One Steamboat, two steamboats, three steamboats

"Compression and Compromise"

I never quite understood why we had to count "steamboats" when I was compelled to play touch football, "football" also has 2 syllables and so takes the same amount of time to count but would have made more sense. However, the list of things I don't understand is pretty much endless so I'll move on to talk about my boat building industry.

The Reuse and the Recycle began as identical sister ships but now both have been refitted in their own way and are ready for hard service.

Back in the days when the Royal Navy would land my 15mm top hatted British troops on various West Indies beaches, they used nice Battle Honors boats with seated infantry, rowers and the whole bit. Lovely little scale models that fit on the table despite being long musket range   from bow to stern.

When I went from 15mm to 54mm as my primary scale without becoming a 1:1 "skirmish" gamer the disconnect between model scale and gaming ground scale became a major obstacle made worse by my reluctance to abandon the WYSIWG, moving diorama approach to wargames.

My 15mm boats came out of retirement one last time about 10 years ago to appear on Gary's table. 

Dropping back down to 40mm had little impact on the problem but my fairly recent conversion to a more abstract  toy soldier and growing appreciation of a symbolic approach crossed with a toy esthetic has helped.

Take the boats in the first picture, the proportions are internally inconsistent and wrong. They are obviously too small for the figures but their foot print is still too big for the ground scale. Despite these faults they have been used in games again and again and worked well. Because of the esthetics the eye overlooks the inconsistencies while the footprint works within the structure of the rules.

When I decided I wanted some smaller boats to ferry troops up or across rivers, I hit an extreme case of the old conundrum. What I wanted was a longboat, something akin to the souvenir fishing dory in the 2nd row above but with the foot print of the red toy boat. Since my two steamboats are meant to be larger vessels with cabins and some freeboard, they should be taller than a longboat which is obviously not the case with my existing boats.

My first thought was to just do a thin wooden hull with a mast. Oars would probably be better but they  look odd with standing oarsmen who then join the  landing party and permenently sitting ones just take up too much room. This low hull has a reasonable height differential with the decks of the steamers but in practice the figures look like they are on a raft, not in a long boat.

First row prototypes, 2nd boat commandeered boats, 3rd Recycle, 4th Reuse before her make over.

The issue of course is that without a deck, the figures on the boat should actually be sunk down into the table, obviously a problem. A mental review of OS boat pictures reminded me that this is usually done by adding unnaturally tall gunwales out of cardboard. Fine, I started to fiddle with some cardboard and then realized the bit of wood I had used for the hull was so thin that gluing card gunwales to it in a robust fashion exceeded my skill. I made a 2nd hull from a slightly thicker board, an offcut from my last trimming of my gaming table as it happens.

I started on the gunwales again and again I stopped. The figures looked just as silly with knee high gunwales but deeper ones on such a small boat just looked too bizare. To distract myself I started experimenting with  masts and crew capacity while pondering movement rules for wind and current where the river is only 1 square wide. Since small steamboats were used by both sides of the War of 1812 to move troops on inland waterways I decided that my life would be easier if Atlantica was precocious and made wide use of steamboats. Two pieces of dowelling soon provided a boiler and funnel and work on troop capacity and gunnels continued.

Tugboats and fishing trawlers both came to mind as I fiddled with bits of cardboard. They often have a higher bow and a low stern with low or no gunwales. The high cardboard gunwale on the bow would suggest structure while the low  quarterdeck would allow troop bases to overhang and help keep that low, smaller vessel feel compared to the big armed steamers. The use of a screw for propulsion is a bit anachronistic for the 1812 and 1837 campaigns but dashed convenient.

I want to add a few small details but essential she's ready to assist the bigger boats on an expedition. Together they can carry 5 companies of infantry plus a company of blue jackets and a naval rocket battery.

Is that enough or should I make one more?

Almost there, just a few details to add either physically or with paint. Cutting a very basic gunwale stretched my cardboard modelling techniques, I don't think I'll be making tanks or artillery anytime soon!

Of Cannibals and Queens

Jack and John both lend a hand to build a new river steamer to carry troops upriver. Surrounded by endless forests, ts hard not to feel they are being watched but they can never quite see any hostiles.

