Th e Sw e e t S h o p Sy n d ro m e . . . Well so long and thanks for all the metal (resin, trees, plastic, glue, paint) and all the other things that have been so much of my world as I punched out Wargames Journal over the last 6 years. From Issue 10 Rich Jones will take the helm (or should it be steering wheel!?) of Wargames Journal. Rich has a huge passion for this hobby of ours and I know for a fact that he is not only planning on having lots of fun running WJ, but also has a great number of cool ideas for content.
and sundry contact Rich to offer up articles, be it reviews or scenarios, historical pieces, paint/modelling guides and so on. He’s got helpers lined up but he can’t create it all on his own. Plus, it is the views of other gamers that make it interesting for others - not just what we think about wargaming. We’ve all got a wargamers story to tell, so why don’t you tell us yours! On a personal note I’m doing a lot of naval gaming at the moment, dabbling with space combat and killing lots of Greeks and Persians. I even managed to extract a downed chopper crew from Mogadishu the other day as well. That said, I managed to wipe out a Platoon of my US Paratroopers the other day during a particularly abortive scenario - what an exciting life I lead!
This last issue under my control is a mixture of new articles and the old - as in lots of my favourite articles that I have pulled out of the print versions of WJ for the enjoyment of those who were not subscribers. That’s why this Issue is 170 pages in size. Our free advert offer for Issue 9, by way of an introductory ‘Hi, we’re back’ message, has generated a fantastic response, so thanks to those companies who took the time to send is an advert or two. We’re hoping that from Issue 10 many of these companies will remain with us as advertisers.
Things I’m looking forward to in my wargames calendar include more ancient gaming, Rich has me playing Impetus and Field of Glory, and the new Seven Year War rules from Barry Hilton have me primed to leap into this period. I’m tempted to give the 28mm scale a miss here and go for a smaller scale, but I just can’t make my mind up. I reckon this is a common theme amongst wargamers, the Sweet Shop Syndrome. Standing there looking at all the pretty things, your money burning a hole in your pocket...all we’re missing is a parental voice saying ‘you don’t have to spend your money now.’ Yeah, right! As if...
We mentioned on the web site that with 2007 well and truly behind us we’re all looking forward to a great year of Wargaming, not that it seems there is much left. Time seems to move on relentlessly and as you read this we are entering into May already, which is amazing as it only seems like yesterday that I got over the madness of Christmas. I’m still going to be dabbling with WJ as it moves forward, writing articles and helping out with the layout, but other projects and more importantly family life have taken a priority with me.
Take care and happy gaming.
Neil Fawcett, WJ Production Monkey Contact: neil@rebelpublishing.net
As for content inside WJ I would heartily request that all
Contacting Wargames Journal
Rich Jones, Editor (aka Bossman) Mr Jones has been writing articles and hurling dice our way for years. He’s assumed a larger role which we hope sees his infectious passion for wargaming rub off on us all!
Editorial enquiries and submission guidelines can be obtained from: Rich Jones (rich@rebelpublishing.net) Neil Fawcett (neil@rebelpublishing.net)
Neil Fawcett, Production Monkey Taking a semi-backseat roll on the magazine these days the man with too many toys now assumes the task of designing and layinbg WJ out on a regular basis...
Advertising enquiries go to Katie Bennett: katie@rebelpublishing.net Administration issues go to Katie Bennett: katie@rebelpublishing.net
Main office number is +44 (0) 1458 835685
Stephen Rhodes, Art Bloke The wargaming newbie who has caught the bug for white metal and dice. Currently gravitating towards all things AWI and ACW, Stephen is our Master Map Maker...
No part of this magazine may be reproduced (except for review purposes or where permission is granted) without prior written consent of the publisher. Material published herein does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Rebel Publishing Ltd, its employees or editorial staff. Most product names are trademarks owned by the companies that publish those products. Use of the name of any product without mention of trademark status should not be considered as a challenge to such status.
Adam Todd, Creative Chap Graphics and illustration supremo Adam will be called upon to help Stephen make every issue of WJ as pretty as possible. Adam’s passion is for WWII gaming...
12 IN THE SHADOW OF HISTORY This scenario is based around a little known incident which in historical terms has been understandably eclipsed by the concurrent relief of the siege of Derry. In wargaming terms it lurks deep in the shadows beyond the Battles of The Boyne and Aughrim. It is particularly interesting because of its size and the nature of the encounter which could be described as a running battle. I have chosen to compile a brief historical background to place the scenario in context.
168 The Hard Option!
Plastics that is... The latest thing to hit wargaming is hard plastic multi-part figures. No longer just for fantasy or sci-fi gamers, hard plastics are hitting the historical scene.
130 The War in Burma This game won Best of Show at the Crisis wargames show. The owners of the game got all creative on some images and we thought you might like to see them.
148 UFO Terror - Part 2 In Issue 4 of our print magazine we covered the ground forces of S.H.A.D.O, the top secret agency that guards Earth against alien attack in Gerry Anderson’s classic TV series. Now John Treadaway of the South London Warlords lets rip in space as Interceptors and UFOs go head-to-head with this superb set of combat rules.
REGULARS 89 - Product Reviews 10 - Opinion Piece
116 THE BATTLE OF CHARTIERES This is a fictitious 1815 Napoleonic scenario, using the Age of Eagles Napoleonic Fire and Fury Rules variant recently designed and published by Colonel Wilbur (Bill) Gray, and based around the original Fire & Fury rules designed by Richard Hasenauer. We played the game using 15mm miniatures and this article is packed full of images taken during the testing of the scenario. Read on to see what our four intrepid commanders thought of their performances. It makes for interesting reading and painful for the French!
64 Operation Punch Out
36 Knights of the Sky
54 The Merville Battery
Try out our complete WWI aerial combat game. We’ve given you the rules, the aircraft, the templates and all you have to add is some dice and a few hours to shoot each other out of the sky. Tally Ho...let’s shoot that fokker!
This is a great WWII scenario that has it all. The mission goes wrong, the officers know of its importance and still go ahead, the odds stacked against them! We present the scenario for the Rapid Fire 2 rule set.
Wacht am Rhein was a formidable battle plan, audacious and crazy all at the same time. You can imagine the German commanders looking through fearful eyes at the Fuhrer as he detailed the plan for the first time on October 11th, 1944.
6 Wood!
136 Fancy Stuff
OTHER ARTICLES 74 WWII Naval Rules 11 Sir Jacob Astley 46 Brush Strokes 134 Rearguard Action 112 A Portable Game 60 Warmaster Napoleonics 33 Make an A-Frame Hut 52 Peninsular in 40mm 160 Dyrrachium 164 Orcs on the Wall
Lee Lowe gets all frothy over painting wood and shares with us some of his tips for making spears look more like wood and less like shafts of brown paint that were added as an afterthought.
Converting minis is an easier task than you may at first think. Here Dave Lewis takes a 54mm scale figure and takes it from the realm of ‘simple’ and adds a cloak and fancy shield detail. Suddenly an ordinary figure stands out from the crowd!
The simple piece of wood, why write an article on how to paint it? This is my reason why: spears, shields, arrows, buildings, trees and boats to name but a few items that you could end up painting. Wood is something you will find pretty much in any gaming genre and can be the most dominant feature of a gaming board.
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As sculpting and casting has become such a fine art these days many miniatures and terrain pieces come with wood detail already cast on them and I find the easiest way to paint these pieces is by dry brushing.
WHAT IS DRY BRUSHING?
Dry brushing is a very quick way of painting wood but can also be used to paint chain mail and many other features of a miniature. Dry brushing can be as easy as painting on two different colours or as complex as painting on many shades and weathering. To dry brush you simply start of by undercoating the figure with your preferred colour. In this painting example I have chosen to work from a base colour of Games Workshop Chaos Black. I have chosen black because if you miss bits it does not stand out as much as a white base coat would - and with dry brushing this can easily happen!
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Once the base coat is dry I painted the whole of the area in Foundry (F) 13A Spear Shaft Shade. Once this was dry, I applied the first layer of dry brushing (F) 13B Spear shaft. To dry brush you simply add paint to the brush covering the top end of the bristles and then paint a piece of cloth or tissue until it looks as if there is no paint left on the brush. Some painters are known to use the brush against their skin (in the area of the hands) until the cracks of the skin begin to show. I find this too messy. You then brush lightly over the chosen area until you are satisfied with what you have achieved. I tend to use a soft flat headed brush that’s a good size for the area I am about to dry brush. Don’t worry about using expensive brushes as dry brushing kills your brushes quickly, cheap one’s work just fine for this. (See images 1 & 2) For the second dry brush I followed the same sequence, this time using (F) 13C Spear shaft light and I just apply it in the same fashion as the first dry brush. (See image 3)
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As the figure is a forest goblin you would think his living conditions where probably quite damp and dirty, so to reflect this on the wood I gave a slight dry brush of (F) 29C Moss light. If you don’t have this colour to hand you could use a simple Ochre colour with a tint of green which will work just as well. As you can see from the images there is a metal rim around the shield so I decided to dry brush a shadow using the base colour (F) 13A Spear Shaft shade mixed with a dab of (GW) Chaos Black. With a smaller brush I dry brushed around the rim of the shield where the metal meets the wood. To finish off I use a very watered down wash of the same colour I just dry brushed with, washing it over the shield to blend it in, shading the wood grain quickly and simply. (See image 4) The metal of the shield was painted using NMM (Non Metallic Metals) but that’s an article for another day. Now we have looked at painting wood using the dry brushing technique lets take a look at how we can paint a spear or object that has no sculpted detail on it to dry brush.
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PAINTING WOOD WITHOUT DRY BRUSHING
Using the same miniature as before, we now concentrate on the spear. You can see it’s just a pole with no detail sculpted onto it to resemble grain, unlike the shield which gave us plenty to work with. What I hope to achieve here is to paint a nice wood effect, but without taking hours on it. As with the shield I used (GW) Chaos Black as the undercoat and once dry I gave the spear a complete coat of (F) 13C Spear shaft light. You will note that I started in reverse to the normal Foundry paint technique, with the light colour as my base coat. The next phase is to create a fake grain using a darker shade, so the process is almost reversed from dry brushing where you start off with the dark colour. (See image 1)
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Once the base colour is dry and the first fake grain effect applied I decided that I wanted to make the spear look old and slightly rotten as I doubt you would find a Wood Goblin running around with a perfectly straight, varnished pole, unless he stole it of course! (See image 2) Now I wanted to add some depth to the wood grain and make it look even more crooked, so with a 75% mix of (F) 13A and 25% (GW) Chaos Black I painted in some dark areas on the spear especially at the base to give the impression of rot setting in. (See image 3) To finish of the spear it’s time to bring out the dark areas by adding some light – which sounds crazy, but bear with me. To give a rotten damp feel I used (F) 29B Moss light which I watered down slightly (not to a wash consistency) and I painted next to the dark areas so the contrast between dark and light would make each colour stand out, exaggerating the detail, making it more noticeable. With that dry the spear is now complete. (See image 4)
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Painting wood on a miniature is one of those things that you can play about with all day, as there is so much that can be done. I think the key to getting it right is to look at the miniature or scenery and paint it according to the conditions of where they are. Varnish can also play a part here, if you want wood to look old, use a gloss varnish first as it is stronger, but once dry go over with matt varnish to dull it down. I hope you find this article useful and if it’s taught me one thing, it’s to respect wood. It might just be a spear or a bucket, but it has its place and deserves as much attention as everything else on a miniature. With that in mind have fun; I’m off to hug a tree!
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“I’ve always liked this miniature set from Games Workshop and when I had the chance to paint one up for a commission I jumped at the chance. As you can see old Treebeard is a lot of wood and I wanted to create the effect of weathered age and gnarled wood. To get this effect I used many, many stages of dry-brushing, incorporating many tones of brown before the final colour stage of pale green (like the Foundry Moss I used in this article). It took a long time to finish this guardian of the forest, but it was worth every hour!”
I was posed a question by Neil Fawcett about whether I would feel comfortable taking part in wargames that represented events that were either very recent, current or that may have a personal effect on me. A number of scenarios were discussed, such as the re-fighting of Pegasus Bridge at a 1:1 ratio and then actually naming each figure, i.e. would you want to be responsible for the death or wounding of a named character? Another scenario included operating in a modern scenario that was still current, such as the hills and caves of Afghanistan, the dust of Iraq or political quagmire of the Middle East.
Ethics can be seen to have two levels. Some are absolute and hence are immovable, and include ideas such as the Ten Commandments – no matter where you are in the world these commandments are literally set in stone. Some are relative and hence carry caveats about where one draws the line. An example may relate to the concept of punishment and revenge, where in one society capital punishment is expected and in another it is abhorred. As members of society we all carry responsibilities about our behaviour and conduct, and there are consequences that would need to be faced if we crossed certain behavioural lines. As gamers, at what point does our behaviour and ethical attitude quite simply become wrong?
Being a member of HM Armed Services I am required to be available to carry out these tasks for real and for me the aforementioned questions generally do not cause many problems. Military personnel have to be able to practice and train tactics, techniques and procedures all the time. All available means are employed and this includes tabletop exercises directly equating to the hobby of wargaming. But there are many gamers out there who may face conundrums when re-enacting certain events or indeed attempting to see what would actually happen if Israel were to fully invade Lebanon in order to seek and destroy Hezbollah. Would it be right to wargame that?
Some people look at wargames and can remain very detached about the whole experience - apart from when their brilliantly painted and nicely flocked unit of Imperial Guard Grenadiers break when attacked by Spanish conscript militia! Others get quite upset when viewing a game that may appear to be too close to the line. But what is that line? Are under 16’s who play first person computer shoot-‘em-up games crossing that line, especially when their mission places them in the front line of Iraq or Afghanistan as a member of a special forces team with objectives that may be morally challenging? This is often digital carnage and very, very graphical.
As I continued my rummaging I came across Neil’s 1982 Lebanon War set of miniatures. I’d heard about these: rather a beautiful set of vehicles, miniatures and buildings, and I got to thinking about whether I’d game this 25 yearold conflict now, as in while the current conflict is active (at time of writing). I have to say I would and I set myself the task of persuading the guys at Wargames Journal to run some articles.
These are some questions that many of us in the wargaming hobby may have faced or have yet to do so. They will always resurface and need addressing as each new member of the community appears. Healthy debates are always worth having and quite simply starting an argument can be fun – but be prepared for the consequences. One day you will be challenged, whether you want to be or not, so perhaps it is almost a duty to prepare your own moral ground in support of your chosen hobby.
Whilst ferreting around in Neil’s snooker/gaming room at his home I found a 10mm doodlebug and launcher model - Pendraken I believe. My family lived in South London during WWII and hence were subjected to both the Blitz and the subsequent V1 and V2 campaigns. An interesting dilemma surfaced when I pondered the idea of playing the Spitfire pilot chasing and shooting down these rockets, or the Germans defending a launch site against Allied forces.
I’ll leave you with some questions that should allow us to continue the debate either now or perhaps at a later date: 1. What ethics do you attach to your views about warfare? Have you even bothered to think it through yet?
For me it was less about whether I felt it was ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ and more about whether I wanted to. I don’t feel it would be wrong to play the Germans in this scenario; a bit limiting maybe and certainly much more fun to be the Spitfire pilot, whizzing around tipping the rockets off their trajectory or blasting them away.
2. Is the study and practice of warfare (including wargaming) morally wrong? 3. Should games and war be separated or can they combine? 4. Is chess the most morally corrupt game in the world due to its representation of the death of a country’s ruler?
Next I found Neil’s latest figures: some 30mm scale US Marines that are current for the last 10 years of action. Nice miniatures that are oh-so-current …so is it ok to game these guys? Again, yes it is, well to me anyway. It’s a game and it’s not real and therefore I also think the magazine should run modern articles that use these miniatures.
5. Or is it just a game? So let’s just get on with it ...
Major Dave Fielder Royal Marine Commandos
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Sir Jacob Astley was a mainstay of King Charles I’s Oxford Army during the first round of English Civil Wars, 1642-5.
Astley often lacked the ability to counter the arguments of those in the king’s circle with less combat experience than himself.
Astley was born at Melton Constable in Norfolk and first saw action with Sir Walter Raleigh’s expedition to the Azores in 1597 at the age of 18. Three years later he was fighting the Spanish at the battle of Nieuport. Knighted in 1624 by King James I, Astley saw further action during the Thirty Years War serving under Gustavus Adolphus. In 1639, at the invitation of Charles I, he returned to England to fight in the Bishops’ Wars. Things did not go according to plan for the English. Astley commanded the infantry during the defeat at Newburn which led to the loss of Newcastle to the Scots.
Astley went onto fight at Gloucester and first Newbury in 1643 and Arundel and Cheriton the following year. At second Newbury he was instrumental in the defence of Shaw House, then oversaw the retreat of the Royalist Army back to Oxford. In thanks Charles raised him to the peerage as Baron Astley of Reading in November 1644. At Naseby Astley once again commanded the Royalist foot and after the defeat fought in the West and Wales until finally captured in March 1646 at Stow-on-the-Wold, the last battle of the First Civil War. After the battle Astley, smoking his pipe while seated on a drum, famously remarked to the Parliamentarian forces:
By the time Astley joined King Charles at Nottingham in August 1642 he clearly had a wealth of professional military experience upon which to draw. In the first major engagement of the war at Edgehill (23rd October 1642) the Earl of Lindsey, the Royalist foot commander, flew into a rage at what he perceived to be Prince Rupert’s perpetual interference, effectively resigning his command. Lindsey would die at the head of his regiment in the ensuing fight. Astley, who had previously tutored Rupert while on the continent, took command of the foot. As the guns opened that afternoon, Astley muttered a battle prayer:
“Well, boys, you have done your work, now you may go and play - if you don’t fall out among yourselves.” When the Second Civil War broke out in 1648 Astley, by now 69, would not break the parole he gave after Stow-on-the-Wold. Sir Jacob Astley died at Maidstone in February 1652. The Vignette This superb vignette was painted by Martin Robson who has been dabbling with painting wargame figures on and off for nearly 20 years. Martin has a keen eye, as you can see from these models, and a passion for military history. He completed his BA and PhD in the department of War Studies at Kings College London and then joined Conway Maritime Press as Project Editor while undertaking postdoctoral research as a Caird Senior Research Fellow at the National Maritime Museum.
‘O Lord! Thou knowest how busy I must be this day: if I forget thee, do not thou forget me’. After the inconclusive fight, Astley remained in command of the Royalist foot for the remainder of the First Civil War. As befits a professional soldier he, along with Rupert, tried to instil greater discipline into the Royalist forces, though they could not completely rid the army of the numerous gentlemen amateurs whose cash and titles bought them commissions. A good competent, professional soldier, when it came to politicking
He was co-editor of The Age of Sail and has contributed to many publications. We are looking forward to Martin creating a number of articles for Wargames Journal in the near future. Martin added, “The figures to the left are from the excellent Bicorne Miniatures range with the flag from GMB Designs. The majority of the paints used were Foundry, with the odd Vallejo, Coat d’Arms and Games Workshop colour. Although the Foundry three stage paint system is to be recommended, I prefer to give a good darker base coat to each colour. For example, for the flesh I used Foundry Spearshaft as a base, followed by the Foundry Flesh colours. It is surprising the different subtle tone differences that can be achieved by just varying the base coat. Give it a go! Once complete the figures were varnished with Humbrol Gloss Enamel to give a good protective coat (these figures are for gaming, not just sitting in a cabinet!), then two coats of Daler Rowney Cryla Matt to give a flat finish. Use a flat brush to really work the varnish into crevices, then work it out – don’t let it pool. When everything was dry I used PVA to stick them onto a large GW round plastic base. Once set I used Unibond tile grout (spice coloured) to texture the base. This was highlighted with Vallejo Cork Brown, then Sand Yellow. Once dry, PVA was applied and the base dunked in hairy grass.” Check out http://shrimproll.blogspot. com for more images.
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Introduction This scenario is based around a little known incident which in historical terms has been understandably eclipsed by the concurrent relief of the siege of Derry. In wargaming terms it lurks deep in the shadows beyond the Battles of The Boyne and Aughrim.
Historical Background In March 1689 James II landed in Ireland to continue the long struggle to regain his lost throne. There was no Williamite field army on the island but of course several Protestant enclaves had already crystallised as points of resistance. Derry is by far the most well known of these in modern times. It was laid siege by an enthusiastic but ill equipped Jacobite Army one month after the Stuart King landed and was to remain so for over three months. By 28th July 1689 the situation was critical and if the siege had continued the city would most probably have fallen within a matter of days. This would have provided an enormous fillip to the cause of James II but as it turned out, the morale boost fell to the Williamites as the city was re-supplied on July 28th and the siege lifted finally on the 31st. In summary, much military activity was going on at sea and on land across the north of Ireland in the summer of 1689. It was undertaken by several sub commands of both sides who were working theoretically in concert but often in practice were not.
It is particularly interesting because of its size and the nature of the encounter which could be described as a running battle. I have chosen to compile a brief historical background to place the scenario in context. My sources for this were ‘A Jacobite narrative of the war in Ireland’ (a project from the history department of University College, Cork), ‘The popular history of England’ (Charles Knight, 1859), the recent Osprey title ‘The Battle of the Boyne’, Alan Sapherson’s ‘William III at war in Scotland & Ireland and a variety of military and historical websites. Although broadly in agreement these sources do conflict markedly on detail not only in the sequence of events on the day but in the number and composition of the troops involved.
Another important location of Williamite resistance was the town of Enniskillen in County Fermanagh. The garrison here quickly formed into regiments and began actively mounting raids on the Jacobite lines of communication. The Jacobite general Justin McCarthy the newly promoted Viscount Montcashel was sent by the Earl of Tyrconnel with a small ‘flying camp’(sic) consisting of four thousands of horse, foot and dragoons (some sources say 5,000) to capture Crum Castle about 16 miles from Enniskillen. The reduction of the castle would have made the taking of Enniskillen easier but Montcashel found his command wanting in terms of artillery and the position of the castle made it difficult to capture. After some bloody frontal assaults and close quarter fighting he gave up and headed north west in the direction of Enniskillen.
Rather than see this as a problem I have looked on it as an opportunity for flexibility in terms of the Orders of Battle I offer for the scenarios. I was working to a very tight deadline to finish this article and had originally intended to bang it out in short order as a brief two page wargaming guideline but the research element drew me deeper and deeper into the subject and proved to be a very rewarding exercise in itself. As at the time of writing I have been unable to find any single body of text which draws together the various elements contained herein or which attempts to analyse from a military perspective, some of the anomalies in unit organisation. To that end, the article may be able to claim some original thought and research which adds to a deeper understanding of the battle. 12
The Jacobite plans were known to the enemy probably through espionage and treachery and the garrison of Enniskillen had already sallied forth under the competent English officers Wolseley and Berry to attack their potential besiegers. It is thought this Williamite force numbered some three thousands of foot and horse and so initially was inferior in size to that of Montcashel. On the march, the bulk of Montcashel’s horse and dragoons were operating as a vanguard under Brigadier Anthony Hamilton. Hamilton’s command had previously been independent and had only recently amalgamated with that of Montcashel. Both leading elements unexpectedly collided on the road at a place called Lisnaskea (some sources say Hamilton was lured into an ambush following an initial success) and began to engage. Montcashel with the main body of Jacobites, was still some way distant. Hamilton after a brief fight gave an order which he later maintained was ‘wheel left’ but which was delivered by Captain Lavallin as ‘to the left about’. The former order would have resulted in the Jacobite horse retiring upon their main body, the actual order resulted in the cavalry turning tail and leaving the field with the brigadier!
This military blunder resulted in the hapless Montcashel now finding himself outnumbered and having to take rapid measures to avert disaster. The Jacobites retired through Newtownbutler burning it to deny cover to their pursuers. The distance between Lisnaskea and Newtownbutler is between five and six miles. Assuming that the main Jacobite body was between the two settlements at the time of the cavalry clash is fairly safe as subsequently Montcashel is described as retreating through the latter. Just how far behind his cavalry vanguard he was, is impossible to determine. The retreat may however have taken a couple of hours. Neither the time of day nor prevailing weather is mentioned specifically in any of the accounts. Montcashel then apparently took position on some high ground to the south of the town. One source describes him placing his body of troops on a pass(sic) which traversed a morass. On one flank beyond the morass lay a wooded area although which flank is not clear. He placed two or three light guns across the road blocking the causeway and braced the guns with a troop of Horse behind. On either flank he placed
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his Foot. His force was now perhaps composed of strength from the outset 2,500 – 2,900 men (sources say that after his cavalry 4. The cavalry clash fought separately and was chased off Jacobite numbers were inferior to the having an influence on the troops available for Protestant forces). The Williamites came on, taking the subsequent main engagement. some casualties but halted on the far side of the morass. To provide additional variety, the scenario can be played either as a regimental sized action or as a One source says Wolseley sent forward his horse, company level engagement. I use Beneath the Lily forced the causeway, captured the guns and compelled Banners for both levels of game but 1644 is a rule the Jacobites to flee after a single hasty volley. set which also suits the game type well. Any rules Another says he sent some of his infantry around the which you are comfortable with will fit but I strongly Jacobite flank and through the woods. These appeared recommend you follow the scenario specific guidelines unexpectedly, and the shock caused the Jacobite force later in the article to prevent a very quick and one to turn tail and run. Yet another says that infantry sided experience. If BLB is used at regimental level crossed the morass, took out the guns thus allowing then the game will be rather small and over in a couple the cavalry to cross by the causeway. John Kinross of hours. The rules however allow small actions like in his book makes no mention of Lisnaskea and has this to be fought at company level. In this case the Hamilton’s dragoons driving Berry and the Protestant game would be quite large and may take four to five vanguard back on Wolseley. The Jacobites take up hours. I have listed the orbats for both scales of game. position but the Protestants attack first with infantry, These can be adapted for any rule set you prefer. killing the gunners and at this point the Jacobite dragoons turn tail and flee leaving Montcashel to pick Figure to man ratios up the pieces. Despite this title being quite obviously Beneath the Lily Banners uses a 1:35 figure to man a specialist study of the campaigns of 1689-91 the ratio at regimental level. In the rules I suggest an description of the action at Newtonbutler seems the alternative of 1:5 for company level actions but for least well researched and is at odds with almost every this scenario I would recommend 1:10 be taken as other source. What is not in dispute is that Montcashel was wounded and captured. Afterwards both Brigadier Hamilton and Captain Lavallin (the officer who had transmitted the order to the vanguard) were brought to trial. The brigadier was acquitted but the captain was put to death still protesting that he had delivered the order exactly as requested. One source states casualties on both sides were light. Whilst another puts Protestant loses at 70 killed and wounded and the Jacobites at 1,400 (equating to as many as 50% of the total combatants) lost in a bloody pursuit along with all drums and colours! Scenario construction The scenario offers some excellent wargaming potential. The troops on both sides will be overwhelmingly classed as inexperienced. The force sizes are small and the battlefield is not typical. I have created a basic scenario with three additional options. All are listed below; 1. The battle fought as per history 2. The return of the routed Jacobite Horse later in the battle 3. The battle fought with both forces at full 14
the norm. This is mainly due to historical evidence pointing towards oversized troops, squadrons and regiments being present at the battle. It thus makes the rule mechanisms easy to transpose. In the larger scale action a 6 figure cavalry squadron would equate to 210 men. This ties in nicely with Sapherson’s estimate of largish dragoon troops numbering 60-70 all ranks. Three troops being the standard subdivision of a squadron at this time makes the arithmetic quite neat. At the company level the 6 figure wargaming cavalry squadron would be the equivalent of 60 men which is close to the oversize troop structure mentioned in sources.
shot units and attach them to the Jacobite army. This takes care of the cumulative 870 ‘surplus headcount’ across the three large foot regiments. The Protestant Army I have dealt with differently as I believe enough corroborative evidence exists to allow them three foot regiments of average strength for the period and theatre. In gaming terms that means three BLB infantry battalions each of three 6 figure stands, the central stand being armed with pike.
With regard to infantry strengths in the company level scenario, an infantry company was composed in theory of 70 men. In Ireland at that time between one in six and one in two men could have a pike Foot regiments in BLB are normally composed of dependent on how well or poorly equipped the unit three 6 figure stands. In the large action figure to man was. Using the 1:10 figure to man ratio previously ratio this would equate to 630 men – considerably suggested infantry companies would muster a meagre lower than the 920 man regiments we are assuming 7 figures. Not only would this be very brittle and to be present at Newtownbutler but typical of field difficult to manage in gaming terms but it would look battalion strengths throughout the Wars of 1688- unattractive on the table. I recommend the following 1697. One way round this is to ignore the anomaly! A solution. Combine the companies in each battalion into second is to give the Jacobites all five foot regiments sub divisions of three companies. Each subdivision named in the website orbat source I mention at the of three companies will be represented by three end of the section on Notes on the Jacobite Force figure bases each of six figures. The companies can later in the article. Another way would be to form be assumed to have massed their pikes in the centre two twelve man (two 2 x 6 figure stands) commanded and placed a wing of shot either side in the standard way a pike and shot unit would deploy. Four of these subdivisions would make a regiment and can operate semi independently on the table. The final ‘company’ should be musket armed (one six figure stand) and be attached to the Colonel or operate independently. Effectively a battalion of figures under the normal BLB organisation becomes three companies for the company level game. The orbat is laid out using this logic. With 1644 the units can simply be constructed using the appropriate number of figures. Note on unit strengths, composition and Orders of Battle. The Orders of Battle are somewhat conjectural and compiled by me. I have been able to discover only one source of names for the regiments present at the battle which although useful, threw up several anomalies which make its provenance somewhat questionable. When in doubt, I chose to base units on typical compositions of forces in the field during the conflict. For the company level scenario I have cut the Protestant foot regiments down to 10 companies each to keep the ratio of troops proportional to the Jacobite units. An alternative was to reduce the number of figures per company which is easy to do if your collection is singly based or you re-fight the battle using 1644. If you have a multi based collection 15
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like my own and are using a rule system which shoots by ‘firing groups’ like BLB, then to keep the firing groups (of 6 in this case) intact it is easier to remove a number of entire groups to keep the ratios right and the rule mechanisms working. A final alternative would be to deploy all of the companies but treat each base of figures as representing 4 or 5 figures to begin with regardless of how many actual figures are on the stand. This way attrition will remove firing groups at a quicker rate.
some scrutiny. The Irish regiments of James were built on the English model; thirteen companies each of 60 to 70 men plus a regimental staff giving on paper between 790 - 920men per regiment. If Montcashel had three regiments of this size, that makes between 2,370 and 2,760 foot. It is possible that the regiments were bigger if the oversize dragoon regiments can be taken as an indicator of Jacobite enthusiasm for the cause but actual strengths listed for identified units elsewhere in the book rarely if ever reach these levels. The average for battalions in the field is between 600 and 650, far less than my minimum stated theoretical establishment figure of 790 above.
