Hill Line Defence

Finally playing a solo game of conventional scale! Drawn from Charles S. Grant's classic Programmed Wargames Scenarios. Let's see how it goes, shall we?

The rules are Stephen Simpson's from Wargames Illustrated #75. They are forerunners, I believe, of Beneath the Lily Banners, and I quite like them - short and simple. This is the first time I've had a table large enough to field units of the correct size (four bases) and to move them correctly (5-15").

One issue with the rules I'm using is that there are no rules for light infantry, unless you count Highlanders and Indians - which in these rules are more for assault than reconnaissance. There also aren't rules for different types of cavalry. I suppose I could use the rules for elite or green units (basically + or -1 to all rolls), but I'll leave that out for now. Given that light infantry, under programmed deployment, are often spread out across the deployment zone, that's probably fine, since usually you only get one or two regiments anyway.

That means the British defenders have six infantry regiments, one cavalry regiment and two guns. I formed them evenly, with the guns in the center, half the infantry to either side, and the cavalry forward on the left flank.

I rolled randomly for the opponent from seven choices, and the French get seven infantry, three cavalry and a gun. I roll for their deployment, and get "centre-right" - from left to right, a 2-4-4 distribution. That works for the regiments; I'll put the cavalry to the right, as part of the attack, and the gun to the left. There is a possibility that the left flank will act defensively, which will suit the gun.

The rules are modular, and have basic additions for command and control, but I'm leaving those out for this first runthrough.

Deployment from the Attackers' side. As it is July 4, there were
atmospheric sound effects to help set the scene...

I roll to determine what the French left flank will do, and it will be drawn into the attack. We're off!

Deployed infantry and guns move 5", deployed cavalry 10". If in column, they move a further five. Guns have unlimited range, but a bonus within 18". Musketry range is 10". Since they are aggressive today, the gun will move with the infantry, aiming to get close before pouring in fire. As you can see from the photo, I've kept things simple by starting everyone off deployed into line.

Turn One: The French (well, about half of them Irish or Scots) march towards the British and Hessians on the ridge. The gun will target its opposing numbers. The mechanism is very basic - D8-D6, plus or minus any factors such as, in this case, being under fire from artillery over 18" away. I rolled 2-6+1; the result is less than zero, so one of my guns takes a hit. Another and it is routed. With infantry, I'd remove a single base; with guns represented by a single base, I'll have to remember.

I'm not actually sure if guns can move and fire in this game - they can fire while deployed and they can move while deployed. Given the paucity of scale, I'm fine with it; each move can be assumed to be several minutes.

The cavalry sweeps round a putative Built-Up Area.

The French gunners "lay on."

In response, the British hold their ground and I fire both my guns at the Irish regiment opposite. They'll have a +1 for the long-range artillery, but this is balanced by a -1 for being under fire from more than one unit. Straight D8-D6: 4-5=-1. They lose a base. Simple, see?

Turn Two: More advancing.

As enemy cavalry gang up on mine, I realize I made the mistake
of not moving my grenadiers forward into 10" firing range;
they're still 12" away.

"Close up, close up!" cry the officers of the Irish Brigade.

The extreme left has some difficulty as it skirts the wood.

The guns fire on Dillon again, and with a bare success - 1 on the D8, 2 on the D6 - they take another hit and fall back, too worn to continue. That's only one of ten units eliminated, though, and the defenders are still outnumbered.

Turn Three: Time to charge. units must roll to attempt such actions, at 4+ on a D10. Remarkably, only one of the units passes. The British morale roll is at -1 for first round of melee, but +1 for being uphill. They pass. My left-flank infantry, in response, move forward, but don't quite have line of sight to the cavalry (the crown of the hill is in the way) or range to the infantry. The cavalry melee continues with no result, as does my cannonade.

I need to dress the enemy ranks here...!

Turn Four: Moved forward, and did dress ranks. Lots of firing now we're in range, but ineffective on both sides. A second cavalry unit managed to charge in, but the combat remains inconclusive, even when I charged my own left-hand infantry into it.

Round and round we go...

Turn Five: Ranks fully dressed now, but still mostly out of 

The battle looks more traditional now, but the dying light
is in the defenders' eyes...

... and they are taking casualties.

Turn Five: The lines are in musketry range, and platoon fire flickers up and down the rows of French and British.

"For what we are about to receive..."

One unit of French horse retreats, leaving the other open
to charge in ... and they fail the roll for a third time. Cowards!

The British cavalry unit is eliminated, but its opponents are still in contact with infantry as well. Musketry is again inconclusive.

