Wargaming Projects - 2 of 4 - The Past

A Potted History of my Wargaming Projects - part 2 of 4

Prehistoric; Past; Present; and, Pending

Part 2 - Past Projects: in no particular order, that were either pending or in play but have since been sold or passed on to others.

Among my late friend's Seleucid army that I inherited (see earlier post here), were a few 25mm Garrison Hoplites.

As I have a 'thing' for old-school gaming and figures, this started me off acquiring more figures that could make up a couple of small forces.  But then the big ECW project[1] came along and I realised these were never going to reach the table so they were sold off on eBay - I still feel some pangs of regret over this - these are just two of the half dozen lots I sold off:

Another Ancients project that bit the dust around this time was my 6mm Seleucid army[2] using Heroics and Ros figures.  This was given to a friend who also had a 6mm ancient army so I do still the get odd game with these figures, so no regrets here.  And these photos are from one of those games, with my ex-figures attacking an Indian fortress ...

... and breaking in!

While I'm not fan of the prevalence of skirmish gaming which seems to be pushing classic battle gaming aside, I have always done some skirmish gaming.  One set I was particularly fond of was this set of Samurai rules.

While I started a few Citadel Samurai for this ... 

... I quickly abandoned them for 25mm Dark Ages[3] figures by Citadel and Essex figures, with Huscarls, Thegns and Fyrd replacing Samurai, Chugen and Ashigaru.  These fell victim to the down-sizing of the last move and disappeared into the abyss that is eBay.

My tinkering with 15mm Thirty Years War (TYW) using Freikorps figures never got beyond a handful of units that were eventually sold to another friend and long-time gaming opponent - so like my 6mm Ancients (above) I still get to play with these now and again.

Another fleeting dalliance with Freikorps was with their 15mm Texan War of Independence range.  This didn't get beyond a dozen Mexican infantry, a few Texican skirmishers and some personality figures.

My 15mm Old Glory Seven Years War (SYW) project, Prussians and Austrians, was an altogether more serious affair.  This was an attempt to branch out into a different period at a time when I didn't have the spare time to paint anything myself.  So, I went with a pro-painter and all went well to start with.  

Unfortunately, after receiving one batch of cavalry I asked for a different shade to be used for horses' hooves in future batches and the painter promptly decided he was not going to paint any more for me.  I tried a couple of other painters but they just didn't match well enough to suit me (did I mention I have incipient OCD?) and the collection was consigned to the loft, only to go in the 2022 down-sizing episode.  All in one big lot together with my SYW OSPREYs.

Another project that fell casualty to my fussiness over painting was my long enduring desire to do Pony Wars in 15mm.  I have been around this buoy several times, but the last and most recent was with Blue Moon's 'War Paint' range and Fernando Enterprise's painting service - see below.

This was the best Fernando said they could do with these (sample) figures, so we called it quits and the Pony Wars project was once again still born.  I have tried other painters since but they have taken one look at the Blue Moon castings and declined to try.  

As you will have gathered, I can be quite fussy when it comes to figure matching, and this extends to the sculpts as well as the painting.  This has kiboshed two attempts to get into the Colonial period with 15mm Zulus, first with Naismith which I painted but then the figures went out of production (OOP) which brought that to a halt.

Then with Old Glory, where the bulk orders didn't match the quality of the initial samples ordered from a pro-painter.

The Colonial period seems to have a jinx on me, as another abandoned project, again when the figure line went OOP, was Ral Partha's 25mm Sudan range, albeit very small 25mm by modern standards.  

It's possible that the American Civil War (ACW) is another jinx.  I was much taken with the sculpting of Mike's Models 15mm ACW range.  Having bought several packs I found, as expected, that they painted up beautifully with a minimum of effort - just blocked in colours and a quick black wash (Tamiya Smoke) which picked up the sculpting really well.  Unfortunately, Mike's was taken over shortly after that and this range seems to have been lost for ever.  I can't find any photos of these, so I'll move on to my naval aspirations.

Naval gaming has always appealed because of the simplicity of the 'terrain' required and after toying with some ancient galleys, passed on to friend, I tried some 1/1200 ACW Naval gaming. Riverine warfare unfortunately demands more terrain than gaming on the high seas, and I found the games didn't do it for me.  So, my small flotilla, including fire rafts, all with removable smoke to signify when alight or with steam up, went in the great clear-out of '22.

My next foray onto the ocean wave was inspired by this delightful book by P Dunn.

And this time it was with 1/1000 Houston's Ships, for a fictional 'colonial contest' naval campaign between forces of a Gallic and Teutonic flavour.  And the curse struck yet again, this manufacturer went 'OOP'.

In parallel, and in the background of these naval calamities, was my desire to get into the age of sail, again stimulated by an old rule set.

