Andreivian Road Test

 Now that the Royal Army of Andreivia is complete, I thought I would try them out in a small solo game, using the Combat of St Ulrich scenario from the Honours Of War rulebook.

The opposing forces: A Hessian brigade (there would be Hessians in the BS Co expeditionary force surely?) consisting of General, 3 battalions of infantry, 1 regiment of cavalry and a gun. Facing them is a small Andreivian force of General, 2 regular pike armed infantry battalions, 1 regiment of irregular cavalry and a gun. It's only now, when I see them next to each other, that I have noticed the size disparity between the Baccus Ottoman and Prussian guns. The Andreivian gun is massive!

Initial set up and deployment. The Hessians are marching in column towards a ford by a small village, defended by the Andreivians. 

The initial few turns saw the Hessians cautiously march their cavalry forward and deploy into line, to cover their flank from the Andreivian cavalry. The Andreivian commander, conscious that his troops were outnumbered, commenced bombarding the Hessian infantry with his cannon. With the cavalry deployed, the Hessians marched their infantry forward, but misjudged the distance and brought them into charging range of the Andreivian cavalry:

The opportunity was too great and the irregular cavalry slammed into the Hessian infantry, caught in column. This could have turned very nasty for the infantry... 

But the dice gods had other ideas and the Andreivian cavalry were repulsed in dissary. The Hessians responded by charging the disrupted Andreivians with their own cavalry, using the Caught! card to stop their irregular opponents from evading. The attack ended inconsequentially though and the Hessian cavalry pulled back. 

Following the cavalry drama the Hessians managed to deploy their infantry into a firing line. The Andreivians, outnumbered and with a -1 disadvantage when firing due to their pikes, decided not to invoke a volley and charged instead:

Despite causing several disrupts, the Andreivians were unable to break the stout Hessian infantry and fell back. In the following volley phase the left hand Andreivian infantry battalion was broken and fled in the face of disciplined musket fire. The Hessian cavalry then charged the Andreivian cavalry again and finally broke them, leaving the Andreivians with a single infantry battalion on this side of the ford.

There then followed a cat and mouse game in which the Andreivians, through withdrawing and clever use of Event cards, rallied their infantry and prevented the Hessians from catching them in a volley. In an attempt to bring matters to a head, the Hessian General expended his action card deck to charge the Andreivians in the flank with his cavalry:

Yet again though the dice had other ideas and the pike armed Andreivian infantry repulsed the Hessian horse without difficulty.

Finally, the Hessians trapped the Andreivians on the banks of the river. Surrounded on three sides, the plucky Andreivians decided to go for a death or glory final charge. Again though, the Hessian regular infantry held their ground and refused to break. The situation for the Andreivians was looking grim:

To make matters worse, the Hessian General threw in his last Action card, to make sure of the job:

The resulting volley was too much for the embattled Andreivians and they were shattered under a hail of musket balls.

So, a comprehensive victory for the Hessians, leaving them masters of the ford and the Andreivian General fleeing for his life:

All in all, a fun game and a useful reminder of the Maurice rules. Regular infantry are nigh on impossible to shift in combat, unless they have been softened up with a few volleys first. The cavalry were spectacularly ineffective throughout the game. Had the dice rolled more favourably for the Andreivian cavalry when they charged the Hessian infantry in column, things may have turned out very different. 

I'm already thinking of a follow up game, perhaps an ambush in heavily wooded country, where the Andreivian irregular units would have the advantage. 

Hope that was entertaining.

Andreivia, land that I love

I read in a magazine once that the average wargamer spends around 90% of their painting time on their armies and only 10% on terrain. I think that I would probably be more a 95% - 5% split. Nevertheless, a fictional army needs a fictional country to defend, so I've been working on a few buildings for Andreivia.

The cathedral of St Andrew in the capital, Tcherbervan. This is a Russian church from Leven. I've added a fountain and plinth, both also Leven, plus a grave of a noted Andreivian hero or martyr, from Perfect Six. I copied the simple, monotone colour scheme from online photos of Armenian churches - many of which are quite beautiful. I have based it on embossed plasticard, to give the surroundings a paved look.

Andreivians are Greek in origin and were part of the Eastern Roman Empire, so I wanted to reflect that. This is a bit of tourist tat that I bought in Athens and has been repurposed as a ruin. I filed off the "Athens" at the front and covered it with flock. I added a few more Leven plinths to the base. At some point I may acquire a pair of 10mm Romans, cut their heads & arms off and add them to the plinths. In Maurice, built up areas occupy 10 cm squares so that is the common base size I have used. I might go back and round off the corners of this one.

Finally for now is a small village. These are the first buildings that I painted when I got back into the hobby, in 2010. They also represent the entire H&R building range, being their large and small farmhouses and Eastern European houses. I recycled them and added a few barrels and pots from Perfect Six then added textured paint and a few different flocks to the base. All very quick. M'colleague Neil has made some villages already, so I've tried to match with his. I'll find out if I have succeeded when we next meet up. 

I hope that was of some interest. Next in the pipeline are town houses for Tcherbervan. 

Equally Cursed and Blessed

Andreivia is a multi-ethnic country and so I wanted to feature the other main ethnic groups in the Royal Andreivian Army. 

These are ethnic Turkish light infantry:

I've used Austrian Grenzers from the Baccus 7 Years War range. The minis have a short, military cut jacket worn open. Like the regular infantry, I wanted them to look more "Eastern" so have painted them grey, with a red-brown waistcoat instead. I used 3 different shades of grey on the figures, but that isn't very obvious when looking at the finished product. There are 3 regiments of light infantry. 

Next we have ethnic Armenian horsemen:

These are Baccus Cossacks from their Great Northern War Russians. I was not sure how to paint these chaps, but ended up with a mix of greys, black and white tunics, with again a random selection of hat colours, to create a less uniform look. I also mixed up how they were positioned on their bases rather than gluing them in line abreast, as befits irregular cavalry.

Upon further research, it turns out that Armenia is quite a mountainous country, so I'm not sure that they would have been noted horsemen at all. Perhaps the Turks should have been the horsemen and the Armenians light infantry? Hey ho.

I also created a Armenian officer/Notable:

I have used another Cossack plus a chap from the Mahdist Emirs pack. The Armenian cavalry have also been bulked with commanders from the Mahdist Emirs.

I really hope that we can get the Crisis Point weekend reorganised for another date. If not, Neil and I will have to determine the outcome of the War of Andreivian Succession over a series of battles ourselves.