Still Alive - But Got Killed the Other Day

 Is 31st January too late to wish everyone a Happy New Year? I hope 2025 has started well for you all, anyway.  As may be obvious from my lack of updates, this month has been  a slightly  'Dry January' in hobby terms  ( and as a wise hobby friend said, don't try to write blog posts when you've got nothing to report ) -  but I am determined not to reach the end of a month with no updates whatsoever, especially in the run-up to what I believe may be called  the 'fiftth blogoversary' of this stream of inconsequential nonsense ( I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence, and I don’t think he did, either... ). And so, in the dying hours of this bleak midwinter month, a quick summary of recent hobby-related happenings, and a few thoughts and ideas for the future seem in order. 

I may not have run any actual games myself, but I have been lucky to have been involved in a few: many thanks to Jon Freitag, as ever, for inviting me to join in with two of his remote gaming extravaganzas. First up was his fourth iteration of the Italian Wars period battle of  Agnadello 1509; something of a nail-biting game in which Tony (MS Foy) and I as the Venetians came quite close to holding off  Mark (Jolly Broom Man) ,  Chris ( Nundanket ) and Dave ( LiverpoolDave )'s  French, partly by going against what seemed to have become the accepted wisdom of the previous three outings. A learning point from this - I think I had assumed we would lose, but if I had kept a closer eye on the scores we might have seen a chance to actually win!  Never assume.. Click on the link here for Jon's excellent report.    I did smile at Jon's writing at one point : By now, Alviano's attacks have run out of momentum - what in fact had happened was that my Heavy Cavalry  Men-At-Arms had pursued a badly-damaged French light horse unit, striking the routers from behind and rolling eleven dice against the French one - and then  I had rolled no hits with my eleven dice, and seen my brave knights slink away in disgrace! A moment to remember.  As you can see , the game was a really colourful affair, with some mighty struggles as the big pike blocks collided across the Venetians' defended ditch. 

                        

 

The second offering from Jon was earlier this week - a complete change of theme, The Gunfight at Adobe Wells Station ... yesirree, a rootin' tootin' Wild West Gunfight!   Tremendous fun was had as (by coincidence ) the former Venetians Tony and I became Pinkerton Agents, defending a stash of weapons against a gang of lairy-looking desperadoes who strongly resembled the French nobiltiy of 1509.  My character 'The Accountant' managed an initial coup by fatally drilling Chris's  'ZZ Hood' right between the eyes,  but then fell to a rain of bullets and clubbed pistols from Mark's  villainous 'Wild Bill' Briscoe.  Meanwhile Tony's  'Careful' McMinn had been anything but careful, and took a whole lotta lead from 'Daring Dave' McGinty, and the Pinkertons were unceremoniously rubbed out.  A great game, with Jon reviving his version of 'The Rules With No Name' and figures after 25 years disuse - you did a good job of remembering them, Jon!  I liked the simple card-driven activation which sometimes gave a player two or even three actions on their turn, hence allowing a deadly 'reload - aim - fire' sequence, and the use of a 'joker' card to end the turn randomly - which quite often saved characters who had got into a very tight spot, by denying their opponent the chance to finish them off! Alas, The Accountant ran out of luck in the end,  and his books are now closed.  I borrowed the following pic from Jon's blog - the moment my man went down, in a close-quarters rooftop fight..

                               

  

Chris aka 'Nundanket' has featured quite a lot in my hobby January - as well as the above we met in real life a couple of times. First was at the National Army Museum for one of their excellent Friday lunchtime talks, this time on the  Saratoga campaign of 1777.   Chris has posted a report of the talk here - note that if you can't make it in person to the talks, you can book in to watch them on-line, and well worth it they usually are.   Secondly, Chris and I were involved with  an evening of board wargaming in a London pub, playing my venerable (1983!)  Soldier King  game. Very much a 'learning the game' exercise for all concerned, but interesting, and we are arranging another try with the same group - in which we will hopefully move a bit quicker and get stuck in to some proper battles! Here is a picture (thanks again Chris!)  to give you an idea of the look of the thing 

 

So that's a summary of most of what I've been doing hobby-wise - you may have noticed that this does not ( shock, horror! ) include any painting.. Well, I have managed a few painting sessions on my 1859 Risorgimento  Piedmontese and Austrian 6mm armies, and they are 'getting there' but by no means complete, though I have been enjoying the process.  Here is a 'work in progress' sort of picture - Austrians mainly in white, Piedmontese in blue. I like the simple, semi-flat format of the Commission Figurines models, which are a mix of their Napoleonic and ACW ranges. 

on the workbench - just not often enough!

 

For the future, I have a couple of ideas  knocking around,  plus an invitation , as follows: 

D-Day Dodgers as a Mini-Campaign?

I was intrigued and inspired by a couple of posts from the always excellent Norm Smith on his Commanders website and/or  Battlefields and Warriors blog  ( and by the way, if you haven't already,  do yourself a favour and download his brilliant  2024 Christmas Newsletter ).  In these he highlighted a  piece in Matt OIrsik's 'Warning Order' free downloadable  wargaming magazine, issue no. 58, which in turn is inpsired by a very old series on 'One-Day-Campaigns' which appeared in early issues of Wargames Illustrated  back in 1987!  I remember those 1980s articles, too - quite inspiring. Norm is using the concept to set up a WW2 campaign for his 'Old School Tactical' boardgame collection, which you can read about on his site - he calls the campaign  Krosnogord 1944, and excellent it is too. I have been thinking that something similar might be a pretty good way to use my D-Day Dodgers  1943-45 Italian Campaign collection, having now painted a few units for Rapid Fire Reloaded, I need a framework for putting together game scenarios, and the 'linked maps/tables' format of the mini-campaigns suggested by Norm and Matt look like a pretty good idea. I am giving this some thought..I hope Matt won't mind too much if I show a screenshot of  part of his Warning Order article :

And of course, if you have not previously seen Warning Order, do have a look, it is an amazing piece of work and well worth supporting! 

Thirty Years War with Portable Pike and Shot ? 

