First Test

So far, so good!

All in all, my test game was well worth it. (Battle report to follow.)

The battle begins in earnest.
(The giant feline is just an illusion resembling a cat evading a young puppy.)

There's still lots of painting to do on the tabletop, and I hope to eventually trim at least a few of my hills to fit the grid better and have the grid marked on some of the free standing rounded off hills.

Back To Table Top Games

Back to where the soldiers are rarely wounded and can usually be repaired if they are.

My table has started looking a bit shabby so I set out to touch up the paint. Then it occurred to me that my new organization on 2" wide bases mean that a 4" grid would work again and I wouldn't have to chase around the table to grab one of the rulers or tapes in order to move. My 40mm 16thC and 25mm fantasy collections, both on 60mm wide bases, won't fit, but the squares can easily be ignored. 

After hemming and hawing for the better part of a minute, I got a start.

The Inspector General inspecting the current state of her table. (She lets me use...usually). 

A 22mm ACW brigade with 1 regiment per square.

1/3 of the table has been done but I'm slowly getting better and quicker so I hope to have the table set by tomorrow evening. Past experience suggests that once the basic grids are laid down, the painting may be improved or modified to taste.

 

French and Turks Square Off (Teaser)

 Yup, I'm back on the grid.

Report and reasoning to follow. Hopefully in the Sunday 'papers'.

Done and Dusted

The last three stands have been painted and these lads can go back in the cupboard until a time should come when they are called to action.

For now, some bigger lads are preparing to march onto the field as soon as the pioneers get the terrain rearranged.

Too Few Have Come!

 But we will defend the hill anyway!

I thought by now I would have two, twelve stand, armies but, well, "Winter is coming!" and there's been an awful lot of chores to do and errands to run.  Still, I've managed to work up to two, nine stand, armies which is enough for my gridded, homegrown rules version, of the One Hour Wargame version, of CS Grant's classic "Reinforcements On The Table" scenario.

"Prepare for battle!"

Inch By Inch, Row By Row

Lots of detailing left to do, but the table is at least useable now.

. 

The French Rev armies weren't planned to work with the grid but they kinda like it.

There is a 3" wide strip  on the northern side (viewers left) due to the table being 48" wide. Originally this was going to be against the wall and could be used for backdrop scenery or for off table troops nearing the edge. When I turned the table, I contemplating splitting it between the two sides or using it as a base for a backdrop panel but decided to leave it be as it would be  easy to add a 2" extension if i found that 9 squares by 12 squares wasn't quite enough

Cutting and repainting hills to fit the grid and colour scheme should start this coming week but I'll probably test it before then....

Well, It Seemed Like A Good Idea At the Time

I knew I was never going to have room for another 6'x10' wargame table, but I was pretty pleased in December when a 4'x6' tabletop dropped into my lap, as it were.  

Alas and alack, trying to reach the middle seems to get harder every day, it doesn't have enough grid squares in depth,  and the damned thing is always in my way when I'm not playing.  Out of curiosity, I started looking to see how many games actually used the whole table in the three and a bit months since I installed it.  Out of the 8 scenarios I've played on the bigger table, (some of them several times), exactly none used the whole table. None?!? So, I started to look farther back to see how often the entire surface of the preceding, slightly smaller, bits and pieces tacked together, table had been used. I gave up looking after 2 years.  At most, reinforcements moving onto the table travelled all the way from the edge rather than appearing just behind the frontline. Oh!

A mock up of the proposed 9x12 grid of  5" squares, ready for testing.

A search farther back in time showed that there had been a time when the whole table was frequently used, and sometimes crammed with figures. Possibly, being in my early 50's then rather than creeping up on 70, and not yet having become a solo player, might have had an effect on that. ...Sighhhhh. 

