Gavin's Wargaming Blog — Gavin's Wargaming Blog

Battle of Coruche pt1

admin — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 22:03:36 +0000

After the abortive French attempt to cross the Rio Tagus at Abrantes, Ney fell back to Ponte de Sor to lick his wounds and attempt to write that unfortunate episode out of the annals of French military history. His opponent Beresford however wasn’t idle. Leaving a screen of light cavalry at Abrantes, he moved his troops down the opposite bank to Santarem and then attacked Coruche on the 20th. General de Division Suchet had been reporting increasing enemy forces across the river for several days and as senior general in Coruche was under orders to retire if attacked. Duly, he and the 20 odd thousand infantry trooped back to Mora as the Anglo-Portuguese streamed into Coruche. However, the bridged road had only allowed a small number of the gathered troops to cross, but a bridgehead was there and more would be following up tomorrow.

In Ponte de Sor, Marechal Ney immediately realised that something had gone wrong with his plans when on the evening of the 20th April he received a courier bringing news of enemy forces in Coruche. Where Suchet and his men had gone wasn’t clear but he had only one choice. To send couriers out to all his troops to concentrate on Coruche and so the stage was set for both sides to sieze the initiative. On the 21st, the French got the jump and their troops marched down two roads into Coruche while Anglo-Portuguese troops reinforced from Santarem.

Coruche

And so on the 22nd even more troops piled into Coruche, finally amassing 37k French to 22k Anglo-Portuguese infantry. (We’ve experimented with a new method of having reinforcements on the table this game. Anything arriving during the day of the battle starts the game on the baseline – not the most realistic option but a more pleasing one from a game perspective.)

Set Up

French forces amassed on the right, the thin Red (& Blue!) line on the left.

Turn 1

Turn 1

The French waste no time moving forward to attack. Suchet’s Division nearest the camera, with Marchand’s furthest away heading for the British Light Division atop the hill and rapid movement for the reinforcement division lead by Gazan while in the midde the cavalry under Ney himself move forward.

Turn 2

Turn 2

The French move cautiously on the left flank while Marchand deploys into line as he starts to take skirmish fire from the top of the hill. Mermet advances to support Marchand.

Mermet Advances

Turn 3

Turn 3

Suchet deploys into line in the face of the British cavalry, and Loison begins to move to hit the end of the infantry line where the Portuguese artillery defend a field.

Turn 4

Turn 4

Suchet prevaricates and the British cavalry resist the temptation to charge no longer. Suchet’s troops form square and the cavalry bounce, taking some damage from the musketry and cannister fire. On the hill, Marchand moves up to volley fire range, but the British are waiting and a stunning volley rolls out, causing massed casualties but suprisingly only one unit fails morale and becomes shaken.

British cavalry and French Squares

Turn 5

Turn 5

Marchand’s troops fire a pitiful volley and cause few casualties but the return fire is withering. Casualties again are heavy and the units in Marchand’s Division are almost broken. Loison continues forward in the face of artillery fire. The British cavalry fall back shaken and fewer in number while the reserve units of Leith’s Division take position behind his artillery to combat Loison’s advance.

Marchand closes

Turn 6

Turn 6

Marchand trys to retire out of volley fire range retreating down the hill but the Light Division keep piling on the pain and follow him. In the centre Loison changes into column and outflanks the artillery line while charging it frontally. They are repulsed easily. The British cavalry continue to fall back while Suchet advances with his units scattered.

Turn 7
(No photo!)
Marchand again retreats out of volley fire and this time Craufurd lets him.
Loison trys again to see off the Portuguese artillery, the frontal charge again failing and the attack in the flank ends in stalemate.

Loison charges the artillery

Turn 8

Turn 8

Leith sends in his reserves to try to see off the enemy once and for all and Loison just doesn’t have the ability to push anything else in from his side.

Unfortunately, that’s where time ran out on us. However, we’re going to finish it off next week when we should hopefully be back to a complement of 4 players which should make things flow a bit quicker. I hope you enjoyed reading, please feel free to leave a comment.

Campaign System design thoughts pt1

admin — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 15:26:10 +0000

Hi guys,

As some of you will know, I’ve been tinkering with an online campaign system which has proven quite successful so far. As we draw to a close of the current beta test I’m inclined to start some evaluation of the options in the system and how I could further open it up to allow different groups using disparate rulesets to use the same system to run their own campaigns.

