KEITH'S WARGAMING BLOG

Maurice - First Impressions

2012-05-21T16:40:00.000+01:00

Crikey O'Riley - another set of rules for the 18th century. Here I am with my own set to use as well as Black Powder, which I still enjoy playing and am perfectly happy with. But Maurice has a secret weapon - a free to download 'Lite' version.

I love Sam Mustafa

As you will probably know, this is the chap who gave us Lasalle and Might and Reason. Sam is to be heartily congratulated for going along the path of bringing out a Lite version of the rules which those interested can download for free (along with the necessary cards and a fast-play sheet).

This has the unusual virtue of being good for both seller and buyer. The same thing helped Blitzkrieg Commander become popular a few years back, and provides an excellent chance of creating a good vibe for a set of rules. And with rule sets being £20 or £30 a pop these days, and there being so many of them, you can't just buy a set on the off-chance that you'll love them. So, nice one Sam. A pity more authors and publishers are not so enlightened.

I hate Sam Mustafa

I nearly didn't bother looking into the rules at all when I saw the sub-title. 'War in the Age of Gentleman and Philosophers'. Hmm. One thing that irritates me occasionally about SYW gaming is the idea that this was some sort of 'Golden Age of Warfare' - in fact I think the phrase is actually used in the intro to the original Koenig Krieg rules. Charles Grant senior has much to answer for here. The quaint and whimsical world he created in The War Game seems to have led some gamers to believe that war in the eighteenth century was all about gentlemen on opposing sides inviting each other's regiments to fire first, following which everyone would march off to the nearest town for lunch. I'm sure I don't need to belabour the fact that this was not the case. The battles and campaigns featured the most appalling slaughter and suffering (to men and animals), and the civilian population had their share as well - Frederick's occupation of Saxony being a case in point. It is generally argued that things were better than during the horrors of the Thirty Years War. Quite true, but this doesn't mean that the wars of the eighteenth century were either particularly civilised or honourable.

Even ignoring the warfare entirely, the period could just as easily (and probably more accurately) be called 'The Age of Injustice and Inequality', or some such. I have a great interest in, and admiration for, the Enlightenment and all it encompassed, but one has to be realistic about what life in the era could mean for ordinary people. As you can see, this is definitely a soap box issue for me.

Anyway, setting subtitles to one side, there is also the issue of pricing. Black Powder was expensive, but when you had the book in your hand you had to admit that £30 was probably reasonable for the physical object itself. Now the introductory deals are over, the Maurice rulebook is £25. Encountering a friend's copy, I was struck by its relatively slim nature, flimsy card covers and thin paper. These are all good attributes if they result in a book costing £15, maybe £18. But Maurice just doesn't have the heft or quality for a £25 rulebook, in my personal opinion. The cards are an additional £12, which is also not cheap, although the cards themselves are of good quality. The two together can be had for £35. Definitely not convinced here.

The Rules

Ah yes, to get to the point. Most reviews of the rules have been positive. On the basis of one game with the Lite version and another with the full rules, I would generally agree. I have no experience of card games, so the gameplay made a refreshing change. Good fun was generally had. Things move along quite smartly and the rules for the basics are simple and easy to grasp. The advanced rules look worthwhile and the inclusion of a campaign system is also to be applauded.

The main problem so far has been the tendency to have games where half your troops don't do anything at all for the whole game. Being used to Warmaster style rules, I have no objection to some of my troops being able to little or nothing for some of the time. But Maurice can take this to another level. However, I can see that with more experience with the rules and how to use them to best advantage, this may well change. At the very least, it seems to me that historical deployments and tactics are encouraged - indeed, they seem to be vital.

I am fortunate in having some opponents who have the rules, but no figures. Having the figures, I can provide these and get away with having no rules for the time being. Should the games improve, and I get the knack of bringing all or most of my forces to bear, I may well swallow my pride and invest in a set. Maybe they'll appear on Amazon at a discount.

For a good overview of the rules as our little group has encountered them so far, see my old mate Steve's blog here. If you want a change from the various complimentary reviews, Angus Konstam is far from impressed on his Edinburgh Wargames site (see the fourth battle report down), although I think his comments are misguided.

Definitely one to watch.

Memory Lane (2) - WW2 20mm

2012-05-13T14:15:00.002+01:00

I recently stumbled upon some photos of 20mm WW2 games I played in the 1990s, so I thought it would make a 'part 2' post for my earlier trip down memory lane. There are shots of 3 games below, using my good old TSS tiles as the basis for the scenery, tiles which have lasted me now for nearly 20 years.

Game 1

At the time these 3 games were played I was using Peter Pig's Abteilung rules, which are surprisingly still on sale. I can't imagine they sell many - even when I was using them I got the impression that I was the only wargamer in the country so inclined. But that was in the days before the interweb when it was much harder to get information about what people were doing. I liked Abteilung a lot, although their production values were low and the proof reading left something to be desired. I was waiting for a second edition which never happened, and then along came Blitzkrieg Commander...

Game 1 again - good old Airfix Shermans.

Game 2

All this lot got sold off for about £1000 (nice!), which paved the way for buying my Polish collection painted. The North West Europe campaign had got a bit stale after pursuing it for around 20 years. To be honest, I've never really missed the stuff, though I had owned some of it for a long time. I certainly couldn't face painting all the infantry for my new period, so the 20mm had to go if I was to afford professional painting for my new project. I did the vehicles myself though.

Game 3 - my old buddy Paul advancing the Germans

Game 3

The trees (home made) and hedges are still going, as are the village bases cut out from model railway scenic material. Some of those home made trees must be 25 years old now, maybe more. The Bellona bridges you can see in game 2 are also still going - see here (about halfway down the post).

Hope this may stir some nostalgia amongst readers. Funnily enough, Paul has recently gathered a couple of 20mm WW2 Eastern Front armies, so once again the Airfix Tigers and Panthers are back in my life!

A Couple Of Thoughts...

2012-05-08T22:35:00.002+01:00

...prompted by the new issue of Battlegames magazine.

First Thought

Salute 2012 saw a terrific 'game' put on by a pair called The Essex Gamesters. It was called Corunna 1809, and it won a prize, as it well deserved to. See the photos here.

But why do I put 'game' in quotation marks? Well, according to Battlegames, this was something called a Diorama Game. I was struck by the phrase as I had never heard it before, but I immediately knew what it meant. Playing a demo game at Colours a couple of years ago I found myself next to such a game. This is where a purpose-built model railway style terrain is set up, then painstakingly festooned with beautifully painted figures, ships, vehicles etc. In addition there may be one or more information boards to erect as well. This will probably take at least a couple of hours. Following which sturdy effort, the 'gamers' collapse with exhaustion into their chairs and stare at their creation for a few more hours, before proceeding with the equally taxing task of packing it up.

That's right - a Diorama Game is a game where nothing happens. I wasn't at Salute, and didn't see what went on in 'Corunna 1809', but the description by Battlegames strongly implies that this was what was going on in this particular presentation. If I'm wrong in this case, I apologise - but the concept is clearly firmly with us. Now, bottom line, what hobbyists do with their toy soldiers is up to them. And I would agree that such displays can be very inspiring, refreshing one's outlook on the hobby. I can indeed feel a bland conclusion coming on, something along the lines of the usual 'each to his own' cliche. But I have a nagging feeling in my head that the hobby is actually called war gaming. There's supposed to be a game going on. It's not, after all, called war diorama making.

I guess this all seems rather mean spirited, not to say inspired by envy. I'll admit mean spirited, but I don't have any envy. I want to wargame. My inspiration is intellectual - animate those toy soldiers by giving them a purpose, by developing a story (or 'scenario' as it is generally called). Then see how things work out when players with different ideas play the story out. See how the story is influenced by the rules, for good or bad. And see how table top events relate to the historical picture.

Dah! I don't know. What do you think?

Second Thought

One of the areas in which Battlegames really scores is the review section. A wide range of sensible and balanced thoughts on a goodly number of new products. In the latest issue, however, one comment did rather set me back on my heels. Neil Shuck was reviewing a supplement to the Saga rules, called Northern Fury. Early in the piece he had this to say,

"Gripping Beast are committed to supporting this new game, and Northern Fury is the first of two supplements that are planned for this year."

I was so happy. Oh those wonderful, selfless boys at Gripping Beast. Despite all the odds, they're committed to supporting Saga. Bless their hearts... Come on Neil, they're a commercial company. Saga isn't a charity expedition to the Himalayas in support of disabled people, it's a wargames product. Gripping Beast's 'commitment' is to making some more money out of this product. That in itself is fair enough. But the style of the comment seems to me to be an example of the disconcerting idea that companies are doing us gamers a favour by selling us their stuff, and we should therefore be suitably grateful. Wargamers in general seem to be happy with an increasingly commercial wargames industry, and this is also fair enough. But at least see things as they are.

Now, (for example), one could quite rightly say that Pete Jones was 'committed' to supporting Blitzkrieg Commander (he is, BTW, the author). He set up a well designed and well tended website where users could communicate via a forum (one of the best on the web IMHO), where battle reports can be viewed in their multitudes, where he is usually available to rapidly answer rule queries (a definite rarity amongst rule writers), and where he encourages players to become involved in new ideas for rule amendments. And there's a gallery and a free battlegroup creator (providing you bought the rules). OK, you could say this is just promotion for his product, but all this is done on his own, for free and in a spirit of participation and open comment. And all that is for sale is the rules.

Or look at the boys who produce Warning Order. A great, high quality online magazine produced entirely for the love of it and available to anyone to download for free. It's been going for 32 issues now. Yes, that's commitment.

Readers of this blog may be aware that I am grimly opposed to supplements simply for being what they are, i.e. a bare faced con to stretch the profitability of a set of rules. But others are welcome to disagree. Neil evidently thought (in an otherwise well written and informative review) that this supplement was a good offering. But I'm afraid that phrase just grated. Another, more appropriate, choice of words was required. Something between sinking to your knees in gratitude and unconditionally reviling the whole concept. Something a bit more detached and neutral, perhaps. But then, perhaps, I'm just over reacting.

Something with pictures for my next post, I think!

A Scenario For All Ages? (part two)

2012-04-22T21:48:00.000+01:00

Thinking it might be interesting to try the same scenario in two very different periods, and having completed a very enjoyable game in the SYW period, it was time to have a go at WW2. Readers of the previous post will recall that this was scenario 37 from the Grant/Asquith book Scenarios For All Ages, entitled 'Night Attack 2'. I kept the terrain the same as for the first game, except for substituting built up areas of a more modern appearance and smaller scale for the second battle, which would be fought out in 15mm between Polish and German forces of 1939. Rules used would be Blitzkrieg Commander.