So, I thought about how to make access to the middle of the back of the table easier, how to reduce the amount of running back and forth during a game, AND how to make the table slightly deeper than it is. Thinking about the 3'x3' Practical Wargaming layouts, a grid of at least 9 x 9 squares seemed like a good idea. For a brief while I contemplated chopping a bit off and adding on a strip at the back but luckily my brain woke up before I did any damage, and suggested laying out my 5" gridded cloth to see if 5" squares would give that extra row of squares and work with all of my gridded armies. Yes they will!

My current grid is 12 x 8 6" squares on a 4' deep x 6' wide surface with some of the squares being very hard to reach. The proposed plan will give me a 12 x 9 grid instead on a table 4' deep x 5' wide. (with a 3" border at the back for scenery as a backdrop)

Now to play some games to try it out.

Is it ready Major?

"I would have liked another week Sir, but it is my considered  opinion that the grid is now Practicable. You may commence your assault General!"

"Well Russell, how did the coin fall?"
"Heads! Red will enter from the South. General Lannigan, your mission will be to blow the bridge by turn 15, General Douglas, your mission is to prevent this and capture the bridge. Gentlemen, take your places and remember,  any unit crossing the Blue Taipe within two squares of the bridge will be disqualified."

And so it begins again.

How's that Grid coming Major?

"General, my men have been working hard, very hard, but terra forming 104 6" squares is a lot of work for one company of Pioneers, a LOT of work." 

"Yes, I thought it might be, so I approached General Lannigan and he has agreed to lend us a company of his sappers to help with the work." 

"We're planning a battle for Sunday Major, so even if its not done and dusted, it'd better be ready enough for a trial by then." 

"Yessir!" 

. 

Anyone Not See This Coming?

It was almost inevitable right? 

Over the last few years I've been struggling to find the right mix for my 54's. Just the right look, enough figures to paint without over crowding the table, something simple and fast for when I'm tired but capable of longer more complex games when I have the time and energy. It also had to be something that could share my table with my other collections. 

I've always liked a lot about the Square Brigadier but it was hard finding the right balance of size of grid and organization given that it needed to share the table and I had space constraints. There were a lot of good games but the smallest games didn't use enough figures to satisfy me while the largest ones sometimes dragged on without room to manoeuvre and with too many repetitive throws due to the number of units. 

A switch to larger squares so I could use more figures without increasing the complexity of the games was promising but my table at the time wouldn't hold quite enough squares and attempts to subdivide them into 3"x 3" quadrants for the smaller figures didn't really work either. Stalemate! 

Work in progress.

Welllllll, I was looking through old battle reports last week while working on my 'Battle in a Box', and I was reminded how much I liked the look of the table when it had a 6" square grid painted to look like terrain features rather than abstract lines. It was practical and much more attractive than a either a monochrome green table or a table covered in a clearly abstract, artificial, grid.   

A shot of my "Sittingbad" game, the last game in 2018.
(The table here had been patched together into a temporary 4.5 feet x 6ft table. Great size if the room had been single use apart from the difficulty of reaching the middle....)

It suddenly struck me today that the new table was just big enough, to have just enough of the bigger squares, to do that again with more squares than my "in a box" set up. I also realized that recent reductions in collections/periods/scales, meant that I was no longer running any gridded  games that needed a smaller grid apart from the portable one that has its own cloth. 

So.....the table is now down for unscheduled maintenance. I predict a test game by Thursday at the latest.

Awright You Slovenly Hexes! GET IN LINE!

 If only Colour Sergeant Bourne had been here to give me a hand. Oh well, we do what we can. Luckily, I have a high tolerance for disorder, so this grid will do for now.

"The enemy is nowhere near General, so push your Division forward with all speed"
(Note the remains of the last of my hex shaped hills from 9 years ago)

I could try to explain my clever plan to make sure the grid did not go askew by laying down a series of parallel dashed lines across the table, marking the alternating vertical sides  then laying down a similar series of parallel lines at 6o degrees then finally reversing direction and doing it again, all while measuring from one side since the board is a mishmash of pieces and neither totally even nor quite square. I could , it worked for the first bit but then I went for supper, and.... yeah, we'll draw a curtain over things.

