Ma! They're at it agin!

An Old Scenario to try out the new rules again.

One Brigade? I've got a whole Division marching on and you're hitting me with one Brigade? Lovely.

The Battle for Light Rock Valley will continue tomorrow. 

Oh.... I guess we are gonna have a fight.

Hector Meets Featherstone at Simple's Pass

Near the end of the day, Hector watches intently as his forlorn hope charge by the Oberhilse 5th Infantry goes in against Faraway's 'A' Battery. Victory lies in the balance.

But, lets go back to the beginning.

Aficionados of Don Featherstone's Battles With Model Soldiers will probably recognize this scenario despite my addition of a few contours. This isn't the first time I have tackled this scenario on this blog but so far I would rate it as the most enjoyable rendition yet.   

The map and orders from Don Featherstone's Battle With Model Soldiers.

Red or Faraway took the Confederate role this time fielding 2 old battalions of Fusiliers, a squadron of Lancers and a foot artillery battery. Blue or Oberhilse fielded the new 5th Infantry and the even newer Hougal Zouave Volunteers, a squadron of Dragoons and a pack battery which would normally be light artillery but which was upgraded to field status for the day. All infantry units were 16 strong, cavalry 8 strong and batteries composed of a gun with 4 crew. All infantry had rifled muskets and were able to detach up to 1/2 their figures as skirmishers. I had spent a considerable amount of time last week proving to myself that it was not necessary to actually show the skirmishers on table but luckily I remembered that doing so violated my Intuitive test.  

Each side had 1 Commander acting as General. The extra crowd of officers on the Oberhilse side of the field was a party escorting their visitor Lord Marmaduke aka Lord Snooty. They were not, however, permitted to play an active role in the game. I commanded the Red army unfettered. Hector commanded the Blue side but of course made me move the troops as usual. 

In order to explain why the two parties were fighting over this stray bit of stone wall, I decided the wall marked the crest of a pass with a mountain on one side and a river on the other. Any attack on this front required the attacker to control the pass. I set out a contour to mark the crest but while it blocked line of sight it was too gentle to delay movement or confer a benefit in combat.

The situation at the end of turn 2.
Whoever wins the initiative will seize the wall on the next turn. 

The game began both sides rushing forward to the wall. All units were under command on the Red side with their cavalry being pulled back into a reserve position while Blue's cavalry, which was on a sweeping outflanking move, passed their first two Orders tests.  Once again, being a solo game, I forced the high roller to go first rather than choosing like I would if playing another human. Blue had won the first two rolls but Red won the third and reached the wall first. Blue reacted by shifting to his right and swinging around the flank, the intended wide sweep by the cavalry being somewhat tightened.  Both sides opened fire inflicting frightening casualties and causing a wave of panic (for me not the soldiers on the field but it was just a couple of good rolls and things evened out as the game continued. Phew!)

Turn 3 and the battlefield erupts in smoke and fire.

A few more turns of shooting like that would have wrecked Blue. An initial attempt to get the 5th Infantry to cease fire and pullback failed but eventually their officers got them under control and deploying a skirmish line, pulled the remnant back. Unfortunately this put them in the arc of fire of Red's artillery and with numbers hovering at the 50% mark they were soon pulled back even farther. 

The Zouaves backed by the Mountain battery were having the best of a firefight with Red's infantry but time was against them. Throwing in the cavalry was a risky move for Bue, if they won,  Red's position would be well and truly flanked and the game was in the balance but if they were repulsed the flank of the Zouaves would be wide open while they would still be engaged frontally. It would be pretty much game over.  Given that things looked so bleak if Blue's cavalry were to lose, it seemed to make sense to go all or nothing. The Dragoons were beyond command range and the Zouaves were involved in a firefight. In each case a roll of 3 or better was required to go but if either failed, it was no worse than not ordering them.

Time to do or die. Hector ordered the Zouaves and the Dragoons to charge.

Turn 5: The Charge of the Blue Dragoons and the Zouaves. To the dismay of his escorts, Lord Snooty has insisted on pushing forward for a better view of the action. 

The main body of the Zouaves bounded forward through their skirmish line. A ragged volley brought one down but they shrugged it off scattering the red infantry with the ferocity of their charge. To their right, there was a tremendous clash as the two cavalry units came together. For a minute it seemed that neither would prevail but Brevet Brigadier Kelinck galloped forward and inspiring the Dragoons, drove the Lancers off. Reds flank was wide open!  One more push and they would be over run and driven off.

Surrounded on three sides, Red hastily reforms.

Once again the game hung in the balance. If Blue could pursue speedily, they could stop Red from reforming. Taken in flank by Zouaves while engaged in a firefight the Brooklyn Fusiliers along the wall might not have time to reform while the Dragoons could over run the defeated Dover Fusiliers and hopefully over run the gun before Red's Lancers could reform, if indeed they rallied at all. 

Its almost never that easy. Red won the initiative and then passed all orders and rally tests with flying colours. Deploying a company of skirmishers to hold the wall and support the battery against the remnants  of the 5th Infantry, the rest of the Brooklyn's wheeled back to face the Zouaves while the  Dover's reformed in line with them. Brigadier Spye galloped back and by force of personality, held the Lancers on table. A line was formed, a shaky line but a line none the less.

The inexperienced Zouaves, disordered after the melee, stalled as they reformed around the colours but the veteran Dragoons didn't break stride, they galloped forward crashing into the Lancers while they were still rallying and unable to respond. The Lancers scattered and Brigadier Spye barely escaped capture himself.  Red was badly battered but still held the objective.

The Blue Dragoons are repulsed by fire.

At this point in the game, most units were either engaged in combat or beyond command radius and most turns there were failed order rolls, sometimes with dire results.  Several units were flirting with being below 1/2 strength, it couldn't go on much longer. 

The Blue Dragoons paused to reform (failed test) allowing the Dover's to form square and the battery to turn and face them. A charge into the mouth of the gun through flanking fire resulted  in a casualty and failed charge home test. The dragoons retired under a heavy fire from the artillery. Finally they shifted to the right, beyond the battery's arc of fire and there they sat.

On the other flank, however, the Brookyn's were now under a heavy fire from Zouave skirmishers and the mountain battery again. On the same turn the Dragoons were repulsed, they suffered 5 hits from 5 dice! General Spye rode over to steady them but was shot down himself. It was a fatal move. Left without orders, turn after turn the Battery commander was unable to decide whether to shift his guns to the left to shoot at the cavalry again, or return his guns to their original position and drive off the remnants of the 5th Infantry who had crept up behind the battery. This is the moment in the picture up top when Hector decided that personal leadership was called for. He sent the 5th Infantry forward just as the battery finally redeployed. 

