Blasthof Bridge

Tim was keen to get some more of his 54mm toys out for a proper battle, so he put on this game based on one of the scenarios in Brigadier Youngs 'Charge', entitled Blasthof Bridge. The wicked Elector was defying the Emperor in some nameless cockpit in central Europe, and set off the deny the river crossing at Blasthof. The Emperor despatched a force to forestall them.

John and I took the Imperials, Tim C and Richard the wicked Elector while Tim G adjudicated.

Blasthof Bridge in the centre of the table. Luckily the river was fordable for infantry and cavalry along much of is length.

Imperial forces. Two infantry regiments, a Cuirassier Regiment and and artillery battery.

The rebellious Elector. Two infantry regiments, a Dragoon Regiment and and artillery battery.

Our chaps set off smartly for the bridge, cavalry in the lead

The wicked electors troops stumbled raggedly forward.

Their dragoons went right flanking.

While our infantry columns plodded on. 

Our cuirassiers approached the bridge.

The Electors artillery unlimbered.

And their infantry shook out into line. Their dragoons decided to swing inside the hill rather than outside, putting all their units on converging tracks...

Our cuirassiers also deployed

As did our gun and infantry.

Oooer, our cavalry seem to be taking on the entire enemy Army.

Shootin' time. Tims trusty Britains 25pdr was deployed once more, but this time loaded with a mighty 'cannon ball'. That will make aiming interesting.

A home made target array was deployed in a box a an appropriate range for the firing weapon and target difficulty. The revised firing system worked extremely well, and was both fun and hilariously random.

First blood to the Elector as their cannon knocked out some cuirassiers.

In turn we managed to shoot up the charging Dragoons. Infantry regiments got one or two shots depending on strength, while the cannons generally got one.

Our mauled cavalry retired. 

But the enemy cavalry charged home.

John demonstrates his firing skill and magnificent tricorne.

The Dragoons were repulsed and fell back behind their infantry.

But the Electors infantry crossed the river. 

More firing took place.

As the infantry squared up in a musketry duel, the cavalry headed for the flanks.

Our brave horsemen splash through the river.

The Imperial commander and his staff supervise events.

The Electors army featured these shifty looking types carrying barrels of gunpowder. Up to no good no doubt.

Our cavalry met in a mighty clash.

And the Dragoons were duly routed. Sadly our cuirassiers pursued them off the table and were never seen again.

The terrible cannonande persisted.

Both sides traded shots until artillery ammunition began to run low.

One of my Regiments conducted a heroic charge, but were thrown back.

Over on the right my infantry were forced back by withering musketry and cannon fire.

The Electors demolition team very wisely hid behind the house as all this shooting was going on.

In the end, both sides were fought to exhaustion and we called an honourable draw. The Imperials were not in control of the bride, but the Elector had failed to blow it up.

That was lots of fun and very visually appealing. Tim has succeeded in replacing all the dice throws in Funny Little wars with physical mechanisms and it works very well. He has also reported on this game already at  http://megablitzandmore.blogspot.com/2019/03/blasthof-bridge.html

QRF 15mm 5.5" guns

While my 20mm and 6mm British are amply equipped with heavy artillery, my 15mm chaps are somewhat less well supported. As I'm apparently consolidating on 15mm as my scale of choice, I though it was time to get some heavier pieces than just 25pdrs. Purists look away now, but at a pinch they will also do quite nicely as Soviet heavy guns, the sort of thing to be found in Breakthrough Gun Artillery Divisions.

So, off went an order to QRF, purveyors of fine scale model artillery.

Here are the finished things, nice chunky models with a definite feel of the Airfix kit about them!

I'm normally a bit nervous about assembling metal guns as they can be exceedingly fiddly. Some manufacturers can be relied upon to go together well (Peter Pig) but others are a bit variable. These were nice and easy however, the trails fitted well in their locating lugs the barrel just squeezed in between the trunnions. 

There was very little flash, just a bit on the trails and a mould line on the barrel which came off easily enough. My Airfix 5.5." guns have gunmetal breech blocks, but I did a fair degree of looking at photos of real ones and painted seems to be far more common so I left them in the base colour. I particularly liked the detail on the tyres which drybrushed up very well.