Luckily the board is make shift and has been repainted numerous times in an irregular fashion which made it easy to block out the wonkiest bits (technical term) and redo things. It won't win any awards for accuracy and precision but I think its functional. 

Now to start tackling hills, I think I can now manage something functional although my wood cutting tools and skill are not up to the sort of rolling terrain I could do with a hex mat laid over shapes. Always good to leave some possibilities for the future. But first, it needs to be tested and I believe an ACW game is in the queue.

 

Gratuitous close up.

The Nine Year Hex

 By 2009, playing on Ron's Hexon covered table was having a strong impact on me. After a year of experimenting with  a 3" gridded Hotz mat, I broke down and hand drew a 4" hex pattern on my table and made some so-so hex hills. After  9 years of experimentation with various square grids (much easier to make hills), and occasional reversion to no grid, the hexes are back!  

June 2011: First battle on my newly hexed table: (link) (using an early version of the Portable Wargame)

Four Inch Hexes work for the Little Guys

 

and for the big guys! (Hence the decision to stick with 4 figure "companies".)

They even work for skirmish games!

At least this will be true once the table is fully covered and ready for a game.

We have work to do!!

Squared Off

Well, I almost got a game set up today, but non-wargaming matters intervened for a couple of hours.

The Zouaves and Highlanders try it on. 

I did, however, get the new smaller grid marked on. It had belatedly occurred to me that the majority of my houses fit a 4" grid but over hang a 3" one in awkward ways. So, instead of each 12"x12" area which had been subdivided into 4x6" area now being subdivided into 16x3" squares, it has instead been subdivided into 9x4" squares.

Instead of repainting, I've just marked on dashed lines. Its clear up close, but from a distance the eye catches the larger coloured fields and woods areas. Needs some tidying and the hills will need work but I'm rather liking the effect. Next step will be to set up a game and see how it all works.

Oh look, my schedule for tomorrow is wide open......

Flats on Hexes!! (Before I was born.)

Today I followed a FB link to a great article about a group of miniature wargaming enthusiasts in Paris in the 1930s and 40's. These were not just gentlemen of leisure but included soldiers, artists, historians and others, many of whom played their part in the Resistance even while the games continued.

Flats on Hexes! Photo borrowed from :

Petits Soldats, Grandes Victoires  by Jon Peterson (author of Playing at the World)

The article is well worth reading for anyone with an interest in the history of wargaming, the influence of French miniature wargaming on early US wargaming, or real life stories of brave men.

You can reach the article on Medium here:

Link to Petits Soldats, Grandes Victoires by Jon Peterson

Well worth reading.

Square Brigadier in the Great War: Debriefing

This sudden, unexpected, WW1 game seems to have been with me almost constantly for months now and I'm looking forward to "changing horses" for a while. However, I plan to revisit the early 20th Century again before too long and have to write up a full set of rules to support the existing two-sides-of-a page quick reference. 

The Square Brigadier in the Great War

I will need to remember the observations that follow when I do!

The allies deployed for the first game. 

It really helps having someone else play your game. Always interesting to see where the rules work the way you planned and where they don't, where others pick up things as you intended and where they either don't 'get' something or see things that you had missed, whether that is good or bad. Its also interesting to see what sort of tactics and plans others try and how they interface with the rules, scenario and other players.   So a BIG thank you to the eight adults (and the two kids) who played in the two sessions  of My Grandfather's War. 

Scruby Foreign Legionnaires waiting for the enemy.

One of the things that had given me brain stress in the lead up was the question of how to handle the different way the two sides organized and used their machine guns. Basically, the allies distributed a pair to each battalion while the Germans grouped their machine guns into six gun companies, one  attached to each three battalion regiment (giving the same ratio), plus some which were independent companies for various purposes.