Notes on the Jacobite Force Sapherson states that Montcashel’s force consisted of a dragoon regiment, some horse and three regiments of foot – about 5,000 men. He also states that in the initial contact of the two vanguards Berry scattered thirteen troops of dragoons under Hamilton. This is curious and potentially contradictory in itself. Elsewhere in the organisation section of his book Sapherson lists as part of the Jacobite Army six dragoon regiments and mentions two others. On paper they should have either six or eight troops each, although one has 11 troop captains listed in its roster. Another is cited as having twelve troops present at the Boyne. He concludes that units may have fielded more than their established number of troops. All of this is logical but the battle evidence offered goes beyond even these potential estimates of over strength units.
If we add together the dragoon total of 910 with the foot total of 2,760 we get 3,760. There were some light guns which with crews, wagons and transports may have amounted to 100 men maximum. This force is described by one source as a ‘Flying camp’ the implication being that it was travelling light. If we assume little in the way of wains and hangers on, that leaves us either 240 Horse if the approximate 4,000 figure is to be believed or 1,240 Horse if the 5,000 is accepted. I prefer to go with the lower strength for the Jacobites for two reasons. Firstly, winners write history and it would be in the interests of any cause to create the impression that their own smaller force defeated a vastly superior enemy. Secondly, if the Jacobites did in fact have 910 dragoons and roughly One could deduce that there were actually less than 1,200 horse then up 50% of their force would appear thirteen troops ‘scattered’ at Lisnaskea (and that to have been mounted. Even by the norms of the someone somewhere over time has exaggerated the period, where cavalry were much more numerous, Jacobite strength) or, that there was one regiment this figure seems high. which had at least thirteen troops (possible but not probable) or, that there was more than one dragoon I offer this analysis not as a study in pedantry but to regiment represented in Montcashel’s force or, that allow gamers to draw their own conclusions about some of the mounted troops in the engagement the composition of Montcashel’s force whilst still where in fact horse and not dragoons. Working from offering my own OoB for those disinclined to reach official establishments of the time a troop of dragoons for calculator and reference book. would at full strength be roughly 60-70 officers and men. Thirteen troops could then field 780-910 men, I have chosen to give Montcashel a regiment of possibly more if a lot of volunteers were available. Horse and use as justification the fact that Horse and Dragoons are cited in every source and that Sapherson concludes that some Jacobite dragoon Sapherson’s indefinable ‘some horse’ could be regiments may have fielded as many as 800 men each anything from a troop to a regiment. in the early stages of the war. These numbers should not be dismissed but must be treated with caution as The only source I could find which actually named figures presented in the same book for Williamite the Jacobite regiments present was a website http:// dragoon regiments in the same period of the conflict mackays1626.com/Site/Dumbartons166085-677.html produce average troop strengths of 56 all ranks and belonging to a Jacobite re enactment group based in Virginia. They have a detailed order of battle for 403 all ranks in a regiment. the armies of both sides in Ireland during the period Before dealing with the Horse the infantry deserve 1688-91. Not only are the regiments listed but also the engagements known for each unit. This is very 20
useful but creates more problems for those who like clarity. The site lists the following Jacobite foot regiments as being present at Newtownbutler: Viscount Montcashel’s, Fielding’s, O’Bryan’s, Richard Butler’s and Dillon’s. What is curious about this is the site also states that all of these regiments entered French service on April 18th 1689. The Battle of Newtownbutler took place on July 31st 1689. It is possible that the regiments stayed together in Ireland for months after being officially transferred but this seems rather anomalous.
who served in Zachariah Tiffin’s Regiment. It is extremely probable that they were in fact captured during the action at Newtownbutler. Tiffin’s date of appointment as colonel of the regiment is 20th June 1689, roughly one month before the battle. His regiment was raised in Enniskillen and made up of local men who later fought at the Boyne and Namur in 1695. They marched into history as the 27th of Foot ‘The Inniskillings’. Other web histories stated that in 1689 the town raised foot and dragoons but no mention is made of Horse. I have crossed referenced several sources but could find no further detail. If Tiffin’s regiment conformed to the norm they would have accounted for 920 men or roughly one third of Wolseley’s force. Dragoons are mentioned and in the clash at Lisnaskea mounted men under Berry chased off Hamilton’s dragoons or horse. There is also mention in at least one source of the Protestants using their cavalry to cross the causeway after the Jacobite guns had been cleared by the infantry moving through the bog. It is possible, but not likely, that a smaller force of dragoons or horse may have been able to chase away nearly 1,000 Jacobite dragoons as Lisnaskea.
Students of the period will recognise that these five named regiments are those promised by King James II as the nucleus of an Irish Brigade for the French Army in exchange for the French units that Louis XIV sent to Ireland to strengthen the Jacobite army. They are the core of the body which has passed into folklore as the ‘Wild Geese’. The orbat listed is extensive and covers the entire Jacobite army in a 30 month period of campaigning but nowhere does it mention any dragoon or horse regiments present at Newtownbutler thus directly contradicting Sapherson’s assertion of force composition stated earlier. For these reasons and because of the emphasis placed by all accounts on the prominence of cavalry during the entire battle I dismissed this orbat from a Jacobite perspective for my own gaming but have included it in the orbats section for those looking for an alternative.
Again here I am using logic and probability to deduce as opposed to fact and I would concede that stranger things have happened but it is more likely that the forces were evenly matched. If the Protestant units were raised in line with regulation then two regiments As a final note if all five foot regiments were present may have met Hamilton’s thirteen troops. I have and in the numbers prescribed by regulations, the total decided to make these one each of horse and dragoons would be somewhere in the range 3,950 to 4,550. Add each having 6 troops or two squadrons. This leaves to that 13 troops of dragoons and we are getting nearer us with roughly 1,000 unaccounted for troops. The 6,000 men excluding any horse and artillery present. easiest solution is to provide Wolseley with another large regiment of foot. The Williamite Force Even less is known about the Williamite troops I have left the data from the re enactors website till as Newtownbutler if the majority of sources are last. They state that the following Williamite units considered. It is likely that they were mostly were at Newtownbutler; Wolseley’s Horse, Wynne’s Enniskillen men as the town was a centre of Protestant Dragoons, Gustavus Hamilton’s, Zachariah Tiffin’s resistance or at least that they were local to the County & Colonel Lloyd’s regiments of Foot. This actually Fermanagh area. It is unlikely that they were uniformed tallies a lot closer with what I have discovered by as the regiments were recently raised as part of armed crossing referring other sources. The men are all resistance and the area was subject to Jacobite focus stated to be Enniskilleners and at typical strengths and troop movements. A mention later in Sapherson’s for the war in Ireland the totals would be around 900 book of Inniskilling men being extremely reluctant of Horse and dragoons and 2,100-2,200 foot making to swap their red coats taken from the Jacobites for the 3,000 estimates stated elsewhere believable. My new grey ones from England suggests a policy of recommendation is that gamers go with this orbat acquisition through combat as opposed to supply which allows for typically sized regiments and not and provisioning from the authorities or government. with the less numerous larger sized regimental theory These garments were captured early in the war and of the previous paragraph. the quantity was sufficient to clothe two companies 21
The troop ratings for both sides are arbitrary but reflect the fact that the conflict had not long started, most of the Protestant regiments were less than one month old and that the efforts of both sides had exhibited amateurism both at leadership and company level. The Jacobite Horse is widely accepted to have been disciplined, brave and formidable in relative terms. I have listed the Beneath the Lily Banners morale classes and suggest that if BLB is used to play the game at regimental level, players make sure each foot regiment has a central stand of pikemen and is only allowed to fire muskets with two stands of figures.
2 Light guns (BLB rating Raw) The Enniskillen Garrison under Colonel Wolseley Vanguard under Colonel Berry (Commander rating: Average) Wolseley’s Horse (BLB rating Raw) 2 squadrons Wynne’s Dragoons (BLB rating Raw) 2 squadrons Main Body under Colonel Wolseley (Commander rating: Good) Zachariah Tiffin’s Regiment of Foot (BLB rating Raw) with pikes Gustavus Hamilton’s Regiment of Foot (BLB rating Raw) with pikes Colonel Lloyd’s Regiment of Foot (BLB rating Raw) 3 stands of muskets
Orders of Battle for Regimental scale action using Beneath the Lily Banners, 1644 or any other appropriate rules system. The Jacobite ‘Flying camp’ under Justin Macarthy Viscount Montcashel Vanguard under Brigadier (Commander rating: Plodder)
Anthony
Orders of Battle for company scale action using Beneath the Lily Banners, 1644 or any other appropriate rules system of choice.
Hamilton
Regiment of Dragoons (BLB rating: Raw) 4 squadrons The Jacobite ‘Flying camp’ under Justin Macarthy Regiment of Horse (BLB rating Drilled) 1 squadron Viscount Montcashel Main Body under Montcashel (Commander rating: Vanguard under Brigadier Average) (Commander rating: Plodder) Regiment of Horse (BLB rating Drilled) 1 squadron Regiment of Foot (BLB rating Raw) with pikes Regiment of Foot (BLB rating Raw) with pikes Regiment of Foot (BLB rating Raw) with pikes Command shot (BLB rating Raw) 2 stands of muskets Command shot (BLB rating Raw) 2 stands of muskets
Anthony
Hamilton
Regiment of Dragoons (BLB rating Raw) 13 troops of 6 figures Regiment of Horse (BLB rating Drilled) 3 troops of 6 figures Main Body under Montcashel (Commander rating: Average) Regiment of Horse (BLB rating Drilled) 3 troops of 6 figures
OR
Regiment of Foot (BLB rating Raw) 3 companies of Foot (2 x 6 figures with muskets, 1 x 6 figures with pikes) 3 companies of Foot (2 x 6 figures with muskets, 1 x 6 figures with pikes) 3 companies of Foot (2 x 6 figures with muskets, 1 x 6 figures with pikes) 3 companies of Foot (2 x 6 figures with muskets, 1 x 6 figures with pikes) 1 company of Foot (1 x 6 figures with muskets)
Regiment of Horse (BLB rating Drilled) 1 squadron Montcashel’s Regiment of Foot (BLB rating Raw) with pikes Dillon’Regiment of Foot (BLB rating Raw) with pikes Richard Butler’s Regiment of Foot (BLB rating Raw) with pikes Fielding’s Regiment of Foot (BLB rating Raw) with pikes O’ Bryan’s Regiment of Foot (BLB rating Raw) with pikes
Regiment of Foot (BLB rating Raw) 22
3 companies of Foot (2 x 6 figures with muskets, 1 x 6 figures with pikes) 3 companies of Foot (2 x 6 figures with muskets, 1 x 6 figures with pikes) 3 companies of Foot (2 x 6 figures with muskets, 1 x 6 figures with pikes) 3 companies of Foot (2 x 6 figures with muskets, 1 x 6 figures with pikes) 1 company of Foot (1 x 6 figures with muskets)
3 companies of Foot (2 x 6 figures with muskets, 1 x 6 figures with pikes) 3 companies of Foot (2 x 6 figures with muskets, 1 x 6 figures with pikes) 1 company of Foot (1 x 6 figures with muskets)
Montcashel’s Regiment of Foot (BLB rating Raw) 3 companies of Foot (2 x 6 figures with muskets, 1 x 6 figures with pikes) 3 companies of Foot (2 x 6 figures with muskets, 1 x 6 figures with pikes) 3 companies of Foot (2 x 6 figures with muskets, 1 x 6 figures with pikes) 1 company of Foot (1 x 6 figures with muskets)
Wolseley’s Regiment of Horse (BLB rating Raw) 6 troops of 6 figures Wynne’s Regiment of Dragoons (BLB rating Raw) 6 troops of 6 figures
Fielding’s Regiment of Foot (BLB rating Raw) 3 companies of Foot (2 x 6 figures with muskets, 1 x 6 figures with pikes) 3 companies of Foot (2 x 6 figures with muskets, 1 x 6 figures with pikes) 3 companies of Foot (2 x 6 figures with muskets, 1 x 6 figures with pikes) 1 company of Foot (1 x 6 figures with muskets)
Gustavus Hamilton’s Regiment of Foot (BLB rating Raw) 3 companies of Foot (2 x 6 figures with muskets, 1 x 6 figures with pikes) 3 companies of Foot (2 x 6 figures with muskets, 1 x 6 figures with pikes) 3 companies of Foot (2 x 6 figures with muskets, 1 x 6 figures with pikes) 1 company of Foot (1 x 6 figures with muskets)
Butler’s Regiment of Foot (BLB rating Raw) 3 companies of Foot (2 x 6 figures with muskets, 1 x 6 figures with pikes) 3 companies of Foot (2 x 6 figures with muskets, 1 x Regiment of Foot (BLB rating Raw) 6 figures with pikes) 3 companies of Foot (2 x 6 figures with muskets, 1 x 3 companies of Foot (2 x 6 figures with muskets, 1 x 6 figures with pikes) 6 figures with pikes) 3 companies of Foot (2 x 6 figures with muskets, 1 x 1 company of Foot (1 x 6 figures with muskets) 6 figures with pikes) 3 companies of Foot (2 x 6 figures with muskets, 1 x 2 Light guns (BLB rating Raw) 6 figures with pikes) 3 companies of Foot (2 x 6 figures with muskets, 1 x 6 figures with pikes) The Enniskillen Garrison under Colonel Wolseley 1 company of Foot (1 x 6 figures with muskets) Vanguard under Colonel Berry (Commander rating: OR Average)
Main Body under Colonel Wolseley (Commander rating: Good)
Zachariah Tiffin’s Regiment of Foot (BLB rating Dillon’s Regiment of Foot (BLB rating Raw) Raw) 3 companies of Foot (2 x 6 figures with muskets, 1 x 3 companies of Foot (2 x 6 figures with muskets, 1 x 6 figures with pikes) 6 figures with pikes) 3 companies of Foot (2 x 6 figures with muskets, 1 x 3 companies of Foot (2 x 6 figures with muskets, 1 x 6 figures with pikes) 6 figures with pikes) 3 companies of Foot (2 x 6 figures with muskets, 1 x 3 companies of Foot (2 x 6 figures with muskets, 1 x 6 figures with pikes) 6 figures with pikes) 1 company of Foot (1 x 6 figures with muskets) 1 company of Foot (1 x 6 figures with muskets)
O’Bryan’s Regiment of Foot (BLB rating Raw) 3 companies of Foot (2 x 6 figures with muskets, 1 x Colonel Lloyd’s Regiment of Foot (BLB rating 6 figures with pikes) Raw) 23
Jacobite Objective: You must hold position and repulse the imminent attack. Victory will be complete if you are able to counterattack and drive the Rebels off the field.
3 companies of Foot (2 x 6 figures with muskets, 1 x 6 figures with pikes) 3 companies of Foot (2 x 6 figures with muskets, 1 x 6 figures with pikes) 3 companies of Foot (2 x 6 figures with muskets, 1 x 6 figures with pikes) 1 company of Foot (1 x 6 figures with muskets)
Deployment is shown on the accompanying map 1. The game has a limit of 10 turns. As historical accounts are not specific about which flank the woods appeared on I have placed woods on both flanks.
Scenario Option 1: The Battle of Newtonbutler – Historical re-fight Williamite Objective: You must drive the Jacobite Army from the field. Victory will be complete if you do so without losing more than 50% of your own strength
Scenario Option 2: The Battle of Newtonbutler – Hamilton returns! Objectives and deployment are as per scenario option: 1. The game has a limit of 10 turns 24
4 3 squadrons (1 Horse, 2 Dragoons) 12 troops (3 Horse, 9 Dragoons) 5 All All To determine precisely Hamilton’s point of arrival number the table edges 1-4. Dice using a D4 to locate the arrival. Now divide the chosen table edge into three equal sections. Roll a D3 to locate the precise point of entry. The vanguard will enter in line of troops or squadrons depending on the scenario scale chosen. Scenario Option 3: The Battle of Newtownbutler – Conjectural In this scenario option the cavalry clash at Lisnaskea has never taken place and the two forces meet at full strength in open country north of Newtownbutler. Lay out a table on flat or gently rolling terrain. A road should run from one long table edge across and exit on the other. Each player must place three terrain features each from the following selection: Small wood, small hill, enclosure, small marshy area. Each player can choose up to three of the same type of terrain piece. Terrain pieces can be placed adjacent to each other. Once this is completed roll off for choice of long table edge. Winner chooses. Players should then draw a map and mark on the disposition of their forces. When this is completed place all troops on the table and begin the game. There is no turn limit on this scenario. The object for each side is to win the day. Scenario Option 4: The Battle of Newtownbutler – Conjectural with preliminary cavalry clash In this final scenario option the cavalry clash at Lisnaskea is fought out before the main bodies meet. Set up a table as described in option 3. Dice for choice of table edge. Dice for initiative and the winner can choose to place a troop/squadron first or offer this to his opponent. Players should alternate placement until all troops are on the table. The orders of battle for Hamilton and Berry’s vanguards should be used to form each force. Deployment can be anywhere up to the table midpoint on own side of table.
The potential return of the Jacobite vanguard Starting from the beginning of game turn 3 the Jacobite player is allowed to roll two D6 every turn. When the sum total of these rolls reaches 21, Brigadier Hamilton arrives back on the field having rallied his troops. To determine exactly how many of the vanguard return roll a DAverage and consult the table below: DAv score Regimental size action Company size action
Surprise To simulate the shock of two vanguards bumping into each other unexpectedly use the following method to decide which side keeps its head and maintains the initiative. Each player rolls a D6. The player with
2 1 squadron (Horse) 4 troops (2 Horse, 2 Dragoons) 3 2 squadrons (1 Horse, 1 Dragoon) 8 troops (3 Horse, 5 Dragoons) 25
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Ordering information
25mm 1866 Prussian Line Infantry first release Prussian Line Infantry Charging
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the highest score is allowed a free move at the start of the game. This can involve declaring charges if any enemy troops or squadrons are within range. Charged units attempting to counter charge take their morale check at a +1(if BLB is used).For other rule sets modify morale test modifiers ‘to counter charge’ in a way that makes this more difficult for the force that has been surprised. Fight five turns of play. The side which has the most intact squadrons by the end of T5 is deemed to have come off best in the fight. Any squadrons in rout or under 50% strength at the end of T5 are removed from play. Clear the table and follow the set up procedure described in Option 3 to create a new table set up. Once this is done the winner of the cavalry clash can choose which table side they wish to set up on and they can also make the opposing player deploy fully before they themselves deploy. The cavalry remaining intact at the end of the cavalry clash are added back into the main forces and can be deployed for battle.
+1 melee modifier for this. The morass should be impassable to horses and artillery. Foot should treat it as very difficult going and be disordered when in it. Some of the historical sources say that the ground in the morass had dried out sufficiently in the warm summer weather to allow the Protestant Horse to cross but for this scenario I have not allowed it. The woods should be difficult going for both horse and foot. The few buildings on the southern edge of Newtownbutler and the woods should be treated as soft cover and could be represented as burned out cottages. Table size If the regimental level game is played I recommend a 6 x 4 foot or 6 x 6 foot table. For the company level game which has far more units I would recommend an 8 x 6 or 10 x 6 foot table in 28mm scale. For a 15mm game these sizes could be reduced significantly.
Deployment The accompanying map shows troop dispositions as far as can be determined from available sources. As Terrain a variation, players may actually wish to deploy one The hill should be treated as gentle but giving an or two Jacobite regiments in column of march on the advantage to those on higher ground. BLB gives a road out of Newtonbutler but about half way across
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the table. The Protestant foot can be deployed on the road also in March column but their dragoons and horse may be positioned forward of Newtonbutler and with a possibility of catching the enemy before they cross the causeway and form up with the rest of their army. Beneath the Lily Banners special rules recommendations BLB has several additional rules which can be used to give this action some further depth and flavour. I recommend the following are used: Capturing colours and standards p26 Melee modifiers for Jacobite Horse p32 Melee modifiers for Jacobite/Williamite foot p32 If you do not have BLB I suggest that you make the Jacobite Horse superior in melee combat to the Williamites. I also recommend that you give an extra ‘religious antipathy’ melee bonus when the foot of each side charge into combat.
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Modifying the scenario for other periods. This scenario could easily transpose into other periods with little or no adjustments. I suggest the following would be easy to do • An AWI early period encounter with locally recruited Loyalists and American volunteers clashing on the march. • ECW early to mid war encounter anywhere in the country with the retinues of important local men meeting as they march towards each other. • An early war ACW clash between large but inexperienced regiments of volunteers perhaps even from the same State. Results There is enough variation in the scenario options to fight four different games. The sides although not equal are close enough to give each force a chance of winning without being sterile and even on the points or army list principle. I have enjoyed the challenge of this game on several occasions and am certain some of you will too.
References Books ‘A Jacobite narrative of the war in Ireland’ (a project from the history department of University College, Cork) ‘The popular history of England’ (Charles Knight, 1859), ‘The Battle of the Boyne’ Campaign title 160 (Michael McNally) Osprey Publishing ‘William III at war in Scotland & Ireland’ (Alan Sapherson) Raider Books ‘The Succession of Colonels of the British Army from 1660 to the present day’ (NB Leslie, Society for Army Historical Research, Special publication No11, 1974) ‘The Boyne & Aughrim, The War of the two Kings’(John Kinross), The Windrush Press ‘Irish Battles A military History of Ireland’ G.A.HayesMcCoy (Appletree Press) ‘1644’ ECW Rules (Rick Priestley) Wargames Foundry ‘Beneath the Lily Banners’ Fast play wargames 16601720 (Barry Hilton 2008) WordTwister Publishing Websites
http://mackays1626.com/Site/Dumbartons166085-677. html http://www.leagueofaugsburg.com
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MAKING A SIMPLE A-FRAME HOUSE Left: The best bit about Dark Age buildings is that they are, generally speaking, pretty simple. We made this one out of balsa wood and a roll of teddy bear fur! As you can see it was four pieces and a length of fur that is long enough to cover the long rectangular roof sections when assembled. Below: Assembly is pretty simple and we used the No More Nails adhesive to hold it all together. The fur was applied using PVA.
Below: Now for the really odd bit - making a mess of the fur by painting it with PVA glue. This does, if you get it right, take your fur and turn it into straw!
Below: Once it has all dried the next step is to give it a base upon which it can reside. You can simply place it on a flat base or be a little bit more adventurous. This is a slice of 50mm polystyrene that has been carved into a rough shape and then covered in...
... cat litter! A bit absorbent but it works well as a rough and cheap basing material. The A frame building can then be glued down, some more detailing applied (we added an outside loo and dug out some old weapons and shields and glued them to the base. A quick coat of brown paint and it is ready for some dry-brushing. As you can see from our LOTR pictures on page 83 it blends in easily with the GW figures, but will work equally well with Saxon figures from Gripping Beast. 33
To the soldiers on the ground the aircraft of the WWI pilots must have seemed almost invincible as they flew over the battlefields. But the life expectancy of these brave aviators wasn’t very long and the arrival of men like von Richthofen, Bishop, Mannock, Ball, Immelman, Guynemer and others made the life of the more average pilot very dangerous indeed. We present for your gaming pleasure a complete set of rules covering WWI aerial combat and even if you don’t have any miniatures – well we’ve provided everything you need. Feel free to photocopy the graphics we’ve created and you can also download them at www.wargamesjournal.com INTRODUCTION It was a time that needed heroes, men who would take to the skies in wood and canvas aircraft that usually had a top speed of a little over 100mph. Death was close to the tail of most young pilots but there were the exceptions, men who defied the Grim Reaper and kept fighting on. Names like von Richthofen, Rickenbacker, Guynemer, Bishop, Mannock and Ball were the stuff of aerial legends. These names flew aircraft with names like Fokker, Spad, Albatros, Nieuport and Sopwith Camel.
fell into enemy hands. You could say that Garros and his airplane ushered in a new era of aviation. Following its capture the airplane was taken to Anthony Fokker so he could replicate the system for German fighters. However, Fokker was not happy with the concept of using a reinforced system, thinking it inadequate for the role, and so he developed a synchronised propeller system in which the prop would momentarily stop when the machine gun was fired. The result of this work was an aircraft called the Fokker E.III Eindecker. Its premiere on the aerial battlefield was to see German pilot Max Immelman score a kill on August 1, 1915.
Above the battlefields of World War I the first aerial dog fighting took place as Allied and German pilots duelled for domination. Planes were a new invention and aerial combat even newer.
As a side note, Roland Garros escaped from a German prison camp on February 15, 1918 and returned to France. Welcomed as a hero, the pioneer of aerial combat had come home.
So how did it all start? On April 1, 1915 a French pilot by the name of Roland Garros shot down a German Albatros airplane. His Morane Parasol aircraft had been modified to allow a machinegun to fire forward past the propellers, a design that was specifically for the purpose of aerial combat. Garros had worked with designer Raymond Saulnier to reinforce the aircraft’s propeller blades so that they could deflect bullets from a forward-firing machinegun.
It was to be a bloody period for the Allied pilots as they found themselves helpless against the German planes. Bombing missions into German territory were halted by the French and morale plummeted amongst the pilots who referred to themselves as “Fokker fodder.” The period of advantage allowed the German pilots to steadily build up kills and more and more medals were pinned to puffed-out German chests. The aforementioned Max Immelman and Oswald Boelke ruled the skies over France, flying together and practising their aerial combat tactics and
Garros was to see some success in his role as a dog-fighter pilot, right up until the point when he was forced to land in German territory and, unable to burn his airplane, both he and it
The gaming table can be as complex or as simple as you want it to be. Here we simply used a 4’ x 4’ grass board, lined up our Aces and away we went.
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techniques. Germany protected its new advantage and an Eindecker was never allowed to cross enemy lines where it might be shot down, captured, and ultimately copied. The time of advantage, however, ended in 1916 when a German pilot managed to get lost in heavy fog and landed in France. Captured, the plane was dismantled and it wasn’t long before the British launched the Sopwith Strutter and the French introduced the Nieuport 17. The two aircraft used the synchronised system from the captured Eindecker but also combined the synchronised propeller system with stronger engines. Testimony as to how this changed fighting in the skies came with the death of Immelman on June 18, 1916 - the French and the British suddenly announced their reign over the skies. The change in air power led the German development of the Albatros D.I, the first airplane developed for the sole purpose of aerial combat. But it took time to bring this machine to bear and as the war continued in the summer of 1916 Allied airplanes flew freely over the Front. It had a major impact on the morale of the German troops on the ground. Germany’s loss at the Battle of the Somme provoked a swift response from the German military planners, showing it was a necessity to gain air superiority. National resources were directed toward Albatros production and Oswald Boelke was called back from a propaganda tour. He quickly organised the nation’s aerial combat resources into Jagdstaffeln, or hunting squadrons, which were commonly known as Jastas.
The true extent of the Jastas’ power came in April 1917 at the Battle of Arras, better known as “Bloody April.” The French had withdrawn their squadrons to rest, having had enough of a mauling at the hands of the Jastas. The British decided to fight on, believing that numerical superiority - 385 fighters over the 114 German fighters - was enough to ensure victory. The Germans were to smash the British, a staggering one third of its fighter force killed, and the flying life expectancy of a British pilot was a mere 17½ hours.
These units were not attached to any ground units and were moved around, not patrolling the skies but scrambling to reported sightings of enemy aircraft and then hunting them down. This was aggressive aerial combat and it was all based around a set of doctrines created by Boelke, which were basically a set of aerial combat techniques developed to cover attack and tactics.
“Bloody April” forced the British to reassess their aerial combat strategy, following the Germans in a bid to bring quality and not quantity to bear. The month of April was to see the end (again!) of German air superiority. A new machine, the Sopwith Camel, was to take to the skies and this small, light airplane with twin forward-firing machineguns flown by experienced pilots was to make a difference. Then the French arrived with the Spad XIII and it wasn’t long before the Americans arrived, flying the aforementioned Spad XIII and the Nieuport 28.
Pilots for the first Jasta were hand picked by Boelke and within their ranks was a former aerial observer named Manfred von Richthofen, soon to achieve fame as the “Red Baron.” Flying the new Albatros airplanes the Jastas were deadly fighting units and, hitting the skies in the fall of 1916, the first five weeks of action saw Boelke double his personal kill count to 40, but he was to soon die in a midair collision with a squadron mate. Now a new commander took over: von Richthofen.
By the fall of 1917 the war was taking its toll on the German nation and shortages of raw materials had slowed aircraft production. But this didn’t stop the designers coming up with new designs and here we have the arrival of the Fokker D.VII, considered by many to be the best combat aircraft that took to the skies during the Great War. But large enough numbers were never made and so its impact on the war was marginal. THE GAME Knights of the Sky (KotS) is a game for two or more players in which the battle between the first fighter pilots can be recreated. The game is simplistic in nature to enable it to be picked up quickly and played easily. It is ideal for more than two players battling it out at the same time. KotS uses dice and cards to play. REQUIREMENTS To play this game you’ll need D6s, a tape measure or two, a board of some description and a pack of playing cards. The various cards and reference sheets are supplied in this magazine and will need to be photocopied and mounted onto the cards with some spray mount or other adhesive material. Alternatively they can be downloaded from the WJ web site. Typically the game is played on a 4’ by 4’ gaming board and we used 1/100th scale pre-painted Corgi models to play this game 37
but you can use your own preferred miniatures without needing to adjust the rules. However, if you don’t have any models of your own we have provided you with counters so you can get playing as soon as possible. For the 1/100th scale models we mounted them on 5” hexagonal bases, but if you are using smaller scales you will want to reduce the size of these appropriately.
a new hex side. This is known as banking and allows the plane to adjust its heading ready for the next manoeuvre and to also target enemy planes. Each manoeuvre has a difficulty rating of between 1 and 6, depending on how hard the manoeuvre is to perform. When the order is attempted roll a D6; if the difficulty is equalled or beaten the manoeuvre is successful, if not the plane moves forward one hex distance instead. Players can also voluntarily choose to just move forward one hex instead of attempting a manoeuvre. Certain planes give bonuses to certain manoeuvre attempts depending on the plane’s advantages, so a faster plane will more easily make manoeuvres relating to speed and a more manoeuvrable one can turn more easily.
REFERENCE SHEETS Each aircraft is represented by a sheet, on which all of its necessary information is displayed. These include such things as its current state of damage, pilot lives, how powerful its guns are and any bonuses it gives you when performing manoeuvres. Each player needs one of these reference sheets for his particular aircraft. MANEOUVERING To play this game you will need 48 manoeuvre cards in total by preparing two lots of cards from sheet one and one from sheet two. These cards then dictate how planes move across the gaming board and contain a variety of aerial manoeuvres that can be played out during a game turn. At the start of the turn each player draws three, four or five manoeuvre cards depending on the skill of the pilot. Of these they must use three during the turn. A Seasoned pilot with four cards can therefore pick which one not to use, and an Ace selects his best three out of his five cards.
Use the manoeuvre hex template to determine where the plane ends its movement and what route it takes to get there. If at any point the plane crosses the path of another roll one, two or three D6s depending on whether the pilot is Novice, Seasoned or Ace. If all 1’s are rolled the planes collide and are destroyed. SHOOTING If at any point during a manoeuvre a plane come into another plane’s fire lane (this is simple to see by imagining parallel lines exiting the aircraft’s hex from the direction the aircraft is facing) and the plane can be shot at. This can be as a result of either plane’s manoeuvre but each plane may only shoot once per manoeuvre phase. Measure the range to decide whether it’s close, medium or long range. If the plane is further away than long range then it cannot be hit. Roll a number of D6s depending on the pilot’s skill - one, two or three D6s for Novices, Seasoned pilots and Aces respectively.
