1st Battalion of Detachments 1809

With plans outlined in previous posts to produce scenarios covering the campaigns of 1809 starting with Corunna I have been putting together the additional units that will feature in those games. Two particularly interesting units were the two battalions of detachments

The following quote is taken from Robert Burnham's excellent article from which a description and history of these units can be read in full by following the link below.

http://www.napoleon-series.org/military/organization/c_detach.html

"In mid-January 1809, the situation of the British Army in the Iberian Peninsula was grim. Moore's army had been forced to evacuate Corunna after a disastrous retreat and to return to England. In Portugal there remained fewer than 14,000 men under General Cradock. French forces were threatening from several directions. For many the only viable option was to evacuate Cradock's troops and to cut the British losses. Yet those orders never came. Instead Cradock began to organise the remaining troops for the defence of Portugal.

Within Portugal there were about 3,000 officers and men from all three arms, whose regiments were evacuated at Corunna. Some of these men were on detached duty when their regiments marched off to fight the French, while others were in hospitals, too sick to undertake the rigours of a winter campaign. Many of them had been with Moore's army, but had either become separated during the horrendous retreat to Corunna or had been captured by the French and escaped. Many had managed to make it to Oporto, where a brigade of British forces still held out. General Cameron, the brigade commander, sent the following message to General Cradock on 16 January:

"I have collected several detachments of recovered men belonging to Sir John Moore's army, whom I found scattered in all directions, without necessaries, and some of them committing every possible excess that could render the name of a British soldier odious to the nation."

On 16 January 1809, the same date that General Cameron wrote his scathing message, the 1st Battalion of Detachments was formed. By early February, the 2nd Battalion had also come into existence. On 6 February, the muster rolls for the first battalion was:

Note: the colours of facings and lacings together with the percentage breakdown of the various units are my addition.

I was keen to capture the irregular nature of this unit and so the battalion you see is quite distinctive from the regular battalions featured so far. Firstly this battalion carries no colours as the colours from the parent battalions had returned home from Corunna. The battalion is constructed around the components as mentioned in Robert Burnham's article and I have attempted to have figures representing proportionally those elements.

So for example the mounted colonel is in the uniform of a field officer of the 3rd (Buffs) Foot representing Lieutenant Colonel William H. Bunbury.I have included the riflemen in the unit as part of the battalion skirmish screen. I  also took the opportunity to use up the spare officer, drummer and sergeant figures I have accumulated by mixing them in with the infantry men of the various units.

Finally to add to the "irregular look", my battalion is made up of components from various manufacturers, namely AB, Warmodelling and Campaign Game Miniatures adding to the appearance I was after.

The battalions of detachments were not entirely successful and with the return of their parent units, at the end of 1809, the men were returned to those reinforcing battalions with the remainder being posted home to join their reforming battalions there.

The first battalion makes an interesting addition to my British Peninsula force and, together with the second battalion that I am working on next, will feature in my Oporto and Talavera scenarios.

Next up Vimiero.

Palouse Wargaming Journal - Celebrates First Year Blogging

If you're interested in reading some great ideas and thoughts about war gaming in general and would like to take part in a book draw with some very nice books on offer then take some time to visit Jonathan Freitag's blog http://palousewargamingjournal.blogspot.co.uk/ and become a member, join in the discussion and take a look at the books on offer that Jonathan is making available as part of his first year landmark.

As you can see from Jonathan's header you can also get inspired to get on with the painting as well.

More thoughts about Battlegroup Overlord - Devon Wargames Group

Yesterday I had a break from Napoleonics and put on a WWII scenario using Battlegroup Overlord. The last two occasions we played these rules we used a scenario from the book "First Battle Honour, Breville" then we played out the Lardies scenario "Assault on Pegasus Bridge" and yesterday I took another Lardies scenario, "Bas de Ranville" for which there is a full game report on the Devon Wargames Group Blog



21st Panzer Division in action yesterday at the Devon Wargames Group meeting

 

Whilst putting together the scenario for this game and playing it yesterday, I think I have finally made my mind up about this set of rules. Back in May of this year I posted my thoughts and impressions of them. At the time I made it clear that I didn't feel qualified to call my thoughts a review as I really hadn't seen enough of them to make any conclusions.


