Star Wars Memoir'44 Take Two

I managed to get in a quick game of Memoir'44 using my Clone Wars Risk figures. I decided on a Jungle Planet encounter using a CIS Force under General Grevious and a Jedi led Clone Army defending the river. The Guadacanal scenario was used for terrain and units and I represented the Japanese as the CIS with all their special rules and the Clone Army representing the US Marine Corps defenders. 

The game played to an exciting conclusion with a deep penetration by the CIS finally repelled by a sustained Clone barrage and commitment of their infantry reserves and armour unit. 

The C&C system can represent virtually any modern conflict including Sci-Fi and special rules can be tweaked and modified to give a little chrome without the overhead of undue complexity.

One Hour Wargames: Scenario 11 Surprise Attack

Today's wargaming jaunt was back to c1918 with a British v German encounter using scenario 11 in the OHW book. It's a tough one for the defender as they are heavily outnumbered at the start of the game. The German Major only had a company of infantry and battery of artillery to face off against an on-slaught of four infantry companies, a horse battery and troop of brand new Mk IV tanks. These lumbering behemoths avoided any breakdowns and made a speedy advance using the road bonus to overwhelm the battery, which despite making a tactical withdrawl was finally caught at the crossroads, the scenario objective.

The German re-enforcements began to arrive on turn 3 but already the British advance was gaining the upper hand. The German Major arriving on the scene tried to rally the battery and give it a bit of an edge against the tank assault but was lost with the demise of that unit on the next turn. 

I've added a close assault rule which allows a unit with less hits to force a morale check on the defender if they advance to within "assault" range. I've adapted this for other period rulesets where there is no explicit hand-to-hand for infantry interpreting this as column assaults, bayonet charges or shock tactics depending on sub-period. Not exactly melee rules but an indulgence to a need to get to short range to inflict psychological aswell as physical damage. It also feels right as units that fail the check must retreat which can mean being forced to relinquish terrain or be pushed off table. It works a bit like flags in M'44 in pushing forces back and disrupting the battleline. 

Anyway the British were trying to force the latter outcome on the two recently arrived German companies but these were stubborn troops that withstood the attack. Despite this the final German re-enforcement wave would not be until Turn 9. By turn 7 the German units on table had been lost so the British were in a strong place to adjust their forces to face the likely attack direction which I ruled they had anticipated correctly as being from the West. Despite a formidable German attack of two companies, one of which was Heavy Infantry, the superiority of firepower was overwhelming and when the Heavy Infantry were blown away the trailing second company decided that discretion better than valour and quietly slipped back off the table.

Observations of the game. A real tough proposition for the Germans. They weren't helped by some poor card event draws at the start that resulted in two turns of ammunition shortages! If I was playing again I might have given the defender some edge in terms of quality units. My elite rule allows these units to roll two dice and select the better score when fighting. It works nicely to give these units a consitently better performance in battle. 

The game stretched to turn 10 with a complete British victory. Despite appearing rather one-sided it still contained a surprising amount of variety and was an enjoyable WWI jaunt. I love playing the tank! 

One Hour Wargames: Scenario 24 Bottleneck

I played another scenario from the OHW Book. This time I used my Napoleonic figures with a Russian force as the attacker fielding 6 units against a French defending army of 4 units. The initial moves by the Russians got their units into favourable positions, however, the French had a couple of elite units, one of these some voltigeurs in a large wood (which was deemed impenetrable to the Russian player) and both of these units proved to be very effective during the game.

The armies were fully engaged by Turn 3. The opposing Cavalry squared up to each other and performed several charges and counter-charges while the infantry clashed where the bottleneck (caused by the wood and lake) restricted deployment.

By Turn 8 it was clear the French were having the better of the fight and managed to eliminate several Russian units including the Dragoons which gave them an edge in movement to threaten the remaining Russian infantry units and artillery.

By Turn 9 the Russians were reduced to one conscript Infantry unit so it was clear the game was over and I deemed the contest ended with a complete French victory. 

Special rules used in addition to the core mechanics were attached generals, Command Events (Random Event Cards), a Column Assault rule where I allow infantry that have more hit points to move to close range and trigger a morale check for the defending unit, firing ranges and unit gradings. None interfered with the game play and integrated nicely. I've played several games now using these modifications and they really add to the game experience with no real overhead.

 

One Hour Wargames: Scenario 19 Blow From the Rear

I played scenario 19 in the One Hour Wargames book, this time with my 6mm WWII Tank miniatures using a modified Tank War version of the Second World War Rules. This maintained all the rules mechanics of that set with some minor amendments to differentiate tank types and inject some subtle variations.

US Forces were Red and they were to stop the Germans from holding two river crossings - one ford and a bridge. While part of the defending force was still in reserve until Turn 7, half of the Red forces would make a surprise assault from the western flank on Turn 6.

