Big v Small

If you are hosting a game is it very good to know ALL the rules so I wanted a practice game before hosting a “What a tanker” game that night.  But I already packed up my usual winter terrain, so I put out a very plain table of a Russian village, a couple copses of trees and my latest t34/85.  But what about an opposition?  Well I do have a 1:56 R-35…. A bit mis-matched admittedly.  Understatement no doubt as the Russian is a 8 Armour, 8 Strike beast vs the early-war two-crew 4 Armour and only 3 Strike. 

obviously the R-35 to the left and the Russian t-34/85 behind

Thus, I would have the R-35 (run by a Romanian crew being Eastern Front and all) only wanting to go back home, to cross the table and exit.  The Russians were sleeping in a village house.

Perhaps rather foolishly the Romanian commander decided to take an open pot-shot at the “sleeping” Russian hoping for a lucky shot. He failed to hit.  The Russians were slow to wake up and get active.  The Romanian’ further move past an intervening house allowed him a second shot. This too failed, but the Russians were fully awake and on the move.  They rounded the church but the dice failed them and the shot on the rear of the Romanians could not be taken.  

Yikes! the Romanian is shitting bricks!

The Romanian command dice then blessed them with a long move to - almost - off the table - and freedom.  But not quite, so allowing the Russians to get one more shot off with their big gun. They took the shot but it failed to hit the rear of the small French-built tank! (8 dice needing 3+ but getting only two hits —-I am such a terrible dice roller when needed! )  the Romanians managed to get enough saving rolls to sigh a big relief as they exited the battlefield and continue their way home…. 

The R-35's turret is facing the Russian while the vehicle is making off the table..

Bringing a ‘faust to a tank fight……

“What a Tanker!” is a unashamedly tank vs tank game.
However, wargamers being wargamers,  can’t leave well enough alone and many have done much work to expand upon the original premise to include anti-tank guns and anti-armour infantry weapons.  While I have done so, I was surprised to discover that even the Two Fat Lardies authors have also done their own version!  [ LARD Magazine 2019 ]  Their rules had the panzerfausts/bazookas stationary while I have gone the 'more traditional ' route and play the mobile infantry carrying blasters of tanker hell more in tune with the original rules.

As a play test, WillB was given my 3D print Matilda II - a Lend-Lease provided by the British,  while I played the late war Germans. These are Warlord plastics painted by me recently and armed with the always popular panzerfausts for hunting the lost tank in a Russian village.

Because of the need of certain dice at certain times …and that not happening… it does mean the infantry don’t necessary have free reign and indeed at times became the hunted.  At one point the Matty rounded the corner of the church almost running down one of the Germans who was frightened stiff with fear (he did not get any ‘move’ or even ‘fire’ dice at the time).  The tank could not move any further unfortunately and the German finally turned and made his escape.

It gives me the opportunity to have the late war enemy tanks on the table without the need for me to build an additional tank model to face them ;))

Measuring Template

A group of us rather distant wargaming friends - two countries, five cities, 500kms between - and this before COVID - have been working on an all-cavalry Napoleonic rules.  Up to this point as we were still developing these rules and as among friends we 'winged it' and did not get very picky about distances and angles and such; " yeah, close enough".  Thus we have had not the need of such devices.  However should we find the odd participant who might well force the issue, I decided we need to determine charge angles and directions so a template is required.  I finally thought about this and came up with this example:

(rather fuzzy photo to start things...)

Photo 1

Photo 1:  the template is the width of a full strength French Cuirassier unit with the angles at 45 degrees

Photo 2

Photo 2:  This shows the start of the player wheeling his unit to the right at the maximum 45 degrees for further movement. Each successive horsemen will be deploy beside.

Photo 3

Photo 3: shows the unit now fully deployed.  The distance is considered to be 6 inches thus far (...close enough) should any further forward movement be required. One inch can be subtracted from the distance moved for each figure less in the unit.

Photo 4

Photo 4:  the template now deployed in the front-center of the formation providing the check of the angle of movement allowed by the Cuirassiers to attack the British Light Dragoons in the background indicated by the left side of the white strip and continuing along the template.  Obviously move it to the other side for a left hand turn!

The templates are made from thin plastic sheets and I have made extras for all the lads (when we next meet..)

You might have noted the poor dead French infantryman on the template.  He is there merely for decoration!  I had a few left over from the Perry Dragoon Box.  I used the British ones as 'rough ground' for the game, so thought to be fair about it....

