Command & Colours Napoleonics: The Austrian Army

Archduke Charles, considered one of Napoleon's most formidable opponents

Despite what has felt like an interminable wait, the Command & Colours Napoleonics expansions are beginning to arrive at last, the Austrians will be out this year and given that I have not yet done justice to the Russian expansion; it is probably no bad thing that it will be a few months before the Kaiserlicks are knocking at my door.  The Austrians put in Trojan work against the French during the Napoleonic wars and are little credited in English language texts. Though the immortal Peer will always remain foremost in my affections, I found David Rothenberg's "Napoleon's Greatest Adversary" a particularly well written and concise summation of the Austrian contribution. 

I was lucky enough to learn from Tony at GMT games what the block composition will be for the new expansion - so I've started collecting for the new army, though realistically I'll have to get the War Room up and running, play through the Hundred Days, the Spanish and the Russian campaigns first.  I'm nothing if not optimistic. 

Looking at the scenarios below, I was torn between Austrian infantry in helmet and those in shako, but given that assembling a suitable number of helmeted Austrians from the Italieri set would be problematic, I think my 1805 battle will have to be a little anachronistic, at least until HAT releases the appropriate set. 

The expansion will include the following scenarios. 

1805
Wertingen - 8 October 1805
Günzburg - 9 October 1805
Haslach - 11 October 1805
Elchingen - 14 October 1805
Verona - 18 October 1805
Caldiero - 30 October 1805

1809Eckmühl - 21/22 April 1809
Ratisbon - 23 April 1809
Ebelsberg - 3 May 1809
Travis - 17/18 May 1809
Aspern-Essling - 21/22 May 1809
St Michael-Leoben - 25 May 1809
Wagram - 5/6 July 1809
Stockerau - 8 July 1809

1813Dresden - 26/27 August 1813
Leipzig (Liebertwolkwitz) - 14 October 1813
Hanau - 30-31 October 1813

1814
Arcis-sur-Aube - March 20/21 1814

The army makeup for the expansion will be as follows. 

Infantry

 

Line    11 units with 5 blocks each

I'll be using HAT miniatures infantry for these fellows, mainly I as have them already (due to a chance encounter with a bargain bin a couple of years ago). I was surprised to see them rated so strongly. 

Light     2 units with 4 blocks each

Not entirely sure what I will use for these fellows, if memory serves they have a sort of turned up hat. I may have some Hinton Hunts that will do the job, though it remains to be seen whether I'll have enough. 

Grenzer    4 units with 4 blocks each

HAT have a set for these fellows and while I shall struggle to fill the supernumerary ranks, they're not bad. 

Grenadier    5 units with 4 blocks each

Again HAT come to the rescue, their box of Austrian infantry grenadiers is lovely and I can bulk it out a little with some of the Italeri figures. 

Militia    3 units with 4 blocks each

HAT again do a very nice box of marching militia. There isn't a huge amount of choice here, but given that they do the job so well - what matter?

 

Leader - 5 blocks

I have two Austrian general from Italeri's box of Russian and Austrian generals. They are very good and I'm particularly taken with them, however, I think I'll fill out of the last three slots with metal figures. 

 

Cavalry

 

Light Cav    4 units with 4 blocks each

I have absolutely no idea. The HAT chevauxleger are just damnably ugly and I couldn't bring myself to play with them. I suppose this will mean that I shall have to use metal figures, though perhaps the Italeri French hussars could be pressed into service. To be fair, it would be a pretty poor show if the Hungarians didn't make an appearance, given that they are the original hussars. 

Lt Lancer    1 unit with 4 blocks each

I have no idea what to use for these, I didn't even know the Austrians had lancers.  I'll have to check the Osprey on this one. 

Heavy Cav    1 unit with 4 blocks each

Austrian Dragoons look remarkably like cuirassiers, but without the cuirasses. I suspect I'll be going metal for this one. 

Cuirassier Hvy    4 units with 4 blocks each

To be perfectly honest, I don't think HAT did a particularly good job on this set, but I was persuaded when I saw the amazing job my friend TK did on them.  We shall see. 

 

Artillery

 

Foot Arty    3 units with 3 blocks each

It was supposed that Italeri were going to release a set of artillery for the Austrians, but at present only HAT have done so. It's not an inspired set by any means, but it does the job. 

