Update 20th Feb Spain part Dos

Nathan ex RHA turned up and within 2 hours we had played to a result. The French had taken their left flank defeating the KGL Hussars and continuing on to threaten the centre. Their right flank was broken by the British Heavy Dragoons supported by two regiments of infantry.

The British in the centre were broken after being hit by two French columns.

We all agreed that the unit initiative, red cards activate a British unit and Black a French unit. I also included an Event card and end of turn card.

Here are a few pics.

I think that this summer I will be walking many a field on the Spanish Peninsular!

Update 5th Feb – Going Back to Spain

Just after Christmas I woke up and decided that this was the year to start to sort things out and understand where I want to go, going forward with Wargaming.

What do I mean by this?

I have realised very slowly that I do a lot more planning, buying and painting than playing. That said I mean quality playing. Over the recent years I have fallen in to playing 2 evenings a week but only for a couple of hours at a time and ranging in size of 2 or 4 players. Therefore, more pop up games, Boardgames have appeared. I finally realised that this is not what I want.

So in January I wrote down what are my passions and desires. Don’t worry I am not going through them all now !

I think I have mentioned before that I got into Wargame at school. First gamecwas Napoleonics with our teacher playing out Waterloo with about 60 Hinchliffe miniatures a side but I was hooked. Later that week I remember two films coming on TV.

Jason and the Argonauts

Callan – not Napoleonics but I dreamt of one day having this set up for my Airfix soldiers!

So back to the post. I decided that Napoleonics is still my first love. And I love big battalions! Therefore I have been busy rebasing my units and this week tested the game using an old set of rules (Playable Napoleonic Rules) on an unsuspecting audience. Within a few minutes one player stated he had never played Napoleonics or really knew anything about how best to fight with unit. What a sad life this individual must have had, out with girls and discos rather than watching Waterloo or even Sharpe.

Here are a few photos from the evening.

All agreed they liked the playability of the rules but all agreed that the I Go You Go approach is dated and may detract from the objective.

Like Baldrick, I have a cunning plan for tomorrow when a different gamer is coming along to play. Having been in the RHA I hope he will have an appreciation of Napoleonics!

Taff Updates

A few weeks ago Piggy from our group gave me a quick update on what he has been upto during lockdown.

Not to be outdone, Taff has just shared a few photos of ideas he is working on for the day we can get together again.

His first project is Crimean War era and he has been working on a club game based around the charge of the light brigade.

I belive the Figures are Redoubt and Warlord. The rules being tried are the Osprey Publishings Then Men Who Would Be Kings.

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More photos to follow.

The second idea Taff is working on is the Defence of Rorkes Drift.

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Thanks Taff,

A Quick AWI Game

A few weeks back we got together on a Thursday evening for a game. We wanted to try out a few amendment we were thinking of for our favourite set of AWI rules “Field of Honor”. We were basically trying to apply some of the rules for the original 19th cent set of the rules and work of something for improved skirmishing.

The game was just a simple engagement meeting between two numerically equal forces. As in real life, the quality of the British forces carried the day but it did give us the opportunity to try out some of our thoughts, more of later.

In the meantime thought you may like some pictures of the game.

 

AWI Campaign Ideas – Part 4 The Terrain Generator

As promised a while back here is a little bit of info on the troop and  terrain generators.

 

Troop Types

AWI Campaign Army selection rules

 Each chit is worth 100pts

Select units and assign them to a chit, each chit is to be numbered. Casualties can be carried from battle to battle.

When a battle happens the CinCs rating  is increased by 1 level for each previous battle he had a major victory in or reduced by one level for each major loss.

 

British

Brigade commander Average 15pt +/-5pt per level increased or decreased.

Cost per SP

Guards C/B/A @12pt

Grenadiers C/A/A @ 13pt

Lights C/B/B @ 12pt includes skirmish ability

Highlanders C/A/B @12pt

Line C/B/B @11pt

Rangers C/B/C @10pt

Lt Dragoons C/B/B @11pt

Loyalist Line C/C/C @9pt

Loyalist Cavalry C/C/C@9pt

Militia B/D/D@8pt

Militia Cavalry C/C/C @9pt

Indians in Open D/C/E in woods D/C/C @ 8pt MOB formation only

Artillery B/E/B @9pt per crewman (Lt=2, Med=3, How=4 and Hvy=4)

 

Hessians (Max 2 Brigades)

Only allowed if reinforcement arrive!

