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Please Note: This blog contains poorly painted toy soldiers that may offend those of an aesthetically sensitive disposition.

Sunday 28 October 2018

After the Battle - A Skirmish

Recently I acquired a 2nd hand copy of Napoleonic Wargaming for Fun by Paddy Griffith (1980). Chapter 2 of this excellent book features rules for a skirmish game. It's a little bit more complicated than I would like and would ideally have two players making simultaneous moves, so, naturally, I simplified it a little and made it a grid game. I think it still retains the general feel of the original and will add the rules to my In-House Rules section in the side-bar in the near future. This game requires quite a lot of record keeping which I undertook using tiny dice and counters (see below).

The following skirmish takes place, as the title suggests, after a large battle has been resolved. Some soldiers from a battalion of the victorious Army Blue are out foraging when they come across some stragglers of the defeated Army Brown who are looking for somewhere to shelter.
Blue's troops approach the ruined farm 

The two sides spot each other and open fire (the dice indicate hits)

A general scramble for cover ensues (the white counters indicate who has fired)

The fire fight continues (blue counters indicate who is pinned)

Close combat - the blue soldier is at max. hits and pinned!

Left the Blue soldier goes down spraying flock - Right sharp shooting takes its toll

A superb (lucky?) shot takes out the man behind the hedge

The Brown Captain takes cover inside the farmhouse to reload his pistol

The surviving Brown soldiers are losing heart but fight on (much ramming home of cartridges)

Hand to hand combat and appallingly bad shooting in and out of the building continues

The 2 remaining men of Army Brown admit defeat and surrender

10 comments:

  1. A great find there Jack and a fun scenario. The minis are nice, what make are they?.

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  2. Cheers Mr Sprinks. Tough question but I think the French Old Guard are Revell. The tricorne wearing "Army Brown" are Accurate AWI figures.

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  3. Nice little game, with suitable minis and terrain. I laughed at the "spraying flock" comment. :)

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    1. Cheers. Not sure if it's due to their old age but these figures are losing flock as fast as I'm losing hair!

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  4. Hi Maudlin, nice to read your post again :)
    I recognized the french grenadiers by Revell. Never heard about this book. Skirmish rules are not seen very often since most people prefer to recreate large battles.

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    1. Thank you Phil. I don't have too much time for Wargaming so Skirmish rules are good for quick games. This book is available again from John Curry at

      http://www.wargaming.co/recreation/paddygriffith.htm

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    2. Thank you Maudlin, I'll have a look.

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  5. What a nice looking skirmish game, looks great!

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