Another dose of Opium: Palikao (1860)

Following last month's Taku Forts game, we continued the Second Opium War with the Battle of Palikao.

(We should really have done the intervening battle of Zhangjiawan first. I think I mistook alphabetical order for chronological. Too much opium? We'll fight Zhangjiawan another time.)

The Allies have received reinforcements and are advancing towards Peking. They meet the main imperial Qing army deployed south of the Tonghui canal. The Allied C-in-C, Grant, sees a chance to trap the Qing against the canal. He launches an attack to capture two key bridges and cut off the Qing's escape. The Qing respond with a massed cavalry charge by their Mongol auxiliaries. An Allied counter-charge puts the Mongols to flight but in dealing with the Mongols, Grant fails to close the trap on the imperial army.

Jeremy's scenario design captures this nicely. Victory is determined by how quickly the Allies can capture the two bridges: capture both by Turn 7 for a win, by Turn 8 for a draw, and lose if they can't capture both by Turn 8.

The battlefield prior to deployment, looking south from the Qing side of the table. My new vinyl battlemat from Deepcut is very pretty but its shininess is a problem for photography, sorry. The canal with its two bridge objectives is in the foreground, with a stream running parallel beyond it. The area is flat and intensively cultivated, dotted with little villages whose dense orchards and garden enclosures mean they are equivalent to woods in game terms. The villages are connected by a maze of roads that will probably be simplified when Jeremy revises the scenario, as most of them don't really come into play. The brown felt is irrigation canals which again didn't come into play much. Top left is the town of Gaocun from which the Allies have debouched.

Troops on the table. Again I am using Ottomans as proxies for the masses of imperial Qing infantry in the centre and left of pic. This time I had to conscript some ACW cavalry to fill out the ranks of the Mongol horde on the right wing, being helpfully gestured at here by Nick. The Allied front line is a French brigade, with a smaller French unit covering its left against the Mongols. The British infantry brigade is behind the French top of pic; the Anglo-Indian cavalry brigade out of shot behind the infantry.

View from behind the Allied lines after the Qing have been properly moved up to their initial position. The red puff marks a rocket battery supporting the French. The Allies are outnumbered 4:1 but British pluck will prevail, surely?

Qing Turn 1. Nick hurls his Mongols at the Allied left (upper left of pic). Meanwhile, the Qing left wing commanded by Mark takes a judicious step back towards the stream, preferring to exercise strategic patience and play for time. White puffs mark Disruption caused by Allied fire, which repulsed most of the charges.

Dave W's Allied cavalry brigade (the three bases centre of pic) obliged by countercharging, then got enveloped by swarms of Mongols. Supporting fire will see off most of these and Her Majesty's horse will repel the rest.

Brown puffs mark French units now Low on Ammo after wiping out some of the Chinese batteries in front of them. The Mongols charging in again lower left of pic are already Spent (black puff) and about to evaporate.

Our French commander, Crispin, then wheeled his brigades to the left. The objective bridges and canal are now out of shot to the right of this pic. Most of the French are about to head west and help the Allied cavalry to chase off the Mongols.

That leaves me with the British infantry brigade on the right wing to take the more direct route to the righthand (easternmost) bridge, just visible top of pic. My movement rolls are a bit tardy though, plus I was at the rear to start with, so it is taking me a couple of turns to get properly into action.

 

Dragon's-eye view circa Turn 4 or 5. The Qing regulars are all compressed into their bridgehead top centre. French and British infantry lines are converging on them from left and right. The cavalry fight continues to sprawl across the left (western) half of the pitch. Time is ticking away for the Allies.

Almost all the Qing infantry are now behind the stream that parallels the canal. British infantry is following up but as yet unable to close with the bayonet.

Next turn and all the Qing have been driven north of the stream. However, our charges across the stream have bounced off and we will have to try again. (White puffs of post-Assault disruption.)

The renewed Assault has mixed results: we wipe out a lot of Qing infantry, but quel horreur - the Qing regular cavalry behind them then routs the French grenadiers and engineers, who flee the field, trailing black smoke! (For dramatic effect only.)

The French on the left half of the battlefield have had more success and finally taken the western bridge (out of pic). It is the final turn and the British must take this eastern bridge to avoid defeat and salvage a draw. The 99th Foot and the Ludhiana Sikhs duly charge in, as do the French 101e. (Here we see one of the disadvantages of 6mm, as Crispin inadvertently sends some of his French in backwards, while Mark apparently seeks to repel them using his horses' rumps. Sometimes it's hard to tell which way these small figures are facing.)