The advice from the scenario book is,

'For the modern period, [...] take units as troops or platoons, or for 1/300th scale, companies and squadrons'.

It was quickly apparent that converting a Horse and Musket 'unit' into a company would be the best approach for a BKC game, cavalry of course becoming tanks. A company would typically be 3 infantry stands or 3 tanks in BKC, with one stand or vehicle representing a platoon. The units from part one therefore became the following:

Poles (defending the ridge)

5 units of foot: becomes 3 infantry companies, 1 support company, 1 anti-tank gun company.

2 units of cavalry: becomes 1 independent 7TP company, 1 independent TKS company.

1 unit of artillery: becomes 1 on-table 75mm artillery battery.

In detail, the Poles therefore were: CO (CV8)

Infantry Battalion (+) HQ (CV7) (may be dug in for 'hasty defence')

9 infantry units with ATR upgrade

3 mg units

1 mortar unit

2 37mm ATG units with truck tows

1 75mm artillery support unit with horse tow

Independent Tank Company HQ (CV8)

2 7TP (37mm)

1 7TP (mg)

Independent Scout Tank Company HQ (CV8)

2 TKS (mg)

1 TKS (20mm)

Points 1425, Breakpoint 11.

Germans (attacking)

Northern Force (B1 in the scenario)

3 units of foot: becomes 2 infantry companies, 1 support company

2 units of horse: becomes 2 panzer companies

1 unit of artillery: becomes 1 off-table artillery battery

Southern Force (B2)

4 units of foot: becomes 3 infantry companies, 1 support company

1 unit of horse: becomes 1 panzer company

1 unit of artillery: becomes 1 off-table artillery battery

In detail, this became: CO (CV9)

Northern Battlegroup

Motorised Infantry Battalion HQ (CV8)

6 infantry units with ATR upgrade (trucks)

2 mg units (trucks)

1 mortar unit (truck)

Panzer Detachment HQ (CV9)

1 PzIV, 1 PzIII, 2 PzII, 2 PzI

Southern Battlegroup

Infantry Battalion HQ (CV8)

9 infantry units with ATR upgrade

3 mg units

1 mortar unit

Panzer Detachment HQ (CV9)

2 PzII, 2 PzI

Off Table Artillery FAO (CV8)

2 105mm artillery batteries
4 assets

Points 2390, Breakpoint 16

The Germans therefore had a bit more than the 50% advantage in points recommended in BKC for an Assault or Deliberate Attack scenario. However, I decided to keep to a fairly strict interpretation of the book scenario to make it an honest test. I also guessed from the first run through that things might not be as straightforward for the attackers as the forces and deployment might suggest. The map below will serve to confirm the limited nature of my artistic talents:

The Game

Once again I was lucky enough to play a daytime game at the weekend (with wargames buddy and all round good egg Paul). Often more relaxing than an evening game, I find.

So here's the set up. Once again those nasty Germans are attacking.

A quick close up of the Polish 75mm artillery support unit behind the ridge.

As dawn breaks, the thunder of an approaching armoured battlegroup greets the Poles.

A scheduled bombardment hits the empty north village, whilst the northern German group starts to penetrate behind the ridge. They soon start to chew up the less concentrated Polish forces attempting to react to their unexpected appearance.

Overview around mid-game. The Poles are re-positioning gradually. In the background the CO has moved to the western village to get the infantry and anti-tank gun on their way. The infantry battalion HQ concentrates on moving troops into the east village, where the German southern battlegroup is closing in.

The east village was a registered target for the German artillery (having been the subject of scheduled fire on move 1). Thus German units could approach the outskirts of the village confident that their supporting fire would be accurate. The red dice indicate the reassuring effects of the auto-suppress rule. But with everything set up for a close assault, the final command roll failed!

Behind the ridge, the German tanks are heavily engaged: tanks from the southern battlegroup have moved round to reinforce their comrades. Meanwhile the motorised infantry try to extend the outflanking manouevre firmly into the Polish rear. The TKS tankettes deploy gallantly and their machine guns put a temporary halt to the German advance. For non-BKC players, those red mini-dice indicate suppressed units.

Overview as the game was ending. The Germans did finally manage a close assault on the village, but they were flung back after desperate fighting. The slogging match behind the ridge finally ended in the Germans' favour, as it always seemed likely to. After 8 moves the Poles had exceeded their breakpoint, losing 12 units. They therefore had to make a command roll of 7 to continue, but a roll of 9 meant victory for the Germans, who only lost about 7 units.

Last move. After receiving many turns of fire, it takes a close assault to finally eliminate the Polish artillery position. There was no question of the Poles retaining a reserve. The speed and ferocity of the German attack meant the Poles had to throw in everything (including the kitchen sink) to stem the tide. At least that's my excuse.

Points to Ponder
The second edition of BKC improved on an already excellent set of rules, but this game highlighted 2 aspects that can be a little frustrating. Units dug-in or occupying built up areas are really hard to shift. The Poles in the east village could only be hit on a 6, and still had a 5 or 6 save on any hits received. Then it still needed a further 6 to suppress (unless using artillery and the auto-suppress rule). Perhaps a little too much in game terms.
Secondly, close assaults can be a little complex if you aren't fully familiar with the rules. Still, correct tactics of suppressing your opponent then assaulting with superior numbers will usually work, if you can make the command rolls.

As for the scenario, once again it produced an excellent game. In the WW2 period it did feel a little weighted towards the Germans, but a single game is only a limited test. Certainly the Germans (Paul) won fairly easily in the end, despite a succession of unlucky command blunders and the refusal of the German dice to produce the required number of 6s!
8 moves were played in about 3.5 hours of gaming.

What's Your Favourite?
I've noticed on a number of blogs recently the preference of the owners to illustrate their battle reports mainly with close up photos of the action, which show off the miniatures nicely but make it hard to get an overview of the game. This is often compounded by the lack of a map, or photo of the overall set-up, to give the reader his or her bearings. As any reader of military history will know, trying to describe a battle without an accompanying map is like... well, ... it's like doing something rather silly. Choose your own metaphor. This blog will continue to champion the cause of giving viewers the whole picture!

A 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon was in use throughout to help things along. Despite the trade name of 'Rusty Goat', this New South Wales wine proved to be an excellent accompaniment to wargaming.

And so farewell 'til next time.

Dayton Painting Consortium - you've gotta love those guys

2012-04-16T14:43:00.002+01:00

My order cancelled post seemed to strike a chord with some readers, so I just wanted to highlight the pleasure of dealing with Richard Masse at the Dayton Painting Consortium, who currently produce and market the RSM range of figures which I use for my SYW games.

Determined to add at least a few new figures to my collection, I ordered half a dozen artillerymen and a quartet of mounted buglers. These were received in a couple of weeks from the US. Nice, clean, elegant figures as usual. And the cost? Artillerymen 57p each at current exchange rates, mounted figures £1.42p. And the postage charged was just $3 (that's £1.90p).

You can buy a painted unit of 36 foot figures, with flags, officers etc, for $108, which is about £68. Less than £2 a figure! Judging by what I have received in the past, the painting quality is what I would call a good solid wargames standard. I think I will be investing soon, what with my aversion to painting.

Why doesn't everyone buy their SYW stuff from these people?

A Scenario For All Ages? (part one)

2012-04-16T13:52:00.000+01:00

I know what you're thinking. Here we go, another battle report to add to all the other battle reports you've read (or more likely just skimmed through). The problem with battle reports is that they often have little meaning to anyone outside the players actually involved. One way to avoid this is to give some background to the reports to add interest, or offer an angle that might give the report some relevance to the hobby as a whole.

Of course, some reports are worth looking through because of the outstanding scenery, wonderful figures, or the grand scale of the action. Or maybe they're played by some wargames personality with a new ruleset to market. Being unable to offer any of these attractions, I find it worthwhile to use my battle reports to point up some aspect of the hobby, to try and make the reader think about how the hobby works, although usually in a small way.

So what's the angle here? Well, the game to be played uses a scenario from the Asquith/Grant scenario book Scenarios For All Ages. One meaning of the title is that the scenarios within can be fought out in a wide range of periods. The scenario that took my fancy recently was number 37, 'Night Attack 2'. 'Suitable for any period', it says in the opening paragraph. So I thought I would give the claim a try, and fight the scenario in the SYW and WW2 periods. This post is about the SYW battle.

The first problem with multi-period play is that the forces used are clearly based around a Horse and Musket setting - they are detailed as units of infantry, cavalry and artillery. The authors realise this and offer some advice on translation to other periods in the introduction. For my SYW battle, however, it would be easy to use the units exactly as specified. The author's choice of a 7' x 5' table as a 'standard' is another minor problem - this is hardly the most common size of gaming table. However, conversion to a 6' x 4' table presented no difficulty.

The scenario itself could more accurately be entitled 'Dawn Attack', as it involves an attacking force that has used a night march to outflank a defending force. The attackers have lost their way a bit overnight and have split into 2 forces, one of which has mistaken a more distant village for the actual target of the manoeuvre. Anyway, the set up is as shown below, identical (as far as I could manage) to the map in the book. You can see I have had some fun with the coloured pens:

The Austrians ('red' force in the scenario) are deployed on the ridge facing south. They have 5 infantry units, an artillery battery and 2 cavalry units. One infantry unit is in each of the 'villages' which anchors each end of their line. The Prussians ('blue') deploy on the east side of the table: their units are as shown. The Prussians must attack and destroy the Austrians; the Austrians must try to re-align and see off the attacking Prussians.

The Game

My good friend Steve came around to play out the scenario and give me some feedback on my rules, which we would be using to play out the game. Looking at the set up, the Prussians seemed to have it made, and we wondered if the scenario was really properly balanced. We should have had more faith in Mssrs. Asquith and Grant!

The left of the Austrian line is held by Loudon's 'Grenadiers' defending the east village.

Brigades from each side move alternately in my rules. Here the left hand Prussian infantry brigade has got off to a good start with a double move. Steve begins to wheel his infantry brigade off the ridge in reply.

The Prussians make steady progress. The left flank Austrian cavalry haven't yet got the message about the approaching threat, having failed a command roll.

View from the Prussian lines as the infantry approach the village.

Following some preparatory artillery fire, Prussian grenadiers launch a desperate assault.

By a miracle of unequal dice rolling, the Prussian grenadiers succeed and take the east village. This overview shows the Prussians pushing the Austrians back along the ridge. In the foreground the cavalry have clashed, with one unit on each side lost.

Last move fever grips both sides as the game comes to an end. Units move forward into close range for some climactic volley combat and the cavalry charge each other. Looking good for the Prussians (I thought foolishly), but it was not to be.