A blast of canister tore through the 5th but they were more afraid of Hector than of artillery dice and passing the charge home test the colour bearer staggered forward into contact. He didn't get a die in melee but the gunners whiffed on their's making it a tied melee. The 5th was below strength though and so yet another morale test was taken and passed. The Brooklyn's were also below strength but also held. It couldn't last.  

Unable to pass up the opportunity, the Dragoons charged forward into the rear of the guns while the last few Brooklyns took to their heels. The Dover's, still in square, attempted to cover the retreat but were shattered by artillery fire and then cut down by Dragoons as they fled. 

Turn ??
A sad ending  for the Soldiers of the Queen on a day that started so well. 

So there we are, a delightful solo game, one of the best in ages. Work is well in hand to complete translating the quick rules notes into English. The last minute decision to try again with an orders test for units who fired or fought in melee instead of a ban on moving and firing finally worked just the way I had envisaged it when I tried it with Hearts of Tin two years ago. The different order system then in use didn't work with the idea but this did! I'm expecting the final edition to settle out at about 5 pages with about 12 rules and be ready by Monday.

The Queen's generals can obviously not leave the pass in Oberhilse hands so work is already at hand putting together a counter attack force but General Scott  has also ordered up reinforcements and General Turner had not anticipated the possibility of such a complete defeat.  In both armies the work of rallying broken units and recovering wounded men and stragglers is in hand.

Expectation is that the armies will clash again on Sunday.

Lord Snooty, pursued by his escort, rides over to examine the captured gun and congratulate his hosts while Private Wayne talks to the Ensign of the 5th to get the technical details.

MacDuff Stripped to the Buff and Ready to Rumble!

Advance guards of the Red Queen's and Blue Republic's forces clash at the top of Simple's Pass. The crest of the pass is marked by an old stone wall between two groves of trees.  Travellers often remark that the Pass looks familiar yet somehow different.

I have finished a first rough draft of the latest version of MacDuff. Some elements of the original rules have survived in simplified form as has the over all intent of the rules and vision of the sort of game it will produce. There are also very heavy echoes of Rattle of Dice.

It was my intention to post the rules before playing but given the sticky nature of some of the first drafts of various rules (as in drawing internet traffic years after posting and after the rules have been scrapped by me),  I have decided to wait until I have played a game or two played and finished proof reading and adding odd bits like the chance cards. So far they have been reduced from 11 pages to 3, largely by removing explanations, definitions and special cases. Some of these things may be needed but anything I can live without is being thrown out in favout of letting people make up their own minds about how to organize their troops and which modifiers to apply and when. Here is the first draft of the intro:

"Introduction. This is a simple set of miniature wargame rules designed primarily for fighting small battles and skirmishes on the fringes Europe and America from around French and Indian War to around the first Boer War. It is aimed primarily at experienced wargamers, like myself, who want a simple set of rules. You may organize your armies as you see fit and decide for yourself and decide which units may use which modifiers. There are as few restrictions as possible on tactics or who can try what. It is up to you to study what was done historically and maybe try it on the tabletop and see if it works (in theory you should get the right result most of the time though the process might be fuzzy) or to develop your own organization and tactics. The rules have come along way from the way they were when originally published in the Courier #73 in 1997 but I have kept the name because I use them for exactly the same sort of games."

The major changes in actual play are in play sequence, morale and melee. In the end  I chose to keep the card draw sequencing as an option and that meant either a shared, simultaneous shooting phase or a second round of card draws for shooting. The extra work didn't seem worth the latter. I was going to keep the figure vs figure melee but I really prefer dicing for hits and have been tempted to change it for years. This seemed like the time. For morale, I borrowed and modified an idea from Featherstone for particular tests. I did some of these for Rattle and have copied them pretty much verbatim while adding two: a repulsed by fire test slightly different from the current MacDuff one and an under strength test.

Right! There should be just time to play a turn or two.

Lord Snooty rides ahead of his escort in his eagerness to experience battle in Atlantica.

Don Featherstone: A Muse of Fire!

By now surely most of the wargaming world has heard the sad news of the passing of Don Featherstone, one of the greatest modern pioneers and proponents of the hobby.

I still remember the thrill when I found his book, Battles For Model Soldiers, in W H Smith's on St Catherine's St. in Montreal on my way home from cadets during the winter of 1970/71. Already I had an interest in military history, knew that somewhere grown men were playing wargames with soldiers and spent my time converting  toy soldiers into detailed models and painting Airfix figures and wondering just how one went fighting battles in adult fashion. Here was my salvation!

(from Battles With Model Soldiers by Don Featherstone)

When I look inside the cover of that book more than 40 years later, the figure 7.25 has been penciled in, doubtless the price. It seems awfully cheap now but was certainly more money than I usually carried in my pocket at 15, more than my month's allowance anyway. I'm not sure how I survived the agonizing fear that someone else would find the book and buy it but when I finally got back to Montreal the next Saturday, there it was, and here it is beside me now.

(from Battles With Model Soldiers by Don Featherstone)

There is little doubt that I would have found my way into the hobby with in a year or two anyway but Don's spirit, enthusiasm,attitude and advice has had a lasting effect. I think this short quote from that book sums up probably his greatest influence on me, and not just as far as my hobby goes:

"Nothing in these pages is a dictate, no word says you must or you shall do it this way. On the contrary, the book sets out from the very beginning to stimulate the reader to think for himself, and to use what he has read merely as a foundation for efforts and ideas which reflect his own temperament and character. " Don Featherstone 1918-2013

My ACW - Adding the Who to the What (Updated)

OK, now that the essential, practical details are settled, like rules, size of stand, numbers of figures per stand, number of stands per regiment, number of regiments per brigade and how the units will relate to scenario units on both an interim and long term basis, I figured it was time to figure out how to figure out which unit is which and who the Generals are.


There are a couple of simple, common ways to do this.

1. The Blue & The Grey. The easiest and least satisfying is not to worry. I got a big box of blue guys and a box of grey guys, how many do we need today? This is made easier since there are no regimental facings and the like to worry about.
2. Order of Battle. One option is to pick an actual Order of Battle for a certain organization on a given day, usually at a given battle, then you build it.If you are going to actually fight that battle or better, the campaign during which that battle happened, this is a good option. As soon as you want to fight a different campaign, its a problem unless you essentially revert to option 3.
      