I have got a bit tied up with painting figures for projects in the past few months, and it occurs I should change things up a bit and vary my routine by remembering the armies that are already painted, and could be used for actual games with very little effort.. in particular I've been thinking of my 15mm Thirty Years' War forces. I chanced upon some blog entries by Archduke Piccolo, who has tried re-fighting battles of the Thirty Years' War using Bob Cordery's  The Portable Pike and Shot Wargame - an example being his Portable White Mountain  from June 2024.  It made me think - I wonder if I could do that?  At around the same time, I noticed that Helion  have published a book about the battle of Fribourg 1644 :

 

Being a bit of a fan of Marshall Turenne ( slightly morbidly, I think I once saw the cannonball that killed him, in the Invalides museum  in Paris ), this could be a good one to try gaming, and my armies are supposed to be French and Imperialists ( OK, maybe it was Bavarians at Fribourg, but we'll overlook that! )  . The book will I assume have decent orders of battle, and they can hopefully be scaled down to the limited table and forces at my disposal - a sort of 'bathtub Fribourg', perhaps?  Actually I don't think the armies involved were all that large, at this late stage of the war, which may make it easier. So that's another book for for the wish-list - but it should be well-worth reading, Monsieur Thion being the expert on French armies of the period. 

A PBEM Seven Years War Campaign? 

Chris 'Nundanket' strikes again - he has kindly invited me to join a 'Play by Email' campaign he is planning, based on Frederick the Great's invasion of Bohemia in 1757. We talked about the idea when we met at the NAM (see above), and the discussion and some ideas batted around gave him the impetus to get started on it, I think. He has a bunch of willing generals lined up and an interesting co-operative/competitive format in mind, whereby we may be all playing Prussian commanders versus the umpire-driven or automated Austrians - it looks like it should be quite in interesting excercise. Thanks yet again, Chris, I look forward to it..  

What with getting the 1859 armies completed and hopefully a game on the table soon,  I think I have given myself plenty to be getting on with!  I've also rambled on quite long enough here, so I will call it a month and hope to come back with some actual progress in February ( which is tomorrow, of course- maybe not quite  that quickly, then!).  Meawhile I hope everyone out there is enjoying their hobby time, and until the next time keep well, everyone.   

Return to Picardie - and belated D-Day

A bit of a miscellany this time, as hobby time has been rather short, alas. I'm afraid it's been almost a year since Rob of Eastern Garrison fame was so kind as to sell me some rather nice 7YW period 25mm Garrison French, and to my shame I have done nothing with them,  Well, having completed enough WW2 figures to be going on with for the moment, I wanted to keep up the (tiny amount of ) painting momentum. My acquisitions of books at Broadsde the other week pointed me back to the 18th Century, so what better than to get some of these French painted? 

So, I have made a tentative start on the Regiment of Picardie - sixteen figures, which will make two units for The Portable Wargame. After a rather miserable and wet spring, the Longest Day has brought summer, and I was able to have my first outdoor painting session of the year, sat in the garden late  this afternoon. Progress was not exactly rapid, but I did slap some paint on to the general area of their coats! But what colour to use?  There does seem to be a slight dilemma - many sources suggest a plain white coat, but others posit the famous  Gris-blanc  or 'Grey White', carried over from the earlier armies of Louis XIV.  I decided on my own version of the Gris-blanc,  at least partly just to differentiate my French from my other white-clad figures, both Austrian and Saxon. Rather like an interior decorator, I've ended up with a sort of 'white with a hint of grey' produced by mixing Army Painter Uniform Grey with Titanium White. I was tempted at first to just leave the grey spray primer exposed for the coats, but that seemed a bit too strong - more 'Gris' than 'Blanc'. 

 

Not much to look at as yet, perhaps, but it's a start, and the figures are rather charming, with simple detail (not excessive) and better proportioned than the rather podgy  Minifigs that have made up most of my collection so far.  I think these will look rather elegantly chic, very French.. We'll see how I do with them. 

I can also report a slightly belated addition to the 'D-Day 80'  anniversary. My WW2 'D-Day Dodgers' project is by definition not about Normandy, of course, but I thought it would be nice to pay my wargaming respects of a sort to the event being commemorated  the other week. I have a copy of the boardgame Memoir 44 , so I thought I'd get that out, and why not use my figures and vehicles in place of those from the game?  Ideally  I would have set it up as a full-scale figures game, but alas I don't currently have enough hex terrain to replicate the full  Memoir 44 board, so I came up with a sort of boardgame/figures game mash-up, which didn't look too bad, I thought.  The model tanks only just about fitted into the hexes on the game board, but they were (just) OK.  

This is the 'Sword Beach' scenario, which was the obvious one to try given that I have British and German WW2 forces but no Americans so far! For infantry units I simply swapped my painted figures for the unpainted models in the game, for armoured units and artillery then one model gun or tank sufficed per unit, with artillery unit strength represented by the number of crew figures, and hits taken by tank units marked by simple tokens (pennies, in fact). And so to the game - the British pushed their 3 'DD' tank units up the beach promptly, using them to clear barbed-wire obstacles as they  went, but they took hits from the defending artillery ( in a protective bunker ) and the lone German armoured unit, and two of the three Sherman units were destroyed. However, weight of numbers ( and a few lucky hits on that artillery unit and other bunker-bound defending infantry ) told, especially in the central  sector.  After about a dozen turns a successful  British 'Close Assault' on the central village objective gave  the British their 5th and 6th 'Victory Medals' and finished the game in their favour - which was only right, I felt.  Here is the final situation, with the British looking very sparse on the left, but having pretty much cleaned up on the centre and right. I was glad to see a historically appropriate result,  and Memoir 44 proved to be simple, but challenging and fun.

Must get more Hexon terrain, and go for a 'proper' figures game version!

Finally for today, more D-Day - the ladies of the village handicraft group produced their most spectacular 'Pillar Box Topper' yet, in honour of the anniversary. Complete with landing-craft! 

That's all for now - as I said, this is a bit of an odds and ends post. I hope you'll forgive that, and I promise to keep on with painting those French! Meanwhile, keep well, everyone.

