Little Great War: Aithiops Convoy

 

The Azurian convoy intercepted by two Ruberian 
warships.

The hostility simmering between Azuria and Ruberia having broken out into open warfare, the former's government made haste to bring in needed supplies from the Western littoral of its Aithiopian colonies before the much more powerful Rubeian navy closed down the Great Western Ocean approaches. Coming from ports farthest south, and delayed several days by a tropical storm, the final convoy was late reaching the safety of a Bay of Biscuit seaport.

Azurian Convoy ZA13 from Aithiops

Too late. Word had reached the Ruberian Admiralty of the traffic, and a small squadron under Commodore Sir Hailsforth Barrow set out under its orders to intercept any and all Azurian vessels coming up the Iberian coast. He had with him the battleship RMS Royal Sceptre (FP17), and the protected cruiser, RMS Edgar Colle (FP9), under the command of Captain Ulysses Morcroft.
...

Pre-dreadnought RMS Royal Sceptre 

Protected Cruiser RMS Edgar Colle

Convoy ZA13 ran into Barrow's squadron just north of the 41st parallel, and much too far from the Iberian coast to hope to make a run for a neutral port. Commanding the convoy, Capitaine Jean-Paul d'Armagnac at once upon sighting the approaching Ruberian ships, ordered his own ships forward to intercept. At the same time, he directed the convoy to turn shaprly to starboard and make for the Iberian coast. The armed merchant, ANV Asmodeus was to place itself on the vulnerable flank of the convoy as it made off.

As the merchants turn away, the escorts engage the 
intruders

The convoy comprised:
Colonne Tribord (Starboard):

• ANV Duroc d'Asprez (Armoured Cruiser 9FP)
• SS Dubonnet (Merchant 6FP)

Colonne Centrale:

• SS Asmodeus (Armed Merchant 6FP)
• SS Bruillier (Merchant 4FP)
• SS Caramello (Merchant 4FP)

Colonne Bâbord:

• ANV Amiral Ducrot (Ironclad Battleship 12FP)
• SS Equipage (Merchant 6FP)

Battle Stats for ANV Duroc d'Asprez

The opening salvoes by both Ruberian warships were already the writing on the wall, so far as Capitaine d'Armagnac was concerned. Never before had he seen such gunnery! At once Amiral Ducrot took two 9.2-inch shell hits along the waterline, and a 6-inch shell at once knocked out the forward main gun. Captain Ulysses Morcroft had trained well the crew of Edgar Colle. So had the crew of Royal Sceptre proved their mettle: a hull hit below the forward main gun came close to knocking out half of the Duroc d'Asprez main battery as well.

Deeming the pre-dreadnought battleship Royal Sceptre the greater threat, Capitaine d'Armagnac ordered both Azurian warships to engage that vessel more closely, and directed the armed merchant to do its best to keep off the protected cruiser Edgar Colle. The latter was something of an optimistic hope, as its short range 4-inch popguns were hopelessly outclassed by the cruiser's 9.2 and 6-inch ordnance. But if his warships could drive off the battleship and still be able to swim, they might yet drive away the cruiser, and save the convoy.

Unfortunately, the slow speed and puny armament of Asmodeus were far insufficient to prevent Edgar Colle from getting in amongst the convoy. Trying to escape, they turned away to the southeast, whilst Asmodeus, caught wrong footed, found itself drawing away rapidly from the main convoy, with the more powerful cruiser stood in between.

The duel of the big warships didn't last long. Engaging the larger of the Azurians with its main guns, Royal Sceptre slammed in damaging hits, knocking out the main gun astern, and adding to the carnage below decks. Having already taken considerable damage from the deadly opening salvo from Edgar Colle, and despite avoiding a long range torpedo strike, Admiral Ducrot soon went down. Before foundering, its own gunfire landed one minor hit upon Royal Sceptre, and the torpedo just missed.

Such was the outcome of Duroc d'Asprez's own torpedo strike at long range - a narrow miss. But it's gunnery, possibly steadied by the lighter, secondary ordnance coming their way proved the more effective than its consort's had. 

The final duel between raider and escort could have in the end but one outcome. As Royal Sceptre shoved several more shells into Duroc d'Asprez, Edgar Colle set off after the merchant ships. The Azurian armoured cruiser soon left dead in the water and sinking, Royal Sceptre took up the pursuit of the convoy.

Duroc d'Asprez tries to hold off Royal Sceptre
as Edgar Colle begins rounding up the merchants

Edgar Colle sending several shots across the bows of 
the Azurian ships. Well... they aren't scoring any hits,
are they?