Firstly, is there any interest in a campaign system at all? I notice that the campaign board on TMP isn’t the liveliest place generally anyway.

What I’m proposing would probably work for most land periods from ancients through to the advent of modern communications. Basically anytime a bloke on a horse is the messenger, although could conceivably be used to present day with messages being delivered instantly.

The system is already set up with a couple of modular options for the Campaign Umpire/Admin to set and it’s this modular approach I want to expand on. Here are the general settings and choices I’m thinking about at the moment grouped together into the modules I think I’d organise by. Essentially allowing people to pick the “best fit” options to mesh with their preferred tabletop rules and to choose the campaign rules that suit them.

Geographical & Environmental
- Maps
  - Choose from existing maps within the system
  - Add a new Map
- Create Nodes (Towns)
- Create Roads
  - Define Road Types
- Create Geographical Structure
Weather
- Weather effects on/off
- Choice of random weather or ability to have historical weather (Historical weather being either true to period, or real weather patterns from the area from another year)
- Weather to be bound to areas or widespread.
Movement
- Road Limits
  - Road Limits on/off
  - Set Road Limits
    - No. of Men
    - No. of Units
    - No. of Unit Type
- Set Unit Rates
- Fatigue effects
Units
- Orbats
  - Create new Orbat
  - Use existing new Orbat
- Attributes
  - Strength
  - Morale
  - Class
  - Type
  - Rating
  - Weapon
  - Movement
  - No Bases
    - Set Organisation level – Regiment/Brigade/Division/Corps/Army/Wing
Supply
- Depots
  - Location Parameters
  - Replacement Generation
  - Unit Creation
  - Lines of Supply
    - Distance from Line of Supply for “In supply” calculation
Communications
- Switch on/off – on being fog of war and off being instant delivery
- Couriers
  - Movement distance
  - Interception/Capture on/off
Battle Output/Input
- Choice of rulesets
  - Tick box selection for the GM/Umpire to allow multiple rulesets
  - Battle Orbats output choice for each “allowed” ruleset.
- Choice of Orbat generation for Umpire, players or both.
- Input of battle results centrally or by Umpire.
Please take some time to think if there’s anything that you might be interested in using which isn’t covered by the above, or if there’s anything you’d like to clarify, please post a comment below and I’ll happily try and expand my thoughts.

New Project and some Pictures

admin — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 16:01:23 +0000

Having been envious for some time of the fantastic collections being built up by people using Pendraken’s fabulous new (relatively now) 10mm American War of Independence ranges, Matt and I have finally taken the plunge this year and begun to gather some forces. Recognizing that I can’t take on another large project of painting and expect to be finished any time soon, we’ve taken the step of commissioning AndyMac to do the majority of the painting. Andy’s painting is disturbingly, soul crushingly good and when he sends pictures like the ones below and tells you that the figures look even better in the flesh, you know it’s money well spent.

However, I can’t resist painting at least some of the figures, so here are some Hessian Jaegers painted by me. They’re still waiting for a blast of varnish, but given the appalling weather at the moment I don’t want to risk it. Especially since I’ve just been dripped on in my conservatory which has just had a new bloody roof costing a fortune. I am, shall we say, “not happy” and leave it there grrrr.! Anyway, onto the pictures (Click on them to make them bigger!)…

Hessian Jaegers by GavinP

And now the maestro’s figures…

5th Regiment of Foot by AndyMac

35th Regiment of Foot by AndyMac

Campaign System – Update 19th April 1809

admin — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 10:53:29 +0000

Our online Peninsular campaign was paused last week for a battle at Abrantes. Marechal Ney (me!) impetuously attempted to force a crossing over the Tagus despite half his forces being spread out behind him and confirmed enemy presence on the opposing bank. In what the French army is now calling “the Abrantes disaster”, Ney was fought to a standstill as unsupported and uncoordinated attacks went in against Portuguese troops in extremely defensible terrain. Unfortunately, due to extreme censorship by the French authorities, no images of the battle can be found. (Alternatively I took my camera and forgot to use it, you decide!) By days end, over 3000 of his troops were dead or missing for no territorial gain, the Anglo-Portuguese army sustained around a thousand casualties but outnumbered the battered French almost 2 to 1. With no prospect of reinforcement with meaningful numbers given the bridged road they would have to traverse and no way of knowing how many more British would arrive to bolster the enemy, Ney limped back across the Rio Tagus with his forces in tatters.