Prussian disaster. Four units are broken and destroyed ('Done For' as my rules put it) and the Prussian force as a whole has lost 7 out of 12 units. Goodnight Vienna! The Austrians lost 2 units out of 8.

Just to rub salt into the wounds, Steve had managed to keep one infantry unit in reserve in the western village throughout the game.

And in conclusion...

...avoid final move fever. If you want to win, of course. But final move fever can be rather fun, throwing caution to the wind with everything hanging on the roll of the dice. I had only lost 3 out of 12 units until the last move, and could probably have managed a draw at least. But never mind. It was interesting to see that the scenario was in fact very well balanced - that village placed north of the ridge hampers the attacking player's deployment, and having to fight along the table prevents the attackers bringing all their units to bear at once.

Steve was good enough to compliment my rules and we didn't have any real snags. A few minor clarifications have been made, so if you want to check out the most up to date version of the rules, v.5 is here. And while I'm at it have a playsheet as well (the playsheet is just one page - ignore the blank page 2). Don't pay any attention to the previews of both items - the preview function doesn't seem to cope with my tables! The downloads seem to be fine.

Hope to have a report of the same scenario set in WW2 in a week or two.

Peace. I'm out.

My Seven Years War Rules - download the latest version.

2012-03-23T10:12:00.003Z

Following some recent games my rules have, of course, evolved again. However, I think for the moment they have reached a point where I am reasonably satisfied with them, so I thought I would give readers another chance to download the latest iteration.

The only thing I would mention is that the 'Hit Tables' are meant to take into account morale as well as pure firing factors, so that there is no morale section in the rules anymore. Reaction to fire is automatic.

Anyway, find them here. Hope they may be of some use.

Polish Armoured Train - BKC2 Rules

2012-03-18T21:18:00.000Z

This post is dedicated to 'Johnboy' from the Specialist Military Publishing forum (the 'BKC forum' as far as I'm concerned). He had acquired the FoW/Battlefront Miniatures Polish armoured train and was looking for rules to use it in Blitzkrieg Commander games. I had some ideas for him as I have been using such a train in my 1939 games for a while now, although I had bought the Peter Pig Russian Civil War train a while back and painted it up for 1939. Anyway, prompted by johnboy's post I have improved my armoured train rules and thought I would offer them up here.

My own armoured train. Available from Peter Pig in resin and metal. Loco plus tender £12, artillery cars £6 each. Strictly speaking a Russian Civil War model, but a good quality model which represents a bargain at £24 the lot. No assault car though. In the end I considered that an advantage as the whole model is still 16" in length.

Battlefront artillery car. Photos from the Fort Buyaki blog

Battlefront assault car

Battlefront loco with tender. The complete armoured train apparently works out to 25" in length!
A magnificent model, but the cost is about £80. Hard to locate this piece of kit on the FoW site for some reason.

The main problem is that the armoured train fits in better with FoW than BKC. FoW is set at company level and a model train can represent just that - one actual train. In BKC the default playing scale is set at a vehicle or infantry base representing a platoon of vehicles or infantry. But that model train can't represent a 'platoon' of 3 actual trains. So these rules represent my compromise to get a workable set of rules in place. If anyone has other ideas, or criticisms of my approach, I'm all ears.

Anyway, here are my rules as they stand at the moment. Remember they are for the Peter Pig train so the tender stands in for the assault car:

Armoured Train

Type, armour. The train consists of 2 Artillery Cars and 1 locomotive/tender with command compartment. Speed 20cm. The train forms a single formation with the HQ (CV8) in the tender. The HQ is never targeted. Train may dismount 2 infantry units (measure infantry deployment from command cupola). Number of units for breakpoint calculations is 5 – locomotive/tender counts as 1, each artillery car counts as 1, plus the 2 infantry units. Total cost 400 points (HQ+tender costs 60+40, artillery cars 110 each, infantry units 40 each).

Artillery cars: Each car has 1 x 75mm gun and 1 x 100mm gun which fire under the overall rules for artillery support units.

Direct Fire: 75mm guns - one attack per gun (1/40 AT, 1/80 AP). 100mm guns – 2 attacks per gun (2/40 AT, 2/100 AP). They may fire within a 270º arc. Each gun gets the +1 within 20cm against unarmoured targets as co-axial mgs were carried.

Indirect Fire: Fire whole train as one 75mm artillery support unit and one 100mm artillery support unit, standard stats.

Side mgs were also fitted so 1 mg (3/60) may fire from the side of each artillery car. Each car has an AA mg in a top turret. These have no separate attacks but contribute to the standard 2 attacks for the HQ against aircraft. Close Assault 4

4 hits per car, save 6. A KO’d car will only be considered derailed if wholly or partly KO’d by indirect fire or aircraft bombs. Derailed cars may be detached but block the line. A car KO’d only by direct fire or only suppressed may move with the rest of the train. (These rules partly simulate possible damage to the tracks as well as the actual cars).

Locomotive/Tender: Count tender and loco as one unit. One mg may fire from each side (3/60). Standard 2/30 for AA fire only. Measure all fire from command cupola. Two infantry units are carried. Close Assault 4. 4 hits, save 6. HQ may dismount. Train will be unable to move if loco is KO’d, in which case the train HQ must dismount. May move if suppressed, but infantry cannot dismount.

Notes.

I have assumed that gamers will want to fire each gun modelled on an artillery car separately in a gaming situation. The other approach might be to take each artillery car as a single 'tank' and give it combined stats of 3/40 AT and 3/100 AP. Another alternative would be give a 5 or 6 save against hits. Some trains had artillery cars with armour as thick as 25mm, though around 12mm seems to have been more common for the train as a whole. I have also read that armour-piercing rounds could sometimes pass through the cars without causing much damage, the room within the cars being of benefit in these circumstances. So perhaps a higher save is justified.

As johnboy and I have found, these rules don't make the armoured train the all-conquering behemoth represented on the FoW website, and also in the articles in Wargames Illustrated 281 (which nevertheless gives an excellent account of the real action at Mokra which remains the most famous armoured train action). I think my rating is more realistic, but others may disagree. The model can actually be a bit of a white elephant, and is probably best used firing from behind the lines (though on table of course) as a couple of artillery support units. Push it forward into combat with tanks and it will get KO'd quite quickly. But if there are no tanks around and anti-tank guns aren't too numerous, the high firepower can be very effective against infantry and softer vehicles.

Anyway, like I say, that's my take on it. I welcome comments from the more informed or those with better brains for developing rules.

Order Cancelled

2012-03-17T21:14:00.002Z

"In wargaming, as in life, consumerism will not lead to satisfaction."

Ah, wise words indeed. Who am I quoting? Well... Alright, I apologise. I'm quoting myself, from the one and only article I ever had published in a wargames glossy (Battlegames 24). In pursuit of this philosophy, I have been making a virtue of necessity over the last couple of years by not spending a great deal on the hobby, for the simple reason that I don't have a great deal to spend - or perhaps one might say I simply can't justify spending much on wargaming when more practical items need purchasing and bills need paying. But this month I had a rare experience - a bonus in my monthly salary. So I thought I might treat myself to a bit of lead, just to raise the spirits a little, and grant myself a small reward amidst life's pressures.

But what to choose? In the end I decided to add some 'speciality' figures to my SYW collection, which I could use to decorate my battlefields in order to add to the visual spectacle. I'm talking about some musicians, a civilian vignette or two, a senior officer in a striking pose, and some artillerymen or pioneers to scatter about the place. Such figures have an interest in themselves, being fun to collect and paint, but also have the advantage that you can use them in just about all your games, as their only function is to fill up the gaps on the field of battle and give one's set-ups a more satisfying and interesting appearance.

I settled on Eureka Miniatures, being initially attracted by a nice pair of artillerymen carrying a small powder chest between them, and a nice looking vignette of George Washington dismounted with his horse and a pair of his dogs (which could stand in for any aristocratic gentleman from the tricorne era). Browsing the site, I added in a few musicians and mounted trumpeters, some dismounted hussars, and came up with a figure which was... well, frankly much too much. Well over £70 in fact. Eureka foot figures are £2 each, mounted £4. So I scaled down the order and got it down to about £35. Then I began my checkout. And then I found that postage from Australia would be £17. That's half the cost of my order! UK stockists? I could find only one, and the stock was limited, not to mention the fact that the figures themselves were more expensive anyway to compensate for being imported. So I returned to my checkout page, and looked at it for a few minutes, pondering. Following which, I muttered the immortal words 'Ah, fuck it' and closed the page down. I had saved myself 50 quid.

The purpose of this post is not to berate the wargames industry in general, or Eureka in particular, for their high prices. I'm sure Eureka would sell their stuff cheaper if they could, and I am willing to believe (albeit reluctantly) that the postage from Oz really is that much. It seems I have lost track of how prices for unpainted lead in the larger scales have increased. I'm used to good old RSM95 prices, where a foot figure can still be obtained for around 70p, or a bit less. Furthermore, for someone who has been known to bemoan the price of contemporary rulesets, this does rather put things into perspective. Creating a new army in 28mm must be a very expensive process indeed, in the light of which a set of rules for £25 must be small change. None of which, however, makes me feel much better about the hobby.

I guess really I'm saying that I continue to feel that the sentiments I expressed in that article hold true. I can do without those extra figures. My artillery batteries can be attended by some individually based musketeers which I already have lying around; I can paint up some spare officers to scatter about the place; and I can complete some mounted civilians that are still in my small 'lead mountain'. And that will be fine. In addition, I can see that to someone contemplating buying a new good quality golf club, or, (to choose a subject closer to home) a parent considering buying a new dressage saddle for their daughter, £40-50 isn't much. I guess wargaming still counts as a cheap hobby. But sometimes it really doesn't feel that way. It would seem a hundred unpainted foot figures can still easily cost you £200 pounds. And unfortunately I find that I have no desire at all to wargame in any scale below 15mm. In fact, I have a hankering to wargame with 40-42mm figures in the horse and musket era. Fat chance!

Ah well. So, order cancelled. To add a splash of colour to this sorry story, I conclude with a photo of some purely decorative figures purchased a while back, which I never presented in their painted form, then a photo of a recent small artillery project. TTFN!

L to R: (All Willie Figures unless mentioned) French engineer officer painted as Austrian engineer; British officer as Prussian officer of miners with RSM guard; Hovels farmer w/sheep; French engineer again as Austrian officer of pioneers with RSM guard; British sutleress; Farm girl and Farm boy; British officer as Wurtemburg artillery officer.

This is an attempt at creating one of the 1 pounder Grenz light guns that were used to support the Grenz infantry early in the SYW. The gun is from Parkfield Miniatures, RSM gunner with paint conversion, RSM grenzer with rammer instead of rifle.