British bayonets do the deed! We force the Qing back from the bridge and repel their last desperate charge. A red counter is planted on the Objective and an honourable draw is obtained. Hurrah for John Bull!

Reflections

Asymmetry is tricky to balance. The huge disparity in numbers is offset by massive Allied quality advantage. In the actual battle, the Allies only suffered about 50 casualties, as against some 1,200 Chinese. This required Jeremy not only to use all the usual attributes (lots of Aggressive, Skirmisher, Devastating, and Shock cavalry for the Allies; Passive, Fragile, Raw, Tactically Inept Chinese) but also to grant the Allies some other special powers: more manoeuvrable artillery, less penalty for flanks being assaulted, etc. Early on, it looked as though this had made the Allies too superhuman and it would be a walkover. However, they had to fight the clock as well as the Qing, and the Qing's sheer numbers enabled them to impose respectable delay. The resulting last-turn nailbiter suggests Jeremy got the balance about right.

Options and replayability. As the Qing left wing commander, Mark bore up nobly in the face of his inevitable crushing by superior Allied quality. But to be willing to fight it again, he said he would want more objectives on the table to give the Qing more options about how to play it. In particular, he advocated adding an objective or two to represent Allied concern about their flanks and line of communications. To be considered.

Simplify, simplify. As noted, some of the roads were redundant table clutter. There were also quite a lot of non-standard scenario special rules that generated mental clutter. Some of these can probably be stripped away or made more standard to make life simpler and easier for players without detracting from the scenario.

Must paint my Chinese armies. I've had them quite a few months now. Unfortunately I'm not always in the same town as they are, and there are too many other distractions, and they are Irregular Miniatures that need quite a lot of cleaning and trimming before I can base and paint them ... I'll get around to it, honest.

Battle of the Bulge tour

I know my military history but I'd never really appreciated the scale and importance of the Battle of the Bulge. This has now been corrected by a week's holiday in Bastogne.

The Bulge rivals the battle for Normandy in terms of its scale, duration, area, numbers of men and vehicles, intensity of fighting - and, nowadays, the number of excellent museums. I'm not going to attempt an exhaustive list of these, or even a full account of the umpteen places we visited. You'll find ample tour guidance elsewhere. Here I'll just scratch the surface with a few highlights.

No trip to Belgium is complete without a beer.

Fortunately in Bastogne they brew "Patton" and "Airborne".

We started at the Elsenborn Ridge memorial, above the villages of Krinkelt and Rocherath. This is where US forces held off the Volksgrenadiers of 6th Panzer Army, preventing the Germans from expanding the northern edge of the Bulge.

From the ridge, we then followed Kampfgruppe Peiper on the obligatory pilgrimage to La Gleize. The December 44 museum there is truly excellent.

For dedicated trackheads and rivet-counters, Bastogne Barracks is a must. This is a Belgian Bovington, with dozens and dozens of interesting vehicles and weapons. E.g., I liked the German 105mm gun that was subsequently used by the Nigerian army in the Biafran War. But it seems fitting to represent the Barracks with this AEC armoured car used by Brigade Piron, the Free Belgian formation that helped to liberate Belgium and the Netherlands.

Having done the northern flank, then we invaded Luxembourg. The National Military Museum in Diekirch is again excellent. Like most of the museums we went to, it has some really well done dioramas like this one.

There's a ton of stuff in its vehicle hall, including these guys in their Hanomag.

One of the most bizarre exhibits is this shell from the V-3 multi-charge long-range gun.

Typical expensive overly elaborate and impractical Nazi ingenuity.

Diekirch also has a fabulous collection of weapons and ammunition. This is just part of it.

See how many exotic firearms you can spot in just this one photo.

After that we were pretty much Bulged out. We did go to the 101st Airborne Museum in Bastogne, again excellent, but no photos. And decided to save the ones at Manhay and La-Roche-en-Ardenne for next time.

Instead, for variety, we visited the Fort de Leveau on the way home. This model shows it when it was first built in the 1880s. It was part of the complex of fortifications around Maubeuge, which in turn was part of the whole system of frontier defences constructed by France after being defeated in the Franco-Prussian War. It was battered but not destroyed during the two-week Siege of Maubeuge in 1914 (possibly worthy of wargaming). It also saw some action in 1940 and again in 1944.

