DBA, a Bit of Fistful of Lead, and a Bit of Painting

Went up to Krieg Haus 2 yesterday, There were seven or eight people there, but we used three smaller tables instead of one big one, so it didn't feel quite so crowded even in the smaller space. Jim ran DBA and Mark ran Fistful of Lead.

Me, I (or my minis) ran headlong into heavy fire.

A few of the armies on display.

Having been reading up on pike-and-shot lately, I wanted to try Swiss. I ended up doing a mid-Swiss-mercenary army, with seven Pike bases plus a Pike general (who had to be proxied by a Blades unit with huge sword), two Blades bases (halberdiers) and two Psiloi (crossbows). My opponent, Stephen, fielded Hundred Years War troops - mostly archers which turned out terrifying because they can shoot twice a turn!

Opposing deployment ...

... and mine.

Turn One, approaching the hill as the English hastily climb it.

Turn Two, not quite in range to fight.

Turn Three, almost there. My only shooting units are too far to help.

Turn Four, my assault is pushed back.

And back...

And back...

In DBA, you roll a die to see how many units you can activate. You can keep all units touching and count them as one (see both deployments) but if units are forced to recoil or flee this can be broken up and suddenly you have three or four discrete groups instead of one. If you then roll a two on the activation die, your army becomes less effective.

My pikes, strong though they were with a bonus for attacking in column, were fighting uphill (minus one to their roll) and as my force broke up and the victorious enemy moved into the gaps, they had greater support (more minuses).

My command element is surrounded... game over.

My mistakes:

• I was under the mistaken impression that both sides deployed terrain, and was hoping to raise Difficult Hills for my (Hilly home terrain) Swiss to block lines of sight. Nope, once a low hill was raised, that was it.
• And I'd conceded it to my opponent during the choose-an-edge phase.
• My deployment also isolated my camp. If my opponent's mounted troops had tried to take it, there's not much I could have done to stop them.
• While my General's base counted as Pike, it didn't look like one (the center figure is hefting a massive sword instead) and so I failed to support it with more Pike and it was isolated and easily surrounded, losing me two victory points. Lose four and the game is over.
• In the first turn of combat, I fought with only one row of Pike, not realizing they had a bonus to fighting in depth.
• I kept marching up the hill into steady bowfire; even weak enemy bases were able to hold me off with support and an uphill bonus.
• My shooty guys never really got into action. At one point, I could have used them to flank the HYW army, but I only rolled one move for that turn and decided instead to march six pike blocks back into action instead.

Suffice to say that for such a small, quick game, DBA is more complex and tactical than it looks.

On a better note, my Swiss had to proxy their camp with a small square of cloth - a required objective for any DBA force. Afterwards, I asked Jim if I might try making some Paperboys-style base camps for his 15mm DBA armies and he jumped at the prospect. We agreed to trade small DBA hills (of which I could use more for my own 18mm Wofuns) for bases, and I will use the robust 32-pound paper, magnetic bases and various camp elements, appropriately reduced in size, from the Paperboys website and Helion books. For example, the Roman Invasion volume has druids and ritual items that could serve well for any Celtic army.

I had to leave soon after, but I was able to take a few turns at Fistful of Lead. It was a Northwest Frontier scene based loosely on The Man Who Would Be King:

The minis belonged to a member of the club who died last year,
but who loved the period and the movies it spawned.

The scenario had about 45 figures on the board, with British outnumbered by Pathans who spent most of their time charging across the board and (unsuccessfully) providing cover fire with rifles.

I crept up close to get into charge range but
lost nearly everyone. Still an incredibly fun game...

... that makes me eager again to get that damn Picacho Pass
scenario on the table. This spring. Really.
You believe me, right?

Paperboys-wise, I have finished assembling my Fyrd. Just need to slip them all into an envelope and send to Peter, but I'll need to wait til I'm back at work tomorrow to print the labels.

The command strip - my low-class mob only gets a couple flags.

Finally, I picked up some Speedpaint markers from the FLGS, which has finally got them in (and they seem popular, as some colors were already gone). I also received the starter set of ten basic colors. More on them next post!

Catch you next time...

Battle for Cuzco Well

Today at Das Krieg Haus we played more Tactical Combat, this time a Spanish-American War game. This was an 1898 USMC assault on Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to seize a water supply that just happens to be next to a blockhouse. I was on the Spanish side.

Just the lower story - you'll see why in a bit.

Between them, Mark's versatile rules, Jim's enthusiasm for DBA, and Oriskany Jim's spectacles have revitalized the club. There are games almost weekly now, and the club is pivoting towards a more generalist set up, with "bring-your-own" battles on multiple tables. For example, in between turns Jim was demoing DBA:

Lots of armies, each with its own ready-to-go sheet and background.

That same Alexandrian-Indian matchup I still can't get the hang of.

Also: DBA on a hex board!

But the main attraction was over what is now "Gitmo."

