1600-Something: The Muscovite Civil War

For reasons of current events and general mayhem in the world, I have, I think, somewhat shied away from wargaming involving Russia in the last few years. This is probably highly irrational. After all, events of hundreds of years ago cannot really have that much impact today (an arguable statement if ever there were one), and, further, a fictionalised wargame of such events can have even less relevance. Still, who needs to be truly rational?

However, with my megalomanic trends as outlined last week, it is impossible to run a game set in Europe without involving the flank powers, and so Muscovy appears on the easternmost edge of the map. It is, of course, rather small and weak, as indeed was the case in 1600 – it was regarded in England as being exotic. On the other hand, I suppose England was regarded as being rather exotic from the point of view of the Baltic.

Still, Muscovy is in the game, and as I indicated last week, the country, while undertaking a diplomacy drive, collapsed into civil war. The rationale I have put forward for this is a dispute at the Tsar’s court over foreign influence. I am not sure which side is which, but we now have a wargame on our hands between two Muscovite forces. I even managed to dig out some Eastern European buildings.

The field was open and a bit rolling, with a few hills around. The near side edge is the government baseline, and their infantry on the left is deployed on a hill. The rebel Cossacks are also on a hill on the right. There was a fair bit of hesitation on both sides about starting the action (a lack of tempo points for both generals), but the light troops are getting stuck in on the government right, while the cavalry and infantry are slowly advancing.

The way the rules work, like the rest of the Polemarch family, at least as far as I have seen them, it can be important in cavalry battle to get the drop, that is, seize the tempo, and charge first. This was true here, but it did have, as we shall see, a bit of a twist in the tail.

Above, the rebel cavalry has got the drop on the government and routed two bases in the charge and subsequent combat. However, the five rebel cavalry bases have used three to rout two government bases. In the centre, you can see that the government has two shaken bases just about holding out, and two unengaged bases, confronting the rebel infantry. The government infantry, meanwhile, is moving into position against the rebels, and a firefight is breaking out.

A move or two later, and the rebels have routed another base of government cavalry, although the pursuers are becoming quite scattered. One of the pursuing bases was looking like it was going to hit the cossacks, but some accurate fire from the latter gentlemen dissuaded them from that idea, and they swerved past instead. The government Cossack, incidentally, did rather well, outnumbered, against their opponents.

It was that scattering that was the problem for the rebels, along with the infantry assault on their right. The government, having general and some cavalry in hand, firstly rescued one of the bases in trouble with a flank attack. They followed this up by moving two cavalry bases across to the centre and taking on the scattered rebel horse. This was rather successful, as charging bases in the rear tends to be. You can see some of the hitherto successful rebel cavalry routing at the bottom of the photograph, while some others are under pressure from the government general and his base of horse. The rebel general survived all this and is currently wandering around in the middle of the field looking for some troops to command.

The infantry tussle to the top left of the picture is also going the government’s way, with the flanking streltsi and ‘Cossack’ pike taking out a couple of bases themselves. Overall, this was a bit too much for the rebel morale, although with a decent morale dice roll, they went to a withdraw instead of a rout status.

Losses were fairly significant on both sides. The rebels lost 3 cavalry and 3 infantry, the government 3 cavalry bases. In the campaign, the idea is that I keep track of battlefield losses (as in the DBA campaign), so replacements for extant armies only occur in the winter turn, and then at one base a year. On the other hand, countries can raise new forces if they can afford them.

Still, that was a rather good wargame. After a few moves, I was fairly convinced that the rebels would win it, having smashed the government centre. As with Prince Rupert and the Cavaliers, however, that only went so far. The rebel cavalry was used in total, while the government had a couple of bases uninvolved. These were able to pick off the now scattered rebel cavalry, while the infantry, having been set up to have an advantage over their opposite numbers, made good on the promise. The idea of keeping a cavalry reserve is growing in popularity.

In terms of the campaign, the Muscovite GOOS score has, of course, gone up, but the rebellion is not quite over. A bit depends on how the surrounding powers – Sweden and Poland, maybe the Ottomans – react, and, of course, whether the increased Muscovite GOOS score convinces the rebels that God is not with them.

In other news, the Elector Palatine managed to fumble his initiative roll and got an assassination result. He survived the attempt, but the question is now ‘who ordered it?’ Looking across the diplomatic table reveals a number of possible foreign powers who could have sponsored it, with the dice rolling finger pointing at France. It all looks like a decent diplomatic incident, if not a war, is brewing in Western Europe now as well.

So, a decent start to the campaign, with certainly enough to keep the creative juices going, even if most countries are striving to be on good terms with everyone else. I do not suppose that that will last, however, as some of the strategic aims distinctly clash. Which is the point of having them in the first place, of course.

Ancient Ends and New Beginnings

After the War of Stuart Succession, I had thought to do some ancients wargaming. I had the Roman invasion of Britain in mind, and mined my books for some ideas. As logged here, a couple of test games were conducted. But something did not feel quite right. I could not put my finger on it.

The ancients have always been a bit of a sideline to my wargaming activities. I have, as I have said before, mostly been an early modern wargamer. The variety is fascinating, and the world was just becoming global. There are lots of opportunities from near-stone-age civilisations to those which look roughly like modern states. So I struggled with the ancients setup; it was too vague, too abstract, and, as the Estimable Mrs P said, my heart was not really in it.

Heck, this is supposed to be a hobby. The decision was not that hard. The ancients are abandoned. If anyone would like a collection of 6 mm Baccus ancient armies, or part thereof, make a comment to this post with your email address in it. I’ll not publish it, but I will reply, and we can discuss the options. I’d prefer UK-based wargamers, having had enough of tangling with HMRC for the moment. For the record, there are Greeks, Persians (both early and late), Macedonians and Successors, Indians, Pontic, Late Republican Romans, Early Imperial Romans, Celts, Dacians, Germans, Parthians, Moors, and Sarmatians. There is also a fleet of 1:3000th triremes and similar, and some Celtic roundhouses. Quite enough for someone augmenting their collections, or starting ancients from nowhere.