Here's how it looks now. It's very well preserved and houses a really good museum with masses of exhibits. That was an hour well spent (and it really deserves more).

This was a terrific holiday and, of course, it stimulated the wargamer brain. I've dabbled in Bulge games a couple of times: Colin's KG Peiper game back in 2015, then a company-sized skirmish in 2020. But now I have a hankering to do some multi-division scenarios as a campaign ... maybe even base up troops on proper snowy bases ... so many projects, so little time!

BBB Bash Days 2026 and 2027

The annual BBB 'Bash Day' convention has become a popular institution. This year's Bash Day VII took place in Sheffield on 27 June, the day before Baccus's wonderful Joy of Six show. I have been slow to report on it for a couple of (good and positive) reasons.

The Bash Day itself was one of the most successful yet. Some 36 of us filled the Crookes Social Club to capacity and refought six historical battles:

Waterloo

Kapolna (Hungarian War of Independence)

Isted (First Schleswig-Holstein War)

The Alma (Crimean War)

Pea Ridge (American Civil War)

Coulmiers (Franco-Prussian War)

Post-event questionnaires produced very positive feedback - mostly 9 or 10 out of 10 and none below 7 - a huge tribute to the good work of the gamemasters and especially our local organiser, Tom Davis. A big thank you and congratulations to all of them. Thank you also to all the participants, a fine crew as ever, knowledgeable and enthusiastic and good company all. Thanks also go to our generous sponsors: Baccus, Brigade Models, Moonhopper and Pendraken.

Naturally, people were immediately asking about plans for next year. These have evolved on two fronts. Discussions have taken a while but I can now make a double announcement.

BBB section within Joy of Six, Sheffield, 18 July 2027

First: as the conjunction with Joy of Six was so natural and successful, there was a lot of support for the idea of repeat events in Sheffield. As it happens, Baccus plan to expand JOS in 2027 and are inviting formal participation by popular rulesets. I am honoured to report that BBB has been included in that number. We have therefore agreed to offer a BBB section within Joy of Six next year. It will be on Sunday 18 July and we will be looking for gamemasters to run BBB games then. Details to follow.

Bash Day VIII: Tonbridge, 27 February 2027

Second: we still want to have a roving Bash Day taking BBB to different parts of the country. Next year's will be in Tonbridge, Kent, on Saturday 27 February 2027, hosted by our friend Ian of the Tonbridge wargames club. This is the day before the excellent Cavalier wargames show, also in Tonbridge, so there is the opportunity of a great wargames weekend then. We're looking forward to our first visit to the southeast of England. Again, details to follow.

I hope you are as excited as we are about these developments and that many readers of this blog will be able to attend one or both of these two BBB events in 2027 and, indeed, run games at them. Please put them in your diary!

Balkan Wars book - updated edition

Our Balkan Wars scenario book, Bloody Big Balkan Battles!, is now available in an updated edition in pdf (from SkirmishCampaigns) and print (from On Military Matters in the US or Caliver Books in the UK).

BBBB lets you refight those great battles of 1912-1913, the prelude to WWI, that saw the end of the Ottoman Empire in Europe and the formation of the basic modern borders in the Balkans. This expanded edition now includes 18 scenarios:

The First Balkan War, 1912-1913

Sarantaporo (Ottomans vs Greeks)

Kirkilisse        (Ottomans vs Bulgarians)

Kumanovo     (Ottomans vs Serbs)

Lule Burgas   (Ottomans vs Bulgarians)

Yiannitsa       (Ottomans vs Greeks)

Prilep              (Ottomans vs Serbs)

Monastir         (Ottomans vs Serbs)

Chataldja       (Ottomans vs Bulgarians)

Bizani             (Ottomans vs Greeks)

 

The Second Balkan War, 1913

Bregalnitza    (Bulgarians vs Serbs)

Kilkis-Lahana (Bulgarians vs Greeks)

Doiran            (Bulgarians vs Greeks)

Kalimantsi     (Bulgarians vs Serbs)

Kresna Gorge (Bulgarians vs Greeks)

Additional scenarios                                

                        Aleksinac       (Ottomans vs Serbs, 1876)

                        Velestino       (Ottomans vs Greeks, 1897)

                        Gribovo          (Ottomans vs Greeks, 1897)

                        Driskos           (Ottomans vs Greeks, 1912)

To help players to portray the complex terrain of the Balkans on their tabletops, we also plan shortly to make available files for printing custom battlemats for each scenario. Follow this blog or join the BBB io group to keep informed about this.

