Three Bloody Skirmishes or The Bishop's War

 

I dug out some old Medievals this weekend with the intention of playing another Mini-Campaign in the style of the recent ACW one. I went for some fast, brutal rules (an OHW 3-hit variation) which generally lead to bloody battles, which seemed fitting for Medieval religious conflicts.

Two Bishops find themselves on opposing sides of a schism in the church (neither side could agree on a theological technicality relating to how many Angels could dance on the head of a pin*). The result is armed conflict. (*the answer of course depends on how much space is taken up by the band...)

Opposing Clerics

Battle 1

The first game was a straight-forward encounter. 

Army White quickly got the upper hand (so much depends on initiative) with some high dice rolls.

Very soon Army Red was overwhelmed and destroyed (one unit of archers hightailed it for the nearest village with a hostelry). 

Battle 2

Seeking revenge for the ignominious defeat, the Red Bishop sent a force to burn down some villages and generally harass the domain of his rival. The White Bishop, getting news of the approaching Red Army, quickly blocked the road with a weak looking force to lure in the Red Knights while his own Knights formed up to attack the flank.

The impetuous White Knights rushed in a little early...

and some found themselves outflanked.

Army Red swept away the White Bishop's Knights

 and then cleared the road of his men at arms and peasantry.

Battle 3

In the deciding game of the Mini-Campaign, the White Bishop's force found itself surrounded and needing to break out through the Red Army lines. (The objective for White was to get the units off the board to the North).

The White Commander knew his force would benefit from their defensive spot on the hill, however staying there wasn't going to win the day. He therefore decided to attack and destroy the enemy to the South first, and only then tackle those to the North.

Winning the initiative White attacked

The plan worked, and White had soon removed the threat to his rear

In the meantime, Red had attacked the hill, but the defenders were able to hold on with ease.

All that remained was to chase off the last stragglers of Red's Army and march off the board.

A decisive victory for the White Bishop. 

SciFi Skirmish Squared (Working Title)

 I'm a big fan of the WargamingPastor's DeathZap blog which features SciFi battles mainly using very cheaply sourced materials and figures. The author is also very creative with rule systems. Feeling inspired I have pulled a few SciFi figures from the Mountain of Unpainted Shame and thrown together a simple gridded Skirmish game based on the 3x3 PW. It's still very much a WIP but may come to fruition (unless I get distracted by something else.)

I've established a Near Future setting in which catastrophic climate change has reduced the population to a fraction of its current size, and where States and Governments have been replaced by Corporations whose private armies fight for scarce resources amid the ruins of cities - cheery stuff!

Have you Herd?

A few attempts at a little skirmish game were played out in rather poor light, hence it all looks a bit washed-out. The scenario is #41 in Scenarios For All Ages (Grant & Asquith), Herding Livestock. The book calls for cavalry but I stuck to all foot figures. The rules I used were Tidder's Saxon V Viking Rules (which can be found on one of his blogs by clicking HERE); I halved the distances and turned them into grid squares in case you're wondering. The Peasants are bringing a herd into the village for safety as there are some Raiders on the prowl. The Raiders are foraging for BBQ meat.

For turn Initiative (and number of individuals who could move) I used the card system in The Portable Wargame which randomizes things nicely.

Following are pics from the best of the attempts. 

The Herd

The village & Sentry who can raise the alarm if he spots Raiders 

Early casualties

A great (lucky?) shot from the Peasant archer

The initiative cards allow a peasant to get moving with the herd

The alarm is raised - the priest prepares to unleash a devastating Novena

Luck turns in favour of the last Raider who gains control of the herd

but is shot down whilst trying to escape

Quick "Close War" game

Introduction

A bit like decorating, it's the preparation of wargames that seems to take all the time. Actually Wargames are nothing like decorating; I loath decorating at the best of times. Anyway, I'm rambling like a prospective Prime Minister avoiding the question.

Todays quick game was a Featherstonesque Close War. A few old figures were grabbed from the toybox and hurled into action...

Game

A patrol is bringing a defector back to Divisional HQ for debriefing but to do so they must pass through a valley crawling with local tribesmen bent on killing the traitor and as many of the colonial overlords as possible. I couldn't find my Rolls Royce Armoured Car so used a Saladin instead.

The patrol starts entering the valley

The ambushers cannot be spotted until they open fire

The firing begins

Some natives get restless and a melee ensues

The cross fire has taken its toll but the chaps push on through the valley

In true Maudlin style, the Armoured Car missed everything it fired at. With hind sight the natives should have just run out and overwhelmed the column instead of taking cover as they were perfectly safe. The patrol and its charge escaped and the valley was left to the goats

Blehhh

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