Hurricane Ross has blown through again

I finally got tired of trying to find an easy solution to the habitual mess and congestion in my games room. As a side incentive, I want to have sufficient space around  the table to once again be able to invite  a couple of friends over for a game once in a while. It was time for serious measures.

KaBOOM!

  So, apart from a large bag of garbage now out by the curb, I also took a large box to the local Thrift store. Aside from some fantasy novels left by my brother in law, some CD's etc., it included a few bagged painted plastic toy soldier sets (Modern infantry & armour sets in HO, Romans vs Barbarians in 54mm, etc). The rest of the cupboard emptying and reorganizing can wait.

Next, my 40 year old, no longer rollable, roll top desk moved down to my proto-workshop in the sun porch, sans a few of the drawers which will catch up as soon as I find somewhere for the contents.

Hopefully, tomorrow and Friday I will be able to empty, move, and refill all the book shelves in the room and outside on the landing (sighhh) and move the long drawer cabinet that used to, and will again, live under my table and by Friday night have everything back together and tidied, ready for a game. The table itself is going back to its 2014/15 location with one end against the East wall but only 4x6 this time.

The last game (click) on the old 5x7 against the East wall.
August 2015.

Not only will there be more room and order around the table, and more room for storage underneath again, but there will be room for a daybed or similar under the windows at some future time.

I don't think the old 6'x8' is ever coming back.

1914: Live Playtest

Its good to have friends willing to kick the tires on my convention games and a regional association that welcomes us to join in their quarterly Table Top Games days.

Today 6 of them and I played a version of my 1914 game. From intro to end of game lasted about 4 hours, maybe a titch more and reached a conclusion after some 8 of 15 possible  turns including some heated fighting and heavy losses.

The Germans took a big chunk of the primary objective, the hill, but again lost it to a counter attack. On the woods in the far North the French were finally wiped out but at a high cost and a counter attack by the armoured car broke the back of the flanking attack.  On the other flank there was a prolonged long range duel which ended with the beginning of a French counter attack.

In short, it was Good but it can be Better!

After 3 hours and about 8 out of 15 turns, I called the game as the defending French began a pursuit.

The available table was around 5'x7' or about the same size as many of the Huzzah tables. I was able to lay out my 5'x6' (+ variable border) cloth with a few inches of bare table on either for paraphernalia. I always used to try and cover the table completely for scenic effect but I am starting to appreciate the practical uses of on table/off game-mat space and there was easily room today for more units than 3 players per side can handle in a 4 hour game slot and certainly room for a 4th player so I may plan for a 5'x6' battlefield for Huzzah.

The game slot at Huzzah is 4 hours and that has to include the rules and scenario briefing. I played all 15 of the planned turns but today we reached a conclusion 1/2 way through the game.

What I do need to do for Huzzah is to strengthen the attacking army and spread the objectives out or else find a way to get the game to play faster and that brings us to the rules.

Set up in progress.
Photo courtesy of Jeff of the Armchair Commander blog. 

When I resurrected the 1914 campaign I instinctively brought back 2 rules from that era of Square Brigadier: rolling for numbers of available orders each turn, and a Pin rule. Both of these had been dropped from my late 19thC rules after an intense internal debate. The last game had me wondering if that had been a mistake. This game confirmed that suspicion and my first act on getting home was to repeal them. 

Both rules slowed the game without adding anything really useful although they appear to reflect the command structure on one hand and the reaction of troops to heavy fire on the other. 

The  19thC rules I have been using assume that if a Commander is there then he is doing what he is supposed to be so I only test isolated units which is a big time saver and ends up having  similar effect. 

The voluntary pin rule allows a player to, cancel one hit in exchange for not shooting or moving that unit. In effect it made fire feel ineffective even though it wasn't for the defender and meant that less bold attacking players took that option too often thus had trouble making any headway. Its something that has to be learned but my years of GM'ing convention games tell me that few players will have time to learn the lesson during one convention game and rather than increasing "realism" it really just makes the game slower.

