Incident At Belmont Station

"Were you there Grandpa?"

"Sure thing! I was a Corporal with the Belmont Fusiliers, and we were in the midst of it."

"Let me see......yes, the regular patrol and resupply train was just passing when suddenly,
 the morning was shattered by gunfire! The Oerbergers had broken the truce!
We grabbed our rifles and fell in to wait for orders."

"We figured we'd be sent to reinforce the company of Ross's Rifles that was acting as train guards but before we got our orders, there was a roar and a pile of smoke as the train started to cross the bridge. The  train came to a halt but we cheered when it was clear that the bridge was not going to fall apart wrecking the train."    

"As we crossed the river, Mounted Oerbergers appeared from their hidden lairs and galloped towards the disabled train. Once we opened fire though, they hopped off their horses and replied with a storm of bullets."

Things were looking tight until Larson's Lancers crossed the river. Their trumpeter blew charge and the enemy's horsemen turned and fled. It was the end.   We loaded our rifles, carried the wounded to the town for the medics to treat, and we began to dig graves. 

Sunday Morning Paper Headline

 OERBERG BREAKS THE TRUCE!

A brief telegram has reported that Oerburg has broken the treaty without warning, crossed the border, and ambushed a routine train carrying supplies for her Majesty's frontier posts.  

Details to follow when they are available.

The 10:00 Train

Belmont Station on a warm winter day. 

"Train coming Sir!"

"Right-O. that's the 10:00. They'll be going straight through and over the bridge.
Bugler, sound the all clear." 

"Sir? We haven't had any trouble with the Oerbergers for more than a year. Do you think they've given it up?"
" They're crafty folk son. You never know when or where they're going to pop up,  They could drawing a bead on you right now or planning an ambush on that train!    Best keep a sharp watch or they may sneak up and steal your lunch!"

.....to be continued

Fighting in Oerberg resumes!

 Very useful aides are those readers who comment now and then, especially when I'm looking for inspiration for the next game.  I had almost forgotten that my early 20thC Colonial forces had been in standby since 2023 

See Battle of Bridgetown Oct 2023

I've dug them out, just may add a few more figures, and am pondering scenarios. So, stay tuned we're heading for warmer climes!

An Uneasy Truce

Well, here we are well into the 2025 winter campaigning season but peace has fallen over my wargame table due to Domestic affairs (ie various household chores and  projects).

 However, we have archives!

Here is a repeat of a January game from 10 years ago: 

Let Us Cross Over The Rivers

Our impression of the feel of a game is often as important as the reality of how it played. When I look at the actual mechanisms there are only two main differences from previous versions of my game: movement by both sides followed by shooting by both sides and finally charge resolution rather than alternate turns with one side moving and shooting and resolving charges then the other, and the substitution of temporary groups for fixed units. In some ways these changes made very little difference to how the game played or to the outcome but the change in play sequence in particular made a world of difference to the feel. It is not a particularly new or innovative play sequence rather it is pretty much drawn from Featherstone and from Lawford and Young  but that is perhaps the point. Its comfortable like an old pair of slippers and feels right for Old School glossy wargame figures yet the game maintained the convenience of the grid and a small number of figures.

Since the game is no longer a variant of the Square Brigadier I have decided to settle on the name The Tin Army.

General Grey arrives and is briefed by the commander of the Oberhilse advance guard.

The scenario has a small detachment of Faraway troops defending a river crossing on a quiet sector of the front. In this case there is a nice straight canal crossed by 1 bridge and a larger river crossed by 2. Oberhilse must capture a route across both bodies of water to win. Faraway must hold all of the bridges to win. The forces appear in dribs and drabs in what was supposed to be random order but dice being what they are, they all appeared in order! 

Rather annoyingly, the scenario breaks from the usual format of "units" and occasionally 1/2 units to speak of companies, troops, squadrons and units without specifying what each was intended to represent. So for example there are 2 companies in the front village and the rest of the unit in the rear village. Ok so is that 2 and 2? 2 and 1 ? 2 and 8?  No hint of proportion. If my own organization was fixed it would have been easier but eventually, taking into consideration what was available, I settled on the following. 

