Programmed Wargames Scenarios: Broken Ground

Been a while since I've played with my 18th-Century Wofuns or CS Grant's solo mechanisms. I'd like to work my way through all of them eventually, so it's the turn of Scenario 2: Broken Ground. I found playing the Blue defender rather boring last time, so this time I'll play Red. I start by randomly selecting the table layout:

Hills before the green cloth drops. You can see lots of 
fantasy roleplaying stuff here.

Then I select my army from the available options. It might not be best for moving quickly across the board, but I'm going with overwhelming force: seven infantry regiments, one light infantry, four cavalry and two guns.

Next I roll to see if my recon troops did their job, and they did. This means I can determine and deploy the Blue defenders before deploying my own army. I'll select randomly, and the Blues have five line infantry, two light, three cavalry, and a gun. Both sides also have a general.

15% of the Blues are a reserve in the center. That's a job for the cavalry. The rest, randomly, are arranged 20-60-20 on flank, center and flank, and all must be in forests or on heights. Well, I've a gun and eight regiments aside from the light infantry (concealed in the woods. So the three cavalry regiments are reserve, three infantry units in center with the gun, and one infantry unit on each flank.

I am using here the D3 Horse and Musket rules from Grid-Based Wargaming But Not Always. There is an activation mechanic that is more difficult as a unit loses hit points, but it won't be a problem until taking two hits (you roll higher than the hits on 2d6).

It's just occurred to me that, given I significantly outnumber the enemy, there should maybe be a time limit. In the Grant scenarios, objectives are quite vague - in this case, the winner simply holds the heights. Probably has something to do with them being rules-agnostic. I've noticed in the past scenarios like this (get to the other side of the table) being one and a half or twice as many turns as it would normally take a unit to cross. In line, infantry would cross the table in eight turns, so perhaps a 12-turn game? But then there are quite a lot of cavalry, who move twice as fast, and infantry can also move faster in column. Movement is not reduced by terrain in these rules - you just can't enter certain categories.

Another option is a casualty limit, of, say, half the units on one side eliminated. Might not be fair to the French here, but could work.

I welcome suggestions!

Here's the deployment. I'm concentrating on the flanks in hope of splitting the opponent - not knowing the programmed defender orders yet, I'm interested to see how they react to my intentions.

Rear: One French unit to right flank, three and gun center,
one to left. Three horse regiments center, rear line, but able to
come out in either direction to provide quick assistance.
Front: My infantry is on my left and center, guns moving up on
a hill, four horse regiments to my far right hoping to sweep around.

Once I have committed to my attack, I examine the Blue instructions. "Committing" is tricky, as I haven't any written orders, but my intent is to attack Blue's flanks. Blue's orders, given its central position position, is to hold the center of the feature, without giving up any ground or counter-attacking with the units on it (!). The flanks may be given up if necessary, while the reserve and flank units may counter-attack. "You should use cavalry and light troops boldly on the flanks to harass the enemy."

As for Blue's response, I roll on a chart according to Red's (my) plan. "Red attack against weak Blue flank" seems to be it, though I'm actually aiming for both flanks. The Blue response is "Negative," meaning no overally change of plan and a lack of initiative.

Under the circumstances, I feel I am constrained to stick with my initial plan, rather than, say, racing my cavalry to the left and joining the attack on the flank there. I must attempt a double envelopment.

Now to the battle. I've just moved onto the table, so it's Blue's turn. Given a lack of initiative, their reserve will not move until needed, and their gun is the only thing in range. They hit one of my grenadier units for two wounds (of nine).

Turn 1: My grenadiers (left) march onto the left hill to tackle the one
French regiment there, one unit losing three more HP as it comes up.
At center, my infantry spreads out while my guns find their position
and unlimber. My cavalry sweeps forward to hit the French right.

Guns may not move after unlimbering, and with a 45-degree field of fire will not be firing on the plucky French to their left. I expect my grenadiers can handle it. Though the two-page rules don't say, I assume I must deploy my own infantry to fire, so no shooting at all from me yet.

