Armchair Dragoons Forums

News:

  • Origins Game Fair 2024 – featuring the Wargame HQ with the Armchair Dragoons – will be held 19-23 June, 2024 ~~ More Info here
  • SAVE THE DATE!  The Armchair Dragoons Fall Assembly will be held 11-13 October 2024 in Raleigh/Cary, NC

News

Origins Game Fair 2024 – featuring the Wargame HQ with the Armchair Dragoons – will be held 19-23 June, 2024 ~~ More Info here

Recent Posts

1
Intel Dump / Re: Wargame Design Studio News Thread + Latest Sale Titles
« Last post by rahamy on Today at 10:03:55 AM »
New Game of the Week announced, this time we have Panzer Battles: Battles of Kursk - Southern Flank. Read all about it in todays blog post:

https://wargameds.com/blogs/news/game-of-the-week-may-20-to-26
2
History and Tall Tales / Re: This Day in History
« Last post by besilarius on Yesterday at 06:46:13 PM »
318   BC   Phocion "the Good", c. 84, often victorious Strategos of Athens, executed in an political dispute

1536. Anne Boleyn, c. 30-35, Mrs. Henry VIII No. 2 (mother of Elizabeth I), beheaded on trumped up charges of treason, adultery, and incest

1588. Spanish Armada sets sail from Cadiz for Lisbon

1652. English fleer under Robert Blake fire on Maarten Tromp's Dutch fleet off Dover starting the First Anglo-Dutch War

1692. Start of Battle of Barfleur, and destruction of ships at La Hogue. A French fleet of 44 ships of the line, under Comte Anne Hilarion de Tourville, engaged an Anglo-Dutch fleet of 82 ships of the line, under Edward Russell.

1777 Declaring.  that "Many battles have been fought and won by soldiers nourished on beer, and the king does not believe that coffee drinking soldiers can be depended upon," Frederick the Great barred his troops from imbibing of the latter beverage.  This attitude may have resulted from Fred's youthful desire to read every book in a family library.  To use his time to the highest advantage, he would drink fifty cups of strong coffee a day.  By one account it took three years for his bowels to recover.

1871. Because the French used the Chassepot, the best infantry rifle of the age, but had obsolete muzzle loading artillery, while the Prussians used the obsolete Dryse “Needle Gun” but had superb Krupp breech-loading rifled cannon, during the 1870-1871 Franco-Prussian War approximately 70 percent of Prussian casualties were caused by infantry fire, while about the same proportion of French casualties were due to artillery.

1913  the German General Staff estimated that a European war would cost the Reich 10 to 11 billion marks a year, less than a quarter of what the 1914-1918 war actually cost

1935  T. E. Lawrence "of Arabia", 46, motorcycle accident

1944  During combat, the American "Combat Command" armored division during World War II consumed approximately six tons of petroleum products an hour.

1964       Over 40 "bugs" found in the U.S. embassy in Moscow
3
History and Tall Tales / Re: This Day in History
« Last post by besilarius on May 18, 2024, 06:16:18 PM »
1565  The Turks land on Malta and commence a siege (fails Sept 11)

1748. Treaty of Abo: England brokers a peace between Russia and Sweden

1765  Great Fire of Montreal destroys a quarter of the town

1775. Col. Benedict Arnold captures a British sloop at St. Johns in Quebec, Canada and renames her Enterprise, the first of many famous ships with that name

1827. Navarino a combined British, French, and Russian fleet annihilated a Turkish-Egyptian one, in the last great battle of the age of sail, though it did just happened to occur in when these nations were all officially at peace.

