Sunday, September 18, 2016

OHW Pitched Battle : Medieval

Here's the first outing of my new medieval troops in scenario 2 from One Hour Wargames. Figures are mostly Deetail.

OOB:
Euro-knights (Army Red, they go first): 4 units of knights, 1 unit of men-at-arms and 1 unit of archers.
Saracens (Army Blue): 3 units of knights, 2 units of men-at-arms and 1 unit of levies.

The battle lines are drawn and ready!
Horses stamp their hooves and snort, shields clang and battle cries of the Blue army!
The Red army commander sounds the advance! Thundering hoofbeats! The men roar!
Turn 1: The lines advance. Army Red takes the hill, Army Blue, the crossroads.
Turn 2: Clash at the crossroads! Men and beast collide! The thunderous clatter of colliding steell!
Turn 2: Near the hill the battle is well and truly joined!
Turn 3: A blow for Army Red, a unit of knights is removed from the field. But the battle rages!
Turn 4: The archers take out a unit of Blue knights, but the scrum of men and horses continues!
The archers look on for a new target. Army Red's control of the hill is uncontested.
Turn 5: The clash at the crossroads!
Turn 5: Army Blue destroy a unit of Red knights!
Turn 6: The battle for the cross roads ends with the destruction of Red's units.
 Meanwhile, at the hill, Blue and Red suffer losses.
Turn 7: Blue sends a second wave to take the hill.
Turn 8: Again the sides crash into each other! Blue holds back

Turn 9: Things don't go according to plan for Blue. Red's archers and men-at-arms refuse to concede!
Turn 10: Blue is driven from the hill. It belongs solely to Red.
Red's men-at-arms prepare to race for the crossroads.
Turn 14: Red's men-at-arms are badly wounded, but their armor gives them a measure of defense vs the unarmored levies.
Even so, no one is the winner after 15 turns. I let it play out.
Turn 18: The men-at-arms underestimated Blue's levies and paid the price. The sides withdraw, nothing gained, much lost.

This was my first time playing the medieval rules from Neil Thomas's One Hour Wargames. In fact, it was the first time playing any rules other than the WWII rules.

Color me surprised.

Despite being essentially the same rules, the differences were enough that the game felt nothing like the WWII game. To my mind, they gave a good accounting of themselves of a distinctly medieval game. This may be due to the fact that I've never played any other medieval rules - in which case, that demonstrates OHW's effectiveness. If you figure that a new wargamer might pick up the book as a starting point, they would be well served by the rules for exploring different periods.

2 comments:

  1. Oh fun. I met confess that I have been following your posts for some time now (now that doesn't sound creepy). I started up wargaming again after my old acquaintance Bob Cordery started me on the Morschauser route. Add that I also follow Tim Gow's blog, means that we seem to share interests. My own WW2 set up comprises Airfix with CTS tanks and Britains guns, although Expedition and Deetail models also figure. Please continue to Blog, or else I will feel compelled to start one myself!

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    Replies
    1. Hi Stephen,

      Please pardon my delayed reply and my infrequent posting as well!

      Recently I have been bitten again by the wargaming bug and I hope you'll continue to follow along. I have some WWII games planned, and a new project I hope to get started on next month as detailed in my latest post.

      Thanks for reading! (and have you started a blog yet? you should!)

      -John

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