Turn 2:

The battered grenadiers fail to activate. That's OK since only two
can get into position to fire, though the right one takes casualties.

The light infantry head for the central forest, screening the infantry
columns. My guns fire, but I must remember that the green paper
(representing forest) would block their view of the central hill.
They instead target the French left, to ease the job of my cavalry.

Cavalry cannot enter woods, so the French are safe as my Horse
sweep some more. They take musket fire, though.

Turn 3: 

The French outpost is driven off, as the British infantry form into
line and some of the French cavalry arrives to hold them off.

Concentrated fire destroys one of my cavalry regiments.
Since I can't enter the forest, it's safe, if isolated.

Turn 4: Just some back and forth charges. The French left flank is isolated but safe, sniping at the cavalry, and the infantry on the British right is "closing up," ready to close the door if the French outposts can't hold them off.

Turn 5: Since there is no move-and-shoot, I hold my infantry still to blast the French right flanks. Two of my cavalry fail their activation rolls and stall, but the third makes a charge into the back of an infantry regiment. Light infantry aren't doing much at all, and casualties are starting to make activation more difficult. I do manage to eliminate a French cavalry with fire, meaning that there are no French at all in front of my left flank. In exchange, I lose an infantry regiment to a charge, and a cav regiment is down to its last hit.

The cavalry unit at top center, front line, is French. It just charged
The British one at front. It did the max damage, but not enough
to kill, so fell back to its present position; which means it's about to
be charged in the side and back by my units to rear and left.

Turn 6: The beleaguered French cavalry survived when both my advantaged units failed their activations. Instead it charged and retreated. The French left flank is in good hands now, with only two reduced Brit cavalry units to menace it. The French right, on the other hand, is just gone, and the only reason I haven't poured over the hill and pounced on the center is that I can't shoot and move in the same turn.

Turn 7: Except for the gun and those units "sheltering in place" in the forested zones, the French are gone. I'll stop here.

Most units are intact, as I tend to concentrate on damaged units until they're dead. And once a unit has taken enough hits, its survival in the next turn is deterministic, because hits are automatic. There is nothing to stop cavalry from spinning on its axis and charging, for example, and it WILL score at least two hits, or one if going up a hill, or four if charging from the side or rear. If the charged unit has that many left, it just gets deleted. The forests where the last of the French infantry are sheltering are like that too - no one can get IN, because cavalry can't go in and infantry can't enter melee. It would take too much time to focus fire on them, so I've been ignoring them. By the end of this turn, there's nothing else left, and it's obvious there's nowhere for my side to go but over the broken ground and off the table.

An okay game, but maybe not best for the purposes of these scenarios - which do seem to rely especially on terrain and unit maneuverabilty, neither of which is really part of the D3 rules. I like the simplicity, but at the same time I understand the frustration of people who don't like simplicity. Something more middling, like some versions of Charge!, may work better. We'll see in future. Thanks for reading.

Dragon Rampant Preparation

It took a while, but I managed to build up sufficient models for a typical Dragon Rampant game of 24 points a side. Maybe Sunday I'll play a solo round to try it out. 

I'll need it - working three days, two of them with major programs that will stress me out. I think of wargaming as a way to be violent without getting arrested - basically the opposite of what "moral guardians" think it does for you.

Forces of Good:

• 12 Elf Archers: Light Missiles, Sharpshooter (6 points)
• 12 Halfling Militia: Light Foot (4 points)
• 6 Halfling Archers: Scouts (2 points)
• 6 Halfling Archers: Scouts (2 points)
• 12 Rangers: Light Foot, Mixed Weapons (5 points)
• Great Eagle: Lesser Warbeast, Flying (6 points)

Forces of Evil:

Not shown: one Boar-rider base, and Giant.