Wing Leader: Air Combat Over China, 1942

I have owned a copy of the  aerial combat board game Wing Leader : Victories 1940-1942 for several years (pre-pandemic, at least) without really finding the time to give it a proper go. It's a very interesting game, so I've been glad to finally devote some time to it, and at least play the first couple of scenarios.

Among the aspects that I found interesting were (i) the counters represent 'units' of aircraft, specifically Flights (about 5-6 planes)  and Squadrons  (about 10-12 planes) rather than single aircraft - this seems appropriate as it was generally how air battles were run in the period concerned -   and most interesting, (ii)  the portrayal of  altitude.  

It has always seemed to me that the absolutely most important factor in portraying  air combat must be the height that the aircraft are at. Read any eyewitness account of aerial combat - having height advantage (which translates into speed advantage, for attack or escape ) is crucial. You might argue that in 1914-1918, combat once joined tended to be mainly turning fights ('dogfight' is the perfect word!),  but 1939-45 saw the triumph of height and speed against manoeuverability, as the pilots of nimble but lightly-armed and armoured Japanese and Italian fighters, for example, found to their ultimate cost against American and British aircraft built to prioritise height, speed and heavy weaponry. 

All the game systems that show aircraft moving over a map of the land, with markers denoting  altitude,  just don't look right to me: the aircraft seem to move more like ships in a sea battle game, or tanks on the land.  Things can be improved by putting the models on stands with adjustable heights, but that always seems a bit awkward too, and quite difficult to put together.  A solution was suggested 45 years ago (ulp!) by Mike Spick in his book Air Battles in Miniature - he dispensed with 'depth' on the table, and having its two dimensions represent (i) distance along the ground and (ii) distance above the ground. The model aircraft were  shown in profile, the altitude and attitude (nose up or down)  of the aircraft were perfectly represented - it looked like an air combat!  As I've mentioned before, as a youngster I was enthralled by Mike Spick's book, and a few of us fought some exciting (if completely unhistorical) mass air battles at our club using 1:72 scale models 'cut down the middle' - I can tell you that a B-17 in that scale looks pretty impressive! Happy days, indeed. 

 Therefore it was fascinating to see that the Wing Leader designer Lee Brimmicombe-Wood has taken Mike Spick's concept and used if for his game - the unit  counters show their aircraft in profile, and the board represents distance along the ground and height over the ground in the same way.  As an example, here is the intial setup for Scenario 2 'Birthday Present' which I have played through:   

And a close-up of the Japanese raiders, stalked by American P40s:

 

With apologies for variable quality of photos in this post, I hope you can see how the format works. The scenario is set in April 1942 near  the Chinese city of Lashio.  A Japanese raid is launched, with two squadrons of Japanese Ki 21 'Sally' bombers ( 12 aircraft each) escorted by 1 Squadron (12 aircraft) and 1 Flight (6 aircraft) of Ki-43 'Oscar' fighters.  American forces of 1 Squadron (8 planes) and 1 Flight (4 planes) of P-40B Warhawks, plus a Flight (4) of the improved model  P-40E  are sent to intercept, with the P-40Bs climbing from below a layer of wispy cloud toward the Japanese formations, and the P-40Es  approaching from behind.  On the counters, Squadrons are  denoted rather neatly by showing two aircraft profiles on the counter, Flights by only one. 

Movement rules are very simple - it's basically 2 movement points (MPs)  for bombers and escorts which have not yet been alerted to the presence of the enemy,  3 MPs for  fighters operating independently as interceptors or a 'sweep', and usually 1MP per square in level flight, and 1MP if changing facing by  more than 90 degrees.  If they dive, add 1 MP/square  - and climbing one level requires more MPs, depending on the aircraft type and current altiude (for example P-40Bs take 2MPs to climb 1 level starting from levels 4 to 9,  3MPs if starting from level 10 or higher).  This is quite a contrast form the old Mike Spick system, which I seem to remember involved calculating each aircraft's speed to the nearest 1mph, and moving correspondingly precise distances in mm, then re-calculating according to changes in height and throttle setting - it was all admittedly a bit like airborne Bruce Quarrie or WRG rules..! 

The game introduces the concepts of  'Vectors' and 'Tallies', markers for which can be seen on the board. Each interceptor unit starts with a 'Vector' which is the target square their ground controller has directed them to aim for,  but they can then attempt to spot enemy units, taking a die roll check which is modified for distance, weather conditions (those clouds)  etc. If successful,  the Vector counter is flipped to 'Tally' and placed on the enemy unit that was spotted, and the interceptor unit can then move to attack the enemy unit.  The sequence of movement means that the target  unit has to move first - thus if you spot ( Tally )  an enemy unit, you can follow it and move to attack.  All fighter units can Tally, and the result can be a 'chain of Tallies' which deternines the order of movement -  quite a neat system for representing the importance of spotting and tailing enemy aircraft. The poor old bombers have to just lumber along in straight lines, I'm afraid, and always move first.. 

Turn 1 : 'Tallies' obtained, action will follow..

 

In our game,  early on several Tallies were gained and had interesting effects - the P-40E ( labelled 'P') unit spotted the rearmost bombers (unit 'Y') and climbed, ready to swoop, but in turn were Tallied by the Flight of Ki-43s ( unit 'D' ),  who in their turn were spotted by P-40B Flight 'B'. So a 'chain of tallies' occurred, and that determined move order - first bombers 'Y', then P-40Es 'P', then Ki-43s 'D' and finally P-40Bs 'B' - several levels of 'cat and mouse' being played! Meanwhile the remaining P-40B squadrom 'A' had seen the leading bombers 'X' and climbed to engage, but the Ki-43 Squadron 'A' remained blissfully unaware ( and in this scenario have no common radio 'net', so can't be alerted by their comrades ) and just beetled along with the bombers, having a lovely day..

