Fort Fisher at Shedquarters

 I was very honoured to be invited to a games day at Grahams mythical 'Shedquarters' in Northamptonshire.

The shed itself! Although today we were playing a lawn game.

Tim was running the game and as I've done this sorts of thing before, I was helping out. We've actually done Fort Fisher before, the Union naval assault on the fort in 1865. some wikipedia background here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Fort_Fisher

The fort itself was built on a long headland (seen above) and commanded the approaches to Charlestone.

The Union 'secret weapon' was this captured CSA blockade runner, packed with 300 tons of gunpowder and to be employed rather like HMS Campbeltown at St Nazaire. I was in charge of this as a player-umpire.

The extensive fortifications were largely earthworks with various gun batteries dotted along them. This is at the river end.

The central portion of the fortifications. Chris K and Richard ran the Confederate defenders.

The mighty Union fleet. Chris A was the Admiral and Kevin the land commander with a reinforced infantry division available (four Regiments and a detachment of sharpshooters) plus three other subordinate commanders.

The fleet disposed of three ironclads, two battleships, four transport ships and a bomb ketch.

I was particularly taken with this monitor and 'Gene Kelly' dancing on the foredeck.

We had to come up with a cunning plan to assault and capture the fort, the complication being that the army was responsible for the land bit and the navy for the water bit. Each transport ship could carry a regiment, but only had enough boats to transport half a regiment at a time. After some negotiation we decided to attack the fort at the river entrance, after the naval bombardment had disrupted the defences and the bomb ship had blown a hole in it.

The fleet set off along the coast, Ironclads in the lead, battleships behind and transports out to sea. This turned out to be an error as the ironclads proved somewhat unreliable and kept drifting off course. At least we'd left enough sea room to avoid accidentally beaching any of the wayward ships.

Meanwhile, the bomb ship had beached itself at the river mouth and I lit the fuse and rowed hurriedly away. The CSA sent a scout to investigate.

Meanwhile the fleet was busily shelling the defences as they sailed along, mainly destroying the embankment to the east but not hitting many of the defending batteries.

The bomb ship eventually detonated, but was of course too far away to do significant damage to the battery, although it did damage the earthworks.

Meanwhile I was busy rowing away pursed by a shark.

But eventually made it to the safety of an ironclad which I gratefully boarded.

Where I discovered to my surprise that apparently the Army had decided on a different plan and were starting to debark right in the centre of the defences. The Army claimed to have told the Navy about this. but neither myself nor Chris were any the wiser.

The transports started to unload offshore, so it would take a few turns to row ashore. Unloading right in front of the strongest defences which hadn't even been shelled by the navy didn't strike me as very wise.

View from the far end. The beach visible in the foreground had been attacked in the First Battle of Fort Fisher, so was now heavily mined by the Confederates. The damaged section of embankment was the orange coloured section nearest the camera.

The first boats made it to the beach under heavy close range cannon fire. The real tragedy for the Union was that by this point the Confederate artillery only had a couple of turns fire left, if they had just waited a bit longer, the CSA gunners would have been defenceless.

Tim supervises proceedings. The prone position is required to fire the matchstick firing cannon. After weeks of drought Graham provide us with headless matches to mitigate the fire risk, but they had very interesting ballistic characteristics!

The Union infantry did get ashore in some numbers but rather than waiting for successive waves just advanced piecemeal against the defences with predictable results. They did make an attempt to get through the damaged section of embankment late in the game, but it was all too little too late and after a while it was fairly obvious the attack had failed.

In real life (and the previous two games) the Union blew there way through an undefended bit of the defences and then rolled up the fortifications from a flank, but the command confusion was just too great in this instance. As Clausewitz said, everything in war is simple, but the simple things become very difficult. Never has there been a better demonstration that you don't need complex C2 rules,  just lots of players.

That was loads of fun and everyone had a good go at firing matchsticks all over the garden. As we'd finished a bit early, Graham organised another game (Asculum with Neil Thomas Ancients) but sadly the jet lag had caught up with me and I headed for home instead as it was a fair way to Sheffield and I didn't feel great.

Many thanks to Graham for hosting and to Tim for running the game. I'm looking forward to a return visit.

The Last Redoubt, Belgium 1914 with Funny Little Wars

 Our latest f2f 54mm outing was back to 1914, and the Belgian defence of Antwerp, or at least the approaches to it. Tim ran it with his liberal interpretation of 'Funny Little Wars'.

The general layout, Antwerp and the National Redoubt are up in the top left with Russell modelling for scale. There is a canal  cutting across the battlefield and various towns dotted around. We christened the larger town on the canal Louvian.

Tim had recently scored a good eBay deal on a load of model railway buildings, and really lovely they were too. They really enhanced the look of the battlefield. Here is 'Louvain' with a few civilians scattered about, anxiously looking eastwards where Beastly Germans might be.

The National Redoubt. No, those aren't Airfix coastal gun emplacements but a carefully modelled Belgian fort. I was designated as overall commander of 6th Mixed Brigade and had my HQ here along with a company of Carabinieri and the mighty 40cm fortress battery. There are a couple of field batteries in evidence, I would allocate those to the front line units.

