Back to the Congo

We tried CONGO by Studio Tomahawk last Tues. We all love this innovative system ... but had not played it in months. I decided to try scenario 7 - whose name I don't recall. 

It was Forest Tribes up against a Explorer expedition. The explorers needed to smash the fetishes set up by the witchdoctor. These radiated power having random effects. With only a few turns it was going to be tricky for the explorers. 

Above bundukis trade long range fire with askari. 

In the jungle, spear armed tribesmen wait to charge the explorers. 

Just a little closer ... 

Deadly and violent apes lurked in the depths of the forest. 

Several units of superstitious ruga ruga felt the power of the witchdoctor and their nerve quailed. 

Elsewhere, askari shook off their terror effects and their volleys thinned the tribesman line.

The explorers close on one fetish. 

A savage fight broke out over another ... close range musket shots and brutal hand to hand erupted. 

The forest tribes continued to wage their psychological campaign which amassed stress tokens on the explorers. This limited what they could achieve. 

Turns were slipping by and fetishes still pulsated with sinister forest ju-ju ... 

One fetish was taken!

The tribesmen were losing many warriors in the centre around their hideous statue to their fecund goddess. 

Tribesmen charged. Combat victories adding victory points to the forest tribe total. 

Finally, the turns expired and with the combat wins and - more importantly - the high amount of panic tokens (see the red hand marker below) drawn/inflicted on the explorers ... the Forest people had too many victory points. They had defended their fetishes and the witch doctors magic still radiated throughout the land. More people would fall under his vile influence. 

 

Lasalle 2 Wargame

This week Lasalle 2 was back on the menu again. Our little group had four players who are enjoying the rules now - and they've mostly read them too! 

It was Ian commanding my Prussians against Nick and I with my French. We were playing Scenario 2 and both armies would be struggling for the town of El Zurdo. The French had 240 points against the 300 of the Prussians. This time there was no sudden death victories, it would be a full 8 times to hold out for the defender. 

The first two images show the two Prussian brigades advancing across the field of battle. We still can't figure out if the defender's units can start in line or column so we just put them in line of march like everything else. The Prussians won the initiative roll - this would set a trend of absolutely RED hot dice rolling from Ian all evening. (He is famed for his ability to roll six after six ... but he excelled even his normal deeds on this occasion.) 

The French awaited the onslaught. Both sides had a brigade of light cavalry which was in reserve. The French brigade did not show up while the Prussian cavalry promptly popped onto the table on the first roll. 

After Prussian ran out of MO, it was the French turn to shake out. Concentrated cannon fire from two batteries removed a Prussian battery on round 1. This was a significant event as it reduced the Prussians ability to harm the French. The central French batteries carved lanes of destruction throughout the game. 

We're still figuring out how to defend and attack in this uneven games. Above you can see the French line in front of an objective marker. The French deployed only slightly ahead of it then fell back twice to slow the Prussian assault. This was a very effective tactic. I suspect the attacking brigades should probably advance in two sections to always keep some units within 4 BW. 

Whatever disruptions the French could land on their foe was rallied off as the Prussian elan and morale gave them great enthusiasm. More men simply replaced those fallen and stragglers rejoined their units. All those sixes showed the Prussian officers were very effective in this regard. 

The Prussian general, Ian, had to be repeatedly goaded into driving home his attack. I suggested it was due to smug confidence at having his cavalry on the table and looping around behind the French. If this was true or not was unclear as - in the end - we had to finish a little early due to tired players and early work starts the next morning. 

One of our club's catch phrases, or maxims, "There are no lead orphans" was quoted more than once to encourage some tardy attacking. 

The Prussian cavalry were outflanking the French. 

The light brigade passed around the forest to take up their positions. It was not the most direct route and perhaps cost a turn or two giving the French additional rolls to muster their cavalry to the table. This, however, did not occur. 

This force was under the control of the notorious Brigadier Mick the 'Horse Killer.' He is infamous in our club for repeated inability to control cavalry in any horse and musket game. Perhaps tonight he would break that juju?

The French packed almost all their battalions into the line leaving only two units in the rear. One took up position in square (far left of the above image) block the Prussian cavalry's ability to strike the undefended rear of the units near the objective town of El Zurdo. The French commander figured we could hold the town and - at least - salvage a draw. The Prussian commander's tardy tactics meant it was not until turn 6 that he marshalled any battalions into a position to strike the town. 

This final image shows a battered French line. The red numbers show disruptions on almost all units. Despite this, the French held in the first Prussian charge and even consider a counter charge - but we were playing for time. As it turned out, we needed to pack up slightly early but it seemed clear while the Prussians might take the left objective - it would be unlikely if they took the right too. 

As for the rules ... well even a casual reader of the blog will detect a clear bias towards Mustafa rules on my part. I think they're great with a strong focus on command and control without complicated or wearisome rules. Despite being 60 points in arrears (and with our cavalry not showing up due to hopeless reserve rolls on our part) it never felt we were out of the game. The onus is firmly on the attacker to drive home the assault and there are several ways to obfuscate the advance for the defender. Mismatched scenarios like this can often be an achilles heel for wargames rules but tonight showed another strength of Lasalle 2. 