2/3 of the way through the 1st game. A prolonged barrage  by 2/3 of the German artillery backed by MG and rifle fire have finally cleared the unsupported British infantry from the hill and the Chasseurs have moved over to counter attack the advancing Germans.

What I had decided in advance was that the allied MG's would be treated like infantry but have an extra die when firing and have the defensive bonus in melee while the German MG companies would always have a "superior firepower" bonus but would not be allowed to assault and would taken fewer hits. However, by the time I got to the convention I had changed my mind and decided to treat all the MG units on both sides the same as the German units. Partly this was because it would be simpler for 1st time players to grasp but mostly because it seemed to have a more Old School feel which pleased me.

Game 1.The end. Robbed of the 2nd last turn by a Joker as a chance card, the Allies lacked time for  last ditch counter attack for  draw or win. The Germans ended with possession of the Wood, Hill and Farm for 15 pts while the Allies clung to the town for 10 pts.

During the two games the MG's had what seemed like just the right effect: deadly but needing infantry support. They were particularly effective in the second game when Rob tried throwing rank after rank of infantry into a hail of mg fire and lyddite. On the Allied right, Norman launched the Zouaves into a surprise counter attack with cold steel which swept away some already shot up German infantry but which eventually faltered in a hail of MG bullets as well.

I liked the feel of the MG's enough that I am adopting that approach as standard.

Game 2 getting underway.

Towards the end of my pre-game play testing I had decided to change the "-1 die" modifier for artillery changing targets to "artillery must cease fire for a turn when changing target". I then promptly forgot for the first game but remembered for the second game.

Over all I prefer the feel of the second approach and its effect on player's decisions. The quicker switching of artillery fire seems more suited to later artillery with radio and telephone communication.

I was initially uneasy at the delay when a gun had to switch from indirect fire to point blank fire over open sights at an attacking infantry unit but the infantry had emerged from cover at a very close range and ended up in melee range where the gun was able to fire in self defence anyway. If the infantry had approached in the open there would have been time to switch fire and give the infantry real issues, especially with the Bombardment rule.

Game 2: The Zouave attack up the right has been stopped by infantry backed by an MG hidden from the camera by a tree at the corner of the field.

Speaking of the Bombardment rule, which reduces the effect of shooting for units (including artillery) in an area under artillery fire (because they have their heads down) and forces units to test for hits if trying to leave, enter or attack the area, I'm really pleased with how it works as an alternative to a Pin and Rally rule. It now occurs to me that it could well apply to MG fire as well.

Game 2 end. The Germans eventually captured the wood and farm but never took the redoubt and have taken absolutely horrendous casualties. 

I'm not expecting to play many (any) more France 1914 games but luckily both figures and rules will see use in early 20th Century "Colonial" or "Back of Beyond" games in the years to come and the Great Atlantican War is still ongoing.

Gratuitous shot of the Cycle Company in action.

Next post: What to expect to see on my blog over the next month or two.

Odd numbered files two paces forwarddddd MARCH!

I had just about talked myself into treating myself to a nice, attractive, practical, professional, hex mat from Hotz Artworks this fall and even had funds earmarked. Then the Prince August 7YW artillery sets came out and I needed some additional 54mm guns and oh dear, the warchest was empty again and those damned diagonals were still there gnawing at my mind.

Well they "ain't no more"!

I didn't set out to do offset squares. My back up plan was to draw hexes using the Archduke's scheme of starting with offset rectangles of particular dimensions and then then adding the angles. Not being a wiz at either math or accurate measuring, I none the less calculated that I would need rectangles of 4" x 3 15/32nds" and had already worked out that I could start by shifting the Northern and Southern edges of each square in alternate North/South rows 2" South. I was about a quarter of the way done when I realized that since I wasn't in the slightest concerned about inequity in speed  but only with getting rid of corners while increasing the number of directions in which a unit could travel, I should give offset squares a go. That way I only had 1/2 the east-west dividing lines to redraw/mask and I'd be done. More than that my existing hills could easily be made to fit and still be flexible with minimal work.  Two hours later and the board is ready for a trial game.

