The Portable RISK Campaign - Summer 1845 (1)

 A little action in my Campaign using RISK figures has occurred.

In the Spring of 1845 Rubiria invaded northern Amethysia; Rubiria's 2nd Army marched in with only token resistance. Amethysia's ally Amberil immediately declared war on Rubiria, and both of them mobilized their forces.

Spring 1845

 In the Summer of 1845 Amethysia struck back, moving their First Army against the invaders.

Summer 1845

The first engagement was fought with the objective of both sides being in control of the two villages at the end of the battle. As Rubiria was defending they began the day with control of one village.

The battle was hard and by the time both sides reached exhaustion point they had control of one village each. 

As I was keen to have a decisive game I fought an additional FPPW to decide the winner!

Red is defending so rolled for scenery position. The objective was to have at least one unit on the enemy baseline for 2 turns.

 The Amethysian General was aggressive from the start and despite some tough resistance he won the day.

So the first battle of Summer 1845 goes to Amethysia putting the invaders on the back-foot.

Hopefully there will be more soon...

Fast Play PW Skirmish type game

Mardigan over at Brush & Battle posted a 3 x 3 PW game featuring a skirmish type battle between some Medieval figures which caught my imagination. Another rapid lunchtime game was required (by the way, today's soup was Leek & Potato).

Back of an envelope rules were dreamt up.

Army Red, led by Sir Wilfrid of Bramble consisted of a Leader (Sir Wilfrid), 2 Men at Arms, a Master Archer and a Peasant (pressed into service at sword point).

Army Blue was led by Sir Richard D'Astard-Leigh, who was joined by a Sergant, a Man at Arms, an Archer and a Peasant. 

The objective was to either kill the opponents leader (at which point his force would run away) or have a unit at the enemy's baseline for 2 turns (thus giving any units in the Reserve Area a chance to fight back).

Red's Master Archer lurks in the trees

To explain the combat in the foreground, units have joined in the same square for close combat (see Bob's post of today HERE); Blue has rolled a 4 but gets a +1 for the Sergeant and a +1 for having support ie 6; Red has rolled a 2 and gets +1 for support ie 3. So Red take a hit.

At this point Sir Richard had almost lost the fight

But he fought back, killing the enemy Man at Arms into the bargain

And then slaying Sir Wilfrid! The Master Archer meanwhile had finally woken up and started shooting folk

A fun-packed 30 minutes and thanks to Mardigan for the idea! This could easily be expanded to include mounted figures.

Red's General is a bad loser

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.