The week in gaming

Still haven’t got to my “Saratoga” game set up on the table for the last three weeks..... but did take my Samurai on the road for a Monday Game.

The Oyamata were to escort the musicians and gifts to a wedding while the rival Takeda wanted to halt the convoy. Used Lion Rampant rules with an add-on for the Teppo (handgunners).

The Oyamata procession

Takeda ashigaru soldiers

  Short story:  the Oyamata players rolled poorly and wore out fairly quickly.  Extremely poor courage tests by both sides had units vanish rather than be battered.  I guess one’s life (based as ever on the randomness of the fates) was not worth the honour of wedding gifts, even for the Samurai…..

The mounted Samurai who, with rather poor activation rolls, did not move but once the entire game (but didn't really need to....)

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On Friday, it was the ClubNight and, after offering scenarios set up for Will’s Jacobite game (see his blog: link ), I got into Lisa’s Congo rules game of slavers vs tribes vs rival tribe three-way.  She made a call for additional figures and a couple of us offered what we had; and ended up playing in the game anyway.

The jungle, the Lisa version, using plastic plants to good use.

 The interesting rule introduction by Congo is the method of unit ordering and activation.
The player has a handful of cards each. The cards have an initiative number together with symbols for movement (footprints), shooting (bow and arrow) and/or panic (umm, something scary to Congolese warrior).  These come in various amounts and so the player can pick three of these to play in their next three plays.  You can sorta guess what you might need to do in the next 3 turns but things could certainly change which makes the selecting difficult and hit-and-miss.

The 'ordering and activation' cards.  The rules use an assortment of dice 

Various 'stress' tokens.  Too many and you start having fellows leg it.

more examples the activation cards.  In this case, my turn is probably after everyone else (the top '2' is low).  I can shoot with 1 unit and move another.

Points were allotted to victory conditions.  As a Masfusi I wish to rescue our prince, and the other captives, kill slavers and prevent the hated Kosi from doing the same.  It did not start well for me as, of course, I picked up the dreaded chit as I entered the rough terrain and so panicked so firing at the nearest group (friend or foe).  It was to be my fellow Masfusi  for me to blast away using my only trading-muskets causing death and wounds.  This then panicked that group who fired back with accurate spear fire, killing three of five musketmen!   Meanwhile another group of mine were shooting at the slavers.  There was only a small chance to killing one’s own but my fire firing did just that!  While usual for me, not a great start….
I managed to gain the most victory points at the end so redeemed my early ineptitude however. I still think I eliminated more of my own than the enemy!

To add a bit of weight to her plastic models, Lisa glues them to old pennies (the same size as an American penny).  Canada no longer uses pennies as currency.  So when I mean old, I mean old - note the minting in 1929!   Mind you metal washers cost much more than 1 cent these days.....

Quote of the game:  the Kosi player having fun with a small group of poison dart armed Pigmies (pun included??) also envisioned his tribe to be cannibals.   A rule of ‘Congo’ could have you add a stress token to your unit for a chance of saving figure from being killed. “Nah, we’ll eat him later”  We had a light and fun attitude to the game….

Medieval ‘LR’ clash

With a slow rotation of games (telling me I have way too many armies/eras/‘projects’ already) we tend to forget the rules and spend quite a bit of the game asking ourselves “what happens now? The rule is?”

Trying to keep fresh on the Lion Rampant rules, I invited the guys over for a simple ‘refresher’ game.  Not knowing the numbers of fellows I placed down terrain, said “you English over there, we French over here”, gave out personal objects randomly (I was the only one who gave THAT any thought) and went at it.  No planning or battle strategy.  Very medieval that.

The only real innovation came with my introduction of a deck of playing cards for initiative.  As we had four players, each player was assigned a card suit from the deck.  With each card of that suit drawn the player then could try to activate any of his units.  If fail or activated, a marker is placed indicating that unit is done.  Eventually, all the players units would have been used. Once that happens, all the markers are removed and should his suit card be drawn he once again can nominate any of the un-activated units to be diced for.  Once the deck has been used up all players would have had an equal number of activations.  Not necessarily on a consistent basis, but eventually at the end.  We did have one player have five of his cards come up in a row (!) thus he was able to try to activate all his units one-after-another with one of the units doing this twice but with only 13 draws per player, it eventually evens out.
With this, rather than the I-go-you-go or heaven forbid the one fail you're out (per original rules), it creates more action and natural flow of the play.  Of course this can be for any game to get away from predictable player sequence.  Anyway it was agreed it did help with the play.

