Make Ready!

Make ready for Make Ready!

2010-01-06T08:09:00.000-05:00

Happy new year fight fans!

Our local group hasn't been ther most active over the past year, we will see what 2010 brings.
People has been busy with work, family and new activities. So while we may not post much over
the new year (if at all) you guys all have access to our archives of reports, tips, links and memories.
Best of all access to the rules and army lists ... enjoy them, complain about them, modify them.

All the best in the new year!

KeithCon Photos !!!!!

2008-09-26T19:26:00.015-05:00

Finally here are the photos from KeithCon 2008!

Here we have those famous generals from the battle of Kolin .... and in matching Hawaiian shirts no less! The fine upstanding gentleman is Steve O'Brien ... one half of the Make Ready! Rules team and acting offical for this battle ... no chance of cheating at this table.

Lots of ponies down on this end of the table!

Looks to be early in the game as the mounted look to the flanks.

Here is a nice over view of the game developing.

Wil and Skip's flashy fashions don't seem to be impressing Dave very much.

Wow! That Dave gets around ... here he is trying his hand at a 400AP game in Spain. This is a nice size game ... 4x3 table with 2 commands. A bit of painting involved to get something usable on the table but not overwhelming.

Here is a view of the game as it developed.

.... looks a bit PIP heavy!

And finally a look at the third table we had setup. You will notice that those hands belong to the other half of the rules creation team Keith Gregoire. This is another 400AP battle ... First Manassas.

OH, oh! Look at that flank march!

Bye-bye Union!

Well that's how the games looked at KeithCon this year. So download your copy of the rules, slap some paint and we will see you next year on the tables!

Thanks!

2008-06-08T19:54:00.002-05:00

I would like to give a hearty thanks to everyone who made this year's KeithCon a success.
Specifically,
Erik & Skip for arranging for an excellent venue.
Steve for driving all the way up from new Hampshire to host the Kolin scenario
Dave for loaning his figures for the Kolin scenario and running the Funtes de Onoro scenario
Gary for organizing and running the First Manassas scenario
Don Cameron of Five Arrows Figures for being our vendor and sponsoring the day with gift certificate prizes
and of course....
all the participants who came out and made the day fun.

I hope to see you all (and those who couldn't make it) again next year.

If people could send me anypictures they took, I will try to get them up on the website.

Keith

Keith Con 2008

2008-04-30T17:26:00.002-05:00

Mark your calendars everyone!

This year KeithCon will be on June 7th, 2008.

The format will be entirely different this year. Instead of a single tournament, there will be a multiple historic scenarios in a variety of sizes (of battles) and scales (of figures). The time period covered will still be the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries using our Make Ready! rules.

It's really important for me that lack of familiarity with our rules should not stop anyone from having a good time at the Con. Last year, the time constraints of tournament gaming (and a few other issues) detracted from people's enjoyment. This year will see a more relaxed pace. There will be more time to yak with old friends and check out our Vendor: Five Arrows Figures.

The location will be the Military Family Resource Centre at 50 Rivers Drive East, Trenton. It's a great venue with lots of space, good lighting and it's right next to a Timmies and a pub. (No alcohol allowed on MFRC premises)

Start time will be 9AM and we will finish at 4:30PM. Afterward we will go out for dinner at the Britannia Pub.

Below is a list of the games that will be going on.
Table #1: The Battle of Kolin
SYW Prussian/Austrian
Scale: 25mm
Players: 4-8
Time: 4-6hrs

Table#2: Seven Years War Campaign
DBA campaign SYW
Scale: 2mm
Players: 5
Time: All day

Table #3: Yanks & Rebs
ACW: First Manassas
Scale: 15mm
Players: 2-4
Time: 2-3hrs

Table #4: The Thin Red Line
Napoleonics: Fuentes de Onoro
Scale: 15mm
Players: 2-4
Time: 2-3hrs

Your options are:
a) Spend the day at table #1
b) Spend the day at table #2
c) Spend the AM at table #3 and the PM at table #4 or
d) Spend the AM at table #4 and the PM at table #3

You can always wander by tables of other games and check them out during lulls in your own table, of course :-)

Please let me know if you are planning to come and what table(s) you might be interested in. If we get more attendees, we can easily open more tables.

I look forward to seeing you there. Please feel free to email me with any questions or comments.

The Russian Army of the Seven Years War

2008-03-22T18:54:00.004-05:00

Well, it's finished! I have completed a SYW Russian army in 2mm.

The plan is to complete all five major armies of the Seven Years War for a DBA-style SYW campaign which will be part of the festivities at KeithCon this June!

Watch for announcements about KeithCon soon. Until then enjoy the picture of my "hot off the press" Russians on a standard DBA 2'x2' board.

A Napoleonic Solo Game

2008-02-02T15:51:00.001-05:00

I had a chance to play out a Napoleonic solo game set in the Peninsula this week. The picture below shows Wellington ad his boys forming up at the top of the picture. The brown cut out hills are steep, the lighter ones are gentle sloped, but rocky. The British left is held by the light troops, with a brigade of heavy infantry held in reserve. The center of the line is held by the Portguese and on the British right, we can see a brigade of cavalry and a brigade of infantry in column.The French have formed up with deep columns of infantry in the center, some light infantry holding the left flank and with their entire force of cavalry off table to the right, trying to out flank the British left. Unfortunately for the French the opening dice favoured the British, who seized the initiative and brought the fight to the French before their cavalry could arrive. By the time the French cavalry were getting into position, the British heavy cavalry had raced forward and caused the French light infantry to retreat to the safety of the hills, leaving their left flank exposed as we see below.