Faraway or Red Army: 8 infantry and 2 cavalry and a commander in the small town , 8 more infantry and 2 more cavalry in the bigger one. Reinforcements eventually included the General, 4 more cavalry with the cavalry commander, a commander  and 16 infantry, another commander with  8 infantry and an MG, and last but not least, a field gun. (in Red and Khaki) Total: General, 4 Commanders, 8 cavalry, 40 infantry, 1 MG, 1 gun 

Oberhilse or Blue Army: 8 infantry and 4 cavalry under a Commander followed eventually by an MG and further 8 cavalry for the advance guard, another 8 cavalry and commander, a field gun and 3 "battalions" each with a commander and 16 infantry. (in Blue and Field Grey) Total: General, 5 Commanders, 20 cavalry, 56 infantry, 1 MG, 1 gun.

  

The game lasted 16 turns and probably lasted 2 1/2 to 3 hours. I spent too long fiddling with rules, taking pictures and just plain looking at the figures and used up my block of "me" time so had to finish it 1 or 2 turns at a time over two days when I could grab a minute. 

I'm not going to attempt a blow by blow description of each of 16 turns but the pictures and captions will hopefully give a good impression of how things went. The red discs mark disordered or pinned units, the red caps mark carried over 1/2 hits while the white caps mark shaken units. Now that I feel very 'settled' I'll add more scenic markers to the to-do list along with more dismounted cavalry so units don't have to change uniforms when they dismount. 

Blue decided to run the gauntlet of fire and bypass the village with the Jaegers and cavalry of the Advanced Guard while the rapidly approaching infantry stormed the village. Red called everyone forward but some of the detached units were slow to fall in. 

A gratuitous close up of the arrival of The Frontier Horse. These volunteers are now largely recruited from Oerberg across the mountains, one of several grievances held by Her Majesty's government against that state. 

The aggressive General Brown has arrived to take command of Faraway's defences. He redirects 2 companies of infantry to retake the bridge captured by the enemy lancers. His own cavalry has left the defence of the village to the infantry and has formed a skirmish screen to prevent the village from being surrounded. Reinforcements rush to the front on both sides. 

This picture follows the teaser in the previous post. In the village, an assault by Blue's infantry has taken the Red house but the garrison of the White house is still hanging on after repulsing an assault. The Blue advance guard has taken heavy losses from shooting and a series of cavalry charges and is now spent. Red has recaptured the bridge and taken the commander and a handful of Jaegers prisoner.  As Red savours the moment, the Blue Dragoons suddenly appear, almost as if the GM had missed their arrival and just plopped them down on table where they might have been as if their approach had merely been unnoticed. 

The village has fallen and as more and more Blue infantry marches on backed by artillery, Red is forced to abandon his efforts to retake the village and fall back in hopes of a draw. The Lancers and Country Volunteers hold the Blue Dragoons, just. Both the Dragoons and Lancers will be shaken by losses next turn and forced to withdraw but Blue still has fresh reserves moving forward.

The slaughter was terrific as impetuous massed charges by Blue infantry faced fierce rifle, machine gun and artillery fire but while repulsed shaken, their attacks also shook the enemy. Red still controlled both bridges and the light ws failing (ie only 1 turn left) so I was going to call it a draw on Turn 15 but Blue had fresh infantry just within reach of the bridge and was willing to risk another turn of  shooting. This turn the gunners fired high and although the lead company of Windsor Blue's had to double forward with bayonets to reach the enemy, the shaken defenders were unable to hold them and the bridge fell. Another Oberhilse victory! 
The Old Queen is not amused!  

Plans are already afoot for the first game of 2025 but I need to pick a period. Requests will be welcome!

 

Battle of Bridgetown

The Oerburg front had been quiet for over a year, but having heard rumours of agitators trying to stir up trouble, the Dominion had recently increased the outpost at Bridgetown. So it was that when a company of Oerburgers quietly occupied the far side of the rail bridge, the garrison commander ordered out 3 companies of Ross's Rifles supported by a 4.7" naval gun to clear them away.

  To no one's great surprise, that first company was well supported.

To the Dominion's surprise though, the Orberg cavalry splashed through a ford the Dominion's soldier were unaware of and were advancing at a good pace towards the 4.7". A squadron of Larsen's Lancers were there though so no one was too worried.

Instead of dismounting as was their habit though, they came on at a gallop, firing from the saddle. The Lancers were thrown back, and the 4.7" overrun! 

