Since finding Man of Tin blog, I have started rethinking doing skirmish wargames. MoT uses a modified set of Donald Featherstone's Close Wars. They are rules using HEROSCAPE terrain pieces. He calls his rules CLOSE LITTLE WARS BISH, BASH, BUSH! I decided to try his rules and Chris Salander's Horse & Musket 2.0. and see which rules I prefer.
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| The Close Little Wars field of battle. Donald Featherstone advocated a crowded battlefield. The Union skirmishers are on the left, the Confederates on the right. I wanted the field to be somewhat like "the Devil's Den" at the battle of Gettysburg. |
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| The Union infantry struggle through the rough terrain. |
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| The Union troops form up behind a stone wall. |
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| The Confederates try to turn the Unions' left flank. |
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| The rebels suffer heavy losses and pull back. |
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| The Confederates now take up positions in through terrain and start sniping at the Yankees, killing two Zouaves. |
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| A Confederate is killed crossing open ground trying to reach the hilltop. |
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| The Union manage to kill two of the snipers behind a boulder. |
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| Two Union infantry storm up the hill; meanwhile two Zouaves have gotten behind the Confederate line, endangering the rebels lines of communication. |
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| The Confederates are down over 50%; the battle is lost. |
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| The H&M 2.0 game. The Confederates are on the left; the Union, right. |
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| The Zouaves storm the hill on the right.... |
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| ....but are forced to retreat. |
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| The rebels attack the center of the Union line. |
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| The Zouave form a new battle line. |
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| The Confederates fall back to stabilize their line. |
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| The rebel fire keeps forcing the Union infantry back. |
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| The Zouave try to outflank the rebel line. |
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| But two are shot down. |
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| The Zouaves take up position behind the stone wall this time, giving themselves some protection. |
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| The Union now snip at the Confederates below them. |
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The Confederates lose three more men; a fourth turns and runs away. The Confederates are below 50% and must retreat.
After playing both games, I prefer H&M 2.0. When I first got Donald Featherstone's WARGAMES, I remember playing Close Wars. In the end I stopped playing with these rules. I am not a fan of saving rolls. I also like rules with built in retreat rules, such as in H&M 2.0. The crowded field does slow down the game when using H&M 2.0. Still, both games were enjoyable. By using skirmish rules all that were used were 32 figures. |
I certainly like the look of these games and suspect that I would prefer the 2nd set too.
ReplyDeleteI find the saving throws seriously cuts down on casualties and the game bogs down. With the H&M 2.0, too much terrain also slowed the action down, but at least some troops were forced to retreat. I also have been using 4 man units for so long, I am finding it hard to use them as skirmishers. Perhaps this game with sharpen my skirmishing skills.
ReplyDeleteJohn, great game write-up as always
ReplyDeleteThank you Ian. I am trying to get some more close ups of the action, so the Peter Laing figures are featured.
ReplyDeleteI followed up your reference to Chris Salander's Horse & Musket rules, purchased a copy of MWAN 102 from Wargames Vault and printed them off, after tweaking the text so I could fit the Basic Game on one side of A4 - that's my kind of rules!
ReplyDeleteMy daughter's been showing interest in classic old boardgames - RISK, Cluedo, Monopoly &c. and I think I can persuade her to try the chessboard version with our RISK figures.
Thanks for recommending them!
When I got into wargaming, these rules were among the first I played. It is a great introductory set for beginners, or children. I used them to fight Medieval and WW2 battles, with a little tweaking. I wish when my brothers and I fought wargames we had a set of rules like this.
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