Encounter Battle

This scenario was based on ideas contained in Donald Featherstone's book Solo Wargaming. In particular, he has a nifty idea for generating random reinforcements which would give the game a bit of a twist. Rules for the game itself will be Rank and File.

Total forces for each side would be as follows:

Austrian
C-in-C, 4 Brigadier Generals
2 Cuirassier regiments
2 Dragoon regiments
3 Line infantry battalions
2 Grenadier battalions
2 Light infantry batttalions
1 Medium gun battery
1 Heavy gun battery

Prussian
C-in-C, 3 Brigadier Generals
2 Cuirassier regiments
2 Dragoon regiments
3 Line infantry battalions
3 Grenadier battalions
1 light infantry battalion
2 Medium gun batteries

Each side would have 1 Cuirassier and 1 Dragoon regiment (plus a Brigadier) on table at the start of the game, acting as advance guards. These units would have five moves to wrestle for an advantage before reinforcements arrived.

The main bodies would straggle on to the table over the next five moves (moves 6 to 10). Their arrival was arranged as follows:

The forces available to each side were divided into seven groups, some a single battalion or regiment, some a group of 2 or 3 units. The remaining brigadier generals were randomly allocated to the groups as well. These groupings were then written down on slips of paper.
Then, for each side, five envelopes were numbered 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 on the front. They were then turned over, shuffled, and arranged on a table in line. They could then be mentally numbered 1 to 5 from left to right. The slips of paper (piled face down) were then blindly allocated to the envelopes using a D6, with a throw of 6 meaning 'roll again'. With all slips tucked away, the envelopes could be sealed and collected together, then once again re-arranged in order of the numbers on the front.
Thus I could create a totally random set of arriving forces for both sides before the game. The C-in-C would arrive on move 6, accompanied by whatever forces (if any) were in envelope 6. These would arrive on the baseline wherever the C-in-C preferred. Forces arriving in subsequent moves would be allocated an arrival sector on the baseline by dice throw when they arrived.

The Game.

Set up and position of the advance guards. I laid these out before my opponent (Paul) arrived, pretty much where I fancied. We diced to see who would be Prussian and who Austrian, then we were set to go.

The Austrian cavalry (commanded by myself) wait impatiently for the off.

With a minimum of preliminary manouvering, the two cavalry groups got down to the serious business of lining themselves up for charges and the subsequent melees. The Austrians came out on top: the Prussian dragoons were completely routed, and although the Austrian dragoons were beaten back, they were still in good shape to continue, once the reinforcements arrived.

Paul considers the arrival of his first reinforcing units. As you can see he is a little fuzzy-headed. Well, he was already on his second glass of red wine.

On the Prussian left, 2 line battalions advance with confidence along the line of the ridge. They are opposed by a single Bavarian battalion (rated green) coming the other way. Doesn't look good for the Bavarians.

On the other flank, the Prussian grenadiers form together into a brigade and push forward. Austrian infantry and guns have arrived in the background. The Austrian cuirassiers are falling back, hoping they won't be caught in the rear (ouch!).

More Austrian units crowd onto their baseline.

The light infantry arrive conveniently on the Austrian left. The farmstead here provides the perfect position for them to occupy.

The Bavarians look on nervously as the enemy infantry manouvers across their front. What are those damned Prussians up to?

Later position on the same flank. Now the Bavarians are facing cavalry as well as infantry. Help is on the way but it will not arrive in time to save them. They were charged (by the infantry) and routed.

In the centre, the Austrian infantry shapes up to oppose the enemy grenadiers, who are nicely supported by both Prussian gun batteries.

On the Austrian right again, later in the game. Austrian grenadiers and cavalry manouver boldly and the Prussians are forced to give ground. (Austrian cavalry in the background advancing along the table edge)

The Austrian gun position. As things turned out, they were not really in the best place and did not have the effect I had hoped for.

In the centre, the Prussians have the best of it. The right hand Austrian battalion is down to 50% (those blasted guns!), and both Austrian units are unsteady and falling back.

This last picture was move 13, by which time the Austrians had lost 6 of their 24 army points, causing them to waver (under my house rules - see previous post). The Prussians had still lost only 4 out of their 24. We had run out of time, and so a minor victory for Frederick's men was declared, although there was still plenty of life in the game and things might have gone the other way in time. At least that's what I think.

A very nice, fun, evening game. We found the need to add one house rule, or house clarification if you will. When deciding if a unit is within charge range of the enemy, we take it that it is if half or more of the stands are in charge distance. This caters for those situations where the opponents are not lined up parallel to each other.

One minor point to close with. I have found my Austrian light infantry have not been having the effect on the table they seem to have had in real life. Although they were not really designed to take their place in the line of battle, they seem to have done very well in a number of set-piece battles (Kolin and Lobositz being 2 good examples). Therefore I will be increasing their size from 4 to 6 bases. Less obviously, I will also try rating them as veteran to see how that works.