Here's a close up of the British attack on the French left one bound earlier. The British light dragoons are charging down on the French guns who have been unable to withdraw due to the fire of the British horse artillery. A regiment of Portguese dragoons rushes in to help.Fire from the French guns decimated one of the light dragoon regiments, but the other one and the Portuguese moved in as well, the guns was overrun and (since the French infantry had turned to face the threat) the victorious cavalry pulled out to allow the horse artillery to continue doing its work.

Meanwhile, an unsuccessful push in the center, left the French with only one chance of victory: turning the British left. The initial French charge looked promising. The French caused some significant damage and burst through the British hussars and horse artillery.....

But the British infantry had managed to get into fairly good position to stem the tide and held back the mounted onslaught with their unshakeable "thin red line".

With the French left in tatters and their cavalry attack on the right repulsed, the ongoing losses in the center of the battlefield tipped the balance and the French army quit the field in some disorder. The British were hard hit on their own left flank, but otherwise had suffered minimal losses. British 9-1 victory.

A French & Indian War game

2008-01-07T22:12:00.001-05:00

Well, I finally got a chance to put together a few pictures. Emen and I played a little French & Indian War game recently. Here we see the opening stages of the game. A fleury of French & Indian skirmishers has raced forward to pin the British in their position in the corner. The British are deployed there as they are concerned about what mught be lurking in the woods off to their left....
Here's the view from the British side. Regular troops to the right of the gun with grenadiers and militia to the left. More militia and some ranger elements are moving to the right to fill out the line and possibly drive off the French skirmishers.

Emen's fears were founded. Several hundred Indians charge out of the woods and across the swamp.....

The rest of the French line formed up with them, with the French regular troops double timing it to take their place on the far left of the French line.

The basic French plan worked, which was to use numeric superiority to overwhelm their opponent's advantage in quality by a double envelopment. The Canadiens skirmished with the elite British line and the six pounders in the center,.........

while the Indians raced in against the colonial militia holding the British left flank........

and the French regulars charged in depth, hitting the militia holding the British right flank:

The French took their fair share of losses, too, but did manage to turn both flanks. The British army collapsed and the French carried the day.

Thanks for a fun game Emen.

Getting up to Speed!

2007-12-18T08:25:00.000-05:00

Good God! No post since September!

What can I say, both Keith and myself are busy with family life. Since the last post we've had a few campaign games played. Sweden, Prussia and the Allied States have joined forces and over-run Austria. France is on the defencive and my beautiful Russia is under siege on all fronts. I've pictures from 3 battles to post ... sorry they haven't been put up yet.

Merry Christmas !! Keep your powder dry and your gaiters clean!

A New Campaign

2007-09-30T06:10:00.000-05:00

Well, we've managed to get a Seven Years War campaign going!

Our thanks to Steve, who is running the "Grand Strategy" part of the campaign from the States while we fight all the battles here in Canada at our weekly gaming sessions. We are using a map similar to the Sport of Kings map.

I get to play the Anglo-German forces, who have managed to enlist the help of the Dutch to drive the French out of the Low Countries. Anglo-German forces have laid siege to key French fortresses in Berg while the French have similarly besieged my German troops in Franconia. But those actions are but a side show! Last night we played a field battle in Westphalia featuring 520AP of French against 400AP of Brits & Germans and 200AP of Dutch.

In this picture, the Anglo-Dutch are on the right, deployed in front of a small village, while the French are on the left, straddling a large swamp. The terrain was very marshy with a few gentle gnolls scattered across the field. A small lake sealed off my right flank. The French deployed with the majority of his cavalry on his far left, while we British had concentrated our cavalry on our far left. These were supported by British muskets, fusiliers and guards and the Hanoverian guard. The center was held by Hessians and Brunswickers and the Dutch held the far right.

We quickly raced up on the French right and hit their flank with our cavalry. The French responded by driving their troops forward in a series of column attacks on the British infantry, hoping to break through before their flank was crushed by the cavalry charge.

Meanwhile, the French pushed forward on their left against the Dutch, hoping to have more success there. (Note: Emen wasn't here with his Dutch figures, so I substituted my Hanoverians instead) Mark B helped immensely here, delaying the French advance with his hussars (now pulled back to safety behind his guns) and his jaegers until victory could be accomplished on the far left.

With their entire right surrounded, with horse behind them and elite British infantry to the front, it was only a matter of time before the French collapsed. Thanks to a couple of good moves and several good dice rolls, it was a longer time than it might have been and the French managed to bloody my British nose a bit before they went down. The picture above shows Sparky trying to keep his French from fleeing the field and (even more gloriously) my British horse and German cavalry swarming the routers :-)

French losses 135AP, British losses 47AP. The French have pulled back and the Brits are now masters of Westphalia (but only, as Sparky says, "for now.......")

Thanks for a great game guys.