Now, for the new idea, which is actually something that has been floating around in my consciousness for years, nay decades, but has come a little more to the fore recently. Many years ago, in the early days of the Internet, I ran a play-by-email game set in 1618, which covered, initially, the whole of Europe and expanded to cover the Eurasian land mass. Ambitious, and it did work, but it got a bit oversized and eventually collapsed, not least because I couldn’t keep up with the administration, and because few people sent in orders.

I am not proposing to revive that game, but I am creating something that looks like a bit of a solo version of it. Firstly, of course, I needed a map. This took some drawing, given I wanted to go from Norway to North Africa and Portugal to the Urals, but I got there. Naturally, it had to be simplified quite a lot. Real maps of the period show a lot of detail in Germany, which bewildered most contemporaries, let alone modern wargamers who expect nice, neat boundaries. I used a couple or three boardgame maps I have around (Holy Roman Empire, Thirty Years War, and Machiavelli) to include some of the relationships between states and geography, and my previously developed (for the WoSS) ideas for land areas (mysteriously named ‘provinces’ in this game) and sea areas. Again, I have simplified significantly, but there is still a daunting quantity of detail there, and more could be added.

After a bit of thought, I did add some extra detail. Some more German states were added, such as Cleve, Mark, and Berg, which caused the 1610 crisis, as well as the Basque Country and Catalonia, given that they were much fought over in the Seventeenth Century. I could not quite find it in my heart to add in the Val Telline, vital though it was for the Spanish Road. There has to be some sort of a limit, doesn’t there?

Well, I am a wargamer, so I suppose the answer to the rhetorical question is ‘no’. But the whole idea of a wargame campaign is to have an excuse for some linked-up wargames, even if they are at opposite ends of the continent. I did, this time, draw the line at including India and the Far East. Firstly, I have just run campaigns in these areas – A Very Mogul Civil War, the Japanese Invasion of Korea, and the Burmese campaign – so I do not feel a particular need to include them at the moment. Secondly, these more easterly areas are conveniently buffered to the rest of the map via Persia, so they can be added on as I see fit, if I do so.

The final result, with some initial dispositions on it, is shown above, together with my scrawl down the left corner, which indicates which coloured pin refers to which country. The map is actually that of Summer 1600. You can see that some states have increased their military force, most notably the Swedes, who have created a fleet to augment their army in Gothland (white pins), and a rebellion in Catalonia (shorter green pin), which the Spanish fleet, originally based in Leon, is about to put down (by negotiation).

The running of the campaign is supposed to be simple and straightforward. I have built in some complexity, however, in that each major player has a set of strategic aims, such as keeping open the Spanish Road, or expanding at the expense of minor states, and so on. I have also introduced budgets, although it has to be admitted that sticking to a budget was not a hallmark of the early modern political entity. The threat of bankruptcy could keep rulers on their toes, however.

The above shows the paraphernalia needed to run the game. The map, my diplomatic table, notebook (campaign journal), rules, assorted dice and playing cards, and, somewhere off to the left, the treasury reports. Each player is controlled by their initiative dice; those who pass draw a card to determine their action.

As was more or less the case from a Europe exhausted by the previous set of wars, not much happened in 1600 (OK, the Spanish-Dutch war was very much ongoing in reality), the first two turns (spring and summer 1600) were quiet. Then, in autumn, the Muscovites launched a diplomatic initiative, which led to a lot of re-rolling on the diplomatic table. There must have been some factional infighting at court, however, as the Muscovite internal score slumped to one, and a civil war broke out.

So, the first excuse for a wargame, and it is two armies of Muscovites facing off against each other.

Second Test

I am still pondering an Ancient Britons against Romans campaign, and an idea is slowly forming, as a result of my ferreting in my library of books about Roman Britain. The problem is that most things about the Roman invasion are unknown, and more or less everything about the situation in Britain in, say, 40 AD is totally unknown. This does give a great deal of scope, of course, for the wargamer’s imagination, but aside from the fact that the invasion happened and was successful, and that there was at least one battle which the Romans won, the framework for a campaign is largely missing.

Still, nothing daunted, I reckoned that quite a lot of the purpose behind the Roman invasion was an intervention in local politics. There was unspecified unrest in the client kingdoms of Britain from around 40 AD. Given that there was also a Roman garrison of some sort in Fishbourne at the time (again, largely unspecified), there was some sort of Roman interest at stake, probably in trade. There is also a hint, although no more than that, that Caractacus was trying to extend his kingdom west, against other tribes.

Quite what all this means is, of course, open to speculation. But my wargamer imagination came up with an Ancient Briton clash, between the expansionist Green tribe (so named, imaginatively, after their dice colour) and the defending Reds. A bit of scribbling came up with a card draw system for the forces involved, as well as for ambushes.

The draw gave the Greens four tribal foot bases, four chariots, two light horse, and two skirmishers, while the Reds had five tribal foot, two skirmishers, three light horse, and two chariots. The Reds also had a number of potential ambush sites, given by the location of the playing cards on the table.

The picture shows the game after a few moves. The first potential ambush, from the rough going in the centre, has been triggered, but no ambush was found. The skirmisher base was there in deployment. The light troops are engaging in the centre, as seen, with skirmishers, light horse, and chariots all in the mix on both sides.

The aim of the Greens, to the left, was to sweep away the light troops on the other side and then assault the enemy tribal foot. The aim of the Reds was to skirmish manfully and hope the ambushes would do the trick. The final coup de grace, as it were, is to be administered by the tribal foot. This might seem to be a bit dependent on ambushes, and it is, but my vague idea was that I was playing the Greens.