3. My Fav's. The Grant option as described in the Wargame Companion is a good one. Based on his article for the Wargames Digest, Charles Grant essentially named his units and Generals after various historical ones and then used them in any or all of his wargames.

The current infantry of the Confederate Army of Acadia. Three brigades totaling 10 regiments. The new Red dot indicating 1st Regiment of the 1st Brigade can just be seen at the right rear of the leading regiment.

Since I started resurrecting the figures I had painted 30 years ago in order to play a campaign against my friend Jerry for control of the Annapolis Valley, without worrying how or why, it was already decided that this was about playing wargames that evoke the Western campaigns of the American Civil War not about refighting historical battles. I didn't think much more about it until I started thinking about flags.

The kicker is that while the ANV carried the now famous battle flag for almost the whole war, the same was not true out west. There almost early army carried its own design of battle flag and many regiments kept these for some or all of the war, even as they were transferred or armies were amalgamated. So when you see the flag, you know who they are. What's worse is that most of these flags do not evoke the ACW for me. A red flag with a yellow crescent moon or a blue square with a white circle don't say "Johnny Reb" the same way a blue St Andrew's cross with white stars on a red background does. To make matters worse, while some western units served in the ANV and carried their flags, the only, brief appearance of eastern units in the west was for Chickamauga. So, you can find Mississippi regiments in Virginia but not the reverse. So much for randomly picking favorite units.

One other small issue raised it head as I pondered why I even needed to identify units if the uniforms were generic. If I do end up with 32 regiments per side, how am I going  to remember which of the 6 Airfix units is the 76th Mississippi or be able to say who it was made the desperate stand when writing up battles? I decided to reorganize the existing troops into  their 4 stand regiments and start painting extra stands where needed while all this sorted itself out in background mode. Many of the existing stands have discrete regimental and brigade codes in the form of small Roman numerals on the back of the stand; codes so discrete they are nearly impossible to see on the table. Reorganizing meant re-labeling at least some stands so I decided on a new, bolder scheme with a swatch of the brigade colour on the back of the stand reaching over the top so they can be seen from above. The position would indicate seniority. It was while doing this that it all came together.

So, the decision is made. For ease of memory, all of my brigades will normally be drawn from one state with only Western States being represented. The regiments will be numbered regardless of where the matching historical unit served. The scheme will mix seniority based on when they were painted with their brigade number.

For example, the first Confederate brigade is made up of the Airfix figures I painted 30 years ago supplemented by a few more to raise one of the 15 man units to two 16 man ones. Having noticed that General Winfield Featherstone commanded a brigade of Mississippeans under Loring in the Vicksburg and Atlanta campaigns, he seemed to be just the man for the Airfix Brigade. The 4 regiments therefore are the 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th Mississippi. The 3rd Brigade will be from Alabama and will thus be the 31st, 32nd, 33rd and eventually 34th Alabama.  Thus the units will be bogus but will sound plausible and be easy to figure out and remember.

That leaves flags. The first brigade is settled. Currently all of their flags are torn and unuseable but they were all raised with the familiar ANV battle flag and these will be restored. Some units carried the Stars and Bars instead of a battle flag so at least one brigade will carry these. Since I eventually intend to form 2 Divisions, I just may use the flags to indicate which division my units belong to and not worry about all the flags carried in various historical campaigns. After all, the units earmarked for the Acadian campaign might have all been issued new flags but the phrase "print the legend" comes to mind.
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Update.  For some reason, some of the old Airfix felt more like "Georgia" than  "Mississippi" to me while some of the new mixed units did but I thought I'd give them pride of place. Since the flgas haven't been issued yet and one of Bluebear Jeff's ancestors fought in the 23rd Georgia which would fit my numbering scheme if the 2nd Brigade were Georgian, I'm going to shuffle some of the regiments and the 2nd Brigade will now be  The Georgia Brigade with the 21st, 22nd, 23rd and 24th Georgia Regiments led by General Hudelson (once I paint him up). Since the best brigades have nicknames, this one will of course have a nickname, the Bluebear Brigade.

Trimsos: The Testing of Hosts

I actually played through the game three times, but I kept adjusting and tinkering with rules as I went so have discounted the 1st 2 games (1 victory for each side btw). There wasn't anything really wrong with the first tests but various things were awkward and the first game, seemed to lack depth in terms of player involvement.

Since the primary goal was to test and develop the rules,  this post is focused on that aspect of the game rather than on a narrative.  For the same reason, although I did my best to translate and deploy the Hyborian Age armies as closely as I could within the framework of a Gathering of Hosts Mede-Lydian battle, ( see previous posts) I made no effort to recreate the battle, going so far as to deliberately avoid rereading Don's account apart from the set up. That said, the set up pretty much dictated the battle plan for each side.

The game broke down into 3 struggles, the fight for the bridge, the fight for the Pimple on the Mede left, and the fight in the center. Since the fight for the bridge was isolated, I'll deal with it first. The Medes had 4 stands of horse archers and 3 scythed chariots to drive off 4 stands of unarmoured spearmen and 4 of archers led by a Captain. Due to a lapse on my part, I several times forgot that the horse archers didn't have their own captain. I think in future that I will include one for each of what would once have been a "unit". In the end it made little difference as the archers rarely moved but traded long range shots with the Lydian archers while trying to soften up the Thracians. Periodically, one of the Scythed chariots would thunder across the bridge when the Thracians looked a little shaky), but none of them  could roll up when they needed them and at the end of the game the Medes had lost 3 chariots and a horse archer stand while the Lydians lost 1 spear and 1 archer stand. Equal forces had been committed, the Medes in a gamble on getting a force into the Lydian rear, the Lydians to holding them off. In the end the casualties slightly favoured them and they did hold the bridge but if either unit had been committed in the center they could probably have tipped the balance while the other could probably have held the bridge on their own, or at least held it long enough.

 The Medes moved rapidly to seize the Pimple with archers and spearmen and these held off assaults by cavalry and elephants for most of the game. On the end of the line, there was little the spearmen could do under attack by light cavalry but hunker down and rally off hits until the light cavalry finally remembered that they could prevent the rallying by moving close. This put them at risk of combat with the spearmen when the Medes had the 2nd move but they got lucky and on the one occasion that the spearmen managed to catch a few cavalrymen (shades of Platea), the spearmen rolled a fistful of 1's and 2's and only inflicted 1 hit allowing the cavalry a chance to pull back before the next round of melee. 