2007-09-21T15:27:00.000-05:00

Summers over, the kids are back in school and a new SYW campaign session has begun in our local group of musket balls!

Summer was busy with little time for pushing lead on the table. Hopefully Keith and I will have some great campaign reports soon.

Gary

Portuguese Cacadores

2007-07-10T19:11:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone! There haven't been any post in a while because of "summer shutdown" and because I'm in the middle of a move.

Keep watching for new posts soon. Until then, here's a picture of some of my 15mm Napoleonic Portuguese cacadores. They are Essex miniatures

Keith Con 2007 Results

2007-06-02T22:00:00.000-05:00

WOW! Keith Con was bigger than ever this year, with twelve players and several visitors as well. Don Cameron from Five Arrows Figures showed up again with his wares as KeithCon's official miniatures and Osprey book dealer.

Four of the players, who were new to our rules opted out of the tournament and played some non-timed "learning games". The rest played three searing rounds filled with high octane excitement and cut-the-air-with-a-knife tension.

All eyes were on this table in the second round:

Where Martin, the two time Make Ready! champion faced Gary "Going for the Gold" Giles. Gary's ceaseless playing paid off and he wrested the championship title from Martin this year and won a copy of Mark Urban's "Rifles" as a prize.

The rest of the standings were:
Gary Giles - 23.2

Martin Rowland - 16.2

Mark Beaudon - 11.8

Dave May - 10.7

Skip Johnson - 9.8

Josh Garratt - 7

Mike Manning - 5.9

Ron Giles - 2.1

Thanks to everyone who participated. Send copies of any battle reports you want posted to either me or Gary and we can put them on the site

KeithCon is almost upon us!!

2007-05-28T14:00:00.000-05:00

This weekend, June 2nd ... KEITHCON!!!

We've been busy painting our armies, honing our lists and developing winning strategies
to take the title from the current reigning champ, Martin Rowland.
For those of you out there in the wide world of the web who can't be here in person, no problem!
We will be bringing you the reports and pictures right here.
For those who can attend in person and want to know where to go, here's the map:

http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=eastminster+united+church&sll=49.891235,-97.15369&sspn=103.177264,84.023438&ie=UTF8&om=1&ll=44.173463,-77.357655&spn=0.011543,0.027509&z=15&iwloc=B

See you on the tables!

SYW Austrians vs ...... SYW Austrians!

2007-05-12T13:12:00.000-05:00

This is what wargaming is all about! A great bunch of guys out having fun. At the back table we see Gary & Mark getting ready for their SYW Prussian vs Russian game.
At this table Dave & Josh played an interesting game. Josh is new to SYW Austrians, so we set him up to play Dave with.... his SYW Austrians. There's nothing like a civil war to test the strengths and weaknesses of an army! The table was set with lots of thick woods and both players initially deployed toward the far side of the table. Dave moved quickly to grab the central wood while Josh went in hard on Dave's left flank, anchored on a little village:

While trying to delay in the village, Dave formed his cavalry up into line on the far side of the central wood and moved forward to pin Josh's hussars, seen here moving in column toward the right.

After a prolonged and difficult struggle, Josh cleared the town, but Dave had managed to reform his cavalry line on the far side and continued to delay Josh's progress and even inflict some casualties as they were slowly ground down.

Meanwhile on the other flank, Josh's hussars slipped the net, but were then hunted down by Dave's dragoons & hussars and scattered in every direction (including into a marsh!) Horse were flying everywhere in a dizzying, glorious mess. One of Josh's hussar regiments managed to charge some of Dave's grenzers coming out of the woods in column, but they were repulsed and some of Dave's cavalry dispatched them, too.

While Josh was finally clearing the town, he also launched a frontal assault on Dave's left with six battalions. Unfortunately, the attack stalled and Dave was able to concentrate his artillery fire and wheel a brigade of his infantry onto Josh's flank, shredding them. Here we see Josh's two remaining battalions making a last stand while some grenadiers rush up to the rescue.

Unfortunately for Josh, the grenadiers were too late. Having sustained serious losses, the center reached the breakpoint. With the cavalry losses on both flanks, the army's morale tipped and they quit the field. Dave, with a shaken left flank and some losses across the rest of the line, carried the day.
Dave - 9; Josh - 1.

SYW Prussian-Russian match-up.

2007-05-11T20:59:00.000-05:00

Thursday was yet another enjoyable gaming session with a great bunch of friends. On table one, Mark (pictured below) took his SYW Prussians against Gary's SYW Russians in a 650point open game with preset terrain. The battle took place in a mountainous area: lots of difficult hills and was quite a challenge for both armies. It seems in the picture below that Mark is trying to seal off the nearest approach with some 12 pdrs. A thin line of his infantry and some advanced gun placements and scouting hussars wait to receive the rest of the Russians on the far side of the table.
But wait! Where is Seidlitz and all his cavalry? It seems they were marching around the Russians left flank. They appeared relatively early in the game. Bet Gary was glad he had his cavalry's extreme left anchored on that steep, rocky hill! That oughta slow 'em down....

While the cavalry came to grips on the left, Gary pushed his infantry forward in the center in deep columns supported by 6 pdr batteries.

