Monday, March 18, 2024

Trying Out "Napoleonic Large Battles" from "Grid-Based Wargaming": "Surprise Attack #11"

This weekend was relatively light on extracurricular events (this will change dramatically in a few weeks as our children's spring sports schedule ramps up) so I figured it was as good a time as any to try out Peter's "Napoleonic Large Battles" which I had been itching to try since he started developing them.

(Apologies for the plethora of links below, but this post ties many posts from the last few years together)

Over the past few years I had become intrigued by boardgame-miniature wargame "crossover" (ever since I was introduced to my friend Bryan's "Battle of Cedar Mountain" played with minis on a huge, blown up, laminated SPI Cedar Mountain hex mat, and also a game of Lock and Load publishing's "World at War 85" game) and had delved deep into the construction of the old GDW "First Battle" series of games, trying to make the boardgame "feel" more like a miniatures game, while still keeping the same functionality and smooth play.   (LnL Publishing's Cold War and WWII famously successful wargame lines really excelled here and that was exactly the "feeling" I always sought.)

 In terms of porting over the "First Battle" rules to the tabletop, I feel like I was successful with the updated combat results table, and had also embarked on a similar quest with the old SPI "Napoleon's Art of War" set of rules.  While I did put some fun trials together, nothing really "stuck".  As it turns out, Peter from "Grid Based Wargaming" was bit by the same bug, and, in my opinion, really cracked the code on porting the SPI games to the tabletop with his "Napoleonic Large Battles" rules that he recently made available.

One of the benefits of using boardgames and boardgame scenarios as minis games is the huge task of research in terms of Orders of Battle, Terrain, Reinforcements, and Victory Conditions have been done for you.  So a "crossover" set of rules has tremendous potential for new gaming opportunities given the huge wealth of boardgames available on almost any conflict in human history!  So those interested in similar ventures, can find a shovel-ready game system to play virtually any of the old SPI games where a unit = a brigade equivalent of troops, even without a gridded surface.

Peter's rules are clearly set at the boardgame level with you as the Army commander.  Units are pretty much "stuck" when they make contact and as a famous Prussian Field Marshall once said, once committed, they "cannot be withdrawn at will", only through a successful combat or a retreat, brilliantly reflecting that once committed to combat, the commanding general has little control over what happens.

Surprise Attack #11 - 2 x units of Dutch-Belgians start on the table

To try out Peter's rules, I played a relatively "small" battle - Scenario #11 from the One Hour Wargames book.  This battle recreates Quatre Bras and I thought would be perfect to try out a new set of big-battle rules.  I used the 6 unit limit and rolled up for the French: 3 Line Infantry, 1 Light Infantry, and 2 Cavalry units, and for the Allies I rolled up 4 Infantry, 1 Light Infantry, and 1 Artillery.  The Dutch-Belgians start on the table and I wanted to use my 95th Rifles stands as my "lights".

British 10mm painted as Dutch Belgians.

My "lights" which are the famous 95th Rifles and I just had to plop them down!  Sean Bean is in there, somewhere.

Ney's Forces all start on the table, arrayed against the Dutch-Belgians. who only have 2 units at-present.

The stipulations of the scenario are such that no charges are allowed on turn 1.  This is OK because no one has the range to reach the Dutch yet, anyways.

Stepping off onto the attack!  The French hold nothing back!

French Light Detachment and Heavy Cavalry move up while the Infantry Corps makes its way up as well


The Dragoons are hoping to flank the impassable scrub and move around the Dutch

In a surprise move on their Turn 2, the Dutch-Belgians launch a spoiling attack!  It's highly unexpected.

Lights and Infantry Brigade launch an attack against the advancing French

Voltiguers in action!

The attack does not go well for the Anglo-Allies who take 1 casualty from the battle.  I'm not sure I'm forming the combats correctly, and treated everything as 1 large combat.  In the SPI game, I remember that you can combine combats, provided every unit being attacked, could be attacked by every unit attacking...(say that 5 times fast).  Peter's rules state that every unit within 3" of an enemy unit must be attacked.  I think I have the latitude to form how that happens, but got confused when there were units who were further away than 3" to *some* units in a combat, but within 3" of *other* units who were in the combat.