Brigade commander Average 15pt +/-5pt per level increased or decreased.

Grenadiers C/B/C @10pt

Line D/C/D @7pt

Jaegers D/C/D @9pt Skirmishers and rifles

Artillery C/E/C @7pt per crewman (Lt=2, Med=3, How=4 and Hvy=4)

 

Lt Guns 10pts, Med guns 15pts, Howitzer 20 pts or Heavy    25 pts

 

Promotion/Demotion

If British win a major victory (see below), then any unit that engaged the enemy may increase any factor in a unit by 1 level (no factor may be greater than A).

If British receives a major defeat then all unit that did not engage the enemy must drop by 1 level, all units that engaged enemy drop 2 factors by 1 level (no factor may be lower than E).

 

Americans (Min 25% Militia)

Brigade commander Average 15pt +/-5pt per level increased or decreased.

Cost per SP

Continentals C/D/D @7pt

Lights (1778+) B/C/B @12pt includes skirmish ability

Lt Dragoons C/C/C @9pt

State Militia B/C/C @10pt

Riflemen A/D/D @11pt skirmish formation only and rifle armed

Militia B/D/D @8pt +1pt if skirmishers

Militia Cavalry C/C/D @8pt

Artillery C/D/C @8pt per crewman (Lt=2, Med=3, How=4 and Hvy=4)

 

Lt Guns 10pts

Med guns 15pts

Howitzer 20 pts

Heavy    25 pts

 

If Americans win a victory (see below), then any unit that engaged the enemy may increase any factor in a unit by 1 level (no factor may be greater than A).

If Americans win a major victory (see below), then any unit that engaged the enemy may increase any 2 factors in a unit by 1 level (no factor may be greater than A). All other units may increase any one factor by 1 (no factor may be greater than A).

If a side receives a major defeat then all units must drop by a factor by 1 level (no factor may be lower than E).

 

Reinforcement – only when a major victory has been achieved

 

French (Max 2 Brigades)

Brigade commander Average 15pt +/-5pt per level increased or decreased.

Grenadiers C/B/B @11pt

Line C/C/C @9pt

Light C/C/B @11pt includes skirmish ability

Hussars C/B/C @10pt (Max 1 unit)

Artillery C/C/C @9pt (Lt=2, Med=3, How=4 and Hvy=4)

 

Lt Guns 10pts, Med guns 15pts, Howitzer 20 pts or Heavy    25 pts

 

Victory or Major Victory

After a battle unless obvious count the (total of points lost/original points value of army) x100 = % of army lost

E.g.: 175 point army of two brigades (Obviously has lost a battle before so now weak) loses 25 pts, therefore (25/175) x100 = 0.143×100 = 14.3% casualties.

 

Greater loses is the loser.

If loses are twice the winners loses, than a major victory/defeat has occurred.

 

Optional Rules

Defenses – Any army indicated to move may not move and instead build defenses. This allows 100 points of defenses to be built. 2” of light defenses or 1” of heavy defenses=5pt. They are only applicable in major battle not skirmishes and only if the side who built them is the defender. If left unoccupied they are removed from the board.

 

Terrain Generation

To help with this I have built two random terrain generators, one for plain terrain and one for rough terrain.

I do not claim to be  good at Excel so please excuse the simple approach. Please feel free to modify percentage of availability as you see fit.

I play on a 9’x5’ table so I generated eastings of 0-108” and Northings of 0-60”. These are measured from the bottom left corner.

Here is an example of a plain generated table top.

This gives a table like this

Hope you get the idea. If you really don’t like it then hit F9 and it will generate another.

Here the actual files for both Plain and Rough terrain generation.

terrain-generator-awi-plain terrain-generator-awi-rough

 

AWI Campaign Ideas – Part 3 The first battle

I know I said I would talk about the terrain generator but Saturday was here and it was our game day.

Nathan came around early and we set about building his British brigades for the campaign, as his computer had broken.