The cavalry battle turned into the sprawling charging-countercharging mess that cavalry battles always turn into.

until the Russians finally triumphed and routed the Prussian cavalry then chased them off the table. But not before a Prussian cuirassier regiment charged victoriously deep into Russian lines and rode down a Russian general! Mark gets the "Bloodthirtsy General Sacker's Award" tonight.

Beaten on their right, the Prussians began to get a bit nervous as the massive phalanx of Russian infantry bore down on them in the center, but the Prussians managed to get the better of their Russian opponents and soon the Russian morale flagged, the attacked faltered and some units began breaking for cover.

Gary also pushed his Russians through the gap in the hills on the Prussian left and sent a couple of battalions around the flank of the guns Mark had left there. The Prussians on this wing began to shake. At this point, time was called with Gary's muskets about to charge into the flank of Prussia's remaining 12pdr battery which would likely have tipped Prussian morale over the edge and given Gary a complete victory. Have to make your moves faster next time, Gilesovsky!

Final Result Russians 4; Prussians 1

An exhilirating game to watch.

The battle report from table two to follow.....

War of Austrian Succession Battle Report

2007-05-07T21:42:00.000-05:00

Thursday's game was a War of Austrian Succession match-up between the Allies (Me & Josh) and the French (Gary). It was a pick-up game, so no particular battle was being recreated. Below we see the initial set up. On the bottom/left are the French deployed with almost all their mounted on their far right. Opposite them are the Allies. The center is held by a "thin red line" of British troops. On their right (picture's left) - with troops in ambush in the town - are the Dutch and on their left are the Hanoverians, moving into position in columns.

The French moved hard on the Allies' left, sprinted across the table and fanned their horse out to attack the Hanoverians who turned to face them as shown below. You can also see a brigade of Swiss troops (in our rules each stand is a battalion) coming up to support the French attack in the center.Here's a close up from behind some of the French horse and dragoons. (I really need to get some flags on those poles...). The French figures are Old Glory and the Hanoverians are Essex.

While the French were pushing on that side of the table, a Dutch (played by Josh) assault column stormed forward supported by some grenadier battalions coming out of ambush from the town and fell upon "Les Volontaires" on the French left flank:

It now became a question of which flank would crumble first. The Dutch on the Allied right had some initial success and looked like they might carry the day, but the French left managed to hold together even as Dutch troops circled around behind their line as shown below (Note I didn't have enough Dutch troops, so I subbed in some Prussians - that's why the flag is Prussian!):
It took the Allies quite some time to scythe through the demoralized troops of the French left. Conversely, after some initial losses from shooting, the massive wave of French mounted slammed full force into the Hanoverians on the Allied right, who seemed they might hold, then blinked, then evaporated:

The French then careened into a line of British that had been brought up in case the Hanoverians did not hold. With the Brits stretched over the entire board, command control became quite strained. This was the point at which Gary masterfully threw his Swiss in in the center to add further to my difficulties. A few valiant and glorious attempts to turn the situation (including a glamorous counter charge by some British dragoons that routed their French opponents, chased them back to French lines and attacked a battery of limbered, redeploying guns before finally being cut down) brought the French to a half a hair's breadth from breaking before the Allies finally broke and the game was over.

Final result: French 9-3 victory. The score doesn't really show that the French were significantly bloodied, too. In fact, two combats in the last bound both went to the French. If either of them had gone to the Allies it would have been a 9-4 victory for the Allies.

However, none of this is meant to diminsh the laurels that Gary rightfully deserves for a well executed battle plan that gave him control of the game and eventually the victory. Well played, friend!

Portuguese Dragoons

2007-05-02T08:10:00.000-05:00

Here's a picture of my Portuguese dragoons. I really like how the Peninsular British army is turning out. So many different uniforms: Brits, Portuguese, Spanish and even a few Germans.

SYW Russia Vs. SYW Austrian

2007-04-26T21:18:00.000-05:00

It's not a bad thing when you have too many players wanting to play Make Ready! locally. Keith was busy running a couple of games at his place and I was sent to the book store, J&B's in Trenton, to educate Josh in the ways of the Russian army.

So here is how things ended up deployed:

Russia won the aggression roll and opted to place an unfordable river. Josh got a BUA and a couple of woods
in his central sector with a very handy woods up front. I screened this wood with my Con Msk(O) troops while he filled it with his lights troops and I went heavy on both sides of the woods with my Irr Msk(O) to the left and both of my commands with horse on the flanks. Josh's strong horse command was on the left but he had basically 2 commands behined, in and to the right of the woods and this initially worried me as this was my weaker side.

Bound 1:

At the end of bound one the game was shaping up. Josh was going to go at the Russians with his horse. My PIPs were great so I easily got my CR(I) and LH(S) into position on the right side and flanked his left side with my horse as he was going straight up at the Irr Msk(O) which I strung out into a single line to meet him.

Here is the fight on the Left starting to take shape and getting to the point of no return for Josh:

Josh opted to bring in his heavy horse in dribs and drabs which just got the @$%& shot out of it and what did make it into contact was out matched. Unfortunatly for Josh this is not an uncommon reaction for anyone when facing the Russian army for the first time ... it's the deer in the head lights syndrome. Russian's are every where! What do you do? He is worried about my flanking horse and grens advancing up. PIPs could have been better for him and rather then putting in a mass charge he's on the defensive which is breaking up his strong horse.