To make things worse, the Rifles had suffered heavy casualties and the remnant had been forced to fallback to the town. Only the company of Dominion Guards were left intact to strengthen the defence of the vital town and railway.   

It was enough.   The Oerbergers launched a weak attempt to storm the town but they had also suffered heavily in the early fighting and there wasn't enough time for their artillery to demolish the town, even if they wanted to. 

So, the day ended, as it began with the two parties glaring at each other across the Blutape River.

(Note: After some false starts with versions of the WW1 Sq Brigadier rules, I decided to fall back on the rules I intend to use with my 54's. I've finally agreed with myself that the fewer sets of rules I use, the easier my life and games will be. I'll post them once they are tidied up and tested again... oh!.. another game!  awright! ) 

Assault On North Village

Finally, here is a short report on last week's battle.

Having repelled The Oerbergers' raid on the the Dominion's supply depot, orders were issued to clear a road block at North Village so the planned offensive could begin.

After an extended barrage by a full field battery and a half battery of naval 4.7's, the order was given for the attack to proceed. Ross's Rifles were ordered to sieze the western end of Long Hill in order to drive the rebels away from the road. The  Royal Regiment was ordered to clear the village.   

Apparently the barrage had had little effect on the defenders on the hill and deadly MG, rifle and artillery fire cut the Rifles to piece. Those stout veterans did not falter though, and while unable to storm the hill,  the firefight was prolonged.

The assault on the left did not meet the same deadly hail of machine gun bullets and shrapnel and quickly closed on the village which was defended by a handful of rebel villagers, and by the newly raised Kapelle Rifles, their first taste of battle. It didn't take long for the dominion forces to realize that closing with the enemy wasn't the same as driving them from their positions. The brutal, hand to hand fight in the village was prolonged and deadly.  

"A" Company of the Royals, on the left, eventually took 1/2 the village, but were unable to push on any farther. "B" Company, supported by the MG company,  took the perimeter wall after a prolonged fight in which the new Kapelle Rifles defended their post to the last man (turn after turn of drawn melee). As the sun set, the cavalry, supported by the Armoured Car were unleashed in hopes of over running the dismounted Oerburgers who had finally come forward from the reserves but the Oerbergers' rifle and MG fire was too deadly.

The Dominion forces were exhausted and there was nothing to do but retreat under the protection of a renewed artillery barrage on the rebel positions. 

While We Are Waiting

I was too busy today to write up the battle but here's an aerial view of the game in progress. 

The Dominion forces attack with the aim of clearing the road. 

On Friday, I'm off to visit family, to celebrate Canada Day on the 1st and then, since the three of us were all born in July, we'll celebrate our birthday month.  Not quite sure how it is that my sister who used to be only 3 years older than me will be 70 by the end of the weekend, but there we are.  

One More Before We Go.

A long while ago, I bought two of the Prince August mounted cowboy moulds but had never painted any up. As the Kapelle Rebellion has started coming together, I decided to do at least 1 of each. Its rather surprising how well shiny toy soldier semi-flat horsemen can mix in with fully round ones of a similar size and style. 

The PA cowboys are in front, in the rear are two Scruby ACW riders on Zinnbrigade horses.

The previous game had been the first Kapelle Rebellion game that hadn't been played with some version of the Square Brigadier. The game was so so at best, part of that was the particular OHW scenario I had chosen, but part of it was the first draft of a new set of rules for the off grid games. I let it sit for a few days and then started thinking about it. Eventually, I decided that since I was using neither grid nor multi-figure bases, I could do something a little more Old School. Once a set were quickly drawn up, I decided they needed to be tried while they were fresh, but with a simple, Old School scenario. 

The Rebel army stands to as Domion forces deploy on the horizon (aka the opposing table edge.).

Hopefully I can play this out on Thursday, otherwise it'll have to be next week. 

Another One Rides On Board

 This twice converted Scruby ACW 40mm cavalry unit is now ready to rumble and roll dice. 

Since this is minor sideshow, I've decided to limit the armies for the Kapelle Rebellion to what is needed for small scenarios such as the ones in  One Hour Wargames and various other sources. Just enough to make use of whats done for a quick game now and then, a game a bit different from my usual fare. 