Pictures of the game.  All figures are mine and painted by moi.  (I was using my newly painted Dunkerque liveried types - in yellow and white with the bright blue dolphin and black on yellow shields)  Historically note: Dunkirk/Dunkerque was not actually French but Flemish during this time of c.1350 - the time of the Battle of Crecy and the armour styles portrayed on the figures. D’oh.  Didn't discover that tidbit until after painting them. Let’s over look that historical inaccuracy shall we…..

Dunkerque mixed yeomen militia (sheep optional)

massed English archers

Having achieved my 'personal objective' by burning the farmhouse, the yeomen will enter the battle.  The 'shield' 'marker indicating that unit has rolled for activation and cannot be chosen until after all the players units have done so.

Apparently this lad wanted to make sure the flames got it all.

my new straw fences using real pine fir needles! ....and lots of glue...

and yet more English archers behind stone fences.  The French really could not win this battle/game.

Retreat from Moscow - the game

Well after a vacation to warmer climes, what type of game would you think I would like to do?  Something with steamy jungles? Perhaps an amphibious landing on a nice tropical beach? No, I decide upon the frozen tundra of Russia….. and the famous Retreat from Moscow of the Grande Armee!

To be honest, the vacation had little to do with it.  It really all started with a large white tablecloth I have had for years, and a chance encounter with WillB at the club when he was selling (giving away, really) some of his Perry ‘Retreat’ figures.  I couldn't resist. When I heard that the Seattle convention of “Enfilade!” theme is to be ‘Winter’ , well…….heck.

With my interest, Will later traded with me some further of his Retreat collection…seeing my weakness :}

The Perrys do packs of six foot and three horse, so I choose to continue that organization of units as not to make the whole project overwhelming.  In any rules, you can have various means “stretch out” the elimination of figures/units and I did not see the need for masses on the table.  This game is to be a lonesome party of stragglers in small units seeking a different way home from the mass of the disintegrating French army.

Because of the small numbers, or perhaps because of them, I saw this as another of my “convention games” to be played in a noisy environment by a bunch of guys not necessarily up on any particular rules or even the period at hand.  Certainly I feel overly complicated and ‘accurate simulations’ don’t really work at big events so I opt to simple and easy to command rules.  This often means I will need to make them myself to fit the type of game and the numbers I have.
So, in this case, while the Russians (mainly peasants as that is what I ended up with) could be commanded indeed by other players, it proved interesting putting them on “auto-pilot” by using a chart and basing their ‘commands’ on proximity to the enemy and a die roll to see how they react.

The rules, brief as they were, with myself putting in about a half hour of thought were kinda based on the ideas of Lion Rampant (with low amount activation, differing hits equal casualty amounts and differing abilities).  **spoiler - they proved to work very well indeed.

The individual groups of survivors make their way past a lonely Russian village through the snow of a Russian winter.....

Of course the other things to create the game are the painting and the terrain.  The painting was necessitated by Will’s units already done.  But this actually proved a blessing because while not my usual style, it gave me inspiration to keep it simple and basic.  Then, from examples of other painters of frozen conditions, dry-brush a light grey over all areas to give them a ‘cold’ look.  Thus unusually for me, I have another’s painting in my collection.

The 'Poles' leading groups of French dismounted cavalrymen and French infantry towards the lone bridge and survival

Russian Jagers behind the houses of the village.

As mentioned the ‘mat’ is a white tablecloth I had.  Not realistic, but practical.  The Russian houses were plastic ‘Pegasus’ types previously painted by me but not to my satisfaction so they were very much “re-purposed” covered in white paint and model snow.  The Russian church I had built a while back (see: my previous post on the church build)  also became “re-purposed” and covered like-wise. Undeveloped x-ray film provided by a doctor gaming-buddy of mine years and years ago (obviously as they are now have been digital for decades) provided the cold water stream.

OK, the game.
Firstly I told Will, Jim and Peter there are no morale rules.  Units can fight on until all the figures are eliminated.  The rational is thus:
“In these frozen winter depths of despair, if you surrender the enemy will certainly kill you.  If you run, it is into the white wilderness.  To give up is to die frozen.  The only option is to keep fighting until the bitter end or continue your trek home….”

