some old Elite French chasseurs can be seen on the right. They have just finished mopping up the Prussian light cavalry on the far right of the table.
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The playtest seemed to work fairly well. The infantry versus cavalry melee worked the way that I had hoped, but I would like to see an even more decisive result in favor of the cavalry as long as the infantry remains in line formation. I want the players to have lots and lots of incentive to form square in the presence of enemy cavalry.

The skirmisher firing rules worked nicely. One simply throws a D6 for each skirmisher and hits on a score of 4-6 (short range), 5-6 (medium range) and 6 (long range). The opponent rolls saving throws as usual in these rules. With respect to skirmishers screening infantry and receiving fire, we decided that the firing unit can fire at the screened target (line or square) and simply allocates the hits to as many skirmishers cover the front of the unit, with the remaining hits allocated to the line or square unit. The skirmishers are easier to save via saving throws, the regular infantry fall easier.

I didn't like the double shot cannon firing. If you chose to double shot your guns, you doubled the number of hits. Maybe this might work for cannister, but not for round shot.

We also decided that infantry in column needs more of a melee modifier so we upped this from a plus one to a plus three during the course of the game.

So for a first effort, I thought that the rules gave us a nice game that captured the essential elements of Napoleonic warfare. I am encouraged by the start and look forward to the next playtest somewhere down the road.

BAR Napoleon Update

Prussian DR5 Dragoons, circa 1806.

Last weekend Bill P. visited Schloss Seewald so that we could run our first play test of the BAR variant rules for Napoleonic warfare at a 1 to 10 ratio. Bill had all of the quick reference play sheets printed and ready to go while I supplied the troops and the terrain. Sorry, but no pictures were taken of the play test so you will have to wait until our first official BAR Napoleon game next saturday July 18th.

Bill played the French (of course) and Der Alte Fritz commanded the Prussians (ditto) and we set out a few units (3 French battalions, 4 artillery pieces, clouds of skirmishers and a 100 or so cavalry) for the French and a similar number for the Prussians (4 battalions, 2 foot artillery, 2 horse artillery, 36 dragoons and 36 cuirassiers). It was set up as an informal meeting engagement with both sides vying for control of a small town.

The outcome didn't matter much as we were more interested in seeing how certain aspects of the rules worked out. The infantry and artillery were no problem as these elements functioned pretty much as they did during the SYW. So no changes were needed there. We did tweak the skirmish rules a bit. Instead of consulting the firing tables, one now merely rolls a D6 for each skirmisher figure and hits with a roll of 4, 5 or 6 depending on the range to the target. This adds more dice rolling and creates some fun situations. Sometimes your skirmishers will hit everything they shoot at, while at other times, they couldn't hit the proverbial broad side of a barn with there target practice.

The cavalry vs cavalry melees went off without a hitch too. Since Napoleonic cavalry fought in two ranks, instead of three, we limited melees to two ranks deep. This worked ok with the cavalry, but when they faced off against the infantry, we decided that having three ranks of infantry fighting against only two ranks of cavalry was unfair, unrealistic, and resulted in a huge advantage for the infantry.

I want the players to have incentives to use Napoleonic tactics, so I think that we need to severely modify the cavalry versus melee rules so that the horsies have a big advantage once they close with the infantry. For starters, I plan to add a +5 melee bonus to cavalry vs infantry not in line, and then see what happens. There will be a few other changes as well, but I want the infantry commander to feel the need to form a square in the presence of enemy cavalry. And right now, there is no need to do so without more modifications. We shall see how things turn out on Saturday.

I have been working on more Elite Miniatures French chasseurs a cheval this week, building the 12e Chasseurs from 12 to 24 figures. This was a welcome change after spending the past two weeks tediously painting French line infantry.

That's the update for now, more later in the week.

Restoring Order To The Universe

Suren British Guards and Royal Artillery: "we're back!"

This is a reminder that the 18th Century and the Seven Years War in particular are my primary interest when it comes to wargaming and historical research. I think that the recent pictures of that remote and unpopular period known as WW2 created a disturbance in The Force, one that I must fix ASAP. Accordingly, I am posting a picture of my Suren British Guards battalion for all to view. A healthy dose of tricorn pictures should restore balance to The Force.

On August 1, 2009 we are going to recreate the Battle of Minden in order to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the sound whuppin' that His Britannic Majesty's Army in Western Germany (and allies from Hanover, Hesse Kassel and Brunswick) administered to the French army. So after our BAR Napoleonic play test on July 18th, my plan is to switch back to tricorns and finish my battalion of British Guards. I have 27 completed and will need to top them up to around 60 to 72 figures.

