Fast Play Lunchtime Wargame

So keen was I to try out another Fast Play Portable Wargame, having had the Reserve Area kindly explained to me by Mark Cordone, that I played a game over lunch today.

A short wargame and Mushroom Soup

The objective was to hold the village at the end of the battle (set as the end of Turn 6). The only difference from the Rules, as posted by Bob Cordery HERE, was that I gave all Infantry units 3SP (other arms remained at 2SP), and both sides were Attacking so neither rolled for scenery location.

The game took approximately 25 minutes and was a tense bloody affair! Army Green's General won the first inititive throw and took the village which was held for 4 turns, then lost, then regained on the final turn but only by exposing his flank to fire!  The Dice were, for once, on side, and the casualties mounted up. 

Green Wins

Good fun and definitely getting me back into the gaming groove. 

Fast Play Horse & Musket Portable Wargame: First try

 The 3x3 Fast Play Portable Wargame was almost designed for folk like me, limited on space and hobby time as I am. Not being a Facebook (or is that Meta?) user I have not been able to look at the work of Mark Cordone, however Bob has kindly produced a set of rules HERE which I've tried today. John Y's WW2 write up has also encouraged me to give them a go (see his post HERE).

The Field of Battle (6 square inches)

My first impressions are very positive, though I'm not entirely sure yet about use of the Reserve Area. Strangely I quickly forgot how tiny the whole thing was and got involved in the action. It took four turns for the defenders (Green) to get to Yellow's baseline which was set as a victory condition. 

More games of 3x3 FPPW will be played in the near future I think. 

Update January 2022

The first posting of 2022, and January's nearly over! Well there's really very little to report hobby-wise. 

Due to on-going shortages of both time and space for hobby related matters, I've started running a very simple, digitally based Horse and Musket Mini-Campaign, inspired by RISK. The Campaign map looks like a simple board game design with no topography to deal with, and any battles will be resolved using the Portable Wargame rules and my RISK armies. These games can be quickly set up and fought and dismantled in small spaces. Not to everyones taste but I enjoy them!

It's the Spring of 1845, and Rubiria has invaded the Northern region of Amethysia...

Rubiria's Advance Guard from Army 2 quickly despatches the border guards

In other news, I've been slowly working on a more formal version of my In-House Fantasy Variant of the Portable Wargame; it's even got a working title now! 

An Elf Magic-User summons an Ent

They still need a bit of tweaking and some play-testing which, at the current rate, may take some time...

That's all for now. Hopefully there will be more to say next month.

Tel El Kebiresque Battle

This weekend it's the turn of the colonial forces to get a game. Another Portable Wargame scenario that Bob has posted (see HERE) is the Battle of Tel El Kebir. This looked like a nice game for my Imagination forces. In the real battle there is a canal defining one side of the battlefield; in this game there is a large river (not shown). 

The new king of Uqbalistan has made another incursion into Albionian Uqbal. The last time he did this, his force suffered defeat (see HERE). Will he be more successful this time? 

The Uqbali force sent into Albionian territory was small. Its Commanding Officer, an experienced soldier, knew he was going to face a strong retaliation from the enemy so ordered his men to build earthwork defences at the first settlement they found, and await the inevitable onslaught.

General Carbuncle Wolsley-Hornet (Albionian Commanding Officer) has recently arrived from Indra with some of his own personnel guard. Taking immediate command of a force of Albionia's large military presence, that includes elite infantry from the Hibernian and Caledonian regiments, the General has marched through the night. Arriving in column just before dawn, the Albionians form ranks and move towards the Uqbali defences.

(Game mechanic - The Uqbal side was to throw a dice each turn for the first 3 turns to determine whether or not the oncoming enemy were spotted as it was still dark - a 6 was required on turn 1, 5 or 6 on turn 2 and 4,5 or 6 on turn 3.)

