A Very Moderate Swedish Conflict AAR #11

So after some month it was time for a game of "A Very Moderate Swedish Conflict" again...

Much due to me painting my Carrier trailers and wanted to try them out as well as the fact that my Friend Björn have released the second batch of Swedish Interwar miniatures, havent got them yet, but soon I hope:)

As you know I have been working on some rules for our project, they work fine but I´m not totaly satisfied so for this game I made a small adaption of my, at the moment, favourite wargaming rules Donnybrook...

I decided to run the same scenario as we did a couple of weeks for our Scanian war game but now in the 1930´s. I commanded the attacking White and Jonas the defending Red as he wanted to use his "Röda Nävar" unit.

Order of Battle

White
Ryttmästare Beironsson - Hero, with pistol and longsword, D12
2x8 Riflemen - Veteran, rifles, one with a automatic rifle, D8
1x4 Finish freikorps - Elit, SMG´s, D10
1 Armourde Car - Veteran, HMG, Driver and Gunner, D8

Red
Foreman Karl Weiron Ottosson - Hero, with rifle and a copy of "State and Revolution", D12
1x8 Röda Nävar - Veteran, rifles, gunner and loader with a LMG, D8
1x4 Gruvettan - Veteran, light mortar, crew with rifles, D8

Red reinforcements (one unit arrives at the end of each turn.)
1x8 Gruvettan - Veteran, rifles, gunner and loader with a LMG, D8 and Character, Supervisor Göransson with the "Gruvettan" Banner.
1x8 Gruvettan - Veteran, rifles, gunner and loader with a heavy flamer, D8 and Tracked transport vehicle armed with a AT rifle, driver and gunner.
1x4 Gruvettan - Veteran, HMG, crew with rifles, D8
1x4 Gruvettan - Elite, grenades and pistols, D10

The only unit on table at the game start was the Red Light mortar deployed by the "Dalkulla" (electricity tower) and the "Röda Nävar" squad deployed behind a pile of logs by the filing station.

The whites mission was to loot/destroy as many as possible of the 3 supplies stashes, the first on the truck by the flagpole, the second by the  "Dalkulla" (electricity tower) and a third bu the filling station.

Ryttmästare Beironsson and 2 squads of riflemen advance in cover of the smal swedish cottage they eveidently will try to capture the supplies at the truck by the flagpole...

The white´s armoured makes a triumphant approach as the driver Larsson honk the horn ti frighten the red´s that are hiding behind the log pile, the HMG gunner Spiik redies his weapon to take them out...

Wheeled vehicle moved as cavalry in the rules, i.e. 12" as long as they moved on road, all ofroad movement was diced 2d6 choose the highest.

The red reinforcements start arrive in speed giving the red defenders new hope...

The "Röda Nävar" proven them selfs as true veteranes as they engage the armoured car in a firefight manage to take out both Larsson and Spiik and set the car on fire...good shooting comrades Foreman Ottosson shouts and promis them extra vodka and herrings for supper...

We didn´t use any vehicle damages but just let the units fire at the crew as if you hit the gunner you also get that weapon out of action and if you hit the Driver you also have imobilised the vehicle...and in our case both was hit and we decide that the vehicle had caught fire and was out of action, nothing complicated. 

But I will have to go over how much cover/armour the crew will get for the vehicle as now they feelt a bit vulnerable... might be because it was my AC...

Meanwhile Ryttmästare Beironsson cautiously advance with his 2 squads, much due to the sporadic and dangerously unprecise mortar fire from the red´s... Ryttmästare Beironsson shout to the red´s mortar crew by the "dalkulla" that they are a disgrace for all mortars crew´s by their total lack of competence...

"Gruvettan" APC advance to support the "Röda Nävar"

We let the tracked vehicle moved as Cavalry in close order by the Donnybrook rules, i.e. 8"

First atempt to reach the supplies...

One major difference from the originale rules was that we allow all minis that was hits to roll for cover saves, even in the open, AND roll that cover save with their Ability dice and succed on 6+. The roll was modified by acctual cover,  +1 for small trees, fences etc that was in the way and +2 for stone walls, log piles, inside a house etc. 

This to represent that in real life there are actually more cover present then on a gaming table... and in real life a soldier try to get as much cover as possible and the fact that the better soldier you are the better use you make of the cover available, i.e. a Veteran uses the cover beter then the Recruit. This small adaption turned out to work really nice.

...fails as the red´s now also have got a HMG, on the hill by the bride, with as it seems a more competente crew...

We used the reload card for all support weapons (HMG, Mortar, AT-rifle, AT-Gun, Artillery etc, but not for Squad support weapons like LMG, AR etc.)