Initially the US commander tried to head for the reserve and knock them out before they became activated but this was intercepted by a couple of Pz IV medium tanks that blunted their assault and took out their force commander in the Firefly. The Red reinforcements came on too late to influence the result and depleted themselves on the stationary Tiger holding the ford itself commanded by a Tank Ace leader. I introduced rules for commanders that could rally surrounding tanks or provide motivational leadership in combat results.

The battle ended on Turn 11 with a complete US defeat and no German losses. The Germans had better equipment and these advantages became evident, however, despite this it was still a fun game with a lot of cross the board activity. The Command Event cards also worked well so overall I was very pleased with how the rules play tested. I only had a few enhancements and refinements to make so a success in my book. 

One Hour Wargames: Scenario 4 Take the High Ground

I played a great scenario from the One Hour Wargames book by Neil Thomas using my 6mm US and German figures. The setting was WW2,  Normandy 1944. The Germans led by Hauptmann Schulz had to defend a hill while waiting for a relief force to bolster their resistance. Arrayed against them were a motorised company under Captain Reynolds supported by a couple of Sherman tank platoons. 

The battle ebbed and flowed quite a bit and despite the simplicity of the rules I got a lot of tactical surprises and variation. The game lasted the full 15 turns with a narrow German victory. The use of chance cards, which I call Command Events, worked really well. I used the vanila rules with only minor tinkering. This involved the use of a Commander element, motorised infantry, light tanks/recon units and a mechanic which worked nicely, the close assault rule whereby troops that advance to within "assault range" of a weakened unit cause a morale check.

This book like the other Thomas books has really inspired me and I'm keen to work through the 30 scenarios and experiment with other periods. I've been creating sub-period sheets to support these rules. This is where I can inject a bit of chrome by introducing special rules. I'm also adapting some of the Scenarios for Wargames by CS Grant to add to the core 30. This is proving to be a lot of fun.

Recent Gaming Experience

I've been playing a lot of Memoir 44 recently, to augment my wargaming experience. It fills a nice niche: gives a quick game, has low complexity and comes with visually attractive components. I really enjoy the games mechanisms and it scratches my itch to meddle and produce variants.

That said, I've recently played Scenario 2 from the Pacific Expansion - Guadalcanal. A clear US victory. I followed this up with an Eastern Front game for the scenario outside Moscow in 1941. A Soviet victory where the German panzer assault was decisively repulsed. 

I had a small divergence where I played a Battle Cry Franco-Prussian War variant using my 6mm H&Rs. A French victory with a pitched battle setup. Back to M'44 and the Mediterranian this time - a narrow British victory at Hellfire's Pass. I have already played a Sci-Fi version of this with my Star Wars Risk figures. The Axis were the Separatists in that game.  

The last game was an indulgence to Squad Leader where I setup a scenario based on the Guards Conter-attack. The Russians were victorious and I was pleased with how easy it was to set this up and get a good challenging game.

Now to turn my attention to Hold the Line AWI and Napoleonic C&C.

 

Napoleonic Skirmish

I wanted to develop a Board game adaptation of the Neil Thomas skirmish rules I was using for my miniature games so I painted up some Airfix French and British infantry, using primary colours only and basing them on 1.5cm square bases.

Combined with the C&C board I played out a quick standard game, drafted the board conversion and then had an enjoyable French v British encounter where the action centred on a small chateau and surrounding woods and farmland. I used the Command Event determination which introduced the necessary friction. It had a board game look but miniatures game feel and I was quite satisfied as to how the rules developed. The level was small scale with my units composed of eight musketeers and one sergeant. A captain commanded two or more units and this game fielded two units a side. I now need to draft a modern WWII version to play out some small scale infantry action with my old Airfix figures.  

One Hour Wargames: Napoleonic Scenario

I had an interesting game of OHW using scenario 3, the bridge crossing. The forces were roughly equal with a French v British encounter setup - probably somewhere in the Peninsular. I used my solo rules which immediately caused the French some disruption when their cavalry unit retreated off the board and didn't return. The game was close with the British steadily gaining the upper hand. This was confirmed when they received the bonus of an extra unit through the random events roll forcing the French to quit the field.

 

For this game I used some Risk board game figures mounted on bases to represent the respective forces. I'm planning to use them for C&C Napoleonics but thought I'd give them a spin with an OHW setup. They looked good combined with the wargaming terrain spread out on the C&C board. Again a pleasant run out of the rules, however, I still feel they don't quite give me enough detail to satisfy and I still prefer the Napoleonic Ruleset in Napoleonic Wargaming. For a quick game that doesn't require much in the way of preparation they still offer an enjoyable alternative and I plan to play more games using the scenarios in the book across different periods.

One Hour Wargames: American War of Independence

This was my second game playing the OHW system by Neil Thomas. It was an encounter battle set in the AWI and based on scenario 2: Pitched Battle. There were a couple of objectives to make the game interesting and set some tactical problems for both sides to address.

 

The basis were the H&M Rules in the book but I did overlay a few house rules and utilised my solo amendments to simulate command friction. I also extended the random events table so as to allow a D20 determination of events. This generated a lot of interesting variations and kept both sides on their toes.