Operation Warboard: Panzers At Brodno, 1939

2012-03-12T16:51:00.004Z

Well now, the theme for recent posts on this blog seems to be well established - getting inspiration and ideas from the work of wargamers of the past. I think it might be best to change that soon - it's time I tried to come up with some ideas of my own. Then rather than expecting others to inspire me, perhaps I could provide some inspiration to others; although perhaps inspiring others is rather too grand an ambition. I should probably settle for something original that might at least interest other wargamers, rather than repeatedly recycling old stuff. But before then, one more blast from the past...

Gavin Lyall's Operation Warboard dates from 1976 and concentrates on WW2 wargaming. I borrowed it from the library at the time and read it with great interest - the author seemed to be struggling with the same problems I was having in writing my own set of WW2 rules, and coming up with the same kind of answers as I was. Not only that, but here was a gamer whose terrain and figures were not some unattainable marvel but who wargamed on the same kind of unsophisticated, hastily set up terrain that I used, and didn't worry too much about how his figures were painted.

I bought the book a couple of years ago for old times' sake, and get it out now and then for the usual nostalgia. The rules are not much use to me these days. With hindsight I reckon they turned out like mine - a bit clunky and over complicated. They were written in a period when we were waiting (although we didn't know it) for new rule concepts like DBA and Warmaster to appear, which would make things both simpler and more satisfying. Unfortunately, before that happened, many rulesets much more clunky and much more complex than Mr Lyall's would have to be suffered by wargamers. Oh, those endless f*cking modifiers...

Anyway, a recent re-read found me studying the photo below and being struck by what an interesting set-up it was. The photo was given as an illustration of what a 'bigger' game might look like, with no real indication of what the scenario was, but once again I was away. This time you will have to suffer a hand drawn map made by myself rather than one made by a talented and inspiring wargames pioneer. Below the photo is the map I developed from it: you will see I added a railway to enable me to use my armoured train. Brodno is just a name picked off a map: this encounter is entirely fictitious.

Below again is the terrain I ended up with, the photo being taken from about the same direction as the photo from the book. The original table was 8' x 5' so things were a little more cramped on my 6' x 4' effort, but then I was gaming in 15mm rather than 20mm so there was no real problem.

I decided to play the game as an attack-defence with the Poles defending. I also decided to use the game to see how the ultra-simple Morschauser rules from How To Play Wargames In Miniature might work. I had had some fun working them up into a set which took account of such modern wargaming foibles as the advantage of cover, and the existence of things like mortars, infantry guns and trucks. I had, however, taken care not to deviate from their essential simplicity. The scenario was as follows:

Polish Forces (defending):

Main Force

9 infantry units

3 MG units

1 mortar unit

2 ATG units

1 AA unit

2 tank units

2 off-table field guns

Reinforcements

Armoured Train

3 cavalry units

1 MG unit (tazcanka)

1 on-table field gun unit with horse tow

The Polish main force could deploy anywhere south and west of the railway. The reinforcements would arrive on the road and railway from the north west subject to a die roll. The objective was to defend the bridges and town by seeing off the German attackers (who would withdraw on losing half or more of their on-table units)

German Forces:

Main Force

9 tank units

6 infantry units in trucks

2 MG units in trucks

1 mortar unit in truck

1 ATG unit in truck

1 SPAA unit

3 off-table field guns

1 dive bomber unit

Recce Force

2 armoured car units

2 motorcycle infantry units

1 MG unit in motorcycle combination

The German main force would arrive in column on the road from the east, with the objective of capturing the town and bridges and breaking the Polish defenders (who would withdraw under the same conditions as the Germans). Each bridge lost would count as 2 units lost, the town would count as 4 units lost if it fell. The recce units would arrive on the road from the north east subject to a die roll.

The Game

I'd like to tell you what a quick and exciting game the Morschauser rules gave. I'd like to tell you that, but it wouldn't be true. Simplicity is all very well, but it turned out these old rules took things rather too far for my taste. The game gave me an insight into what people mean when they talk about 'period feel', and also an insight into why some people like fairly complicated rules. Such things go a long way towards giving a game its interest.

The bottom line is that in the Morschauser rules you end up throwing 4, 5 or 6 to knock out just about anything with just about anything. There's also only one throw to make when firing - no throw to hit followed by an effect throw. And there's only one effect. It's KO or OK. The basic rules for off-table guns I actually added myself, along with those for aircraft and AA. But in my effort to be true to the original, these extras don't add much variety to the game. Movement? Well, just about everything moves 9" cross country in the original rules, with some variation on road. The melee rules introduce just a hint of sophistication, but are (correctly) written to make melee unattractive anyway unless you have an advantage of 2 or 3 to 1. Therefore things are mostly decided by firing. So you're back to 4, 5 or 6 to KO, regardless of range or situation or weapon, although there are simple rules saying (for example) that machine guns and rifles can't KO tanks.

So bland is very much the order of the day. I'm afraid enjoyment was not enhanced by a scenario that favoured the defenders and gave the Germans little chance of success. Just a few photos to give you a flavour:

The German column successfully crosses the nearest bridge but a Polish FT-17 and some infantry sally out.

This was about the high water mark of the German advance towards Brodno.

The Polish reinforcements arrive.

Polish tank, anti-tank and artillery soon took a toll of the leading German armour and a German defeat loomed. (See also the first colour photo above, below the map). A useful rule was borrowed from Blitzkrieg Commander - a knocked out tank or other vehicle is 'no longer there' and can be removed if you want. This means a KO'd tank doesn't block the bridge - hence the 2 vehicles you can see moved to either side of the bridge exit, left on the table for decorative purposes only.

I suppose I could tinker with the Morschauser rules but I doubt I will bother. I should however add that John Curry and Bob Cordery, who edited the Morschauser reprint, evidently found a good deal to enjoy in Morschauser's ideas as they developed their own version which features in the book. So don't necessarily take my word for the poor experience I judged them to provide. Anyway, I think it's time to go back to BKC, which are a great set of rules which give me all I want from a WW2 game.

Now, as I mentioned above, it's time to think up some ideas of my own for future presentations. Hmmm...

Another Great Map

2012-03-04T21:04:00.008Z

Browsing the Vintage Wargaming blog, once again I came across an 'Old School' style hand-drawn map that seemed set to inspire a game. You can see the map below, which originally appeared in the Wargamer's Newsletter of January 1979. It is the work of a gamer called David Barnes, and I urge you to visit the Vintage Wargaming site and check out the 3 posts featuring his work. David was obviously a highly talented illustrator and his battle reports are a real treat to read.

.Image courtesy Vintage Wargaming
Copyright Donald Featherstone/Wargamer's Newsletter

I played through this game a couple of times solo, as a playtest for my own SYW rules. I added in a few extra units as shown in the map below to make a more testing battle. It seemed from the original battle report that the Prussians were the attacking side, so that was how I played it.

I am beginning to quite enjoy solo play. I can play at my own speed and just watch the battle unfold before me. I don't normally use any special solo gaming rules. Even when I have an opponent, my games are never particularly competitive, barring the odd bit of banter, so solo gaming seems a fairly natural development. I get some ribbing from my wife of course, who can't see the point of playing with toy soldiers in the first place, and to whom playing toy soldiers with oneself seems the definition of pointlessness. However, recently I have been fortunate enough to have some time to myself at home over the weekends and can set up and play more or less to my heart's content. This has been very relaxing. But don't get me wrong - I love it when my wife comes home as well!
Below are a few photos of the second game.

I managed to create a reasonable representation of the map. Here we are looking west across the battlefield. Table size was 6' x 4' as in the original game.

The Prussian centre forged ahead, using successful initiative rolls to cross the river before the Austrians could intervene.

They began to get the upper hand in the ensuing firefight: Loudon's regiment was the first Austrian unit to break and leave the table.

The centre again. Prussian musketeers take over the first line from the grenadiers. In the background you can see that the Prussian left flank infantry made slow progress as a result of command failures.

The cavalry on the Prussian right flank hooked around to the south and east of Pampitz,

to take on the light units guarding the Austrian left.

View of the battle from behind Sullwitz.

The Prussian Hussars easily drive off the Szluiner Grenz. The red uniformed Liccaner Grenz are reforming behind Hermsdorf after taking casualties from the Prussian right flank battery and jager.

They are vulnerable and will be the Hussar's next victims. The light battery supporting the grenzers won't last long either: the Prussian dragoons have them in their sights!

The intense exchange of musketry in the centre continues to favour the Prussians. Now only the Hungarian Grenadiers hold the line, supported by the Austrian artillery battery

but opposed by 4 Prussian battalions.

On the Prussian left the infantry are finally making progress. Artillery support from 2 batteries keeps the Austrians at bay. In the distance one Austrian battalion is starting a move to shore up the Austrian centre, but this will be too little, too late. Old Schoolers will recognise the Bellona 'River Bridge', which I recently found hiding at the back of one my drawers of wargames stuff. I was proud to use it on the table after a long absence!

The Austrian centre collapses completely. The dragoons have moved into the left centre position to counter the Prussian flanking move but now their only job will be to cover the retreat. At bottom right reinforcements from the right flank are arriving but they have nothing to reinforce. The Austrians have lost 7 of their 11 units by the end of move 6 and have conclusively lost the battle.

The Prussians only lost one of their 14 units, also on the last move. Before the whitecoats broke, Austrian musketry and artillery was concentrated on one of the leading Prussian battalions.

This was too much and here the unit flees across the Elbow.

Final positions. 6 moves and 2.5 hours gaming to complete the battle.

A very satisfying game with a conclusive end. I am quite pleased with the way my rules are shaping up. I have a poor track record when creating scenarios involving river crossings, as here . This game was helped by a rule stolen from Joseph Morschauser. If a river is deemed fordable, a unit crossing it simply ends their move in the middle of the river, then on their next move carry on as normal. Firing is at reduced effect whilst in the river. If they have to fight their way out against enemy units on the far bank, they count as charging/meleeing uphill.

Thanks to the Vintage Wargaming site for making so much old material available. Inspiring as well as nostalgic!

Joe Morschauser, Wargames Pioneer

2012-02-19T15:00:00.005Z

Wargames purchases are going to be rare for me in the foreseeable future - money is tight and the hobby is on the back burner. However, I did have a book token left over from Christmas, and I decided to further my interest in the old school pioneers of wargaming by buying a copy of How To Play War Games In Miniature, by Joseph Morschauser. War games was always 2 separate words to these early authors!

Being a minor collecter of old wargames (or should that be war games) books my preference would normally have been for a copy of the original publication, which came out in the same year as Featherstone's War Games. However, the History of Wargaming Project had their own reprint available, and by ordering through a local bookshop I could use my book token. A second hand copy of the original book can be had online for around £20 including p+p; but no book tokens allowed! The attraction of the reprint was enhanced by additional articles on Morschauser's gridded wargames, taken from old wargaming magazines and newsletters.