The red´s hold the line by the road and cover the third objective by HMG fire:)

The white´s had sent their small elit unit of Finish freikorps on a flank move to be able to make the best use of their SMG´s and them engage the red´s in close combat...The advanced in cover of a hill but didn´t realy manage to get within range as they also didn´t want to expose themselfs to much during their advance...

The red dismount from their transport in to the cover of a small forest, ready to respond on any hostillity by the Finish troops on the other side of the hill...

The red had realy got the upper hand as the white haden´t made a faster advance and also lost their armoured car...

As a true hero Ryttmästare Beironsson decided that HE had to lead the way and rode headless to the supplies on the truck...

...severe crossfire by the HMG och the hill and the "Gruvettan" squad by the filling station took down the Hero that fall of his horse and get unconcsious for a while...

Ryttmästare Beironsson manage to get up on his feet, ducking some bullets and set the supplies on fire...

The HMG on the hill continue to pour fire in to the area, mamaging to settle the score with the second of the rifle squads that flees the field with their wounded men, leaving Ryttmästare Beironsson all alone...

The red´s cheers as Ryttmästare Beironsson order a general retreat and flees the field of battle...

Red victory onece again...

Both I and Jonas had a greate game with much action, tension and laughter. The Donnybrook rules are realy a good base to create new settings on and I will try to develope this idee some more, hopefully Björn and the rest of the involved like them to.

Thanks for reading and have a realy nice weekend !

Donnybrook AAR#4

So here it is at last...The Ambuch at Örkeljunga Church 1676 AAR...from the test game I and Jonas run the day before our club game with Barry H. For this game I run the Danes and Jonas the Swedes, so the AAR will be a bit of Danish sided this time...

Annyway...here comes the background and OOB again if you might have forgotten them.

August 1676, the Swedish army was on the march to Halmstad to settle the scores with a Danish force under Commander Duncan that was on their way to seize the town Halmstad. 

This small scenario depicts an Ambush of a Swedish supply column that was awaiting new beasts of burden for the supply wagons. The animals should, according to the law, be provided by the local farmers. 

Most of the men in the Supply column are away to gather the reluctant farmers and their beasts. Just a few Swedish soldiers have been left to protect the supplies, it’s a perfect time for the Friskyttar to attack and destroy the supplies… 

Objectives 
The time are of importance as the foraging Swedish troops will soon be back the Danes just have 15 turns to accomplish their mission. There are 3 Wagons and one Artillery piece that need to be destroyed. To destroy a wagon or the artillery piece a Danish unit have to be in physical contact with the objective and as a activation succeed with a 6+ ability roll.

The Swedes have to stop them and resist until the Danes have to withdraw after 15 turns.

OOB - Swedish 
1x Hero - Lieutenant Johan Kruuse with the Dalregementet
1x8 Regular - Foot musketeers with a character, Sergeant Hård
1x4 Regular – Artillery and 4 crewmen and a character, Sergeant Kruut

Reinforcements (One unit arrives at the end of each turn in the order stated below)
1x4 Elite - Dragoons
1x8 Regular - Foot Pikemen with two characters, Ensign Skytte and Drummer Klang
1x8 Regular - Foot musketeers with a character, Sergeant Kvick
1x6 Regular – Cavalry with a character, Captain Löwenskiöld

OOB - Danish
1x Hero - Grenadier Lieutenant Nils Eskildsen (3 grenades)
1x8 Regular - Foot musketeers with a character, Ensign Olsen
2x8 Regular – Friskyttar, one group with Muskets and one with Göingebössor (Rifles). One group have a character, Scout Pher Månsson a.k.a. Uggletorparn
1x3 Elite - Cavalry with a character, Captain Madsen

Lieu of Character
Hide out – Due to their knowledge of the land the two units of Friskyttar may use the Hide out rule from the outlaw Faction (Page 48 in the Donnybrook rules). 

The Danish Scout made it possible for a unit of Snapphanar to deploy anyware on the tambe but not within 12" of an enemy unit or objective...So I decided to place them out of sight at the farm yard, guite close to two of the objectives.

I indeed had a good run of activation cards and was able to move all of my remaining units on to the table in the first turn. The plan was to have the cavalry to ruch up in the middel and destroy that wagon. 

The regular Danes under comand of my Grenadier Hero, with 3 grenades, and with support of the rifle armed Snapphanar should move up on my right flank to destroy the wagon outside the church wall. 

According to plan:) Speed was the key, as othervise the Swedes might have got to much reinforcements...

Not according to plan...my first thought was to ruch for the wagon by the Windmill but I was some subdue by the swedish cannon that was covering the approach rout...So I decided to hide the whole unit in the house...

You might notice the muskets in the windows...ready to fire at the approacing Swedish infantry...

...and fire the Swedes did...with the cannon...