A nunnery nervously awaits the Germans, there was a monastery on the other side of the battlefield.

The Teutonic horde! An entire German Reserve Corps with two divisions of four Regiments and a reserve brigade of two Regiments. The Corps also had a cavalry regiment and seven field or howitzer batteries.

Pete and Lloyd commanded a division each while Simon was Corps commander.

The mobile element of 6th Mixed Brigade. A Cavalry Regiment supported by cyclists, a battalion of Chasseurs and a detachment of Minerva armoured cars! Russell commanded these - I assigned them to a mobile screening role well forward.

The infantry component was two small battalions of infantry with an MG detachment plus a mobile field kitchen (!). I assigned both field batteries to support them.

This force was the pivot of manouvre, holding both Louvain and one of the villages behind the canal which we had further fortified with inundations to act as a strongpoint.

We had to designate three objectives, the Germans then secretly assigned points values to them. We selected Louvain, the flooded village and the outskirts of Antwerp.

Close up of the fort with my personal figure manning the ramparts. I had a lengthy list of personal objectives which included giving as many press briefings as possible to emphasise the 'plucky; nature of our defence. Another was to appear to support the forward units, while actually amassing as many resources as possible for the defence of Antwerp...

Lloyds division came marching on down the main road in column, and then diverted off the highway across country (assume minor roads).

This was followed by Petes division which came straight down the highway in march column. It really looked quite menacing. The German Corps HQ with its howitzer batteries was further back, and there was no sign of the Reserve brigade. Unfortunately Lloyd had forgotten the German cavalry, so we used dismounted cavalry figures as scout squadrons. These busied themselves visiting the various settlements and engaging in beastly behaviour.

Russell meanwhile had conducted a masterful mobile defence and withdrawn across the canal, before marching north to defend the this canal crossing - the same one Lloyd was approaching. The Minerva was extremely mobile and reached the bridge long before anyone else.

The Germans deployed into fighting lines as they were sprayed with MG fire from the armoured cars. Their return fire was shrugged off by the vehicles armour, although the German field batteries can just be seen deploying in the distance.

The armoured cars brave defence allowed the Chasseurs and Cavalry to move into position. A ring of steel around the bridge!

Meanwhile the Germans were lining up for a frontal assault on Louvain, their two leading Regiments covered by artillery and MGs. The Belgian field batteries were hotly engaging the Germans now.

A bit of an overview, the flooded village is to the right and the Belgian artillery can just be seen to the bottom left of the inundations.

Sadly the defenders of Louvain didn't hold out for long as they were outnumbered about 8:1 and the town fell. Petes Germans fought their way through the town.

This brought them into cannister range of the Belgian guns. Instead of matchsticks, they got to fire Party Poppers at this range, and John got to fire two salvoes. Just look at the streamers all over those massed Germans...

The close range artillery fire shredded the Germans, and although they struggled to maintain their position for a while, the writing was on the wall for these two Regiments.

A German aircraft surveys the battlefield! The miracle of AI photo editing has removed the arm holding it....

One of the great things about playing at Tapton Hall are the lunches. I was going out in the evening, I 'just' had this very nice Shepherds Pie with gravy, cabbage and broccoli.

After lunch the massacre resumed, more close range cannon/Party Popper fire.

Followed up a cavalry/cyclist charge!

Which largely put Petes boys to flight. This division was finished now.

With most of Russells troops now in the centre, Lloyd finally managed to cross the canal on the left, while Petes artillery pounded the flooded village. This inflicted losses on the defenders and knocked out one of the field batteries. The Field Kitchen can just be seen in the foreground falling back to Antwerp.

Having crossed the canal, Lloyds Germans started marching right to relieve the pressure on Pete. This put their marching columns right across the front of the mighty Fortress artillery, personally directed by me, in the awed presence of the world press.

Hopefully you can see the German columns in the distance. Closer than it looks for matchstick cannon.

Much of Russells cavalry and the Minerva was now reinforcing the flooded village, which was still holding out. Lloyds first Regiments can be seen lined up along the highway, but flanking fire from the fortress had thinned their numbers considerably.

Back in Antwerp, the surviving Field Battery is set up on the highway, while Russells Chasseurs and busy digging in between the fortress and the outskirts of the city, awaiting the arrival of the British Naval Division.

The Germans clearly weren't going to take the village with the force they still had available. The Reserve Brigade never turned up at all, and with that we called it a day.

Most of us had achieved at least some of our personal objectives but when we totted up the Victory Points, it was a draw!

I think the Belgians can be quite pleased with that, and although I didn't capture it in pictures, the mobile force spent the game charging around all over the place, very heroic.

That was a great day out, very enjoyable, and while it may not be 100% historically accurate, captured the flavour of the period very well. Lovely toys too, a pleasure to push them around.

Herring Wars - Operation Kamerad

 Tim has been running a hypothetical late nineteenth/early twentieth century conflict between Denmark and Norway for some years now, "The Herring Wars". This is mainly an excuse to drag out lovely 1/1200th scale models of pre dreadnoughts, armoured cruisers etc but for various reasons I've missed every single session!

