One-Hour Wargames: Campaign

It's been a while since I posted anything but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy on the wargames front.

Having failed to have any wargames last year (sad, I know) I was determined for that not to happen this year.  Therefore I devised a simple campaign based on the scenarios in Neil Thomas's book One-Hour Wargames.

The idea was to make a straightforward branched campaign where one defined scenario would lead onto the next.  Bearing this in mind the only rules were that:

1. the winner of each game could choose the next scenario from the following round or 'tier'
2. the winner would also get to choose whether to be 'red' or 'blue' next time
3. the winner would get to choose the rules used for the next game
4. the choice of scenario would be limited (to a certain extent) by previous choices

The idea for these rules was to give some sort of structure and to reward whoever won each game.  

The scenarios used were selected by excluding ones we'd already played (see various AARs in this blog) and the ones I frankly didn't fancy, to get a shortlist.  These were then grouped into tiers on the basis of how (I thought) a typical campaign might play out.  There are 15 scenarios in the campaign (out of possible 30) and the position of each scenario in the branches was decided randomly by dicing.

The campaign is a Napoleonic one but that was just because I'd painted a lot of 20mm French (mainly Italeri, see various previous posts) over the last two years and wanted to finally get them on the table.

So far we have played one game (No. 16, Advance Guard), using a modified set of Neil Thomas' OHW (Horse and Musket) rules, and I won.  This is the only 'blunder into contact' type scenario in the campaign and seemed appropriate as a sort of neutral one to get the campaign going.  I will blog the AAR at a later date.

Having won the first game, I now have the choice of No. 14, Static Defence or No. 20, Fighting Retreat.  I haven't decided which one yet but I do know that the rule-set will be vanilla WRG 1685-1845.

The important thing is that whichever scenario is chosen limits the choices in the next tier.  So say I choose No. 14 this time, whoever wins (hopefully me) will get to select either No.18 or No. 13, but if I choose No. 20 next, the choice will be between Nos. 13 and 21, and so on.  So there is scope for a bit of planning and strategising (assuming I keep winning of course).

So, we'll see how this turns out and if it seems to work, I might very well adapt it for other scenario books I have, such as the excellent Scenarios for Wargames by Charles S Grant and/or Stuart Asquith's Scenarios for All Ages, or just make up some of my own.

ACW Positional Defence (2)

This is the after action report (AAR) from an American Civil War (ACW) wargame we played near the end of 2016 before various business trips, Christmas and so on intervened (hence the long gap since I last posted here).

The aim was to playtest the Principles of War 2nd edition rules (POW2) I'd had on the shelf for about 10 years.  From reading through the rules I liked their apparent simplicity as well as the interesting command and control mechanism, so I wanted to see how they would play out under stress of battle.  I'd also wanted to find an alternative to Neil Thomas' nineteenth century rules we'd tried earlier in the year which we found too simple.

Positional Defence (2).  Confederate attack.

Alert readers will know that this scenario comes from Charles S Grant's excellent book "Scenarios for Wargames", which we have used a few times in recent years. In fact the first AAR I ever posted on this blog was Positional Defence (1), which coincidentally was also an ACW game.  In the intervening years all of our ACW figures have been rebased (as recounted in detail elsewhere on this blog).  As you will see these are the classic 20mm Airfix figures that we've had for nearly forty years, and still going strong.

Union starting positions

The scenario has the "Red Force", in this case the Confederates, attacking a smaller Union force in a defensive position on high ground with a village at the centre. The forces were adapted from the scenario in the book so the Confederates had seven infantry regiments and three guns, with the Union side having four regiments and two guns.  As you can see from the map, the Union forces were spread thinly with one regiment and gun on each hill, one in the village and one regiment out of sight in reserve behind the village.

Confederate attack on left flank develops

The Confederate plan was quite simple: to wear down the defenders with artillery fire whilst the infantry advanced on both flanks across the open ground towards the objectives.  Initial bombardment was on the infantry in the village, which despite being in hard cover, were rapidly forced out of the houses by incessant artillery fire (and rubbish die throwing).  This allowed the rebels to move forward quickly with few casualties.

Confederate attack on Union right

The lack of effective defence in the centre meant that the rebels could bring up their guns and after a short exchange the Union regiment on the right-hand hill started to withdraw.

Right flank falling back, artillery about to be destroyed

Furthermore, despite some spirited firing, the artillery on the right was worn down rapidly and destroyed, leaving the right flank practically open.

Union forces pushed off hill on the right with reserves trying to move up

Meanwhile, on the left, the rebels were using the woods as cover and were moving up rapidly.

Situation on the left

The battery on the left was mainly engaged in long range counter battery fire but was quickly weakened.

Rebels in the woods

The rebels continued to push hard on the left and the incessant bombardment meant that the Union's last remaining battery's strength was reduced to zero.

Not looking good for the Union

The rebels then moved into the contact against the isolated Union regiment on the left whilst the Confederates climbed the hill on the right.

Confederates capture hill on right, attack hill on left

On the left the sole remaining Union regiment was attacked frontally whilst another rebel regiment contacted it in the flank.

Union regiment outnumbered

However, the Union regiment was able to defeat the rebels to the front and then turn its attention to the flanking force.

Rebels run away.  Right, who's next?

Union regiment combats flanking force

Amazingly the flanking rebel regiment was also repulsed.

Ha!  Take that!

Unfortunately this success was only temporary as the rebels in the woods moved up and attacked again.

Persistent Rebels

However, by now it was all over for the Union as the Confederates controlled the right hand hill and the scenario's main objective, the village.

Rebels to the right of me, Confederates on the left... here I am...