Finally, my copy of Black Powder arrived this morning. Time to get reading!

Zen and the Art of Wargaming

As I have said on this blog before, painting is not my favourite bit of the hobby. But when I'm in the right mood it can be quite therapeutic. I didn't realise the full significance of this until a recent trivial incident.

There I was, painting away in the dining room, some favourite music playing, the kids in their rooms and the wife watching TV next door. Alone and at peace. Then a couple of the kids come thundering in, raiding the fridge, asking questions about something, etc... and I found I was getting quite cross. Why was my peace being disturbed! Of course, I was being unreasonable, but the level of my irritation surprised me, and it brought home to me that doing this bit of painting was more than trying to work up a new SYW unit: it really was a kind of therapy.

In fact, it was like meditation. I had got into what I believe might be called a 'zen moment'. For my purposes I'll define that as a point where I was focused only on the now, on the task in hand, and everything else had faded into the background. Something like the sort of mental state people try to achieve via meditation. I realised then what a useful tool for winding down and achieving a sense of well being our hobby can be. Perhaps I should be surprised it took me so long to realise that fact.

Another positive view of the hobby came from reading a bit of Donald Featherstone recently (in Featherstone's Lost Tales). Talking of reading H.G. Wells Little Wars, he described the book as a 'classic contribution to the art of remaining young despite one's years'. That is a great description of the beneficial influence of a hobby like wargaming: a contribution to the effort of remaining young. If wargaming seems childish to some people, that's part of the point. It is perhaps more than just escapism, more than just putting the cares of everyday adult life aside. One is keeping in touch with the playful, light hearted, youthful part of one's character.

So there we are. Two good reasons to feel good about wargaming. I'll be back in the not too distant future with a SYW battle report. And I have a set of the Black Powder rules on order (at a great price from Amazon: I doubt I would have bothered at the full price). That should be worth a post or two, but I'll hold fire until I've had a game with them.

To conclude, a picture of some wargame's buddies (and my son, 13 at the time) who took part in a Poland 1939 demo game with me at Warfare 2005. I'm not sure if they're sharing a Zen moment or getting in touch with their playful natures. Maybe neither, but a good moment captured on camera. Something about too many cooks getting ready to spoil the broth springs to mind.

'Til next time!

Race to the Vistula

So. My latest game was interesting to me in two ways. First, I had developed my own scenario which I thought could produce a fun game, and second I was going to try out BKC II for the first time.

Scenario.
The idea was to re-create the conditions arising as the German 1st and 4th Panzer Divisions broke through Polish lines and raced towards Warsaw and the Vistula, around the 8th of September 1939. I designed a 6' x 4' terrain, which the Germans would have to traverse along its long axis against Polish opposition, with the objective of exiting worthwhile armoured forces off the far end of the table. The map was as below, with the Germans entering at the bottom (A) headed east. The interesting bit of the scenario was a set of randomly generated arrivals (both Polish and German) designed to represent the confused nature of the German advance and the Polish withdrawal. Zelazna is a Polish village name from the rough area of the fighting, but is used only to provide a little local flavour: the action is entirely fictional.

Initial Forces: Polish (deploy first)
Deploy anywhere in or east of Zelazna. All except tanks may be dug in.
CO
Infantry detachment: HQ (CV7), 4 infantry units, 1 mg unit, 1 mortar unit, 1 37mm ATG with tow
Infantry detachment: HQ (CV7), 4 infantry units, 1 mg unit, 1 40mm Bofors AA with tow
Tank Detachment: HQ (CV8), 2 Vickers E (47mm), 1 Vickers E (mg)

Initial Forces: German (move first)
Arrive in column along road from A. First movement on table must be along road.
CO, FAC, FAO
Panzer Bn: 2 PzI, 2 PzII, 1 PzIV, 1 Sdkfz 231 (recce)
Panzer Bn: 2 PzI, 2 PzII, 1 PzIV, 1 SP88mm
Stuka Staffel: 1 Stuka unit
Artillery Bn: 3 105mm units. No assets. Counted as out of range of targets east of the river.

Random Arrivals
From move 2, at the start of each move roll a D12 on the arrivals table. Arriving forces deploy in column along their route for their 1st movement action, up to their maximum move.
Once a formation has arrived at a particular point, cross through any enemy forces with the same arrival point. If a force has already arrived or has been crossed off, re-roll until an eligible force is thrown for.