As the Swedes was occipied to attack the Snapphanar in the house the rest of my Danes could advance in peace on the other flank...

As my elite cavalry approaced their goal, the center wagon, I decided to switch objective to attack, so the cavalry ruched forw to destroy the Swedish cannon...

My Cavalry managed to cut down the crew but was them self shoot to pieces by an unit of Swedish musketeers that appeared by the road...

It was just my Heroic Cavalry Captain Madsen that was still alive, but wounded, that managed to sabotage the cannon with his last breaths...hi fell victim for a Swedish dragoon that sniped him with his rifle from the Wind mill...

More and more swedish reinforcements arrived, I started to feel short of time...

In a desperate action I sent my Hero Grenadiere Lieutenant Nils Eskildsen to destroy the wagon by the church wall despite the fact that the crule Swedes had put civilian hostages on top of it...

Several grenades was thrown but despit the heroic deed they fell short... an act of God...that wanted to save the innocents...

A group of Swedish cavalry entered the scene, setting the farm on fire and fighting down all resistance from the Snapphanar that had hided out there...

Things started to crumble for the my Danes, and then the Swedish infatry in the center forect managed to shoot some of the Snapphanar behind the stone wall the Danes had gor to much of a beating...

The Danes made a heroic retreat to save their remaining forces for another day...

One again a realy entertaining game of Donnybrook, the rules realy lift when the players put a bit of role-playing in to the game, its indeed makes a better story and the use of the named character helps out very much in the narrative.

Thanks for reading !

Barry H in da House

Tuesdays club game was a blast much due to the visit of Barry Hilton from Leauge of Augsburg / Warfare miniatures.

I and Sören had the opportunety to guide Barry at the Swedish Army Museum in Stockholm during the afternoon and then we were of to the club for a Donnybrook game.

Barry had brought some of the test minis for Warfare Miniatures new Great Norther War range, beautifully painted by him. You can find better pictures of them here.

To our joy he also brought a bunch of the same minis as giveaways, especially as some of them might not eawen get in to production in the final range...

A closeup of the three I snatched, Swedish GNW NCO, Russian early GNW Musketeer and a Russian GNW banner carrier. The 2 to the left will be forced in to my Scanian War project...

Barry also introduced the Donnybrook rules for the club member that haden´t played them before and then we run a small game I had staged "The Ambuch at Örkeljunga Church 1676". 

As it was around 10 participants I didn´t realy gor the time to take pictures, to much work to run the game even with Barry helping out with rules questions, but at least a few pictures from the game...

The Danes made a quick move with their Elite cavalry and managed to destroy one of the Swedish wagons...

The Danish regulars didn´t manage to do much during the game...suppose they got distracted by the bacon...

In the end the Heroic Swedish troops managed to repell the Dansih attack...The Danes had to retreat after just destroying one of the wagons...

All in all it was a very nice game, evening and day. 

Many thaks to Barry for the visit to our club, much appreciated ! 

I will try to fix up a AAR from the test game I and Jonas run the day before....

I hope you all will have a really nice weekend !

The Ambuch at Örkeljunga Church 1676

A teaser to our club game of Donnybrook tonight.

August 1676, the Swedish army was on the march to Halmstad to settle the scores with a Danish force under Commander Duncan that was on their way to seize the town Halmstad. 

This small scenario depicts an Ambush of a Swedish supply column that was awaiting new beasts of burden for the supply wagons. The animals should, according to the law, be provided by the local farmers. 

Most of the men in the Supply column are away to gather the reluctant farmers and their beasts. Just a few Swedish soldiers have been left to protect the supplies, it’s a perfect time for the Friskyttar to attack and destroy the supplies… 

Objectives 
The time are of importance as the foraging Swedish troops will soon be back the Danes just have 15 turns to accomplish their mission. There are 3 Wagons and one Artillery piece that need to be destroyed. To destroy a wagon or the artillery piece a Danish unit have to be in physical contact with the objective and as a activation succeed with a 6+ ability roll.

The Swedes have to stop them and resist until the Danes have to withdraw after 15 turns.

OOB - Swedish 
1x Hero - Lieutenant Johan Kruuse with the Dalregementet
1x8 Regular - Foot musketeers with a character, Sergeant Hård
1x4 Regular – Artillery and 4 crewmen and a character, Sergeant Kruut

Reinforcements (One unit arrives at the end of each turn in the order stated below)
1x4 Elite - Dragoons
1x8 Regular - Foot Pikemen with two characters, Ensign Skytte and Drummer Klang
1x8 Regular - Foot musketeers with a character, Sergeant Kvick
1x6 Regular – Cavalry with a character, Captain Löwenskiöld

OOB - Danish
1x Hero - Grenadier Lieutenant Nils Eskildsen (3 grenades)
1x8 Regular - Foot musketeers with a character, Ensign Olsen
2x8 Regular – Friskyttar, one group with Muskets and one with Göingebössor (Rifles). One group have a character, Scout Pher Månsson a.k.a. Uggletorparn
1x3 Elite - Cavalry with a character, Captain Madsen

Lieu of Character
Hide out – Due to their knowledge of the land the two units of Friskyttar may use the Hide out rule from the outlaw Faction (Page 48 in the Donnybrook rules).


