Hammfilade 2026 - Saturday. General du Corp. Battle of Siebenkiefern (pt3/final)

 Late in the afternoon the Prussians have finally captured their objective town. The original formations (Prussian and Russian) are very brittle at this point, and players are doing their best to be threatening but not actually get involved in combat much (ever combat you fight drops you by a strength point, win or lose. Most units have 3, sometimes 4, points of strength). 

 

The latest prussian command (top of the photo, angled marching to the right) is marching to intercept the latest Russian arrivals (off picture to the right). My own command (centre right) is uncomfortably positioned between the Russian reserve (now active) & another small Russian arrival force bottom centre, and those off picture Russians marching at my back. 

 

 This second photo shows the latest Russian column and makes it clear this is going to be a large clash. My command is attempting to give ground, falling back towards the objective town, as Seth's command (centre top/top right) marches direct on the Russians. 

 

Overall in the battle every corp (even the late arriving ones) have brittle morale. Losses of whole commands (corp) reduce every other corps on the tables morale. Some bad rolls could have a dramatic effect.  

 

 

 

 

 

 Battle lines forming by the second town. You may notice the black cubes (top is grass covered) on some Prussian infantry. This is the square formation marking (cube = square). Good call as that's a serious amount of Russian cavalry. Unfortunately square makes the cannons much more effective. Choose your poison I suppose. 

 

 

 

 Most of the commands have been whittled down to irrelevancy. Combat is just too risky. Cannons have been depleted. The only action that's really happening is the big clash on the right. Around this time we were discussing rules adjustments and such so I missed taking pictures. This game flies along, turn wise, in the late game. 

 

 

We eventually call it based on turns passing and easily predicted outcome. It looks dubious that the Russians will be able to evict the Prussians from the objective town (in a timely manner, and possibly at all). Victory points are calculated (comparative losses plus bonus points for holding objectives). 

 The Russians managed to squeek out a marginal win, despite the Prussians achieving the objective. Holding the second town (left in the pic below) was just enough of a points swing to be the deciding factor. Interesting what-if to contemplate if my command hadn't zoomed down the road on it's outflank and instead needed to shack up/defend vs the massive Russian column. 

Another exciting and enjoyable General du Corp game at another year of Hammfilade.  

Hammfilade 2026 - Saturday. General du Corp. Battle of Siebenkiefern (pt2)

 Following on the previous report, we have the Russians and the Prussians struggling over the first town (can't remember the name), which is an important victory point for most of the commands. 

 

The Russian reserve is stalled in the background (there's some sort of conditions for them to activate I wasn't and still am unsure of). Prussian reinforcements have arrived on the flank and are threatening both the Russian reserve as well as the defensive line of the first town. 

 

 And things get interesting yet again. A huge Russian column marches onto the table, outflanking the Prussian outflankers. Oooops that's my command. 

 I now face the charming conundrum of how to split my force between hitting the Russian reserve, turning the defensive line at the town, and slowing the juggernaut marching at my back.  

 

I push hard on the defensive line and some more reinforcements arrive: Prussian on the Prussian left. Between the two of us we rapidly unhinged the line, allowing Ron to push again and evict the original Russian defenders, taking out the emplaced guns.  

 

 

 

 

 

 Hilariously (for others) more Russian reinforcements arrive...on MY Flank. I now have troops in front, troops behind, and troops to my left. The troops I have are also rapidly attritioning from the push. 

 

I've been forced to move to a defensive posture and am turtling up, hoping the other Prussian players can push and get their forces into battle. 

Overall, each side is hoping that the other cracks. I think everyone is looking at actual routs on a roll of 1 each turn they need to test morale. Yet the morale holds for longer than odds would suggest.  

 To the left we can see Seths Prussians (background, middle back of the table) marching towards James (barely in shot on the right). 

They are the last two fairly intact formations, but have low morale due to a number of formations/corp already leaving the table (from dissolution rather than routing).  

 

 The focus of the battle now switches towards the clash near the Northern town (closest town in the shot to the right). Doug has a little arrow fence on the table to show compass direction (bottom right). 