Arrivals table:
1 - Polish air raid; 2 Karas units arrive and may attack any aiming point not within 30cm of friends, or in woods.
2 - German motorised infantry arrive at A; HQ, 4 infantry units in 2 trucks, 2 m/c units, 1 mg in truck, 1 37mm ATG with tow.
3 - Polish infantry detachment arrives at B; HQ, 4 infantry units in 2 trucks, 1 mg in jeep, 1 37mm ATG with tow.
4 - Lost German lorried infantry arrive at C; HQ, 4 infantry units in 2 trucks, 1 mg unit in truck.
5 - Retreating Polish tank detachment arrives at C; HQ, 3 7TP (37mm).
6 - Flanking German Panzer platoon arrives at D; HQ, 1 PzI, 1 PzII.
7 - Lost Polish recce detachment arrives at D; HQ, 1 Wz34 (mg), 2 TKS (mg), 2 m/c units.
8 - German recce detachment arrives at E; HQ, 1 Sdkfz 221, 1 Sdkfz 222, 3 m/c units, 1 mg unit with truck.
9 - Polish cavalry arrives at E; HQ, 6 cavalry units, 1 mg in taszanka, 1 75mm artillery unit with horse tow.
10 - German Panzer platoon arrives at F; HQ, 1 PzIII, 1 Sdkfz 10/4.
11 - Polish armoured train retreating south arrives at F; Armoured train, 1 T-18 drasine (recce)
12 - German cavalry detachment arrives at G; HQ, 4 cavalry units, 1 mg unit with truck.

Victory Conditions.
The Germans must exit at least 5 AFV units (tracked or wheeled) off the table via point B to win. If not, they lose and the Poles win. Game will last as many moves as time permits.

The Game.

Table set up as per map.

The bridge is well defended: Polish infantry on the east bank, tanks blocking the road.

The other Polish infantry formation holds Zelazna.

The German panzers arrive. The first battalion moves off the road to bypass Zelazna to the south.

The Polish tanks move forward to engage. The MkIV on the hill gave the first result attributable to the new rules: the Polish player rolled 4 sixes in 2 firing actions with his mortar (called in by infantry units in the village), and with no successful saves the tank was KO'd.
First arrivals were the German infantry reinforcements from A who joined the queue on the road behind the tanks.

Next to arrive: Polish cavalry east of the railway and river move to join in the defence of the bridge.

Stuka strike! The new rules again take effect as the Stukas pick off 2 Polish tanks in 2 separate moves, using the 'concentration' rule and the new effect rolls.

The second panzer battalion bypasses Zelazna to the north. The Polish 7TPs arrive, but they merely provide target practice for the well drilled German tanks and the deadly SP 88mm. In 2 moves they are all KO'd. The PzIs move ahead quickly to bypass the flaming wrecks.

More German panzers arrive at D. The Polish light tanks are being overwhelmed but manage to delay the German advance.

The Polish cavalry dismount and consolidate at the bridge. The defence here is looking very strong.

More arrivals: German cavalry are moving along the railway line from G. They are headed for trouble.

As the game reaches its climax, Zelazna is bypassed to the north and south by German panzers and supporting motorised infantry.

Polish infantry retreats from Zelazna. The mortar and the remaining Vickers tank fire off a few last rounds to delay the Germans.

The Stukas appear again and attack the bridge area. But with 3 Polish Command units in the vicinity they encounter a storm of AA fire and are knocked out of the game without affecting their targets. (CO plus 2 HQs plus the Bofors = 9 attacks. 4 hits achieved with no saves possible).They will be unable to return. Note the severely reduced German cavalry. They encountered heavy fire from the Polish dismounted cavalry who were in cover, and eventually lost 3 of their 5 units.

Final positions. The Germans have done reasonably well, but the defence of the bridge area is far too strong. Note further arrivals: more German armour has arrived at F (lower left), and more Polish infantry arrives from B (left). As the Germans advance precipitously against the Polish second line, they lose a PzI to AT rifles, and the Sdkfz 10/4 to the Bofors. The PzIII is suppressed by the 75mm and 2 infantry units and 1 mg unit are lost from the dismounted motorised infantry, all in the final move. There is obviously no way through at the moment. The Poles have won.

Conclusion.
8 game turns were completed in a little under 3 hours. The new rules worked perfectly, and I had no problems with any of the changes. The new cover saves made the Polish infantry in Zelazna difficult targets for the German artillery: despite having 9 attacks very little was achieved, but this is probably realistic. Overall, this is definitely an improved set.
As for the scenario, it was hard to judge the balance as the random arrivals provide a great deal of chance and variety. Nevertheless, perhaps the defence was a little too strong. If we refight the battle, I will reduce the Vickers tanks to 2, and attach 1 to each infantry formation, so that the Poles only have 2 formations initially. This actually fits in with the 'penny packets' rule added to the Polish army list. I should have listened to Pete! A little tweaking of the Polish arrivals should make the German task a little easier as well. I would also remove the range restrictions east of the river for the German artillery.

Thanks for visiting. Comments welcomed as usual!

PIBWL Military Site

A brief post to sing the praises of this website (run by Michal Derela) devoted to Polish armoured formations 1918-1939, including armoured trains. For those interested in wargaming the 1939 Polish campaign the information contained on the site is invaluable. It is written entirely in English which makes it (as far as I can tell) a unique source.