 

Opium for the masses - the Taku Forts

Hooray! Our Taiping Rebellion expert friend Jeremy is back in Oxford and should be here for a couple of years. During that time you can expect regular reports of more Taiping battles on this blog.

To celebrate his return, we tried one of his growing number of new scenarios: the 3rd Battle of the Taku Forts, during the Second Opium War. This did not directly involve Taiping rebels but did involve their imperial opponents and took place against the backdrop of the Rebellion, which lasted from 1850 to 1864.

The 67th Foot storming the Taku Fort. (By New York Public Library - http://www.victorianweb.org/history/empire/opiumwars/28.htmlhttp://www.royalengineers.ca/CooperHTM.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9516269.)

The background to the battle is that the British and French wanted to seize Peking to compel the Chinese government to allow them to continue selling opium in China. The Taku Forts were a complex of fortifications commanding the mouth of the White River, the route to Peking. There had been two previous allied attacks on these: a successful one in 1858, when they were briefly seized but then returned by treaty; a disastrous one in 1859 when the British lost three ships and hundreds of casualties. This third effort involved an expeditionary force of nearly 20,000 men adopting a more indirect approach. First they landed up the coast at Beitang and took a couple of small towns to establish a base. After a week's logistical pause, they then stormed the northern forts from the north.

Making frontal assaults on fortifications into an interesting game is always a challenge, as I discussed in my "Reflections on Wargaming" essay on the topic here. Jeremy adopted an approach similar to the one I used for my Düppel 1864 scenario. He made it a two-phase game, with the preliminary operations against Xinhe and Tanggu being the first phase and the actual fort assaults the second phase. Victory depended on how swiftly the Allies took the forts.

The result was a tremendously exciting game. The nineteen photos below record how it went. First, a double apology: (a) although I do have a Taiping army, actual junks and Chinese buildings, all of these are still in a state of partial construction, so we had to make do with proxies; (b) I'd been away for a week and only had a couple of hours to throw the terrain together, so please forgive us if it is a bit scruffy and imperfect. If you have limited appetite for looking at my venerable terrain, you can scroll to the end to find some reflections.

The battlefield, looking south. The White River runs from upper right edge into the sea in the top left corner. Most of the coast is tidal mudflats (the patches of felt covered with scattered foliage). The light blue/grey patches are lakes. Dark brown patches with huts are villages. Lighter brown paved areas with houses are towns: Xinhe (lower right), Tanggu (upper centre next to the lake) and Donggu (top edge). There are some entrenchments around Xinhe and Tanggu but the serious fortifications are the forts clustered around the mouth of the river. The three with white counters on them are the Objectives the Allies need to take for victory.

An Imperial Qing field force starts in and around Xinhe. The Qing army wore blue and had a lot of not very regular cavalry. My Ottoman 1877 army makes for good proxies. Figures are Heroics & Ros 6mm (ACW zouaves and cavalry, Napoleonic Russian cossacks), painted by me last millennium and finally rebased for BBB this year. Houses made by my mate Colin when we were 12. Roads and river by Rob Owens of Rob's Scenics.

I commanded the Allied left wing, the French division under Montauban. My mission was to race through the mudflats and take Tanggu as quickly as possible. The brigade on the left is marines with some line and African LI; on the right, line infantry, chasseurs and Algerian tirailleurs. Figures are Baccus 6mm Franco-Prussian War painted by a company now defunct.

Anton commanded the larger British force on our right: two infantry divisions (four brigades) under Michel and Napier, a grand battery including some rockets (the red counter), and a cavalry brigade. The idea was that the British would screen our flank against the swarm of Qing cavalry, cover Xinhe and help me to take Tanggu. At least, that's what I thought our plan was.

After the planning, the execution. My French shake out to the left of the lakes and prepare to assault Tanggu (top left). Two of Anton's brigades and some guns move up on my right to cover Xinhe (top right).

Anton's other two brigades have moved off elsewhere, leaving his cavalry and horse artillery to fend off the Qing's massed cavalry charge alone. Where can the infantry be?