The situation is grave for the Allies too though, as they face off across the river with Ney’s Corps at both Abrantes/Ponte de Sor and Santarem/Coruche, the French Corps under Marechal Victor are bearing down on their left flank, and to their rear albeit some days away, the forces of Marechal Reynier are beginning to cross the Rio Drouro. The next strike could prove to be critical and whether the British take the offensive of continue to be quite passive will remain to be seen.

Away from the actual use of the campaign system, several areas have been raised for discussion by the group. This is after all still a beta test and a development test bed. These are namely that the current model for generating and implementing replacements for losses through battle and day to day wastage is way too generous. For example Ney has already made good almost all his losses from the Battle of Abrantes. Additionally, our method of determining when and if reinforcements arrive on the tabletop leaves a lot to be desired.

Campaign System – Battle of Cuidad Rodrigo

admin — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 22:50:24 +0000

A couple of weeks ago full of hope and anticipation I posted that our Peninsular War campaign. had finally thrown up a battle A week later I was less than enthusiastic about the whole situation. The Anglo-Portuguese had marched to relieve the siege of Cuidad Rodrigo, got there and discovered that a reasonably similar sized force of French were there. Both sides were set up on the table and then….nothing. Neither side felt they needed to attack, both knowing that reinforcements were bound their way and would arrive the next day. A total non event. To say I was unhappy is an understatement.

Last week however we rectified my bad humour. After the previous battle had paused the system, I ran the next day and indeed more troops arrived for both sides. This time however both commanders were minded to be a bit more aggressive.

The armies lined up were similar in numbers of infantry, but the French had more artillery and no cavalry, a situation Marechal Victor kept excusing! The French had to set up first, and chose to spread their initial two Divisions across much of the frontage, while the Anglo-Portuguese concentrated their forces into a much smaller frontage opposing a single French Division. This would cause Victor and his stand in General Musnier problems right from the start as pips to change Lapisse’s orders were never available in quantities.

The table set up

View down the battle lines

Knowing that they’d start rolling for reinforcements to arrive after turn 6, the players started tentatively but we were making good progress. Even so, I worried that the game wasn’t going to finish in the time available, so I made my decision to allow rolling from turn 4 for reinforcements. I later redeemed this mistake by cutting the number of turns for the day by 2 to compensate.

On the Anglo-Portuguese left, their cavalry made a limited but highly successful attack, forcing units into square in front of their artillery and stalling Musnier’s attack through pip burn unshaking and dealing with these threats. When his troops did get close, cannister ripped into his sole attack column and caused high casualties. By the end of the game Musnier had lost over half of his starting SP’s, only consistently jammy low morale rolls kept his force on the field.

Rich moving the French forward

Then on turn 4, the tide turned. French reinforcements arrived and although they’d take a couple of turns to reach the front with order changes required, they brought with them Victor who took charge of the battle.

Cavalry push the French right back

French Reinforcements arrive on the right flank

Anglo-Portuguese reinforcements also arrived, in time to shore up their right flank which up till now had been vacant and facing a French Division just given Engage orders.

Anglo-Portuguese infantry marching to the rescue

On the French right, the reinforcements flowed forward, pushing the enemy cavalry back and relieving their battered comrades. On the French left, the Anglo-Portuguese reinforcements marched forward and deployed into line, in the nick of time they were in position and as the day came to a close, skirmish and close range artillery fire was just beginning to ripple along the line of the Anglo-Portuguese army. One unfortunate new arrival unit threw a 20 for their first morale check and routed having taken zero casualties.

Cavalry push the French right back

French centre and left push forward

French attack columns at the close of play

In the end, for the rout of 2 units, the Anglo-Portuguese had caused a high level of damage to one French Division, a smattering of casualties across another 2 and routed several units of artillery which from a campaign perspective will be invaluable. At the end of the day, Wellington and Beresford elected to cede the fortress to the French and retreated to Fuentes de Onoro, taking the extra fatigue points in return for the safety of the mountains.