Turn Six: The French are now at the foot of the slope, yet still both sides continue to load and fire again. Only on the right are the French moves starting to bear fruit, as the Hessian grenadiers hold fast against yet another charge of French horse, now lapping about them, and the flank battalions cross bayonets.

Push of pike.

Turn Seven: The charges - most of them - go in:

Most of the fighting is inconclusive, with the exception of the Hessian grenadiers, who are finally smothered. One French unit fails its charge attempt; it and the gun instead fire into a British unit and force them to rout. This means a check on the AI chart - "A Blue Force unit is broken or falls back creating a gap in the line." I rolled "Hesitate two moves then move into the gap if it remains."

The "Gap of Danger"

At this point, that may not matter much:

With the grenadiers gone, an ominous flanking movement begins.

The British all hold, though narrowly at times. With all in melee, none are free to act.

Turn Eight: The Brits hang on as the cavalry starts to roll up their line. They attempt to break away and refuse their left flank, but fail.

Turn Nine: The next left-flank battalion is destroyed by the swarming Horse, and others take casualties, though thet guns manage to take out the Ecossais.

Turn Ten: Another British (well, Hessian) unit routs, and others take casualties. I think it's over, and I'll halt here.

So I lost the game against the attacking AI, probably because I failed to react and relied too much on my firepower. It took longer than expected, but by the end I had holes in my lines and was badly flanked. With only one roll per turn per unit, the combat system is pretty swingy and it could (and probably should) have gone far worse for me once combat was joined. My left flank held out agains outnumbering cavalry far longer than I expected.

I might change up Simpson's rules slightly - command and control rules could have made a difference, though most likely just making it more chaotic as more units refuse to obey orders. This is the second time I've run the first scenario in the book, and it's a good one to start with, though perhaps the attacker should be the active player. (Most scenarios can be played from either side.) All in all, a good game and, I think, a fair result.

The game would be far quicker if I didn't keep pausing to write it up and take pictures. With the brevity of these rules (a three-page article, one page of basic rules and one page of extra "modules") I could easily have played it through in an hour, but that might not be as interesting to read.

Next time, Scenario Two: Broken Ground.

More Miscellaneous Stuff

Been a long and exhausting week. I have a lot of personal appointments and home improvement to catch up on. Haven't got much done gaming-wise done at all; my plan for a Battery Wagner game at work was shot down, so won't have a chance to use it at work anytime soon. This week is Fourth of July, though, so I'm hoping to get away with a "patriotic" game of some sort. I'm torn between a reenactment of North Point using Junior General and Paperboys I built during the pandemic, and a round of the Perry's TravelBattle (its Napoleonic style works just as well for War of 1812). I'm leaning towards the latter, as it's more "game-like."

So this weekend was spent working on personal stuff a bit, and a few books and hobby bitz.

I read the first volume online, and hunted
the second down on Ebay. A very interesting
biography of a perhaps over-maligned commander.

Not specifically gaming-related, but by a well-known
game designer I've gotten to know on Facebook. The
first volume's quite good so far - a fun series with
the style of a classic.

Completed the 3rd Edition 40K ruin I bought at Recon.
Very easy to build, and solid even without much glue.
May try painting it one of these days.

Another Recon purchase - Mark 6 Heresy Marines.
Each slot contains the parts for one model, in the
unlikely event I do a build-n-take at work. I'd need
inexpensive plastic glue, though.

Spent some tiring time in the heat today collecting a 
6x4 piece of light plywood. Laid atop my 2x4 plastic
table, I'm hoping this will enable me to play more
conventionally-sized games.

This week? Mostly work and a little job-searching, as usual. I hope to use the larger table to play some mid-18th century games on a more conventional scale; I'd like to work my way through all the Charles S. Grant solo scenarios.

Hope your weekend has been as productive!

Battle in the Backwoods

So, trying Xenos Rampant on a small scale here. I combined some of the units to make them more manageable:

Edwardian sailors, light infantry with heavy weapon (Lewis) and increased squad size - 5 points

Edwardian sailor command, command, light infantry with increased squad size - 3 points

Versus:

Albertine sailors, light infantry - 1 point

RCMP - light infantry, command, increased squad size - 3 points

Welsh Guards - heavy infantry with assault doctrine (bayonets) - 4 points

Setup

The Edwardians will march forward and battle the Albertines for ... reasons. The reason being to test out the Xenos Rampant rules. I ran this in the background of a voice chat on the VBCW Discord channel to keep me motivated.

First move goes okay, most units get it for free.

