Two Wargames

 This weekend I got two wargames in. One game I used my new Minifigs War of 1812 militia to try to stop a British raid, using Chris Salander's Horse & Musket 2.0 rules. The other game I used my "No Brain" war-game rules, with the Ottoman Turk army battling an Arab army.

The War of 1812 game. The British goal is to destroy the building at the right. The American goal is to capture the boat at the left. I wasn't going to photograph or write up this battle. However, one of my newly painted militia units managed to kill two British infantrymen, and make the other two infantrymen retreat.  That's when I started taking pictures.

The militia unit with two of it's victims.

The militia unit showing off their spiffy uniforms.

The militia starts taking return fire. One of the militiaman finds it too hot and retreats.

Another militiaman is killed; another militiaman retreats.

The militia is holding it's own.

Some of the regulars finds the militia fire too much and tries to return to the boat.

The British rallies and starts killing some of the militia.

At the top of the picture; the militia riflemen who started the battle so gloriously, now lose two more men and the last man falls back.

The British now have the militia on the run.

The militia counterattacks.

The militia has lost over 50%. 

The militia breaks and retreats.  Of course in this game the militia fought like regulars. In a more serious game they will not be so steady.

The country militia.

A unit of volunteer militia.

The unit of volunteer rifles ( armed with muskets).

The Ottomans vs Arab game. In this game both sides started with 8 archers 16  infantrymen and 8 cavalry.  The infantry and archers were mixed together so some units had archers and spearmen. This was another game that I wasn't going to report on. This is about half way through the game and the Arabs have almost split the Ottoman army in half.

The Arab cavalry has forced the Ottoman cavalry to retreat and now attacks an infantry unit.

The Ottoman cavalry attacks on both flanks and almost surrounds the Arab army.

The Arab cavalry counterattacks the Ottoman cavalry. This Ottoman unit is being led by the Ottoman Pasha. The Arabs kill  all but the Ottoman Pasha. However, they had also made the Pasha retreat, meaning they get a followup attack.

Unfortunately they only roll for a retreat; the Pasha retreats out of range. The Arab archer in the photograph fires on him, but misses.

The Arabs eventually inflects 50% casualties on the Ottomans, who are forced to retreat.
After this game I started to think of going back to using other rules for my gaming.   If I'm just trying to get a game in with no terrain, these rules are actually fun for a quick unplanned game.

Future Projects

     Battle Game of the Month & Man of Tin blogs have given me new inspiration  for gaming. Man of Tin has me thinking of playing more skirmish games. After all, skirmishes happen more often  than set piece battles. As for Battle Game of the Month, Ross Macfarlane plays  games based on various border incidents between the United States and Canada in the 19th century.  I am now looking at early American wars for ideas for gaming. Using the timespan of between the start of the Plymouth colony to the Mexican-American War, there is no end of possibilities.

      At the time I got back into wargaming, I had a great interest in the War of 1812. One reason was the use of militias and the small size of armies involved. I dug out some Minifigs War of 1812 militia that I had. Looking at these figures, I decided to order more of them. They will be painted so they can be used as Canadian or American militia.

Two of the Minifigs Militia painted based on a photograph from Old Sturbridge Village, a living history museum in Massachusetts. They have a "Training day" where the village drills their militia.

Two more militiamen in more traditional uniform. These militia figures have great potential for some fun painting.  I ordered 48 march attack militia poses. I should have ordered more of these figures.

This figure I made combining two different Minifigs ECW figures. I want to use them for a King Philips War game. Although the militia used muskets, not blunderbusses, there is an old woodcut that I like that shows the colonial troops with blunderbusses.

The Man of Tin blog had a great posting about the Maori Wars, where there were illustrations using Peter Laing figures from a Military Modeling article.  This sailor figure was among those shown . I had made a mold of this figure a while back. Seeing this article inspired me to cast a few; above is the result. A big shoutout to Ian Dury. He was kind enough to forward me a copy of the Military Modeling  Maori War Wargame rules and history of the Maori Wars. 

The Battle of Kesseldorf with Peter Laing Figures

      My wife had to work all day Saturday, and after that her friends at work were going out to dinner then a movie. She wanted to go along, so I had 13 hours of time to kill. By the time I finished the work around the house and gave Jerry his playtimes, a good portion of the day was gone.

   One thing that bothered me about the HEROSCAPE marsh tiles were how glossy they were. Of course, being water, they should be shiny. However, as I want to use them as land pieces and the flash on the camera sometimes glare when used, I decided to coat them with matte clear paint.  I took the time to do that yesterday.  I also wanted to get a game or two in. The first batch of hexes were enough for a board 8x8.

    The first game was fought between Peter Laing Picts and Romans. I used my "no brain" rules. I took no pictures of the battle hence no battle report. The Romans finally won a hard fought battle.

     I was going to stop at that point and went to watch TV. However, there was nothing on and so decided to go back and work on a wargame project. As I was cleaning up, I came across a HOLD THE LINE SYW scenario sheet that I never put back in it's binder. I decided to play it out. I pulled out my Peter Laing WSS figures and did a quick game. The battle fought was the Kesseldorf scenario.

The Prussians are the white figures, the Allies are red. The first couple of moves I didn't use arrows to show movement; at first I wasn't going to post this game. Yellow arrows show Prussian movements and attacks; red arrows show Allies movements and attacks. In this game I rolled for initiative and used an average dice to determine how many units could move that turn.

The Prussians capture a village. Note: I was still playing on the smaller board and condensed down the battle some.

The Prussians force one unit to rout two hexes.

The Allies retake the village.

The Allied cavalry drives off one Prussian cavalry unit.

The Prussians counterattack with another cavalry unit...

...and overruns the Allied cavalry.

Allied infantry fire drives back the Prussian cavalry. One Prussian infantry unit is wiped out.

Prussian artillery and infantry fire routs one Allied infantry unit.

The Allied general is in danger of being captured. Another Allied cavalry unit comes forward to protect the Headquarters.

An Allied infantry unit is pushed back by the Prussian cavalry. In it's followup attack, the Prussian cavalry wipes out the Allied cavalry. The Prussian infantry forces the Allied infantry out of the village.

About this time I started thinking of how the battle was to be decided. In the scenario, the Prussians needed 6 Victory Points; the Allies, 5 VP.  At this point the Prussians had 4VPs, the Allies only 1VP.  I was using strictly lost units as VP. While the Prussians had more VPs, their units had suffered heavily.

Once again the Allied HQ was in danger of capture. The Allies brought up another cavalry unit to protect it....

...and manage to drive off the Prussian cavalry. The Allies also retake the village and eliminates another Prussian infantry unit.

The Prussians roll a 5, and makes the most of it. The Prussians recapture the village and wipes out the infantry unit garrisoned there. The Prussian cavalry drives off the Allied cavalry. In it's followup attack, it tries to capture the HQ, but fails. The Prussian cavalry at the top of the field charges the artillery on the ridge; it manages to force it to retreat. In it's followup attack, it hits the other battery on the ridge. they kill one artilleryman, and forces the battery to retreat! Another Prussian infantry attacks a weakened Allied infantry unit.  It wipes that unit out. The Allies have now lost 6 units, and they have lost the battle.

A closeup of the Prussian cavalry who cleared the ridge of Allied artillery. I was so impressed by their charge that I marked these horsemen for their bravery.

For a quickly set up game, it was an enjoyable way to spend the night. I might use these HOLD THE LINE scenarios for other periods. I also enjoy these figures. I might have to mold some and paint them to represent SYW armies, even if the uniforms aren't right for the period.