The veteran Skythian archers on the hill served as well as has been their wont over the last 35 years. Every time the heavy cavalry approached close enough to charge uphill, the archers would roll a fistfull of 5's and 6's forcing the cavalry to choose between rallying back, (a 3 or 4 turn process depending on the activation or order rolls, the stands have to retreat individually to a safe distance, then spend a turn halted to remove a hit then turn individually and form up into a battleline again ) or facing a high risk of being wiped out as they rode down the archers.  One of the elephants did mange to charge uphill and destroy a stand but was taken down itself (must have been those Skythian hand axes but then, it was a rather small plastic elephant). 

While the fight for the Pimple was going on, neither side dared advance too far in the center but the Medes thought they saw an opportunity and  launched their cavalry against the allied Hoplites, catching them as they maneuvered. It didn't help and they quickly rallied back and reverted to tossing javelins.

In the center, the 2 stands of archers managed a hit on the Garrison elephant which immediately panicked, heading straight for the Lydian spearmen but being killed by the mahout just before it reached them (in other words their move ended up just short as can be seen in the background 2 pictures above).  Much later the archers managed a hit on the last elephant, Ellie the vintage Airfix elephant, who also panicked and ran towards the Phyrgians (what is it that attracts elephants to Phrygians?)   Having started adjacent to them, she caused a fair amount of mayhem on her way home.  Not a sterling day for the elephants. During the 1st playtest, they had all gotten into contact, either without being hit or not panicking, and wrecked havoc on the Mede spearmen and archers. Dangerous beasts but not to be relied on.

At last, the lines were sorted out, the elephants chased off, hits rallied and with the Lydian general ordered an attack all along the line. 

The Greeks again proved their worth in melee but, alas, the Phrygians, with the general at their head were no match for the Medes and were wiped out in short order. Things looked bleak for the Lydians, without a General they were down to 2 order dice vs the Medes 3 and had lost 8 stands in all and were 6 away from demoralization while the Medes had only lost 4 at this point. I nearly called the game but the Fat Lady hadn't sung yet and the Captain of the cavalry was in no mood to rein in as his riders topped the hill. With only 2 stands of archers in position facing the cavalry, the Skyths ran out of 5's and 6's.   

   

There was a turn or 2 of jockeying as the lancers rode down the  archers and reformed, then, 1 stand above demoralization,  a roll of 11 Orders, sent every available cavalryman forward. The resulting melee was fierce and when the final tally was reckoned, both armies had fallen to their Demoralization point (over 50% of stands lost).  Once demoralization sets in, stands which can usually take 2 hits, are routed and removed when they take 1 hit (or are carrying one already). Looking at the picture above, all of the stands which have a red markers are carrying a hit and thus will rout, (including the one which the Mede General is attached to) leaving the table looking like:

 The Medes had been reduced to a single stand of cavalry and 2 engines on the near bank and 3 stands of horse archers on the far bank. The Lydians still had 4 stands of cavalry, 4 of spearmen and 3 of archers plus an engine, not to mention 2 captains. A Pyrrhic victory for the Lydians but that is better than no victory at all.

Of all the versions of the Gathering of Hosts that I've tested over the last year, this was the most satisfying yet. The Order dice may not be original but they work. On occasion,  a bad roll will limit a player's actions unduly but in most cases there are sufficient to do what needs to be done as long as an army is well ordered. Once an army is engaged in combat, or if it is allowed to fall into disorder, then there are almost never enough points. The key thing though is that player decisions and the interaction of the armies trump the die rolls in determining friction, most of the time. 

The shooting worked as intended from the very first version, but better than ever before. Long range fire can weaken an enemy and in particular can weaken or even turn back an attacking force but on its own, cannot usually do much damage as the enemy can generally rally off hits as quickly as they can be inflicted, as long as he doesn't move... In order to destroy the enemy, troops need to be sent in close to stop the enemy from rallying which puts them at risk of reprisal. If you can time it just right, and are favoured by fortune,  a barrage of missiles followed by a charge can burst an otherwise secure line. Mobility helps though, especially so you can pull back quickly if it doesn't work. A Parthian army suddenly sounds very dangerous, as long as the terrain is open and the enemy doesn't have too many missile troops and cavalry. 

One concern is that the melee dice may be too  generous. I want the ability to destroy an enemy stand in melee but I'm not sure it isn't happening too fast, or maybe it was just lucky dice. On the other hand, it does keep the game exciting and I don't know that historical clashes weren't often short apart from when too heavily armoured  infantry blocks collided, something I would also expect to go on a while under these rules.  Only more playing will tell but that may have to wait on my part until after Historicon. 

The version I used are posted but I know there are some little things that aren't explained as clearly as they should be and I keep finding obsolete bits that didn't get edited, and some little suggestions and examples that may not be quite right. For example I don;t think that I've made clear that Captains can only lead troops assigned to their command at the start of the game, not just any old stand that wanders into contact with their battleline.  Lots of work to be done yet.

  

Stumbling through Trimsos

The plan was to write up some background, notes on translating it onto my table, then later, a battle report,  but the sun came out and after a weekend of playing catch-up in the garden I am tired, slightly sun burnt and not up to a long blog post.

I did manage to work through a quick game, a few minutes here and there, but was a little too sun dazed and was relying on faulty memory of the latest draft of rules.

On the right, the Persians with their scythed chariots fill in for the Hyperboreans.

 On the left, with Egyptian allies including never before heard of Egyptian elephant corps, the Lydians fill in for the Hyrkanians

Even disregarding the memory lapses, the first attempt at adapting the rules to make some use of the hexes was not  a complete  success. I'm not sure exactly why but it didn't "feel" quite right and there were a few obvious but unforeseen flaws in the sequence of play. I've tinkered with the rules (in my head) and have reset the game after a fairly convincing " Hyrkanian"/Lydian victory. On Monday, the game will be played "for real". .

A Mede's eye view of a Lydian elephant.

Teaser: 2nd Battle of Sosmirt

The Battle of Plattsburg 1843

Somewhere the sun is shining. Sighhhh a hard day for Redcoats. but HOORAY! for the boys in blue!

Today's game was based on Don Featherstone's Action in the Plattville Valley from his book Wargames. The original was set in the ACW and naturally used his rules. It looked close enough for my 40mm Oregon War  and the new, IMPROVED, With MacDuff To The Frontier. (and I was right!)