Oh, there they are! That's right - away on our extreme left, taking the coast road towards the easternmost fort. This took them out of action for the whole first phase as they couldn't reach the fort in time and were too weak to take it if they had. Not sure what my ally was thinking. Something must have been lost in translation.

The assault goes in on Tanggu (upper left). Our preparatory fire had seriously weakened the defenders. However, defensive fire from them, from the junks on the river (top edge) and from forts out of pic to the left will keep us out this turn. If you think the "junk" looks suspiciously like the Danish warship from 1864, the Rolf Krake, you'd be right.

Remarkably, not only do the British cavalry repel the Chinese cavalry charge, they then countercharge. This goes less well and they bounce off in turn.

Michel's 1st Division continues its futile trudge through the marshes towards the forts.

Turn 4: we finally take Tanggu. Its defenders are routed and the junks will be burned.

Entrenchments by Irregular Miniatures.

Just in time, as our right is in some disarray. The British cavalry is half-dead and being pursued (lower right with red casualty marker). The grand battery has had to reorient in all directions. Fortunately the heroic rocket battery on the end rolls good enough dice to deter the enemy cavalry and prevent the entire artillery line being ridden down.

Once Tanggu fell, Phase 1 was over and the Chinese field force was removed. Historically, the Allies then set up a pontoon bridge at the village south of Xinhe. Jeremy's scenario allows for the option the French advocated but which was not followed, namely to attack the forts on the south bank rather than the north. Although we didn't use that option, it seemed a good enough reason to deploy my Heroics & Ros Napoleonic pontoon bridge on the table.

After our logistical interlude (which we observed realistically by going for a good pub lunch at The Plough), the Allies reset for Phase 2 behind a start line running NE through the marsh. By taking Tanggu so swiftly, we had earned ourselves an extra turn to take the three fort Objectives. Our plan for this phase revolved around a grand battery in our centre to suppress the fort artillery; a French attack on the western (righthand) fort; a British attack on the eastern (lefthand) one; and the smaller earthwork in the middle to be taken by whoever got there first.

Poor movement rolls meant it took me three turns to get past the lakes, through the marsh and storm the western fort. On the plus side, our artillery had blown away the enemy guns in it. We were able to drive the small 2-base garrison out into the marsh (invisible, top right) but did not eliminate it.

Our British allies' progress on the left was slower and bloodier as they faced a more heavily armed fort. At least they now had the support of a British gunboat on the river, just visible top of pic. (Forts are by Peter Pig from their ACW riverine range. A great investment, on my tabletop they have now defended Peking, Paris, Plevna, Petersburg, and a few other places that don't even start with P.)

End of Turn 7, I think. With three turns to go, the middle redoubt is at my mercy. Unfortunately it takes all of Turn 8 just to rally and reorganise my men. The clock ticks ...

Anton assaults the eastern fort, into the teeth of Chinese cannister. It also turns out to have a strong 6-base garrison. (The Chinese get to distribute 8 bases of infantry secretly among their three forts, max 6 bases in any one fort.)

British pluck prevails! The fort is stormed, its garrison either taken prisoner or perishing in the river. Meanwhile, not being entirely confident that the British could take this one without my help and wanting to be sure of taking the middle redoubt in time to assist them, I had advanced both my brigades out of the western fort ...

... whereupon its former garrison unexpectedly rallied and sneaked back in! (Top right.) The British cavalry trotted into the middle redoubt, which proved to be unoccupied. Nevertheless, time had run out for us to retake the western one, so we had to settle for a draw. Sacré bleu!

Reflections

Successful scenario structure. Jeremy certainly achieved his aim. A simple fort assault would have been much less interesting and given the Chinese players far too little to do. As it was, in Phase 2 they were still mostly limited to rolling firing dice, but at least they had some fun with cavalry charges in Phase 1 - and of course that garrison move on the last turn that snatched victory from us, classic BBB endgame drama. And there were significant choices and options for both sides at the start and during the course of the game. Great job, Jeremy!

Rich in flavour. This was a great game with so much of the flavour that colonial gamers routinely enjoy. It had the exotic - Chinese armoured cavalry with bows, Qing infantry in forts - combined with the familiar British redcoats and French pantalons rouges. It had rockets and gunboats and a pontoon bridge. It had cavalry charges, sweeping manoeuvres, grand batteries and fortifications to be stormed. A feast.

