Numbers, Wargames and Arsing About : Hold The Line

Showing posts with label Hold The Line. Show all posts

Tuesday, 22 May 2018

News and...

news!

Not war in the Grey Zone (well not yet!) but the latest civil defence advice by the Swedish Government entitled "If Crisis or War Comes". A fascinating document, it reflects the increasing unease in Scandanavia and the Baltics about Russian posturing. Among the interesting things it says is that everyone from 16-70 is required to contribute to Sweden's Total Defence, in the army or civil organisations. It also makes the very striking statement that:

If Sweden is attacked by another country, we will never give up. All information to the effect that resistance is to cease is false.

As a child of the Cold War, under the very realistic threat of nuclear weapons, I recall being rather concerned about the public information films on TV. Not the namby pamby Protect and Survive but the "you have got four minutes from when you hear this siren!". Makes you think!

On the happier and safer wargame front, first up is some interesting news from Worthington. Not only are they prepping a Hold The Line ACW game but now they are working on:

HOLD THE LINE: SQUAD COMMANDER EUROPE

Squad level combat in Europe during WWII using the Hold the Line system. American, British, Russian, Italian, and German forces fighting in a streamlined tactical system based on the Hold the Line system.

Not sure if this won't look a bit like Columbia's Combat Infantry but nevertheless right up my street!

The other new thing is Tiny Battle's Dark War.

It is an RPG and has vampires and stuff in it, so not my normal sort of game. However, it is set in 1985 in a small German town in the aftermath of a Hot War and is a small scale skirmish game with AK47s and RPGs so has a very Twilight 2000 feel. It also has stands so you can make your counters stand up (standees!). I like that idea very much.

Friday, 18 December 2015

Midwinter update....

Weather hot but the news is cool!

I haven't posted for a while due to pressures of the day job. However, I have not stopped thinking about stuff which will now have to go on the list for next year. So, a nice opportunity before Christmas to get my thoughts in order.

1. Battlefield Hobbies: This is a new wargames store and gaming facility(?). I came across their Facebook page by accident via PBIcandy. A new wargames store is always pretty rare. What's even more rare is that this one is situated only a short walk from my house in Daventry. Simply unbelievable. Judging by the clientele in the photo I'll fit right in. I'll check it out tomorrow and will do a short write up. I'll even take some photos.

2. Airfix Battles: This project is continuing to surprise me. I see that Benthamfish is now engaged in the game design process. You can check his blog here! This looks like it might be very good indeed.

3. Aurelian: A new game from Sam Mustafa. This looks like Blucher with ancients. The BGG entry reads like this:

Aurelian is a tabletop game about the Crisis of the Third Century, the period during which the Roman empire nearly disintegrated in constant civil war and foreign invasions.Players take one of four roles: a Roman, Germanic, Sarmatian, or Persian commander. Any number of players can conduct a campaign, in which each type of army has a different set of victory conditions. While holding off Rome's many enemies, the Roman players are also trying to defeat each other and ultimately become (and remain!) emperor.Aurelian can be played with miniatures, or with "unit tiles" on any flat surface, much in the same manner as Blücher's unit cards. The centerpiece of the game is the campaign, in which each player manages the fortunes of his character and faction, much in the manner of the campaigns in Maurice and Longstreet.

Sounds good. I have this vague idea that PSC have been mentioned in connection with this project but can't seem to find the reference.

4. Neil Thomas' Modern Rules: Well, not quite. Brian Cowan has just published his interpretation of Neil Thomas' second world war rules on the AMW Yahoo Group. Brian has done a great job. The rules include army lists for Vietnam, Yom Kippur, Falklands, Cold War Europe, Modern wars in Afghanistan etc. Well worth a look.

5. Nordic Weasel: Well I'm a dedicated Weasel fan. I'm not sure that sounds good, but it is. The Fivecore series rolls on with this really tempting collection of additional and optional rules. Available for very little ($3.99) from the Wargames Vault. Also on my Weasel list are Laserstorm (sci-fi) and War Story (a narrative based game). This is great stuff, mainly because it is very simple (just like me) and completely interchangeable. My Somewhere in Africa game will use all three levels of Fivecore (skirmish, company and brigade). Looking forward to it next year.

Also, the Polemos GNW rules are now re-released by Baccus and also on the Vault for not much. Something else for Santa to sort out (actually that means I have to pay for it and my wife says, "Happy Christmas").

6. Horse and Musket: This is the Hold the Line adaptation in development by Sean Chick. The rules are now available on BGG as well as a Vassal module so you can get to it now. No news about a publisher yet but its definitely on my list when it comes out.