And yes, I know that the Guards were not at Minden, but because Monsieur Chevert does not want to trot all of his fine cavalry up to the muzzles of the British brigade and get shot out of the saddle (the cowards), he intends to alter the scenario somewhat. That being the case, says I, why not allow the British Guards to appear at Minden? Why not indeed? And so it goes.

After the Minden game, my next unit in the painting que is three to five squadrons of Minden Miniatures SYW Austrian Cuirassiers. That won't make Frederick very happy, since he has to face them, but I want to have this unit ready for our annual Old School Big Battalion wargame in October and I absolutely love painting Minden figures.

Afrika Korps: 1941-42

DAK battery of 88s, painted by Alex Akers. Click all pix to enlarge.

The Western Desert of North Afrika, circa January 1942, has attracted my attention of late and I have apparently caught the Flames of War bug. This will hopefully be nothing more than a passing fancy as I only intend to have a small division of Deutsche Afrika Korps troops for the FoW game system. My regular gaming group in Milwaukee plays FoW three or four times a year and Bill's accounts of zooming across the sands in his little British tanks sounded interesting. With that in mind, I bought a panzergrenadier box o' figures, some 88s, a few tanks, mortars and machine gun platoons, and some paints and...

I decided that I didn't know a thing about WW2 nor did I have a particular desire to paint any of this stuff. So I did what any self respecting wargamer would do. I sent the whole lot off to a professional painter. It wasn't just any old painter, it was was my nephew Alex (aka "the Heir Apparent" according to Herb Gundt).

A platoon of panzergrenadiers with their supporting vehicles. Painted by Alex Akers.

I thought that the lad did a very nice job of painting the vehicles and the 15mm figures. He also based everything for me. The smaller 15mm figures are a bit harder to photograph and so my pictures probably don't pay justice to Alex's painting skills. He does a lot of Games Workshop figures and enters them into competitions, garnering some awards here and there. I also sent him a few sample 28mm Napoleonics for him to play around with so I can see how he does. I intend to let him help me build up my 1806 Napoleonic collection.

Alex is interested in garnering a few painting commissions, so if you are interested in having some work done, contact him at: alexanderakers@yahoo.com for more information. Alex accepts PayPal to make things easier for you.

So eventually I will have three platoons of panzergrenadiers, one heavy machine gun platoon, one heavy mortar platoon, an anti-tank platoon, the wonderful 88s, and probably a platoon of Panzer III-J tanks. I plan to let the rest of the group supply all of the other allies as well as the British and American opposition.


A closer view of the 88s and their support vehicles, by Alex Akers.

June Painting Results

Two French battalions in square, supported by two sections of foot artillery, circa 1806. Elite Miniatures figures and Essex ammo wagon. Click the pix to enlarge.

I painted an ungodly number of figures this month: 150 infantry and 51 mounted figures for an Olley Painting Points total of 252 points, or nearly twice as many as I did in May when I logged a seemingly paltry 133 points. I admittedly went way overboard and do not expect to come anywhere near this total every again. I had several advantages, including two weeks of vacation time in June plus a lot of motivation to get some units completed in time for our first BAR Napoleon play test game on July 18th. Still, this is a rediculous number of figures to paint in any month and I thank my family for being understanding during this bout of insanity.


A view of my terraining operations at the end of a session this evening. French Leger infantry from Old Glory (Alsop) in the foreground and Elite 1806 Prussians in firing line in the background. You can also see some command figures that I prepared for priming and a battalion of SYW Minden Austrians.

So here is a brief run down of what I painted in June:

1806 Prussians
IR23 von Winning (42 figures)
IR5 von Kliest (60 figures)
Prussian scheutzen (10 figures)
Horse artillery crew (12 figures) - the new Foundry figures
Prussian mounted officer (1 figure)
DR5 Konigen Dragoons (36 figures)

1806 French
12e Chasseurs a Cheval (12 figures)
Brigadier General (1 mounted figure)
ADC (1 mounted figure)
French Line Infantry (12 figures)
French Grenadier (1 figure)

19th Century Colonials
Seaforth Highlanders (12 figures)

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The 1806 Project is coming along nicely. At the end of June I had six battalions of infantry, four 6-pounders (2 foot and 2 horse artillery) and crew, 36 dragoons, 36 cuirassiers, and I'm borrowing 36 Black Hussars from my SYW army.

The French have 3 battalions of infantry (plus Bill's 2 btns), 40 dragoons, 32 cuirassiers, 12 chasseurs and four 8-pounders with crew.


Aerial view of the growing collection of 1806 French and Prussians in Der Alte Fritz's collection.