Image courtesy John Curry

So for £11.95 you get a faithful reproduction of the original book plus about 30 extra pages of old Morschauser articles and a bit of biographical detail. This results in a fairly slim volume of just over 120 pages which nevertheless represents good value for money. There are a number of original photos which are very nostalgic, supplemented by some modern (black and white) photos of John Curry and Bob Corderey resurrecting Morschauser's ideas in recent games. Below we see some gamers having a go at a Morshauser gridded wargame at the Conference of Wargamers a few years ago.

Image courtesy John Curry

Negatives? Well, it's not the original book so the heft is missing (and the smell: ah, the smell of old books!). The photos lose a bit of quality, and there is the odd typo which I assume is a result of glitches in the text recognition software (or whatever it's called) used by Lulu. But once again John is to be congratulated on bringing this old classic to the attention of present day wargamers.

The book itself follows a familiar pattern - introductory remarks about wargaming, chapters on soldier type and scale, setting up a battlefield and the basic principals of wargaming rules. Then 3 sets of rules for ancient (called 'Shock'), horse and musket and modern periods. The rules could hardly be more simple, which is the great attraction of the book for me. Here is an object lesson in how wargames rules can be pared down to bare essentials if you want to try a basic wargame, with all the advantages of quick and easy play. In addition, Morschauser's ideas on wargaming were distinct from those of Featherstone and H.G. Wells: he pioneered the concept of multiple figure bases, and the off-table recording of casualties whilst the units on table remained intact until removed. He can therefore be seen as rather ahead of his time, and the rules will be easy to use with modern collections. One odd omission (at least to modern eyes) is that the rules give no advantage for cover of any kind, which is probably taking simplicity a bit too far. Adding in a consideration for cover can easily be done in one of the usual ways. It should be noted that the gridded wargame was a later idea of Morschauser's: the main rules in the book are not for gridded war games. I was interested to read about these wargames on squared terrain, but I found that the concept is not one that really appeals to me.

It was the modern rules which immediately caught my eye, as being a set of rules which I could easily play with my collection based for Blitzkrieg Commander. I will definitely give them a go, probably as a solo try-out, and I hope this might be the subject of a future post. Interested parties will find a bit more on Joe Morschauser on the Vintage Wargaming site.

Action at St Johannes

2012-01-30T21:50:00.001Z

So here we are then. Inspired by the Jack Scruby map from All About War Games (see post for 22nd January below), I developed and played a scenario to test out my rules and continue with my return to wargaming.

The original map came out with proportions of 6' x 5', so to fit my 6' x 6' set up I added 6" top and bottom, resulting in the map below (which is also mildly enhanced and tidied up). For the game some of the names on the map were 'Germanised'.

Scenario - Austria vs Prussia, 1757.

Austria

Feldmarschall-lieutenant Weisser is in charge of a force of a little under 4,000 infantry, 1,200 cavalry and 2 artillery batteries. His mission is to block the crossings of the Schnellfliessend south of the straggling village of St. Johannes, preventing the northward movement of any Prussian forces.

As dawn breaks on this particular day, Weisser and his senior officers are all gathered at the Johanneskirche for a discussion of plans and a brief religious service. Suddenly a small patrol of Grenzers enters the church with news of the approach of a significant force of Prussians, moving up the road from the south-west. Had his cavalry commander not been such a fool, Weisser might have heard sooner! He must alert his troops and get them positioned to counter the Prussian drive.

Forces:

Camped at X - 3 infantry battalions, 1 medium battery.

Camped at Y - 2 infantry battalions.

Camped at Z1 - regiment of dragoons.

Camped at Z2 - regiment of hussars.

At the woodcutters settlement - 1 Grenz battalion, 1 light battery.

At Greens Rock - 1 Grenz battalion.

The brigade commanders must ride out from the church to their encamped units, alert them and get them moving towards the crossing points at the ford and bridge. The Grenz units are each commanded independently, and are already awake and ready to go.

Prussia

Generallieutenant von Blau leads a force of 4,200 infantry, 2,500 cavalry and 3 artillery batteries. He has orders to cross the Schnellfliessend and continue north to join up with other Prussian forces in the hills.

Von Blau is confident that his small but high quality force will be more than a match for any Austrian outposts he meets. He is marching rapidly towards the river crossings, keeping to the road to maximise progress.

Forces:

Infantry brigade of 4 infantry battalions and 2 medium batteries.

Infantry brigade of 3 grenadier battalions and 1 medium battery.

Cavalry brigade of 2 cuirassier regiments.
Cavalry brigade of 2 dragoon regiments.

All units must enter the table in column along the road from A.

Photos

I managed to set up a reasonable representation of the original terrain.

Things went fairly well for the Prussians at first, aided by their higher graded commanders.

Here they have managed to get the dragoon brigade across the bridge with the larger of the the 2 infantry brigades strung out behind. But the Austrian cavalry was in place just in time - at extreme right you can see the Austrian hussars charging the leading Prussian dragoons.

A few moves later things are not so rosy for the invaders. The Austrian dragoons have been seen off but the Austrian hussars excel themselves and rout one of the Prussian regiments, supported by fire from the Grenzers' light artillery.

At the ford the Austrians manage to get their infantry into a blocking position ready to receive the Prussian grenadiers and cuirassiers, who have been stuck in a queue behind the leading brigades. A devastating volley from the first grenadier regiment pushes back one of the Austrian battalions,

but a stalemate then ensues.

The Prussians were unable to establish themselves north of the bridge - as each infantry battalion charged over, it was shot to pieces by the ambushing Grenzers and their artillery support, along with long range fire from another Austrian battery you can see in the middle distance. 2 infantry battalions and the 2 regiments of dragoons are done for and there is obviously no point in sacrificing more men. A victory for the Austrians, in 9 moves and about 2 hours of solo gaming.

Conclusions

I think the scenario is a bit of a tall order for the Prussians: that long and winding approach along the road from 'A' gives the Austrians too much time to get organised. Despite some initial bad luck which slowed the activation of the Austrian brigades, they were able to stem the Prussian tide fairly easily.

If I play the scenario again, I will change the terrain south of the river so a direct road leads from the baseline to each crossing point, ensuring that the Prussians can get some forces across the river. Then with luck there will be a tense battle on the north side.

Best wishes 'til the next post!

Battle of Hochkirch

2012-01-24T21:08:00.029Z

Having an interest in the Battle of Hochkirch (see this post), I was interested to find that my new copy of The Seven Years War In Europe by Franz Szabo actually had a detail from a painting of the battle as the cover picture. Thanks to the wonder of the internet I can show it in full here.

The full name of the work is Uberfall auf das preussische Lager bei Hochkirch am 14th Oktober 1758 (Attack on the Prussian camp near Hochkirch, 14th October 1758) by Hyacinth de la Pegna. A very evocative and beautiful work, IMHO. Presumably we are looking from the starting position of the main Austrian army north towards Hochkirch, with the church of Hochkirch prominent and the Prussian tents behind.

Hope you like the painting. If anyone can find a larger image on the net I would love the link.

Cheers for now.

'All About War Games'

2012-01-22T12:08:00.004Z

My interest in the hobby seems to be slowly reviving, inspired in the main by some Old School messing about. I have been tinkering once again with my own SYW rules, which started by being based on the Horse and Musket rules of Donald Featherstone. I have now added some ideas inspired by Jack Scruby and John Schuster, as explained by the Don in his book Solo Wargames, and the rules have been simplified significantly. I have tacked on my own basic command and control rules. You can download the current iteration here. It felt a bit weird at first, tinkering with rules that I thought might never actually get used, but the fascination is undeniable. I think I may be doing a bit of solo wargaming in future, where I can please myself and watch the game unfold and see how the rules work, away from some of the time pressures of gaming with friends.

Scouring the net for more Old School inspiration, I found (to my surprise and delight) a full copy of Jack Scruby's All About War Games. You can find it here. This seminal work was 'published' in 1957 - it is made up of about 25 pages of typed information and rules, photocopied and sold for $1 at the time; presumably to any of Jack's customers who were interested. The illustration at the top of this post is the only photo in the work - showing a table and armies most of us would be proud of in 2012, let alone 1957 (the year of my birth). If only it was in colour! Shown below is a battle map from the last page of the booklet. There is no accompanying explanation, but within 30 seconds of seeing it for the first time I was planning a SYW scenario to go with it, and wondering how my own terrain pieces could be used to reconstruct it at home.

I recently cancelled my subscription to Wargames Illustrated. My thanks to the staff member who helpfully and with good grace arranged for me to get a refund. But I was quickly becoming fed up with the magazine itself. Too many adverts, too many advertorials, too much like an industry periodical. Considering all the work that goes into making WI such a glossy product, how odd that true inspiration should come from some very basic photocopied sheets from the distant wargames past.

Of course, if this is your kind of thing, you need to visit http://vintagewargaming.blogspot.com/

Best wishes 'til next time.

Sold!

2011-11-26T12:10:00.004Z

Following a successful RV at the M5 Bridgewater services, all the Desert armies are sold. Thanks to Rob for a painless and straightforward exchange of cash for toy soldiers. It's nice not to have to post the stuff off, worrying about things getting lost and damaged in transit.

GHQ A13s, Light MkVIs, a RR armoured car and two A9s head off into the sunset.
Hope you enjoy using the models , Rob.

The idea was to use the money to buy a couple of painted DBA armies (I can imagine some of you making the sign of the cross as you read this). I used to do a bit of DBR, and always enjoyed the games. DBA is so easy to get into and is a very easy game to set up and play. Lately, the hassle and time needed to set up a big table of good quality terrain in a family environment, where one doesn't have a dedicated wargames room, has been getting to me. Even 'Big Battle' DBA can be played on a 4' x 2' table, which would fit straight onto the dining table.

However, it looks like the money will be sucked into paying some of the Christmas bills instead. And to be honest, my dedication to wargaming has been low of late. In fact I have been considering giving up altogether, but I'll leave it for a few months and see if the interest returns. If not, there'll be more soldiers for sale.

So posting on this blog will not be very interesting or frequent for a while. Thanks to those who are following, and I hope the old posts may be of interest to new visitors. I will keep checking the blog, so if you have any comments, keep them coming.

Best wishes, Keith.

P.S. The desert colour TSS tiles and hills are still available.

GHQ Desert Armies For Sale

2011-10-31T21:32:00.005Z

I have decided to sell my British, Italian and German desert armies to try a new period. The whole collection consists of around 200 vehicles of all types, 80 or so infantry/heavy weapon bases, and 20 bases with ATGs or artillery. The quality of the pieces can be viewed on my various 'WW2 Desert' posts. I am also interested in selling off my related terrain items including sand TSS tiles.