Since this battle we’ve played another couple of turns, and by the looks of it so far, both sides have been licking their wounds and considering their options. Elsewhere in the Peninsular, the fortresses of Vigo Galiza and Badajoz are under siege, so the French grip on the country is tightening, and Portugal is facing a three pronged simultaneous invasion. In that event, I don’t hold much hope that the Anglo-Portuguese players will be able to stem the tide, but I might be mistaken. Matt and I spent this Wednesday night in mathmatical contortions reinventing the method of converting men to strength points which is a big success and I think will make a difference for future games.

Campaign System – We have a battle !

admin — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 12:42:12 +0000

Wonders will never cease! After 25 turns of play, we finally have a battle to play out. Not that the campaign hasn’t been providing fun or challenging logistical headaches, but I can finally get my miniatures out on the table !

The situation I blogged about a fortnight has changed a little. The siege at Santiago is over, the city capitulating 2 campaign days ago. Cuidad Rodrigo is still witholding the French. The Anglo-Portuguese have finally moved decisively, striking East out of the mountains to attempt to relieve the siege. Anson and Fane’s cavalry brigades have looped back around the city and moved to Cabillas, breaking the French line of supply and placing themselves between the besieging forces and the French reserves that would march to their aid.

In the rush to get there before the city fell, the Anglo-Portuguese have strung themselves out on the small mountain roads, the vanguard who arrived on the 2nd only consisted of 3 generals and the Heavy Cavalry ! Fortunately, they know that 12k infantry will definitely make it during the 3rd and so the scene is set for the first contact.

Mike, the French commander is now given a difficult choice. Does he meet the enemy with his whole forces yet moving away from the siege lines will undoubtedly allow the city to replenish some of their stores from his own baggage, destroy his saps and positions prolonging the siege, or does he leave the siege in place, leaving a valuable portion of his forces behind? This isn’t handled within the system, it can only do so much of course, and at this stage we’re looking at setting the narrative backstory to the battle. Mike’s opted to leave 2 brigades of infantry behind keeping the enemy bottled up in the city. Since the Anglo-Portuguese forces are basically all mounted, I figure that the French advance towards them and they back off, eating into the time before their reinforcements will arrive to even the odds. So the table top encounter will start on turn 5 of the day. (Days being between 12 and 18 turns long in Principles of War. Since it’s raining and only April, I’m suggesting that the day will be 13 turns long, giving us 9 full turns to play.)

The forces are stacking up like this:

Beresford
Bradford’s Brigade
Portuguese Artillery
De Grey’s Brigade
Slade’s Brigade

Leith’s 5th Division
Spry’s brigade
Portuguese Brigade
Portuguese Artillery

Craufurd’s Light Division
Beckwith’s Brigade

I Corps
GdD Lapisse 2nd Division
Brigade Maison
Brigade Darricau
Artillery
Artillery (Attached from 3rd Division)

III Corps
GdD Musnier 2nd Division
Brigade Brun
Brigade Razout
Artillery

I’ve yet to work out whether the French units will be on table as a Brigade or Regiments. I think previously we’ve played Regiments but I need to check some past orbats. Either way, it’s shaping up to be a good game and I fully expect that there will be more to come. If the Anglo-Portuguese can’t make the French retreat, there’s a whole host of reinforcements in the area for both sides to turn this into a real meat grinder. A decisive victory one way or the other could swing the whole campaign in favour of the victor so there’s lots to play for.

FNG 2 and Ambush Valley 2 Reviews

admin — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:10:51 +0000

Bought FNG2 today to support THW and see what the final version looks like. As regular readers will know I’ve played a fair amount of FNG v1 although not much recently so I was looking forward to this finally being released. Have to say I’m a bit disappointed. Maybe I’m searching for the holy grail or something, but I am getting pretty sick of buying rules which are riddled with typo’s and errors. Do rules ever get proof read? I know that this has been a labour of love for Darby and I don’t want to detract from that, but its pretty demoralising reading a set of rules and seeing examples that don’t follow the rules, blatant typos and this is just from a skim read really.

As for Ambush Valley, I’m even more annoyed at this one. For a one/two man band to release something badly edited is one thing, but for AAG with their Osprey backing to release not only their error ridden main rules but to continue this tradition into the 3rd supplement, a second edition of both I might add, is a bit of a pisstake in my opinion. I seem to oscillate between thinking theres a good set of rules somewhere within Force on Force, to thinking that for a Blackhawk down kind of scenario its almost perfect but there’s only so many “skinnies” or insurgents I can duck shoot. For Vietnam I just don’t think it works. Putting aside the issues I have with the accuracy of the text for now, some of the rules are just bizarre.