Turn 1

Turn 4 and the defenders finally realise they are under attack

Wolsley-Hornet encourages his men to get stuck in with a bayonet

Turn 9 and the defenders reach Exhaustion point

The Uqbali guns are over-run

The end is near but the defenders bravely fight on 

The Uqbali General surrenders to save what's left of his men

Outnumbered and out classed, the defence was in doubt from the start (and the attackers didn't even have the machine gun called for in the Order of Battle), though the earthworks helped the Uqbali Army keep fighting until Turn 14 when it seemed only kind to stop.

The Battle for Two Hills Farm

Back in February of this year, Bob posted a scenario for The Portable Wargame (see HERE) that I've played a couple of times, though not reported. Here's another attempt.

A quick apology for being absent without comments; I have been reading many splendid blog posts but have been suffering from 2021 and found it hard to get my words together!

 In my game Army Grey is led by General Moturez and Army Blue by General Fiasco. Otherwise the Order of Battle is as Bob describes. The Elite unit on each side is marked with a token (Tiddlywink). I surmised that both sides would sent their cavalry on first to scout ahead - after that a unit arrives on each turn 2-6 in a random order.

The Battlefield

Blue and Grey Horse spot each other 

Both forces are arriving and the battle is underway

Grey holds the objective. General Fiasco leads the Elite Blue Guard South looking to punch through the enemy line at its furthest point

Disaster!! General Fiasco falls and Army Blue reaches Exhaustion Point

Two turns later, and Grey has also reached EP but still holds the objective.

This is a well balanced scenario that could swing either way and would make a nice starting point to a Mini-Campaign. 

Ghosts of Projects Past #3

 One month into this year 2021 and nothing really to show for it, though I am slowly clearing a few bits off the painting table, those figures that have been hanging around for months (years?), gathering dust.. As such, I thought I'd unearth something from the past to fill a bit of space on the blog.

I've recently been reading a tome entitled Hawk and Moor. It's a rather entertaining read about the appearance of Dungeons and Dragons (the beast that spawned a thousand RPGs); this reminded me that a while back (2019, remember, a time before the pox...?) I had thrown together, and was experimenting with, a little skirmish game using the D&D combat method. Gary Gygax, co-creator of D&D, had himself been interested in representing a single figure as one person in tabletop wargames and had featured such combat in Chainmail, the medieval rules co-authored with Jeff Perren. I wanted something a bit simpler that could be on just a single page. Gygax et al had played their medieval games using Elastolin figures, so my first try was with larger figures too.

A pair of Russian made (?) "Knights" fought a couple of Orcs (played by Dark Alliance Trolls) in the initial trial. The pics aren't great as it was a bit of a dark day.

One of the ideas I wanted to use was to have character figures (Heros) who would have better statistics than the average chap and who could gain "experience" in an RPG kind of way, improving their performance perhaps...

As the rules were based on D&D they do call for multi-sided (funny) dice, though I guess most people have some of these. I called my rules Chainmailesque as I liked the name but it doesn't really reflect the Chainmail rules. The game is on a grid (needless to say) but could easily be played using normal measurements. I never got any further with it than the following. Perhaps I'll have another go at some point...

The Illustration was "borrowed" from the 3rd edition of Chainmail that included the Fantasy supplement which in turn led to Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax penning D&D.

Incidentally, I named these two Keeper Bernard and Keeper Simeon, though I'm not sure what they kept; certainly not the Peace by the look of them.

Lazy Saturday Afternoon

 After a beautiful morning walk under a very blue sky, your humble author has had a lazy afternoon watching the snow filled clouds roll in. No battles have been fought, however, as a wise man said, "A little exercise on the parade square is the next best thing to a game."

  

General Chatter oversees the Parade.

The band leading the Airfix Guardsmen are actually some late 1960s Hong Kong "replicas". Hugh Walter discusses them in detail HERE so I won't say more than I rather like them. They remind me of the sort of bright plastic things that a child might have received from a Department Store Father Christmas (Santa Claus) back in the 60s, Though cheap and tacky they were probably played with a great deal more than the more expensive stuff! 

There will hopefully be more of these chaps on parade in the future as Army Blue want a band as well now.

As always, please excuse the terrible painting/photography.

Stay safe everyone!