All Things Must End

Well, another Huzzah convention has come and gone and while it was a virtual one which didn't require travel, I'm as tired and happy as I usually am after three weeks of intense planning, preparation,  playing, shopping and socializing  and driving a 2,000 km round trip! Of course during the last three weeks,  I designed and solo tested a scenario, hosted 4 remote wargames, and played in one, all without slacking on spring yardwork! Not too bad for an old guy.

Now on to the last game: Frogs and Lobsters:

Here's a few mid game screen captures from two different players each a few thousand kilometres away, one in New Jersey, the other in Alberta followed by an overview photo that I took here in Nova Scotia after the game was over.

Early in the game, the right hand Republican column pushes ahead.

A broader view mid game, the Yellow Hussars were repulsed by the small convoy guard but the Black Hussars have just seized it. The Royal Navy landing party didn't do quite so well this game.  

Royalist Riflemen launched a counter attack before the Hussars could reform and against the odds took back the convoy. The armies were now engaged across the whole table.

Lastly, an overview of the end of the game here in Nova Scotia: 

My thanks to the organizers for organizing this virtual con and getting me off my lazy butt, and to all of the players who played in my games included the vital learning games as well as the actual convention ones. There is now talk of more remote games amongst our informal wargaming group here but once I get some updated gear and learn some alternate platforms like Discord,  I will probably post periodic calls for volunteers for some international remote games.  

Time for a change of subject now. I think a bit of painting is in order before I play another game.

Virtual Huzzah: Two Down, One to Go

 So far I have been enjoying my virtual convention.

Friday Night I was a player not a GM and as a wild Balkan warrior chief of low degree, came " this"  close to over running an Austrian convoy after which our Lord and Commander was about to over run the Austrian fort when a deluge of shells from a gunboat, a battery and the fort's artillery blew the attackers to smithereens. At least they died gallantly. It was an enjoyable game with good company. The game was played with computerized rules that Arofan, our GM, had programmed.  I kinda missed the feel of rolling  dice but the system worked well and the game was both interesting and fun.

Picture courtesy of Arofan who hosted the game. 

Today I ran the first of my scenarios. Unfortunately one of the players did not respond to any of the emails and didn't join the call, I'm not sure if the contact information was wrong or if something came up. However, there were still three players to carry on. I didn't think to take any screen shots in the midst of the action, but did take a few quick snaps before  resetting the table. For the first time, the attacking French took both crossing points and won the game. 

Luckily, if any one would like to read a good report of my 4 player practice game, they can pop over to the Palouse Wargaming Journal and read a good illustrated battle report of the first virtual, train-the GM, game. (click to see)

Sample screenshot from the Palouse Wargaming Journal blog.

One game to go but already plans are being laid for more virtual games.

 

As Ready As I'll Ever Be

On Saturday night just past, four brave and patient volunteers played another multiplayer Skype test game. It was a very enjoyable evening with different  tech issues, some more virtual moderating lessons learned, and a successful game to boot. 

The view from Maryland at the point where the site owner made an impromptu tour of the battlefield.
 (Another issue for the planning committee.)
40mm figures on a 4'x5' tabletop.

The biggest issue at this point, one which I doubt I will be able to resolve, is that Skype seems to disable the zoom on my cell phone video camera which means I have to physically move the  tripod to get a wide or close up view with subsequent visual distortion and off table shots while while changing focus as well as time lost. Not game stopping  but disappointing and annoying. Still have a few days to work on it.

There are still 3 spots open for the Saturday game: Hold the Line virtual Huzzah: Affair of Outposts 

and 2 spots on Sunday: Hold the Line virtual Huzzah: Frogs and Lobsters

Well that's enough on this topic until the games are played. 

From the archives: The computer remembers better than I do.

Out of sheer curiosity, I decided to look back and see how many remote games I've blogged and when and what the first one was: Remote Wooing: Jan 2012 (click to read)

The view on Rob's end.

The answer was: a) that the count of posts tagged "remote games" is not an accurate count of games since some games had more than 1 post and I know that at least a couple were either not blogged or not tagged.  To my mild embarrassment, I had forgotten that the first 1/2 dozen or so were using Skype so my claims of not having used it since before video conferencing was "a thing" were..ummh mistaken!  All but two of the remote games were done with 1 computer on each side but some had 2-4 players in total. 

A picture taken from here for that first remote game blog post.

I have a feeling that the number of remote games I play will be increasing over the next year now that the technology has improved and continues to do so. Remote may not be as good as face to face, but it beats no game or play-by-email hands down. Its also an excellent way to test run a convention game when the co-hosts live 2,000 km apart!

Trying It On

Hurrah for the denizens of the blogosphere. Thanks to four brave volunteers I have now experienced a 4 player + moderator, 3 time zone, coast to coast, miniature wargame and not only learned a few things but enjoyed it.

The view from the other side, pulled back to show the whole table.
(Screenshots courtesy of Murdock: see murdocksmarauders.blogspot.com)

We used Skype for this game and as the listings on the virtual Huzzah registration site lists Skype as the medium and 2 people have already signed up,  I am going to stick with it until then. A quick chat with Rob over Discord seemed to have better video so that will be something to investigate later.

Zoomed in a little closer, a little later in the game. 

There were a few technical glitches and a learning curve on my end as well as one brain failure on my part which ended the game abruptly when my phone/camera ran out of juice because I had forgotten to plug it in as planned. But we still managed a 3 hour, 4 player game which felt a lot like a normal convention game apart from the occasional request to zoom in or out or pan across to a different part of the table .

And even closer as the game entered its final phase.

Quite apart from the remote aspects, due to other demands on my time, I had only managed to design the scenario earlier that afternoon and finish a solo play test an hour before the live version and was starting to feel.....fatigued and a bit brain dead by the last hour but I've gotten used to that over the last few years. Resting up before the next game is now on the toodoo list. The scenario seemed to work well though with multiple possible approaches to the tactical problems and each of the games coming to a conclusion at the last moment. I think I should, perhaps, write up a generic version to make available here.

