Uncle Duke in the Shop

I was fortunate to meet Duke Seifried today. As some of you may know, Duke used to put on extravagant display games at Historicon. I had met him in the early 2000's, well really just saw him at Historicon, when he put on the Babylon I game in 2005 (see below). So it was really great to actually meet and discuss the hobby with him today.

I was contacted by a local film and video production company (Hostile Work Environment) that is working on a short documentary/bio of a miniatures sculptor and painter from the ‘60s and ‘70s who is no other than Duke Seifried. They needed a historical miniature game store for backdrop and asked if they could film at The Panzer Depot. I of course agreed and so was able to spend a few hours talking “shop” with him. I was surprised by how many aspects of the hobby he has been involved with and look forward to seeing the finished video next year to get the full story.

Duke is going to be in an online movie/series set in the world of Chaldea, as the “Toy Maker”. The world was created by Peter Adkins (the founder and first CEO of Wizards of the Coast), who was also was at the shop. I don’t have many details on it but it should be released at next year’s GenCon.



What they were shooting today was additional content for the website, in this case bio information on Duke. It is even possible that a few seconds of myself might make it into the video … I might literally have 15 seconds of fame after the editors are done with the several hours for shooting! I’ll let you all know when I get more information on the project.

 

To help out with his medical cost (he is a cancer survivor) he is selling off those Historicon displays.

 

Battle of Red Hill

Last Saturday, Wes R. and Bob M. put on a great game of Black Powder 28mm Seven Years War's. It was a pretty low key game, with just three of us participating so getting through the whole scenario was doable.

Wes and I commanded the Prussian-British Force bent on removing the Russians, commanded by Bob, from their commanding Hilltop position. On our far left, Wes had under command a large cavalry contingent split into Light and Heavy brigades. A brigade of Prussian infantry (with a Grenadier Bn) was to the right of the cavalry. I commanded the right with a Prussian brigade of infantry and the mix brigade of British infantry and cavalry.

 

 

Being on the defensive, Bob commanded from his left to right, a small brigade of cavalry, two small brigades of infantry facing off against my force. Then he had a brigade of Russian infantry and Austrian allies to deal with Wes’s infantry, and on his far right was a large brigade of cavalry to deal with the Prussian cavalry. Lastly he had a small brigade of Grenadiers as a reserve.

The Prussian force got off to a slow start, especially my command (the translation of Prussian orders must have been lost on the British command who took several turns to cross the creek). True to fashion of the day, the cavalry on our left flank immediately began to clash, and both sides' cavalry would charge and counter charge each other for most of the battle before the Prussians finally got the upper hand.

The lone British heavy cavalry regiment was able to counter the attack of the two Russian dragoon regiments, though was shaken and unable to pursue. Wes infantry moved to firing range and slowly advanced against the Russian- Austrian infantry defending the hill; he was never able to throw the Russians off it though.

Belatedly, my command of Prussian infantry, less one battalion, moved and engaged the Russians; and over two turns delivered several stunning volleys onto them. By turn five, my British infantry had finally moved up and issued a massive opening volley (5 dice per bn!) … that failed to dislodge the Russians. It would take the Prussian infantry another turn to break the Russians.

With the light cavalry brigade chasing off the remnants of the Russian cavalry, Wes turned his battered heavies to outflank the Russian line. This forced Bob to move one of his Grenadiers to cover the flank.

While the center was holding, his left flank was about to fall as well, so Bob had no choice but to have the Grenadiers boldly move to within a dozen yards of the Prussian Cuirassiers to deliver a knock out opening volley (again five dice) onto them … and failed to do one hit!

The Cuirassiers then swarmed over the Grenadiers and while they held out a turn, eventually broke. This was the last straw for the Russians; with both flanks about to collapse a general retreat was issued that ended the game.

Postscript: Overall I had a great time … thanks again to Wes and Bob for putting the game on. It was so enjoyable I am contemplating rebasing all my 7YW’s figures! We pretty much played the game as written (RAW), and using a few of the rules from the Last Argument of Kings BP supplement.