The alternative which I normally use is to allow a unit with multiple hits to try and remove one hit instead of shooting or moving. It has the same practical effect as the voluntary pin rule as heavy fire will usually stop an attack cold but it is less likely to be abused since it is an immediate choice of a chance of saving vs an immediate chance of shooting or moving as opposed to a guarantee of a cancelled hit now in exchange of not moving or shooting at some later point.

The new, slightly more complex, artillery rules also served largely to confuse everyone including me and have been trimmed back.

This puts things back to the well tested version and I feel like slapping myself up the back of the head for talking myself out of making the change before the game. 

Jeff's counter attack secured the main objective.Photo courtesy of Jeff of the Armchair Commander blog.

So far so good. With the rules in hand I need to turn my attention to reinforcing the German side by adding two battalions of infantry, a few squadron of Uhlans and another field gun and the Allied side by adding the 2nd half of the  British Battalion and a British squadron as well as the French heavy gun.

Debrief

Its always a little hard to judge a game when its been played in short spurts between non-gaming obligations especially when there were also pauses to consider the rules but we do what we must.

The game patiently awaiting my return.

As laid out in the first post of this series,the game was an attack by German forces on a thinly held French position with British reinforcements being rushed forward.

The German plan was to screen the French infantry, which was hastily entrenched on the objective hill with a battalion supported by cavalry, while attacking the thin screen of dismounted French cavalry with 2 battalions.

The troops laid out, ready to begin.

In retrospect, the attack was not as well handled as it might have been. The pinning attack got carried away and stormed the hill while one of the battalions making the main attack drifted a bit far to the right and took heavy casualties engaging the French infantry when they were supposed to be pressing the cavalry. Oops.

Mid game and the Zouaves have already had to retake the hilltop once.

Despite the action in the centre, the cavalry line did look hard pressed and all reinforcements were originally directed  that way with the cavalry and armoured car finally making it secure so that even when the French MG was FINALLY knocked out, the Germans lacked the strength to push forward into the gap.

The Lancers close a gap in the middle while the armoured car secures the extreme right flank.

At that point the German cavalry came forward to dismount and attack through the woods held only by a 1/2 strength  Company of Zouaves. They failed, twice, and then were evicted by a counter attack! Brave Zouaves! By the end of the game the Zouaves had been reduced from 4 companies to 1/4 of one company but they still held one length of trenches.

The battered Jaegers managed to take the hill top again and held it against several counter attacks interspersed with artillery, machine gun and rifle fire but finally on Turn 15, the last turn, a final counterattack by dismounted French cavalry managed to take back the hilltop for a narrow victory.

A close end.

So, what does this mean? Firstly, I'm satisfied that I can take this to a convention and run it with the hope that some players will enjoy the game. The rules don't deal in low level detail and don't have a fancy activation system but there is lots of uncertainty and following period tactics and basic military principles will generally help. I may have a good imagination but the games remind me of my overall impression of accounts in several  memoirs that I've read as well as some histories and that's good enough for me.

Secondly, there is ALOT of work to be done to get ready. I need to add units, make and mend lots of terrain and either tart up this cloth or preferably get a bigger cloth and do it up.

There was nothing new in the rules but I fiddled and then unfiddled a couple of things and identified some unwritten rules. I don't have a full version of the rules anywhere so I really should write one and at very least I need a better Quick Reference sheet to hand out. It may end up being 2 sided.

I did make an interesting discovery about terrain and the grid. Twice I had a problem trying to figure out whether opposing units in diagonally connected squares were in cover to each other or even capable of seeing and firing at each other. For example, when lining opposite sides of a hedge kitty corner to each other. Similarly when a unit captures a defensive position they are suppose to occupy it but if its a linear defence, it would then be behind them and not providing cover. These are plainly artificial situations created by the grid and rules. I finally realized that the easiest solution would be to run roads and hedges as well as trench  lines, through the middle of a square, not along the edge.

More importantly, I've been worried about the smaller number of 5 inch squares and so reduced movement which meant losing the option to move 1/2 and shoot. Movement in this game was just too slow for the time limit and speed of action. Even if the German attack had been successful at the first go, they didn't really have time for a turning movement or to cross the full distance to assault the second objective. I needn't have worried about the slight reduction in grid areas so the movement rules will go back to move 2 being slightly more vulnerable or move 1 then shoot or attack.