I am spoiled! As in: I am surrounded by so many creative people, designing scenarios and running games, that it is making me lazy. I am supposed to be writing a scenario for the Battle of Atlanta (1864), but it is too easy just to sit back and let others entertain me. Ah well, there are worse problems to have.

And an ACW footnote. The same weekend, we also managed not one but two playtests of the ACW scenario for The Wilderness. These were both great contests and confirmed our final amendments so that the scenario is now fit for publication. No report on it this time as we also ran it at Colours last month.

Newly published: The Hungarian War of Independence 1848-1849

I am delighted to announce the publication of The Hungarian War of Independence 1848-1849: An illustrated military history. This is the English edition of the definitive modern history of the war. The original Hungarian edition was written by Professor Róbert Hermann, the leading scholar in the field. It was my honour to collaborate with him and with Dr Péter Bayer to translate this important work and make it accessible to a wider audience. I am grateful to Helion for publishing it.

I should take this opportunity to mention again my two previous works on the '48: Hungary 1848: The Winter Campaign and Hungary 1849: The Summer Campaign (available together as a bundle). These complement Professor Hermann's superb comprehensive work by offering more detail on particular military actions.

For anyone who is inspired by these books to build armies and wargame the battles, then of course I should also mention Nigel Smith's The Honvéd War for all the uniform information you need (and much else besides); and, finally, my own Bloody Big Hungary '48 Battles! scenario book for recreating all the major battles of the war on the wargames table.

Let me finish by reiterating that the '48 was a major conflict and a fascinating war. For too long, it has been ignored and neglected because of the paucity of sources available to non-Hungarian readers. The substantial set of publications we have now made available has solved that problem. 

The Wilderness at Colours 2026

The Wilderness at Colours 2026

(Two items in this blog post: The Wilderness at the Colours show, then the Balkan Wars battle of Driskos at OWS.)

The Colours wargames show run by Newbury & Reading Wargames Society and held at Newbury racecourse every September is one of my favourite shows. Our Oxford Wargames Society participation games have become a regular feature of the event (see previous reports).

For this year's game we chose an American Civil War battle, The Wilderness (1864). There were several factors in this decision. One was the fact that, although I wrote this scenario over 10 years ago, we wanted to playtest it again to check and polish it for the planned BBB American Civil War scenario book(s) that we hope to finish next year. Another was that we could use Dave W's 10mm Pendraken figures, which are better than 6mm for display at shows. A third was that the table is reasonably easy to set up - no hills! And, finally, it's just a rollicking good game because of the battle's geometry: two armies collide at right angles, each marching on two roads, so everyone is in motion and questing for the open flank.

We fought the battle through one and a half times during the show. The first game ended at the halfway mark as it was clear that, through a combination of veteran player skill and good fortune, the South had achieved such a good position and done so much damage that there was no way the Union was coming back. The second game was a much more even contest of ebb and flow, both sides smashing holes in each other in different places, action all over the pitch, and - of course - coming down to the last dice on the last turn to end in a knife-edge draw. Here are seven photos of the action from the first game, just to give you a flavour:

Seeing the wood for the trees ... the battlefield is woods everywhere except the small patches of fields. It's 12 miles x 8 across. One base represents 2,000 men - the Union army is 100,000 strong. Union forces are in the top left quarter, marching from left to right. Confederates are in the foreground, about to intercept them. A few cavalry are skirmishing off-table to the right and will appear mid-game. The difficult country means it is all about the road network, so the game Objectives are the main road junctions and the Union supply trains (the two wagons at the fords, top left).

The Union left-hand column is Hancock's II Corps. It's imperative that this should step off smartly to reach the objectives in the southern half of the table and cover the open flank of the other US column.

The head of the right-hand column is at the Wilderness Tavern. Steve J opted to start the whole column deployed for battle, rather than keep them in column and attempt to extend his line, as that would have risked being hit before he could deploy.

Unfortunately Gregg's cavalry failed their activation and stopped outside the Chancellorsville mansion for a sausage roll. (For our non-UK readers, that's a culinary reference.) That meant Hancock's corps had to trudge cross-country to pass them, costing valuable time.

By contrast, the arriving Confederates succeed with all their movement rolls. Their ragged columns race forward to envelop the exposed Union force at the Wilderness Tavern. Can the US bring up more troops in support in time?