1862         Josephus Daniels, SecNav (1913-1921), d. 1948
The Most Hated Document in the History of the U.S. Navy:
GENERAL ORDER NO. 99
NAVY DEPARTMENT,
Washington, D.C., June 1, 1914
CHANGE IN ARTICLE 827, NAVAL INSTRUCTIONS.
On July 1, 1914, Article 827, Naval Instructions, will be annulled and in its stead the following will be substituted:

"The use or introduction for drinking purposes of alcoholic liquors on board any naval vessel, or within any navy yard or station, is strictly prohibited, and commanding officers will be held directly responsible for the enforcement of this order."
JOSEPHUS DANIELS

1863  Siege of Vicksburg begins (to July 4)

1922  Sydney and Violet Schiff hold a dinner at the Hotel Majestic in Paris for Marcel Proust, James Joyce, Pablo Picasso, and Sergei Diaghilev to honor Igor Stravinsky

1942  excellent inn near Harrogate, in England, is named for Banastre Tarleton, the notorious Tory leader, claiming he was the only successful British general of the American Revolution, though at least one observer has commented that this is an “exaggeration for which the quality of their beer easily gains forgiveness.”

1944         The Polish II Corps stormed Monte Cassino :

For our freedom and yours,
We soldiers of Poland
     Gave
 Our soul to God,
Our life to the soil of Italy,
Our hearts to Poland."--   Polish Memorial, Monte Cassino
4
History and Tall Tales / Re: This Day in History
« Last post by besilarius on May 17, 2024, 05:49:07 PM »
1490. Albrecht von Hohenzollern, 37th Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights and, having converted to Lutheranism, the first Duke of Prussia (1525-1568)

1606  usurping tsar Grigory Otrepyev "The False Dimitri" (July 21, 1605-May 17, 1606) was lynched in interesting ways at 23 by the Muscovites,Muscovites, who then fired his ashes from a cannon toward Poland, which had supported him.

1756  Britain declared war on France, initiating the Seven Years' War

1764, Almack’s, a club in Pall Mall, London (today known as Brookes’), was so snooty that the Duke of Wellington, no slouch himself in the snobbery department, was once refused entry for being improperly dressed.

1797   Royal Navy's Sptihead "Mutiny" ends peacefully (from April 16)

1812, the nickname of the 13th Infantry (later incorporated in today’s 5th Infantry), was “The Snorters,” because its commander, Col. Robert Chrystie, insisted everyone wear a moustache.

1838. Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, 84, effective if eelly French statesman

1863. Battle of Big Black Rivere: Grant begins sealing off Vicksburg

1876. Rosebud Campaign: Custer & the 7th Cavalry leave Fort Lincoln

1943. RAF 617 Squadron carried out “Operation Chastise,” destroying the Ruhr Valley dams during the wee hours, and earning the nickname “The Dam Busters”

1945. During World War II, British intelligence operatives paid some $13 million in bribes to about 30 senior Spanish military officers, right up to the four-star level, to help keep tabs on the Franco regime
5
Professional Wargaming / PLAN Blue vs. Red Americans
« Last post by bayonetbrant on May 17, 2024, 02:16:51 PM »
PLAN Blue vs. Red Americans
A recent article in the May 2024 issue of Proceedings discusses how the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has embraced wargaming “with an almost religious zeal” (Martinson, R. D. “The PLA Navy’s Blue Team Center Games for War.” Proceedings. May 2024. Vol. 150/5/1,455). As author Ryan Martinson points out: “[The PLAN] have studied wargaming’s many potential advantages, from helping the PLAN overcome its lack of recent combat experience to shedding light on how to employ its new weapons and platforms to maximum effect—and they want more.” Readers will likely assume that the PLAN is playing catch-up to the U.S. Navy (USN). Reality, though, is not so clear. Martinson’s article is but the latest writing that emphasize the U.S. Navy needs to get more serious about the use of a dedicated opposing force (OPFOR) in wargaming… like the PLAN apparently already does.


https://www.armchairdragoons.com/articles/analysis/planredteam/

6
Age of Gunpowder / Re: 1714 Case of the Catalans
« Last post by bayonetbrant on May 17, 2024, 11:54:31 AM »
I just picked up a copy of this myself. Were you using the latest version of the rules from BGG?