Skånelängor
I hope you have noticed the stunning "Skånelängor" that I my friend Mattias at Northern Wargaming have build and been kind enought to lend to me for tonights game ! I wanted to get a even better Skåne feel for tonights game as we expect some foreign visit for the game ;)

Please make sure to visit Mattias blog Northen Wargaming to see some WIP pictures of his house build.

Medieval Donnybrook AAR #2

Second game of Medieval Donnybrook, this time I and Jonas tested to use the Donnybrook rules for my Kalmar Union War setting, we used the same OOB as in the first game but I had to alter the terrain a bit to get my newly built church in:)

I also switched side so I comanded the Unionists this time, hoping it all to end in a better way...

Main road between Västerås and Uppsala...

The Archbishop Jöns Bengtsson, House of Oxenstierna lead his Knechts forward Västerås to subdue the rebelion...

The rebellious Nils Bosson Sture, House of Natt och Dag, marches with his Darlecarlian allmoge troops forward Uppsala to once for all settles the score with the belligirent Archbishop...

Not expecting any trouble...

The rebels have the peoples support...

Swift movement by the Mounted Knechts as well as the pikearmed ones all in open order... A small group of handgunner protect their left flank...

Open order movement makes the troops to get to the action faster;)

...sometimes to fast...

The foot knechts slowley advance...even in open order...

I like the idea with open/closed order and the effect on the movement, open order gives a unit 50% longer move, could be really usefull to get in to the right possition fast and them reform in to close order to get the combat and morale benefits, but be sure not to get caight in open order by a unit in close order...

...much due to the Archbishops focus of geting himself and the mounted crossbowmen in to troubble...or could it be that the Rebells Lawspeaker Hans Djäkn have convinsed the mercenarys not to fight it out this day...

...also the rebels have got more allmoge troops as well as a small gun that some what intimidate the Archbishop that halt the advance of the mounted knecht in the open...

Nils Bosson Sture order his allmoge to form a close order battleline on the far side of a small hill...

The Archbishop respond by forming a close order battleline with his mounted knechts...and awaits the arrival of the pikemen...

Battlelines on both sides forming up...

Muuuuu !!! all COWards are puched away so the knechts can advance...

Rebel artillery seal of the approach rout on the rebels left flank...

As the allmoge advance up on the small hill the mounted knechs cant wait any longer and makes a charge...

The allmoge holds for the charge all due to the banner of St. Olof, they also manage to retaliate...

The unionists get even more reinforcements as a smal group of Frälse (Knights) arrives on their left flank...

The Archbishop and his knecht fight on but the allmoge are to many...

...the last mounted knechts are defeated and the Archbishop are struck unconscious and taken prisoner...

...things are geting even worse for the Unionist as a new group of allmoge, with the traditional darlecarlian "spelmän" in the lead, arrives on their right flank...

...one of the clerics bost the morale for the bu shooting depleted unit of pikemen...

In the center the second unit of unionist pikemen attacks Nils Boson Sture and the remaining allmoge on the hill...

We allow pikes to fight in 3 ranks if in Close Order

Stand of...the allmoge continues to shoot at the pikemen that dosent seems to be able to gather the courage or initiative to attack...

Also the unionist Frälse have got in to the fray...as Nils Boson Sture as a true swedish hero all alone fight of the unionist pikemen...

To be a Hero in good armor gives you the oportunety to be a real hero:)

The shooting was to much, or the rebels Lawspeaker Hans Djäkn´s words was to good, for the second pikmen unit that brakes and leave the field...

...this was to much for the unionist that decided to call it a day and retreat to Uppsala starting the negotation to get the Archbishop released...

One more very nice game of Medieval Donnybrook, I really like the fact that you can use character to influense the game, like the rebels Lawspeaker Hans Djäkn that last time diden´t get much done but this time managed to get one unit of the unionists pikemen not to do their best (downgraded from D8 to D6...)

I feel that the rules realy would improve by having a designated umpire as there are things that are not 100% clere in the rules and you need to decide from time to time what would be the most likely event to happen. A umpire would also give more oportunety for "roleplay" during the games.

More Medieval Donnubrook to come, also from Saxon Dog, please make his blog a visit to if you by some strange way have missesd it...

Thanks for reading and looking at my pictures I hope you had a good time. Welcome back and have a really nice day !!!