Well, one week to the next test game. I don't want to mess with the table so it'll be a week for some painting I think.

Speaking of next week, there is still one slot open for the Saturday game if some brave soul wants to volunteer. 

A Call to Arms: Game of the Month Needs YOU!

 Upon finding out that the Maine Wargamers are planning a sort of on line version of Huzzah! since the usual convention can not be held again this years, I decided to volunteer to run one or two. 

I've played and hosted remote games but haven't GM'd a virtual multiplayer one before. Time is short and I need to decide what to run. This week I'll be busy upgrading lighting etc in my room and planning the games.  Here's where the call to arms comes in, a call for guinea volunteers to play in some pre-convention test/learning games and opinions on which games to run. 

At this point, the first game is set, having started French Rev armies in 40mm for a co-hosted Huzzah 2019 game, I am determined to run a smaller one in its place. Just need to paint a few more units and borrow some troops from the SYW, and design a scenario and a set of simple rules. Hmm I've just figured out that I don't have the time and energy to prepare two periods for this so I will do one or two French Rev scenarios using a simplified Hearts of Tin.

The 2nd game (if any) is up in the air. Since I am unlikely to haul the fragile Elastolins to Huzzah (though I might), a virtual Prince Valiant game is a top option but 20mm ACW is also attractive though I hesitate as a foreigner to take an ACW game to Maine :) (just kidding). The War of 1812 or SYW in America (F&IW to many) are also options. 

SO: 

1) If you are interested in playing in a test game, please leave a comment or email me at rmacfa@gmail.com .  Dates and times to be settled but tentatively 1 on the weekend of May 8/9 and 1 on the weekend of May 15/16. I would like to get 4 for each game but will settle for 2. I do have 1 volunteer already  and a few more local friends that I am waiting hear from, to but that leaves lots of room for more.

2) If you have a preference/opinion over choice of 2nd game, whether as possible participant of the real thing or just an opinion please let me know as I will consider opinions as well as my own consideration of period/scenario vs time and simplicity of unknown rules and what has attracted gamers in the past and might work over the net.

3) I know Zoom and Skype are popular along with other systems but Google Hangouts/ Google Meet is what I am used to my first choice. Opinions? 

Never a dull moment.

Responsible Social Wargaming in Practice

On Saturday I virtually visited Delaware for a game of A Gentleman's War with Rob Dean . We've been playing miniature games using video chats (click) since 2012  and they have been vital for planning and practicing our co-hosted convention games as well as for the enjoyment of time spent gaming with a friend.

My view before deployment
(which he zoomed in a bit and I blew up to full screen during the game).

This time Rob was hosting and the technical improvement in clarity and dependability vs 8 years ago would be amazing if we weren't accustomed to that sort of continual change and improvement in technology.

Rob has covered the game in two blog posts on his Sharp End of the Brush blog.

This one is an illustrated account of the battle (click).



This one is a commentary on the how and reflections from  players' perspective (click).

The game was a good one and he kept me in  a constant state of tension, aware of how quickly my line could collapse and of how little I had to counterattack with once I had committed my reserves. Fortunately for me I have played the scenario dozens of times in the last 40 years and it was his first go at it as a player and I have a little bit more experience with the rules as well.

My experience with the scenario is that despite the need for haste, it pays the attacker to deploy a good part of the army before attacking. The instinct of course is to throw units in as they come up but that has yet to work well for me though the last time I tried it, the game ended in an 11th hour Pyhrric victory for the attacker, so it can work.

I must say though, that in this game, Rob had some of the most consistently bad saving roles that I've ever witnessed!  I did help average out those odds though by hitting and saving with slightly above average success on my dice.


The next game will probably be a 16thC one. I really need to improve my setup before I host another game though, better lighting in my room at the very least, (which I hope to achieve by summer) but a better webcam would also be really good. <Update: actually, a quick tests suggests my LG smart phone might be up to it after all>

Now, I have a new glossy toy soldier Rebel limber that needs its baptism of fire so I need to think about a scenario.

Solo Miniature Wargaming (Part 1)

Solo wargaming did not come naturally to me. I don't like to think of myself as competitive, it goes against my upbringing but I will confess that there was a time when facing an opponent across a table full of miniatures brought out a powerful urge to win in a younger me. When I retired early to the country with most of my gaming opponents living anywhere from 100 to 2,000 km away  I decided that I needed to learn to play solo.

Stuart Asquith and Don Featherstone were my main guides, helped somewhat by CS Grant's Programmed Scenarios and a slough of other incidental sources. The result is recorded in my 2008/9  Game a Week blog   where 39 of the 52 games were played solo as I taught myself how to do it and have fun. The battle reports are very brief and say little about how I did it, but those games laid the foundation for my enjoyment of the solo aspects of the hobby since then.

A face to face game with friends still trumps a solo game, and I enjoy the occasional game via internet video chat though I could really use better equipment and better lighting for hosting, ( See Posts about miniature wargames via the internet .) but solo wargaming is now a leisurely joy to me in its own right rather than a desperate last resort.

Sep 2013: Rob's view of a Rough Wooing game on my table 2,000 km away.

There are a lot of ways to go about solo gaming but for now I'm just going to write about how I go about it. Feel free to leave questions in a comment, or if shy by sending me an email (address at top of blog). No questions are "dumb" or offensive, all are welcome.

OK, this intro is getting  a bit long so I'll have a quick look at how I get started once the decision to play is made  and the next post will get into a play by play account of a game including how and why decisions were made and so on.

The first thing I do is pick a period and scenario and adapt it to my troops, rules and setup. I find published scenarios invaluable for putting some exterior limits on myself though if push comes to shove, there is always the option of writing up a new scenario when none of the 300 or so published ones I have seem to fit my mood. That includes scenarios found in scenario books, magazines, and rulebooks even if not using those rules that day (Blastoff Bridge anyone?).

If the scenario includes a programmed option such as in CS Grant's Programmed Scenarios then sometimes I will pick a side and follow the instructions for the other side but normally I just "change hats" during the game, doing my best as the "Blue" player and then as the "Red" player but I always pick one side as "me" and make all the choices and accept all the responsibility for decisions good or bad.