First firing phase. The sailors with Heavy Weapon score four hits, but one 6 adds an extra hit. The sailors they shoot at have 2 armor, so would normally take two casualties, but are in cover so go up to 3 armor and only take one casualty. They Firefight back, but only score one hit, not enough to crack 2 armor. Now both must take courage tests: Both require 4+ (3+ for having commander nearby). The Edwardians roll a 5, the Albertines snake-eyes.

Oops. They are now suppressed, and may not move until rallied.

Next the other sailors fire on the Mounties:

Because not all of them can see, I gave the Mounties cover.

The Mounties took one casualty point, but their return fire got seven 5+ hits and took out two points. Both pass their leadership tests, which have negatives for casualties but bonuses for cover and leadership.

Albertine turn next. The Mounties move aggressively towards the hill, hoping to get under its shelter and out of LOS. The Guards move to the edge of the forest. The sailors rally.

Half the Edwardians move up the hill, into LOS of the Mounties. The other unit fires.

This time the Mounties get no cover, as nearly all the 
sailors can see now.

I rolled three sixes and a five, for a total of seven hits. The Mounties have only 2 armor, so three casualties. Should've gone to ground. Minus two on their leadership check, and ... they pass. Responsive Firefight - they score two hits back but since the target is in cover and thus has 3 Armor, no casualties. They pass leadership - which must be taken regardless of casualties.

Albertine turn next. Let's try having the Mounties go to ground. The sailors move to the edge of the forest, and the Guards get to fire for free. They need sixes to hit and score four out of ten, but their targets are in cover so only one casualty is scored. Their targets attempt to Firefight back, but even with a +1 to the roll for nearby Commander, cannot make a 7+ on 2d6. They pass their morale check easily.

Understrength Mounties, holding ground.

At this small scale, the only way one side will win is if they force a rout on an opposing unit and thus badly outnumber the remnants.

Edwardian turn. Concentrated fire on the Mounties. The sailors with the Lewis score six (!) hits, killing two Mounties even with their +1 armor for Gone to Ground. They roll their Firefight response, as it's only allowed once per turn and they'd better use it now before they take the casualties off and have half dice. 

(I wasn't sure here if they would lose the Go to Ground for Firefighting, as that's an activation which ends the former - in that case they'd take three casualties instead of two. In the event it didn't matter.)

They score three hits for one casualty. Both sides check morale. The Mounties at -2 (two casualties, under half strength, Commander nearby) and the sailors at normal score (one casualty, Commander nearby). The sailors pass, the Mounties (rolling on only one die) roll a one! Their score is negative so they are removed from the board!

The Mounties were the command unit, so this is even worse - All other units must test, without +1 to the score. Both remaining units are in cover though, for a +1 there, and are rolling on two dice for greater than half strength, so they pass easily.

The Edwardians aren't done, though; the other unit gets to fire still and aims at the opposing sailors. They score three hits on 5+ for another casualty. The Albertines, being a smaller unit, need 6s to hit and score none. Albertine leadership check at minus one - rolls a two. They retreat four inches and are suppressed.

At least they're behind the forest,
thus out of LOS.

In their turn, the Albertine sailors rally and the Guards fire, but only score one hit and their targets easily pass the test. Should the Guards with their Close Quarter Doctrine have done the charging? Well, the Mounties were a larger unit and so actually have the same Attack roll as the Guards. Perhaps it's not as useful a benefit as it sounded when I built the list.

The Edwardians, a bit wary of moving forward, rain fire on the Guards in the hope of suppressing them. But only one passes its action roll. That one scores five hits, causing a casualty, but the Guards pass their morale check and Firefight back - scoring only two hits which would cause one casualty IF the target wasn't in cover and thus required three hits. The Edwardian sailors pass morale.

It's the Albertines' turn. The battered sailors move back into the woods and the Guards fire again, again to no result. The target fails its Firefight response.

I would like to see what a charge does for testing purposes, so the Edwardians will advance. Well, leapfrog. The Lewis squad tries to suppress the Guards and scores seven hits - not quite enough for two casualties. They pass morale, but their return fire is still for naught. The other Edwardians move to the front. but are still in cover.

Precariously so.

At this point I decide to skip a turn and test a charge without more desultory fire in between. The Guards have the Assault doctrine (+1 to atttack rolls) and I want to try it.

So let's assume they run at each other like madmen.

The Guards get +5 attack rolls for having Assault, the sailors defence rolls of 4+ for being a reinforced unit. The Guards have better Armor, though, so will it even out? They score three hits on the sailors for one casualty, the sailors score six back for two casualties. No, it didn't. The sailors take a Courage test at -1 and pass, the Guards take on -3 (two casualties, under half strength), and fail. They have a positive score still, but retreat and are suppressed. I'll end the game there.

