2019: Year End Review

It's my favorite time of year when bloggers look back on what they did and think about what they might like to do in the coming year. I'll cover the former in this post and save the latter for another, to spare you from an even longer, more rambling post.

An unused photo from Thanksgiving's Solo Con.

You can read what I was thinking for 2019 in this post but I've quoted the relevant bits here.

So, how did I do compared to what I was interested in doing at the time?

1. Complete a basic force for my Imaginations/VSF British and Russian forces.

The Russians , aka Vodkia, went from zero to a fighting force aided by the acquisition of a well-priced set of Britain's Cossacks, which saved me from having to paint AiP Cosccacks. I finished 10 infantry and the Gatling gun and crew, which included some conversions. Both armies are still without their generals/character figures, although I did get them started, even finishing a camel.

2. Bring my 54mm US and German WW2 armies  up to three 10-figure units (to be based or not as the rules and scale dictate, thanks to magnets and steel), with command and support options for FiveCore Company Command, Morschauser, Bolt Action, Disposable Heroes, etc. 


One surprising change (to me) was dropping the WWII US forces in favor of Soviets.

In the end I brought both sides up to the "3 10 figure units" level, albeit with three 3-figure bases and a single based figure each. In addition, I have quite a few support options for both sides.

3. Related to the above. it's time to touch up the paint, reseal, and rebase my WW2 armies using magnets and steel movement stands to allow me to play with individual figures or with multi-figure bases.

There was virtually no touching up or resealing done, but I did re-base. Multiple times.

The final landing place was 3" square bases (per Morschauser) with 3 infantry figures for the Eastern Front.

British paras, Waffen SS, and my unpainted TSSD Eastern Front Germans and TSSD Soviets were left individually based for very small scale skirmishes (about a squad or less per side). I sort of stopped worrying about the US force after my D-Day commemorative campaign.

I didn't even think about rebasing for my 1/72 PTO figures.

I should note that I'm thinking about re-basing. Again.

4. I am currently researching WWI on the Southern/Italian front, and although the gaming part will be 1/72 and not 54mm, I anticipate posting about it here (because I don't really want to split my postings between this and my dormant blog).

I pretty much covered this one in this post..
5. I want to do some social gaming in 2019 and the best way to do that locally is 28mm Bolt Action. I have acquired the rules already and will do some practice games at home with my 54s to get a feel for them.

Not a single social wargame was played in 2019 (just like nearly all years prior).

To be fair, my  interest in painting my 28mm French waned as I began to see the completion of my Eastern Front 54mm collection as a real possibility.

And now it looks like Chain of Command is by and large the game of choice at said game shop.


****
So, given what I thought I might do, I think I did pretty well.

But there was a lot that I didn't have any particular ideas for that I did this year.

I played quite a few games,  many of which are documented here and made way more time for my hobby this year, than I have had in recent years - in part that was about having a plan, no matter how non-committal, so as not to waste time deciding what to do when time opened up. But I think it was also just a general commitment on my part to making time for hobby stuff over mindless activities like just turning on the TV and veg-ing.

One Hour Skirmish Wargames in action. More OHSW action will kick off 2020.

Consequently, because I use this blog like I used to use a spiral bound notebook of my wargaming activity, I hit publish on way too many blog posts. Like this one! Including this post I am at 134 posts for the year. This is a level comparable to the heydays of my defunct Tabletop Diversions blog.

Other high points:

• I enjoyed many exchanges in the comments here and on others' blogs. Although comments aren't the best for extended discussions, I find those exchanges fire me up with a greater appreciation for the hobby community.
• I spent a lot of time reading other wargamers' blogs - sometimes going back years of posts. That's right. I'm peeping your old posts. At one point, a few years ago, I stepped away because I thought I spent  too much time reading blogs. I threw that out the window this year and embraced my addiction with both arms.
• I dove into counter-based games beyond Worthington's 1776 - including Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit - something that I discovered I really enjoy. With three more games acquired at Christmas, I suspect there will be more of this in 2020.
• I played two campaigns:
• a three game campaign in recognition of the 75th anniversary of D-Day 
• a five game imagi-nations medieval campaign using One Hour Wargames rules.
• Not sure how many figures I finished painting as I didn't keep track, but I know it was more than in 2018. Or 2017 for that matter.
• Wrote two sets of grid-based WWII company per side rules, still being played and altered but the bones are there.
• Finally got a new ground cloth that is exactly what I wanted
• I don't know how many WWI / WWII movies and TVseries I watched this year - I didn't document them all here. Some were repeat viewings of loved favorites others were first and last time views of terrible cinema, most fell in between. A few standouts of those new to me: 
• April 9th
• Is Paris Burning?
• The Fortress
• Battalion
• Night Swallows (TV series)
• The Dawns Here are Quiet (TV series)
• Gallipoli (TV series)
• The Crimson Field (TV Series)

Next up: the 2020 "plans"

Happy New Year to All!

