LittleWars1913

 Played two games with my new Minifigs 25mm SYW collection last week.

The first game was at the club on Monday night with one complete newbie and 3 of us who hadn't played Honours of War that much.  There was a fair amount of rules flcking but we didn't get anything wrong..

I took the Prussians alongside Ian and Norman and Justin took the Austrians.

The game went badly from the start with an independent Austrian Hussar unit making a double move to hit my Prussians in column who failed to change formation.  I rolled badly in the melee and the unit routed... How embarrassing...

I recovered but an hour or so later I managed to roll three 1s in a row in a series of cavalry melees, lost almost all my cavalry and we decided to call it a day and concede to the Austrians.


The second game was smaller, in my games room and against my regular opponent Anthony.
This time I took the Austrians and Anthony took the Prussians.

It was a close fought game and we both came to needing to break one unit to break the opposing army.  I managed some lucky shots with 2 artillery batteries on one of his cavalry units and victory went to the Austrians again...

The Guildford club have made some small modifications to Honours of War to use D6 throughout and reduce the effectiveness of artillery and some shooting.

I think they work very well as a set of SYW rules.

 

Played a scenario vaguely based on Quatre Bras at the Guildford Club on Monday night with my 54mm collection (well, a small part of it!) and the Frog and Toad rules - which are an enhancement of Neil Thomas Napleonic Wargaming to add some simple command and control.

Fun game and we both enjoyed it.

 

 

 

Anthony and I played a 54mm Blucher game on an 8'x 5' table.  I took the  French vs Anthony's British (as usual). 

We played through 16 turns (8 each) before having to stop as we ran out of time.  The game was  still pretty even at that point - I'd lost a light cavalry unit but his light cavalry was pretty spent and his allied infantry was starting to be worn down.

We were able to resume the game 3 days later and play it through to a conclusion.

 I finally finished off the scenery and played a game of Frostgrave at the Guildford Club last night.

Kept things simple and pregenerated a couple of Warbands.  One and Elementalist and one an llusionist.  They each had 8 figures: Wizard, Apprentice, 3 thugs, a thief, Archer and then either a treasure hunter or a barbarian.  Played the standard 5 treasure markers on a 3 x 3 table.

The game was fun and I came very close to getting the third treasure off the board before my luck ran out and I lost my final soldier.  I only had my Wizard left in the end (the Treasure Hunter and Thief had made it off the table with treasures).

We are playing another 3 sided game in two weeks.

Now that you are allowed to meet other people in your garden (at a distance), Anthony and I met up to try a "face to face" wargame.

I decided on Neil Thomas's One Hour Wargames rules as the weather had turned colder and I felt we didn't want to play a long game outside. As the time approached, the garden was quite windy and I was concerned that the terrain might be blown around, so I setup the game on a 3' x 4' board in our garden Pod which provided a sheltered place for the game.



I had setup a couple of chairs and side tables with dice rolling trays suitably spaced apart - here is Anthony in his General's seat...



The scenario was Take the High Ground and we used my 25mm Norman and Saxon collection which are based up as 5" wide units with 6 units a side.



The game started with 2 saxon units on the hill (the objective of the game) and the Normans entering on the southern edge. The game lasted 15 turns.



The other Saxon units arrived on turn 2 and we soon got stuck in to melee across the board - the rules give a good representation of dark age melee with shieldwall halving casualties and melees continuing until one side is destroyed.









I lost a couple of units fairly quickly as they were ganged up on by two of Anthony's units but was able to pull back towards the end of the game.

It was a very close game in the end with Anthony managing to hold on to the hill and preventing me getting a draw in the very last turn.

We played with the Dark Age rules as written but I would like to try using the Knights rules from the medieval set next time for Norman cavalry to see if that beefs them up a little.

On Wednesday afternoon my regular opponent, Anthony, and I met up virtually for another game using The Portable Wargame using Zoom video conferencing software. This time I setup a small North West Frontier scenario using my 54mm AIP collection of figures.



The screen setup was the same as last time with a mobile phone suspended above the table to give an overhead view and a laptop position on the other side of the table to give the illusion of playing across a table with an opponent.



The table setup was a little larger than before with a grid 8 deep by 12 wide. There was plenty of rocks providing cover and ruined fort which was the objective for the game. Whoever held the fort at the end of turn 15 was the winner...



The Afghans had 9 units including a 2 cavalry and 3 units armed with firearms. The Afghans have a fire range of 2, but can double move if they roll a 5,6. They are rated as average.



The British had 7 units including a gun. They have a fire range of 3 and count as elite.



The British deployed first and also took the first move, concentrating their Infantry on the fort, the Afghans deployed with a diversionary force on the other side of the river. The river is fordable but you have to stop when you enter it.




In the first turn, the afghan cavalry charged a double move hoping to score an easy early victory but forgot that they wouldn't be able to retreat, lost the melee and were destroyed..



The Afghans evened up the score after that with a British unit who enter the fort taking hits and also being eliminated.







The melee and shooting are inconclusive for a few turns with just one Afghan unit being eliminated and noone holding onto the fort. But the Afghan diversionary attack on the flank manages to eliminate the British gun without losing a unit.



The British have taken the fort, but how long can they keep it?





The British unit outside the fort are surrounded and finally their luck gives up as they are also eliminated.



There is just one British unit left and they are driven out of the fort by concentrated Afghan fire.



And the Afghans manage to gain control of the fort. Surely it is all over for the plucky British?







But no, on the very last turn (turn 15), the British charge the fort and push the afghans out - thereby winning the game!

It was a very close and exciting game in the end with the British just taking it on the final move.

I have a copy of the new Portable Colonial Wargames book but have some reservations about the new rules as written, so we used the original Portable Wargames rules with sudden death elimination and the ability of the natives to move twice if they throw a 5,6 after moving.

I will put together a post on my throughts about the Portable Wargame and why the original rules seem to suit our style of games rather than the newer ones... We are planning on trying out the new rules in a full game to see how they play.