Manoeuvre Cards Novice 3 Seasoned 4 Ace 5
SHOOTING Close Medium Long
Players play manoeuvre cards at the same time in three manoeuvre phases. In each phase they secretly select the one they want to use in the current phase and place it face down on the board. Once all players have done this the cards are turned over. Aces get to perform their manoeuvre first, followed by Seasoned pilots and finally Novices. Once everyone has performed the manoeuvre the next card is selected by all players and played out in the same way. This is repeated once more for the third and final card. At the end of a manoeuvre the plane may be turned 45 degrees to either the left or right so that it is facing
INCHES TO HIT 1-12 4+ 13-24 5+ 25-36 6
SKILL D6s ROLLED Novice 1 Seasoned 2 Ace 3
The Camel on the bottom right is about to turn quickly in a bid to shoot the German
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For each hit that is caused a number of D6s are then rolled based on the effectiveness of the plane’s machineguns. This is its gun rating. A Sopwith Camel for example has a gun rating of 3, so that if its pilot scores two hits, six dice will now be rolled. Each roll of 4+ then causes a single point of damage to the enemy aircraft. When the aircraft can no longer take any more damage it is destroyed.
which trait the Ace receives. If a pilot rolls a trait he already has he may roll again. If the second roll is also a trait he already has he may pick one. Once the Ace has all the traits he cannot gain any more. By that point he will equal to the Red Baron himself!
Aircraft have three damage ratings: Light, Medium and Heavily damaged. When the aircraft suffers Medium damage the number of cards the pilot receives is reduced by one, and then a further one when it becomes Heavily damaged, thereby lessening the plane’s overall effectiveness as it sustains more and more damage. If a natural 6 is rolled the pilot has been wounded and loses a wound. When the pilot has no wounds left he has been killed and the plane is removed from play, regardless of how much damage it has left to take. Each pilot starts with 3 wounds, but some Aces may have more. PLAYING THE GAME You don’t need to worry particularly about scenarios with this game - just get a plane each and start as far away on the table as possible. It’s best to play one-off games with equal pilot skills if there are just two of you, though if you are playing uneven sides in a multiplayer game then the sides can be evened out with the pilot skills. So, you might have two Novice pilots fighting a single Seasoned pilot, or two Seasoned pilots against an Ace. To make the game more fun it can be played as a campaign, with players starting as Novices on the road to becoming Aces. To do this all players start as Novices and each time they cause a plane to be destroyed they add a kill to their kill count. If multiple players damage a plane it’s the player who actually causes the destroying shot who claims the kill. Once he has got two kills the pilot starts the next game as Seasoned and then at five kills they are an Ace. Then for every five additional kills they gain one roll on the trait table. Roll 2D6 and refer to the trait table to find out
2D6 ROLL
TRAIT
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Fast Shooter +1 to hit at Close Range when shooting Gunner +1 to hit at Medium Range when shooting Smooth Flyer +1 to Turn manoeuvres Consistent Shot Can re-roll any 1’s when shooting Lucky Devil You get to choose any trait you want Slippery Enemies receive -1 to hit when shooting Trickster +1 to Slip and Immelman manoeuvres Dodge Any pilot wounds are negated on a D6 roll of 6 Speed Demon +1 to Move and Fast Move manoeuvres Marksman +1 to hit at Long Range Trigger Happy Roll an additional dice when rolling for shooting
IN CONCLUSION As you can see the game is very simple and very quick to learn. As with most games arguments may occur and if this happens just roll a dice each and the highest roll decides who is right. Happy flying!
SKY LEGENDS
There are many Aces who served with distinction during the Great War and this list is, in no way, complete. Erich Lowenhardt Germany KIA – 1918 54 Kills
He wasn’t on the scene for very long but we’ll forever remember his name because he is the inventor of the “Immelman Turn’. He died fighting 7 enemy aircraft.
Erich was a former infantryman who had the misfortune of bailing out of his crippled aircraft, only to find his parachute wouldn’t open.
Oswald Boelcke Germany KIA – 1916 40 Kills
Fritz Rumey Germany KIA – 1918 45 Kills Wounded twice and returning to active duty after both incidents, Fritz was killed in a mid-air collision with an enemy aircraft. Manfred von Richthofen Germany KIA – 1918 80 Kills Known by several titles (the Red Baron, Red Devil or Red Knight), Manfred painted his plane bright red to scare his opponents. A prolific pilot, he is the most famous Ace of WWI. Max Immelman Germany KIA – 1916 15 Kills
apparently a gifted athlete and his number if kills would have been higher if it had not been for one year of hospitalisation. Jim ‘Mac’ McCudden England KIA – 1918 57 Kills
His name is not that well known today but Oswald was a true innovator and his rules for air combat are still studied today. The first pilot to use Fokker’s synchronised machinegun in combat. ‘Mick’ Mannock England KIA – 1918 61 Kills
A former aircraft engineer turned pilot who was a ‘natural’ pilot. Billy Bishop Canada Survived the war 72 Kills Known as ‘The Lone Hawk’ this man liked to fly alone and was a prolific hunter of German aircraft. As Canada’s top ace he accredited his success to practice and great eyesight!
Mick was the top ace for England during WWI. Despite his amazing tally of kills he was, so it is said, a very humble man. Phil Fullard England Survived the war 40 Kills The expression ‘bag the Hun’ is almost too apt for Phil who apparently downed three enemy aircraft before breakfast once. He was
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Eddie Rickenbacker USA Survived he war 26 Kills As the USA’s top ace, Eddie was awarded the Medal of Honour. He once faced off against 7 German aircraft single-handedly and managed to shoot 2 of them down.
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SHEET 1
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SHEET 2
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The two 28mm figures come from Foundry’s Darkest Africa range and we have used the Foundry Paint System to create them. Nine colours (3 shades of each) were used in total and a simple basing technique finished them off.
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Having taken delivery of a batch of Wargames Foundry paints I decided that I would play around with its three tone paint system. As I had been painting some hunters and explorers for the dinosaur hunt article on page 34 I kept two miniatures to one side as the subjects for this Brush Strokes article.
1
The figures are from the Wargames Foundry Darkest Africa range and have bags of character. I picked the cricket chap and the manservant, because they are fun and have some cool details that make them stand out.
2
There was a minimum of mould flash, which I quickly cut off with a Stanley knife. I based them up on two pence pieces with super glue and glued sand to both the base and two pence pieces with PVA glue.
2
I sprayed them with Humbrol Matt Black aerosol and undercoated them with Inscribe Acrylics Raven. I tend to be a bit slapdash with sprays, so I covered the bits I missed with Raven or Burnt Umber, and after all, two layers are better than one. That is Stage 1 so far, but I decided to paint the base as well. I normally paint the bases at the end of the process, but if you paint a batch of twenty or thirty figures it can be easier to do it first. That way you can drybrush the bases with a large brush.
3
4
I painted the bases with Inscribe Acrylic Burnt Umber and then drybrushed with Anita’s Acrylic Coffee and Miniature Paints Sand. I painted the edge of the two pence pieces with Raven to clean up where I had scuffed them while drybrushing. After this all of the paints I used were Wargames Foundry. In Stage 2 I started colour matching between the cricket chap and manservant so that I could use the same colours. I used Dusky Flesh 6A on the manservant’s skin, leaving some black on the face to give shadow. I also used it to paint the bindings on the cricket bat. I used Flesh 5A on the cricket chap’s skin, leaving some black in his earholes for shadow. I also used it on the bottle lid on the manservant’s platter.
3
4
In Stage 3 I built up the muscle tone on the manservant with Dusky Flesh 6B and 6C, exaggerating the facial detail with the highlights. I also used them to highlight the cricket bat bindings. I built up the muscle tone on the cricket chap with Flesh 5B and 5C, and also used them to highlight the bottle lid. It irks me to do it, but I put blobs of 6C and 5C on the knuckles of each figure, because it looks striking.
5
In Stage 4 I painted the platter and cricket bat with Spearshaft 13A, while I painted the mug and cricket chap’s belt with Deep Brown Leather 45A. On the web site this paint is listed as Brown Leather 45A; I have stated here what was written on the lid.
5
In Stage 5 I highlighted with Spearshaft 13B and C, and Deep Brown Leather 45B and C. I painted vertical lines on the bat, rings around the rim of the platter and horizontal lines on the mug and belt with each highlight. This helps define the objects, even if what you paint is nonsense(!)
6
In Stage 6 I painted the clothing on both figures with Raw Linen 30A; it was a bit of an experiment because 30A looks ‘green’. I had committed myself though, and got total coverage of paint on the clothes, rather than having black shadows on it.
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6
the world’s meanest streets await Ambush Alley is a modern miniature wargame that allows players to recreate the intense counter-insurgency actions in an urban environment that have become the hallmark of 21st century warfare. The rules revolve around a universal mechanic that is easy to grasp but supports a high level of detail and rewards sound tactical play. The game’s dynamic turn sequence captures the turmoil of the modern city fight and integrated fog of war keeps things chaotic and unpredictable! Ambush Alley contains complete rules for all the key elements of modern counter-insurgency and street-fighting, including: • Civilians on the Battlefield • Full Vehicle Rules • Special Assets & Off-Board Support • Night Combat • UAVs • IEDs and VBIEDs • Building Clearing • And much more! Ambush Alley includes five scenarios and sample organizational charts for US, British, and Australian forces. The game can be played at any scale from 15mm up. 15mm scenarios call for a 2’x2’ table, while 28mm games only require a 4’x4’ table. Ambush Alley is easy on the pocketbook where miniatures are concerned. Few scenarios require more than ten figures for the Regular force and a dozen or so for the Insurgents. Ambush Alley also offers full solo-play rules, so players can still have fun pushing their figures around the table even when a flesh and blood opponent isn’t available! Learn more at www.ambushalleygames.com!
ambush alley games
www.ambushalleygames.com
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PL
D IN 17 COU AYE NT ES RI
PL
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IN 1
7 C O U N T RI
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You break down the blind side and tear through the defence. You're out in the clear. Almost. The only thing standing between you and rugby glory is 120kg's of bone crunching muscle. You've got the pace, but have you got the guts? Pound your opponents with fearless forward drives, feed the ball to your ever elusive backs, chip n' chase, or play it safe and kick for touch. Whatever your rugby tactics or game plan Crash Tackle™ lets you decide when to Make the breaks, force the errors, and take your chances!
www.crashtackle.co.za
SOCIETYOFACIETS
26thApril2008 SycamoreHall,Bletchley,MK23RR www.soa.org.uk 50
7
In Stage 7 I painted the bulk of the raised areas on the clothing with Raw Linen 30B. I did the same on large surface areas like the shoulders and skirt. I then painted over 30B with 30C, leaving a generous margin of 30B showing underneath. I also painted irregular shapes of 30C, leaving lines of 30B underneath to give shadow.
7
Raw Linen looks a bit odd, like baby puke or mustard. I would advise trying Canvas 8A, B and C, or Boneyard 9A, B and C. My choice would be Arctic Grey 33A, B and C, which gives a very clean white finish.
8
In Stage 8 I painted the ‘house colours’ of the cricket chap on both figures. I painted the manservant’s towel with alternate lines of Deep Blue 20A and Orange 3A. The cricket chap was a bit more awkward. I painted his cap and tie in alternate 20A and 3A, with an Orange peak on the tie and both colours in a triangle on the cricket bat.
8
In Stage 9 I highlighted the Deep Blue with 20B and C, and Orange with 3B and C. These were fine details, so I painted two thick lines with B on both colours. Then I painted two thin lines with C on both highlights. The shade and light tones of Deep Blue and Orange are quite subtle, so they probably work better on large areas.
9
In Stage 10 I painted the hair on both figures with Arctic Grey 33A, plus the cricket chap’s belt buckle and the label on the bottle. At the same time as this I painted the bottle and the cricket chap’s shoes with Deep Mauve 58A.
9
In Stage 11 I highlighted the hair, buckle and label with Arctic Grey 33B and C, painting horizontal lines on the hair, with vertical lines on the belt buckle and label. I also highlighted the bottle and shoes with Deep Mauve 58B, and highlighted the bottle again with 58C.
10
I painted the eyes on both figures with Arctic Grey 33B, though you could probably use any pale whitish colour like Canvas 8C or Boneyard 9C. One trick is to paint in both corners of the eye so the undercoat shows through. I painted the whole eye, and added the iris in using Deep Mauve 58B.
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In Stage 12 I glued Woodland Scenics static grass to the base, followed by a clump of Woodland Scenics Tree Foliage for each figure. It gives a nice dense finish. The bases were then tidied up with black paint. Voila!
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12 Too busy thinking about the cricket fields of England, this intrepid adventurer is about to get far more than just a glass of sherry! 51
We’ve long been fans of the miniatures that are designed by the Perry Twins, Alan and Michael. Their passion for a subject cannot be questioned and is clearly illustrated by their miniatures, none more so than by their superb range of 40mm Peninsular Napoleonic figures. The images on these two pages were supplied by the Perrys and feature resin models from Grand Manner. Picture 1 shows French infantry fighting its way into a Spanish town, English troops supported by loyal Spanish Guerrillas defending. Picture 2 shows a group of French moving in from behind the buildings, perhaps trying to outflank the defenders.
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Picture 3 shows Lippe Infantry and you have to marvel at a few things here: one of the Perrys is a dab hand at PhotoShop we think, merging the bases of the figures into the shot, along with the buildings. But most of all we love the poses of the miniatures, the apparent nonchalance of the figure to the right who is clearly checking to make sure his fingers haven’t fallen off. And who would want to mess with the man-mountain to the left?
The drama of Picture 4 is what makes this image - the dismounted Hussar and his horse adds to the overall feel of defenders valiantly fighting against the enemy. The armed monk is a great figure and the ‘sniper’ on the roof looks set to make a kill any moment. The buildings in this picture are the latest additions to Grand Manner’s 28/30mm Latin Hispanic range. The work done by the company has obviously caught the eye of the Perrys and although aimed at 28/30mm figures they clearly work with these 40mm minis.
The life of these Spanish infantry (Picture 5) is set to get busy, as the French decide to capture the town. This shot captures the quality of the resin along with the casual infantry, one clearly priming his weapon as another, weapon just propped over his shoulder, watches on. Our final image (Picture 6) shows a much larger group of French infantry entering the town, word of the defenders having reached the commanders, who despatch new troops to bolster the assault.
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It was one of the toughest missions of D-Day and worthy of its place in the history books. But Pegasus Bridge pipped it to the winning line as the most celebrated Paratrooper mission of 1944. We look at the complexity of the Merville Battery and provide a 28mm scale skirmish map and a complete Rapid Fire scenario aimed at 20mm miniatures. INTRODUCTION Located at the eastern end of the Normandy coastline is the small port town of Ouistreham. At the time of the DDay Invasion on June 6th, 1944 this quiet fishing town was to become the focus of intense fighting. The beach assaults on Sword and Juno beaches by the British and Canadians are well documented, as are the exploits of the US forces at Omaha and Utah.
machine guns and up to three 20mm anti-aircraft guns. Dropping Zone (DZ) ‘V’, a group of fields 1¼ miles east of the objective, was to be secured by ‘C’ Company, 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion. Pathfinder Paras of the 22nd Independent Parachute Company would then mark the DZ in order to guide in the main drop. ‘A’ Company, 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, was to protect the left flank of the 9th Parachute Battalion in its approach march and attack on the Battery. Prior to the assault 100 heavy bombers were to ‘soften up’ the objective; the result of this was to make the landscape in and around the Battery resemble the craters on the moon.
One of the critical elements of the invasion was the consolidation of forces around a defended bridgehead, from which the ground forces could quickly pour into the French landscape. The eastern flank of the assault was key to this and the task of defending it (the bulk of the German tank strength in Paris would come this way) was given to the 6th Airborne Division.
This mission had been well rehearsed on a full size mockup of the Battery, every man knowing precisely his role in the assault, and several special groups had been formed to carry out the pre-attack tasks. A Rendez-Vous (RV) Party was to drop at 12.20am to organise and control the assembly of the Battalion on the DZ. Jumping with them was A ‘Troubridge’ (Battery Reconnaissance) Party which was to head straight for the Merville Battery. Its tasks were to make a reconnaissance of the Battery, meet the Battalion outside the objective, advise the CO on the prospects of his plan and lead the unit along to the assault by the best route.
Acting as a buffer the Division performed many famous operations during the Normandy landings, the most famous of which is the capture - intact - of the bridges over the Caen Canal and the River Orne at Benouville. The attack and capture of ‘Pegasus’ Bridge and the River Orne (‘Horsa’) Bridge have received huge publicity and are wargamed around the world. But the Merville Battery has not been given the same attention and indeed is often an unknown mission for many. The Paras were given the job of silencing a battery of four concrete gun emplacements near the village of Merville, 3 miles east of Ouistreham. Intelligence showed that these casements housed 155mm calibre guns which could do significant damage to the troops landing on the beaches. This threat had to be neutralised.
The main body of the Battalion was due to begin jumping at 12.50am. First out was a Taping Party which was to reconnoitre and clear gaps in the minefields up to the perimeter fence, marking the best approach to the Battery as indicated by the Troubridge Party. This was a complex mission with many crucial elements, some of which are listed below:
THE MISSION Merville Battery was given to the 9th Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, which was part of the 3rd Parachute Brigade. The battalion’s Commanding Officer was Lt Colonel Terence Otway. This battalion had evolved from the 10th Battalion, The Essex Regiment.
• 90 minutes were allowed to reorganise and get clear of the RV, and so the moving off time was set for 2.35am. • The Battalion would assault at a pre-arranged ‘firm base’, about 500 yards from the Battery, sometime between 4.10am and 4.20am. • The plan also called for 3 Horsa gliders, carrying men of ‘A’ Company, plus some 591 Parachute Squadron Engineers, to land within the Battery perimeter itself. These engineers carried the explosives that were to destroy the guns. • As the gliders arrived above the Battery a mortar would illuminate the area around the casemates with star-bombs. At 4.30am, as the first glider was due to land, the bugler would sound another signal and the firing of star-bombs would stop. The attack would then go in. ‘B’ Company was to blow gaps in the inner wire and ‘C’ Company was to carry out the assault.
However, the Battery was not going to be a pushover. A 400-yard anti-tank ditch, 15ft wide by 10ft deep, wound its way around the west and north-western sides. Then two belts of barbed wire surrounded the whole Battery, the outer being tricky, but the inner being, to quote Neil Barber, ‘fearsome’, at 6ft high by 10ft deep. Just to add insult to injury, between these belts was a minefield and around the other approaches to the Battery were more minefields. An estimated 160 men were garrisoned here, manning 15 to 20 weapons pits, each containing 4 to 5 54
IT NEVER GOES TO PLAN The pre-attack parties made their jumps, but the Canadians were dropped over a wide area, 30 or so of them hitting the DZ, the rest scattered within a one mile radius. Fortunately little resistance was met on the DZ and the Pathfinders set up the navigational aids. However, the drop had damaged a number of the ‘Eureka Beacons’. The Troubridge Party landed next and they were followed by the bombers.
En route they met Major George Smith, commander of the Troubridge Party who informed them that his men had cut the outer wire fence, crossed the large minefield and listened to the German sentries, ascertaining that the defences were no tougher than expected. But the mine clearing had been hampered by the loss of the mine detectors and his men had cleared a path with their bare hands, marking a path by scraping their feet in two lines in the earth. Also, the attack by the heavy bombers had missed the Battery!
Two nasty surprises awaited the Paras: firstly, the fields in the area were surrounded by water-filled ditches, almost moat-like. Secondly, the Germans had opened the sluice gates of the nearby River Dives, flooding the fields over a wide area to the east of the DZ to a depth of around 4 feet.
As if things couldn’t get any worse for the Paras the gliders carrying the engineers also hit trouble, one returning to England almost immediately. But two did manage to continue towards their target. By 4am Otway had formed a new plan based on his 150 men and it was a simple one: make two holes through the barbed wire and send two assault teams through, each splitting off into two groups, one for each casement. Another team would neutralise the German machinegun posts and as for the gliders, well they would get what support they could when they landed.
The main force of around 540 men was carried by 32 Dakotas and as they approached the DZ they were met with heavy flak fire and also a dust cloud, generated by the earlier inaccurate bombing, caused the drop to go awry. Colonel Otway’s own plane took three goes to get the Paras out and only 7 of the 20 men managed to disentangle themselves in time to jump while over the DZ. The Taping Party landed in the water and lost the tape. By the time Otway reached the RV hardly anyone was there.
As it turned out the gliders were not to be a concern. The first one missed the target, thinking the village of Gonneville was the target, and when the error was realised it was too late and the Horsa crashed into the water. The second glider crashed 500 yards to the east of the Battery into an orchard. As they exited they entered a firefight with some German troops in the area.
Worse news was to greet Otway: the gliders transporting the 9th Battalion’s mortars, anti-tank guns and mine detectors had also not arrived and there was also only one Vickers machine gun. There was to be no support equipment for the assault on the Battery. By the appointed time of 2.35am only 110 men had reported to the RV, but Otway had a small ‘window’ of time and this allowed another 40 Paras to arrive. The force stood at 150 men.
GAPS APPEAR With more gaps in his plan than a string vest Otway bravely fought on and as the gaps in the wire were blown the Paras
This map is an abstract of the area and provides enough detail to plan and play a skirmish level assault on Merville Battery. As you can see the minefields make this a tricky assault and the trench/barbed wire hamper the way in. We are currently making a 28mm scale version of the battery and we plan to play the game on an 8’ x 6’ gaming table using Artizan Paratroopers, Foundry Germans and Grand Manner terrain.
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went in, running head first into the assault, sten guns firing from the hip. It was around 4.30am when the chaos began and vicious hand-to-hand fighting took place for roughly 20 minutes until the defenders finally surrendered. As the Paras entered the casements they found 100mm field guns in place – the main armament had yet to be fitted. With no explosives the Paras did what they could to put the guns out of action.
6th Airborne Division, a Major-General Richard Gale, apparently ordered that the Battery be again silenced, but this time it was Nos. 4 and 5 Troops of No 3 Commando that were given the job. The initial assault went well for the commandos who retook Merville Battery, the Germans inside fighting to the death, inflicting light wounds on the commandos. However, Major John Pooley was killed in the assault. Soon after this a major counterattack by the Germans, this time with armoured support, seems to have inflicted much larger casualties on the commandos.
By the end of the assault only 75 Paras were left standing. They had taken 22 prisoners, with the remainder of the Germans presumed killed or escaped from the ‘Red Devils’. The mission was a success – of sorts. The bravery of these men was a credit to their unit and to the leadership of Otway who, being faced with overwhelming odds against success, managed to grasp victory out of the jaws of a mis-jump!
There is some debate over whether the Commando raid was really needed, but I suppose at the time it was. Merville Battery was nowhere near as ‘dangerous’ as it could have been, but like Point du Hoc, you don’t know the truth of it until significant risk has been taken and losses incurred. With the bombing mission having failed so badly to make any impact on the Battery the Para raid was needed, or lives would have been lost on Sword Beach.
THE DAY AFTER THE DAY Interestingly, on D+1 the Battery was, believe it or not, recaptured by the Germans and there were claims that it opened fire on the beaches. The commander of the
SCENARIO INTRODUCTION BY NEIL BARBER Author of ‘The Day The Red Devils Dropped In’
For nearly twenty years the story of the 9th Parachute Battalion’s D-Day assault on the Merville Gun Battery barely raised a mention amongst the myriad of books produced. Although Cornelius Ryan had featured it in his 1959 book The Longest Day, Darryl F Zanuck’s subsequent film could not include two British special operations and so the seizure of Pegasus Bridge was chosen. Publicitywise it has possibly taken until now to recover some of the recognition that it deserves.
attached to the battalion, who were to perform the actual destruction of the guns, did not arrive. Three assault gliders containing men of ‘A’ Company were to land inside the Battery just before the appointed time of assault. However, each glider suffered problems and only one managed to land close to the Battery but this did, fortunately, play an important role in preventing a German patrol from coming in behind the Paras. In darkness, the men stormed the site and fought their way into the casemates. Inside, they were confronted with Czech-built Skoda field guns of 100mm calibre. The main armament had not yet arrived. Even so, without the engineers’ explosives they had little or nothing to damage the guns. Various methods were tried to make them unserviceable such as using Gammon bombs or by dismantling the breech blocks. Shortly after, another German Battery along the coast began to shell the site and they rapidly withdrew, taking what wounded they could with them. Gathering at a Calvary further along the road, a headcount was taken. Only seventy-five men were still on their feet. More than fifty paratroopers lay dead within the Battery.
For those not familiar with the action, the Overlord planners believed that the Battery, situated beyond the Orne River at the eastern end of the invasion area, had the capability of causing havoc on Sword Beach. With the 6th Airborne Division providing a defensive buffer for that flank of the invasion, the 9th Parachute Battalion was allocated the task of silencing the Battery before the seaborne invasion commenced. The Merville Battery had four gun casemates with concrete walls up to six feet thick, with further protection afforded by a covering of six feet of earth. Each held one gun that, from the size of the casemates, was estimated to be around 150mm calibre. Various other concrete buildings were dotted around the Battery to command, supply and defend these casemates. The defences were formidable, involving machinegun posts, an anti-aircraft gun, minefields, thick belts of barbed wire and on the northern side a deep anti-tank ditch. It was believed to be garrisoned by around 150 men.
Even though the guns were smaller than expected, their efforts were not to be in vain. The Merville Battery was not given the opportunity to wreak the havoc that it no doubt would have. The bravery and sacrifice of these men contributed to the establishment of the Sword beachhead and thus saved many lives.
In the early hours of D-Day, for various reasons beyond their control the battalion suffered a horrendously scattered drop and the Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Terence Otway, was left with only 150 men from his original 600-plus to carry out the assault. Engineers
And so I hope that the following game serves to motivate you to find out more or perhaps furthers your interest, maybe even visit the site of one of the Parachute Regiment’s epic achievements.
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Mark is well known as a Rapid Fire scenario writer and when the need for a scenario that is more than just an assault on the Battery came about he was a perfect candidate to create one. The scenario is for Version 2 of the rules but will work with older variations as well. BACKGROUND In the early hours of June 6th, 1944 the British 3rd Airborne Brigade was tasked with destroying both the gun emplacements of the Merville battery and the vital bridges near Varaville. German local forces were poorly equipped and dispersed but, as bad luck would have it, the British forces were also widely dispersed. For the British commander the key was to quickly marshal available forces and complete both tasks as soon as possible.
and block line of sight. Hedges, barbed wire and mines are treated as detailed in Rapid Fire. SCENARIO RULES The game length is 10 moves, starting with British turn 1 and ending with German turn 12. Turns 1-5 are at night. Use the night fighting rules from the Rapid Fire rule book. On turn 6 HMS Arethusa will automatically fire on the Merville battery. Place the IDF template over the battery and roll 6 x 150mm guns.
TERRAIN The game is played on an approximately 9’ X 6’ table. All buildings start intact. The Merville Battery area is treated as four “bunkers” - each bunker is classed as prepared defences. The whole battery is surrounded by 1” of wire. Woods are a continuous feature for movement, provide soft cover and restrict visibility. Flooded areas are a continuous obstacle for infantry and impassable to vehicles. Elevations are a continuous feature for movement
To destroy either the Merville gun or the Varaville bridge any British element adjacent to the target and stationary may roll a D6. The bridge is destroyed on a 3, 4, 5 or 6. British airborne troops are equipped with Bangalore torpedoes. Likewise the German defenders would be aware of lanes in the wire. Instead of a turn to cross
BRITISH ORDER OF BATTLE [ALL ELITE] 3rd Parachute Brigade (-), 6th British Airborne Division
GERMAN ORDER OF BATTLE [ALL REGULAR] Elements 716th Infantry Division
9th Parachute Battalion (morale test @ 50% casualties) HQ CO + 5 figures, PIAT, 2” mortar (turn 2) 2 x Rifle Companies each 8 figures (turn 2) Support Company 6 figures, Vickers MMG, 3” mortar, Horsa glider, (turn 4) 6 figures, jeep + trailer, flamethrower, PIAT
3rd Battalion, 736th Infantry Regiment (-) (morale test @ 15 casualties) HQ CO + 6 figures (VARAVILLE) Rifle coy 11 figures, Panzerfaust, MMG (VARAVILLE) Rifle coy 11 figs, Panzerfaust, MMG (MERVILLE BATTERY) 1st Battalion, 1716th Regiment 4 gunners, 1 X 100mm Skoda (Czech) leFH 4/19 field gun, 3 figures, MMG, 8 figures (MERVILLE BATTERY * fixed 180 degree arc to the front) *Merville Battery is treated as a four “bunkers” 642nd Ost Battalion (-) (morale test @ 15 casualties) HQ CO + 6 figures (SALLENELLES) Rifle company 11 figures, Panzerfaust, MMG (SALLENELLES) Rifle company 11 figures, Panzerfaust, MMG (FRANCEVILLE PLAGE **)
Brigade HQ * Horsa glider, 6 figures, 2 x jeep & trailer (turn 3) *highest level HQ for morale purposes
** German troops in Franceville Plage may enter at either point A or B on the next German turn following the first shots by either side.
22nd Independent Parachute Company 2 x Detachments (each 4 figures – no morale test required) 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion (morale test @ 50% survivors) HQ CO + 5 figures, PIAT, 2” mortar (turn 1) 2 x Rifle Companies each 8 figures (turn 1) Support Company 6 figures, Vickers MMG, 3” mortar, Horsa glider, 6 figures, jeep + trailer, flamethrower, PIAT (turn 3)
Off-Shore Artillery HMS Arethusa 6 x 150mm (turn 6) 57
barbed wire treat it as a linear obstacle (i.e. roll D6) for both British attackers and German battery defenders (i.e. if counterattacking). DEPLOYMENT AND ARRIVALS German forces set up first as indicated. German forces may not move or fire during turn one: British airborne forces were widely dispersed. Instead of the standard rules use the following. Two markers should be placed in the centre of two different hexes to mark the two battalion drop zones (DZs). These are used for reference points and represent the Eureka beacons and marker panels placed by the pathfinders. For each element or crew served weapon & crew roll a D6 for dispersal (1-2 = on target, 3-4 = 12”, 5 = 24”, 6 = 36”) and randomise around the square as best you can. If an element lands in a flooded area it is lost. If it lands in a square containing woods or hedges or a square containing a BUA roll a D6 (the score = # casualties).
SOURCES • Orne Bridgehead (Battle Zone Normandy Series) – Lloyd Clark • The Big Drop – John Golley • Pegasus Bridge/Merville Battery – Carl Shilleto
Throw a second D6 for each support weapon (6 = destroyed). In the case of the BUA the survivors are placed in the open adjacent to the BUA. The element may not move during the turn that it is dropped.
