Wethau. The deployment

The French have arrived before Wethau and its vital bridge, defended by the Austrians. The Allies, Austrians, Prussians and Russians, are trying to delay the Augereau's march towards Leipzig. However, the French are outflanking the Allied first line of defense over the Wethau stream. Below, you can see some pictures of the opposing forces.

The combat is about to begin!

Note: To see all the posts about this combat, select the 'Wethau' label in the right column or follow this link: Wethau combat.

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Coming back!

After a very busy period of time with too many academic and home duties, I can resume the wargaming activities. This is the moment to play the last designed Lasalle Scenario: the battle of Wethau that was left 'frozen' the last December to explore the posibilites of Sirmish games via Song of Drums and Shakos.

You can see above a scheme of the final terrain with the initial deployment and below two pictures of the actual terrain.

Watch this space!


The Lasalle Scenario file is available at Googledocs

Edited 11th March: The Document in Google docs is now open to everybody"

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The last Spanish Automotive R+D+i contribution!

A new traffic sign has been proposed by Spanish students after the last experiments carried out at Valencia

Watch one of the real experiments that led to the above design:

Again, I feel ashamed to live in the same country that some political leaders!

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The issue No. 14 of ALKAID

 
The issue No. 14 of ALKAID REVISTA MULTITEMÁTICA is out from February 17.

The magazine is one of the activities of ALKAID EDICIONES, an editorial effort devoted to the interaction amongst science, literature, poetry, history, environment, voyages, nature.... .You can always find in ALKAID an article focused on one of your interests!
The magazine is in Spanish and it is available by subscription (24€/year). Go to ALKAID EDICIONES web site, http://www.alkaidediciones.com/, and download the Subscription Form or contact me in this e-mail address: rpardoalmudi@gmail.com

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A new section in the main website

I have added a new section devoted to Song of Drums and Shakos (SDS) in Wargaming with Napoleonic Minitures, the website acting as big brother or permanent repository of this blog.
With the addition of SDS, there is now a preferred rule-book for each level of Napoleonic wargaming: Napoleon's Battles for grand-tactical (brigade based), Lasalle for tactical (battalion based) and Song of Drums and Shakos for skirmish (squad based). Only the strategical level remains without assignation, because still I have don't found an adequate Napoleonic boardgame (but in Spain we say that hope is the last thing to be lost!).
 

From now onwards, you can find see the information about SDS: rules, modifications and scenarios by clicking the 'Song of Drums and Shakos' in Wargaming with Napoleonic Minitures

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The work of a diorama master: Curro

The Blog de Curro, shows the actual works of a great Spanish diorama-maker. He built a master piece to commemorate the bicenntenary of the battle of Albuera and is working on another one, this time about the Siege of Badajoz.
 

 
Visit regularly his blog to follow the advance of this new wonderful diorama, and don't miss the Santisima Trinidad naval scene.

This marvelous naval diorama is on sale!

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Altenburg (September 1813) The AAR

After a long delay, I have uploaded to main site the Scenario and the AAR of the combat of Altenburg for Lasalle.

Unlike the real battle, the French achieved a tactical victory: they caused more losses than the other side, and the main force retired unmolested from the battlefield. The Young Guard cavalry fought well, although the Grenadiers a Cheval and the Chevauxleger-Lanciers were broken. The arrival of the French reinforcements saved the day for Lefevbre-Desnouettes allowing him to make a haste retreat.

On the contray, the Austrian cavalry do not fought at his habitual level, losing too many units in hand-to-hand combats. In addition, Thielmann resulted badly wounded.

See also the posts with the label Altenburg in this blog to see a day-to-day account of the wargaming refight.

Next Lasalle scenario will be Wethau (date unknown!)