 

A Little Squeeze on the Side

Aside from painting some new figures and armies, I've been diddling about with some much older ones. My SYW Prussian army was painted around 14 or so years ago and the basing used hand cut cardboard squares with that old wood coloured flock. In short, I've been meaning to give them a touch up for some time. 

Here are half of my infantry (almost) complete. I say almost due to the fact I damaged one flag during un-basing and have not glued the unit name tags on the backs either. 

I'm very pleased with the result - just what I was going for. I was after a good standard for play rather than a 'internet professional' level of job (I'm not capable of that anyway.) Added to this, after two Prussian armies, I find getting Prussian blue 'right' quite difficult. Getting a good highlight is the hard part in my opinion. Something that looks good to the eye is simply too bright for the coats the soldiers wore. There is often a disconnect between what is seen as a good painting standard today and what things looked like in history. Any surviving coats were very dark. 

When I put them together it looks like such a small group - guess that will happen when my last LARGE painting project was two Napoleonic armies with a combined total of 1056 infantry, around 80 gunners (+cannon) and over 120 cavalry. 

Don't they look good in their ranks ... ready to march into the guns for Prussian glory!

Another side project was a single figure for my good friend, Mick. Fired by nostalgic zeal, Mick purchased Heroquest and we've had a few games. He decided the paint all the mini's and since I played the wizard - who I call 'Ronson' - he asked me to paint it up. The paint job was quite difficult as the miniature details were in very low relief. After base coating and some washes I thought I had muffed it - but perseverance paid off and I'm once again happy with the result. 

These other images are of a board I set up for a recent game of 'O' Group I played. This terrain has not seen the light of day for over 6-7 years - at the time I stopped playing FOW. 

As for 'O' Group ... what can I say. It is a typical Dan Brown set of rules ... painfully slow with dice rolls upon dice rolls deciding every factor of the game rather than player decision making. 

I find the 'Brown style' (evident in General de Brigade, Pickett's Charge and 'O' Group - all of which I've played) to be a good representative of an outdated method of writing rules.  

 

Lasalle 2 Wargame - Napoleonics Mustafa Style

 

The following images tell the tale of a game of Lasalle 2 ... backwards. 

This week's club game saw but two hardy gamers playing. Upon request, I ran my good friend Mick B through the Lasalle 2 introductory scenario. The only difference was that we played with exactly the same army - 8 infantry, 2 foot batteries, 2 light cavalry and 1 horse battery. 

What followed was a great game which we both enjoyed very much. We played with the 3 unit sudden death victory condition. As the above image shows, the Prussians achieved victory on the French left wing. An entire Prussian infantry brigade flanked around the forest and struck the French a fatal blow. When the charge finally drove home, three units were lost in a single combat phase. 

These images show the struggle for the centre and the flanking force in the background. It is taken from the moment of victory. The Prussians had angled their centre and were trying to fend off the French advance. The Prussian cavalry played a key role in this - especially with their 5+ disruption (?) roll - which helped shrug many incoming hits. 

As the Prussians had advanced of their right, it was their left which was held back. The French cavalry tried to take advantage of this with a hook into the Prussian flank and rear. A hasty repositioning of the Prussian cavalry stopped the French from causing certain mayhem by getting behind the Prussian flank. 

The above shows the French main attack. Marshal Mick had pushed an infantry brigade up in support of his cavalry. This put the Prussians in a nasty spot forcing them to endue several torrid rounds of fire. Some poor French musketry and average Prussian rallying enabled the men in dark blue to hold out. 

With MO needed to advance around the flank (including through difficult terrain) it was hard to have the points to advance the Prussian centre. These took sporadic hits from the French foot batteries who peppered their line. In addition, the French had placed their horse battery in a flanking position - pouring fire across the Prussian line (bouncing is a threat in Lasalle 2.) 

The Prussian flank attack shakes out and readies for a lethal bayonet charge. Mick played well delaying this by volleying and falling back. He rallied several hits from these units. The Prussian advantage was less hits and one more infantry unit. Marshal Mick also shifted a foot battery from the centre to bolster his line. But the Prussians pushed ahead. 

The French advance. 

As stated above, these images are in reverse order. The above shows the long road which the Prussian right hook took. It asked much of the centre to hold on. 

Here the Prussian cavalry only just got into position before the French could outflank the line. It took forgoing MO points and using the division commander to allow an additional formation change in the beginning of the phase. Unfortunately, I don't have an image of the original Prussian cavalry position. They had ridden straight into the centre of the battlefield and forced the French infantry into squares. This was vital as it held the French in place for the Prussian flank attack. 

Okay, going to brag ... those hussars look GREAT! These are my newest painted unit. They are the 10th Hussar who were attached to the III Corps of Ney, then Souham, during the 1813 campaign. The labels on my French units all come from this formation. Likewise, the Prussian labels are from Yorck's Corps from the army of Silesia. These forces tackled each other time after time in the spring of 1813 - my favourite period of Napoleonic history.