Persian-Greek Wargame

        Since getting Neil Thomas' ANCIENT & MEDIEVAL WARGAMES, I have wanted to fight a game using the armies as listed in this book. With Mr. Thomas' rules, each army has 8 units. The rules also have recommended armies with their deployment on the battlefield. This gave me a chance to use my Peter Laing Greeks and Persians. The battlefield has three terrain pieces, randomly placed on the field ( I rolled two dice to determine where to place the pieces.) Both sides rolled for placing their armies. I used the recommended armies and deployed them based on the suggestion of the book.  The rules used were simplified BATTLELORE rules. As I felt that all Persian army units are armed with bows, I cut the range of fire to 2, instead of the 3 in BATTLELORE. Otherwise, the Persians could just maneuver out of close combat range of the Greeks.  Also, no matter what unit fired, they only rolled 2 dice for ranged fire.

The Persian army is at the top of the page: from left to right, 2 cavalry units,2 infantry units, 1 unit Immortals, 1 levy infantry, and 1 archer cavalry unit. The Greek army from the left; 1 unit light cavalry, 2 units Spartans, 4 units Hoplites, 1 unit levy spearmen.

The Persian levy take up position in the woods and manage to kill one Hoplite and force that unit to retreat. The Persian cavalry push back the Greek cavalry.

The Greek cavalry pushes back both Persian cavalry units. Two Hoplite units try to clear the woods of the archers. Units battling into the woods can only roll 2 dice, which equalizes light troops to heavy units. Meanwhile, the Greek spearmen push back the mounted archers.

All along the line the Greeks push the Persians back. The 2 Hoplite units clear the woods of the archers.

The Persians hit back and throws the Greeks left flank back.

The Persian attack continues to push back the Greek center. The Immortals wipe out one Hoplite unit.

The Greek general joins one of the Spartans units one of the Persian cavalry units.and eliminates  one Persian cavalry unit.

The Greek right flank swings wide and pushes the Persian back.

With the situation getting desperate, the Persian general joins one unit to rally his army. On the Greek left the Persian cavalry overruns the Spartan infantry unit and kills the Greek general. (Unlike the last game, I counted the general figure as a unit. The first side to lose 6 units loses the battle.)

Another shot of the above. The Persian unit (blue) in the center of the picture has fought in several battles, and played a key roll in two victories.

The Persians try to break the Greek center, without success.

Once again the Persian blue unit looks like they might turn the tide of battle.

The Spartans kill 50% of the Persian blues. The Greek spearmen on the right finally eliminates the mounted archers.

Another closeup of the Spartan attack against the Blue Persians.

The Greek cavalry eliminates the Persian cavalry. The Spartans capture the hill. One Hoplite unit kills two Persians and forces back the Persian general.

The Persians have lost 6 units. The Greeks have won a hard fought victory.

Anglo-Boer Wargame Replay

      As mentioned in my last post, I have been repainting my Heroscape pieces. I have also been rethinking about how I play my games. Using  the ONE HOUR WARGAMES scenario 2 again, I decided give this scenario another try, with just a little more planning. The rules used were Memoir of Battle, the only difference is the crossed swords symbols were ignored, except for the command figures. Any unit moving their complete move on the road got an extra move. Each army had six units and one commander. The first army to lose 2/3 of their army would lose the battle, although they had to try to capture the hill and crossroads. At the beginning of each turn, both sides will roll for initiative. Both sides would have the same units as the last game, except that the British would have a fourth infantry unit instead of "skirmishers".

British at the top of the picture, Boers at the bottom.

End of the first move.

British wins the initiative roll. They manage to force two infantry units and an artillery unit to retreat, the artillery losing half it's strength.  It just might be a quick game!

The Boer counterattacks. The rightmost gun kills 2/3 of the cavalry unit. The Boer cavalry kills 2/3 of the other cavalry unit and makes it rout.

The Boers have the initiative. he Boer cavalry eliminates one cavalry unit.

The British counterattack eliminates the Boer cavalry. 