The Board-game

We then sat down to play the board-game. It was only turn 3 when things started to go against the idea of how the game would play in our heads.  I rolled “snake eyes” which meant that I was unable to move any of my units. This allowed Nathan the chance to catch one of my two state militia based armies and force a major battle. My plan had been to avoid a major battle until I had consolidated my forces. Well we all know about plans and what happens to them! Well it did.

Nathan

Turn 3. Nathan nominates the land unit at the top of the picture near Boston and unfortunately I had “snake eyes”.

With Nathan’s roll of a two in lands straight on my unit.

The Forces

That said this is what campaigns are all about though. Nathan had a strength of approximately 500 points while I not only had inferior troops but only 300pts worth. I am not sure that if we were doing a normal game we would ever have fielded forces like these. Not only did Nathan have better troops but when we got his forces out for the table top he also had a Howitzer and a large artillery piece in the force. These are very powerful on the tabletop, if they hit. This made me feel very intimidated as I had militias and a light field piece.

The Terrain

The terrain generator also threw up a battlefield I would probably never layout normally – a river down one flank a ridge splitting the table, a farm and some woods all added to the next dilemma. Where to set up as the defender?  Do I take the open side to the South and force the British to be crammed up in and around the farm although they would have the ridge to sit that heavy gun on or take the farm with its defensive fencing but allow the British to almost deploy along the whole Southern edge. In the end it was the ridge that sold it two me for two reasons.

1. If I placed my artillery up there it should have a good field of fire
2. The elevation sort of protected my right flank but would also slow down any British advance due to the reduced movement uphill.  This may allow me the time to turn on my heels and get away before melee.

My new plan!

I deployed my stronger brigade on the ridge so they were easier to extradite but this did leave them exposed with no fencing to hide behind.

My weaker brigade occupied the farm and lined the fencing.

I gave orders that all units are to engage the British in at least 3 round of fire but if they closed too quickly to break off and leave the field.

The British set up gave me hope! They concentrated all their forces around the centre except for the lone cavalry unit out on their left flank. This I guessed would be used to  flank the woods and attack me from my right flank. This I thought would take about 5-6 turns depending upon the activation cards ( They would not be able to be activated on the CinC’s card once they were out of sight). This left my left flank over flanking the British right. Should I advance my 2 left flank militias and swing them in on the flanks of the advancing British?

 

Turn 1 Steady advance by the British across the whole line.

Their artillery inflicted a total of 3 hits between them luckily all were saved.

I advanced my rifle on the hill a little closer. They have a 24” range while the British have a 12” range.

My artillery fires and hits a line unit which is unsaved so first blood to the Americans.

Turn 2

British again steal the march with all their units getting activated and the artillery hitting and inflicting 2 hits which I cannot save.

My centre fire and take out one the British Light infantry units.

My left flank jump the fences to advance on the British flank

My artillery fires but hits nothing.

Turn 3

The British get the draw again with the activation cards. Only half of mine get activated.

Their left flank hold back to allow their large gun to fire. This flaw in their deployment does not stop them destroying my riflemen!!!!!!

Their right starts to engage my units behind the fence while their right most unit swings around to face the threat of my two militia unit on their flank (my plan is working)

I open fire against the highlanders and inflict 2, both unsaved. While that would normal be the end of any unit as it would be only 1SP strong so would roll only one die but  due to the large size of this highlander unit (5SPs) they are now the size of a normal unit!

Turn 4 Only the British get activated and move ever closer before the End of turn card is drawn. While I can fire I cannot make any moves. The British are too close for comfort, I cannot allow them to get into melee with mine.

I do manage to inflict another hit on the Highlanders but take another couple of hits from his guns.

Turn 5

End of Turn card drawn immediately.

Both sides fire and I take another 3 hits which convinces me it is time to leave the field.

For this turn I can only respond with firing and hit again the highlanders  as well as a loyalist unit.

 

Turn 6

First bit of luck, I get my army activation card. The plan was to run but………………… if I fired and caused casualties, I believe a number of the British units may fail their morale. If I don’t hit or they don’t fail their morale then when the brigade card are drawn I can extradite them then.

My boys had their eye in as every unit caused a hit. Unfortunately every hit was saved!