However, that squadron 'A' of Oscars woke up in the end,  spotted P-40B squadron 'A' below them, and dived to attack through the wispy clouds, while the other units were all still closing in on each other in their chain of Tallies.  Combat commendes in the bottom left of this picture, from Turn 3 : 

Turn 3 : first combat, and 'chain of tallies'

 

Once two or more opposing units reach the same square, combat ensues, and this is a bit more involved. The basic mechanism is to compare combat values for each aircraft type, work out the differential between them, then roll dice for 'hits' against a combat table where the differential denotes which column to use - so if your combat value is better, you should get more hits. The attacking unit can choose whether to use 'Turning Fight' tactics or 'Hit and Run' - different aircraft types can better at one or the other (the Oscars are better at Turning, P-40s are better at 'Hit and Run'),  and there are modifiers for 'Veteran' or 'Green' units, whether climbing (hence slower) or diving, or formation has been distrupted, etc. 

aircraft stats cards are rather nice

 

Each 'hit' then triggers another die roll, modified by 'Firepower' of the attacker  and 'Protection' of the victim - this can result in no effect, a  damaged  ( 'Straggler' ) aircraft or a 'Loss'  representing one plane destroyed - remember your unit may be a Flight of say 6, or Squadron of 12.  Obviously if all 4 or 6 in your flight become Losses, the unit is eliminated - but usually formations  will break up long before that - which leads us to unit cohesion. 

After hits and losses, there's a Cohesion check for every unit in the combat, which is rather akin to morale - after a bout  of combat,  your formation may be disrupted and therefore less effective, or it may simply break up altogether.  I quite like this idea, as it reflects the common experience of pilots reporting going into a combat where the air seems full of machines of both sides, only to suddenly find themselves seemingly  alone in the sky  as all formation has been lost, and they might as well head for home.  This has some interesting implications,  in that a unit could attack an enemy unit from a good position, roll well in the combat, score  several hits and convert them to 'kills', but then roll low in the 'cohesion ' check and become 'broken' because the pilots have lost touch with each other, and are  obliged to head for home. Flights are more likely to suffer this than Squadrons, and Fighters more than Bombers, who after all depend on keeping close together.   This mechanism can mean that combats can be rather short, and highly unpredictable!  

In my opening fight between Ki-43 Oscars and P-40Bs, the attacking Oscars chose 'Turning fight' which gave them an advantage, and gained for being 'Veteran', so rolled on the '+2' differential column - rolling 7 on 2 dice gave 1 hit on on the P-40s. In turn the Americans, at a '-2' differential , rolled '10' and also got 1 hit.  Then in the determination of losses, the Oscars rolled poorly and suffered from their poor armament ( low 'Firepower' ) - so the 'hit' had no effect, but the P-40s rolled higher and had better Firepower, and claimed the first kill of the game, as one Ki-43 went down, presumably in flames..  In the cohesion checks, both squadrons suffered one point of disruption, but remained unbroken - it takes 2 disruptions to break a squadron.  So the combat continued in the next turn  - an actual 'dogfight'.. In Turn 4, neither side could score any hits, but the unfortunate P-40 squadron 'A' rolled low in the Cohesion check, took another Disruption level and was thus 'Broken' - and out of the fight, with the small consolation of having claimed one Ki-43 'Kill'. Units are brittle in this game!

Turn 5 : Oscars, Sallys and P-40Es get stuck in

 

The other units on both sides continued stalking each other, and on Turn 4 the Flight of P-40Es ('P')  caught up with the rearmost squadron of  'Sally' bombers , shooting down one bomber , only to be caught up with on Turn 5 by  Flight 'D' of 'Oscars'.  The fighters battled it out, each Flight scoring one 'kill' on the other - but crucially the P-40 Flight failed its Cohesion roll and took one Disruption point - enough to break a Flight. So by turn 5,  two of the three US units had been Broken and forced out of the fight - actual losses standing at 1 P-40E from the US force, and 1 Ki-21 'Sally' and 2 Ki-43 'Oscar's from the Japanese. Interesting - despite more  casualties, the Japanese  formations had held together better and were gaining the upper hand. The remaining  P-40B Flight comprised 4 aircraft ( and were 'Green' pilots ) now up against about 40 Japanese planes!

Perhaps any sensible US pilots would have dived for home at this point, but I decided these guys were keen to fight - they had a Tally on Ki-43 Flight 'D', though were by now also being stalked by Ki-43 Squadron 'A'. So inevitably on Turn 6, all three units met in a climactic combat.. 

final mass brawl: 4 P-40s vs 16 Ki-43s..

 With the Ki-43 Squadron 'A' moving last they were the attackers and chose a Turning fight, which gave them the advantage, plus being Veterans against Green, and having two units agianst one - the Japanese player then rolled 11 on 2 D6, scoring 4 hits! The P-40s scored none, unsurprisingly. Those 4 hits could wipe them out - in the event, they suffered one Loss and one Straggler (damaged), thanks to the Oscars' light armament.   In the Cohesion check, the P-40 flight took one disruption point and was Broken - no suprise there! But it didn't go all the Japanese way, as the ki-43 Squadron 'A' also took one Disruption point, which added to one from the previous combat, left them Broken too.  Broken units must make for home, so with all 3 of its units now Broken, in effect the US force was finished.  

Turn 7 : P-40s dive away, but are pursued

 

Broken units can simply drop out of the game by mutual player agreement, and I had done that with all previous examples, but it's not automatic, and they may be forced to try to escape, pursued by the enemy - so I thought I would try that with my plucky 'Green' P-40 Flight. Accordingly on Turn 7, the P-40Bs dived away towards their baseline - but were pursued by the remaining Ki-43 Flight, who continued the combat with some advantage.  The 'Oscars'  scored 2 hits , which resulted in 1 more Loss to the P-40s - now reduced to just two planes, one of them damaged. They were saved finally by the Cohesion check - after several rounds of combat ( depletion of 'ammo' is tracked and this reduces cohesion ), the Ki-43 Flight failed its check, and was also required to make for home. With that, all fighter formations  on both sides had broken up and retired to base, leaving the two Japanese  bomber squadrons to continue on their mission - this being to simply reach the American baseline and release their bomb loads. With no opposition remaining this was a done deal, and the game ended.  A tot-up of Victory Points (basically 1 VP per fighter Loss, 2 VPs per bomber, and 6VPs per unbroken Bomber Squadron reaching 'target') followed.  Losses were 2 P-40Bs and 1 P-40E  (3VP) versus 1 Ki-21 and 2 Ki-43s  (4VP), but with 12VP for the unbroken bombers, the Japanese had scored enough to claim a victory - as was pretty much apparent. 