• The Red Devils – From Bruneval to the Falklands – G.G. Norton • D-Day 1944 (3) Sword Beach & British Airborne Landings – Osprey Campaign – Ken Ford • Operation Market-Garden supplement – Colin Rumford • D-Day 6th June 1944 Campaign Guide – Colin Rumford • (Wargames Illustrated #183, December 2002) – David Bickley • The Penguin Atlas of D-Day – John Man • Merville Battery scenario - Nap Nuts Singapore Gamers http://napnuts.tripod.com/cf_merville.htm • The Battle for the Village of Varaville www.junobeach.org/e/4/can-tac-par-willes-e.htm • Canadian Army HQ Report No. 26, The 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion in France (June 6th – September 6th, 1944) www.forces.gc.ca/hr/dhh/downloads/ahq/ahq026.pdf
Gliders may land anywhere on the board that is clear as per the standard rules. No reserve fire is permitted against gliders or paratroops in the first turn. VICTORY CONDITIONS To win the British must destroy the gun in the Merville Battery AND destroy the Varaville bridge. The Germans win if they prevent the destruction of both the Merville battery AND the Varaville bridge. Any other result is a draw. ABOVE RIGHT: The Horsa glider carrying the support company lands safely and the Paras quickly deploy ...their objective of the Merville Battery ahead of them
Vicious hand-to-hand combat took place as the Paras overpowered the German defenders
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These rules are designed to be a set of modifications to enable you to play Napoleonic battles with the Warmaster Ancients rules. The WA mechanics couldn’t be simpler and without too much tweaking enable fast and furious Napoleonic games with a minimum of fuss.
form squares and only artillery can be limbered or unlimbered. Changing Formation: Changing between formations first requires the use of a successful order. Movement: In WA infantry normally move 20cm, cavalry 30cm and artillery 10cm. Ignore these values and instead use the table below to determine how fast a unit can move, which will depend on what formation it is in.
SCALE You can use these rules to play any scale of game, whether battalion, brigade or divisional level. The Warmaster rules are based around the unit, which in Napoleonic gaming would naturally equate to a battalion, but there is no reason why you cannot have that unit representing a brigade and the stands that make it up representing battalions. It’s entirely up to you.
Infantry Cavalry
UNIT SIZE The standard size of a unit in Warmaster is 3 stands, but in these rules this is increased to 4. This allows for greater formation flexibility within the game that suits Napoleonic warfare far better than 3 stands. FIGURE/BASE SIZE WA is designed for 10mm scale models with a 40mm by 20mm base, but that doesn’t mean you cannot use your 28mm figures on 40mm squares, or any other scale or base size. As long as you use a common system with your opponent anything can work, as long as the base size width is double its depth for infantry, and with cavalry and artillery the depth is double the width. For example, if you have your models all based on 40mm squares then two bases side by side will form one stand (for infantry), or two bases one behind the other will act as a single cavalry/artillery stand.
Artillery
Line
20
40
-
Column
30
60
-
Square
0
-
-
Skirmish
30
60
-
Limbered
-
-
10/20 (Horse Art.)
Unlimbered
-
-
0
Skirmish: A skirmishing unit is used to harass the enemy with its greater tactical flexibility, but such units can be isolated and vulnerable. Units in this formation count as skirmishing under the normal rules. In addition a skirmishing unit cannot be brigaded, is hit on a 5+ instead of 4+, cannot be supported in combat and in combat enemy stands are only hit on 6+. Column: A unit in column formation moves faster than normal but is very vulnerable to both ranged and close combat. Such a unit is hit on 3+ in shooting and combat.
ATTACKS For the sake of convenience this attribute is now split into two: attacks for Shooting and attacks for Combat.
Square: This formation was used primarily to protect a unit from a cavalry charge and it was exceptionally effective doing just that. A unit in square is arranged in just that, a square, with bases at right angles to form the shape and each stand receives an extra attack dice in combat against cavalry and they in turn are only hit on a 5+. However, they are more vulnerable to shooting and are hit on a 3+.
HITS This becomes less a measure of the physical toughness and endurance of a unit and more an indication of its skill, tactics, and training, so that a stand of the same number of men can have 2, 3, 4 or even 5 hits. Cavalry typically have 1 more hits than infantry.
ARMY LISTS Below are generic lists for the French, British, Russian, Prussian and Austrian armies of the period. These do not relate to specific battles and might need to be modified to better represent the quality of the armies at different parts of the period.
SAVES Units no longer have saves. To represent the armour that some cavalry wore, such units have additional hits in close combat. MORALE All units have a Morale rating, which is the modifier used when making a command role to order the unit.
COMMANDERS For each 1,000 points of troops the army receives a single general, one divisional commander, and two brigade commanders with Command values dependant on the army in question.
RANGE Infantry have 15cm shooting range, artillery have 40cm and horse artillery have 30cm. FORMATIONS Units follow the normal formations given in the WA rulebook but in Napoleonic games these can cause additional advantages and disadvantages in certain circumstances. There are also new formations to reflect the period. The formations are: line, column, square, skirmish, limbered and unlimbered. Only infantry can 60
General
Divisional
Brigade
French
10
9
8
British
9
8
7
Russian
9
8
7
Prussian
8
7
6
Austrian
8
7
6
FRENCH
TYPE
SHOOTING
COMBAT
HITS
MORALE
POINTS
Old Guard
Infantry
3
3
4
+1
90
Young Guard
Infantry
3
3
3
+1
80
Grenadier
Infantry
2
3
4
+0
80
Line
Infantry
2
3
3
+0
60
Light
Infantry
1
2
2
+0
40
Guard
Cavalry
-
4
5
+1
120
Heavy
Cavalry
-
3
5
+0
100
Light
Cavalry
-
3
4
+0
80
Foot
Artillery
4
1
2
+0
90
Horse
Artillery
4
1
2
+0
90
ENGLISH
TYPE
SHOOTING
COMBAT
HITS
MORALE
POINTS
Guard
Infantry
3
3
4
+1
90
Line
Infantry
2
3
3
+0
60
Light
Infantry
1
2
2
+0
40
Heavy
Cavalry
-
3
5
+0
100
Light
Cavalry
-
3
4
+0
80
Foot
Artillery
4
1
2
+0
90
Horse
Artillery
4
1
2
+0
90
AUSTRIAN
TYPE
SHOOTING
COMBAT
HITS
MORALE
POINTS
Grenadier
Infantry
3
3
3
+0
80
Line
Infantry
2
2
3
+0
60
Light
Infantry
1
2
2
+0
40
Heavy
Cavalry
-
3
5
+0
100
Light
Cavalry
-
2
4
+0
80
Foot
Artillery
4
1
2
+0
90
Horse
Artillery
4
1
2
+0
90
RUSSIAN
TYPE
SHOOTING
COMBAT
HITS
MORALE
POINTS
Guard
Infantry
3
3
3
+1
80
Line
Infantry
2
3
3
+0
60
Light
Infantry
1
2
2
+0
40
Militia
Infantry
1
1
2
-1
20
Heavy
Cavalry
-
3
5
+0
100
Light
Cavalry
-
3
4
+0
80
Foot
Artillery
4
1
2
+0
90
Horse
Artillery
4
1
2
+0
90
PRUSSIAN
TYPE
SHOOTING
COMBAT
HITS
MORALE
POINTS
Grenadier
Infantry
3
3
3
+0
80
Jager
Infantry
3
3
2
+0
70
Line
Infantry
2
3
3
+0
60
Light
Infantry
1
2
2
+0
40
Heavy
Cavalry
-
3
4
+0
90
Light
Cavalry
-
3
3
+0
70
Kreikorps
Cavalry
-
3
2
+0
60
Landwehr
Cavalry
-
2
2
+0
55
Foot
Artillery
4
1
2
+0
90
Horse
Artillery
4
1
2
+0
90
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The period covered by Beneath the Lily Banners witnessed dramatic changes in military thinking. The pike was discarded, ring bayonets were invented, armies became larger than ever before, artillery began to make its mark on the battlefield and a level of professionalism unseen in the gunpowder age began to emerge. It was a time of great princes: William of Orange, Louis XIV, Charles XII & Peter the Great. Their captains are just as famous; John Churchill, Prince Eugene, Luxembourg, Villars and Lewenhaupt. This is period of chivalry and spectacle, the crossover point into a lasting era of military professionalism. Inside this rule book you will find information on how to organise and base your armies. Comprehensive and innovative rules mechanisms allow you to play small and large scale battles with a level of detail that creates a real feel for the period but moves along at a cracking pace. A novel Events system will add fun whilst holding true to the values of the Age. All of this is supported by nearly 50 full colour photos, a stunning layout, original high quality artwork by Clarence Harrison, scenarios and example gaming situations. The rules are written by Barry Hilton whose work through the League of Augsburg has done much to popularise the period with gamers over the last 14 years.
eneath the Lily Banners
Available at http://www.leagueofaugsburg.com http://www.leagueofaugsburg.com Available at 63
INTRODUCTION Wacht am Rhein was a formidable battle plan, audacious and crazy all at the same time. You can imagine the German commanders looking through fearful eyes at the Fuhrer as he detailed the plan for the first time on October 11th, 1944. By 0400 on December 16th German forces from the 5th Panzer Army were infiltrating over the River Our and at 0530 Operation Herbstnebel (or Autumn Mist) began with artillery positions opening up against forward US positions in the Ardennes. Some 30 minutes later the artillery ended and German troops began to advance… the Battle of the Bulge had begun. The offensive caught the Allies off guard but by the evening of December 16th General Bradley had ordered the 10th Armoured Division to Bastogne and Eisenhower had agreed to release the XVIII Airborne Corps and move it to the Ardennes. Those of you who know their history, or indeed have watched HBO’s Band of Brothers, will know the significance of this. Less than 24 hours after it began the Germans had overwhelmed the 110th Infantry Regiment HQ in Clerf and a gap in the American lines had been smashed open. The game was afoot. On midnight of the same day CCR 9th Armoured Division was moved to block the approaches to Bastogne and by the evening of the 18th elements of the 101st Airborne had arrived at Bastogne.
On December 19th the first German recce units were probing the outskirts of Bastogne and by nightfall of that day US defences at Wiltz were overpowered, and another road to Bastogne was in German hands. US commanders were concerned by this and a hurried meeting of Eisenhower and senior US commanders was called to discuss the problem. December 20th saw control of the US First and Ninth Army units moved to Montgomery’s 21st Army Group. By noon of December 20th the Germans had hit problems and Field Marshal Model was forced to redeploy his II SS-Panzer Corps after the 6th Panzer Army failed in its attack in the centre. On the 21st III Corps of Patton’s Third Army moved to relieve Bastogne, engaging the enemy in vicious fighting along the way. Meanwhile the 116th Panzer Division reached its objective of Hotton, but was unable to secure the town. Intense fighting for the road junctions in the Tailles plateau area began. December 22nd was to see a bloody Bastogne contacted by the German commanders requesting that the forces surrender. Here we have General McAuliffe’s famous one word reply… ‘Nuts’. With Bastogne surrounded, Panzer Lehr Division moved out towards the River Ourthe and that night a high-pressure front brought clear skies and freezing temperatures to the area. On the morning of the 23rd
The Paras find defensive cover as they await the assault of Das Reich’s Panzer Grenadiers. Figures by Battle Honours.
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US forces were forced to withdraw from the St Vith area and by lunchtime II SS Panzer Corps, with the II SS Panzer Division at the lead, moved to secure the Tailles plateau. The evening saw 2nd Panzer Division report that it was within 9km of the River Meuse near Dinant and later 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich overran US forces and seized the Manhay road junction. On Christmas Day the weather changed and clear weather brought with it intense Allied air support. This day also saw the US 2nd Armoured Division surround and destroy the advance guard of the 2nd Panzer Division in the Dinant area. By the 27th the 2nd SS Panzer Division was forced out of Grandmenil and Manhay and the 6th Panzer Army altered its status from ‘offensive’ to ‘defensive’. Over the next few days the combat turned into a grind for both forces, but the German offensive actions in the Ardennes failed to make headway. By January 3rd the Germans were all but beaten; the last attempt by Manteuffel was made to capture Bastogne, which also failed. At this point the US First Army moved to link up with Patton’s Third Army, a move which happened on January 16th. On January 28th any territory that had been lost to German troops had been retaken by US forces. THE GAME What you have just read is a brief rundown of the combat in the Ardennes. As you can imagine it was a bloody affair and allows for many exciting scenarios and mini-campaigns to be played. What we offer is a fast play, lunch time style game that is intended
to be played using skirmish rules and 28mm scale miniatures. You can easily play the game using any skirmish rules - we opted for the NUTS! rules from Two Hour Wargames because we wanted an unpredictable feel to the game. Our game takes place on the evening of December 23rd as Das Reich moves to overrun the US troops around the Manhay road. We’ve created the fictional town of Marchefort and created a made-up encounter between advance forces of Das Reich which are forcing their way to the Manhay road junction, looking to secure a bridge that spans one of the tributaries of a major river in the area. A small group of US infantry are dug in around the bridge, supported by 2 tanks (1 x Sherman and 1 x Wolverine) but are faced by elite troops of Das Reich. The German troops are under orders to advance rapidly and secure the bridge, not in an ‘at all costs’ mode, but with haste. The German commander does not have the luxury of dilly-dallying.
“The aim of Wacht am Rhein was to split the Allied forces into two and then move on to capture Antwerp. From this position of strength the Germans would then move to encircle four Allied armies, destroy them and then sue for a peace treaty that favoured the Axis forces. Easy when you say it fast enough. In support of what we now call the Battle of the Bulge were three suboperations codenamed Hermann, Greif and Wahrung. Hermann involved the mustering of what was left of the Luftwaffe for an assault on Allied airfields in Belgium, the Netherlands and France on January 1st, 1945. Some 1,100 Luftwaffe aircraft destroyed 439 aircraft, predominantly on the ground. Greif was the notorious ‘false flag’ operation in which German troops, masquerading as US soldiers, struck out to seize (hence ‘greif’) the initiative by causing confusion amongst the US forces. Dressed as MPs the German troops, under the command of the almost legendary Waffen-SS Commando Otto Skorzeny, changed signposts and caused massive levels of confusion amongst the American troops they encountered. Wahrung was linked to Greif as German agents attempted to infiltrate rail and port complexes, looking to disrupt the Allied supply operations. There was a fourth operation – Nordwind – which saw the German Army Group G launch a vicious assault against the thinly stretched Seventh US Army in the Alsace. This is to be the subject of a future article by Rich Jones.”
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TERRAIN As you can see from the map this is a 6’ x 4’ gaming table with the bridge at one end and the buildings at the other. The middle of the board is spanned by roads and littered with trees, hedges and any random scattered terrain you see fit. As this is a night time game the amount of terrain in the middle of the gaming table is not critical, unlike the normal NUTS! game which generally demands plenty of terrain to skirmish around. US ORBATS AND DEPLOYMENT Historically the American forces in the area of Manhay were Task Force Brewster, 504th Parachute Infantry, 82nd Airborne Division, 3/517th Parachute Infantry, 82nd Airborne Division, CCB, 3rd Armoured Division and CCA, 7th Armoured Division.
You can take whatever troops you like to deploy in defence of our fictional bridge, and as you can see from our pictures we elected to use paratroopers from the 3/517th to act as a human shield against the attacking Panzer Grenadiers of Das Reich. The first group of US troops MAY be deployed in the house in C1, hopefully not playing out the role of sacrificial lambs. We recommend that no more than four figures are deployed inside this house. During our game testing we allowed a bazooka to be deployed, but not any machineguns as this is supposed to be a forward listening post. The troops will be alert due to the noise of the armour in the early morning setting. The rest of the US force can be deployed anywhere behind or indeed inside the second building in B3. ALL the US forces can start deployed in cover and
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count as hidden. If you are not using the NUTS! rules then we’d suggest using markers, with half of them marked as dummy to at least surprise the Germans slightly. The M10 can start the game in cover and on a crew reaction roll can count as being hidden if they pass a 2D6 test. Again for those not playing NUTS! give the M10 about a 60% chance of starting the game hidden; if they fail this test for the M10 it is deemed that the camouflage was not up to scratch! The house in B3 is bombed out and in a poor state of affairs and because of this no heavy weapons (bazookas or tripod MGs) can be deployed within it. These weapons can be deployed separately on the table in support of the house - but not within it - and no further than the line that bisects the middle of the table, the idea being that the damage to the structure is so severe that only nimble troops can pick their way through the rubble and beat a hasty retreat as and when they need to. As the idea was to provide a quick game we did not use the reinforcement mechanism found in NUTS!. It was decided that the US forces are basically waiting to fall back, so delaying the Germans as much as possible and therefore receiving NO reinforcements. Conversely the Germans need to capture the bridge as quickly as possible to allow the forces behind them to cross easily and quickly. The game has a 10 turn set time limit.
US ORBATS 2 x squads of para 2 x rep 5 leaders 6 x rep 5 troops 14 x rep 4 troops 3 x BAR 1 x .30cal 2 x bazooka One M3 Halftrack One M10 Tank GERMAN ORBATS AND DEPLOYMENT All German forces start off table and must move on during their first activation; this could prompt insight checks (see special vision rules). The Axis troops can deploy in any square from A1 to D1. Although the troops are mounted within the Hanomags there is an option to allow up to 2 squads of Panzergrenadiers to arrive on foot, attempting to infiltrate the enemy positions. The vision rules will aid this, but the German player will need to weigh up the fact that the stealthy approach will be slower to start with, leaving more margin for error. If the German commander decides to take this route then the rest of the force may not enter the table until turn 3 at the earliest. GERMAN ORBATS 4 x sections of Panzergrenadiers 4 x 251 Halftrack 1x 251/10 Halftrack 1 x King Tiger
69
SPECIAL RULES I can see you! The scenario takes place at dawn in very low visibility conditions. However the US forces know that the Germans are coming - they can hear the rumble of the German armour. In a way, the low visibility could be as much of a bonus to the defenders as to the attackers. If the Germans decide to start the action with an infantry-only incursion done in a stealthy way then NUTS! already has rules to cover this form of sneaking; you will find the mechanisms in the ‘Opposed Tasks’ section. However, the action would be hard to achieve for the Germans because of the high Reps of the US troops. Use the following rules to help identify visibility: Infantry: Start of game – 18” visibility for individual figures. Every turn – add 1 plus 1D3 inch per turn. Add 1” to the base visibility of the turn per extra figure for figures that are activating as a group, eg. if a group of 5 figures have activated as a group and are moving down the road the visibility for troops trying to spot them will be at +5”. Vehicles: Start of game 36” – each turn add 4” to this figure. No dice roll required. Gun flashes: If a gun opens up outside of the visibility range of a figure then the location can be targeted with reaction fire or by any figures that can see the flash on the following fire activation. Optional visibility rule: The visibility is also affected by cloud cover getting heavier or lighter during the game – take the base visibility as worked out above. At the start of every turn, if a double is rolled during the activation roll then randomly add or subtract a D10 to the visibility for THAT turn only. It then reverts back to the base rate at the start of the following turn. This seems a bit fiddly but rarely happens, so does not add too much complexity. It can however have a MASSIVE effect on the game as suddenly you lose/gain sight of the enemy. THE RIVER The bridge is the only feasible crossing place for wheeled and half-track vehicles – hence its importance. Armour can cross the ford to the side at any speed, but must roll a bog check.
70
Roll 2D:
Pass 2D: Crossed ford without incident.
Pass 1D: Either back out of crossing or roll again; this time however a pass of only 1D counts as a fail.
Pass 0D: Vehicle is bogged.
If vehicle is bogged then every activation roll again: Roll 2D:
Pass 2D: Cross ford moving ¼ pace.
Pass 1D: Cannot move forward but may back out or try again next activation.
Pass 0D: Vehicle is still bogged.
If the vehicle does not un-bog on the fourth roll failed it is bogged for the rest of the game. VICTORY CONDITIONS The US airborne need to hold out as long as possible while balancing this with acceptable loses. The German forces have to push to take the bridge and hold it for the major force to arrive later. The quicker they can do this the better for the operation as a whole. The US forces are not (well very unlikely!) going to win this game; it is all about deciding when to pull back at the appropriate time without having taken so many losses that it compromises the next line of defence. Victory is decided by who has gained the most victory points. Common points to be gained by both sides: 5 points per kill or out of fight figure. 5 points per vehicle taken out of action. 10 points per half track taken out of action. 15/20 points per tank taken out of action. Special points by side: US – 5 points per turn after turn one where they are in control of the bridge. German – 50 points minus 5 points per turn after turn one where they are not in control of the bridge.
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PEWC PONDERS END WARGAMING CLUB As well as finding a myriad of eager gamers willing to play anything from 40K to zombie feeding frenzy, from the rise of Ceasar to Mogadishu, from the mud of rugby fields (PEWC was the venue of the inaugural Crash Tackle rugby game World Cup) to the sweaty ropes of a boxing ring (using THW’s new rules) – you can also meet up with the core of Wargames Journals writers and play testers! The club was founded some 10 years ago to give older GW players a place to roll some dice but has morphed into a club with an equal mix of historical and non historical gamers (and a chunk of us who happily do both). The club is often involved with play-testing (we like to think of it as rule breaking) for a world wide selection of rule writers as well as devising our own for the club and Wargames Journal. Now with the new focus of WJ PEWC will now be hosting various ‘campaign’ and ‘competition’ games linked to WJ articles. If you have a decent scenario or game you want featuring in WJ you can also make a date with us and bring it on down! Our friendly crew will be all to welcome to play it with you! You can arrange a game or just virtually meet the guys by joining our site forum … we look forward to meeting you! Games being played a lot at the moment or in the near future: FoG – ancients, one off games and WJ campaign. Crash Tackle – one off games and club campaign 5150 (Sci-fi) – one off games and WJ campaign AT-43 – one of games and possible WJ campaign NUTS WWII – WJ campaign GW games – one off and club campaign Games we are trying out at the moment: A Leader of Men – new company level WWII Ambush Alley – Modern squad based Legends of the High Seas – pirate action So visit our home page and make a date – www.pewc.co.uk
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INTRODUCTION
designs. However, with the exception of Germany little serious development was undertaken.
Coastal Forces duties in WWII were amongst the most romantic, dashing and potentially hazardous duties that a sailor could undertake during the war. Small craft, close-knit crews and a high degree of autonomy in terms of operations and equipment, coupled with an image and operational style somewhat akin to that of an air force’s fighters, served to generate a culture of individualism and expertise that captures the imagination of naval historians and wargamers alike. The latter I guess are also attracted by the modelling potential and the ability to personalise their craft to an extent that surpasses more traditional naval forces. The nature of Coastal Forces actions themselves are also popular with wargamers seeking a short, sharp battle at close quarters.
The outbreak of war suddenly showed the enormous potential for small, fast attack craft to take the fight to the enemy’s coast line. A significant amount of freight and war materiel was transported in coastal ships and convoys. Motor Torpedo Boats (MTBs) and Schnellboote were ideally suited for night time raids on this traffic. The deployment of these craft led to the development of fast gunboats to counter them, and eventually a whole range of motor launches, minelayers, minesweepers, armed trawlers and other small craft that fought in the “Narrow Seas”. Their use was not restricted to the waters around the UK and the North Sea – in the Mediterranean Italian MAS and VAS boats developed a fearsome reputation, whilst US PT boats served with distinction throughout the Pacific and European Theatres of War. The Soviets developed the highly effective G5 class MTB that bore the brunt of Russian naval operations against the Kriegsmarine in the Baltic and Black Seas. Many smaller nations developed and operated highly successful Coastal Forces. Only the Japanese failed to capitalise; although several classes of boat were developed they were rarely used and accomplished little.
Small craft have always formed part of naval thinking. The development of high speed attack craft began in earnest during WWI, but the designs available were relatively flimsy and their potential wasn’t realised; most were discarded at the end of hostilities. Several navies developed a passing interest in Coastal Forces vessels between the wars but these were seen mainly as vessels suitable for export. Both Britain and Germany sold several craft overseas within Europe and farther afield. The US sought to develop a basic capability, relying on British
74
THE RULES
These rules are intended for very quick, deadly battles fought between WWII Schnellboote, MTBs, MGBs and other craft of the “Mosquito Fleets”. They have been designed to be played on a wargamer’s standard 8’ x 6’ or 6’ x 4’ table and hence missile ranges have been heavily compressed. The current rules cover coastal forces boats, small surface ships (up to destroyers) and fighter aircraft only (future work may see larger vessels and submarines added).
VESSEL DATA Each craft is described by its Size, Speed and Manoeuvrability. Details of example craft are given in the vessel data tables. Vessel damage is reflected through a series of Damage Levels. Fast or Very Fast coastal forces craft such as MTBs and Schnellboote can accelerate or decelerate 2 levels per turn (for example a boat travelling at Very Fast could decelerate to Fast or Medium); others can change speed by 1 level.
SIZE Very Small Small Medium Large Very Large
SPEED (MAX MOVE IN CM) Very Slow - 10cm Slow - 15cm Medium - 20cm Large - 25cm Very Large - 30cm
MANEOUVRABILITY DAMAGE LEVELS (TURNING CIRCLE USED) Very Small Intact Small Damaged Medium Heavily Damaged Large Wrecked Very Large Sunk
TURN SEQUENCE:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Spot targets Determine initiative Move aircraft Move Large and Very Large vessels Move Medium and Smaller vessels
6. 7. 8. 9.
Move aircraft again Fire guns Launch torpedoes Resolve torpedoes fired last turn (<40cm) or 2 turns ago (>40cm)
SPOTTING THE TARGET All vessels are represented by markers until they are detected. To spice up the action and to introduce an element of surprise players can field one dummy marker for each real marker – dummies are removed when they are spotted (of course only real ships can spot and identify other ships, but dummies can spot and reveal other dummies and can be used to confirm that markers are real, even though they do not result in an identification). Dummies can be “grown” again if a vessel moves out of detection range.
Size of Observer Very Small Small Medium Large Very Large
Very Small 60 60 70 70 70
Small 70 75 80 85 90
Size of Target Medium 70 80 110 120 130
Large 70 90 120 130 140
Very Large 80 100 130 140 150
Cross reference the size of the target and the searcher. The result is the maximum spotting range. • • •
Increase apparent target size by 1 if the target is moving at Fast or greater. Decrease apparent target size if the target is against a coastline within 30cm (ie. line of sight passes from observer through target to land within 30cm). Decrease the apparent observer size if the observer is moving at Fast or greater, or if the Observer does not have functioning Fire Control System.
75
INITIATIVE Each side rolls a D10. Resolve ties using a second dice roll. The higher scorer wins initiative and may choose whether to move first or second within each phase (the same decision applies to all phases). GUNFIRE, ROCKETS AND BOMBS Firing is conducted after movement and is simultaneous. Check the weapon table for range to the target and the models for firing arc. The weapon table shows the score required for a hit using a D20 at each range band (roll equal to or higher than the score shown). If a hit is scored see the section below for damage. Regardless of modifiers, natural dice rolls of 1 are always misses. Dice Roll Modifiers are as follows:
Very Slow Slow Medium Fast Very Fast
+5 +2 +0 -2 -5
Very Small Small Medium Large Very Large
-4 -2 +0 +2 +4
Target >40cm from firer at the time of firing -5
TORPEDOES Torpedoes are launched after gunfire. A counter is placed on the table for each torpedo fired and the target is announced. Torpedoes arrive in the torpedo phase of the following turn if the target is at 40cm or closer to the firing vessel, or the subsequent turn if the target is at greater than 40cm (eg. two MTBs fire torpedoes at targets 30 and 60cm away on turn 1. The closer target is attacked on turn 2, the farther target on turn 3). DAMAGE If a hit is scored roll a D6. Add or subtract the weaponâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Damage Modifier and the targetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Size Modifier.
RESULT DAMAGE EFFECT LEVEL 1 or less Intact No damage. Damaged Minor damage - Roll D6 for each weapon and for Speed and 2-4 Manoeuvrability if the weapon class is the same or larger than the target. On a roll of 6 the weapon is knocked out or Speed/Manoeuvrability reduced by 1. 5-7 Heavily Major damage - Roll D6 for each weapon and for Speed and Damaged Manoeuvrability. On a roll of 4+ the weapon is knocked out or Speed/ Manoeuvrability reduced by 1. 8-10 Wrecked Critical Damage - Roll D6 for each weapon. On a roll of 2+ the weapon is knocked out. Speed and Manoeuvrability reduced by 2 automatically. 11+ Sunk Vessel immediately stops and is in a sinking condition. Mark off the highest level of damage sustained. If a vessel sustains a second hit of the same severity (except Intact or Damaged) the damage level is increased to the next level down and damage commensurate with that damage level is taken. AIRCRAFT Aircraft move twice per turn, each time up to their full move distance. They do not use turning circles; instead, in each movement phase they may move between quarter and half their listed movement, be turned up to 45 degrees in place, moved again between quarter and half their full move distance and then again turned up to 45 degrees. Aircraft must pass over a target to drop bombs. Rockets and guns may be fired from a distance. Aircraft can only engage one target per turn (except defensive guns, which may engage one air target per turn for each mount). They may be fired at either at the point of firing or at the point reached at the end of their move. They may be engaged by any gun out to its Medium Range (unless the gun is listed as being incapable of AA fire). Required scores to hit are as for surface fire.
76
OTHER RULES DEPTH CHARGE ATTACK British boats in particular were quite proficient at mounting depth charge attacks against merchant shipping. If an MTB with depth charges passes within 2cm of the bow of a Large or Very Large ship that has moved it may make an attack. Roll a D6; on a roll of 4+ the attack has been successful and the depth charge causes damage (treat as Large). TURNING ARCS Some players donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t like using turning circles. As an alternative the following system can be used. Vessels must make a minimum forward move before they can make a turn. This minimum forward move is as follows:
SIZE Very Small Small Medium Large Very Large
MINIMUM MOVE 2cm 4cm 6cm 8cm 10cm
Once the vessel has made this minimum movement it may be turned in place up to 60 degrees.
TORPEDO SECONDARY ATTACKS If a torpedo misses its intended target but there is another target within 20cm this target may be hit. Roll as above but apply an additional modifier of -3. The torpedo may not conduct more than one secondary attack. FIRE If a vessel is hit by above water weapons (guns, rockets or bombs) there is a chance that it will catch fire. Roll a D6, with a fire starting on a 6. Each turn roll a D10. On a 1 or 2 the fire is extinguished. On a roll of 10 the fire causes the damage state of the vessel to increase by 1. Vessels that are on fire are automatically visible at any range. RANDOM VISIBILITY Visibility can be made less certain by including an element of chance. At the start of each turn roll a D6. If the result is 14 then use the visibility table as written. If the roll is 5 treat all targets as if they were one size class smaller. If the dice roll is 6 treat all targets as though they were two sizes smaller. Apply a -10cm modifier if these changes would take boats off the bottom of the table (eg. if a 6 is rolled Very Small targets can only be spotted within 40cm of a Small target. STARSHELLS AND FLARES Starshells can be fired at specific locations more than 40cm away by guns of 4â&#x20AC;? or larger. Choose the aim point, roll a deviation dice (a dice with an arrow drawn on each face) or use a spinner and roll a D6, subtracting 1. The result multiplied by 5 is the deviation in centimetres. Starshells illuminate all targets within 10cm of the burst point. Flares are treated the same way, but may be fired by any vessel out to 20cm. The deviation dice result is multiplied by 3 instead of 5. Each vessel is limited to firing 3 starshells or 3 flares.