 

I was clear in my mind where these rules fitted in to my thinking about game versus simulation and that this set fell very much on the game side of the spectrum or though less so than other sets like "Flames of War".

 

The "fun" side of the rules are very well catered for in the morale/event chit draw system and I think this is for me is the most attractive aspect of the whole system. That being said I think I have a "love - hate" feeling towards these rules and I can't seem to get past the aspects that irritate me with them.

 

Namely the units and orders of battle as constructed in the books seem to me contrived to fit the rules, and I find myself continually wanting to make changes based on the historical orbats and/or likely effects of combat attrition. These changes are not made easy with the Orbats having attached morale ratings based on the importance to the force as a whole. Up or down grading them affects this overall calculation and is not easy to assess as with a simple points system or no points at all.

 

After yesterdays game I now think that I should have defied the orders of battle in the source book and given the Germans their historical set up of two MG42s per section instead on the one listed. The MG34 is given as the standard weapon for Panzergrenadiers in the Normandy book, where, in most sources I've read, the MG42 was the standard by June 44 and if anything it was the MG34 that was the unusual weapon, particularly amongst Panzergrenadier units.

 

The ammo load outs for AFVs have been mentioned by other commentators and like the number of machine guns in a platoon, I find myself using them out of concern that leaving them out or changing them will alter radically the game balance that the designer intended, I then think that this is a contrivance to give a game rather than a simulation and I want a simulation.

 

My compromise has been to set up the HE/AP numbers myself to at least add a modicum of reality. So for example, in yesterdays game I gave the 105mmSP a load out of 5 rounds of HE, figuring that this gun is a mobile artillery piece so would be carrying that kind of ammunition. However the 75mmSP AT version also carries 5 rounds, which could be either AP or HE. If I were the German commander I would want 5 rounds HE for that scenario, but in reality the vehicle was designed as a tank killer so a mix of 3AP and 2HE seemed more appropriate. All well and good you say, but this number of 5 rounds is a contrivance and bears no reality to the number of rounds carried or the firepower potential of the vehicle. That 75mmSP had only two rounds to fire in the game and I find that a bit silly.

 

You could then argue for the inclusion of an ammunition truck to reload the vehicle as the rules intend, but this is a contrivance too far for me and so I left the ammo waggon out.

 

Finally, the drawing up of the orders of battle are a chore made easier by the Greg Farrell orbat generator, but even here I find myself producing the list of forces for each side, then converting the word document into a PDF so I can take a JPEG into Paint and put in the Gun and Ammo stats together with any tweaks to the units that I just have to make. Then I put these revised orbats into my briefings.

 

This wouldn't be half as bad if Greg Farrell were authorised to allow his brilliant orbat programme to load up the weapon stats as well as the weapon itself instead of the empty boxes that I have to fill out manually. This surely isn't a problem, even the guys at Battlefront allow their stats to be used in their equivalent on line orbat organiser.

 

I have really tried to love the BattleGroup rules and see them for what they are. At the end of the day I guess I am a bit too old school and I want my rule sets to at least fool me into thinking I have a simulation set up and its probably me and not the rules that is the issue. These are small examples I know, but they really wind me up and so I think I am in the camp of happy to play if these are the rules being used, but they will not be my turn to set, and so its back to "I Aint Been Shot Mum" where I can play the period not the rules and hopefully after next month Chain of Command, which I have the rules but haven't played them yet.



Carnage & Glory Firing Template - Warbases

With next weekend arranged to run the Vimiero game I got in touch with the very nice people (Martin Murray and Diane) at Warbases who produced some excellent acrylic templates to measure the angles of fire for formed and skirmish troops in Carnage & Glory.

I ordered up four of these at £2.00 a go and was very pleased when I opened the parcel yesterday. It only took them a couple of days to turn these around.

If you are interested in playing Carnage & Glory then these will be a very handy item to have during the game.

I'm off to the Devon Wargames Group today to run a game using Battlegroup Overlord, 6th Airborne vs 21st Panzer Division. More later with a game report and some further thoughts about the rules and other things.