So there we are - I have strapped in, started up, taken off and flown my first  missions, and returned to terra firma relatively unscathed and with a little more confidence to face further sorties. I must admit I rather like this game system, not least because of its use of  Mike Spick's clever concept of portraying the all-important third dimension  ( I have never understood quite why other rule-writers have not followed his lead in all these years! ).  The movement rules are simple but effective, and I like the 'Tally' system.  Combat rules with their three stages of calculating advantage and hits, incurring losses, and checking cohesion took a little getting used to, but quite soon seemed to flow quite naturally. The 'Cohesion' rules did give me pause slightly, as they make fighter units (especially smaller ones)  very fragile once committed to combat - they can seem like a one-shot weapon, and combat can be pretty brief.  I did wonder if that was a bit too impactful  -  I suppose a possible 'tinker' with the rules might be to increase the number of Disruptions that cause a unit to become 'Broken'? But would that then mean long,  drawn-out combats and unrealistically high casualties?   If the Cohesion rules are giving a good version of what happened in reality - and I think they might well be - then I should be satisifed with that, perhaps. One is not playing the role of a single heroic ace fighter pilot doing battle at 'Angels One-Five',  but more likely the Wing Leader, or even the  Ground Controller watching plots moving on his radar screens and plotting tables,  committing squadrons to battle and hoping for the best as you listen to them excitedly reporting ( or not ) the outcomes over the radio..       

Now so far, of course I have only used the basic rules - there are 'Advanced' rules still to come, covering among other things Drop Tanks and fuel limits, special tactics, special weapons, Jets and Rocket Planes, Surface Units and Flak Units, Barrage Balloons,  and last but by no means least,  Bombing.  I'll try to take it slowly!   I like that the game covers 1940-1942 only - the 'early war' period is just as interesting in the air as on the ground, as the combatants are on a learning curve and pre-war concepts  and designs are tried and sometimes found wanting. Me-262s and Mustangs can wait, I want to try Gladiators and Fiat G.50s first!  There are 23 scenarios in this edition, covering China,  the Eastern Front, the Battle of Britain (of course!), Malta, Greece 1941, the Pacific, France 1940, the Western Desert, and France 1941-1942. There's a huge Dieppe 1942 scenario with about 15 units each of RAF and Luftwaffe, and a Midway scenario where 5 units of Japanese 'Zeros' have to try to deal with 3 times their number of American Fighters, Torpedo- and Dive-bombers in multiple waves - challenging stuff indeed.   On a much more modest scale the third one in the scenario book is 'Stalingrad Airlift' , whereby 2 units of He-111s acting as supply carriers have to fly very low, escorted by a single Flight of Me-109Fs  (4 machines),  and are intercepted by 2 squadrons (18 planes!) of Russian Yak-1s. The Me-109s have 'Experte' ( i.e. an Ace ) status and the Russians are 'Green', but it will be a hard one for the Germans, I suspect - they'd better do well on the Cohesion checks! 

I hope this has been interesting for anyone thinking about  WW2 aerial combat games  and looking for  a different and interesting approach -  I think you can see this fits that bill.  I am quite pleased with the game, and will try to work my way through the scenarios.   Hmmm... do you think it could work on a 'bigger scale' ?  I mean , a board with  larger  squares, and actual models for the units - perhaps 1/144 kits could be used? It could look really good at a show(!)..  Does the spirit of Mike Spick look over our shoulders..?

Now I really need to crank up the painting production line - there are 7YW, WW2, and Pike and Shot waiting for attention, and some gaming with such figures should also be lined up.  A planning session is required, and then some execution, to be shown in future posts. Until then, keep well, everyone ( that means YOU, Ray..hope you're on the mend! ).

Lurking in the Loft

Every now and again, real life impinges on 'hobby life' : this week's real life event is the need for a de-clutter and re-organise at home. That required a bit of a review of what lurks in the loft - which is where real life and hobby life cross each other's paths.  I pulled out some quite interesting stuff, which will be spared from the de-cluttering. Such as this: 

Cry Havoc  from Standard Games, c. 1982.  Skirmishes in the 13th Century. Lovely graphics (I think Peter Dennis was involved), three quite large hex-based terrain maps (which could be used for other games/rules, I'm sure) and pretty simple rules - though I seem to remember the bowmen (firing twice each turn) tended to just shoot up all the other characters?   On BoardgameGeek, user HiTracey comments  Time waster for really bright little boys who have lived in a time warp since 1981.  Hmm, I wouldn't claim to be especially bright..

Of a similar vintage, but slightly more obscure, we have Raiders and Traders from The Chaosium, 1979

 

Quite unusual in that it is set not in Classical Greece but the Bronze Age. I seem to remember this got a few plays back in the day, and I love the map - again, surely could be used for other purposes, would make a nice campaign map. The rules may not be quite so elegant, though! 

Which is all well and good, but I do need to de-clutter after all, and the biggest challenge may be this: 

magazines sah - thousands of 'em!

 

I bought Wargames Illustrated from issue 1 in 1987, and managed to keep buying every issue up to early 2004 - I think I have 196 of them! Mostly in binders, as you see. Now they've been in the loft for 10 years, which is not ideal as they are very heavy - I have a slight worry they may come crashing down through the ceiling one day! I need to decide what to do with them - are they actually worth keeping? Nowadays I don't tend to keep hobby magazines, I just keep cuttings of any particularly interesting articles, but in my mind these have been  a sort of totemic 'resource' which I have held on to.  However, they do take a lot of space, and they do weigh a lot - are they worth it? I am going to try to go through them, to see just how much of their contents are still of interest. I am reasonably confident that there will be quite a lot of good stuff - to my mind Duncan MacFarlane did a great job in publishing articles that reflected and encouraged original  thinking about the hobby. (only recently I was describing an AWI game using Loose Files and American Scramble by Andy Callan, which were published in  WI's first issue).  I do suspect that by the early 2000s, things had shifted towards the domination of articles giving 'a scenario for XYZ rules',  but we'll see. This could be my coffee-break reading needs sorted for many months ( or even years!) into the future.  Just for good measure, by the way, I also have nearly all of Duncan's issues of Miniature Wargames - which I think is another 50-odd magazines! 