All line infantry units were 20 strong, rifle units, 12 strong and cavalry units, 9 strong. All units were considered average regulars but the artillery was deemed "Stubborn".

Taking the role of the Confederate side was the Anglo-Mexican army under General Hubert. It was composed as follows:
1st Brigade: 1st Battalion Incorporated Militia, Canadian Fencibles.
2nd Brigade: HM 26th Foot, HM 49th Foot
3rd Brigade: Victoria Rifles, San Carlos Active Militia
Cavalry Brigade: Larson's Lancers, GG Body Guard
Artillery Brigade: Rocket Battery Bengal Horse Artillery, Foote's battery RA.

Taking the role of the Federal side was the American Army under General Ross.
1st Brigade: 1st & 2nd US Infantry
2nd Brigade: Bangor Rifles, 3rd Infantry
3rd Brigade: King Of Prussia Pennsylvania Volunteers, 2nd Illinois Volunteers
Cavalry Brigade: 1st & 2nd Dragoons
Artillery Brigade: Pennsyvania Artillery, Mountain Battery.

The game lasted 10 turns and took a little over 3 hours to play.

I followed the initial moves of the original game and then relied on my own judgement assisted by the occasional die roll as the game went on. Thanks to the blocked lines of sight and the need to push forward, the game proceeded rapidly without incident until Turn 5. (There were a few long range pot shots on T4 iir.) The main deviation from the book at this point was that the Fencibles beat the 1st Foot to the Stone Wall  thanks to a combination of the card draw and variable moves. On Turn 5 all hell broke loose.

  Atop the Green Ridge the Incorporated Militia and 2nd Infantry have started a murderous close range musket duel. The 1st Infantry traded fire with the Fencibles then was hit by rockets and charged by Larsen's Lancers who passed forward through the Fencibles. They can be seen above rallying behind the 1st Dragoons.

As the British infantry pushed up the center and the American Infantry jostled forward in a tight mass on their right, a sharp counter attack by the 1st Dragoons drove the Lancers back. To add injury to insult, the Pennsylvanian gunners turned their sites on the Royal Artillery. 3 hits! The shattered battery was forced to limber up and retreat but rallied just well enough to stay on the field.

On the right, nothing could stop the American juggernaut though the Victoria Rifles did slow it down and bloody it a little.  On the far side of the field the Militia broke and the 2nd Brigade stalled in a firefight. Suddenly the US 2nd Dragoons galloped forward and formed on the flank of the British line. The GGBG moved forward to counter and the tension rose as the card deck was shuffled and the first card for the next turn was revealed.    

It was a black card and the Dragoons swept forward, after detailing a troop to cover the flank. Behind them the Pennsylvanians stormed the Church with its Mexican garrison.  The 1st action for the newly reinforced San Carlos battalion. And the result of all this excitement?

As I sent the Dragoons charging up the hill, it belatedly occurred to me that the artillery might well have been able to drive the redcoats away more safely. Oh well, what are the odds of a flank charge failing? The 1/2 squadron of Dragoons would have to roll three 1's more or less.  Well, two 1's and a 2 as it turned out.  The Dragoons rallied back and next turn the guns blasted the 26th off the hill.  The odds were even better for the Mexicans, but as you can see in the picture, they broke and ran.  That left the charge of the GGBG led by Brigadier Nolan. Alas, as those who followed the Game a Week series of battles might predict, 4 dragoons were more than a match for 9 Bodyguards and a Brigadier.  Bloody Irish immigrants fresh from beating up on Indians no doubt.

There was still a chance. As the British troops rallied, General Hubert ordered an attack on the right. The Fencibles advanced then unleashed a hail of fire on their foe but the return fire was hot and the rockets didn't help either. Quite  a pretty sight as the smoke trail arced up, forward, and then gently curved in a graceful arc right down onto the Fencibles, landing on the Colonel.  The militia which had rallied, just, bravely marched up and shot down Brigadier Zinn of the 1st US Brigade. On the British left the gun deployed to bolster the Rifles but the 3rd Infantry shot down the gunners. In the center, the Brigader rallied the 26th but the artillery broke them again and took down the Brigadier.

  Left to themselves the Rifles broke after a short melee with the 3rd Infantry while without the Brigadier's stern influence, the 49th and 26th Foot both elected to retreat. (Two control checks, two 1's) The leaderless US regiments however, held their ground and broke the Militia again. The GGBG steeled their nerves and made a dash at the Illinois boys as they pressed up to the town but the fiercest volley of the game sent them reeling back and the game was up. Of the 10 Allied units, 5 were broken or destroyed with only the rocket battery and 2 regiments left in fighting shape. Not a single US unit was broken though some were looking a little ragged.

Now this, was how I have been envisaging the Oregon games. HOORAY!  A couple of the HofT games came close but this was spot on and felt more organic. Its odd where one finds inspiration. One major stumbling block was overcome by recalling the WRG  1685-1845 rules trick of 2 hits on a  6. That resolved the dilemma of too many dice or no chance of a drastic result. Giving up the man to man melee and a subtle change to the casualty recovery/morale system lifted some other issues and allowed me to go back to having fire and movement integrated  in an Action phase which was one of the things I always liked.  I dropped or simplified a few other rules and suddenly the game flowed like I always imagined it. Units fell back, rallied and returned to the fray but were not indestructible and needed to be protected while they rallied.

I'm also happy to report that the 5'x6' foot table came through with flying colours. Ample room for maneuver for 20 man units and armies created to match Grant & Asquith scenarios will fit nicely and come to about the right amount of figures for what I want to paint.  The rules should also be scale-able downwards for skirmishes using 1/2 sized units.

HUZZAH!!

Cognitive Dissonance and the March to Plattsburg

Scruby 40mm ACW led by Zinnbrigade Homecast Prussians, all converted to 1840's US infantry.

Over the last week, a bout of flu interfered with useful stuff like working on the house & yard, painting miniatures and playing games but didn't stop me from reading, or from thinking. One may question the acuity of the latter at some stages where the line between awake and asleep was thin but still, not for the first time, it seems to me that my efforts to write just the "right" set of simple horse and musket rules for a simple fictional toy soldier game keep hitting stumbling blocks and that practice and theory don't seem to jive well. Now, I have dabbled in the world of "Imagi-nations" though with historically uniformed troops and  the latest version of MacDuff is only 6,400 (roughly) words on 13 pages and there are those who would consider that a sign of absolute basic simplicity, but I have to wonder. 