Horse Arty    2 units with 3 blocks each

HAT do a nice set for these fellows, but it doesn't include the crew in action. We'll see. 

So the long and the short for 1/72 players is that HAT do most of the Austrian stuff you require. It may not all be perfect (particularly the cavalry), but for the most part they look well and do the job. 

 

Scouting Patrol

Savage brought snacks

Savage discovered that great English contribution to the culinary galaxy during my stag and has been making his own efforts ever since. Terribly, terribly addictive and massively bad for you. But rather delicious.

EDIT: In response to a curious email, I can confirm that these are home-made pork scratching. CK

This was an unusual scenario - a small three man scouting patrol has been despatched to recce a position ahead of the battle group. Infra-red has shown there to be a number of heat sources ahead, but haven't been able to determine what they are. The job is to get in close enough to work out what's ahead, then get back to base with that information. The patrol leader was given a few minutes to study the terrain, draw a sketch map and brief the other men.  

The lads set out, we used the little cubes to mark posture (prone, wounded, dead, etc). 

The rules were Savage World with a few tweaks for our Cold War London's Calling setting. There was a bit of debate in the group, the patrol leader, Corporal E, emphasised that avoiding contact was vital and there was a stern telling off when it was discovered that Private Gorman had brought a LAW with him, "just in case."

The chaps tip toe through the trees, moving in tactical bounds, with men on overwatch. I was so proud when they started doing that, I wasn't sure they had been paying attention. 

A Russian Motor Rifleman spotted, staying in out of the rain. It may not be absolutely clear from the photographs, but it's night time, it's a bit parky and the rain is really coming down. 

Bloody rain

Private Savage and Corporal E make it clear to Private Gorman that they are not going to shoot him. The Patrol swings wide to give him as wide a berth as possible. One thing that did strike me was the use of Sneaking rolls. We used a sneak roll for every tactical bound, that might have been too many, but I need to think about this more. Longer bounds mean that the player character is more committed to the action, that is he can't creep forward inch by inch, which slows the game down rather badly. Shorter bounds allow the character to be more cautious, but at the expence of making more rolls. I'm in two minds about it. 

The patrol send a scout across the road to check the ground ahead and then the other two cross in a body, while the patrol leader keeps an eye on the Soviet sentry with his SUSAT. 

Leaving Privates Gorman and Savage to cover his retreat to the RV, Corporal E moves forward in the darkness. 

While rooting through Savage's dice we discovered something rather fishy. 

Rather fishy indeed.

Corporal E spots a Soviet T-72 and some crew. He thinks to himself, the Soviet T-72 is a herd animal and rarely travels alone. 

While crawling to get a better view, he spots another Soviet sentry. Does he push his luck and try to get to the other side of the ridge?

He does and finds a (for game reasons, somewhat circumscribed) Soviet Tank laager.  

Corporal E gives the British army standard hand signal for "Oh what a lot of tanks I can see."

"I wonder."

At this point there is an argument between Privates Gorman and Savage. Gorman is of the opinion that he brought the LAW and it would be silly to carry it back. 

"You make a good point" opines Savage. 

"But of course, wouldn't it be better to steal a tank?" 

"I will kill you," interjects Corporal E. 

"But do I know how to drive a Russian tank? Of course, we'd need to operate the gun, so we can shoot the other tanks..." 

"Russian's do it, how hard can it be?" 

"Savage, Russians put the first man in space. You'd be surprised." 

"Well, we'll never do it with that attitude."

"I will kill you."

"You make a fair point."

Having accomplished their mission, the boys scarper back to the CHQ.

This was a bit of a bodge of a scenario as it wasn't the scenario that I wanted to run, the idea was to run a recce patrol followed by a fighting patrol, so that the players could put together a section attack with information that they had got for themselves.  It came off in about forty five minutes.   I think the Sneaking and Notice rules held up, though I think I'll need to articulate them a little more clearly. 

Over the Hills and Far Away

One comment that Corporal E made was that while it worked well as a wargame, roleplayers send to want a  little more incident in their games. I've put together a short series of incidents culled from memoirs and other sources, including the memorable anti-tank mine incident from "The Memoirs of Rifleman Bowlby" and the obligatory nocturnal encounter with a cat. I'll run the same scenario with some gamers who aren't quite so used to me and see how we get on. This is definitely a scenario that needs some cold playtesting. 