Now as to that other little matter, I am used to silly little things like receipts and statements going astray over the course of a tax year but a toy soldier head going absent over a mere 19 years is a different matter!

All present and accounted for Sir!

 It took almost 10 minutes of searching in day light before the culprit was found consorting with a collection of 40mm heads. Then I had to find a trumpet, something I didn't actually have back then. Oh look, that Hussar didn't originally have a trumpet, I wonder where it came from, they are over strength anyway and won't be able to take everyone into the field...

"Order from the Minister of Defence in Ottawa Colonel, the Princess Louise Hussars are to surrender that trumpet to the Governor General's Body Guard." 

"Yes I realize you are a New Brunswick Regiment and the Bodyguard are an Ontario Regiment but we're all Canadian now and in matters of defence, orders from the Federal government take precedence and trumpets are even scarcer than rifles right now." 

Nothing a New Coat of Paint Couldn't Cure

Sometimes any answer is better than none. At least I discovered what I meant in April about the 6" Grid having to go despite its good points!

Here is the game laid out on the 6" grid with 4 stand infantry units and 2 single gun batteries sharing a square.  If you look at the left hand side of the Union line, where it bends, you will see  two of the issues. Firstly even with a weak defender there is no room for a proper outflanking move. Secondly the Blue unit on the brown field and the Grey unit on the hill are parallel and almost touching at the corner, in other words almost 1 beside the other but are able to blaze away at each other. Legal but looks wrong. 

The game was OK after I got the fiddling done to make it look and feel better and last a couple of hours. But I could have played the same game on my portable board with 1 stand units in an hour and it would have been as interesting or probably more since this took longer to accomplish less and still looked odd because of the large but shallow units and short ranges.

After various failed experiments I allowed diagonal facing with a maximum of 1/2 the unit shooting out of each of the two faces. I also ended up using the Hearts of Tine combat mechanism with 4 hits per stand but without using the rally rules. 

 In some cases my difficulties were largely visual or at least, the large grid and unit sizes made them more noticeable, while others were scale related. To make the game less of a Brigade skirmish I stuck with a 50 yards to the inch scale at 300 yds per square. This meant that virtually all infantry combat was between adjacent squares apart from the fire of skirmish screens. It also meant that single artillery batteries were an issue but forcing them to work as 2 battery Brigades would be a problem if doing an historical scenario.

However, if the visual aspects of the game don't matter, why use miniatures? After various experiments I managed a vague special artillery stacking rule for massed or attached batteries and fiddled with the positioning of individual stands within the squares.

Another small issue was more visual than actual. If you look at the next picture the white house in the lower left fills 1 quarter of a square. Should the square be open or is it all built up. I kept treating it one way for one unit but another way for another unit depending on where I actually placed the figures so had to rearrange the  terrain midgame to make it more obvious to myself what sort of terrain it was. That should have been noticed and dealt with during set-up, probably by removing the house.

The real deal breaker however, was the small number of grid squares. The table just didn't hold enough squares to field the force levels I wanted while still showing at least a little bit of the tactical feel and having room to manoeuvre. That was the point of the post just before I got wrapped up In Huzzah! last April. While the current table was fine for small quick actions I needed a bigger table for larger, longer actions or those with more manoeuvring. Since there is no room for a physically larger table I needed a larger virtual table. A table with more but smaller squares!  I had hoped that the 3" would work but  it only works for a small selection of my armies.

The end of a long but not bad game, a narrow, skin of the teeth last turn minor victory for the Federal army.

After a fair amount of pondering, especially about 4 inch hexes, I did a review of the forces that will be using the grid. It was a jolt if not quite a shock to realize that all of my armies whose units would not fit on a 4" grid have been redesignated as Non-Gridded for other reasons. After some careful checking, all of my grid friendly armies have units that will fit comfortably on a 4" grid.

I still have work to do but the 4" grid has been restored once again and feels much better. 

