A second 2nd Hukou

We first visited that immense yet ignored conflict, the Taiping Rebellion, back in February when we fought the Second Battle of Hukou (report here). In the intervening time, our scholarly friend and scenario author Jeremy has revised it on the basis of our first playtest (plus one of his own), so we tried it again: a second Second Hukou, you might say.

In our first game, the Taipings' assault had foundered somewhat on unduly fearsome imperial artillery redoubts. The revised version reduced the amount of artillery. This time the Taipings (commanded by Dave T and Mark) swept over the Qing stockades rather more easily, but still not without some serious tussles. The really interesting part came after the line was breached, as the Qing scrambled to evacuate part of their army while still covering objectives in the depth of their position. 

Some pictures, with some commentary, and then some reflections.

February's battlefield was a bit bleak - no trees or houses. For this game, Bob built some of the 6mm Oriental Village pack from Paper Terrain. Cute!

View from behind the Taipings as they form up to assault the Qing defences. All the Qing start with yellow counters for Disruption (or Low Ammo for the cannon). Most of the Qing infantry are Raw (the infamously underfunded regular troops). The ones in yellow uniforms are Trained but Fragile (more disciplined Hunanese militia but reeling from an earlier defeat). All the Taipings are Aggressive; those in light blue are Veterans armed with decent muskets, so are the only infantry not to be penalised with Ragged Volleys.

Big white counters are objectives: the three fortified stockades; the junction at Sanli (top centre); the escape route levee across the lake (top left - an addition since playtest #1); and the town of Hukou (out of shot top right). The wooded ridge is mostly impassable and separates the main battlefield from the road to Hukou along the Yangtze (upper right).

Trained (but Fragile) yellowcoat Hunanese militia in the front line; raw regulars mostly in the second line; cavalry backing them up.

Battle is joined. The easternmost stockade (foreground) is outflanked by Lindley's "picked men" and swiftly overrun, but the other redoubts prove more ... redoubtable.

The Qing respond. All Bob's cavalry do is rally and trot forward a bit. (He actually forgot to do it on Turn 1, would you believe, but we gave him a Mulligan. "You had one job ..."!) My infantry launch a couple of countercharges to no great effect. One of my damaged units has fallen back and formed column (the yellow "T" left foreground) to head for the boats in Hukou.

View from behind the Taiping line. Taipings press forward. The Qing line bends a bit but hasn't yet snapped. 

Now the cavalry arrive! And my yellowcoats join in, enveloping a whitecoat Taiping unit. But although the Qing numbers look impressive, the superior quality of the highly motivated Taiping fanatics meant none of our charges did any real damage except to ourselves. A little unlucky.

Meanwhile, Taiping cavalry (left foreground) was sneaking up along the Yangtze towards Hukou. Fortunately a substantial and adequately garrisoned fort bars their way. However, Taiping guns will be along soon to pummel it. In Hukou itself, one infantry unit supports the artillery defending the town; a second (the "T" from three pics previous) queues at the quayside to embark; a third (bottom right) has already taken to the boats and quit the battle. If we can get three units off, we earn an objective - not as straightforward as it sounds, as denuding Hukou risks losing the town objective. The big green D12 is the turn clock: it's Turn 5 of 10.

Now the Qing have been forced out of all their fortified line (the red troops left edge were in the westernmost stockade). Undaunted, a brave Qing brigade retakes the central stockade! In the distance top left, another yellow brigade has fallen back and formed column, hoping to move through Sanli (right of top edge) to Hukou.

My gallant counterattackers. They won't last long. However, we do manage a couple of bloody exchanges elsewhere on the battlefield, where Qing and Taiping units mutually destruct entirely. That's probably a good trade-off for the Qing, whose troops are worse, whereas the Taipings need as many units as possible to advance and take as many objectives as possible.

Beginning of the end. The Qing army is disintegrating now. Taiping veterans have seized Sanli (left) and the Taipings are wiping out Qing units at an increasing rate. Those Spent Qing troops (blue counter) bottom right won't be able to hold the levee exit objective against onrushing Taipings (out of shot to the right).

