A quiet winter of games

I've had a very slow and quiet winter hobby-wise. I didn't get any painting done for months and apart from visiting Kinkkucon 2017, didn't play anything either. That means there hasn't been much to write about to the blog either but I'll pick up the slack now that spring is here and things are picking up. There's a bunch of figures on my workbench and there's a game to prepare for in a month or so. Here's a few notes of the games I did play this winter for the blog archive:

Kinkkucon 2017:


I've looked forward to finding a reasonably priced copy of Up Front for a while now and bought one from Germany (The box art of Up Front has a prominent SS soldier with his insignia showing clearly. Isn't it illegal to own stuff like that in Germany?). I got to play a couple of test games in Kinkkucon and it feels like an interesting game, but I have to learn it a bit more first.

I played a game of Twilight Struggle. I've bought both the board game version and the PC game version of it. The PC version is a great way to learn the basics and get to know the deck a bit!

We resumed our Warhammer Quest lair of the orc lord campaign from a couple of years ago! We played the third deep and was all fine until there was an attack by suicidal rats which took out most of the party. The final survivor met his end at the hands of a random orc encounter. We also tried out the new card game version which really captures the essence of the game well in my opinion.

My "main game" for Kinkkucon was Germantown of the American Revolution series. Excellent stuff as always. The rebellious colonists suffered badly from command confusion but still gave the redcoats quite a fight. In the end the English managed to consolidate their line in a way that made it all but impossible for the Americans to reach their goal so we called the game a couple of turns early.

After Kinkkucon I didn't have any gaming activities until a last weekend when my friend invited me for a game of Modern Spearhead. It's a 90's ruleset with a grand tactical perspective. One model tank equals a platoon of AFV's, you have to pre-plan your attacks on paper and so on. We played a cold war scenario twice during the weekend. Quite an interesting system and I'm looking forward to playing it more. I have the WW2 version and I've also preordered the new edition of Blitzkrieg Commander. It'll be interesting to compare the two systems and see which scratches that WW2 microarmor itch I have best.

So, that's pretty much it. I suppose we all have those quiet times in our hobbies so I don't take any stress over it. The next big game will see us return to the Russo-Swedish War of 1808.

American revolution: battle of Guilford

The american revolution is not my pet period, but I find coming back because of the excellent Battles of the American Revolution series of games written by Mark Miklos and published by GMT. The rules are light, smooth and fast, and manage to be so without sacrificing much realism. Gameplay rarely bogs down and the system scales well to different engagements.

Last time I got thoroughly beaten at Brandywine so I was hungry to even out the score. Simo picked the battle of Guilford court house from his collection, which we haven't played yet. To be honest, between us we have so many unplayed hex & counter battles that there rarely comes a need to revisit an already played battle! We randomised sides, and I ended up with the continentals. Again. Trying to fend off elite english troops with poorly armed and motivated militia was something I was painfully familiar with from Brandywine, and this, as I've understood it, is THE militia centric battle of the American Revolutionary War. (Disclaimer: I know this period rather poorly so please excuse me for any mistakes and misconceptions. You can correct me in the comments section.)

Opening setup from Vassal.

 I forgot my camera home, so I had only my phone to take pictures. That's why they're even more crappy than your average handheld snapshots of plexiglass covered hexmaps in poor lighting. That's why I loaded up the Vassal setup for the scenario so that you could make out at least something. Comments are also embedded into the pictures. All photos are taken from my perspective, and I was sitting at the top of the map, so imagine the Vassal map upside down to orient to the photos.

In the scenario, about 2000 English troops march onto the area, where the 4000+ Continental troops have already taken position in three defensive lines. There are three victory locations but the main objective is to break the opposing army. The Continentals cannot start moving with their main forces before word of the English attack has reached them and are even then geographically restricted in their movements.

The English column was headed by none other than Banastre Tarleton, whose infamous acts had already earned him the nickname "the bloody". Continental cavalry was posted on both main roads leading towards Guilford court house and Tarleton picked the long route to see if he could lead some troops to threathen the Continental flank. He encountered Marquis De Bretigney, a hapless French nobleman and his dragoons, with expected results. The Marquis soon found himself captive to the English, and Tarleton lead his dragoons as well as some Hessians to the Continental left flank.

