A Lockdown Update

Tales from the Home Office

Not the Home Office overseen by Vampirella, I hasten to say, but the Office at Home that Chez Maudlin has turned in to.

Fairly typically, whilst providing a good deal of time at home, the Lockdown has not (yet) seen a great deal of hobby activity. With the household size increasing again, due to my sons' college shutting, and all of us trying to "work from home", every available surface seems to be covered in computers and files, many of them evacuees from my place of work. Consequently the Wargames I had planned for the Easter break are on hold, pending a return to "normality". I still have my little painting table, however, and have at least spent a while daubing paint inexpertly on to some figures, whilst "working from home".

I've also found myself thinking a lot about Projects Past, or rather the many Projects that I spend ages thinking about but that never see the light of day. One such is that old perennial, Hyboria...

Hyborian Sojourn

The first time I read the following passage from Donald Featherstone's The Wargame, I clearly remember looking at my box of Airfix Ancient Britons, Romans and Robin Hood figures and thinking "I could do that!"

Imaginary countries populated by figures of various ages and types, formed up in the style of my choosing seemed perfect to me (and still does). Some attempt was made to start the campaign; I remember "converting" Plains Indians by chopping off their rifles and sticking drawing pins on them for shields, thus creating some cavalry for my "barbarian" army. As I had at the time no knowledge of Hyboria, other than Featherstone's short description, all my ideas came from books like the following, and early play with Britains Trojan Wars figures! Shortly after this, Minifigs started producing their Mythical Earth range and Hyboria was forgotten.

Early inspiration

Early figures

During my teens I read many Science fiction and fantasy books, among them Robert Howard's Conan books, and the pull of Hyboria was felt again. Howard's description of the Hyborian Age (that can be found here) was responsible for more day-dreaming about huge armies on vast tabletops, none of which, sadly, were to appear.

In later life I've read Tony Bath's Setting Up a Wargame Campaign, and the articles he published in Battle and Military Modelling,  and come to realize the sheer scale of his gaming of Hyboria is beyond me, though it hasn't stopped small scale ideas!

One such idea came to me some years ago when Neil Thomas published One Hour Wargames (OHW). What about making some small armies of the Hyborian Kingdoms and fighting OHW games with them? A box of Irregular Miniatures 20mm "Biblical" range of figures was purchased to start with, and it has sat on my painting table ever since!

So, as I finally grind my way to the point of this post, a Lockdown Challenge to myself was get those bl**dy figures out of the box and paint them!

Here then is the first (and possibly last?) army of the Hyborian Age - The Army of Corinthia under their General Ilossmykies.

Finally out of the box

Kingdom of Corinthia

Hopefully these figures will see a battle, if I can paint up an enemy force, and ever find a space to set up a game.

Please stay at home and healthy everyone!

Nothing to report

1st & 2nd battalions The Guards - more figures kindly donated by Ross Mac

The 12 parade in honour of the late Donald Featherstone (thanks for the heads up Mark) 

Lack of Productivity Update

Even though February was longer (and stormier) than usual, here at Maudlin Towers there has been a definite dearth in the hobby department. I have half-written (and ditched) a set of Campaign Rules - far too complicated and bogged down by Lines of Communication and Attrition Calculations - and done precious little else, after what was, for me, quite a productive Christmas/New Year period. A far simpler rule set will follow.

The one bright note - I have sorted and started tentatively basing some of the figures kindly donated by Ross Mac (see here). The following I have named the Brigadier General; he's a delightful conversion and will lead the Guards (who are currently being based in the house style and given a coat of varnish). Note, his horse has lost it's tail. I was going to replace it but decided against as there could be a story behind this caudal calamity - perhaps an enemy cannon ball removed the appendage; there by hangs a tale (or rather, it doesn't).

Hopefully March will bring some table top action. Until next time, happy gaming.

A trick of the tail...

A well trodden battlefield

For my second test battle using the The Portable Napoleonic Wargame rules, I set up the board roughly as described in the very first wargame report I read.

The same Brigades as the last game fought for the crossings of the River Trimsos. The game was to be 15 turns with Exhaustion Point at 30% casualties. Yellow's objective was to take both crossings and hold them until the end of the game.

Initial dispositions - Yellow attacking Lilac Defending

Yellow marches boldly onto the New Bridge under heavy fire

Light Infantry exchange fire at the Old Bridge

Yellow falling back having lost one battalion

The Old Bridge is taken by Lilac who have out-flanked Yellow

Yellow reaches Exhaustion Point

End of the Game. Lilac has successfully defended the bridges

I'm currently planning a mini-Campaign using the Risk figures and PNW - more on this anon.

