Sunday 28 October 2012

Charge !, my favourite war game.

I had a game of "Charge" yesterday, just a simple line them up encounter leaving out the battalion guns and light infantry. The forces of Altstein in blue are led by Von Bruckenheim and the Eisenburg-Essling army, mostly in white, are led by Fritz von Essling.
  
 The positions after move one.
 The light cavalry clash, the Altstein blue hussars are well beaten and flee the field.
 The Altstein infantry advance.
 The Eisenburg-Essling infantry, Eisenburg grenadiers in their splendid yellow coats.
 Eisenburg Dragoons, Revell Austrians.
 An overview of move two.
 Kazinsky Uhlans rally on the spot after defeating the hussars, the Altstein musketeers crochet their line to counter the threat to their flank.
 The heavies clash on the other flank. Neither side win this fight and both sides fall back to rally.
 The Altstein Grenadiers charge into the Eisenburg Musketeers to the right of the picture.
 Kazinsky hurls his lancers at the enemy line.
 The lines are getting into musket range.
 The dragoons clash again and this time the blue Meissen Dragoons win this fight and fall back to rally. Whilst the Eisenburg Dragoons are routed.
 Close fighting in the centre of the field.
 The lancers came off very badly against the Altsteiners and have fled to lick their wounds.
 The huge Ostburg regiment (64 other ranks plus officers) forms line to cover the gap left by the lancers.
 The Meissen Dragoons rally, victorious but badly depleted.
 The hard fighting in the centre continues.
 Bayonets are crossed and the Eisenburg Grenadiers are defeated.
 A lull in the fighting allows the lines to reform and face each other.
 The Altstein commander Von Bruckenheim gives an order to his Meissen Dragoons to charge yet again,their target is the enemy guns. However the gunners are ready for them and a hail of canister greets the dragoons who are unable to withstand the storm of lead and flee the field.

 The desperate charge against the guns was Von Bruckenheim's last throw of the dice, outnumbered he reluctantly concedes the battle and retreats from the field.










Sunday 8 July 2012

The Bridge at Weizenfeld

A version of a classic scenario from "Charge!".

 The fine army of Eisenburg-Essling is at the top of the picture and the army of Altstein nearest the lens.
 The bridge is the objective for both armies as their cannons cannot cross the river by fording it.
 The Eisenburg Dragoons cross the river - the Innen Fluss.
 Kazinskys Uhlans.
 The Hecksheim Regiment advances.
 Captain Weingartner is there with a company of Jager.
 The Altstein army splendid in their coats of blue.
 The Ostburgers cross the bridge
 A cavalry clash is imminent
 The Ostburgers launch themselves into the Hecksheim regiment who only have time to turn to face the assault.
 The cavalry fight.
 Weingartner takes the orchard. I know that it should be a ploughed field but I'd gotten the trees out of the cupboard.
 The Eisenburg Dragoons are defeated.
 The artillery duel over the river.
 The Heydnbrucke Regiment after slogging across the river find themselves heavily outnumbered.
 The white coated Ostburgers prepare to defend their bridgehead.
 After a valiant effort the Heydnbruckers are shattered.
 Prinz Johan gains the bridge. But the Ostburgers are soon shattered by a storm of Altstein lead.
 A bold charge by the Blue Hussars sends the yellow clad Eisenburg-Essling Grenadiers reeling.
 The rallied Hecksheimers pour onto the bridge and that scoundrel Lidl crosses swords with the gallant Prince.
 Prinz Johan and his army flee with only the Uhlans left itact to cover the retreat.

A first run out for these chaps since I multi-based them back in January ( oh, the guilt ), I also used 2/3rd distances to make life a little easier on my 6x4 table.

I also left out the battalion guns and the game ran much quicker, at least the units were much faster to manouvre and I am very pleased with my amendments to the rules as outlined in my previous post.

Thursday 26 April 2012

"Charge" playsheet revisited.


In addition to mounting most of my armies onto multibases I have tweaked my Charge playsheet by reducing all distances by a third, this makes a lot of sense considering that I only have a six foot by four foot table.

I've copied and pasted the text below.

CHARGE!  PLAYSHEET  

TURN SEQUENCE:
ROLL FOR INIATIVE                                                            
DECLARE CHARGES
MOVE IN INIATIVE ORDER                                                
ARTILLERY FIRE SIMULTANEOUSLY
MUSKETS FIRE SIMULTANEOUSLY
FIGHT MELEES
RALLY FROM MELEE IF REQUIRED                                      
                                                                                                                     

CHARGES:
MAY PIN ENEMY WITHIN ½ MOVE
DEFENDER REACTION :       DISTANCE TRAVELLED 0-2”  NO SHOOTING, 2-4” SHOOT AT LONG RANGE IF CAVALRY, SHORT IF INFANTRY CHARGING, OVER 4” DICE FOR LONG OR SHORT RANGE FIRE.
ADD CASUALTIES TO MELEE RESULT.