As the lines closed, a number of things happened. The Greens detached their skirmishers from protecting the tribal foot and added their firepower to the skirmishing. This had its effect in routing one of the Red light horse bases, although one base of Green skirmishers also suffered. The Green chariots were suffering a bit from their Red counterparts. On the Green right, the ambush has been sprung with an extra three Red bases of light horse cantering into the fray. They have cantered a bit far, however, due to a lack of Red tempo to deploy them.

The ambushing light horse ran into deep trouble as they were charged by the Green light horse. Light horse and skirmishers can indeed charge under these rules, so long as it is either other light troops or flanks. This was both. As you can see, two of the Red light horse are already fleeing, and the other will not be far behind.

In the distance, you can see that the Red skirmish line is under pressure. Some of the bases have become disordered and are hence ‘fixed’. The base, which is shaken (green markers), will shortly rout. The other, which is disordered (lost its orders), is about to be contacted by the Green tribal foot and also routed. This is due to a lack of tempo for Red, which was a problem for them throughout the game.

The picture above shows the disintegration of the Red skirmish line on their right, as the rest of the light horse flee. The exchange between the chariots has more or less died down at this point, while the Green light horse has finished off the ambushers in the left foreground. Both sides paused to take breath here, and both general plans became ‘time to bring the infantry up’. Tempo lack meant that the Red troops were slow to respond.

The end of the game came when the Green tribal foot caught a base of Red chariots and routed them. The Reds had sprung their final two ambushes and come up with two bases of skirmishers in the village on the far side, but they were too late to affect the action. The tribal foot block had been, it seems, deployed too far from the action to make much difference, although a final burst of tempo points meant that most Red units were active. It was, however, too little, too late, and even with the increase of Reb bases due to the ambushes, a withdraw morale was thrown.

Well, that was interesting, and it is still a learning curve with this army. The skirmishing can go on for quite a long time and drains a lot of tempo (if you have the points). It can also be fairly destructive of your skirmishing troops. It also seems that having the tribal foot close behind your skirmish line is a good thing, as they can exploit any disruption your skirmishers have inflicted and, as with the Green skirmishers in this wargame, also provide a solid base for them to hide behind if things go pear-shaped.

The random army generation seemed to work quite nicely, and the ambush system threw up a few curveballs, as it should. The major problems the Reds had were the misplacement of their tribal foot and a lack of tempo points to control the skirmish battle. On the other hand, if they had managed to deploy the ambushing light horse, the outlook for the Green skirmish line might have been a bit bleaker.

Still, I am iterating towards some sort of campaign. A map might be necessary, at least an abstract one, and some rules on how to provoke the wrath of Rome...

A Quiet Day in England

After the trauma of re-basing, the battle. At least I can confess one of the problems of being a solo wargamer, that is, in order to start a wargame, you have to ‘do’ both sides. This is as true of painting, of course, as it is of basing and, indeed, re-basing. I wrote last time (if you lasted that long) that I have re-based my Early Imperial Romans, and also my Celts, who can masquerade as either Gaul or Ancient Britons.

I also put a teaser picture of the start of a battle in the last post. It was, perhaps a bit of a confused description of who was there and what was going on. I shall try to explain, because it pertains to what I think my next campaign might be about, although the wargame pictured was a bit of a try-out.

The history and archaeology of the Roman invasion of Britain is confused and confusing. Not that it should stop the wargamer, of course. Where historians throw their hands up in despair, and archaeologists start talking about snapshots, the wargamer should sense some sort of opportunity. After all, there is not much at stake in a wargame campaign, as opposed to academic reputations and so on (mostly concerned with money, of course).

Still, there are debates as to where and why the Romans actually landed. The smart money used to be on Richborough in Kent, but recently Fishbourne in Sussex has been put forward as a serious contender. Both are very early sites. The confusing thing is that Fishbourne seems to be a Roman site which predates the invasion. So, there were Roman soldiers on English soil before the Romans invaded.

There are other issues, of course. The initial military operations seem to have been a Roman intervention in a civil war among Britons. This is something that should make the wargamer’s ears prick up a bit. No longer are we considering men in shiny suits against the brave, noble, but doomed Celts, but rather a complicated situation where both sides in a civil war (a succession dispute) try to use the Romans to their own ends. In other words, there were Celts on both sides, and the Romans were really ancillary forces.

So, what else? The size of the invading force is another matter of uncertainty. It is usually put at 4 legions, an equal number of auxilia, and a few other units. This is based on what was in the country around 20 years after the invasion. More recent thinking suggests an initial force of 2 – 5000 men. That seems to me to be highly manageable to a wargamer, even a solo one, and probably more commensurate with the expected opponents, that is, half or so of a British tribal alliance.

It is certain that Claudius followed up the invasion with reinforcements and took the allegiance of a number of native kings, as well as Colchester. It is usually assumed that he landed at Richborough and marched to Colchester. On the other hand, he did not stay in the country long, and it makes more sense for him to have sailed directly to Colchester and parked himself there for the duration. Aside from an elephant and some camels, and some siege equipment, we really do not know what else he brought with him, except the usual hangers-on, flunkies, and guards.

So, my first go at this was to cut to the case and get some soldiers on the table. Four armies, in this case, three British and one Roman. The initial deployment is in the previous post, so I’ll start after the action commended.

The initial action was on the near side of the table, where two Celtic armies faced off. In the centre, the Roman allies have seen off the skirmishers in the marsh. This gave a boost to their efforts, as we’ll see as the game develops. On the far side, I have moved the Romans back a bit, out of charge range of the tribal foot on the hill.

Having the Romans hang around at the rear while everyone else did the fighting seemed to be a bit un-Roman-like. So I soon moved the legionaries and auxilia up again. They were charged downhill by the tribal foot and did not even last a round of combat. On their left, however, the Roman cavalry has seen off the Celtic light horse and is causing all sorts of damage to the chariots. If the infantry could have held out for a move or two, all would have been well, but the losses caused the Roman army to flee, their their foes were forced to fall back.