77
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REFERENCE TABLES TORPEDO DATA
NAME
MIN RANGE MAX RANGE
21” Torpedo 18” Torpedo
20 20
100 80
ROLL DAMAGE TO HIT MODIFIER 14+ +9 14+ +7
AIRCRAFT WEAPONS
NAME
DAMAGE MODIFIER
Rocket Salvo 50lb / 25kg bomb or smaller 100lb / 50kg bomb 250lb / 113kg bomb 500lb / 250kg bomb 1000lb / 500kg bomb or larger
+4 -1 0 +2 +3 +6
RANGE (cm) / HIT SCORE SHORT MEDIUM 10 / 16 20 / 20 0 / 20 0 / 20 0 / 20 0 / 20 0 / 20 -
NB – to drop bombs the aircraft must pass over the target, hence a “range” of zero.
GUN DATA
NAME Rifle Group LMG ** HMG** 2pdr Pom Pom 20mm, 23mm** 30mm, 1.1” 37mm / 40mm 57mm / 6pdr Rocket Salvo 3” / 76mm 4” / 105mm 4.5” / 120mm
DAMAGE MODIFIER -3 -3 -2 0 -2 -2 0 0 +2 +2 +2 +3
RANGE (cm) / HIT SCORE SHORT MEDIUM LONG 5 / 7+ 5 / 5+ 5 / 6+ 5 / 8+ 5 / 5+ 15 / 8+ 15 / 8+ 20 / 6+ 5/5+ 25 / 6+ 25 / 6+ 25 / 10+
12 / 15+ 15 / 15+ 15 / 14+ 16 / 16+ 15 / 12+ -20 / 12+ 30 / 12+ 30 / 10+ 15 / 12+ 40 / 10+ 45 / 10+ 40 / 12+
**Roll once per mount, or per 4 guns or part for aircraft.
80
n/a n/a 20 /18+ n/a 25 / 17+ 30 / 18+ 35 / 18+ 45 /17+ 25 / 17+ 50 / 17+ 60 / 10+ 70 / 18+
NAME
SIZE / M/ +MOD MANEOUVRE
SPEED
GUNS
TORPEDOES
Fairmile ‘D’ Class MGB 601
S / +1
S
F
2pdr (FPS) 20mm (APS) HMG (FP) HMG (FS) LMG (FP) LMG (FS)
NONE
Fairmile ‘D’ Class Motor Torpedo Boat (MTB)
S / +1
S
F
6pdr (FPS) 6pdr (APS) 20mm (APS) HMG (FP) HMG (FS LMG (FP) LMG (FS
18” x 2
Fairmile ‘D’ Class Combined MGB/ MTB Fit
S / +1
S
F
6pdr (FPS) 6pdr (APS) 20mm (APS) HMG (FP) HMG (FS) LMG (FP) LMG (FS)
18 x 4
Fairmile ‘C’ Class MGB
S / +1
S
M
2pdr (FPS) 2pdr (APS) HMG (P) HMG (S) LMG (P) LMG (S)
NONE
Fairmile ‘B’ Class Motor Launch
S / +1
S
M
2pdr (FPS) 20mm (APS) 20mm (APS)
NONE
Fairmile ‘B’ Class Rescue Motor Launch
S / +1
S
M
2pdr (FPS) 20mm (APS) LMG (P) LMG (S)
NONE
Fairmile ‘A’ Class ASW Motor Launch
S / +1
S
M
3pdr (APS) LMG (P) LMG (S)
NONE
“Grey Goose” Class Steam Gun Boat
S / +1
M
F
2pdr (FPS) 3”HA (APS) HMG (P) HMG (S) 20mm (FPS)
NONE
Vosper 72’ 6” MTB
S / +3
VS
VF
HMG (APS) LMG (P) LMG (S)
21” x 2
Vosper 72’ 6” MTB late war
S / +3
VS
VF
20mm (FPS) 20mm (APS) LMG (P) LMG (S)
21” x 2
MGB 50-67
S / +3
VS
VF
20mm (APS) HMG (FP) HMG (FS) LMG (P) LMG (S)
21” x 2
Harbour Defence Motor Launch (HDML)
S / +3
VS
S
20mm (FPS) 20mm (APS) LMG (P) LMG (S)
NONE
Isles Class Trawler
M / +0
L
S
4”HA (FPS) 20mm (FP) 20mm (FS) 20mm (APS)
NONE
81
Flower Class Corvette
L / -2
VL
S
4”HA (FPS) 2pdr (APS) 20mm (FS 20mm (FP)
NONE
Halcyon Class Minesweeper
L / -2
VL
S
4”HA (FPS) 4”HA (APS)
NONE
Landing Craft Gun Mk 3 LCG 3
L / -2
VL
S
* 4.7” (FPS) * 4.7” (FPS) 20mm (PA) 20mm (SA)
NONE
Hunt Class Type 1
VL / -4
VL
S
4”HA (FPS) 4”HA (APS) 2pdr (APS) 2pdr (FPS)
NONE
NAME
SIZE / M/ MOD
MANEOUVRE
SPEED
GUNS
TORPEDOES
Small Transport
M / +0
VL
S
None**
None
Medium Transport
L / -2
VL
S
None**
None
Large Transport
VL / -4
VL
S
None**
None
Schooner, Caique, Barque, etc.
L / -2
L
S
None**
None
Trawler
M / +0
VS
S
None**
None
Medium Barge
M / +0
VL
VS
None**
None
Large Barge
L / -2
M
VS
None**
None
Notes * guns preceded by an asterisk (eg. *4.7”) cannot be used against aircraft. **some vessels may carry one or two 3-4” guns for local protection.
82
NAME
SIZE / M/ MOD
MANEOUVRE
SPEED
GUNS
TORPEDOES
S 100
S / +1
S
VF
20mm (FPS) 20mm (PS) 40mm (APS)
21” x 2+2
S 38
S / +1
S
VF
20mm (FPS) 20mm (PS) 40mm (APS)
21” x 2+2
S 26
S / +1
S
VF
20mm (APS)
21” x 2+2
Raumboote 25 to 40, 151-217 (late war)
S / +1
S
S
37mm (APS) 20mm (PS) 20mm (FPS) 20mm (FPS)
NONE
R-21 to 24, 41 to 150 (early war)
S / +1
S
M
20mm (FPS) 20mm (APS)
NONE
Kriegsfischkutter (KFK)
S / +1
S
VS
* 105mm (FPS) * 105mm (FPS) * 84mm (FAPS) 20mm (FAPS) 20mm (AP) 20mm (AS)
NONE
‘F’ Lighter
M / +0
M
VS
3pdr (APS) LMG (P) LMG (S)
NONE
Type 35 Minesweeper
L / -2
VL
S
* 105mm (FPS) * 105mm (APS) 20mm (APS) 20mm (P) 20mm (P) 20mm (S) 20mm (S)
NONE
VP404 Class Trawler
M / +0
VL
VS
88mm (FPS) 20mm (PS) 20mm (APS)
NONE
KUJ Type Trawler (“Kriegs U-Jager”)
M / +0
VL
S
88mm (FPS) 37mm (APS) 20mm (FPS) 20mm (APS)
NONE
T-1 Class Escort 1935/1937 Type
L / -2
VL
F
* 105mm (APS) 37mm (APS) 20mm (AP) 20mm (AS) 20mm (FP) 20mm (FS)
NONE
T-22 Class Escort 1939 Type
L / -2
VL
F
* 105mm (FPS) * 105mm (PS) * 105mm (APS) * 105mm (APS) 20mm (APS) 20mm (FP) 20mm (FS
NONE
MFP Type 1 (“Marine ArtillerieFahrprahm”)
L / -2
VL
VS
* 88mm (FPS) * 88mm (FPS) 20mm (FPS) 20mm (APS) 20mm (AP) 20mm (AS)
NONE
MFP Type 2
L / -2
VL
VS
* 88mm (FPS) * 88mm (APS) 20mm (FPS) 20mm (APS) 20mm (AP) 20mm (AS)
NONE
UJ 200 Class Escort
L / -2
VL
S
* 105mm (FPS) 20mm (FPS) 20mm (APS) 20mm (APS) 20mm (P) 20mm (S)
21” x 1 x 1
NAME
SIZE / M/ MOD
MANEOUVRE
SPEED
GUNS
TORPEDOES
MS-Type 1
S / +1
S
VS
20mm (FPS) LMG (PS) LMG (PS) 20mm (APS)
21” x2+2
MS-Type 2
S / +1
S
VF
20mm (FPS) LMG (PS) LMG (PS) 20mm (APS)
21” x2x2 18” x2
MAS-501
VS / +3
VS
VS
HMG (FAPS)
18” x2
MAS-551
VS / +3
S
VS
HMG (FAPS)
18” x2
VAS-Type 1
VS / +3
VS
VS
20mm (FPS) 20mm (APS) LMG (FP) LMG (FS
18” x2
VAS-Type 2
VS / +3
S
VS
20mm (FPS) 20mm (APS) LMG (FP) LMG (FS
18” x2
Spica Class Escort
L / -2
VL
F
* 100mm (FPS) * 100mm (APS) * 100mm (APS) HMG (P) HMG (S) HMG (PS) HMG (PS)
21” x2 x2
Gabbiano Class Sloop
L / -2
VL
F
* 100mm (FPS) 20mm (APS) 20mm (APS) 20mm (FPS) 20mm (S) 20mm (S)
21” x1 x1
NAME
SIZE / M/ MOD
MANEOUVRE
SPEED
GUNS
TORPEDOES
Elco 70’ PT Boat
VS / +3
VS
VF
HMG (FPA) HMG (FSA)
18” x 4
Elco 70’ MGB
VS / +3
VS
VF
20mm (APS) HMG (FPA) HMG (FSA)
None
Higgins 78’ PT Boat
VS / +3
VS
VF
20mm (APS) HMG (FPA) HMG (FSA)
21” x 4
Elco 77’ PT Boat
VS / +3
VS
VF
20mm (APS) HMG (FPA) HMG (FSA)
21” x 4
Elco 80’ PT Boat
VS / +3
VS
VF
20mm (APS) HMG (FPA) HMG (FSA)
21” x 4
Elco 80’ PT Boat
VS / +3
VS
VF
20mm (APS) HMG (FPA) HMG (FSA)
21” x 4
Elco 70’ PT Boat
VS / +3
VS
VF
3”HA (FPS) 3”HA (FPS) 3”HA (APS) 1.1” (APS)
None
DE Class Destroyer Escort
L / -2
VL
M
* 100mm (FPS) 20mm (APS) 20mm (APS) 20mm (FPS) 20mm (S) 20mm (S)
21” x1 x1
“Flush Decked” Destroyer
VL / -4
VL
M
4”HA (FPS) 4”HA (APS) 4”HA (P) 4”HA (S)
21” x3x3 x3x3
Rebel Publishing Ltd grants permission to print these templates. Copies will also be made available as downloads from www.wargamesjournal.com
85
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IMPETUS
Rules for Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance periods Lorenzo Sartori Dadi&Piombo http://www.dadiepiombo.com Ancient Rules seem to be…well a bit like buses … you wait ages for a one to come along, and then two come along at the same time and you get confused about which one to jump on! First there was the pre release hyped up Field of Glory (FoG), which promised so much, and then either fell short or exceeded all expectations, depending on who you are listening to. Personally I have been playing them every week since they came out. Then close on the heels of the FoG release was the news that a new set of ‘quick play’ rules would be out for Salute … IMPETUS. Abbreviating that to IMP seems to reek of fantasy connotations so much that at WJ they have become known as TIG (The Italian Game). They are written by Lorenzo Sartori of Dadi & Piombo magazine fame. The free basic version of rules have acquired quite a large following in Italy, Spain and France. Firstly as they were easy to play, fun and needed only a handful of ‘bases’ (approx 711) and secondly because the Italian magazine and its site supported them well. The full rules promised to add to these solid foundations to give larger games, add some character to the Generals and introduce some advanced mechanisms. I must admit I had downloaded the free version and tinkered with it, promising to dig my 80mm x 40mm bases out and have a crack. Everything seemed to conspire against me though and I had never got round to it. So when Impetus made an appearance I was slightly worried that the whole thing sounded a bit DBA morphing to DBM for my liking. Having quite
DBM and feared Impetus – I need not
liked DBA for what it was I had been very disappointed in the same for Basic have worried.
The big day for the English version of the rules is/was Salute where they were to be released. Lorenzo kindly sent the Italian version with an English translation so we could have a run through and give you this quick review before the big day – I would love to hear what you all think after Salute. The rule book uses very good quality thick paper with a glossy card cover, the layout and presentation of the rules will be familiar to those who know the magazine
– very crisp, clear and visually appealing. Lorenzo went for a wire spiral binding after taking a number of ‘polls’ on various news groups and forms. Gamers wanted to be able to lay them flat on the table with only one sheet worth of area taking up the precious table space. This also means the QRS can stay in the book to be used and is harder to misplace, which if you ever play in the clutter of WJ towers or even my games ‘loft’ is probably a good thing. Like is the norm nowadays the book is in full colour throughout with a mixture of diagrams, game shots and ‘scenic’ photos, which make it a good piece of ‘eye candy’ even before you start playing.
System which basically gives the commanders command range. The player chooses the amount of commanders, and hence commands they have and if the commanders are attached to units or on their own. This makes a difference to how much influence they can have over the game. The game is played on a table ranging from 3’ x 2’ to 6’ x 4’ and uses every ones favourite die – the d6. The turn sequence is a lot more interactive than a majority of ancient rules I have played. Players nominate a ‘command’ to activate and then dice for initiative, the winner gets to activate. Once they have finished with that command the players nominate and dice off again. This leads to a tense game and adds a deal of uncertainty to the turns.
The game uses large bases (mainly 80mm x 40mm in 15mm and under, and 120mm x 60mm in 20mm plus) to represent ‘units’ of men. These units are put into ‘commands’ under the nominal control of a commander (one of whom is the C-C) and each army will have between approximately 1 and 4 of these commands. The commanders can be of various quality (depending on cost) and each army has a Command
However, the inactive player can interrupt the active player’s turn in a number of ways. A unit has a zone of control and can ‘react’ to enemy units who enter this zone, usually by having to pass a ‘discipline test’. Units can also be put on ‘opportunity’, now this is a first as 90
far as I have come across in an Ancients set of rules as it equates to putting a unit on ‘overwatch’ in a WWII game. Units on opportunity can interrupt the enemy unit at any point, again this adds to the excitement and tactical options. It all sounds slightly complicated but is actually a simple and fast mechanism.
our test games. The rules do not ‘align’ units, in fact if units are parallel when one group charges in they shift randomly left or right. This sometime means that you do not get both units, in a group charging, into the melee etc. The overall effect is to make the combat fluid and it doesn’t look too ‘clinical’. I think our major discussion revolved around how different Movement is fluid and easy to implement. Units can this was to the Field of Glory mechanism which goes have more than one movement ‘phase’ if they are not out its way to align units up and doesn’t involve push disordered. They need to test for disorder at the end of backs, melee pursuits etc. each phase (this is a discipline test) and if they are still not disordered they can move again (there is a negative Personally I really liked the approach in IMPETUS, modifier on each successive attempt however). This the battlefield looked suitably chaotic, without works well and you can risk pushing units to achieve looking like a fast moving skirmish game with units a contact/charge or an ambitious outflanking move everywhere. However, it is perhaps right to say that for example. There is no real micro management or for people coming from rules that enforce alignment measuring involved in the movement which is always between units, allowing you to manufacture flank a blessing, I can put away the protractor and steel support you are in for a bit of a shock. Also, to begin ruler. with, it will take some getting used to and slow the first couple of games down slightly. Shooting and melee are simple to calculate, share the same mechanics and are interactive for both sides. There are special rules for troop types that you would Each unit has a base combat value, to this you add expect to find in an ancients set of rules on the level any impetus and rank bonus and then subtract any the game is set. No flaming pigs but rules for the use of ‘losses’ and modifiers. The result is the number of Pilum (pila), Republican Roman line exchange, pike dice a player rolls. They are then looking for sixes or blocks, elephants (these are hard units but do not be double fives which both give one hit. The target then near them when they lose and trample all over you), makes a cohesion check. A unit has a ‘critical number’ chariots and large units of warband plus more are there. to roll under depending on the amount of hits taken, We have been using IER and Gaul lists for the majority its current status and any of our play through games and other modifiers. Pass they have the test and you take no reduction to your base value. Fail and you receive a reduction to your base value of the difference between the critical number and the roll. This means in a worse case scenario you can ‘pop’ some units in one turn. Combined melees are easy to work out as you nominate a ‘main’ unit and other units in contact with the enemy can add dice as ‘support’. Melee is the section of the rules which caused us most discussion in 91
behaved liked we would expect them to. Legions are just hard and tend to eventually grind you down. Warband, especially in large units, hit hard but you better get your opponent on the back foot from the start or they will deteriorate rapidly.
Each unit has a value and when each command reaches over 50% loss they break, when half your army total is reached the entire army decide it may not be for them. We only played straight forward ‘battles’ but I believe there will be scenarios for the rules on the site and in the magazine.
So in the games we have played (all set at 300 points) it has been fairly even. If the warband get the upper hand in the initial impact they have a fair to good chance of winning. If the Legions take the initial impact well then they will grind down the warband fairly quickly. This seems to reflect what actually happened. Skirmishers work in a simple fashion and reflects their use, they screen your troops from fire, they hassle the enemy with their fire and while they are not going to destroy a unit they can force disorder which means when the big boys go in they should be at an advantage. They are, as in reality, pretty brittle and if they get caught by a charge (ie they fail to evade) then they are ‘dispersed’. Quick, simple but as my gaming mate Sean says: “it makes you use skirmishers properly.”
Overall the rules succeeded very well in delivering what they aim to. They are quick, easy to play, bloody once units are not ‘fresh’ and are good fun to play. They give a good feel for the period (at least with the armies we tested them with) without being too over detailed or ‘fiddly’. Our 300 point (an average full game is between 300 and 500 points) games were taking between 1.5 to 2 hours and that was with not being used to the rules and looking rules up when we strayed out of the comfort zone. The rules are very well set out in a logical fashion with a ‘point’ numbered system in an extensive ‘contents’ which makes things very easy to look up. This is far better than in FoG which has come under fire for not 92
having an easy ‘looking rules up’ format. The Quick Reference Sheet is in the book and not separate, again FoG came under a lot of fire for not having a separate sheet. All I can say is that if it really bothers you then at least in Impetus the spiral binding makes it easier to use.
The rules will certainly be easier for people to ‘pick up’ and learn to play. As to which set is going to come up on the top of the ‘heap’ the jury will be out for a while. I can see mechanisms in Impetus that are not going to sit well with ex DBM now FoG players. The good thing is that the basing in Impetus allows you to be able to ‘group’ together the DBx or Warmaster Ancients stands, perhaps on a sabot base and be able to play either. One small thing that may come up is that the author has kept the Italian abbreviations for the troop types and in a lot of cases these make little sense in English. The explanation for this, however, does make sense, there are a lot of Basic Impetus players already playing with the Italian abbreviations. Also in the end it just means you have to get used to it and you tend to call the troops by names anyway. So to sum up: I can see these becoming my standard set of ancient rules, but they will not stop me playing the other sets I use. To use my bus analogy from the beginning of the review I will be making a dash to hop on the Impetus bus. They will also be very useful for a club set of ancient rules for occasional ancient gamers as they are quick, easy and have fewer opportunities to use the nuances of the rules to great effect against a new opponent. I can see them being on the shelves of any avid ancients gamer along with a bunch of sabot bases as I can see them getting a good following quite quickly and anything that increases the chance of one getting a game has to be a good thing.
I do appear to be starting to compare the two new rules, which is I suppose a natural occurrence because of the timing of the release of both sets. Both rules abstract a lot of detail. Impetus abstracts more in a lot of ways although a lot of people will like how they have included troop characteristics in a simple way that makes the troops ‘feel’ different. FoG tended to keep clear of this, although there are of course arguments to support both camps and it boils down to personal preference. Impetus is definitely more interactive, keeping both players engaged, especially when you start to realise how useful going on opportunity is. On the down side this may not be to everyone’s liking and could be quite interesting in a competition setting, from my observations so far (could be wrong) they do appear to have a bit more of the ‘luck’ factor in the casualty stage, which again I like but can see why some people may not. FoG is definitely ‘tighter’ in its rule definitions and examples, again perhaps showing more about their ‘intended’ market than the rules themselves. The upside of this for the casual club player is that Impetus is easier to read. Impetus does, even after only a couple of games, give a very quick game, no you will not be able to ‘model’ every tactic known in the ancient world, yes some things are very abstracted but our overall feeling was that they give the same result and ‘feel’ as FoG (and other rules) but in a lot easier to play fashion and more importantly for us, in a lot less time. This means that even on a club night of 3-4 hours we should be able to get in a couple of games towards a campaign and maybe even three.
I suspect Lorenzo will be in for a busy Salute as these do seem to hit the buttons that a lot of people were hoping FoG would, but in their opinion didn’t. I’d go so far as to say with the right support and the fact that the plastic figures are about to hit the ancients gaming world in a big way we could see a lot of younger gamers being drawn into playing ancients … we will have to wait and see. While you are making your mind up you could do a lot worse than downloading the free Basic Impetus and giving it a go: http://www.dadiepiombo.com
I do think that I will end up playing Impetus a lot more than FoG (although I do love FoG) mainly because of WJ wise, look out for some battle reports and a Tale the time factor and that we tend to do campaigns at of Four Gamers series of articles starting in Issue 10! the club. Impetus armies are going to be easier for people who are not avid ancient players to collect. Rich Jones
AT A GLANCE 50 Colour Pages, Spiral Bound 15 Army Lists (including Marian Roman, Gauls, Parthians, Alexander and more) Price: 28 euros / 20 pounds / 42 US Dollars add postage (2 euros Europe, 4 euros rest of the World) 93
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Beneath the Lily Banners Wargame rules for 1660-1721 Barry Hilton http://www.leagueofaugsburg.com
Well this is a novelty for me. I am not usually allowed to do this sort of thing, as in not allowed to do reviews for WJ. Apparently I am way too critical and have been known to be quite harsh in my judgements, or so I’m told anyway. But as I’m very much enjoying my Seven Year War (7YW) Rich Jones felt I would enjoy these new rules. (Editor’s comment: Shaun has a keen interest in the 7YW period and is organising a fictional campaign for Wargames Journal. Plus I felt he had to be let off his leash at some point! I was handed a copy of Beneath the Lily Banners (BLB) for review by Rich on a bright Sunday morning, then it rained. I hoped this wasn’t an omen for the rules. As it turned out it was more of an omen for my Roman Legions that were just about to get butchered by Rich’s Gauls (Editor - a quick play test of the Impetus rules was taking place). I quickly scanned through the 48 page perfect bound glossy covered book and realised that I was dealing with a period I knew very little about, nestling between the English Civil War and Seven Years war, it was a period that had snuck passed me, which is a rarity to say the least. An era which saw the phasing out of Pike with the arming of infantry with Bayonets, the dawning of effective battlefield Artillery and the emergence of large colourful field armies, led more often than not by competent tacticians, as Generals became more professional than political.
the reader to open up. It is written by Barry Hilton of the League of Augsburg. Anyone in the hobby that has ever been to one of the big shows over the last 20 odd years knows, this means big battles with lots of superb figures fighting over hand made terrain. These rules are how you manage to do just that and are firmly placed into the ‘old school’ format that seems to be in vogue at the moment. Throughout the rules are pictures of Barry’s extensive figure collection, not only giving examples of allowed unit formations and The period covered is 1660 to 1721 and the front battle scenes, but also vignettes of period events such cover has a well animated painting of Red coats as rampart storming and river crossings. fighting Blue coats and the cover and back cover layout invites
So the nit and indeed grit of the rules are laid out, as the author says is in a very British fashion. Figures need not be rebased, but remain as multiples of 6 foot per base, 3 bases per unit or 3 mounted figures per base for Cavalry, 3 or 4 bases per unit. Command and Control is handled easily by a d10 roll to see what percentage of the army activates, none to 100% by unit. Orders are placed by unit before a big reveal at the start of the turn proper. Units can only do the most basic of orders; move, hold, rally or charge, although all units in the army may attempt to shoot at enemy units that move into range during the turn. The turn sequence of Move/Shoot/Melee will be familiar to anyone that has been involved in the hobby since Charles Grant or indeed 1st Edition Warhammer. Movement is in inches and is the standard fare of ‘old school’ gaming with 4” for foot and 8” for Cavalry, with some variation for formation and terrain. Chargers must declare and pass a morale test to charge, defenders also test to stand and fire or counter charge. Morale check failure limits the orders available and the fighting ability of the unit. Musketry firing up to 12”, is accrued by base and cross referenced against a modified d6 roll, while the casualties are marked off
in figures, until 50% of the figure count is reached when bases begin to be removed, provided of course the unit hasn’t been routed off the table by then. Artillery fires as individual guns using multiple d10s to kill figures at ranges up to 36” away, 48” for siege guns. Melee uses the same casualty chart as firing but a different set of modifiers; again casualties are marked in figures. Cavalry melees against Infantry is a very one sided affair which should be avoided at all costs, the foot don’t get to fight back!! With these basic rules come optional rules to give more flavour without adding any complications, such as capturing standards and in period specific rules for the Great Northern war and warfare in the East, along with guidelines for siege combat. The book comes with 2 scenarios to play through, a Williamite ambush of some raiding Jacobites (17 units versus 9 units) which will allow the beginner to come to terms with the simplicity of the rules. The second scenario is a rearguard action by the Grand Alliance, against the French, after the battle of Neerwinden, (34 units versus 43 units) with the French pushing the routing Allied forces, lots of Horse v Foot melee here
for the more sadistic of gamers. The book rounds out with a list of campaigns fought during the time frame and bibliography of books used. The rule set comes with a laminated card QRS that appears complete and in a very usable order.
But it isn’t aimed at this crowd, so this isn’t so much a criticism, rather an observation.
The rules have certainly been tested to destruction and already have a firm online following thanks to the The League of Augsburg’s website and forums. It uses an ‘old school’ format and hasn’t been written to re-invent the hobby in its own image; rather it is a very nice formalisation of the genre. It reminded me of playing my first games of Napoleonic’s with ‘In the Grand Manner’ rules, which to be honest isn’t a bad thing.
(Editor: Barry has a superb BLB scenario in Issue 9 of Wargames Journal. It’s a superb read, well illustrated and is a real must for our readers. Even if you’re not into this period give it a read!)
The website forum says to expect more articles and scenarios in the wargames press.
So having ascertained who the rules are aimed at, we end up with an uncluttered rule book, which is a novelty in this day and age. I would go as far as to say that BLB is a lean, mean killing machine of rules for the gamer already committed to the period, but to such an extent that a beginner will struggle to get much of a kick-start from just this publication.
What it isn’t is a book for the ‘Flames of War’ crowd to pick up and start playing games in the dying years of the pike and shot era. Although there are many useful, and pretty, pictures of gaming units there is no painting guide to follow, or indeed a set of army lists for beginners to play ‘pick up’ games. While the scenarios are there as specific examples of period warfare, there is no pickup game scenario generator.
What I would have liked to see/read more of is an explanation from the designer as to why the rules have developed this way: Why are the bases for infantry 45mm by 50mm and not just 50mm square? Why aren’t the cavalry based to the same frontage as the 96
foot? What is the rationale for Foot not being able to fight back against Cavalry? I feel these design points should at least be attempted to be explained, instead of left in this ‘just so’ way.
The author is clearly setting out his stall to support the rules with articles across the wargames press and on his own excellent web site, so I have no fears of these rules lacking support. Excellent production values (both with layout and print) makes this an appetising book to devour for its price tag of £15.
These rules have the feel of being developed over many years from a house or club fast play set of rules. Again, this isn’t a criticism of them. These rules have a tight feel to them, nothing sits ambiguously bothering you. They play very well and do their job accordingly.
You can watch out for some home grown WJ games using these rules and we’re already thinking about a weekend event using them. Final words: a very well put together project that I’m sure the author is very proud of.
BLB is a very nice set of rules for the big battalion boys playing the conventions or running weekend Review by Shaun McTague of PEWC (Ponders End club battles in a gentlemanly game of tabletop warfare. Wargames Club) As you read the book you can’t help but get drawn into the spectacle of gaming at a massive scale with 1,000s of figures on the tabletop, and you just know these rules will play such a game well.
AT A GLANCE 50 Pages - Full Colour - Perfect Bound plus A4 Full Colour QRF Sheet Price: £15 Author: Barry Hilton Available from http://www.leagueofaugsburg.com
97
Field of Glory
Ancient & Medieval wargames rules from Slitherine/Osprey Well I think I can safely say our normally sedate little wargames world had never been subjected to such fervour before as it has recently with the arrival of Field of Glory (FoG). This rule book actually made it onto the Amazon top sellers list and the pre-orders apparently (so those wonderful rumours would have us believe) actually outstripped the original print run, which in turn created more hype and demand. Whatever the reality, FoG has actually caused a bit of a stir! People were pre-ordering the army list books before actually getting to play a game. Everyone it seemed couldn’t wait for the rules and boxes of ancient figures were being dusted off and got down from the loft. People who hadn’t played since WRG fourth edition and Shock of Impact (which were out when I was still at school and playing!) were getting revved up to play a new set of rules. The forums (especially TMP) were buzzing with posts predicting that FoG would do for ancients what FoW had done for WWII gaming. You know, drag back the youngsters from the dark side of fantasy and sci-fi gaming! The tantalising teasers from the publishers seemed to support this... an excellent hard backed book written in a Games Workshop/Flames of War style of presentation - lots of pictures, diagrams, examples and hobby support information was to be on offer. After the official release date the hype (by this time it seemed to be more like hypertension as people were not getting their pre-orders on time) seemed to give way to a bout of depression. It seemed that the kids were not going to get as excited by a ‘BG’ (battlegroup) of ‘HI’ (heavy infantry) that moved 3 inches at a time as they were a whopping great KING TIGER which could shoot the entire length of the battlefield and have a ‘Tiger Ace’ capable of doubling your rate of fire as commander! Also, the reality of just what ‘quick play’ rules seemed to set in. Quick play in regard to most other ‘popular’ ancient battle rules didn’t necessarily mean 1-2 hours per game, as some would have hoped, but more like 3-4 hours, which I guess for some is an improvement over 5-6 hours! One thing was agreed on though: FoG isn’t just a remake
of DBx as some had feared/hoped. Instead punters were complaining it was an amalgamation of other popular rule mechanics, such as Armati and Warmaster Ancients, set against a backdrop of WRG 6th Edition. So were does that all leave us … well in my opinion it leaves us with a set of rules which are going to take the ancient wargame world by the scruff of the neck and give it a good damn good shake but are they enough to lure the younger player back into the historical fold? The simple answer has to be; unlikely. Before I go on to discuss the actual mechanics a comment about the layout and production. These are without doubt the highest quality set of ancient rules I have ever seen. The production and presentation of the rules is a major draw card. The 170 odd pages packed with rules, examples, terrain and painting guides as well as a section on tactics for the ‘newbie’ are packaged inside a very nice hard cover. Inside the combination of Osprey’s expertise in publishing and Slitherine’s in all things computer has produced a heady mix of computer generated diagrams and pictures and hand drawn ‘Osprey’ prints.
