A Toy Soldier Battle

     The last couple of weeks I have wanted to get a wargame in using my semi round toy soldiers.  My collection has many great figures which have never been used. For the game itself I was using no special  rules.  Movement was 6" for infantry; 12" for cavalry. For combat, it was simply roll one dice for each figure. I did use Command & Colors:Tricorne dice.

The Grey Army 

The Grey Army cavalry behind the hill.

The Green Army

The Green General starts his troops forward.

The Grey Army advances. The Gross Gras Regiment makes up the main Grey force.

The Grey Army loses one soldier and four infantry runs away.

The Grey army approaches the Guards on the hill; the grey cavalry moves forward to protect the flank.

The Green jagers lose one man and 5 retreat.

The Green cavalry charges forward and hits grey's left flank.

The green cavalry starts cutting through the Gross Gras infantry and Grey cavalry.

At the top right of the picture a large number grey infantry can be seen fleeing. They  took a devastating volley  from the Guards Regiment on the hill.

The Guards drawn up on the hill.

The Green Army charges all along the line.

Some grey infantry surrender to the Guards.

At this point the battle seems lost for the Greys. However, I stopped the game at this point as it was getting late.   Perhaps  tomorrow the Grey general will decide to continue the battle.

New Wollner Figures

I recently bought some new Wollner figures, hoping that they would be 30mm, as one's a General figure and another is a General staff officer. Unfortunately, they are 35mm so they won't work with my 30mm semi round figures.

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.

Laptop Wargaming

         Personal issues have stopped just about all my gaming in the last couple of months. I also started working on an indoor target range,  which I use BB and pellet guns. Also, although the current pandemic have many people losing their jobs, my job is still considered "essential", so I still have a job to go to.
         There have been several wargame projects I have several wargame project I have been trying to get off the ground. Unfortunately, by the time I have free time, I'm too tired to work on them.

         This week I really wanted to get a game in. My wife has been out of work since January with another work injury. Needless to say I am concerned with her health, and try to spend as much time as I can with her, even if it's just watching TV.  I decided that I could use a tray with a chessboard for a  wargame on my laptop desk, which I use when writing out bills at night.  I found some old Battle Cry figures (from the old Milton Bradley game from the 1960's) to use with Chris Salander's Horse & Musket 2.0 rules.  I did get a game in, and decided that for now I will use these "Laptop Wargames" until things go back to normal.

     Last night I brought up my Cigar Box Wargame, and used this in place of the chessboard. Hopefully I can get more games played this week.

The Battle Cry armies deployed. The figures were randomly placed. I bought these loose figures years ago to use with these rules.

One Union unit breaks through the center.

The end of the game. As I didn't set any goals for the battle, it ended a draw, a rather  disappointing result.

Cigar Box Wargame set up. The terrain was placed based on terrain cards drawn randomly. 

The game setup on my lap desk. I put the board on a tray, in case of some disruption,  hopefully the playing pieces won't end up on the floor. The dice box has a foam bottom, so the sound of the dice is muted, so as not to bother my wife.

For this game I used A Stronghold Rebuilt "See the Elephant" rules, except I used Battle Cry dice..

When I use these rules, victory goes to the first army to lose 2/3 of their army, unless  I concede the battle before then.

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.

Zulu War Battle

  Although I haven't posted recently, I have got quite a few games in of No Brain Wargames. It has given me an excuse to bring out different Peter Laing figures, and try out some ideas on expanding the rules.

    My wife went to Tennessee with a friend to visit an old high school friend. While she's away, I have watched several movies that I haven't seen in awhile. I did watch "Zulu", which inspired me to play a couple of wargames using Peter Laing figures. I used for rules a set from "Battle Game of the Month", Colonial Tabletop Teaser Battlecry. For the game I used my small squared off board and regular dice instead of Battlecry dice. I just really wanted to see how the rules would work. Needless to say using an 8 X 8 board that fighting started quickly. I thought the game would be bloody using Battle Cry dice, so I went with D6; 6= kill and 5= retreat.

I started photographing the battle late in the game. The Zulus have pushed the British back to the rivers edge. The British commander has just been killed. He single handedly held off one Zulu group for several turns before being killed.

The British counterattack and gives themselves some space.

One Zulu. unit swings behind a British unit, cutting off its'  retreat.

The Zulus isolate one unit.

The British try disparately to link up and consolidate the line.

However, a lucky dice roll gives the Zulus the initiative and they once again isolate the British right unit.

The Zulus finally eliminate the rightmost unit, and are closing in to encircle the left unit.

The British make a mad dash for the river.  After this battle I did play a game with the British in a Rouke's Drift  type of setting. At first it seemed like they would hold the position, but the Zulus started infiltrating the line, and eventually carried the post.