For the "other" side, I will usually make the obvious decisions but where there is more than one good option I will use an old technique of setting out a couple of valid choices, weighting them if appropriate, then choosing one with a die roll. We will see examples of this as we do the play-through. Everything else goes as normal with me rolling for both sides with utter, ruthless, honesty and the courage to accept that my favourite unit just rolled three 1's!  In the end, it is my decisions about battle plans and tactical choices that make or break the game for me. Did a gamble work? Did I have that reserve in hand? Did the "enemy" and the decision tree die pull a manoeuvre that I hadn't thought of when I made my last move and can I recover? This is where identifying with one side helps inject some emotion so it is more than an intellectual exercise. For me that aspect is crucial to the depth of my enjoyment.

40mm Scruby War of 1812 US and British infantry with an Irregular General and my own original homecast Riflemen and Infantry officers.

OK the table is set, tomorrow we will look at the chosen scenario and get the game rolling.

An Ether Wargame

Today I "Hungout" at  Rob's place  2,000 km away for a playtest of our Ambush scenario for Huzzah.

End Game. The ambushers will retire and the wagons will make it through.
Photo by Rob since I couldn't figure out how to do a screen capture on the new version of Google Hangouts.

We had a host of unrelated technical problems but we overcame them and managed a good play through and chat. We also tweaked the rules to help them run a little quicker and more decisively in aid of reaching a conclusion within out timeslot. The OB will also be tweaked a little.

One month to go!

Hangout at the Redoubt

Last Sunday Rob from the Sharp End of the Brush blog dropped in via Google Hangout for a game. The scenario was Forlorn Hope 2 from Wargames for All Ages, the troops were 40mm Prince August and the rules were Charge! by Lawford and Young.The situation is that a surprise attack is being launched against 2 redoubts that guard the end of a fortified position. The scenario is so similar to an article written by Charles Grant for Stuart Asquith's Practical Wargaming magazine on  a similar at Yorktown that I can't help but imagine that it was inspired by that event.

The forlorn hopes charge as supports move up. On the right the 1/2 company of grenadiers are cut down by musket fire. A few struggle to the top to fight hand to hand but none made it back out. At the left redoubt however, the rest of the grenadiers stormed in before the garrison was fully awake and captured redoubt and gun, driving out the company of the Queen's Foreign Regiment. 

As usual the scenario required tweaking to fit the rules and table.  The scenario has rules for  the forlorn hopes to approach the redoubts without being spotted as well as defined delays for the defender's reactions.

My table is slightly smaller than the map suggests but instead of shrinking to fit, I tried to keep the distances between front line, redoubts and main position constant and trimmed the edges. The rules allow the defender to roll once per turn per redoubt to check if sentries have spotted the advancing forlorn hopes. Since Charles usually uses The Wargame which has shorter moves than Charge! (7" in column iir vs 15" in charge) I allowed the defender to roll twice per turn instead.

Rob chose to defend, a good decision given the poor video quality he was experiencing, partly due to bandwidth issues but mostly to the poor lighting which my tablet camera doesn't handle well. Hopefully this will be the year I get that resolved.

Light Infantry swarm the redoubt as more Irish move up but the now understrength garrison spikes the gun and  retreats just as the Crown Prince Carabineers emerge from the main position.

Its sometimes tricky translating scenario units into game units since the book is a bit vague. In this case the redoubts hold 1/2 a unit and the forlorn hopes are each a 1/4 unit. 4 figures and an officer wouldn't make much of a storming party in Charge! but my table isn't big enough to use a 4 company, 80 figure Charge! reginent for each scenario unit so I normally use 2 company battalions. This gave the defender 1 company and 1 gun in the redoubts, another gun in the main line and Rob's choice of 4 companies or squadrons from a force of 8. I used 1/2 of my new Irish grenadier company for each of the forlorn hopes supported by a company of light infantry, 4 guns and 3 companies of line infantry.

The National Regiment advances in column on the captured redoubt while the remnants of the garrison retreat quickly, dragging a lone prisoner with them. Beyond them the Carabineers have no problem driving in the light infantry who had fired wildly as they charged.  A  battered company of Irish have entered the redoubt just ahead of the counter attack while a fresh company prepares to stem the cavalry attack. 
Unseen, the rebel's green coated Staarborde Battery  has dragged its guns forward to sweep the rear of the redoubt with cannister while the gun in the fort has just knocked out one of the guns of the red coated Port Battery who hve been firing from the edge of the wood off to the Rebel's left rear.

The scenario looked pretty straight forward and I figured it might take us an hour to play not counting idle chat and planning for Huzzah. To my surprise we ended up playing 9 turns over at least 2 hours of playing time and it ended up being a challenging game with a cliffhanger ending. At least part of the excitement was down to the rules which use simultaneous moves to written turn orders allowing me to make several small blunders, no dice required and Rob to surprise me at least once. The combat system is also capable of the occasional wild swing of multiple dice away from average with possibly catastrophic results if it comes at just the wrong  (or right) time.

 A final word. The SD card in my camera fried last week and since the tablet was occupied with the video conference, I had grabbed an old smartphone for pictures. It really doesn't like dim lighting hence the blurry pictures. The tablet isn't much better and with bandwith issues thrown in, here is what the game looked like at Rob's end. Talk about fog of war!

Through a storm of musketry and cannister the National Regiment stormed forward wiping out the Irish garrison. To their right the Carabineers crashed into the redcoated line, and were held. A quick count confirmed suspicion that the  Irish were understrength and all companies had to withdraw. It looked like defeat but looking at the pile of Pandour casualties from the National Regiment I decided to check their morale. Understrength! Just! They would also have to withdraw allowing the now rallied light infantry to slip in the back.

With both redoubts in Rebel hands it was a victory if a squeeker of a  Pyrrhic one. Hopefully the main Rebel army is just off table, moving up in support.

NQSYW Teaser: Rebel Assault

Its been over a year since my semiflat Prince August troops last saw action My Irish Grenadiers have never seen action. In May  Rob & I will be running two Not Quite The Seven Years War games at Huzzah in Maine  and its been a few months since our last remote game.

