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| The Ruberian invasion fleet approaching Chaudeville-sur-Mer and the flanking beaches. The armoured cruiser, RNS Warrior begins its duel with a shore battery. |
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Following up from the previous posting, there has been a further development in the Little Great War. Readers might recall the naval action as the Azurian navy tried to interfere with the Ruberian invasion fleet heading for the Norromandy coast. That narrative has yet to be reported, but suffice it for the moment to say that hard fighting kept the Oceanic Fleet at bay. The invasion fleet arrived off the beaches at Chaudeville-sur-Mer about mid-morning 6 June, 1884.
Now, this turned out to be a two day battle. Failing to achieve all their objectives on D-Day, Ruberia's I Corps found itself having to fight a second battle to effect a breakout from the bridgehead.
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| General view of the battlefield. The two small villages, close up and to the right, were the D-Day objectives |
For this campaign I decided to fight out some of the opening action whilst I can, before using 'down time' to draw up the maps and fill in the background narrative: casi belli, political and military alliances, and a bit of a breakdown of the forces available to the belligerents. An unusual approach, but I am hoping that this plot scheme proves narratively satisfactory
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| 1st Brigade approaching Silver Beach. The shore battery scores a hit on Warrior... |
Certain looming family issues, complicated, at least for the moment, by a 1500-mile separation, seem likely to place a crimp on war gaming activities for a goodish while. Hence this approach to the campaign: to create a backlog of action reportage hopefully to keep this blog spot ticking along at something approaching its normal pace.
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| 3rd Brigade beginning landings on Sabre Beach, west of Pointe d'Oq. The light cruiser RNS Eliza and Merchant Cruiser MS Allwright engage the shore battery on the point clifftop. |
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| 3rd Brigade beginning its assault upon the Nonstreham Heights... Allwright has taken a hit... |
At any rate, I think this will be enough of a 'teaser' to be going on with...
To be continued...
To be continued...
Your representation of water looks effective. James of Quantrill's Toy Soldiers.
ReplyDeleteThank you, James. The green cellophane was intended for riverine waterways but I never got around to making them...
DeleteCheers,
Ion
Your teaser has certainly piqued my interest. Hope all goes well on the home front.
ReplyDeleteMark -
DeleteSo do I. The whole family gig has the potential to go really turnip shaped. Actually, it kinda has already, but I'm hoping the fit won't hit the shan.
On the wargames front, I hoped that the 'medias res' approach might draw a readership or audience, whilst keeping occupied if I run into a war games dearth.
Cheers,
Ion
A good set up, the table looks great and the scene is set very nicely, hopefully all goes well on the home front and we can see campaign play out.
ReplyDeleteDonnie -
DeleteAt least I have now a programme I think realisable. Here's hoping. Mind you, it would have been extremely embarrassing had the invasion fleet been stopped at sea, or the landing ended in red ruin on the sands of Norromandy! It has been touch and go!
Cheers,
Ion
Ion
This all looks very interesting, I love the cellophane "sea", what a clever idea. Best of luck sorting out the family issues, I know how wearing all that can be.
ReplyDeleteMartin -
DeleteI'm getting too old for 'real life' dramas. Lover of peace and quiet, me, which is probably one of the reasons for my war gaming.
The cellophane was originally intended for rivers and large water ways, but I never got around to making them. In my view, green or tan are the best riverine colours; blue or teal being great for the ocean. The bay landing was due to that being the only way I could stretch the thing from corner to corner. But I like the look as well.
Cheers,
Ion
Looks great Ion. Starting the campaign before finalising all the paperwork would be my standard approach...
ReplyDeleteMaudlin Jack -
Delete... and a sensible approach it is! Probably the best way to kick start a campaign. Apart from any other consideration, having begun can direct the mind to thinking about causes. Not my usual method, but I'm beginning to see its advantages.
Cheers,
Ion
With regards to gaming I can’t see anything wrong with starting the campaign fighting without the “background” stuff having been written. This is meant to be a pleasurable hobby after all. In any event, I suspect it’s rare that wars are fought when “the time is perfectly right” (as, presumably, the generals & admirals would always ideally like MORE). This way you can make the background fluff fit 😉
ReplyDeleteYour water looks quite nice - clear evidence that “hoarding random stuff on the off chance you might one day find a use for it” is a useful thing.