Some minor renovations and rearranging have overflowed into my games room once again. Since there is little room or time for a game I decided to resume working on props and figures that had put off doing until I figured out what the heck I wanted to do.

The last game was a small example of the sort of Middle Game which I intend to be the main stay of the Atlantica campaigns. For the foreseeable future Big Games will be restricted to the 1/72nd ACW and planning has begun for a  game based on one of the early Western or more precisely, Trans-Mississippi theater. Wilson's Creek, Elkhorn Tavern and Prairie Grove are all being looked at.

That leaves the Little Game, the Colonial, skirmishy, sort of game. There are various options but the one I have had my eye on is a return to the rain forest of the North East. We first glimpsed the cannibal tribesmen in 2009 and first saw them in action during the 2011 Nest of Pirates game. I'm  still not sure if these games will play ok with the rules as is or if I'll have to make some small changes to make games interesting with small numbers of units but the only way to tell for sure is to try. Now that the grid and size of grid, time periods, etc have been determined work can resume. Even if I allow for some allies, either Atlantican tribesmen or Brethren of the Coast, or both, I need more tribesmen. I also need more boats than can fit the grid. The refitted HMS Recycle overhangs one square but I can work with her.  The HMS Reuse  takes up 3 squares and is just a bit too big.

During an expedition against a nest of Pirates, the Victoria Rifles find the allied forest tribesmen to be formidable foes. 

A prototype troop carrier small enough to fit in a grid and carry 1 unit is currently under construction as can be seen above. (OK admittedly I am actually doing most of the work myself, when I left the little guys with the tools and materials and went for coffee,nothing seemed to get done in my absence.)   Three things quickly became clear:

• I don't really know what I'm about despite my 1971 Industrial Arts class
• I need a proper coping saw and a work bench if I'm going to make a habit of building things
• I can do this! (more or less, in a ham fisted, improvised, Floor Games sort of way).

In 2010 came this speculative illustration of a coming game. Its still coming but its getting closer! 

Stay Tuned!

Where did the week go?

Last week's game at my Gathering of Hosts blog.

Its not often that I go a week between posts but last week my hobby time was spent largely on my medieval/fantasy campaign, something I expect to occupy a big chunk of my time this year. Not that my expectations seem to have much to do with what actually happens.

I'm also contemplating a larger role for my home cast 18th C NQSYW collection in light of the new range of SYW figures from Prince August.

Then there is the Atlantica toy soldier collection to work on. The idea being to have smallish 'armies'  at 25 year intervals, (1812/1837/1862/1887/1912) all in the same style so that figures can be borrowed from adjacent intervals and the whole will be able to draw from 1 collection of terrain and accessories but which will allow me to paint a wider variety of uniform styles.

I also have an itch to get a largish (for me) 1/72 ACW game sorted out and on the table, something to balance the usual quick games.

Not to mention about 500 25mm ancient and 40mm AWI and 1812 figures to organize and sell.

Lots to do over the next months.

Now where was I?

My mind has been preoccupied by non wargaming matters this week but having a hobby to keep my hands busy was good at times so not a total loss.

The Faraway Ministry of Defence has analyzed the recent string of defeats and having spotted the likely reason behind the Oberhilse successes, has taken quick steps to reequip Her Majesty's soldiers. Can you guess what their conclusion was? 

I did mean to offer some comprehensive comments on last week's game but I'm afraid that time has dulled my memory of details and also altered my interpretation of events and left me less sure about what did and didn't work and why.

The scenario was simple enough I pulled a bunch of Blue army units off the shelf, avoiding any of the Mexican War and 1812 style uniforms. Then I pulled a few Red figures down and decided to let the  commander pull down more as reinforcements till I figured he had enough. Blue's mission was to capture the bridge and hold a secure line of communications.

An overview of the setup.

Blue's force comprised a General, 2 infantry regiments each consisting of a commander and 4 companies, a detachment of Guards with commander and 2 5 figure companies, 2 batteries of the latest imoroved rifled, breechloading artillery and a squadron of mounted rifles (irregular cavalry with rifles, superior fire power, inferior melee.) 