On the nearside, the Roman allies are crossing the stream, while their light troops and chariots mix it with the enemy. This went quite well for them, as the skirmishers in the marsh were able to shoot down (javelin down, I suppose) the enemy general. Having inflicted a few other casualties on them, the non-Roman allies were forced to withdraw. Anyway, without a general, I could not see their fortunes improving much.

As I mentioned, this was in the way of a test game. I think the idea of the campaign, with various tribes and sub-tribes competing for the favour of the Romans, is probably a good one, although the Roman foot has proved to be rather brittle in all my games. The cavalry, however, is a real asset against the Celts, who do not really have anything mounted which can compete. On the other hand, the British Celts are reasonably handy armies, it seems, and quite flexible in what they can field. Previous experience suggests that light horse, skirmishers, chariots and tribal foot can all contribute.

So, all I need is a map of some sort and a more detailed rationale of who is involved and why. I suppose the goal for the Romans is to have defeated everyone except their own allies, so Claudius can be invited over to take the allegiance of the already allied British rulers. The aim of the British factions would be to come out on top, even if allegiance has to be offered. It could be reasonably intriguing.

In Memoriam…

It has been a sad week or two chez Polemarch. We have had to say goodbye to an old friend, who has featured a couple of times on this blog.

The above is a picture taken when she was in her prime as a lady feline, although it has to be said, Piper never lost her basic suspicion of the human race. Anyway, we noticed that she was rapidly losing weight a couple of weeks ago, and a visit to the vet did not resolve anything very much, except to confirm there was nothing wrong with her mouth. Nevertheless, more of the food ended up on the floor than being swallowed, and she was very hungry and alarmingly thirsty.

The vet suggested that we try some food for convalescing animals, and she did eat it, but that did not stop her from losing weight and energy. She stopped sleeping in her favourite places, and neither of us heard her purr any more. So, we had to make a very difficult decision, and it was made. On July 23^rd, Piper took her last journey to the vet.

We had her, it seems, for nearly 18 years. She came as a rescue, aged 1 year (but no one who saw her then thought she was anything more than 6 months old) from our local RSPCA centre, and, after she settled in and decided that these humans were not so bad, she was one of those animals that was just always about. As a very timid little cat, she was rarely out during the day and liked nothing more than to sleep under my legs when we were watching TV. In a sense, she was more like a little dog than a cat. Her humans seemed to assume the role of protectors for her, especially as she was small and found it hard to fight her corner against the local moggies.

In a way, we are still reeling from losing her; she was simply part of our life here. As I tried to explain to someone, ‘We’re not missing having a cat. We’re missing having that cat’. But, as someone else said to me, it was the last act of love we could do for her as she failed, and how we feel about it afterwards is the cost of that love. But we still miss her and look for her in all her familiar sleeping places.

Rest in peace, Piper.

Instead of moping, the Estimable Mrs P and I have been getting on with some of our various projects. The Estimable Mrs P’s are all nicely erudite – learning Latin, translating texts from the late classical world, and so on, while I have been sent off to ‘do some soldiers’. In this case, the ‘doing of soldiers’ has consisted of further adventures in reducing the footprint of my collection. The aim has been to halve the number of infantry bases for my armies, without reducing the number of models.

In short, I have been de-basing my early Imperial Romans, the auxilia, legionaries, archers and skirmishers, and rebasing them in two ranks, or, at least, with double the number of figures per base for the skirmishers. The cavalry has been left alone, because I cannot jemmy any more than 6 figures onto a 40 by 20 base, and the light horse at 4 per base looks OK, I think. Or at least, I’m used to it.

The same has been done for my Celts. The foot and skirmishers now have double the figures on them, and I have managed to preserve the wavy line effect of the tribal foot, which I found rather pleasing and a good counterpoint to the serried ranks of Romans. The reduction in footprint is not so dramatic as the Romans, however, as the Ancient Britons and Gauls have different mounted components. Mind you, I do seem to have far more cavalry than I really ‘need’. Maybe doubling the figures on the light cavalry bases should be an option.

Anyway, having gone to the trouble of all the rebasing and repainting (the cavalry bases were repainted for a more uniform look), I decided to indulge in a wargame. I discovered a few things. Firstly, it must be a while since I did anything ancients. I had forgotten the rules and also forgotten that I have no quick reference sheet for them, which has been a boon for the early moderns. I was also casting around for a scenario, not having done the work for a campaign yet. After a bit of base counting and consulting the DBA and DBM army lists, I came up with a four army action – three ancient Britons and one Roman. It was sort of based on the battle of Medway, if indeed such a battle took place, where the recent money is that the outflanking force, usually ascribed to Batavian auxiliaries, could well have been Celts.

The terrain rolling was interesting. I came up with a load of streams, a central hill and some woods. There is always a bit of juggling to be done to make a practical table out of a terrain roll-up, and this one included getting rid of one arm of the streams. As it turned out, that went in the Romans’ favour. Or maybe not, as the ensuing wargame told.

The above shows four armies deployed, ready for battle. On the right are two armies of Ancient Britons. On the far side, the tribal foot block is on a hill in the centre. To the left, the Romans are deployed on the far side, infantry in column opposite the hill, with the cavalry to their left. On the near side are the final, Roman-allied Ancient Britons. Actually, we should probably call the Romans the allies of the Ancient Britons. It goes to show how easy it is to slip into a sort of colonial language, because the written sources are all Roman.

Be that as it may, I treated this as a test action to see both how the rebased armies look on the table (not bad, even given my painting) and also to try to relearn my own rules. Let’s see what happens next….

WSuS in Retrospect

You have probably noticed that the War of Stuart Succession has occupied quite a bit of my recent wargaming time, and that, of course, was by design, rather than accident, although I admit that I was rather pleased with the campaign as a whole. I mentioned a while ago a problem with wargame campaigns, in that it can seem that a campaign is settled in a wargame or two, rendering the time taken to set it up and draw the maps (etc.) feeling like it was wasted. I suspect that that is one of the reasons wargame campaigns are not, it appears, that popular.