Back over on the right:

Josh got his LH on the gun and Grens but his other LH is in some serious horse trouble. Again too little of a commitment if the plan is to fight Russia frontally. You can't win in attrition against Russia, the army is big with higher shake and break points. Once again the dice were not kind to Josh. Except for the lone LH. double over laps and he wins the fight sending me off running from him! It took me 3 attempts at swarming this horse before it died!

The end is near on the left:

With the initial horse attack crushed Josh's left side is now shaken, out gunned and flanked. The Russian horse now go in after threatening for so long to mop it up.

Back on the right:

Josh finally pushes on the right side with his grens but he is still hesitant with his Muskets since they are (I) so he hangs back a bit looking to get my Cr(O) in front of my lines. I'm not sure if his lights should be leaving the woods because with his left side broken they are some easy pickings out of the woods. Josh did manage to silence my gun on this side. Those grens are on the wrong target ... get one on that gun! Where are the PIPs when you need them.

End of game:

Looking from the left you can see the Russian horse eating up the broken command here. I've limbered up my howitzers to move them to the right but it's not required as I've destroyed enough troops from the other 2 commands to break his army. The losses for the Russian's today ... 3 stands. PIP's were great for Russia today and the combat dice were fair as well.

Josh could have used a bit more luck ... especially with his PIP dice. Otherwise for his 5th game or so he is catching on fast. The game was quicked paced which makes it a lot of fun and once he figures out the strengths and weaknesses of the troop types he will be a force to be dealt with!

So I hope you enjoyed this recap of our game. I expect my next encounter with Josh to be a bit tougher and I look forward to it.

Cheers, Gary

Snow to go?

2007-04-25T08:27:00.000-05:00

Static grass, flock, tea leaves and your wife's 7 herbs and spices ... people put everything on a base.
For my Russians I like a little snow. How do you get a nice snow effect easy ... raid the kitchen again for some baking soda or powder and you are all set.

I've added a new download of a great article I found a couple of years back on the method of snow that I use:

http://www.mediamax.com/makeready/Hosted/snow.pdf

The only thing that I don't use in this magic formula is the texture medium ... you get lots of texture ... trust me. I make it fairly liquid as it can be hard to work with if it's too pasty. and really watch the amount of blue you add or the effect seems fake. With a little practise you get some of the best snow you will ever see.

Gary

Games on April 19th

2007-04-20T13:05:00.000-05:00

Wow! My house was really active last night as we had three Make Ready! games going on simultaneously. On table one, Gary Gilesovsky with his SYW Russians gave Joe Maynard's ACW Union army its initiation.

On table two I took my ACW Union troops against Mark's (seemingly) unstoppable SYW Prussians. My army is not completely painted yet, so if you see blank bases on the table, they were stand-ins for guys who are still on my painting table. I also haven't flocked the stands up or made them look nice. Future posts should be prettier and then I'll have the confidence to do some close-ups, too!

The game started with the Union deploying across the table and then asking the question: "Where are the Prussians?". Mark opted to keep his options open and deployed only one division on table. as shown below:

The felt in the bottom left is a town with an open field beside it. The field has a stone wall, behind which the Prussians are coweri- - uh, deploying.

Not knowing where the Prussian might be marching off table, I decided on a blitz to crush the one division that I could see. Troops raced across the board, bringing their guns with them. Mark's jager companies tried to organize a fighting retreat, but were eventually overwhelmed by the Union light infantry and cut down. As my heavy infantry on the far flank moved toward the town, the Prussians trained their guns on them at which point the Union light infantry (placed center table) raced in and started firing on the guns' flanks as shown below:

Fritz's mounted division came on on his own table edge, center table and the Union light infantry (having left all the heavies back on the starting block) became a bit concerned. Thankfully, they had hauled their guns up with them and soon, the light infantry had faded back out of harms way and five batteries were trained on Frederick's horse! Ouch....

Meanwhile, another Prussian infantry division arrived on the Union's left flank. Thankfully, I had deployed some mounted infantry on the left flank, who fanned out and covered most of the flank. Also, the dice were exceedingly good to me and a brigade of mounted troopers hiding in the woods on my left were able to race out and fill in the gaps, dismount and completely seal off the area. I thought the best chance of victory was to smash this flank march before it could take root, so the heavy infantry who had been advancing on the town left faced and went to lend their support. They left Berdan's sharpshooters to delay the Prussian advance, who were overwhelmed by musket fire and fled, blocking the redeployment. Meanwhile, heavy fire from the light infantry in the center had forced the Prussian infantry back from their guns which were then shot up quite nicely, stormed and captured, all shown below:

The loss of their rifle companies, both their gun batteries and accumulated infantry losses from cannon fire was enough to break the will of the Prussian center command. And with their mounted charge on the Prussian left in tatters and countless horsemen dead, the whole army decided it was time to withdraw from the field. Union losses were minimal, 3 elements destroyed. 9-0 Union victory.

Meanwhile, on table three Josh's Austrians (left) and Emen's Allied army (right) fought a back and forth struggle that centered mostly on a hill on the Allied left flank.

