Dark Ages No Brain Wargame

         Personal business hasn't left me much time for gaming. By the time I have some spare time, it's almost time for bed and I don't even have the energy to do any reading. Tonight I went down to try to get something done.  I decided to use my new mobile board. Last post someone asked if I intended to use terrain with this game. For this game I put three hills on the board. Both sides rolled to determine which side of the board they would deploy on. For this game I used my 6mm Irregular Miniatures Dark Ages armies.

     The blue army deployed on the side of the board closest to the hills. They decided to seize the hills, with their Huscarls holding the center hill.  The green army deployed their army with most of their units ready to attack the blue's right flank.

The green army inclines to their left flank.

The blue army starts shifting their army to face the green army.

Two green units attack the blue unit holding the right hill.

A blue unit comes from behind to hit the flank of one green unit...

...and manages to eliminate two stands and force the rest to retreat.

The green huscarls push forward to attack the blue huscarls.

The blue huscarls lose one stand, and two others retreat.

The green attack on the left is putting strain on the blue's right flank. The green huscarls have broken the blue huscarls and push forward.

The blue army pulls one unit back onto the center hill. The blue huscarls counterattack against the green huscarl. another blue unit attacks the green huscarls flank.

Half of the green huscarls are driven back; the green king falls back with them.

The green army presses forward.

One green unit attacks the blue unit that attacked the green huscarls flank. They  lose two stands.

The green army finally takes the left hill.

For this game I used a rule I saw on another blog recently, where two dice are rolled; the highest dice is used for movement points. Unfortunately, blue rolled two "ones", and moved two stands off the hill in support of the huscarls.

The green army consolidates their line.

The green left crushes the blue's right flank.

The situation facing the blue king.

The blue king decides to save what's left of his army.

   

Mobile No Brain Wargame

  After thinking about my wargaming recently, I believe part of the problem is working in a dank cellar with no natural light. Also, time is limited and most of my free time is in the evening. By then, it's time to spend with my wife. I started thinking of using the Cigar Box Wargame and tray table to have games. However, one concern is my dog, who sometimes chooses to sit in my lap at night. One possible idea is a tray with sides so if the table is rattled,  the playing pieces hopefully would not scatter across the floor.

  I decided to use a tray that I use to work on figures. When gridded off with 1 inch squares, the board came out to 9x 13; coincidentally, Command & Colors boards have 9x13 hex boards. This has me thinking of using scenarios from C&C games.

   I also figure that I can set up games in the bedroom under the window looking out our back yard where there is good natural light.  Today I had some spare time to get a game in with the new board. I decided to use No Brain Wargames with my 6mm Irregular Miniatures. It was good getting a game in and and was a quick setup, which is what I'm looking for.

The tray set up for battle. Two Irregular Dark Ages armies in action.

The table set up under the window.

The Blue army  pushes back the Green army.

The Green Huscarls break through the Blue's center.

A Blue unit swings behind the Green Huscarls...

....and the Blue forces crush the Huscarl between them and eliminates them.

The Green army reconsolidates their line.

The Blue army turns the Greens right flank.

The Green army realizes to try to continue the battle would only end in it's destruction, and wisely retreats.

The entire game ready to move.

6mm Dark Ages Wargaming

       One good thing about streaming TV is that you can binge watch different series. Recently I binge watched the series "Vikings", also "The Last Kingdom", based on Bernard Cornwell's books. At the same time there was a lot of Irregular Miniatures 6mm Dark Ages figures on Ebay, enough for two small armies to use with "No Brain Wargame" rules. For these games I did add a few rules.

Both armies have Huscarl stands. These stands get a +1 on their dice rolls. Archers can be behind their own line and fire over their own troops. If the King is with a unit, he adds 1 dice to the rolls. And if  the situation requires it, a king can more all his units back two spaces to try to consolidate his line. However, if any unit is engaged in melee, one stand must be left behind to give his unit time to retreat.

The first battle with the new 6mm armies. They were given a quick paint job to distinguish them more  easily. 

The pictures were taken late in the game. The blue army has been pushing the green army back.

The Blue Huscarls have broken through the green center. At this point the green king conceded defeat.

This is near the end of a second game played. On the left can be seen a white figure. This is a marker I used to remind me that this army was moving second during the game turn. I put this marker with the army commander.

In this turn the green unit managed to roll a "Retreat" and a "Kill" on the dice. The blue king decided to  use the retreat to save himself; he had to retreat off the board. The kill roll killed his last Huscarl stand.

The blue army got to fight out their turn, but had to, with the loss of the king, to concede the field to the green army.

As can be seen by this shot behind the green line, the blue army, troop wise, was in better shape. Had the king not be lost, there is a good chance they would have won this battle.

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.

2mm Horse & Musket Wargame

     A few weeks ago I was going to have a tabletop campaign, using my 2mm Irregular blocks for my armies. Between the holidays and one of those periods of just lack of interest in gaming, I broke down the board.

   Today I was trying out some ideas with the 2mm landscape pieces and ended up playing a quick game. The field was set up using the Waterloo battlefield as the inspiration.

Th French on the bottom of picture. Hougoumont is on the left center and La Haye Sainte  in the top center of the picture.

The French move forward.

The left most French infantry is hit in the flank by the British cavalry, losing one unit.

The French infantry turn on the cavalry and the cavalry lose one unit.

The French close in on La Haye Sainte, while French cavalry push back back the British in the center.

Close up of the French cavalry attack.

The British counterattack. On the left of the picture a column of British advance to come to the aid  of Hougoumnt.

The French cavalry hits the column and causes 50% losses.

The British try to turn the French right flank. The French cavalry in the upper left of the picture is hit in the front and flank and is forced to retreat.

The French finally take Hougoumont.

The British attack on the French right falters.

The French breaks through the British left and divides the British army. The British are forced to retreat. (At this point in the game the British have lost 50% of their units and therefore are defeated.)

The battle field itself is only 9" X 15". It is the top off an old wooden storage box that someone threw away at one of the schools I worked at. 

This is the box. I was trying to make a portable war-game. The figures are Old Glory 10mm ACW figures.

The top reversed to show the battlefield and two units deployed.