Still, this one, as with the Very Mogul Civil War, worked rather nicely. The diplomatic table certainly helps to deliver some awkward decisions for the ‘players’, in this case Arbella Stuart’s unshakable alliance with Isabella of Austria. It was not, incidentally, planned that way. The diplomacy dice just refused to adjust the score downward. This meant that once Isabella was in London, there was not much for Arbella to do except wander around the Home Counties waiting for something to turn up. That something was Edward Seymour, who caused her army to mutiny.

A new feature of this campaign compared with the Mogul campaign was the GOOS score, which, I am sure you will recall, stands for ‘God On Our Side’. This was a feature of the campaign which also worked nicely. Such were the religious sensibilities of the time that a victor in battle could claim the approbation of God, while the loser’s cause became more suspect. As the victor gained 5% GOSS while the loser lost 10% it could have given some cause for aggressive actors to consider their moves carefully. As it happens, it did not.

You can see in the photograph above the diplomatic table, with the GOOS score in the rightmost column. The first entry is James’ final score, of 05%. The highest GOOS score is Isabella’s, of 55%, while Arbella’s had been that high, but the mutiny put paid to it. It was a nice and simple way of keeping track of each participant’s popularity, and I shall probably use something similar again.

The aim of a wargame campaign is, of course, to produce wargames. This one did so very nicely, thirteen in all. A further function of the GOOS score was to determine whether the trained bands turned out against a ‘foreign’ (i.e., non-county) force. Usually they did, and, on the whole, gave a good account of themselves. After all, the trained bands defeated three Scottish and one French invasions during the campaign, and only lost (in the long run, anyway) to the Low Countries Spanish and Arbella.

I did consider permitting the trained bands to garrison towns and stand sieges rather than face invaders on the open field. I think I did right in not permitting it, for a number of reasons. Firstly, I would have got fewer wargames. Secondly, I would have had to introduce artillery and siege trains into the campaign. This is highly doable, with ‘train’ additional armies, but would have made things a bit more complex to administer, I think. Thirdly, the campaign might have bogged down in a series of sieges (which is what usually happened in the period, historically), and it might have become boring.

I think it is worth mentioning the tactical rules I use, which are my own ‘Wars of the Counter Reformation’. They are almost certainly not to everyone’s taste, and I would not expect anyone else to use them, but they do give a nice game which can be quite quick. I think the record was about half an hour, although most games are an hour or two, if I take things slowly. I suspect that another bugbear of the wargame campaign is longer table-top actions, which bog the campaign down in detail and do not necessarily aid the ‘flow’ of the action. It can be done, of course, although the popularity of the ‘Dominion of….’ rules and their ability to enable campaigns to be played quickly does seem to imply that I might have a point.

I suppose a few other comments are worthwhile. Once again, the campaign emphasised the importance of naval activity, even though only one wargame was at sea. Aside from that, the Spanish and English navies were active in transporting armies around the place once Spanish naval superiority in the Channel was obtained. This probably needs some more pondering, but I am not sure where to take that thought. It also indicated that I needed some decent naval rules, so I concocted my own. Other naval rules I have encountered tend to be of the complicated, record-keeping, and geometry sort. There must be simpler and accurate ways of taking to the seas.

Still, overall, in the game, the unluckiest player was Edward Seymour, with two fumbles and two mutinies to his credit. As one of them was on the first turn, his campaign for the throne never got going. He had a chance when he joined forces with Arbella, but fumbled again and ruined both of their chances. The luckiest was Isabella, of course. There were a number of critical points where her campaign could have disintegrated, most obviously when the Dutch invaded the Spanish Netherlands, but she managed to keep it all together.

James VI of Scotland was pretty unfortunate as well, so much so that I captured one of his dice rolls for posterity. On the other hand, I suspect that the campaign might have been weighted against him, as it is quite a long way from Midlothian to Middlesex, and he had no navy. On the other hand, he was the player with the highest initiative. He ended up wounded and captured. Interestingly, the highest initiative player in the VMCW was Mir Jumla, who ended up captured and executed. Having the highest initiative is not an unmitigated good, it seems.

So, there we are. An engrossing and entertaining campaign which, at times, really made me think about the player’s options. And I got a load of wargames out of it. The only problem is that I now have to think of what to do next. After a load of early modern campaigns, I feel something more ancient coming on.

The Cumberland Sausage

In the same week that James VI’s Scots were defeated in County Durham, as recounted last week, the Scottish army on the western route invading England crossed the border. Their aim, naturally enough, was London, or at least supporting their King in his quest to become King of England as well. They do not, however, know of James’ defeat and his uncertain whereabouts. Still, the Scottish GOOS score was pretty low by this time (25%), and so it was hardly a surprise that the trained bands decided to resist the invaders.

For the Scots, of course, this was a chance for some sort of redemption, at least of their military reputation, which is a little tattered. However, as at other points in the campaign, the dice were not particularly kind to them. I rolled up a fairly open terrain for the encounter, at least, considering that it is in Cumberland, with a number of streams flowing to and from a marshy area, as well as some hills and enclosures. The direction dice roll (that is, which edge are the Scots coming from?) was really unkind, allocating the English the streams and one of the hills. Already I could feel Scottish morale sinking.

In the picture, the Scots are to the left. The English foot are lining one of the streams, with reserves on the slopes of the hill, on the crest of which was an area of enclosures. The English plan was to fight a fully defensive battle from behind the streams, and make the Scots come to them.

The Scottish plan was to force the stream with a plethora of pike, supported by some shot. Meanwhile, the demi-lancers (nearest the camera) were to cross the streams and attempt to outflank the English position, while some more shot, on the far side (Scottish left), were to advance and at least entertain the rest of the English foot, while probing for a way to cross the stream safely.