GAME PLAY So how do they play? Basing wise the designers have stuck, not unsurprisingly, with DBx style basing so that at least most people do not have to rebase their armies. Unfortunately this means that Warmaster Ancients cavalry and ‘shock’ troops need to be rebased or ‘fudged’. The standard unit is a ‘Battlegroup’ (BG) which consists of a number of stands (normally ranging from 2 -10) and a starter (approx 600 point) army will have approx 8-12 Battlegroups. The game is designed to be played on a basic 6’ x 4’ foot table, which is standard fare nowadays. This does mean however that the unit of measurement (the MU) is an inch for all scales of figure. While double moves are possible when you are not near the enemy and with a commander once your opponent has worked out what their light troops are for (more of this later) you will be moving between heavy infantry at 3” and light cavalry at 7” coupled with shooting ranges between 2” (javelins) and 6” (longbows). In 28mm these distances have irked a lot of people. Indeed in our first two test games when we got our Roman Legions on the table it left us deflated as it seemed the troops were not really doing anything and everything seemed so cramped. This feeling rapidly left us though when I dragged the 10mm forces (cavalry rapidly rebased) I had
for Warmaster Ancients. Suddenly everything looked right and it looked more like a battle; in 28mm it had looked like a very slow skirmish game. Now it looked like a massed battle. But did it feel like one? One of the designers has said that their aim was to: “Make the player feel like a General and not a lawyer.” So the rules have clearly been designed to oust all those niggly little measurement mechanics which always seem to cause so many ‘debates’, especially in competitions. They have achieved this really well, once you have your head around the movement system everything is straight forward, you can ‘shift’ up to a base width on a ‘simple’ forward move which gets rid of the oblique measurement, series of tiny wheels etc. Moves are classified (by troop) as simple or complex and a complex move needs a simple test, fail and you have to stay still or make a normal full move advance. This simply limits (along with a ruling concerning undrilled and ‘difficult’ moves) the amount of micro movement you can do within dangerous range of the enemy and also models how drilled troops found it easier to make complex manoeuvres in the heat of battle. A player can use the commanders to form ‘battlelines’ which is a number of battlegroups moving together. This means you can keep your line of battle fairly regular until you get close and your
impact troops decide not to wait for the order (more of this later). The commanders can also be used to perform a double move if it occurs outside of 6 inch of the enemy. So you can readjust your formations if you do it quickly or send some light troops on a flanking mission, again this seemed impossible to achieve in 28mm as the bases took up most of the width of the table, but in 10mm (and we used the same bases as the FoG rules prescribed 15mm) there is room. Commanders are used well – you can have them fighting on the front line, where to be honest they are a nice bonus as they effectively make your troops one class better. As this normally means you being able to reroll ones or twos on your ‘to hit’ and ‘cohesion’ (morale in a way) dice then they can often make a big difference. Once they are in though there they stay until that melee has ended (which can be quite a while) and you can’t do any of the other handy things with them. These include ‘bolstering’ your troops when they have gone down a cohesion level or two (catch them before they break), helping undrilled troops manoeuvre better (well they are out to impress it seems) and keep everyone in line. So it is a personal decision – as they can be killed if fighting in the front line it is risky, but sometimes it just needs doing. I find with my Romans they don’t need the additional help fighting, but they often need a bit of a morale boost after a bit of a nasty session. Conversely my warband normally needs
28mm games look superb on a table this big. Using FoG for this type of game would be huge fun!
to make a BIG impression in the impact stage and having your commander fighting along side can make all the difference.
ON THE FRONT LINE Melee is well handled. There is an ‘impact’ phase which models the man to man HIT of the first impact – this is a bit of a leveller and the most even part of any of the fighting. Survive the impact, which is at the start of the turn, and you can later fight again (or continue on) in the melee phase. Here the quality, quantity and skill of the troops play a greater part. Some troops, like the warband, need it BIG in the impact, they need to break the cohesion of the enemy as normally they will be fighting at a disadvantage in the following melee phase if they don’t. Cause a bit of cohesion loss and the enemy begin to lose dice big time and your warband numbers will begin to tell! Basically you are hitting on a 3-5 on the die depending on the Points of Advantage (POA) you have over your opponent. The chart for calculating this looks complicated at first, but we are finding you soon know what to look for and after the first melee stage the POAs tend to stay the same anyway, as it is the amount of die thrown that is reduced due to the cohesion of a unit. The purpose of melee in FoG is two-fold really and taking bases occurs quite slowly, while it is the cohesion you tend to whittle away and which eventually causes breaks. I haven’t actually kept score, but I seem to suffer about equal amounts of breaking from base loss as opposed to cohesion loss. It is for a unit to break without taking any stand losses. Battlegroups auto break when they have lost a percentage of their stands, based on quality. What this does mean is you often have two long battlelines clashing and grinding each other down, there is no push back mechanism, which actually means far less fiddling. What you can do is feed troops into the combat and sooner or later someone is going to turn tail and run! In our games so far this has led to some very tense fights where they are balancing and then something just tips one side over, be it a flanking unit hitting, loss of a commander or even just a bad round of dice by one group. Clive, a member of our club, who is a repository of ancient knowledge and a competition player of various rules summed the fighting in FoG up by saying: “At last a set of ancients rules which look and feel as they should …” Indeed this is the way I am feeling. Yes it is a grind, a slugfest if you like, but surely that’s what it was really like. Doing away with small push backs and moves also speeds the combat resolution up. Even large multi-battlegroup (BG) combats are easily worked out on a BG by BG basis and give a set of results which ‘feel’ good. But it is this ‘grind’ that my best wargaming mate, Shaun, doesn’t like – things don’t tend to disappear quickly. It just isn’t bloody enough for him, although he does admit this niggle is far outweighed by the things he does like about the system. It would be unfair to enter the debate of which mechanism comes from what set of rules and which are truly unique. Frankly who cares, even if they ALL came from other sets
the authors have mixed and cooked them all together to create a gourmet treat. The specific things I am finding a breath of fresh air (although I imagine someone can tell me what other rules do them) are the way that terrain is handled and its effect on troops; the way cavalry can break off from steady infantry at the end of the turn to charge in again; the way commanders are used in subtle ways and the way skirmishers are a hassle, but can’t hold up a horde of adrenalin topped up heavy foot! In fact skirmishers and shooting are an area where I suspect people are going to love or hate the rules depending on your view of the effectiveness of ancient ranged weapons. It fits in well with my view, at the level FoG is pitched you are going to be lucky if a little firing is going to reduce a BG base wise, it may however cause a loss in cohesion which in turn if not dealt with can be added to next shooting stage (both armies fire in each shooting phase) and eventually it will take its toll. Softening up troops with firing (and getting them to lose dice in combat) before charging in with foot/mounted troops is a good, and dare I say, ‘historical’ tactic. How armies with masses of bow do I have yet to see but give us time and our English longbowmen will test it out for you! So mechanics wise the rules are very sound and to me play really well and, to be quite frank with you is just what I have been waiting for. Presentation wise you would be hard pressed to wish for more … the rules are well described and seem to be written so that the rule lawyers have very little to work with, everything has an example and are is easy to read. There is an amount of acronyms used, less than in other sets maybe, but I was out of practice with the whole ‘armoured, HF, Imp, ss’ stat line world, but have picked it up again with gusto! The rule book does include sections on collecting and painting an army, tactics for new Generals and reams of definitions all of which may well help a new player to the genre. There is a lot of ‘defining’ situations, again obviously aimed at cutting down on ‘rule lawyering’, which to be honest does make it a bit of a turgid read. If you skip through the book, see the pages of ‘defining situations’ look at the number of charts in the QRS and you could well be discouraged from actually trying them … unless you are a DBx type competition player you really do need to give them a couple of games. There are some very subtle mechanics in the rules which do not jump out of the page at you; you need to play a few games to see how they all meld together. I think they are going to be quick to play, note I didn’t say a fast play set. At the moment we are playing a 700 - 800 point game in about 3 1/2 hours, veterans are saying they easily finish a 800 point game in about 2 to 3 hours. If you can get a standard 800 point game down to 2 ½ hours they certainly will take the competition world by storm. There was a lot of debate on the Internet about the rules being a 28mm set, fuelled by the fact that a manufacturer had joined forces with the ‘team’ to produce high quality plastic 28mm figures. My thought is that the main core of players are definitely going to be 15mm and below, 28mm on a normal table just looks too packed and most people
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Although this is the wrong basing for FoG... 10mm scale does show how a ‘large battle’ can look. 6mm Romans from Baccus and based for The Battle of Zama. Here 40 figures to a 40mm square looks rather imposing. I have spoken to have the same opinion. In the UK the standard competition scale is really 15mm which will have a bearing I imagine. But time will tell…
made. This is slightly unfair I think as the army lists will not, as I understand, have rule update or modifications in … but the moaning will go on I suspect.
So what, if anything, is going to spoil this ‘ancients revival’ party? The initial hype possibly has proven to have a slightly negative effect now they are out. After such fervour the rules would have had to have been really innovative and have ticked everyone’s collection of boxes to live up to it. As I alluded to people were thinking this was going to have people converting to ancients in their masses – they were deemed to be the set to do a Flames of War for ancients. What they have turned out to be is an excellently produced set of ‘proper’ wargames rules that will be familiar to old time gamers, but innovative in their game delivery.
So I am waiting with baited breath to see how the rules do … I really like them, they have dragged me back into ancients and I am actually considering competitions which is something I never would have thought was going to happen! An old friend of mine, in fact we were playing WRG and Shock of Impact back in ‘the old days’ said the major thing for him (he is an avid DBM competitor) was that in a competition overseas he played 4 games in a day and didn’t feel like he had been dragged kicking and screaming through a ringer or lost his mind with geometric puzzles – in fact he wanted to play another game! Let me know what you think …
Will they deliver a horde of new players to the fold? I think it is too early to tell. There is a lot of enthusiasm, but is it just disaffected gamers being pulled back to ancients, or does it show the arrival of new blood? I doubt the rules are off the kind to convert the 40K or Warhammer crowd – what it will do is pull gamers from other ancient rules over. Then there is the issue over army lists … only 4 in the core rule book the rest of the lists are being supplied in a large amount of army list books. Now I have no problem with this … I have a limited period interest which are already covered and the army point builder section will see me through the urge for samurai lists. BUT not everyone feels this way and comparisons to GW codexes are being 101
Rich Jones Written by: Richard Bodley Scott, Simon Hall, Terry Shaw Cover Artist: Peter Dennis Price: £25.00 UK / $34.95 US/ $44.00 CA www.fieldofglory.com
Ambush Alley
Modern Urban Coimbat Rules
Day of the Rangers Black Hawk Down Supplement
Readers may remember a series of articles in the print version of Wargames Journal that followed on from a burgeoning obsession of mine that was generated after I actually got round to watching the superb Black Hawk Down movie. The game has been packed away since, although we have been tempted to play it on a number of occasions. We used scenario rules tacked onto a set of rule mechanisms from Two Hour Wargames, and of course we were happy with how they played.
What they did try and do is to give the player:
I had heard talk of a new set of modern rules, called Ambush Alley, and had filed them away as rules I ‘must try sometime’. But I never got around to it... and then the guys at Ambush Alley released a supplement for the rules called ‘Day of the Rangers’, and suddenly ALL of my Black Hawk Down toys were ready and waiting to be played with again - how could I resist?
So how did they do?
The rules and supplements are only available on PDF, albeit with a very instant download option. At 82 pages I suspect most people will be waiting for a quiet period at work to print them out. I have read that the authors sorted something out print wise for someone without access to a printer, so it is probably worth asking of they can do the same for you if printing is an issue. To me this (PDFs) is the way to go with rules that are not going to receive the FoG or FoW treatment with full colour printing, but I realise not everyone agrees. The rules are designed specifically for modern urban conflict situations involving regular ‘first world’ troops and ‘insurgents’. They were also designed specifically to play on a small table (the authors suggest 2’ x 2’ in 15mm and only a 4’x4’ table in 28mm) and to also play quickly. The authors seemed to have had a ‘wish list’ and stuck to them. In Ambush Alley you will not find: • • • • •
lots of charts and tables action points or card activations points of any sort complicated maths lots of modifiers.
• • • • • •
reasons for using solid tactical play a universal mechanic that covers most mechanics a realistic ‘feel’ the uncertainty or ‘fog’ of modern urban conflict scenario driven games good solo or co-op play
Basic Mechanics:
The rules are firmly in the corner of the ‘it’s the operator of the weapon that makes the difference, not the weapon itself’ camp. Weapons are ‘grouped’ and it is the quality of the firer that gives you a better chance of hitting anything. This approach makes perfect sense in an environment where the insurgents are often as well armed as the regulars and where there is less difference in the actual quality of the different rifles etc. There is an overriding
mechanic which is usually the way you resolve any dice throw – a 4 plus is good and it is often an ‘opposed’ roll! There are very few modifiers to remember, the difference comes in the type of dice your troops roll and the additions to the number thrown for situations (cover, armour etc). Troop Quality rolls range from d6 – d12 depending on your quality (and some situations and events move your die up or down on the scale) and can be a single roll for some ‘tests’ and up to 10 dice for shooting and defence dice. Without showing the actual mechanics this sounds complex, but in reality it is very simple! The figures are grouped into units (fire teams for regulars and ‘groups’ for insurgents). This base unit determines everything on the board, the individual figures really just delineate the area of operation for that unit, most measurement and LOS issues etc are worked from the middle of the unit. In reality though you tend to see each figure as where it is etc. Shooting and any melee is simple you get the amount of dice that you have figures with weapons, you get extra die for support weapons and also if you are in ‘optimum range’. Conversely you lose die for situations like ‘second interruption fire’, if you are being close assaulted etc. The target will get die for their defensive capability plus any die you can add for ‘cover’ and armour. The two sets are rolled and any 4+ die are kept, they are all then compared off highest to lowest. Any die that you beat the defenders with cause a casualty, quick, effective and very interactive for the players. Regular casualties can be ‘checked’ to see how bad, insurgents tend to be just taken off, they are deemed either too far gone or ‘off home’. The aftermath of casualties is a morale check. Morale state has a die type assigned to it ranging from
d6-d12. In this way you can have quality veterans with low morale (“we shouldn’t be here,” syndrome) or technically inept civilians in a state of either religious, charismatic or drug induced fervour – shoot the proverbial out of them and they just don’t care! Morale drops can make regulars more ineffective (either pinned or wanting to pull back for instance) and insurgents can either keep going, shrink (more people sneak off after deciding that this may not actually be a good idea after all), or become shaken, eventually just dispersing. There are special rules for night fighting, vehicles, house clearing, roping in, special ops etc – what you would expect really from a set of modern rules. Overall the rules use some fairly fresh (or at least not used much in other games) mechanisms, but the following is a major contributor to what gives the rules their flavour!
Move Sequence & Fog of War:
It is the move sequence coupled with the Fog of War cards that give the game its ‘feel’. In a way it reminded me of a combination of how Crossfire works and the Nuts reaction tests. Now to me this is a good thing, however I imagine some IgoUgo gamers will need some nerve calming strategies when first starting to play. Basically the regular troops always have the initiative and the insurgents try to interrupt their movement or shooting, this is like the insurgents being on continual overwatch. If they do not have a leader with them the insurgents need to pass a Quality Check to be able to react, the regulars get to roll an opposed roll against those insurgent units trying to interrupt them and if successful will be able to react first.
This flows well and leaves you with the situation where the regulars may come into view of a few groups of insurgents, manage to fire one or two groups off but get fired on by the third – it all feels ‘right’ and some bad/ good dice rolls will lead to some serious manure hitting the rotating cooling device! Once all the regular troops have finished activating the insurgent units who haven’t gone can activate. They can use the ‘out of contact’ movement rules where they can move until they come into sight of the regulars. This models the facts the regulars can’t be sure where the insurgents are, the fluidity of mob movement and forces you to think about using fire teams to cover areas. Hiding away in a nice solid building may be good short term thinking but if you haven’t any fire teams covering the area then those insurgents are going to be knocking on your back door wanting to read their holy book to you! The insurgents also have the possibility of reinforcements each turn. This depends on the level of ‘insurgency’ set by the scenario and they arrive at random ‘hot spots’ on the board. Each scenario has a number of Fog of War cards that can be used, others are turned over during the game when events happen, this normally being a ‘1’ on a morale die (which happens more than you think when you are throwing 5 or 6 morale dice). There are a wide range of cards and can have good or bad effects on your troops. Your mission can be going oh so smoothly until one of these cards suddenly changes it all or some reinforcements pop up around the corner in a ‘technical’! Just reading the mechanics will show that the rules are eminently suitable for solo play, in fact the authors have developed some charts (with a slight random element) to tell you what the insurgent groups will do in different circumstances. As well as solo enjoyment it also means you can indulge in my favourite kind of game play – cooperative play between a number of players. Having a fire team each you and a buddy can battle it out against the insurgents to try and achieve victory. There are a large number of scenarios for you to work through and you can tailor them to play a wide range of events one will have read about in action reports from various world ‘conflicts’. They are well laid out, easy to follow, different each time (due to the random factors and the normal game mechanics) and fun to play – what more could one ask for?
When you first look at the rules (and view any game examples with very few figures on a 2’ or 4’ square table) you tend to think that the rules will be ultra detailed, like Dogs of War or Final Combat. Indeed this was what originally detracted me from trying them out, I presumed I would need a while and be counting off bursts from my mags to know when to reload etc. In fact the rules are very opposite to this, they are not a ‘detailed’ skirmish set of rules, firing is done per fire team not individuals, there are no real ‘stars’ (leaders do what leaders do, keep it all together), you don’t test to dive through the window, throw off a stun grenade and then manage to ‘neutralise’ everyone around. In fact, even movement is simple and aimed at portraying what the troops would need to be doing. The authors have stuck with the concept that the troops would know how to be moving in that situation, so let them do it. If needs be you can give it a run etc (the end scene from Black Hawk Down springs to mind) but it isn’t advisable, slow cautious movement gives the regulars advantages on the reaction tests which they will be needing. Scenery wise the table needs to reflect the area the action is portraying. Yes you do need buildings and assorted accessories but you are only populating a small area. Also as the rules do not rely on you putting individual figures behind cover to protect them (you don’t have to work out that 75% of the figure could fit behind the statue!) and the authors presume that on the streets there is a lot of ‘cover’ that isn’t shown on the table so you don’t need to spend hours populating the table with stalls, billboards etc. You can if you like, but you don’t have to. An example is that one of the Fog of War cards is that the group finds an excellent position where they are for cover – your table may be flat and bare where they are, but in ‘reality’ there is an excellent little ditch or depression. This models personal testimony I have read from the Mogadishu incidents where the troops found excellent positions to fire from in the middle of the streets because of the undulations of the road – certainly not going to be ‘modelled’ on any of my tables at home!
The rules played well, they are fast, tense, bloody (for the insurgents normally, although we have had a couple of games where there would have to be some serious after action ‘spin’ done on the news reports) and have an air of unpredictability. I like the Two Hour Wargame mechanics in Ed’s ‘reaction mechanism’ but can understand why some people don’t. The Ambush Alley mechanisms give me the same feel but with a different way of getting there and in a slightly less hectic fashion. Ambush Alley gives the tense uncertainty that I suspect modern urban ‘operations’ involve. The rules are also more specifically tailored towards this one type of combat than other rules I have come across. They appear to give ‘realistic results’ with a quick game play.
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Anyone expecting an ultra detailed action wise set of rules basically haven’t done any homework. What you do get however is an excellent set of fast rules which give an excellent feel for what they are trying to portray. All in all I think the designers have managed to meet all the aims they set out to cover, they are certainly a set of rules I will use quite a lot especially with people I can’t get to play THW rules with me.
could possibly want. At the moment I believe you can buy the two as a bundle. Neil Fawcett and I are planning a Black Hawk Down mega game for the upcoming holidays. You will be able to see how it went in Issue 10!
Rich Jones
Day of the Rangers:
This is a supplement for Ambush Alley. As the title suggests it revolves around the action in Somalia in the early 90’s which resulted in the ‘Day of the Rangers’. Most people will be familiar with this action through the film ‘Black Hawk Down’ and the supplement gives you all the rules and scenarios you need to replay every bit of the action! Even if you are not into the film in any great way the supplement gives you new scenarios to play in any theatre you like and some very useful helicopter and insertion rules etc. The Fog of War and asset cards have been changed and supplemented so that they specifically support the nature of the action in Somalia. If you like the rules then this supplement is a must. If you are interested in the action shown by the film and want to game it then the rules and the supplement give you everything you
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Ambush Alley Games Written by Shawn Carpenter, Robby Carpenter & David Phipps
www.ambushalleygames.com See the company web site for price and current special offers
www.Coyote-Miniatures.co.uk Supplies 6mm miniatures Current best sellers include: Timber fort CM-Fort 01 ÂŁ10
Late Period Samurai Castle CM-Fort 02 ÂŁ15
Contact Alex and order on line at www.coyote-miniatures.co.uk Coyote can be found at shows at the Stronghold miniatures stand, a 10% discount is given for pre-orders. Hopefully to be found at Salute, Cannonade, Partizan, Bovington, Claymore and Crisis.
This particular miniature is one that I had had my eye on for quite some time, always looking for that ‘reason’ to buy it – as if you ever need a real reason to buy more metal! What prompted my purchase was Salute 07 last year. I thought to myself... ‘Buy it, paint it and see what happens in the competition.’ The figure is, if you haven’t seen the Tom Cruiser movie, that of Katsumoto and comes from the film “The Last Samurai”. It is 54mm scale and comes from the very excellent range of Andrea Miniatures. I really do love this film and the character Katsumoto is, to me, one of perfection. He is gentle, intelligent, brave and honourable – and downright scary with a Katana. As a result of this, I wanted to give this miniature the time it deserved from a painter, so with LOTS of hours set aside I went to work.
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The miniature was painted using acrylics from a number of companies and most of the figureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s shading and highlighting was created using the wet blend technique. This is basically keeping the surface wet while applying the paint and blending the colours into each other, instead of just layering them. The miniature took me roughly 20 hours to paint, but was a complete joy and the time soon went by. I was rewarded with my hard work by winning first place at Salute 07 in the Other Historical Category... a result of which I am very proud. I hope you like the miniature and that it brings you as much joy to look at it does for me.
Lee Lowe
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Building a Portable Scenario By Permission of LMW Works - Written by Philip J. Viverito
INTRODUCTION While planning my upcoming convention schedule I came to a very important decision. Somehow I had to think big, build big... but pack small. With the Siege of Tyre I had made the buildings so that they could be packed one within another. Even then I still had two large boxes. Historicon 2007 has helped me to hone my objective with the Nerve of the Nervii scenario game and it ended up being only one big box for the building and four small figure boxes. Objective secured. Cold Wars, Historicon and Fall In! are equally important. However they are no more important than local shows like Hurricon, Southern Front or Siege of Augusta to mention just three local conventions. When I do a scenario like The Nerve of the Nervii, I have to envision in my planning the logistical transportation of the scenario. Being myself small I think small. Like most of us appearances are deceiving - we are all much bigger on the inside than on the outside. So I try and turn things inside out. Like getting my big ideas into a deceptively small container. To achieve the objective I looked and looked for something that would be relatively quick to build and structurally large when placed on the gaming table. Reading Caesar I came up with what I felt was an ideal concept: the relief of Cicero’s winter camp. Caesar tells us that Roman winter
camps were larger than the typical daily marching camp. I had already created a full Roman permanent camp with the Hadrian’s Wall scenario - see Historical Miniature Gamer Magazine or http://www.classicalhack.com. A marching camp would fulfil my handling of Roman camps to a point. All that is left is a Saxon Shore fort. First and foremost is the table top on which you will grow your scenario. I have found that using a tan or green coloured cloth I have a base which is malleable, light weight and portable. Beneath this cloth I place cut pieces of styrene to create hills and ditches. To make realistic ground, place styrene under the cloth while scattering flocking, cedar chips and spanish moss over the cloth. This terrain is realistic and very portable. When designing the walls I used John Hutt’s Precision Products sheeting and Perfic Panels. The walls of the camp being a simple bevelled rampart of turf with a narrow walk way and a gentle rear slope. The face of the rampart is partially flocked so the turf blocks (sheeting) could be seen. Below is the main gate which shows the basic Roman gate defences. Unlike modern gates there are no actual gates. The guard unit would stand in the opening which is really a gateway and not an actual gate. Cicero actually
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blocked these openings up with a sod wall-the basic build material used to create the rampart. The Romans would cut neat sod blocks and lay them like blocks. The main gate of the camp which shows how the camp walls looked. The island in front of the main opening (gateway) into the camp is called a tulmus. It is designed to slow or blunt an assault by the enemy. To the rear of the tulmus are towers where ballistae are mounted to rain fire down attackers.
The rampart as mentioned is made of turf blocks. The Romans would stake out where the general lines of the rampart or walls would be erected. Directly in front of where the planned rampart would be built sod blocks were cut from the ground. As the sod blocks were cut and laid creating the rampart a man made ditch was left. This is not quite visible in the photo. So as the rampart was built up the defensive ditch was dug. Very functional in design and construction; the hallmark of Roman engineering. To create the ditches I simply lay cut and bevelled pieces of styrene which are placed beneath the ground cloth.
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The thirteen towers are dowels cut to the desired height making the uprights. Platforms made of Precision Products planking deck the tower upper storeys. The wicker works are made from safety barricade tape which I bought at a safety supply store. The barricade tape is about three inches in width and is woven plastic that when painted looks like wicker. I used the same material to create the rampart upper wall sections. Then plaster Elmer’s wood putty on the wicker to make a mud facing. Never use speckling as it will not hold up. The gateways are a key to making the camp big or small. The bigger the opening the bigger the camp. This is important for controlling the size f the display. Caesar mentioned the winter camps were bigger than the marching camps. I just made the gateways wide to cover more table space. Inside the camp I needed lodgings for the units. This camp depicts a single legion camp. Caesar said because it was a winter camp the men either placed thatching over their tents or made huts covered in thatching. Huts were out because I wanted my camp to be more flexible in use and reflective of Roman marching camps. So I went with tents. I could always make huts later if I wanted. To make the tents I used simple pre-printed paper. The paper was preprinted with a leather pattern found at Michaels. Lynne (my wife) came up with the idea of printing the stitching onto the paper. So she designed the basic tent shape and made a PDF pattern.
tents I made by the dozen without trouble. Just print and cut. If you fold them correctly you don’t even have to use glue. Let’s review. I needed something big and something transportable. The ground is two pieces of cloth (dollar a yard Wal-Mart); measuring sixty inches by sixteen feet. The styrene is scrap saved from other projects. These make hills and the bank for the ditches. The rampart is cut from Perfic Panels. These are hollow and faced with sheeting facades and Elmer’s wood fill on the reverse slope. The final camp measures about four feet square. By making the gateways wide or narrow I can easily reduce the camp’s size. Everything fits into a large mail able box measuring nineteen by nineteen by twenty-three inches. The figures weigh more than the model. Above you can see the end project. The scenario - The Nerve of the Nervii - which I put on at Historicon 2007 is lightweight, mail-able and meets all my needs to travel to conventions with a BIG game that is, at the same time, small! For anyone interested, the Nervii (Gauls) were defeated in both games we played, but not without inflicting great damage on the relieving Romans.
By printing theses at different percentages I could control the size. For the officers’ tents I used a different pattern. The surplus from the pattern supplied the awnings. The 115
We lost touch with Clive Edmonds a little while ago after he did us a wonderful set of articles on wargaming Waterloo in 6mm. He got back in touch with us recently to discuss his latest project – Waterloo in 15mm – and we thought we’d invite him over for a game and a catch up. This fictional scenario is one that Clive brewed up for us and uses the Age of Eagles rule set. INTRODUCTION After the return of Napoleon from exile in 1815 the allied powers were discussing the future of Europe at the Congress of Vienna. The British, Prussians and Russians were in immediate agreement to take to the field once again, declaring war on Napoleon himself rather than France. However the Austrians were not in agreement. Marie Louise, back in Vienna with Napoleon’s son, had impressed upon her father that Napoleon was eager to continue his allegiance with the Austrians and for his son to play a part in the future of Europe. One course of action would be to combine Italy & Naples (under the leadership of Murat) into a grand alliance with France and Austria and to then dominate trade in the Mediterranean. Whilst the Austrians vacillated, the British, Prussians and Russians re-mobilised for war. Britain landed a force in Belgium to support its allies and protect its route into Europe via Antwerp. The Prussians were encamped in southern Germany keeping their eyes on both France and Austria. The Russians would take many months to come across via Poland. Unable to break the diplomatic impasse with his enemies, Napoleon had feverishly put France on a war footing, reequipping his army and purchasing mounts for the cavalry. In a few short months he felt ready to take the field if needed. With the Austrians offering tacit support and occupying the Prussians,
Napoleon saw an opportunity to strike at Wellington with the aim of knocking Britain out of the war and making them evacuate the continent. Hopefully the Prussians and Russians would then be more accepting of peace with France. Early in June the French concentrated on the Belgian border and attempted to launch a lightning strike on Wellington before he could concentrate his forces. With Soult now his second in command, following the mysterious suicide of Berthier, and Ney placed in command of the army, the forces met north of Charleroi. Unfortunately for Napoleon, Wellington had concentrated most of his force in this exact area whilst putting his new command through battle manoeuvres. French staff work was unusually sloppy and Ney attacked Wellington before he had concentrated sufficient force. With only two corps Ney went for the spectacular and was rewarded by being shot and mortally wounded leading an infantry attack. The French suffered higher than anticipated casualties and with Ney stricken and the Emperor still a half day’s march away the French fell back in reasonable order. Napoleon, enraged at this reverse, decided to fall back to the French border and regroup, hoping to lull Wellington into an over-confident advance. Early on June 24th, 1815 the French took position just inside the French border near the village of Chartieres. Wellington was
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Pictures 1 and 3 show the Allied Commaders setting up, watched by Clive Edmonds (Pic 2). Stuart, in Pic 3, took the right flank by complete surprise. Clive hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t expected this sort of attack, more along the lines of the centre as he had anticipated. Pics 4 and 5 show the development of the French right flank... which buckled badly, and rather quickly! On the other page Napoleon looks nervously at the battle (Pic 8) and to his right (Pic 9) the victorious British are marching into the town of Chartieres. Pic 10 shows the final main thrust of the Allied army as it moves to counter the French Guard Infantry which had just decided to march out of their defences. Pic 7 shows the French left-middle hotting up as Clive desperately tried to pull troops across to his shattered right flank.You can just see in this image the French cavalry moving off to engage Orange - what a mess that was!