Still afloat and determined to make a fight of it, the armed merchant Asmodeus tried to bar the way. Naturally, such resistance was a merely futile gesture, as a single salvo was enough to put Asmodeus under.  Meanwhile Edgar Colle had to fire several shells into the unprotected merchant ships before they began to alter course and mill around in circles. As Royal Sceptre wqas coming up rapidly, neither fight nor flight was left to the convoy. Four valuable ships, together with their vital cargoes, fell into the hands of the Ruberian Navy.

No escape for the merchant ships. Four prizes go to the 
Ruberian Royal Navy

Naturally, this engagement was hailed a great victory by the Trinovantum Tribune, The Londonjon Illustrated News, and the Daily Post. But the Azurians had been not quite a pushover. Having taken some hard knocks during the action, Royal Sceptre was to spend several weeks undergoing repair and replenishment. The Azurian Annals, the Bulletin, and Lutetian Egalitarian heaped praise upon the gallant fight Amiral Ducrot, Duroc d'Asprez and Asmodeus put up against a far more powerful enemy.

A few telling shell hits persuade the Azurian ships' captains
that neither fight nor flight are available options

So the survivors who made it back to Azuria related their story. But the whole action had been decided by the remarkable first salvoes, that knocked half the fight out of the escorts before the action had fairly begun.

Army Accommodations

 

A recent posting on Bob Cordery's blogspot, Wargames Miscellany reminded me of something I've been meaning to do for a long time: tell of the accommodations of my war games armies. His own accommodations look to me convenient and handy - especially the 'army in a box' concept - something I have striven for but never quite achieved to my satisfaction. We begin with these 'tray towers'.

The coloured ones house most of my Napoleonic inventory. We might call this an 'army corps in a tray', in accordance with my Big Battles 4 Small Tables game system. Some 'double up', such as the two French Cavalry Corps in the picture below. I Cav Corps comprises 3x12-figure brigades of dragoons and a park of 1 gun with 3 crew figures; II Corps comprises 3x12-figure brigades of 12 cuirassiers. Also present in this tray are Marshal Murat with his aide-de-camp, and Generals Milhaud and Lasalle. Some sort of horse grenadier staff officer seems to have accommodated himself there as well.

In the following picture, a single French Amry Corps takes up only about half the room. One of the Divisions (the 5th) has been taken out for some work that needs doing on them. This Army Corps (II) comprises 3x24-figure Infantry Divisions, a light horse brigade and a park of 2 guns each with 3 crew figures. Those triangular and trapezoidal profiles you see are bases for the artillery in action. I prefer (for the moment) not to fasten the guns to these bases.

Below are a couple of Austrian Army Corps in their trays. Top tray, looks like I Corps: 3 Line Divisions, 1 Jager Division (rather larger formation than historica1!), and a unit of Uhlans. Again we have a 2-gun artillery park, but with 4 crew figures each. The artillery scale is determined by the number of crew figures, at 1 figure representing 8 guns, and 200 artillerymen. So this formation's artillery park represents 64 guns and 1600 gunners.

The bottom tray shows part of the Reserve Corps of Austrian grenadiers and cuirassiers.

The next two trays hold my British army: foot in the top, artillery and horse in the bottom. The Royal Scots Greys were an indulgence. Now, these trays measure 26cm x 34cm. The plastic being rather soft, the heavy metal figures tend to sag the floor of the trays. This was a real problem with the next tray tower, whose trays measure 33cm x 37cm. That extra width was enough to cause a sag that would compromise the safety of the figures in the tray below. 

Stack of trays. the whole unit can be wheeled around
or the separate drawers removed. I damaged this 
somewhat several years ago when I tripped over an 
impediment I might as well have placed in order 
to do so, slammed into the thing, and took a hefty gouge out of my 
knee. The bottom tray still sticks a bit... and I still
bear the scar.

This I solved by transferring all the metal figures to the less roomy coloured towers. The armies here are all - very nearly all - plastics. The top 5 hold my 30YW armies. The picture didn't come out so I am not showing any. The next two hold my War of the Spanish Succession Imperialists.

WSS Imperialists: 36-figure foot and 
24-figure horse units. I rather wish I had adopted
a different plan...

... and the next two my Prussian Army, inherited when their previous owner was about to deep six the lot. The Paul 'Jacko' Jackson added to the infantry, Italieri plastics, enough to build the army from 7 to 9 units; and I bought some Italieri cavalry. So 'antispiring' (outspiring?) were the figures that it took me an age to get them painted.  And then, just because I liked the look, and had forgotten what Prussian horse I had, I added a couple of metal (Minifigs). The whole army comprises 3 Army corps, each with 3x24-figure Divisions, an park of 2 guns and 4 gunners, and two or three cavalry formations. This army, like my French, has far too much cavalry! At any rate, the whole lot goes into just two of these trays.