During July, I hope to complete one more 72 figure French line infantry battalion and another 12-figure squadron of chasseurs.

North West Frontier

Colonel Smythe's reconnaissance in force crosses Selmond River. Seaforth Highlanders advance in square as they await their turn to ford the river. 9th Bengal Lancers preceed them.

Major General Pettygree summoned Colonel Smythe to his office and informed him that rumors of Tug unrest in the Selmond Valley required some investigation. To that end, he ordered Colonel Smythe to lead a recon in force to cross the Selmond and establish a base camp atop of Hill 610 and to report back with his progress as soon as practicable. Smythe selected the following units to comprise his expedition:

1st Sikh Battalion - 7 coys (72 figures)
1/9th Bengal Lancers - 3 sqds (36 figures)
1st Mountain Battery - 4 sections

The Royal Berkshires - 9 coys (108 figures)
The Seaforth Highlanders - 5 coys (62 figures)

The Sikh infantry and cavalry were rated as Veterans, the Mountain Battery was Elite, and the two British regiments, both newly arrived at Fort Grant, were rated as Trained.

Colonel Smythe was advised that enemy forces could arrive from any direction (front, rear or flanks). Accordingly, he formed his infantry into moving squares as it entered Tug territory, preceeded by the advance guard of Sikh foot and horse.


The 1st Sikh Battalion forms a protective bridgehead on the far bank of the Selmond River crossing. The 1/9th Bengal Lancers are seen fording the river.


The Royal Berkshires (foreground) and the Seaforth Highlanders await their turn to ford the river. Infantry figures from Connoisseur Miniatures, sculpted by Peter Gilder.


Negotiating one's way through a defile is always dangerous business. The 1st Sikhs clear the woods on both sides while the Seaforth Highlanders send a company ahead in open order to screen the passage of the Mountain Battery. Two squadrons of Bengal Lancers protect the rear of the party.


A band of Hostiles await the passage of the Advance Guard through the defile.


The column emerges from the defile with 1st Sikhs operating out front in open order. To their left, a company of Highlanders screens the deployment of the Mountain Battery atop a well-sited knoll. The rest of the Seaforth Highlanders are marching through the defile, ready to deploy on the plain to the left of the Sikhs.


The Seaforth Highlanders deploy into line just in time to receive a charge from the Black Guard of Surat Khan (who had been occupying Hill 610). The Highlanders barely have time to let loose a rapid fire volley before the Tugs are upon them. Colonel Smythe can be seen on the knoll at the right next to the Mountain Battery.

Colonel Archibald Sinclair of the Seaforth Highlanders had only arrived in The Raj a few short weeks ago. Five companies had been sent to increase the garrison at Fort Grant, while the remaining four companies were en route from the Homeland. Colonel Sinclair had welcomed the opportunity for his men to gain some experience on this mission, but he wasn't certain how well the lads would perform in their first battle. He was about to find out as the personal Black Body Guard of the sadistic Surat Khan swarmed over the crest of Hill 610 and continued to run down hill towards the defile. The Mountain Battery scored a few hits among the Tugs, but they moved so fast that they could only fire off a single volley. The Highlanders delivered a point blank volley into the screaming Tugs as they hurdled down the hill and into the thin khaki & tartan line of Highlanders.


The Seaforth' s get initiated to the fighting ways of the fierce Tugs in a desparate hand to hand melee. The Highlanders get pushed back a short ways after the initial onslaught, but they hold a firm line and continue the fight. Company E is seen on the left hand side of the picture. It would eventually charge into the flank and rear of the Tug attack and send them home.


Colonel Sinclair (on horseback), with Piper McLean at his side, directs his reserve of Company E into the fray.

Colonel Sinclair was getting a little bit nervous as the lads retired 50 paces and presented their bayonets to the furious foes. He ordered Piper McLean to play a lively tune, "Black Bear", to get the blood of the Highlanders up for the next round of melee. He also ordered his one reserve, Company E, to work its way around the flank and rear of the Tugs and give them a fire and bayonet charge combination.


The Black Guard gives it one last push, but they can not budge the steady Seaforths. The left flank of the Tug unit is shattered by Company E's addition to the fight and the whole band is seized with a panic and retreats back to Hill 610.

The Black Guard can not resist the weight of British numbers, now reinforced by Company E, and they rout away from the fight. The Highlanders hold their ground, rather than pursue, and raise a loud "Huzzah" as the enemy retreats.