So at that point we called it a day.  The Union side was comprehensively beaten and it appeared that very little could be done to stop the Confederates advancing to contact, sweeping the weaker Union forces away.

As with all of CS Grant's ideas, the scenario was pretty good but perhaps the forces could have been slightly better balanced to make more of a fight of it, although that might have been more to do with how we chose forces rather than the scenario itself.

As for the POW2 rules they worked fine and were easy to follow.  Unlike some sets of rules they don't bother with a lot of 'fluff' but get straight to the point in a structured way, even laying out the rules in the same order as the move sequence, which some well known sets of rules don't seem to bother with.

However, there was something slightly 'flat' about them and I certainly felt that the rules did not give the defenders the expected tactical advantages from cover or elevation that would enable them to even slow the enemy, let alone stop them as they advanced inexorably in the open to contact.

That said the POW2 rules certainly performed better than the very simple nineteenth century Neil Thomas rules so I haven't given up on them just yet.

ACW Positional Defence - Part 2

The Rebel attack started with a general advance all along his line (no call for subtlety here). However, I hadn’t quite clocked how strong the attack on my left would be with a total of six Rebel regiments against two Union regiments backed up only by the battery in Redoubt C (see previous post for battle map and set-up).

Splitting what little infantry I had on the left I sent a regiment of Zouaves into the woods at the far left to counter Rebel infiltration on my flank, whilst one Union regiment was moved forward to close the gap between Village A and Redoubt C.

 

My thinking was that maybe I could keep the Rebels at arm’s length while my batteries in the redoubts could cut them up and perhaps weaken them enough so that I could hold on to two of the three objectives by the end of the game, as required by the scenario. Meanwhile, in the centre the Rebels advanced steadily (perhaps suicidally) towards Redoubt 1.

  

However, back in the gap between Village A and Redoubt C, things didn’t turn out too well, as you can see from the before and after photos below. Somehow, I think that the ‘effectiveness’ of these free Cold Harbour rules could be tweaked a bit!

Before: (What? Outnumbered four to one? Piffle!).

After: (Bang! Heh-heh ... er... how come we missed one?)

 

Having swept the opposition away in just a few short volleys and with unerring accuracy (with the dice at any rate), the Rebels rushed forward to clear the gap, sending a further regiment confidently on to assault Redoubt C, as shown in the photo below (way in the distance, beside the wood).  

In the foreground the Rebels were already occupying Village A, trampling though gardens and vegetable patches in front of Redoubt 1. Wasn’t I supposed to hold on to that objective? Here is a view of Redoubt 1 (Spencer Smith general in the background).

 

Back on the left, the unit attacking Redoubt C did take some casualties, before the Union battery started to waver (note Union Zouaves reforming in the background as more Rebels advance through the woods).

Meanwhile the Rebel advance through Village A towards Redoubt 1 was not faring so well and these units suffered, although not before picking off my artillerymen, with some help from their supporting artillery (see below, view from Union left flank).

Unfortunately with the Confederates poised to overrun Redoubt C and already in possession of Village A, as well as Redoubt 1 cleared of Union artillery, we ran out of time. Another few moves, though, and I think that the Rebels would have quickly got behind Village A and started to roll up the remaining Union forces and would have won the game decisively. 

Overall, an interesting scenario and one to try again another day, but not much of a thumbs up for the Cold Harbour rules, which were a little too bloody for the brigade size games we normally play. I’m all for decisive results but am not so keen on losing 95% of a regiment in the space of two moves after a few good die throws!

Nevertheless, it was good to get the old troops out (and the terrain), and hopefully they’ll get an airing again sometime soon.

Regarding other ACW rules I’ve been keen on Circa 1863 (Tabletop Games), with some slight modifications, for a very long time, having won many grinding, bloody, ebb/flow, and intensely satisfying battles in the past with them. They do take some time to play though but we usually seemed to have more time in the old days. However, I am now looking seriously at Regimental Fire & Fury, which I’m hoping to try out for our next outing.

 

ACW Positional Defence - Part 1

There are many great wargaming books out there and one of the best is Charles S Grant’s Scenarios for Wargames (1981).   A little while ago, my brother was keen to try out the free ACW rules Cold Harbour (from freewargamesrules) and so we decided to use the Positional Defence scenario to do this.  This is our version of the scenario map, done in MappingBoard.

The main idea of the scenario is that the defender (Union) has to fight off a determined Rebel attack and retain control of two of the three marked positions by the end of the game, comprising the villages A and B, and redoubt C. 

The scenario requires that the Rebels start on the baseline and Union troops cannot start further forward than village A.  Forces, modified from the scenario book, were as follows:

     Union                                 Confederate

4 regiments                             8 regiments

3 batteries                               2 batteries

The Union forces (mine) appeared to be a bit outnumbered but on the other hand had the benefit of a strong defensive position (and 3 redoubts to hide behind).

We played the game on our usual 6x4 ft table and it gave us a chance to give our old plastic 20mm Airfix/Revell/Esci troops an airing.  Also, all of our terrain is entirely home made and is the product of concerted effort over the last three and a half decades.  We’ve been through a lot together so it’s always nice to see them on the battlefield again!

Starting dispositions, viewed from the Union right flank, are shown on the following photo.

 I decided to spread the Union forces quite evenly with a battery in each redoubt and with one regiment placed midway between villages A and B, one regiment behind village A and two regiments placed to defend the gap between village A and redoubt C.  This was where I thought the rebels would try to get behind village A and/or isolate redoubt C. 

The Rebel forces were placed along the baseline, and as one might suspect, were concentrated on my centre-left opposite the gap between village A and redoubt C.  In addition, the crafty Rebels had placed some troops ready to infiltrate the woods on my far left flank.

The battle report will follow in the next post.