Over The Top!

I took my time this week, let myself get all the new (or old really) crazy ideas written up and then slowly again proved them to be poor choices under these circumstances and slowly made my way back to what I've been doing, but with movement etc adjusted for the smaller number of grid squares and using bigger units that can give and take more damage giving a bit more depth  and a wider range of results. I've also been editing and re-editing to try and achieve an acceptable level of consistency.

The draft being played is available as a webpage if you click here or you can click on the Scribblings blog page on the sidebar and then click on the same link there.

With all that done, the dice started to roll!

Turn 4.
Hmm, might have pushed that battery a little too far ahead!

BUT....now, I'm out of time. I'll resume playing tomorrow and hopefully have time for a write up because if the weather holds up I'm heading to Ron's on Monday to try out the newly published Portable Wargame!

The Dangers of Late Night Blogging

Last night I decided to post a picture and a few quick comments before heading to bed. Somehow that turned into a lengthy rambling post which I kept editing, chopping, expanding, chopping, etc etc until I suddenly found myself an hour past my intended bed time! I quickly chopped out most of it and hit post. This morning I noted that it wasn't quite as accurate as intended but since I have barely scratched the surface of the full rules that's not really a problem.

One of the errors was that my original units were 8 figures including one officer, not 4 units of 4 which was something proposed but never carried out. One of the discussions that got badly chopped about was about the old question of "bigger units vs more units"

My intention is that a standard infantry firing line will be 8 figures (4 stands) wide in an area whether that be one unit or two. However there are situations where one unit in one area will not be enough unless I increase the size of my scenario forces and there were some armies that sometimes deployed infantry at very extended distances to allow them to make better use of cover. There were also some even rarer instances of masses of troops being used for launching assaults. Some of the reports of massed German units in early 1914 have been questioned but the rules also need to cover massed Dervish assaults and the like, not to mention the ambush of the massed Highland Brigade just before it deployed at Magersfontein.

The question was whether I should have 8 man standard companies which could be broken into 2 sections in some circumstances or 4 man companies which could be deployed as 2 units side by side in an area. Which would be more complicated in play or harder to describe in the rules and which would be  more effective  as a game mechanism to get the desired result.

After some more thought and pushing about of figures I have decided that the simplest solution is the one that makes normal custom the default behaviour but allows for some exceptions. This gives me the following:

1. Basic infantry units will be 8 figure/4 stand companies.

2. Any infantry can split into 2 detachments to occupy buildings or fortifications. They are then treated as separate units but cannot move voluntarily except to rejoin or if a detachment has been joined by a senior commander. For example, this would allow a company to occupy both sides of the road in a small town in a game where a Commander only has a handful of companies to deploy but not to send little parties of troop everywhere to infiltrate the enemy lines.

3. Units designated as Light Infantry may be split before the game into 4 man units which will be treated as being better shots and better at dispersal and use of cover. This decision cannot be reversed during the game.

4. Lastly, some armies will be allowed to form Masses at the start of a game (or when they arrive) by combining 2 companies into one large unit which will be vulnerable to enemy fire. This is to simulate the occasional attack by massed company columns or by spear armed  natives. A player may break up a mass into its component units but may not form them during a game.
 
5. Rather than worrying about formal battalion structures I will just allocate a number of subordinate commanders who will command the companies assigned to them for the game. Could be a proper battalion, could be an adhoc collection.

 Alright, next chore: artillery! Shrapnel vs HE, observed indirect fire vs direct fire and bathtubbing the ranges!

Decision Points

I could have played this game by now, I've had lots of hobby time, but... well, the long search to decide what the heck I want to be doing for the next while has pretty much run its course in every scale and period so I decided to just get on with getting the troops organized based etc before I played. That led to some minor adjustments to the game plan.

Faraway infantry in obsolete service dress take post in a farmyard and prepare for the onslaught of a horde of Oberhilsians. 

The first item was settling on the period for the rules and my games. Various ideas had led me to momentarily forget that after a lengthy study of the options, I had decided to select c1905 for my fictional campaign. This was after drab uniforms were introduced but before they were universal. More importantly it was after the revolutionary introduction of Quick Fire artillery with shields. I don't have a source for Boer War artillery, all I have are 5 Crescent WW1 field guns and a couple of scratch built heavy guns.

Luckily this is also the period for which Little Wars was written and will allow me to include all the key features I want most from the Boer War,  Mexican Revolution, WWI and various late Colonial Frontier campaigns. Unlike many previous efforts, I am not planning to do these rules as multi-period though they will be easy to adapt. Initially though I will only cover what I need to cover.

The second item was remembering that I had been through various organizational options and most of the exisiting troops were originally organized into 4 figure companies with plans to group the infantry into battalions of 4 companies. Rather than doing the work to change that, I just started putting them back the way they originally were.  Thats just about done now.

A heavy howitzer prepares to join in the bombardment of Faraway positions.
After all that basing and organizing, I realized that I didn't have enough Faraway units of the right period to attack but did have enough to defend while Oberhilse had enough to attack. So I switched armies as well as the war being represented. 

The last issue revolves around the move back to a smaller number of bigger squares. One 4 man infantry company looks a bit lost in a square all by itself but I don't want to double the number of figures per company and this in each wargame army. It works well enough for a skirmish with a handful of units but for bigger games I should also have the ability to mass troops in a small area. This means reviving one of the  past versions of a stacking rule. Its not so much difficult as time consuming making the rule clear, easy to use and having the right effect.  Just a matter of spending the time.