The British get the initiative. The cavalry attacks the Boer unit that the Boer general is with.  The general is killed.  The Highlanders defeats the Boer artillery. 

The Boers on their turn eliminates an infantry and cavalry unit.

At this point either side can win the game. The British wins the initiative. They eliminate one infantry unit, but the second unit is forced to retreat.

The Boers take a gamble and uses their turn to reestablish their line.

The Boers gamble pays off. They get the initiative and manages to wipe out the Highlanders; the British have lost 2/3 of their army and must retreat.

I didn't take in consideration the lost of the general. However, the general figure did add a dice to the unit it was attached to  so it did play an important part to the army.  Once again the game from setup to the end was around an hour. I must admit a little extra planning makes for a more enjoyable game.

Back to Square (or Hex) One

      Kaptain Kobold's comment in my last posting had me start reevaluating my game board. I went back through some of my previous posting and realized that as far as terrain goes, I was taking a big step backwards. Many of the terrain pieces I bought specifically for use with Heroscape terrain. The most recently bought trees work great with Heroscape. I have repainted some of my Heroscape terrain with the same paint I used on the most recent boards and coated them with clear rubber spray. Next game I will use this Heroscape board.

     I also finished my new Boer horseman figure.  I do believe that I overthought this mold. After pouring several figures, the head wasn't forming right. I believe I overdid the vents. The vents were filling up fine, but the hat just wouldn't form. I cut a small vent from the hat to another vent. I also left one of the larger vents blocked; that seemed to help. I also found the original mold and had as much luck with this mold as the new one. Next mold I'll scale back on the vents.

The newly painted Heroscape terrain with a few landscape pieces on it.

The new Boer figures on the left, the old mold Boers on the right. The right hand figures have lots of flash on them but should clear up nicely. I am thinking of making a mold of the British Camel Corps from the Sudan next.

Anglo-Boer Wargame

   While trying to decide which figure to make a mold of next, I came across some previously cast Peter Laing Boer horsemen. I have decided to try another mold of this figure, the first one having several defects.

    I also had time to get a game in today. I would use a ONE HOUR WARGAME scenario (number 2) with modified Memoir of Battle rules. As the game was based on the first Anglo-Boer War,  I decided that infantry would only move one, but could also fire after moving.

   This game has the objective of taking two terrain features, a hill and a crossroad.  The Red army (the British Army) has three infantry units, one skirmisher unit, and two cavalry units. The Blue army (Boers) has three infantry, two artillery, and one cavalry units.

The British army is at the top of the picture, the Boers on the bottom. The goal of the battle is to hold the hill and crossroads.

End of the first move. The British have seized the hill and has their Skirmishers (Highlanders) advancing rapidly towards the crossroads with cavalry support.  The Boers move their cavalry towards the center to counter any cavalry attack.

End of turn two.

Turn 3; British move.  The red lancers attack the Boer infantry on the road, trying to make them retreat. The two infantry units on the hill come down to engage the guns.

The Boer cavalry and infantry tries to force back the lancers. The Boer artillery forces both infantry units to fall back to the hill.

The Red lancers kill two of the Boer cavalry. The Highlanders capture the crossroads. The Blue lancers attack one of the batteries.

Two Boer infantry units tries to recapture the crossroads, but the Highlanders hold fast. The Boer artillery fires canister at the Blue lancers, with devastating results.

Turn 5. The Red lancers force the Boer cavalry off the field. The Blue lancers eliminate one Boer gun.

The Boer infantry takes the crossroads, forcing the Highlanders to retreat. The last Boer gun tries to hit the Blue lancers, with no success. The Boer infantry on the left pushes towards the hill.

Turn 6. The British hits the Boers from three sides at the crossroads. Both infantry units  at the hill attack the solitary Boer unit. The Blue lancers try but fail to take the gun.

The only success for the Boers is to finally eliminate the Highlanders.

Turn 7. The British overrun the Boers at the crossroads. The Boers have lost 2/3 of their army.  They decide to retreat.

