More Paper Pike And Shot

Well, I say 'More'. Really it's the same paper Pike and Shot I posted pictures of yesterday. But this evening I have trimmed the stands of figures, and glued them to bases.

Each army has four Pike and Shot bases and two each of Shot, Gallopers and Trotters.

The next stage is to paint the matchstick pieces I use to support each stand of figures green, as well as the edge of each of the bases. They should be ready to take to the field in their first game on Saturday.

Paper Pike And Shot

Having messed around with the rules in 'One Hour Wargames' and seen what other people have been doing with them, I am keen to give some of the sets I haven't played a try. I could certainly try the Dark Ages set using my DBA armies, and possibly take stab at some games with the Ancients set too. But neither of those excite me particularly at the moment. I have considered trying the WWII rules with my Epic 40K armies, but I shall save that for another day.

No, I have an urge to try the Pike and Shot rules. Or, at least, my own variant of them. They are an interesting mix of the melee-orientated sets of the first part of the book and the firepower-based sets of the latter part. They look fun. However I am let down by the small problem that I don't have any Pike and Shot armies.

Once again Junior General came to the rescue, providing a range of English Civil War and similar forces for me to download, rescale and print off. I mostly used Ben Harvey's Complete Renaissance Set, which isn't strictly the ECW look I was aiming for, but is close enough and comes in scenario-friendly Red and Blue factions. I added in some pistol-armed cavalry from one of the ECW sets.

Here they are, printed off and with the fronts and backs glued.

With hindsight I should have merged the pikemen and musketeers into one strip before printing, as this would save time and effort. But it's not worth doing it now.

The next stage is to trim them and base them. I am putting them on bases with a 60mm frontage and 30mm depth, although I may put the pike and shot units on 20mm deep bases if it looks better. I'm hoping to have them ready for play on Saturday.

In terms of the rules I am keeping three of the four basic troop types of the OHW Pike and Shot rules, although for aesthetic purposes Infantry will be renamed Pike and Shot, Reiters renamed Trotters and Cavalry renamed Gallopers. I have dropped Swordsmen for now, and replaced them with Shot, representing dismounted dragoons, commanded shot or maybe infantry with such a low proportion of pike that for practical purposes their sole defence lies in firepower. I may make some Swordsmen bases if I like the rules enough. There are plenty of figure options available on Junior General.

Small-Scale ACW

The scenarios in One Hour Wargames are designed to be played on a 3' x 3' area, with unit frontages of between 4" and 6". This means that the units are between one-ninth and one-sixth of the width of the playing area. These are useful figures to bear in mind if you are looking at trying the scenarios on different sized playing areas.

I tend to scale my games towards the one-ninth end of things. Thus my GNW games have units with a 3" frontage on a 2' square board - one-eighth of the width of the playing area. When I play on my roughly 9" square board I use units with a 1" frontage.

Tonight I thought that it would be interesting to try out the other end of things - units that are one-sixth of the board width.

It looks cramped, but it just about works. Those are 40mm frontage units on a 9" square board, and it means I can use my ACW stuff on the setup I take when I go camping. I haven't decided what I'm taking with me on my next camping trip, its true, but it's nice to have options.

The scenario you can see here is Bridgehead, and eleven of the twelve units in the game are in play; the Confederates have lost one.

As ever the fields are just garnish.

One Hour Wargames - Scenario 13 - Escape

The 'Escape' scenario is one I've played a couple of times before, but I have to say I don't like it that much. I'm not sure why, but I have never found it gives a satisfying game. Still, I have chosen to play and document all of the scenarios in the book, and it's the next in line, so I bit the bullet and got on with it.

The scenario sees a raiding force rushing to escape enemy territory as their foes close in on them from all sides. They enter along a road and must exit at east three of their six units off the opposite side before the end of the game.

I thought that an ACW setting was best for this particular scenario, so set it up as such and rolled a couple of armies. The Confederates rolled three infantry regiments, two of Zouaves (elite infantry in the One Hour Wargames rules) and one battery of artillery. A formidable force whichever side they'd be playing.

The Union also got three infantry regiments, two batteries of artillery and one regiment of cavalry.

The Union ended up defending. They started with one units deployed; an infantry regiment. The rest of their units would appear as reinforcements. The Confederates would enter at the left, looking to exit the board via the road at the right. Union reinforcements would appear on the hill at the top left, to the left of the wood and finally one unit on the right-hand edge.

For context I saw this scenario taking place during Jackson's Valley Campaign of 1862 - it certainly has the right feel, with a Confederate brigade trying to outwit and outmaneuver  their Union opponents.

Another view of the deployed Union regiment. The fields are garnish; the only significant terrain in this game are the woods, the hill and the road.

The Confederates advanced rapidly down the road, their advance spearheaded by the elite 'foot cavalry'.

With their way blocked by Union troops the Confederates swung into line, and prepared to engage.

More Union troops deployed. From the hill to the Confederate left two batteries of Union artillery opened fire. The Confederates deployed their own artillery in response.

The Union troops opened fire as well. The battle had begun in earnest.

The Confederates replied ...

... and a devastating volley saw the Union regiment break and run!

(I was using my variant combat system. The Confederates rolled six dice total, looking for a 4+ to hit. They scored five hits, enough to destroy the enemy unit in one shot.)

This was something of a disaster for the Union, and the road was clear and the Confederates well-positioned to race along it and escape. Most of the Union reinforcements would come on behind them, which meant a chase that they couldn't win.

The Confederates reformed and moved along the road ...

... just as the next lot of Union reinforcements arrived. The cavalry moved to engage a blocking Confederate infantry regiment, as they couldn't move through the woods. The infantry wasn't restricted, and moved through the trees to try and intercept the Confederates before they escaped.

The cavalry dismounted and a firefight ensued.

The Confederates escaped ...

... as the last lot of Union reinforcements arrived.

Two Union infantry regiments were formed up in range of the Confederates now ...

... but the Confederates moves a third unit off the table to win the game on the seventh turn.

The fourth regiment would escape easily as well, despite the casualties it had taken from long-range artillery fire from the hill. The Union could only content themselves with the fact that the Confederate artillery and the final infantry regiment were probably now trapped and outgunned.

The game was won on that first volley from the Confederate elites which swept away the Union blocking troops in one go. Had that Union regiment remained in place for one more turn it would have delayed the Confederates long enough that they would have had to fight their way past or through the other reinforcements. The Union artillery on the hill would have proved especially deadly, being able to support and pick off vulnerable units. As it was it accounted for most of the hits on the Confederates.

Here's a shot of the final positions, with the One Hour Wargames book in shot to show how small this game really was.

Follow the rest of the scenario refights HERE

More 36AP HOTT

Last night we played a few games of 36AP HOTT in preparation for the MOAB tournament coming up i a few week. Must remember to register for it at some stage ...

I played one game, losing to Caesar's Greek warband and behemoth combination with my Spawn of Tiamat.

Isn't Caesar's wooden horse lovely? He made it himself from a Christmas cracker toy.

Things ended badly for Tiamat's spawn when Qingu, her consort and general, was backed up into some ally behemoths.

Meanwhile Geoff and Ralph used medieval armies in a coupel of lovely looking games. Geoff won both of them

Geoff then went on to defeat Caesar, despite having  knight-based army against an opponent with four behemoths. Geoff will be the man to watch at MOAB, obviously.

Despite plans to the contrary, the Spawn of Tiamat is looking increasingly likely to be my army for the event, although it needs some repair and a few elements tidying up before then.