Rank and File Rules

Since the last post I have been painting more Seven Years Wars/Marlborough Heroics and Ros figures.   Several months back I got a good deal on some Marlborough range figures.   About half the cost of retail.   They have been sitting in the box waiting to be painted since then.

At the July Sacramento club meeting we played an Imaginations game of Rank and File.   Mike had purchased a lot of 20mm plastic lace wars figures and wanted to use them.  The battle was a rear guard action between the armies of the Principality of Itter and the Dukedom of Huntingdon.    I commanded the pursuing forces of the  Principality of Itter.   Aaron commanded two of the cavalry regiments on the right flank, while Hal had the third one and the grenadiers next to him.  My plan was to pin their center and attempt to move around their right flank with the four infantry battalions and light gun.  Hal was to keep their left center occupied and Aaron would smash through their left flank cavalry.

Hal on the right and Aaron in back.

The battle went pretty close to the plan.  Aaron ;hit their lead cavalry regiment with both of his regiments and the two-to-one odds saw the opposing cavalry loose half its strength.  Our advance on that flank bogged down for a while until the opposing commander pulled his remaining cavalry regiment back when the supporting infantry was driven back.   Aaron quickly crossed the stream and once again wiped out half of the other cavalry regiment.  

Aaron's cavalry slams into the enemy's lead regiment on the hill

The Huntingdon infantry takes up position behind the hedgerow.

My two lead battalions attempt to pin the enemy as the other two move towards the left.  

Mike took over for 'Hal when he had to leave early and drove the Huntingdon infantry that was supporting the enemy's left wing cavalry back.

My troops have driven the enemy back from the hedgerow.  Mike and Aaron are attempting to drive the opposing forces back from the stream.  

I had been keeping most of the opposing infantry and their light gun busy as I attempted to outflank them.   My initial advance on their center had met with mixed results.    I had driven them back and was later able to eliminate the gun crew, but each time I got close casualties would cause a morale check causing one of my infantry units to fall back.  They were able to recover and resume the advance, but were never able to launch a successful attack.

While one of my battalions from the second line continues to move through the woods to outflank the opposing infantry the other has formed up in on the left of the first line.  The other first line battalion is in road column and is moving to to help support the attack on our right after it had been forced back by a morale failure..   

Dave has countered my flanking move helping to weaken his center of one full strength battalion and one weak battalion facing my three infantry battalions and the light gun.  

Close to the end of the game.  Mike has driven back the supporting infantry and the opposing cavalry is falling back.  Aaron would soon launch his next cavalry charge which would leave the left flank too weak to stop him from sweeping into the rear and flank of their center.  

By the end of the game only one of their four infantry units was still in good shape.   The others had been worn down along with their cavalry.   The game was declared a tactical victory for our side as our opponents were too weak to block our advance.

I enjoyed the game and it inspired me to finish the rest of my lace wars figures so that I can do the Battle of Blenheim 1704 at the August club meeting.  I had originally planned on using the order of battle in the scenario from the Volley and Bayonet web page.   However, I had found two additional orders of battle.  One from Age of Honour and one on the internet at Blenheim 1704   These other two were fairly close to each other as far as commands and organization.   The one from Age of Honour has too many men on both sides if the scale for the scenario is used.  I decided to use the one from the website.

Comparing that to what I had already painted resulted in painting more infantry and cavalry.   Fortunately I still had enough left to paint.   Since my last blog post I have painted the 24 guns and crews that I had originally planned on, the fifty generals and aids, and 120 infantry.    The additional cavalry was another 144 figures to go with the other 100 that I had already painted.   Total forces needed for Blenheim are 46 generals and aides, 15 guns and crews, 1756 cavalry,  and  2,344 infantry.

I have modified the rank and file rules to reflect the size of this battle.   The rules as written usually have multiple stands per a battalion, but do mention altering the scales for larger engagements.   For this battle all artillery ranges will be halved.   musket fire will be one inch close range and two inches long range.   Movement rates were kept the same, but formation changes and crossing linear obstacles will only take one-fourth of a move instead of half.   The separation distance prior to completing a charge move is reduced from two inches to one inch.  All infantry stands will represent about a 500 man battalion, each cavalry stand will represent 250 men and horses, and artillery stands will represent 12 guns.   All cavalry and infantry units will consist of four stands.  Officers will represent the two army commanders each side had, wing commanders, and "division" commanders.

Catching up on the past few months

The past couple of months have been a bit busy.   I am finally getting around to posting on the blog.   There was a Laser and the Flame game at the South Bay game Club, a What a Tanker Game at the Miniature Wargaming Society of Sacramento, and an All Quiet on the Martian Front game at Fresno..

 I was on the Russian side for the What a Tanker game.   My T34 took out a couple of German tanks before being destroyed.   I then received an ISU152.   It had a very powerful gun in the rules, but unfortunately my die rolling was horrible and I couldn't cause enough damage to the Tiger I.  We traded shots at short range for several turns with the Tiger making almost all the saving throws, before finally causing enough damage to destroy the ISU.  

The Laser and the Flame game is a variant of the Sword and the Flame/  The [players had to recover control of the spaceship before it crashed into the home world.   The ship was infested with creatures that we had to eliminate as we worked our way through the ship trying to get to the bridge to regain control.   We captured the bridge only to find out that the power was off leaving us no choice but to work our way to engineering at the other end of the ship.   We were able to restore power and control by the final turn.   We each started with ten cyborgs.  Three of us were down to two at the end and the fourth player had four left.

Forward part of the ship.  Bridge on left, then computer room then main flight deck, and medical bay at bottom right.

Middle of the ship.  Flight deck on left, airlock at bottom, crew quarters at top, and hydroponics on the right.

Engineering room on the right.   We finally found the disconnected plug to the power supply after a hard fight and regained control of the ship.

For the Fresno Game I commanded an American battalion of two tank companies and an armored infantry company with an attached Hellcat platoon.   Our mission was to drive the Germans out of the town.   The Germans were caught in the middle when the Martian Tripods started attacking from their rear and flank.  By the end of the game the Germans had been wiped out.   They destroyed five of the eighteen tripods in exchange.   Our battalion had made it to the river when I ordered a halt and had us seek cover and go hull down.   It took the entire fire power of each tank company to kill a tripod.   Ron's company got one and I got another.   We also knocked out one with an airstrike and another with an artillery barrage.   At this point the game was called with the Martians having to regroup in the town.   We destroyed one more as they fell back  This allowed us to withdraw after losing the anti-tank gun platoon, some infantry and half a dozen tanks.   Final score was five kills each for the Germans and the Americans with the Martians in control of the battlefield.

The town we had to capture.

Our forces arrive.   Ron on the right flank, me on the left and Jesse following with the infantry company.

Tripods rampaging through the town.   The German tanks got too close to a Tripod when they destroyed it and lost five of their tanks in the explosion.


I have also painted some of my 28mm Scifi and fantasy figures.   The Scifi infantry are from Khurasan miniatures and will be Domain regular infantry.   The fantasy cavalry will be for the Dark One's army.


I have also finished painting and basing the 6mm Seven Years War cavalry and I am in the process of finishing the artillery and generals.   When the Heroics and Ros order arrives I will be able to finish the infantry by adding the last few grenadier units.  After that I am going to be painting a batch of Heroics and Ros 8mm Franco-Prussian War figures.

The following is from a set of Corps level army rules