I will never forget, quoth Russ....

No, Shakespeare still on the hook. Russ is having none of it.

The Gotha is now forgotten

Well done, Russ.  You've made Mark very happy that his destruction of your Gotha is now forgotten.

Stalingrad in 6mm

One of the projects for next year will be Stalingrad in 6mm.  We've been looking at some of the buildings options and came across a new company (to me) ; Novus Design.  They do 3 major Stalingrad buildings including the Lazur Chemical plant and the Red October Factory.

The Barrikady

Red October Factory

Nizhny Locomotive Works

Lazur Chemical Plant

Timecast do a lovely range of Eastern European buildings such as factorys and the like, as well as the famous grain elevator (£70 though!!!).

Some of the warehouses

Grain Elevator

Gamecraft (gcmini.com) also do some interesting items

Wrecked government building

Wrecked factory

There are also some interesting items on Ebay.

Lot of ideas to think out - but using the river we're showing at Joy of Six in our Plassey game as the Volga, with wrecked residential blocks, factories, shops, houses etc. it could look spectacular!

Tactical suggestions for Plassey

With most colonial battles, the difference between the two armies is usually discipline and technology versus numbers and fanaticism.  In the 18th century the disparity is not quite so big and at Plassey we are looking at a small disciplined European led force against, in essence, a large Renaissance army.  Clive always believed in overawing his enemies in India by being aggressive, but at Plassey he certainly thought that he had bitten off more than he could chew.  As Lenin would later say, "Quantity has a quality of it's own."  The Bengal army can certainly win but only if it is able to marshal all its force together

This picture is wrong.  The ground is too arid, the hunting lodge too elaborate and the water tank offers no cover whatsoever.  The Bengal cavalry is too disciplined on the left and not armoured enough.  I could go on but its a nice picture anyway!

East India Company

The European infantry are solid and the Sepoys are good.  However, its the use of the highly mobile artillery that gives this force an ability to win against larger armies.  The artillery needs to be used aggressively but must be supported because if it is caught by cavalry it will be easily destroyed.

The Army of the Nawab of Bengal

The infantry, on the whole is a liability.  Best used to protect the artillery or to give somewhere for the cavalry to rally behind.  Be careful of losing too many as they will drag down the morale of the whole army.  The irregular skirmish infantry and especially the jezzail armed Arabs and Afghanis should be pushed out against infantry targets to wear the EIC down.

The cavalry is the mobile punch (or slap in the case of this army).  No unit is strong enough to break an EIC infantry unit.  However, they are dangerous against unsupported artillery and very dangerous if used en masse.  The problem is mobilising enough of them before their morale collapses.

The artillery is lumbering and not as effective as the EIC but they are the only units able to inflict morale checks on the EIC from range and should be used to create opportunities for the cavalry to exploit.  The rockets should be used as skirmish infantry but their morale effect, if they hit, is as good as the artillery.  The jezzail armed Elephants are a multi purpose unit and can be used as artillery and are able to fire over the tops of friendly units.

Off to Sheffield

Mark is kindly driving us to the show on Saturday!

This is a possible itinerary for our trip down to Sheffield, subject to weather and time!

Bosworth Battlefield Site - Nuneaton

www.bosworthbattlefield.com


Caliver Books - Nottingham

www.caliverbooks.com


National Civil War Centre - Newark

www.nationalcivilwarcentre.com



What we don't do we can leave until next year but I thinks it's better to have options.

Rule amendments for Plassey

As promised, the following are the special or amended rules for Plassey.

Rockets

They have a range of 8" and count as a skirmishers for firing and movement.  Roll a D6 and consult the following;

1 = hits itself

2 = hits nearest friendly unit

3,4 = hits nearest unit to target

5,6 = hits target.

Rockets never fire as part of a group and automatically inflict one casualty.  All irregular and mounted units test on a -2.

Elephants

They fight v mounted as gallopers and v foot as others.  Any units in contact with elephants after one round of melee are automatically shaken.

The elephant unit is also armed with jingals.  They fire as light artillery and can fire over other units in front if they are in base to base contact.

If elephants get retire shaken or rout they will stampede in a random direction according to the following die roll;

1 = to the front

2 = to the left

3 = to the right

4,5,6 = to the rear

All units other than skirmishers will take 1 strength point loss, become shaken and must take a morale test for being charged.

Oxen artillery

Fires as heavy artillery.  There is no close range modifier.  They may fire and move at speed 3.

Firing

All units, other than rockets, will automatically fire as if they have rolled a "3"

Unit morale

All units test for morale if fired upon by artillery or rockets.  Otherwise they will only test when they are 8 strength points or less.  All units that route will cause any friendly unit within 8" to also test.

Army morale

Any command that falls to or below 50% of it's strength can only accept hold or retire orders.  The rest of the army will also drop by one level of aggression when a formation loses 50% according to the following progression;

Indian Army level of aggression; Engage, then Engage, then Hold, then Retire.

Mir Jafa level of aggression; Will follow the rest of the Indian army until he commits himself to one side or the other and may use engage orders irrespective of the situation of either army.  However, if his command falls below 50% he can no longer be more agressive than Hold.

EIC level of aggression; Attack, then Attack, then Hold, then Retire.

Indian redoubt 

If the redoubt is taken by the EIC, then the whole Indian Army will take a moral test.  The artillery in the redoubt is siege artillery and will ignore any cover that is occupied by a target unit.

Unreliable Indian Commanders

Some Indian commanders are unreliable and when they roll a "6" on their command roll they will use 2 points to change their orders to one level lower from their current level of aggression and use the remaining points to fulfil these new orders.

Mir Jafa may commit himself to one side or the other at any point.

Rash commanders

Any rash commander of either side will increase their order aggression by one level if they roll highest on their command roll.

Number of turns and Rain!

22 turns in the game.  From turn 8 we will roll for rain; a 6 that turn, 5 or 6 the following and so on until it rains for one turn.  All EIC are shaken but this can be removed during the command phase.  All Indian artillery is shaken plus 1xD6 turns; to be rolled individually for each battery.

Enemy at the Gate!

Where the iron crosses grow!

Russ, Mark and I where talking about a Stalingrad game, as you do, at Gauntlet, after seeing one of the other tables playing a 15mm Kursk scenario.  I was surprised that neither of them had seen the grain elevator from Timecast, so here it is.  It's big and expensive but it looks good.

Again, we have the troops, this could make a good collective project and a possible contender for next years JoS?