One Hour Wargames Medieval: Botched Relief (Scenario 28, Tempus Campaign Game 5)

The Duke of Lux had ordered Lever du Soleil to be held by a small force under the command of Lord Alba. Learning of the approach of Nox forces, under command of Lord Buio (in service of the Duke of Tenebris), Alba sent for a relief force. 

To his dismay, the indecisive Baron Nuvoloso had been sent. Ever non-committal the Baron arrayed his force on a hill overlooking the approach to Lever du Soleil but took a wait and see attitude towards the proceedings, even as Buio's small force advanced on the village.

Meanwhile, in the village, Lord Alba organized his men-at-arms and signaled his knights located just North of the town to protect the north side of the village.

Buio's knights raced towards the village intent on driving the Dies force out.

Buio could not help but notice the Dies banners flying and the mass of men and horses on the hill, and so deployed one unit of knights to guard against a flank attack.

As Alba's knights moved to protect the North end of the village, Nuvoloso begrudgingly committed a unit of knights to the defense. They made their way towards the village, taking up the position originally held by Alba's knights.

The battle lines crashed at the village. Buio's levies moved up to bring additional pressure to Alba's force in the village.

Unfortunately, the knights to their flanks were destroyed or driven off the field, leaving the levies engaged to their front with the men-at-arms - who valiantly defended the village under Alba's direct leadership - and exposed to a charge from Nuvoloso's knights.

The result was predictable. 

Judging the combined losses from all of the previous battles be too costly to continue the campaign, and with the heart of winter approaching, Tenebris ordered a general retreat to the Nox side of the Nox-Aurora border - and in doing so, conceded victory to his opposite, the Duke of Lux.

Tenebris then ordered a horse readied and, with a handful of knights and men-at-arms, rode West ahead of his retreating army to personally report his failing to Luna, Empress of Nox.
 
For his part, Lux did not order any pursuit of the Nox army -  the Dies army had suffered their own significant losses and Lux too noted the coming winter weather. Of course, some commanders led raids against the retreating Nox forces, but nothing more than minor skirmished resulted.

Nuvoloso, meanwhile, claimed an outsized role in the victory to any and all who would listen, though he himself had committed just one of his four units to the battle. Alba was not amused but, outranked by the Duke, he kept his growing disdain for the latter to himself, and when asked, would only reply that he was "grateful for the assistance".

******
The scenario was 28, Botched Relief.

Red (Dies) had 4 knights, 1 levy, and 1 men-at-arms. Because they lost the last battle, they had one unit with 1d3 fewer hit points.
Blue (Nox) had 3 knights, 1 levy. Because they won the last battle, they had one unit with 1d3 extra hit points.

I created plans for both sides, diced to see which I'd follow for each and used a similar random event method I had been using to provide positive and negative effects, but rolled for each side. That is, I was playing to find out who would win, not to play one or the other side as "mine"

Nox rolled no such events, but Dies did, multiple times, and then rolled favorable events at that. That said, the game only lasted 6 turns. I credit this to a poor plan for the Nox rather than benefits from random events..

I played a second game with a different plan that involved trying to ride around the Red force, to strike at the village from behind, but the end result was the same. That game lasted ten turns, and both sides rolled several random events. As plans go, I think this one was better but as has been observed before, men-at-arms in cover are extremely difficult to dislodge.

And, since a unit once engaged in melee stays that way, they essentially expose themselves to flank and rear attacks at that point - meaning the Nox knights were easily rolled up after trying to engage the men-at-arms in the village.

Also, I decided that contact with any part of the village constituted contact with the men-at-arms within. Looking at the map, the village is a rectangle and it's definitely wider than 6 inches- I eyeballed it as 9 inches wide and 6 inches deep. Maybe when I get a print copy of OHW, I'll take a ruler to it and figure it out correctly.