On the other road, Henry "light horse Harry" Lee was expecting trouble with some dragoons and riflemen. They got more than they bargained for as the main English column lead by Charles Cornwallis, the english commander! The man who would be the father of Robert E. Lee sent a courier to Nathaniel Greene at the court house, and prepared to stall the English column.

Robert E Lee's father leads a stalling action against he English column.

The English proved too powerful to stall much, and Lee's cavalry and the riflemen were scattered in disarray to the surrounding woods. However, when out of harms way, they regrouped and prepared to put pressure to the column's rear and eliminate any stragglers.

Greene got word of the attack and as his brain had been invaded by a Finnish wargamer from the 21st century, decided to order his well placed troops to assume a new defensive position to the front. I didn't want to just sit there and wait for my opponent to come, so I advanced to a stream ahead where I could at least get one terrain modifier point for defense (you don't get any for woods and fences).

The Continentals advance to meet the English column.

 Greene also heard of Tarleton's little flanking maneuver and decided to go and meet him with a couple of regiments of Continental regulars. He sent the best of the regulars to bolster the militia line against the English column. As Tarleton saw he would be facing more than just milita, his brave advance was halted. He took a defensive position at a stream and waited.

Tarleton hesitates.

The English arrive to the militia line in column.

 The English kept a quick pace and marched in road column almost to the Continental line. Their formation was vulnerable there for a moment but with a magnificent display of drill and discipline, the English deployed into a line before the Continentals could capitalize on the situation (the English got to move twice in a row because of an initiative shift). The English struck in two powerful groups across the stream to weak points in the Continental line. The defenders were no match 1:1 against the better quality English and retreated back.

The English did make a slight blunder. They brought their guns into their right flank without infantry support, and the Continental rifles were quick to exploit the situation. They flanked the battery in the cover of the woods and overran it.

The Continentals concentrate their attack.

 The Continental line was not going to survive against the two strong English concentrations so they converged on the weaker of them in an attempt to rout them piecemeal. The colonists halfway surrounded their enemy, attacked with twice as many men and spearheaded the attack with the best troops the Continental army fielded, but it was no use. The English held, recombined their forces and forced the Continental forces back. The defenders retreated across the clearing to form a second defensive line, this time bolstered with guns.

Meanwhile, Greene had been pressing Tarleton with everything he had. The redcoats were beaten back time and again, but time and again they regrouped without appreciable effect. They did lose ground and were in no position to threathen the lone victory location they were trying to get to.

Greene presses Tarleton.

Lee's dragoons and the accompanying riflemen had been fighting hard against a rearguard left by the English but the redcoats were just superior in a one-on-one fight and Lee's forces were eventually scattered.

The beginning of he last turn.

 Even though the English had only lost one battery and one small regiment during the battle, and the Continental militia was more or less shattered, the Continentals had the upper hand in army morale. The English had been moving up and down from high morale to fatigued for a while due to some small defeats which had disordered some of the redcoats. The Continentals had managed to retreat in good order into a new position with artillery support, and so Cornwallis decided not to push on. Instead he heard the noise of battle from his rear where sporadic fighting was going on between Lee's dragoons and English rearguard and disordered main line troops. Cornwallis ordered his troops to go and assist, scattering what was left of the Continentals in the rear.

As a last action, seeing the English retreat, the Continentals advanced to retake the victory location across the clearing. The battle ended as a draw with the English having a two point lead due to all the Continental casualties.

Brandywine

Me and Simo played a game of Brandywine during two sessions recently. It is one of GMT's American Revolution series games, and I'm quite fond of the series rules. This was perhaps the fourth game of the series I've played and quite interesting as a scenario.

The Battle of Brandywine was fought on September 11, 1777 during the American war of independence. I won't go into detail here as you, dear reader, can read Wikipedia same as me. Suffice to say the British and American forces are roughly equal in size, but not quality. The British have better troop quality and some badass Hessian mercenaries and such, whereas the Americans have the benefit of defence behind the Brandywine creek. That is, until the massive British flank attack hits. In the scenario, the Americans must prevent the british from getting to the road to Philadelphia along with trying to survive against the redcoats as an army.

The game started with a sizeable force of British and German troops marching on Maxwell's detachment positioned across the Brandywine creek on the American left. After the initial cannonade caused a juicy casualty reduction on a British elite unit, the Americans attempted an orderly retreat to friendly lines, but failed. Only scraps of the detachment made it back.

