Tall Hedges for Wargaming

In our recent Caesar's Camp campaign, I realised that my terrain collection was deficient in Hedges that blocked line of sight. I have a large collection of hedges which are about 15mm in height but with 20mm figures it is hard to give the impression that soldiers behind these smaller, cultivated hedges cannot be seen. 

In CoC there are 3 types of linear obstacles; minor, medium and major. Minor obstacle are decorative hedges, low fences and garden wall to name a few. These are defined as being waist high, and are easily crossed with 2d6, dropping the lower dice. These obstacles do not block line of sight. Medium obstacles are defined by being chest height and again can be characterised as farm hedges, stone walls and higher fences. They are again crossed with 2d6 but the higher dice is dropped in this case. It would seem that in some cases these medium obstacles can or cannot block line of sight, this is usually defined by the scenario or the campaign, and in the case of sight blocking terrain the figures would have to be within 2" of the obstacle. Finally we have Major obstacles, usually being defined as dense hedgerows or actual bocage. There is some flexibility here, but generally one would suppose that they are taller than the figures and block line of sight unless the figures are immediately adjacent to the obstacle. I would think that bocage is higher than dense hedgerows, but this distinction is unimportant in respect to the CoC mechanics of movement, I have wasted too much time reading notes on how these terrain features should look on the gaming table!

Anyway, for the Caesar's Camp we needed Dense Hedges, which were defined as a major obstacle for movement. I looked around on the internet, and I like how Travis did his hedges on TableTopCP, so I went with that plan as described below in a series of photos. 

The ingredients, reindeer moss of various colours and 3D printed bases

Aleenes Tacky Glue

Push the Reindeer Moss in Place

Like This

Wtered down Modge Lodge 6:1

The messy Bit

It is difficult to dilute the Modge Podge

9 Feet of Hedges, it takes 3-4 days to dry well

Finished Hedges in Play

28 mm Tanks

An early project for our Historical Wargaming Club in Montreal was to paint up 2 platoons of 28 mm figures, this was group effort and was relatively successful. Recently one of our members started playing a new ruleset from Warlord Games, Achtung Panzer. As a contribution to this effort, I decided to print some tanks with my resin printer. I play WWII in 20mm rather than 28mm, so this was a novel project for me. I had a look around but I then realised that I already had some STL's that I could use from the Hürtgen Forest kickstarter. The first 2 tanks I printed, a PzIV and a Hetzer went well. I printed the pre-supported versions and they came out of the printer without problem. I had a lot more problems with the M10 Tank Destroyer, for some reason the pre-supported versions were unsuccessful, so I had to add the supports myself. They looked good but when I was painting them I realised that on one side the wheels on the tracks were malformed. It was not that noticeable so I finished the paint job.

I forgot to take photos until after I had placed them in the cabinet, so the images are somewhat limited. The paint jobs are quite simple, I added some stowage. It was a bit of a challenge to find decals but I did apply some. Overall they are certainly serviceable for gaming. I may try to add more at a later time but on to different projects now.

Ligny!

Last Sunday, on very short notice, Graham, David and myself got together at the Abyss to fight the Battle of Ligny. The scenario came from the Hundred Days sourcebook put out by TFL and David Brown for GdA. I have fought several of the later battles from the book, it is a campaign structure, with 6 battles. I have not be able to fight any of the battles involving the Prussians as it is only recently that we have acquired Prussians troops, but we do have quite a few now. I am not sure why I picked Ligny over Charleroi (might be as Napoleon has not been painted yet!), but I usually do things out of order. We have already played two of the three scenarios from the Battle of Waterloo, we will save Placenoit for last. Probably do Charleroi next and then the big one in my mind.....Quatre Bras. I would like to get the rule changes under our belts before we fight that large battle.

The Battle of Ligny took place 2 days before the Battle of Waterloo, our scenario was focused on the French left flank of the battle with Vandamme leading the French and Zeithen leading the Prussians.

The Battle Setup

Myself and David took the French, eventually having 3 brigades each while Graham had the Prussians with 5 brigades. We took the scenario directly from the campaign book but made all the adjustments as required by the rule changes in GdA2. For victory the French had to capture 3 of the 4 BUA's or alternately victory would be assigned to the side according to the rules in GdA2. 

The table from the French left flank with the 6 brigades on the table to start the game, 3 for each side.