I'm sure I'll think a bit more about the campaign, and thus have more to say about it, but for now, I'll just note that it was an enjoyable experience being able to write a narrative that continued from one session to the next. I have played precious few wargame campaigns, but I can say that I prefer them infinitely more than one-off games.

Here We Come a Camel-ing Among the Leaves so Green

I happen to have it on authority that Santa is en route, so I'll keep this short.

Whether or not you celebrate anything at all during this Winter holiday season, I hope you're able to spend time with family, friends, animal companions, and toy soldiers. Of course, I hope that for all of us always, but it seemed like a good time to mention it.

This will be the last figure I finish in 2019. Armies in Plastic camel. The color scheme was inspired by Britains and others on eBay. The rider is in progress. I wasn't going to paint up all of the camel cavalry but I really like the way this one looks, so I may add them to the 2020 pile.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

One Hour Wargames Medieval: Bottleneck Situation (Scenario 24, Tempus Campaign Game 4)

Seizing the momentum with his victory at the Battle of Aube, Tenebris sent Lord Buio with a fresh force to probe for an opening by which to attack the Dies army. As this force moved Eastward in two columns, it ran into a blocking force under the command of Lord Luminoso, in service of the Duke of Lux, near Lake Dageraad.

Buio sent his knights around the lake to strike the Nox force from the rear.

The Nox men-at-arms advanced down the road where they came under fire from peasant archers shooting from the thick woods North of the road.

Unable to effectively engage the archers, Buio ordered the men-at-arms forward in close order - willingly exposing one unit to an onslaught of arrows,so the lead unit could engage the Dies men-at-arms holding the road.

As  his knights made their way around the lake, they discovered that their opposite number were maneuvering to counter their efforts.

Men and horses massed in preparation for what was to come.

Luminoso's men-at-arms advanced towards the Nox column on the road, in order to contain them between the lake on one side and the archers in the woods on the other.

Both on the road and to the East of the lake, the forces clashed..

Seizing opportunity, a unit of Nox knights raced past the melee in an effort to outflank the Dies men-at-arms blocking the road.

Buio hadd mistakenly held his levies in reserve too long and they were too far back to cover the exposed rear of his last unit of men-at-arms. Arrows rained on them from the forest.

Fortunately for Buio, his enterprising knights were positioned to strike.

As the Nox men-at-arms crashed into Luminoso's men-at-arms, Nox knights crashed into them from the rear. The Dies men-at-arms were utterly destroyed. Meanwhile Luminoso's knights, though badly battered, prepared to face the other unit of Buio's knights.

Pinned by the lake to their rear, facing an enemy to their front, and the possibility of a flank attack as well, the Dies knights fought bravely, until all fell, fled, or surrendered.

The peasant archers remained but they  were of little concern to Buio with the road before them open. Indeed without additional troops to deal with the enemy definitively, at best, the archers could hope to harass the Nox force from a distance.

When the messenger reached the Duke of Tenebris with news of the victory, the Duke set into motion a plan for forcing the total capitulation of the Dies army.

*****
The scenario was number 24, Bottleneck Situation. It lasted 8 turns.

Edit: I forgot to include the Orders of Battle! And some other things too - in my defense, I wrote up the rest of this post at 1 AM.

Red (Dies) - 2 knights, 1 men-at-arms, 1 peasant archer (functionas levies with bows, only unit that can enter woods)
Blue (Nox) - 3 knights, 2 men-at-arms, 1 levy

Nox was "my" army, Dies had a few setup options I came up with and diced between (again I put some effort into this, a few days in advance, and it was a lot of fun - adding what amounts to an entirely different kind of game. They were also the beneficiary of the simple solo system I use and indeed, it helped keep one of their knights on the table when they would have otherwise been eliminated.

Also, it wasn't clear to me exactly how the woods were to function. Neil Thomas isn't terribly specific - how close to the edge must a unit be to shoot out? If a unit in the woods is touching the edge of the woods and an enemy unit contacts them, can they engage in melee even though no other unit type can enter the woods properly? 