Apparently, the Austrian heavy cavalry charged uphill against some Dutch infantry with a jager company on its far flank. Even up hill, a mounted vs jager fight usually turns out pretty badly for the jagers, but these guys proved the old adage: "It's better to be lucky than good" and consistently threw back one charge after another.

The Austrians did manage to break through the Dutch heavy infantry eventually, so this wing was in imminent danger of collapse at end game (as was the Austrian's center!) A nail biter with an indecisive ending....

Thanks to everyone for participating!

Keith

Peninsular British (Part 2)

2007-04-16T17:37:00.000-05:00

Here of some more of the figures from my Peninsular British army. They are Old Glory 15mm with flag supplied by Warflag.com

Keith

A closer look at the SYW Russian army...

2007-04-16T09:10:00.000-05:00

Of all the armies available to the Make Ready! player my weapon of choice is the Seven Year War Russians.

Now don't tell Keith this but I think the Russians are a power house in the system. (every time I beat him he re-writes the rules so the Russians get weaker ... so mums the word, right?)

So what makes a good army in Make Ready! ? A few things do ... manuverability, solid troop types and healthy command sizes. So just where do the Russians fit in here?

Okay ... so they aren't maneuverable ... at least on the surface with 3 Irregular non-dice sharing generals. They can't move around like those blasted Prussians can. If you are going to play a Russian list you have to compensate for maneuverability with a good starting deployment.

What about solid troop types and command sizes? Here again it's give and take. The common foot soldier - Irr Msk(O) - is not a maneuverable troop BUT he is one tough Russian. He is also very cheap at 6AP, so you get a lot of them. Place them on the board so they don't have to do anything more then move straight forward at the enemy and I promise you that you will break what ever command is facing it. Watch those flanks ... they don't turn to face very well since it cost an extra PIP to do anything except go straight ahead their full movement. Mind you bad things do happen. Fear the horse ... those Irregular troops are quick-killed across the line so a little strategy is required when facing horse. I typically deploy 2 or even 3 ranks deep which gives you a lot of punch when faced with troops but when horse appear make sure you save a PIP to split the front rank from the 2nd rank to get out of the death zone. This also makes for a nice catchers mitt if and when any horse break through.

Let have a look at a successful Russian deployment Vs. the SYW Allied army:

Here we are in the flooded Dutch land ... a water way on the right with a small town and a number of marshes. The dutch are defending and have deployed back in line. They have regular troop types so the army is smaller and they have two dice sharing generals and one non-dice sharing general so they should be a bit better equipped to push an attack between the two dice sharing generals. The big problem with the Allies deployment is the central swamp. They have deployed a large number of troops behind it. Heavy troops cannot move through a swamp in any other formation then a column and at reduced speeds. Everything behind the swamp is basically out of the action and as he tries to get it into the action it will congest onto the other commands ... a big PIP issue to sort out.

The Russians have set-up with 2 commands with allot of horse on the left of the swamp. These commands are facing basically only 1 of the allied commands. This is a huge advantage being able to bring to bear the combined fire power of 2 onto 1 command. On the right of the swamp is my big Irr Msk(O) block and howitzers with a couple of light troops in the swamp. The Allied command to it's front is much smaller but it got allot of tough (S) troop types in it on the flank. A bit of howitzer fun should soften these tough guys out before they hit.

So lets see what happened:

As you can see the Russians took advantage of the far left flank with a mass horse charge.
The last horse at the bottom of the photo had just destroyed a Jagger stand and the question arose ... "where does the horse go"? Horse once they win a combat in Make Ready! are impetuous. They will move forward only 1 base depth if they are in a position to supply support but if they are not they have to charge through their full movement distance towards enemy if it is immediately to it's front. That Jagger is not to it's immediate front so it charges forward and stops at the swamp.
So the Allied flank command is doomed to be rolled up. Even if the horse charge went bad for Russia they have enough foot elements in the command to lose all the horse without breaking the command.

Back on the right:

Those pesky Allied Reg Msk(S) troops on the flank really started to worry me as the Allied general used those shared dice to push them hard up the flank. The Russian PIPs were good so I was able to spend allot of PIPs to get my muskets fanned out to stop his flanking maneuver and turn my howitzers to say hi. Gradings don't count for cannon fire and once he pushed into canister range this command crumbled when the big musket block hit his troops.

Once again minimal losses for the Russians 6 to 8 stands between 3 command. It's warm potatoes and Vodka for the boys tonight!

2007-04-14T21:13:00.000-05:00

Four more practice games today!

The first was Mark Beaudon playing SYW Prussian (left) vs Josh Garrett playing SYW Austrians (right):
Several steep hills cut the landscape, covered with rock and brush. A single gentle hill was placed center-left for the Prussians who quickly scooped it up and set up a massed battery on top of it. Josh attacked across the line, starting on the Prussian left (view flipped):

Josh hasn't finished painting all his Croats yet, so I substituted some of my Iroquois from my French and Indian War stash (Well, they ARE both Irregular skirmishing tribal infantry....)
This attack faltered and a second (ultimately unsuccessful) assault was tried against the Prussian right:
The game finally ended when the Austrians in a last effort charged uphill in the center into the massed Prussian guns supported by two brigades of infantry. I've deleted that picture. It wasn't pretty. Prussians 9; Austrians 0.

