A Game of Inches

The other night I decided to experiment with a half-sized play area for One Hour Wargames - just to add my voice to the chorus of those who are happy to celebrate that you don't need a lot of figures or space to play miniature wargames that aren't 1 figure = 1 man/lizard/orc/etc. And you can use 28mm+ sized figures to do it.

Some will no doubt guffaw at such a spectacle, but not all of us have room for large tables, permanent or otherwise, nor do we all have easy access to clubs or stores that provide tables and space to game.

I have used 3" wide bases many times, and that is half the max 6" width Neil Thomas recommends, but usually I play on 2/3 size surface with them, just to have some more room for maneuver or to play 8 v 8 instead of 6 v 6, or to better fit some of my terrain pieces, which were intended for the full-size 36" square.

Enough rambling!

Here is one of my favorite scenarios, set out on my kitchen island using an 18" square (my 36" surface folded into 4ths!)

The Black Orcs, which I treat as "shieldwall", are hard to see, but they are in the village. The savage orc "warband" covers the gap between the road and the mountains.

 

Bottleneck!

No room around this.

Next!

Turn 5 - Orc first wave of reinforcements arrive.

And quickly take over for the fallen warband.

And do a splendid job of it.

Turn 10 and the second reinforcement wave arrives. The lizards are cooked. I call the game after another turn or two.

The game, enjoyable as it was to look at, felt frustrating as play went on. 

The lizards could never get a second unit up between the orcs and the mountains and so one unit of orcs at held of a far larger force. When they finally fell, they were replaced by reinforcements and the pattern continued. 

Realistic, but not how this scenario usually plays out (often the attacker at least reaches the village even if they don't capture it).

Then it occurred to me: I never go this small an area because my terrain is not sized for it!

The mountains are 7" across - which means they truncate the center as do the 8" diameter woods. Neither piece should be over 6" if they are to occupy 1/9th of the table per the scenario setup.

So I moved them slightly apart (overhanging off my cloth just a bit) and the result was much more satisfactory - I could fit another base through the gap now. 

The game started out almost identically with the orc unit defending the road eliminating the lizard cavalry, but a second lizard unit was able to move up and attack the orc unit from the flank. This opened the way to the village (where the orc "shieldwall" was located).

I love the colorful look of the lizards.

This time, by the time the first wave of orc reinforcements arrived, the lizards had already begun their assault on the village.

The orc cavalry are dangerous but this time the lizards come out on top.

 

The skinks assaulting the village are driven off, but the orc cavalry repulsed.

A second attempt at the village is made!

And the second wave of orc reinforcements arrive. Note, I decided they couldn't flank the crocodile unit as they are nearly up against the "table" edge and no room for a unit to squeeze in.

The village falls!

The lizards capture the village but it's going to be a close run thing.

End of turn 14, this is how things stand,

The game should have ended on turn 15, but I played one more turn. The lizards were victorious - having captured the village and the remaining orc cavalry retired to regroup and try again another day.

This worked much better - more like how it usually plays out, with the attacker having an actual chance of winning. For future half-sized games I will remember to adjust the size of area terrain to fit the playing area! 

I have the space on this counter to go up to a full 36" square, but there's just something about this tiny setup that I find very appealing so I expect I'll do this more often. 

It also effectively doubles my troops without having to paint anything else. If I need two units of shieldwall for the orcs, I can put 5 per base instead of 6! These (and, the Boar Boyz), are old GW metal sculpts and are kind of pricey to buy enough to make a full unit - so the savings are not insubstantial.

New Apartment, New Game

I noticed Friday that Wargame Vault was having a summer sale and scooped up Dominion of the Spear Revised Edition to try it out with my orcs and lizards.

It was super late at night and I may have missed something in the rules but I wanted to play so I grabbed a small 14.5" table and had at it. I used the basic rules without using any of the options.

The lizards had two Melee Foot, one Elite Melee Foot, one Missile Foot,  and one Melee Cavalry. 

The orcs had three Melee Cavalry, one Melee Foot with a Defensive Advantage, and one Eliete Melee foot.

Lizards won the roll to be the attacker.

The overhead lighting here is not great for pics of minis at 1AM and I haven't moved my lamps from the old apartment yet. So, apologies for the heavy shadow.

Turn 1. 

The battle lines were drawn.

On the left, lizard archers ineffectively rained arrows down on a unit of charging Boar Boyz who were held off by the archers and forced to regroup for another charge. In the middle Geckos and Black Orcs clashed in fierce melee, but neither line moved. On the right, the elite foot of both armies, Gators and Wild Orcs, crashed in a bloody melee, that saw both units devastated and driven from the field.

To replace the Gators, the Skinks were brought up from the reserves. A unit of Boar Boyz rode to the front to replace the fallen Wild Orcs.

Turn 2.

The lizard archers unleashed an unrelenting barrage of arrows on the Boar Boyz before they could make contact, and the orcs were driven from the field. In the center, the Black Orcs were overwhelmed by Gecko ferocity. But on the right neither the Skinks nor the Boar Boyz could gain any advantage.

The Boar Boyz in the reserves charged to meet the Geckos, but their left flank was totally exposed as a result.

Turn 3.

The exposed flank would be their undoing. With the orc center gone, the Boar Boyz on the right were now exposed on their flank and the Geckos attempted to take adavantage - but finally some luck went the orcs' way and the attack was repulsed. Their luck did not last long, and though they managed to drive the Skinks from the field, they Boar Boyz were destroyed in the attempt.

I think the game took something like five or six minutes. Certainly fun, but I like the changes that are in Dominion of the Trenches as they give the player more decisions. Those changes are included in Appendix A in this revised edition.

I'll be using "Option C" for determining battle sector (instead of all three every turn as in the core rules) and the Unreliable Disadvantage. Both of those options are standard in Dominion of the Trenches. The Rally and General options in the appendix also look good, and I'll try those eventually as well. 

The other thing I like about Dominion of the Trenches is that you bring up reserves to the sector that just fought, and it's not guaranteed, ie. you have to roll for it. So, I will probably use that (it adds a lot to the narrative).

However, I plan to modify the die roll with the same modifiers used for different troop types facing each other. For example, an archer unit in reserve would get +1 to its roll to move up from reserves if it would be facing a Mounted Melee unit. Conversely, a Mounted Melee unit being sent up to face archers would get -1 to move up from reserves, to reflect that extra effort it would take to motivate them to face a rival that has an advantage.

Finally, I'm thinking of stealing Leadership Points from Battles of the American Revolution  and givng each side the opportunity to spend 1 point per turn to add +1 to a roll. That one I'm less sure about though. I'll have to try it out a few times. Which means I need to play some games. Boo-hoo!