Cryslers' Testing Farm

Its only been a week since I played this game but it feels like a year because of my surprise immersion into the fictional 1/72 card table game. I'll be honest, that was so easy and fun and so much like what I pictured for my 40mm toy soldiers that it had me poking about upstairs with tape and figures again recalculating the optimum balance between size and number of grid squares and playing with 2 1/2D 40mm terrain mock ups. It took a forced wander through past blog posts to remind me that there have been other games that had been interesting and fun and get me back on track.

Luckily, the bits that about the card table/portable games that work best for me are not terribly applicable to the War of 1812 so that is safe, and it is today's topic.

The American attack goes askew when the main attack stalls in the woods (where the smoke can be seen through the trees) so an impatient, unsupported attack goes in on the center left only to be hit by a wall or 6's from the British artillery, gunboat and skirmishers and forced to fall back as the British center advances.

I've lost track but this is the 5th or 6th time at least that I have played Cryslers Farm using various rules. It is an interesting little action on the cusp between skirmish and battle like so many War of 1812 battles.  Basically, with 2 battalions plus a few detachments totalling close to 1,000 men, the British gave a bit of a drubbing to an American force of 8 battalions plus a squadron of cavalry totalling around 2,500, give or take 500 men. The Americans fought well and the British, though well trained had a high percentage of officers and men who had not seen action before. The more I look at the battle, the more it seems to come down to generalship and command control that allowed the British and Canadians to make good use of terrain and aggressive, confident, troop handling to best the various American attacks piecemeal  and so demoralized the opposing commander that he broke off the attack as fresh troops were arriving on the field.

If unfamiliar with the battle the wikipedia article nicely puts it in context.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Crysler's_Farm

And for a previous Hearts of Tin run at it including orders of battle both, real and game, check here:

November 2011 chrsylers farm game.

I didn't think to look back and anyway my basing and table size has changed and the rules were an earlier version but the game OB that was used was essentially the same, give or take a stand here and there. I did give the British "General"  a +1 to his orders dice and gave the American "General" a -1. He of course took this as a sign and proceded to roll as low as possible as often as possible.

The American center then attacked with support by a straggler from the left. It was repulsed once but rallied and came back as the British line advanced.

Once again I was happy how the rules worked in this context.

The number of turns was about right, at an average of 15 minutes each, compared to the real thing and the playing time only a little less. The troops also covered appropriate amounts of ground apart from the troops in the woods who moved a little too slow. Using my usual rule of 1/4 of stands lost represent killed, wounded and missing, the casualty figures were also reasonably close. 

I was initially concerned that the low stand count would leave the game vulnerable to a string of good/bad luck but although thete was a string of those, one almost leading to an early destruction of the British left wing, in the end there were enough counter balances that none of the strings of luck were decisive and since both sides had them, they balanced out.

The 3rd attack was scattered as the American General fumbled for the orders to send his cavalry (still hiding between the house and the wood)  forward into the British flank and bring his remaining guns forward, 

For the War of 1812 the number of infantry battalions will always be fairly low and cavalry usually limited to a single squadron so I will plan on keeping to a 1 figure = 30 to 50 men ratio giving mostly 4 stand battalions with a few 6 stand ones. Cavalry squadrons and skirmisher detachments will probably stay as 3 individuals.

Three years ago I looked on Cryslers Farm as an example of the smallest viable Hearts of Tin games. Now that I have experience and acceptance of small as well as medium games, and as the rules have evolved,  I see this as  an average game.  With figures based, terrain organized and a variety of small scenarios pre-prepared, I could see the War of 1812 providing both quick games, average ones and the occasional longer game. At the original proposed scale of 1:10 there would only have been medium to extra large games.

This gives me  a very comfortable format and rules for the War of 1812 and 1837 rebellions combined so I will press on. It doesn't require me to paint alot of new troops but there is scope for sufficient to keep me happy and the small numbers will let me do extras for occasional and what if  use.  I still intend to replace the 100 or so stylistically different Sash & Sabre figures (enquiries welcome) just because I can and to give me something to sculpt, cast and paint.

 I try to cover various wargaming approaches with my collection and a workable 1812 solution fills the "refight historical battles" niche while being able to  loan troops to Oberhilse and Faraway for horse and musket armies with more cavalry and easier terrain.

"Happy happy" as the expression goes.