All that adds up to time for a remote NQSYW game!

The troops set up in accordance with the scenario. This is roughly the camera angle that Rob will see tomorrow when we connect with Google Hangout for the game.

The scenario is Forlorn Hope 2 from Scenarios for All Ages by Asquith & Young aka The Red Book. If all goes well there should be a report by Monday.

Colonel Hangought and the Village Square.

At last! A call to action! Training a polyglot collection of mercenaries into a battle ready regiment was no easy task but it was done and his lads were in fine fettle and ready to Charge!. Now the call had come from Sir William (or Whirling Willie as the men called him behind his back), take command of his regiment and a battery of guns and march in support of the Cavalry Brigade in a reconnaissance towards the town of New Peedeeheph.

Despite 15 years of campaigning in the Not Quite Seven Years War, the Colonel still had trouble understanding let alone speaking or writing the lingo so it was, perhaps, not surprising that his mind wandered during the briefing and that he thought their force was facing an enemy with superior numbers of infantry. In the face of this supposed infantry superiority, he proposed a quick advance by the cavalry backed by artillery to pound the enemy should they occupy the town, with his redcoated mercenaries in reserve. Whirling Willie quickly adopted the plan and with drums beating and trumpets toodalooing, the army set off.

The view from the Colonel's position. Veteran TT Teaser players will recognize the scenario immediately despite minor differences in details.

Google hangout's video was not as good as Skype but the latter has no chrome book version and a free video conference is a free video conference. Actually it did the job just fine and didn't shut me down for lack of bandwidth which Skype used to do from time to time. I think the sound was better too but with months in between its hard to tell.

The column clattered onto the table and down the road without incident but as the cavalry disappeared  into town, the urgent call of bugles, a clatter of hooves, shouts, a pistol crack or two and a clash of swords announced that enemy cavalry had been encountered. Mystified by the apparent failure of the enemy infantry to seize the far side of the town, the Colonel deployed the guns (one never knows what cavalry will do, of either side) sent A company into the nearest town block and began to deploy the remaining companies against all contingencies.

No sooner had his men secured the town when a scattering of rifle shots announced that enemy Jaegers had crept into the wood and just barely been forestalled by his own men. A prolonged firefight erupted with superior numbers and hard cover balancing the slightly more effective rifle fire. More neighing, trumpeting and clashing of swords announced that the cavalry battle continued to ebb and flow  on both sides of the town, seemingly without end as squadrons fell back, regrouped and charged back in. Suddenly from behind the wood appeared yet more cavalry.

The atmosphere became tense. Were they after all outnumbered? Who were the cavalry?

Suddenly the light and smoke cleared and it could be seen that these were the Wachovian Hussars. The men relaxed and a ripple of laughter ran up and down the ranks at the fright they had had, obviously there were Rosmark veterans amongst the mercenary ranks. As the enemy cavalry trotted forward, the well drilled mercenaries quickly formed a 2 company square then held fire until the Hussars were just beyond their bayonets. A crashing volley brought down men and horses but no had ever denied that the Wachovians always showed courage. The Hussars, who had never encountered infantry in square before,  threw them selves onto the waiting bayonets popping away with their pistols ineffectually while yet more were shot down and then as suddenly as they had come, they were gone.

Through a haze of powder smoke, the square can be seen repelling the Hussars.

The far side did offer to walk the camera around the table but since the town and woods would have blocked my view from the Colonel's location, it seemed more fun to catch glimpses and hear the sounds of battle ("4""3" tie, next) 

As the Hussars retired to join the cavalry melee, their place was taken by more Jagers. Still the remaining town block remained empty. At last the light began to dawn on the Colonel. All the enemy had brought were cavalry and jaegers! C Company was ordered to double over and occupy the rest of the town while B company and the guns remained to support A Company in their fight against the Jagers. As B company formed in column behind a small hill, ready to drive off the Jagers at the point of the bayonet, a horn rang out an urgent recall from behind the wood and the town was suddenly emptied of horsemen. The heavy cavalry on both sides had had enough and pulled back followed by the battered Jaegers and Hussars. The Colonel's little command, barely scathed, was left  in secure possession of the town.

Casualties gather near the board edge as the battle comes to a close. Watch for upcoming reports from the other side at http://sharpbrush.blogspot.ca/ and  http://junkyardplanet.blogspot.ca/  

Hanging Out in the 16thC

Its been a while since the last remote game. There is no Skype version for my Chromebook so Rob and I connected using the Google Hang Out video chat for a game of Rough Wooing, 16thC French vs Imperials.  

Somewhere in Italy c 1545, French and Imperial columns converge on a crucial pass through the hills. That's Rob at the far end of the table.

The scenario was a variation on an old one from the Courier  crossed with one from Stuart Asquith's Solo Wargaming. The opposing armies are approaching on converging roads with the goal of seizing a pass through the hills. In addition to a General, each side was allowed to pick 15 units from the following list which in turn was based on what was on my shelf:

9 pike, 6 shot, 1 swordsman, 2 gendarmes, 2 hc, 2 lc lancers, 2 mtd arquebusier, 1 lt gun. 2 units could be elevated to Captain allowing 3 Battles per side. (As it turns out I over estimated the number of  arquebusiers and had to borrow some Scots).

First fire, my nimble arquebusiers out march Rob's light cavalry and ambush them at the junction.  

Rob's Imperial force fielded a Van of 2 light lancers and 2 mounted arquebusiers, followed by his Main Battle with the General, 2 heavy lancers, 2 shot and 2 pike. The Rear was composed of 2 pike, 2 shot and 1 swordsman. 

My French had an Advance of 3 arquebusiers, 4 pike, and 1 light gun, a Main Battle of the General and 2 HC and a Rear of 2 light cavalry lancers and 3 arquebusiers.

Mid game. My troops closest to the camera. 

Rob's light cavalry rode ahead and seized the objective while his infantry slowly marched on and formed up. I had led with my infantry with the intention of seizing  the junction and using my artillery and arquebusiers to whittle away Rob's force until they were ripe to be counter attacked. Worked like a charm thanks to lucky shooting dice on my end and some slow movement dice on Rob's end. 

