WW II Mini Campaign

I thought I'd try out a mini-campaign format using the WWII Rules from
Introduction. I've made a considerable number of additional house rules to get
them where I want them to be. My playtesting is now flushing out refinements and clarifications for me to rule on and satisfy my own understanding of the rule
procedures.

The campaign was based on an example from Miniature Wargaming where a contributor showed 7 linked scenarios which together formed a linear mini-campaign. It was based on a US mixed arm contingent in late 1944 trying to winkle out a determined German formation, low on armour but pretty well equipped with anti-tank and anti-personnel weaponry.

The first game which I've just completed was a real eye opener for me. It came
as a real surprise to the US commander who naively expected an easy victory. The
opposite was the case. The Americans had game units representing A and B company
and a couple of Shermans. The Germans had no armour but possessed a Pak 40 and
two MMG positions in addition to their rifle units. They were tasked with
defending the Twin Farms which was near their baseline, behind a stream and
bridged at the village, defended by most of the German forces. They also had an
advanced formation deployed on Hill 219 within a ruined building and some
dispersed woodland.

The Germans managed to keep themselves concealed and ambush the US advance. With
some great die rolls they decimated the attackers. The Pak 40 made a good kill
on one of the Shermans while the concealed Panzerfaust Team performed the
classic side knock out of the other Sherman using the reserved fire rule.

With their armour eliminated, no HE capability and yet with a couple of
pillboxes to reduce, the US commander conceded defeat and managed to extricate
his remaining armoured infantry units.

The game highlighted a few rules to clarify - but no major changes like my
previous playtests - so I think I'm getting much happier with them. I
particularly like the flexibility they seem to support. This was a small scale
encounter - 7 US units v 4 German - and the rules perfectly supported this
smaller scale level.

Next game is the crossing at Pont-De-La-Croix. Hopefully my US commander has
learned a couple of things from the first game.

Dark Age Rules: Norman v Anglo-Saxon Game

I haven't played as many Dark Age games as I'd planned so I thought I'd start
putting this to right by having a classic line-up I always enjoy simulating.
This was a Norman v Anglo-Saxon battle based on the Hastings format.

Both armies looked pretty menacing. The Saxons were well positioned on two long
hills with a good compliment of steady, reliable foot, deployed in shieldwall.
In contrast the Normans decided to maximise their foot and archer contingents to
perform the initial assault. This, with hindsight had some consequences for
their performance, and significantly diminished their key advantage of mobility
and shock impact.

I also should have made one of their archer units crossbowmen. The Saxon
shieldwall was very resilient to hits and more penetrative power would have been
useful in weakening the defenders prior to the infantry assault.

The Normans were a bit hesitant in their advance. Again I should have really
used the cavalry to menace the flanks more. The Saxons on the hill proved to be
too hard a nut to crack. Despite some good flanking moves later in the game, the
Normans had already lost the infantry contest and the Saxons retained too much
defensive power to be removed from their position.

It was a good game but I felt the Norman generals frustration and there will be
lessons learned for a future contest. The use of Retainers as light cavalry was
interesting – in future I'll either have more to menace the flanks and get round
the shieldwall or promote these to Heavy Cavalry as the optional rules indicate
to get more shock impact. There really wasn't enough cavalry for the Normans to
shine.

On reflection I think I was having a bad hair day regarding my Hastings
re-enactment.

I was giving the Saxons far too much advantage. Not only were they on hills
which gave them first round benefit, I forgot to stop using the +1 dice for
integrated archers after the first round. I also allowed their shieldwalls the
superior save even if charged in flank or rear.

There is no ruling that states this shouldn't be the case but checking out some
other rules and reflecting logically on this I don't feel this should be allowed
as the interlocking of shields is to the front of the unit. If anything there
might be more chaos when attacked in the rear / flank. For missile fire I would
also limit this +1 dice for frontal assaults which aligns to the arc of fire.

My simulated William was right to curse the fates as he was too handicapped by
his enemy's positional strength and some cranky rules interpretations. A
re-match is on the cards.

English Civil War Using the Pike & Shot Rules From Introduction

Thought I'd have a venture into the late Renaissance with an early ECW encounter between a veteran Royalist force and Early Parliamentarian army.

I adopted a later Renaissance unit configuration for infantry with bases arranged 3 wide by 2 deep. This seemed more in keeping with the look of the period with the shot arranged on the respective flanks. It did cause some maneover problems but I quite like these constraints on moving around - reminds me of Armati which does limit your movement options and penalises poor deployment. This seems to ba a cardinal sin of a commander to not visualise where his units will be in the next couple of moves. Bit like chess. I'm afraid I'm not possessed of this foresight - which is a mixed blessing. As I play solo I make mistakes and can't over plan the army moves which adds to the chaos.

The game played rather faster than I thought it would. The Parliamentarians performed much better on the day. The Royalists just didn't seem to have their hearts in the contest with generally lower dice rolls and an unwillingness to commit their combat power. With piecemeal success the Parliamentarians suddenly found themselves three units ahead and closed in on the remaining Royalists who still had a spirited defence but were eventually contained and reduced to two units. Parliament was also poised to start looting the baggage in the rear so Royalist collapse was inevitable.

