Battlescale Ancients Battle

   With my new terrain, now I can start thinking of what armies to use. Right now the plan is just to get games in without becoming bogged down in a project that  can take weeks before a game is played.

   I started thinking of a quick set of rules to use with ancients or Medieval figures. Using Battlelore or Command & Colors for ideas, units are  light, medium or heavy.  Light infantry are either archers or infantry without body armor or shields. Medium infantry is armed with either a shield or body armor, but not both. Heavy infantry is armed with both shield and body armor.

I didn't take any pictures of this game until half way through. Using my unit classification, the Britons were made up of mainly medium infantry; the Romans, heavy. Therefore, I put two hills that the Britons should reach to offset the difference. As I was setting up, I used mainly based figures; two bases equalled a unit. It was simple enough that when a unit lost a figure, to replace the base with a solitary figure. 

A closeup of a Roman light infantry unit that has lost one man. Thank goodness I hadn't taken all the figures off their bases!

The heavy Roman infantry takes one hill.

The Romans start pushing back the Britons right flank.

The Britons launch  a counterattack.

They recapture one hill.

The Romans send three units to retake the hill.

The Romans attack all along the front and finally break the Britons line.

 

Repainted Battlescale Terrain

  With my recent use of Battlescale terrain, I was disappointed with the paint job on them. The paint stayed glossy, even after it dried. The paint also didn't cover well, soI decided to put a second coat on. I also decided to darken the green.  So with what little time for gaming I had this weekend, it was devoted to painting the terrain. As I  have been using One Hour Wargames scenarios, I  decided to paint some river pieces to use with them.

The newly repainted terrain with a river running through it. I put gloss lacquer on the water, although  you can't tell.

The hills have also been repainted. The hills surely stand out better than I was hoping.

Testing different scale figures on them . Here are some 15mm Minifigs  units . 

Two five stand infantry units, and a three stand Hussar unit.

20mm plastics.

30mm semi flats. 

Blitz Game: Esci Prussians vs Austrians

     One Esci set I especially liked was the Napoleonic Prussians/Austrians. However, they never got much use by me.  I had planned to use them as two small warring states, but never got around to it.

     With my new attempt at gaming, I decided they would finally get to fight it out. They would fight Scenario #1 from One Hour Wargames on my 6x6 Battlescale battlefield. For rules I used a variation of  Command & Colors.  Instead of the usual 3-2-1 fire of the infantry, the range would be two hexes, with the 3-2 fire for the infantry. For artillery, I used the range from The Stronghold Rebuilt "See the Elephant" rules`  of 3-2-2-1 range.  For dicing a 6 was a hit, a 5 caused the unit to retreat. The armies were picked by using OHW army selection charts. The Prussians drew 3 infantry, 2 light infantry and 1 artillery. The Austrians drew 4 infantry, 1 light infantry and 1 artillery.

The Austrians at top, draws first blood on one of the Prussian jager units.

The Prussians push the Austrians back all along the front.

On the Prussian right a jager unit moves forward, trying  to cut an Austrian unit off.

The Austrian artillery drives the right Prussian jagers back two hexes and loses one man to the Austrian fire.

The Prussian jagers in the center and artillery eliminates the Austrian jagers. The Prussian jagers on the right drives one Austrian unit back two spaces.

The left Prussian jagers push forward to split the Austrian center. The right Jagers cuts off the Austrian leftmost unit.

The Prussian artillery drives back the Austrian unit next to the jagers. The jagers
 take that spot and then kills another Austrian infantryman. One the right the jagers kills two Austrians, while the Prussian infantry kills one Austrian and rolls a retreat roll; however, the two hexes to it's rear is blocked. Although C&C rules calls for the soldier to die, the Prussians take him prisoner. On the left two Austrians are surrounded by six Prussians. 

The two Austrians surrenders.

The situation on the Prussian right. The Austrian on the right is about to surrender.

A Prussian leading prisoners to the rear.

The end of the game. The Austrians' center has collapsed. It is a Prussian victory.

I was looking for a quick, fun game, and this game met both requirements. The game itself lasted about 20 minutes.

Old Airfix and Battlescale Terrain

        It seems harder to get any gaming in recently. I have been looking around for some new ideas that might make it possible to get more gaming done. Among the blogs I follow is Numbers, Wargames and Arsing About . I used his Simplicity in Hexes wargame campaign earlier this year and enjoyed the game. He uses a 6x6 hex board for this game, which uses Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargame scenarios for the games.  Using these rules would allow me to use my new Battlescale hex terrain pieces.

    I've also have found myself wanting to use some of my older figures, even if it was for one game. With the Battlescale hexes set up, I decided to use my Airfix Romans and Ancient Britons with No Brain Wargame rules. As the game area was smaller, any figure retreating only retreated one hex instead of two. In the center of the board I put two hill pieces as objectives to be captured. The hills had no effect on the rules, they were simply target  points.  The game was a quick, enjoyable game as I hoped for. Now I am thinking of trying different rules using the 6x6 and Neil Thomas' scenarios.

The two armies deployed.

The Romans capture both hills.

The last two photos of the battle didn't come out. In the end the Romans captured the hills and the Britons strength  fell to under 50%; at this point I called the battle.  I'm happy with the results, and look forward to trying some more games with the Battlescale pieces and old toy soldiers.

Battlescale Terrain Part 2

Battlescale set up for a practice wargame.

The hexes are a good size for based units, with room to spare for terrain pieces. 

Testing out Scruby units on the hexes.

I decided to paint the hexes, at least for now. One thing that is bothering me that the paint being used is hobby acrylic paint, which dries flat, except this paint for some reason. I wasn't happy that the hill didn't stand out enough.

I tried to use a darker green on the hillside. I'm disappointed with the result.

Battlescale Terrain

     While on Facebook a couple of months ago, someone mentioned Battlescale terrain hexes. I looked up battlescale.com and after some thought, I placed an order. My plan was to get enough pieces for a 8x8 playing board; my math skills are quite atrocious and didn't order enough.  As I ordered them shortly before Christmas, I quickly forgot about the order.

      Today the order came and I am pleased with them. I must admit, having used Heroscape for years, I was expecting lightweight plastic tiles. However, these hexes have quite a bit of weight to them. You can buy "non skid" tabs for the bottom of the hexes to help keep them from sliding. To me they seem to set firmly and I don't think shifting will be a major problem. I bought a large number of plain tiles, several "rough terrain" and hills. The tiles are 3 inches across from flat edge to flat edge. I am thinking of making an edged tray to keep the base tiles firmly in place. I must admit I'm excited to try them out. Of course the size of the tiles cuts down on the portability of the board.

    The next issue is how to finish the tiles. Battlescale gives a nice tutorial on flocking the tiles. I still am leaning towards just painting them; flocking could come later.

Some of the Battlescale hexes laid out.

Some Peter Laing GNW based units on the hexes. Plenty of room for good sized regiments.

Individually based Peter Laing Boers. I think even the individual figures look  good with these hexes.  Also, rebasing the figures on square stands instead of washers was a good move. Figures mounted on washers don't stand well on the rough terrain hexes.

Trying Airfix figures on the hexes. They might be good for skirmish games.

Testing out different terrain features with the hexes. Once again, there is plenty of room for trees and houses, and stands of figures.

While setting up the hexes, I thought of "Simplicity in Hexes" wargame campaign that  I played  last year. In the rules for that campaign, the scenarios used One Hour Wargame scenarios, but set up on a 6x6 hex board. I plan to clean my workbench and set up a 6x6 board and try out a couple of games using those scenarios.