The view from the other side. My chromebook  doesn't have quite as good a camera as my old laptop so the picture was a bit fuzzier.

Our light lancers clashed with losses on both sides which left the situation unchanged apart from Rob's cavalry being out of command and unwilling to advance close enough to return fire against my arquebusier. It took a good long while but eventually I whittled them down so that they broke and my Rear, now leading, was able to advance and occupy the pass in turn.

The end of the day, 

In the center, Rob's Main Battle repulsed an attack by my more numerous pikemen while his Rear drove my arquebusiers out of the park behind the stonehouse then advanced on my unsupported gun. Luckily for me, the constant trickle of artillery and arquebus fire wore his troops down and finally broke both battles  leaving the French in command of the field.

Rob handled the Activation Deck from his end, flashing the cards for me to see.

So far away they looked tiny

Actually, they were tiny as well as far away. Sunday night I plunked my butt  in a  comfy chair in my Games Room and let my mind and spirit travel the ether(net) to Lentulus's Games Room. The scenario was Wagon Train from Scenarios for Wargames, the figures were Pendraken 10mm 's, the rules were the current Hearts of Tin.   I commanded the wily Bravance ambushers or those that elected to show up, while Lentulus commanded the Drakenburg convoy. The lovely fortress in the back was built from stout cardboard about 20 years ago by David Wilson.

The view from my laptop. From 90 km away, those 10mm sure look small!

Actually, I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to keep track of the action even with 10mm troops. Left to my own devices, I could not have distinguished the Mont Royal Regiment from the Longueil Regiment but I could tell the difference between horse and foot and once identified, I had no trouble tracking the movements of various units and was starting to get good at estimating distances.

As usual with this scenario, there were lots of ups and downs as units appeared at places inconvenient for one player or the other. Eventually though, my boys waltzed off for a good feast while the garrison went on 1/2 rations. Hopefully there will eventually be real pictures on one of Lentulus' blogs.

The evening did see all three grades of cavalry  getting a chance to do their thing. When my Cuirassiers crashed into the enemy Hussars and threw  9 dice looking for 3 or better, I had brief qualms about the cavalry changes but it all worked as advertised. Much the same applied when my Dragoons thundered down on a poor battalion  which had been caught by my infantry in march column and was trying to rally in what they thought was a peaceful little valley. Five ones on 9 dice can really take the sting out of a cavalry charge!  Still we pursued them and hacked some more before the hard core colour guard finally held my horsemen to a draw in one round. That's them by the tape measure, perched on the table edge, working on a big stack of disorder chits. That's my Dragoons in the lighter green space about to ride out of rifle shot of the enemy Jaegers just emerging from the wood.

Things learned:
Cavalry charges can be heart stopping things, capable of blowing the enemy away or whiffing and often the cavalry ends up  effectively blown either way. This is what I was trying for so, so far so good.

Counting noses to figure out how many dice to roll is a nuisance with even 20mm troops and is no easier with 10mm ones. The alternative would be to go back to everyone in the front 2 ranks but only 1/2 if caught in flank or rear but its a minor thing that would end up much the same, maybe 1 die more or less and I'm going to hold off till the 5 test games are complete.

Despite many proof readings, there are still errors. Somehow I accidentally deleted Irregular Cavalry from the list of -1 melee modifiers and was in a quandary as to whether "play the game as it lies" applied or "play them as intended". I opted for the latter otherwise Irregular cavalry would not only be super mobile but as good as any dragoons in combat and the deletion was not intended. 

The rules could stand even more duplication of rules in different places. At one point I was trying to only ever write something once but I've slowly started repeating things which apply to more than 1 section. For example, during set up it explains that march columns have no front, only flanks. In the melee rules it says
units hit in flank are disordered. Therefore march columns are disordered automatically if they are charged and don't manage to react. It would be easier if I just wrote that, rather than expecting in W*G fashion that people would make the connection between the 2. Lots of those sorts of things tucked away here and there.  I don't mind doing the work to clarify them, but not until I'm sure that they won't be changing weekly or even monthy.

OK, Its probably best for a short break from HofT so I can have a fresh mind for the next test game. I see Sassinid Persian and Greco-Bactrian troops forming on the table edges, I guess its time for some Gathering of Hosts.

Bridge Over the River Skype - The End

When we left our intrepid heroes, The 1st Faraway Infantry Brigade was reforming in an arc around the bridgehead with its back to the buildings. To its right the 2nd Oberhilse Infantry Brigade backed by 3 guns was closing in while to its front the Oberhilse Ist Infantry Brigade was reforming and pressing forward.  

After a vicious, if somewhat one sided, exchange of musket fire, the Royal Fusiliers were reduced to 1/2 strength and forced to retreat onto the bridge where they rallied. As they fell back, the Oberhilse artillery unlimbered on top of the small hill and opened fire with tremendous effect. The guns of 'A' Battery were turned on the wooden walls of the General Store and smashed them to splinters, lighting the stores of kerosene on fire. (3 dice for 5 or 6 - 3 hits + a fire).  The last surviving man of the 4 man garrison, fighting his first action, slipped out the back door and across the bridge. 'B' Battery, deployed closer to the river had a clear line of sight to the bridge. Aiming carefully they opened up. The very first shell landed squarely on the bridge and exploded killing 1/2 of the sappers as well as the Engineer (again 3 dice for 5 or 6, this time only 2 hits but the officer risk die came up 1 laying low the engineer). The Sappers were dazed and confused (not to mention very disordered)  With no Engineer left, the remaining mines could not be finished but the Sapper corporal set about rallying his men, hoping to be able to prepare the existing charges for ignition.  

The Charge of the Blue Guards.

