ONE HOUR "GRAND TACTICAL" WARGAMES PLAYTEST

I played 2 x test games of "One Hour Grand Tactical Wargames" this past weekend and wrote down a hefty amount of observations.  I thought I would share some of those observations and a small After Action Report from the games.  Later in the week, I'll post the rules for everyone to look at.  Right now I have a third game in progress, but "real life" always seems to get in the way of good wargaming!

Game One was played with a large OOB whereby using 1 Neil Thomas "unit" was the equivalent of a Division of 3 Brigades.  I played with my newly painted Prussian Napoleonic 10mm RISK pieces on both sides.  Both forces had roughly equal sides:

3 Infantry Divisions, 1 Cavalry Division (that equates to 9 Infantry Brigades each with 7 Strength Points, and 3 Cavalry Brigades with 4 SPs).

Personally, I've always felt the Neil Thomas scenarios from 1HW were perfect for Grand Tactical, Corps Sized actions.  I used Scenario 4 from the One Hour Wargames book.  Blue must seize the hill.  Red starts with 1 Division already atop the hill.  The stage is set!

Both sides dice for initiative and must dice for their "orders" meaning the number of pips equals the number of divisions that can be activated.  By the way, I like Alex's mechanism for holding onto the initiative - the losing player must beat the initiative player by "2" to seize it back.

The Blue Forces make haste for the hill and march quickly to close the distance.  Red gets the jump on them and reaches the hill with additional brigades right from the march.  Blue will have to slog through shot and shell up the slope to kick red off.

Blue advanced from the south of the picture.  One Division is astride the road in the lower right and have gone "stationary" awaiting a Cavalry Brigade that is threatening them.

Heavy fighting on the hill!  A fresh blue brigade in the lower right.  The yellow dice are "hits" and subrtract from the overall SPs they can roll in combat.  For the first game, all units hit on a "6" in all circumstances.

red forces give ground grudgingly and blue claws their way onto the hilltop.  Note the plethora of red reinforcements showing up!

 

Blue cavalry swings around the hill to try and assault some of the defenders in the flank.  It's the perfect opportunity for Red cavalry to show up - which they do in force rather than assault 2 x "prepared" Blue brigades on the road.  Note the timely arrival of 3 x Red (they're painted blue) Cavalry brigades from the right.

 From here we zoom in on the action on the hill.  Blue masses their forces and goes for broke on the hill.  The brigades advance in a coordinated manner!

 Heavy combat ensues now with Blue close assaulting Red.  Red scores 2 x 6's in the fighting and Blue only scores 1 x 6!  Blue the attacker loses the combat, even with 10 dice!  Note the hits below.  Loser must retreat 1 basewidth for the difference in hits.  In this instance, they'll retreat 2 inches.

Blue brigade (lower right) pushed back from combat.

Blue loses combat across the entire line.  Red is holding with only 2 x Brigades to Blue's 3 Brigades.

While combat with multiple units is very satisfying, it's decidedly NOT a "One Hour Wargame."  This game was extremely fun but also was taking a very long time to get to a decision.  There was the potential on the hilltop for combat to last an extremely long time and become much more drawn out.  For the second game, I thought I would try larger basewidths (3x3" squares a la Volley & Bayonet) and a Neil Thomas fixed force structure of 6 random "units" per side, all representing a Brigade or even Division of fighting strength.

Game 2 was MUCH quicker than Game 1.

3 x Infantry "Units" 1 Cavalry "Unit" and 2 x Artillery "Units" (this generic stuff makes me cringe but if there is even the slightest potential that these units can function like Volley &Bayonet Brigades then I need to figure it out!)

Prussian "deaths head" cavalry!

RISK Pieces!

Lots more RISK pieces!  My 10mm Prussians.

Austrian Grenzers as part of a "light" battalion of skirmishers.

Red moves out towards the hill.  

 Lots of decisions early-on.  What units to place on the hill?  So I opted for a light battalion with superior range and the artillery "battery"

 Blue rolls badly for the advance and only draws orders for 2 units.  Naturally it's their artillery and a maneuver brigade!  The Brigade moves out and the artillery opens fire with no effect (at this range, only 1D6 hitting on a "6" - that will change for game 3).

Marching towards the hill

More Blue units add to the fray and go on "march" orders moving at speed to catch up!

Red artillery and skirmishers get some hits on an advancing Blue brigade (red die as a casualty marker)

Red battery opens fire!

Blue reinforcements are hurrying to the hill.

Blue assaults and an intense skirmisher fight knocks back the Red skirmishers.

Before they can assault, a Blue brigade takes a "whiff of grapeshot" to the face!

Assault the guns!  Take the guns!

Blue gets greedy and assaults a reinforcing red brigade (the white painted dudes) with a combined arms force of cavalry and infantry.  Red mounts a gallant defense and beats the attackers 3 hits to 0 hits!

Okay 3 hits to 1 hit.  Blue forces retreat 2 basewidths or 6 inches!

The blue units are suffering alot of hits now - Red reinforcements are ensuring this wont be a pushover for BLue forces.

Blue assaults the guns and while it's costly for them, it pays off and the battery is destroyed.

Turn 15 Blue throws in the towel as Red continues to contest the hill.

So 2 very different but much fun games and I learned a ton about the rules.  A few things still up in the air, though, and I'm learning with each game I play.  I think the units on 3" squares is a winner, though, and deviating ever so slightly from the Neil Thomas fixed OOB, I'm thinking a 9 to 10 brigade Corps will feel just about perfect.

For my next game, I'm going to use some of Alex's "shooting" mods from his outstanding "Up the Blue!" game where there are different "To Hit" values for the various combat arms.

Thinking of skirmish fire always being 1 dice, volley fire being 3 dice, artillery fire being 3 dice, but for ASSAULT combat, the unit uses it's total amount of Strength Points.

Infantry Hit on 3+

Artillery Hit infantry on 3+

Cavalry Hit in assault on 4+ (but get bonus dice for charging)

Light Battalions Hit on 5+ for skirmishing but enjoy unparalleled mobility for infantry units.

Assault Combat Advantages are:

Charging Cav get +1D6 or +2D6

Flanked unit loses -1D6 in assault combat

Dug in / Prepared Units gain +1D6 in Assault combat

Also, an Artillery unit contacted in melee is automatically eliminated (driven off) but gets to fire a 3 dice volley before it goes.ay

Movement is very restrictive.  As I discussed yesterday, infantry brigades move 2" plus 1D6.  "marching" brigades move 2" plus 2d6.  ANY pivot under ANY sort of order incurs a 50% penalty from movement.  Additionally that pivot must be taken directly at the beginning of the move.  Always.  This felt really right for this level of battle.

Here is a question - the "loser" in assault combat (bases touching) always retreats the difference in hits (using Basewidths as measurement).  A tied assault score (zero-zero or one-one etc) means the attacker loses.  Should the attack take a hit if he loses?  Assume no one scored any hits - the attacker retreats 1 BW.  Personally, I feel like the attacker should take a hit.

Anyways that's it for tonight.  More to come in the next few days as I post the sequence of play for ONE HOUR GRAND TACTICAL and some additional modifications.  Stay tuned!