I would be looking for £1 per vehicle or infantry/gun base. All items painted of course, and all GHQ. I would prefer to sell the whole collection as a job lot but might consider breaking it down subject to negotiation.

Leave a comment if you're interested and we can go from there.

Update, 5th November.

Details:
Infantry bases (2cm x 2cm) have 3 figures. Heavy weapon bases have the weapon plus crew. Towed guns have a base with the deployed weapon and crew, plus a combined base with the tow vehicle and second gun in the towed position.
Some of the trucks and tanks numbered below are included on command bases designed for BKC, all the other vehicles are unbased. The listings are the fully painted models, all undamaged and painted to a good standard. I have a good deal of unpainted infantry plus a few unpainted vehicles and guns which I will throw in for free if you want them. If you want terrain items we can negotiate.

British
9 x Matilda II, 10 x Crusader I, 10 x A13 MkII, 10 x Lt tank MkVI, 5 x A9, 5 x A10.
5 x RR a/c (3 mg, 2 ATR conversion), 4 Marmon Herrington a/c (3 mg, 1 20mm), 3 x Dingo.
8 x universal carrier, 10 x 15cwt truck, 5 x 3ton truck.
2 x 2pdr portee, 2 x 2pdr+tow, 2 x 25pdr+tow, 2 x Bofors AA+tow.
20 infantry bases, 4 mmg bases, 3 engineer bases, 2 ATR bases, 2 x 2" mortar bases, 2 x 3" mortar bases.

Italian
15 x M13/40, 10 x M11/39, 7 x L3/33, 2 x AB40 a/c.
5 x Lancia heavy trucks, 4 medium trucks, 2 light trucks, 2 radio trucks, 4 motorcycle bases.
2 x 20mm AA+tow, 2 x 47mm ATG+tow, 2 x 100mm gun+tow, 1 x 105mm gun+tow.
18 x infantry bases, 4 x mmg bases, 3 x 8cm mortar bases, 4 x light mortar bases, 2 x ATR bases.

German
4 x MkIV, 10 x MkIII, 5 x MkII, 2 x PzJgr I.
2 x 222 a/c, 1 x 234 a/c, 1 x Radio a/c, 3 x 250/1, 1 x 250/10
5 x light truck, 2 x Blitz truck, 1 x Blitz radio truck, 2 x Kubelwagen, 6 x motorcycle bases
3 SP 20mm, 2 x 88mm+tow, 2 x 37mm ATG+tow, 1 x 50mm ATG+two, 1 x 75mm IG+tow.
9 x infantry bases, 4 x mmg bases, 3 x engineer bases, 1 x 8cm mortar base.

Terrain etc.
5 GHQ middle eastern houses, 2 pillboxes, 16 x 10cm lengths barbed wire, 4 palm tree bases (2 or 3 trees per base), 4 x 5cm lengths walling, around 30 dug in markers designed for my 2cm x 2cm infantry bases.

Pickled Brains Update

2011-09-27T14:50:00.001+01:00

Just in case some of you thought I was going nuts, I wanted to demonstrate that those dust clouds did really exist. They are now promised in October, according to the FoW website. I thought they might have been quietly dropped; but apparently not.

So you see, I'm not going mad. On the other hand, a few more products like this one and I just might...

Battlefront Release Pickled Brains

2011-08-27T15:19:00.006+01:00

It's not often you hear that kind of title in a blog post. But it's true. Well, they look like pickled brains to me. The pickled brains of small mammals. Or something that you might find growing off the side of an old tree.

Yes, they're one of the latest releases from Battlefront/Flames of War. They certainly get my vote for the daftest and worst looking wargames accessory ever - and remember, I'm someone who thinks themed dice sets are really cool. What are they actually supposed to be? 'Dust Clouds', for your desert war games. Product code BB122. Check 'em out when you can. I believe they're to be released in September, but you heard it here first. Guaranteed to bring the hobby into disrepute.

And which of these two thoughts is more frightening - that even as you read this, someone is pre-ordering a box of these? Or that adults acting in cold blood conceived and designed these things, stood back and thought: yeah, they're great!?

Ah well, that's the best laugh I got from WI issue 287. The first magazine of my subscription, and already I'm thinking: subscribe in haste, repent at leisure. The ACW theme takes over a big block of the issue, and I'm not really into ACW. And there's something about the whole thing that puts me off. Have any readers been in a nightclub and thought - this is too noisy, too many flashing lights, get me out of here? Or felt the same when visiting a funfair at night? I got a similar feeling from WI 287. Too many flashy graphics, too many large colour pictures, too many miniatures painted to collector's standard. It makes my head spin. I need something more sober.

Anyway, enough negativity. The articles are in fact mostly well written and have solid content. I'll keep an open mind.

Maybe at some point in the not too distant future I'll get round to playing a game or doing some painting, rather than just pontificating. You'll be the first to know.

Cheers to all.

Breaches of Copyright

2011-08-22T21:13:00.005+01:00

I recently received an email from Henry Hyde of Battlegames magazine, who was clearly extremely cross that I had used two maps from his magazine on my blog without permission. The maps were originally featured in the posts 'Chance Encounter' (WW2 Poland) and 'Black Powder: The Minimalist Approach' (SYW).

This blog does not exist to genuinely offend anyone, and Henry was clearly genuinely offended. Therefore my first duty is to apologise. The maps have duly been removed.

However, I feel I have a right to justify my actions, and to say I feel a little offended in return. My personal view is that the images were correctly credited to Battlegames, were clearly used for no personal gain, and were likely to bring credit to the magazine and its editor. Maybe they would even result in extra sales.

I said in the SYW post "I hope I'm not going to get into trouble for scanning in the map and presenting it below". I guess I have egg on my face. But that tongue-in-cheek comment expressed the belief that if the copyright holders did see the post, they would realise that no harm or loss to them could possibly result. Naively, I also expected them to see that I was posting in an innocent spirit of sharing my sources of inspiration.

Of course, had I taken the trouble to contact Henry and ask his permission, he may well have given it, so not doing so was clearly a mistake. But I genuinely thought no offence could possibly occur considering the context.

As readers will note, numerous examples of images and text scanned in from various sources or dragged from the internet have been used throughout this blog. Three occur in the post preceding this one. This is done to show where I get my inspiration from, and to share with others the best that the hobby has to offer, in a spirit of genuine appreciation. I admit they help to bring a splash of colour to the blog, but they also represent free advertising for all the products and publications featured. I expect they all represent breaches of copyright. If I am to receive further irate emails from copyright holders it might be best just to give up.

The only thing I gain from this blog is the pleasure of sharing my activities, ideas and sources with other gamers. Legally it seems I am at fault but I feel no moral qualms. Perhaps readers (maybe even Henry himself) would like to put me straight. Be as brutal as you like.

Best wishes to all, Keith.

Pride and Prejudice (and other stuff)

2011-08-18T15:37:00.003+01:00

Pride

I am indeed proud (in a small, non-boastful way) to have accumulated 50 followers. It was only a few months ago that this little blog only had 2 or 3 followers, but word seems to have got round. Or maybe it was putting the display widget for followers in place that did the trick. I demurred from posting any self congratulation when I passed 20,000 hits, so I will allow myself this little pat on the back.

Even more pleasing is that a modest but steady stream of comments now greets each post, usually with friendly messages or interesting and useful suggestions and information. Thank you to every follower, commenter or reader.

Prejudice

Well now, I am asking myself whether I have abandoned my prejudice or my principles. To come straight out with it, I have signed up for a years subscription to Wargames Illustrated, influenced in no small way by the possibility of some shiny new toys. Let me tell you briefly how it came about.

Here we have the latest issue, WI286. I bought it because the theme on Beda Fomm would be of interest, and I needed some undemanding holiday reading. I found that the magazine continues to be a pretty good read. No slippage yet towards a Flames of War/Battlefront house magazine, beyond what was evident from the start. I don't really like magazines with themed editions, but on the evidence of this issue WI has been sensible enough not to let the theme take over the magazine.

And then there were the subscription offers. £48 gets you 12 issues, so that's £4 an issue rather than the £4.50 cover price. Plus you can choose a free box set, one of which turned out to be a French self-propelled 75mm AA platoon. Now just a minute - those are the same elderly De Dion Bouton vehicles mounting 75mm guns that were used by the Poles in 1939 (see this post).

This was a chance to get hold of an esoteric vehicle that I never imagined would become available as a model in 15mm. Alright, a box set of 4 was more than I wanted (this is definitely a pattern - see previous post), but they were free, for goodness sake. They duly arrived just 3 days after ordering, and are indeed very nice models. Having more than I need I can produce the vehicles in 'travelling' and 'firing' configurations. As for the magazine, I will have to trust WI to continue to be varied and interesting.

Regarding abandoning principles and prejudices... Well, I've nothing against FoW as a rules set, or Battlefront as a manufacturer of wargames figures and vehicles. The models I have bought have all been good. But I do rather dislike the Games Workshop style, one-stop-shop approach which they have brought to historical wargaming. And I resent the endless supplements. And I get the feeling I've been suckered in by some clever marketing. But I guess sometimes you just have to cut yourself some slack.

Naval Wargames
My old buddy Paul is getting back into naval gaming, and we have had a couple of games this year using Battle Stations, Battle Stations. Finding these a bit slow moving Paul has turned to Victory At Sea, which look a lot simpler. Apparently those truly into naval wargaming find Victory At Sea a little too simplistic, which sounds promising for a beginner like me.

On that subject, is there any set of rules released in the last 5 years which doesn't call itself a 'fast-play' set? All I can say is, some people's ideas of 'fast-play' and 'simple' are different from mine. There are still loads of sets out there with long lists of modifiers and firing that takes forever (for example). Maybe readers could tell me about their 'favourite' over-complex rules? And any thoughts on Victory At Sea would be interesting.

Colours 2011
This great UK show is coming up on the weekend of 10th-11th September, at Newbury Racecourse. If any wargamers within range of the show haven't yet tried it out, I'd highly recommend it. Well organised, big, and a great venue full of light and space overlooking the racecourse.

Unfortunately I won't be able to put on my Hochkirch game (see here) as the other gamers I was hoping to attend with can't make it, for various reasons. I don't think putting on the game solo as 'Billy No Mates' would really work! But I won't miss the show and will go down as a regular punter. Fortunately some friends of mine from the Blitzkrieg Commander website and the Portbury Knights club will be there with a couple of WW2 games, so there will be people to meet up with and chat to.

A sprinkling of SYW models to show you soon, and probably another Polish battle. See you then.