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For more information visit www.casematepublishing.co.uk or any good bookshop.
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advancing steadily and Napoleon was now desperate to finally see his nemesis beaten. Soult had been sent back to Paris in disgrace with orders to ensure any unrest on the home front was kept in check. Having boosted his force with a few conscript brigades from the depots Napoleon awaits his fate.
NOTE: This is a fictitious 1815 Napoleonic scenario, using the Age of Eagles Napoleonic Fire and Fury Rules variant recently designed and published by Colonel Wilbur (Bill) Gray, and based around the original Fire & Fury concepts designed by Richard Hasenauer.
AGE OF EAGLES RULES BASIC SCALES The basic units in this game are Infantry and cavalry brigades and single gun artillery batteries. One Infantry or Cavalry model represents 90 men and one gun a battery of 8 guns. Ground scale is one inch equals 120 yards for 15mm figures (about fourteen and a half inches per mile). Game turns (one friendly, one enemy) represent 30 minutes of real time.
FIRE & FURY MAIN GAME MECHANIC Fire and Fury works on a Brigade Effectiveness 3 level system e.g. 8/5/3, with 8 being the number of stands in the brigade (and deemed Fresh). As casualties are picked up the second level will be reached which is deemed Worn, and if continuing in combat will most likely end up on the lowest level which is Spent. The combat modifiers become worse as these levels drop. (See the Victory Points section to see how these are also used to measure victory)
AGE OF EAGLES CHAT GROUP/RULES HELP There is an excellent Yahoo chat group where other players of the game and Napoleonic enthusiasts alike post answers to any questions on the rules and engage on general debates on the Napoleonic wars from advice on figure painting, uniforms, tactics, rules questions, etc…The moderator of this group is Bill Gray himself and he is a veritable wealth of good information and answers many questions personally and promptly. He is a true enthusiast and there are many frequent contributors whose names you soon get to know and will have something interesting to contribute. The URL for this helpful web site is http://groups.yahoo.com/ group/NapoleonicFireandFury
MINIATURES USED IN THIS GAME The miniatures used in this game are from the personal 15mm collection of Clive Edmonds, who has been painting Napoleonic figures for many years. Most of these figures are Old Glory, but there are also some Minifigs, AB, and Essex. The opponent here Stuart Hepworth is a long time wargaming companion of Clive’s, with a speciality in American Civil War Fire and Fury.
TIMEFRAME The battle commences at 1 p.m., the weather is dry and sunny. The game finishes at 8pm (total of 7 turns – each turn consisting of one French and one Allied section).
TERRAIN SPECIFICS The woods are impassable to cavalry. Infantry can enter woods with the usual movement penalties. Artillery can position on the edge of woods to gain benefit of cover but may not move further into the woods. If defeated in combat in this position the artillery battery is lost. Hamlets impart a -2 cover modifier to the defender in combat. Hedges impart a -1 cover modifier to the defender in combat, Infantry in woods can only be fired on if within one inch of the woods edge. Hill slopes are deemed rough terrain and cost double movement allowance to ascend/descend.
TROOP SPECIFICS SPECIFICS)
(AGE
OF
EAGLES
RULES
All infantry is Impulse. All British/KGL infantry are deemed 2 rank and fire with 2.5 points per stand at close range. All other allied and French infantry have the standard 2 fire point per stand at close range. Skirmish capability is designated on the OOBs (and unit labels). Artillery Fire Points vary depending on French Old Guard, British, French Line or other (as per standard Volley & Cannonade chart).
INITIAL DEPLOYMENT The French deploy two thirds of their force within the deployment zone marked on the map. Then the Anglo allied force deploys their entire army. Finally the French deploy their chosen reserve as they wish.
VICTORY CONDITIONS The French aim is to hold their defensive ground to gain a tactical victory. The normal Victory Points (VP’s) system from the rules will also be totalled to gauge the level of victory, these are as follows: 1 VP 1 VP 1 VP 2 VP 2 VP 4 VP 6 VP 4 VP
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Each Worn enemy brigade Each Wrecked or captured gun stand Each enemy division leader killed, wounded or captured Each Spent enemy brigade Each corps leader or Charismatic division leader killed, wounded or captured Each enemy brigade that routs or is eliminated Each French or British Guard brigade that routs or is eliminated Each Charismatic corps leader or any army commander killed, wounded or captured
WARRING FACTIONS
on the battlefield. Interestingly, Clive decided that he wanted to form a large six-gun battery slightly to the left of centre - a nice idea that was to end up doing nothing to influence the battle.
When Clive offered to bring this game over I jumped at the chance to have a game. Then I realised he meant for me to be the adjudicator and act as the umpire. Well it sounded OK in principle, but then I saw the miniatures out on the tabletop and I couldn’t resist rolling some dice. So what follows is an account of our first test game as we build up to a much larger engagement later this year. As for my part, well I was part-time French general, full-time tea boy and all round lousy dice roller - but read on for more on the battle.
This turn was to see the first cavalry engagement as French Guard Chasseurs charged out, getting nicked by Allied cannon (Dutch 9lb foot artillery), which disordered them as they hit the British Hussars. That was enough to help the Hussars win and the French bounced, humiliated by lesser men!
The Mini Battle Report - Neil Fawcett
Turn 1 Clive had an ambitious plan to hold the Allied assault on both flanks and bring up the French Guard to bolster the centre, from where he could push out and smash into the weaker Allied centre. The gaming table was a very close approximation to the map that Clive generated and at 8’ x 4’ meant we would get into the thick of it pretty quickly. The first thing that happened was that the Allied commanders - Clive’s gaming friend Stuart Hepworth and our own Alain Padfield - took us completely off guard and set up with a massive amount of infantry strength on their own left flank and located their cavalry en masse on the right flank! Clive’s deployment was well and truly scuppered. The French were on the back foot even before the game started. We diced for initiative and this was to be the last dice roll the French won that game turn. Having won initiative the French commander (Clive, don’t blame me!) passed to the Allied commander (Stuart) to move first. He pushed his left flank forward around the back of trees (squares H2/H3) and this saw his Brunswick and Nassau troops attempt to outflank the enemy. To the right front Hill’s II Corp advanced to engage a weak line of Regular French infantry (Quiot’s Division) that was stretched too thinly from the town to the tree line. As the Allied troops moved in the French defensive fire was wasted and this allowed the first British unit, Adam’s Brigade, to immediately smash the enemy - a poor start that just got worse for the French. The French phase of the turn saw some worried finger tapping by Clive as it dawned upon him what was about to happen to his left flank. Once stabilised he moved his attention to his left flank, which was looking rather lonely!
TURN 2 The Allies won initiative and kept coming in. It almost seemed like a race to see who would engage a French unit first. I remember looking at Clive and we both knew the French right flank was no more than two turns away from crumbling. Stuart kept pushing forward and by now the Nassau and Brunswick troops were well on their way to outflanking the French. The elite British infantry on the right kept coming and then it happened… they stopped! Poor dice rolls stalled the assault; the French could breathe again. But this respite wouldn’t last long. The French phase of the turn was again about stemming the flow of blood on the right flank and trying to manoeuvre the centre into position and start to redeploy troops from the left flank to the right flank. Clive didn’t want to admit it, but he knew that very soon the town of Chartieres would fall into Allied hands and from there the centre would be threatened. Napoleon was hopping mad!
On the right Clive elected to withdraw back towards the town after I convinced him it was the only sane thing to do given the state of play. In the centre the French battery was organising and melee was now ensuing amongst the troops in the centre and right flank. Clive also decided that the left flank needed warming up and so brought forward Kellerman’s cavalry division - which was home to his heavy armoured cavalry. The melee action went very badly for the French with the British Elites hammering home their advantage amongst all the French units. I have to say that lousy dice rolls (OK, so most of them were mine) hampered things, but when your opponent has bonuses like cricket scores, and you roll snake eyes on two dice, you’re in big trouble.
TURN 4 Again the Allied troops won the initiative and the Nassau troops kept coming. The wounded British Hussars backed off, the French gun battery scaring them off, and the Allies started to clog up their centre, lacking room for manoeuvring and with the cavalry on the Allied right doing a great impersonation of statues. Uxbridge must have been so proud! The French right flank now started to fall apart and two entire brigades were forced to exit the table. It was looking dire now and worse still the French troops that were meant to plug the emerging hole were only halfway across the table. Clive had insisted on keeping his Guard infantry, the cream of his elites, in the centre and instead moved his left flank regulars across. But in the midst of this nightmare there was a humorous moment. Stuart elected to send his elites into Chartieres and capture the town. Loaded up to the gunnels, his brigades charged, led by the valiant Highlanders, only to be repulsed. Best still was the fact that the infantry in the town that beat back the elites were mere conscripts! Finally the French commander could smile. It didn’t last long though as Clive rolled to motivate his Guard Chasseurs a Cheval and messed it up - they ran away, losing a stand in the process. You should have seen Clive’s face when that happened, and Al’s face beamed because they were meant to be charging his troops. Not their finest hour.
TURN 5 Yes, you guessed it, another Allied initiative victory and Stuart decided it was time to take the town. He sent in four brigades, again the Highlanders at the fore, and again the conscripts beat them back - superb! They actually only just held on to the town, but hold it they did. The rest of the turn saw both sides ‘fidgeting’ as they moved left a bit and nudged forward and no one really did anything worthy. Bit dull this turn, with only the failure to take the town making us sit up and take notice.
TURN 6 Allied initiative again!
TURN 3 By now the Allied victory in the initiative dice rolls was wearing thin. So again the combined army pushed forward, cannon shot slamming into the French troops as they realigned themselves
Bit of cavalry action on the Allied left flank as Brunswick Hussars smashed a unit of French infantry and then followed on to hit a unit of French Lancers. The town was still the primary focus
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and this time the British amassed enough troops to attack and smash the French forces out of their defences. The right flank of the French army was now in deep trouble. Somewhat incensed by this, Clive pushed his first Guard foot unit over the hedge and into the British. Seemed like a great idea on paper, but how I love how wargaming gives you a slap in the face. So off pop the Guard infantry and in comes defensive fire by the British troops (a mix of cannon and infantry) which totalled 32 points of weapon fire, which is withering on its own, but even worse when Alain Padfield rolls a 9 on a D10. The result was three bases dead and the Guards disordered. This meant they also lost their attack against the regular British infantry they assaulted, driven backwards towards their Emperor in a humbling way. And it kept getting worse… on the left flank the French decided to send in their best cavalry: Imperial Guard Lancers and Cuirassiers versus elite, but disordered, Royal Horse Guard cavalry that had the Prince of Orange attached! (Incorrectly it appears in retrospect, as he was in charge of I Corps infantry, not Uxbridge’s cavalry - nice one, Alain!) In go the French cavalry and, by the sheer genius of dice rolls, out they come, beaten by a weakened unit with a madman at its helm. Just how did that happen?!
IN CONCLUSION Basically there is not a lot to say other than Napoleon had the smile wiped clean off his face. The Age of Eagles rules handled the game superbly and it was a lot of fun. The game was a first for Alain and me; both past players of Fire and Fury ACW, neither had ventured into the Napoleonic world of these rules, which is something I’m personally going to rectify. Next up for the four Generals will hopefully be Quatre-Bras, so maybe we can reverse history and take our valiant French to victory… what do you think, Clive? And if you are reading this buy some new dice - those red ones are dreadful!
GENERAL REPORTS Allied Wing Commander - Alain Padfield When we set up we agreed to squeeze into the left hand half of the battlefield and concentrate our attack on the town of Chartieres. I took command of the Prince of Orange and I Corps on my left and Uxbridge with the Cavalry Corps on the right. I gave Alten (KGL Line) the job of joining the assault on Chartieres and Cooke (British Guards) the task of blocking it off from attack by the French centre. Alten’s Brigades got knocked about by the conscripts in the town, but Cooke’s Guards held off the French assault to relieve the town. I hid the Belgian Brigades led by Perponcher and Chasse in the woods in the centre, as they were very vulnerable, and covered Cooke’s flank. Uxbridge meanwhile was strung out on the empty flank, facing half of the French army. Uxbridge advanced, saw the Guard Cavalry and artillery batteries emerge from the French line and retreated. Fortunately Clive’s command rolls failed him and the Guard Cavalry did not advance together, so I escaped his clutches. With our deployment Stuart and I concentrated our forces, so that he could make the assault on the French right while I threatened the rest of the line. Clive redeployed his unused formations to counter Stuart, but could have done some serious damage to Orange’s command if he had attacked with the Old Guard earlier
in the battle. But he didn’t - phew!! Apart from Cooke and Alten my troops didn’t see much action apart from some long range artillery fire (I did damage two artillery batteries though). I realised that I had enough officers around to keep Alten and Cooke moving, so I sent Orange off to take personal command of the Royal Horse Guards. There were five or six French cavalry brigades descending on my line, so as Uxbridge retreated Orange moved round the flank of some lancers. My intent was to split their attack, but instead I got their complete attention. A couple of brigades failed to move, and I got hammered by the Lancers and Cuirassiers (or so I thought). I had a great game and Clive’s armies look beautiful. My contribution to the game can be summarised as a competent deployment, not making any mistakes and two totally outrageous dice rolls. I scored maximum casualties on an Old Guard Brigade and just about held them off in close combat, and Orange held off the Lancers and Cuirassiers. Clive had a modifier of +5 to a roll of 6 and got 11. I paused, held my breath and the dice tumbled out of my clammy hands. I scored an unmodified 12! Hoorah! It was a meaningless combat, but I did the Space Invaders victory dance anyway. Allied Supreme Commander - Stuart Hepworth This report by Stuart has all the trappings of a man who has eaten far too many orange Smarties. Obviously puffed up by his victory Stuart just doesn’t seem able to lose the ‘Upper Class English Officer’ persona he adopted for the game: Sir, It was immediately apparent that victory was at hand once the dispositions of Napoleon’s army were discerned. Even the threat of the hidden reserves could not deter me from my immediate decision for my main point of attack. Understanding my foe and his predilection for cavalry action made any offensive action on my open right flank out of the question. I felt sure that his reserves of heavy cavalry would be positioned there and likewise his guard would be held in the centre - near to Napoleon himself. This only left the enemy’s right flank, which he had made especially vulnerable by slanting at an angle away from his main line and into the woods to his right and front. I would, therefore, position my ablest troops on my left flank. For my centre I had a wood that offered cover for my conscript troops, sufficiently distant enough from the enemy line to allow my artillery to create some confusion on any French that chose to assail them. My main concern then was my open right flank. I tasked Uxbridge with holding this area, either to threaten any enemy infantry movement against my centre, or manoeuvre against any cavalry as he saw fit. Battle was joined with an immediate assault on the French right, whilst I sent the Nassau contingent around the woods to threaten his exposed rear. The results were spectacular, with the French fleeing pell mell! Whilst Napoleon marched his Guard in circles and slowly edged his cavalry and artillery forward, I pressed home the assault onto the town, now acting as his extreme right flank bastion. With no apparent threat to my centre I was able to push forward new elements to apply overwhelming superiority in the assault on the town. This was a resounding success. Meanwhile, with excellent manoeuvring by Uxbridge, the French cavalry threat, such as it was, was negated. The expedient use of the woods as cover for my less experienced units holding my centre quickly negated the use of the massed French artillery. In
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French: Officers’ battle report from Chartieres, 24th June, 1815:
fact, several of those batteries were damaged by skilled counter battery fire as the French were indulging themselves in shooting down leaves and twigs. Finally, Napoleon attempted to relieve the pressure on his right flank by sending one of his Guard brigades into the attack. With two batteries firing at point blank range combined with the British Brown Bess musket, the Guard suffered severe casualties, finally closing into hand to hand only to be ignominiously forced back. Le Guard recule! With the French Cavalry either refusing to charge or being resoundingly beaten by HRH The Prince of Orange, the only option for Napoleon, if he was to salvage both his guns and uncommitted left flank, was a hasty retreat. I felt it prudent to leave Napoleon to his defeat and not lessen it by some paltry rearguard victory, which his strong cavalry may have afforded him. With my only uncommitted troops being those still sheltering in the woods, it would have been irresponsible of me to allow any setback at this moment of victory on French soil. Your humble Servant. French Supreme Commander - Clive Edmonds I have been playing Age of Eagles Fire and Fury Napoleonics for about 18 months and as Stuart will verify I don’t like defending much and love getting my cavalry into action. So, not too used to this defending business and bearing in mind the objective to hold the position, I was reticent to march out across the table. After deploying the French troops it came as a bit of a shock to see the Allied forces deploy en masse on the French right flank, which was defended by just one division. I had deployed an entire corps on the hills to the left thinking the Allies would assault that rather than the town on my right. I could see I was in trouble straight away. Looking to Neil for some moral support, we proceeded between us to roll abysmally all evening. I noticed when things got particularly bad, Neil disappeared to make tea or download some photos. I would have loved to have pushed out and attack the Dutch Belgians way off to our front but the right wing was disintegrating fast, and attempts to push back Uxbridge’s cavalry to allow the guard to come out were tardy. If I could have engaged the Belgians with my Guard they would have been rendered ineffective in short order. It also took 4 turns to get the French infantry corps off the hill and towards the centre. With the many good quality British troops pushing in hard on the town it became a matter of stemming the tide. I had set 5 batteries in the middle to blow away Uxbridge’s cavalry before hitting them with the French cavalry, but disastrous dice rolls for movement and Alain sensibly withdrawing when threatened basically negated that activity. So fair play to Stuart/Alain, good plan well executed. And I must say it is amusing to see the sheer joy on a grown man’s face caused by the simple act of rolling a few dice and getting two sixes, and that look of quiet resignation when the dice rolls keep going bad. I was most impressed with how high Alain had to jump before realising that infamous double six roll at the end; the rolling action of the wrist as he released the dice must have been choreographed in advance - very impressive. The following text is how the ill-fated French commanders may have seen the action unfold:
Napoleon Our scouting patrols failed to detect the build up of the enemy on our right flank. Our intelligence was telling us to expect a general advance across the line. Count D’Erlon showed a lack of commitment in defending our right wing, and our cavalry was too slow to threaten Uxbridge to allow our left flank Corps under Reille to join battle in the centre. I was unwilling to send in my guard infantry until the line infantry had stabilised our defensive line. Unfortunately this movement was too slow and too late. With Wellington’s British veterans sweeping into our weak right flank I decided to begin a strategic withdrawal to a better position. D’Erlon I Corps Quiot’s division on the far right was overwhelmed by sheer numbers on the right flank, and we were threatened to our rear by the enemy marching around the woods, but defended the position fighting a slow withdrawal to Chartieres. We lost many men and this is testament to our fighting commitment. Durette’s division held Chartieres for nearly an hour in the face of overwhelming numbers. But our position was not adequately reinforced. Reille, II Corps We were deployed on and below the hills to the west as instructed by your majesty, but the enemy concentration was to the other flank. Our orders to redeploy to the centre and right were received late, and we found the downhill movements in difficult terrain took much longer than expected. This was not helped by the massed cavalry of Kellerman and Lefevre Desnouettes who blocked our way initially but as far as I could tell did not engage the enemy to their front. Drouot, Imperial Guard Infantry We deployed as ordered in the centre behind one of Bachelu’s division. As the right wing gave way and the left wing failed to come across we occupied the front line in the centre to ensure the position was held. When the English began to push across our front I sent the Chasseurs out to stem the flow and in the face of overwhelming firepower and the loss of many good men we held that sector until ordered to withdraw. Lefevre Desnouettes, Imperial Guard Cavalry We were ordered forward to protect the artillery set up in the centre of our front line. Uxbridge’s cavalry threatened our left flank so we pushed forward, hoping for our artillery to inflict heavy casualties on them before engaging them. Our artillery fire proved to be ineffectual, and Uxbridge withdrew. I am disappointed to report that General Lallemand’s Chasseurs a Cheval disobeyed an order to advance and I have removed the commander from his position. Our Grenadiers a Cheval were sent to the right flank to support D’Erlons crumbling defence as German cavalry threatened to charge into our rear. Kellerman, cavalry reserve We moved forward to allow Reille’s II Corps infantry to come across to the centre. From there we advanced to check potential moves by Uxbridge’s cavalry towards our left flank. I am disappointed to report that our cuirassiers joined by Colbert’s Guard Lancers were repulsed by the British Horse Guards who seemed to have massive mounts. This shows the weaknesses I had reported to your majesty earlier this year about the quality of our horses. Donop’s Carabiniers also failed to support this charge for which he has been reprimanded. However I feel we prevented any menacing of our infantry’s strategic redeployment and we are still at nearly full strength ready to fight again.
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The NMM (Non Metallic Metals) style of painting is a new thing to me, and the images you can see in this article are my first go at it. I have to admit that, as a painter, I never really liked the look of NMM. But I figured that with all the talk about it Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d best have a go!!
Also, I’d seen so many amazing models you see painted this way I wondered whether it would be hard to do. After all, it never hurts to try and learn new ways to paint - it can only help in the long run. I basically used 8 different paints with 50/50 mixes in between layers and I have to admit that it took ages for me to complete this figure. I’m a slow painter at the best of times, but I have to admit that this figure came out better than I thought it would. Although it’s not as good as some people can do with this technique, I‘m quite happy with it. It’s a difficult way to do metals but with more practice it will get more easy. For me I think it is a technique best aimed at show piece figures and display models, or maybe even small skirmish groups of minis.
Drew Cox
We first saw this game at the Crisis Wargames Show in Antwerp where it won the Best of Show award. Using 28mm scale as its basis this game employs miniatures from The Assault Group and Brigade Games and vehicles from Tamiya, Gasoline, Solido, Brigade Games, Corgi and several scratchbuilds. These images have been kindly supplied to us by Christian Bray.
ABOVE: We’re not normally fans of wargaming images that have been ‘touched’ up to give them a more realistic feel, but Christian has done such a great job with these ones that we just couldn’t resist using them. The image above shows a cautious advance as the road is cleared of mines. The miniatures are by TAG with the M4A4 a scratchbuilt model and the jeep a conversion of a Corgi model. BELOW: Another fine shot of that scratchbuilt M4A4. This image is simply entitled: Advance!
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RIGHT: Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s that M4A4 again... and this time it is in trouble as a suicidal Japanese Kamikaze soldier charges out with some high explsive strapped to a stick! You have to hope that the MGs take him out in time.
LEFT: Some close quarter action as the troops encounter each other in the long grass. A mix of TAG and Brigade Games miniatures. Such superb scenes littered the demonstration table at the Crisis Show, making it a superb piece of eye candy.
BELOW: Japanese troops defend the entrance to the Temple as Buddha looks on, oblivious to the carnage that is taking place around him. Ready for the attack they know is coming...
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LEFT: ... and here it comes. The entrance is assaulted as the day of Liberation arrives, the memory of defeat erased as victory fast approaches.
RIGHT: In true Japanese style the defenders keep fighting on to the last man!
LEFT: What a blood bath as the fighting in the Temple heats up. This once beautiful and tranquil Temple has now been laid to waste. The bodies of the soldiers lie around as the last Japanese defenders are cut down. A victorious day in 1944 as Burma moves a step forward towards liberation.
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When Tim’s article arrived we liked the look of it straightaway and got started on the map and tokens immediately. We have also asked Tim to think about more tactical situations that we can set our readers as a challenge. So for now put yourselves in the mind of a young Union officer tasked with an unforgiving challenge by a senior officer. Show us how you think he should deploy his troops as he stops the Rebels in their tracks! INTRODUCTION This game came about after a conversation with some wargaming friends in a pub after a pretty lengthy session of American Civil War at my home - we were all tired and in need of alcohol, especially me as I’d had my army slapped rather badly. We got to talking about the big battles of the Civil War and then the conversation sort of turned clockwise and we ended up discussing set-piece combats, at which point I started to make some mental notes. Big games are fantastic and you can’t beat hundreds of figures on the tabletop, but the complex, nigh on impossible set-piece is equally absorbing. Well that was how we summed up our beer-laden discussion anyway. This article is inextricably linked to that conversation and is the result of my ponderings whilst having an unproductive day at work! The rearguard action is, to me, a tricky one to wargame and in many cases the rules just wouldn’t seem to let you game it properly anyway. So here is what I came up with and - this is the interesting part for me - I’d like you to send in your thoughts on how you would play out the rearguard action. It’s not so much a scenario (although it could easily be turned into one) as a mission briefing. SITUATION REPORT: TROUBLE AT SULPHUR SPRINGS I didn’t want to recreate a historical situation with this teaser. So instead I simply made a situation up based on a report I read in a book a few years ago. The area I am using is around the Shenandoah Valley and if you look at any historical maps you will see that Sulphur Springs is east of the valley, south of Waterloo and slightly east of Jefferson. The year is 1862 and it is a dark day for the Union army, unused to being given a
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bloody nose. Morale is low and the troops are only too happy to be retreating. In our setup we have a small river nestled amongst the hills and the trees, and it is this river and its ramshackle wooden bridge that is acting as the escape route for a Union army. Things are dire and Stonewall Jackson is breathing down the army’s neck, eager to finish off the job of routing them. It is here that Captain Elias Dickinson gets to show his ability as a leader of men. He’s been in command of his company of men now for three battles and his sergeants have found a level footing with his command style. But it is not Dickinson speaking now, but his regimental commander, Colonel Nathaniel Spence. “It’s a bad day, Dickinson,” mumbles Spence as he barely takes his eyes off the road to the south of the river. “We are to be left with no other course of action than to pull back towards Jefferson. Jackson will follow, a lust for victory filling his mind, and that is to be your task, young man - stop Jackson’s men. Our wagon column must be allowed to get away - the army depends on it. That’s why I am leaving you with your company of men to hinder the enemy as much as possible at this bridge.” NOTE: Dickinson’s unit is at full strength, which we are classing as 100 men. Therefore you will get 20 tokens, with each token representing 5 men. In support of the infantry are some sharpshooters (2 x tokens) and 3 x 12-pound howitzers (roughly half a battery of guns). As you turn to look at your men a feeling of dread wells up inside you. True, you’ve taken them into battle before, but a rearguard action is potentially fatal and plenty of your men are still green in your mind. “How much time do you need sir? Just when do I burn the bridge?” you ask cautiously, not really wanting the answer, the words fighting to stay inside your mouth.
Spence took his time over the answer, which unnerved you. “I’d say at least 6 turns from the moment the last wagon crosses the bridge. Then get the hell out of there and don’t stop until you’re in Jefferson.” THE GAME IS AFOOT Your men have informed you of advancing Confederate cavalry and infantry and so you know where your enemy is coming from. But where do you position your own men for the best tactical response? A company of men, 3 cannons and two groups of sharpshooters is not bad, backed up as it may be by plenty of guts. But the terrain is unforgiving. There isn’t much to hide behind, although you do have surprise on your side and the trees can be used to tactically conceal your men. Enemy strengths are unknown, but an educated guess says that you are looking at a regiment-level assault of infantry and a sizeable force of cavalry. The enemy is moving fast so it won’t have cannon to aid it, which is a godsend and gives you a firepower advantage as well. SO WHAT NEXT? It’s over to you now. We’re interested to know how you think your troops should be deployed. We’ve made the tokens for you to use on the map while you work out your battle plan, but you could of course just print the map out and write on it in pen or pencil. Send us in your plans and we’ll get them evaluated by serving officers in the British Army, giving us their expert opinions of what they would do AND what they think of your plans. Send your maps and tactical deployments, along with any words (under 400 please) you think will help explain your tactics, to: Wargames Journal, PO Box 7223, Tadley, Hampshire RG26 5FX, United Kingdom, or email the Editor at rich@rebelpublishing.net
The Union forces, led by Captain Elias Dickinson, prepare for battle. How will you lead them?
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By Dave Lewis
Modelling WORKSHOP
Having seen the 50mm Mythology figures in the last issue, created by Alternative Armies, Dave asked us if he could have a go at tarting one up, to use the vernacular. Always interested to see what Dave will come up with next, and also curious to see what he will make of a historical figure, we duly sent him one to play around with. The result is a miniature with a new sword, a fancy shield motif and a somewhat over the top cloak. So he really did tart it up!
FANCY STUFF! INTRODUCTION This month I have chosen to focus on something more historical - a Greek hero conversion. I have chosen a Typhon Greek Myths and Legends figure to convert, as the larger scale (50mm) makes it ideally suited to conversions. It’s generally a good miniature, with good detail definition. However, it’s lacking in a few areas that I intend to improve upon in this article. Once again I shall endeavour to make my comments as generic as possible, to allow gamers from all facets of the hobby to make use of the techniques I will describe.
My intent here is to turn a normal figure into a hero/character figure by way of adding a few additional features to make it stand out from the masses. You can do this to create your own special army commander, a skill especially useful when working with smaller miniature lines where a full range of character figures might not be available. It also gives you a bit of extra kudos around the gaming table, since it makes your army different to any other.
Converting miniatures for use in historical gaming is a pricklier subject than with sci-fi or fantasy. The ‘rules’ are far more stringent and there’s a stronger sense of what’s right and wrong. If you feel realism is important, you wouldn’t want to give a Prussian officer the wrong kind of sword for example. This means (especially with more recent historical models) that conversions are generally limited to re-posing, facial detail changes and battle damage. Working with historical models constrains your creativity by necessity.
I felt that this particular miniature was begging for a cloak to achieve that hero look, so I’ll be adding one. The original model has a rather unimpressive sword, so I will be replacing this with a more substantial one. Lastly, his original shield is too featureless for a character model, so I will be adding some surface detail to it (you could of course paint features on, but I find the effect is never as striking as with 3D detail).
However, this doesn’t apply so strongly to ancient, tribal and civilian skirmish models so much, as there’s a lot more uncertainty in what they can look like. Here you have a lot more freedom. It’s mainly for this reason that I chose an ancient Greek figure, since they didn’t have a definitive
First off I removed all the mould lines and casting defects (of which there were very few; this was certainly a good quality casting) with a fine craft knife. The first piece of conversion
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‘uniform’, which allowed me to change things whilst remaining historically sound to an acceptable extent.
STAGE 1: WEAPON REPLACEMENT (PICS 1 AND 2)
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PIC 6 work was to remove the original sword (you could almost have called it a dagger!). I did this using a pair of GW clippers, which are good for making smooth precision cuts providing they aren’t heavy duty (GW clippers have a nasty tendency to snap). I then filed the join with the hilt flat, and bent the wrist into shape, which had obviously been bent when it was removed from the mould. For a replacement weapon you have two options. The first (and easiest) is to use a part from your bits box or from another ‘spare’ model. This is fine if you have it to hand. The second option is to make your own replacement. This is harder, but in the end you have exactly what you want. I did the latter using plasticard. I first cut a rectangle of the desired size. I then filed this down to get the desired silhouette. Lastly, I used a fine craft knife to ‘sharpen’ the edges (it helps to hold the work with a pair of pliers when doing this). It’s a little fiddly but with practice you’ll soon be making exactly the kind of weapon you’re after. In this case I chose to keep the general shape of the sword and to keep it relatively short to remain in keeping with the period.
