Lost Dispatches

I'm starting to almost look forward to the Winter Campaign season when I can usually get a whole game in on a single day. Sighhhhh....... Anyway, one must work with what is and this small, basic 12 turn scenario was played over a week, 1 or 2 turns at a time, with 3 extra turns added. The details are already getting blurred in my mind but the pictures will tell the important bits.

The scenario was a simple encounter at a strategically important crossroad with the 40mm 1840's fictional armies of Oberhilse (Blue) and Faraway (Red). 

Faraway's cavalry and riflemen reached the town first and occupied three of the four houses while one of Oberhilse's volunteer battalions seized the farthest house.  

(** Note: As usual. clicking on the pictures will give you a closer/larger view )

The fighting in the village was fierce and prolonged. Oberhilse's dragoons were sent forward to drive off the skirmishers who were starting to target the gunners but with 6 dice vs 1, the republic's dragoons who had driven off the Queen's dragoons, took 1 hit from the rifles, whiffed their roll and came tumbling back blaming their repulse on their tired horses.

The fighting was prolonged and bloody. As the sun started to sink towards the horizon, the commanders held a quick truce and agreed on 3 extra turns.

When the last turn was done,  both sides had suffered heavy casualties and while the Queen's troops still held onto 3/4 of the town, the Republic's troops held a section on the edge of town which gave them control over the eastern road. After a short parley, the Commanders agreed to both pull back, rest &, reorganize their forces, clean up the rules, bring the start lines forward, and start again at a day and time agreeable to both sides.   

Never Depend On Dice

 

Back On Track!

 HUZZAH!  Life is returning to normal and I had time to finish the game on table. 

But not time enough to write up a proper report. Some sort of report should come on Friday.

One Of Those Weeks

 Domestic duties and weather  have been encroaching on hobby time but hasn't stopped it all together.

To be continued.....

Its Not Over Yet!

After some "poking about" and consideration, I decided that I didn't need to do anything drastic. I just needed to go back to the rules I used in the June game and the August game, tweak them, and test them again! 

Battle for the Crossroad. 

Just a simple fight for the Crossroad on a Sunday morning. 

Yes, yes, yes.....NO!

 Ah well, it felt promising when it started.  

The armies deploy and the gunners on both sides prepare to open fire. 

To be fair,  it worked "ok", but there were too many little things nagging at me, and the game was taking longer to play than I wanted but ended only a little over 1/2 way through the maximum number of turns. Considering that the rules were well based on various rules that I've written over the last 20 years, initially, (loosely) inspired by Joe Morschauser's rules crossed with 50 years of miniature wargames, I had hoped for better. On the bright side, I'm now free to try something "completely different".  This coming weekend is the last dog show of the season and its an 'away' one so I'll be home alone to try the scenario again with the brand new rules which will miraculously appear by then.  

Anyway, here's a brief, illustrated battle report. The Queen of Faraway's force (Red) were under orders to seize the bridge and march off the far end of the road. Oddly enough, the Republic of Oberhilse's force (Blue) had the same orders but going the other direction. There were two spots where men and horses could ford the river but the artillery and ensuing supply train could only cross by the bridge. The game was set at a maximum of 15 turns, and an aim of around 2 hours playing time. It lasted 8 turns and about 4 hours.
(It was also played over 5 days but that was mostly due to outside duties, and a little bit to periodic vain attempts to fix various rules issues from a largely game quality viewpoint.)

Each side's HQ had discussed 3 possible plans and finally selected one plan. (rattle, rattle, roll)

I wasn't really expecting the Light Dragoons to overrun the gun, then chase off the enemy cavalry but they were inspired.  
(Umpires were called in to inspect the dice and certified them.)

Apart from the cavalry charges, the fighting stalled into a prolonged and bloody firefight.

The fighting went on for a few more turns until Blue had lost enough stands to reduce their army morale to the point where they could no longer attack. They might have been able to hang in for a draw but their Commander valued his troops over a draw with a strong chance of a rout before then. 

Stay tuned........ 

Early Report

The battle began in earnest today, this illustration just made the late edition.

 No report on the action was included but more news will be published as soon as we get it.

Evening Encounter

It has been over a month since the last clash between Oberhilse and Faraway, the truce was now over and both armies were still searching for a way to get over the river unopposed. Unfortunately for both armies, they each found what looked like a good place, the same place, and both moved the available troops to the location, at the same time. 

Once again, the Little Bluetaip River flows between the armies.

It was a long march and both armies started arriving in the late afternoon. There might be a bit of skirmishing and probing before the day was over, but the main battle would have to wait until the armies were all up,the ground explored, and a battle plan formed.

A Smaller But Bigger Clash

 About 40 years earlier, and 14mm shorter, but still shiny,  on an October afternoon......

Coming soon to a blog near to your screen....

Old Macdonald's Farm

Old Macdonald wasn't as rich as his neighbor Mr. Hook, so his farm was on a smaller hill with smaller fields, but he was happy with his home, until the Red & Blue armies invaded his property and made an awful mess with not even so much as "Sorry about that, but it was their fault, not ours", let alone a note offering to pay damages! 