Apart from moving some infantry and gunners from abandoned foamcore test company bases onto individual washer bases, the Faraway Expeditionary Force in Kapelle is now complete with 6 infantry companies, two squadrons of cavalry, one mountain and two field artillery guns plus an armoured car and various comandeered trucks. The rebels and their allies just need  two more mounted figures and a bit of basing and they'll be done as well. 

But, whats not done can wait for a while, its time to get back to the 1790's!

Intermission

The repulse of the Dominion column in April, due largely to the intervention of an Oerberg column, has stirred the nascent rebellion in Kapelle. In addition to the local defense forces which are being formed in many a village, the insurgent government has begun raising regular units, relying largely on contributions of arms, uniforms and instructors from Oerberg.

Fresh off the painting desk this morning.

I have a feeling that the question of a free and independant Republic of Kapelle is a long way from decided. 

_______________

Meanwhile, I took advantage of being home alone (human-wise) to spend a little extra hobby time this week. The OHW hadn't taken long to play, ending somewhere around turn 9 out of 15.  It was a little too quick with too few decisions to make for the game to be satisfying so I decided to try again, and again, fiddling with organization and rules in between each round. In the final game, the Oerberg force would have won by getting 2 units off somewhere around turn 9 out of 15, if they'd gone first on the next turn, but....... 

The final game,  just before Tin Lizzie's MG cuts down the remnant of the Oerberg Mounted Police by rolling 3x6's on 3!!!! dice, followed by the Lancers overrunning the Railway company and the Commander. 
Oh well. 

Like many One Hour Wargames, it only took about 20 minutes of actual playing time to play. As much time was spent taking pictures and at least that much again trying to figure out if a new or revised set of rules were working and why or why not.  For example,  which is better, more smaller units vs fewer larger ones, or the same number of larger units for that matter, die modifiers for cover vs Old School 1/2 casualties vs dropping dice ala Battlecry, and so on and on, orders dice vs command radius + activation roll vs....etc etc.  Then I thought about the scenario and wondered how it could possibly last more than 20 minutes. I'll have to try the rules with a different scenario, preferably not another OHW one, as handy as they are.

Now however, it's time to move on to the 1790's. I want to paint up at least one new unit, two if things go well, and then it'll be game time on Tuesday!  

Quick as a Mouse!

This week's game was Scenario 25, "Infiltration", from Thomas's One Hour Wargames.  The premise is that one side (Oerberg in this case)  has sent four units to raid an enemy supply depot which is just off the other side of the table. The other side (The Dominion of Faraway) has one unit on guard, two more approaching from the depot to block the way (turn 3), and finally, three units chasing the raiders (turn 6).

The raiders managed to pass the Dominion outpost, but not without some losses. The PomPom crew seemed to be having engine problems (dice) so unlimbered and started putting shells into the sandbags. 

At the far end of the table, a company of  Ross's Rifles deployed, supported by a Mountain Gun. The raiders quickly debussed or dismounted and began shooting over their heads. 

The remnant of the outpost garrison cheered loudly as Larsen's Lancers and Tin Lizzy sped past in hot pursuit.

The Lancers caught up to the Pompom in good time then, rather than risk a charge, dismounted and finished off the crew with rifle fire. The infantry quickly debussed as they approached the enemy but the camp guard had stopped the raiders cold and Tin Lizzy's MG had finished the job on this end.
All in an hour's work.

Some people might have noticed that the table doesn't look as gridish as it did. I had suspected this was coming, and indeed, paiting the grid on  had been a last throw of the dice for using a grid for anything but small portable games. Its a lengthy explantion and maybe I'll write something on it eventually, but my main table is now grid free again, unless of course a gridded cloth is laid overtop of it when I get the urge.  

This means the rules of a few of my collections need a rewrite but, what doesn't really?  I'll want to play at least another game before I share these rather simple, nothing innovative, off-grid, rules but they are promising.

Halt! Who Goes.....ALARM!!!

Sometime, somewhere near the Kapelle/Oerburg border, there was a Dominion supply depot, and an outpost. Early one morning......

To be continued!

Right, Clear The Table, NEXT!!!!!

 Due to popular vote for a more modern game, aided by the itch to get recently refurbished figures on the table......

Larsen's Lancers in Khaki, now led by an NCO with pistol.