The next card out was the End of Turn so I had nothing to fire, having already been activated but the British opened up and caused another hit wiping out a state militia unit in my centre leaving a gap in my line.

Turn 7

The first cards out were all American so I managed to start the extraction process although one unit did get caught up on the fencing so were shot in the back by the British.

Their cavalry had just started to appear around the back of the woods so definitely time to go.

End of Turn card frustrated the British and allowed me to slip away, bruised and battered but happy that a good fight had been put up.

Outcome

The British lost 105 pts of infantry and the American 112 points.  A draw on points as neither side inflicted more than 10% than received,  but as the British held the ground a minor victory was awarded to them.

As it was a minor victory it did not amend any of the units rating, a major victory or loss is required to do this for the British.

We rolled to see was reinforcements were available to bring the units back up to strength and called it a day.

We both agreed that the system had worked well and gave us a really enjoyable game with pressures that we would not normally feel in a standard table top game.

AWI Campaign Ideas – Part 2

Since the last post I have been very busy but have still managed to add a bit more to the campaign idea.

We have agreed that the campaign will:

• Play the boardgame “Skirmish” as normal until there is either a major battle or a naval battle. This is when both forces end their move in the same area.
• Transfer this to the table top –  Each counter (Land or ship) =100pts
• Before the campaign starts each counter is numbered and a force representing it is picked (see below).
• After the battle forces are reviewed and consolidated with surplus counters being removed.
• Each unit is to be tracked and their ratings can be modified depending on things such as: winning/losing/ engaged enemy.
• The boardgame  has a watermark effect which shows hills, very subtle but this will be used to determine if the tabletop game (Land) will be set up as plain or hilly.
• I have also used an Excel sheet to generate the terrain layout.

Here is the initial layout with a few of the counters numbered

Here is an example of what the counters represent.

Army Lists

Random Brigade

If anyone would like the spreadsheets then here they are.

awi-american-brigades awi-british-brigades

When the battle is to be played I transfer the units to their tabletop organisation.

This allows me to copy the cells from the bottom depending upon the units in the brigades and paste into their tabletop structure above. One of the Brigadiers becomes the CiinC. This can then be printed and used to track units through the game.

Here is the original excel sheets for both the British and Americans

dummy-record-sheet

I have also been painting a few units ready for our first game

A heavy gun and crew from Foundry

Militia

Militia

Militia Brigade

Lee’s Legion in Skirmish formation

State Militia

Riflemen

The Grand battery. L to R Light,Medium,Light,Howitzer and Heavy

Howitzer

Medium with Light to the left

Light

The British view hopefully

Hope this is of some interest. Next blog I will cover the terrain generator.

January’s Game – The Bridge

Have had a bit of down time with war-gaming with Christmas etc.

Now I am back in the flow as we all got together for our first game of the new year.

We decided to put on an AWI game.

Background. 

Both sides had identified the need to secure a river crossing. The British had sent a small force to take and hold the objective. This included what can best be described as a Light Brigade consisting of Light infantry , Hessian Jagers and Indians!

Thankfully for the British they out marched their line infantry companions and made it to the bridge before anyone else.

Arrival for both sides was random, see OOB

Rules

We used our old favourites, Fields of Honor with house rules for the Indians.

Commanders

Americans – Laurie and Steve

British – Nathan

Umpire – Me

 

The Battle

The British lights had decided to strategically place themselves behind the fence line and await the on coming Americans. This was also described by the American command as hiding!

The Americans were the first to get their 2nd Brigade on the table followed the next turn with a quick 6 bring on their last brigade. The British were a little slower and at one point it looked like the Americans would be engaging in melee with the lights before any British support arrived. The Americans sent two brigades up the road and another towards the river beside the fields as they believed the river to be fordable.

The American lead brigade of militia got held up in a fire fight with the British lights, this in turn blocked the road and never really managed to allow the 3rd Brigade to pass them and get into the fight. The 3rd brigade got so frustrated that they resorted to deploying their artillery on the bridge to provide supporting fire. While this did help, it also blocked the bridge forcing the infantry to wade across the river. On their left flank they had crossed the river just in time to engage the British 3rd Brigade that had finally advanced up the road.

Both sides traded shots and attempted to engage in melee but the willingness and determination of the militia was never quite enough.