These are the entry points for each of the 11 brigades in the Line of Battle. The Prussians had 3 brigades on the table at the start, they placed none in reserve but had 2 reinforcing brigades come on in the sixth turn. The French only placed 3 brigades on the table at the start of the game, keeping 2 reserve brigades and having one reinforcing brigade again arriving in turn 6. 

The Action

Berthezene advances on the left flank

The Prussian skirmishers and the garrison troops prepare to do battle, for the first 3 turns we quite messed up fire from garrisons, the French suffered unnecessary losses

The Prussian cannon get ready to shred the attacking French

The Prussian centre becomes somewhat nervous

The attack on the right flank of Logarde's brigade

Graham made some nifty tags

Overview at Turn 3, the French have maintained their battle line in their advance towards the 2 villages

With some support by their 2 artillery batteries deployed on high ground.

Turn 4, the French Cavalry have been released, to counter the Prussian Cavalry

The Prussians repel the French from St Armand La Haye, but are less successful with St Armand and Ligny. Berthezene has to withdraw to reorder his troops

Lefel presses his assault on St Armand and Ligny, we have now almost figured out how garrison fire works and how to assault them.

Turn 6, all troops are on the table, the Prussians are advancing Hulsen on their left flank and Steinmetz in the centre. It might be too late. By now St Armand has been captured, Logard is about to assault Ligny.

Turn 7, Logard captures Ligny, and Girard advances on the right to meet Hulsen.

Turn 8, Berthezene has assaulted St Armand La Haye and drive the Prussians out.

We decided to call it as this point, it would be hard to say if the French could have held the 3 villages, as Steinmetz, was rapidly advancing towards both St Armand La Haye where the French were particularly weak, with Corsin's brigade being slow to support. It night have also been difficult to hold Ligny as the game was set at 18 turns. But the game was well played by all.

Final positions

Summary

We played 8 turns, in maybe a little over 6 hours, there was a lot of faffing about at the beginning of the game organising the brigades and getting them on the table. This was also the first game we played with BUA's and we made lot of mistakes that I shall not go into. So a lot of time was spent in the rulebook trying to figure out how garrisons fire, are fired at, and how charges and combat work. Suffice to say, we initially got it all wrong at the start but by the end of the game we had it sorted aside from one small issue with combat in garrisons that I only discovered the next day. I believe for me, the rules are really starting to gel, I think it will still take a bit more time to get skirmisher function completely down. I am really starting to realise that these are a great set of rules, which make a lot of sense when you take the whole package together. I look forward to the next game.

Victory Points

French- Victory for taking 3 BUA's, Points: 4 Demoralisations (3 falters and one dispersed unit)

Prussians- Points: 7 Demoralisations (3 falters, 3 dispersed units, loss of cavalry brigade)

Napoleon's Last Victory was Upheld

Huzzah 2024

I had a nice day Saturday meeting up with some old gaming friends in Portland, Maine. This is the major gaming convention in the northeast of the US and is generally well attended. There were quite a few games but maybe less vendors than usual. I only went up on the Saturday, but got in 2 games.

Devil in San Miguel

This is an offshoot of the Devil in the Wilderness but has a weird west setting with a large Lovecraftian element. The characters in the game are the descendants of the Mather and Burrough's faction from the original game who are involved in a generational conflict between good and evil. Interesting enough though one can also have a K'y-an faction which should be known to any fan of Lovecraft's novella, The Mound.  How cool is that. Our game had 6 players with the Witch-Hunters facing off against the Witches. The game appears to more streamlined than the original and I certainly enjoyed myself. Here are a few photos. The rules are quite simple and I would play again and I hope to put on a game myself.

Force on Force Chad-2008

I played this game in the afternoon, I had never played Force on Force, and as I was quite curious about the ruleset I signed up for this game. It was also my introduction to wargaming in the 21st century, a period characterised by asymmetric conflicts. Here we have an UN Irish peace force trying to get a convoy of aid across southeastern Chad. A rebel faction of insurgents is trying to stop them to capture the aid. This was certainly a very impressive set up. The terrain was just amazing as were all the figures and vehicles. I should note that the games-master won best of session.  I quite enjoyed the game, and the rules were quite good but I believe they might have a bit of a learning curve. I would play again.

A day well spent.