 

In the background the crippled formations are all trying to preserve their strength and chisel away at the enemy enough to cause a morale check. One formation routing could cause a cascading failure.  Conclusion in the next post!

 

Hammfilade 2026 - Saturday. General du Corp. Battle of Siebenkiefern (pt1)

 Doug hosted a game of General du Corp. It's a convention ruleset for napoleonics meant to finish large battles in a convention time block (3-4hr) with historical results. It's notable for the attrition of units, large base basing, and easy to learn/remember rules.  

 

Most years Doug will take a historical battle and whip up an order of battle from it, along with battle directions to various commands. He usually hides what it is by changing place names, rotating directions, shuffle nationalities, taking battles from non napoleonic but still horse and musket periods. Usually the reveal occure around the 1/3 to 1/2 mark, after all the forces have arrived (we often have no idea where or when reinforcements, if any, will appear....which seems appropriate). This year we didn't even know who was commanding what as Doug had preselected our commands and only told us as we marched onto the table. 

 We found out (eventually) that this was based on the Battle of Seven Pines, an American Civil War battle. The real battle must have been pretty wild, as we had troops arriving from all around the table edge, often threatening to flank the previous command that had just arrived. Victory was generally determined by control of the central village/town. 

Garret started with a fairly decent sized force of Russians, including some emplaced/fortified guns. He was instructed to hold the town. Ron marched on the table edge and for a good 3 or 4 turns they smashed heads (2 hrs in pretend game time).  

 

Then things started getting spicy. 

 

A reserve of Russian troops arrived behind Garrets line. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Followed one turn later (30min game time) by my Prussian command. 

 

 

 

 

 

 I was given a roll to see how far down the road my clever flankmarch had managed (note: note my plan, it's the historical one I inherited. But still clever).

I aced the roll and was positioned to hit the reserve on the flank in short order, and was threatening Garret's dangling defensive line. 

Ron was low on manpower on the attack so this was a critical assist.  

 

  

 My command challenges were that I needed to threaten the dangling flank of Garrets town defense (my orders were to secure the town he was defending), while also taking advantage of my options against the Russian reserve (and not get murdered by his exposed artillery). 

 

 

 

to be continued.... 

 

2025 Hammfilade Saturday - GDC Battle of Logovo (pt 4 - Right flank [main event])

 

 

My knowledge of what happened on the right flank (of the spano-russians) is spotty at best. It was ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE TABLE. Also, it wast narrow at times to pass people.

 

 The French cleverly overloaded this flank (already owning the flank by a wrap around deployment). The Spano-Russians dropped their redoubts here, anchored the hinge at the Onion domed orthodox church, and loaded up this side with a infantry heavy, cav poor force. 

 

 

UNFORTUNATELY the corp was built of brittle units (2 strength points vs 3), this meant that in most cases each stand/division was gone after one serious fight. 

Almost immediately the Spanish were ejected from the church (cue jokes about orthodox vs catholics). The church was now a traffic issue rather than a hardpoint.   

 

Steady pressure from the hordes of French dismantle the first redoubt at the hinge. French certainly had an impressive artillery concentration on the flank, were they had placed their guard corp. 

 

 

 

 

 

 Pushing through the opening they begin to 'pinch' the second redoubt. Cleverly they have chosen to hammer a line of troops along the table baseline (damn the flanks!). I'm not sure if it was a conscious choice or a morale check that had the spanish pulling back further. 

 

 

 

Already the Russian reserve under Miloradovich (guard equivalent) is reacting to the pressure on the right and repositioning guns and troops.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pressure from the centre has created a challenge to do this. The cavalry reserves (2 corp) are moving to the centre as well, to hopefully allow Miloradovich to pivot right.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The lone redoubt holds, but not for much longer. The Russians were surprised, (but probably shouldn't have been) that when they were lost all their corp suffered a morale step loss. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At last the mess is somewhat cleaned up. There's a fighting lull as both sides are tidying lines. Troops continue to die under the steady cannon bombardment however. 