With a vague idea of what I wanted the games to look like I had been bought lots of kits, mostly Airfix's HMS, but also HMS Shannon and kits some by others e.g. Heller, Pyro, Lindberg, Glencoe, etc.  

The plan was to modify them as described in this old article from the Airfix Magazine.

This not only proved a lot more difficult than I thought but I was also unhappy with the end result as the tumblehome was all wrong.  Buying all I need before experimenting whether something will work, or not, seems a common point of failure for my 'projects'.  Anyway, these kits have also now been sold on.

A more successful project, was my WW2 Convoy collection, inspired by yet another book, this time more a set of mechanics than rules.

For this I used GHQ 1/2400 for escorts and U-boats, 1/3000 merchant ships from Navwar and 1/1200 aircraft by Skytrex.

This was played on hex sheets, and gave a very interesting game, the tension of not knowing where the U-boats were, trying to locate them, and then drop your depth charges to best effect was a real challenge.  Unfortunately, my opponents only ever wanted to play as U-boat commanders as that was a lot less work, and the game fell into disuse.  Why I let this go in the '22 down-sizing, I don't know as it took up little space and would be good to run at the club I now belong to.

Not conventional naval gaming, but a good segue back to world of figures, was my Hornblower phase.  This really just consisted of acquiring and painting some 15mm Minifigs and in the end went nowhere other than out the door.

This acquisition of figures that I just 'liked' also saw me return to Hinchliffe 25mm Napoleonics with some Peninsular Dragoons and Guerrillas, the latter much modified.

My guerillas did at least get on the table ... 

... for "The 95th Rifles in the Peninsula [sic.] War (1813)" scenario from Don Featherstone's book, Skirmish Wargaming.

But that was not enough to see them safely through '22.

And a couple of odds 'n' ends to finish with.

First a WW2 aerial wargame with 1/350 planes by, the long since defunct, Helmet Miniatures.  This used a set of rules called 'MiG Alley' in an article in Wargames Illustrated issue 54 - this is not the same as the commercial set now available with the same name.  I modified the rules for WW2 and centred the game around the Luftwaffe attempting to stop a formation of B-17s defended by USAAF fighters.   

This game worked well, the B-17s were not player driven and just flew across the table and shot at anything that came near.  The players were either Luftwaffe fighter pilots only concerned with stopping the bombers, or USAAF fighter pilots similarly focused on the bombers getting through.  This meant the game was not just a turning contest between fighters as the USAAF often had to break off as another threat to the bombers appeared. 

These also went in the great down-sizing, and I really regret letting them go.

I have plans to re-do this, but that will have to wait for the last episode in this series of posts.

And finally, my 10mm Kallistra Wildling Army (Game of Thrones) for the fantasy rule variant of DBA, 'Hordes of the Things'.  I completed all the interesting units for this: mammoths, giants, some cavalry; and even Varamyr Sixskins on a Polar Bear with three wolves, and a shadowcat (all by Eureka IIRC).  But I never got round to the warbands of warriors and these have joined a friend's collection but have seen little use since.

I'm sure I haven't covered everything but this is more than enough to illustrate how badly my butterfly has led me down so many dead-ends.

Notes:

[1] These will be featured in the 'Present' part of this series of posts.

[2] Why I keep doing Hellenistic armies is an interesting question as I find pike armies rather a staid gaming experience, but clearly there is some deeper need within me for such.

[3] Or, Early Medieval, as we are now supposed to call it - so mundane!

 

Wargaming Projects - 1 of 4 - The Prehistoric

A Potted History of my Wargaming Projects - part 1 of 4

Prehistoric, Past, Present, and Pending

A commenter on a previous post remarked on how many armies I have.  While not as many as some gamers I know, when I thought about it, it came to more than I realised.  So, I decided to list them all for the record and own the shame.

To keep these posts to a manageable size I've broken them done into four categories which will each get their own post, namely: Prehistoric; Past; Present; and, Pending.  

Part 1 - Prehistoric Projects: that date back to the origins of my wargaming (with rules as opposed to just playing with toy soldiers, e.g. my Britain's multi-part 54mm Wars of the Roses and ACW figures - now sold).

Like most gamers of a similar vintage, I started with Airfix 1/72 kits and moved on to HO/OO plastic figures, or 1/76 as they're now marketed.  I have no photographic record of any of these as they were all thrown away when I went to Uni' as I felt such childish past-times should be left behind[1].  Imagine my anguish when I discovered the wargaming society at the Freshers' Squash, AND they had Airfix armies as well as metal ones - D;oh!