On the other table, Gary Giles took his SYW Russians against Emen Curtis's SYW Allies while Erik Hildebrandt looked on (obviously enraptured):

Emen tried to zip a brigade of elite troops led by the Hanoverian guards, around the the Russian right flank:

But the Russians managed to seal off the area and the Allies ended up having to take them on frontally. Meanwhile, a brigade of Russian cavalry pounced on the Allied right flank when it left the cover of a marsh:

Russians 9; Allies 0

After those two games were done, a third was played with Mark taking his Prussians against Emen's allies. The Prussians deployed entirely to one side of a huge marsh:

Emen tried to scurry his troops on the right into the fight, making a beeline through the marsh, but they didn't get into the fight before Mark moved in hard on Emen's left, including troops that had marched off table onto the

Allies extreme left (Most of the troops to the left of the little marsh in this picture are Prussians!) Time ran out on this game with the Prussians having routed only the division on the Allied left. Prussians 3; Allies 0.

Josh and I played a SYW Austrian vs Peninsular British match, but most of the troops were stand ins (like my Iroqouis) so I haven't included any pictures of that game.

Overall, quite a fun day!

Keith

Peninsular British

2007-04-11T08:38:00.000-05:00

Here's a picture of a few of my Peninsular British figures. They are all Essex 15mm models. Two battalions of British light infantry are supported by a battalion of Cacciatores. A rifle company leads the way and a regiment of Portuguese dragoons follows up.

Battle reports (with pictures!)

2007-04-10T18:58:00.000-05:00

Gentlemen,

We had two practice games Thursday night for the upcoming Keith Con. On table#1, Joe Maynard led the French troops of Marshall Maurice de Saxe (1740) against Frederick the Great's Prussians (1758). The French managed to catch the Prussians off guard, so to speak, and won the aggression roll. They marched on the Prussians near a little town with a stone wall extending out along the edge of a fallow field. This the French planned to use as the anchor for their left flank. On their right were a pond and a series of marshy areas, giving that side excellent cover as well.

The French set up with one division holding the town on the left flank and extending out into the open territory past the stone wall. The right end of the line consisted of a grand battery of thirty-six 6pdr guns (i.e. three stands). On the right flank, a deep phalanx of recently raised battalions was placed with a howitzer battery in support and some second rate cavalry regiments in reserve. The centre was dominated by that flower de l’armee fraincaise - a massive brigade of nine regiments of mostly elite French cavalry supported by two brigades of infantry and a 12 pdr battery.

On the Prussian side, two divisions were placed lined up between the edge of the lake (which was on the French side) and a medium wood against their back edge. A couple of regiments of hussars held the far left flank in case the French tried to march around the lake onto the Prussian’s flank. The third Prussian division was nowhere to be seen. Seeing as the worst possible place for it to arrive would be on the French left flank, those of us on that side of the table assumed that’s where it was. Gulp.
Joe got there late, so I started for him and he took over when he arrived. My philosophy was to attack the Prussian position with everything we had as fast as possible, before the rest of his army could show up. Mark obliged by failing to roll for the arrival of his other division for about six bounds. My mistake was thinking I could get my cavalry onto the seam between Mark’s two commands before he could fill in the weaknesses in his position. WRONG! In retrospect, I should have attacked with the infantry all along the line, keeping the cavalry back as a reserve. Instead, as the picture to the side shows, by the time Joe showed up, I had gotten the cavalry far ahead of its supporting infantry and it was starting to get hit by Prussian medium range artillery fire.

Under fire anyway, Joe & I decided to trust in numbers and we hurled the cavalry into the Prussian ranks attempting a breakthrough. In the time it had taken for the cavalry to cross the field, though, the Prussians had of course solidified their position and that plus a series of bad rolls resulted in our grand and glorious charge turning into so much burning horse flesh. Ouch. Center command broken.

The picture to the right shows the remnants of French cavalry in front of the Prussian line with the infantry desperately scrambling up behind them.

Joe did a great job of bolstering the centre with troops from the right flank and even managed to do some considerable execution with his howitzer battery on the Prussian left.

Meanwhile, a brigade of Prussian musketeers that had moved toward the town on the French left was met by a brigade of Suisse, who held their own throughout the rest of game though outnumbered almost 2:1.

Right about the time the center broke, Mark’s third division arrived exactly where we feared it would.He rapidly sped across the table. Joe had redeployed to meet him and for a time it seemed that Joe might turn the tide here. One regiment of Prussian horse was destroyed, then another. Effective French artillery fire resulted in the Prussian flank march’s 6 pdr battery becoming abandoned and musket fire kept it that way.

Alas, as much as Joe poured fire into the Prussian artillery with his own, he couldn’t destroy it. This would have broken the Prussian flank march, but instead, several French “ones” later the Prussian gun was up and firing and the remaining Prussian horse were careening for the baggage and overwhelming the few regiments of cavalry that the French had sent back to delay them. The Prussians now moved forward all across the line. The French grand battery had previously been broken up, with a third of the guns being sent back to deal with the Prussian flank march and the others wheeling left to face the brigade of Prussians threatening the town. Joe went into a period of extreme PIP starvation and the rest of the Prussians pushing forward now charged into the exposed flanks of these guns (see picture of the "coup de grace" to right). Those losses plus the losses from the conflict with the flank march, brought the French to rout with all Prussian commands intact (but not unbloodied!).