All was not lost, though - Bob mustered two cavalry brigades and retook Sanli. Although it would fall again shortly, this would protect Hukou from a possible attack from the rear. As Mark's cavalry assault on my fort was rebuffed, Hukou stayed secure. That plus the units we evacuated was enough to earn a draw.

"To the boats, men!" I can see Bob needs to acquire some junks for next time ...

Reflections

The Rules As Written. Jeremy had introduced new weapon types to reflect the idiosyncracies of cumbersome and inefficient Chinese artillery and assorted infantry armament. For this second playtest, we threw those out and just applied a blanket "Ragged Volleys" attribute (R) - a left shift on the firing table - per the standard rulebook. Mathematically this works out much the same. It showed that BBB as written is flexible enough to cover idiosyncratic troops and doesn't usually need any new rule.

Phase II Was the Fun Bit. As I've noted before, there is limited entertainment to be had from "smash-mouth" frontal assaults on fortified lines. But here, the initial assault was both necessary and interesting, as the speed and manner in which the Taipings breached the Qing line then shaped the ensuing Phase II. As the defenders, Bob and I were having to make decisions about whether and when to counterattack and shore up the line or fall back and cover the various objectives beyond. The attackers similarly had to decide which units should exploit in which direction. It worked well as a scenario situation.

Divided Command. Mark and Dave had a sensible division of command: Dave took the Taiping left wing, Mark the right. For the hell of it, Bob and I did it differently: I commanded the infantry while he had the cavalry and artillery. This produced amusing results as we regularly failed to coordinate, but it kind of felt right for an army run by mandarin bureaucracy.

Replay Value. Our two playtests produced quite different games. Of course this was partly due to scenario revision, but also due to the Taipings following different plans. Both sides have some options, particularly concerning the sideshow route along the Yangtze, so as and when we do it again (a "Third Second Hukou"|?), I can imagine it going differently again. That's the richness of complete-battle scenarios at this scale.

More, Please! This game did have a distinctive Chinese flavour. Jeremy has produced a second scenario and is working on a third, so hopefully we will get more Taiping action on the table soon. Looking forward to it!

90,000 vs 50,000 at the Nivelle (1813)

The battle of the Nivelle took place in November 1813, by which time the Peninsular War had crossed over into France. It was one of the last major actions of the campaign (there were to be two more at the Nive and Toulouse). It will be one of the scenarios in the BBB Peninsular War campaign book currently in preparation.

Marshal Soult was trying to defend a 20-mile line in front of the Nivelle river with 50,000 men - too few, even with numerous fortifications in rugged country, against the Allies' 90,000. Wellington's plan was to demonstrate against the French left and right, then attack in the centre with the aim of cutting off the French right wing in the coastal sector.

Wellington's Spanish allies had been misbehaving and exacting revenge on the French populace for French depredations in Spain. He therefore intended to leave them behind after this battle and press on with his British and Portuguese troops only. This and previous losses meant he was wary of incurring too many casualties on his British units, a factor which Mark's scenario reflects nicely by stipulating that the Allies lose an Objective if at least one British unit becomes Spent or destroyed. That certainly affected the Allies' tactics in the game.

Apart from that, victory in the game is determined by a conventional formula. There are 12 Objective locations (mostly redoubts or fortified villages, plus one important bridge). The Allies need to take 7 for a draw or 8 to win. Seven annotated photos below illustrate the action. If you just want to read my reflections on the game, skip to the end.

Panorama looking north from behind the Allied lines. Black lines are contours as the hilly terrain slopes down towards the River Nivelle. White counters mark the Objectives.

The Light Division is on the highest peak (the 'Grande Rhune') lower left, facing a French redoubt immediately in front of it on the Petite Rhune, which is supported by the substantial works around the Signal Redoubt on the heights upper centre. The rest of the Allied troops on table are in an arc from centre of left edge to bottom right corner; about a quarter of the Allied army has yet to arrive and will enter in Turns 1-3.