7. Ideas: Yep, still having some. Thankfully, other people come up with them and I play with them. Two important things so far this month:

Kaptain Kobold has done some more work on his OHW ECW rules. These are very interesting and I may re-visit my ECW hex based interpretation as a result. Dashing cavalry anyone?
Combat model for Tannenberg: I have really been struggling with this. I've got a map and OBs and a good idea about time and space. However, the combat model is just missing and I have not been able to get excited about it. Never fear, someone else has had a good idea and I'll just nick it. This idea comes from my chum Norm and his published game Anzio. More on this next year but its a real relief that I have finally got to grips with it.

Unfortunately, its back to work now with a lot to do before Christmas. Hopefully I'll post again before the big day. Cheers.

Thursday, 29 October 2015

We interrupt this programme.....

with some top news

Actually a couple of bits...

1. Horse and Musket: Dawn of an Era

By Sean Chick, top bloke and designer of Frederick's War:

"Horse and Musket: Dawn of an Era is a simple tactical game based on the Hold the Line system that covers the development of musket warfare from Vienna in 1683 and Sedgemoor in 1685 to Appomattox in 1865. Volume I will cover warfare in the west from 1683-1739, when the bayonet replaced the pike."

Check out the blurb at BGG.

I can't wait. Sean needs a publisher!

2. Hold the Line

"Received a note from Worthington Publishing that the Hold the Line System will be remastered after the first of 2016. Kudos to Worthington -- this is a good system."

BGG rumour or not? Who knows.

Sunday, 23 November 2014

Scotland Rising!

New stuff for Xmas

I got Scotland Rising through the Kickstarter exercise over the summer. This is a really good game about the battle of Bannockburn in 1314. The game is an interesting twist on the Hold the Line system, one I enjoy very much.

As has been pointed out by various reviewers, although a good game it is pretty expensive for what it is. I had hoped that it would come with two stretch goals, additional games covering Stirling Bridge 1297 and Falkirk 1298. The bad news was that the Kickstarter didn't get that far. The good news is that both extras are being made available as print n play games from the Worthington Games website.

Both maps are available as PDFs. These are smaller than the Bannockburn map and come in at 11" by 17" and are easily produced at the local print shoppe.

The Stirling Bridge rules and set-up map (see below) have now been made available. There is a promise of the additional material for Falkirk before Xmas.

Both games can be played with the counters from the Bannockburn game (a pity we don't get a Wallace counter!). These should provide a nice, and very cheap, diversion over the holidays.

Talking of diversions, it should shortly be time for the Consim World annual funding drive so we can expect a few more freebies to come from that.

Saturday, 5 July 2014

Hold the Line: Scotland Rising Review

An unusual post for me, I've had to work out how to put in the video link! I don't normally post videos, the reason for this one being the subject. I have invested in the Kickstarter project for this game and am hoping that there will be sufficient backers to achieve a couple of key goals, the first is the inclusion of a separate game on the battle of Stirling bridge in 1297 and the second a game on the battle of Falkirk in 1298.

Marco concludes that this is a good game, which I would fully expect coming from the Hold the Line stable, but that if Bannockburn is the only game in the box it probably is not value for money. Personally I'd love to have Bannockburn, Stirling Bridge and Falkirk, but with 15 days to go and a cool $4,000 off the pace just for Stirling bridge, I'm not holding my breath.

The game is due out in August and I'm looking forward to it. From my point of view the simple mechanics and the subject are likely to get the kids engaged with this game. It will be worth it just to do that.

Friday, 9 May 2014

Dude, I got boats!

And injuns

I openly admit to having the willpower of someone without willpower. While pondering combat calculations (again) I reviewed the Hold the Line rules. I then wondered why I had never got round to buying the FIW expansion. Then I panicked, was it still available? A quick whiz round the online stores seemed to indicate it was getting a little scarce. I found found one at a good price from Board Game Guru and it arrived today while I was at work.

This is just very very nice. Made in Germany with top quality die cutting, you get some gorgeous French, Indian and Roger's Rangers counters with trees, forts, Indian villages and boats! The counters are so thick that when you drop then on a desk they sound like they are made of wood.

There are five scenarios (Bloody Bridge, Montmorency Falls, Ste Foy, Louisbourg and the Battle on Snowshoes. The BGG page has three nice home made scenarios as well. I'm very much looking forward to this, as soon as I've enjoyed the feeling of pushing the counters out of the frame. Cool!

Monday, 21 April 2014

Venture Fair

A prototype Montrose game

Long long ago I started out to write a version of Stephen Simpson's 1745 rules for the campaigns of Montrose. They were called "Nil Medium Est" (No Middle Way). And here they are in all their hand written glory!

My main source was Auldearn by Stuart Reid (Campaign 123) and that remains the primary basis for the scenarios, see below.

I have been frustrated with these rules for a long time because, although only two pages long, they still feel too complex. I also had a big problem with the maps and how to actually draw them.

