Schnellenbach Campaign - Allied Briefing

Summer 176X, somewhere in Hesse

The Erbprinz summons you to his tent.   You are happy to oblige, as the young general is surprising good company and stocks an excellent wine cellar.  Between the Erbprinz and his uncle Ferdinand you have found that being under the command of Germans is no bad thing.  You could be commanded by that butcher Cumberland!

Come in Campbell, have a glass of claret.  I have a little job for you.  Broglie’s got us a bit on the back foot and we need to secure our flanks.  There is a bridge over the Schnellenbach to the west of your position that could give the damn French a route to attack our flanks and I want you to do something about it.  My sources tell me that they already have moves afoot to seize the crossing.  Seems that one of your countrymen is involved somehow.

Are you familiar with the Hanoverian engineer Von Drumpff?  Yes I know he’s a pig of a human being and if I had my way I’d have him flogged and drummed out of the army.  Unfortunately he’s a very well connected pig of a human being and he’s used his connections to push us to employ this clever plan of his.  It seems very hare brained to me, but I’m obliged to let him try it out. 

Von Drumpff’s plan is to set the bridge with powder to blow, but to delay the demolition until the French have started crossing.  He would stay behind and light the fuse at the key moment, sending some of the enemy flying and leaving more of them on the wrong side of the river where we can destroy them.  Quite how he get’s away safely is beyond me but he’s convinced himself and a key Hanoverian minister that this is genius.  I think that there must have been a lot of beer and maybe some incriminating letters in play, but that’s really not for me to say.

You look a little pale Campbell, here have some brandy.  Now here’s what I want you to do.  Sheppard Von Drumpff to the bridge over the Schnellenbach so that he can set the charges to destroy the bridge.  Wait for the French to appear and let the little engineer play out his “clever little plan”.  If it works, that’s wonderful.  If not, make sure that the bridge is blown up and I’ll be happy.  And between you, me and the tent post, it might not be such a bad thing is Von Drumpff ends up on the wrong side of the river.

One more thing, this territory belongs to our allies in Hessen-Kassel.  These people have had armies traipsing over their land since 1756.  It’s important that we remain on good terms with them.  Do what you can to make sure that your little force treats them decently.  And yes that means that I am making you responsible to keep Von Drumpff in line!

You can take three companies of your Scotsmen, and I’ve arranged to attach some Jaegers and a squadron or two of the British light cavalry to your force.  Of course Von Drumpff and his pioneers will be with you.  Talk to my adjutant, I’m sure that there’s some more troops, officers or equipment that we lend you for a week.

Campaign Objectives

1.  Destroy the bridge over the Schnellenbach 
2.  Defeat the French force sent to counter you 
3. Keep Von Drumpff under control  
4. Maintain friendly relations with local peasantry 

Your Forces

Keith’s Highlanders 

• 3 companies (groups) of highlanders 
• Captain Campbell (Level III leader) 
• Lt MacDonald (Level I leader) 
•  Elliot’s Light Horse

  Elliot’s Light Horse

•   1 squadron (group) of impact cavalry 
•   Captn Philipson Level II leader

Hessian and Hanoverian Jaegers

• 2 companies (groups) light infantry

•  Hauptmann Von Scharf (Level II leader)

24 points of supports from the following list

 Note that your highlanders are a little lax on fire discipline but keen to get to hand to hand fighting

Supports
Type		Points Per	Maximum	Notes
Units	British Regulars	6	4
	Hessian Militia	3	1
	Light Gun	5	1
	British Dragoons	8	1
	German Hussars	6	1
Leaders	Leader I	3	8
	Leader II	6	4
	Upgrade a leader	3	3	Per level
Extras	Musician	1	1	Doubles command range
	Spirits & Tinder Box	1	1	Helps light fires
	Holy Man	2	1	Removes shock, helps heal casualties
	Each Specialist	2	1	Marksman, Dipper, Cracksman, Silent & Deadly
	Caisson	2	1	Unlimited canister
	Water Cart	2	1	See rules
	Physic	3	1	Heals leader, helps heal casualties
	Scout or Exploring Officer	3	1	Lower chance of getting lost
	Ammunition Cart	3	1	Allows reloads
	Colour party	3	1	See rules
	Mule train	4	1	One lot of water plus one of ammo

Teaser Photos from Action at the Schnellenbach Bridge

On Friday night we played out the denouement for the Schnellenbach campaign, fought out over the key bridge over the Schnellenbach.   Full AAR to follow later this week.

Drumpff puts the Pontooniers to work setting charges on the bridge.

Fischer's Chasseurs appear in the woods on the Allied bank of the river

The local Mad Padre rouses the local women to act against the depraved actions of Drumpff

Updates on a Couple of Fronts

Schnellenbach Campaign
The campaign is underway and we have seen Cavalry patrols from both sides meet just west of the key bridge over the Schnellenbach.  See the map below (North being the right hand edge), the bridge is in square 14 and the patrols met on the road in square 11. 

