Close Wars!

Got a nice surprise a couple weeks ago, when my delayed order of a Cigar Box Battles "Germantown" mat turned up. This is a nice foresty-looking cloth with paths, streams, brush and even a couple areas that could be slopes.

Since before my move I received a few boxes of Armies in Plastic Rogers' Rangers and Eastern Indians, I thought I'd try an old classic.

I dressed up the table with my Bold Frontiers card trees. Sadly, I hadn't opened some of them since purchase, and these fell victim to moisture, or possibly mold. A hasty drop down the trash chute for those! I don't quite have enough trees left to cover the entire table, but this can be addressed by making it 4x4, or counting the brushy areas as difficult ground.

My plan is to try and run this at work at least once in the next couple months, probably during Chess club. While I'm using rangers and natives here, maybe inappropriate for kids, I will use red and blue AWI soldiers in public. For now, let's just see how Featherstone's rules hold up, 64 years on.

Table from the native side.

Everyone was set up in concealment (the "forest" painted onto the mat), except for four Rangers who started on a trail. I am counting everyone as Natives for purposes of movement, as the Rangers are using Native techniques.

By Turn Three, despite taking half moves (4.5") thru the brush then three inches to cross the stream...

Rangers had reached the table center and were beginning to exchange fire with the Natives.

I counted the dark crescent as a "slope," with the trail along its crest, so troops on opposite sides of the trail do not have line of sight to each other.

In Turns 4 and 5, the battle really got going, and (mostly because the Rangers were going first) the Natives got the worst of it. The Rangers got atop the hill first, fired with eight dice both up- and downslope and took out three of the Natives.

Deeper into the woods the Rangers swarmed through the trees, getting sniped but mostly surviving as they got close enough to assault. And as in 40K, close combat is deadlier than shooting.

Only in one fight did a Native get the better of his adversaries; three of them rolled ones and twos. Even though they had impetus, the +1 could not beat his roll of four, so he defeated all of them.

He was the last Native, of sixteen, left on the board. The Rangers had been hurt in return, with only seven of their sixteen left by the end of Turn Six. Since the "scenario" is either to wipe out the opponent or put half your force on their baseline, well, the Rangers were closest to winning here. 

Good test of the rules. One easy thing to forget is the restrictions on shooting - you always hit on a six unless you are in cover. Also, targets need to be in the open. 

I just realized I also forgot to throw saves for the casualties, which are typically 4+, 3+ in cover. Oops. That explains the deadliness of the game. Ah, well. It was fun anyway, though I broke it into two sessions separated overnight and the board had been set up for about a week beforehand! (Seven days straight of working, two of them starting at 5:30am and one of them an accidental split shift, suffering from a cold all the while, is not a happy time. I'm better now.)

Medieval battle report

Tonight was fought the Battle of Green Fields, that pleasant if undeveloped land owned by the gracious Lady Lex, who had first to be removed from her comfortable realm:

The rules are a very basic Hundred Years War set, taken from Donald Featherstone's Wargames Newsletter for December 1967. It was written for use with Airfix figures - I used Paperboys from the Castle Assault volume. 

As is typical of Featherstone's brief and conversational rules-writing style, some elements must be worked out by the reader. Given the small size of the battle and units, for example, I played turns simultaneously.

The Scots. 36 pikes, 18 knights and 24 crossbows.

The English. To the right, 36 spears and 30 archers.

To the left, 18 knights.

First move. The Scottish foot and knights have moved 12", the crossbows 15" (but are not able to shoot).

While the English knights head for the center, supported by their footmen, the archers take a half-move and fire. They roll 21 on six dice, quartered, causing five casualties to the crossbows, two of which are saved.

Turn 2: The knights charge each other and meet in the center, while the English spears march to confront the Scottish schiltron - not quite there yet.

The crossbowmen draw back, firing into the English foot's flank at six-inch range, but are still in range of the English archers, who haven't moved and thus get to fire twice!

Firing - The Scots roll four dice against the English spears. They score 13, three quarters of which (9) are casualties. Despite needing 4+ to save, only one survives! Probably something to do with being flanked...

In exchange, the archers roll twelve dice, scoring 43. Even at 1/4 casualties for long range, that's over half the crossbowmen gone!

Now for the knightly combat. Knights are worth three points, and one die is rolled for every five. So on 11 dice, the Scots roll 40 hits, the English 43. Saves are on 3+; the English fail 11, the Scots 20! Which wipes them out; the King of Scots will have stern words for his metallurgists this day.

Turn 3 - a complex melee, as knights, footmen and crossbows all clash. Useful for testing differing types against each other, at least. The archers, with no target, race to join in. Oh, but the knights must roll to charge home against standing infantry, spears always stand, and the knights roll a one. They rest their horses, awaiting results.

Let's break this down into two combats, remembering to account for the English spear casualties.

- On the left, twenty spears vs. twenty-four pikes. Ten dice against twelve. Had the knights made it in, they'd have added four dice. 38 hits, 19 saves vs 43 hits and 17 saves. The English spears are gone and five Scots remain.

- On the right, twelve archers (only two bases can make contact) and eight spears versus ten crossbows and twelve pikes. 32 points for the English vs. 40 for the Scots - six dice versus eight. The English end up needing 34 saves. I split these into 21 for the spears (4+) and 13 for the archers (6+). The Scots require 17 saves (9 for the pikes and 8 for the crossbows). Four pikers and seven crossbowmen are killed, but all the English engaged are killed too.

(If I'm reading these rules right, this is a "bucketsful of dice" ruleset, at least when it comes to the armor saves!)

The final result, after bases with just one man left are removed. I think the Scots have had the worst of the argument...

Obviously, this ruleset would be easier to handle with single figures. There are also no morale rules. I've been considering a simplified variant of Charge! in which a unit that takes 2/3 casualties is out of the game, which in this case would leave the archers alone on the field.

The rules are good enough for a back of a postcard set, but I was surprised at the number of hits and saves that had to be rolled. The aforementioned Charge! rules prescribe a die roll for each base, but scoring only one hit with a successful shooting roll. Melees are one die per figure, but at least do not include saves - they do, however, require opposed rolls.