I did try and source some bareheaded gunners in shirtsleeves, and while they are readily available in 20mm, it would have required a moderate amount of conversion in 15mm and in the end didn't bother. Serving a heavy gun in full battledress and fighting order does seem a bit odd, but hey ho. A couple of the supplied figures are in leather jerkins, which I thought was a nice touch. At the end of the day, they are figures in brown with green helmets, so from a distance will do as 'Russians' if need be. 

Stalluponen, August 1914

I thought it was time to dig out my WW1 Russians, and inspired by Pritt Buttars 'Collision of Empires' I worked up a scenario for Stalluponen. Tim noted that we'd actually already done this twice already, but hey ho, off we go into the breach again.

OP14, my 15mm Russians and Germans on hexon terrain. I'd cleverly managed to bring OP16 instead (which I'd set up to play on squares) so there was a moderate amount of confusion about turning limits, but we'd played enough OP14 to figure it out.

View from the north, Russans entering from the left, Germans from the right.

The enthusiastic and efficient German command team. John and Tim G.

Rennenkampfs Russians demonstrating their professionalism. Tim C, and Jerry doing his Kutusov impersonation. Tim is resplendant in my carefully converted Tsarist cap complete with Tsarist enamel badge glued on with blu tak over the hammer and sickle.

Von Francois' advance guard. I decided to use two base Brigades for this to avoid too much congestion as four 15mm bases in a hex takes up a lot of space.

The Russians advance guard was handicapped by poor C3 and logistics, a run of clubs and spades causing them to dither in position around the railway station.

The rest of Francois' Corps hurried to the front.

While hordes of Russians began to roll on.

The Russian steamroller was really quite impressive. Two entire Corps.

The German advance guard deployed around Stalluponen while the rest of the Corps hurried up.

The second division moved up to cover the northern flank. Abteilung Frank now made an appearance from the southwest.

The leading Russian Corps began to deploy around the railway line, while the second started moving ominously fast towards the southern flank. Those pesky woods rather got in the way.

A Russian cavalry division appeared form the north. Their first battlefield appearance.

This caused much excitement among the Germans who hurriedly unlimbered their artillery. Meanwhile the troops around the town had dug some rudimentary trenches. And so it starts.

16 Flieger Abteilung located the cavalry among the woods and the German field guns laid down a devastating barrage against the marching columns of horsemen.

The first Russians Corps was by now fully deployed but remained in place, fixing the Germans in position.

The German aircraft continued to hover over the Russian cavalry.

The Russians began to outflank Stalluponnen from the south as Franks brigade moved up. Again, the German artillery inflicted losses on the Russians as they began to deploy.

The Russian cavalry were quite thin on the ground now and at 50% strength any offensive potential was lost. A fairly typical first outing for a unit! They dispersed into a skirmish screen and took no more useful part in the battle.

Franks brigade was assaulted in the open by an entire Russian division while both sides artillery boomed out. Outnumbered and unable to deploy their MGs, they were driven back by the Russians.

The general situation. Lots of trenches were now appearing along the front. So much for mobile warfare!

After its early success, the German airforce was now grounded by a series of black cards.

It all now hung on the action in the south.

Abt Frank counterattacked, supported by the divisional and corps artillery. They took some losses but inflicted enough casualties on the Russians to overrun their lead brigade.

The cumulative losses broke the Russian Corps (it had lost half its infantry strength by now) and the Russian attack ground to a halt as night fell.

Jerry apparently never woke up from his nap, but his Corps was holding the front as ordered!

The Germans had come out rather better in terms of loss ratios (approx 10,000 Russian vs 2,000 Germans) and the Russian advance was halted, so they won this round. That was broadly in line with the historical experience as Rennenkampf somehow managed to fumble his massive numeric advantage (20 divisions in eight Corps vs just two Prussian divisions!) to be defeated in detail.

Historically Francois's impetuous advance and success against Rennenkampf  prompted the Germans to try their luck again at Gummbingen, with rather more unfortunate results for Germany.

As ever a good outing with OP14, and it was nice to give the Russians a taste of battle.  Seven and a half divisions engaged, resolved in an hour and a half.