Michal is willing to take email enquiries about most Polish military subjects of this era. As an example, he emailed me the following photos of Polish self-propelled AA guns, on French De Dion-Bouton cars and then on PF621 truck chassis. My enquiry followed a discussion on the BKC forum regarding the Polish equivalent of the 88mm on 12 ton halftrack fielded by the Germans and featured in my recent post.

The first pair of images show the de Dion-Bouton cars (above) and the PF621s (below)

The upper picture in this pair gives a good idea of how the De Dion-Boutons looked.

Here rear views of the French cars (lower) and Polish truck mounts (upper) can be compared.

Stephen Zaloga and Victor Madej's book on the Polish campaign (The Polish Campaign 1939 - not the Osprey written by Zaloga alone) indicates that 12 of the 75mm AA guns mounted on the cars were re-mounted on PF621 trucks. Michal tells me the number of conversions was 4. It seems both SP mounts were involved in combat in 1939. They were employed primarily against aircraft but did engage tanks on a few occasions, and with some success apparently.

Anyone interested in Polish military history of the 20th Century should check out this site. A link is posted (under 'Polish Military Site') to the left of this post.

A Miscellany...

...Which is a posh way of saying Odds and Sods. Over the last few months I have acquired a number of wargames products that might be of interest to readers of this blog, so I thought I would bring them together in one post. This gives me an excuse to show you some photos and make some comments.

88mm Flak 18 on 12 ton half track.
Having found out about this vehicle on the net about 2 years ago, and reading that it was deployed in Poland in 1939, I have hankered after one ever since. I thought about doing a conversion of some sort, but had shelved the project when Battlefront Miniatures came up with the model as part of their 'Mid-War Monsters' range. Brilliant!
In 15mm it towers over my Panzer Is and IIs, and is a very impressive model when made up. The hull is resin, the rest of the parts metal. The tracks and wheels fit easily and solidly onto the well-cast resin hull, but there are a couple of problems with the gun. First, it is supposed to be a Flak 18, but Battlefront provide what is obviously a Flak 36, with the prominent 'barrel nut' half way down the gun tube. This needs filing off. The parts of the gun fit together awkwardly, and if fitted as cast create a slightly lop-sided weapon, due to rather poorly cast trunnions. The shield is also not quite the right shape, having rather too much of a backward slope. Nevertheless, for wargaming the model is fine and produces an excellent result. As with all Battlefront kits of this type, it benefits from being provided with a full gun crew, an example which other manufacturers would do well to follow.

The two shots above show the model posed on another of my purchases, a Faller 'Minimat' bought via Timecast. This is the cornfield colour one, 29cm x 40cms for £4. It formed the wheatfield in my 'Plattstadt' post. The mat has a paper backing but is proving to be perfectly robust and a good way of adding variety to my layouts. One thing that I have never liked is the common use of what look like bits of doormat for cornfields, where your Prussian Grenadiers or Tiger tanks can be seen delicately balancing on the tips of 4 foot corn stalks. This Faller mat is a much more acceptable alternative.
The haystacks are another new item, bought from The Square (http://thesquare-wargames.co.uk). These resin casts are inexpensive and easy to paint up.

Cart and Wagon - Parkfield Miniatures.
If you have read my brief post about the excellent service I received from Parkfield, well, these are the wagons in question. Nicely cast, easy to put together metal models that have a very solid feel, and are perfectly compatible with 28-30mm figures. The models don't include the figures: these have to be purchased separately. The barrels are also an addition. The models are shown on another Faller Minimat, this time the 'light green' one.

SYW Heavy Gun.
Having decided I'd like to field a heavy gun battery or two in my SYW games, I finally settled on the guns made by Elite Miniatures. The models I bought are actually from their French SYW range, but I'm not particularly fussy about these things so the Prussians and Austrians will get one each. The model shown is of a Valliere 8 pounder cannon, but compared to my RSM 'medium' guns it is pretty big, so I'm counting it as a 12 pounder. In fact, I shortened the barrel by a few millimetres to give the gun a more stocky look. The limber is a quick conversion of the standard RSM 2 horse limber to have a centre pole and cross-piece, with 4 RSM horses.

The gun is loose and can be hooked up to the limber for travelling across the table. When deployed, it is placed on the base as shown, the crew being permanently fixed to the base as normal. This saves on buying 2 guns, and also allows the crew to 'run away' and abandon their piece, which can occur under the Rank and File rules that I use.