MOVEMENT:
HEAVY CAVALRY: 16”
LIGHT CAVALRY: 20”
ARTILLERY: 10” LIMBERED
                          8” TO POSITION , NO FIRING
                          4” MANHANDLED , ROLL EVEN TO FIRE
LIGHT INFANTRY: 8” MOVE AND FIRE
                                  12” MOVE/CHANGE FORMATION
LINE INFANTRY: 4” MOVE AND FIRE
                                6” IN LINE , NO FIRING
                                8” 1 COY. IN LINE , NO FIRING , FORMATION CHANGE
                             10” COLUMN 4 WIDE
BATTALION GUNS: MOVE AS INFANTRY , 4” ROLL EVEN TO FIRE


ARTILLERY FIRE:
45 DEGREE ARC
CREW MINIMUM 3
NOT INTO MELEE OR 1” OF FRIENDS.


    FIELD GUNS                      

RANGE       SCORE TO HIT       SCORE FOR EFFECT                                  
    0 - 8”            AUTOMATIC         1D6 = STANDARD CASUALTIES                  
   8”- 16”               2                        1D6 = STANDARD CASUALTIES                  
16”- 24”               3                 HALF 1D6 = STANDARD CASUALTIES      
24”- 32”               4                                 “            “               “                                          
32”- 40”               5                                 “            “               “                                          
40”- 48”               6                                 “            “               “                                          

MUSKET FIRE:
CLOSE ORDER TROOPS ROLL 1D6 PER 8 MUSKETS
RANGES :  SHORT 0-4”,  LONG 4-8”

HALF CASUALTIES FOR LONG RANGE, COVER, CAVALRY, GUNNERS AND OPEN ORDER.
(COVER AND OPEN ORDER ARE NOT CUMULATIVE).

OPEN ORDER TROOPS ROLL 1D6 PER MUSKET TO HIT AT RANGES: 0-4”  SCORE 4.5.6 ,
4-8”   SCORE 5,6  ,    8-12”   SCORE 6 TO HIT.





MELEE:
OPPOSED ROLLS FOR OPEN ORDER .
HIGHEST SCORE BY MORE THAN I PIP WINS.

UNEQUAL COMBAT  i : CAV. VS. INF. , 2 CAV.VS. 1CAV. OR 2 INF VS. 1 INF.
THE PLAYER WITH THE ADVANTAGE DOUBLES HIS DIE SCORE

UNEQUAL COMBAT  ii : CAV.+ INF. VS. CAV. ,  HEAVY CAV. VS. LIGHT CAV.
THE PLAYER WITH THE ADVANTAGE ADDS A QUARTER TO HIS SCORE.

CLOSE ORDER MELEE:
ROLL 1D6 PER 10 LINE INF OR CAV OR 12 LIGHT INF IN CONTACT UP TO 4 RANKS DEEP MAY FIGHT, THE RESULT IS THE CASUALTIES AT THE STANDARD RATE.


MELEE RESULTS:
UNITS MUST RALLY FOR 1 TURN FOR EACH TURN OF MELEE , THE LOSER MUST RALLY 1 EXTRA TURN.

THE WINNER MUST HAVE A 3/2 ADVANTAGE IN CASUALTIES TO WIN

WINNERS RALLY ON THE SPOT IF WISHED , LOSERS FALL BACK 2 FULL MOVES.
RALLYING TROOPS FIGHT AT -1 , INFANTRY CANNOT SHOOT.
                                             

MORALE:
LINE INFANTRY REDUCED TO UNDER 1/2 STRENGTH , CAVALRY , GRENADIERS AND LIGHT INFANTRY REDUCED TO UNDER 1/3 STRENGTH MUST ROUT 2 FULL MOVES.
                         
Vorwarts...

Tuesday 10 January 2012

Multibases for "Charge!".

Inspired by Prince Lupus at the Wars of Wine and Cheese blog and frustrated at the length of time required to play "Charge!" due to the singly based soldiers I've decided to base the close order troops into eights and threes for infantry and cavalry respectively.

Prince Lupus has some rule amendments to allow for this, especially for cavalry melees.

I thought I would mark casualties with dice until there is enough to remove a whole stand.



I'm on holiday for most of this week so I must get cracking!.

Vorwarts.