Meanwhile back in the woods the 3rd Brigade is finally in position to debouch and hit the weakened British regulars.

However, I've seen enough to know that this route won't satisfy me for the later 19thC in 40mm. I'm still stuck there.

One attractive option is to do a larger version of the downstairs 1/72nd game with 4 figure battalion units. The small game is being designed to fit, troops and terrain, into the drawer in the desk downstairs which would leave the 40s holding the upstairs for Atlantica with almost no limits. One key element would be the ablity to build terrain to make a built up area of  3 or 4 squares look like a town not a few buildings. I can do that to some extent now with my existing buildings but only by taking up 6 or 9 squares and even then there is the temptation to see it as a lower level action,

Another option is to veer more towards a smaller scale "Colonial"  game for the 40s, a TS&TF sort of thing (or original MacDuff). My enthusiasm is low for that though and I think I would need my bigger table back to not feel crowded and it would call for more diorama like scenery and loads of figures, more of each type than I like to think about.

Lastly I have not dismissed a Rattle of Dice approach with smallish battalions of single figures. This would be similar but maybe something about it might allow that Toy Soldier feel without needing buckets of figures. Something to investigate when I get back from Huzzah in May.

Too late! The American General has hit his break point.
Everybody back to the boats!

In the meantime the Emperor is a bit upset with this whole Free State, Republic thing and has decided to support the expedition to replace the old Duke on the throne of the Duchy of Hungover. He has dispatched an all arms force and cavalry from both allied armies are currently disembarking and should be ready for action by tomorrow.

The Little Nine Years War: The Story So Far

Yes, I know, I said the next post would be that Crysler's Farm report and it will come, it was a good game and deserves something,  but there were ideas in my head, new troops to paint, old ones to refurbish, terrain to prepare, rules to clarify and a card table game to play. In due course, after checking for painting information in Andrew Rose's guide to Toy Soldiers as well as Kannick, Funcken and others, ransacking the cupboard for surplus painted ACW and Zulu war infantry to refurbish and looting the nascent Boer War project, I was ready to begin a late 19thC Cardtable Campaign using The Square Brigadier as rules. (Essentially a late 19thC version of the 20thC one ).  The rules will appear as a blog page before long.

The game took somewhere between 1 and 2 hours to reach a final, surprise, conclusion and turned out to have just the sort of look and feel I have been working towards since deciding to do a permanent downstairs card table game, based on  Bob Cordery's Portable Wargame with an improvised ACW version of Sawmill Village, back in November of 2012 .

And so dear readers, let me take you back 130 odd years, to a land far away......

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King Egbert, ruler of the small island Kingdom of Nottingland was, through his mother, the grandson and rightful heir of the Duke of Hungover, an even smaller Duchy on the coast of the Mainland. Unfortunately the good Hungoverian burghers got tired of paying taxes to someone who didn't work for a living and didn't conduct public policy in a way to maximize the wealth of his subjects. After a heated public debate, the Council proclaimed that the Duchy was now the Hungoverian Free State and asked the old Duke to please hand over the keys to the treasury and ducal palace and retire to his country estate. He chose instead to take a fast ship to visit his grandson. Shortly after an Nottinglish fleet appeared off the coast. The Council called the citizens  of the Free State to arms and with just a roll of the drum, the Nine Years War was begun.

The initial Nottinglish landing party, commanded by Brigadier Steele, consisted of the 1st or Grenadier Guards, the 2nd or Fullstream Guards, the 1st & 2nd Infantry battalions, a machinegun battery and a 4.7" gun with Royal Marine Artillery crew. (Please note that the tail of the column which snakes up the side of the board is technically off table following the small, unmarked path)  

The Hungoverians did not at the time have a standing army, apart from the  City Guard, but the Customs and Internal Security departments maintained several well trained paramilitary units. There was also a strong tradition of citizen soldiers  with the rural gentry and their tenants providing Mounted Rifles, the City Volunteers providing artillery as well as garrison troops and villagers everywhere being expected to turn out parties of riflemen for local defense.

The armies clashed at the little town of  Grant's Mills. Moving quickly, the mounted Burgers seized the town and their accurate fire forced back the MG but its return fire soon drove them from the town. 

The Hungoverian Infantry was slow to follow up and the Nottinglish Guards pushed forward seizing a farm on their left as well as the center of the town under the cover of their heavy artillery. The City Guard was at hand though and pressing forward through a horrendous storm of shell and bullets, took back the town in a fierce hand to hand struggle,  wiping out the stubborn 1st Guards.