RSM Spanish figures.
RSM have recently acquired the rights to the SYW Spanish range previously cast and marketed by The London War Room. I bought a few of these to see how they look. As Rich at RSM says, they can be used to provide a bit of variety for other nations as well as being used to create Spanish armies. The pictures show how they compare to the normal RSM figures. As you can see, they are bit chunkier, the heads in particular being a fair bit larger, but in general I think they fit in quite well. The unpainted figures in the centre are an officer and standard bearer (sans standard). The painted officer on the extreme right is also a Spanish figure which has taken service with the Prussian Grenadiers. Also potentially useful are a couple of seated figures, an officer and a fusilier. The latter is seen in the background of the first photo and more prominently in the lower photo. Very handy to have in the odds and sods box.
I should perhaps apologise for the clumsily painted Prussian eagles on the mitres of the right hand base of grenadiers. All I can say is I did my best, and from a couple of feet away you can hardly notice!

War Bases.
I wanted to give this company a mention as I now use them to obtain all my 2mm MDF bases. They provide very accurately and neatly cut bases (the best I have encountered) at competitive rates, with a prompt turnaround. They provide standard sizes or a custom service. Recommended. (www.warbases.co.uk)

Blitzkrieg Commander 2nd Edition.

Last, but very much not least, the new edition of Blitzkrieg Commander. There is no need for me to give these rules an extended review: the BKC website is full of appreciative comments, and there is also a summary of what has changed somewhere on the site. In brief, the best set of WW2 rules currently available have just got better. FoW gamers can use the 'one stand to a squad' scale and take part in a much superior game at the organisational level they are used to, or one can use the 'one stand to a platoon' scale and have multi-battalion games in an evening.
The 140 page book retails for £20 plus £3 postage in the UK. This gives you all you need: no supplements required, as a very comprehensive set of army lists for most nations and periods is included. The basic rules only take up about 20 or so pages, a tribute to their simplicity. The rest of the book consists of examples (with colour pictures), details of various suggested scenarios , a few optional or specialist rules and the army lists. One feature I particularly like is that the photos are there to illustrate well chosen examples of play, rather than being eye-candy. Recommended? You bet. These rules are quite outstanding.

A battle report with the new edition of BKC is pending, so watch this space.

A slightly belated Happy New Year to everyone!

'Rank and File': House Rules

I thought gamers using these rules might be interested in the house rules I am currently adopting. Assume the usual comments about them only representing my personal opinion and being subject to change as I play more games, etc etc. Bear in mind these house rules relate to the SYW period.

My Figure Ratios

1 stand = 125 men. 1 gun = 5 actual guns.

My 'standard' infantry battalion is 5 bases, which would make 625 men in a typical battalion. This seems to me reasonable for a battalion on campaign. Going by the ratios in the rules (see Appendix 3), you get one gun for 25 men, so an artillery base would represent 5 actual guns. You could actually make the figure ratio anything from 100 to 150 men represented by a base (or 4 - 6 guns per artillery base), and things would still work as far as my organisations are concerned. The ratio is the same for cavalry: a base represents around 125 cavalrymen.

Pass Through Morale Test

A unit that routs will normally do so directly away from the enemy. If a friendly unit is in its path, it may deviate by up to 45º to avoid passing through, providing this does not bring it closer to any enemy unit.

If more than 1 stand of a routing unit does pass through a friendly unit, check morale of the unit being routed through using standard modifiers.

Retiring units or single stand units do not cause pass through morale tests. No matter what the cause of the morale test a unit will only have to test morale once in the morale phase.

This is my version of the optional rule published online by Mark in Supplement 2.

Movement: Prussian Drill

Prussian infantry may wheel up to 90 degrees. Prussian cavalry and infantry may oblique move. These abilities do not apply to green units.

This is designed to give the Prussians a slight edge to represent their higher level of drill.

Troop Quality and Firing

Veteran class +1 to firing dice; Green -1.

I think it is correct to give veteran class infantry a significant edge when firing, to represent their greater steadiness, experience of battle and higher level of confidence and training. In the same way green troops get a deduction to simulate their relative lack of training and their confusion and fear in battle. This house rule seems to me the simplest and most obvious way of representing this, and so far doesn't seem to unbalance things.

Dicing For Leader Quality

Prussian: 1, no bonus; 2,3,4,5, +1 bonus; 6, +2 bonus

Austrian: 1,2, no bonus; 3,4,5, +1 bonus; 6, +2 bonus

No re-rolls. When dicing for quality of the C-in-C, add one to the dice roll.

As I only use Austrian and Prussian troops, this is my simplified version of the rules concerning leader quality and bonuses presented on page 44 of the rules.

Markers

Green counter for unsteady: red for rout.

You have to mark it in some way. For the moment, small tiddlywinks will do the job.

Artillery

Movement – use 1792-1848 rules.

These seem more correct to me. For example, if 12 pdrs are counted as heavy guns (which I believe is correct), then making them completely immobile in the game does not fit in with what I have read: the most famous example being the movement of Frederick's 12 pdr 'Brummers' at the battle of Leuthen. Similarly, I don't see any need to hamper the movement of the 6-9 pdrs which constitute the medium guns.