9-0 Prussian victory.

On table#2, Gary took his SYW Russians against Dave May's SYW Austrians. I didn't catch much of that game, but it seemed to me to be a contest between whether Gary's Russians would turn the Austrian's right flank which was anchored on a town:

or whether Dave's Austrian's would turn the Russian's right flank, anchored on a hill:

More reports to come....

Keith

Links, Links, and more Links ....

2007-04-09T15:45:00.000-05:00

Be sure to visit our friends on the web through our links section!

Finding interesting sites and great resources on the web can be a daunting task so hopefully our listing of links will make that a bit easier for you.

We would also love to be linked through your web space! If you do just drop us a line so we can return the favour.

CHEAT SHEETS!!

2007-04-09T10:21:00.000-05:00

Look what Keith has typed up! .... "Cheat Sheets"!!

http://www.mediamax.com/makeready/Hosted/Make%20Ready!%20Cheat%20Sheet.doc

(Right Click to down load)

See the links section to get yours!

MAKE READY! ANNUAL TOURNAMENT

2007-03-29T20:38:00.000-05:00

Yes, Keith Con III is just around the corner!

This is the third year that we have held a tournament using our Make Ready! rules in Belleville, Ontario. This year's tourney is going to be on June the 2nd.

The day will feature three 3hr games of 650 points, starting at 9AM and finishing at 9PM. All of our posted lists not marked "Provisional" are allowed. Terrain will be preset this year to speed up play time.

The tourney will be held at Eastminster United Church which has a spacious, well-lit area for our use and is within a two minute walk of a MacDonalds, a Tim Horton's and a Subway. The address is 432 Bridge Street East, Belleville, Ontario. I will post directions from the highways (401 & 2) later.

There will be a $10 charge for players. Spectators are welcome and free. Prizes are awarded to the top three participants. We will have Five Arrows Figures (http://www.fivearrowsfigures.ca/) as our vendor again this year.

Anyone interested in participating can email me here.

Make Ready! Tournament Details!!

2007-03-29T07:57:00.000-05:00

Gary here with breaking new:

Hold the phone musket fans! The Make Ready! annual tournament has been moved up to June 2nd this year.

Get ready for mass cavalry charges, cannon carnage and dirty stockings as far as the eyes can see. I'll be there with my SYW Russian vodka swilling horde ... where are you going to be?

Well ... if you can't make it make sure you at least return here to catch all of the post game report action!

Cheers!

Minor update to Army Lists....

2007-03-20T12:56:00.000-05:00

Hello all ! Just a minor format change to the Army List.

The original pen name of DBK was still in the document and has now been updated to
Make Ready! A way better and glorious name for a Musket era game.

Cheers!

2007-03-14T08:31:00.000-05:00

Found a couple of American Civil War photos from our 2006 Make Ready! world Championships ... okay so it may not be that big yet but we drew in a number of local players as far away as Toronto and Ottawa.

This photo above shows, what looks to be a pretty strong defensive deployment by the Confederates. They have put a line of lights in the woods which can advance up to the edge and then move backwards in line (free 180 deg) slowing any advance into the woods by the Union. A strong heavy Infantry block beside the woods ... a bit too congested here ... and three batteries of guns! Looks like the Union has some light troops to contest the woods and they are setting up a deep column of troops to come around the wooded hill on the far right. The Union's left flank looks a bit exposed...

Yes sir! The Confederates took to the steep hill flanking the Union Army. I'm not too sure I'd be leaving my guns and heavy Inf. back on the left of the woods like shown. They only have a thin line of light troops in the woods. The Union could take advantage with a good PIP roll.

Still to me it looks like the Confederate army should win this one!

Make Ready! army lists....

2007-03-07T17:47:00.000-05:00

Use the "Make Ready! - Army Lists" link on the right of the page to get your free copy of the current army list.

Just "right click" on the link and use the "save target as" option to save a copy to your computer!

PLEASE NOTE: The SYW lists are undergoing some minor final edits and may change.

Main Rules

2007-03-04T09:48:00.001-05:00

Use the links on the right hand side to get your free copy of the Make Ready! rules!!

Just "right click" on the Make Ready! - Rules link and use the "save target as" option to store a copy to your computer.

The Rules are finished

2007-03-04T09:38:00.000-05:00

Well, Steve and I have put the finishing touches on the rules and the next post contains them in full. The charts (eg. combat results, element costs) don't transpose well into this format. I'll try to figure out how to post them as a word document to take care of that.

Watch for the army lists soon. And for some martial backdrops instead of all the pastels!

Introduction

2007-03-01T17:38:00.001-05:00

This site will feature the rules for "Make Ready!" a wargame for the musket era (1740-1865) which I invented with Steve O'Brien. It is based on the DBx system and requires the player to already have a copy of the DBM 3.1 rules.

DBM 3.0 can be obtained at any wargaming shop and the DBM 3.1 amendments can be found at http://www.nasamw.org/DBM_Resources.htm

I am new to blogging, so this may take some time in getting set up, but eventually the site will post our rules and the army lists for the period.