1525 - German Peasant War - The Burning of Flohlingen

Well, it was about time, I would say, so I put my 28mm peasant horde plus some of my Italian wars Landsknechts out and, for good measure throw in some of the personalities of the conflict and set up a village raid scenario. Bart agreed to play the Peasants and Mike and Alisdair were defending the Swabian League. Also I needed a nice battle to introduce my new hills.

The mean Abbot of Flohlingen had pressed his flock a bit too much, to the point that they asked the "marauding peasant hordes" of Thomas Muentzer (who happened to be near) to free the village. Rumour spread that the abbot send help to the Swabian League and that they send their infamous "Bauernwuerger" (the peasant strangler), Count Georg v. Waldburg. So the peasant expected the League to make their way on the main road through the woods. Little did they know that "Joerg" the strangler was famous for his pronged attacks - also did he pay the famous robber knight Franz v. Sickingen enough to participate in the upcoming hunt. Little did they know though, that Thomas Muenzer, the rebellious priest, and his comrades had blackmailed the famous Goetz v. Berlichingen to join their fight. Just as the negotiations stalled the parties arrived from all four directions and the conflict ignited!

Bart had the first move and he attacked the defending monks of the church immediately and broke them, unfortunately the abbot got away and made arun for his life towards a Captain of the Reich and his Landsknecht pike blocks. Another tricky thing was that the church, now bar any defenders, was an opportunity too much for the mob and they started to burn and plunder. effectively not participating in the battle until a morale check was successful, but that had to be in a time frame (1d6 turns) or they would wander off with their spoils. Peasants would be drawn to the church and the league soldiers towards the village.

Not to be out done Mike charged (follow me order), with his men-at-arms through the woods, took some shots from the hunting farmers and clashed with a mob of peasants ... but rolled abysmal and they hacked the knights including Franz v. Sickingen of this earth.

Many more units came most of the time the league seemed to have difficulties to co-ordinate their attacks, but Bart played his peasants well took the hits but did not let them break and shushed his shaken farm boyz into the houses of the village, as cover against the light guns of the league.

Later he with drew and let the League soldier basically fell into the plunder trap. Out of their mind in plunder rage there was not much use for them, poor Georg, less peasants to strangle.

In the end, and the battle could have ended either way, I decided to declare a draw. In the first half Bart managed nearly to get all the goals in one turn! But the fat Abbot escaped! Then the league made many mistakes and blunder, could not get their footing right and only just later was inflicting some more damage. The peasants had the higher casualties (which is to be expected), but managed to burn the church to the ground and killed Franz v. Sickingen.

I would love to do this next time with some lion rampant of Pikemens lament derivates ... I enjoyed this massively and there will be more peasant slaughter to come.

initial set up

The Peasant unleash their anger and attack the monks 

And set up a trap for the knights in the woods

And Franz v. Sickingen charges through!

but then the mobs start to plunder the church!

while the abbot escapes to the soldiers

But then Goetz v. Berlichingen appears

The league landsknechts group on the hill 

But Goetz men are mean veterans

rogue rodeleros and underpaid landsknechte

they don‘t need to care about the plundering mob! 

meanwhile Georg and his guns appeared

The first clashes of soldiers vs soldiers!

While Georgs doppelsoeldner hack peasants to pieces

The forrest hunters try to charge the leagues guns - for freedom! but a bad idea

Georgs men hack their way through

In the meantime two pike blocks stare at each other

 

The only cavalry of the rebellion charges!

While the Swabians circumvent the burning church

right into the guns of Goetz and the peasants

the abbot watches his church burn

the mean rodeleros clash with the weakened league pikes - ouch!

while the peasant call the retreat - out of the houses!!

and following these the league soldiers cannot resist to plunder!

Again the swordsmen of Goetz v. Berlichingen vs the league pikes!

Slowly the village is in flames

as the last effective league troops get caught by the plunder bug

The Fugger  (paid) pike block is refusing to charge?

at the end when the peasants retreated

The Big Guns somewhere in the Northsea around 1916

Aaaand another naval game (The Big Guns - working title), because we can. This time 1916, WW1 testing the rules of another homebrew naval game for my 1/6000 scale ships. I just drafted Bart (for the British Royal Navy) and Campbell (for the German Hochseeflotte) and left them exposed to the basic elements of the game, water, steel, minis that really deserve their name and a shit load of dice!

Both started out with the same set up on a 6x4 table in the opposed corners. Two Battle cruisers, a dreadnaught class ship and two older (shittier) battle ship and as an eccentric extra, a submarine for both. Aim was to have a quick and easy WW1 naval game, with a functional game engine that can also accommodate bigger battles (i.e. with 10 or more ships per player). For starters, I just had these  four types of ships, maybe I introduce destroyer more decidedly later. In the grand scheme I'm not interested if the Dörflinger has lost its back lights or the Invincible is getting to loose some of its side small guns ... heck I wouldn't even give them names, in this game they just had dots!

So Campbell advanced in line (very British!) until he painfully realised in the 50cm medium range Barts concentrated fire can be deadly. Both admirals submerged their tiny subs and after 2-3 turns the emerged and ... Bart‘s hit the jackpot (with a double six) and caused an explosion on a German battle cruiser, while one turn later Campbells U-boot just emerged too near and missed and got shot back home (his torpedo canal was hit and he limped unarmed homeward).

Then the Germans executed a "Gefechtskehrtwendung" successfully and tried to escape to Hamburg. That was the most successful moment for them, as Campbell could just sink one British battle cruiser while, Bart cleaned up the the Hochseeflotte quite quickly, just two "older" ships escaped.

See, once you get a couple of hits the ability to turn, absorb further damage or even roll control tests (morale, fire extinguishing etc.) is deteriorating. Explosions (which we had 4 of them) escalate the damage and the fires and before you can say Hipper the ship is under water.

So a British victory after half nine ... a very quick game ... promising for really bigger naval battles ... what was the name ... ach I forgot.

The British set up/stats

The German set up/stats

The complete rules (vers. 1.0)

All tables

In the German corner Mr Campbell!

In the British corner Mr Bart 

The whole battlefield

Initially the RN split

while the Kaisers just trodd on

there the first blood on the Dörflinger

hit by a torpedo

the Incontinence followed by the Inconceivable

Another hit on the ... lets call them all Dörflinger

until only the Dörflinger of the two Dörflingers were left

The HSF (Dörflingers) under fire

while the RN has thinned a bit ...

The Germans try the same submarine stunt, but ....

the Dörflinger

the British submarine hunting Germans

the rest of the Hochseeflotte is retreating

with the battle ship in flames

Bart send his sub to finnish it off.