Prussian Army

***

A very useful ... thing ... that I could use more of!

Now, the sort of thing pictured above would have been very handy: hardish plastic, deep enough to accommodate flags and uhlans. This is where my Napoleonic Russian uhlans live, together with Aeryth Chromatica Turcowaz cavalry. Not all the drawers have much in them at the moment.

WW2, some board games I've hardly ever looked 
at (including SPI's Fighting Sail), and 
logistics elements at the bottom.

But that brings me to something I discovered several years ago: these 3-drawer cardboard archive tray thingies. There is a word for them, I'm sure. The white box at the upper centre of the picture holds most of the army of Altmark-Uberheim - one of my 'War of the Imperialist Succession' armies.

My rather inefficiently stacked WW2 and such 
cupboard. The white box with the blue apostrophe 
is what is intended to engage the interest here.

Just lingering in this tall cupboard for the moment, all the other random boxes here contain WW2 items: tanks, vehicles, guns. I really must go through and sort it all out.

Altmark-Uberheim army box.

Altmark-Uberheim foot and horse.

Now this set was deeper than wide, unlike all the other cardboard storage that I picked up over the years. Pity, as for several reasons this was the better design.

Not Quite Seven Years War army barracks.

Here we have it. Everything in those 5 boxes belongs to my War of the Imperialist Succession/ Not Quite 7YW armies. Atop the left of the pile as you see it two flat boxes hold the Imperialist Infantry, and I do believe one Archduke Piccolo might be found there. Four of my five Sengoku armies are in boxes to the right, and that little black box contains my 'Jono's World' aircraft stands. The labels on most of those boxes will have to be redone...

The main drawback of these otherwise splendid units, is that they are not very robust. I might yet end up replacing them once they start to disintegrate. Mind you some of these are twenty and more years since their purchase.

Infantry of Hessen-Rohr 5 regiments of 36 figures in all 
4 companies of 8 plus HQ of 4.

What the boxes contain: 5 x 36-figure infantry and 4x19-figure cavalry. 

Imperialist horse: 3 dragoon and 1 hussar regiment.
I have a notion that the green dragoons are below establishment 
at 15 figures.

RED and BLUE armies, and my really tiny
navies overall

Then there are these two. The contain my Chromatic Wars armies Ruberia and Azuria - and badly in need of relabelling. The armies of Turcowaz and Izumrud-Zeleniya have slightly different accommodation that I forgot to photograph: same idea, but metal-bound plastic. Very large drawers on that one. 

Here's where my ACW armies live. Mostly photographic paper boxes, with the occasional chocolate box thrown in. The whole arrangement is sufficient to hold something like 1500 figures. Not ideal, though. Mainly one box will contain a brigade or possibly two of infantry, the artillery have very shallow chocolate boxes of their own (except for my South Carolina Brigade, which has a 2-gun battery in the same box.  The cavalry have separate accommodations.

ACW boxes.

My Chromatic Wars navies live in a chest of drawers, two of which accommodate the 'whole worlds' navies'. Top drawer: 20 vessels of Ruberian Royal Navy; the 6 torpedo boats of Chervenia; some landing barges; the 8 Hellenic and 9 Turcowaz vessels.

Third drawer: 7 merchant ships (2 armed); 19 Azurian vessels (including the two overscale 'flatiron gunboats'), the light cruiser and 3 torpedo boats of the minute Rhumbarbarian Navy; and the 8-ship navy of Izumrud-Zeleniya. Separating the Zeleniyans from the others, are two riverine boats: a sternwheeler steamship, and a Ruberian  'Fly' class gunboat.

The above is what separates the naval accommodations: my Roman Fort. This featured as the fortified wall of the riverine market town of Kachinga in the 'Darkest Aithops' campaign run by 'Jacko' and myself that was kiboshed by COVID19 2.0. 5 years ago. I don't think it will ever be revived, worse luck. It promised to be very interesting. The colonial army was about to be ambushed at Getmai Drift by what remained of the m'Butu tribal forces, though it was very doubtful that the colonial tide would have been stemmed. 

In another chest of drawers one might locate my 'Byzantiad' armies - and my ACW vessels, which, again, I forgot to photograph

Some 'Byzantiad' stuff. Those galley hulls are from a project begun 
decades ago. Still don't know what to do with them.

