Black Powder v2 500 points (14 July 2019)

Hi,
Bekir and I were missed BlackPowder so much that we arranged a fun day.
We found a medium-size scenario from 2nd edition book and played as below.
We had so much fun, I hope you have too at the end.
Apart from proxing a Portugese unit everything was WYSIWYG.
Book says pointwise it was a 500 points game but we didnt care to add numbers.
Objective was get more Victory Points than your opponent by capturing objective points and destroying enemy units.
Farm 6 points, the hill at junction 3 points, other hills and starting points are 1 points.
1 point for killing enemy (1.5 if large unit, 0.5 if small unit). If you capture your opponent's starting point it is 3 points. The orchards at sides of farm were rough ground (half move and +1 morale save).
We used our 1/72 armies.

Turn 1
French (Bekir) forces started the turn but bad command rolls resulted in only 1/3 of his forces were on the table by end of turn 1 as below. My plan was straight-forward race toward to farm to get highest VP objective and hold it all cost while play on a draw on other fronts.

Turn 2
British were again quick to close in to farm and for some reason I donot know now, redcoats didnt rush on to hill on junction. French are all on table by now but still suffering from bad command rolls.

Turn 3
British reach the farm first but hold a line for fear of French cavalry. My 3 brigade was idle so I kept it as a reserve.

Turn 4
British took an advantage of close range musketry. With good rolls of commands, we close-up with French but didnt charge. We gave them lead from point-blank. Coupled with First-Fire rule, French lines were badly mauled. Especially 2 large French units in assault column suffered much. My rolls were good in that turn. French artillery are still try to position themselves. Farm front is quite.
I began to form my 3 reserve brigade to support junction front.

Turn 5
French revenge came by musketry. Redcoats took it. French light cavalry charge redcoats in farm front. So we backed to square formation (it is must as per rules). My 95th Rifles small unit started to cross orchard to farm. Reserve brigade is coming to help.

Turn 6
French attacked and took the hill. My units backed a bit. Assault columns are deadly.
French also closing in to farm as well. I am too weak to fight them on open ground.
But it is too late to do anything about it. Maybe Rifles reach farm before French.

Turn 7
Reserve brigade took over the hill front and gave French another taste of close range First-Fire!
Rifles couldnt reach the farm but attacked by French in the orchard. That was and epic battle that lasted for 5 combat rounds!

Turn 8
While Rifles were tar-pitting French my Light Infantry battalion tries to reach farm. So 2 French battalions too. Who will win the race? Musketry continues at junction front.

Turn 9
OK, I made a mistake. By seeing an oppurtunity (having more support and attacking a shaken Large French battalion), I fell in to trap of sweet close combat which was a suicide against an assult column. I didnt lose any unit but suffered unnecessary casulties. I was afraid game is coming to close and I need to get the hill to get VPs. By the end of Turn 9 my Rifles finally gave-in and run back to regroup.

Turn 10
Autumn has come! Both sides start using units, fast! I completely lost the farm. My Light Brigade started to retreat. My other brigade was at half strength. So they started to retreat as well.
2 out of 3 brigade gone, my last brigade (reserve) also start walking towards their table edge.

Turn 11
A couple shots between opponents, and another French unit gone.

Turn 12
A French Brigade is in retreat but French still get the hill at junction and another hill plus farm.
Adding lost units' VP means French win the game by 14.5 vs 3 points. Bravo to Bekir!

Endgame

Mistakes;

I should deploy better. Reserve brigade should be at front. Scots should be at the middle of fight.

They didnt see any close combat action. I shouldnt be afraid to close in to farm. Once inside it is very difficult to take it. Artillery deployment for both sides were not good. 

Some close-up shots

Other videos of BBBB Luleburgaz battle

Other videos of BBBB Luleburgaz battle are as follows

End of Turn 2

End of Turn 3

End of Turn 4

End of Turn 5

End of Turn 7

End of Turn 8

End of Turn 9

Bloody Big Balkan Battles Game: June 29th 2019 Luleburgaz

Hi there,
This will be an irregular diary of my wargaming/history hobbies.

Last Saturday me an Morten met at Karargah Club to play a game from latest Bloody Big Battles (BBB) supplement Blood Big Balkan Battles (BBBB). Namely Luleburgaz.

It's been a while since my latest BBB game, so we prepared last night and examined the scenario, forces and map well. That proved important but didnt affect the outcome much (you will see).

Scenario:
The Luleburgaz was a big battle in 1st Balkan War just before Catalca Battle. The area was hard going at best with several streams across the battlefield. A fertile land for farming but hell for fighting.