The one house rule Wes introduced was the allowing a successful command and one move on a roll one or two points higher than the command (everyone had a 7 staff rating). Wes really liked it, as he believes it eliminates the possibility of a player not doing anything for several turns. I was not too keen on it, as I basically made the command rules very generic.

The Attack on Hill 192, 11 July 1944

Mark put on another Kampfgruppe Commander II game last Saturday.

As part of the major offensive of 11 July, First Army ordered V Corps to attack and seize the dominating terrain east of Saint-L6. General Gerow ordered the 2d Division to once again attack and seize Hill 192. General Robertson ordered the 38th Infantry to conduct the main attack. This time, the regimental commander decided to conduct a powerful frontal assault with two battalions abreast.
The battle took place in Normandy between a reduced German Fallschirmjäger regiment and a reinforced US infantry regiment.  

Mark, Ken and I commanded the four battalions of US infantry (supported by a tank battalion and several artillery battalions), while Chris and Steve commanded the dug in (and hidden) German paratroopers.

 

The Americans had to take Hill 192 in the center, and the two flanking villages to achieve total victory. In addition, we were under time constraints, which meant we could not really drag our feet. The Germans just had to hold on for 8 turns, but as they started hidden under blinds this which helped slow down any advance. 

 

The American advance made decent progress in the first couple of turns, though on the left, mark and I had some trouble navigating the Normandy Bocage. Ken moved the other two battalions up and started to scout the German positions. The Germans for the most part just called mortar and artillery fire on most of the US formations.

On the US left flank, Mark made contact with a reinforced company which pretty much bogged down his battalion's advance for the rest of the game. I was able to bypass a couple of minefields and overwhelm the company covering them with concentrated infantry attacks supported by Sherman’s. On the US right, Ken had mixed results, pushing ahead far to the right but the battalion to my immediate right ran into stiffer resistance.

While my sherman company reorganized, I pushed one company of infantry deep into enemy territory. Not contacting any Germans, they made a hard turn to the right and attack up the flank of hill 192, while the rest of the battalion covered them from below. After some bitter hand to hand combat my company was finally able to wipe out the Germans and take control of the left half of the hill.

Ken's first battalion also found a German paratrooper company defending the hill, but they would have to dislodge the Germans on their own, as my battalion was being counter attacked by some late arriving Stug III and grenadiers.

I was able to slow down the counter attack and hold onto the top of the hill, while Ken’s battalion pushed the German paratroopers off the front of the hill. His far battalion had advanced and captured a village as well. Steve had managed to stymy marks battalion and it only advanced about a third of the way to its objective by the time darkness arrived ending the game.

War of the Roses - Deus Vult playtest

Mike and Troy brought their fantastic WOTR era miniature to the shop for a playtest of the Dues Vult WOTR house rules I have been working on.

Mike’s Force	Troy’s Force
Main Division: Earl Wydeville Army Standard Dismounted Men-At-Arms Retinue Longbowmen Retinue Billmen Cannons Mercenary Division: Lord Stanley Welsh Spearmen Mercenary crossbow Currours Reserve Division: Lord Hastings Retinue Longbowmen Retinue Billmen Mounted Men-At-Arms Mounted Men-At-Arms	Right Division: Duke Somerset Dismounted Men-At-Arms Militia Billmen Militia Billmen Retinue bow Cannon Left Division: Lord Shrewsbury Dismounted Men-At-Arms Militia Billmen Retinue bow Mounted Men at Arms Northern Border: Lord Egremont Northern Border Spearmen Northern Border Billmen Mercenary Pikemen Mercenary Pikemen Mercenary Pikemen
As is the norm when playing a new set of rules, the game started slowly, owing to lookong up rules and confirming stats. But it only took a couple of game turns, before we had the system down. Deciding the order of your division activation and initiative proved to be simple and fun turn sequence mechanic.
	Troy used the Blacken the Sky rule for his archers, while Mike stuck with the double volley for his. Mike tended to ‘kill’ more figures, while troy attacks always forced an overwheling morale check. Though which method is “better” is still open to debate and I suspect it depends.
We tried out my house rule for cannons and while they worked, they do need some tweaking. Moving was a little difficult to grasp at first because you had to move straight and wheel about the center as different actions. You also had a variable “fast” move value, by ‘pushing’. Which meant each unit had to make a disicipline check to move additional inches equal to the check.
Eventually the battle lines closed, and we quickly learned that being disordered in DV is extremly deadly. A large unit of mounted MAA rode down a unit of disordered pikemen in a single attack. Though when not charging disordered units, the combat did go on for several rounds.
It also took some getting use to not attacking back after the other side attacked you. You had wait until you activated the unit to attack back back, so it was possible to be attacked twice before you could attack back.