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My comments about the Song of Drums and Shakos Scenario

The play of the SDS Scenario went smoothly, despite some mistakes I made initially in relation with the Activation step. I forgot to take in account the modifiers of the Leader and Élan Special rules. In SDS a model is activated by rolling one, two or three dice against the model’s Quality (see below for Solo modifications) that for the normal rank-and-file men is Q4. However, Leader rule makes that any model within Long distance from a Leader has its Quality rolls increased by one. Élan Special rule adds a further +1, making that a model with both rules will activate on a roll equal or higher than 2 (66.7 % probability). These Special SDS rules, that make easier the Activation, were not applied until mid-game, resulting in some turns wasted with only one or two, or none models activated (see below for the reason behind). Since the error affected both sides, Austrian Jaegers and French Voltigeurs, no biases were introduced.
The SDS rules are very easy to learn and apply and can be summarized in a single one-side Quick Reference Sheet (QRS). It is worth to use it: I wasted some time searching the rulebook for the way a fallen figure stands up after a combat… well the procedure was described in the QRS!
At last, the found difficulties were caused by my lack of familiarity with Skirmish-type games. It is curious, but after one is used to visualize the retreat or rout of an entire battalion or brigade after a firefight or combat in a tactical o grand-tactical game, it becomes more difficult to visualize a single man in a similar situation in a skirmish game.

SDS is, in my opinion, well suited to solo play. As you could know, there are two general ways to play solo battles. The first is to take a side under soloist control and to fight against a randomized and/or programmed enemy. This implies to devise one or several alternative plans for the other side, a task that can be too laborious. The other possibility is to play both sides but randomize the available options. You are like a god, so if you don’t introduce any bias, pure chance will drive the play. The crude facts originated will be explained after the play by finding the adequate narrative, and I assure you that the search for the plot under a random sequence of events is also very fun. I used this secoind way in the Scenario..
The only randomized mechanism I used in the Wethau Bridge scenario was the Doghi’s mechanism for Activation that is the hearth of the SDS motor. To activate a model in SDS (or in any of the ’Song of Song of Blades and Heroes’ family of games) you roll one, two or three dice, at your choosing, against the model’s Quality. If at least one dice is equal or higher than the Q value of the model, this becomes activated. However, two dice failures imply that your turn immediately finishes with the initiative passing to the other side, so finding the equilibrium between activation and loss of the initiative is the crux of the game. The Doghi’s system uses a D3 die that indicates the number of dice to be rolled in each case. The system is elegant and easy to carry out and produced a very interesting game.
I used no figures in the Scenario: every day computer tools, i.e word processor, worksheet and presentation programs, were used instead. No pictures are available but the game was very enjoyable and fun and, maybe I’ll use the AAR as a script for an AAR with miniatures.

(French Voltigeur picture was taken from Iron-Mitten blog)

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The Wethau Bridge for Song of Drums & Shakos (II)

The French Voltigeur 3 evades initially the combined attack but, two against one is too much for him and falls mortally wounded under a powerful attack of Jaeger 4. Seeing the rest of Jaegers crossing the bridge, Sergeant Bauduin and Voltigeur 5 prudently retreat behind the fence, but Lieutenant Meunierreacts  at last and a group of three Voltigeurs (6, 7 and 8) goes out covered by the aimed fire of their comrades behind the fence, that kill Jaeger 4.

The fire exchange continues and Voltigeur 8 is killed by an accurate shot of Jaeger 3 (hidden behind a tree) so the French squad falls now under 50% strength making mandatory a moral test. Following the Scenario rules, all the men run behind the fence under the heavy fire of the Austrians, that have found now a better target in the Lieutenant Meunier.

A furious firefight starts now, with the French wounding Jaeger 7 and forcing Jaeger 6 to fall back, but the Austrian answer is immediate and Voltigeur 5 is killed.

At last, Jaeger 4, hidden behind a tree, shoots Meunier wounding him. This is too much for Sergeant Bauduin and the two remaining Votigeurs that runs towards Wethau leaving the wounded Meunier in Austrian hands.

Austrian losses: Wounded: UnterJager Gassinger and Jaeger 7. Dead: Jaegers 2 and 8
French losses: Wounded: Lieutenant Meunier. Dead: Voltigeurs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 8. Sergeant Meunier and Voltigeurs 6 and 7 left the field.

Final result: AUSTRIAN VICTORY!

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