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".

A game of two halves: Medina de Rio Seco (1808)

Judging by the number of game reports around on the web, the Peninsular War battle of Medina de Rio Seco is a relatively popular one to fight. This is very understandable - despite there being no Brits involved (it is Spanish vs French) - as it is an interesting situation with relatively simple terrain.

Essentially, a Spanish force on the strategic attack was thrown onto the tactical defensive by a vigorous French response, then outmanoeuvred, assaulted and smashed. The force in question was a combination of two armies under Cuesta and Blake. Expecting the French to attack from the southeast, they deployed half their force under Blake on the heights in front of the town of Medina de Rio Seco, while Cuesta held the rest echeloned behind Blake's right, close to the town. Bessières side-stepped them and approached from the northeast, which enabled him to attack Blake's exposed left. The Spanish were smashed off the heights. Cuesta launched a counter-attack that had some initial success but was then driven off in his turn.

Mark presented us with a typically clean and clever scenario that captured the essence of the battle and delivered a see-saw nail-biter of a game. Only 10 annotated photos for you this time as I got so embroiled in the thick of the action, but they should give you the gist. Some reflections follow.

A frog's-eye view from the French arrival edge. Bessières leads his team onto the pitch. Blake's Spaniards line the heights. The track leads past them to the town of Medina de Rio Seco in the distance. Figures are Baccus 6mm from Mark's collection on their Warbases representing arid Spanish soil.

A better look at Blake's men on the heights. The unit right of pic has two flags to indicate that it is Veteran. Units with one flag are Trained. The unit left of pic with no flag and a pink cube is both Raw and Fragile - best kept out of the front line.

Cuesta's force is visible top of pic. These troops are not allowed to move until Turn 3 because of the strategic surprise the French have achieved by rudely approaching from the wrong direction.

The white counter indicates that the Teson de Monclin knoll in the foreground is an Objective. There are four more: the northern and southern sections of the main Paramo de Valdecuevas ridge, plus the two bridges by the town. (John has cunningly parked his troops on one of the Objective counters to deceive the French.)

The French need to take two Objectives to draw or three to win. 

The French attack against Blake's exposed left flank develops swiftly. The French have an advantage in their superior skirmishing ability, as indicated by their many Skirmisher bases (readily identifiable at 'wargamer range').

French superior quality and quantity quickly make themselves felt and Blake's force is in disarray. Hard to tell here, what with both sides wearing blue, but the French assaults have destroyed Blake's veteran unit, forced back another (top centre, with a black cube for Low Ammo), and are threatening the flank of the one immediately behind the Teson knoll.

To compound Blake's discomfort, a detachment of the Imperial Guard is confronting his raw rearguard (left edge), while Lasalle's guard cavalry has got behind his flank and taken the southern Paramo objective.

Spanish Turn 3: Cuesta's force is unleashed and lumbers hesitantly forwards to the rescue.

Spoiler alert: it'll be a bit late.

White-coated Spanish grenadiers merit a green cube to show they are Aggressive.

End of French Turn 4. More of Blake's units have been battered or destroyed. All he has left on the top contour is the raw unit (now with blue and yellow cubes denoting Spent and Disrupted) and his little 2-base unit with the Skirmisher. They are surrounded by French (the large unit upper centre has just exploited after a successful charge). However, as the Imperial Guard failed to charge, Blake has retained a toehold on the northern Paramo objective long enough for Cuesta to get troops onto it next turn and prevent the French ever claiming control of it.

The next three turns were a ding-dong fight at the northern edge of the top contour. Blake's remnants were soon expunged but repeated French assaults were unable to kick all the Spanish off - even the Imperial Guard was repelled repeatedly. No photos of this phase as it was so fast and furious.

Thus, come Turn 8 (the final turn), the game was still in the balance. The French held two objectives - a draw. Could they gain a third for a win, or would a Spanish counterattack inflict defeat? Let's see ...

The Teson knoll objective (lower right) is secure, held by artillery that also guards the French right flank. Those Spaniards top right have been stalled there for half the game.

The northern Paramo objective counter sits behind the French line but it is an area objective, not a point. The Spanish have maintained a foothold on this throughout, so it remains technically theirs. They have three units on it. I need to defeat all three to claim the objective, starting with one just out of shot top left:

I took a gamble by taking the guard cavalry away from defending the southern Paramo objective and launching them in a combined-arms charge. This therefore succeeded (though only just). One down, two to go ...

On the right, General Mouton's men drive some of Cuesta's back down the steep slope. That's two out of three - but the 6-base Spanish unit top left stands firm, heroically repulsing the Imperial Guard yet again. Foiled! No victory for France today.

But there might yet be one for Spain. Denuding the southern objective left it exposed to Cuesta's tiny 1-base unit of fragile rubbish cavalry on the flank. All they needed to do was roll high enough for a full move (8+ on 2 dice, as they were Passive) and they would ascend the steep slope and embarrass me considerably ...

... and they rolled 3:

Thus France holds two objectives and it ends as an honourable draw.