My first 'proper' metal wargame figures were Hinchliffe 25mm Napoleonic's, my Dad buying me half a dozen to get me started on what became a small King's German Legion force all based for the Airfix rules by Bruce Quarrie and consisting of: 4x Line Battalions, 1x Light Battalion, 1x Horse and 1x Foot Artillery Battery (each having a gun, crew, limber and team); 1x Regiment of Hussars; ½x Regiment of Light Dragoons; and, a few command figures.  All now sold and being shown some love by another.  As these were only finally sold off recently[2], still in their original Humbrol gloss enamel paint-jobs, I have a few photos of these

My next army, started back at Uni in the 70's, was another 25mm Hinchliffe collection, only this time it was Ancients.  WRG Ancients was the big thing in the Wargaming Society.  With thoughts of emulating one of my heroes, I opted to start putting together an Alexandrian Macedonian army, and by this time I was using Humbrol matt enamels.  As it failed to replicate the success of the original it soon morphed into a more generic Hellenistic Successor army.  This one, is however, still going strong so will appear in a later post on Present projects.

Perhaps the inspiration to move on to a Successor army was influenced by my best friend from Uni who had a Seleucid army.  Sadly, he passed away a few years ago but left his army to me, as it was what had brought us together[3]. 

But while I still have, and still use, these figures, they are now the oldest I have, so I thought I would feature them here, in the beginning so to speak.

They have some really nice painted shield designs.

All I did with these figures when I got them was repair any wear and tear and re-base them to match my army.  Also, he had a half-painted general that I finished off and added a shield to the base to have a go at the shield pattern and blend him in with the army.

I did repaint the tents from his camp; they were just painted as plain canvas so, I thought they should be jazzed up a bit.

This army also came in for some recent attention, when I expanded the pike blocks.  The original army (not based to DBA/M) were about a dozen figures too few to make 2-element wide blocks so I bought some painted Hinchliffe Successor pike of eBay and re-touched them to match the existing pike; effectively doubling the number of pikes that could be fielded - covered in an earlier post here.

The other really early project was a collection of 6mm Napoleonic's by Heroics and Ros, nice and cheap and easy to paint in those days when I didn't need to wear glasses.  But, like my Hinchliffe Ancients these are still in use and will be covered under Present Projects.

And finally, back in the day, I did buy and paint some Warhammer Fantasy figures to placate my Tolkien urges, but they have been sold off and I can find no photographic record of them anywhere.

Next in this series will be a litany of abandoned projects, often only with a few figures being painted - the lure of the pretty figure range.  It can be found here.

Notes:

[1] The fact that my parents were moving house at the same time and obviously didn't want too much of my junk cluttering their new home, also played its part in this.

[2] They were let go, because I was let go and needed to move and down-size, but they hadn't seen a table-top for many a year before that.

[3] I'd heard about someone with an impressive army in the same hall of residence so I tracked him down and knocked on his door.  I was somewhat taken aback when a 6' 5¾" giant opened the door, but, right from the start, we just hit it off; he is still sorely missed.

Gaming Weekend - Pt.2 - An Austrian Waterloo

After Friday's gladiator games, on the Saturday morning we dug out Steve's delightfully sculpted Waterloo terrain for a 6mm clash between the French ...

... and the Austrians (at Waterloo?).

This game was a follow-up to our first attempt (Link) to use Neil Thomas' Napoleonic Wargaming Rules (NTNWR) with 6mm figures, but using a brigade of 4 units, each of 4 bases, to represent what is a single unit in the rules.  As we're still tweaking, Steve commanded the French and Martin the Austrians (including a few of his beloved Bavarians) while I took notes on anything we felt wasn't right and suggestions for changes.

After two turns the table looked like this ...

... I like to think this looks like a Napoleonic battle, or at least a contemporary print of one.

In the foreground of the above, the French heavy cavalry ...

... and their Austrian counterparts ...

can be seen facing off against each other as they protected their infantry who were in a foot-race to occupy Hougoumont.  Beyond that, the French columns can be seen advancing (left to right) to the attack ...

... while the Austrians seek to take up a more advanced defensive position[1].

And, in the far distance, at the top right, the Bavarian cavalry are seeking out an opportunity to turn the French left flank.

Inevitably, it was the cavalry on both flanks that first came to blows.  The honours were roughly even with the French heavies prevailing ...

.. while their lighter brethren were bested by the Bavarians.

Observation 1: heavy cavalry combat is more lethal than that between lights as they throw twice as many dice in combat.  I see no reason why an even fight between two bodies of heavy cavalry (HC) should be bloodier than one between light cavalry (LC).  Also, cavalry on cavalry combat usually results in few losses until one side ends up being pursued by the other.  I propose making all cavalry fight on the 'default' one combat die per unit (like LC) when fighting mounted opponents of the same type.  I am also considering making defeated cavalry rout, removing the option to simply fall back facing their opponent when defeated.

While the cavalry on both flanks were whittling each other down over several turns, the French voltigeurs (open order light infantry) won the race to Hougoumont; occupying it just as the Austrian infantry rocked up[2].