I had a simple scenario set up for a platoon or so of US to escort some Villagers from the ville in the middle of the table off table. Opposing them were some Local Force VC. The US were D8/D8 and the VC D6/D8. The VC had 2 MG Bunker cards and 2 spike board traps (drawn randomly!). The first MG bunker card was played as an interruption of some US movement and placed in the treeline, unfortunately too far for the VC to claim “ambush” (? how there can be a maximum range to ambush the enemy I don’t know!) In the ensuing reaction tests, the US got the drop on the VC and managed to shoot first, causing both figures to become casualties. Purely because they’re rolling D8′s and the VC D6′s.

Every time the VC fired or attempted to fire in the game, they were just simply swatted down like flies. And then we have the “instant nuke” sorry artillery rules. Apparently artillery lands immediately, with no deviation. If the US can call it in, then it’s just devastating. By the end of the game, I had 2 MG bunkers and 3 squads of 5 figures all casualties. Of course I couldn’t actually find out what type of casualties they were because there was no one unhit within the requisite distance at the right point in the turn to check. It’s possible that with that figure close they could all have been fine (admittedly that would have needed a heck of a lot of 6′s to be rolled!). In return I’d managed to cause 4 Serious Wounds and 1 Light Wounded US figure. 2 of the Serious Wounds had come from the spike traps, which meant that for 3 figures hit, I’d lost 19. Now bear in mind that the VC were generally in cover (or fortified positions!), while the US were in the open. For a “outcome driven” ruleset, that just doesn’t sound right.

Back to FNG, I’m just trying out an ambush scenario since the table is still set up from the above game. As far as I can see from the rules, theres even more dice rolling than there was in the old version, something I’m not too keen on. I’ll have to see how they play, the one advantage of FoF:AV is that it’s quick (provided you can work out the rules of course), but that’s probably because one side is dead rather quickly!

Here’s a few pictures of the AV Action though.

Campaign Situation – 26th March 1809

admin — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 16:33:40 +0000

If one of my players is reading this, please don’t! For the rest of you, here’s how things are shaping up.

The campaign continues on, the ,three remaining French players have stuck to their initial plan and while we’ve not had any battles result there’s been some interesting opportunities which have slipped through both sides hands through lack of understanding. Malcolm’s found much the same with his system, that when players have some incomplete information, they’re unwilling to act boldly.

The French invasion of Spain has so far captured the regions of Aragon, Old and New Castile as well as Catalonia.

Three main thrusts have crossed the Alps, the Northern corps captured San Sebastien on the first day of the campaign, and have moved southwest to Burgos where they then switched direction to the Northwest towards Galiza, besieging the capital Santiago as I type.

The Central thrust headed by Marshal Victor, the overall French commander, crossed the border at Lizaso and Roncesvalles, capturing the fortresses of Pamplona and Burgos and on to the regional capital of Valladollid. Anglo-Portuguese cavalry have been pushed back and onto the flank of the thrust and the two cavalry screens have repeatedly scouted each other as the two generals try to get more information on the others forces. The Fortress of Cuidad Rodrigo was invested a few days ago, trapping some Anglo-Portuguese forces there along with the garrison.

Now the most Southern thrust, Ney’s 2 corps have struggled through the terrible mountain roads from Lascun and Bagneres de Luchon to gain the main road from Zaragoza to Madrid. Both have been taken and Ney is now crossing the Tagus to the south of the Spanish Capital.

Had either Wellington or Beresford understood the situation a few days ago around Zamora, I believe they should have pushed to concentrate forces either at Cabillas forcing the French to attack over the bridged road, or even to loop North through the worse roads admittedly, but to fall on the rear of the French advance around Valladollid, as well as disrupting communications and supply lines, possibly even recapturing the region and gaining a bonus of Spanish forces raised in celebration. – Something they don’t know will happen of course though so you can’t blame them for that!

We’re paused for a few days across the weekend, Mike’s gone away and I’ve come home to my Dad’s as it’s the anniversary of my Mum’s death last year so I wanted to spend some time with him. I’d planned on going up to Vapnartak tomorrow, but with the snow coming down thick and fast at the moment, that might not be possible!

