Peter Laing Legion Boer Wargame

I decided to do a Boer War game using my "Peter Laing CIV Legion" as one of the forces. Naturally, their opponents will be Boers.

Boers on the left, CIV on the right. Terrain features were randomly placed, although I tried to mirror the features. I then rolled to decide which edge they approached from.

Both sides push forward to seize the center hill. In this game I rolled average dice to decide how many units would be activated. Only activated units could move or fire. Usually in my games I allow any units in range can fire.

The Boers seize the hill and push back the machine gun detachment.

The machine gun fire drives the Boers off the hill; another CIV unit moves to seize the hill.

The Boers push back the the infantry and machine gun. The Boers rolled two "retreats" on the machine gun; they only had one square to retreat to, so one man is killed.

The CIV retakes the hill.

The Boers move to outflank the hill.

The British move the machine gun to the top of the hill to  hold it. 

At the top of the picture; one CIV unit is wiped out.

The CIV attacks along the entire line, pushing the Boers back.

The Boers push back the British right, but still can't take the hill.

The Boers shift more units to their left flank.

The Boer unit on the right takes the farmhouse; unfortunately they have no support now.

The British cavalry eliminates the Boer unit at the top of the picture and the machine gun pushes back the Boer cavalry.  

In this game the army that loses four units first is defeated. The Boers still have three units, however, the British cavalry is now in position to sweep behind the Boer line and cut them off. The Boers decide to retreat.

"New" Peter Laing Boers and C & C Tricorne

       A short time ago Jay was trying to give away some Peter Laing Boers. He approached both Wargame Miscellany and Man of Tin Blogs, both who actually mentioned me and suggested I might be interested.  I think that was very kind of Bob and Mark to pass on free (!) Peter Laings.  I am not sure I could pass up free PLs. Jay contacted me and of course I accepted his kind offer. The figures arrived and after looking at Jay's address and the PL Boers, I realized that I had seen them before. When I first started collecting PL figures, I did a Google search for them. There were few pictures of them. However, I did find the Jackson Gamers website and in it there was a Boer War game, by none other than Jay himself.  To me, getting these figures is like an Old School gamer getting some Donald Featherstone or Charles Grant figures. Of course, now I find myself deciding if I will leave these figures as is, or painting them. Thank you Jay for these fine figures, I hope to put them to good use. And as often as I use myPL Boers, they should see plenty of action.

     The Boers are mounted on metal squares, which I believe were used for cardboard wargame pieces from boardgames. There are good, as the pictures below will show. Jay made small trays with magnetic tape on the bottom, making these an excellent way to transport figures. When I first started gaming, one reason I used washers were to mount the figures on magnetic movement trays. I gradually moved away from movement trays, but stuck with the washers, a necessity with PL small bases. However, I started buying cheaper washers that will not work on magnetic trays.

   After reading some of Man of Tin blogs, I started mounting my figures on plastic squares. The figures do not tip over as easily in squares. I find the PL Boers are on squares larger than I like, but they still fit nicely on Heroscape terrain and my homemade squares game board.  This has me rethinking the way I am going forward with mounting my figures.

    My last posting I mentioned that the new Richard Borg game, Command & Colors Tricorne is coming out soon. And as mentioned, the new dice have two retreat flags on each dice. When I bought Battle Cry, I also bought some custom Battle Cry wood dice. As I have 30 of them, I repainted 4 with the new C&C Tricorne configuration. I also went to Compass Games website. On it they actually have the rules, (which I still don't understand). I printed out the units cheat sheet, and using this and Stronghold Rebuilt "See the Elephant" rules, and breaking out my first generation AWI Minifigs, fought a practice game.  The new dice seem to have lots of promise; the game certainly isn't as bloody as some games I've played. It also has me thinking of rebasing my AWI figures to squares. After reading a Man of Tin blog where he said that besides marking the unit on the bottom of the base, but also their "Battle Honors", I have wanted to go back to organizing my toy soldiers into units.

My "new" Peter Laing Boers that Jay kindly gave me.

A unit of Boers with the metal bases mentioned in dispatches. They do fit nicely on my terrain pieces.

Three of my homemade C&C Tricorne dice.

The American army on the left is made up of three regular infantry, two Provincial infantry, and one artillery units. The British have three regular infantry, two artillery, and one Dragoon units.

The 24th Foot pushes back the 12th Continentals.

Between the 12th Cont. and artillery, the 24th is forced to retreat.

The 10th Regiment attacks a unit of Provincials.

The Provincials lose half their men, but still stands their ground. 

At the top of the picture the British infantry closes on a Continental regiment. The Dragoons are quickly advancing.

The 10th destroys the Provincial unit.

The Continental infantry at the top of the photo closes in for melee with the regulars...

....and pushes them back. Meanwhile, the 10th is fired on.

The 10th continues to advance and the Dragoons hits the infantry in the flank.

The Dragoons force the infantry to retreat and in the pursue kills one man. Meanwhile the 10th  causes 50% casualties  to the 8th Massachusetts.

The American right charges forward.

The regulars suffer more casualties.

The Dragoons charge the last Provincial unit.

With the C&C Tricorne rules, Provincial units must retreat two squares for every flag.   As they couldn't retreat two squares, they lost two men.  However, in this situation,  should the whole unit have been lost? I had the unit fall back one and the lost two men. In this game I used my AWI militia as Provincials. In C&C Tricorne, Militia units must retreat 3 hexes for every flag. For this test game, I didn't want the Americans to be too weak.

However, the subject is moot. The Dragoons on their follow up killed the last infantryman and forced the general to retreat.

While the Dragoons were attacking, the 10th and 24th force the American right back.

The American right counterattacked.

The 8th Massachusetts attacks the 10th and forced them back 2 squares.

While the American right was having success, the leftmost infantry was attack by both the Dragoons and regular infantry.

The combined attack overwhelms the infantry. The 24th eliminates the 12th Continentals. The Americans below 50% and lose the battle.

    After this game I want to rebase my Minifigs AWI figures onto square bases, so I can mark the units on the stands. In the past when I have superglued figures to washers, and it was easy enough to separate the washers from the figures. I tried to remove the washers from these figures, without success. 

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.