The resulting Austrian assault on Hougoumont was repulsed with loss.

In the centre, the Austrian guns were still advancing to get into position, while the French guns, taking advantage of 'Wellington's ridge' (La Haye Sainte in the background) were already starting to inflict losses[3].

While the light cavalry contest was dragging on, ...

... the heavy cavalry fight, courtesy of their higher lethality, had ended leaving the victorious French heavies unopposed.

This in turn forced the Austrian infantry that had been rebuffed from Hougoumont to form square or face the consequences.

The French infantry, in the centre, had still not reached the Austrian line ...

... which had now shaken itself out into some sort of order and finally got their guns into action.

The much-anticipated infantry clash did not take place; the French brigades (units) being unable to close as the rules do not allow formed infantry to charge formed infantry unless they are stronger i.e., they have more units.  

Observation 2: without a significant artillery advantage this makes it difficult to put in an attack that is strong enough to go in after advancing through the enemy's artillery and facing defensive musketry.  I haven't formulated any rules mods for this yet, and maybe I'm okay with it as is.

After realising their attempt to whittle down the Austrians was only going to be a case of mutual annihilation the French chose to pull back to their ridgeline, ...

... take up a defensive position, and challenge the Austrians to attack if they fancied their chances were any better.

The French, were heavily influenced in their decision to not press on by the presence of the Bavarian cavalry (at the top left table-edge in the above) that were now wandering unopposed in their rear having finally disposed of the last few French chasseurs à cheval.

With the Austrians declining the invitation to attack, the battle ended indecisively in a draw - not surprising for a contest between two, supposedly, matched forces.

Post Mortem

Overall, I felt the rules gave a convincing game with few exceptions.  First, expanding on the two observations made in the narrative above: 

Observation 1: in addition to the earlier comments, the cavalry combats dragged on far longer than I would expect.  The rules say the defeated side in a combat chooses to retreat either half a move facing the enemy or full move facing away from the enemy.  The former means the cavalry just bounce off each other and then try again.  The proposed rule to make defeated side (not if a draw) in a cavalry vs cavalry mêlée do the latter (I shall call it 'rout') solves both these issues.

Observation 2: while I agree with the rule writer's view that formed infantry will be unwilling to close with formed infantry unless they believe they have an advantage I think troop quality to be as important as numbers.  Here I propose that higher quality units would, only for the purpose of determining whether they will charge, be treated as having an additional unit for each level of quality they are higher.  For example, an elite brigade charging a levy brigade, being two levels higher, could still charge even if weaker by one unit.  Poorer quality brigades wishing to charge would ignore any quality difference i.e. they just take account of numbers.  I may even allow generals, attached to chargers, to be counted as an additional unit.

Additional observations.

Observation 3: limbered artillery getting the same, generous, saving rolls as deployed artillery seems very wrong.  This is a simple fix; just reduce the effectiveness of their saving throw when limbered, but I need to give some thought as to how much to reduce it.

Observation 4: the rules are unclear as to whether brigades (units in the rules) can, or should, split their fire between targets to their front.  I am leaning towards enforcing the ±45° arc of fire for each unit (base in the rules) but otherwise letting them choose their target.

Observation 5: there appears to be nothing stopping brigades / units fighting to the last man / figure or 'hit'.  These remnants, especially cavalry, will find it easier to slip through gaps and to get round behind the enemy and be a severe nuisance.  I propose that any brigade reduced to one unit may not attack and must retreat to avoid combat that would result in the enemy throwing three times as many dice in combat.  They would retreat before contact in the opponent's turn such that they do not impede the opponent's move.

Observation 6: on more realistic terrain, like that we used in the above game, not allowing cavalry and artillery to at least pass through woods and towns (impassable in the rules) is very restrictive.  The proposed change is that such troops stop on reaching the terrain, then in their next turn, just one unit is placed on the other side.  In the turn after that it is joined by the rest of the brigade, and can move off in the next turn after that.  The single advance unit that passes through first, if engaged, fights on its own (discount the rest of the brigade).  If it does not win the mêlée it must retreat to rejoin the rest of the brigade which takes a morale test.  This passage will not be allowed if the terrain is occupied by enemy, but is allowed if occupied by friendly, formed or light, infantry.  Only one brigade may pass through in a turn.

I hope to try out these rules again soon to see if these proposed modifications deliver the desired effect.  Watch this space.

Notes:

[1.]  Doing this in the face of an imminent French attack was risky, but necessary to avoid fighting in their deployment area and suffering from the bane of all wargames, the table edge!

[2.]  The Austrians had set out in line, and only changed to column en-route.  Had they been in column when deployed they might've got there first.

[3.]  We had finally realised that in NTNWR only the troops and guns of the player whose turn it is can fire (with the exception of defensive fire when charged).  This was why we had found artillery and musketry overly bloody in earlier games.