Battle of Alexandria Scenario - James R Arnold

I love reading and playing historical scenarios. I even enjoy writing and putting them together myself. Part of the fun for me is reading what others have done, comparing that with my own understanding of the events portrayed and then writing up my version emphasising and bringing in the aspects I want to portray. My objective is looking to create a game situation, based on the historical events and situation, that will give a challenge each time it's played and that encourages you to want to give it another go.

I have always been interested in the smaller earlier battles of the British Army in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars that range from India, North Africa, Northern Europe, Italy to South America and the Caribbean. Theses campaigns were very much about the British Army finding its confidence in its abilities and, just as in the French Army of the time, developing its battlefield tactics. In the process of many victories mixed with occasional defeat a tactical doctrine and command system was developed that culminated in the army seen in the later campaigns of the Napoleonic period.

The earlier part of the revolutionary wars, particularly looking at British involvement on the land, is not spoilt for scenarios and therefore it is interesting to look at them when they come along. One such offering is from James R Arnold a name I was familiar with after looking at his range of books covering the campaigns of Napoleon and indeed he has co-written a collection of scenarios covering the campaigns of 1805-07. It's great to have an historian interested in writing scenarios for the war-gamer.
Alexandria Scenario - James R Arnold

So as a first time purchaser of Mr Arnold's products I thought I'd share my impression.

The scenario is laid out in a very logical format over eight pages with an historical/game overview, pre-battle briefings for each C-in-C, table-top dimensions with map of the key terrain features, terrain description and effects, game time/duration of game, special rules, orders of battle, set ups and victory conditions. The information contained is very precise and together with the maps easy to follow with a clear description of why the author has made certain choices about the terrain or troop classifications.

The author states his methodology based on his own preferred wargaming rule set, but the troop morale ratings based on a score for experience and elan are generic enough for a simple conversion to most rule sets others may wish to use. The "Experience" levels range from Militia, Regular, Veteran to Elite and the "Elan" ratings being numerical based on a ten point scale, but usually running from 6(worst) through to 9(best).

The orders of battle strengths are explained in the text as to how they were arrived at and being in numbers of men present, should again allow easy conversion to other rules.

The special rules cover off the peculiar events that affected this particular battle and the suggestions as to how to model them, all of which seemed very reasonable and thought through.

The set ups allow for the French to follow the historical attack just before dawn or to be more conservative and go for a daylight set up with suggested effects from either choice.

The victory conditions allow for French/British decisive/tactical/marginal victory with clear definitions.

The "Additional Scenario" section puts forward ideas for "what if "alternatives to the historical game adding to the re-play potential.

So all in all good stuff and I am pleased with my $2, £1.29 purchase.

My only small criticism would be the omission of a list of the reference sources used in the research.

This was particularly noticeable with a point stating that British Light Companies had yet to master skirmish combat, which justified giving a French advantage in skirmish capability. As there are no references to check this assertion with, I was not convinced. General Abercromby spent time in Turkey training up his forces for this campaign before landing, and British Light Company drills were well established by 1801, with several exponents of the art, commanding in Abercromby's force, General John Moore, who would set up and train the British Light Infantry, General Eyre Coote later of the Rifles. In addition the British force had several foreign corps armed (rifles) and trained especially for light duties. These together with the combined light company men had the potential to acquit themselves more than adequately. I am not aware of any references to the British being unsettled by French skirmishing.

I thought it might also be useful to list other sources available if you are interested in the Egyptian Campaign. There is a useful article from Wargames Illustrated that looks at The British Army under Abercromby.
http://www.wargamesillustrated.net/Default.aspx?tabid=297&art_id=3227

and also the French Army
http://www.wargamesillustrated.net/Default.aspx?tabid=297&art_id=3226

The Osprey title on the subject is getting on a bit now but is full of great information and the excellent artwork of Gerry Embleton
http://www.ospreypublishing.com/store/Napoleons-Egyptian-Campaigns-1798%E2%80%931801_9780850451269

In addition there are the two titles covering French and British forces from Caliver Books. I haven't seen these but do own one of the Peninsular War titles and was very pleased with it.
http://www.caliverbooks.com/Partizan%20Press/1798-1820.shtml

The only thing needed now is a great range of figures in 18mm specific to the theatre. I'd love to do some camels and Mamelukes. If there are any manufacturers toying with the idea let me know please.