Do I like these rules? Yes! They're less complex than I make them sound. The activation rules in particular (which could be a serious problem in a game this small) are easier on the player than they are in The Men Who Would Be Kings. The game went pretty quickly (barring breaks, cat removal and writing time for this post). With larger armies, I could see running this at the club. Next time...

Black Powder! (Not That One)

Fellow South Florida Miniatures Gamer Mark Ritchie - who wrote Tactical Combat as played here and here - has Ancients and black-powder rules too - Pilum and Firelock respectively. Last Sunday he ran me and "Oriskany Jim" Johnson through a late-16th-century encounter. The club has been very busy lately, with games almost every Saturday, but I've been working every Saturday for over a month and jumped at the chance for a Sunday game. Unfortunately that meant there were only four of us there. Mark GM'ed the game.

Ron and I played an Imperial/Hungarian force:

Jim got the Poles, including their famous winged lancers:

We played the battle of Byczna, January 24, 1588, part of a civil war between Swedish- and Imperial-backed claimants to the Polish throne. The game is low-scale - each base represents a company of fifty to eighty men.

The battlefield, from the Imperial side. Brown for roads,
blue for rivers, the colorful patches round the village
are cropfields. There is a low hill at center-bottom.

The goal was for at least one Imperial base to hold the road for 15 turns, or alternately to eliminate twenty opposing bases. Both had a mix of pike, shot, pistoliers and lancers or hussars (lots of these); the Imperials also had two guns. A hex is 50 yards, and musket range three hexes. There are also rules for caracole - cavalry move-and-fire - and limicon, which I hadn't heard of before but is roughly the same thing for infantry.

We set up first in the southeast (from my perspective) quadrant, and our options were dire. It wasn't obvious which way Jim would come, as he could set up anywhere about 15 hexes from our line. Ron took the guns and half our army to the left, setting up on the hill east of the village. I set up my infantry across the road, wary of an assault from the northeast, with my cavalry in reserve to go either direction as needed.

Jim, of course, then set up his entire army on our left flank. My troops would have some humping to do...

The Imperial forces, badly strung out; to rear of picture
the Poles. Clumping of troops is deliberate, as orders
are best issued to groups.

My half, now facing the wrong direction, but with
cavalry positioned to support.

Ron's side. Each unit had 6 or 8 hit points, with loss
denoted by colored pipe cleaners; here the guns start
with only four HP apiece. Tags denote leaders.

Jim's cavalry races forward.

Not all units could be moved; each commander generated 1d6 orders, which could be transferred to other commanders. This is where the clumping comes in; a single order can be issued to several units at once provided they are contiguous. There is an action economy, and there were times our side rolled poorly enough to have to seriously think about what moves we could make.

Our side fires. In addition to HP loss, units can be
shaken or routed, denoted by colored caps.

There is more to firing and combat than just the fighting; units must take morale checks when they take casualties or when fired on by cannon (even if it does no damage). On one failure, the unit is shaken and takes a yellow marker; on two it is broken, takes a red marker, and retreats a random number of hexes. If broken in close combat, it is eliminated outright. Like in Warhammer Fantasy, close combat would make the real difference here, and units could overrun and enter combat with another unit.

The combat result table links number of attacks plus assorted bonuses to a 2D6 score that can cause up to three hits on the opposing base (though both sides may attack). Hits may be saved; those that aren't require morale checks, which ultimately resolve the combat. It's possible to be eliminated by hits alone, but more likely to eventually fail a check and either retreat or, with two failures in CC, be eliminated that way.

Turn 1: Jim threw a unit of fast horse archers at us, then swept across our left flank while his infantry followed more sedately. I hastily moved my flank towards the enemy, but at the rate they were going, the infantry wouldn't make it in time to participate. Roads do allow extra movement provided half the unit's move is on that road, and luckily I was mostly deployed near it.

Turn 2: The hussars charged Ron's hill. We lost two pike units, a gun, musketeers, and horse, while a second horsed unit broke and fled. Five units lost already - close combat in this game is a quick way to die. The other gun managed to hold off the winged lancers, and in our turn, we variously rallied shaken units and advanced. Our counter-attack was weak and did little to push the Polish army away from our flank.

The winged lancer charge goes in. Units can also support, so
it's good to gang up on each other. After the forward lancer
eliminates the gun, for example, the rear one handles the pikes - 
which don't help against the longer lances of the cavalry.