Having no morale in the rules, certainly makes everything a whole lot simpler!

While not really ‘morale’ I put in a simple rule that units sustaining the most casualties in combat or any from shooting will retreat back a full move.  That simple rule, ended up to be used tactically by the players to ‘push’ the Russians out of the way in many cases thus shooting but so losing a turn of movement just to clear a better path.

My repurposed church and leafless plastic trees in the background

Movement and shooting distances are determined according to my painted wood dowels.  Surprisingly the only things NOT to chance within the game!  And, of course, painted as to 'blend in' to the terrain.  My OCD of wargaming.....

The winner is the player with the most figures off the far end of the table.  Jim, selected the mounted French contingent and the ‘Remnants’ (of the GrandeArmee) .  His cavalry raced literally directly through the countryside so having the terrain potentially causing harm.  But as I was rolling.... and sixes were needed, so he worried unnecessarily….( I think at one point I threw 48 consecutive dice and came up with only three individual 6s and so not enough to wound, let alone eliminate a single figure….)

Jim sat back to watch Peter and Will leap-frog each other, fighting off the peasants and the much tougher Russian Jager regulars.  Yes, the Cossacks were there (of course!) but insisted to but be merely be a presence and only coming into range once to be shot up by Will’s commanded ‘Old Guard’.  Surprisingly to all the players, after initial fears of being slaughtered, Will and Peter exited with the same numbers as Jim so all were considered survivors …until perhaps the next village is encountered!

The "Old Guard" appropriately providing the final rearguard.

Some good ideas for further betterment of the rules were offered and so I will go into the next game with Version B and knowledge it will probably work for a good game and entertainment of the players.

Escort Duty

1815 era Dutch-Belgians playing on the French side!  (my plastic conversions)

Surprised no one wondered why cuirassiers, hussars and all manner of horsemen were tasked to escort wagons but such are questions best unspoken when a scenario must be designed with only a vague idea of the number of players coming.  However the “escort the wagons” is always a good option for any era.  As the game was another “pley-test” of  “Hussar Rampant” it was all horse using every painted unit available, both my French and Dutch-Belgians and WiilB’s borrowed Russians and French Dragoons, giving the 8 players three units each.  This was to be the largest of the games so far at 24 units on the table.

Chasseurs on escort duty

Also testing the rules was the utter mess of deployment,  with the French escorting the wagons and  units helping from the town and against Russian forces coming in from all angles from the random diced approaches which inevitably creates a bit of chaotic action.  However if this confusion still has the rules working despite unique or challenging situations, then it might survive any test.

The usual combats in all directions.  In this case, all cuirassier action!

So it was that the game had the wagons almost within range of the town and causing some of the Russian players bemoan the task unaware however that at 8+ activation, the wagons would be hard to move along.  DaveMc wanted the cossacks  in order to burn and loot (and not just capture) and surprisingly used them ‘cossackian’ style avoiding most contacts but as their real-life counterparts, were a quite the nuisance.  The cuirassiers both Russian, under the able command of ChrisO, and French ones, were hard to kill, and the lancers with their ”pointy-stick” bonus had a big punch.  The lights and hussars, with greater movement rates, could dance around ( or should!).

units are standardized 6 figure units

Russian overhead perspective with ChrisO's view of the battle

The wagons, safe for a while, but with French losses and little movement, they inevitability were captured or in one case, burnt by cossacks.      

This, and the following pic, shows an interesting combat three of my Dutch-Belgian units against one Russian cuirassier formation. As usual, my dice again profoundly fail me and the armoured Russians prevail...... !!   

Nap. Lion Rampant

The new project gaining some of my attention these days is developing “Lion Rampant” for Napoleonic cavalry action. Yes, the medieval rules!.  Cleverly titled “Hussar Rampant”, these are specifically and exclusively for the use of only cavalry during the Napoleonic Wars.  This exclusivity avoids any need for complications with the addition and interplay of artillery and infantry for what were often only mounted actions between the colourfully clad cavaliers of the era.

As ‘LIon Rampant’ is at its best when dealing with the back-and-forth swirling action of the mounted warrior, it is ideal for this interplay.  I mentioned this during a late Saturday night beer sipping conversation with a group of wargaming buddies and immediately we started with how to go about making this happen.

