2mm Wargame

In the last month I not had any time to work on the hobby. Last night I made time to get in a quick 2mm game using my cigar box wargame set up. Terrain was set up randomly, and both armies had 4 infantry and 2 cavalry units.

In the end the red army captured the village, but lost 4 out of 6 units: first side to lose 2/3 of their army loses.

Old Style Toy Soldier Game

Both armies were equal in strength. Both had one spring artillery  piece, along with 2 ammunition  wagons and an ambulance. Any figure hit by a round who didn't  fall over was wounded. He would  have to go to the ambulance, and then could return to the battle.

Both armies deployed  for battle. The red shells were artillery rounds. The cannon could fire up to 4 rounds per turn. The Blue rounds were infantry. They could fire 1 round for every 6 infantrymen. They were only supposed  to  have  12 inch range: in the heat of the battle I forgot that rule. At least I forgot it for both sides.

 

At the bottom of the picture wounded soldiers can be seen heading towards the ambulance  to have their wounds treated. Both armies have switched  to skirmish  order to cut down on casualties.

 

A Semi Flat Artillery Battery

A battery of Semi Flat artillery. 

The battery with a supply wagon with spare ammunition. 

The caisson loaded with ammunition. It will require tweezers to get the rounds out.

 

Guns for the Next Battle

When I got my large order of spring loaded cannons, only one gun was functioning. I thought that maybe the previous owner was a pacifist wargamer who intentionally  disabled the guns. Fortunately  a little oil and gentle  tapping got 8 out of 12 guns working.

After having that much success, It got me thinking how to put the guns to use. I started making ammunition  for the guns using cotton swabs with the tips dipped in paint to harden the cotton. The above picture shows the ammunition  drying.

A quartermaster  wagon shows up bringing a fresh load of ammunition  for preparation.

 

Semi Flats Wargame: Part 4

The Green Jagers are hit from three sides.

They lose four out of six men. However, they pass their morale check.

The Jagers fall back into the protection of the village.

The Blue artillery fires on the Jagers and wipes them out.

The Green army forms a new line and the Blue Zouave Brigade suffers heavy losses. 

However, the Blue army holds firm and the Green army regiments have been decimated. 

The Green general calls for a retreat.

 The Blue army general orders his troops  forward in pursuit. 

Semi Flat Wargame: Part 3

The Green army advances, pushing a unit of Jagers into the town. The Blue army turns their right most regiment to hit the left Green regiment.

The Blue army fire kills 7 Green men.

One Green regiment, that suffered 50% losses, breaks and runs. The 2nd Brigade general is on hand to try to rally the regiment.

The Green army continues  their advance. They move their artillery forward towards the left flank. The Brigadier rallies the broken regiment and leads them forward. The Jagers push through the town and turns to hit the First brigades right flank, carelessly  exposing it's  own flank to the Blue's artillery.

The Jagers fire kills 2 Zouaves.

 

Semi Flats Wargame Part 2

The Green army deploys and advances.

The Green army first volley kills 5 blue soldiers.

In the Junior General rules, any losses calls for a morale check. The regiment that lost one man fails their morale test and starts to retreat. Meanwhile, the regiment that suffered 50% losses holds fast.

The Brigadier of the 2nd Brigade goes to rally the broken regiment. He succeeds in rallying the broken regiment.

 

Semi Flats Wargame Part 1

The two armies march onto the field. Blue army at top of picture, Green army on bottom.

View  from Blues side.

Close up of one of the new caissons  in use.

Blue army deployed and advancing.

This game was just to get a game in. Both sides are equal, with six- 6 man regiments divided into 2 brigades, and 1 gun and crew. Each brigade had a brigadier general and for command a major general with a drummer. The rules used are from Junior General website. 
I have decided to break this report into several posts. Once again, I am trying to get computer problems resolved so I am using my cell phone to do the blog for now.

New Artillery Park

   In the month I have acquired wagons for my semi flat collection. However, artillery for the troops were in short supply. Until today.

    I came across a nice collection of toy cannons which were reasonably  priced. However, being in the UK, the postage to the US almost made me not bid on them. In the end I won them. What is more, even with postage they came out to a little over $7.00 a gun, which is a good price.