Take the Village - A Portable Napoleonic Wargame

Following is a report of my first attempt at playing the Portable Napoleonic Wargame by Bob Cordery using the Risk playing pieces featured in the last blog post.  The objective of the game was to take, and be holding, a hilltop village overlooking an important road, at the end of the game (end of Turn 15). Exhaustion Point (EP) is set at 30% casualties. 

Objective

Opening positions

The opposing armies close in on the objective

Yellow's Light Infantry occupy the wooded area East of the Village

Schoolboy Error! Cavalry in column charge an Infantry Square

Intense fighting on the hilltop

One point short of EP, Lilac send an Infantry unit rushing into the village, exposing their flank to enemy fire. With only a few turns left, the hope was to hold position until the end of the game. Yellow realise that they may not be able to achieve success by fire power alone in a built up area; led by their Commander, an Infantry battalion charge in with fixed bayonets.  I must confess that at this point I had a breakdown in confidence regarding my understanding of the rules; I couldn't decide how to play a melee involving more than one unit attacking a single defending unit (Bob has kindly sorted this out for me since!). This relapse led to Lilac holding on until the end of the game, when really the defending unit could have been attacked by a second Line Infantry Battalion.  

Final position - Lilac's Infantry hold on with 1SP remaining!

The next post will report another battle with the PNW rules.  

Dipping a (metaphorical) toe into Napoleonic Wargames

I've always liked the idea of wargaming the "Napoleonic" period but have been put off by the apparent complexity and scale of the task, and, to be honest, because this is the domain of Historical Wargamers who know how many buttons were on a tunic (and what colour the thread was). Reading Paddy Griffith's book recently got me interested again and Bob Cordery provide a set of rules I felt I could tackle.

PNW

As I don't have sufficient numbers of figures prepared for this game, I'm currently using "Risk" figures; I have enough of these to fight at Brigade level. In PNW, a standard Brigade consists of 3 battalions of Line Infantry, a detachment of Light Infantry, a regiment of cavalry and a battery of artillery, all led by a Brigadier General. The Brigade size and composition could of course vary to some extent. The following pictures demonstrate how my units fit into the different formations required in the game.

Regular Infantry battalions in Line (top), Column (middle) & Square (base)

Cavalry Regiment in Column (left) and Line (right)

Light Infantry in Line (top) and Dispersed (base) formations

A Brigade in full

Having played the Portable Wargame (PW) for some time I already understand the basics of PNW; the latter is, however, a bit more complex and has some differences in mechanics (more on this later). I've played a couple of games and will be reporting them here soon. Suffice it to say, I'm enjoying the game and looking forward to doing a bit more Napoleonic Wargaming! 

Really up the junction

Source of the featured Scenario

In his Guide to Solo Wargaming (1988 Argus Books), the late Stuart Asquith (SA) included some intriguing scenarios. The following is my attempt at one of these, Francs-Tireurs.

Context
I have set the scenario in my imaginary continent of Uqbal where local tribesmen are attempting to disrupt the Colonists' communications by sabotaging a railway junction. SA set the original in the Franco-Prussian War (hence his title Francs-Tireurs, as they are the irregulars attacking the railway).
The junction is guarded by a contingent of Light Infantry from Albionia's primary colony, Indra. They are based in a Storage Depot with one man on guard. Each turn 1d6 is rolled; on a score of 5 or 6 the sentry will notice the approaching attacking force.

Note on Rules 
SA provides some very simple rules but only in outline. I have attempted to keep as close as possible to the spirit of these - where decisions have to be made, eg can an Infantryman in the building fire on a particular man outside, the answer is left to the discretion of the player. 

The Rules

The starting position for pairs of attackers was rolled for. In Game 1 they all started at the West side of the board. The Storage Depot was described by SA as "a quite large if somewhat ruinous affair" perhaps suggesting it had been attacked before. SA's plan of the game also included some huts (omitted) and coal storage bunkers. The latter were included in Game 1 but changed to a wall in Game 2 to allow more cover for the attackers. The principle target is the points; a charge can be set on the points if 2 men can spend 2 turns on them without being in melee or shot.

 First Game

Layout Game 1

Sentry

Attackers approach, alarm still not raised

Finally spotting the attack the sentry runs for the depot

Firing at the rear

An attack on the doorway fails at first

Then succeeds

The last guard is killed

Second Game 

Opening positions

The sentry spots the approaching tribesmen

Fire fight underway

The sentry falls

Guards are kept busy whilst the chief heads for the points

Placing the charges

Running for cover before...

Kaboom! (special effects by MaudlinFX)

A fun scenario that could be played in any period that has railways. It would perhaps benefit from slightly more sophisticated rules but the simple ones suited me for a quick game or two.