So after an hour or so of dabbing paint, I am back to where I was several years ago with more than twice as many grid squares to manoeuvre on than I had this morning. (216 sq vs 96)  Luckily, all my houses etc were designed to fit inside a 4" grid square, as were my 3 stand ACW units and my 4" wide Atlantica and War of 1812 units. A single 60mm wide stand of Toy Soldiers will also fit nicely.

A little voice whispers that I really ought to play another ACW game for comparison but I have an urge to see Shiny Red Toy Soldiers in action.

There Will Be A Short Delay.....

"I'll just wait here until you're ready to feed me...."

I was trying to remember what was behind my current, apparent, aversion to my 6" grid when a serendititous enquiry sent me back to my last game of 2016 which in turn led me to this comparison post which ended with the conclusion that  the 6" grid was the best thing since sliced bread, a conclusion seemingly backed by an early 20thC game  just before I got sidetracked by the Portable Wargame, Rough Wooing and Huzzah. It took more searching to finally find this seemingly rushed contrary conclusion, one which appears to ignore the facts presented by numerous past posts.

So I did some poking around and some experimenting and some reading and well, here I am, ACW back on the 6" grid for a test game with 4 stand game "regiments" each covering the ground of 2 average historical regiments in OSW, Charles  Grant fashion. I even have the old ACW variant of the Square Brigadier rules buffed up to fit.

Just not sure if the game will happen before the weekend.

Taking Easy Ridge

When I started my post on angles last week, I was actually planning to discuss 4 or 5 issues that I had with using any of my usual Gridded options for small battles of the War of 1812 and various mid- 19thC games using conventional sized units of 40mm figures. (I'll write more about them if anyone is interested.) The post quickly got too long so I stopped after the first, minor issue.

Several times I have toyed with the idea of breaking all the usual "how to play using a grid" conventions. I hadn't really pursued it but  a comment from Stu got me thinking about it again since all I really wanted was a way to measure without faffing about with my bevy of evasive measuring sticks.

What I really needed to do was get away from the 1 unit, 1 grid area maxim. HERESY!

Turn 1. The game begins. Blue is deployed along a ridge line with orders to stop Red's from advancing. There are two roads leading off Blue's baseline. Victory requires controlling both roads at the end of 15 turns or breaking the other army. 

My clearly marked 6" grid is lightly/obscurely subdivided into 3" quadrants.  Each 3" quadrant holds one of my early 20th Century 'companies' and that works well since they are deployed in open order under local control but one of my  War of 1812  battalions need an area 3" deep and between 4" and 8" wide.  None of my various attempts to deal with this quite worked for me whether by reorganizing and rebasing to turn 24 man battalions into 16 man ones in a single 6" grid square which meant most historical actions were too small to game or by breaking each battalion into several small units which just happened to be standing next to each other in a sort of dotted line which sort of worked but looked and felt wrong despite 'support' and  'command integrity' rules to encourage units to stick together.

Well, I'm tired of rebasing and reorganizing want the option to have a full length game with historical Orders of Battle when I want to go there.

   

Turn 3. Opposing skirmishers clash over a grove between the line. The Grey's have some initial luck despite the 1:2 odds but then pay for it having bought a tiny bit of time.

 So, I decided to let the bases sizes and units sizes be what they are and treat Units as Units regardless of how many grid squares they covered as long as they maintain a proper formation. Range and arc of fire would be determined stand by stand just like it would be off grid except that it is done by consulting the grid instead of a ruler. Movement is the same idea, no stand can move farther than its allowance. So when a line  changes direction for example, one end has to move less than its allowance or the other end won't be able to move around, things naturally happen the way they happen.

Apart from that the rules used were basically the latest draft-in-theory of Hearts of Tin, which is the rules set that the Square Brigadier was based on. I don't have a version written up as played to share yet but will have in a week or two.

Turn 4. Red deploys under artillery fire. 