To give the sappers time to recover, the Wye Fusilers stood their ground. They were holding their own  in an exchange of fire with the 1st & 5th Infantry when the latter pulled back. Into the gap with bugles blowing came the steady ranks of the Blue Guard. With a shout they leveled bayonets and charged forward. The redcoats were already reduced  to nearly half strength when their beloved Brigadier went down. It was too much and they broke and ran. The Guards pressed forward, battering at the doors of the Stone House.  Inside, the 8 man garrison stood confidently awaiting their onslaught. It was their first battle but Major Topper, their Brigadier was on hand to steady them. They emptied their muskets at the attackers then met them in fierce hand to hand combat but they were no match for the veteran guards. The garrison fled out the back door to seek shelter along the river bank. (Garrison: 2 dice for 4,5,6  vs 3 dice of Blue Guards looking for 6 with a +1 to the die. sighhhhh. At least it was close.)  Leaving a company to garrison the Stone House, the Guards pressed forward yet again.

Disordered elements of the Blue Guards try to force their way past the Royals to halt the demolition.

Trapping the remnants of the Wye Fusilers against the  Royal Fusiliers standing firmly across the bridge, the Blue Guards forced them to surrender. Gathering a few stragglers together, a captain of the Guards led a final push to brush aside the Royals but these held firm. This gave a brief respite allowing Turner to rally the sappers. If the rockets could silence the enemy guns or if  he could seize the initiative from General Lentulus, retreat the remaining Royals and blow the bridge, there was still a chance. The Rockets had been firing with unusual accuracy all night. It would take 2 hits on 2 dice to disorder B Battery and then they would have to fail their rally roll, but it was a chance.

 Snake eyes for the sailors! 1 rocket goes North into the river while the other smokes off to the South.

There was still a chance of winning the intiative....TIED! Rats, that meant that Oberhilse would continue to go first. Would Lentulus offer his enemy the chance to blow the bridge? or press forward? B Battery thundered again, 3 dice for 5,6: 2 more hits! Give those gunners a biscuit!  The Blue infantry pressed forward while the Guards fell back to rally but none were close enough to charge the bridge again.

With no Engineers or sappers left alive, I wasn't sure it was legal to try to set off the existing charges but it was academic.  Having been interrupted and having taken 3 turns to lay one of the charges, there were only 5 and 2/3rds in place. I rolled 5 dice needing a total of 18 to blow the bridge. .....total .....17. Arrghhhh!!!

With over half my units routed or destroyed and the bridge not blown, it was a clear victory for General Lentulus and the army of the Blue Republic.

Tomorrow a discussion of the rules, what worked, what wasn't written the way I thought it was, what worked ok with this game but wasn't needed and might cause problems when playing a larger game such as I intend to with my ACW armies or when Lentulus hosts with his hordes of 10mms, and general thoughts and plans for the road ahead.

Bridge Over the River Skype: The First Assault

There was something to be said for testing the rules with a small simple scenario but since the core of the rules were well established it seemed better to test as many aspects of the rules as possible. I had a request from Bluebear Jeff for some town action so I included a fortified as well as several unfortified buildings. The scenario called for 8 infantry, 2 light infantry, 2 heavy and 1 light cavalry and 4 guns on the attacking side which is about 1 unit shy of the maximum for the Scenarios for Wargames book and typical of the larger Grant & Asquith scenarios as well as being comparable to the larger War of 1812 battles, at least those on the Canadian border. The defending force was smaller, only 4 infantry, 1 light infantry, 2 cavalry and 3 guns plus sappers. The trick of course was to hold the attacker back long enough to set the charges then nip back to safety without losing to many. We'll see how the various parts of that went.

Lentulus chose the attackers and divided his force with 2 brigades of infantry coming in from the North past the woods and a brigade each of infantry and cavalry supported by foot artillery coming in from the South past the hill. I deployed 1 infantry on the near bank as per the book, and another occupying the town on the enemy bank supported by a Naval Light Rocket Battery on 1 side and a Foot Artillery Howitzer battery on the other. The stone house, holding up to 8 figures was rated as fortified. My second infantry brigade was deployed watching the South and East roads with light infantry in the wood. The cavalry was held back in the center with the FTC Horse Artillery positioned to fire on either the North or East roads.    The Sappers were poised to start planting charges.

All cavalry and light infantry units were 8 strong. Infantry should have been 16 according to the plan but since most are mounted 6 to a stand at the moment, I went with 18. The guns had 6 crew for the horse, pack and foot artillery batteries and 4 for the remaining light battery and Naval Brigade rocket.

The Naval Brigade opens fire on the Frontier Light Horse.

The Oberhilse forces appeared first from the North, deploying slowly while building up their numbers. The FTC amused themselves by showing why they are normally equipped with rockets instead of real guns. Eventually additional forces, including cavalry, appeared from the South and I began to react.

Pulling the line infantry back towards town, I shifted the Princess Charlotte Dragoons to face the Blue Dragoons and Frontier Light Horse while sending Larsen's  Lancers eastward to threaten the flank and rear of the Oberhilse infantry if it should advance. The naval battery, with great precision launched two rockets straight into the FLH giving us the first disorder of the game. With a  flip of initiative they fired again and got another hit (4 dice for 5.6 - 3 hits), cheering but not enough to cause a 2nd disorder. The FLH, being both Irregular and Elite with only 1 disorder had an even chance of rallying on the next move but failed and fell back to a safer location where they rallied a turn later.

The FTC Horse Artillery burning powder while the Lancers dance with the Blue Guards.

To the North, the Lancers and Blue Guards danced an intricate minuet turn after turn while skirmishing broke out in the woods and the FTC Horse Artillery found that it was hard work to keep missing once the enemy came within canister range.  Luckily, the Howitzer, blind firing over the wood for 6's did better.

After a bit more jockeying, both armies were more or less deployed and staring at each other, while the powder barrels mounted on the bridge. (1d6 of work per turn. 6 points being needed to complete a charge  with excess points of work being lost.) Then all hell broke loose.

The Charge of the San Carlos Grenadiers.