New Additions

2011-08-07T22:39:00.001+01:00

It's not often these days I buy anything significant for my wargaming. Firstly, money is very tight so I find it hard to justify even a modest purchase when cash is needed for important things like food and petrol. More positively, my three collections are perfectly adequate for my purposes and I can have a good game with any of them without having to worry about needing more stuff. I find these days the butterfly impulse is very weak: without meaning to give offence, I find the attitude of 'oh, I've just seen those new figures and I just had to buy them' a bit daft. People even do this when the 'new figures' aren't in a period they currently wargame, or when they already have a perfectly good collection in that period. I guess for those with more time and money than me, this is one way to get enjoyment out of the hobby. But I'm afraid my response to such statements is usually something like, come on, get a life. I'm just being honest here.

Further to this point, I mentioned in the previous post that I have been reading through old issues of Battlegames, and this included the regular 'Forward Observer' column by Mike Siggins. The column has recently come to an end and I shall miss it, but Mike was an unreconstructed butterfly who couldn't seem to resist anything new. I remember my astonishment (mixed, I have to admit, with a feeling of considerable superiority) when in the very first issue of Battlegames Mike congratulated himself on 'focusing down' to 'just ten projects'. Ten projects! Was this guy nuts? You can't possibly do justice to that many projects if you live a normal life. Surely even a full time wargamer would have trouble getting on top of ten projects? But there we are. Mike is an example of a wargamer who enjoys getting into everything. Maybe I'm just a miserable old git. Maybe there's no maybe about it.

Anyway, moving on, I did weaken recently and posted off for a few things. On the Polish front, Battlefront Miniatures received an order for the new Polish Dice Set. I know, I know. Come on, get a life. But I'm afraid themed dice sets are a definite weakness of mine. Unfortunately, the national symbol on these sets now appears on the six rather the one, as the comparison with the old German dice set below illustrates. Why this has been found necessary beats me, but I guess it doesn't make a great deal of difference. I'm quite happy with them.

Also in the order was an Sdkfz231 6-rad armoured car, another fairly recent release from Battlefront in connection with their new Blitzkrieg range. Unfortunately these models only come in twos, even if you only want one, but the model is only available in 15mm from this manufacturer and I have wanted one for a while, to give my recce units a bit of real early war flavour. The photos below show what a very nice model this is. The resin cast body is beautifully done with no flash or imperfections, and the metal parts fit onto it nicely, although they do need a bit of filing and cleaning up before use. The top three photos give you an idea of how the vehicle looks after construction.

As for painting, those of you who want to know how a master does it can refer to this tutorial. For myself, I did a quick job with Humbrol paints. First I undercoated the metal parts in panzer grey, then once dry I gave the entire model a coat of the same. The wheels and underparts got a dry brush of dark earth, then the whole vehicle received a dry brush of khaki drill. And that was about it. The commander was painted black with blobs of flesh in roughly the right places. The only fiddly bit was painting the white crosses.

Now personally I think that looks fine for a wargames model. As I have said before on this blog, painting is about my least favourite part of the hobby so I like to keep things to a minimum.

Finally, deciding I 'needed' some additional Polish machine gun teams, I thought I would check out the new range of 15mm figures available from Forged In Battle. Once again I had to order a blister pack of models which was more than I wanted (are you sensing a pattern here?), but the figures that arrived were excellent and are a very good fit for my True North infantry, though just a little smaller and finer than Battlefront figures. The Forged In Battle site shows you how these figures look painted, so here they are as they come out of the pack. I would heartily recommend a look at this manufacturer's products.

And that's about it for now. Some modest SYW additions have also recently been made, but they will have to wait for another post until some painting has been done. I also want to show off the civilians I acquired recently from Hovels and Willie Figures which are now mostly painted.

Good gaming until next time.

Defending The Gorge, 3rd September 1939

2011-07-16T14:43:00.481+01:00

My relentless search for other people's scenarios that I can rip-off for my own games has once more borne fruit.

Of late I have been enhancing my moments of relaxation by looking through old issues of Battlegames, and in issues 1 and 2 I found the Battle of Liebenau, a scenario by Jim Purky (aka Der Alte Fritz) for the SYW. Liebenau is a real place where in 1757 a rearguard action by the Austrians against the Prussians was contemplated but never fought.

Deciding to fight this 'might have been' battle, Jim based his scenario on the Battle of Guildford Courthouse, which of course took place in 1781 during the American War of Independence. In Jim's battle the Prussians must overcome the Austrians who are deployed in depth in three lines, as the Americans were in 1781. The narrow table derives from the supposition that the attack is taking place along a valley with steep hills to either side. Jim's map for the battle is shown below (with written permission of Battlegames magazine. If you wish to use this map contact the copyright holder at the email address given):

My first intention was to refight the scenario as given, as a straight SYW battle. But something in the idea of defending a narrow valley in a rearguard or delaying action rang a bell. Eventually I realised I was remembering 'Defending the Gorges', a 'real' battle from Fall Weiss, Chris Pringle's 1997 scenario booklet covering the 1939 Poland campaign. Chris's map for the scenario is large scale and rather basic, and covers 3 gorges (hence his plural). For the detail of a battle for one gorge, I thought why not go for a table based on Jim's SYW idea.

There you have it then. From the fictional Battle of Liebenau (1757), via the real Battle of Guildford Courthouse (1781), to 'Defending the Gorge', a representation of 10th Mechanised Brigade's defence against the attack of 2nd Panzer Division in southern Poland, on 3rd September 1939. I have selected the centre of Chris's 3 gorges for my re-fight. Like Liebenau, Tenczyn is a real town, but rest of the terrain is fictional and based on Jim's map. The forces however come from Chris's scenario so should be reasonably correct historically. The game will, as always, be fought using Blitzkrieg Commander. The map below gives the basic layout of the game: the dark green areas are woods. Jim's original table size was 10' x 6' - mine will be 6' x 4'. As you can see the main change is leaving out the river, which didn't feature in the 1781 or 1939 battles:

The Poles

The 10th Mounted Rifles, one of the 2 motorised infantry battalions within 10th Mechanised Brigade, form the heart of the defence. The first line consists of the tankettes of 121st Scout Tank Company supported by a company of the 10th Mounted Rifles. The rest of 10th MR forms the second line. The third line consists of 121st Light Tank Company with its Vickers tanks, supported by the Brigade's reconnaissance infantry company. Off table is a 75mm artillery battery and a 100mm artillery battery.

Unusually the Poles will have some air support. Even more unusually we have a brief account of the actual mission, flown by the 24th Reconnaissance Flight, in Tomasz Kopanski's book PZL.23 Karas:

"On 3rd September another bombing raid (six Karases) was flown. This time it was directed against a German armoured column moving in the mountainnous terrain in the area of Rabka-Podwilk. Each Karas carried six 100kg and two 50kg bombs. Having located the enemy column, the Flight crews bombed it from an altitude of 600-800m, obtaining direct hits on some vehicles. Then they strafed the column. German AA defences managed to shoot down one aeroplane."

The Poles are thus granted 2 ground attack units (Karas), along with 2 air assets. As the Germans automatically have full air superiority according to the BKC rules, it remains to be seen whether this air support will get through during the game.

The Germans

Elements of 2nd Panzer Division were attacking the Tenczyn gorge. In the game they are allocated a Panzer Battalion (a total of 10 model tanks), 2 Schutzen Battalions, a reconnaissance detachment (standing in for Jim's hussars) and a strong off-table artillery force of 3 105mm batteries and 1 150mm battery. German air support in the real battle apparently came from a force of Me110 fighter bombers, but I allocated 3 JU87 dive bomber units with 6 assets, as I have a Ju87 model available.

Scenario Notes

The game would be played basically as an assault scenario with Tenczyn as the objective. The points balance was about right, but with the Poles able to deploy further forward than normal and with no flank deployment possible, the turn limit was removed. We would just see how it went.

It is not normal for the defenders to have air support, but as described this was available in real life. To speed things up for an evening game I intended to deploy both sides fully in advance. Aiming points for air and artillery assets would therefore be plotted with full knowledge of enemy dispositions. This rather takes the normal guesswork out of this activity, but the advantage would be the same for both sides' air assets, whilst the advantage to the German artillery would help compensate for the forward deployment of the Poles.

Note there are no FACs, even for the Germans. The rules state an FAC is possible for the Germans, but this seems a bit doubtful to me for the Polish campaign. If one did allow a German FAC in 1939, I think a CV of 6 or 7 would be appropriate rather the 8 given in the rules.

The Game

The game got underway with scheduled artillery and air strikes.

The Stukas picked off the exposed TKS tankettes supporting the Polish first line. On the right you can see 2 PzIs that have been caught in a Polish minefield.

As the Germans advanced (rather slowly), the Polish Karas made their appearance.

They were shot down by a storm of AA fire and had no effect.

Vickers tanks and the recce company wait in Tenczyn. Bofors AA unit on hill at left: a really useful weapon that makes a pretty good anti-tank gun in this period.

Dug-in troops are a bitch to shift in BKC II: it usually comes down to a close assault. Even then you need to assemble a heavy advantage in numbers to assure success, as here.

The German right flank has now broken through to the Polish second line.

View of the same situation showing the Polish Vickers tanks taking some revenge against the leading German Panzers.

To the left of the road, the Germans failed miserably to make any significant progress, with a succession of failed command rolls. This was their position at the end of five moves: total advance 20cm!

Unfortunately that was as far as we got. That was the end of move 5 and we had run out of time, mainly due to being rather rusty with the rules. We had gamed from 8.00pm to 11.00pm, with half an hour of pre-game preparation and then taking an average of half an hour per move. Although the game was unfinished, and neither side was anywhere near their breakpoint, I would give a moral victory to the Poles who seem unlikely to be shifted from their second line. The Germans were not really on form and their left flank was a disgrace - some demotions seem likely! It was interesting to see what a tall order breaking through 3 lines of defence is, even when there is a reasonable superiority in numbers.

Despite the frustrations, we found we had enjoyed ourselves and a pleasant evenings wargaming had taken place. BKC II is always a pleasure to play.

Finally, it's great to see the number of followers of this blog increasing. Thanks for your interest, and for the interesting comments that have been coming in recently.

Black Powder - The Minimalist Approach

2011-07-08T23:16:00.021+01:00

Black Powder - Big Games for Elite Wargamers?

Our game has been developed and played almost exclusively on tabletops at least 6 feet wide and between 10 and 14 feet long. The game works best on large tables and using relatively large forces.

Black Powder rulebook, p.4.