I decided that the peasant archers had to be within 1" of the edge of the woods to shoot out and that  Blue units, save for any archers, could not attack the Red unit in the woods - since units aren't exactly where the bases are, an attacking unit, being in base to base contact with a unit in the woods is essentially the same as trying to enter the woods and that's not allowed.

This is quite an advantage for Red, but as they have only 4 units total, it's not unfair. In the event, Blue had no archers. However, by using one unit of men-at-arms to absorb hits from the peasant archers, they could prolong the survival of the lead attacking unit of men-at-arms and more or less render the unit in the woods ineffective.

With this victory, Nox evens the score, 2-2, and so it looks like game 5 will decide the campaign!

Game 5 will probably be my last game in 2020 and is tentatively scheduled form Monday 2019-12-30.

WW I Southern Front : A Look Ahead to 2020

It's that time of years where bloggers start to reflect on what has been and what is to come - I happen to love this kind of thing as I find it inspiring. Hopefully, you do too. If not, feel free to jump ahead to the tl;dr section.

One of my goals for 2019 was to get started on a Southern Front / Italian Front WWI wargaming collection. I had purchased several boxes of 1/72 figures a few years ago, with just vague plans, based on a reading of The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front 1915 - 1919. However, nothing had come of it in the intervening years.

TL;DR Summary:

2019 turned out to be one about background information - much more has been read. Nothing was painted but figures have been acquired and rule choices have been narrowed. This will be an ongoing project that will kick-off in 2020, not least because the initial figure batch will be under the tree as a gift to myself for Christmas.

PSA: there's a link now at the top of my blog to a list of all of the available figure ranges and scales for this front that I am aware of.

How I Got Here:

This year, I returned to my reading which, I'd like to believe, gave me a better understanding of the war on this front, as well as solidified my ideas about what kind of gaming I'd like to do, at least in the immediate future (that being 2020). So, while nothing was painted, decisions were made.

First, for context, here is what I read this year:

A Soldier on the Southern Front: The Classic Italian Memoir of World War 1
The War in the Mountains
The Italian Army and the First World War
Caporetto and the Isonzo Campaign: The Italian Front 1915-1918
Hell in the Trenches: Austro-Hungarian Stormtroopers and Italian Arditi in the Great War

I had previously read:
The Italian Army of World War I
The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front 1915 - 1919

And for completeness' sake, at this moment in the queue I have Rommel's  Infantry Attacks and the two Osprey Austro-Hungarian Forces in WW I books by Peter Jung. I anticipate at least one, if not two, additional books on the topic for Christmas (and if not, Christmas money will be spent acquiring them and a few others specifically about the British involvement in the front)

In addition to the reading, I played Burning Mountains (only once completely, as it's a relatively long game - BGG shows 7 hours and that's about right) - a game focused on the 1916 Austrian Spring offensive.

All of this has me convinced, that I have no desire to reproduce battles with divisions or more with miniatures at this time (maybe some day, with 6mm, so I can fit it on my kitchen table). M:y interests are late war (because assault troops) from man-to-man fights in the trenches up to maybe regiment per side. Conveniently, these levels of engagement are described in just about every book I've read - sometimes in great detail - most especially in Hell in the Trenches.


Figures:

Two boxes of Armies in Plastic WWI Germans in Stahlhelm.

As the picture above shows, I will be doing this in 54mm rather than 1/72 as originally planned (nor in 28mm with the lovely figures from Scarab because beautiful as they are, I really love 54s. (As if I needed to say that.).

The boxes of Armies in Plastic Germans in Stahlhelms pictured will serve as the Austro-Hungarian sturmtruppen and late war regular infantry - and I can always paint up some as Germans too for Caporetto. The uniforms aren't exact matches for Austro-Hungarian forces, but will have to do. The only purpose-made alternative is expensive and limited poses from ICM and Italeri in 1/35. I might mix in some converted figures in peaked caps, just for fun, either from Airfix Afrika Korps or Marx Japanese (per Tim Gow's idea).

For Italians, the bulk are going to be bersaglieri from Waterloo 1815 (who for some confusing reason use the same image as the 1/72 regular infantry box. They don't picture bersaglieri). Dulcop alpini would be nice but I'm not holding my breath they will turn up at reasonable prices. AiP French without the great coats or blanket/coat rolls can provide some figures here and there.There are no arditi figures - but, while their uniforms are described as being special, the photographs often show them wearing basically the same thing as standard infantry - maybe different cut jacket, but nothing I'd fret over.