The answer of course is no. Crawford & Wadsworth's divisions are caught isolated, hit front and flank by double their numbers, and smashed back.

Union reinforcements finally move up but will arrive piecemeal and be beaten back in their turn, leaving the rebels free to pounce on the Union supply train at the Culpeper Mine Ford (the wagon model in the foreground). At that point the battle was irretrievable for the Union.

But enough of the toys - it's about the people! And what a lot there were. Apart from the three of us on the team, I think we had at least eight different players join in at various times, while dozens more stopped to chat and have their ears bent by me enthusing. (Apologies to anyone I bored unduly.) Particularly pleased to meet Morten from Denmark, Chris Gosney aka "The Crusty Colonel", and Simon Miller of "To the Strongest" fame. But it was just great to meet everyone, ranging from veteran players and old friends, via those who have the rules already and are introducing their clubmates to BBB, to those who had never seen BBB before.

As always, it was an exciting and rewarding day. I had a great time, I'm sure we entertained our participant players, I had a lot of good conversations, and I hope many show attendees enjoyed the sight of our densely wooded table. (My only regret is I was too busy to make it to the Helion stand and see my new book that was apparently finally published last week.) I'm pretty sure we enhanced Colours and I hope NWRS will invite us back again next year!

===

Driskos (1912)

As if the Wilderness on Saturday wasn't enough, I was in action again the following Monday, this time running a small Balkan Wars battle at the club: Driskos (1912). This was a playtest of a new scenario to be added to a new edition of Dr Konstantinos Travlos's Bloody Big Balkan Battles! book.

This was part of the Greek effort to capture the city of Ioannina in Epirus, after the Greeks and Serbs had both inflicted some major defeats on the Ottomans. The battle picture is that the Greeks have taken some high ground at Driskos that dominates the northeastern approaches to Ioannina. The Ottomans counterattack and, in a two-day battle, drive the Greeks back. The scenario depicts the counterattack.

It's a pretty simple battlefield: the Ottomans have to advance across an open plain to storm a few villages on the steep hills and take the dominant hilltops. Figures are my 6mm Heroics & Ros (ACW zouaves painted as Ottomans) and Irregular Miniatures (WWI British painted as Greeks). Buildings are tourist souvenirs from a visit to Dubrovnik.

Phil and Crispin commanded the Ottomans. I was joined on the Greek side by a new comrade, Edward. Our opponents opted to weight their attack on their right, hoping to roll us up from our left. We launched a counterattack, advancing our reserve unit off the heights to hit the Ottoman left flank. It was a bloody fight as modern weapons took a heavy toll of both sides. It looked like a Greek win until right near the end, when the Ottoman artillery blew some of our troops away and Ottoman infantry surged forward, defying our defensive fire, to seize the objectives they needed for victory.

Situation at dusk on Day 1 of the first game. The Ottomans have been repulsed by the few elite Evzones in Morkios (left of pic) but established a foothold in Janista (centre of pic). The remaining two turns on Day 2 will be just enough for them to seize Hill 1078 (right foreground) and Moni Kiras (top right) for the win.

We were able to swap sides, reset and go again. This time we tried a different plan, concentrating against the central Greek salient initially. We got the surge in earlier, sending in three simultaneous charges just before dusk on Day. The odds said we should have succeeded with one or two, but the dice were against us. We reeled back and conceded defeat.

Reflections

Small games: pros and cons. A small game like this has several advantages. We were able to set up quickly and play it twice in an evening. The small manageable forces were ideal for introducing a new player to the game system. The simplicity provides a very distilled tactical challenge that still allows for different plans to be tried. On the 'con' side, with so few units on the table, one or two extreme dice early on that inflict particularly heavy casualties can have disproprortionate ramifications for the rest of the game. But even that 'con' can be a 'pro' in that such variability adds to the replay value.

Simple but subtle: troop quality. Though the forces are small, there is enough variety in their orders of battle to create choices and add interest. The Turks have two regular regiments with modern Mauser rifles, but their third is raw redif reservists with older weapons (and old blue uniforms). On the Greek side, there is only one large regular unit, the rest being a mix of Garibaldini, Cretan volunteers, and other irregulars, but they do have the best troops on the table: the 1-base Evzone unit.

Surprisingly successful! I wasn't sure how well this scenario would work as a game, but actually it was great fun and will need almost no revision. Thanks, Konstantinos!