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| Playing length ways on an 8 x 6 table offers the Swedes space to get moving and depth to the defending Russians |
Toggy and I cobbled together our Partizan game literally at the last minute for a variety of reasons. Needless to say, it looked fine and served and important purpose - that being; to showcase some of mechanisms written for inclusion in our
War of Three Kings GNW/Eastern wars supplement which we hope to release this year.
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| The Swedish infantry jump off - Narke Varmlands, Vastmanland and Ostgota Tremanning regiments |
The supplement requires the core rule book but provides the 'theatre' and combatant specific mechanisms necessary to make games feel right.
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| Another view of the Swedes |
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| The Ostgota Tremanning battalion took casualties of 70% from artillery and mortar fire over several turns |
The scenario pitted four Swedish battalions, twelve squadrons and four light guns against a defending Russian force of twelve battalions, eight squadrons, three battering guns and a mortar.
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| This scratch built fortification doesn't get out much and I was pleased with how it looked on the table |
We didn't play the whole game but used it to demonstrate mechanisms such as Swedish movement and manoeuvre capability, Russian artillery, close combat and light cavalry options.
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| Vastmanland charge Ingermanlandski - the win/draw cycle provided six rounds of close combat |
The shots in this post illustrate some of the incidents from the game including the charge of the Vastmanland Regiment and their intense melee with the Ingermanlandski Regiment, a heroic repulse of Swedish dragoons by a raw Russian battalion and the destruction of the Ostogota Tremanning battalion by enemy artillery.
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| The village garrison's view of the Swedish attack |
It has been a while since the GNW collection was out in such strength and I had forgotten how good it looked on the table.
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| This charge went badly wrong. The Russians passed morale, delivered a devastating volley and wiped out the enemy |
GNW games definitely feel different from western European battles. Rapid Swedish movement compels certain actions and reactions from both armies creating flash points which ebb and flow.
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| Russian gunners run back their piece to deliver yet another round into Ostgota Tremanning |
We didn't get to finish the game but what we did generate huge interest.
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| Swedish reserves await orders to move up |
Foot note: The swatch of green/yellow teddy bear fur is quite important. Clarence and I play tested many of the mechanisms for WTK on this very small piece of terrain in a hotel room in Fredericksburg a couple of years ago. I still have the book with all the dice roll results which we then averaged out manually to get some of the shooting and combat mechanics. A little patch of BLB history which I had quite forgotten about as it was lying in a suitcase I had brought back from America and never opened.
