Heroscape Town Terrain

  One problem with using Heroscape is the size of the hexes. Of course, the game was designed to be used with uses single figures on the hexes. To use units complicates the matter. I now mainly use Command & Colors style units; 4 bases to an infantry unit, 3 bases to a cavalry unit, and 2 bases to an artillery unit. These units, which are 15mm, fit on the Heroscape hexes. However, if you want to add feature such as builds and woods, it becomes crowded on the board. I Have found some smaller trees that work well representing woods. Adding building to represent built up areas is more of a problem. The building used don't give much room for the figures.

    With my recent work of using Heroscape hexes with Command & Colors rules,  I had some issues with Heroscape. To put a board together using these hexes can be a challenge. To put a river the way the set is designed really complicates it. However, using the C&C idea of placing tiles on top of the board solved that problem. The river hexes are very thin, and by just placing them on top of the board, I believe, doesn't distract from the game too much.

    My next problem was towns. Heroscape has hexes that look like cobblestone; they came with a set to build walls. I always thought they would  look good for town hexes. After seeing the river on top of the board, if only the cobblestone hexes were thin like that, it would be great. I took one, and after much work (and a painful blister) I cut one down.  After some filing and sanding, I tried it on the board. It locked down nice and tight on the board. I cut down four more ( I also found a system that it only took a few minutes and no more blisters).

   I still wanted houses on the hexes though. My original thought was to make building outlines with balsa wood. While thinking of how to go about it, I was looking at one of the little wooden houses used in my game. I then thought, what if I cut one of these houses in half? Cutting one in half, repainting it and adding a matchstick chimney, it was a nice looking little building. What's more, It gave me more room for my figures to stand. I proceeded to cut several more down. One I added a tower to represent a church.  I am happy with the result.

   Now I am thinking of how to use built up areas. I am thinking for farms, a building would be
on a regular green hex. A village would be one or two cobblestone hexes; a town three hexes; and a city four or more hexes. Maybe such areas would only count as one hex, and only allow one unit to occupy it. It could be fun to have a large city, where each hex could be occupied, and each hex would have to be fought for, such as a WW2 game.  I will have to give much thought to the problem.

One of the houses before I cut it in half.

The town, with a river running next to it.

A unit of infantry moves in to defend the town. I fought a game to try my new town hexes out. I also wanted a smaller battlefield, so I decided to divide the board using the river; the river was impassable. 

The end of the game. The Shiak army has defeated the Brookshire army. The Shiak troops move through the town to give chase to the fleeing Brookshire army.

Two Experimental Wargames

       I managed to get two experimental wargames in this week. The first was a Napoleonic wargame, using a Command & Colors Napoleonic scenario (Salamanca) on a Heroscape board. For armies I used Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargame army selection of rolling for armies. As I was going to use 8 units to a side, I rolled two dice a side, and picked from the 4 unit army chart twice. The British had 4 infantry units, 2 skirmishers unit, one artillery and one cavalry units. The French had 6 infantry, one artillery and one cavalry units.  I used my single mounted 1st generation Minifigs. For rules I started out using a Battle Cry Napoleonic variant I had downloaded years ago. Half way through the game some rules weren't really cleared so I finished the game using Bob Cordery's Memoir of Battle. I looked at the C&CN scenario and tried to place the different units so that it somewhat resembled the scenario.  I rolled for intuitive at the start of the turn. After a confusing beginning with unclear rules, once I switched to MOB rules the game picked up and was and enjoyable game.  The British won (barely). I must admit ending a Napoleonic game with a few single figures scattered across the board doesn't really capture the splendor of the period.  If I continue to work on this project I think I will have to go with based units of multiple figures. I have been thinking of how to go forward with this idea and hopefully will do a posting on some ideas in the near future.

     The second game was an Ancients game.  I will admit this game was more to do with some ideas I wanted to try that would get me using Peter Laing figures that I haven't used. For the armies I planned to use the suggested armies in Neil Thomas' Ancient & Medieval Wargaming. If I use these armies with Command & Colors units, an army would consist of 32 figures, a number that would be rather easy to paint. For rules I used Battlelore rules that I changed slightly for my own use.  The opposing armies were a Midianite Arab Army made up of 4 camel units, 2 skirmisher units and two archer units (the book called for 2 slinger units, but I didn't have any slingers ready). This army let me use my rather large collection of Peter Laing camels. The other army was Early Achaemenid Persian Army, made up of 2 Persian cavalry, three Persia infantry, 1 Immortals unit, 1 levy infantry and 1 horse archers. In his book, Mr. Thomas has suggested deployment of the armies, which I used for the game.  For the battlefield, I just used the Salamanca field again. Before the game started I had to work out rules for horse and camel archers. I decided to use a range of 2, instead of the 3 used for archers in Battlelore. For camels in these rules I had them as medium cavalry. However, as the camels I was using were armed with archers, I gave them the range of two with bows, but if they closed into close combat, counted as medium cavalry. If I continue on this project, obviously I will have to work how the different units battle.  One good thing is the battle was close, where either side could have won.  As it was, the Persians managed to win.