The above shows the plans in action. The light horse are skirmishing across the marsh, while the Scottish demi-lancers have forded the first stream and rallied from that. To the Scots’ disappointment, their left flank shot have not got moving yet (a lack of tempo points) but the central pike and their supports, along with the general, are about to tackle the central English position. The English have summoned the foot from along the stream to reinforce the point the Scots are aiming for.

The attempt to storm the stream did not go particularly well. As in the last game, the Scots rolled badly at the critical point, and were repulsed, shaken from the stream, as seen above. The English managed to add another pike base and the general to the Scottish target, and also closed up some more shot, which led to the Scots pike being outshot and repulsed. The general, more happily, survived.

The Scots attempted to rally, but this was disrupted by the English musketeers. Meanwhile, the Scottish demi-lancers crossed the second stream, and one base was immediately routed by the English, commanded by their general, who had just dashed across the hilltop to take command. The other base, in desperation, charged the English pike who had turned to face them, uphill and disorganised. They did surprisingly well, all things considered, but were pushed back down the hill by the pointy sticks.

The end came with more of a whimper than a bang. The English pike and demi-lancers trapped the remaining Scottish demi-lancers and routed them, while the English light horse managed to disrupt both Scottish light bases. In the centre, an assault across the stream by the marsh by some Scots musketeers ended in disaster, but did permit the pike sufficient respite for them to rally. The other central Scottish musketeers also attempted to cross the stream, for the same purpose, and are in serious disarray, having been repulsed. On a more positive note, the Scottish left wing has arrived at the stream and is poised to cross.

The losses for the Scots were mounting, however, and the morale throw indicated a withdraw. As I could not really see how further success could be achieved without Scottish pressure on both English flanks as well as the centre, I decided that the Scots would withdraw, honour intact, if not victorious.

I really do not know if the Scots could have won this one. They were committed to attack a very strong defensive position. As I said, the terrain dice had not been kind to them. They had a chance with the first assault across the stream, but good English shooting, decent generalship, and reasonable dice rolling meant that the chance for a breakthrough never came.

There was some further unfinished business, of course. The dice were rolled for the whereabouts and health of King James after the Durham debacle. Initially, for his failed combat risk roll, he was wounded. The second roll, after the rout of the army, was captured. So, there we have it: James VI is both wounded and in the hands of the English, or, rather, Isabella.

This marks, I think, the end of the campaign, after 13 wargames. All of the rivals for the throne are in the hands of Isabella of Austria, which seems to indicate that she will be the next Queen of England. Quite how happy the English might be with this outcome remains to be seen, of course. I suspect, given that historically she was never much interested in England, she might actually make Arbella, who was her firm ally throughout the campaign, her regent, married to a nice, safe, Spanish nobleman.

The fate of Edward Seymour is more dubious, as he is actively hostile to the Spanish and Isabella. It may well be that he gets a one-way trip to Tower Hill, another martyr to the Protestant cause. In the campaign, he was really unlucky, with two fumbles on his initiative dice, and his attempt to take the throne never got going. He also managed to disrupt Arbella’s attempt, although once Isabella took London she did not really have an aim in mind as she would not attack her ally.

As for James, well, Scotland is in a difficult position now, with the Spanish established in the south and her King in their hands. Anne of Denmark will probably take over as regent, and possibly Prince Henry might come to the fore as a great Scottish patriot. On the other hand, a recovered James could make a bid to undermine the Presbyterians in his own land with a bit of help from the new Catholic regime.

The campaign itself worked smoothly and simply enough for me to pack quite a few wargames into the duration. Plus, it was a lot of fun. As I noted along the way, sometimes the dice were just not kind to any of the sides, except, perhaps, Isabella. The French and the Dutch were knocked out early as viable players, but the situation in England got complex.

What happens next? I am not sure, but I am busily rebasing Romans at the moment, so anything is possible. But, maybe, a bit more reflection on the events of the 1603 campaign might be in order.

Flodden Revisited

The twelfth move of the War of Stuart Succession saw, well, quite a lot happening. If you recall, James VI of Scotland had been forced to withdraw north after his defeat in the North Riding of Yorkshire. As his GOOS roll was now lower than it was before, he failed it, and the Durham trained bands, who had been quiet on the march south, decided to ambush him. At least, it was supposed to be an ambush, but read on.

In the north-west, James’ second army has crossed the border with England, and the Cumberland trained bands have rallied against them. Given everything else going on, I decided to fight this wargame after James in Durham. It could end up a bit Solway Moss...

In the south, the Dutch, in a sudden burst of activity, launched their new fleet into Thames region. Arbella Stuart decided to raise another army, hers now being under the command of her supposed paramour, Edward Seymour. Edward Seymour, on the other hand, fumbled his initiative roll again and landed up with a mutiny. The army hitherto raised and led by Arbella clearly did not find his generalship to its taste, and they went home, leaving both Edward’s and Arbella’s GOOS scores lowered. Isabella, on the other hand, made her initiative roll and got a military move. Two options were open, either to move against the Dutch in the Channel or to intervene in Buckinghamshire.

It really did not take long for Isabella to decide. Her London-based army moved into Buckinghamshire and took both Arbella and Edward into protective custody, before Arbella could rally a new army. It really has not been Edward Seymour’s campaign.

Anyway, with ambush in my mind, I rolled up a fairly dense terrain for the Durham men to entertain the Scottish king. I hesitated a bit over the Scottish strength, initially deducting the three bases they had lost in Yorkshire. After all, they are on the retreat and need to brush the trained bands aside rather than fight an all-out battle. In the end, I decided that this was a bit mean on the Scots, and the three bases were restored, but at the end on the army, assuming that they were straggling a bit.

The English are on the left in the shot above. The nearest foot are on a hill, and the ones at the far side are also on the end of a ridge, which you can just make out if you look carefully. The Scots musketeers in front of them are further along the same ridge. The bulk of the trained bands are on the road between the woods, having attempted to set an ambush for the Scots. Musketeers are in the woods, and the pike are two deep, with another in reserve.