I have taken some decisions and had a bright idea. Ideally the game will be played on a hex grid and use toy soldiers. At present my Baccus ECW troops are unpainted and hidden in the garage. Therefore this prototype uses counters. They also use a map, in this case, the M44 scenario editor has been used. The M44 editor does not produce really printable maps but for a prototype it is just the thing. Once the troops are sorted I could even play on the Hold the Line map using the HTL tiles.

One map herewith for the battle of Aberdeen.

Graphics copyright Days of Wonder

And here are some counters I made.....

I'm quite pleased with these. Not good enough for a final print but good for a trial run. And last but not least, here is a test set up for Aberdeen.

Now I can get down to designing some new rules. These will be called "Venture Fair" after Montrose's code name. Hurrah!

Wednesday, 27 November 2013

Hold the Line: lead the way

Leaders in HTL

Fine sausages Sir!

He wasn't called Butcher for nothing. The Duke of Cumberland, a competent leader and inventor of the famous sausage.

Leaders in HTL are very important. Apart from the use of the commanders' capability to save APs for the next turn, leaders will:

rally a unit they are stacked with (remove losses) if the leader is activated by spending an AP;

help a unit they are stacked with to force march (move one extra hex);

add their leadership rating to a defending unit's morale rating when testing during close combat;

add their leadership rating to a heavy cavalry unit when it tests its morale for the purposes of withdrawing before combat.

They are also resilient. If alone in a hex that is entered by an enemy unit they are displaced to the nearest friendly unit. Likewise if they are in a hex with a friendly unit subsequently destroyed in combat. If accompanying a friendly unit that is forced to retreat, they follow the retreating unit. However, there is a chance that leaders will be killed in both fire and close combat if any "ones" are thrown in the combat. If you lose a leader it costs you 1 VP.

In the five Highland Charge scenarios there are one, two or three leaders with values of either 1 or 2. Good commanders rated 2 include Argyll, Rob Roy, Murray and Munro. Despite his achievements, Cumberland rates only a 1. Cheer for your favourites!

Rob Roy didn't invent any sausages, unfortunately

Analysis: In board game terms none of this is terribly new. In some ways it reminds me of the old SPI Thirty Years Quad. Not that that is a bad thing, quite the contrary. These are tried and tested mechanisms that allow a range of battlefield command issues to be modelled quite well.

Monday, 25 November 2013

Hold the line again...

Getting to grips with the rules for Highland Charge

I like this game so much I'm spending some time and effort getting properly into the rules. This is for two reasons

1. I think the rules are very good but they are written in a way that makes it hard for me to properly comprehend them. If I take them apart and re-assemble them I will fully understand them (imagine what I used to be like with complicated stuff?).

2. I have some plans for these rules. In particular, once I'm happy I understand Highland Charge I'm very tempted to use them to design scenarios for the battles of Montrose. I can't see any reason why they shouldn't work and may even then take them further and look a the rest of the ECW. The other idea that popped into my head recently was to use these rules for FPW or even WW1. The command limitations and slow movement rates would be particularly interesting for WW1.

BPC, nice wig, shame about the limited command capacity!

So, lets take a look first at the command rules which are the motor of the game....

Action points: Each player has a number of leaders (up to three), one of whom is the overall side commander. Each scenario allocates a base number of APs per side. This varies from one (minimum) to three (maximum). Each player rolls a d3 and adds the score. This score is modified: -1 for each of the player's leaders that have been eliminated but +1 if the player's overall commander had a rest in the preceding turn (i.e. was not activated).

There is also an interesting option to save APs from one turn to the next. The limit on this is the commander's leadership rating. The commander must also still be alive when using these extra APs and they must be used in the turn immediately after they have been saved.

What does all this mean? Well, in the scenarios in the Highland Charge book, the maximum number of APs that might be used in a turn is eight! That is, 3 scenario APs plus maximum 3 on the d3. No leaders eliminated and army commander rested on previous turn (+1). Add +2 APs carried forward (the maximum is 2 as that is the highest commander rating, given to Argyll in Sheriffmuir). That makes 9 but as Argyll's scenario points are 2, the maximum that can be scored is eight.

Analysis: Unlike PIP type games, there is some skill in managing your APs. It is possible to build up to a large scale winning attack. There is still some luck, but this is perhaps less decisive than some of the issues with CnC card driven games which can leave you in a pickle.

Saturday, 26 October 2013

Hold the line..

Putting you through now Sir! One of my favourite diversionary tactics is to order something through the post and then spend a lot of time thinking about it when it arrives. This is entirely regardless of whether it actually relates to anything currently sitting on my desk. In this current example I now have a large box sitting where the Shermans ought to be with lots of very nice counters in it. To be fair, I've had this for a while but my recent postal arrival has caused me to rummage like a TB stricken badger and fill the study with STUFF!