Oporto Bell Tower - 100th Post

Continuing the theme of terrain and completing my 100th post, I thought I might share some pictures of my Oporto bell tower.

Way back on the 7th April, I discussed my Spring plans, which focused on three projects; Pulling together the forces for Vimiero, done, getting a scenario together to run a Corunna scenario, probably to run at Xmas, done, and finally buy a model bell tower to add to my terrain for the Crossing of the Douro or the Battle of Oporto.

Well I bought the model, discussed at Salute in April, so whilst building rivers I thought I might as well get it done at the same time.

 

Just as a reminder the picture above illustrates the harbour scene of Oporto at about the same time period of the battle with the bell tower to be clearly seen in the right background. I imagine it would have made an excellent observation post for General Foy when he finally spotted the British crossing the river.

 

The only similar model I could find was this offering from JR models which I picked up from Magister Militum

The version I bought is an all in one creation with the roof attached. My only additions were to attach a 30mm square plastic base to the bottom of the model to give it more stability on the table and with the addition of some brick work plastic card to one of my artillery size bases produce a cobble stone second base to allow it to stand alone from other buildings.

I decided not to glue it to the cobblestone base so that I can put it up close to other buildings.

I am imagining this building with some dismounted French officers, telescopes in hand, with their horses close by, on a hill on the edge of the city, overlooking the British troops being ferried across to the Seminary building

The plasticard cobblestones have given me some other ideas on recreating the waterfront area with the Port Wine warehouses behind, backing on to a hill, with the houses of the city behind.

Game Terrain - Esthetic, Functional, often Neglected?

This week I have been very much focused on finishing off the terrain requirements for the Vimiero game I am planning to run over the next two months. This has primarily involved river building and a few other important terrain markers.

Whilst doing this and some other paint jobs on figures, for friends, I was provoked into thought by a post I saw on TMP by a fellow gamer musing over whether to game Napoleonics in 15mm of 28mm and the pros and cons of doing either or both. As always TMP proved a truism that opinions are like noses, every body's got one, and the good folk of the TMP readership chimed in with their thoughts.

The one thing that, surprisingly, didn't get a mention was terrain. You would think that two different scales require two sets of terrain if you want to put on the odd game yourself.

The marvellous material that is roof felt!

I think the above example illustrates the importance most gamers attach to terrain, and often the games I see depicted reflects this priority in thinking. I am often puzzled and somewhat amazed at the time and effort many gamers go to in producing wonderfully researched and painted figures, prepare the necessary orders of battle for a certain game, and then present that game with an eclectic mix of terrain that fails to do justice to all the work that has gone into the other game components.

Only the other day my eye was drawn to a battle report, with pictures, of a game representing one of Napoleon's early battles with the Austrians in the Alps. I am always interested in this period and was immediately drawn to the link. The order of battle was complimented by some beautiful figures fighting over what looked like a generic rural area of England with Tudor beamed thatched cottages, a building I am pretty sure is quite rare in the French alps!

The last sections of the River Maciera completed Saturday morning.

I realise that if terrain is not something that "floats your boat" then my comments are starting to get irritating and you may be starting to move towards the delete button. However if you are still reading, and are up for the challenge, then let me be even more in your face, by saying, if you are not interested in terrain, then you should be.

Surely the whole point about bringing model figures on to a table to represent a period in history has to be about getting a balance between playability, functionality and esthetic's. My feeling is that very often its the last factor that gets forgotten, to the detriment of our hobby. If you're not bothered about the look of the game and just want to play out a given scenario, then it would be simpler to play a board game, computer game or dare I say, use unpainted (silver surfers) figures, with card terrain and reduce the effort.

The benefit of a mat over styrene is that I can pin terrain down to improve the look and enable my river to conform closely to the valley it flows through. Note the pin left proud to illustrate.