View from the West, with a beach on the southern edge.

Three platoons of Spanish troops (15-20 strong), one of loyal Cubans, two machine guns, five snipers and five sentries hold the well, blockhouse and environs. Four platoons of US Marines, a squad of Cuban insurgents, two machine guns and a command element were out to take them. The HQ also had wig-wag signallers who could call in gunfire from a US Navy ship.

Specifically, this guy.

As usual, I had analysis paralysis and wasn't too sure when my team nominated me for command. We ended up putting one platoon into the church in the southeast, one into the blockhouse, one into the farm complex in the northwest, and one (hidden) in the farm complex to the west - this last to slow up the largest concentration of Americans. The snipers were scattered, mostly in trees. The Americans came in from the north and west:

Most of the game was spent rolling firing dice. I controlled the "stopgap" platoon on the western flank, where they were outnumbered 2-1, and held off the onslaught for about four turns.

Some of my poor bastards enfiladed
by a Colt machine gun.

The Spanish got the worst of it, but were winning on points for most of the game owing to holding the objectives - as long as we kept the well and blockhouse (worth 15 points) we could take up to 14 more casualties than the Americans but still be on top.

The problem was the damn signaller.

He could successfully signal his ship, once a turn, on a 5 or less on a D20.

Once signalled, the ship could hit its target again, on a 5 or less on a D20.

So, a 1/16 chance of a direct hit. Scatter would be at least 10cm, far enough to miss the block house.

He hit that blockhouse three times in six turns.

On turn four, I started targeting the signallers with our one remaining sniper (hit on 8 or less). It took three turns to wipe out the team, but by that time, the blockhouse was on fire and empty, save for an unmanned Maxim. (See first photo.)

At this point, we could only hope to keep the Marines from just walking on to the objective, and what remained of the blockhouse largely blocked LOS to what remained of our force. By turn 10, it was clear that no matter what we did, he could put men on the objectives by turn 12, end of game. We conceded.

The end result - some seventy casualties on each side. Since the game did technically come down to the last turn, this was still a pretty balanced scenario. Tactical Combat is a lethal game, and another aspect that kept us going was that there are no morale rules (had there been, the game might have been over a LOT quicker).

A few more pictures:

Mark will run another game tomorrow, this one Napoleonic. I hope to be there. Until next time,

Playtesting Bundok and Bayonet

Having read (so far) about two thirds of Campaigns on the North-West Frontier 1849-1908, I was eager to try a quick round of Bob Cordery's old classic Bundok and Bayonet with my Wofun Great Game collection. I may have been in too much of a hurry to make a balanced scenario, though: read on.

Sir Hectare McDonald, Colonel of the Upteenth Bengal Infantry, has been tasked with marching up the Whatsit Valley to reconnoiter and, if possible, burn the native village at the other end. (The natives have been uppity.) He has his understrength battalion of fifteen men, and two squadrons (eight men) of the Bengal Lancers.

The natives have a dozen riflemen, ten swordsmen, and a rusty old cannon.

Village to right, native rifles on the ridge at bottom,
gun in the village, swordsmen at center. Indian troops
enter at left.

The rules have a few similarities with TSATF; they are card-driven, and units have random move distances. When a red (British) or black (native) card is drawn, a unit is selected and rolls a morale check, trying to roll under its number of figures on a variable number of D6. Then it may choose two actions - shooting, movement, formation change, etc. On a failure, the unit still has plenty of options, but any movement must be away from the enemy.

Turn 1: The infantry moves at the double through the pass, and is fired on by native rifles and cannon, losing two of the battalion's sixteen men. Then I realize the firing required two sixes per kill at long range, and the casualties get back up. The native foot and Bengal cavalry both fail their morale rolls and thus do nothing this turn.

Gun in the village. Note the unique local architecture.

Swordsmen cunningly hidden behind a patch of stone, giggling.

Khyber rifles waiting patiently, with a fine view of the valley.

The expedition faces front.

Turn 2: The Bengal infantry changes formation to put more rifles into the firing line (only the first rank may fire or fight), but cause no casualties (the hills provide cover, requiring four hits per casualty at long range). The swordsmen pop out of hiding and charge screaming into the Bengal regiment, but lose three of their own in the melee in exchange for a single Indian figure.

The Indian infantry moves into range.

First melee.

Turn 3: The swordsmen fail their morale this turn, so their options are limited. They fight another close combat, then move away. Both sides lose two men before the natives break. While this clears room for the mountaineers to fire, at long range they remain ineffective. The Bengal Lancers move 15" onto the table, but only two of them can see a target for their carbines. The Bengal Infantry moves forward and fires at whatever targets it can see.