The French are thinly spread. They will receive a couple more divisions top left on Turn 2, plus they have a chance of bringing on Foy's division from the upper right edge at some point.

The French redoubts are armed with a motley assortment of cannon from the Bayonne arsenal, giving them 2 points of artillery firepower. When several were able to combine against a single Allied unit in their crossfire, this did cause the Allies some grief.

The Light Division would be the first to taste the pain of French redoubt(able) artillery. The assorted Riflemen, Cacadores and Lights seen here are about to lose a base to French fire as soon as they advance against that redoubt. Counters indicate unit Attributes: green = Aggressive, orange = Devastating Volleys. (Figures 6mm Baccus from Mark's collection. No, I don't think he's ever going to flock the bases, he likes the boardgame look.)

Our attack develops in the centre. (Mark took the Allied left. I had the Allied centre/right. Dave W commanded the French.) See that empty fortified village centre of pic? A French division held that long enough to make me deploy my guns and prepare my assault, then fell back smartly to join its friends in the redoubt top centre before I could crush it. A clever fighting withdrawal by Dave.

As Mark's Light Div and supporting Portuguese have been rebuffed by the Petite Rhune redoubt (yellow cubes indicate Disrupted), I have had to wheel a large Spanish division onto its flank to help when they try again. Wellington himself observes, unimpressed.

Meanwhile, on the Allied right, a similar story: a French division held the empty earthwork in the foreground long enough to force us to deploy early, then fell back on its supports. Besides, it had taken an age for the Allied right wing to cross the Nivelle - lots of poor dice. And we still have to climb that steep slope (the black line) before we can get at the French. To make things worse, Dave rolled the 6 he needed to bring on Foy's division (top left) at the first opportunity, Turn 2. This would keep my potent 6-base unit, 6th Division (top right), busy for the rest of the game. On the plus side, bringing on Foy did reduce our victory target to 6 Objectives for a draw or 7+ for a win.

The dam is breached: although it has cost us several thousand men, we Allies have now taken the Petite Rhune and the Signal Redoubt (the former's garrison now trapped between them), taken the village of Sare (foreground), crossed the abattis (right edge) and stormed the redoubt in front of Amotz. That's four of the Objectives we need right there, with no real prospect of the French retaking any of them.

What you can't see is the action in the coastal sector on our left. There Mark had captured two Objectives (Ascain and Olhette) but Dave launched a vigorous counterattack that not only retook the latter but also smashed a brigade of British 4th Div, costing us another Objective. Hence we were back to needing to hold 7 Objective locations for a draw or 8 to win - and now we only had 5.

Fortunately, my right flank attack finally got into gear against those additional three Objectives we needed. The French 2nd Div was expelled from the extreme leftmost redoubt (centre right edge), from where we would go on to roll up 3rd Div in the next redoubt along, as well as seizing the bridge Objective. Victory to the Allies - but (in classic BBB fashion) only just, and on the last turn.

Reflections

A Scenario with a Difference. Scenario special rules are one of those good things you can have too much of. In this case, Mark hit the sweet spot with his redoubt artillery. The French fortifications were not a continuous line that could have forced us to conduct a boring frontal assault. Instead, they were a patchwork that gave the battlefield depth and texture and made defeating them - with their intrinsic firepower - an interesting tactical challenge.

The Art of Counterattack! Part of the joy of playing battles on this scale is the ebb and flow they enable. In smaller games, a defender might have one reserve unit and therefore one decision to make - i.e., when and where to commit it. At BBB's scale, there is the time, space, and number of units to conduct more than one counterattack, or repeated efforts. Dave's active defence exemplified this, incorporating not only his timely fighting withdrawals but also a couple of important counterattacks. One failed but the other actually put him in a winning position for a while. It certainly caused some palpitations on the Allied side.

Learning Some History. I knew nothing of this episode before Monday night. Mark's game brought it to life for me in a way that reading a book could not. Thanks, ref!

"Cedar Creek?" "Yes, I do!" (ACW)

(Sorry for the lame pun, but at least it got your attention, right?)

