General d'Armee Peninsular Battle

This is less an AAR and more a brief summary of a recent game, but at least I remembered to take a few pictures for a change.

My Monday evening gaming friend Dale and I have been thoroughly enjoying General d'Armee and, after recently playing the Albuera scenario from the rulebook, had the taste for another Peninsular game with me playing the British with a brigade of Portuguese allies, and Dale the French.

The French objective was to capture either the redoubt or village, or both, and as the attacker was provided with two additional battalions to assist with the task. Each player could also choose two divisional supports from a list of options.

As the British player one of my options was exercised by default in the protection afforded by the redoubt, but on the assumption the French would be fielding only two cavalry regiments and artillery batteries I chose an additional Hussar regiment and RHA battery, to give a total of three cavalry regiments and three artillery batteries. 

Both forces were comprised of five brigades, with the French having four infantry and one cavalry brigade and the British three infantry and two cavalry brigades.

The next thing to do was to dice for the General's ability using 2D6. 

A 2 or 3 result means he is a 'Blusterer' which reduces the number of ADC actions available each turn among other penalties, while an 11 or 12 means they are 'Incomparable', which adds an ADC. To much amusement I threw a 3, meaning my commander was a Blusterer. 

Dale sportingly offered the chance of a reroll which I declined, only to be followed by him rolling a double 1. A pair of Blusterers facing off against each other.

The initial deployment was as follows:

The British were thin but in a strong position on the hill with two brigades flanking the artillery ensconced in the redoubt. As the Portuguese included a couple of militia units I thought the safest place for them would be to hold the village, while it was my plan to run the Hussar Regiment and RHA around the forest in an attempt to pressure the French and slow their advance:

Unfortunately this was to be proved short-lived, with the French deploying in the woods and inflicting casualties upon the British before they had a chance to get past. The British cavalry withdrew to the safety of the hill while the French pushed on through the woods, with the Portuguese Cacadores attempting to halt their advance:

Meanwhile, on the left flank the two British cavalry regiments there prepare to face off against two French cavalry regiments while the French push forward their attack on the British center:

The first photo of the two above outlines a particular annoyance as I managed to roll five out of five hesitant brigades, where anything but a 1 or a 2 on a D6 means they obey orders. This was even more galling as I remember I played a precious ADC on the cavalry which entitled them to a re-roll, and they still failed. 

Dale had the same level of luck at various times and, frustration aside, it is one of the elements of GDA which provides a lot of laughter.

Back on the right flank, the Cacadores suffered heavy casualties and withdrew from the woods, leaving the Portuguese artillery exposed. Similarly, the RHA artillery limbered up and withdrew to the safety of the hill and the protection of the Hussars:

The cavalry combat just out of sight on the left continued for several turns with the British finally prevailing, with two French and one British regiments dispersed leaving one British regiment standing and the master of the left flank. Meanwhile the main French attack in the center presses home under heavy canister fire:

One French battalion is dispersed, but the other three press on and force a British battalion to retire, leaving only a skirmish line to defend the right flank of the redoubt:

Things are very much in the balance when the British line rolls a double six, inflicting four casulties on the French column as it tries to close plus an additional loss with the casualty dice awarded to them for being British infantry in line, for a total of five casualties on the column and necessitating a compulsory discipline test:

The French fail the test and the battalion disperses, which in turn forces a discipline test on the brigade with the two remaining battalions also dispersing. With the Portuguese in the village also having repelled a French attack, the French decide to call it a day on turn 14 out of a possible 16.

The game was played over five Monday evenings with just over two hours per evening, so approximately twelve hours in total. For us, GDA provides a nice balance between unpredictability while rewarding the effective use of Napoleonic tactics. There is just enough in the national characteristics and force compositions to keep things interesting, and the rules are not overly pedantic in terms of unit movement and formation changes.

Perhaps one criticism is that with the use of D6s things can be a little too unpredictable at times. However these are often the events which provide the biggest laughs and at the end of the day, to my mind at least, it is as much (if not more) about the entertainment.

In retrospect it was probably a bit of a tough ask for the French. As is our wont, we have reversed the roles and I am in the middle of an attack with the French. 

Dale, as the British, has managed to roll another double 1 for his C-in-C. At least he will be getting used to being a Blusterer by now.