It bothers me that I can be heard talking about top down, results oriented designs, flexible scales and toy soldier attitudes and games but I still get hung up looking at ground and time scales, drill books, orders of battle, unit organizations, casualty rates in historical battles where I can get them, and so on.  Now putting aside the possibility of unintended hypocracy, (in other words the possibility that I am lying to myself and thus others) for reasons beyond my comprehension, the next most likely situation is that there is unresolved cognitive dissonance between the old, well entrenched, simulationist POV and the newer experience of the pleasures of the simple game as a game. 

Now, I don't have to do one OR the other. One can play simulation wargames and still enjoy Parchesi. It also possible to consciously choose a middle road where one tries to find a balance between game and simulation. Indeed this is well trodden ground, the majority of wargames fit here. The trick is to really know what you seek, find the spot along the continuum that fits, and keep it firmly in mind.  Its the old adage:

In order to set a course, you need to know where you want to go. 

It would be nice to be able to sit down from scratch, set out objectives and criteria and designing mechanisms and so forth, but I'm not at a good spot for a clean start and don't want to wipe the slate. The next best thing would be to work on some concrete, specific, detailed criteria and choose a set to use as a guide when looking at the rules.  Of course, we all know that won't happen.

One choice to be made is how serious am I about designing the rules for my specific needs and letting others make what use they wish of any part of them vs designing a set that will accommodate me but be more widely useful.  MacDuff to the Frontier was originally written specifically for the Colonial games that Ron and I were playing using the figures that we had. There was no intent to share them more widely and it was serendipity that led to them being published in Courier after Dick Bryant followed up on a thread on homebrew rules on rgmh. (Does rgmh still exist or has TMP, blogging and other forums replaced it altogether?)

Another choice is whether I want the core intention to be the ability to recreate historic battles  in some   

fashion with other games being secondary or whether the inverse is true. If the former than the ability to cope with varied OB's and asymetrical situations is very important as is some recognition of scale and the ability to produce a believable outcome on a regular basis. If the latter than the key focus should be on such things as ease of designing armies and balanced scenarios and the gaming experience, the others things become a desirable bonus.  

One quick example of the effect that this sort of focus can have. If the rules specify that an army has to have exactly X, lets say 12 units each of a closely defined size and that the battle field must be exactly this shape and size and meet a list of criteria for terrain, then its is easy to deploy and play a generic game and the rules can be simplified. Turning an historical battle into a scenario, however, will require much abstraction and/or some bending or breaking of rules. On the other hand, if your units, armies and battlefield  are wide open, it is easier to turn a battle into a scenario once you have established ground and figure scales but the rules now have to cope with a wide variety of  hard to predict situations. Setting up and resolving a quick generic game becomes  a complex question usually over come by player experience or additional play aids (like scenario books designed for that rule set). 

Ok, we're on the home stretch now. Lets look at one detail that I've been struggling with. My Morschauser inspired rules had my equivalent of his Basic Unit at the core. Each of these had characteristics and was the entity around which the game was built. Until I started getting into  a hybrid set, it didn't really matter what made a basic unit as long as both sides were similar. With MacDuff, the rules laid out what constituted a unit, how many officers, how many men, drummers, flags etc. Players always had the choice to ignore this and I did myself but doing so affected how the rules played and how effective units were. To get around that, I had  to start changing rules, either making them more complex or dropping key flavour.   

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been playing about with  unit organizations vs rules. Put simply, if a unit is a unit,  then the game is easier to design. As soon as the unit of play becomes sometimes a company of say 6 to 12 figures including 1 or 2 leaders and sometimes a 2,3 or 4 company battalion of up to 48 figures with somewhere between 5 and 9 leaders, let alone other  configurations and things get tricky. The rules need to be carefully worded to avoid unintended benefits to odd organizations. Players have to decide on the best organization, depending on what sort of games they want to play, a strictly scales historical organization is unlikely to work so they must choose the "right" one for them. How many men in a company how many leaders, is there a reason not to have the maximum?  Its a head ache. 

So what was my intent as designer? What kind of games do I want really want to play? If its recreating historical battles, shouldn't the rules be adjusted to make that easy? If its not based on historical OB's, should the focus be on what makes a convenient force for gaming? Start perhaps with how many "units" that a player needs to be kept involved without bogging down  and the heck with what they represent for now. Should these "units" be prescribed and let others worry when their make-believe organization is "wrong"?   or should more effort be made to make the rules organization independent?  All choices without a right or wrong answer. Its all about intent and this simple horse has really been pushing the rules cart around for some time now. 

Enough for now, I need to resolve this question and maybe make a few quick rule changes before I start in on the game I have just laid out to play tomorrow, the battle of Plattsburg.  

No, not Plattsburg NY in 1814, but a game based on a famous ACW engagement. The name isn't quite right, nor the terrain, especially the hills, Still, Rabbit Ridge and Green Hill are there, the Wheat field, the Church, and Bull Creek. so those well versed in classic OS Wargame books may recognize the field of battle. 

Battle Station Dec 74: Featherstone at Belmont Pass

This is the first play through of the Battle Stations from Wargamers Digest, December 1974. Please refer to the earlier post for set up and details.  

Overview of the battlefield before the game.

Having considered the various rules to be used, I ended up adding 50% to the distances in the scenario. This still isn't a precise translation but its as close as I can get without modifying move distances and ranges. After assessing the situation, I decided to deploy the foot artillery and 1 regiment of infantry as a pinning force while the cavalry went on a wide flanking movement on the left. The 2nd regiment I ordered to move left and assault the corner of the enemy hill supported by the horse artillery and the 3rd regiment. (I can't believe that I haven't named any of these regiments yet!)

Turn 1, the blue and the grey toss for initiative. 

The flanking move begins aided by a Russian limber.