The remnants of Maxwell's detachment try to reach friendly lines across the creek.

In the AmRev series, both armies have an army morale rating which increases with positive outcomes and decreases with adversity. Even small skirmishes may end eating away army morale. Once morale deteriorates from "Good" to "Fatigued", the entire army suffers a -1 penalty to both initiative and individual morale ratings. After it deteriorates again from "Fatigued" to "Wavering" the penalty becomes -2 and the end is near. After a bit more deterioration the army routs automatically and the game is lost regardless of specific victory conditions.

In our case, the American morale started to deteriorate with Maxwell's detachment. In the American center, the British advanced on the creek with forces roughly equal to those on the other side. Brazenly they advanced over the creek.

Grant's troops cross the creek in the American center.

The Americans mounted an immediate counterattack against Grant and managed to drive one of his units back to the other side. All went well until the rotund Grant decided to start performing well with his troops, fought off the American attempt to flank him, cut off lord Stirling and his men and captured them. This pushed the American morale well into the "Fatigued" zone while the British morale couldn't go any higher. The Americans tried to reverse their fortune by crossing the creek and assaulting the three British batteries they thought were vulnerable. They failed spectacularly, only managing to disorder one of the batteries. This sends the Americans dangerously close to "Wavering".

Lord Stirling attempts to flank Grant and drive him back across the creek with an attack from two directions...

...but ends up being cut off from his line of retreat and is captured by the redcoats. Small American units cross the creek in an attempt to capture the exposed British batteries and are shot to pieces.

Meanwhile on the left, the remnants of Maxwell's detachment have either crossed the creek, been shot to pieces or captured. Washington directed quite a bit of his reinforcements to this section, fearing the British would cross the creek. The British chose however, not to use their momentum and merely observed as the Americans towed a long line of guns into position.

The Americans bolster the line on the left believing the British and the Germans aim to cross.

The reason for the British inactivity soon became all too clear for poor Washington. The redcoats had sent half of their forces on a long flanking march to the American right! American dragoons posted as scouts raced to warn the army, Hessians hot on their heels. A portion of the Americans was quickly sent on a countermarch. They couldn't hope to stop the British but they could at least delay them.

On the right, American scouts report a flanking march with the Hessian elite hot on their heels!

The battle, however, would be decided on the center before the British flankers would have a chance to fire their muskets. Demoralized by the capture of Lord Stirling, the American center could hardly put up a fight. Even by concentrating attacks on singular British units with everything they had, the superiority in numbers was countered by the poor state of American morale. The level shifted between "Fatigued" and "Wavering" several times before making the final plunge when the British captured the American center batteries without suffering any casualties.  

The British circumvent the American strongpoint in the center and capture two batteries of guns without casualties.

The British flank attack arrives! The Americans start building a line of defence to delay them, but army morale is crumbling.

The American center collapses. The British forces not much bigger than their own, but army morale has deteriorated to "wavering" and it makes all the difference. Victory is decided here as the Americans are routed.

The British, after taking some casualties from the massed American artillery on the left, decided to retreat outside cannon range, as there really was no need to risk a crossing anymore. The American morale was broken at the center and the army was routed.

The jeering British retreat outside cannon range. They do not need to assault the American position as the collapse of the center forces the rebel army to retreat.

The final positions.

Another exciting game of AmRev done! I really like the army morale system in this series. Once army morale starts to drop, it creates a domino effect. The troops fight worse and it is more difficult to get positive results to get morale back to good. Also, the player who has the upper hand often gains momentum chits which he can use to re-roll bad dice and more importantly, force his opponent to re-roll those excellent rolls which might have saved the day. This really recreates the feeling of the uphill struggle the losing general has when he tried to turn the tide of the battle. It also means that battles are not fought to the last man, but rather to the point when the fight is decided on one portion of the field. I think we still have a lot to learn on how to manage army morale as most of our games have ended quite quickly. In our Germantown game, for example, the British won by attacking vulnerable militia units as they are easy to beat but cause the same morale hits as proper troops.

I think AmRev is one of GMT's best systems, combining very simple series rules (only 8 pages or so) with lots and lots of tactical complexity. They should definitely apply this ruleset to other wars as I'm not terribly interested in the American Revolution as such.