• 12 Orc Spearmen: Heavy Foot (4 points)
• 12 Orc Spearmen: Heavy Foot (4 points)
• 6 Goblin Boar-riders: Heavy Riders (4 points)
• 6 Goblin Boar-riders: Heavy Riders (4 points)
• 12 Goblin Archers: Light Missiles (4 points)
• 12 Goblins with hand weapons: Bellicose Foot (4 points)

I'm leaving out commanders for the moment.

I think I've got a good mix of units to test here. On one side, elites, a flyer and three different types of missile troops - on the other, an aggressive powerful, mobile force.

I've also built in the last day or two, more to relax than build usable forces , a unit of Prussian hussars:

Since pistols aren't visible, they could be Light or even Heavy Riders.

... and (if I do say it myself) an impressive block of forty-eight goblins with hand weapons:

Eight figures per base, so trickier to fit into the 6/12 figure units
of Dragon Rampant. Perhaps three bases could represent two units
that just happen to work together. Definitely Bellicose Foot.

I might mix some of these in to change up the armies.

It's been a long week, and it's getting longer. See you next time, and thanks for reading.

Crafting Unsuccess, and Thoughts on Fixing It

It should be obvious by the late dearth of posting that my life is going downhill at present. Work has been impressively busy, and my usual reaction to the end of a bad day is to be as unproductive as possible when I get home. This is not good for my personal life; unfortunately, it's not much good for hobbying, either.

I find gluing and cutting Paperboys very relaxing, so have been building several pages worth of fantasy types to try out Dragon Rampant. Of course, I haven't gotten around to actually gaming with them, and pictures and play will have to wait for another post.

One of the issues at work is that I get sidetracked very easily - regular readers of this blog will have noticed. This means that I lose track of projects, even the ones I was looking forward to. Yesterday, it was my turn to entertain twenty-plus sixth graders from a nearby school that regularly sends its students to visit us. Good for our statistics at least. I was reminded that morning, and went into panic mode.

In hindsight, it would have been smarter to break out my mini Battle of Hampton Roads kit that I 3-d printed years ago and rarely run since. The rules are simple, the two model ships attractive, and the scenario can work between large teams (everyone gets a turn to "shoot"). Instead, having been aimlessly cutting up Paperboys for weeks, my mind shot to the Undead pages of the series.

Halloween is coming up, after all. Every year we do a well-received haunted house, and since I don't like dressing up or anything approaching horror, I get drafted to help with games and crafts for the littler kids and families who don't want to be jump-scared. Given the "success" of my painting program a few months ago, that's what I've been leaning towards, but now it's a tossup between that and papercrafting.

I shouldn't have experimented with it on this short notice, though. An enterprising and encouraging coworker pointed out that we'd have an hour or more, so it would be okay to prepare less. It takes fifteen minutes tops to build a Paperboys base, right?

HA! 

Here's the result. It should be noted that none of these errors are the kids' fault, but mine. And they did mostly enjoy themselves, so despite the chaos I deemed the program a successful failure.

Count the errors:
Left and Left Rear: Not bad actually, but didn't bother to cut
around the figure edges. I grant you this can be tricky for many.
Center: Built the base correctly, then stuck the mini onto the
underside of it.
Center Right: Stuck the minis on a plain bit of card.
Right: Again not bad, but didn't fold the base-paper edges under
(as seen at Center).

I posted this photo on the American Library Association's "League of Librarian Gamers" Facebook group with a rueful comment about learning what not to do next time, and a moderator asked me about the lessons learned.

Here they are, combined with the ones learned from the painting program.