Colonel Sinclair looks through his field glasses and sees ever larger hoards of Tugs assembling on the horizon. It looks like Imperials won't be camping atop Hill 610 this evening. Colonel Smythe has seen the same thing and is already in the process of ordering the 1st Sikhs and the Mountain Battery to retire back to the Selmond ford. Lieutenant Vickers rides up to Sinclair and hands a paper of new orders to him from Colonel Smythe. The Seaforths are to fall back into the defile and cover the retreat of the army as it attempts to reach the near side of the river bank. Unbeknownst to Sinclair, Tug cavalry has broken through behind them and will eventually wipe out the Mountain Battery as heads unprotected towards the fords. The 1st Sikhs finally have enough of the fight and run away, leaving the Seaforths to fend for themselves. Nevertheless, the Highlanders maintain their cool, retiring by companies and turning around to fire volleys at the pursuing Tugs (who don't care to get too close).

As the sun begins to creep below the horizon, the last of the Highlanders make their way across the Selmond ford to safety. Their first battle, while a tactical loss, proved their meddle and their coolness under fire. Major General Pettygree would certainly be pleased with the performance of his new regiment.

Rules

We used a new variant of Bill Protz's BAR rules for this colonial game, so most of the players were already familiar with the basic mechanics of movement, firing and melee. So there was not much in the way of a learning curve for us. I commanded my own Seaforth Highlanders ( I painted up a fifth company of 12 figures the day before, thank goodness) and the Mountain Battery. I found the artillery to be relatively useless and relied on rifle fire to do the dirty work for me. I thought that the melee with the Tugs worked fairly well, although I came within one pip on the dice of routing after receiving the most casualties (11 Highlanders vs 9 Tugs) during the first round of melee. I won the second round and drove off the Tugs. Then it was time to high-tail it back to the ford. This was the first play test of the BAR variant rules for 19th Century Colonials, so there were a few things to tweak and adjust, but on the whole, I found the rules to be very enjoyable to play and look forward to giving it a go again.

I'm sure that there will be more news of the battle on Major General Pettygree's blog within the next several days.

1806 Prussian Update

Der Alte Fritz's 1806 Prussian army, so far (click the pix to enlarge).

I haven't posted anything since last Sunday for a couple of reasons. First of all, Teddy Bear Wars always seem to generate more traffic and comments than any other topic, so I wanted to keep the adorable bears at the top of the page for the week. I appreciate all of the comments that people have left over the past week. I really enjoy reading what you have to say.

Secondly, Lady Emma was scheduled to have some surgery this week. We were at the pre-op room waiting for the final visit from the surgeon and ready to go, but the surgeon determined that Lady Emma had an infection and so the surgery was too risky until the condition cleared up. That was on Wednesday of this week and we are all kind of in state of mental exhaustion over the "will we or will we not have the surgery" question. It looks like now it will be postponed to later in the summer.

Thirdly, I have been busy painting 1806 Prussians during the month of June and I didn't want to post anything until I had a few of the units completed and based. You can see some of the results in the pictures, above and below. This week alone, I finished a third 12-figure squadron of the Koningen Dragoons (DR5) and 45 more musketeers for IR23 von Winning. This evening, I finished 10 scheutzen (rifle armed skirmishers) and primed some more figures to paint next week.

Same brigade, but a view from the left side. Click pix to enlarge.

The pictures above depict four battalions of infantry [IR19 Prinz von Oranien, IR13 von Arnim, IR23 von Winning, and the Knebel Grenadier battalion (19/25)], two 6-pound foot artillery sections, three squadrons of DR5 Koningen Dragoons, and a host of mounted officers. There is a fifth battalion completed, but not yet based (IR24 von Zenge) and a sixth battalion (IR5 von Kleist) that has 30 of the 60 figures completed. The latter two units are not shown in the pictures. I also have 36 converged cuirassiers (3 by 12) that I picked up at Historicon last year. The two cavalry regiments are from Imperialist Miniatures while all of the infantry and artillery is from Elite Miniatures.

My goal was to have six Prussian battalions and two 36-figure cavalry regiments done in time for our first Napoleonic game on July 18th of this year. So with a week and a half to go in the month of June, it looks like I will hit my target for the Prussians for this month. If I have any spare time before the big game, then I will add a unit of French chasseurs a cheval. I plan to use my SYW Black Hussars in the Napoleonic game since some of the Prussian hussars still wore the mirliton in 1806 (although the Black Hussars were switching over to the shako).

I also have two batteries of Foundry 1806 Prussian horse artillery (I'm using Elite's gun models though) and a company of Foundry Jagers on the painting table. So the Napoleonic Project looks like it is on schedule and will be operational (the Death Star is operational) in time for the first play test.