Reflections

Player Morale. Crispin aka Cuesta was on the verge of giving up on Turn 4. Blake (John) had been crushed and Crispin didn't think he could fight his way up a steep slope against better French troops. But, of course, he didn't have to - he was able to get just enough men up there without assaulting, then put the onus on the French to kick them off. Not only did he hold on for a draw, he almost snatched a win at the end. In BBB, there is nearly always hope!

A Game of Two Halves. One of my popular 'Reflections on Wargaming' essays is on 'Changing Situations Mid-Game'. That lists a dozen BBB scenarios that make for particularly interesting games because the situation changes part-way through, so the players have more decisions to make (and more substantial or complex ones) than usual. In this game, Cuesta's force being fixed in place for the initial turns means it is effectively a mid-game reinforcement that transforms the numerical odds and the overall situation. We could therefore reasonably add Medina del Rio Seco to the list.

Research, Research. The ground shapes the battle, but it is not always easy for a scenario designer to shape the ground! Hills are particularly challenging, of course. Mark said he consulted eight different maps to distil into his scenario map.

Elegant Simplicity. This was a classic Mark Smith scenario, clean and simple in concept, yet providing a rich and complex tactical challenge and a thoroughly exciting game.

Joy of BBB!

One of my favourite wargames shows is "Joy of Six", which happens every July in Sheffield UK. It is devoted to showcasing the virtues of 6mm figures. As I've been wargaming in this scale for decades and nearly all my armies are 6mm, this is right up my street.

I last attended in 2022, when I was able to put on a game at the last minute because of a no-show. Missed the next couple because of Real Life(TM). This year I actually felt obliged to turn up. Not only was there the "Ilkley Irregulars" (ie Colin & Mike) BBB Waterloo game (which you could say was the "official" BBB table, as Colin's a good mate, has run a BBB Bash Day, etc), but also not just one but two other teams had independently decided to run BBB games. In the circumstances, it really would have been rude of me not to be there! The games in question:

- Per Broden is a stalwart of JO6, whose beautiful layouts will be familiar to many readers of this blog already. He had not played BBB before but decided to use it to lay on the Franco-Prussian War battle of Gravelotte. See his "Roll A One" blog post about it here.

- Then Richard Heath of the Chesterfield Open Gaming Society, likewise new to BBB, decided to pick up a WWI scenario I wrote a decade ago for the COGS Retreat from Mons (battle of Le Cateau), together with suitable WWI rule mods.

I took a few photos, which I'll share below, but you will see more and better on Colin's blog and in these other blog and video reports:

https://hereticalgaming.blogspot.com/ Jon Hetherington.

https://youtu.be/a3CV-LR67k8?si=11G1WyG3fwLKO_3e Storm of Steel.

https://youtube.com/shorts/kiStQ9nwQFg?si=oBDBLygwvOeOhS8W Miniature Adventures TV.

https://youtu.be/lWfARyFD22o?si=ref_AOYoenxeyXXt Big Lee.

Apart from admiring the BBB games and chatting with Colin, Mike, Per, Max, Richard and their comrades, I did manage a lap of the show. As always, there was lots of beautiful work on display. To pick out just two games that struck me particularly:

- Operation Vijay. This was from the ever-creative Richard Crawley and his Cold War Commanders: a "what-if" of the Indian invasion of the tiny Portuguese colony of Goa in 1961. (The invasion actually happened; the "what-if" assumed there was more serious fighting than the relatively token resistance it met.)

- Midgard in Glorantha. I've always had a soft spot for the fantasy world of Glorantha, so it was great to see Praxian nomads etc clashing with Lunar Imperial phalanxes and wizards outside the walls of Pavis. May have to check out the Midgard rules.

I also got to catch up with or meet loads of people - Alan, Andy, Bob, Brendan, Peter, Frosty, John, Ken, Nick, Ian, Russ, Tarquin - OK, maybe there wasn't a Tarquin, just trying not to miss anyone out ... better stop there with the namechecks ... anyway, tons of good conversations (not to mention being asked to autograph a few rulebooks 😮 ). Thank you to everyone I talked to, it was great to meet you all and your good company helped to make it a great day.

My photos:

The COGS Le Cateau WWI game. The Germans had to get past the extensive French fortifications around Maubeuge, nicely portrayed here. Note that it is on a removable base so can be replaced by eg a town for a different scenario.

The whole Le Cateau game, looking south from the German start line. The game travels the length of a 6'x4' table as the Germans chase the retreating BEF, who eventually make a stand at Le Cateau and Caudry. The custom battlefield comprises multiple tiles. Richard has cleverly designed these so that, although they work for the specific scenario, they can also be rejigged multiple ways so he can reuse them for different games.

The COGS boys played the game twice during the show. Here you see the closing stages of one of the games - possibly the one in which the Germans managed a draw, I believe (they lost the other). It was a pleasure to meet this happy crew and I'm glad they had so much fun with my WWI dabble. Richard sounded as though he might dive into BBB ACW next - hope so, as I'd love to see one of the biggies like Chancellorsville or Chickamauga or the Wilderness get this treatment at JO6 next year.