The Battle of Salamanca. French in the foreground.

The French capture a ridge line.

The French cavalry drive off the British hussars.

The French cavalry continue to harass the hussars. 

It looks like the French are going to carry the field.

However, the British counterattack and between the artillery and musketry, drive off the French.

The Arab army drawn up for the second game.

The Arab army based on the suggested deployment in Ancient & Medieval Wargaming.

The Persian army.

Two Arab camel units try to outflank the Persian army.

The Arab camels engage the Persian cavalry on the Persian right.

The camels drive off the Persian horse archers.

The Persian infantry starts driving through the Arab center.

The camel units try to come to the aid of the infantry.

The camels cause havoc among the Persians, but eventually the Persians rout the Arab infantry and the camels start suffering too many losses. The Arabs withdraw.

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.

A New Year of Wargaming

    Last week I got four wargames in, all using Battle Cry. The first two games I played the Battle of Pea Ridge. I played the game using the original rules. The first game I played the Confederates, second game the Union. In both games the Union lost. Once again,  for me my poor card shuffling came into play. In the Pea Ridge scenario, the Confederates have most of their units in the center. However, most of the cards drawn were flank cards. After the second game, I went through the cards and found the good center cards were all on the bottom, once again showing my bad card shuffling. I then remembered seeing an article in Lone Warrior "Battle Cry My Way" by George Arnold. His units are moved based on dice rolls. For each pip rolled, one unit or group can move. He also uses a gridded play area, so he can use terrain pieces instead of tiles. I decided to play another game, but I did use average dice instead of a regular 6D dice. I played the First Bull Run scenario, as I had played this scenario a  couple of times with the regular rules, so had a feel of how the game played out. I found for my wargaming needs, this game was more enjoyable. I then played the game again, using Bob Corderys' Memoir of Battle rules. Once again, it was a quick and enjoyable game. And, once again, I will be using Memoir of Battle for my games. I have decided to start using Command & Color scenarios for my wargames. However, I will use whatever armies I am interested in. So my Peter Laing War of Spanish Succession or ancient Romans might find themselves on the Gettysburg battlefield. With the available Command & Colors scenarios online, I will not be lost for battles to fight. I also brought out my original Heroscape terrain pieces that will be used instead of the Command & Colors board.  I seem to have come full circle with my gaming, having decided to game this way couple of years ago!

    In a recent Wargame Miscellany post, Bob Cordery mentioned how he is watching "Time Commanders", a show where 4 amateurs takes the roll of general to refight great battles. I had watched a couple of the shows a while ago, but lost interest in it. The last week I have been watching the show on Youtube, and found a new appreciation for the show. It now has me thinking of using BobCorderys' "Portable Wargames Ancients" with Heroscape terrain and Peter Laing ancients. Once again Command & Colors Ancients scenarios will provide the battlefield.

Happy New Year to all; may you get plenty of wargames in.

An example of my plans for future gaming. The Battle of Agincourt using Battlelore rules and scenario, Heroscape terrain, and Peter Laing Medieval figures. These pictures are from a game I played in 2013.

Another view of Agincourt at the start of the game.

New Hexes & a Battle Cry Ancient Wargame.

      I received my new Heroscape swamp water hexes. I'm very pleased with them. Anyone who has put together a Heroscape board will tell you that the pieces can be rather difficult to put together. These pieces went together easily, taking maybe ten to fifteen minutes to assemble the board based on the Battlelore board. As the hexes are flat, the hill hexes don't lock together as they do with normal Heroscape hexes.

   I wanted to try the new board out, along with trying a different set of rules and using two armies from Neil Thomas' book; Ancient & Medieval Wargaming.  I wanted to try a Battle Cry variant for ancient battles.  I used the recommended Persian & Greek armies. Both armies have 8 units. The first army to lose 4 units is defeated.

The new hexes in the typical Command & Colors 9x 13 board.

The new hexes with old hexes as hills.

The Greek Army on top; Persians on bottom.

The armies close. Most of the Greeks are heavy infantry so they are slow to move forward.

The Greek light infantry push back a Persian unit.

The Immortals are stopped by the light infantry.

The Immortals are hit hard and suffer 60% losses.

The Greeks push back two infantry unit.

The Greek light infantry is eliminated.

The Persians start shifting their cavalry to their left flank. 

The Greeks push back the Persian Blues, a unit that has distinguished itself in other games.

The Persian Blues counterattack, and eliminates the Greek unit.

The Greeks manage to push back the Persian center.

The Persians now sends forward their cavalry on the left. The cavalry on the right pushes back the Greek left.

The Persians overrun two units. The Greeks have lost four units, and the battle.

In the end  I think that I will use Battlelore for my ancient wargames. After all, those rules were made for Medieval warfare. I also think I will use  a point system to  pick units in the army.  I will also allow the army to deploy in the first two back rows, instead of just the last row. This will allow heavy troops to close sooner and allow for more centrally located reserves.

I wanted to try some of my terrain  in the new  hexes. I'm happy with the results.  I  think the new Heroscape hexes was well worth the money.