This probably could or should have been 2 separate engagements, with the "Rifles" taking on the "Voltiguers" and the DB Line taking on the Cuirassiers?

I think this probably should have been 2 x separate combats

Turn 3 the French react and advance with elan, assaulting the Dutch-Belgians who are blocking the road.

I didn't take a picture of it, but another combat that was treated as one large combat which probably should not have been.  The DB resistance along the road crumbles seeing the French charge headlong at Quatre Bras.

Reinforcements are already taking up positions in and around Quatre Bras as 2 x British Line Brigades arrive on the scene.

The flanking dragoons assault the British as they are taking up their positions.

And suffer 3 casualties for their troubles!  The Dragoons would evaporate on Turn 4.

Worth mentioning here that the "veteran" rating is deadly.  I made the British all "veterans" (not the Dutch Belgians) and the +1 to the combat totals really put a hurting on the French.

Heavy Fighting to storm Quatre Bras on Turn 5!

Just like in a boardgame, units in an enemy zone of control (ZOC) must attack each turn, so things move really quickly in Peter's rules.  It's out of your hands, now, and your troops are committed!  Once again, the Veteran rating of the British, the garrisoning of Quatre Bras town, and frankly some low rolling, really hurt the French here and by Turn 6, right as more Anglo-Allied reinforcements are arriving, the French assault broke down.  Only the Voltiguers and the Cuirassiers are left standing!

Storming the town!

A retreat result from the first assault, this French brigade cannot make his retreat distance due to the woods and is destroyed!  The remaining units come back on "in the same, old way"!  Note the Cuirassiers in the upper left attempting to block the approaching British columns!


After the French attack broke down on Turn 7 I called it as they only had 1 remaining unit on the table.  The game ended after about 30 minutes of play.

LESSONS LEARNED / THOUGHTS

If you were looking for a good, "big battle" set of rules to play out literally huge Napoleonic battles with minis, these are your rules.  One of the downsides to using the OHW scenarios and structure were the 6 x units per side.  I could have doubled the amount of units and that might have given me a slightly longer game.  The CRT is clean, easily applied, and understood, and movement and timing become just as important as the combats, as you need to plan ahead and only become "stuck in" at the time and place of your choosing.  That's vital, and the mechanics force you to think like a general, not a Colonel or Lieutenant Colonel.  Most rules, admittedly, have you doing much more tactical things than is necessary (which is a classic conundrum of Napoleonic rules from time immemorial but that is a post for another day :)  ) but players like me always want everything.  We want columns, line, and squares, but we also want to fight out Wagram, in a single afternoon, and play with all of our toys on the table...

Peter threw out the rulebook here and produced some novel rules that really make you think like an Army commander.  I did not even miss squares or assault columns, because I was too busy thinking about committing the infantry in the assault, and trying to put as many advantages on the defense together that I could, something that as a general I would probably be doing.  Reading the terrain, matching the enemy's intentions, and trying to ensure a victorious result (or avoiding a calamitous one).

I did run into some problems such as laying out the combats and being unsure of how to form combats, but that was due to my unfamiliarity with the rules and also the fact that I was playing them off my phone and not a printed out QRS.  

In the SPI rules it's  a bit vague when you get into really sticky situations regarding ZOCs and you have to kind of forge ahead and see how it works out.  It may be that your combats were not legal (in the SPI games).  With Peter's rules I found that I wasn't sure if they were legal or not (IE forming one large combat, multiple times) and I probably should have been a bit more careful in the long run.

The light infantry rules were also a little unclear to me at times when on the offense, but I forged ahead and tried to be as literal with them as I could.  Some considerations when playing these rules:

Keep your infantry together to the greatest extent that you can.  Chances are you are going to need them and I highly recommend 3:1 odds when assaulting a built up area!