Observations from the contest. My first venture using the rules in the ECW. It didn't dissapoint. Gave me a quick and realistic game with some nice looking units, interesting battlefield restrictions due to the clumsy unwieldy formations and some dashing displays of cavalry tactics. The additional shot element in the Parliamentarian units gave them some slight advantages and made a firefight more alluring. The Royalists tactic became apparent with a need to get to grips with the enemy and use that pike advantage. This was particularly useful vs the enemy reiters and cuirassiers where pikes use 3 dice. Get them on the flanks in a pincer and despite some medium / heavy armour they usually vapourise.

A good game. Long live Parliament!

Brian

French Revolution Period Game

I decided the other day to try out an early Revolutionary encounter between a
French Republican force and an Old Regime Austrian army. I also wanted a big
game so I doubled the size of forces giving me 16 French v 12 Austrian. The
latter were governed by the small is beautiful rule which limits these forces to
six units. By the way they did look rather nice with neat lines of deployed
infantry and cavalry.

The French in contrast had four masses of brooding hordes. This was the first
time I'd played with hordes and was looking forward to see how they would fare
in the game.

The battle moved fast with both the French and Austrians advancing to gain some
positional advantage. The French then drove heavily on the left flank and used
their skirmishers in a massed cloud to mask their advancing hordes and
interspersed regular regiments.

The advance really felt quite authentic as the cavalry worked around the
Austrian flank and the hordes unleashed themselves on the weakened Austrian
lines. Hordes have quite a punch when they get to grips. At full strength that
is a minimum of 16 dice for hits. They managed to blow away a couple of lines
which seemed quite realistic. The counter to Hordes was pretty limited and
seemed to hinge on getting as many morale instances pre-contact to invoke the
double morale test which on a couple of occassions really hurt. Overall I did
like the Hordes unit type and how it was simulated.

Back to the battle and the French managed to constrict the Austrians around
their central position. With the left flank being rolled up the centre pinned
and the right threatened by fresh French troops the valiant Austrian General put
up a brave rearguard action but seemed doomed to defeat which finally occurred
after some 16 turns of intensive fighting. The end result was 9 v 2, however,
the French were pretty depleted regarding their remaining units.

On reflection a great game, plenty of period flavour which the simulation
brought out. Hordes look good en masse and with four of these 8 stand beasts I
had quite an aesthetic effect and pleasant contrast to the neat and ordered
Austrian lines.

I did find that maneovre of lines was a real headache, as I would imagine the
real battle commanders would have found. This particularly hindered the
Austrians who were unable to deploy all their muskets to best effect in their
firing lines.

Vive la Révolution!

Brian

Desert War Wargame using WWII Rules from Introduction

I felt the urge to put some more of my Xmas purchases to good use with a confrontation I'd been contemplating for some time. I got some H&R 8th Army and Afrika Corps and combined with the armour I already had this amounted to enough fighting power to put on a good sized Desert War game.

I used to play a lot of this in 20mm and used rules such as Operation Warboard. Before that I experimented with the John Sandars rules in An Introduction to Wargaming. These really captured the feel of the conflict for me and combined with some inspiring pictures of his scratch built tanks and airfix figures and models it still strikes a very nostaligic cord.

So I recreated something along the lines of the battle in the book using the WWII Rules in the Introduction volume. Not quite the Jock Column against the German recce unit but more a full on battalion sized engagement involving some Matilda and PzIII armour support.

The British were set the enviable task of securing a sparsely occupied ridge and

driving through to the end of the board. I had the long edge as the sides so the

battle was a bit different from my usual setup.

The British started well and got better as the game went on. The luck factor was

evident or should I say the lack of it on the German side. They lost a clear chance to stamp their dominance early by losing their 88m gun. This was spotted by advancing infantry and once located fell prey to a host of small arms and mortar fire with very poor saving throws eliminating the entire crew before it had fired a shot. Worse was to come when a long range Matilda shot took out one of the PzIII advancing in the open from the German base line.

The Germans tried to regain the initiative but the superior numbers of British forces were starting to tell. They had more units deployed up front and within firing range while the Germans still had two armoured infantry units and a PzIII

moving up from the rear.

The Germans managed to hang on for another couple of turns but soon it was clear, once they were reduced to two effective units and no armour support, that

the British, who still retained all their vehicles were going to prevail and comprehensively achieve their objective.

This was a bit of a surprising result as the British looked as though they were going to have a real tough time advancing on the German forces, however, the early elimination of the rather exposed 88 position which wasn't adequately protected and losing a tank proved to be decisive factors in what eventually became a bit of a rout.

Hurrah to the British, however, I'll play the Germans a bit more thoughtfully next time. Better anti-tank preparation seems to be in order.

This was a great game and I was playing it on my reversed sand coloured board

with homemade dunes and rocky patches. I'll get round to producing some desert scrub and the odd dwelling for future games. The rules as always played well. These are probably the ones I've modified the most and I'm reaching the point now where I'm very comfortable with them

Cheers

Brian