The Monday Papers: Part the Fifth

Cat reading Newspaper by Chris Scalf

Thieved from here.

The Men who would be King

Wargaming it should come as no surprise to anyone who reads this blog is my favourite pastime. There is a great deal to recommend it, the extensive preparation, the considerable expense and the rock and roll lifestyle most of all. However, every so often one comes across a group who changes how one views the hobby and in a small way how you view life. Major General Tremorden Rederring's Colonial-Era Wargames page is a wonderful example of that. A collection of battle reports, how to articles and opinion pieces written by a group of friends who've used wargaming as a way of spending time together, keeping in touch and having a wonderful time.  I'm sure other pastimes have their consolations - but if I ever had to sum up the attractions of what I do for fun up in a single webpage, this is the one.

This link is to archive.org and is of a cached version of the site. The Ouargistan Group aren't updating it at the moment for a variety of reasons, but I have it on good authority that it will be migrating to new webhosting shortly and that the band is still together.  To think of the fun they had.


Working Nine to Five

As someone who came to his calling late, I am often fascinated by why certain individuals end up in certain occupations.  There are myriad reasons and they are often wildly divorced from what you might think.  My own father, who was an extremely gifted teacher only became one because of a chance conversation in a pub. The avenue that he took simply isn't open any more, he was offered a job in the pub on Friday and started on Monday. One has to be much more deliberate these days.  But if he hadn't been working in that bar at the time, I could easily have born in a different country and under very different circumstances.

I often meet people that do jobs that I simply wouldn't be capable of, the palliative care nurses in the local children's hospital spring to mind - they are women whose courage and endurance are humbling.

Dan Ariely is an Israeli chap who delivers this brief piece on why people work with his usual charm and rigour. It is well worth watching.


A Little Knowledge

Capability Savage has a line that I've grown very fond of.

"I don't understand it - therefore it must be easy."

This particular idea is usually trotted out when Savage, a Graphic Designer, is told by a would be client that his son/nephew/cousin has Microsoft Office on his computer and that Young Johnny can put the webpage/flier/poster together.  In this age of instant information, we seem to forget that skills are more than a simple collection of information, but the product of knowledge, hard work, experience and ability.

I am often fascinated by specialists and craftsmen. My father inculcated a respect for craft in me at a young age and it has never left. Most skills have certain  rules that are bread and butter to practitioners and a revelation to laymen.  I'm always a little giddy when I learn one; it's no substitute for actual skill, but it does give one a little window into a different world and that is always interesting.

For those of us who try to tell stories with pictures, this snippet of information might be worth knowing when trying to compose or frame photographs.

I'm a basing fool

Cossacks, grenadiers and line infantry. 

Mark's latest parcel arrived the other day and I've been a basing fool since then.  I can't say we've done a huge amount of preparation for this Holland game, but I've been trying to get the Russian infantry up to snuff. I hope to get the rest of the maps done this week. I'll corner Du Gourmand and get a playtest game in. 

That Difficult Second Elephant

The product of some filing and gluing 

There has been precious little time of late to do much.  However, there is something extremely soothing about getting something done in the wargaming line. I find it helps to keep a tray with some work on it and one can potter away at it, without needing to do much in the way of set up. 

This was an Ancient War Elephant, the kind gift of Donogh, which will be indulging in a spot of time travel. He will be carrying the generals of Kaala-Akaata into battle before too long hopefully. I shall have to convert   a mahout, which should be no great problem.  

The generals may prove more of a problem - I can't think of anything suitable at present. Perhaps a conversion of the ESCI Muslim warriors. 

There will definitely need to be a umbrella though. 

The Battle of Naushera

I picked up this up from Robert over at the Wargaming Command Post.  I've had a copy of "The Sword and the Flame" for quite some time, but have never actually sat down and played a game. Tim Tilson's book covers the First and Second Sikh Wars and is a bit of departure from The Sword and the Flame's comfort zone as it takes place in the first half of the Victorian era rather than the more typical second. The units are smaller (eight men as opposed to twenty) and there a couple of special rules (pausing to reload muskets being a notable one), but the bones of the game seem relatively intact.