Veteran Troops are tough.  If you dont have 3:1 odds, soften them up with artillery first (if you can).  If there isn't enough artillery....quit!

Cavalry are highly mobile.  Use their mobility as a screening force to block enemy reinforcements from arriving too soon.  Especially light cavalry.

Bottom line - these were great rules and I was wondering about converting them back to a hex grid to see how they'd play (reverse-reverse engineering?).  But overall my hat's off to Peter for developing a wonderful, truly novel set of "big battle" Napoleonic rules with very low rules overhead.  I plan on getting a "36 Inch Battle" together with them using a medium sized engagement like Friedland to see how they play with many more units on the table.








 


Wednesday, March 13, 2024

WIP Wednesday: C&C Guilford Courthouse & Kasserine Conurbation


 Lots going on this week at the Sound Officers Call command bunker.  I managed to get in a game of "Commands and Colors: Tricorne - The American Revolution" on Saturday night and it was a real dust-up against Dave's militia and regulars to whom I lost, 10-4.  Meanwhile, continuing (slow) preparations for Kasserine Pass.  Sci Fi prep also makes headway this week in getting ready to play my first game of One Page Rules' "Grimdark Future"!

Tearing into the American line in the first few turns, it's safe to say the British won every engagement they fought!  Dave's skillful use of shooting with his militia units, and ability to pass almost all his rally checks was scary.  Still though, I absolutely love Tricorne games.  I dont think I've played a bad game of it, and no one game is the same.

My aggressive, "hold nothing back" attack, and Dave managing to hold onto the hills and pass rally rolls time after time after time assured battlefield destruction for my tough redcoats.  Dave also made good use of the combat cards although we were a bit generous in their application (IE ahem...Dave -A player may play as many Combat cards during a turn as desired, but only one card may be played on any given unit, a lone leader or a unit with an attached leader, during a turn.) .  

Don't worry, though, we made sure to quote "The Patriot" and Tom Wilkinson in almost every dice roll.

This game had some great and unexpected use of powerful cards that really changes the C&C dynamic.  Sigh - if Borg won't publish his SYW variant...I guess I'll have to write one myself!

The right flank - really nasty and vicious fighting between the Highlanders and my Hessians against Virginia Continentals and riflemen.  Most of these units are ready to toss it in with 3 hits...

Hard fighting at the fenceline on the right.

THe British gain the center easily, pushing the militia back, but the thing about these militia troops - the ones that survive the 3 hex retreat distance (!) and the rally roll, seem to come back to shoot at you!  It's Lexington and Concord all over again!  My light-bobs push through the woods on the left and my regulars advance up the center.

We will definitely play Commands and Colors again, in all its forms.  I am thinking this is a perfect fate for my Warlord Epic Minis, by the way, to play on hexed fields in Commands and Colors games.  BattleCry ACW will be the next CC game we play I'm thinking.  Meantime, let's get the WIP action!


And speaking of "the green dragon" here is Tarleton himself with his dragoons, in the wrong coat, of course.  Admittedly, AWI cavalry is a huge issue for me and I need to paint up both Continental and British cavalry.

"Damn him!  Damn that man!" Cornwallis rages over "Tavington's" insubordination

For the Kasserine battle, preparations continue apace as I am getting the town and village hexes ready for the game.  These are my homemade tiny North African mosques and middle eastern buildings, aka pine cubes from amazon!
The black structures have not yet been painted but you can see where i'm going with this.  I dont need alot of towns but I can crank plenty of them out in short time.  Going to put sand down and paint it for these villages.  I think they look cool!  

While finishing up the terrain, we arrive at perhaps the most important component of the battle - the scenario!  Martin Rapier was kind enough to share his with me from his 2020 game and I'll be using it as a good starting point, especially as the OOB is concerned. That will be in a separate post however.

Another sprue of epic minis being painted, in total I'm painting up 2 more Union and 2 more Rebel units, all 3 stands.

More work continues (slow work) on the Prussians, but I'm still making better time than Blucher in getting to Waterloo...
15mm "BLood Pact" Infantry.  What can I say, I've read too many Dan Abnett books.  They'll face off against some under-equipped Planetary Defense Forces.