Per's lovely Gravelotte game. It would be even more lovely if Parcelforce hadn't mislaid his custom-painted battlemat, so he had to improvise another. Never mind - it still looks great! The French infantry modelled in their rifle pits were particularly nice.

About two thirds of the way through the battle of Gravelotte. The Saxons have arrived and are rolling up the French right wing. By game end the French had virtually nothing left on this flank except some embarrassed artillery. Victory to the Germans in this one. Grand to have the chance to talk to Per and Max and to see my scenario brought to life like this.

Waterloo! Napoleon's army masses on the heights around La Belle Alliance. Buildings handcrafted by Colin. The army is his work too. Figures are Baccus.

And the Allied line waits to receive the French. (I think these troops are Mike's.) Red objective counters indicate Hougoumont, La Haye Sainte and Mont St Jean. Mike's work on the custom hills really paid off - the terrain shapes the battle. I think this game ended up as a German victory as well (or a French defeat, at least).

Gloranthan battle outside the walls of Pavis. Figures by Rapier Miniatures, I believe.

Sabre Squadron - Arab-Israeli

I don't only do horse and musket. WWII or modern games involving tanks also meet my criteria for interesting tabletop wargames. In the 19th century, it is infantry, cavalry and artillery that provide the balanced triad that produces suitably complex tactical challenges and interesting games; in the 20th century, tanks take over from cavalry and the same applies.

I have therefore been angling for a while to get in a game of Sabre Squadron. This is a ruleset for company-level wargames "from the Cold War to the Digital Age". This week Nick O finally obliged and ran one for us.

The background was the Yom Kippur War of 1973. The scenario was set on the west side of the Suez Canal, after the Israelis had counterattacked across it. I was given a company of Israeli Centurions and a company of paratroopers to seize a bridge across an irrigation canal in the Egyptian rear. Will's Egyptian infantry company and supporting armour was tasked with holding it.

This kept us amused for three hours. It was two games in one. First, the superior quality of Centurion tanks and Israeli crews blasted the Egyptians out of the objective and shrugged off the Saggers and T-55s trying to stop them. Then the Israeli paras ensconced themselves on the objective, a load more T-55s tried to counterattack, Israeli quality again beat Egyptian / Soviet quantity.

Here are some photos of the action. Reflections at the end include my impression of the rules.

View from the Israeli entry edge: an idyllic scene of date palms and canal-side villages, about to be disturbed by the clank of armour and the rumble of guns.

I brought my force on in balanced formation: one tank platoon either side of the road, one leading the mechanised paras up the road, HQ tanks central.

Egyptian infantry about to leap into their defensive positions in the village. All figures Heroics & Ros. Nick says he painted them when he was a teenager. Does that make them veterans?

Meet Mr Sagger! The Soviet AT-3 wire-guided antitank missile was a nasty shock for the Israelis. Fortunately Will only had these couple and I managed to dispatch them without loss.

One platoon plus HQ on overwatch while the infantry push through the date palms towards the village.

Egyptian reaction: one T-55 platoon rumbles up the road ...

... and another takes position on the rise behind the village. I told Will I wasn't sure whether the T in T-55 stood for "Target" or "Terrible".

Nevertheless, I showed some respect and shifted my central platoon right with a view to adding to my firepower there.

Big beasts among the trees: paras about to debus at the plantation edge, with a Centurion platoon in support.

The paras draw fire from the village and also from another Egyptian company in the plantation beyond it to the left. A column of smoke on the road reveals what's about to happen. Having already seen off the Saggers, the Centurions will wipe out the T-55s and the infantry in the village. Our only loss will be one Centurion in the plantation disabled by artillery fire.

After that emphatic and rather one-sided success, we reset. My paras occupied the village to hold the bridge. Some of my Centurions were deemed withdrawn for business elsewhere. Will got to bring on another couple of companies of T-55s to counterattack. 

Coming on in the same old way. Who'd volunteer to lead an Egyptian tank column? This lefthand Egyptian company did eventually manage to register a few hits on HQ troop but didn't actually break any Centurions before being seen off.

The righthand company advanced past the plantations, killed a Centurion (the artillery took out a couple more) and pummeled the paras a bit, but not enough to winkle them out. Then it too went up in flames.

Reflections

Nice to Push Some Tanks Around. I do like a decent tank battle now and again. (And it's healthy to play something other than BBB occasionally too.) Tanks have so much character. And they do make a battle move along.

Hidden Deployment/Movement? It would be even more interesting to play this with a bit more fog of war: hidden deployment for the defender, maybe hidden movement for one side or both. Something to think about for next time.

Terrain. Nick's terrain was simple but effective. Most of our BBB games are on green fields, so his desert table looked exotic. I particularly liked the palm trees.

The Rules.  The rules worked well. Troops can move useful distances across the table. We had tactical choices to make. Moderns being moderns, there were necessarily some stats to look up for tank armour and gun penetration initially, but once we'd got these down, firing was slick and quick to resolve. I like the morale system, which allows a chance of catastrophic failure. The on-table results felt plausible. All in all, I'd be happy to play Sabre Squadron again.