James decided that only an assault of extreme violence would redeem his position and his reputation. He is therefore leading the three deep pike on the road, the plan being that the light horse next to him will deal with the English borderers. The pike will advance rapidly and attack the centre of the English position while the demi-lancers charge anyone who might get in the way. It was perhaps a high-risk plan, but as someone on our own timeline said of James, ‘Desperate diseases require desperate remedies.’

The photograph above shows the Scottish plan unfurling from behind English lines. On the left, the Scottish musketeers are giving their English counterparts a bit of a pummelling. In the centre, the Scottish light horse have forced their English counterparts to retreat, shaken (they are lurking behind the smaller wood). The pike, under the leadership of their king, are storming up the road, with the stragglers behind, and the lancers are coming into position. The Scottish light horse will, next move, head across the board to engage the English right wing. So far, so good.

The above shows, as it were, the big crunch. The Scottish light horse have moved across, as advertised. On the English left honours are about even, with the English pike dealing with one of the Scottish bases, but the other have the edge over the English shot. In the centre, James and his pike have hit the English, which the general has just managed to close up with the reserve. The only downside on the Scottish side is that, for reasons best known to themselves, the Scottish demi-lancers have refused to charge home. The English musketry from ambush, incidentally, had no impact whatsoever.

As is my standard practice, I was using a blue D6 for the Scots, and a red one for the English. The pike combat roll was made, and a neck was craned to see the result.

My head was held in some despair for the Scots before I even started to calculate the combat outcome. I mean, what a time to roll a 6-1. Ouch.

The outcome could have been worse, I suppose. The Scots recoiled shaken and the English, of course, followed up. However, it also meant that James had to roll for risk to his person, being the general in a losing close combat. Fine, on a 1-4 roll, he would be unscathed. The dice decided this was an excellent opportunity to roll a 6. General down.

The result felt kind of inevitable from then on. While the Scots kept the initiative, the pike did not survive the next round of combat, especially as the English had the tempo to advance their flanking musketeers as well. The rout of the foremost Scottish pike swept away their reserves as well, as seen above. On the ridge, the English pike have routed their foes, while the Scots have the English shot at a disadvantage.

The slight advantage of the Scots on their right was to no avail, however. Seven bases and a general down left them with a -4 army morale, which did not improve on the dice roll, and so the army routed.

So far this turn, then, Isabella now controls two of the three other claimants to the throne, and the fate of James VI is unknown at present. It is quite possible he has followed his great-grandfather James IV and gone down fighting at the head of his pike while invading England. We shall see...

The Reduced Aztec Show

Some of you may recall, a few weeks ago, my concerns over downsizing my collection of toy soldiers. I invited The Estimable Mrs P. to examine the problem, and she did have a few comments. The first one was to suggest, as gently as possible, that I perhaps had too many soldiers. Given that the labels had fallen off some of the boxes, it was not unreasonable to suppose that I had forgotten what was in them. In point of fact, of course, I had not, but the suggestion remained on the table, as it were.

Taking my concerns to the blogosphere resulted in some suggestions. Firstly, some smaller boxes, in terms of height, were suggested. This is well taken, but remains to be implemented, although the Estimable Mrs P. has authorised further investigations. In truth, I have only just measured the height of a lot of my troops and started to determine which armies will fit (basically, those without pike or lancers) and which will not. The results suggest that a considerable saving in height could be achieved, with the subsequent ability to pile the boxes up higher and reduce the footprint of the collection that way.

The main effort, however, has been aimed at rebasing some of the troops. A number of target armies have been identified that could straightforwardly have the quantity of infantry bases halved by doubling the number of figures on the base. A quick survey of the armies suggested that most of my ‘barbarian’ would benefit from such treatment – Celts, Germans, Spanish – as well as the two versions of Romans – late Republican and early Empire. The early Persians and the Greeks, too, could be moved down this road. A lot of space would be saved, I think, and, after years of denial, I have to admit that I am somewhat won over to the idea of having more figures on a base. There are pros and cons.

The cons, as it were, are my questions about how deep the formations really were. A six or eight-man deep line of musketeers or pike, or hoplites or legionaries, is not actually that deep compared to the depth of the base, or the ground scale of the game. On the other hand, a single line of troops does not really convey the feeling of a unit, perhaps more a skirmish line, and, despite what some people I’ve met over the years might claim, pike, at least, did not skirmish.

So, deep breath time, and the project is on. Despite what I just said above, the initial target was not Greeks, Romans, or barbarians, but my collection of Aztecs. It was going to be just the Aztecs, while I pondered the fate of the Inca armies (which are much smaller). Painting the Inca is what finished me with using condensed scale DBR, incidentally. I painted 28 strips and then worked out that I needed as many again to create the armies according to the lists. Morale collapsed, and it never happened, which, given the present conundrum, is probably just as well.

Still, the Aztecs and Inca were stored in 3 box files and had taken over the top of the cupboard in which some of the armies are stored. This was unsatisfactory, as that is also the surface on which I run the wargames, so some reduction would be welcome in both the shorter and longer terms. I also forgot to count the number of bases, but it was something like 28 Inca, as just noted, 14 Aztec ‘knights’, 62 Aztec militia types, 20-something archers, and 20-something skirmishers.

As a result of my despairing post, someone kindly suggested building a shelf within a box file to add more storage. As I proceeded with rebasing the Aztecs, The Estimable Mrs P. bought me some nice coffee (to sustain the process, you understand. I’m not addicted. My days of 6 cups in a morning are long gone). This coffee was ‘Machu Picchu Blend’. The fate of the Inca was thus sealed. They were staying as well.

The process of rebasing turned out to be not that painful, although it was rather lengthy. I found that as the basing material is poly-filler, sealed with PVA glue, and then painted, it would break off if I gave the plastic card bases a slight twist. The strips of soldiers could then be removed and rinsed to get rid of the filler dust, while half the bases were recycled for the purpose of rebasing. The result is a much smaller, although still substantial, horde of Aztecs.