The reason for this is the publication of Highland Charge by Worthington Games. This is a supplement to Frederick's War which has also been recently published. These games form part of an eclectic range of games known generically as Hold The Line, although each game has subtle differences. They usually have a 13 by 9 hex map and all have pretty much the same set of simple rules, reminiscent of Memoir 44/CnC but without the cards.

I have therefore rummaged out my Hold the Line game to allow me to play with Highland Charge.

It is probably worth starting at the beginning and seeing where this series of games came from. Initially, Worthington published Clash for a Continent about the American Revolutionary War (is this what we call it now?) and the French and Indian Wars. This was followed by a really interesting game on the War of 1812 called For Honor and Glory. not only did this cover the land battles but also the naval combats on the great Lakes and offshore (I mean at sea as usually naval combat is offshore).

Clash for a Continent

These two games came with thin wooden counters, a little like the CnC blocks from GMT. Both games seemed to take off with miniatures players, with many examples of the games being converted to large scale hex grids on material and played with toy soldiers. I suspect people were attracted by the simplicity of the games and the multiple scenarios. This next shot shows Lundy's Lane from For Honor and Glory which, I think, proves the point.

Lundy's Lane scenario

Both of these games were released in 2005 and are now out of print. I don't think they will ever be reprinted in their original format.

In 2008 Worthington published Hold the Line, a tidied up version of Clash for a Continent featuring completely new scenarios and some fantastic big counters made in Germany.

These counters are card but so thick they sound like plastic when you shuffle them together!

I understand that the earlier Clash for a Continent/For Honor and Glory scenarios can be played equally well with this set, unfortunately Worthington have not made a PDF of the earlier scenarios available. This is great pity especially as people, like me, would be prepared to pay for them. You can, however, see the scenarios on the relevant Vassal module (of which I know nothing).

In 2010 Worthington took a slight diversion and released Napoleon's War: The 100 days. This looked at the four battles of the 1815 campaign in Belgium. These games used plastic troops rather than counters (like Memoir) and gave up the limited size map and terrain tiles for a series of bespoke printed maps. These looked really good....

Waterloo map with plastic figures

This was followed-up by release of two battle packs featuring new maps for four battles each (Alexandria, Jena, Auerstadt and Bussaco in Pack I with four battles from 1812 in Pack II). These used the plastic playing pieces from the 100 Days game. A second major release with plastic pieces was issued in 2011, Napoleon's War II: The Gates of Moscow covering Borodino, Aspern-Essling, Austerlitz and Marengo.

None of these games are badged as Hold the Line, but the basic rules and game play are very similar.

The latest releases are Frederick's War covering the Austrian Succession and the aforementioned Highland Charge. Frederick's War has some eight scenarios including the big ones such as Mollwitz and Kolin. This returns the series to the 13 by 9 map with terrain tiles and with counters. Smaller square counters this time, not half as nice as the earlier ones but still pretty good. This game features some rules changes to better fit with the larger scale of the battles.

Highland Charge is an expansion covering five scenarios from the '15, '19 and '45 uprisings (Sheriffmuir, Glen Shiel, Prestonpans, Falkirk and Culloden). Killikrankie is also available as a download from Worthington. Here is the counter artwork....

Nice. However, there are some issues with Highland Charge. Sean Chick, the designer, has flagged up some errata including missing counters (promised in the next expansion) and some rules clarifications. Although the rules are simple they are quite difficult to follow and I'm sure there must be a more simple way of expressing them

I don't have Frederick's War but I intend to play Highland Charge using my HTL map and tiles. The latest set of rules (Frederick's War) are required to play the game but these are available on Worthington's website.

If the above narrative is slightly confusing, here is a quick ludography (?) of the series.

2005: Clash for a Continent (ARW/FIW)
2005: For Honor and Glory (1812 land and naval)

2008: Hold the Line (HTL)
2008: French and Indian War expansion

2010: Napoleon's War: The 100 Days
2010: Napoleon's War: Battle Pack I
2010: Napoleon's War: Battle Pack II
2011: Napoleon's War: The Gates of Moscow

2013: Frederick's War
2013: Highland Charge expansion

Also, there are a couple of things not yet on the list:

Gettysburg 150: Due very soon, this covers the whole battle of Gettysburg;
The potential next release which will cover the Great Northern War and has just entered play testing.

If that's not enough, Sean Chick released a PDF (on BGG on the HTL page under the files section) covering 15 battles from the Austrian Succession including some of those in Frederick's War (in prototype form) and some, like Dettingen and Fontenoy, obviously not involving Frederick.

What I haven't covered here is the rules and that's what I'll go through next time and explain why this is causing me to rummage around in my drawers....

The pictures here were sourced from BGG and Worthington's website except for the obviously naff one taken on my phone.