Capturing - Each gun captured during a game cancels one point from the number of army points you have lost. Captured guns can only be moved at manhandled speed.

Just a little extra rule to allow the capturing of guns if they are abandoned by crews fleeing a charge or moving away due to morale.

Ranges

Light Smoothbore – Close = 8”. Medium = 16”. Long = 32”. Point blank 2”.

Medium Smoothbore - Close = 12”. Medium = 24”. Long = 48”. Point blank 3”.

Heavy Smoothbore - Close = 15”. Medium = 30”. Long = 60”. Point blank 4”.

Mark has said on the Yahoo group that the ranges of artillery were kept deliberately short to help with play balance. I prefer to lengthen them slightly to fit in more comfortably with the infantry firing range and to give back the reach that I think guns ought to have on the table. Mark has suggested shortening infantry musket range as an alternative, but I think the present range for infantry fire works well.

Penetrating Fire - Artillery fire may also affect units behind the original target unit, up to a maximum distance of 3" for light guns, 6” for medium guns and 12” for heavy guns (half this distance for units in hard cover/woods/fired at or from higher ground). Any such troops in the line of fire (normally taken to be through the centre of the target unit) and in range will be liable to hits as normal but with an additional -1 modifier.

An extra rule to represent those bouncing cannon balls.

Retiring

When unsteady retire distance will be only 1D6” for infantry or 2D6” for cavalry in the SYW period.

I came to the conclusion that the 2D6 for infantry and 3D6 for cavalry made the game too fluid for the 18th century. Just my own view of how SYW battles worked.

Formation Changes

Whilst the unit overall may not move more than half a move, individual bases can move up to their maximum column move to create the new formation.

My view of how formation changes should work.

One Stand Left

Multi stand units reduced to a single stand are removed and count as lost.

This is connected with the changes to the Army Morale rules given below. Single stand units have no real fighting value (in particular as they are often unsteady as well), and I got fed up with them hanging around at the back of the battle keeping well out of the way, but stopping their army being deducted 2 points for a lost unit. So 1 base units are simply removed.

Army Morale

Calculate one quarter and one half of the army points, rounding up fractions. Check army points lost in the end phase of each move. In addition to normal deductions for lost units, deduct 1 army point for every multi-stand unit at or under half strength, and one army point for any unit currently routing. Army points may also be deducted for objectives lost to the enemy.

When an army loses one quarter of its army points it is wavering: effects are the same as for the Army Break Point in the original rules.

When it loses half of its army points, dice for army morale during the end phase on a 4, 5 or 6. Add one to army morale throw for exceptional C-in-C or if most remaining units are veteran. Deduct one for poor C-in-C or if most remaining units are green. If the roll is failed, the army is broken and retreats from the field. If the roll is passed, continue for that move but the roll must be repeated in the end phase of every subsequent move until it is failed and the game ends.

At the end of the game (because one side has broken or time has run out), a result may be established by comparing the army morale of the two sides. If it is the same (e.g. both unaffected, both wavering), then the game is drawn. If one side is unaffected and the other broken, then this can be called a major victory for the unaffected side. If one side is unaffected and the other wavering, or one side wavering whilst the other is broken, then a minor victory for the least affected side may be declared.

My response to the recent discussion on the Yahoo group. This is how I am currently playing it, in an attempt to get a conclusion to a game in the 3 hours which is the maximum I usually have available in the evening. Losing half your army before registering any sort of reaction just takes too long: indeed, losing this many troops would represent a massive and possibly unrealistic loss in a real formation. I believe it is reasonable to bring the onset of army morale forward to 25% losses, and that it is also reasonable to suppose that an army commander would react to reports of weak or routing units.

I would add, however, that this house rule is strongly connected to the size of the armies I use and the playing time I generally have available.

Any comments or disagreements about the above by current players of Rank and File would be warmly welcomed, and read with great interest.

Action In The Plattstadt Valley

Ah, nostalgia. I think you'll agree nostalgia is the beating heart of Old School wargaming. Whilst I myself am quite taken by the whole Old School thing, I like to mix some new school in with the old, especially in terms of rules. So this post is a mix of Old School nostalgia with new school rules and some compromises from the School of Reality.

Furthermore, I am more of a Featherstonian Old Schooler than a Grant/Young Old Schooler. It is the Don's 1962 classic War Games which inspires me, rather than Charge! or The War Game. For a start, Featherstone used Airfix figures, a good number of which I owned myself at the time, and he gamed in the ACW and WW2 periods, with which I was familiar. The Seven Years War and those Spencer Smiths were a bit exotic for me in 1970, when I first started reading wargames books. And Featherstone favoured the 20 figure unit, which has always been my favourite size.

Anyway, it's well past time for a bit of Donald Featherstone-inspired nostalgia on this blog. To whit, a re-fight of the horse and musket classic, 'Action in the Plattville Valley'. For those benighted miscreants who don't own a copy of War Games or are unfamiliar with the battle, I will give the basic details of the original scenario, then detail the changes I made (through choice or necessity) to complete the re-fight.