The reduction in footprint is substantial. The Aztecs and Inca now fit into one box file, as shown above, with my own interpretation of the shelf suggestion, as shown. The Aztecs are on the lower portion; you can see the generals, skirmishers, porters, and the edge of the archers above. The Inca and the singly based officers are on the upper portion on the right. The shelf was created using half a sheet of plastic card and a sheet of steel paper, as all the bases have retained the magnetic strip they had to start with.

Undressed, as it were, you can see the details of the construction. The rest of the Aztecs fit around the legs of the shelf. I added the fifth support to prevent the shelf from sagging, but I am not sure whether it would have done so or not. In the best tradition of a former Blue Peter watcher, the supports are made from things I had lying around, in this case some corks from our wine-making operation. Fear not, they are unused, because the quality of corks has declined over recent years. They are unusable for their original purpose because they tend to stick in the neck of the bottle. My Aztecs will not start smelling of wine, although you might consider that a bad thing.

Now, this has a number of consequences. Firstly, I need to think of a campaign using the Aztecs, and then one using the Incas. And then I need to start to tackle the Romans and Celts. The footprint of the Aztecs and Incas has been reduced by two-thirds. I doubt if the rest will be that spectacular, but I am determined to diminish the storage problem, not the number of toy soldiers I have.

It’s Grim Up North

Although the flow of blog posts has been fairly uninterrupted, there has been a behind the scenes hiatus in wargaming here at Castle Polemarch. The reasons are mostly too dull to go into, except to mention that one of them has to do with rebasing the Aztecs. This project is nearly complete, but I am still wondering whether it is worth rebasing the Inca, as well. I am not sure; I think the Inca have only been on the table once in their career.

Still, existential angst aside, I did, on an insanely hot day in June, while the final batch of Aztec bases were drying, I undertook the next move in the War of Stuart Succession. Mostly, the sides took to diplomacy, without too much happening in the outcomes. James VI’s armies, however, advanced, which brought his western army to the border with England, and his eastern army, commanded by himself, to the North Riding of Yorkshire. There, James failed his GOOS roll, and the trained bands were called out against him.

The map showed that the Spanish, under Isabella, were actually in Hull, also known as the East Riding, next door. A little dice rolling saw them offer support to the trained bands, but a failed GOOS roll meant that the Yorkshire lads decided to tough it out for themselves. The Spanish therefore, stayed in Hull, awaiting the outcome.

The setup is above, the Scots to the left. The Scottish light horse is deployed at the end of a hill, as are the English in the right foreground and those in the enclosure on the far side. I suppose that, sometime, I should get around to making fields and hedges and stone walls which actually fit together, but my rationale is that the enclosures are a set of small fields, with lots of hedges or walls, rather than neat super fields as we have today. That’s my excuse, anyway.

The English plan was simply to stay on the defensive across the line, relying on their infantry superiority and positions on hills. The cavalry (they rolled 2 demi-lancers) was to plug any gaps. James pondered his plan deeply, and decided to direct two infantry formations (he gave up on doubled formations after last time) to assault the hill on his right (nearest the camera) while everyone else kept the English entertained in the centre and on the left.

The picture shows how the plan evolved. The Scottish light horse have had some nasty encounters with English musketry and are more or less out of the game at present. On the far side, the Scottish advance has somewhat stalled, again due to straight shooting from the English side. In the foreground, however, the Scots are arriving in numbers. While the English position on the hill is quite strong, it is not clear that it is strong enough to stave off a 2:1 assault.

It just goes to show how wrong I can be, I think. Above, you can see that the Scottish centre and left have stalled against the English. But James’ plan always included the flank attack. Well, that did not proceed as well as the King hoped, shall we say. The English got the drop on the Scots and attacked downhill. The English pike saw off the Scottish musketeers while the English musketeers gave a severe fright to the Scottish pike.

A bit of a swirling infantry combat ensued. The English musketeers were then flanked by their Scottish brethren and lost, being removed from the fight. However, the English pike flanked their already shaken Scottish cousins and caused them to flee, before turning to attack the Scottish musketeers still recovering from their fight, and routing them. See? I said it was swirling.

The combat in the centre and on the Scottish left has more or less settled down into a long-range musket duel, which the Scots were, in my estimation, most likely to come off second best. After all, some of the English are behind stone walls, which makes them fairly invulnerable.

The above slightly fuzzy image shows the end of the game. The Scots are still stalled in their centre and on the left, but have now lost three out of four bases on their right, due to the heroics of the two English bases, of which only the pike remains. Having now lost another base, James had to make an army morale roll. In keeping with quite a lot of his rolling on the day, this went badly, meaning that his army morale slumped to 1, and the whole lot withdrew.

Well, that is another blow to James’s hope of obtaining the English crown. I have to admit that I was not sure about the Yorkshire lads' ability to beat the Scots. Not due to any misplaced admiration for the Scots, but simply because of the disparity of cavalry. As it happened, the musketry nullified the Scottish light cavalry, and the demi-lancers (on both sides) never got into the action. The terrain rolling gave the English some nice hills to hide up, however, although the defeat of the Scottish flank attack was not in the script at all. It should have worked!

As James’ army did not rout but withdrew from the battlefield, it is still extant, and so Isabella’s army in the East Riding will need to keep an eye on it. There is also the question of what happens when the western army crosses into England. James’ GOOS score is now so low that it is likely they will have some tough fights going south.

In other news, the Dutch have raised a new navy, although to what end no one knows. And in the south, there is three way diplomacy going on between Isabella, Arbella, and Edward Seymour. None of them seems to be willing to make concessions, nor to come to some agreement about the throne. There could be more to come on that. If Arbella weds Edward, she will forego her very good GOOS score, and Edward’s is much lower. Isabella, on the other hand, already holds London and is starting to boss the English armed forces around.

I wonder what will happen next….