It was an interesting decision for the authors of Black Powder to publish a set of rules designed to work best for big armies and very big wargames rooms. The former would make creating forces daunting for the newcomer, whilst the latter would seemingly exclude the overwhelming majority of wargamers, regardless of their experience or the size of their collections. Fourteen foot tables - you must be joking! But Rick Priestley and Jervis Johnson didn't get where they are today without having a keen commercial sense. My guess is that they recognised the appeal of a big, bold product with high production values, and knew that wargamers would adapt it to the limitations of their own circumstances.

And this of course is exactly what happened. Gamers with more normal wargame set-ups than messrs. Priestley, Johnson and the Perry twins quickly adopted reductions in move and firing distances, reductions in unit sizes, and reductions in the size of models used. The good old 6' x 4' table was quickly found to be perfectly adequate for Black Powder.

But there is more than one way to reduce the size of your Black Powder game. 6mm miniatures and halved distances will give you a physically smaller game, but there is still the matter of the army structure as presented in the rules. That is, armies of at least 3 brigades (and preferably 5) with each brigade containing 3 to 6 units. Can you play Black Powder with armies only having 2 brigades, or even just one? And what about brigades of 2 units, or just one?

The one unit brigade is really already catered for, by the 'marauder' rule. For the rest, it has become apparent to many wargamers that the key to scaling down the size of Black Powder armies is adapting the Brigade Morale rules. And whatever size of game you are playing, these same rules are the key to adjusting game length to your preference.

Small Games for Normal Wargamers.

Players need not feel too bound by these particular rules - we are happy to ignore or change them where we feel it appropriate to do so - we suggest you do the same.

Black Powder, p.96 ('Victory and Defeat')

The authors of Black Powder are sensible enough to indicate from the word go that amending or adapting the rules is fine by them. However, as the above quote shows, when it comes to the Brigade Morale rules they are practically begging the wargamer to make his own changes. The rules contained in the book are central to the stated aim of having big games that can be played in an evening, and they work very well for that purpose. But you might want your big game to last all day, or you might want a small game that will not be all over in half an hour. The answer is to change the Brigade Morale rules to slow down the rate at which brigades are lost. This can be done very simply, and I have adopted 2 main options, one of my own and the other borrowed from wargamer The Last Hussar, whose blog can be found on my list of favourites (see his post for 5th March 2011). The 2 options are completely separate: one does not build on the other.

Option 1.

'Units count as lost for Brigade Morale only if they have been destroyed or have left the battlefield and cannot return'.

Thus shaken units and units that have left the table but are eligible to return are not counted as lost for brigade morale. I have found this works well for extending the duration of big battles into a full day (for example, at a wargames convention), and also for games where you have smaller brigades and/or not too many of them (say 3 brigades with 3 units each, or just 2 brigades). I used this option in my recent 'Battle of Burndt', which can be found a couple of posts down.

Note that with this option, all the other published rules for brigade morale are retained and used normally. There is no extra work or additional thinking to be done when using this option: it could hardly be more simple.

Option 2. (The Last Hussar Option).

'Brigades are only broken when more than half of their units are lost. In addition, shaken units in a broken brigade can be rallied, which may result in the brigade returning to unbroken status. Disorder can also be removed as normal from units in a broken brigade, unless the unit makes a compulsory or voluntary retire move'.

This is an amendment which can cause a modest amount of additional work, and which I use to cope with small games and small brigades. It means you can have a Black Powder game with just 1 or 2 brigades, and brigades with just 2 units that are still reasonably resilient.

Note that you have to be allowed to recover from disorder even if the brigade is broken, in order to then issue 'rally' orders to remove casualties and restore a unit to unshaken status. This might then mean that your brigade is no longer broken and can resume the fight. Of course, if your 3 unit brigade has lost 2 units destroyed, there is no way back for it. But if it has one unit destroyed and one shaken, you can try and rally the shaken unit in order to get your brigade unbroken again. If you have a 2 unit brigade, it needs to have both its units destroyed to render it completely useless.

Note also that keeping the pressure up on a broken brigade and forcing constant retire moves makes it harder for your opponent to recover from broken status.

One Brigade Games

Two nice little scenarios came up recently which were just right for trying out one-brigade battles. The first is the Cavalry Clash teaser from Battlegames issue 23. Map is shown with written permission of Battlegames magazine. Contact the copyright holder at the email address given if you wish to publish it yourself.

I won't detail the whole scenario, but this is an encounter battle with a few tweaks to make it more interesting. It involves a single cavalry brigade on each side, with 4 units in each brigade (one of the red units is off-table at game start). Original table size was 9' x 6', with large Charles Grant-style units. Using option 2 above I have played it out solo, and with an opponent at the Portbury Knights club. In each case the battle went on for around an hour and a half, with units falling back shaken then re-entering the fight, as well as the competing brigades becoming broken then recovering. This can result in what looks like a hopeless situation being turned around, if you persevere and use the right tactics to husband your meagre forces. The games were really good fun. For a short game you can stop on the first occasion a brigade is broken, but for the full game you should carry on until a brigade is broken and has no chance of recovery. This will be when the brigade has had over half its units destroyed.

Turns are very quick and the number of moves achieved is high. If there is a down side it can seem as if luck plays a stronger role than normal; and of course the feel of a big battle is lost. My set-up for the game, on a 6' x 4' table and with my own smaller units, is shown below:

The second game is The Combat of St. Ulrich from the Lead Gardens blog (22nd December 2010). I was attracted to this small game by the charming and beautifully drawn map which introduced it:

As you can see this game involves a mixed force of cavalry, infantry and guns, but for Black Powder this will still only constitute a brigade on each side. As well as using option 2, I decided to make the guns count as units for brigade morale, contrary to the published rules (p.96). Littlejohn summarises the scenario as follows:

A Bleiherzen brigade is surprised by the advance guard of a slightly larger Grolstein force, and rather than withdrawing promptly across the river bridge at St. Ulrich, the Bleiherzen commander recklessly decides to give the Grolsteiners a bloody nose before retreating across the river to safety.

The map of course has different names for the countries, as a result of the development of Littlejohn's imagi-nations. The defending Bleiherzen/Christenheim brigade has 2 infantry units, a cavalry unit and a gun battery. The attacking Grolsteiners/Schwartzbergers have the same with the addition of a grenadier unit (not shown on the map). It was easy to set this up on a 6' x 4' table using my own Prussian and Austrian units, which are slightly smaller than Littlejohn's.

Playing solo, this game was shorter than the all-cavalry encounter. The Austrians were easily beaten in 4 moves, which took me about 45 minutes. However, the game was extended usefully by the Brigade Morale changes. The Austrians would have lost in move 2 under the normal rules as they had their cavalry destroyed and one infantry unit shaken. On move 3 two of the Prussian infantry units were shaken, which would have broken the Prussian brigade under the usual rules. The game might then have been a draw, even though at this stage the Prussians were clearly on top, with the Austrian cavalry destroyed and the Austrian infantry outnumbered in a close range firefight. The dynamics of the scenario obviously affect how long your one-brigade games will last. In this case it would have been fun to change sides and run through the game again, if I had been gaming with an opponent.

Below are a few photos of the game in progress:

The Austrians in front of St Ulrich

The lines come together

End game. The Austrians have 2 units destroyed and one shaken and disordered.
No need to take this to the wire: they have conclusively lost.

Post Script

Having got the table and figures out and having an hour or two spare, I couldn't resist refighting the scenario with Charles Wesencraft's rules from Practical Wargaming. Straight away, the game had a completely different feel. Wesencraft's 'control table' idea was ahead of its time (a precursor of the Warmaster system if ever I saw one), but combine this with rather too numerous morale tests which are very dice dependent, and units are soon all over the place. This detracts from the feel of an 18th century action. One also misses rules to create a force structure (no brigades here) and to produce an end to the game. Presumably one fights until a result is obvious or agreed.

On the other hand firing and melees are delightfully simple, and basically the rules work. Nevertheless, I don't think I'll be giving up on Black Powder just yet. Nostalgia is all very well, but rules have come a long way since 1974!

And So It Begins...

2011-07-05T14:00:00.010+01:00

Yes, the first supplement for Black Powder has been trailed on the Warlord Games website and will be available soon: though when and for what price we are not told (though Amazon are quoting £15, paperback).

I should be pleased: to the disappointment of Napoleonic gamers it covers the 18th century, obviously including the SYW. But I'm afraid I regard supplements as first and foremost a money-making concept (or should that just be 'con') cooked up by wargames companies over the last decade or so to generate extra profits. Any real benefit to wargamers is secondary. Those few of you who read my article on 'The New Wargaming' in Battlegames 24 or my post on the same subject in December last year will be familiar with my curmudgeonly and jaundiced attitude to such things.

It's hard to tell exactly what purchasers will be getting, but it looks like some potted histories of 18th century wars and campaigns will be presented, along with suggestions for revised stats, special rules and army lists appropriate for each sub-period. In addition there will be a few scenarios. And what's wrong with that, you might ask. Well, in the great scheme of things I suppose the answer is, nothing much. But I have always been of the opinion that the stats and special rules ideas should have been in the original rules, considering the size and cost of the rulebook. And 18th century scenarios before 1775 were also conspicuous by their absence in that original publication. Plus I don't really need potted histories as I do my own background reading. And lastly, well, who needs army lists? Oh yes, I remember, that will be the suckers who feel the need to be spoon-fed everything by gaming companies who regard them only as sources of profit.

I say, steady on old chap. Let's be a bit more considered.

Won't such a book be a great introduction to the period for newcomers? It might well be (depending on the quality of the information therein), but consider that a 'newcomer' purchasing the rules and the supplement together will have to part with £45 in one go. Oh, and by the way the American War of Independence is not included in this supplement - it will have another supplement all to itself. Perhaps in about 3 years time we will be able to purchase a supplement listing all the available supplements.

Warlord Games have had a great success with Black Powder, and deservedly so in my opinion. It looks like Hail Caesar will be as successful, or perhaps even more so. Good, well done. One has to assume that profits have been made. It would have been a nice bit of old-fashioned goodwill to provide some helpful period-specific stats and special rules for free online, as a thank you to customers. But profits come first, and profit is what supplements are all about. Okay, those guys at Warlord Games are providing employment to people, and they have to pay the mortgage like everyone else. I just wish some wargamers (and they are already drooling around the Warlord Games forum) wouldn't act as if Warlord were doing them a favour just by publishing this stuff. A bit of self respect is required, gentlemen.

So no, I won't be partaking. Which is a shame as I'm sure there will be some thought-provoking and useful ideas present. Perhaps I'll cadge a look at someone else's and make a trip to the photocopier. After all, sharing is one of the great things about any hobby. Unless you publish supplements, of course.

And finally... Don't be offended by this post if you love supplements and can't wait to buy this one. It's just me sounding off. It's my blog, after all. If I can't be bad tempered and self-righteous here, where else am I going to indulge myself?

Good gaming 'til next time.