Other bits and pieces have their own storage spaces - this unit of bins contains several HO-OO scale buildings, some cardboard railway buildings, some Usborne mediaeval, a few plastic, and a number home made. These days I find myself using more often several underscale buildings that I have stashed elsewhere.

Assorted buildings

Below, counters, dice, little magnetic chessboard, and my hearing aid stuff. 

That folded thing divided into green squares
and tucked in between furniture was one of those
  'could be useful' buys. Still not sure what to do with it

And finally, I have found a place for my 1:600 'Jono's World' expeditionary forces. One change I will probably make. I combined the AA and logistic elements, which seemed to make sense, and perhaps those elements will remain so. But I think some separate AA elements are called for...

'Jono's World' Armies. The aircraft stands are 
for my 'Mighty Armada's' game system that needs 
a fair bit of work to complete...

Well ... that isn't everything, but it is most of it. At some future time I might say something about my folders of notes, sketches, maps, ORBATS etc. I had a look at my ACW folder, and discovered that over the years I had accumulated a fairly useful resource. More of that sort of thing another time...

Waterloo Campaign 2.0 - First days

 

Early morning: Armies about to lurch into motion...

Early on 15th June 1815, the signal to advance rippled up and down Napoleon's columns and they began the campaign that would restore or bring down Napoleon's imperium. 

Overall situation, dawn 15 June 1815: Who, what and where

Unsure of Napoleon's plans, the Allies had rather scattered themselves along the Belgium-France frontier. The Anglo-Dutch were at Alost (I Corps), Ghent (II Corps, off table), Brussels (Reserve, with Wellington) and Ninove (Cavalry Corps). The Prussians were dispersed thus: Fleurus Ligny (I Corps), Namur (II Corps, with Generalfeldmarschall Graf Blucher), Ciney (III Corps) and Liege (IV Corps, off table).

Napoleon's plan seemed to involve a northward thrust aimed directly at Brussels. Somehow, the Duke of Wellington conceived a notion that Napoleon might try to insert his army between his own and the North Sea ports, an apprehension that lead to the scattering of his command. Instead, Napoleon had disposed of his army in a species of his customary bataillon carré.

General view looking north from behind Beaumont

The right wing, under command of Marshal Grouchy, comprised IV Army Corps and II and III Cavalry Corps. On the left, Marshal Ney commanded I Army Corps with I and IV Cavalry Corps. The main centre column comprised II, III, la Garde, and VI Army Corps. Napoleon himself could have been found accompanying his Guard.

General view at nightfall, 15 June. First battle
between Prussian I Corps against French IV Corps
(led by Marshal Grouchy)

General view, looking NW. Battle of Charleroi

As Marshall Grouchy led the IV Corps into Charleroi, they came under attack from the Prussian I Corps - or at least most of it. Meanwhile, II and III Cavalry Corps were passing through Fosse to cover the army's right flank against possible incursion by the Thielmann's III Corps. To the left of Charleroi, Reille's II Corps swung right at Binche in order to support Grouchy, and/or to take the road to Quatre Bras. Vandamme's III Corps continued up the north road to Seneffe, leading the Imperial Guard and VI Corps following on. Meanwhile d'Erlon's I Corps reaches Mons at nightfall.

The bellicose Graf von Zieten immediately engaged Grouchy's wing at Charleroi. Not all of Zieten's Corps was up, however, elements of horse, foot and guns not advancing beyond Fleurus. 

In this rule set, an attack from one hex into an adjacent counts as a hex move, even though the attacker doesn't fully enter the 'battlefield hex'. My procedure is to nudge some of the attacker's figures just over or on the battlefield hex edge. That way, at any time we know who the attackers and defenders are. Now, movement along a road is two hexes for foot troops. Although the laggards could have reached the hex adjacent to Charleroi, they could not have engaged in the battle. Zieten could have simply waited for the following day to engage in battle with his whole force, but I made Zieten a bellicose type not overburdened with patience. A bit like Blucher himself, come to think on it. I found it simplest to leave the stragglers back in Fleurus.

II and III Cavalry Corps passing through Fosse,
whilst several kilometres away, the Battle of Charleroi 
rages

Allied Cavalry Corps reaches Hal

Reille's II Corps passes close by Charleroi, as 
Vandamme leads the main column towards Seneffe

Will Reille join the action at Charleroi...
or march on Quatre Bras (the road leading off to 
the bottom right of the picture)?

Battle of Charleroi, first day. X marks the dice that cancel
each other out; R the dice that are redundant for lack of the 
enemy type to eliminate. Although the Prussians weren't too
outnumbered, the result is a heavy defeat.