Here we have a Balloon's eye view of the two armies advancing on the disputed ridge.

The Dominion cavalry had a sly commander and rather than take the obvious route around the end of the ridge, he decided to drive his men and horses over a pass in the middle of the ridge. It might have worked if he hadn't spent half the first turn giving the men an inspirational address. Apparently many of the Red battalion Commanders decided to do the same, or stopped and swore like troopers because the cavalry was blocking their way!

While the Red commanders were cursing and damning, the Blue army took the first move on the next turn and carried out the cavalry flanking move, while their infantry seized the high ground. The red artillery commanders, happy to not have to drag their guns up the hill, just swung their guns around and opened fire on the Blue infantry while their cavalry commander led his troops at the gallop to meet their mounted rivals, apart from the troop of Mounted Rifles who dismounted, opened fire on the Bluecoats on the hill while trying their best to look like 3 companies of infantry. 

Welllll, it didn't take long for both sides to get at it, infantry and artillery blazing away and cavalry dancing up and back, clacking their swords together and generally having a good time. 

But, there's always some spoilsport who gets poked in the eye or something and gets all angry and next thing you know the two sides were going at each other hammer and tongs, no holds barred. 

It sure looked like those blue guys were gonna sweep the field clean and take home the pennant for game but on the other side of the field, the Red General gave the order: it was Jack Tar vs the Redbacks for a case of spirit's from the Farmhouse cellar. 

 

That charge "done it" BUT Blue still held Church Hill, so the Generals got together and agreed on a another draw. For the series, that's two draws and one victory for Red so they get the pennant for '24.

Early edition.

 Full report to follow......

Before There were Featherstone, Grant, and Lawford & Young.....

 There was:

Yes, that's it but no toy soldiers will be harmed by spring firing 4.7" guns on my table. 

The Bridge Over The River Blutaip.

After the recent drawn battle, General Douglas  (Red) was ordered to destroy the bridge over the Blutaip River near Lawson's Inn. Having gotten word of this plan, General Lannigan (Blue) decided to prevent this vandalism.

The Dominion force had a slight advantage in infantry, but the Republic had more cavalry, so Lannigan decided to use this superiority to seize the bridge before the Dominion troops could start laying charges. He sent his Cossack volunteers ahead to seize it while his dragoons crossed the river to back them up, but they were quickly decimated by rifle and artillery fire. It was not as good a start as he had hoped for.

Dominion fire continued to wear down the Republican cavalry, while the Dominion cavalry took post to interfere with any future cavalry charges.

By this time, both sides infantry were  engaged in a firefight across the entire field but especially across the bridge. As long as the blue soldiers could dispute the bridge, the Dominion Sappers could not lay their charges.

As Lannigan watched his cavalry disintegrate while the infantry disputing the bridge were wavering after heavy losses, he decided to throw his reserve of infantry into the fight. They inflicted heavy losses on the Highlanders, forcing them to fall back. The day was not over yet. 

Alas for Lannigan, while he was issuing orders to his right wing infantry to wheel and attack the bridge while chasing off the remnant of the Highlanders, his army collapsed. All he could do was order the infantry to cover the retreat. Already he could see the Dominion Sappers at work.

Notes: 54mm figures. Infantry and artillery crew mostly converted homecast figures from commercial moulds, plastic guns, cavalry mostly conversions of Britain's figures.

Rules: home rules available here: Defended Border.

Now The Battle Is Lost And Won

It's a bit annoying sometimes when a stripped down, fast play, focus on outcome not process, set of rules not only plays quickly but sometimes, also seems to reflect historical actions better than many a more detailed set. 

Battle report to follow.

One Test Is Never Enough

The terrain is laid out, the armies sorted, ready to meet the enemy in the morning!

It seems to me, I've seen that scenario look,

It's from an old familiar book .....

So let's Blast Off!!

At Last!

 A free afternoon! 

We pick up the story (such as it is) as the 2 armies engage. The objective was to capture the two cross roads (see overview picture in 1st post)  and control a route across the table.   The "armies" had identical forces: 1 cavalry unit, 4 infantry units, including 1 veteran/elite unit, and one gun. 

Deployment is complete and the battle lines are engaged across the field.

At first the Dominion infantry were slow to move forward and deploy and it looked like the Republic would win the day, but once all the troops were on board and engaged, the battle became fierce. Eventually the Republican armies had to pull back while they still had enough troops to hold onto their crossroad.

The Origawn forces had pressed the Dominion's line back, but as they pressed forward to finish the job, they suffered heavy losses and had to fall back in hope of a drawn battle rather than an outright defeat.

More important than who won, was that the new 'Fast Play' rules lived up to my hopes and expectation. They are way short of detail and options but the turns lasted roughly 10 minutes each, seemed to very roughly reflect mid-19thC memoirs and battle reports, had suspense and turns of fortune. For the last few years, I had adopted the 15 turn game from the  One Hour Wargame, but having timed the turns, I decided to cut that to 12 which would give a roughly 2 hour game on average. There was a time when a 4 hour game was quite acceptable but those days are gone. 