1. Above all, don't leave attendees to their own devices. They'll make mistakes, or become bored or frustrated if not directed. Most of the rest of the lessons are in the name of getting this first one right. Games Day has "paint-and-take" tables, but I'd love to know how they deal with newbies.
2. Attendees should be in a compact space, where everyone can see and be instructed by the presenter at once. This way, there are fewer delays and less leaving attendees to their own devices.
3. All supplies should be close by and, so far as possible, already distributed to each space. If possible, in separate "kits" for each seat. Again, less time wasted, and less confusion for attendees.
4. Prep as much as possible so the attendees (or presenters) don't have to. Fewer steps are usually better, especially for younger kids. Assemble and undercoat minis, for example; let them get to the good part right away.
5. If possible, have all attendees do the same step at the same time. This works better for a "timed" event, though; a "pickup" program is trickier, in which case see 4, 7, and 8.
6. If time permits, demonstrate the full activity to all before embarking on it, not just an example of the finished product. A video can be an attractive example.
7. Instructions (and useful tips) must be simple, clear and visible. Several participation games I've seen included poster-sized combat results tables for all to see, rather than fumbling with rules sheets that also take up room on the table Full-color images, or, again, videos, are useful.
8. If at all possible, there should be two or more presenters, thoroughly practiced. A single person will exhaust herself. Part splitting the work and part the need for multitasking; a presenter off replacing paint water can't welcome someone who just sat down at the table, demonstrate a technique, or remind kids to Thin Their Paints.

I will probably have to update this post as I make more mistakes, but it'll do for now!

First update: I just watched an episode of the Painting Phase podcast on Youtube with ex-Games Workshop painter Louise Sugden. For a few minutes, she discusses teaching a roomful of kids to paint goblins.

And doing it basically the same way my hapless painting program went. Deliberately.

She was working with 5-7 year-olds, provided coloring sheets, and told them to "tell a story with color." What does a green goblin make you think of? Grass! Why is your goblin red? He lives in lava! It sounds fantastic, and really made me rethink the success of my program. No techniques, no instructions that will disappoint them when they get it wrong, be willing to waste paint and brushes. It'll still work.

It's two-plus hours, all interesting, but for the bit I'm talking about, skip to One hour and forty-four minutes in.

This makes me feel way more confident about the prospect of doing a painting project for Halloween.

For older kids, I might use our tech lab to film videos of my own, in part because the "official" how-to-build-Paperboys and how-to-paint-your-Space-Marines-in-just-five-colors videos are still around fifteen minutes long. Shorter vids where they don't show you every color and technique may be useful for veterans, but they might be just as good for quickly teaching kids. 

Something Simpler

Back to Paperboys. I was rereading Dragon Rampant and realised that with my new numbered counters I can use multibases to play small units, with the counters to note casualties. I haven't built Paperboys in a while - mostly focusing on the Wofun plastic versions - but I badly need a break from work, and just cutting and assembling the paper figures is so relaxing I can't even express it. The other nice thing is that I can steadily build up an army, almost without thinking about it. So I'm working towards two 24-point armies for Dragon Rampant and then a little messing about with the game. I might also try them with the semi-mass-battle version of Minceheim.

So I printed one of each of the Fantasy infantry sheets and went to work. Here's what I've got so far.

Good guys: Rangers and Halflings.

Bad guys: Orcs. Peter Dennis calls them "mutants."

The handy thing about these figures is they come in elements of six or twelve, which are the standard unit sizes for Dragon Rampant. The Orcs are obviously two units of Heavy Foot with spears, while the rangers and halflings are a little more up in the air. The Halflings could be either one unit of Light Missiles or two units of Scouts, while the Rangers would be Light Foot with Mixed Weapons, possibly with Offensive for better melee ability. There is a "Ranger" ability in the game, but only Bellicose Foot can have it and represent uncontrollable assault troops. Scouts have similar abilities in terrain, but only missiles for fighting. So neither really matches Faramir's or Strider's boys, which the Men clearly represent.

I've used abilities like that out of context before, though, and will either be doing this solo or at work. So not that big a deal.

In other Paperboy news, I brought my old Battery Wagner model home. It was never going to see the use I planned for it at work. I planned to run the scenario solo at home just to get some use out of it, but before I could a cat sat on it:

I could reassemble it and claim the ruin is due to
bombardment, but that would be the third (abortive)
assault rather than the second...