Now as it happened, I don't have the figures to do the Sikh Wars and probably won't have for quite some time. Formerly this would have been fatal to the prospect of getting any games played - however, I fell in with young Unlikely McKenzie while returning home from evensong and he pointed out that there was a considerable overlap between the Sikh campaigns and the rise and fall of the Princely State of Kaala-Akaata.

I was pondering this with some skepticism when he produced a copy of "With Fire and Sword in India: battles and skirmishes with the Irish Brigade in the states of Chintal and Kaala-Akaata" by Sir. Felbrigg McKenzie. On leafing through this delicate hardback, I discovered that there were considerable similarities. Douglas very kindly loaned me the book (I believe the author is a distant ancestor) and I intend to read it further. In the mean time, I learned of the battle of Naushera which occurred between the forces of the state of Chintal and the Rajah of Kaala-Akaata in 1818.

A somewhat fanciful depiction of the battle of Naushera

Taken from "With Fire and Sword in India: battles and skirmishes with the Irish Brigade in the states of Chintal and Kaala-Akaata" by Sir. Felbrigg McKenzie.  

"The battle of Naushera was a product of an expansionist impulse in the princely state of Kaala-Akaata. There is little doubt that while the Rajah himself was no enthusiast for military adventures, he considered them  preferable to unrest at home.  In the autumn of 1814, Belit Rao, a great favourite of the Rajah's seized the city of Halla from the Rajah on Chintal.  The Chintalese unable to resist the steady European trained infantry of the Kaala-Akaatans and the considerable siege train surrendered. In the intervening years, the city was taxed heavily and in the Autumn of 1818, Rao ordered that the city be illuminated in his honour on the occasion of the Royal wedding. Rao departed the city to attend the festivities taking a considerable number of his infantry with him.  The inhabitants of the city seeing their chance rose in revolt. 

The revolt was led by Azar Khan, a nobleman who had raised a Corps of Ghazi from his Mohammedan co-religionists.  These had been driven beyond endurance by the exactions of the Rajah's tax collectors coupled with the insults of the apostles of the Weasel God, who were to exert such a baleful influence on the history of the state. 

Belit Rao returned at the head of his army to find Azar Khan occupying entrenchments outside the city.  The Rajah of Chintal had made no attempt to relieve the rebels as it was believed that he did not wish to attract the ire of the Kala-Akaatans before he could be sure that uprising would succeed. 

Belit Rao, who was a whiley strategist, had hoped to delay attacking the defences outside the city as his siege train had yet to arrive. However, his army was accompanied by a number of Sredni-Vashtar cultists who began to speak loudly that Rao was secretly in league with the Rajah of Chintal and that this was the cause of the delay.  Rao who had  been warned that he might be murdered in his tent began a precipitate and  sanguinary attack."  

    

The Unlikely Douglas McKenzie moving his troops forward

With the War Room out of commission and with a special dispensation from Mrs Kinch, I set up in the kitchen, extending the table with some small tables that I generally use for painting. The Unlikely Douglas McKenzie took the part of the rapacious Kala-Akaatan's while I commanded the Chintalese.  McKenzie refused his flank and decided to concentrate his forces on my left hoping to punch through the entrenchments on the heights.

McKenzie's cavalry thunders forward

Overall with a little care, we found the rules worked well.  The card activation kept things moving along and the shooting was interesting.  The chances of a hit were quite low, but those hits that occurred could be game changers. Tom Tilson's book uses eight man units, which means that carrying wounded isn't really practical, though we found that the melee, which is particularly bloody, made for some interesting game play choices.  We particularly liked the rolling to charge and rolling to stand mechanic. A game we'll play again I suspect.

I had expected to find using single based figures annoying, but the game moved so quickly that it never really became a factor.

These are poor camera phone snaps as I was too occupied with the game to dig out my camera. McKenzies cavalry have advanced in a hail of fire from the Halla militia, which levelled almost a complete squadron. However, the second line swept over their entrenchments and put the defenders to flight.

The Kala-Akaatan cavalry exacting a fearful toll

(Zvesda Turkish lancers, though we counted them as regular sword armed cavalry)

We discovered that units on the flanks are particularly brittle as they run towards the nearest table edge and this means that they often have no chance to rally. Unfortunately, those cavalrymen swept into the militia unit beside them and in the process unhorsed Azar Khan.  Records are sketchy and it is not believed that he survived the battle.

