After a frenetic start (by my standards), 2026 continues to be a relatively slow year. The rest of life intrudes. There’s been a backlog of gardening, and we’ve just spent a few days in Salzburg.
Game – Liebertwolkwitz, sort of
I managed one club game; tomorrow I will be playing a Vietnam game with my Beckenham friends. The club game was one I put on for Général de Armée 2. This was based on the famous cavalry battle at Liebertwolkwitz, October 1813, just prior to the main Leipzig battle. The starting point was a scenario in Steve Shann’s Let’s Do Leipzig. I had to adapt it to the miniatures I had. Each “brigade” was mostly a historic division, scaled back slightly (four units to three typically). For the French I did not have enough dragoons – so I substituted one division for one of cuirassiers. On the allied side, I had no Russians, and no Prussian cuirassiers. I substituted this with an army based on my Austrians, which hadn’t been on the table for many a year, with a sole “brigade” of Prussians. I did away with the special rules to reflect Murat’s command style.
On the rules, we had tried out a new command system for GDA2 in our last game. These evidently needed more work, taking it even further from the original. We decided to go back to the original rules – we do get opportunities to play GDA2 games elsewhere, and it’s as well to get used to the standard rules. Amending the rules so radically is a bit of a rabbit hole.
Malc took the French. He made no attempt to channel Murat. As allied reinforcements started to turn up with withdrew his two original divisions to consolidate his force and switch flanks. This was quite risky, as this was a time-limited game. He then ran into the familiar GDA2 problem of hesitant brigades (the main problem that the our abortive house rules were meant to address). Rod, taking the Allies, had fewer problems on this score. He stayed calm in face of the onslaught, and managed to outmanoeuvre the next wave, led by the cuirassiers – though he did lose his Commander-inChief! Malc conceded. This scenario did fit nicely into the time available – but a cavalry-only battle is much quicker!
It was nice to get back to the game table. My companions enjoyed the change to a cavalry-only battle (with a little artillery support).
Command and Discipline
These are my new hex-based Napoleonic rules, which started out as an adaptation of Valour & Fortitude. I managed my first trial game at the end of April. I ran with my adapted version of the GDA Weissenfels scenario form 1813, with Prussians from the Lützen order of battle substituting for Russians. I played this with Rod some time ago at the club. This helps compare the systems.
Interestingly the Prussians had a fairly clear victory, in a scenario that is usually regarded as very challenging for the defenders. The rules made it quite hard for them to defend their bridgeheads against cavalry in particular.
The game played reasonably well, but led to quite a large number of changes to my draft rules – just what such a trial is supposed to do. This is now done, so I’m ready for the next trial. The game also gave me an insight into the V+F system, since many mechanics are copied. I can see how they can produce a quick, exciting game. But I’m changing a lot, incorporating several ideas from GDA2. It is a much less complex game than GDA though, with even the revised draft rules fitting into 8 pages. It has been much more fun than I expected producing my own rules. I think k they will suit my Beckenham group very well. We will continue with GDA2 at the club.
The main problem with the rules is their hex format. This is what my Beckenham friends like, but you need to acquire a hex mat to play. Other grid system use squares – which are easy to set up even without grid mats (discrete markers at the corners or centres are easy to put in place – much harder for hexes). I rejected a square grid firstly because it is harder to make natural-looking terrain, and also because you get arc of fire problems for artillery. I have had two hex mats made, for my attempts at WW2 rules. These came from Tiny Wargames, who are no longer in business. The big problem is that the hexes are not oriented in the best way for horse and musket encounters. For these it looks best for units to point to the corners; for WW2 games it’s best to point to the flats. As a result the units don’t align to the baseline, assuming this is the long edge of the table. I need to get a new hex mat printed; I think I have found somebody that will do it (Deep-Cut Studio); I’m a bit nervous about getting it wrong though!
I might try to do a non-grid version, or one based on a square grid. Meanwhile I have found that the hex grid is a good basis for making modular terrain. I have bought some MDF terrain bases from Pendraken (rivers and roads to start with). This will work fine with ungridded formats.
Other projects
My secret modelling project is nearly at the reveal point. I thought I had finished at the end of last month, but decided to make a base for it, which took a bit longer.
I have started basing my 1866 10mm Austrians for my Custoza project. Let’s hope I get some time to do it.
Salzburg
Salzburg is a delightful town to visit, but fortunately for it, it doesn’t have much in the way of military history. It is dominated by a very impressive fortress, which served to tell would-be attackers “Don’t bother”. That fortress did contain a rather nice regimental museum for Austrian infantry regiment 59 (Rainer), which was based there – though the city only came into the Habsburg Empire after the Congress of Vienna in 1816.
There was a fine example of a 4-pdr rifled gun as used in 1866 A couple of points of interest. The carriage was unpainted, being dark varnished wood – I had read this was the case for this era. The darkness was a surprise, though that may be an age effect. The barrel is black – but I didn’t think to examine it. It doesn’t look painted so this may just be 140 years of patination.
Here were further exhibits of infantry weapons through the ages, and some felt uniform models, as well as original coats, etc. There were particular exhibits around the regiment’s role in WW1.
No big holidays planned for June, but the garden still beckons…