I'm not representing the "fasionistas of war-gaming" who get all picky about a particular colour shade of French Blue or style of Venetian  portico work that appeared on such and such 15th century building. The point is is that it's not difficult putting together a simple collection of terrain items to produce a good looking game and that it is achievable over time with a little bit of research, modelling and planning.

You don't even have to have a purpose built table like the one I have at home. When putting on games at the club, I will grab my trusty "Games Workshop" battle mat, some foam hills to stick under it and the most appropriate scenic items in the  collection and off we go. Most of the games pictured on the Devon Wargames Blog are testament to that point.

To help in the process of putting together a collection of terrain items I made a key decision. I, like many gamers, run my hobby on a limited budget. A budget requires discipline, particularly if you are going to make the most of it, trust me, I'm married to a finance manager! The key decision was to wargame in one scale to allow me to have terrain that would suit all the periods I am interested in. Thus after consideration, I decided that my chosen scale for all my land conflicts would be 15/18mm. I now have collections for AWI, Napoleonics and WWII in those scales and all my terrain basics are interchangeable between those periods. I only have to alter the buildings and create a few time/era specific pieces to put on a game with those collections.

As the saying goes, "Fail to plan, Plan to fail". Too many times, I see gamers who fail to reign in the gadfly in all of us, that falls in love with a particular range of figures, not thinking about any other considerations about terrain and then ending up very rarely using them.

A seamless transition from one section to another in the Maciera valley outside Vimiero town

Remember, the other two words I mentioned were playability and functionality. In Napoleonic games in particular we are constrained by ground and figure scales all of which causes lots of contrivances that enable us to fit a two and a half mile wide battlefield onto a nine foot wide table. However these contrivances can and are accommodated by the rules/scale of figures we use to enable us to game out the battle we do. Thus my version of the River Maciera is to depict what might seem just a small dike/brook, up against the 18mm Napoleonic warriors due to fight over it, but with the ground scale used is in fact an artillery/vehicle stopping waterway requiring bridges to enable access across it.

Also, as a Peninsular War enthusiast, I am all too aware of the importance of knowing where the "military crest" is on any given ridge. For my British commanders playing in a few weeks time those crest lines will be very important in deciding if they are able to repulse the French columns advancing on them.

The crest of the western ridge above Vimiero is indicated as a line running between the two markers. Any unit at 75 paces or more behind that line is not visible to troops in the valley below.

Thus a simple, but effective way of indicating if you are behind, on or in front of said crest is the use of the humble terrain marker made from roof felt and disguised as a bit of upland scrub

simple but very effective

All the terrain I have pictured on my table is relatively inexpensive, particularly when compared with the cost of figures. Some of it is home made, most of it has required some input from myself, in the form of painting it or sticking it together. I don't regard that task as any less important that creating the units of figures that will fight over it. The beauty of functional terrain is that it can be used for other eras, with some thought. Thus this scene could easily be adapted to rural India for Wellington's earlier campaigns, or WWII Italy/Tunisia. With a selection of European or North American buildings it could be transformed into mid/eastern Europe, or North America for a dust up in the A.W.I. or War of 1812. With the addition of snake rail fences the difference between the two would be confirmed.

The crest line on the all important "Vimiero Hill"

Which leads me to my final point. The importance of that piece of terrain that helps confirm where this battle is happening. The good news is that you don't need much to have the effect of saying "this battle is happening here".

My windmill was purchased and constructed with one idea in mind, to help the viewer, who has any idea of what to expect to see of a battle in the Peninsular, get immediate confirmation of what he or she is looking at.

Terrain building just adds another layer of fun and interest to our hobby. We can spend those few moments between planning and realising the units that will complete our orders of battle by studying pictures from the times through to modern views, together with walking the sites themselves, all with the point of identifying those key bits of terrain that need to be modelled to enable our game to tick all three boxes, playability, functionality and esthetic's, the P.F.E. of wargaming.

My Rolica windmill

As always, let me know your thoughts. The clever, constructive and thoughtful ones always get published. If you couldn't care less about terrain or it's very much a lesser consideration for you, then share your thoughts as to why.

Next up, French mounted colonels from Khurasan Miniatures, the bell tower for Oporto and the Vimiero game,(the invites have gone out).