As the Hungoverian City Volunteer artillery deployed between the town and the farm, an assault by the Nottinglish line infantry took back the town  despite heavy losses. A counter attack by mounted Burgers  and City Guards was wiped out  but their own losses were heavy. A final counter attack by the Border Police  took back the town and Brigadier Steele was forced to order his last Guardsman to cover the retreat of the artillery.

The battle was over but the war was just begun.

Upstairs, downstairs, in my Lady's chamber.

Well, maybe I won't play wargames in her chamber but the puzzle has been solved and I am on my way again to be able to play upstairs, downstairs and outside on a summer's day.

A conundrum that has been befuddling me since November of 2012, how to play upstairs and downstairs and have both 40mm/1/72nd toy soldiers from the same era without duplication, has just been resolved, and in a good way. Amazing what inspiration you can find in a Junkyard and in a Hermit's closet.

A quick swap and my 1/72nd forces once again include Guards, band and colour party, and Foreign Legion. Not sure when I last saw my old ones, might be more than 40 years. These ones have not been repainted or even touched up, just quickly based up Battle Cry style to see how they look on the card table gridded board.

Seeing the Wargame Hermit's 15mm traditional style toy soldiers based on Peter Laing conversions got me thinking about the old Airfix Guards. Why I'm not sure since I've been planning to do 40mm ones to replace my actual old Britain's but it did and next thing you know I now have a bunch plus some Foreign Legion. I just have been  unsure what to do with them. Given the few hundred ACW figures on hand, the obvious answer was to go the British involvement in the ACW route but that treads so closely on the Atlantica Red vs Blue heels that I didn't want to go there. I especially didn't want to go there since it is shaping up more as a middle school historical wargame project than as a game of toy soldiers.

The Atlantica campaign as also been losing its 'playing toy soldiers' feel again despite glossy paint jobs and a fictional setting. OK, apparently I enjoy the game of toy soldier thing now and then but not quite as much in its purest form (as in firing matchsticks) nor as my main thing. So the first question to be resolved was what to do with the ACW (Airfix Conundrum Wargame)? Ditch them? Nope. Change my mind again and put Atlantica and the Warof 1812 back to single figures skirmishes? Nah, can't seem to stay there. Do the same thing with both and the heck with it? Seems counter productive. Find some way to differentiate even if using the same rules? Maybe. I started off by comparing a brigade of each.

Two brigades both of 3 regiments each roughly 4" wide. 36 x 40mm figures vs 54 x 20mm ones.Yeah the little guys look a tiny bit more like a line and could fit better into realistic  terrain if  I were going to make it but wargame wise they are replaceable, same foot print in terms of grid squares occupied, same size of battle. Not the answer.

The possibility of using small units of the smaller figures on the small downstairs grid (ie the 2012 Plan B before receiving a generous donation of painted figures more than doubling my armies) crossed my mind but that would only use a quarter of the existing armies without touching the ones still in the cupboard awaiting refurbishment. So I turned my mind to ground scale and last year's Picket's Charge game. Here there was promise, if I were to skip the grid and go with brigades at a 1 stand=300 men ratio, I could easily find myself able to fight all of Gettysburg on a 5x10 table in my garage in a few years or any number of corps sized actions upstairs. There is something worth doing separately but not much room for those Guardsmen.

Then I looked at the village posts on Norman's Junkyard Planet blog and a little later at the latest post on the Stronghold Rebuilt. Aha!  I had thought of using my 20mm Boers on the little table but it didn't seem roomy enough for the veldt, and I have been trying to figure a way to squeeze in some European style towns and villages into an Atlantica setting, as well as a way to rescue my version of a card table game. There it is in a nutshell! I have  some Guardsmen and all sorts of excess painted and unpainted 1/72nd plastic figures and know where to get more if needed plus matching metals. Each army only needs around 50-60 figures to build all the units to handle any CS Grant Teaser including the occasional unit of engineers etc.. It just needs a new  fictional background.

Suddenly I am left with plans for fewer than 12 collections, including both major and minor, all under way and with built in scope for handling any butterflies that may alight without upsetting any apple carts. Lovely!

In the meantime, Crysler's Farm has been fought once again but that's another post.