You may have noticed that considering this is a post about de-cluttering, I haven't actually got rid of anything yet... a good point.  I do really need to reduce the number of books in the house - at some time in recent years  ( probably related to my discovery of the delights of charity shops ) the ratio of books bought to books actually read has increased way beyond where it should be. So, time for a clear-out. I wonder if anyone is interested in any of these : 

Western Desert trio

and 1914-1918

and some 'Horse and Musket'

Specifically they are : 

Campaign Series :  Operation Compass 1940  and Tobruk 1941 by Jon Latimer 

                                Jena 1806  by David G. Chandler 

Battle Orders Series: Desert Rats ( British 8th Army, North Africa 1941-43 )  by Tim Moreman

                                British Expeditionary Force 1914-15 by Bruce Gudmundsson  SOLD 

Elite Series :         World War I Trench Warfare (1) and (2) by Dr. Stephen Bull SOLD

Men at Arms Series:   Louis XIV's Army by Rene Chartrand

How about £5 each including postage  ( £4 for Louis XIV, it's slimmer ) - UK only, I'm afraid, if overseas you are probably better off buying from a proper business. It may be a bit cheaper overall if you want more than one.   Leave a comment on this post with your email address, I won't publish it but will get in touch.  

Or if you are going to be at Salute on April 22nd,  £1 less  for 'cash in hand' and the chance to put a face to the name? 

That's enough for now, coffee time, now where are those old issues of Wargames Illustrated? Keep well, everyone.  

  

No-Score Draw at Germantown

 Faced with the proverbial rainy day ( or at least a 'long morning' ), I took the opportunity to try out a recent purchase:Germantown, a board game from Decision Games 'Mini Game Series'.

I had recently picked this up when I happened to be in the vicinity of  the veteran games shop Leisure Games in Finchley - which I used to visit regularly in the 1990s, but I had not set foot in for 20 years or more. It was nice to see them still trading, with a massive selection of games, of course!  I couldn't leave without buying something, and this was one of the cheapest games they had(!)  - but also an interesting follow-up to my recent on-line gaming experience courtesy of blogger Nundanket and his 'Loose Files and American Scramble' AWI games. 

To quote from the game: A British campaign in the late summer of 1777 had defeated George Washington's American army to capture Philadelphia. The British dispersed their strength to hold the city, reduce Colonial forts along the Delaware River, and watch the Americans, who hovered nearby. Washington saw an opportunity to attack the weakened British at Germantown. The complicated American plan fell apart in dense fog, but a few breaks going their way would have endangered the British position in eastern Pennsylvania. The game uses a simplified 'fast play' version of Decision Games Musket and Saber series rules, and uses a small set of only 40  counters and a mini-map ( 11 by 17 inches ) - so very easy to set up and start playing. The main rules cover  just 4 pages, with a couple more pages for the scenario-specific rules. 

Here it is, with the opposing forces in the second turn ( 06:30 hrs ). The British and Hessians ( red and green counters ) begin deployed around Germantown,  and the Americans arrive in  several columns from four separate roads to the West, North and East - they win a major victory if they can occupy the Market Square of Germantown, or at least one hex of the British camp ( on the hill, just to the South of the town ). The British win a major victory if they can destroy all the American units - no small task. Each hex width  represents about 350m on the ground, and units represent Brigades and Battalions - the Americans also have one battery of artillery, and the British have one unit of cavalry ( part of a small reinforcing column arriving later ).  Some of the units ( American militia and Hessian Jaegers ) can act as light infantry, and make skirmishing attacks rather than getting in close with musket and bayonet. 

The rules are quite simple, with alternate moves and simple D6 die rolls for combat, morale etc. I liked the combat resolution table and its use of the combat strength difference between the opposing units, rather than the old-school 'SPI' style use of ratios ( 2 to 1,  3 to 1 etc ), which I never liked. Combat results can be retreats, routs and step losses - most units can take two step losses, being  'flipped' to the reverse of the counter with lower  strength  for the first one,  then destroyed if another loss is taken - and/or 'disruption' which reduces their combat ability. Both step losses and disruption can be recovered.  Units can 'stack' up to 3 per hex without adverse effect, but only one unit per hex counts for combat, so the stacks very soon shake out into battle lines of single units for best effect - this seems right given the 350m per hex and brigade-size units. Another crucial rule is that when one side's units enter the enemy units' Zones of Control, all the enemy hexes contacted must be attacked - if you decide not to attack the enemy in a hex you have contacted, then the units in that hex can counter-attack you, with their combat factors doubled.  You may decide to concentrate your attack on only some of the contacted enemy, but you have to be confident that you can weather the resultant counter-attacks!  ( it can make sense, if you need to concentrate on the strongest enemy units, maybe ignore the weakest  as their counter-attack will not be too strong, and they may decline to attack)

A major feature of this scenario is the effect of fog - each turn a dice is rolled to decide if the morning fog persists ( with more chance of it clearing as the day goes on, but then a return at the end of the day)  and the presence of fog has some fairly drastic effects.  Movement allowances are randomised and reduced, even road movement is slower, and woods and watercourses have serious effects on movement and combat - there are many small 'brooks' and 'light woods' hexes, and in fog turns these are uprated to 'stream' and 'dense woods' which limit movement and cause combat strengths to be halved.   I get the idea - imagine trying to get a unit of  drilled infantry in strict line formation  to advance and attack across a series of brooks and through woodland in dense fog!  To some extent the the fog blanketed the rules too at the start, as one had to keep remembering that this or that terrain hex  now  behaved like a different terrain hex, but the rules are really pretty simple, and soon picked up. Units on hills get a combat factor bonus in fog, which makes some sense!  