Game Map

We diced and I took Morten's nicely painted Bulgarians as attacker. Morten Pasha commanded the Turks. We used my 1877 Blue uniformed Ottomans and with a couple of khaki-clad original Ottoman bases. The 2-man bases were indicating skirmishers while khaki-clad based were indicating unit has D (Devastating Volley). Units with flags were Nizams (Regular Trained units) and ones without were Redifs (2nd Class units).
Bulgarian 1st Ban units were in green uniform and 2nd Ban units were in brown uniform.
We used felt cuts to represent hill (light brown), woods (dark green) and crops (light green).
Gray line up North was representing the road from Jenno to Vize while gray line at South represents road starts from Luleburgaz to East edge. All other green and brown lines were streams!

The objectives were four towns (Luleburgaz, Karaagac, Bunarhisar and Congara).
Bulgarins needed 3 or 4 to win in 9 turns. Capturing 2 objectives meant a draw and all other outcomes were a Turkish victory. Forces were similar but Turkish units were weaker in general.

The table after deployment

Here are the Turkish and Bulgarian deployment and close-up of 10mm minis

My plan was to make early quick assault on Karaagac and advance on Congara.
By presenting many targets in front of Karagac some of my units will come in assault range. Up North I was planning to meet as far as I can the Turkish fresh troops coming from Congara edge on turn 1. First part worked, second not. Turkish fresh troops were too many for me to handle.
Down the South I didnt want to attack Luleburgaz but scenario forced me to deploy some of my units there. So I utilised them to at least tie-down some Turkish troops. It didnt go as I planned but to my favour.

Bulgarian 1st and 10th Divisions captures Luleburgaz early in the game

Meeting engagement around Bunarhisar

Karaagac exchanged hands several times. For the moment it is No-mans-Town!

My tactic was to use my superior Bulgarian units to engage close-combat with weaker Turkish units. It worked well. We did several close combats and Bulgarians win most of them (6 out of 8 as Morten's reckoning). 

So Karaagac and Luleburgaz captured in 2nd and 3rd turns. But we blunted each other around Bunarhisar. There were many Turkish units and we close-in to bayonet-range but couldnot kill all Turkish units. Also Around Karaagac and Luleburgaz Bulgarians suffered horrible loses to combined rifle and artillery fire even in early turns Morten's rolls were very bad.
Night Interval at the end of Turn 3 was good for Bulgarians. Bunarhisar, Luleburgaz and Karaagac at Bulgarian hands meaning, if we stabilize the situation we will win.

End of Turn 3 Night Interval

From Turn 3 to Turn 6 firefight and close combat continued. Karaagac and Luleburgaz troops were anhiliated by massive firepower and both objectives liberated by Turks.

East of Bunarhisar Bulgarians got bold and tried to spare one infantry and one (and only) cavalry unit to flank Karaagac. It was mistake. Attack made piecemeal and Turks thwarted all attempts. This also meant that my units in East of Bunarhisar woods were now outnumbered. They slowly dwindled.

End Turn 6 Night Interval

Note that Morten Pasha kept his two big reserve unit at the back to respond possible front collapse.
Bulgarians got only one reinforcement (to Luleburgaz area) and running short everywhere.
My units were still strong but moving in the open alone meant a certain death. In North West of Karaagac we saw 5 to 6 Bulgarian units destroyed. And Morten's dices began even out his early rolls. With FirePower from 20 to 30, every turn I was losing multiple bases.
But I was still confident that with good close combat oppurtunities I tried to recapture Luleburgaz and Karaagac. And I did!

 Last attack on Karaagac

Luleburgaz recaptured!

My gamble with cavalry flanking move is sandwiched between two big Turkish reserve unit and units around Karaagac. Then All those combined Turkish force beat my every unit back!

Turkish Counter-Offensive everywhere!

By the turn 7 it was clear that I was back tracking my own steps. I tried to keep Bunarhisar and another objective to get at least a draw but it was not to be. Heavy Firepower oblitirated my all units except 1 artillery unit across Luleburgaz. I soundly defeated. It is the second time I saw such a bloody defeat.

End of Game Table

Well, debrief time. What went wrong? It was a mistake to attack everywhere. I should concentrate and kill off one area then continue to others and clear whole map one section at a time. I shouldnot go after Congara objective which was too far and too strongly defended.
I afraid streams more than my opponent so tried to advance in optimum road. It is good for racing but not for fighting. There were times when my artillery group couldnot get clear line of visions to shoot enemy. Anyway it was a fun to the fullest and I enjoyed much in which most credit goes to Morten who is the best Dane wargamer I know (and the only Dane wargamer I know).


Below are the video shots of each end turn (there is no video at the end of turn 6).