The Battle of Kalisz, 13th February 1813

The main bulk of the French troops, commanded by Prince Eugene de Beauharnais, was concentrated near Poznan to the west of the Vistula River, while the VII Saxon Corps was marching to the town of Kalisz ... The shortest route to Silesia led through the city of Kalisz, one of the biggest cities in the Duchy of Warsaw. On the evening of the 12th of February 1813 Kalisz was occupied by the Saxon Corps, led by General Reynier.

VII Corps (elements) General of Division Durutte Brigade (-von Steindel) Saxon Grenadier Battalion von Liebenau Brigade Jarry 1st/132nd Line 2nd/132nd Line 2nd/133rd Line 3rd/133rd Line 6th/5th FA Rgt Brigade (- Sahr) Saxon Grenadier Battalion von Spiegel Brigade General of Brigade Zoltowski (Polish) 1st Bn/ 2nd Infantry Regiment 2nd Bn/ 2nd Infantry Regiment 7th Uhlan Regiment Cavalry Krakusi Reserve Artillery Colonel Hoyez II Foot Battery IV Foot Battery

II Infantry Corps Prinz Eugen Wurtemberg 3rd Infantry Division 20th Jager Regiment Murom Infantry Regiment Revel Infantry Regiment Chernikhov Infantry Regiment Light Battery 4th Infantry Division 4th Jager Regiment Tobolsk Infantry Regiment Volhin Infantry Regiment Kremenchoug Infantry Regiment Heavy Battery Cavalry (- Trubetzki) Dragoons Dragoons Prussian (-Upper Silesian Brigade) Depot/1st Silesian Infantry Regiment Garrison/1st Silesian Infantry Regiment Fus. Depot/1st Silesian Infantry Regiment 4/,Depot/Silesian Uhlan Regiment

 

It was a small game, around 500 figures, so Steve (4^th Div + Dragoons) and John (3^rd Division + Prussians) were the two Russian commanders, while Ken commanded the French side.

Under the cover of artillery fire John advanced two battalions of infantry to cut off the lone Saxon Grenadier battalion.

The Saxon Grenadier Battalion von Liebenau was what was left of the French Left, after the 3,300 horsemen of General-Lieut. Lanskoi Combined Cavalry Division overran the other battalions of infantry. Ken was able to bring the other Saxon battalion into line and awaited the Russian attack.

A few command rolls later the Russian attack had not made any real headway. Though the French seemed to be very outnumbered at this point. So to buy as much time as he could, Ken kept his troops in a defensive line waiting for the Russian to arrive, while his one battery started pounding the Russian infantry to its front.

Some of the Russian Dragoons arrived, but they had trouble crossing the creek and did not take part in the battle. So it was left to the Russian infantry to decide the battle. And just as the russians right was beggining to press the French left, the first of the Polish reserves arrived. 

However none of the artillery reserve had arived, and when the large heavy 12lb battery open up at effective range, as well as being back up by some desolutory musket fire, the lone French foot battery was soon put out of action.

But victory was again delayed as two regiments of polish lancers, along with a battery of French guns arrived to stem the gap created by the loss of a French battalion.

The repreive was only tempory as a polish battalion was charged by the russians and broke. This triggered the retreat of all units back through Kalisz while it was still in French hands. By not taking the creek crossing and the French holding out for so long, the Russian managed a minor vicotory.