Another important  scenario feature  is the simulation of ammunition shortages for the Americans - after the first few turns the British player gets to choose a number of American units each turn which must take a morale check, and if they fail they will become 'disrupted' , which makes them less capable, especially in the attack. This is quite a bonus for the British, as the number of units to be checked goes up to five in later turns - the disrupted units either have to stop for a turn to recover, or remain  much less useful in any combat. 

And so, to the battle. As you might expect, the fog certainly slowed down the initial American advances, and gave the British time to organise - they elected to use their Hessians ( including  a Jaeger rifles unit )  to  defend their left against US militia,  and to   divide their main British infantry force into two, each division trying to block the progress of one of the columns of  American regulars. The game starts at '05:00 hours', and the fog did not lift until 11:00 ( Turn 5 ), and as a result the main American forces were pretty slow in their advance. By 8:30 ( Turn 3) the Hessians had begun a long series of combats ( lots of skirmishing  in and out of the woods )  with the American militia in the west, in which they held their own and secured the British left flank. The American main forces bumbled their way down the roads, bumping into two outlying  British battalions north of Germantown, and forcing them to retreat - one of them shut themselve up in the Chew House, which becomes a bastion.  There are a whole list of special rules for this house/bastion - but the effect was simply that the battalion occupying it was bypassed and left alone, and took no further part in the proceedings. 

11:00 hrs - US militia ( pale blue, lower right ) threaten the camp

 

As soon as the fog lifted, everything kicked off , the main American forces in the North  making a general advance and attack which went quite well, forcing the British brigades to retreat - and on the Britsh turn, their counter-attacks were easily repulsed, owing to a whole series of low die rolls giving 'Attacker retreat' results.  Meanwhile the US militia on the Eastern flank threatened to sack the British camp  - arriving only one hex away from a rather sneaky victory. Fortunately for the British, their reinforcement of three Grenadier battalions arrived from the South and attacked the militia, while 4th British brigade (wisely left at the camp as a 'backstop' reserve)  hurried to join them.  The fight went badly for them, though - 4th Brigade suffering an 'exchange' step loss against one militia brigade who had occupied some woods, and the grenadiers being forced to retreat - the dice were distinctly American that turn! 

So when Turn 6 ( 12:30 ) began, American militia were still one hex from the British camp and a possible victory - only to be foiled by the 'ammunition shortage' special rule. The British were only too happy to impose an  'ammo check' on the nearest  militia unit, which  promptly became disrupted and could not advance. This may well have saved the day! 

Over the next few turns, it was to-and-fro stuff, especially in the centre around Germantown, with both sides trying to keep a battle line and launch strong attacks on their opponents, and neither gaining a real advantage - I seemed to develop a habit of rolling a '1'  whenever an attacking force had a good advantage, often resulting in 'Attacker Retreat' results. Neither side's troops seemed very determined in the attack! But overall, the Americans made progress and pushed the British back. By half-way through  the 14:00 turn ( Turn 7 of 9 ), the British commander Howe and his Guards brigade had been forced to abandon the crucial Market Square. The game was only saved then because all the American units attacking Howe had been 'disrupted' by the fiendish ammunition shortages, and disrupted units cannot advance after combat...

14:00 Market Square cleared - but Americans can't advance!

 

In the British phase, Howe was able to re-occupy the Market Square, and by 15:30 had  his main force formed  into a strong defensive line protecting the town from the North -  though the sneaky American Militia still lurked in the East, again threatening to overrun the British Camp, as the British and Hessian Grenadiers had been drawn into the central fight ( 'all hands to the pumps!'). 

15:30: Brtish line stabilised, but watch those militia..

 

The Grenadiers and depleted 4th Brigade were hurriedly sent back to save the camp, intercepting those militia units, who would not be able to bypass the defenders' Zones of Control.  And then, at 17:00, the final turn, one last American push, perhaps - and the fog returned! In the centre, Washington's forces  ( despite 4 units disrupted by ammunition shortage,  launched two big attacks as the fog came down -  but  in both cases rolled the seemingly inevitable '1', only forcing their opponents back a little, without losses.  The last American push had stalled.  The British line had held, and on their last turn, Howe decided to do nothing - the return of fog meant that any combat into or out of  brook/stream or woods hexes would be difficult, and might well result in bloody repulses. It was enough to have hung on to Germantown. 

17:00 final situation: fog returns and Brits have held out

 

And so it ended.  The Hessians  on the British left had done well, with a strong infantry brigade and a jaeger unit combining conventional attacks and skirmishing to push  back double their numbers of American regulars and militia. On the right, the British and Hessian Grenadiers had saved the camp from lurking militia, and in the centre the Thin Red Line had held. So, no Major  American victory  - and vey obviously no British Major win ( this requires 'No Colonial untis remain on the map' - could that really ever happen ? ).  The rules say that a minor victory then goes to whichever side has gained the most Victory Points (VPs)   - and VPs are gained at the rate of 2 VPs per eliminated unit  ( step losses to units still on the table do not count towards VPs ).   And the funny thing was, what with all those '1's rolled in the big attacks, and all those 'Attacker Retreat' and 'Defender Retreat' outcomes, in all those to-and-fro combats, precisely zero units  had been completely eliminated on either side! So, the final score was British 0 VP, Americans 0 VP.  A 'no-score draw'!  

I suppose I could have felt like a lower-league football fan on a drizzly winter Saturday afternoon after their local lads ground out a 0-0 'result' - but it had been more fun that that ( and warmer and dryer!). It had been quite a tense game, both sides had advantages and disadvantages : the British had slightly more powerful units with better morale, but less of them, while the Americans had the numbers, with their regulars almost as good as the British in combat power, and their militia able to use the wooded terrain for skirnishing  to good effect,  but a big problem with ammuntion shortages weakening their attacks and the persistent fog delaying them significantly. I felt that if the dice had decreed the fog  lifted at 08:00 instead of 11:00, things could have been very different - and it could have gone either way!  Both sides seemed equally incapable fo 'rolling high' at the moment of crucial attacks, and this led to a lot of  'retreat' combat outcomes with few actual losses, hence the inability of either side to actually eliminate enemy units!  Perhaps that  somehow ties in with the fogginess of the day - were both sides troops a bit disheartened by all that stumbling around in the fog, and not inclined to press their attacks with vigour? Sometimes the dice gods tell a story..  