I don't think so.  It wasn't my copy, but I think Russ was just using the one in the box
7
Age of Gunpowder / Re: 1714 Case of the Catalans
« Last post by Toadkillerdog on May 17, 2024, 11:22:42 AM »
I just picked up a copy of this myself. Were you using the latest version of the rules from BGG?
8
Intel Dump / Re: Wargame Design Studio News Thread + Latest Sale Titles
« Last post by bayonetbrant on May 17, 2024, 11:10:02 AM »
Sweet!  There's definitely some folks around here who play those :)
9
Intel Dump / Re: Wargame Design Studio News Thread + Latest Sale Titles
« Last post by rahamy on May 17, 2024, 10:40:49 AM »
Announcing the release of the 4.04 updates for our three NATO vs. Warsaw Pact titles in the Modern Campaigns series:

https://wargameds.com/blogs/news/cold-war-in-europe-modern-campaigns-4-04-updates
10
History and Tall Tales / Re: This Day in History
« Last post by besilarius on May 16, 2024, 06:00:44 PM »
1152. King Henry II of England (age 19) weds Eleanor of Aquitaine (30), former Queen of France

1364   Bertrand du Guesclin's French defeated Charles the Bad's Anglo-Navarrese in the Battle of Cocherel.  in the centuries following the fall of Rome, as both nations began to form, there was no conflict between them.  It was not until the Norman Conquest in 1066 that England and France were brought into regular political contact, and that largely because the Dukes of Normandy, newly installed as Kings of England, were at best reluctant vassals of the Crown of France.  Naturally, when the Duke had a problem with his overlord of France, he would often draw upon his resources in England.  But these were essentially conflicts between a vassal and his overlord.  Not for a couple of generations were there issues of substance between England and France, beginning with the importance of Norman lands to the crown of England.
From the early twelfth century until the early nineteenth century, England and France repeatedly went at it hammer-and-tongs.
the two countries seem to have been at war for about 230 of the 692 years between 1123 and the end of 1815, roughly one-third of the time.   
Prior to the Hundred Years' War, the matter at issue between England and France was usually questions of feudal rights over the King of England's fiefs in France.  During the Hundred Years' War the issue became a claim by the Kings of England to the throne of France, a matter that continued to be mentioned loudly as late as the reign of Henry VIII, and thereafter more politely into that of George III.  After the Hundred Years' War, however, the issues between the two countries began revolve around the balance of power, control of trade, and overlapping colonial claims.
Of course, during some of those years there wasn’t much action, such as during long periods of the Hundred Years’ War, even when there weren’t truces or a "peace" in force.
Now this omits “unofficial wars” and proxy wars.  For example, there were frequent hostilities between the respective colonies of the two countries, notably in India and America, which didn't quite escalate into full scale war involving the homelands, although the French and Indian War, which began in the colonies in 1754 did merge into the Seven Years' War in 1756.
And, by the way, on rare occasions, England and France did find themselves on the same side . . . usually because they were both at war with Spain, and, of course, over the last century or so, because of Germany, in the second of which there was a British-Vichy French War that lasted from June 1940 until November, 1942.

1412. Giancarlo Visconti becomes Duke of Milan (May 15-June 12, 1412), by murder
      Duke Giovanni Maria Visconti I of Milan (1402-1412), 24, stabbed while entering the Church of San Gottardo

1691  Jacob Leisler (c. 50), Jacobite Governor of NY, and Jacob Milborne (c. 30), his son-in-law, half-hanged, then beheaded for treason

1803. Britain declares war on France and Nelson appointed Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet.

1845, the Regiment of Mounted Rifles acquired a distinguished record during the Mexican War, earning the nickname “Brave Rifles” from General-in-Chief Winfield Scott, which it still bears today, as the 3rd Cavalry, a redesignation effected in 1861.
Following the war with Mexico, the Mounted Rifles spent several years on frontier duty, distributed in small detachments across a wide swathe of southern Texas. For a time in the 1850s, regimental headquarters and about 200 riflemen were stationed at Fort Inge, near Uvalde, about 100 miles west of San Antonio, with outposts scattered across a “front” of over 200 miles. As on most of the frontier, this duty was characterized by boring, mind-numbing routine, occasionally punctuated by the need to chase bandits or stray Indians.
Like many regiments, the Mounted Rifles had their special drink, the “Mounted Rifleman’s Slug.” According to former Rifleman August Cline, the recipe was quite simple:
three fingers of whisky
a spoonful of honey
water, optional