 

The Wine Debacle

I took the car to an auto-detailing shop on Tuesday (Monday being a holiday) and they were able to remove the last of the stain and the odor for $40 - money well spent.  A reprinted pdf of the Sharp Practice  rules is awaiting pickup.  And my gaming messenger bag has a stained interior but no exterior marks.  This is good news as it was a present from my daughter and is made from the sail from a Soling sailboat used in past Canadian Olympic trials - the Dacron being resistant to both stain and water damage.

Wargaming Wine Dos and Don'ts

This Friday night I set off to Curt's to play out our first table top encounter in the Schnellenbach campaign.   Unfortunately, things did not go to plan and the mini game was scrapped.  Yes there was wine involved.

Having placed my figures and terrain carefully in the car and the messenger bag I use for other wargaming supplies on the passenger seat I set off.  After half a block, the car's idiot light came on to tell the passenger to buckle up.  I figured my bag was heavier than normal and lifted off the seat to move it to the back seat.  It was then they I found that the bottle of  red wine had lost its bottom and spilled its contents into my bag until it overflowed onto the car seat.

Full damage report as follows.

• One IPad cover in the bin - fortunately my IPad appears unaffected
• One bound copy of Sharp Practice 2 in the bin.  I could have salvaged it potentially but wine had hit every page and the front cover was do badly soaked that if curled into a tube.  Luckily I have an ebook form do can get a new copy printed.
• One deck if SP2 cards in the bin -  I tried to save these but they were wet enough that the laminations were separating.  Not a huge loss, as we tend to use wooden chits instead of cards.
• One upcoming trip to the auto shop to get the seats thoroughly cleaned so the car stops smelling like stale wine.

So, don't do what I did.

• Don't put your wine bottle sideways in the same with stuff you value.  Do keep the wine upright in a separate plastic bag
• Don't put your wine on the front seat.  Do find a secure place in the trunk.
• Don't put the bag containing your wine down in your concrete driveway while loading other things.  Do put if safely and gently in the car first.

The Schellenbach Campaign

I just noticed that it's been two months and more since my last post...well I guess I've had a busy summer with better things to do than blog.

But not now...I am running a mini-campaign using my SYW forces for Western Germany.   We have an allied column led by Curt trying to blow up a bridge and a French column led by Stacy and Jeremy out to stop them.  We'll be using Sharp Practice by the Too Fat Lardies as the tactical rules and the Lardies campaign system Dawns and Departures.  More to follow, but here's the campaign map.  Allies enter from the bottom, French from the top.

A Guilty Pleasure?

It's been a while since I've posted.  The challenged wrapped up but end of term ramped up and them we went off to Banff for a weekend.  So no painting or mini games since late March but I've played several board games.  

For my birthday earlier this year I requested a copy of Mice and Mystics, which we have now played a couple of times.  It's a cooperative dungeon crawler game based on humans who have been changed into mice.  It got good reviews on line and I figured it might make a good "bridge" game to play with my family and or game group.  So far it's been played twice with games and not with my family.

There's a story line linking a series of scenarios.  Most of the heroes are loyal subjects of a king who's been done in  by treachery and an evil sorceress.  The try and fight back and have a series of missions related to  rescuing the king while battling minions (rats, spider and centipedes) while dodging a crow and the castle's cat.  It's a quick game to pick up and a lot of fun with good challenges and really nice storyline elements and flavour.  The currency is cheese, there's a ring of cat strength, a mouse that trips a mousetrap takes a hit but gets a cheese etc.

It gets two non-opposable thumbs up from me SQUEEK!

Challenge Wind Up

Here's the final shot of everything I got painted except for my Curtgeld, now in transit via Sylvain to Curt.

With the exceptions of the two 15mm A/Cs upfront everything was in 28mm, and except for the A/Cs and my Curtgeld everything was for my SYW Sharp Practice project using figures from the Perry Miniatures AWI range.   The output was as follows:

• 15th Light Dragoons - 21 mounted figures
• 87th Foot (Kieth's Highlanders) 31 foot figures
• Hessian Militia - 13 foot figures
• Hanoverian engineer and pontooniers - 6 foot figures, 1 mounted figure
• Hanoverian Jaegers - 6 foot figures
• Camp scene - 6 foot figures
• Allied officers - 1 Brunswick General mounted, 1 Hessian artillery foot figure
• Powder cart with drover on foot and horse
• Tragardland Croats - 6 foot figures
• French work crew - 6 foot figures

Enough for a good SP force based on the Highlanders and Light Dragoons, plus support options, ready to fight the Kleine Krieg in the Rhineland.  And a few additions to my French force to oppose them.

If my math is correct that's 80 foot figures (83 including the Breda crew in the Curtgeld), 23 mounted figures plus a horse and wagon.  Plus a 28mm weapon and two 15mm vehicles.

I fell 40 points short of my 800 point target, but that's OK.  My big goal was to get the Highlanders and Dragoons done plus SYW chrome add-ons, and that's what I got done.  Next year, I need to fluff up my French armies on the Rhine .  Maybe I can convince Curt to sell me his Minden figures....

Doofus in Chief (DinC)