The Loose Association of Wargamers

On Tuesday David invited me over to try DBSYW and to blood the new units he'd painted up (he's moved from 18mm to 28mm). The figures are a mix of Foundry, Crusader and Essex, and very nice they are, too. The figures are based as 16 per base for formed infantry (musketeers, grenadiers and inferior musketeers), eight per base for light infantry and four per base for cavalry (shock cavalry, cavalry and irregular light horse (ILH)).

Inspired, perhaps, by the link I sent him to RMD's Kolin AAR, the scenario was Kolin at a DBSYW scale. A throw of the dice gave me command of the Austrians (actually Reichsarmee and French, there being no Austrians painted yet) while David assumed the post of Fred II's stand in.

The forces were:

Austrian (bases):

Left Wing (Marshall +0 and high PIP die)- 1 X Battery, 8 X musketeers, 3 X shock cavalry, and 2 X cavalry.

Centre (Dorn +1 and middle PIP die)- 1 X Battery, 6 X musketeers, 2 X shock cavalry and 4 X cavalry.

Right Wing (Nadasdy +1 and low PIP die)- 3 X light infantry, 1 X cavalry and 4 X ILH.

Prussian (bases):

Centre and Right Wing (Fred II +2 and high PIP die): 1 X Battery, 4 X musketeers, 2 X grenadiers and 5 X shock cavalry.

Left Wing (Anhalt-Dessau +1, low PIP die): 3 X musketeers, 1 X grenadiers and 4 X cavalry.

Somewhat short in the numbers of figures that RMD put on the table, but sufficient.

My plan was not to lose. David's plan was to break my wing commands and hold the centre. In short my ILH got mauled by A-D's cavalry on the Austrian right, but the arrival of Daun's cavalry and some good shooting by the grenzer stabilised the wing. In the centre the Austrian cavalry and infantry stalemated the Prussian advance. On the Austrian left flank the Prussian shock cavalry got a real shock when they were bounced, and then two bases destroyed, by the Baden-Durlach regiment. At the end of Turn 7 (1830hrs- we started just after 1430) I was summonsed by She Is Obeyed and in true Frederician fashion deserted the field, with shouted orders to David as to what I wanted to do. The B-D infantry and Austrian horse disposed of a couple more bases and Fred's command was broken- minor victory to Anhalt-Dessau because Daun had fled the battlefield.

That looks like a fun game. I have played Kolin a number of times and it is a tough one for the Prussians to win.

Which version of DB rules did you use ?

G'day, Ilkley. The Prussians start at a real disadvantage, don't they? We used V3 with a few house rules David uses. He's sending me a set. Some I can remember:

If CAV versus CAV have a drawn result then they both recoil.
Some "regimented" light cavalry are classed as cavalry, not ILH (eg Prussian and "regular" Austrian hussars).
Infantry elements without another element on either flank are unsupported and have -1 to their roll.
Cavalry, not ILH, that push enemy back may choose to pursue or hold fast, and ILH roll a die to see what they can do.

Cheers.

It must take a bit of "oomph" to move 16-figure bases around! Some of those cavalry look like "sixers", too.

Looks like a good game. And another wargamer named Dave (also the name of both of my regular opponents).

It does a bit, Brendan. David isn't a fan of multi-base units (our Grant game came as a shock to him), but the big bases seem to work fairly well in DBA, and do speed up movement.

You're right, ILH are fours, Shock CAV and CAV are sixes.

Keeping one name for regular opponents is smart, especially when the name files in your brain start to corrupt, mate. It seems to offend friends if you keep asking "Who are you?" too often. (Though "mate" covers that up quite well.)

PS added a couple of photos David took.

Good looking game! DBSYW seems to be catching on. I think there are a few tweaks still to make on the "official" version but I enjoyed the game we played.

David and I are having another game next week. I'll ask him if I may share his house rules, mate.

Sorry, I seems to have missed this post.

Great looking game and armies.

Iain

Thanks, Iain. It was a fun game- surprisingly so, as I was unsure how DBA would port across to an H&M period.

Fantastic looking game.


Willz.