Zieten's bellicosity failed to pay off. Leaving some elements out of the battle is not totally downside, as they can not be lost, and there is a chance of wasted dice. But this battle was a heavy defeat for the Prussians, losing 4 foot and a horse to a single horse element from IV Corps. 

Battle of Charleroi. The French don't have 4 horse to lose;
The Prussian have only 4 foot... So three threes and 
one five have no effect.

One 'foot' hot on the French side was superfluous - redundant, and on the Prussian side, three dice went to waste. Napoleon's campaign had opened with a great victory at Charleroi. Zieten's command fell back upon Fleurus, where they joined the three figures left behind. As this was the only battle of the 15th June, it was a simple matter to rally the stragglers - half of the losses by each arm, foot rounded up, others rounded down. So IV Corps lost its cavalry, as did the Prussians, but they got back two of the four infantry figures.

Battle of Fleurus. Following up the repulse at 
Charleroi, Grouchy scores a second victory at Fleurus

16th June:

Of course, Marshal Grouchy simply had to follow up the repulse of the night before, and at once launched an attack upon Fleurus. This fight should have been more even Zieten has lost 5 elements  from the battle, recovered 2 and was joined by the 3 left out. So once again had 10 dice to roll. The French seems to have been allocated 8 only, though there ought to have been at least one more. Nevertheless, this was a signal victory for the French Corps, which inflicted the loss of 2 infantry, one horse and a gunner upon the Prussians, for the loss of one infantry.

Reeling from the blow, Zieten fell back upon Gembloux whilst Grouchy occupied Fleurus.

Battle of Quatre Bras - and a disaster for the Allies!

Reille had meanwhile passed by Charleroi and pushed on until reaching Quatre Bras in the afternoon of the 16th. There they encountered the Duke of Wellington, leading in person, the Allied Reserve Corps. The French having slightly the superior strength, they again prevailed, though only after a stiff and costly fight. Destroying three foot elements, II Corps might have destroyed a horse, had any Allied horse been present. In return, the Allies did eliminate a horse unit, and a gunner as well. But three elements eliminated for two was another French victory.

But it got better. The two extra sixes put the Iron Duke at hazard. What happened to him? In such instances we roll two D6 dice. Double-six inflicts a mortal wound; six-five an incapacitating one. In some circumstances, e.g. a lost battle, a score of 10 might indicate the commander taken prisoner.

So, what was the roll? Double-six. The Duke of Wellington was no more. The Allied Reserve Corps straggled back to Waterloo.

The Allied Reserve Corps has no cavalry to lose, 
but they do lose 3 foot - though the French don't 
come off unscathed. Those two sixes, though...!

Such was not to the end of the tale of French victories, though they would have to await the morrow. 

Namur having been vacated by Blucher and II Corps
Exelmans's dragoons seize and occupy the town!

So would Blucher's vengeance for Zieten's defeat. As I Corps retreated upon Gembloux, Blucher led II Corps up to Fleurus. Marshal Grouchy would soon find himself in yet another battle. But behind Blucher a minor setback ensued, as General Exelmans' led his corps of dragoons into the town. What might that portend for the whole Prussian army?

I Corps on the left, with I Cav Corps and III Corps
converge upon Allied I Corps at Soignes

Far off to the west, Marshal Ney's wing took longer to see action. Nightfall of 16th June found his I Corps still well short of Soignes, where awaited the Allied I Corps. Nearer at hand was General Vandamme's III Corps, which formation had veered off the Brussels road and closed upon Soignes. To add to the tale of menace, the light I Cavalry Corps was also moving up from Binche. The Prince of Orange would find the Seventeenth a very warm June day...

General view, late afternoon 16 June.

The battlefield losses for the day were:
French: 1 foot, 1 horse, 1 gunner
Prussian: 2 foot, 1 horse, 1 gunner
Anglo-Dutch: 3 foot and the Duke of Wellington.

Overnight the half the losses are returned - stragglers or lightly scratched returning to the colours
Foot are rounded up; specialists rounded down. However, for rounding purposes specialists - horse and foot may be grouped together. So the returns are:

French get back: 1 foot and 1 horse or gunner:
Prussians get back: 1 foot and 1 horse or gunner
Anglo-Dutch get back: 2 foot.
The Duke of Wellington is not replaced.  Somebody takes over the command - probably the Prince of Orange - but, without Wellington's battlefield presence, the extra combat die is no longer available. This might prove decisive!

Despite three signal French victories, the Allies' losses don't amount to so very much. Attrition is by no means a factor yet!