Overall, I liked the game, and will give it another go : I liked very manageable size ( larger board games seem to me sometines rather long-winded to set up and play, alas! ),  the fairly simple rules and mechanisms, though there were a few questions arising, perhaps inevitable with simple rules and with lots of scenario-specific rules sometines 'countermanding' the basic rule set (the British 'Queens Rangers' cavalry unit was a challenge - moving fast, it was able to range far behind enemy lines, but I could never quite see how it would be able to actually use its 'charge' ability - it ended up just 'lurking' ineffectually, as you may see in the pictures ).  It's an interesting scenario, and I know other bloggers have used it - for example Norm at Battlefields and Warriors, who ran a splendid PBEM mini-campaign game, which I now need to go and read myself, to see how I probably should have played it(!).   I think the game would also suit another one of  Norm's excellent concepts, that of taking part of the action from a board game battle and playing it out as a small-to-medium game with figures on the tabletop. I don't currently have 'AWI' armies available, but perhaps it might translate to somewhere in central Europe, c. 1760 - Prussians replacing the British holding the town, Austrians (with plenty of Grenzers )  looming through the fog?  

Right, I'm off to read Norm's account of his version of Germantown.. Back to the actual toy soldiers next time, I hope - maybe even a bit of painting? Its about time! Meanwhile keep well, everyone.

Fnurban #23 Rainy Day Miscellany

The other day I had the good fortune to be in London for the afternoon, before an evening of boardgaming with friends: the only drawback being that it was a rather wet afternoon in the Great Wen. Since the gaming was due to take place in the  Borough area, what better place to visit beforehand than the nearby Imperial War Museum? 

With those 15-inch guns, this is surely the best-defended property in the city, as long as any assailant remains about 15 miles away.  I had about 90 minutes in the museum - not really enough to  tour the whole thing properly, so contented myself with looking at a few old favourites. I may not have been there since the pandemic, but I had previously seen the fairly recent WW1 gallery, which is well worth a tour.  The temporary exhibition space sounds promising in that the current show is called 'War Games' - but that is all  about computer/video games, not my sort of thing at all.  I looked in at the Lord Ashcroft Gallery and its display about 'Extraordinary Heroes' :  This display houses the world’s largest collection of Victoria Crosses, alongside a significant collection of George Crosses. Discover over 250 stories of people who faced adversity and performed acts of bravery. All were awarded either a Victoria Cross (VC) or George Cross (GC) - the highest recognitions of bravery that can be given by Britain and, for many years, the Commonwealth. On display, for each recipient, are the medals belonging them, usually with a photograph ( even for the Crimeam War awards ) and   description of their act of bravery - a high proportion  of which resulted in posthoumus awards, which was  a sobering realisation. Sadly there is a distinct  'plus ca change' aspect too, when neighbouring exhibits relate to the long-dead heroes of the Third Afghan War ( 1878-1880 ) and those recently deceased in Helmand Province.   

Prominent among the 'old favourites' is Spitfire Mk 1A,  serial R6915, which saw action in 1940 with 609 Squadron RAF and is now suspended above the main hall.

By coincidence, only a few days before I had listened to Al Murray and James Holland discussing this very machine on their 'We Have Ways..' podcast, with special guest James May They had observed that though the Spitifre is undoubtedly a visually beautiful aircraft, when you get closer to it there is a distinctly rough-edged quality to the construction, with all the rivets and panel joins -  and I had to agree with them.  Beautiful maybe, but very much still a workmanlike tool for a particular job. 

Given that admission is free, one should find a way of giving some money, even if only for a cuppa in the cafe; on this occasion the museum shop ambushed me, with a display of books in a fine new 'Imperial War Museum Wartime Classics' edition, and a 'three for two' offer.

 Oh dear, more for the books backlog pile - which is considerable and probably unmanagable.  In my defence, I have been looking for a copy of Alexander Baron's  From the City, From the Plough for a while now, and the other two also look promising - all are fictional accounts of the British Army's 1944-45 campagn in NW Europe following D-Day, written by men with first-hand experience of their settings.       

There followed a fairly short walk to a pub in  Borough Market, to meet my friends Dave ( aka  St Cyr on Wheels ), Paul and Rupert  for a boardgame evening. We had agreed to keep things simple, so Dave tried out SQPRisiko  on us -  this is basically a version of the old favourite Risk  produced in Italy, with a Roman Empire setting, some new features such as naval fleets and battles, and amphibious attacks.

I haven't played Risk in decades, but I used to love it as a child;  all that time spent during school (and college!)  holidays came flooding back, and a thoroughly good time was had (one of the players, all well over 50, and a very keen boardgamer, had never played Risk - amazing!).  The addition of fleets worked well, allowing seaborne invasions of enemy territory  - so don't leave any coastal areas weakly-defended! There are also a number of territories with neutral garrisons, which are quite strong and can be expensive to conquer - if you attack one and don't quite manage to  wipe it out, you may leave it an easy target for the next player.  I think the Risk combat system is genius, and it's fascinating to see how different playing styles work out - in our game, two players went for slow and steady build-up of armies giving strong defences and gradual expansion, while the other two relied more on rapid attacks and didn't worry too much about in-depth defence - unfortunately the latter two tended to fight each other, allowing the 'slow and steady' players to build up strength. Victory points are scored for holding the most territory or controlling sea areas each turn, which gives an idea of who is winning or losing.   Almost inevitably there was no 'finish' to the game, but when we called time Paul was winning , having built 'slow and steady' in Northern Europe, and wisely invested in some fleets in the  Channel and Biscay. Overall, I'd say the game is a nice twist on a vintage classic, I enjoyed it very much! 

Many thanks to Dave 'St Cyr' for the below picture of our game in its early stages, before Red and Blue started building big armies while Yellow and Black tore lumps out of each other..

Early stages - I am blue, building up in Iberia

 

That's all for now, next time back to the toy soldiers I think. I've been looking at The Portable Pike and Shot Wargame, and also Rapid Fire Reloaded - which to try next? Meanwhile, keep well, everyone.