War of the Valvicon Enclave; an OHW Mini Campaign Pt. 2

 

Having gathered the surviving troops from the Duibron force (Red), the Grand Duke's General retreated to a pair of defended settlements. Here he was joined by some reinforcements from the regular army (Green). The Emir's Army mustered at dawn knowing that to succeed they must capture both villages.

OHW 15: Fortified Defence

The Emir's Army set to at once; infantry attacked the nearer of the two villages while the guns began to soften up the second, and Skirmishers were deployed to fire from the cover of the woods. The Defenders Cavalry bravely rode across the battlefield to attack the artillery, with partial success.

At great cost the first village was captured by late morning. At this point the Emir's General could have paused and allowed reinforcements to arrive (see the Refit Rule in the Scenario in Neil Thomas's One Hour Wargames), however, hubris got the better of him and he pressed on with the attack...

By early afternoon it became clear that the battle was a stalemate and the Army of Sutura withdrew.

War of the Valvicon Enclave; an OHW Mini Campaign Pt. 1

 Today saw the start of another Martin Smith Mini Campaign that links One Hour Wargame scenarios. To allow a bit of context I generated a map and dreamed up a reason for the conflict.

The Emir Asswhan XXIVth of Sutura has for some years been less than content with his neighbour, His Diviness the Grand Duke Roldolfo of Valvico, particularly regarding claims to a small enclave held by the Grand Duchy in the North of Sutura. Now that a particularly rich coal field has unexpectedly been discovered in the Valvicon Enclave (actually named Duibron on the map) the Emir sends an army to take what he considers to be his property.

The Valvicon Enclave or Duibron

OHW 11: Surprise Attack

The rules used were a gridded version of Peter's D3 Horse & Musket OHW Variation (see HERE). As neither side rolled up Skirmishers, the wooded area was off limits to all arms, as of course was the small lake.

The Emir's Army favours a Lilac uniform whereas the Grand Duke's Army of Duibron prefers Red.

In the early stages of the battle, Red's force of two infantry regiments managed to delay the invaders long enough to allow more troops to arrive and occupy the objective (the Crossroads).

Once the Emir's Army had eliminated the delaying force it was on to the objective.

The defenders' however put up stiff resistance, and the Activation rules make it increasingly difficult to get actions performed as casualties are accrued. Time was running out for the Emir's force.

Towards the end of the day it was touch and go who would prevail

But as the sun set, the remnants of the Grand Duke's Army withdrew to fight another day leaving the Suturans victorious.

Jeux avec Frontieres Part 3: The Winner Takes it All

 The situation at the end of Season Six: The Elves were dominating.

The concluding battle would see the winner taking all and so was fought on the frontier between the wooded Elf territory and the hilly Orc lands. Rather than just line up and bash each other, the two forces were tasked with capturing a barrow atop a hill in the centre of the field of battle. If neither side controlled the barrow at the end of the battle then a count back of surviving forces would decide the victor.

For this game a 12x8 grid was used. The Elf side arrived with an Ent, the Orcs opted for a Troll.

The Troll is ME12 25mm Small Troll (Minifigs Mythical Earth range) and fits in nicely with 10mm figures.

The Elves were first to capture the Barrow. There their luck ended.

The Elf left flank was mauled by wolf-riding orcs. The Centre did better, as did their Cavalry on the right, however they reached Exhaustion Point a few turns before the Orcs without any Elfin boots remaining on the Barrow top.

When the Orcs also reached EP they were in full possession of the objective and had more surviving troops. 

An Orc victory!

The Future's 'orrible. The Future's Orc.

Jeux avec frontieres Part 2: All Change

 At the end of Season 4, the map looked like this, with the victorious Dwarves dominating the North:

Season Five:

Men attack Dwarves

The Wild Men marched into the very hilly Dwarf terrain with a big task ahead of them and it came as a bit of a surprise when they reduced the Dwarves to Exhaustion Point (EP). Once the Army of Men also came to EP they had twice the surviving numbers and won the day.