The rules themselves are fairly simple, but combat is resolved using Fred Jane type ship silhouettes as seen below.

If the ship is large and nearby, use a big template, small and far away, use a small template. They go into the custom shooting box. Instead of dropping darts on them as Fred Jane did however...

The actual firing is resolved by using Britains 25pdrs firing matchsticks at the targets. Here are the deadly guns lined up waiting for action. Of all the Britains various spring loaded guns, we've found over the years that the 25pdr is invariably the most accurate and powerful.

This time we were up at Tapton and making use of the very handy gridded floor in the main Masonic Lodge room. The original orders for each contingent had been written by various 'Admirals' scattered around the globe, I was cast as German , and Admiral von Holtzendorff (Micheal over in the US) had ordered me to locate and shadow a Russian squadron believed to be transiting the area. The first few moves were adjudicated hidden using these huge playing cards (easily A4 sized), and each square represents around 2 nautical miles.

A pair of Norwegian (?) armoured cruisers, delightful metal models from Navis (?) in Germany. Even the turrets rotate... hideously expensive models and we were under strict orders about when and where we were allowed to walk on the floor. Russell commanded the Norwegians.

We were aware that the Danes and Norwegians were out there, but what they were up to was anyones guess. My orders were to avoid an engagement unless attacked, I was basically to show the flag and shadow the Russians across the table.

Three Danish torpedo boats. Stacking too many ships in a square risked a collision, less of a problem with small ships, but you certainly didn't want to stack too many battleships or cruisers. Major turns required a dice roll, easy for small ships, harder for big ones and modified by damage sustained.

John commanded the Danes.

The main Danish battle squadron, a battleship and a pair of cruisers. We rolled each turn for visibility (the Skagerrac is notorious for fog banks etc) ands ships within a few squares were revealed. There were a number of dummies too. These guys are sailing a bit close to the wind in terms of collision risk.

My squadron eventually revealed itself as we approached an interesting (and slow moving set of cards). KMS Strassburg, (a Konigsberg class light cruiser) and a pair of torpedo boats. We'd been ordered to stay in one square to ease signalling, but we did seem a bit packed in. 

Fortunately in the distance was our target, a big old Russian battleship and a cruiser. They were wisely spread out, as the BB needed a 3+ to make a turn. Jerry was commanding the Russians The big surprise was that also in attendance was HMS Weymouth, a Royal Navy cruiser (commanded by Diego).

I had orders for a pre arranged signal to send to the Russians and a flurry of signal lamps ensued as we all attempted to hail each other and inform everyone of our identity and intentions. The poor weather and lack of skill of our signallers repeatedly interfered with our efforts, and only fragmentary messages were received. It was apparent no-one was shooting at anyone else so we all sailed eastwards in amiable company.

Further east a Danish airship had spotted some Norwegian fishing boats. Or are they Japanese torpedo boats?

There suddenly seemed to be an awful lot of warships in close proximity, but repeatedly bad weather hampered sighting attempts. There were sounds of gunfire as a squadron of Danish torpedo boats found one of the Norwegian fishing fleets and started to sink it! I'm fairly sure that is piracy on the high seas.

The Royal Navy (HMS Sussex?) investigates the Danish battleship. There seemed to be quite a few RN ships floating around. This particular encounter passed peacefully.

In the face of the Danish aggression, the other Norwegian fishing fleet scattered. The Royal Navy went tearing off to see what the Scandinavians were up to. 

In the south the Danes broke off their attacks after a number of TBDs became fouled in fishing nets. We and the Russians turned south and started to look for survivors, being a bit careful after a couple of dodgy turning rolls. We finally seemed to have established satisfactory communications and sailed along in convoy.

One of the nice things about Tapton are the great lunches! Meat pie, chips, mushy peas, gravy and Hendersons, washed down with a pint. Mmmmm.

Back in the hell of the Skagerrac, a major action developed between the Danes and Norwegians. Danish Torpedo Boats engaged Norwegian cruisers and came off rather worst (the big red golf tees).

Even the Danish battleship got into action, but in all the excitement I'm afraid I forgot to take enough pictures!

Having seen the Russians safely across the Skagerrac and into the Baltic, my squadron headed north towards the sound of the gunfire.

But by then both the Danes and Norwegians had broken off the action, neither apparently wanted to risk significant damage to their major surface units. You can see the damaged TBDs retreating past the fishing boats, and the rest of the Danes pulling back further north shadowed by the Royal Navy.

As the fighting had obviously finished, we called it a day at that point and did a round robin washup of what our various orders and aims had been. The Russians and Germans had managed their transit of the sea without major incident, the Norwegians claimed a winning draw based on how many ships/fishing boats they had sunk, but had clearly come off the worst in the encounter. The Royal Navy had however signally failed to keep the peace.

That was lots of fun and I found it quite inspiring. I don't do huge amounts of naval gaming but I thought the rules might work quite well with my Russo-Japanese War stuff, although I'd have to come up with some sort of dice system to resolve hits on the various sizes of target.