After the last outing for these lads (See Incident at Square Crossroad (16 Apr 22) ) I decided that I needed to refurnish/convert more figures. For example: Larsen's Lancers Khaki Squadron had a lame horse and a broken lance and the Dominion Forces no longer had a serious numbers advantage.  So I started by repairing the Lancers, then looked around for the optimum source of recruits.

Dominon Dragoons in Drab (work in progress) and the First Recruit for the Kapelle Rifles, looking suspiciously like a certain retired miniature......

The Dragoons were Historifig Scruby ACW figures, originally converted to Mexican-American War US Dragoons, a project long ago abandoned, now being re-converted to something more appropriate for the early 20thC. 

The Canadian militia private was part of a forlorn attempt a few years ago to replace my 54mm toy soldiers by 40mm figures as part of a standardization program. Predictably, it failed. Luckily, no new figures had been purchased. The armies were started with homecastings of a few orignal sculpts and various existing conversions of Zinnbrigade and Scruby castings. All have been or will be recucled...... in one way or another......  ("What'll be private? Volunteer for a new uniform and a bit of genetic modification? or go into the melting pot?" " Gulp? Anything for Her Majesty Sir! I'll volunteer please.")

There's a few busy days coming up, then some quiet ones. My current target to play the next game is Thursday. I've got the first few ideas for a scenario.........

Incident at Square Crossroad

As the Dominion column moved down the road towards their objective, the silence was broken by the roar and pom-pom-pom of the Oerberg artillery. 

The armoured car halted and poured forth a hail of machine gun bullets in attempt to silence the enemy but their cavalry escort was cut to pieces with the dazed survivors forced to gallop to the rear to reform. Behind them, the infantry began to deploy at the double.

 

As the infantry advanced, they were met with a hail of rifle and artillery fire but the Dominion artillery was soon in action, silencing the Oerburg guns and driving the defenders back from the fence line at least.

The Orberg artillery withdrew their gun behind the crest and redeployed in time to open a murderous fire on the Dominion infantry advancing on the village. At the same time, the deadly accurate rifle fire from the rocky hills had Ross's Rifles pinned in the open. 

If the Dominion had had another battalion of infantry or a full regiment of cavalry, they might yet have cleared the way to the vital crossroad but as the sun dipped towards the horizon, it seem wiser to maintain their force in being and try again in the morning if indeed, the enemy did not slip away in the night.

***********

Notes

When reading about the sort of late 19thC, early 20thC engagements that interest me, especially when reading first hand accounts, it is hard not to notice that it was common for infantry under a heavy and accurate fire to go to ground and return fire. Periodically they might make short rushes towards the enemy if well led and of good morale, often to be pinned again but were sometimes able to work close enough to eventually close with cold steel. 

Ever since I started using the Square Brigadier for such engagements, I have usually included some sort of "pin" result, something often used in WWII games, but always the games ended up being long, indecisive, and all too often, as boring as lying on the Prairie or Veldt as bullets whizzed over your head. This became a real issue when I was preparing my centennial WWI game for Huzzah 2018. Eventually, I ended up giving up a "pin" result and resurrecting a "rally" action for units not closely engaged. This allowed players to try to remove a hit as their action instead of moving or shooting. It had the right result as far as stalling an advance but was heavily dice dependent and so wasn't as attractive or effective as it might have been. The same could be said for die modifiers for cover and for saving throws, sometimes they worked, sometimes they didn't, all depending on the dice. Lawford & Young's Charge! used a simple 1/2 casualties in cover, a technique as old as Kriegspiel. However, they were dealing with big units and lots of hits and weren't afraid of a bit of mid-game arithmetic (A company of 13 infantry shooting at a close range enemy in cover roll 1 die plus 5/8ths of a 2nd die, divided by 1/2 for cover with fractions rounded off then carried over. )

For some decades now, I have tended to use die modifiers instead. These reduce the probability of any given die hitting but not the maximum number of possible hits. A few lucky rolls can easily convert cover to completely irrelevant, especially if rolling small numbers of dice. Recently (say 3-5 years), inspired by Battlecry, I have instead experimented with subtracting dice for things like cover and it seems to be working for Square Brigadier variants at least. This does not affect the odds of any one die scoring a hit but does reduce the possible maximum number of hits regardless of how lucky you are that day. 

