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.