The game started smoothly, the Yankees hunkered down behind their breastworks (built for my 15mm ACW and pressed into service) while the Rebs marched off smartly. (a bit of a relief actually having no command control test or variable move dice - UhOh!) On turn 2 the Reb foot artillery galloped forward and unlimbered on the flank of their infantry supports.  I decided that it was time to roll for the strength of the Yankee defenders (remember, this wasn't specified in the original article, only the black and white picture provided any guidance) and ended up with 3 regiments of infantry and no artillery support. I deployed 1 regiment hidden on the wooded hill on the right of the Federal position and the 3rd in reserve in dead ground behind the hill. The Federal commander had won both initiative rolls thus far and chosen to move second each time, this gave him the right to fire first (at least according to how Don explained it when laying out the rules as opposed to what is described during the example game). The regiment had 4 stands and thus had 2 dice of fire. The range was 16", over 1 foot but less than 2 feet so 2 was deducted from  each dice resulting in 1 hit on the infantry. First blood! The gun then fired needing 3 or better, a 2 was duly rolled, a miss. Now I turned to the Rebel infantry and only just remembered that it was fire OR move and they had moved so, no return fire.

The ball commences.

There seemed no reason to alter the plan on either side so the next turn rolled on with the Confederate pinning force standing and trading fire at long range while the flanking move continued. On turn 4 the Rebs won the initiative roll and forced the Yankees to go first, seemed like a good idea since they had a chance to knock a stand off the enemy thus reducing his fire but the Federals also had hidden infantry and I decided that these could not be fired at until they moved or fired or someone moved within 6". So, the cavalry moved around the hill, the horse artillery unlimbered and looked for targets and the infantry advanced. The pinning force opened up but both gun and infantry whiffed! Seizing the moment the 2nd regiment of infantry stood up and opened fire.

   Surprise!

This began a lengthy fire fight with a slow trickle of casualties, thanks in part to some fickle dice. The odds of assaulting the hill didn't look comforting so I decided to see what effect the cavalry flanking attack would have. With my other hat on, I split the reserve, moving 2 stands to face the cavalry  while the other 2 moved to the breastwork to thicken the defenses. The cavalry drew sabers and charged (more out of curiosity about the melee rules then anything else, dismounting and opening fire would probably have been wiser even though not covered under the rules). The infantry leveled their rifles and fired with -1 for range and x1/2 for cavalry resulting in the loss of 1 cavalryman. In the melee then, the cavalry rolled 2 dice, subtracting 1 from each die for attacking uphill then halving for effect, inflicted 1 hit. The infantry on the other hand rolled 1 die after halving inflicted 2 points or 1 cavalryman, and I removed a stand. (In retrospect, I had given each cavalry stand the offensive power of 4 men so should have either allowed each to take 4 hits or have treated the 4 men as 1 stand, oops) This left 1 stand or 2 cavalry facing 2 stands or 7 infantry, I rolled the morale dice while I debated whether to multiple by stands, figures or melee points. The cavalry rolled a 2, the infantry 6, making it a moot point, the cavalry turned and retreated. .

(ok this is 2 turns before the cavalry melee, in the heat of action I think I reloaded the camera with several rounds without firing a shot...)
. .
The cavalry rallied at the first opportunity but declined the opportunity to make a 2nd attempt. The fire fight was starting to wear down both sides as each fed in replacements. The holding force thought it saw an opening and surged forward but when the artillery missed, their (ie my) nerve failed and they halted on the next turn and opened fire at point blank range. So far the entrenchments had given the Yankees just enough of an edge that they would have won the firefight if it wasn't for the Confederate artillery. One more round of fire saw two of their regiments reduced to a single stand. With a rebel yell, the grey regiment swarmed over the breastwork taking out the last defender. I decide to use the rally test to check morale on the remnants of the other 2 regiments upon seeing this and both fell back 1/2 a move and rallied. With only 3 stands between the 2 regiments, it was time to go home.

     The Yankees falling back in good order.
 The last defender has been put back in place for dramatic effect. .   

And so ended an enjoyable little affair. It took me about an hour to play through about 10 turns and once again, a severely stripped down set of rules seemed to provide a better game than many, if not most, more complex ones. Obviously there are a lot of things not covered by the rules. Even leaving aside things not relevant to the scenario like engineering, there were no  rules for formation or direction changes, passage of lines, detailed weapon variations, troop quality etc,  but most of what was missing, wasn't missed!  Instead of worrying about such details, the focus was on the plan and basic tactics and worked. A cavalry assault uphill on rifled armed infantry was easily repulsed, an attack on entrenched infantry only worked because of artillery support and a flank attack which split the defenders at a crucial point. A successful assault on the position might have worked but it would have been a gamble and it was easier to stall and trade fire. In other words, the game felt right.

To my surprise, I didn't miss the command control restrictions or my variable moves either. The long moves and unpredictable, sometimes severe combat results gave sufficient unpredictability to keep things interesting and made reserves not only useful but necessary. (oddly the same is true of Charge! and the original Morschauser rules but is not true of many newer or more complex rules).

Not only that, but, if you are wondering what the scrap of paper visible in the lower right hand corner of the 1st picture  is? Its the entire rules hand chicken-scratched onto 2 post-it notes. Next best thing to a postcard!

Rules on a post-it. Admittedly scrawled in abbreviated form.

My enthusiasm for breaking out the copy of Black Powder has waned even farther but it is the rule set Jerry & I have selected for an upcoming occasional campaign so I will persevere.  The 3rd game is more up inthe air, Morschauser, straight up as planned, the early Morschauser Meets MacDuff variant or the latest Hearts of Tin? The game is short enough that I could try them all and F&F as well but there is something mystical about 3 so we'll see.

Oh and the solution you ask?

Nope, I didn't cheat, but all those years of training must have sunk in.
Picture from WD Dec 1974

Battles With Model Soldiers

Don Featherstone's book Battles With Model Soldiers (BWMS), my introduction to the hobby,  was published in 1970, 8 years after Wargames. The rules are firmly aimed at the beginner and are stripped down compared to those in Wargames, indeed they are not really presented as a full set of rules but as only as some suggestions  as a starting point, just sufficient to get you going and point the way. Yet, they are not just stripped down as some mechanisms are different rather than just simplified. Improvements or just a variation?

The Reb's so far, painted in 1983, based in 2011, ready for their 1st action!

Here are the Four M's of the original rules summed up:

Movement:
Infantry: 12" move or fire, Cavalry:18", Artillery: 18" -3" to limber/unlimber.

Missile Fire:

• Rifles: 1die per 5 figures the modified score is the number of casualties.Remainders of 3 or more are allowed a die, smaller remainders are ignored.
  Modifiers: 0-6" -1, >6"-12" -2, >12" -24" -3, Enemy in hard cover -1, cavalry suffer 1/2 casualties
• Artillery: 1 die per gun to hit. Up to 9" need 4,5 or 6,  >9" to 18" need 5,6, >18" to 36" need 6.
  Once a hit is scored, roll 1 die with the score being the number of casualties inflicted.
  Cavalry and troops in hard cover suffer 1/2 casualties rounding down. A gun may move and fire as long as it is unlimbered during the fire phase. Guns may be trained on their target after all movement is done.