To the South, the Blue cavalry formed and charged to be met by Princess Charlotte's Dragoons, 13 Blue cavalry against 8 elite Red ones. The dice flew and the Red were ahead by one.Major Kearney, acting as Brigadier, was at hand though. 1 more die to roll, 4,5,6 and the melee was drawn, 2,3 Blue would be defeated and on a 1 the Major would be lost as well. A 4 duly came up and both sides pulled back to rally. Lentullus now deployed his Pack Howitzer and opened up hitting 2 cavalry and driving them back yet again to a position squeezed in between the Royal Fusiliers and the town. Switching targets, the howitzer fired with 3 dice vs the Royal Fusiliers with 2 more to overshoot on to the cavalry. Box cars! The Dragoons, decimated by artillery fire retired over the bridge.  (5 dice over 2 turns, 5 or 6 to hit, 4 hits!)

To the North, the Oberhilse Field Force 1st brigade and Volunteers began to push forward, clearing the woods then pressing against the new line formed by the Wye Fusliers and Horse Artillery.  Both sides opened with musket fire. My plan was to evade any charges with the Horse Artillery and hold with the infantry. The target, massed infantry battalions stacked 1 behind the other,  was too tempting though. Even the FTC horse gunners couldn't miss with 5 dice for 3 or better, well, not completely anyway. Added to the fire from the Fusliers, they were 1 short of causing 25% casualties which would have disordered the San Carlos Grenadiers, robbing them of their Fresh bonus and dropping them 1 die. Instead, the Grenadiers over ran the gun and threw back the Fusiliers. A detachment of 3 Victoria Rifles led by General Turner himself tried to stem the flood but were eliminated, Turner barely escaping capture. Onward, pressed the Grenadiers, thoroughly disordered   by casualties and 2 pursuits. Into the rear of the disordered mass of Fusiliers they crashed! Bolstered by their new Brigadier  these rallied just enough to hold the Grenadiers at bay but the bridgehead was a shambles. (1 die  for 16 Fusilers caught in the rear+ a commander's die vs 3 dice for 12 Grenadiers - 2 hits a piece)
 

Now at last, Colonel Flowerdew at the head of the Lancers saw his moment. They had managed to slip past the Blue Guard. Before them was the rear of a disordered mass of Volunteer infantry. The bugle rang out, the lances came down and the troopers thundered forward. The Volunteers scattered before them, Grenadiers and Lafayette Rifles fleeing into the woods. Quickly the newly formed 6th Infantry formed square but it was nip and tuck, if not for the presence in the square of Lentulus himself they might have broken before those bright lance tips. But it was not to be. With 75% casualties and 2 pursuit disorders, the Lancers were a spent force. Flowerdew led them through the enemy lines, past the rallying Fusiliers and over the bridge to safety. 

The Lancer's work for the day was done, and well done, but the day wasn't over yet.  

The remnants of the Lancers retreat over the bloody field. 

To be continued.

Bridge Over the River Skype -Teaser

Late in the day, a detachment of Royal Fusiliers steels itself against the oncoming Blue Guards.

This evening Lentulus dropped by via Skype to give the latest Hearts of Tin a work out. A full report will follow tomorrow but the rules worked as intended, the game was fun and closely fought. Here's a teaser from the second to last turn of a 4 hour game. 

L

With MacDuff at Skype's Creek

I had the pleasure today of having the Single Handed Admiral drop by (virtually) for a game.(see his blog for his view of the battle with screen snap shots) Its been about 12 years give or take a few since our last game which was also a MacDuff game now that I think about it but it didn't feel that long as we got going. Instead of dice, Peter took the whole modern thing a bit farther and used  virtual dice on an i-something. Seemed rather random to me, about as randomn as my old fashioned cubes.



The scenario was inspired by the American raid at Frenchman's Creek in November of 1812. Their goal was to seize and hold a shore battery and to demolish a bridge over which British reinforcements were expected. Peter commanded the Americans while Hector (or see my header picture)  commanded the British defence.  As British player, his clever plan as explained to me was to have his troops out shoot and out melee the Americans  while rolling low and bringing on his reinforcements as early as possible. Unfortunately, making this plan wore him out and he slept through the battle until the tardily approaching Indians woke him and, after looking around to see how things were going, (just the opposite of his plan) wandered off in disgust leaving me to pick up the pieces.

The York Volunteers, unable to hold the recaptured redoubt by themselves,  cover the retreat of the British Regulars.

I did my best, storming forward to recapture the bridge which was one axe stroke away from collapse. This brought Peter down from a Complete Victory to a Clear Victory as he had taken and firmly held the gun battery and had pretty much driven the reinforcements on that side back into the fort just a mile off table. Since he outnumbered my remaining troops by close to 2:1, there didn't seem to be any chance of my driving him off before the guns were spiked if at all. It was more a question of whether or not the British should finish demolishing the bridge!

   The Tardy but ferocious Grenadiers of the 41st recapture the badly damaged bridge.
Too little. Too late.

This was a small, fairly simple game but with single figures and scattered companies rather than the big blocks  of a Rough Wooing game. It took us somewhere around 2 hours as far as I can tell to play around 8 or 9 turns and I had a good time. Hopefully it won't be 10 years before our next game.

This was the first outing for the revised MacDuff and over all I was well pleased. There was one main glitch, while cleaning up the draft I had accidently deleted the evade option and had removed the ability to fire and move for reasons that I can't remember. I restored both these things as the game went on. I also had trouble finding some of the rules and found the engaged penalty not quite steep enough. These things have all been addressed and a new draft uploaded.

2 other comments on the rules and game:

Something lost and something gained. As we played, I couldn't help but think back to the days when we checked for company officer casualties, and took company officer personalities into account when taking control checks, used variable moves, a number of fire and move options and all sorts of other things and lots of fixed ways of doing minor things. The days when it was hard to finish a game in the time available. In some ways I miss some of those things but on the whole I prefer the clearer, simpler game which allowed more focus on the plan and allowed us to finish. I'm still not sure about Oberhilse and Faraway's next campaign but MacDuff will remain the rules of choice for my War of 1812 games.

Washers work. This was my first chance to try the single figures on the canvas table covering. The washers worked great as did the Scruby figures on 15x22mm bases. The S&S figures on smaller single bases were a bit awkward due to their weight and off balance poses, (each weighs 1 ounce while the Scrubies are a little less than an ounce and are balanced.).