So big thing this week is scenario development and since this is an "off week" for gaming, I will try to put Peter's "big battle" Napoleonic rules a run out on the table and try out a reasonable sized battle.  Hope everyone is having a great week!



Wednesday, March 6, 2024

WIP Wednesday: "The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am..."

 


An interesting title for a blog post at Sound Officers Call to be sure but I received an interesting, mysterious but much anticipated package in the mail today.  It would have been more appropriate with "everything is proceeding as I have foreseen"...

From none other than the Dark Lord himself!

This heralded the arrival of "those curious chaps" (you'll have to google it) from a well-known 15mm miniatures company in the USA.  Purchased to play skirmish games with my kids (I'm not even a huge "galactic" wars fan but I've watched most of the movies with my children and it turns out there is some incredible fodder for wargaming in them.....and it also turns out that I'm probably the last person on this planet to figure this out).

Anyways you didn't come here to read my silly writing!  Take a look at these "troopers who would weather any storm":
The detail on them is exquisite!  


Rebel Minis' "Sahadeen" Line - photo used without permission from the Rebel Minis site - they are now "Rebel Scum"  These guys arrived in the mail a few days ago and I will be painting them soon.  "All in good time".

Continuing on with the Sci-Fi theme albeit in a different genre, I have some really outstanding 15mm Scale Chaos Space Marines that I'm going to paint up as a test unit for "Grimdark Future: Firefight", free from One Page Rules, which I'm keen to play soon.  These guys are 3d prints from Etsy and I'm very happy with them.  I have regular Not Space Marines and Orcs as we ll and will showcase them in another post once i'm ready to paint them.

I cant remember but I think these guys are plague-marines



and the Chaos baddies will need an army to fight.  I've got these 15mm dudes all basecoated and will begin painting soon!

Back from a Galaxy far, far away, or the grimdark future of the 41st millennium, the post continues with your regularly scheduled "WIP Wednesday" progress report.  First up is the latest sprue from my Epic Pike and Shotte box.  Remember, with my basing scheme, 1 sprue makes 2 full Pike and Shotte units.

Very happy with how these fellows turned out


They took way too long to paint



Already started on my next Pike and Shotte sprue.  At this rate, I'll have enough infantry for a battle in a month or so (at current progress levels).  The cavalry on the other hand?  I just need to buckle down and paint them.  And more artillery.  And more generals...

In keeping with the Epic theme, my first sprue of Napoleonic Prussians is also coming underway.  These fellows have a heavy grey dry brush, followed by a generous slathering of Prussian Dark Blue or whatever.  They're OK.  I'm trying to hurry with them again so of course they look terrible at the moment but hopefully that improves.  I'm keeping the 2 scales, as I'm going to use the Epic guys for Commands and Colors: Napoleonics and potentially some more tactical horse and musket games.

Night....or the Prussians!


And finally, moving onto Kasserine preparations, I was able to finish up some tiny, North African rural mosques to go into some of my built up hexes.

The cheapest terrain you'll see all day.  Small pine cubes from amazon, with milliput domes and a matchstick minaret.  The palm trees still need to be painted but they've been basecoated at least now!  

These tents will serve as Corps and Army HQs for the Kasserine game, and supply depots.

That's everything for now.  I hope everyone is having a great week!

Sunday, March 3, 2024

GDW Team Yankee CRT w/Modifications!

 A simple "thought experiment" that started more than two years ago regarding "miniaturizing" the GDW Team Yankee "First Battle" system rules is wrapping up!  THis year's theme really has to be minis/boardgame crossover.


As some of you may remember, I tinkered around with the GDW boardgame to make it "feel" a little bit more like a miniatures game.  I added a "To Hit" roll and also tinkered with the QRS before deciding I needed to do alot more research into the topic.  The ultimate issue, though, was the 1D6 QRS which didnt feel like I was playing a minis game at all.  Even making it 2D6 never felt quite right.