Obviously besides the gaining of, painting of, and use of miniatures; we need a set of rules.  I didn’t think converting LR would be a problem.  Already, many wargamers, including an article about using LR style for the use of small unit Napoleonics published in Wargames Illustrated magazine No.342, have taken this approach.  However we wanted only cavalry, make all troop types effective, have no ‘national characteristics’ so that, whichever unit the wargamer wants to command, it would be roughly equal, and easy to play in a convention setting, to be imperative.

Three of us, in separate cities and in two different countries, continue to hone the rules.  Part of this process is the play-test so I took the stat charts and did a quick solo game using WillB’s Russians and French.

Anyone who has played Lion Rampant knows that any change, for example, from 7+ or 8+, is a huge difference and must be carefully weighted and so many more tests will be required to fine tune the charts.

[random thought: is that Dan Mercey sighing?] [Nevertheless Dan, thanks for the inspiration]

But for the moment, I will just present a few photos to show the look of the game.

Using WillB's French heavies supported by his unit of hussars. Marshal Ney commands in the middle.   I must say that the flowing ranks of the miniatures look more impressive on the table than in a photograph.

the cavalry battle somewhere in Russia

we rule writers will need to determine how long will units last with combat effectiveness.....

As a group we have settled upon the Battle of Waterloo as the basis of the collecting as to keep the historical integrity of the troops used.  I already have two simple scenarios based upon real events in the battle which we could use.

Currently there are seven of us which have pledged to have units ready.  Today I was busy building the Netherlanders 4th Light (Dutch) Dragoons to add to my ready to paint British 12th LD for the Allied side.  Lots of snipping, scraping and gluing of these Perry plastics but, well, I seem to really enjoy doing it!

Battle of Eylau 2018

Rather than snow …. or lots of baking powder all over the table….we decided to do this January 1807 battle in the summer.

Start of the game.  Eylau is represented by the yellow church in the middle

Showing James' fine work.  He did these French AND a Russian command!

Murat's huge heavy horse command.  Murat is the single horseman in the centre.  DaveB's nicely painted Imperial Guard is in the background.

Looking upon the Russian Right/French Left flanks

Showing Davout (commanded by myself) coming onto the battlefield near the village of Serpallen only to be stopped by a good defence by Ostermann (MarkS) and reinforcements coming in.  

Showing late in the battle with the Russians advancing with infantry and artillery.

I debated whether to add sandstorms (rather than snowstorms) add/or downgrade the Russian command and combat abilities, but in the end did not add any variations.  Probably should have.

One result is the Russians actually saw how few French were in front of them and immediately advanced.  By not lowering their maneuver pips and thus they moved at uncharacteristic speed for the Russians of this era.  Using group moves  (the now banned after game casual debate over lunch and beers), they managed to move troops to the beleaguered left flank to which Davout (myself) was attacking.  My attack along with all the other French commanders were stymied by the good Russian commanders.

Lestocq (and yes that is the spelling; and no, I have no idea how to pronounce;  we went with "la-stock") the lone Prussian finally entered at the historical time and immediately started marching toward the French.  However it was clear even at that point that the French were done and the Corps Morale rolls were starting to affect the outcome in any event (as they should)

It was a bad day for the French and our first a-historical result using the rules.  Should have gone with the original plan.  Must revisit this battle with such changes and see if the result will be different and, as interestingly, a historical one.
Nevertheless the game was a good one and as the players are now well familiar with the rules, the game chugged along at a good pace.  We had 95 elements on the table, with 9 players and concluded the affair in one time slot.

Thanks to all the players and to those who contributed the time and effort in painting and basing your figures for the game.

Sharp Practice trial test

In a tiny village somewhere in Russia during the year 1812.....

My dismounted French 5th Dragoons - plastic Perry plastics with some minor conversions.  

One well-known rules which I have never played is the Two Fat Lardies “Sharp Practice”.  A couple of weeks ago, WillB offered to introduce in a game between his Russian Jagers and my newly painted never-yet-on-the-table dismounted French Dragoons.

Interesting mechanics but not much of way of tactics as we plowed through the elementary rules for only a few turns.  Definitely a small unit game.  The card/chit pulls and frequency are very important.  Not really enough time to make an assessment so more play is needed but they could be useful for other periods.

The 'grave marker' is showing one level of "shock".  WillB's Russian jagers inhabit my new church model in the distance.
The 'Big Man' (lower right) directing the elite section of the dragoons forward. 

Nice to see my newbies on the table, nevertheless, along with the recently constructed Russian church.