The victory for Men means the Map now looks like this:

Season Six:

Elves attack Men

Seeing an opportunity to grab most of the territory, the Elves rushed into the Wild Men's land.

The Army of Men attempted to hold the one bit of high ground but the Elves were too strong and rapidly reduced them to EP. The final indignity came when the War-Chief of Men and his retinue were killed by a unit of Elven Archers. 

The Elves won and are now dominating the Map, however everything could be won or lost in the final knockout game.

Jeux avec frontieres

 Having been very impressed with Kaptain Kobold's Its a (HoTT) Knockout tournament, I thought I'd give the format a go using The Portable Wargame Fantasy rules and five of my very small armies (10mm).

I am using a random army generator based on the system in One Hour Wargames. The terrain is determined by the territory being attacked; Goblins hilly, Men mainly flat, Elves wooded, Dwarves & Orcs very hilly.

Starting off with a Map and a handful of D6s, this is how things have gone to date...

Season One:

Orcs attack Elves

The Elves, using the cover of the woods, repulsed the Orcs, forcing them to Exhaustion (50% SP) and then cutting them down. A convincing Elf victory.

Season Two:

Dwarves attack Goblins

After a promising start, with Dwarf cavalry getting to the rear of the Goblin lines, the Dwarves were slowly reduced to EP (on the same turn as their foe). On count back the Dwarves had suffered greater losses and the defenders prevailed.

Season Three:

 

Men attack Elves

The Wild Men arrived without Archers but made an aggressive start attacking the Elves in the woods, initially with some success. This didn’t last however, and they were brought to Exhaustion Point and then destroyed, almost completely. Another Elf victory.

Season Four:

Dwarves attack Goblins (again)

The Dwarves, still smarting from their early defeat, attacked the Goblins again. The two armies met on a dark and stormy morning in the Valley of Skullz and this time the Dwarves prevailed, annihilating their old foe. (Finally a decisive battle!)

  The Map now looks like this

This format is certainly a great way to get boots on the board! On to Season 5...

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!

An Age Undreamed of (Part the Second)

 

The slaying of a Priest of Mitra, one Sopious, by Stygian Assassins from the priesthood of Set, led to the raising of an army from amongst the loose affiliation of City States that makes up Corinthia. Once again it was that old warrior General Ilossmykies commanding the host that made the long march South. With orders to avenge the Church of Mitra, the Corinthian force aimed to destroy a Stygian Seminary just South of the River Styx' near to the City of Luxur.

Crossing war-torn Koth without incident, the Corinthians entered the rolling grassland of Shem.

Having received urgent dispatches from their spies in Corinthia, the Theocrats of Stygia sent a force into Shem to attack and delay their enemy, commanded by Bishop-General Pheerles.

Ilossmykies and the advance guard were probably half a day ahead of the main bulk of the Corinthian Army, moving as it was at the speed of the baggage train. Arriving at a deserted Manor house, the General determined to await the arrival of the rest of his men. It was at this point that the Stygian force appeared over the horizon. Both sides quickly took positions, cavalry and skirmishing archers leading the infantry. The Stygians had a slight numerical advantage but were mostly light troops. The Corinthians were all heavy types. 

A few scenes from the battle follow. It was a fairly standard affair with both sides bashing away at each other, falling back, advancing again etc (apologies for the blurry pics)
 

 

The Stygians, although half being lightly armed and unarmoured, made a good account of themselves pushing the Corinthians to Exhaustion Point (set at 50%) first.

As the Great Beetle maneuvered the Golden Orb of the Sun behind the hills, the two sides withdrew. The Stygians had succeeded in delaying the Corinthian advance, as Ilossmykies now had to patch up his Advance Guard and possibly rethink his strategy while awaiting the rest of the Army, who were approaching judging by the dust cloud to the North.