Tuesday, December 19, 2017

OHW Scenario 3 Wargame

Wanting to use the new Little Wars army, I rolled a 1o sided dice to pick  a scenario from Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargame. I rolled Scenario # 3: Control the River.


Red Army vs Blue. The Blue was moved forward one square after this picture was taken;  otherwise the Red army would have a clear advantage being only 3 squares to the bridge, as opposed to blue being 4 squares away.

Both armies send their cavalry to try to seize the bridges. The Blue army cavalry are armed with rifles. For this game I gave the Blue cavalry the range of two, rolling two dice, or engaging in close combat with two dice. The Red cavalry were lancers and dragoons; they are close combat troops and have to be adjacent and rolls three dice. The rules for the blue cavalry comes fromThe Stronghold Rebuilt "See the Elephant" rules.


The red cavalry wins the race for the bridges.

The red cavalry charge the blue cavalry and kills one blue cavalryman. Using  "See the Elephant" close combat rules, because the blue cavalry wasn't wiped out or forced to retreat, they get to "counterattack" with one dice, which forces the red cavalry to retreat.


The lancers have more success, killing one blue cavalryman and forces the others to retreat.

The blue Zouaves attack the lancers in the flank, killing two of them.

The blue cavalry continues to attack the red dragoons, killing one and making the others retreat.

The Highlanders in the woods to the left fire into the blue cavalry, who retreat across the bridge.

The blue cavalry charge across the bridge...

...and firing into the woods, kill one Highlander. The Zouaves push the surviving lancer back.

The Zouaves start across the bridge, with the cavalry distracting the bicycle machine gun unit.

A unit of Guards move to block the Zouaves advance.

The Highlanders kill another blue cavalryman, and the Guards push back the Zouaves.

The Zouaves counterattack and forces the Guards back two spaces.

The Red army brings up reinforcements on the left. Their fire kills the last blue cavalryman.  The machine gun kills one cavalryman, and forces the surviving cavalryman back. The rightmost Guards long range fire drives the Zouaves back.

Blue infantry advance, their firing kills one Guardsman and one Highlander.

The Red cavalry attacks and drives the blue infantry off the bridge.


The blue infantry counterattacks and kills one cavalryman and the last cavalryman retreats.

The Zouaves succeeds in driving the Guards back.


The Guards eliminates the Zouaves.


The blue cavalry crosses the left bridge, and drives the machine gun unit back. At the other bridge the blue infantry crosses the bridge again.

The blue infantry is hit from three sides and is driven back.

The Red's left launches an all out assault, while the machine gun unit kills the last blue cavalryman.

The Highlanders cross the bridge.

The blue army pushes the Highlanders back, while the last blue unit on their left starts across the bridge.

The Guards on the left storm over the bridge, and puts one blue unit to flight.


One blue unit on the right manages to kill two of the Guards, while the machine gun unit has one man killed and starts falling back.

The Guards kill the last infantryman in that unit. The blue army has lost 2/3 of their units, and must fall back.

It's not a clearcut victory for red, as the blue unit holds one bridge, but red still has 4 units on the field.

8 comments:

  1. AH, those Blue fellas are tough but Red is getting its act together. A hard fought action and credit to both sides.

    I do like those Spanish-American War looking blue chaps with the tan hats.

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    1. I wnt to add two more units of blue infantry. I've always liked the uniforms from the SAW. My original box of Airfix WW1 American infantry was painted with these colors.

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  2. Fantastic! Lovely figures (especially the bicycling machine gunners) and a nice tense to and fro action. I don't know the rule set but will have a look.

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    1. I grudgingly painted the two orginial bicycle figures I had (which were painted for WW1) with the scarlet coats. I only wish I had more originals. The rule set is a mishmash of Battle Cry, Memoir of Battle, and See the Elephant. I should actually put them down on paper, if only to keep the games consistant.

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  3. Tough slog, battle of attrition, limited avenues of attack. Stirring stuff!

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    1. The One Hour Wargames I find make for good games, when I remember the game objectives. I would like to take some of the other scenario books I have and see if I could simplify the scenario set ups to look more like Neil Thomas' scenarios.

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  4. Very enjoyable Battle Report. Thank you for taking the time as a correspondent to record it for us back home! Being a Red sort of guy, obviously a resounding victory for our boys!!!!

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    1. I try to photograph most of my games now, as you never know which games turn out to be so enjoyable that you want to share them. This game I planned to post about, mainly to show the figures in action. As for the Guards who won the victory, I have marked their bases; the first unit so marked in my Little Wars Army.

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