The 1st shot of the game, the FLH inflicts a Retreat (flag) on the dismounted DGBG whose Colonel unwisely risks his life to cancel it (6)  and hold the exposed position so that the cavalry troopers will be able to enter the building on their next move and attempt to hold it against 8 times their numbers backed by artillery. But then he had been led to expect speedy reinforcement.

One of the problems with dice based activation systems is that every now and then the rolls come out lopsided for several turns in a row sometimes at a critical point. That happened here, just as Red was trying to bring on reinforcements he ran into a string of 1s and 2s. By the time the order dice returned to average, the advance guard of cavalry had been shot to pieces with little damage or delay to the attackers. A charge by the 2 troops of lancers saw them throw a fistful of 2s and 3s, not even a 1 to force the enemy back. Then the last surviving lancer pulled back to a safe place for the rest of the game.

The Zouaves, 4 units (companies in this game), deployed with 2 companies forward as a firing line and 2 companies behind as supports. In the face of the threatened cavalry charge they have closed up with 2 companies per square.

When pulling troops off the shelf before deciding to play a game I had grabbed some old Crescent WW1 15lbers with Oberhilse crews (the 40mm Prussian gunners are a perfect fit, the seated gunner can actually fit on the aimer's seat) so I just included them. When the FTC horse artillery finally showed  with their smoothbore muzzle loaders they were shot to pieces in no time. Oops. Sorry guys.

The Red Force has finally brought almost as many troops onto the table as Blue but because of early losses Blue still out numbers them by 2:1 and holds the road up to the middle of town.

So, over all I was quite happy with how the game played but I had a few concerns which I didn't have time to think about right away. One was the speed with which Red units disappeared but given how badly they were mismatched and outnumbered its probably not an issue.

A more serious one which also cropped up in the acw test was that shooting was more effective than I liked. In part though that comes down to what shooting represents and what melee/assault/close combat  represents. The  theory is that with grids being somewhere around 150 yds per area, all decisive small arms fire happens in melee and shooting is basically harrassing  or skirmisher fire. However, somehow that doesn't feel right and obliterates the difference between firefights and bayonet charges.

By ignoring scale that difference could be added easily but possibly with other issues. Another option might be to add modifiers or start fiddling with a difference between adjacent and in contact, easy enough with small units on a large grid but tricky if units fill a grid area.

While I was working on my shortened, grid friendly train I realized that this meant that  I was subconsciously intending to play more skirmish like games which also raises the question of scale. If designing purely for effect scale issues may be over ruled in favour of what looks/feels right. It just requires overcoming 40 years of conditioning, something I've been struggling with for at least 15 years.

Oddly enough both of these issues, the shooting/melee issue and the using one rule set for both small battles and skirmishes cropped up with Hearts of Tin in 2009 during the Game a Week project and were successfully resolved at the time. Also oddly enough it occurred to me during the game that despite minor differences, the effect of units of individual figures on a grid was very similar to the effect of single base units without the grid such as in Morschauser or sometimes in smaller HofT games a few years ago.

All just food for thought at the moment.

Getting Back on Track

There I was, happily browsing through the websites of Historifigs, SpencerSmith/Jacklex and Reviresco looking at 1/72 figures, guns and vehicles and wondering where to get the makings of a train that would fit the grid, and I starting thinking about various inspirations and some past train games in 54mm and 40mm.  Next thing you know I had some of my old Britain's on the table. Then I had one of those "uhoh here we go again" moments. Its only been a month since I called myself on allowing unresolved issues and various shiny, easy, distractions to draw me away from what I want to be doing but almost 2 years since I started  musing about 40mm Boer War/WWI toy soldiers and 3 years since I started fooling around with big figures on a grid.  

Time to address some of those issues and get on with the toy soldiers again, or let it go and get off the pot, so to speak.

OK now it'll fit! I guess it needs a bit more work though.