I didn't want to muck up my coming campaign so rolled back the clock to the days of Faraway and Oberhilse's Origawn War.

General Scott commanded the Blue (Oberhilse) troops consisting of:

Blue Dragoons: 1 Squadron (2 stands) shock cavalry

Rifles: 2 companies each of 2 stands 

1st Brigade: Brigadier Wavey. 4th Infantry (3 stands), 1st Volunteers (3 stands), 1 field gun.

2nd Brigade: Brigadier St. John. Lafayette County Volunteers (3 stands), 2nd Volunteers (3 stands), Origawn Militia 1 stand, Bangor Rifles (2 stands), Mountain Howitzer.

 23 stands.  Break Point: 13 stands or Commanders lost.

Turn 6. Red's plan was to pin Blue's units along the wall with the first Brigade while the 2nd Brigade turned the position but casualties from artillery and long range musketry have been heavier than expected so the elite Royal Fusiliers went in with the bayonet. Flanking fire from the house backed by a reformed line soon drove them back but their job was done.   

General  Turner commanded the Red Queen of Faraway's army.
Princess Charlotte Dragoons: 4 stands.
Advance. Brigadier Green. Victoria Rifles. 2 companies ea of 2 stands.
1st Brigade. Brigadier Spye. Royal Fusiliers 4 Elite stands, Royal Veterans: 4 stands.
2nd Brigade. Brigadier Stone. Green Tigers (3 stands), Young Buffs (3 stands), Belmont Fusiliers (3 stands)
Artillery: A Battery RFFA 2 field guns.

27 stands. Army Morale: 14 stands & Commanders lost.

Turn 13.  The reformed Royals have stormed the Stone House and Blue has taken very heavy losses but Red hasn't quite reached the road.  On turn 14 a 2nd charge by the Princess Charlotte Dragoons swept away the last remnant of the Blue Dragoons, breaking the Blue Army Morale.  (There must have been a lot of powder smoke in the air when I took this snap.) 

So did it work? By GUM! it did, just as I pictured it. The engagement was roughly the size of many of War of 1812 battles so fits there yet still leaves me room to add a few more units. (One of my issues with my Square Brigadier version was that I already had too many figures).

It took  about 3 hours to play not counting set up which is about right. Sometimes a quick game is good but I have both Square Brigadier and Portable Wargame options for a quick game but was starting to run short of afternoon or evening length games and a series of short games is not the same.

In addition it had the feel I wanted without needing to fuss with my disappearing rulers. This confirms my conclusion after my last Square Brigadier and Portable Wargame games that the subdivided 6" squares are best, easiest option for my table but doesn't require compromises on organization and basing for my 1812 and mid-19thC Atlantica games.
It does mean I need to get back to work on finishing hills that fit the grid and on making some of the subdivision markings clearer.

Was it perfect?  No, some judgement was occasional required where the grid wasn't clear or during occasional manoeuvres, such trying to track the farthest distance travelled when a unit in line changed front by less than 45 degrees, but nothing too difficult, especial when playing with an agreeable opponent like myself.

More Angles

I decided to add a few more units then take more picturesto help clarify the options and effects in my mind.

The "Face an Angle or Edge" option.

This looks the closest to what a non-gridded version would look although there wouldn't be what look like gaps in the battle line if there was no grid. At least only the units on the ends of the battle line have a flank in the air.

The "Face an Edge only option".

With the edge only option I tried various times to arrange the Batleline so that each unit in both armies could cover it's neighbour's flank but was unable to do so except by proposing slightly more complex rules about when one could start relative to an enemy and move to contact a flank.

I didn't  pursue the "face two directions" options  because the possibilities depend on the basing used whereas I wish the rules to work the same way regardless of how the units are based.

So, the next step will involve laying out options for moving along the diagonal considering that a unit in line will have to pass through one or both of the intervening adjacent orthagonal squares to reach the diagonally adjacent one and rules regarding splitting fire.

Hopefully some sort of game will result tomorrow.