Planning Finchley Common, Part 3 (last one!)

 "Feth it, we'll use a squared grid."

- Me this morning over Messenger, to my opponent.

Part of the problem was the hexes, but what really changed my mind was the small size of the Memoir '44 board. Instead, I broke out one of my Melee Mats, which are 24x36" and writable with wet-erase markers. I marked it up with rows (A to X) and numbers (1-36), then placed the terrain ("buildings centered on I-2, O-2 and G-2") and informed George. He would lay out similar terrain on his home table.

Placing troops was slightly more difficult. In order to fit the entire Government contingent on the board, I was still limited to two-base regiments which were 60mm wide on a board marked in inches. George seemed clear enough when I simply reported that, for example, a line of six infantry regiments ran from D-9 to D-26; so long as they are evenly spaced it'll be okay even if his are of different size. I also named and numbered all units so we're clear about actions.

I ran out of British guns so threw in a Coehorn mortar for interest. My guns and infantry are in the center, my cavalry on the flanks and the mortar on the hill. Left to right:

Household Cavalry.

Guards, guns and militia.

More of the same.

Guards, guns, foot and a handful of loyal Highlanders.

Dragoons and a Coehorn mortar.

My front line of four guns and my Guard infantry is seven inches into the board, with my second line of regular infantry and militia two inches behind.

George wanted a central deployment, so according to his instructions I placed the cavalry in the first line eight inches into the board, three highlander regiments and Ecossais an inch behind, and four more highland regiments an inch behind that. 

From my side.

From his side.

He wanted his guns in the fourth line; when I pointed out they'd be masked by his troops he shifted them to his left. I placed them so that they could fire diagonally past the houses in their front. 

Now that they're not in the way, I may also pull the infantry and cavalry back an inch or two. At present the front lines are 9" apart. I'll be halving the moves and ranges on this smaller board:

• Cavalry: 6"
• Highlanders: 4.5"
• Infantry and Artillery: 3"
• Musketry: 6"
• Artillery: Unlimited; no mortar fire within 12"
• Retreat from fire: 3"
• Rout from melee: 6"

The D3 rules include commanders, but they are basically a hit-point-recovery mechanic and don't even need to be present. For fun, I included Bonnie Prince Charlie and his Glenfinnan standard on one side, and his distant cousin George II with bodyguards on the other.

Given how badly the rebels are outnumbered, this looks like Culloden all over again. I have several ways to balance that, and will discuss with George to see which we'll use.

• Keep the deployment where it is rather than separating it further, saving the Highlanders a turn crossing the board.
• Give the rebels the first turn.
• Roll for the militia and government Highlanders, who are all reluctant. On a 6 (the old "Oops, Sorry Sir" rule from Warhammer 40K), they either flee the board or don't even show up to the fight.
• Roll for weather - on a 1 all shooting will be at a penalty.

Given this is our first try with these rules, it occurred to me (late, of course) that it might be easier to proportionally reduce the number of troops on the board! Halving the number of regiments would make it easier to track all the hit-points they'll have (eight apiece). But since some of them come in odd numbers, that isn't as easy as it sounds. Ah well, in for a pound, as they say. 

See you soon with the results!

Planning Finchley Common, Part 2

So, at the slooowly approaching end of my '45 every-rule campaign, the two sides stand as follows:

British OOB:

• Three Guards regiments.
• Four Yeomen/Militia/Trained Bands regiments.
• One Highlander regiment (Murray's).
• Three line regiments (Royal Irish, Bragg's, Richbell's).
• Three Household Cavalry regiments.
• Three Dragoon regiments (one militia).
• Five light guns.

Rebel OOB: 

• One French regiment (Irish Brigade), seven Highland regiments.
• Two cav regiments (one French, one Scottish).
• Three guns (with French crews).

I hope to also run the Junior General Leuthen scenario this month, so it helps that I need to organize my 18th-century Wofun figures. The Leuthen scenario will require three bases per regiment, but I'll want less to fit them all onto my new Memoir '44 board. The D3 rules require tracking hit points for regiments, so sizes aren't important. However, George will be using conventional minis on his own table, so I need to work out the right size.