I may end up supplementing both sides with the occasional metal figure from Irregular (they have Austrians in caps, and alsotheir multi-part figure range).

Artillery will be off table for the most part.  Any on-table field guns will have to be scratch built or built from 1/35 kits.Irregular makes a gun that could work for either side if you squint, but it's pricey for my tastes. Flamethrowers will have to be scratch built. MGs and teams will be in 1/35 from ICM and Italeri.

All figures except weapons with crew will be individually based.

Rules:
 

For rules, I am leaning towards

• HMG by Agema -  I've never seen a review of this game but I took a chance and picked them up from Wargame Vault and they have my interest.. They use 9-figure Austrian companies and 15-figure Italian regular infantry companies or 8 figure bersaglieri. That means probably a battalion-ish per side - an attacking Austrian infantry battalion led by a company of stormtroopers would be a not unreasonable 45 figures and a battalion of bersaglieri is only 24-32 figures
  

  

  Messing around with nine-figure Austro-Hungarian cmpanies for Agema's HMG. Organized into two sturmkompanies and two of regular infantry.   Lot's of bent barrels here - nothing hot water can't fix. Those four figures in the back right are kind of awkward.

• One Hour Wargames, Machine Age rules -  these would require modification, but it's easy to build up a force. Like the WWII rules, there are no close assault rules. It is even odder here because unlike in the WWII rules, the WWI units have facing and therefore can be flanked. I'd ignore cavalry and replace them with assault troops who would have a +2 bonus when attacking..
• The Portable Wargame - 4 -6 figure companies in 3" or 4" squares,  for say up to a regiment on each side. 

  

  6-figure companies. A sturmkompanie leads the way for an infantry battalion. A typical use of Austro-Hungarian stormtroops.

• A home variation on Featherstone's simple modern rules
• Some home brew rules with or without a grid - I have started developing a game for the former, albeit with homemade counters, where 1 "base" is nominally a platoon.  

For smaller actions, I have:

• One Hour Skirmish Wargames  - 1:1, maybe 9 or 10 figures per side
• Trench Hammer (Nordic Weasel) - 1 squad per base
• Trench Storm (Nordic Weasel)- 1 squad per base
• Through the Mud and Blood (Two Fat Lardies)  - 1:1, field 30-100ish figures
• Price of Glory (Iron Ivan / Brigade Games) - 1:1, field 30-50 figures

I have probably another dozen sets of rules for much larger battles - divisions and such. But odds are those won't see any use for these figures. Maybe later.


If you made it this far, cheers to you and thanks for sticking with this lengthy post!

One Hour Wargames Medieval: Static Defenese (Scenario 14, Tempus Campaign Game 3)

The Duke of Tenebris continued to fall back after the loss at the crossroads. Reinforcements from Nox arrived from the West, but morale was shaken among the veterans of the last two clashes. Determined to stem the advancing Dies tide, Tenebris ordered Lord Buio to occupy the village of Aube and to hold the hill South West of the woods near there in order to prevent the Duke of Lux from advancing down the main road to the border and force his army to an overland route which would take considerably longer.

If not, Lux would be in Nox territory in a few days time.

For his part, the Duke of Lux sent the wing of his army under the command of Lord Leggero,  with orders to take either the hill or to occupy Aube for the opposite reasons. Either would give Dies the means to control the road and allow the army to advance to the border

(The action is described in the captions below the picture)

Leggero split his force - sending the bulk to take the village, despite the narrow frontage available for the attack. His knights on the left were to be held in reserve until they could be brought around the woods for a finishing blow.

Tenebris had made a wise choice in Buio, who ordered his knights protecting the flanks of the village to ride out and meet the enemy, as the defenders in the village put up a spirited defense.

Aware of the losses his forces in the village had sustained, Buio ordered the knights from the hill to take to the village to aid in its defense.

The first unit of Dies knights fell or fled but the men-at-arms, brimming with enthusiasm of fresh reinforcements prepared to storm the village and finish the job.

As the knights from the hill arrived, they were pursued by Lord Leggero's reserve of knights. Buio's archers prepared to meet them.

And meet them they did. When the Dies nights passed the hill they came under fire from archers there and then from the archers West of the village.  Although the archers near the village were ridden down, the knights were struck down by arrows from their front and back.