It was a close run thing but with evening drawing near, and the Dominion troops nearly as battered as the Republican force.  General Douglas was set to launch a counter attack but the sun was getting low in the sky and the odds were against his battered army being able to punch hard enough to take the opposing crossroad in the time that was left so he decided to play it safe and settle for a draw.

So, all in all, things are looking promising, but its only one game so I'd better clear the table, come up with a different scenario, and play again, maybe a bigger one or I may keep that for later. Luckily, I'll be home alone for the coming week........ 

The one page Quick Reference as used can be found here: The Defended Border 

Step #1: Determine Your Primary Objective......

...... and stick to it!............But it's sooooo easy to get distracted. 

I want a game where the usual sort of scenario that I like can be played on my 5'x5' table in about 2 hours, more or less, not counting breaks or set up and take down.

About 4 turns in with MacDuff.

Some stray bit of nostalgia, crossed with coming across the quick reference sheet I had done for a slightly streamlined version of the original, 1997, Colonial, version of With MacDuff To The Frontier (GA Henty fans  will doubtless figure out where the inspiration for the title came from.). The turns I played with that went well but it was obvious that this small, simple, game was probably going to take at least 4 hours to play, have a lot of repetition, and constant minor decisions to distract. The interactive nature is good when there are two or more players because both sides are always engaged, but when playing solo, it just makes the game slower.

1 turn later with the new rules.

So I poked and  tweaked and finally dug through my archive of alternative draft rules, until I found a set that was more along the lines that I want. I worked at them today and am ready to resume the game. 

At Last!

Its just been another "one of those weeks" but the rules have been revived, reviewed and slightly revised and the first couple of turns played.  

1st Blood!

To be continued.....

Of Plans and Sober Second Thoughts

Well, there I was, just about ready, except for a few details and a vague, nagging, feeling that I had made a wrong turn. So, in my mind, I went back over various reports and eye witness accounts of various applicable historical actions that I had read, and also revisited various rules mechanisms that I have used or was thinking of trying. Eventually, a little virtual cartoon light bulb popped on: "Ding!".  The eye witness reports made it clear that a large part of those historical actions consisted of supported skirmish lines trading fire with periodic short rushes to get closer and very low casualty rates. 

Turn two: the armies deploy and the Commanders start forming a battle plan.

When you translate that to the tabletop as a game, what you get can usually be described as tedious or boring with a turn or two of excitement near the end, if you're lucky. Sooooo I dug into my rather disorderly virtual file folders to find a saved copy of the rules I used for July's 54mm game which I had enjoyed, They just needed a bit of a clean up and the game was finally begun.  

Blue's Black Hat cavalry gets a bit feisty and tries a good old fashion sword charge against a deployed infantry company armed with breech-loading rifles. I doubt that they will try it again despite Red's lousy dice.

But my time was up after turn 3. It will resume tomorrow!

A Different Approach

Well, even disregarding a whole series of hobby interruptions,  the last game may have leaned towards some simple, early wargame rules (which was my intent) but it just didn't satisfy. So, another quick reference sheet has been crumpled up and tossed into the paper bin.

Turning to various historical mid 19th C diaries, memoirs, court-martial testimonies, training manuals, and so on, as well as various 21C sets of simple rules, I've come up with a rather different approach.

So, the table has been reset and units swapped out (to make it easier to tell pictures of the 2 games apart). 

I'm on my own for the weekend so Saturday is game time!

Its Been A Lonnnnnnnggg Week.

But don't worry, I won't bore everyone with car and health issues amongst other things. As it happens, I still managed to play a turn or 3 each day and rework the new rules, again, and again  and......well, eventually, I got close to what I want and I finished the little skirmish. 

At first Red seemed to be winning, then stalled. Blue followed up with its own assault, but when their final charge was repulsed, the day ended in a draw with each side holding one of the two crossroads.

I might just call up some reinforcements and play out a pitched battle on the weekend. Striking while the rules are still hot off the keyboard as it were. Can they survive? Only one way to tell.

Once More Onto The Board

 

Coming soon to a blog near you.

Bugler! Sound the assembly!

"Alright men, the government experiment has been cancelled. Grab a washer and reform into your old 8 man companies."

"Are you boys ready for a fight?"

"I want you boys ready to cross the border at dawn, ready for a brawl with those redcoats. Whaddya say?"" 

 "HUZZAH!!!"  "Let us at'em Genr'l" 

 

Fenced Out

 "Are you sure that's all of it Colonel?"

"Yessir! I've checked all the storerooms. If you want more fences, you'll have to place more orders, but if you do, I'd recommend you order more of those stone walls, they're easier to assemble, don't fall over on the battlefield, and the men feel more secure behind rocks." 

"mhmmm..."

That didn't take long.

Not exactly painting masterpieces but I fixed the one chap's hand so they'll both be able to hold the ladder, and they'll blend in when the table is crowded.

Now my painting desk is as close to clear as it gets.