Cigar Box Wargame & C&C Tricorne Dice

         Last week I took the week off. My Mother-in-Law passed away, and I stayed with my wife to keep her company. I started thinking of different projects  that I could try to start working on. One thing that troubled me about my Cigar Box Wargame is that everything was just thrown in with no organization. I wanted to thin out both the 2mm units and landscape terrain.

     I did find a couple of small trays that I could put the units into. I then added a center divider, and made a lid to cover the trays of figures. The other half holds the terrain pieces and dice.

The new setup of my Cigar Box Wargame.

     I also found some custom Command & Colors Tricorne dice, which I ordered. They were a little pricy, but I'm happy with the purchase.

War of 1812 Wargame

    With my new board and terrain cards, I decided to try them both out. I had tried out some ideas for skirmish games earlier, and originally were going to try another skirmish game. After setting the game up, I decided to play more along the line of a regular game.

The drawing I made from the terrain cards, which was used for this game. 

Both armies after one move. I wasn't going to record this battle, the plan was to take a couple of pictures  showing the new board.

The Americans had captured the hill; the British managed to storm and take the hill. 

The British have driven back the entire American line. For this game I used my C&C Napoleonic dice , which I converted to C&C, Tricorne. C&C,T dice have two retreat flags, and only one infantry on it. I was playing using BattleCry movement and ranges, ignoring the crossed sabres.  For this game all units were treated as normal infantry (even the Indians).

On this roll the American riflemen rolled three "retreats", driving the British "Over the hills and far away"!

The Americans drove the British back all along the line.

One American unit retakes the hill.

The British drive up the hill...

...and once again captures it.

Another British unit comes up to reinforce the hill.

The American general joins one of the militia units. These two militia units were painted based on an actual unit; the Michigan Legionary Corps, which consisted of one company of riflemen, one company of light infantry, one company of cavalry and one company of artillery. I started painting these in the summer, with the idea of making my own Legionary Corps.

Both the American rifles and infantry in front of the British on the hill attacks that unit. With no place to retreat...

....the Americans eliminate that unit.

Meanwhile the militia punches through the British center.

The British concentrate on seizing the hill.

Once again the British drive the Americans off the hill.

The riflemen counterattack up the hill again (won the initiative roll).

The Americans eliminate the British unit that was supporting the unit on the hill.

At this point the British have lost half their units, and the unit holding the hill is in danger of being cut off. The British  general calls for a retreat.

  This game turned out to be more fun than expected. The War of 1812 was basically an infantry war. I am thinking of using Command & Colors Tricorne units, such as elite infantry, light infantry, Provincial infantry, and militia. It would be easy enough to pick a different class of infantry for Indians, uniformed militia, regular militia, and so forth. I am also thinking of making army lists like the one in  Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargames, where you would roll for the army makeup. The list would probably be larger, as there are more classification of unit. It might take 8D, 10D, or possible 12D rolls to decide on the army make up.                                              

I have also started rebasing the units that are mounted on washers, switching them to square bases, like the ones the riflemen are on. It makes the figures more stable, and I can write unit IDs in the bottom if I choose.

Square Board Wargames

    While looking through the book "Austerlitz: The Empire at its Zenith" by F.G. Hourtoulle, I came across a panorama of the battle by Lejeune (I'm assuming Napoleonic General Lejeune, who was also a gifted painter). Looking at the panorama,  it looked like a war-game table with Irregular Miniatures 2mm armies fighting across it. The Irregular 2mm armies can look quite impressive when set up on the table.

   While talking of 2mm armies, I have been thinking of ordering more Irregulars; this time I'm leaning towards 2 ACW armies. While making my plans, I came across a set of rules "See the Elephant" on The Stronghold Rebuilt blog . It is a set of rules for the American Civil War, to be used on an 8X8 board, such as a chessboard.   As my wife went to Maryland to visit family for a few days, it gave me time to try out these rules.

I made two even armies mirroring their deployments.

The Red army pushes forward

The red army wins the day.

The Battle of McDowell Playtest

     This past week I have been planning future wargames using Battle Cry and Command & Colors scenarios with Heroscape terrain and 15mm miniatures. I repainted a Heroscape board that is 9 x 14 hexes, which makes it 1 hex across larger than C&C boards.  I also painted 1 and 2 hex pieces for hills. Unfortunately, I painted the sides the same color, so when I photograph them you can't see the raised pieces. After the following battle report, I painted the sides a darker green, which I hope will take care of that problem.

    I tend to be quite unimaginative when it comes to gaming. I set up a Battle Cry field to take some photos of how the field would look, which is when I found out that the hills didn't show up well. I also figured having the board set up, maybe I would use it for a game. At first I was trying to decide which Civil War figures to use. Then, thinking of my plans of using just the scenarios as a guideline for my games, I decided to use a different period to fight the battle. The scenario I used was the Battle of McDowell, which is all infantry except one battery of artillery. At first I wanted to use my Peter Laing APW figures, but didn't have enough for the armies. I settled on using my 1st generation Napoleonics. Even then, I just had enough single based French for the game. If I intend to use these figures with C&C Napoleonics, I will have to single base more figures.

   The Ruler of Bluvia sees himself as another Napoleon, so much so that he has taken the name as his own. As such, it is only right that he invades his neighbor with his "Grand Armee".  Redina is not impressed with "Napoleon".  Indeed, they call him "Phony Bony", which only encourages Napoleon to attack. Napoleon crosses into Bluvia near McDowell.  The Bluvian army quickly moves up to strike first.

Bluvian Army (Confederates in the McDowell scenario) at the top of the board, The Redinan Army on the bottom.

Redinan Artillery.

Bluvian Infantry.

"Napoleon" aka Phony Bony with his army.

The armies close in on each other.

Two Bluvian light infantry units attack the Redinan center...

.....and clears the woods to its' front.

The Redinan center counterattacks.

 

The Redinan infantry that was forced from the woods is pushed farther back.

The Redina right, made up of two units, is to try to stop the four units of Bluvian infantry from advancing.

The Redina artillery eliminates one Bluvia infantry units.

Phony Bony leads his guards forward. The Redina loses their Brunswickers, and the Highlanders retreat.

In the center, the Bluvians clear another woods, but can't clear the hill.

The Bluvian left flank has eliminated two more Redina units and cut off the Highlanders from the rest of the army.

The Bluvian army finally takes the hill in the center after being held up by one  infantryman  for a couple of moves.

At this point I stopped the battle. I wanted to award the lone Redina soldier who held  the hill against  superior numbers for several turns. He was award a battlefield promotion to corporal.

The Bluvian left surrounds the Highlanders.....

....and wipes the unit out.

The Redina artillery and infantry in the center both are forced to retreat. The Redinan Army has lost 5 units, and the battle.

The battle at the end. On the left center in the woods, a Redina infantry unit is cut off. 

Phony Bony, surrounded by his guards, at the moment of his first victory. 

The field before the game. As can be seen, it is hard to see the raised tiles.