PzC Sicily '43 -- Hope for the Wehrmacht?

I've been getting shoved around in this game for so many turns that I never quite lit on the fact that the Allies really have to haul freight to get into Messina and get to the VPLOCs they need for victory.  As was the case historically, both Monty (Charles) and Patton (Doug) are dealing with the monstrous Sicilian road system which I'm doing everything I can to clog with the detritus of a retreating army.

Now with only 9 turns to go, I've begun to wonder if either of them can get the outright win that seemed all but their birthright at game start.

Patton, at least, can see the goal line from the line he's flanking at the left of this shot.

Monty continues his struggles North.

Remember Gordon! - Campaign Scenario

The design intentions here become rapidly apparent.

The Anglo-Egyptians, at least to my way of thinking, are going to have to hug the Nile to get as far as they can to the South before the Mahdists arrive in strength.  This allows them the prospect of constructing the zariba -- which, depending on what HL does -- really should not be a good idea of the Mahdists choose to wait the A-E's out.  After all, there's no way the A-E's win this unless they can make their way into Omdurman a good distance to the South and West of where the zariba can be built.  The key bit, again I think, is going to be keeping the A-E's together and avoid having them swarmed by ululating lunatics.

Take your time boys.  No hurry.  Really.

Just an awful lot of these beggars.  Just saying.

Napoleon's Last Battles -- Campaign, Summer 2016 -- 10

I like this game.

Truly I do.

It's one of the best systems for balancing relative simplicity of design and still having a go at simulating the nature of Napoleonic combat.

I hate, hate, hate Exchange results.  I seem to have a unique gift for rolling them.  I rolled one here in what was a straight 6:1.  No shift.  And it cost me a unit of the Young Guard.

Exchange took place at the far right of the line.

Everywhere else the results were fairly predictable and an attack on a cavalry unit at the center of this shot also spelled the end for Perponcher where, with his usual luck, HL rolled the "1" necessary to have him meet his end.

In the East, I only briefly punched at Blucher, forcing a retreat and trying to create some separation so that we can march relatively unimpeded once this evening's rains come.  It's also worth mentioning that supply lines look to be in good shape on both sides as the British to the West, the Prussians to the East, and the French to the South all appear to have their routes secure.

Napoleon's Last Battles -- Campaign, Summer 2016 -- 9

With only one turn left before the rains of the 17th come, I figured it was time to do something to HL's lads near Quatre Bras. No kills, but we did manage to drive them back.

That's D'Erlon's I Corps piling into the line at bottom.

Meanwhile, out to the East, I've realized that I've lingered far too long near Ligny.  This may be an unredeemable error on my part, but I am now, well, leaving.

Brave Sir Robin references suggest themselves.

Remember Gordon! -- Campaign Scenario

Having had a go at the historical scenario (Anglo-Egyptian walkover) and the mini game of the fall of Khartoum (Mahdist walkover), it's time to take up the campaign of Omdurman itself.  The game's designers have pulled the timeline back a bit and let the Mahdist commander make better decisions than Abdullah al Taashi ever did.

By way of reminder, General Sir Herbert Kitchener is on his way to Omdurman to defeat the Mahdist forces (the Mahdi himself having passed some years before) and redeem the honor of the empire so stained by the death of "Chinese Gordon" 14 years earlier.  They've come with several regular British regiments as well as a contingent of loyal Egyptians and Sudanese.

Your commanders, ladies and gentlemen.

For a variety of reasons, most of them logistical, the Anglo-Egyptians are marching with their left flank glued to the West bank of the Nile. Steaming along side them are a number of new-model heavily-armed gunboats.  The Madhists in their turn, are allowed to construct 17 gun forts along and south of the only major terrain feature that isn't the Nile River.

West is at the top of this photo.  Khartoum is off-map to the left, having been left to rot after it fell in 1884.

HL, who has taken the Mahdists has garrisoned the main island in the Nile.  Wise move I think as I can't move my "Friendlies" brigade over the river by steamboat until that single white combat unit (seen below at lower right) is defeated.  Now no easy task as the Mahdist guns have a seven-hex range.

And so, to quote Princess Leia, "here they come!"

View from Omdurman looking North-by-North East.

Napoleon's Last Battles -- Campaign, Summer 2016 -- 8

In which one side does reasonably well with good odds another side gets bounced like a rubber ball, and your unworthy narrator realizes he is more McClellan than Boney.