Action in the Plattville Valley.

The original map, copied from the book, is seen below. Table size was 8' x 5'.

The original game is set in the ACW period. Each side has 6 regiments of infantry with 20 figures each, two regiments of cavalry with 15 figures each, and 2 guns. The regiments are supposedly organised into 'brigades' of two regiments each, but the rules Featherstone used have no real command and control regulations, so the regiments can operate individually or can be grouped in any way the player wishes. Two regiments of infantry from each side (the 'advance guard') enter the table on move 1, moving along their respective roads. From move 2 they may move off the roads, then at the beginning of move 4 the rest of each army (the 'main body') may deploy as required anywhere on each baseline.

The scenario was therefore a fairly simple encounter battle. Forces involved were quite modest in relation to the table size. I felt that the scenario and size of forces were likely to produce a battle with plenty of potential for manoeuvre.

Action in the Plattstadt Valley.

I don't have access to any ACW forces, and anyway I wanted to play the game using my SYW figures. So 1863 in North America became 1757 in Central Europe. I suppose a 'true' refight would use the same rules as laid out in the book, but I had no real desire to do this. Much more to my taste was to use the Rank and File rules from Crusader Publishing. As this blog has already indicated, these have an Old School simplicity but are rather more modern in their mechanisms than Mr Featherstone's originals.

Terrain.

I would have preferred to use an 8' x 6' table, but 6' x 6' is the best I can manage in my wargames room (alright, my dining room). Considering the size of forces in use, there should still be plenty of width. The inability of the infantry units to deploy in single line due to the basing conventions of Rank and File will help. Using the terrain pieces available to me I came up with the terrain shown on the map below, representing the closest I could get to the original.

The only real point to make is regarding the river. This was obviously intended to be fordable as the original game report indicates units crossing Bull Creek, so the Bullenbach is fordable throughout its length by infantry and cavalry. Artillery must use the bridge. Units lose half a move to cross. If fighting whilst crossing, they deduct 1 from any firing/melee/morale dice.

Of course, I didn't make any plasticine hills or mark in the roads and rivers with chalk. But maybe that could be an Old School project for the future. A matt-green painted board, a set of chalks, some hill contours cut from chipboard or some of the foam materials you can get nowadays... Those Old School tables could be very eye-catching, as the photo below (from Featherstone's Complete Wargaming) shows.

Now that's what I call Old School. However, I definitely draw the line at the pullovers. And I'm not getting a side parting either. But I digress.

Scenario.

This would be as per the original.

Success or otherwise would be decided by using the Rank and File Army Break Point rules. These are simplicity itself: 2 points for each unit, except the guns which are 1 point each. Lose half your army points and you are in trouble. Failing that, an Old School-style gentleman's discussion would take place and a winner would be agreed upon.

Forces.

Each side had 6 infantry units of 5 bases/20 figures each. One of the infantry units on each side was a grenadier battalion ('veteran' in R & F), and one a lower grade unit ('green'), just for a bit of interest. Each side had 2 cavalry regiments of 5 bases/10 figures each, one of cuirassiers and one of dragoons. Two gun models (2 'batteries') per side were also present. Making the cavalry units the same size as in the original game would make them relatively too powerful when using Rank and File, so they stayed at 10 figures.

The leader (or command) figures can be distributed as required, in accordance with the easy going command rules of R & F (which tie in quite well with the type of command rules Featherstone used in the original battle)

Prussia

1 Commanding Brigadier (+2 bonus), 4 Colonels (+1 bonus).

1st Battalion, Infanterie Regt. No.1, von Winterfeldt (regular)

2nd Battalion, Infanterie Regt. No.1, von Winterfeldt (regular)

1st Battalion, Infanterie Regt. No.33, de la Motte (regular)

2nd Battalion, Infanterie Regt. No.33, de la Motte (regular)

Grenadier Battalion 1/23 Wedel (veteran)

Freibattailone No.1, Le Noble (green)

Kuirassier Regt No.8, von Rochow (veteran)

Dragoner Regt No.6, Schorlemmer (regular)

2 medium guns (regular)

Austria

1 Commanding Brigadier (+2 bonus), 4 Colonels (+1 bonus)

1st Battalion, Infanterie Regt No.10, Jung-Wolfenbuttel (regular)

2nd Battalion Infanterie Regt No.10, Jung-Wolfenbuttel (regular)

1st Battalion Infanterie Regt. No.37, Josef Esterhazy (regular)

2nd Battalion Infanterie Regt No.37, Josef Esterhazy (regular)

Grenadier Battalion Siskovics (veteran)

Infanterie Leib Regt., Kurfurst in Bayern (green)

Kuirasssier Regt No.10, Stampach (veteran)

Dragoner Regt. No.37, Kolowrat (regular)

2 medium guns (regular)

The Game.