The first gun captured, lancers go after the second.

Reiters attempt to rescue it.

Turn 3: The hussars continued to chew through our flank, but I passed eight (!) morale checks (which, like Warhammer, are roll-under). I exchanged dice during combat but then started rolling high on morale checks and lost a few units any way. I charged on my own "northern" flank, to little effect. My infantry, some of them very good landsknechts, were too far away to help.

Turn 4: More of the same. My infantry finally got close enough to fire shot at Jim's also-slowly-slogging infantry while his cavalry continued to rampage through what remained of Ron's end. Partway through, we lost our twentieth base and the game was over - Jim had lost four, two of them on the last turn. I'd taken a lesson from his tactics and made sure to gang up on his units to force more morale checks. If we'd continued, my infantry close-combat types were now close enough to do some serious damage, but his cavalry would have swept behind me and finished the job.

Lancers tear the crap out of Imperial reiters, though in the
distance you can see my own attack going in. The yellow-
capped bases are in trouble; one loss in CC and they'll be gone.

Melee on the road - from the darker colors of chenille
and the yellow caps, I'm finally achieving something.

A fun and exciting game, but unfortunately lost in the deployment phase. Tactics have never been my strong suit, despite far too much reading on the topic. Maybe that's why I like 18th-century, when they were mostly stolid. Pike and shot isn't my thing either, and the revelation that lances could basically ignore the whole point of pikes was devastating. Jim's winged lancers lived up to their reputation.

A few more close-ups of Mark's nicely-painted figures:

Infantry in trouble. This arquebus base has 1 of 8 hp left.

Jim's view of same combat.

Poles hold off the Imperial charge.

Poles closing the trap. Dice denote order "pips" available
to commanders; the CinC can distribute these to others.

I neglected to bring some of my 18mm Wofuns to test on the hexes; I'd be happy to play again using horse-and-musket tactics with these rules. We'll see. Jim again took video for Sitrep Podcast but it won't be published until August, I'll post a link then. Happy gaming, all.

Lookit, We Painted Something

... On the one hand, the paint-and-take program I ran today was chaotic.

On the other hand, the kids (and parents!) were enthusiastic and clearly enjoyed themselves. I had several ask to do a second figure. Several parents asked for more information about Warhammer and I gave away a few of the magazines, which contain coloring sheets, background information and simple game rules. I also suggested they look for painting videos on Youtube, but cautioned them about the Grimdark theme of the games - as long as they stick to the painting videos and avoid showing their kids the lore, I probably won't get any complaints!

Pro-tips for doing a public painting program with small children:

• Have extra experienced painters at the table.

That's it, really, but the fact that there was only one of me and, at times, a dozen or more people crowded around the painting table meant that:

• I spent most of my time replacing dirty paint water.
• I couldn't spend enough time going over the basics, which in turn meant...
• ...That people were sitting down while I was away from the table sidetracked by something else, and making a mess.

I wasn't expecting quite that many people at once, nor was I expecting to keep getting sidetracked. Next time I'll train a coworker or two on the basics.

When I do this with the teens, I usually only have a handful, they're all starting at the same time, and they're all paying attention. Doing it as a "drop-in" event is, as I said, chaotic when all the painters are newbies. My normal procedure is to make sure everyone has a brush, an undercoated mini, and starts out with one (1) paint bottle. Open the bottle, draw a little paint from the cap (or, with Army Painter bottles which I am learning to prefer, squeeze just a little), mix it with a bit of water, and start painting. Even better is if I have a mini of my own to demonstrate each step. With just a few kids (and there were a few older ones and parents too) I could clearly explain the "two thin coats" thing.

This worked alright early on, before we were crowded and when most attendees were in our auditorium looking at live critters brought by a parks authority. Everyone could see and everyone paid attention.

Later, it was a real scramble. The younger kids were impatient. Painting directly from the pot isn't that big a deal, but opening the pot wide and pouring it directly onto the table is. Mixing it in the bottle... was, in hindsight at least, hilarious. At least I hadn't paid for the bottles! We had some "one thick coat" minis, and I scrambled for paper to wrap them in for the ride home because obviously they weren't going to dry.

At least no paint got on the floor, and coworkers convinced me to put two layers of paper on the table.

Ah, kids.

Pictures!

Setup: Magazines and an action figure for inspiration,
minis, paint, water and wet-wipes.

Some of the results:

So, yeah, reasonably successful. One coworker was optimistic about the possibility of painting skeletons or building zombies for Halloween. I'll burn that bridge when or if I get to it...!