Ghaznavid Army Completed

After having completed the Ghaznavids a couple of weeks ago I thought it time to take a few pictures of the assembled army:

As DBMM armies go, it packs quite a punch. Even though it is ostensibly cavalry-based, the limited infantry options are quite effective and the ability to field up to eight elephants can be very handy, albeit expensive:

Some of these figures, such as the horse archers, Daylami infantry and four elements of  allied Arab cavalry will find their way into other armies now that I have decided to press on with Daylami dynasty and Arab Conquest projects:

This is my first complete Forged in Battle army. I have done a few of their lovely buildings in the past and various camp and baggage figures, but never a whole army. They have a great range and the figures are well-proportioned with a nice amount of detail:

A couple of minor quibbles in that some of the mounted figures don't have a large contact point to affix them to horses and the sculpts require a little but of cleanup, although nothing too onerous:

The army consists of 283 foot and cavalry figures, 110 horses and eight elephants, making 401 figures completed in total, and took just over two months:

They have already lost their first outing against some Nikephorean Byzantines, primarily due to an appalling run of bad dice throwing rather than anything I would have done differently. When you field a line of six elephants against skutatoi and essentially all you have to do is beat them on a D6 to kill them, but fail to do any damage for two rounds of combat, you know it's not going to be your day. Hopefully that means I have got all the bad luck for them out of the way in a single game though.

I'm nearly halfway through the Daylami so will probably save any posts on them until they are completed. In the meantime I'll try to post a quick AAR of a recent Napoleonic battle, if I can remember what actually happened.

Last of the Ghaznavids and First of the Daylami

The last two weeks have been spent tying up the loose ends for my 15mm Ghaznavid army. This has seen a variety of troops completed and first up were three elements of artillery. The DBMM Army list only calls for one, but the Forged in Battle pack allows for three and they will no doubt come in useful at some stage:

Nice figures, although to my eye the bolt shooter itself is on the smaller end of the scale:

In the same pack there were enough figures to complete three elements of Naffatun, naptha-throwing infantry:

These are nice little figures carrying bags full of incendiary weapons:

The army list also allows a variety of pike, sword and bow-armed Afghan and Muslim infantry, although not a large amount as the Ghaznavids were primarily a cavalry-based army:

I also found that I had a couple of horse archers and six command figures left over, so I asked Forged in Battle if they would include a few extra horses in a recent order as it seemed a pity to waste them, and they obliged with a dozen free of charge:

Most DBMM armies allow the inclusion of a camp which strengthens the army, unless one's opponents manages to sack it. Baueda have some nice Arabic tents so I ordered a handful. In spite of three coats of Testors Dullcote the blue on the command tent is still reflecting under a harsh direct light, although less so to the naked eye:

Painting in the creases on the command tent was a pain, but I was generally happy with the result:

I was also pleased with the two smaller tents, although the brown one looks a bit like a chocolate in an assortment box:

Finally, the Ghaznavid army list also allows for up to nine elements in total of Daylami allies, a people from the mountainous area in northern Iran. 

There is a separate DBMM Daylami list which includes Ghanznavid allies so I decided to purchase enough to provide for a Daylami army in its own right. I have also purchased options for Arab Conquest and Seljuk Turkish armies and, given it is not yet summer, this is turning into a bit of an Arab spring for me. Here are the nine elements' worth of Daylami that can ally with the Ghaznavids:

And the completed Daylami contingent thus far, with a lot more of the same to come over the following weeks:

The Ghaznavid army is therefore now completed and I believe it has taken me around ten to eleven weeks, which I am quite pleased with. I'll try to haul them all out for a group photo over the coming week.

Ghaznavid Infantry and Elephants

Being primarily a cavalry army there is not a lot of foot in a Ghaznavid army. What little infantry exists is made up of a few Arab and Daylami allies, and a handful of Ghaznavid spear, bow and skirmishers. The DBMM army list allows only four elements of Ghaznavid spear and two each of bow and skirmishers, but given the Forged in Battle packs are comprised of 24 figures I decided to paint the whole lot on the basis that they may come in useful for other rule sets or as stand-ins:

The spear are nice little figures and are quite heavily armoured:

The pack also includes a couple of command figures:

The bowmen are similarly heavily armoured and sculpted in a straightforward firing pose:

In spite of the fact that Forged in Battle's infantry packs are sold as 24 figure bags I have noticed that most actually contain 26 figures. Given that they don't make any specific Ghaznavid skirmishers and only four figures are required, I used some of the leftover figures from the spear bow packs:

I still have the Arab and Daylami infantry to go, but that is the Ghaznavid foot now completed:

One of the nice variations in a Ghaznavid army is the use of elephants. The DBMM list allows for up to five but also has an option to remount up to three generals on elephants, so a potential eight in total:

Given that most of these are rated as superior and cost 20 points, or 36 points if a general (and a whopping 51 if rated as 'brilliant'), fielding all eight would soak up just over half of the 400 point games we usually play, but they would pack quite a punch. 

The only minor quibble with these models is that the Ghaznavids, being based primarily in Afghanistan and modern-day Iran, acquired elephants from their campaigns in India and these elephants look slightly more African than Indian to me. I would also have thought that they could have benefitted from the troops being in some form of howdah or castle rather than simply astride the elephant, but they are still nice little models:

I normally mount my generals on white horses so they stand out to me and my opponents in a game, but didn't want to have white elephants running around so painted the riders' helmets in bronze:

That's another seventy-eight figures completed toward the project:

Next up and as mentioned above, the Arab foot.