Melee.

Infantry is 1 point, cavalry are 2 points if fighting infantry, 1 point if fighting cavalry. Roll 1 die per 5 points and 1/2 the  score, rounded down are the points of casualties inflicted. .+1 per die for  shock if cavalry charge and in other situations where it seems warranted, for example, a flank attack. 

Morale.
After melee, each side rolls a die and multiplies the number of survivors by the score. The lowest total must retreat a full move next turn.

Three options are given for Sequence of play, Dicing for 1st move, simultaneous moves from opposite flanks or written turn orders. In all cases, movement is conducted then fire then melee.

My original intent was to sum up the ACW rules included for the sample game and play them straight up but after re-reading Appendix 1, Author's Note, I will make a few slight modifications incorporating some ideas from other chapters and adapting to taste.

Movement and Terrain: Earlier in the book Don mentions the effect of terrain on movement and suggests 1/2 speed on hills and "some" deduction for crossing walls and streams etc. Since he has maintained the 3" limber/unlimnber from wargames, I will borrow the 3" penalty from Wargames for crossing walls etc and will also penalize infantry moving through woods by 1/2 movement and forbid guns and cavalry from entering except if moving along a marked path. I will also allow troops moving by road to add 1/2 to their move.

Missile Fire: Those familiar with Wargames will have noted an important omission, the "saving throws of dice" have disappeared. Cover is now a direct modifier and officer casualties have disappeared. It also means that the high casualty rates are roughly (very roughly) 1/3rd higher. Artillery on the other hand, has had its teeth drawn compared to Wargames, shorter ranges, less chance to hit and 1/2 the effect. However to compensate there is no reduction for crew casualties and no limits on ammo. Oddly, the new range brackets do not match the infantry brackets so that there are "sweet spots".

Rifle Fire. When I originally decided to do a 1/72nd ACW project in 1982, I decided to make the Rebel regiments 15 strong and the Union 12 based with a mix of singles and multiples. Having revived the project last year, I decided to base all figures on 40mm wide bases and for convenience of scenario balance, have now made all units 4 stands, 3 with 4 figures,1 with 3 which will be deployed as skirmishers if appropriate. Now 15 figures nicely  gives me 3 volleys if counting noses but it would be convenient to fit the dice to the basing. If I roll a volley for each 2 bases, that will slightly reduce the casualties and make it easy to track, I just need to track hits and remove a base when 4 have been suffered. A single stand will get no dice and cannot be combined with a stand from a different regiment. Dismounted cavalry and infantry with smoothbores will be treated the same but the range bands will be 3", 6" and 12"

A newly raised Union regiment advancing at "low guard", skirmishers to the front.

Artillery: I would like the artillery to be a bit more effective, especially at cannister range so will make 6 equal 6" range bands with the score to hit ranging from automatic up to 6" to needing a 6.at 36". So at 6" a hit is automatic, >6"=12" 2 or more to hit, >12"-18" 3 or better, etc. If a hit is scored roll 1 die for effect. Cavalry, and troops in hard cover suffer 1/2 the number of casualties. I also want to make the artillery a little less vulnerable so I will declare that they also suffer 1/2 casualties from all shooting.

Skirmishers: The Battle Stations mentions skirmishers. After some waffling, I have decided to ignore skirmishers for now.    

Melee. Like firing, I want to adjust the dice to suit my basing and will maintain the same ratio as firing, 1 die per 8 pts with a stand being 4 pts if infantry or if cavalry fighting cavalry or 8 pts if cavalry fighting infantry. 1/2 the total is the number of points lost. +1 per die for shock but I will also subtract -1 per die if attacking uphill or against cover as well as no shock being allowed in these situations. Note that this means that while artillery will get defensive fire, it will not get a melee die and will normally be over run unless very lucky.  

Morale: There are various morale suggestions in BWMS, all somewhat different from the rules in Wargames, most laid out as special cases such as column attacks possibly being repulsed by shooting. The only morale used in the example battles is to decide melee and an optional test if the General is killed. In the section on ACW, there is a suggestion for a morale test for units the first time they come under fire and a vague mention of testing to rally them if they fail. I'm not going to test units coming under fire but will steal the test to use as a rally test. 

If a unit is forced to retreat after losing a melee, it must roll a die on the following turn to rally. (ie if defeated in turn 2 it will retreat on turn 3 and attempt to rally on turn 4) 1,2,3 the unit rallies and may move as ordered. 4,5 the unit falls back 1/2 move then rallies and faces the enemy and may obey orders next turn, 6 the unit retreats a full move and must attempt to rally again next turn. If a general joins the unit, he may add +1 to the die but must stay with them till the end of the turn. (This +1 will also apply in post-melee morale if a general was with the unit during the melee)

There is no morale penalty for being below strength but single stands of infantry have no combat value so are best sent to safety.

Generals. In the basic rules, generals are just another mounted figure for melee though there is an optional morale test if the general is killed (but no specific rules for this happening). For now, I am going to ignore command issues and just use the officers to boost morale. This needs to come with a risk though so if a general has joined a unit which suffers hits, roll 1 die an on a 1 he has been hit. If a general is hit then on the next move, all units under his command must test (call it morale, call it command confusion). 1,2,3 they carry on, 4,5 they halt 1 turn, 6 they retreat a full move and test again next turn, 

That should give me a simple but workable game and I am looking forward to trying it. I would like to end up with the following excerpt which nicely sums up my attitude and is in part, where I got it from.

Thank you Don for many enjoyable hours and great friends.

_________________________________________________________________________

APPENDIX 1  from Don Featherstone's Battles With Model Soldiers

AUTHOR'S NOTE

EXCERPT

"Nothing in these pages is a dictate, no word says you must or you shall do it this way. On the contrary, the book sets out from the very beginning to stimulate the reader to think for himself, and to use what he has read merely as a foundation for efforts and ideas which reflect his own temperament and character. Only in this way will he obtain maximum satisfaction from the hobby of battling with model soldiers."

   20 years being jostled in the spares bin has left minor some scars but amazingly not a man has been lost. (Until this week that is when a gun and 3 crew have gone awol. arrgh! How far can they have gone? Call out the Provosts!   )