The board itself is 9x13 hexes. At first I thought 90x130cm might work, which would be roughly 3x4feet, with cm for the moves. But first, the width of a hex is wider than the height (6x5.5cm), and second, it wouldn't provide much room for the armies. Another possibility is half that number of inches - 45x65, so about four by five-and-a-half feet, normal inches for increments, and smaller regiments. 

The Memoir '44 board itself is about 17x27 inches of playable area, room only for seven or eight three-base regiments. So gotta break it down. Eight two-base regiments plus three guns also cross the whole board. Guess we're stuck with one base per unit.

As you'll see in the first photo, this still isn't quite large enough; it may be better to use the entire 2x4 table and mark its edges. I'll have to label both the units and the hexes for George's benefit anyway.

For terrain, I've opted for an open field with buildings at the edges
and low hills in one corner. I have proper foam hills on the way,
but with hexes I'll have just a couple villages on the larger table.

Given the orientation of Finchley Common to what would have been the rebel route of advance, I considered playing down the long axis of the table, but that just won't work even on a one-base scale. 

Another option that occurred to me just as I posted, is to reduce the number of units! Perhaps one large regiment per "brigade?"

The Government force, reduced to "regiments" representing
(right-to-left) militia, guns, Guards, line, Household cav, dragoons.

Suggestions happily accepted!

Planning Finchley Common

 For about a month now, I've been talking with the very patient George Bisset on Facebook about running a remote game to finish off my desultory '45 solo campaign. Part of the problem with remote games is my cat Lex, who will happily interfere with any game in her line of sight, and George suggested that he use his own table and miniatures, with me basically GMing. While this is a bright idea, we went back and forth on methods of ensuring that we were both "on the same table."

His plan was that I would have table squares in order to tell him "X Regiment is in A2." Even if he were using an ordinary table, so long as we determine distances and angles to terrain pieces he should still be able to manage with my instructions as a guide. While I liked this, I haven't got a table or map of the appropriate size or breakdown. I considered sticking pennies to the tabletop, and was on the verge of creating and printing a large paper map when I decided to order Memoir '44.

While I've heard many good things about this game, what intrigued me was how many of the players on the Paperboys Facebook group have used the related Commands and Colors game with paper figure stands in place of the block pieces. That and my increasing interest in Bob Cordery's popular Portable Wargame made me want to use a ready-made hex-board with plenty of terrain hexes to add to it.

I received Memoir '44 a couple days ago.

Sometimes I wonder if it's the color green that Lex likes.

The board is 13x9. The photo is grainy, 
must try to avoid that if I use this method to
communicate moves.

Experimental shot of units. Will need to fix the lighting
to make both units and hexes recognizable.

Lawrence Newman, who ran a similar campaign for his kids last year, sent me a couple useful maps. They're both from well after the battle, but it doesn't have to be perfect.

1780s. Not sure where (if) it overlaps with the next.

19th century; appears to be "enclosed."

He also filmed part of the scenario on Youtube:

In practice, it looks like we can get away with a flat, open space, with buildings and perhaps a ridge or two at the edges. Lawrence says he began the scenario with the British army deployed and the rebels marching on. Any comments or suggestions are welcomed!

Given the board size, I am thinking of suggesting a 130x90cm table, with moves made in cm (as I doubt George has an 11-foot table!). The rules, incidentally, will be the one-page D3 rules from Grid-Based Gaming But Not Always. Units on my table will be represented by single Wofun bases. Since units have "hit points" in these rules, there should be a way to mark units and track casualties, perhaps with a spreadsheet. If I can, I want to be able to do it myself, effectively "GM'ing" George's more conventional table.

Finally, George has linked me to a map-and-scenario editor on the Memoir '44 website. If I can work out how to use it, it'll be a good way to "store" unit positions, as in practice this game may take some time to play and I simply can't leave it out for the cats to pounce on...