Attrition managed to whittle the Americans down in to a too weakened a force to carry the day. They withdrew in good order to fight another day allowing the British to sneak out from the fences and hold the bridge( American commander not me).

Here are a few shots of the game. Figures are Perry and Foundry and from both Nathan and my own collections.

This was the first game of AWI that Steve and Laurie had played and both confessed it was an interesting era and may possibly pick some figures up at their local show PAW2016 which is on in a couple of weeks.

 

 

July 4th Game. It can only be AWI – Guilford Courthouse

Well from the date I should have been prepared. But it was only the night before our game day when Nathan  point out the date and why were we doing a Napoleonic game?

With only a few hours notice I came up with the following interpretation of Guilford Courthouse.  I would never normally use unpainted figures but we just did not have enough painted for all units. So please accept my apologies.

The Battle of Guilford Court House was fought on March 15th, 1781.

This battle at first sight could look a hard or pointless one to play. The British with 1900 men compared to the American 4500. I like this battle as it really pushes the British player and their choice of tactics. The vast amount of the American force was militia! That said, they are behind fencing with support on the flanks and to the rear. All that was asked of them was 3 shots and then they could retire. More importantly Nathanael Greene had taken some advice and positioned a few chosen men behind the militia with orders to shoot the first to run, at least until they had fired their three!

The British really only had one way to attack. Up the main road, hoping to clear the 3 defensive lines of Americans without losing too many themselves.

Historically

The battle raged for around two hours with progress being slow due to the heavy amounts of hand to hand required to clear the fences with the bayonet!  Greene decided his mainly Militia force should retire to fight another day and ordered his troops to disengage and retire. This gave the British the ground and the victory but it was at too heavy a cost. The British had received  nearly 25% casualties not enabling  Cornwallis to effect a pursuit.  Greene managed to retreat his army nearly in tact with less than 5% casualties.

Battle of Guilford Courthouse: Aftermath

Cornwallis did not/could not pursue Greene’s army. Instead, Cornwallis abandoned his campaign for the Carolinas and led his troops towards Virginia and Yorktown. There they were besieged by a joint force of American and French and after 3 weeks on Oct 19th 1781, Cornwallis was forced to surrender.

Our game

The figures are  Perry and Foundry. From both Nathan and my own collections.

Fields are a cut up doormat from Homebase, evening before. One made all the fields and only £8.99

Snake fences from Treefella on eBay

Trees mostly home made with a few from K&M – see earlier blog on how I made them.

Courthouse is really North American PLANTATION/ TOWN HOUSE w. PORCH from Arcane Scenery and Models – not sure if they are the manufacturer. This was finished this morning!

We used our favourite rules for this period ” Field of Honor” the AWI version. If you ever see a copy pick them up they are good even if someone should have spent a bit of time proof reading as sometime they miss the odd word out. They also come with a full campaign set of rules and 2 large colour fold out map and counters to replay a number of scenarios. We have added a few house rules which can add a little more what ifs.

Being honest the game played out pretty much like the real thing. Sniping from the American riflemen caused the British to slow down until they realised that they had to clean them which they did, though at a cost. The 1st line of militia held up well and managed to cause a few casualties before in one turn it all went wrong. One of the militia units took a hit and because I had given the first line a shaken status I rolled a one and off they went. Unfortunately a couple other units saw them go and decided to follow! Their command and even Greene himself tried to rally them but nothing was stopping them.

The British moved on to the second line and after a firefight with no clear winner they went in with the bayonet. This had the desired effect of clearing some of the second line but it was at a cost to high for the British commander to consider tackling the 3rd line. I like Greene retire my forces having sent a commander on what must have been a thoroughbred racehorse to catch and stop the militia.

You will find the map, combined OOB and record sheet and some options on representing the Militia.

We are glad we tried this scenario and cannot wait to try it again.

Option1.

In this game I started the 1st line, militia as shaken. This will help replicate the shakiness of them. If you want to replicate the above use of regulars, encouraging  them to stand and fire three, then they could start the game as Steady

Option 2.

Fire three rounds.