Over all this level of game worked well with single figures. I'll leave the washers for now but future Scrubies and homecasts will be mounted on 15mm wide flexible steel oval-ish bases and mounted on single company trays, 3 companies to a battalion giving a battalion frontage of under 8 inches, equal to musket range.  

Well, that wraps up a good day.

A Not Quite Face To Face Wargame

About 1/3 of the way through the game I remembered the snapshot feature. Here Rob moves North Polenburg reinforcements on to the table.

Today I got my chance to be the remote player in a Skype game.  The game this time was set in the Not Quite the Seven Years War (NQSYW) using Charge! and 40mm homecast Prince August figures. Representing the Northern Alliance, I took command of a force of North Polenburg troops while the Pragmatic Alliance forces were commanded by Norman & William Dean with Rob serving as GM. The scenario was #20 from Stuart Asquith & CS Grant's Scenarios for All Ages.

Now for those not steeped in the history of the NQSYW, the armies of North Polemburg had a hard earned reputation for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. When Rosmark allied to North Polemburg and the armies of the Northern Alliance took the field, there was a drastic change of fortune with victory following victory. Military historians have debated for years now whether improved fortunes were due to the skill of the Rosmark generals or whether it was the fighting power of their troops. Since this battle saw a Rosmark general commanding a  force which did not contain any Rosmark units, it might be said to answer that question.

Briefly the scenario presents an advance force of Pragmatic troops finding what appears to be a poorly guarded river crossing. Both sides  call up reinforcements as the defender struggles to deny the enemy control over bridges spanning both rivers. The initial Northern forces consisted of a company of the Hawks Infantry Regiment which quickly barricaded itself into a small village while sending for help.

There are two main ways to get an enemy out of a village in Charge!. If you're in a hurry, you can fix bayonets and charge, hoping to survive defending musketry, break in to the buildings and expel the defenders in melee. If you set it up well and get lucky, you can do it in one turn. I've never seen it done but theoretically its possible. Usually several charges and much milling about is required and even then its not guaranteed. The other method is to deploy maximum firepower and blast the defenders out. This takes longer but is more sure.

Since there was a regiment of Wachovian infantry leading the Pragmatic forces, it was no great surprise to see them fix bayonets and rush forward in column. A fierce and prolonged fight ensued with the Wachovians eventually breaking into one building but being evicted. At this point, the Wiegenburgers had arrived, deployed into line like proper 18thC professionals and began decimating the Northern ranks. Eventually, the weakened remnants of the defenders could not keep the Wachovians at bay and these stormed in slaughtering the defenders. Only 2 figures of 19 escaped to run across the plain to where their reinforcements were rushing to their aid.  

The Wachovian Hussars were now on hand and charged the Northern reinforcements only to be met by North Polemburg Dragoons on their splendid white horses. Normally heavy cavalry are considered to have a considerable advantage over lights but the Wachovian Hussars learned their trade in many a fierce fight with Rosmark's famed Yellow Hussars so it was no surprise when they mauled the Dragoons before being driven back. The first screen snapshot (above) was made as the two sides rallied back.

More reinforcements pour on to the table from both ends. A need to recharge led to a switch from Rob's Ipad to a laptop with the resulting fog of war. 

As both sides poured in troops, the Northern infantry and artillery tore apart the Wiegenburger. The North Polemburg Dragoons cunningly rode around behind their infantry and hit the white coated Wiegenburgers just before they were forced to retreat. A general,experienced in warfare, should perhaps have kept in mind the  defensive nature of the battle, fore saw the imminent demise of the Whitecoats and kept his dragoons in hand to face the coming storm of Whitecoated cavalry. But steady defensive has never been a strong suit of Rosmark generals and so the Dragoons were thrown in. They rode down the infantry and were then met by the now rallied Hussars. Caught while rallying themselves, the two bodies of cavalry destroyed each other, the two survivors saluting each other as they rode away. The Pragmatic cavalry now had a clear field and swept away the remnants of the original North Polemburg regiment. The Northern forces had rushed their Grenadiers forward across the bridge but these now fell back across the river and the fighting on this side of the field died down to the occasional artillery round.

Across the field, the 2nd Squadron of Wachovian Hussars had crossed the Southern Bridge and charged the Queen Jennifer Regiment. Steady shooting and some stout bayonet work resulted in a drawn melee. As the Hussars fell back, another Pragmatic infantry regiment was at hand as was the 2nd Northen Polemenburg Dragoons. These charged forward against both the rallying hussars and the infantry.  The idea had been to take advantage of the weakness of the rallying light cavalry to destroy it as well as throwing the infantry back. Unfortunately, despite their penalty in melee, the Hussars managed to win 1st move and pinned all of the Dragoons who were in a narrow defile between wood and their infantry. The Hussars were wiped out but their sacrifice had bought time for the infantry to cross over and deploy.

As the sun began to sink, a fierce firefight saw the Queen Jennifer Regiment, supported by a gun and the opposing Scoeffen-Busch-Hagen Regiment,  decimate each other (Through the smoke, I wasn't able to make out which blue coated regiment  it was). As the next Pragmatic unit began across the bridge, the Dragoons advanced to the charge, assured that they could pin them in place until sunset and then rout them back across the bridge.

 Dice are fickle things and its a foolish commander who puts his trust in them.

Normally a melee where 6 cavalry fight 6 infantry is as close to a sure bet as it gets in Charge! but even doubled a 1 is not a formidable roll. Four one's and a two was even less impressive. The cavalry was able to force the 2nd round of melee but fared almost as poorly and were driven back in ignomony leaving the enemy in firm control of a route across both bridges.

It seems that as bravely as North Polemburg troops fight, it takes more than a Rosmark general to lead them to victory. Of course, note should be taken that it was not a Schoeffen Busch-Hagen General in command of the Pragmatic forces so perhaps the debate is not settled after all!

 The Ipad came back for a final close up of the victorious Pragmatic Forces

Rob (in red) with Norman and William looking rather like cats with cream on their whiskers.