I hope you get your family issues resolved.
Cheers,
Geoff
Geoff:
DeleteDefinition of garbage: what you throw out two days before you discover (a) what it was for or (b) a use for it.
I was tossing up whether to 'do' a contested beach landing, or an uncontested one, more like the 1912 'redo' I tried out a couple of years back:
https://archdukepiccolo.blogspot.com/2023/05/another-map-game.html
But as I much preferred to fight my way onto the beaches, I had to work out a terrain for it.
Cheers,
Ion
Best of luck on the family issues. Perhaps parts of the campaign could be fought out with either Portable Wargame or the appropriate “Dominion of” rules?
ReplyDeleteN.E. Pete
DeleteThe battles will be some variant of the Portable Colonial Wargames system. Some battles will look a bit like this, I suspect:
https://archdukepiccolo.blogspot.com/2023/10/chronicles-of-rajistan-return-to-sheikh.html
If I'm really pushed, I might examine the 'Dominion of' or PW3x3FP systems.
Cheers,
Ion
Archduke Piccolo,
ReplyDeleteMy wife and I have been laid low for the last couple of days with what might - or might not be - COVID … so I missed reading this blog post yesterday. (Luckily, I had several blog posts ‘in the can’ ready to post so all I needed to do was to press ‘Publish’ to make them live.)
Reading this blog post and seeing the photos was a real boost to my morale, and I look forward to reading more battle reports as and when you get around to posting them. I particularly like the outline boats shapes you are using as landing barges. Simple and elegant … and eminently copiable!
I hope that your domestic problems get resolved as soon as possible and that it doesn’t disrupt your life too much. I know what you mean about finding real-life dramas a real drain on one’s mental energy as one gets older. In my case, just coping with life’s usual daily travails is tiring enough!
I think that your approach to fighting your battles and worrying about the background afterwards is one that I should give serious consideration to. I tend get too involved in developing the background before I get around to fighting my wargames … and I’m sure that this approach is actually preventing me from fighting more battles! It’s a lesson that I need to learn from.
All the best,
Bob
Bob -
DeleteGlad to have provided some kind of uplift at a time you and wife are feeling a bit low. If it's COVID you have, I hope it's one of the milder varieties.
The barges are just shaped balsa sheet, but have the potential to become something more elaborate and robust. I gave them a carrying capacity of 4SP; the three merchants have 7 and the merchant cruiser also carries 4SP. I think the light cruiser can carry 3SP.
The role of RMS Warrior will be clarified in the narrative: a flank guard for the sea voyage across the Maunch (Sleeve, Trouser Leg), then fire support for the landing itself.
The 'medias res' approach (as I've chosen to call it) is a way I think of getting things rolling whilst the background thinking, design and introduction are worked through.
Regards,
Ion
Consider me 'teased' enough to follow. Hopefully real life will cut you some slack and you get to be productive, on your backgrounds
ReplyDeletepancerni -
DeleteSome information received today indicates (for the moment) some 'definition' to the near future. It ain't good, but at least we know more.
Meanwhile, I can think about these battle reports and campaign narrative.
Cheers,
Ion
Tease! ☺
ReplyDeleteI believe fitting the background afterwards is now called a "narrative campaign" .....
Neil
Neil -
DeleteWell, they all are, of course - but it is still unknown where this will go. I do have a very broad-brush idea how this war came about, and in some ways the Blacklands War, the Kavkaz Campaign and the Medifluvian expeditions are all forerunners. Turcowaz has been the focus of a whole lot of hostile attention, and at last have secured an ally - Azuria.
That much was determined to set the thing off. It remains to colour in the outlines, then refer back to the clash between the Azurian Mesogesian Fleet and the Hellenic, and the long planned Ruberian invasion of Azuria. I have to admit, to find a plausible genesis of that expedition won't be easy. On the other hand, the world today is witnessing some of the most bizarre politics - domestic and global; social and economic - ever to disgrace human history. I seem to recall coming up with something plausibly outlandish as the generating circumstance for the Kavkaz Campaign - which was intended as parody of international affairs as much as to kick off that campaign.
Cheers,
Ion