Friday, December 21, 2018

The Battle of Granite Point

The Kingdom of Anna, a matriarchy, and the nation of Sergey, an oligarchy, have had an uneasy peace for the past 2 years. And, then this happened at Granite Point.

                                                                                  Setup

                                              Anna                                           Sergey

     
Anna's regular infantry is entrenched (new rules test) on the lower hills supported by the artillery on the summit under the command of General Rudolf, herself.  The Sergey forces under the command of General Karjakin will enter the battle with the simple orders "Let the dice decide" (1 artillery unit from each direction and other units will dice for entry points).



 Artillery phase






 Sergey artillery takes out Anna fortfications on the slopes of Granite Point





                                                  Most Sergey (green) units are on board.





 Sergey infantry battles on the southern slopes reinforced by light cavalry and regular infantry

 Sergey artillery continues to take out fortifications on the lower slopes



                                     Sergey (green) Dragoons finally arrive in the North


An Anna infantry unit is destroyed on southern slope


 Sergey (Green) Heavy Infantry tries to batter its way up the slopes in the face of cannon and musket fire.




 Artillery phase
             An Anna regular infantry unit is destroyed

 Turn 15, Anna artillery fires down the slopes into charging regular infantry led by General Karjakin. The General is dead, kaput and gone to meet his maker, etc. etc. 
 Chaos and not enough morale to rally the Sergey troops. Anna troops are ordered to cease fire by General Rudolf to allow the Sergey forces to recover their General's body and retrieve their wounded.
 General Karjakin "the elder" is slain to be succeeded by his son Karjakin "the younger" the "Secretary of Defense".

What a great battle. Sergey artillery managed to knock down fortifications to allow them to gain footholds on the slopes. But, lost 2 artillery units with a 3rd in poor shape. However, the Sergey heavy infantry was in a good position on the southern slopes to eventually gain the summit supported by infantry plodding its way on the northeastern slopes. The battle had the potential to go longer with a different outcome... until the sudden death of General Karjakin.

A great way to spend a rainy Friday morning and I am pleased with the play of the special rules I was testing.  Mistakes, a few. Like forgetting to move the heavy infantry sooner. The dice brought them in an easily forgotten area 8-) When the action heats up in solo it is so easy to forget, something.

                       My personal wish for a Happy Holidays to you and your families !!


               

5 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Yes. 2 hits from artillery negates fortification -1 effect. If you see a chessboard in one of my games it is some form of modified Portable Wargaming rules (homebrew, Portable Wargame). I'm not sure how to categorize other games that use a 2 step resolution of combat (hit & result of hit) as there are so many sources through the decades, so I use Bob's PW as its the most recent. Question for you. How do you feel about always hit on 6 die roll ?
      I am enjoying your Trench Hammer blogging. Does it have a good Quick Reference sheet ?
      All the best !

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    2. It doesn't have a QRS, but it wouldn't be hard to put one together. The rules are really very simple, and most of my errors were forgetting the quirks of the specialist squads.

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    3. As for 'Always Hit On a 6', I'd say no. There is a mechanism in the PW bok where if a 6 would still be a miss, you hit on a 6 followed by a second roll of 4+. I use that. It makes a unit that *can* hit on a 6 distinct from one in a situation where they can't.

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  2. Thanks Kaptain for your thoughts. I have purchased "Trench Hammer" based on your demonstrations. Yes, it is very simple, but I am a big believer in having a QRS, as I always miss things in the rules (i.e. for the life of me I never have seen the second 4+ roll in PW). all the best !

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