When it comes to being pinned, I have decided to let the player decide. Once per turn he can cancel 1 hit by going to ground (being pinned), and this being unable to move or shoot next turn. Units with higher morale can risk taking the hits while rather shaky units will tend to stall easily. 

It seemed to work well in this game as in a few others recently played with a version of the Square Brigadier from a few years back. It lacks a lot of the hedging of bets that tend to creep into my rules when I get lax, but seems to give the best games. It does, however, mean that one must careful about having too many modifiers leading to no chance of any hit or even more deadly fire against targets without modifiers. Its a balancing act.

Since my recent reductions, I only have two remaining collections for the late 19th and early 20thC period (say 1870-1910) (ie the shiny 54mm toys and these 40's) so the tentative plan is to chuck all the other tentative SB variants and alternative rules, and just revert to this latest variant of The Square Brigadier (link) as my rules for this period, which is where these collections all started! I'll need to ensure that all the relevant troop types are covered but keeping in mind that the later period are balancing magazine rifles with drab uniforms to get a similar effect.  

That will of course mean playing more games to confirm the decision. Oh well...needs must! 

Fierce Fighting On The Frontier

Dominion forces have been ambushed at Kloth Junction!

 

Details to follow.

Pregame Conference (Amended)

"Gentlemen, thank you for your presence. I've been asked as a Neutral Observer to confirm that you are both aware of the result of the Joint Committee's Review of the 2019 rules for The Great Game and have been given a copy to review?" "Yes? and Yes?" "Good! 

"Shall we have a picture of this conference for the record?"

Hopefully, you have both had a chance to review the changes, understand them, and agree to play according to these rules. Are there any questions?....Yes, Colonel?" "Yes, this is just an amendment of the rules used at the affair at the train junction at Missisjones Junction back in '19."  "Colonel, Weren't  you were in charge of that fias-oha-hmm-hrrum... well, never mind that."

Link to 2019 Battle of Missisjones Junction

 "Yes? General Oom Bob?"  

"Hmm well, you are right General, the Oerberg government have no responsibility for or authority over these Kapelle villagers whose allies you are, and cannot make promises on their behalf. I did approach their Village Elder but he says his people are farmers not soldiers and know nothing of rules. Brigands is more like it but we won't hold their behaviour against you, though if I might say it, you might choose your allies more carefully".

"No other comments? Well Gentlemen, you may begin your battle. For the public record, I'll attach this agreement to the draft of the rules which have been agreed upon. " 

"uhh One minute please Gentlemen!" ....... "Hmm, yes, I see, thank you Captain" Gentlemen, apparently the draft has been rejected by the joint committee. Best stand down your men and we will reconvene in the morning."
__________________________________________

Here They Come

 I thought I'd give my early 20thC Colonial figures first crack at the 5" grid maybe because they've used it before, or perhaps because its been nearly a year since their last outing. 

Either way, the winter campaign season is officially over which means it might happen soon, or maybe not for a week. Pleased stay tuned!

The Scenic Route

One of the best things about early retirement has been the luxury of time, especially hobby time. Time to explore options and test out proposals and theories and time to backtrack and try and try again. A luxury not usually available in war or the workplace.

The Oerberg army ready to see action again.

When it comes to a wargame, how a set of rules reflects the history is only one facet. Various other considerations such as the feel of the game, how emotionally, intellectually and visually engaging the game is as, how practical it is in existing circumstances, and so on are also important.

To cut this short, I've decided that on my smaller table with the hex grid, using smaller forces, I can go back to individual figures like I wanted at the start.  

Coming A Round

My Oerberg Pioneer unit was hastily paint converted from ACW figures a few years ago in order to increase the number of infantry  in the unit from 8 to 12 when using different rules. 

Since the setting is now the early 20thC rather than the 1870s as originally planned, I decided that they could use a uniform touch up. I  trimmed the trouser legs on the sappers into boots and painted all the leather dark brown instead of black.

Oerberg  Combat Pioneers with new boots and bases.

 

 That part was purely for the look but I also rebased them back onto their old washer-bases. Now that the armies and table are smaller than they were,

it  is easy to manage stable individuals and the single figures makes it easier  to take photos that give a feel for what's happening in pictures of a game. 

Since most of the figures are still on temporary foamcore bases, I'll  probably rebase more of them from time to time.