Tuesday 30 November 2021

Looking back... The Battle of Korbrucke 1755

 Here is a look back to one of my favourite games. It was played and published ten years ago on my Paul's Wargames Blog.

With the feint at Kirkhalle drawing von Bruckenheim away from the Teiner valley. Prince Johan advances rapidly up the valley until meeting resistance at Korbrucke. 

Colonel Fandango of the Altstein Grenadiers is commanding the defending Altsteiners.

The Eisenburg-Essling forces advance.

 Cavalry to the fore.

The guns are still on the west bank unable to cross south of Korbrucke.
 The Altstein cavalry advance to meet the enemy.
Fandango forms up his infantry.
And advances toward Korbrucke.
The Zvezda Grenadiers are keen to get to grips with the enemy.
 The cavalry battle begins!.
 Von Essling advances into Korbrucke.
 As the Altstein Jager cross the Teiner.
 Fandango closes the trap!.
 The Eisenburg guns are deployed.
 What a bottleneck!. The Eisenburgers are unable to move forward.
 Fritz von Essling leads the Ostburg Regiment through Korbrucke.
The Jager advance upon the guns.
 Von Essling advances into the lions mouth!.
 The cavalry fight is furious.
The heads of the columns are knocked off by artillery and musket fire.
 The Blues win the cavalry melees.
Through murderous canister fire the brave Jager Company reach the guns and the crews surrender.
A desperate melee between the Altstein Grenadiers and the Eisenburg-Essling infantry ends in defeat for the whitecoats.
 The Altstein (Meissen Dragoons) take casualties from the Essling Grenadiers.
 A fierce firefight begins : casualties shown by the dice.
The Jager Company having spiked the guns cross the bridge and enter Korbrucke.
The Eisenburg Dragoons are finally routed by the Meissen Dragoons.
 Who rally back behind the line.
The firefight continues.
After casualties are removed there ain't many left!.
Captain Weingartners men now shoot the battalion gun crew.
Colonel Fandango prepares his remaining cavalry for the killing blow.
The Altstein Grenadiers advance.
As Prince John George forms his firing line.
The Jagers are forced to withdraw into cover.
Eight more casualties is more than the Grenadiers can take.
And eighteen casualties on the Eisenburg Musketeers routs them too, they only managed four in response.
Fandango then unleashes his cavalry upon the routed enemy.
The dashing Prince is defeated and his army destroyed. 
What a battle!.

The rebellion is quickly stamped out by the Altsteiners and order restored to the Teiner Valley.

Saturday 20 November 2021

Back to Combat Commander.

 Combat Commander is in my opinion probably the best game I have ever played and I couldn't resist setting it up again.

I used the random scenario generator in the rules and set up a game featuring British Paras defending a town from a company of SS.

I used map 61 and it is upside down on the pictures because playing solo I always play with the Axis cards on the left side of the table and set up their units on the left map edge or the near map edge. The Allies are opposite and this keeps me from getting confused when I change scenarios.

I took a few shots at the end of the game.

The SS had a torrid time getting across the fields in the teeth of heavy machine gun fire. Their high morale and support from 150mm artillery eventually got them into the outskirts of the town where both sides suffered heavy losses in vicious close quarter fighting.

I couldn't make a miniature version of a map like that.

Sgt. Ganz and a couple of squads made it off the map for double VPs but the huge British lead was barely dented.

Although the map artwork is perhaps not to the standard of some modern game maps they are very clear and easy to use. I like them anyway.


There was a spell of manoeuvre and close quarter combat as both sides tried to take and hold the objectives.


As time was running out both sides were very close to their surrender point.


Finally the game ended on turn ten after some exchanges of the Initiative card and although the Red Berets were well ahead on VPs the SS held all five objectives. The Objective chit V was in play (see below) and so the Germans won the game.



Two evenings spent playing an absorbing and exciting game, I love it!.

Friday 19 November 2021

Ancient and Medieval Wargaming

 Ancient and Medieval Wargaming by Neil Thomas is the latest addition to my rules collection and I am very pleased with it.

I have had several good games with these rules over the last few weeks. The rules have nice straightforward mechanics and are very easy to play. I have tweaked them a little for my own take on some aspects of ancient warfare but nothing too drastic.

The book is a good read and the biggest problem for me is that I would like to try all of the armies featured in it. I am even considering using cardboard counters for the Biblical, Dark Age and Medieval units as there is no way to model all of the armies.
All in all I have found Ancient and Medieval Wargaming a very inspiring book.
Happy days!.

Tuesday 26 October 2021

Romans and Seleucids.

 I had myself another game of ancients with the rules in Neil Thomas' Introduction to Wargaming book.

I have made the elephants less effective against infantry (six dice as opposed to eight) and especially light infantry (only four dice instead of eight) so we'll see how it goes.

Here we are getting stuck in...

The Romans beat off the Cataphracts.

The white tunic Velites are taking on the elephant and score two out of it's four hits.


But then they break, oh well, nice try!.


The green shield Romans suddenly break!.

The Romans are beating this phalanx though.

There is some jockeying for position.

The Roman cavalry finally break.

The Triarii see off the Phalangites.


The Companions and Agema crash into the Roman infantry.

The left flank Phalangites are just hanging on.

The Triarii hang on as the Velites arrive to help.

The Seleucid elites are now getting the better of the Roman infantry.

The Green tunic Velites flank the elephant and it flees straight back missing everyone before it dies.

The elite Seleucid cavalry eventually rout the Romans.

The Companions and Agema then flank the Velites but only score a measly two hits!.

The Seleucid archers come down from the hill to threaten the Roman flank. They never hit a thing with their arrows and watched the battle from the sidelines but did their bit just by surviving.

The Velites are not so fortunate this time and are scattered to the four winds.

The Romans are down to two units now and the Seleucids win the battle.

Another very entertaining battle, I have been tweaking other parts of the rules, introducing Peltasts as a troop type and mucking about with the combat dice table. I am looking forward to seeing Neil Thomas' full rules when they arrive.