At this point, McKenzie had pierced my line and his regulars were beginning to get uncomfortably close to my militia. Not only that, but on turn three, two units of Sredni Vashtar cultists jogged forward from his back line (Lord knows where they had been before that, probably pulling the legs off spiders or something) while my Ghazi's were proving elusive.

Good-byeeee!

Rather concerned by the appearance of the red clad cultists, my militia and artillery hammered them causing an unlikely number of hits and sending them scurrying for the rear. Unfortunately there were also rather a lot of regular infantry left...

...and my army failed it's major morale roll which meant it couldn't move.

The Ghazi arrive

With my left flank almost completely smashed, I managed to get my Ghazi on the field. They attempted to close with McKenzie's regulars who were crossing my defences. Sadly, it proved too little too late as McKenzie's regulars dropped their muskets and closed with the tulwar.

The struggle rages back and forth

Unfortunately, McKenzie's regular managed to overcome my Ghazi who were pinned by another failed major morale roll. It was a savage combat that cost him one of his regular infantry paltans (battalion), but left my reinforcements either dead or fleeing for the rear. 

The Kaal Akaatan guns see the threat...

....but too late, my cavalry manage to sweep toward and wipe out the undefended guns. Both batteries were taken one by my cavalry and one by counter-battery fire. 

A close range firefight

With my Ghazi's nearly broken and McKenzie's regulars in my entrenchments, the battle degenerated into a vicious close range firefight that ended when he managed to convince his chaps to charge and finish me. When we counted up the victory points at the end, it was closer than I anticipated - 8-6.  

I enjoyed the game and would definitely play it again - though I wonder what it would be like with fewer, but 

larger units.  We finished up by cleaning the table as Mrs Kinch had made a magnificent Sunday roast which we made short work of.  The rest of the evening was spent in convival chat.  During which McKenzie mentioned that he had recorded another HP Lovecraft story, in this case "The Nameless City". Should you care to listen to it (and you should it's rather good) you can find it here.  

This must be Holland

Is that a windmill? We must be in Holland. 

Du Gourmand and I are working on organising a games day for the 8th of June. We're hoping to get three games in during the day, each of which will be a full blown eight player Command & Colours Napoleonics game,. 

Rigorous research

At present the three games are code-named Not-Quatre-Bras, Not-Ligny and Not-Waterloo. We won't be cleaving too closely to the Hundred Days, just using it as a loose framework to hang our games on. We'll be taking the opportunity to use the new Russian rules, in the absence of the Prussians, so there's been quite a bit of basing at my end - while Du Gourman disports himself and reads popular novels. 

Painting corks - it turns out Kristzian knew what he was talking about

These are some Hinton Hunt Russians that I'm based up for the big game. We haven't worked out exactly how big it will be in terms of units, but it should be reasonably hefty. I normally work on the basis that a battalion commander generally has three companies to worry about and he never really thinks much lower than platoons, so the ideal number of units a player will handle will be about twelve before things get confused or forgotten. 

We're hoping to put three good scenarios together within the limits of the figures we have and the terrain that's available, but the rough outline is a French army advancing into Holland in 1813 in order to smash an Anglo-Russian alliance that is supported by a British amphibious expedition.  

I'm drafting some maps and resisting the urge to fill them bumper to bumper with troops. 

More Russians

Astute readers will be able to spot some Strelets Grenadiers, Hinton Hunt infantry, ESCI Crimean infantry and some Elheim reconaissance troops. I don't think they'll be joining the coalition against the Corsican Ogre somehow.

I'm quite looking forward to this as it's good to be my own man again, now that my exams are over. 

The Reluctant Schoolboy

School Boy by Albert Anker

I'll be dissappearing for a little while as I have an exam next week, that I haven't done half enough work for.

See you all on the other side.

Monday Papers: Part the Fouth

Resurrection Men

 "Resurrection Man" is an obsolete term now, thank God, but it is still one that interests me. I first heard it when my father described the Robert Louis Stephenson story "The Body Snatcher".  My father and I have a particular affinity for Stephenson which coalesced mainly over Treasure Island which was a particular favourite.  We both still maintain that all really great books contain a map.

