Empire Battle Report: Part 2

Unfortunately the light had started to fail us a bit and the quality of the pictures suffered as a result but you can see in this next picture the action in the third hour. 

In the bottom of the picture, the Russian Konovnitzin’s Division has faced off against the French Larnarque’s Division. The Cossack Brigade is off table to the bottom left and the French cavalry remain in reserve on the far right bottom. 

In the top of the picture the Russian Strogonoff’s Division has started an assault on the French Broussier’s Division, who has taken a position upon a hill. A second Cossack Brigade has joined the assault to provide support to Strogonoff grenadiers. 

In this next shot the Russian grenadiers can be seen advancing on the grenadier rated special French 84^th Line Regiment. 

In this next shot you can see the two Grenadier Brigades advancing towards the hill which is defended by the 84^th and the 9^th line regiments. 

The Russian heavy 12pdr battery is deployed in support. Whilst it is long range artillery fire, it is telling and casualties start to mount on the 9^th Line Regiment. 

As the Pavlov’s advance, they themselves come under long range French heavy 12pdr fire and are reduced. They assault the hill on a number of occasions but are repulsed. 

In this final shot you can see the Russian advance in the middle and the top of the page. The Russians had also brought up the Uhlans to support this assault. The Russian and French heavy batteries can be seen in the bottom left and the bottom right, providing long range support bombardment into the firefight which is developing on the hill in the top of the page. 

Unfortunately we lost the light at this point. 

In the end it was a conclusive French victory with the French breaking up the grenadier assault upon the hill. With only conscripts a few veterans left at their disposal, the Russians decided to withdraw to preserve their residual forces for another day. 

DEW

Empire Battle Report: Part 1

A mate said recently, “Jeez mate the old Wargamers Paradise blog doesn’t exactly feature a lot of wargaming.”

“Yeah,…..fair cop” I thought to myself. 

So here we are with some pictures and a high level overview of an Empire that we recently played.

This game is set in 1812 and pits the Russians against the French. 

The French forces are led by Marshal Macdonald, an Inspirational Good commander. He has two infantry divisions and two cavalry brigades under his command. An overview of his forces is provided below. 

The Russian forces are led by Tuchkov, a Poor Impersonal commander who similarly is in command of two divisions of infantry and two brigades of cavalry.

In the following picture you can see the Russians deployed on the left and the French on the right. Both players deployed their more elite infantry divisions to the upper end of the table. The French kept their cavalry in reserve, behind their infantry, whilst the Russians deployed their cavalry on the flanks of their infantry.

The Cossacks and Uhlan’s in formation.

The next picture shows a closer shot of the French deployment.

In the first hour the first Russian Cossack Brigade moves around to the bottom of the picture (lets call that south shall we to make it a bit easier to describe the movement) whilst Konovnitzin’s Division moves to the east to take up a position on the hill and Strogonoff’s Division moves around to the north east, around the house in the top of the picture, to begin their attack. The Lithuanian Ulhan Brigade moves back to a reserve position behind Konovnitzin’s Division. 

The French cavalry remain in reserve whilst Larnarque’s Division moves up to take a position on the hill and to deploy their artillery whilst Broussier’s Division move to the north.

A little long range artillery duel begins between the two gun lines but no casualties of any substance are sustained. 

The second brigade of the Russian Grenadier Division advances supported by Cossack cavalry.

And they are supported by the 1^st brigade with the Pavalovs.

But on the hill the French await with a 12pdr heavy and a 8pdr medium heavy battery deployed.

And Broussier’s Division advances.

In the next post I’ll put up some more pictures of the rest of the battle. 

DEW

Keep on the Borderlands - The Path of Evil - Session 39

SESSION 39: DAY 17 – CAVES OF CHAOS

Lucien claps his companions on the back, "It is with a proud and just heart we give praise. Asmodeus has cleared the path for our victory, rewarding those whom have proven themselves worthy by guiding each our hands, and rightfully smiting fell lesser beasts by steel and spell.

We have all earned a rich reward indeed. Malandir, were you to bend your will just a little to His Infernal Teachings, you would make a fine convert. It would... complete you."

Lucien arches an eyebrow, smiling at the valuable elf.

Malandir nods in acknowledgement of the compliment. 

"Indeed, praise be to Asmodeus," Per declares with pride in his voice. He awaits his orders as he cleans the gnoll blood from his glaive.

Malandir looks around the room at the swift destruction of the foe. Time for his keen sense of value to work....and so he searches the room, using his detect magic ability as well. The rest of the party join in with the men at arms posting guard on the door to ensure that they aren’t disturbed. 

Searching the room for secret doors and traps, Malandir finds nothing. Searching for loot is another matter. The gnoll King has a pair of silver armbands, which Malandir appraises, worth 50gp each and he has 39gp in his belt pouch. Each of his sons has 14gp and each female wears a silver neck chain worth 30gp and an additional 4gp in coin. The furnishings of the place are crude, battered and worthless. A large metal pot beneath a flagstone near the fireplace hides another 190gp. When party members use Detect Magic, the King’s weapon glows magically. Lucien attempts to use Spell Craft to identify the properties of the weapon. He is assisted by Malandir. Malandir rolls d20 = 11 + 2 for being an elf = 13 which exceeds the DC of 10 to help. He provides valuable assistance. Lucien rolls d20 = 15 + 5 Spell Craft skill + 2 from Malandir’s assistance = 22 which exceeds the DC of 15. The King’s weapon is a +2 Falchion. 

Searching through the rest of the cave system they find various weapons and gold amongst the fallen gnolls. They overcome the lock to the store room and in it they find more weapons and armour and a barrel of exceptionally fine ale. The odor of the ale temps them all to drink it. Fremont is the first to taste it. He smiles and looks around at the party happy with the strong taste. None of the party are able to resist and they all start to drink the strong brew. A celebration is had and when they finish the barrel they continue their work, although drunkenly, searching the rest of the caves, gathering weapons and, the gruesome task of skinning the gnolls. 

It’s hard but rewarding work and the total loot gathered is:

·        522gp in various lose coins and jewelry

·        The Kings hide, 13 male hides, 20 female hides, 2 hyena hides, 38 sets of ears

·        Magical falchion +2

·        2 master crafted composite longbows (+2 strength) (being carried by Per and Talmark)

·        13 spears, 20 small short swords, 20 small short bows, 7 shields, 1 suit of chain mail, 12 hand axes, 3 long bows, 5 quivers of 20 arrows, 1 empty barrel

Total experience learned from the adventure is 10,400, spread amongst the various party members and men at arms. 

The current wealth register is provided below.

The current xp register is provided below.

Malandir has earned enough experience to go up a level. Per hasn’t leveled yet but isn’t far off. Lucien, Kord and Talmark will need to earn 905 more xp before they level again.

A few consumables were used during the adventure. The current remaining consumables register is provided below.

DEW