Enter Fistful of TOWs, which is, if I may be so bold, the reincarnation of Team Yankee in miniatures form.  But what if I didn't want to reincarnate it?  What if I just wanted to play the game but make it feel a bit more like a minis game?  (with the option, of course, to translate it over to the tabletop). 

The Fistful of TOWs rules - which are great - but in this case not what I'm looking for


 After reading FFT3, which compares the attack and armor differences, I knew I was on to something.  (hats off to Darren, the "Duc de Gobin" also, who playtested these modifications and offered lots of friendly advice and thoughts along the way).  Adding a "To Hit" roll was solid, but I could wanted to unravel the CRT from Team Yankee to make it feel like a minis game.  FFT did this but changed the outcomes a bit (as well as the armor and attack values).

Updating the Combat Results Table

Instead of comparing the difference in attack to defense strength like FFT and other microarmor games, I kept the ratios from Team Yankee, but I was sneaky about it.  I laid everything out in a QRS so you dont have to compute ratios.  You just cross reference your attack strength with the defense strength and you arrive at the number of D6 you must roll for effects.

The effects from Team Yankee's original CRT are as follows:

No Effect / Pinned (infantry) / Damaged (AFV) / Destroyed

I kept those effects to remain aligned with the intent from the boardgame but, similar to FFT, you roll a number of D6 to get your effects - the worst result takes priority.  THe number of D6 you roll is based off of the ratio of attack strength to defense strength (so a 3:1 ratio you would roll 3D6.) looking for the following results (very similar, but not completely similar to FFT).  FFT has the target pass a quality check on a roll of 4 or 5, which, if failed results in the target's destruction.  Frank Chadwick's original CRT has a vehicle as damaged and infantry as pinned.

  • 6: Destroyed 
  • 5: Damaged/Pinned
  • 4: Pinned (Infantry Only)
  • 1-3: No effect

THis is all well and good but how does it work out?

Cross referencing a BMP2 firing its missile (Attack 22) at an M1 (Defense 10), you cross reference the 22 row with the 10 defense column.  The resulting number is "2".  So you roll 2D6, looking for "6" to destroy, or "5" to damage.  The QRS also contains the original vehicle and troop values from the game so you could, if you were familiar with the rules, play it all off of this QRS.

The Combat Results Table from my modified Team Yankee game

In many cases, you're still only going to be rolling 1D6, or 1D6 minus 1 which was the case in a recent game but it is alot of fun.  A T-72 shooting at an M113 is going to roll 6 dice and is most likely going to destroy it.  A T-72 shooting at an M1 is going to roll 2 dice up close (double attack strength), 1 die from standard range, and 1D6 minus 1 from long range.  Easy peasy!

If you'd like to check out my modified QRS for GDW's Team Yankee (and probably the entire First Battle series) click here.  My aim is to play a scenario from the Team Yankee board game and try these out.

Here are some pics of an experimental battle occurring at the "disgruntledfusilier academy of wargame sciences":

They came on in the same, old way....

TOW Missile destroys the Soviet reconnaissance BMP (6 result)

This T72 is damaged from a TOW strike at long range.  The TOW had to make a "To Hit" roll in this case of 4+.  The TOW attack value is 24 and the T72 defense value is 6.  THat is a "4" on the CRT so I roll 4 dice to see what happens.  In this case, "damaged" or a "5" was the best result I could get.

The valley of death!  Interestingly, playing this game made me want to play more Battlegroup: NORTHAG

American Battle Positions

Finally - Captain Bannon's Tank during the First Battle! 


So there you have it.  The end to what has been a very fun and thought provoking project.  I'm keen to give this a go using hexes and then again without hexes to see how it plays, but I will be honest - it plays very much like a miniatures game now but still holds true to the designer's intentions (in my humble opinion) by retaining the values of the original counters, and the results from the original CRT.

That's it for now.  A quick, light hearted game testing my modified QRS and CRT.  Putting some more Napoleonics on the table soon, and making some "progress" with painting the Epic figures but you'll have to wait until WIP Wednesday for more on that topic!