I recall in my mid twenties, the particularly shocking moment, when Dad having told me that it was time for me to inherit his collection of Stephenson's, brought me down to the library that he kept in the basement and we discovered that it had been burgled.

Boris Karloff as the eponymous Body Snatcher

I have slowly begun to reconstitute that library which has been a wonderful opportunity to re-read those Stephenson's that I had forgotten. Re-reading "The Bodysnatcher" brought a classic horror film to mind. Boris Karloff is often only remembered today for his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster, but I think his performance in this RKO classic is as fine a thing as you could find.  A compelling testament to the power of pure acting ability.

It has occurred to me that being an archaic term, Resurrection Man requires some explanation. In the early 19th century, there was a serious shortfall in the number of cadavers required for medical training and no legal way for medical schools to get their hands on bodies for the teaching of anatomy. As a result, there grew up an illicit trade in body snatching, where grave robbers or "resurrection men" as they were known would steal bodies to supply the medical schools.

Two Irishmen, Burke and Hare, are the most famous examples of the breed - though to be fair they were not representative. Grave robbing was a comparatively minor crime at the time and Burke and Hare decided to cut out the middleman and began to indulge in a spot of murder, sixteen in total, to supply their customers.

Resurrection Man is also the name of a powerful novel by Irish crime writer Eoin McNamee about the Shankhill Butchers, a particularly nasty chapter in our history. McNamee is a fine writer and his prose has a sort of hallucinatory clarity that I always find compelling. He's written several other books of Irish crime and is well worth tracking down.


May the Fourth be with you. 

There's been something of a celebration of Star Wars online over the last few days which is no bad thing.   I rather like Star Wars, at least the first three films. They have a bravura and sense of old fashioned story telling that is completely lacking in the second three.  I think the problem with the second set of films is that they set out to be good Star Wars films rather than good films or even good science fiction films. There comes about where the entire enterprise becomes so self referential as to be completely pointless.

What is definitely lacking is the edge present in the great Space Opera that inspired the films.  The "planetary romance" has a bit of a bad name in science fiction circles, but I think that there is a lot of fine work in that field and none better than that of Catherine Lucille Moore.  CL Moore wrote some of the finest science fiction that I have ever read and some of her best tales concern Northwest Smith, a Sam Spade of the Spaceways, who slouches through a Burroughsian Solar System with a heat ray on his hip.

Probably the best known of her stories is Shambleau, which isn't available online, so you will have to track a hard copy down.  This is high quality story telling in the old style, told with a lightness of touch and eye for human folly that leaves it as sharp and surprising as it was when it was first written.


Tradition

The Phoenix Park Murders

Terry Eagleton is an odd fish, I often disagree with him, but his concision and most of all his humour would make it a sin to deny him a hearing.  I read him recently and came across the following passage, which I rather liked.

"The Kantian imperative to have the courage to think for oneself has involved a contemptuous disregard for the resources of tradition and an infantile view of authority as inherently oppressive."

There's quite a bit to be said for that approach to my mind, but today I observed a tradition that is a little odd. It's not a tradition of my family, but rather of Mrs. Kinch's.  On the the sixth of May 1882, an ancestor of Mrs Kinch's was working in the Vice Regal Lodge in the Phoenix Park, when a group of men known as "The Invincibles" attacked Lord Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Burke, slashing both men to death with surgical blades.   Burke was the intended target of the attack and the attackers were eventually caught and convicted, through the work of Superintendent John Mallon, and several were hung.

Mrs Kinch's ancestor observed the aftermath and helped carry the bodies inside.  Curiously enough, he then returned to the site and cut a small cross into the turf and marked it with a flower that he had taken from the lodge. On the anniversary each year a member of the family returns (I suspect a few have been missed) and places a flower on the spot.

This year, I have been deputised.

Flowers from Mrs. Kinch's Garden

There is official site marked with a small cross of white stones, but family legend places the actual site some distance from there. I sloped up to the Park and paid my respects to Lord Cavendish and Mr. Burke this afternoon.

Basing Cossacks

Precious little Wargaming being done at the moment - but I did get a first coat of paint on the War Room and started basing some Cossacks that that I got from Krisztian some time ago. 

A spot of Napoleonic Russians rather than Cold War chaps - back to normality. 

Interesting Find

I found this in second-hand bookshop yesterday.  I think it will prove useful in my cold war games.