It's subtle (not many units left), but the Spanish vaporize due to a failed morale check. Across the table the players are all starting to try and pick off weakened units and shakey corp to try and degrade army wide morale. It's getting dicey even for mostly intact corp. 

  The armies are largely pivoting to form an 'east-west' front vs the original 'north-south'. There isn't a single corp on the table that isn't at risk of routing on a bad roll (1 in 3 for most, 1 in 6 for the 'healthy' ones). 

The french on their right (closest) are looking at a push by artillery, cavalry, and 2 corp across the river against their Line of communication. The defenders are present...but worn. 

 

On the french left they have a lot of weak troops and reorganization to effect before pushing onto the relatively fresh ressian guard supported by a strong artillery park. Tough sledding there.  

An extended rule discussion (this is why the rules change every year) derails us for a while. We all agree that this is, truly, a bloody draw.  No commander is interested in advancing their worn forces and breaking/routing their whole corp. It's not particularly surprising as the forces were intentionally strength matched at the beginning (actual composition was what we varied on, but each unit had a duplicate on the enemy potential roster). You'd need to be an insane commander (or a wargamer) to go ahead with this meeting engagement. 

It appeared our three new players had a good time, and certainly the regulars did. We likely will have a game/table setup at enfilade 2026 (now in Tacoma). 

2025 Hammfilade Saturday - GDC Battle of Logovo (pt 3 - Centre)

The centre to Right flank was were the main event was. Gortshakov (lower left) was originally meant to help cause grief for the French right flank, but they left such a tiny force there it was soon dragged into the main event. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The armies faced at a sabres length at the start of the game along a line that took a 90 degree turn at the onion domed orthodox church. 

 

 

 

 

 

Behind the church on the Spano-Russian flank were 3 fleche redoubts. In a non optimal outcome, the fleches were defended by a horde of poorly motivated/trained Spanish (lots of elements but not much staying power).  

 

 

 

In the Centre we had one of our new players (Chris? Craig?) with Tolstoy and the elite/guard corp reserve immediately behind him. It actually ended up being a fairly challenging command as both sides destroyed their centres quickly and the heavy french assault on the flank required the reserve to commit early to a hinge point.  

 

 

 

 

 

To be honest, my understanding of the fight on the far side of the table was a bit superficial. It seems as though tons of casualties developed with early assaults and then the Centres fell quiet for a bit since artillery was tearing both sides apart. 

 

The Russian Reserves are fully committed in the centre/hinge right. Depleted french units are being murdered by the still robust (thanks to the artillery reserve) Russian cannons creating a no mans land in the middle. 
 

 

 

   

 

 

Gortshakov shuffled from the left towards the centre and helped set up a late day push towards the French LOC. 

Both sides were on the dagger edge of breaking by this point. 


 

2025 Hammfilade Saturday - GDC Battle of Logovo (pt 2 Left Spano-Russian Flank)

 James and I had brought troops as suggested by Doug. Hilariously we both decided to bring our Spanish as we don't get to use them much. Thus the Spano-Russian intervention was created. 

 

The spanish anchored both flanks for some reason. On my flank I had Gazan and Bagration pushing on one side of the river to cave in the French right. It was held by a token force of poles and two small french cavalry corp. 

Across the river Gortchacov held the river line and fired cannon (where line of site permitted). He would soon realize he need to push toward the Centre Right to help avoid the collapse of our forces in the centre and right flank. 

Poor command die rolls (pips) made for a slow advance on this side. Cannon are particularly hard to get moving foward on the attack, and the Poles were well played by a new player, Garret, constantly giving just enough ground and launching local counter attacks to prevent overly aggressive advances. The Cavalry was able to hide behind the tree line from Gortsachov and made for difficult opponents to hunt. 

The flank was largely a side show for the game but very late in the game this flank was busted open and left a (long) march towards the french LOC, held by a small but credible force.

 More pics after the break...