12 guns which will fit my semi flat  armies well.

There is a 13th gun, which is very large indeed. I put 54mm and 30mm figures in the picture to show how large the gun is.

New Wagons

The bringing out of my wagon collection last post wasn't just a whim. I found a nice collection for sale; what's more the collection was in the United States, which saved me the outrageous overseas postage of late.

The collection was delivered today, which doubled the number of wagons, including 3 artillery caissons. 

The 3 artillery caissons, along with one gun.

2 new supply wagons.

New ambulance and ammunition wagon.

 

New guard shack with fencing.

The complete collection. The last artillery caisson is an old homemade one that came with some old toy soldiers a few years ago. I plan to put it into service. 

Preparing for Campaign

 Being  rather bored, I started thinking of trying to work on a game using 30mm semi flats. One thing I would like to work into it is using wagons for supply. 

I have several wagons, a couple that need some repairs. Superglue was used to tack the wheels to the hubs. Hopefully I can make more permanent  repairs  later. The horse trails must be reattached  on a couple of the pieces.

One pleasant surprise that I hadn't realized  before that an ammunition  wagon had a hinged top, allowing for access to the inside.

My Collection of wagons. If one looks closely at the second wagon, the front wheel is off it's  hub. For now it has a temporary  repair.

The wagons with some 30mm soldiers for scale.

2 soldiers working on preparing the wagons for campaign.

New Peter Laings

 While I haven't  been  doing much with the hobby recently, I continue to follow my favorite blogs and occasionally  go to auction sites.  My last visit to Ebay contained some Peter Laing figures that were reasonably  priced and of interest to me. The most important  was  pontoon wagon and pontoon, giving me two such wagons. Also two more Wellington figures, which make great 19th century generals, and some gunners marked as German WW1, although I believe the are French in Adrian  helmets.

The new figures. In the auction site the wagon had 4 wheels; I received  only 2. Luckily I do have spares to complete the wagon.

Battle of Braddock Down: Battles of the English Civil War

   I recently played a game from Mike Lambos' Battle of the English Civil War using Irregulars Miniatures 2mm ECW blocks, backed up with some ACW blocks. The blocks are mounted on plastic bases with yellow dots painted on front to show which direction the base is facing. In this game units are demoralized, and must try to rally. If they fail on their rally roll, they continue to retreat until they pass their rally check, or flee the field of battle. 

With these rules the AI gets to move every turn. The AI forces in this game were very aggressive and closed with my army quickly.

My army was in the beginning successful at driving the enemy cavalry off the field. However, that brought my infantry within range of his musketeers, which broke three of my infantry units, which in turn fled the field. After that the battle went downhill for my army.

 

Battles of the English Civil War by Mike Lambo

        I just received a copy of Mike Lambos' newest solitaire wargame book; Battles of the English Civil War. With  a complete ruleset and 15 battle scenarios for under $20.00, it is a great value. With Mr. Lambo games there are aways some changes in the rules so you're not just playing same rules with some small change to justify charging full price for the same rules.In this game the Artificial Intelligence tends to be more aggressive than other games. Such rules I think would be great in an Ancients game. Also when a unit is hit, it becomes disorganized and starts fleeing the field. There is uncertainty as the unit can retreat different distances based in the roll; then there's the fact you must try to rally before it retreats off the board or is hit a second time, which destroys the unit. 

    I got my first game in last night, using Peter Laing figures for my units. The battle was Edgehill. The AI were Royalists. And instead of deploying in Edgehill, they mainly deployed at the base of the hill. After my first move, the Royalist cannon fire disorganized one of my pikemen units, which promptly fled the field! The battle was downhill for me from there.

Initial troop deployments. Royalists on top, my army on the bottom. One can see the Royalist artillery has a clear shot on one of my pikemen.

The Royalist cannon and hits my pikeman, who retreats off the board. An ill omen!

The end of battle. The accursed General AI gave my army a sound thumping. With no chance of victory, I concede defeat.

The cover of the book. A good value that even non hermits should consider buying.