Dies men-at-arms seized the village, finally defeating the knights there.

It wasn't enough however - despite defeating the Nox knights, the village, and the men-at-arms within it, were subject to a bombardment of arrows from the remaining Nox archers.Eventually the men-at-arms were forced to abandon the field.

A Nox victory and the Duke of Tenebris keeps his head a little longer.

*****
Scenario 14, Static Defense
Red force - Nox - 3 knights, 2 archers, 1 men-at-arms
Blue force - Dies - 4 knights, 1 men-at-arms, 1 levy

Dies had 1 unit get a bonus of 1d3 hit points. Nox had 1 unit with a 1d3 bonus, and one with a 1d3 penalty.

Red must keep 2 units within 12" of the hill and 2 units within 12" of the village.

Blue has 15 turns to capture either the hill or the village.

Dies was "my" army since they had more to do, Nox was the NPC side, to their benefit. This makes three losses for the side I commanded, in case you were counting.

Inspired by Dale's postings about Mr. Babbage, I spent a lot of time thinking about how I would approach this from the Nox side, and came up with several plans which were diced between. This isn't normally something I do - I usually make a plan just before the game starts and hope for the best. This was a fun exercise to really think about the battle field and the capabilities of the forces involved and where the best deployments could be.


Yes, that's me taking credit for the Nox win even as I am responsible for the Dies loss!

The last few turns of the game saw no movement but were still fun to play out, rather than concede. The men-at-arms had no real options once they had no one left to melee nearby - turn 10. It would have taken two turns to reach the archers, and two turns to get back to the village- the archers had a 1 point bonus to their hit points due to a random event earlier, so they were not going to go down easily. Not a one hit knock-out that's for sure. The only question was whether or not the archers could do enough damage before the game clock ran out.

It didn't look like it on their first attack (men at arms take 1/4 damage in a village). But then the archers rolled 5s and 6s for their attacks and the men-at-arms, already reduced by their fighting with the knights previously, could not hold on.

 The game ended on turn 14.

The next campaign game is the bottleneck. Nox will be attacking as they push back Eastward into Aurora.

Speaking of, here's a very very very rough attempt at a map (a better, larger (this one is 3x5), one will be made eventually, based on this.) so I can keep my directions and country names straight:

Dies is still ahead 2 - 1. Will there be a game 5?

One Hour Wargmes Medieval : Changes for Next time

As I was clicking around reading blogs (I check for people posting new stuff several times a day and when that fails, I just start looking at "most popular posts" and following links), I found that  Alex addressed many of  the grey areas in the OHW Medieval rules in a post on his Spear to Strife blog in 2017, followed by a version of the rules featuring his own clarifications integrated into them.

Image from Friday night's battle. I use three colors of dice - green for the first 6 hits, yellow for the second 6 hits, and red for the last 3.

The biggest thing that was bothering me was what constitutes contact for melee purposes. I have been saying any contact at all, even a corner on the flank edge for example, would be enough for the devastating flank bonus. But even as I ruled that was the case, a corner contacting an edge didn't visually look enough like charge into melee and didn't sit right with me.

Having read Alex's posts and thought about it a bit more (and given my use of 4" square bases) I will use contact/overlap-with-half of the edge (he suggest 3" in his version of NT's rules linked above and that's probably better, but I'll start with half, or 2" in my case)  as indicative of melee being reached. Thus, a corner making contact alone would not be enough, nor would contact with the enemy's corner alone.

I can recall clearly instances where this would have slowed the destruction, as units would have had to moved to a better position before they charged into an enemy's flank, or they may even have lost the flank advantage entirely, as the enemy could have gained an opportunity to rotate to meet the threat. Would this have changed the outcome of  either game? I don't know.

His use of just two movement rates will be taken wholesale into my game.

There's a typo in the Kindle edition I have, where  the movement rates for the Medieval rules reflect the unit types of an earlier rule set. So, infantry, skirmishers and warband, and cavalry are given rates rather than men-at-arms, archers, knights, and levies, and you're left to figure out which should get what. I was allowing levies 9" but had no particular justification (remember, the bulk of what I know of the history for this period, comes from Neil Thomas's chapter preceding the rules).

Both of these will eliminate some grey areas that took me out of the game and into the rulebook (which, seems silly given how few pages the rules are).