Tempted to fire three and retire. Check morale of the militia as soon as a British unit becomes visible to them. On a fail, the unit fires regardless of the range. Pass and they don’t fire. Check every turn. Once they have fired the three:

• Their morale automatically drops to shaken

Or

• They test morale with a -1 for having fired their 3 rounds. This could remain in throughout the remainder of the game . They are just itching to get away.

Peninsula Napoleonic – Our Saturday Game 13/06/2015

Time for our Saturday game.

Nathan had never played Peninsula Napoleonics nor in fact 28mm. I decided to do a little scenario for him to get familiar with the troops and the rules. ( My own, King George Commands and We Obey).

The Orders of battle:

Allied

CinC – Exceptional 48″ command range

Army Guns – Foot Artillery Medium/ B/E/C 3SP

Brigade – Picton

Highlanders – B/B/B 3SP

Line – B/C/C 3 SP

Line – B/C/C 3 SP

Attached coy skirmishers – B/C/C 1 SP

Cavalry Brigade –

Light Dragoons – D/C/C 1 SP

Light Brigade

95th Rifles – A/B/A 3SP may skirmish, rifle armed

52nd light Infantry – B/C/B 3SP may skirmish

Attached coy skirmishers 60th Royal American – B/B/B 1 SP rifle armed

Spanish Brigade

Line – D/C/D 3 SP – may not deploy skirmish coy

Line – D/C/D 3 SP – may not deploy skirmish coy

Line – D/C/D 3 SP – may not deploy skirmish coy

Attached Skirmisher coy – B/C/C 1 SP

French

CinC -Poor 12″ command range

Brigade 1

Line – C/C/C 3SP

Line – C/C/C 3SP

Line – C/C/C 3SP

Light – B/D/C 3SP may deploy as skirmishers

Brigade 2

Line – C/C/C 3SP

Line – C/C/C 3SP

Line – C/C/C 3SP

Light – B/D/C 3SP may deploy as skirmishers

Foot Artillery Medium C/E/C 3 SP

Brigade 3

Line Irish – C/C/C 3SP

Line  Swiss- C/C/C 3SP

Attached coy skirmishers – C/D/C 1 SP

Chasseurs a Cheval D/C/C 1SP

Cavalry Brigade

Dragoons D/C/C 3 SP

Dragoons D/C/C 3 SP

The Game.

We had a 6×4 table with a village on each flank and a hill line that the Allies were defending .

The French came on in the same old way with the right flank brigade (3) taking the village ahead of them with a plan to advance through it and the orchard to engage the Spanish, defeat them and turn the allies’ left flank. All this while the other infantry brigades advancing under a skirmisher screen take the hill line. The French Dragoons there to exploit any gaps etc.

Well that was the plan!

All started well with both sides trading shots and no real damage. Turn 3 was a telling moment. The draw of activation cards did not go well for the French and the reality of a poor commander started to show. He was unable to influence the whole battle field, so the dragoons and brigade 3’s movement ground to a halt.  This timed with some first class counter battery fire silenced the guns in Brigade 1 who were supporting the advancing brigade.

The French centre starts to make it way up the slopes. The Pathetic British cavalry advance forward and could potentially threaten the French units in brigade 1 who are in Attack column. Not to worry the Dragoons will ride them down!

Turn 6 was the defining turn!

The second activation card was the Fate Fortune card. The result was master spy in play. Nathan won and so he looked at the next 6 cards and rearranged them to an order of play he wished. This allowed all his brigades to fire with devastating effect and his cavalry to charge into the side of my attack columns. The six card being end of turn, therefore my French never got to move. Over the next three turns his unit of cavalry dispatched two columns who all failed to react and form square or inflict any damage. Too  late I did manage to activate my dragoons to charge into the rear of the British cavalry, getting rid of them. My centre in ruins, a strong British presence still on the ridge and slow moving French Allies through the town we called it a day and a British Victory.

Here are a few pictures from the game and latest version of the rules.

The Battle

Picton’s Brigade holding the right of the hill

British Light Brigade

Spanish Brigade

French Brigade 1 held up by British Light Dragoons

French dragoons save what is left of the day!

French Allies take the town

French brigade 2 advances to the hill line

Spanish move up and skirmishers open fire

French Artillery open fire

KGCAWO rules V1.2