The terrain. View across the Bullenbach towards the wheatfield. Similar to the views in plates 6 and 9 of Featherstone's book.

Plattstadt, with the Plattwald on the left and the ploughed field in the background. See plate 10 in the original book.

Move 1. On the Austrian (right hand) side, the Siskovics grenadiers lead the 1st battalion of IR10 towards the bridge. On the Prussian side, grenadiers also lead, followed by the 1st battalion of IR1. Rank and File allow a triple move to columns on road outside 12" of the enemy, so initial progress was rapid.

Move 2. The Prussians start to form line, but the Austrians continue in column in order to deploy on the far side of the bridge. By move 3, both advance guards had formed into line and faced each other just to the south of the bridge.

Move 4. The Prussian main body has entered the game. The rules allow a double move off road outside 12" of the enemy, so once again units move forward quickly.

Move 4, showing the initial move of the Austrian main body. Units from the main bodies were placed alternately on their respective baselines. Once all were in place, they moved forward their first move.

Move 4 again. A cavalry clash seems likely on the Austrian right flank. The Prussian cuirassiers are just off the photo to the left.

Move 5. Both sides have quickly established a battle line on opposite sides of the Bullenbach.

Move 5. On the western flank, the Austrian dragoons have veered off into the Plattwald on some vague mission of encirclement (they can just be seen amongst the trees in the background). This leaves the Austrian cuirassiers outnumbered two to one, although they are supported by the 2nd battalion of IR10 who are in position behind them. The Austrian gun in the foreground is bombarding Prussian infantry just outside the photo to the left. In contrast, the Prussian gun chooses to indulge in some counter-battery fire which turned out to be very effective.

Move 6. The Austrians decide to get aggressive. The Hungarians and Bavarians attack across the Bullenbach (probably a bad idea!), whilst the two advance guard battalions in the foreground are ordered to charge the Prussian battalion to their front (1st battalion, IR1). Both Austrian advance guard units are already unsteady, but... orders are orders.

Predictably, the Austrians suffer badly from fire and melee casualties and rout across the bridge at under half strength. This means they will not be returning.

Move 6 on the western flank. The Austrian heavy cavalry brace for impact. (The attacking Prussians have been obliged to approach slowly if they are to maintain formation, with one squadron on the left moving through the woods and two squadrons on their right splashing through the Bullenbach). In the distance the Austrian dragoons veer away from the 2nd battalion of the Prussian IR1, who have emerged from Plattstadt to challenge them as they pass by.

Move 7. The Austrian units attacking across the Bullenbach have been thrown back by Prussian musketry and return to their starting positions. The 1st battalion of IR37 (furthest away in this photo) suffered particularly badly.

Move 7. The Prussian fusiliers of 2nd battalion, IR33, occupy the wall at the north end of the wheatfield, with an artillery battery in support.

Move 8. The Prussian cavalry have charged with predictable results. The Austrian cuirassiers have lost 2 bases and have been forced to fall back.

Move 8. On the hills overlooking the Bullenbach, the depleted Prussian infantry units stand firm. The Freikorps unit on the right is held firmly to its task by the presence of a colonel and the commanding brigadier.

Move 8, and the Austrian dragoons continue on their rather pointless tour of the Prussian baseline. The attack over the Bullenbach has already failed, and there will be no opportunities to attack any Prussian infantry units in the rear. 2nd battalion, IR1 track them around the south of Plattstadt.

Overview of the final positions on move 8. As in the original battle, by this stage the winner was obvious. Two Austrian battalions have been routed for good, and the Austrian gun in the centre has been destroyed by counter battery fire.
All Prussian units are standing firm and are ready to continue, although some have lost one or two stands. There is also a nice gap opening up around the bridge which Prussian units are well placed to take advantage of. A Prussian victory.

And How Was It For You Darling...

Well, not as much manouevre as I hoped for. A table eight foot wide would have helped, making it harder for both sides to form a coherent line. As it was, with two players familiar with SYW tactics, and rules which encourage historical play, two opposing battlelines soon appeared across the table.

As the Austrian commander, my attack across the Bullenbach and the detachment of the dragoons were both attempts to shake things up a bit, but neither had much chance of doing so. A better option would have been a Frederican plan to refuse one flank and load up the other in order to create a breakthrough. However, deployments on both sides were conservative and this option was not explored by either side. Maybe next time.

One key to victory might be to get your advanced guard to occupy the hills on the enemy side of the Bullenbach early on. However, this would be easier said than done with your opponent on the lookout for any such move.

The Rank and File rules continue to impress. They are free flowing and simple to use, but retain all the necessary period flavour.

Comments welcomed as usual. (Apologies to the four gentlemen who posted responses soon after this report was published. Gremlins got into the system and the blog was deleted, so it has had to be re-done).

'Til next time!