On Retreats in Wargames

    If you check in here on occasion, you will have noticed that I haven't posted much in a while. Personal problems and lack of time is part of it; also I just can't get motivated to do any gaming.  I still check several wargames blogs daily; it has been a couple of weeks since I checked out my own, if only to see the activity it is producing.  I don't know if that's a bad sign. I do hope to maybe have some news on some figures in the near future.

     I mainly go to Facebook to visit groups that I belong to. One is a Command & Colors Napoleonic group. On it someone mentioned that the much anticipated C & C Tricorne is about to be released. They also provided a picture from Compass Games website, showing a page from the rules. What caught my eye was that the dice will only have one "infantry" side, but two "retreat" sides.
This has me thinking of trying games with two retreat sides to it.

     As I have mentioned before, as a solo gamer I believe rules used should have some kind of automatic retreats beyond the gamers control. Before finding rules with retreats factored into them, I had the "Hitler Complex", troops cannot retreat; they must hold the ground at all costs.  When I first started playing games with automatic retreats, I found myself ready to give up on them. Eventually I convinced myself that I was playing the roll of general, not the individual unit commanders, and that units will break and run, no matter what the general wants. The first retreat rules I used were Donald Featherstone morale rules, along with Junior General morale rules. I remember a time  having an AWI wargame using the Junior General rules. The American general spent the entire game racing back and forth across the battlefield, rallying his different regiments that broke at the littlest losses.

    When I found Chris Salander's Horse & Musket 2.0 rules in MWAN # 102, it changed my gaming forever. Although not the perfect set of rules (they were designed as a starter set), the automatic retreat in the rules simplified retreats in my games. In the game each figure has a dice roll, and a 'retreat' roll affects an individual piece, not the entire unit. One good thing about H&M 2.0 is that you could convert the rules for other periods. With the avant of Richard Borg's Command & Colors system, for me his retreat rules and dice have rekindled a flagging interest in wargames.

Extreme results from dice rolls; a unit pushed to the edge of the board. Rolls like this can prove disastrous to one's battle plan.

A successful cavalry charge.

The retreating cavalry outruns their pursuers. 

Command & Color Games

      In the last few weeks I have had little time for gaming. What time I have spent has mainly been on research. Most of the time has been reading up on Richard Borg's Command & Color gaming systems. I have several of Richard Borg games, including Battlelore, Battle Cry and Memoir 44. And while online I came across several games made by Worthington Games, including Clash for a Continent and Hold the Line. The one thing all these games have in common are they have hex game boards, with 9 x 13 layout of the hexes with separate hexes for different terrain. And while all the games use the same style game boards, they have different rules.  One thing I like about these games are they all come with several scenarios.  I have managed to download 45 scenarios from the Worthington games. They are from the Jacobite Rebellions, War of Austrian Secession, and Frederick the Great's wars.
      When I first got back into wargaming, I bought Edition Brokaws WSS and SYW figures. With the downloaded scenarios, I have been looking over these figures again. While I have plenty of infantry, I skimped on cavalry. I do have 1st generation Minifigs cavalry that I can use for the period. For the Jacobite Rebellion, I am thinking of using Peter Laing. One of my first molds was a Peter Laing highlander from the period with a musket.  With one of my goals being to use more of my figures  that haven't been used before, I can spend more time on figures and less time working out game set up.
    I am thinking of taking the different boards and terrain pieces and pooling them, where I could use the different pieces on the different boards.

Typical Richard Borg size board.  I put some terrain pieces on the lower right. This board is from Battlelore.

Some Edition Brokaw SYW Prussians advance on the river. In the foreground some Jagers have seized a hill.

Editions Brokaw Austrian grenadiers fall back before the Prussians.

From above the terrain looks good. It would be nice to make custom hexes in stead of flat hills and woods.