I’d like to finish with a hearty thanks for those who put their heads above the parapet and defended me recently. You know who you are and thanks.

PT Dockyard 1/600th Coastal Ships

admin — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 17:10:04 +0000

Late last year I posted on TMP regarding scales for playing Coastal Forces in WW2, and the general consensus was that 1/600th was favourite. The choices appeared to be Skytrex or PT Dockyard and the prices of the resin from the US seemed to trump that of Skytrex here in the UK so I bought a selection of MTB’s, MGB’s and E-Boats as well as a bunch of merchants for them to fight over.

The ships arrived within a couple of weeks which is excellent going from the US. Each class of ship is in its own bag with a diagram showing how the various small resin pieces, guns and masts and the like should be assembled. As I look at them, they appear to be rather complicated and fiddly, I expect an amount of swearing will be involved in putting them together. Many of the ships with small pieces seem to have a “web” of flash holding the small pieces together, which will need some careful trimming but it’s a clever way of making sure that they all stay together in transit.

The ships themselves look to be well cast, with a few bubbles, mainly on small details. There appears to be a few areas of flash or bloom, where resin will need to be removed carefully but I think with a little work they’ll be very nice models indeed.

Since starting this draft post (over a month ago!), I’ve actually managed to get 4 of the MTB’s, Vosper 70fters to be exact, and 2 of the smaller coastal freighters finished. I’ve experimented with the merchant vessels with two different washes, one gives a rusty kind of look, while the black wash I think looks better. I’ve left off the flimsy details of masts on the merchants, as they’re cast in such thin resin or plastic I don’t think they’ll stand up the rigours of gaming, nor could I work out exactly what went where and how they should fix.

I’ve got 4 MGB’s ready to start, their 20mm or 2pdr guns are fiddly as hell to cut out and glue on, but they do look pretty good.

Here’s a couple of shots of the stuff done so far.

Campaign System – So far, so good!

admin — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 19:01:53 +0000

There seems to be a number of people interested in this judging from the numbers of followers I’ve gained in the last week so Hello! to all of you, old and new acquaintances alike.

The campaign has been running for a week now, and fingers crossed, touch wood etc, things have been going well with the system. Unfortunately I have had to boot one of my players due to a very insulting comment left on the blog which traced back to him so we’re down to 3 French players. If anyone fancies having a go at filling in, then let me know.

We’ve not had a battle yet but the signs are that we’re building up to one in the vicinity of Valladolid. Anglo-Portuguese Cavalry has been sighted there yesterday and I was expecting Marshal Victor to push them out today or set up for a fight tomorrow, but no such movement was made. I’m wondering if there’s a cunning plan involved, or if I’m guessing his location correctly in the first place!

One of the major shortcomings in the system has been the lack of working garrison and siege code, which meant that the French have poured over the border and captured the border fortresses with ease. Thats something that I really should have thought about before starting. I’m pretty sure that I’ve fixed it now and will be implementing it shortly.

Here’s a collection of screenshots from the system, as it’s occurred to me that so far most of you have only really seen the changelog and the login screen!

This screen shows the Orders screen, which as you can see contains a list of the brigades and commanders on the left. The player can select multiple choices here, then give them a destination and/or intermediate or waypoint direction. This allows the player to fine tune which route he wants troops to take, and also extend orders out to 6 legs away. Under the destination boxes, are a series of dropdowns and tick boxes which allow the setting of specific choices, Standing orders when meeting the enemy, priority for traveling down busy roads etc.

Here the player can review orders he’s sent to his units to refresh his memory!

This screen shows messages recieved. New messages are highlighted in the table in green and the blue headers allow sorting of the messages in ascending and descending order. I’ll eventually add some sort of filtering here.

This screen allows the player to look at the makeup of his brigades. Although the smallest element in the system is the Brigade, some small games may entail battalion or regiment level actions, so these units are all stored and viewable here. It also shows the morale/experience class.

This is the Headquarters screen, which shows a breakdown of information that is visible from the players current position. It gives a list of the roads out of their current location, the details of friendly troops at surrounding towns and also gives the player the opportunity to view road classifications on any town in the game.

The feedback from the players so far has been pretty positive and I’m hoping that they are having as much fun as I am. Hopefully the next update will have news of battle being met, and miniatures being required for duty. I’ll also try and find a satisfactory method of posting an image of movement so far on a map for those who are interested.