The Battle of Woodenstadt Pt II: Wherein a splintery culmination causes consternation.

“I have fought your Magesty’s enemies, now I leave you in the midst of my own”
                               ~ Marshal Claude Louis Hector de Villars

A solider's eye view of the Forthweg brigade towards the center

 

The Battle Continues:

When we last left off the combined forces of Hypzig and Fosswald were making a general advance upon the invading duchies of Gryphonsburg and their Forthweg allies.  As Bruenhoffs battery of guns tore into the Gryphonsburg line with astonishing accuracy, the famed “whites” charged into the enemy’s grenadiers, and after a bit of a dust up, soundly routed them, but not after also losing over half the battalion.  

Regrouping with the advancing line, the grenadiers continued to support the right flank as it advanced.

Famed Forthweg Regiments advance

Pretty Fortweg units, painted by Stanley Stinnett

On the left flank, hot cavalry on cavalry action found the Gryphonsburg cuirassiers gaining the upper hand, only to be turned and cut down a turn later. This left a gap or General Edmund von FossWald to advance and exploit with his brigade.  At this time the Forthweg brigades that had not moved all battle (six turns of blowing their command rolls!!!) decided the time was right. Without firing a shot (it was later learned they had no powder due to a delivery mix up- but did have prodigious amounts of instant coaco…) they lowered their bayonets and drove right through the Fosswald troops, taking capturing 2 standards and slaying General von FossWald in the process. 

A great shot of the general clamor of battle. Look at all those dice!

The Dead cart continues to fill. I blame this bit on David Imrie
who's games are always filled with awesome vignettes!

Butcher’s Bill

Sadly, the valor of the Frothweggians came too late as the Gryphonsburg center and left collapsed against the fervent attacks of the defenders.  After losing half of his army, the Arch duke of Gryphonsburg capitulated.  At the end of the battle the attackers had lost 7 units including all their cavalry, with two other units under half strength. The defenders had lost 4 units, with two others badly mauled.  Both sides lost 3 officers.

The battle started around 10:00 am and was decided by 2pm.  Medals and honors were presented to those who fought bravely and to one young captain who had captured 3 of the enemy’s standards.

Another view of the Hypzig advance.

Arch Duke Von Gryhonsburg (in blue) surrenders his sword to Baron Fossmeisterhaus

The Rules of the Game

For this battle I used, and heavily abused the Warmaster rules system. For those of you unfamiliar with this eloquent set of rules, designed by Rick Priestly, the basic gist is that command and control play prominently, missile fire soften things up, but melee (in this case the bayonet charge) is the key to winning.  

Unit types and stats

 In order to get the flair of the period, and deal with both the scale of the miniatures and the convention atmosphere (I.E, lots of first time players) I simplified the movement systems, and got rid of measuring tapes in lieu of my marshal’s batons.  I made batons of 30cm length marked out in 10cm increments. 

Example of movement baton. Next game they will be painted.

 for drive backs and falling back from melee, which is probably the fiddliest part of Warmaster, I created a template with a “chart” upon it. Instead of players rolling dice for drive backs and going that particular distance, they would consult the chart and fall back that many model stands/bases . The template was made the same size, so was easy to wield.  For cavalry, they used the longer edge of the template. 

Drive back quick use chart. Note infantry and cav sides

To keep the table tidy, I painted the backs of the templates green, and added a flag.

This worked out better than I had hoped and streamlined the process of the game to a point where, after the first example of its usage, never got asked again during the game! 

One thing I am adjusting for the next battle is a more strict command structure, and getting officers into the fray and danger a lot more. I’ve got the ruled penned, just need to play test them a bit more.

Knowing me, I’ll probably keep fiddling with rules and end up coming out with my own set up, ideally about 4 pages long. Okay, I know I will as I’ve already started jotting down notes.

Next time, a battle report on the other game I ran at Kublacon- the HMS Smeagol captures a shore fort, Wooden Wars style! 

Cheers! Thanks for tuning in and as always, I love your comments. If there is something you’d like to see, or for me to extrapolate upon, lemme know

Until then, I remain your most Obd’t  and devoted toy maker