Hard to believe I first played this battle seven years ago (report here). Second time around was this week and I know a bit more about the American Civil War now than I did then. Specifically, I've been reading a lot lately about the operations around the siege of Petersburg, arguably the decisive final episode of the war. That provides important context for Cedar Creek. In an effort to distract Grant from Petersburg and Richmond, in July 1864 Lee sent Jubal Early up the Shenandoah Valley to threaten Washington. Grant responded by putting the aggressive Phil Sheridan in charge of the newly-created Army of the Shenandoah to confront Early. The Shenandoah Campaign culminated in the battle of Cedar Creek in October 1864. The Confederates were defeated, Early and Sheridan both returned to their parent armies around Petersburg, and Abraham Lincoln was re-elected on the back of Sheridan's victory.

Not only that, but it provided a brilliant exciting game! Or rather, half of an abortive one-sided affair, then another rather better game after we abandoned the first one early to re-set and go again.

Game 1: Dave T and I were the Confederates, while Mark and Dave W donned the blue. I was suffering from battle fatigue - too many late nights and early mornings lately - so I made two bad errors at the start. Fixating on destroying the exposed US advance guard corps, I persuaded Dave T to send one of his divisions against its rear, when they should all have been racing up the road on our right to get behind the US left and seize objectives asap. I compounded that by unnecessarily exposing a small division of my own to distant but still dangerous fire from its rear, and lucky dice soon killed it. (Actually, make that three errors - I deployed my artillery too soon and therefore too far back. It could have helped more in the centre.)

We eventually took the first objective, but some unkind dice meant this took a turn longer than it might have. We pressed on to threaten the two more objectives we needed for victory. However, my errors plus the unfortunate delay meant our right flank was vulnerable to envelopment once the US reserves came into play. Mark made no mistake and took due advantage. As we were clearly going to be overwhelmed and the night was young, we agreed to bin that game, swap sides, and try it again. We also made a mid-session tweak to delay the release of the furthest US reserves by a turn.

Just a few pics of this initial brief fiasco to orient you before we tell you about Game 2.

US cavalry dismounted in their camps, guarding a Cedar Creek crossing.

Baccus 6mm figures and terrain from Crispin's collection.

Overview of the whole US position.

Advance guard in the foreground is Crook's fragile divisions from the Army of West Virginia.

Half of Early's Confederate force is about to enter along the table edge visible to the left. The rest, under Gordon, will march on behind Crook via the road that arrives in pic upper right. I made Dave T divert one of Gordon's divs along the road that arrives lower right.

The three white counters are objectives. There should be a fourth at the road junction on the ridge (top centre); follow that road off the top of pic and it takes you to the fifth objective, Middletown. Confederates need to take any three of these five to win, or two to draw.

It took us several turns to dispose of Crook. Here we are eventually approaching a second objective (the bridge at top centre of pic) but we have lost Wharton's entire division and the US has had time to respond.

Turn 4: Sheridan has arrived on the field (tip of the ridge, top right) to see his men have vacated their camps swiftly and efficiently. Can't blame them - typical shyster government suppliers, providing flimsy paper tents rather than sturdy canvas. Lower left of this pic, the cavalry advance against the Confederate left, threatening to overrun our artillery and retake the bridge objectives. US cavalry are very dangerous, being armed with repeating carbines.

Gordon's men try valiantly to drive the bluebellies back and take the Belle Grove objective (centre of pic). Beware that US column on the ridge, about to descend on Gordon's right flank. It duly did, wiping out Pegram's division, at which point we Confederates threw in the towel.

Game 2 was much better, much closer, much more exciting. Follow the action in these seven annotated photos, and/or read my reflections at the end.

View of the echeloned initial US deployment from the Union side. Yellow counters denote that these units start Disrupted; the black counter indicates that this unit and all those behind it are not released until Turn 3.

