A Sudanese Debut

The Sudanese Battalion, sent by the ruler of Egypt to assist the French in their Mexican adventure of the 1860s, is one of the more interesting units of that conflict. Made up of Sudanese slaves, they were sent to the area around Veracruz because it was believed that, as Africans, they were immune to the yellow fever prevalent in that region. About 400 of them served in Mexico, mostly in company-sized units, either protecting the railway line from Veracruz to Mexico City, or on counter-guerrilla operations.

Many years ago I painted up a unit of Sudanese troops for use with my 'Principles of War' armies for this conflict, but I never got as far as using them in a game. Fired up by my 'Battle Cry' inspired game of the other day, though, I decided to give them their debut this evening, in a scenario inspired by one from a Mexican Adventure scenario book I have (and can't currently find in order to give you title and author).

The scenario was quickly thrown together. A road and the railway cross the board and a river through forested terrain. An Imperial force, consisting of Sudanese and Austrian troops, are under orders to clear both. A small Republican force hold the river crossings, and there are rumours of irregular troops in the trees.

I used the same basic rules as the other day, but increased infantry ranges to 3 squares whilst reducing their firepower to 3-2-1. Artillery fired 4 squares, with factors of 4-3-2-1. The Sudanese troops were classed as elite, and could take 5 hits. The irregular infantry could ignore the negative battle effects of entering woods, but only had a range of 2 (factors 2-1). They took 3 hits, and were obliged to retreat 2 squares on the first flag rolled against them. They could retreat 2 squares for each of the others.

Victory was set at 4 flags. The irregulars were only worth half a flag. If, at the end of an Imperial turn, there were no Republican units on, or adjacent to, the railway the Imperials scored a flag. The same was true of the road. However the Imperials were on a deadline. Each time they rolled dice to activate units they rolled a red D6. If it came up '6' then, after their movement, they had to roll another D6. If this didn't score equal to or less than the row number of the most advanced Imperial unit, then the Republicans scored a flag. This gave the Imperials an incentive to push forward rapidly.

Irregulars were revealed as the Imperials advanced. The first time one of their units moved adjacent to a row from the third row onward (excluding the river) then a D6 was rolled for each wood. On a 5-6 an irregular unit was placed in it.

Here's the setup, with the Imperials in the foreground. They had two units of Sudanese infantry, two of Austrian infantry, one battery of artillery and a unit of Mexican cavalry.

The Republicans behind their barricades - two units of infantry and a battery of artillery.

The Austrian column.

The cavalry pushed forward rapidly, scouting for irregulars. One unit was revealed towards the centre of the board.

The Republicans fired, inflicting hits on the cavalry.

The cavalry and the Austrians engaged the irregulars ...

... who retreated across the river to safety.

Meanwhile a company of Sudanese troops had advanced to the railway bridge and fired on the Republican artillery. Units in 'Principles of War' are made up of three bases, so this was the odd base of the Sudanese unit, with a base of red-coated sombrero-wearing contra-guerrillas supporting them.

The artillery retaliated, with great effect. The Sudanese retreated to the jungle behind them, where they stayed for the rest of the battle, taking long-range pot-shots at the gun.

The Austrians had advanced well, although unlucky rolls at activation time meant that they had conceded two 'ticking clock' flags to the Republicans by this stage.

The Imperial assault ...

A wider view of the battle.

The Austrians fell back under fire from regulars and irregulars.

The fire kept up, and the Austrians fell back again.

The other Sudanese company was now advancing.

The Austrian artillery had been doing sterling service, bombarding the Republican regulars at the ford. It paid off - unable to resist the fire the Mexicans melted away. The road was clear, aside from one weak unit of irregulars.

The Austrians advanced again, but the irregulars fire was too accurate, and they retreated from the battle. The Republicans were up 3 flags to 1.

The Sudanese attacked across the bridge.

They took many casualties from Republican fire.

Too many - they broke, and the battle was lost.

The final position. The Sudanese had made a brave attack, but had made no headway. The Austrians had done better, almost clearing the road, but the 'ticking clock' had really been their downfall.

The brave boys from the Sudan.

This was a fun little game, but probably over-loaded with special rules and with the terrain too much in the Republican's favour. If I ran it again I'd probably have the barricades acting as cover only, and drop the effect of ignoring the first retreat (or maybe allow ignoring the first retreat, but drop the cover, like hedgehogs in 'Memoir '44'). In addition I didn't bother with generals on either side, which made activation rolls of 5 hard to use, as they only allowed an extra square of movement, which was mostly negated by the close terrain and need to keep firing. Maybe a commander on each side would help. In addition the Republicans had no cavalry, so couldn't use an activation roll of 3. Maybe next time they can have cavalry - possibly some irregular units mixed in as an option when such units are revealed.

Anyway, it was good to get a unit I painted over 15 years ago into a fight at last.

A Square-Grid Mexican Adventure

Recently I have been following various posts on Warwell's Wargames, especially the Francesian battle reports. These are 19th century square grid games, using the C&C/Battle Cry system, with a few adjustments. I felt inspired to give the rules a try this afternoon, so set up another game based during the Mexican Adventure.

The gist of the rules would be lifted from Battle Cry. But I used ordinary D6, and just translated the scores.