Time passes more quickly in this game than I recalled.  I've now got only two turns of daylight left on the 17th and I continue to two-step with the Prussians on the Ligny map.  This is, unequivocally, bad.  MB made this crystal clear to me when she wondered why I bothered sending so many troops -- better part of two divisions, quite honestly -- to save a brigade of cavalry.  I had no good answer.

Yeah, that's them waaaay over on the right.

I thought Quatre Bras' battle might go better given the arrival of the Guard -- which I continue to shield given the effect that adverse results against certain of its members can have on morale -- not to mention the march of D'Erlon's I Corps.  The latter is indeed poised and ready to pounce.

Up to the end of the line, though, a 4:1 (shift for combined arms), yielded a bounce as I, again, managed to roll a "6".  Making me wonder what Nosey was putting in their gin ration.

Napoleon's Last Battles -- Campaign, Summer 2016 -- 7

I'm taking an awful risk, Grouchy, this had better work.

It's now 11 a.m. on June 17.  This is that day between the battles when the Allies are supposed to bugger off to the NorthWest in the interest of preserving their respective supply lines and give them the opportunity to link up against the French who outnumber them individually.

Neither Wellington nor Blucher have chosen to debouch.  To the contrary, although evicted from Ligny, MB came after two of my flank cavalry corps and, putting together a 4:1 with a right shift due to combined arms, left me with bad odds, indeed.  The fates handed me my first real break with an Exchange, but the net result was still the demoralization of both corps.  Now, this "just" means their movement over clear terrain is made more expensive and we can no longer advance after combat.  Still not a fan.

Yep, want no part of any of that.

Broader view of the fight.  Ligny is now to the SouthWest, barely in shot.

Meanwhile, over in Quatre Bras, I must needs now drop a serious hammer on Wellington and his polyglot army.  Napoleon marches in and that in earnest to provide the needed commands as Ney is saddled with a "1" command rating.

More Speed Bumping

The drive by the Allies on Messina continues at roughly the speed one might expect when the whole of the HG Division has headed back for the toe of the Italian boot.  Self-pity aside, my spider sense told me that the Amis were sneaking behind my depleted lines and, sure enough, men of the 29th PzGdr Division found this to be true.

Found you!

 Meanwhile, over on the Eastern shore, Monty's boys of the 51st Highlanders, particularly his engineers, are trying to build ways around me.  Clever gits.

Bad, BAD, Engineers

Turn 35

The Fall of Khartoum

Generally speaking, I really like little games.  Sure, there's something to be said for the sweeping vistas created by maps like those in the LABAT series and the like, but, having spent more than a few hours crouched over there, there's a release to be felt over something like this:

The really neat thing is that this map, if you flip it the other way, marries nicely to the bottom of the full "Remember Gordon!" campaign map.  In the event, the Mahdi ordered Khartoum abandoned after the death of Gordon so it plays no part in the later Omdurman campaign, save by its memory.

As one might expect, I've got a tiny handful of units that I've largely nestled into the settled area of Khartoum.  There are no counters appropriate to the earlier scenario provided so the units for both sides are stand-ins borrowed from the larger counter mix.

If you look at the first photograph, it's evident that I wasn't sure what to do with the outer wall of Khartoum.  With the receding of the Nile that Gordon had long feared, the eastern flank of his defenses was left hanging in the air.  I initially thought it'd be a precocious idea to garrison the two "bumps" in the wall with two units each of loyal Sudanese.  How better, after all to pour a bit of early fire into the advancing Mahdists?  That analysis, however, made no allowance for their foot speed.

Meanwhile, HL brought up two of his three artillery units and quickly punched breaches into the wall for even more screaming Mahdists to pour through.

The bottom line in this little game is whether or not Gordon can speed bump the Mahdists just enough to force down their victory level.  There's just about no way that Chinese leaves this joint alive.  Despite the fact that none of the Mahdists have rifles -- forcing everything for them to one hex range -- and the fact that the British and their allies can pour defensive fire into them before they attack, their numbers are just too much, even when measured in terms of spears.

 One big thing I did notice is that there are times when the Mahdists are better served to melee only after which they can advance after combat; an opportunity not afforded them in missile combat.

Gordon is under there somewhere.  In the palace under the friendlies at the left.

The level of victory is determined by how many turns it takes to kill Gordon.  This level can be reduced depending on the number of casualties taken in the effort.  In this game, HL scored a marginal victory which dropped to a draw due to casualties.  He'd have done better, I think, had he forgone a few fire combats and just had at me with clubs, spears, and swords.