A Gentleman's War playtest

"A Gentleman's War" is a new set of rules that Howard Whitehouse has been working on for a while. They are shortly to be published as a book but I used the playtest rules from April 2018 for a test game.

AGW is a deliberately old school set of rules for playing with toy soldiers on a table top. It used card activation, quite a few dice and single figure removal.

I am planning on running this at the Little Wars Revisited Forum Games Day on March 16th in Woking, so wanted to try out the rules ahead of time and test out the Hook's Farm scenario to see what tweaks I would need to make. As always, Anthony gave me a hand by playing the British side...



The table laid out for the game, complete with Gizmo the cat surveying the scene...



The Prussian setup at the start of the game.



The British setup at the the start

AGW uses 12-man infantry units, 6-man skirmisher units and 6 man cavalry units. Guns are crewed by 4 figures.



The Prussians advance.

The game uses activation cards which determine which side moves and how many units it can move (it is possible to brigade units together) - you can also have hold cards in your hand which enable you to interrupt the other person's go before they have taken an action.



The British Cavalry

Shooting is fairly straightforward, rolling a D6 for each figure in the first two ranks and the number needed depending on range. Hits can be saved which is modified by cover.



The melee around Hook's Farm

Close combat is a little more complex and there are a number of factors which determine whether one side has an advantage or not. This affects the number you need to roll to cause a casualy. I did like the fact that casualties are counted and that determines the winner of the melee and THEN the outcome determines what number you will roll to save your casualties. People running away are more likely to bayoneted!



Hook's Farm

Terrain does disorder units which restricts what you can do and we have too much terrain on the table for this game - I will run the LWR game on a wider table which should allow for freer movement.



Firefly Church

I also got the melee rules wrong - partly by reading a table incorrectly and also for a couple of other reasons. This seemed to make skirmishers in a building too strong but in retrospect I think that they are about right with the correct rules!

I enjoyed the game - it has an Old School feel and gives a good game with larger units and probably larger forces than The Portable Wargame...

The Battle of Hooks Farm, Woking

Saturday September 2nd saw the Battle of Hook's Farm take place in the Woking between the forces of Army Red and Dark Green (in my side garden).

The game was played using the Funny Little Wars rules with 6 infantry, 2 cavalry and 3 guns aside for a total of 120 infantry, 24 cavalry and 3 artillery. Each side also had one sniper.

I umpired.






Anthony with the forces of Army Red deployed on their baseline.



The battlefield of Hook Farm, showing the farm, firefly church, the cottage and the hovel. A small stone wall provides some cover in the middle.





Brian with the deployed forces of Army Dark Green.



Army Red start their initial manouevres.



The catering corps observing the action



Army Red send a cavalry detachment to seize the farm.



On the other flank the cavalry dash towards the church



Army Dark Green advance more cautiously having refused one flank





Army Red advance in a steady line



Both sides cavalry contest the farm



First blood to Army Green as a well placed shell kills some cavalry






General view of the battlefield



Army Dark Green deploy the guns



And the artillery duel begins











Army Green advance to line the wall



Army Red Sniper hides by the Hovel



Slavs skulk in cover - unfortunately they were hit by their own guns just after this as a stray shell landed in front of the woods...



Forced into retreat by their own artillery...



The action hots up with a firefight developing





By firefly church the Red cavalry threaten the Dark Green heavy gun.



And over run it



Dismounted cavalry fight over the farm...

The game was fun and eventually, Army Red got the better of the firefight and having spiked their guns Army Dark Green withdrew from the battlefield. We were very lucky with the weather.

We played from 11am to 5.30pm with an hour or so's break for lunch at 1pm and another short break for cake and tea...

FLW Game Report Army Red vs Army Khaki

This is a game that Anthony Morton and I played at the Guildford Wargames Club last week between my own Army Red and his Army Khaki. Army Red is made up of castings from my own Little Wars Revisited range of 54mm Toy Soldiers. Anthony's Army Khaki is from AIP North-West Frontier figures and was also painted by me. I will eventually be painting up an opposing force of Afghans for use with FLW and TSATF rules.

The game was played on a 6 foot by 7 foot table with us playing down the length. There were two main farm buildings as objectives and a couple of woods and an outlying farm building. The farm was a 28mm EM4 Miniatures Farm which comes painted already. Being on the large side it worked well on a tabletop with 54mm figures.



This is Army Red set up on their baseline.



The following is Army Khaki:




The opening moves saw both forces approach the closest objectives with Army Khaki's cavalry on the left flank facing off Army Red's lancers.





Army Khaki started the game with both of their guns unlimbered on the baseline while Army Red pushed forward the light gun in support of the cavalry leaving the medium gun for use in counter-battery fire. After some ranging shots, the Army Khaki Medium gun was eliminated.

The Army Red Cavalry pushed forward.


And the two cavalry forces met by the farm.



Before the cavalry melee could start, Army Red's sniper eliminated two of the opposing cavalrymen which swung the resultant melee in Army Red's favour.



Both sides continued a cautious advance.





The Army Red Rifles unit eventually occupied the second farm building.



After a fierce firefight between the rifles and two enemy units, the rifles were forced out of the farm and the Indian infantry were able to occupy the farm building.

On the same turn the second Army Khki gun was eliminated.

The game was declared at that point as a narrow draw.

Finally an Update

Real life and other work which actually pays the rent has meant that I haven't had much time to work on the Little Wars Revisited range over the last few months.

Now that Salute is out of the way I have finally managed to start on moulding the rest of the range and have the moulds done for the Line Infantry, Fusilier heads and the Riflemen heads and arms. I also have an added incentive of an order for 108 figures..

I have also mastered the first cavalry figure - a Dragoon. The mould has a problem, unfortunately with one the horse halves and I am going to have to remake it (the saddle slipped in the mould) but the following is a couple of test shots of the figure cast up. The horse will fit together better and the rider sit slightly better on the remastered piece.





There is a second arm with the sword straight out for an officer figure and a set of reins to add that run between the horse's head and the figures hand/top of saddle if you want them.

Even casting the horse in two halves to reduce weight (it is slightly hollow) this is a heavy piece and will cost £11.00 for the horse and rider.

Once I have finished the moulds, I will announce the releases and get the figures up on the shop to buy - hopefully in a couple of weeks at the latest.