Because of the small size of the play are I reduced movement and ranges. Infantry could move one square and battle. Artillery could move one square or battle. Cavalry and generals could move two squares, and cavalry could battle. If a general was attached to a unit he could automatically move with it.

Ranges were adjacent for cavalry (with 3 dice), two squares for infantry (4 and 2 dice) and three squares for artillery (4, 3 and 2 dice). Infantry could take four hits, cavalry and artillery three hits.

Combat was the same as Battle Cry - a 1 or 2 scored a hit on infantry, a 3 a hit on cavalry and a 4 a hit on artillery. A 5 caused a one square retreat and a 6 scored a hit on anything (including a general).

I used the Warwell activation system, including some adjustments he's been trying. Each army was allowed to roll so many dice per turn (I used three for each side). The scores dictated what type of unit could be activated - 1 or 2 an infantry unit, 3 a cavalry unit, 4 an artillery unit and 6 any unit of the player's choice. On a 5 I allowed the activation of any unit to which a general was attached or the player could add one extra square to the move of an activated unit (but it could no longer battle, even if allowed).

The setup was simple - a Republican force of four infantry units, a cavalry unit and an artillery unit were defending a town. An Imperial/Austrian column was attacking them, consisting of six infantry units, two cavalry and two artillery. I set victory as five flags. The Imperials gained a flag if they could control two squares of the town.

This is the Republican setup. On the left an infantry unit garrisoned an outlying farm.

The Imperials marched on the outlying farm.

Their main force started across the line of hills.

The Republicans had shifted another unit across to support the farm, but took the first hit as the Imperials advanced.

A close assault was less successful.

Retaliation saw the Imperials forced back with heavy casualties.

The Imperial artillery slowly moved up to support the attack.

The Imperials attacked from the woods to the left of the farm, and destroyed the defenders ...

... but the supporting Republicans took their revenge with exceptionally accurate fire, wiping out the attacking Imperials.

With the attack on the farm totally stopped, the main Imperial fore advanced. They had lost two infantry units already, as well as one of the artillery units, destroyed by counter-battery fire from the Republican artillery.

The Imperials advanced on the town, and the Republican cavalry came up in support.

A brisk engagement saw then driven back, but not before they had inflicted casualties on the attackers. By now I'm sure you will have realised that I used small stones to mark hits.

The Republicans had also re-garrisoned the farm. With the battle slipping from their grasp the Imperials resorted to desperate measures, and threw in their cavalry. This was less desperate than it looked here, as the Republican unit had already taken three hits from artillery fire as it advanced, so was close to being destroyed.

Imperial cavalry supported the attack on the town ...

... but a volley from the defenders emptied so many saddles that they routed. This was the fifth unit to be lost, so the Imperials puled out.

An aerial view of the battlefield at the end of the game. The Republicans lost one unit.

The activation worked well, and made for some interesting decisions, although unlike the card/sector-driven activation of Battle Cry it is easier to pick on vulnerable enemy units when you have more choice as to which (say) infantry you are going to activate. Movement, ranges and fire-factors seemed OK just for this game, but I shall see how they stand up to further play. In addition I'd like a way of differentiating troop quality - haven't got any solid ideas on that yet.

A couple of random shots to finish with - here's some Imperial infantry.

And here's the town and its heroic defenders.

Weird World War II - Enter The Americans!

I finally finished my American army for Weird WWII HOTT last week (bar the stronghold, which I'm still pondering). On Thursday night, at the my first Gong Garage Gamers meeting for a month, they had their debut game - against the Germans, of course.

Based on Hollywood and comics, of course, the army consists of:

1 x Rider general (Cigar-smoking general in jeep)
1 x Paladin (Captain America)
1 x Hero (Sergeant Rock/Fury or similar)
1 x Knight (The Haunted Tank)
5 x Warband (Gung Ho American infantry)
1 x Beast (Lassie)

The Germans defended, their position being based on two hills.

Here's the Haunted Tank, making up the US right flank.

The general commands his troops from the rear.

Combat! Captain America engages the Demon Panzer.

Lassie and The Haunted Tank are also engaged. The Haunted Tank destroys an element of Nazi robots, but Lassie finds them less to her taste and is driven back. The robots would fight off Lassie and the tank for the rest of the game.

US infantry engages the German's Death's Head Battalion.

Captain America fell to the Demon Panzer (don't worry - he's not dead; just in suspended animation), so the US general was forced into action.

Lassie and Sergeant Rock rush to help, surrounding the Panzer. In fact Sergeant Rock had already fought his way through to the enemy stronghold, but failed to capture it, and his flee move put him close into the rear of the Demon Panzer.

Try as they might the US forces couldn't finish off the Panzer. As their elements were whittled down elsewhere, it fought off attack after attack. Eventually Adolf himself stepped in, and finished off Sergeant Rock to win the battle for the Germans.

The Americans are a fun army to play, with a hard-hitting Hero and Paladin combination. Of course the downside of this is that they are vulnerable to losing these troops, and the rest of the army - Warbands, Knight and a Beast - are potentially brittle if things don't go their way.

In a second game we pitted the Germans against the Russians. The Russians won after a bold German attack on their centre became over-extended and got outflanked.

Meanwhile - another time and another place; this HOTT game on another table used essentially historical medieval armies.

There was also an epic game of Bolt Action on the go, with Germans fighting French resistance, but I neglected to get any pictures of it.