Why I am so attracted to the combination of grid and toy soldiers (in a technical sense vs miniatures) has been a bit of a mystery to me. I think partly that it is because a gridded game is so obviously a game rather than a form of diorama and toy soldier style figures are so obviously toys not serious models that the two complement each other, but that's not all of it. In some fashion the grid seems to enhance our ability to distance ourselves from the direct, literal interpretation of what we see and to accept a higher level of abstraction.  In my own case that distance makes me more comfortable with smaller units and shorter ranges so that actually makes it ideal for larger figures.  (And yes it has taken 3 years for my intellect to catch up to my instinct on this)

2011 Little Wars meets Bob Cordery's Portable Wargame.

http://gameofmonth.blogspot.ca/2011/03/morschauser-attacks-hooks-farm.html

Two of the things that have kept me from jumping in have been uncertainty about coming up with suitable terrain that would fit 40mm figures and trying to figure out how to  fit 40m wagons and trains into a grid so that I can continue to play the convoy and ambush games that are a favorite of mine. 

Selecting the 4" grid was based in part on experiments which show that a handful of my houses will fit and I can easily do more. Similar experiments proved that a 2 wheeled cart can fit one square as do  a pair of pack animals giving me 2 options, 3 if I include a few wagons I have that will fit in 1 square with a horse team in an adjacent square. That just left the train but I just happened to have a 2nd, pristine, battery operated toy train and I figured if they can bash kits in Little England, I should be able to bash a toy in Belmont. Out came saw, screwdriver and other assorted implements. (see above).

40mm toy soldier style Boer War is back on the menu.

A non gridded train game from 2012

http://gameofmonth.blogspot.ca/2012/10/blue-river-rebellion-incident-at-rhed.html

The next post will discuss Sunday's 40mm Atlantica Square Brigadier game with some discussion of the rules, some examples of play and some thoughts on organization and period differences.

Goin' down the road.

There are days when I feel like I've spent most of the last 2 years testing ideas and probing for a way ahead. Its a relief to start feeling like things are finally coming together.

The Rebel rifled artillery opens up as the Federal troops march on.

Having updated The Square Brigadier to broadly match the format of the 20th Century version, I wanted to give it a whirl. I picked my 1/72nd ACW for the job. I decided that the scenario would involve a Confederate force on a hill overlooking a road which Union forces were expected to be using.

The armies are organized into regiments with 3 bases each with 6 figures but on the 9cm grid I can't quite fit the 3rd base so I made do with 2 bases plus 2 supernumeries that I can remove to record hits. I wanted a quick game so kept the forces small. The Rebs had 6 regiments in 2 brigades and 2 batteries, 1 rifled, 1 Napoleon 12pdrs. Their mission was to hold the hill and prevent the enemy from moving  along the road. The Yanks had 9 regiments in 3 brigades and 2 batteries as above. Their mission is to clear the enemy off the hill.

The 1st Federal brigade stands under fire, threatening the Rebs on the hill while the 2nd Brigade drives straight ahead seeking to turn the enemy's flank. The third Brigade is just arriving and can  reinforce either flank.

The Yankee plan was to deploy in the center and make a massed assault on the hill. Of course this is just what the Rebs were prepared for. Unfortunately for the Reb General, he decided to feed a regiment forward into the woods which looked like a better defensive position. It was also turned out to be close enough to the road to prevent its use and thus  triggered an unplanned response from the Yankee 2nd brigade. This in turn drew reserves from the center to hold the gap which emerged as more Confederate regiments got sucked into the fight in the woods.

A belated pinning attack by the Union 1st Brigade is halted by a flanking move by the rebs and then shattered by cannister but on the other flank the other Rebel brigade is routed forcing a Confederate retreat.

The rules played even better than I expected, there was some inevitable tweaking and fine tuning afterward but today I made the commitment and laid down a 4" grid on my table. This will fit all periods and allow the full 3 stand ACW regiments. 

But  somehow that doesn't seem to be what is set up for the first game on the new grid.

Teaser: Seeing the Elephant Again

The Square Brigadier has been updated to make use of some of the combat mechanisms in the 20C Square Brigadier. It'll  be a while before the  Boer War is table  ready and I want to minimize the temptations to stray  so this seemed like a good time to get the ACW out again.

Now have the updates helped  or hurt? 

Stay tuned.