One Hour Wargames: Down at the Crossroads (scenario 11)

Following their victory near the border between Eastern and Western Aurora, the Duke of Lux, vassal of Sol, King of Dies, crossed his army into Western Aurora, intent on capturing a major crossroads that would give him access to all of Aurora. He did not expect to encounter any resistance from the Nox forces, as they had been observed moving deeper into Western Aurora back towards their own border.

For his part, the Duke of Tenebris, in service to Luna, Empress of Nox, had left a small holding force East of the crossroads to cover their withdrawal, but he had little reliable information about the movements of the Dies army.

Initially confusion reigned  and some doubt from the Nox holding force about their life choices, and neither side was able to effect much of anything. A lone rider from the holding forced raced Westward to alert the the commander for the Nox rear guard.

Meanwhile, the aggressive commander of the the Dies vanguard charged with his main body of knights and the sounds of a bloody battle rang out through the woods. A third unit of knights, and their men-at-arms, made their way around the Northern woods, intent on outflanking the enemy.

Alerted by the rider, the commander of the Nox rear guard sent two units of knights to join the fray. They arrived in time to intercept the flanking Dies units - but it was still too late, as their own holding force had crumbled.

Then, too, the reinforcements were overwhelmed.

Having driven the enemy from the field, the crossroads belonged to Dies, but a second wave of Nox reinforcements arrived from the Southern road.

Outnumbered and facing two units of well armored men-at-arms,  the odds were not in favor of the new arrivals. Indeed, the Nox archers managed to get off  just a single volley before being charged.

When the dust settled, Dies had uncontested control of the crossroads and access to all parts of Aurora.

Suffering a second defeat, the Duke of Tenebris lead the remnants of the Nox army in a further withdrawal deeper into Western Aurora, and closer to the border with Nox itself. Certainly, his queen would be forgiving of one loss. She would be less so about this one. A third loss would come at a great personal cost.

The Duke of Tenebris entered his tent that night with much on his mind.


*****
This is scenario 11  from Neil Thomas's One Hour Wargames, "Surprise Attack".

Nox was Red, Dies was Blue.Because I use 4" squares and the Blue army arrives via the road on turn 1, I extended one dimension by 6", to fit them all on the table on the first turn. So the table was 36" x 42". I went with the forces I rolled - which was unfortunate for Nox - they really could have used two units of men-at-arms.

Once again the rules used were the medieval rules from that book.

This time the game went all the way to turn 14, although the conclusion was obvious from turn 8 when the Dies army eliminated the last of the Nox units on the table and could leisurely wait for the last two Nox reinforcements to arrive on turn 9. That two of the four remaining Dies units were men-at-arms further cemented the likelihood of their victory (half damage). Even when they lost their last unit of knights, they were in no real danger of losing the battle over all.

I debated including the archers in the initial force on the table - thinking perhaps they could weaken one of the knights in front. That may have been a better option - saving them to mop up was far too optimistic.

I do wonder how much a 4' x 4' table would have changed things : I think the archers would have gotten off two volleys at least.

This time not being able to leave the scrum was less of an issue because there wasn't a single focal point of the game - although I suppose the crossroads could be if the Blue army chooses to completely by-pass the Red units blocking the road. Instead, there was some movement, with the Blue army flanking the woods and the Red army riding to meet them, while a battle raged by the woods.

I used the same solo chance mechanism this time as last. Again I played both sides, and again Nox was my side, so the chance events favored Dies.

Also, because this is a campaign, I gave one unit of the Dies army a 1d3 hit bonus because Dies won last time, and one unit of Nox a 1d3 hit penalty because Nox lost - which units received the adjustments was  randomly determined.

The next scenario is "Static Defense" and so I will play the Nox force as they are the attackers and have more interesting choices. Since we are closer to the border now, Nox they will have one unit with a 1d3 bonus, to represent an influx of troops over said border, but they will again have a unit with a 1d3 penalty (because they lost). The Dies army will have a single unit with a 1d3 bonus.

Stuart Asquith's Wargaming World War Two : First Impressions

I recently found and purchased a copy of Stuart Asquith's Wargaming World War Two online. I very much enjoyed his writing in his solo wargaming book and the WWII title was mentioned in several remembrances that I read with his recent passing. For the sum of less than $6 USD shipped it was a no-brainer.