Turn 4: The lancers are forced to change formation to get through the pass, which means they can't attack this turn (you can change formation and move, or move and assault, but not all three). The Bengal Infantry find themselves on the end of a short(range) stick as the musketeers on the hill fell three of them. Their mounted colonel nestles into shelter and gives an order that he should have given on Turn 1: "Take the hills!" The infantry mount a bayonet charge up the slopes (losing four inches of movement to climb two contours), but lose two of their own to the sharp Khyber knives. The native gun nudges its way into the open, hoping to take the cavalry as they approach. Its long-range fire picks off one Lancer. The surviving swordsmen roll a five on 2d6 - exactly what they need to charge and fight again. They clamber into the rocks to sandwich the hapless Bengal Infantry. The fight is inconclusive.

Lancers narrow their front to move ahead.

Turn 5: The British clearly haven't brought enough troops to this battle. Colonel McDonald sounds retreat. The Bengals scramble along the ridge back whence they came. The Lancers follow, hoping to screen the infantry in retreat, but apparently stumble on the rocks as they roll seven on 4D6! The swordsmen plunge after them and, impressively, kill two horsemen for no loss. The musketeers on the hills pick off two more of the Bengal Infantry, including the Colonel, who made a great target.

Turn 6: The swordsmen fail their morale check, so stand around waving their swords and jeering at the fleeing British. Both infantry and cavalry retreat precipitately (16"+!) and are either off the board or out of sight.

The game was lost from the start, really, because there weren't enough Imperial troops. My key mistake with the Bengal Infantry was keeping them in the plains, when what I've just been reading and one of the key rules of mountain fighting tells me to hold the high ground! Standard procedure on these expeditions was to drive the tribesmen off the peaks and only then send the column through the valleys. The decimated swordsmen were the MVPs of the match, passing two difficult morale checks in succession to keep them annoying the Indians.

Takeaways:

• Only my first game, so there were a few mistakes on the rules. In particular, I didn't notice that units get an extra die to move in open ground, which made a difference early on. Shooting was also a bit tricky - all hits are on sixes, but it's possible to shoot twice and you need more or fewer hits to score casualties depending on range and cover.
• I was flipping back and forth between the morale, movement, shooting and close-combat rules, each of which was on a separate page of my printout. A quick-rules-sheet would be handy, but the rules are quite brief so it should be doable.
• The rules as a whole are simple, with basic mechanisms and a "loads-of-dice" attitude. I was getting the hang of them by the end of the game.
• Close combat is deadlier than shooting, since only one hit is needed for a casualty, whereas much of the shooting was at long-range or into rocks, requiring two or even four hits per kill.
• There's no morale check at the end of combat; it comes next turn when a unit that has taken casualties is less likely to pass. A failure means that it is limited to holding still or falling back.

If this were a campaign, the clear defeat the Indian Army suffered would lead to further uprising and perhaps fire all along the mountain chain. What next for the Border? Only time will tell...

Alternate Histories

Achieved a couple things today. First, I finally got in a round of Junior General's Hampton Roads scenario at work.

There were fourteen fourth graders expecting an activity, and the children's librarian was busy. I checked with the teacher and she was amenable - though I presented it as "sea captains and pirates" to begin with.

I divided the kids by color of shirt - five black, nine blue - into teams. (Since Monitor has fewer guns, this is fairer than it sounds.) Then I just went person to person. Each turn, one kid would move a ship, and the rest would take turns "firing". Next turn, whoever was next in line would be "Captain" for the turn and the cycle continued. The firing mechanism is Fred T. Jane's original "pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey" routine, using the bamboo skewers seen in the above photo.

The photo is old, by the way, and I didn't have the storytime rug. Would've come in handy, actually, since the kids were naturally crowding each other; but in general they took turns and learned the procedures quickly. I was limited to the floor-carpet, but it is a blue-grey mix of angled shapes so still quite sea-like.

For presentation, I asked if they'd been studying black history, and they had. I explained that this was based on a real battle from 160 years ago, and that it might take a while or even be a tie because these ships were special. Among the first to be made of iron, cannonballs would usually bounce off! (There were "ooooh"s at this.) I taught them the ship names as well, though I used Merrimac just because it sounds funnier.

I misplaced the rules for casualties (D6 per penetrating hit), but there are other ways to win, by either hitting the waterline, the gunports or Monitor's pilot house. The Virginia took an early lead with a hit on Monitor's turret that knocked out one gun. That slowed return fire. There are two sheets of silhouettes - one short range, one long - and the Union players learned quickly to stay far away where their "crackerbox on a shingle" was too tiny to hit, and Virginia's lower speed and maneuverability made it harder to catch up. Monitor got lots of hits on its bigger target.

However, they eventually learned to present their four-gun broadside, and the few hits they got were eventually crippling. The pilot house was hit once (twice and the captain is blinded and the ship must retreat) and after half an hour they knocked out the second gun. Monitor had to retreat.

Every hit resulted in cheers, and kids were even encouraging their opponents. I had to quiet them down and tell them to sit back and not interfere with each other, but their enthusiasm was infections. The target sheets, punctured in many places, will have to be replaced.