Initially the British looked set to eliminate the Americans who had adopted a more defensive posture but a series of poor rolls, the British general being shot and the US Militia faring better than expected, buying time for the Continentals to wear down the British left flank, meant a gradual recovery for the US forces and an outcome after 15 turns of a decisive victory for the Rebels.

Reflecting on the game. Again I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed the experience. Despite being on the face of it a simplistic simulation of period warfare it actually had some intriguing tactical choices and outcomes. Coupled with the friction generated from my solo rules it played out in a evolutionary way and I didn't feel limited by the sparseness of the rules. On the contrary I think that in this case it is it's strength. As has been mentioned by other commentators of these rules the author deliberately reduces the rules to a bare minimum which hits the core aspects of each period but allows an easy overlay of any particular preferences a gamer has to add to these without breaking the core system. Some special rules for each game and army can be incorporated without much issue. This is what I did in this game e.g. for Militia any hits against them were doubled to account for their fragile morale. This means they are extremely brittle and likely to run after one good volley against them, unless of course they are positioned in defences which neutralise this penalty.  

Going forward I've developed some OHW rules for WW2, again incorporating my own house rules. A bit more tinkering here as I wanted to represent a few more features of this period of warfare which I felt needed to be simulated. The playtest will confirm whether this works.

One Hour Wargames: Playtest

I decided to try out the One Hour Wargames Rules, written by Neil Thomas, that I had purchased last year but had never got round to playing. I setup an ACW game based on Scenario 1, a straightforward encounter battle with 6 units a side. I included some random events and my own Command rules to inject the feeling of friction.

The rules gave me a surprise and the game played much better than I had expected. There was far more variation than you would have imagined. It certainly spurred me on to develop some more modifications and additions to provide a bit more specific period chrome and assist the solo gaming dimension through refinement of some of the features I'd playtested. In the game a rapid Confederate advance, initially successful, was repulsed by some stubborn Union resistance. It lasted 9 turns with quite a convincing victory for the Federal forces.

I'm going to give a few more games a try covering some more periods. I'm using my Memoir'44 and C&C boards with the right flank section refused to give me a square gaming area and cm measurements for my 6mm figures. On top I'm using the terrain tiles from the board games but may start using actual terrain.  

Memoir'44 Skirmish: Classic Traveller Simulation

I tried out some modifications to the Memoir'44 system to adapt this to a basic skirmish setup. The setting I used was a squad on squad action set in the Fifth Frontier War between an Imperial Marines formation and an equivalent Zhodani Consulate unit. I used the desert board with a scattering of terrain determined randomly. The figures were the orange and red Clone Wars / Star Wars Risk ones which looked excellent.

The rules involve a simple system of activation whereby different coloured chits for each side are used to determine which side can activate a figure and then perform a set action. A single figure can use three chits, however, it becomes increasingly restricted in what can be achieved.

The game played very well with the Zhodani achieving a narrow victory and forcing the Imperial squad to retire with heavy casualties.

This was such a simple adaptation it begs itself to any similar squad skirmish and with a few special rules, provide chrome without compromising simplicity.

Star Wars Memoir 44

I've just completed an enjoyable adaptation of the popular board / miniatures game Memoir 44 using my Star Wars Risk figures to play the Pegasus Bridge scenario.

A close fought game in which the Republican assailants had the initial upper hand but were in the end defeated by stiff CIS resistance. It looked really good using my Eastern Front terrain tiles and the winter board.

I'm experiencing a bit of a Borg game phase as I recover from a long term illness. The games are easy to play, are visually excellent with miniatures, highly adaptable to any period and great for solo play.

I've accumulated Memoir 44 and the expansions for the Eastern Front, Mediterranian and Pacific Theaters, Command & Colours, Ancients and Napoleonic and Battle Cry.

My other adaptation on Memoir 44, which I playtested a number of times, was a version of the popular World of Tanks on-line game using the tank miniatures in the boxed set and differentiating Light, Medium, Heavy, TD and SPGs with 9 per side. This worked brilliantly and the games, despite played solo, had me gripped to the very end. 

Star Wars Adaptation

I'm looking at a fun project just now as I roll forward all my development notes and ideas from my old notebooks to a new consolidated notebook. I used to play a bit of the Star Wars Battlefront game and have always been interested in this universe since the first film so a wargaming adaptation was on the cards.

 

I will make use of the WWII rules as the core engine. I've used these for all my army level simulations so far. The tactical level will be set at the company and battalion level. For the squad level which models the game I will use my Skirmish Rules adaptation and develop its own lists based on the faction makeup of available troop types.

 

There are four factions to consider: The Republic, CIS, The Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance. It should be interesting designing rules for the various weapons systems and the unique vehicle types and fighting machine that this universe presents.

 

As an aside I got the Star Wars X-Wing miniatures game for Christmas which is great fun to play and provided a catalyst to me getting this wargaming project started.