Turn 3 has arrived, and so have Gordon's three Confederate divisions at top of pic - in column of march, dashing to seize Middletown (off pic top left corner), the road junction on the ridge, and Belle Grove. Our two forward divisions (XIX Corps) are about to be caught in an enfilading crossfire as Early advances against their right and one of Gordon's units against their left.

Some of our newly released divisions react by advancing against the foe, but not all. Keifer's division (foreground) stubbornly refused to quit its tents until Turn 7.

A jubilant Jubal Early applauds as Kershaw's division takes the bridge objective and loots Crook's camp.

Whereas in Game 1 Mark sent the US cavalry against the Confederate left, of necessity I had to send them to help my infantry counter Gordon on the opposite side of the battlefield. Dave's largest division, upper right, has now been rendered Spent by the Confederate crossfire.

A Union success! My counterattack goes in and retakes the ridge objective, then keeps it secure until game end. Retaking Middletown as well would have been nice but it was just too far away.

This is the situation at the end of Turn 7, before a truly mad final Turn 8. Normally our BBB battles end with two or three objectives in play. This time there was really only one - but it was in play from multiple directions.

At the moment of this pic, that bridge is still Union-held, as the Confederates have taken the righthand end of it but not the left. To claim it, either that 2-base cavalry unit has to dash across it from right to left, or the 5-base infantry line needs to storm past it and drive those Union guns out of their fortification.

Mark got the rolls he needed for both those moves, as well as being able to launch his 3-base cavalry column (top centre) in a charge to distract my dangerous cavalry unit in the wood and prevent it hurting his infantry assault. That sacrificed some of his own cavalry, but he did carry the fortification and seize the bridge.

It still wasn't over - the US had the last move. If my cavalry could charge his repulsed 3-base cavalry unit in turn, rout it, then go on to beat the 2-base one that had crossed the bridge, we could retake it and salvage a draw. We did charge, we did wipe out the first unit, but couldn't exploit onto the second

End result therefore a Confederate victory, but a hard-fought one, by God!

Reflections:

When Should You Abandon a Game? One of the virtues of a game system like BBB that uses dice to inject unpredictability into movement and combat, allowing a small percentage chance of combat results that go significantly against the apparent odds, is that game situations that seem disastrous can often be salvaged or even turned around. We had an example of that just last week, at Medina de Rio Seco, where Crispin was ready to give up but managed to not only hang on for a draw but almost sneak a win. That's one good reason not to quit early. Another is offered by Professor Nicholas Murray, formerly of the US Naval War College. He advocates fighting games through to the end, even when one side has made some obviously crass error early on - in fact, especially then, because he says having to suffer the full consequences of that error, with all the pain and embarrassment of the resulting defeat, is important for driving home the relevant lessons. So, were we wrong to quit our first game early this time? I'd say not, given that our major objective was to playtest the scenario. Playing the game 1.5 times, with different plans on both sides, was a better use of our time on this occasion. (And mitigated my pain and embarrassment. I've had a proper night's sleep now, thanks for asking.)

Target Fixation vs 'The Bigger Picture'. I didn't do a proper appreciation of the situation at the start. I did up to a point, in that I at least knew our Confederates had to take two objectives to draw or three for a win, and I did propose a method that could have beaten enough US units to enable us to do so. But I overlooked the potential value of getting a strong right hook into the US rear early on, and instead let myself be distracted by the easy prey of Crook's corps in front of me.

What a Finish! After my self-inflicted travails and frustrations on the Confederate side, there was no shortage of scenario-imposed travails and frustrations for me on the Union side (passive units failing to move, etc). But all those were more than made up for by those glorious, climactic last couple of turns. The focus on that last bridge objective; the tension as both sides tried desperately to bring every available unit to bear, either to take or defend the bridge or to thwart some enemy move to that end; the way each move by each of the half-dozen units involved became critical; the way we hung on those last few combat dice rolls - it was fantastically exciting. Great game!

Unrevised draft scenario is in the BBB io group files here. For our amended game, we added a fifth objective on the ridge between Belle Grove and Middletown; delayed release of US cav and two VI Cps divs until T3; changed Sheridan's command radius back to the regular 6".