This won't be a detailed review - as I haven't read it in its entirety yet - but perhaps at some point I should write one, as I could find little about the actual contents.

It seems fairly complete with a potted history, details about various armies, the various arms, weapons data, and rules for using it all.

Sample vehicle data.

It's probably not the latest research on the weapons and armies, but how much new has come to light about things that were already 50 years old at the time it was written?

The writing appears to be clear and concise, but friendly.

There are a couple of scenarios, too, so it's a complete package.

Desert scenario map.

I probably won't end up using the rules themselves, but they will serve as inspiration without a doubt. My first glance reaction is that they have a Battle-like approach of explaining rationale, albeit in a condensed manner and I always enjoy that kind of discussion.

One Hour Wargames: War Comes to Tempus

The land of Tempus has long been the stage for the bitter rivalry between two countries, Dies and Nox. Independent buffer states - Aurora, Mane, Vesperum, and Nocte, - sprang up in the distant past and have variously served to cool or exacerbate the tempers of the dominant pair. Presently, it is a time of the latter, and the uneasy truce in their war over control of the continent has come to an end yet again. This time, it is hapless Aurora that is caught in the middle.

The Duke of Lux, vassal of Sol( the King of Dies, also known The Sun King (not that one)), having raised an army at his king's behest, advanced this force into Aurora under diplomatic pretense. However, such is the nature of courtiers and intrigues that Luna, Empress of Nox, Queen of the Night (not that one), quickly learned of the deceit. In turn, she commanded the Duke of Tenebris to raise a force and prepare to meet the threat.

With a preternaturally prescient understanding of the situation, Lux ordered an advance guard to race to, and take control of, a strategic hill overlooking the main road between Eastern and Western Aurora. The remainder of the holding force would follow.

The Nox army under Tenebris moved eastward into Aurora, where, it comes as no surprise, the leading elements of the force collided with Lux's avant garde.

And so it was that the inevitable new war began.

The Nox knights were ordered to dislodge Lux's units from the hill as quickly as possible in hopes of controlling it before the remainder of the Dies force arrived.

A maelstrom of clashing steel, men, and horses swirled about the hill.

The new arrivals for Dies charged into the fray, with a unit of knights held back and ordered to run down the Nox archers - who, it may be said, had quite literally become a thorn in their side.
.

Flaunting a previously captured banner of Nox, the knight's charged. They would pay dearly for their indiscretion.

Men fell and fled on both sides, but the scale of victory tilted heavily towards Dies.

The last of  the remaining Nox units fought fiercely, but in the end, they were outfought by the Dies men serving under Lux.

But, to be sure, the war had only just begun.


*****

This is scenario four, "Taking the High Ground" from Neil Thomas's One Hour Wargames, The rules used are the medieval rules from the same book.

As I have noted before, I know little to nothing of the period, so I find these rule adequate (with OHW I think the more invested in a period you are, the less satisfying the rules will be, without making at least some adjustments for your pet aspects of the period) - they do tend to lead to a scrum, since units can't leave melee once engaged and forces will have at least 4 melee units. However, a large scrum of warriors is what Hollywood tells me is period correct, and I assume at least some of the writers have done the research, so it works for me. Heaven help me if I read an Osprey on period tactics though.

The main thing I have to remember with OHW is to not think I have the rules internalized - it's too easy to forget a modifier when you're a little rusty (+2 for shooting with archers for example). The other is that that men-at-arms on a hill are really hard to beat (they take 1/4 damage).

Of the other rules I have, I am most intrigued by Charlie Wessencraft's medieval rules in Practical Wargaming but that would require re-basing (as these are just Blu-Tacked to coasters it's not that big of a deal but never the less). Morschauser's shock rules could work if I used single figure "trays" and used say, 4-6 trays per unit, as the melee rules are truly brutal there.

Other areas of note:

The game officially ended on turn 10 but I could have called it on turn 7 or so, when the Nox force only had two units left. This is typical of OHW - games in my experience rarely last until 15 turns. Total time for setup and tear down was about an hour.

I played both sides and used the same solo mechanism I used for the Morschauser game the other day, because I was rooting for Nox. It clearly worked well in that "my" side lost.

The next scenario will be number scenario 11, "Surprise Attack".