2025 Hammfilade Saturday - GDC Battle of Logovo (pt 1 setup)

 Saturday had us setting up for the semi annual General du Corp game. It's a convention fast play ruleset (not published). Bases are roughly a division, commands are corp. Turns represent 30min. Each player commanded 2 corp (roughly). Since we have done most of the historical battles Doug decided to make up a roster of 12-15 corp. The two teams then were able to select 10...both sides having an option to sacrifice a choice to get a benefit (Russians took some fleche/redoubt fortifications and a large artillery reserve). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The teams split up to make their choice, and then decide a rough battle plan and setup  blindly. The table was split down the middle plus the left flank(s) were also open for placement (i.e. both sides could immediately be subject to a flank attack on their right). A stream (crossable but disordering) was roughly diagonal across the whole table).  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We positioned cards in alternating fashion to denote the start point of the leader of each corp. The cards were flipped and placement of the troops happened alternating in order of the cards. It was fun and different and we ended up with some interesting match ups. 

 

 

 

The Russian plan (my side) was to  go artillery heavy on the left in a crossfire to give the french a problem to solve. We dropped our fortifications on the right, assuming an attack there, created a battle line across the front, and left a strong reserve of cavalry and elite infantry. 

 

 

 

 

 

The french overloaded their left flank and refused the right. A token force was left there. The centre had a reasonable force to push. Roughly 60-90 minutes after 'starting' we were all setup and ready to start fighting. 

 

Hammfest 2024 - GdC Battle of Friedland (pt 3/end)

 

 The Russians have been surprised by the timely arrival of the Corsican Ogre. What looked like defeat in detail for the French has turned into a bit of a pell mell dash for the safety of the far side of the river. While this initial picture makes things look well in hand for the Russians, it's a bit more nuanced. The crossing goes through the town of Friedland, which restricts the speed and capacity of movement. There's going to be bunch up and the French will have time to engage. Furthermore, despite there being fixed movement, units moving anything other than mostly forward, do move slower so that it's possible to have them be caught. 

The Russians are down to 2 cavalry units (1 fresh) versus at least 3 fresh french ones in a unified cavalry corp. Once the Russian infantry are forced into square it's a safe bet that formation is doomed. Morale is brittle so there are real risks to sacrificing units.

To the Russians benefit, their cannon emplacements across the river have been doing great work. To avoid cannon fire entirely would delay the pursuit, so the French have been forced to weather the storm. If I recall correctly the Russian artillery dice were a bit hot.

We know see the rush hour traffic building up at the bridge. French are in close contact with the Russian rearguard.

Not great, but probably manageable. Doctorow's reserve corp is doing exactly what they need to be doing.

Ah crap. The continued fallback of General Peter (RU) on the right and general attrition of cannons there has freed up the French under General Kevin again. 

The pressure is developing for a move across the river into the rear guard flank. Stress!

 

Command ranges and low rolls for pips to move troops I think stymied the french a bit. The hot russian cannons didn't do them any favours. It's possible they failed a morale check and fell back for a turn (about 30 minutes real time). 

That breather essentially cinched the rest of the game.

The forces consolidate back towards their lines. I believe we called this one a minor or marginal win for the Russians. Mostly as Napoleon failed to deliver a punishing blow to the Russians when given an opening.

 

 

Another fun game of GdC. While we keep thinking the rules are in their final shape there is some contemplation of having units that go to 0 strength not leave the table. This would mean

1/. they would continue to be traffic problems. 

2/.they would require commands to evacuate (so command of the corp doesn't improve as you lose troops, which is kinda a thing that happens right now....I'm not pip starved when I have no troops to command!)

3/. Exist on the table to continue to use as a punching bag for the enemy to incur further moral losses and tests (so it's more likely for the whole corp to go poof. Currently it can be hard to attrition the corps enough and force enough tests to make that happen).

2+3/. They are a liability to have around and thus make a more interesting set of decisions for the players.

UPDATE: Play testing has shown that keeping troops on the table is less fun. There's a proposal to requires some PiPs to make them disappear, so that they are still a (more limited) liability, but won't be a continual fun draining hassle.