I must admit that I am finding the ONE HOUR WARGAMES scenarios make getting games in easier. I also have several different BATTLE CRY variants which might work well with these scenarios. I should also start looking into Charles Grants' different scenario books. I find his maps have a lot of terrain features; maybe picking the main features and eliminating some of the "clutter" would help.

A Napoleonic Wargame

    My wife had to work late on Wednesday, so I decided to get in a quick game. I also made a new board, which is divided into 9X9 two inch squares. I figured that this would simplify my using ONE HOUR WARGAMES scenarios and armies.

     I rolled for the scenario, which came up  as a 1. Basically two hills with two armies facing each other. I decided to use my 1st gen Minifigs Napoleonics ( I actually forgot that the next day was the 200th anniversary of Waterloo). I used Command & Colors; Napoleonics for the movement and fire.

  The British army rolled and had 4 infantry, 1 light infantry, & 1 cavalry units. The French army had 4 infantry, 1 artillery, & 1 light infantry unit.

British army at the top of the photo, the French at the bottom.

The fFrench artillery opens fire at long range and hits the Rifles.

The end of turn three. The British are losing heavily. Where the "retreat" dice is, this unit had to retreat but as the cavalry was directly behind it, it suffered another loss.

The British manage to force back the French center.

The French counter attack eliminates  three British units. Once again the British infantry is forced back two spaces, but the cavalry is once again in the way; that infantry unit is wiped out.

The British cavalry charges but has no success.

The French attack breaks the British army.

It was a quick game. I think for C&C: Napoleonics to work you need larger armies as it gets pretty bloody.

Shiak-Brookshire War Mini Campaign Finale

     The last war-game of my mini campaign was finally fought. The scenario is from Neil Thomas' ONE HOUR WARGAMES; scenario 19, A blow from the rear. The goal was for the Shiak army to have one unit within one move of the river at the end of the game. Failure would mean defeat.

     General Loring was ordered to hold the river crossing at Newmarket. General Gillingham was once again advancing to try to drive back the Shiak army. There was a truce in the works, but both sides were delaying to see the results of the coming battle. A Shiak victory would mean a sizable land acquisition; a defeat would lead to more fighting. General Loring was told to hold the line at the river, but not to cross the Newmarket River. Loring deployed 4 infantry units to cover the bridge and ford. He had a light infantry unit and cavalry unit on the way to reinforce him.

    General Gillingham the night before had sent two infantry and a cavalry unit across the river. He would attack the crossing with two infantry and an artillery unit to pin down the Shiak forces.

The initial troop deployments. The Brookshire army is on the top and left side of the picture; on  the bottom right can be seen the Shiak reinforcements. They cannot move or fire until the seventh turn.

The armies engage. The Shiak force one unit back and cause 50% losses to another unit.

While the Shiak army is engaged, the large Brookshire flanking force emerge from the woods.

The Shiak army turns to face the new threat. A Brookshire unit tries to cross the bridge,but is thrown back.

Between the artillery fire to their rear and the cavalry attack on their front, one Shiak unit is destroyed. Meanwhile, a Brookshire unit fords the river behind the Shiak army.

The Shiak army does manage to wipe out two infantry units.

The Brookshire cavalry hits a Shiak unit in the flank, but losses 2/3 losses themselves.

The Brookshire army clears the riverbank of all Shiak units. However it is turn seven and the Shiak reinforcements can now move. The Brookshire cavalry charges towards the advancing Shiak troops.

The Shiak cavalry charges forward towards the Brookshire cavalry. The infantry, being light infantry, quickly moves down the road.

The Shiak cavalry rides over the weakened Brookshire cavalry. The light infantry moves to engage the Brookshire infantry.

Turn 11: The Shiak troops eliminate the last of the Brookshire infantry. According to the rules, if one Shiak unit is within  range of the river at the end of turn 15, they win. Brookshire only has their artillery left. It can either move or fire each move. There is no way the artillery can move or fire in the four remaining moves and achieve the pushing the Shiak army out of range of the river. and concedes defeat.

Once again I'm happy the way the game played out. Even though I used Memoir of Battle rules with the scenario, the game ant to the wire where it could have gone either way.