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STAGE 2: THE CLOAK (PICS 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, AND 8) This kind of hero model really needs a cloak to stand out from his comrades (with mine it’ll be more of a cape than a cloak). The classic mistake hobbyists make when trying to do cloaks is to assume you do it with just Green Stuff. I used to make that mistake and it makes it extremely hard to have much control, and almost impossible to maintain a smooth surface. A great tip I picked up years ago from a fellow sculptor was to use a tin foil backing to the Green Stuff to achieve control and a smooth outer surface. This technique works wonders and can lead to some very lifelike results. First, select a flat and untarnished area of foil. Mix your Green Stuff and spread it out over the foil, covering an area larger than that you need. Leave it for half an hour or so, then cut the Green Stuff and the foil into the desired shape using a sharp craft knife. At this stage you might want to apply some texture to the Green Stuff (what will end up as the inside face). You can do this with scalpels if you want a fur-lined cloak (in a downwards wavy pattern). If you want something more subtle I suggest pushing course sandpaper onto the Green Stuff to apply a texture (you could of course use anything you feel will give you the texture you want). Once this is done, ensure it’s been around an hour after you mixed the Green Stuff before continuing (this gives
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PIC 10 it some residence, which will lead to more flowing curves on the cloak). Bend and shape the cloak into roughly the desired form with your fingers. Be careful here not to apply too much pressure so as not to avoid ruining the texture. Look at other models with cloaks, and indeed real ones to get a feel of how different materials flow when in the wind and suchlike. Lastly, gently press the cloak onto where it joins to the body and adjust as required (conveniently, the Green Stuff on the inside surface adheres OK on its own). The best thing about doing your own cloaks on characters is that they can be more realistic than cast miniatures, since they do not need to conform to the casting process so can incorporate voids and
suchlike between some parts of the cloak and the body. The last stage is to add additional creases and bends in the fabric around stress points (such as where to the cloak attaches to the body) using a coarse tool such as the rounded end of a GW scalpel. Avoid using anything remotely sharp here to maintain a thick fabric feel (only thin materials like silk would bend sharply).
STAGE 3: THE SHIELD (PICS 11 AND 12) In adding detail to the shield I looked to Greek mythology for inspiration. I thought some sort of monster would make a suitably imposing battlefield emblem. Fortunately thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no shortage of monsters in Greek mythology, and I quickly
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PIC 15 STAGE 4: FINISHING UP (PICS 9 AND 10) The last stage was to smooth out the transition between the casting base and the gaming base (the initial product was quite poor in this respect. The gaming base provided has no recess into which to glue the casting base, and since the figure was in a raised pose, cutting the casting base off would not have been a sensible option). After doing this I added texture to this new Green Stuff with the course sandpaper to make it match that on the casting base. Lastly, I attached the shield and glued the new plasticard sword in place with generous amounts of super glue. A final touch was to add buckles to the top section of the cloak to illustrate the joins to the armour, using thin strands of Green Stuff and a GW scalpel.
IN SUMMARY So there you have it. Hopefully this little project will inspire you to try some of your own conversions. It shows that custom conversions using Green Stuff can be very effective in creating something unique, and not nearly as time consuming as one might fear (this conversation took me less than 3 hours). Watch this space for next month, where I’ll be taking you through something on a far grander scale...
at the Hydra as my beast of choice. In sculpting relief detail such as this it’s best to think of your image as a ‘squashed’ version of the original, with all the features less pronounced but still visible in 3D. This is easier to achieve than it looks. As I always say, it’s crucial to sculpt onto something, and with relief work you have the most solid base you could wish for. Start by roughly laying on the general form of what you want to achieve with fresh Green Stuff (which will stick better). Once you’re happy with it, add imprinted surface detail as required. If you stick to a single layer and just imprinted detail it makes this task far easier and quicker. My Hydra took me just 20 minutes and comprises a single layer of Green Stuff and imprinted detail only. With this sort of size and flattened features there’s not much distinction between raised and imprinted detail anyway.
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Also known as ‘Republic Attack Cruisers,’ Venator-class Star Destroyers were the successors of the Acclamator-class assault transports and the Victory-class Star Destroyers. While the Acclamator was primarily an armed troop transport and the Victory was a jack-of-all-trades, the Venator was primarily a starfighter carrier/destroyer. The Venator-class destroyer was a massive 1,137 meters long and had a crew of 7,400. This giant starship carried some 228 starfighters in its hangar bays. Standard fighter complement included 36 ARC-170 starfighters, 192 V-Wing starfighters and/or Eta-2 Actis Interceptors (although usually only a few of these are present on any one Venator, since they were used primarily by the Jedi). It also carried 40 LAAT/i gunships and 24 walkers for ground assault. It had a powerful armament consisting of 8 heavy turbolaser turrets, 2 medium dual turbolaser cannons, 52 pointdefence laser cannons, 4 heavy proton torpedo tubes and 6 tractor beam projectors. Its primary role was that of a frontline warship and carrier, and as such formed the backbone of the Republic’s armada.
This is the most involved project I have ever dared to embark upon. It started as the desire to build something truly massive, a ‘showcase’ project if you like. It ended as my nemesis, a project seemingly with no end. My guess was 2 months… here I am 6 months later and I still haven’t finished the paint job! I have plenty of experience in building big models, namely several 28mm scale 40K Titans. But these didn’t come close to the mad level of detail I included on this piece. For example, every one of those 52 point defence laser cannons are featured, and are in the correct place. In total this behemoth is 5’ long and has literally thousands of hand made components (there are no stock parts whatsoever used here – I built everything from scratch). It also features some internal detail (as yet unfinished) of the hanger interior, which will include some scale starfighters on approach and launch.
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In the next Issue of Wargames Journal I will be doing a major feature on how I built this beast from start to finish having taken photographs as the project progressed. Hopefully you’ll find some of my tips and methods useful in your own hobby projects, large and small alike. I’d like to think it might inspire some of you to try something as insane as this, because despite the hundreds of hours spent on this the end feeling of achievement can’t be put into words.
I won’t go into detail about its construction here, but I will satisfy some your curiosity for the moment. The main hull is made from high density mounting board, supported by a pine interior frame. Many of the detail parts are made from Plasticard, Green Stuff, Milliput, Sculpey and tough card. The darker crème coloured areas you see in the pictures are custom made resin parts. Here I’d made the original patterns, made moulds and then cast multiples of the parts. The engines in particular are almost solid resin, as are the heavy turbolaser turrets for example. That’s enough about construction for now, you’ll just have to wait until next issue to find out more, and hopefully to see some pictures of it painted as well…
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The fully painted beast! Dave put an amazing amount of effort into this model. The level of detail is almost too silly for words. In the picture in the top right you can just about make out two Jedi Starfighters and yes, one of them does belong to Obi Wan! Well done fella and we look forward to seeing your next project of madness.
INTRODUCTION In the early Nineties the South London Warlords put on a show game called UFO. It used home grown rules to represent the action that took place in the classic late Sixties Gerry Anderson TV series of the same name. In the series - the first live action show by the Andersons and replete with mini-skirted ladies and space ships (a winning combination for a nine year-old boy) - the earth was being constantly buzzed by aliens in UFOs who were after humans for spare parts surgery and whatnot. Issue 4 of the WJ print magazine saw an article by Colin Drake and Neil Fawcett - UFO Terror - detailing the ground action of the show: what happened when the alien UFOs got through Earth’s defences and landed with their kidnapping intentions. This article will deal with how the humans try to stop them actually getting to Earth, intercepting them in space before they even make it into the atmosphere. I’ll also supply some suggestions for alternatives for the previous article, specifically where to source vehicles like Mobiles, other than the excellent Product Enterprise die casts mentioned by the authors.
UFO THE SERIES To recap, the TV show, though made at the end of the Sixties, was set in the then far future: 1980. In that 1980 the world was awash with Carnaby Street fashions and a secret organisation (gosh Gerry did love his secret organisations) called SHADO - Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Organisation - had been set up to fight the menace. They had four small subs called Skydivers (each capable of sea launching a fighter aircraft) distributed in
the oceans of the world, a network of other earthbound assets including a supply of Mobiles - tank-like vehicles that could be delivered pretty much anywhere by rapid response aircraft or low loaders - and - crowning glory - the ladies in the silver suits and miniskirts I mentioned earlier. These were based on SHADO’s lunar base which formed the first line of defence against the body snatching hoards. Coordinated by a large satellite in earth orbit called SID (Space Intruder Detector) the Moon-base had defences for its own needs but its primary function was to house a supply of Interceptors. These Interceptors would be launched, always in threes, from disguised craters on the surface and had only a short time to accelerate rapidly to meet the rapidly decelerating UFO (or later on, as the threat increased, multiple UFOs). The Interceptor’s primary weapon was a single, large missile although the ships seemed to have guns as well (though they are never used in the show, they are patently apparent on the models and illustrative diagrams available). The Interceptor crews were vectored on to their targets by the staff at Moon-base using information from their own sensors and those of SID to triangulate and determine firing data - all done in a very ‘Soviet 1960s aircraft command and control’ kind of way. Any UFOs that got past the Interceptors then ran a gauntlet of air attacks from the small fighters launched from the Skydiver submarines (they seem to be armed with small rocket pods). If the alien hordes got past the fighters they faced either underwater attack from the submerged Skydivers if they landed in the sea
The classic UFO and Sky 1 - fighting it out in most episodes!
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Members of the South London Warlords playing the rules
(the subs carried torpedoes) or land attack from Mobiles.
the product Enterprise Skydiver - of UFOs, Interceptors and Mobiles.
Referring to Colin and Neil’s previous article, the Mobiles tend to operate in threes, though with a fourth control vehicle. Mobiles are armed with some sort of indirect fire mortar style weapon and a 360 degree turret with a heavy machinegun or light cannon type weapon. They also carry a crew which can deploy and fight which is especially useful if the UFOs themselves deploy their crews. Aliens and SHADO personnel are armed with small arms, all slug throwing (even though the alien craft themselves deploy an effective beam weapon). SHADO personnel have access to larger, shoulder launched anti-tank/aircraft style weapons.
THE NINETIES VERSION OF THE GAME In the Nineties the Warlords ran a version of the game as a participation at Salute and Colours. Gamed in 25mm, the game had a space Interceptor stage and a ground attack stage. The models used were Japanese kits by Imai for the Space Interceptors, Sky1 and Mobiles, resin models for the UFOs and conversions of Denizen Miniatures metal figures for the crew and pilots. Most of this material is still available on the web but the price of the Imai kits is frankly not much cheaper on eBay than you’d pay for the die cast from Product Enterprise. But I’ll get onto this all later.
THE CURRENT GAME I bought the DVD box set a while back and had been itching to do something again with the format. And then I received two Christmas presents, both purchased from a company called Product Enterprise. In about 25mm they do a superb Space Interceptor and UFO and - in about half that size - they do a Skydiver complete with detachable Sky1. Intriguing, ready painted, robust stuff but in two different scales. In late 2005 they released some Mobiles in around 1/48th (is my guess). The final piece of the puzzle model wise appeared from a Japanese company called Konami UFO Trading Figures. They have released models in about 1/144 - about the same size as
Game on…
MATERIALS The Space Combat section of the game - the only one I’ve completed to date - uses a black, commercially available “space” hex cloth with a 40mm or so hex, as I’d planned to use the 1/144th scale craft for this part of the action, all using Konami models, ready painted and sourced from eBay. The UFOs come supplied with small bases which have a directional element (ie. that are vaguely wedge shaped and pointed from one direction) which, as the ships themselves are circular (as befits a flying saucer), helps when one is trying to determine which way they are facing, so we retained the bases that come with the UFO models. The Interceptors, having landing skids, come packaged on a neat, black plinth which looks dandy but is no use to game with. These have been stuck onto Games Workshop clear bases. The SID comes with a black, cradle style base and we have retained that in use.
WHAT DOES ONE NEED TO PLAY THE GAME? Were one to wish to do this in a bigger scale and could afford to spend a bit more money (perhaps twice as much) one could do the game in 25mm using the Product Enterprise models on, say, the 4 inch black plastic snap together hex system from Kallistra, although by the time you have enough UFOs you’ll be selling spare Interceptors on eBay, as you only get one UFO with each Interceptor. The 25mm scale models look mighty fine I have to say, and at around £35 to £40 a time for both models, it’s still a proposition worth considering. But for transportation to shows and ease of handling we went for the smaller models. If we get around to doing a sea combat segment and the air combat portion of the action, we intend to use a blue hex cloth the same scale as the black one but, er… that’s about as far as we’ve got at the moment.
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For the land based action (also planned for sometime in the future!), we intend to use the 1/144th scale Mobiles (also by Konami) on 75mm hexed green cloth, or maybe the Kallistra hexes. The game requires that three copies of each set of cards be printed out. This will leave you with 3 x 16 Interceptor cards and 6 x 16 UFO cards. The UFO cards are all generic but the Interceptor cards must be labelled on the front Interceptor 1, Interceptor 2 and Interceptor 3. Instead of wasting pages we have just given you one page of each to photocopy. You can also download the graphics from www.wargamesjournal.com. On the web site you will find the front and backs of the cards. We printed them off separately, stuck them together and ran them through a laminating machine to ensure a long life and make them easier to shuffle. Because of the way the rules are written you obviously don’t actually need models; you could just use a dozen counters and a hex sheet. But that wouldn’t be any fun now, would it?!
UFO RULES: INTERCEPTORS - IMMEDIATE LAUNCH! Premise To replicate the space-borne Interceptor versus UFO clashes in the TV series. Action happens exclusively in space (nominally somewhere between the region of the moon and 100km above the Earth). Players Three Interceptors with three players versus a number of UFOs (up to nine) driven by cards via the umpire. System pointers Card based movement for the Interceptors. SID on the table marks the exit point for the UFOs and gives victory points. Interceptors have close range guns and long range single missiles. See cards for examples of movement and firing.
CRAFT PLACEMENT SID:
SID sets up at the narrow end of the cloth play area. The other narrow end has three markers: Blue 1 in one corner, Blue 3 in the opposite corner and Blue 2 equidistant between the two. UFOs: Two different coloured D3s are rolled for position and numbers (say a yellow and a blue dice). The number rolled on the yellow dice is the number of UFOs that come in at Blue 1 (one comes in on the marker, additional UFOs come in 2 hexes to either side). The blue dice is the number of UFOs that come in at marker Blue 2. If there are any doubles (double 1, 2 or 3) then that is the number that come in at marker Blue 3. These are the UFOs for use in the game. All are aimed at the far side of the table. Interceptors: The interceptor players roll one D6 dice, consult the table below and place their ships on the table.
DICE RESULT 1 2 3 4 5 6
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“Vector in, tight formation!” All Interceptors are at the mid point on a long side with three clear hexes between them. “Vector in!” All Interceptors are at the mid point on a long side with six clear hexes between them. “Vector in, loose formation!” All Interceptors are at the mid point on a long side with nine clear hexes between them. “Sweep and clear!” All Interceptors are at the mid point on a long side with twelve clear hexes between them. “Envelop and destroy!” Two Interceptors are at the mid point on a long side with six clear hexes between them. One Interceptor is midway on the opposite long side. “Warning overshoot!” Two Interceptors are on the short side alongside the UFOs, each at the mid point between two blue markers. One Interceptor is mid way on one if the opposite long side.
Photocopy three copies of these game cards.
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Photocopy three copies of these game cards.
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OBJECTIVES & VICTORY CONDITIONS The UFOs’ objective is to get from one side of the table to the other. Destroying Interceptors is handy but not their main mission. Destroying SID - and therefore blinding Earth’s defences - is an additional, valuable bonus. The SHADO Interceptors just want to stop them getting to Earth - the UFOs must not leave the far end of the table so they must be destroyed or scared off. Victory points UFOs: each UFO that gets off the far side of the table counts as 2 victory points for the aliens Each Interceptor destroyed counts as 1 victory point for the aliens Destroying SID counts as 8 victory points for the aliens Destroying each UFO counts as 2 victory points for the SHADO team Most points wins!
PLAY Each player takes an Interceptor and a stack of cards. UFOs are run via a stack of cards on an automatic system, their cards being drawn at random. Interceptor players get to select which cards from their deck they wish to play, within certain constraints. These constraints are that each turn they may only select as many cards as are allocated via a dice role - normally 1D3 plus one (i.e. 2 - 4). The pilots must lay as many cards as the number they achieved via the dice roll. Most cards can be reused in the next turn except for expendable ones, like firing the (one) big missile, firing their cannons (three ammo cards) and Rotate Manoeuvre (one card), and these limitations are indicated on the cards. Although the gun use cards indicate that they may only be used once they may be played, but if a UFO doesn’t cross their line of fire they are not expended but returned to the pack. The cannons are ‘opportunity cards’ - they are only used if the UFO is actually fired upon, which happens automatically if they come into range. If the UFO stays out of range then even though the card has been played it is returned to the Interceptor player’s pack. The UFOs are easy and random (which is why the game is suitable for solo play). Each turn, each UFO takes one card from a shuffled deck. After each turn the UFO cards are returned to the UFO deck and they are reshuffled.
TURN There are 3 phases to each turn. These are repeated until either all of the UFOs have been destroyed, all of the Interceptors have been destroyed or all of the UFOs have left the table. Vessels (i.e. not missiles) that pass through the same hex collide and are both destroyed. Missiles that pass through a vessel hex that may not be their intended target detonate and do the appropriate damage. NOTE: we’ve played such that missiles can hit an Interceptor by mistake if it passes through the Interceptor’s hex and we’ve played such that the missiles obey standard IFF style recognition of ‘friendlies’ and don’t detonate. It depends how nasty you want to be to the players really!
Damage Charts Interceptors shooting at UFOs - roll D6 (3 for a direct hit, 2 for adjacent, 1 for 2 hexes away, from missiles or explosions, 2 for range one hit with guns, 1 for range 2 hit with guns - see above)
1 2 3 4 5 6
No effect No effect No effect UFO heads back - all cards point home (away from SID as first component of move - redirected if UFO gets a ‘Head towards SID’ card) UFO destroyed UFO destroyed - explodes
UFOs shooting at Interceptors - roll 1D6 1 2 3 4 5 6
No effect No effect Blown off course - roll 1D6 and count clockwise from current direction. Turn to face that hex (a roll of a 6 therefore spins right round 6 faces to current orientation, so no effect!) Interceptor loses manoeuvre card (with the attendant one card lost from all remaining card selection dice rolls) Interceptor loses one remaining gunnery card Interceptor destroyed
UFOs shooting at SID - roll 1D6 1 2 3 4 5 6
SID damaged - Minor SID damaged - Minor SID damaged - Major SID damaged - Major SID destroyed SID destroyed
Damage to SID: 3 Minor damages results and SID is destroyed 1 Major damage and any other (minor or major) damage and SID is destroyed
UFOs shooting at Missiles - roll 1D6 1 2 3 4 5 6
No effect No effect No effect No effect Missile retargets (next closest UFO) Missile destroyed
CONCLUSIONS And that’s all there is to it. The only question you have to ask yourself is this: are you up to stopping the alien hordes coming to Earth to harvest the organs of your nearest and dearest? If the answer to that is ‘yes’ then you’re just the sort of people that SHADO need, so buckle up: “Five UFOs in sector blue three. Interceptors - immediate launch!” Rules design & photography - John Treadaway Purchasing and eBay trawling - Ivan Congreve
LINKS: http://www.salute.co.uk/salutegames/ufo/index.htm - the South London Warlords page for this game - download the rules and play cards! http://www.ufoseries.com/ - great site telling you all the background detail you need http://www.productenterprise.com/anderson.html - Product Enterprise fantastic die casts http://www.hlj.com/product/KNM13057 - Konami UFO range http://www.kallistra.co.uk/ - 4 inch Hexon II system if you want to ‘go large’! www.cometminiatures.co.uk - a good sources of models but not cheap
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Interceptors Move and Declare Fire
Phase 1
A D6 is rolled to see which interceptor moves first (highest first and so forth). Each Interceptor then carries out the following procedure: • 1D3+1 Interceptor cards are selected. These may be used to move, fire its only missile or fire guns. Each movement card may be reused but missile and gunnery cards are one use only if they are fired. Movement cards are returned to the player’s hand after use. The exception on movement cards is the ROTATE card. This can only be used once and is an emergency manoeuvre to turn to any hex face. Unfortunately it blows most of the ship’s manoeuvre fuel. ALL SUBSEQUENT CARD SELECTIONS ARE AT MINUS ONE CARD (i.e. not 1D3+1, just 1D3). • Missiles are detached and placed next to the relevant Interceptor ready to chase the nominated target in Phase 3. • This procedure is repeated for all remaining Interceptors. • If SID is destroyed during the course of the game, all subsequent Interceptor moves must be played as hands of cards face down before any moving of any of the Interceptors (increasing the chance of collision and duplicate targets, Interceptors crashing into each other, etc.)
UFOs Move and Fire
Phase 2
You may find these tokens and graphics useful while playing the game. Feel free to photocopy them.
The UFO card deck is dealt face up, one random card for each UFO. The UFO closest to SID is dealt to first (roll dice if equal). The UFOs then follow the directions on the cards and, if the card dictates, fire: • UFOs follow direction on the cards. If the movement says “Towards SID” then the first part of the move must be orientated to reduce the distance as much as possible. If two directions are possible roll a dice to decide. • If a FIRE is indicated by the card then the UFO must fire at the closest target, SID or Interceptor. If neither are within range but a missile is, then the UFO will fire at the missile. • Range. To hit a target with beam fire a UFO must achieve the range to the target in hexes or more on the sum of 2D10. Range is therefore 20 hexes. When hit, roll on the relevant damage chart with a D6. • After all moving and firing all UFO cards are returned to the pack, which is shuffled. 156
Photocopy three copies of these game cards.
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Interceptors’ Fire Results
Phase 3
Missiles launched in Phase 1 travel 1D6+15 hexes in a straight line towards their nominated target with only a single, one hex-face turn capable per turn for the first two movement turns, the only three restrictions being that: • They cannot perform a one hex-face turn within the first 5 hexes of being launched. • They cannot one hex-face turn after the first two turns of movement. • For the third turn of movement and all subsequent turns of movement, their speed is a constant 15 hexes per turn with no variation. To hit. A missile explodes and damages in the following circumstances: • If a missile hits any UFO (not just its nominated target) it explodes and rolls three times on the Damage chart, taking the highest number as the effect. • If a missile passes any UFO in an adjacent hex (and doesn’t get any closer) it explodes and rolls twice on the Damage chart, taking the highest number as the effect. • If a missile passes within two hexes of a UFO (and doesn’t get any closer) it explodes and rolls once on the Damage chart, taking the highest number as the effect. • Other UFOs, missiles and Interceptors caught in the blast of a missile take a roll, as detailed above, commensurate with their distance from the target. GUNS If a gun card has been laid then the ammunition is only expended if the UFO enters the firing arc and the card is used up. If not the card is returned to the deck. More than one card can be laid in one turn. Firing arc is line ahead only, range 2 hexes. If a UFO passes the firing arc of the weapon the weapon is fired automatically. • At range 2 hexes, one roll is made on the Damage chart against the UFO. • At range 1 hex, two rolls are made on the Damage chart against the UFO. Exploding UFO • If a UFO explodes via gun fire, treat as a missile explosion; any UFOs, missiles and Interceptors caught in the blast of a UFO or missile take a roll commensurate with their distance from the target.
Skydiver on patrol in one of the world’s oceans... or John’s fish tank!
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models
www.imprintmodels.co.uk
Abrams M1A2
Warrior £18
£20
(picture courtesy of Burkhard Schulze, Germany)
Awesome 1/50 scale resin and metal modern armoured fighting vehicles. Visit imprintmodels.co.uk for more information, or email info@imprintmodels.co.uk
M1064 and M113, £18. Each comes with accessories for conversion to early or late variants.The M113 comes with a TOW launcher for conversion to an anti-armour role.
BMP-3
`
£18
Bradley M2/M3
£18
Challenger 2 (Iraq)
£20
Challenger 2 (Europe)
£20
1/50 scale is ideal for 25mm or 28mm wargame figures Those pictured with the M113 are Devil Dog Design (left) and Brooks Miniatures.
A Heavy Weapons Pack has been produced for infantry support. It can be ordered with any mix of weapons, including the M1064 mortar, for £5
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Hummer (three weapon choices)
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LAV-25
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T80
£20
After we’d played out our fictional Rubicon game (see our December 2005 PDF magazine at www. wargamesjournal.com/pdfmagazine/December_Final_Edition.pdf for more details of this game) we looked around for something a little different, something small scale that would test our 10mm scale commanders. A bloody nose for Caesar seemed like a perfect scenario for us to play around with! INTRODUCTION The Battle of Dyrrachium (also Dyrrhachium) took place in 48 BC and was just one encounter in a series of tussles that took place between Julius Caesar (of the Optimates) and Pompey (the Populares). As history has recorded, this campaign ended with Pompey’s defeat at the Battle of Pharsalus just one month later. But what is more interesting is that if Pompey had shown more conviction then Pharsalus would not have taken place and Dyrrachium could have been the final battle, with Caesar losing all. As it was, Caesar was fortunate to escape disaster and only lost 1,000 or so of his veteran force. In the lead up to this battle Caesar had been victorious against Pompey in Spain, but his lieutenants had fared less well in Africa and around the Adriatic Sea. With this as his tactical backdrop he decided to attack Pompey directly, bringing 15,000 of his troops (among them legions later known as IX Hispana and IV Macedonia) from Spain to Brundisium in Italy, then crossing the Adriatic to Epirus, landing there on January 4th, 48 BC. Caesar elected to occupy Oricum and Apollonia, from which he then moved north towards Dyrrachium, which is located in today’s Albania. When he arrived he discovered Pompey entrenched there with an army of 45,000 men, many of whom were not battle hardened. Ever cautious, Pompey saw no reason to risk a pitched battle with his former friend; his fleet controlled the Adriatic and this gave Pompey a sense of security. So Caesar’s troops went hungry in the spring of 48 BC, waiting for reinforcements to arrive with Mark Antony at their head.
Pompey was assembling an army of nine legions and was going to use Dyrrachium as his base. Caesar had eleven legions at his command: V Alaudae, VI Ferrata, VII, VIII, IX, X Equestris, XI, XII, XIII, XIV and XXVII. However, he could only transport seven across the Adriatic Sea, and as his force landed at Apollonia, which was to the south of Dyrrachium, he sent two legions to the west to prevent Pompey from receiving any reinforcements. This left Caesar with two legions to march north with. The decision to initially decline battle was no doubt helped by the fact that Pompey had built his camp on a hill called Petra the ‘rock’ - and he had untrained troops he wanted to drill before facing Caesar. So with Pompey unwilling to fight, Caesar did what he did best: built a wall! Seeing what was happening, Pompey decided that it was time to face his enemy and so he left his camp and attacked. Caesar’s men had not completed the construction of the wall and so Pompey was able to cave in the left of Caesar’s line. The resulting fighting saw Caesar lose 1,000 of his veterans in the fighting and, deciding he could not defeat Pompey’s force, he elected to leave the field of battle and head towards Thessaly. It is interesting that Pompey did choose to decamp and follow Caesar, but he did not move quickly to destroy his force, and instead set the stage for a small affair called Pharsalus – which we all know was the decisive battle in this campaign.
Pompey leads his legions into battle... did the gods favour him at Dyrrachium? (Magister Militum 10mm figures)
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For anyone unfamiliar with Pharsalus you can read a detailed account of it at www.wargamesjournal.com/ancients/ancients_ article_19.asp. Having failed to make any impact at Dyrrachium and realising that any further attempts at blockade would be pointless, Caesar withdrew inland to reorganise and was slowly followed by Pompey.
which duly swamped Caesar’s horse. The victorious cavalry headed for the exposed flanks of Caesar’s infantry but were pulled up completely surprised by the sight of Caesar’s reserve cohorts rushing towards them. The cavalry was so startled that Pompey’s horse broke and fled, riding down its own slingers in the process.
Caesar stopped and made camp near the town of Pharsalus, close to the River Enipeus. Pompey set up camp on a hill nearby, resisting all of Caesar’s attempts to bring him down to the plain and give battle. On the 9th of August 48 BC Caesar struck camp, but noticing that Pompey’s army was deployed further into the plain than normal he rapidly changed these orders and marched his men to battle.
Now it was the turn of the victorious infantry to charge into the enemy’s exposed flank and rear. As they struck home Caesar fed his fresh third line into the enemy’s front line and this was enough to break them. On seeing this Pompey fled the battlefield, taking a ship to Egypt, closely followed by Caesar. In Egypt Pompey was to ask Ptolemy, brother of Cleopatra, for asylum but was murdered before he could start reorganising his challenge to Caesar.
Pompey’s plan was to send his superior cavalry, supported by the slingers, to crush Caesar’s right flank, before attacking the rear of Caesar’s main body. His legions were deployed in three lines and each line was around 10 men deep. To protect his left flank Pompey deployed it on the river. Caesar outguessed Pompey and knew that his right flank would see most of the coming battle. Withdrawing a single cohort from six of his legions, Caesar created an effective reserve. He placed this, hidden from the enemy, at an angle behind his cavalry on the right flank. Caesar also deployed his main body in three lines, but due to the smaller numbers in his force each line was probably no more than five deep. HISTORICAL OUTCOME As Caesar’s men charged forward Pompey decided to receive them at the halt, hoping that Caesar’s army would have become tired and disorganised by the time the battle lines clashed. However, Caesar stopped the charge just short of the enemy line and after reorganising his men charged home.
DYRRACHIUM SETUP AND ORBATS You can, if you feel so inclined, model the battlefield in a way that includes the wooden palisade fences that Caesar had erected. For our game we chose not to, but if you feel strongly about the accuracy of the game we recommend that you can start a wall in A1/B1 and end it with a gentle slope in D1. As you can see from the map, Caesar deploys his force in A2 to A6. These units should be deployed as shown around the camp. Pompey arrives on the bottom hand edge of the board and his deployment is at the command of the Populares force. * The Warmaster Ancients book only lists one type of Legate. But in the orders of battle inside our December PDF you can see variations. This is key to this battle. It is a mixture of veteran status and different command and control scores that allows a force the size of Caesar’s to at least try and defeat a force the size of Pompey’s.
As the main bodies clashed Pompey unleashed his cavalry, 161 161
Caesar’s orders of battle are as follows: 6 x Units of Veteran Legion 1 x Heavy Cavalry 1 x Light Cavalry 2 x Archers 2 x Auxilia 1 x Army General (Caesar) 4 x Legates Pompey’s orders of battle are as follows: 10 x Regular Legion 2 x Veteran Legion 2 x Heavy Cavalry 2 x Light Cavalry 3 x Archers 3 x Auxilia 1 x Army General (Pompey) 2 x Senior Legates 2 x Junior Legates TERRAIN For a battle of this size we chose a 6’x 4’ table and on our map each square represents 12” x 12”. The four areas of trees (B2, B4, D3 and D5) should occupy roughly 50% of the squares they are in and block visibility of any unit behind them. Any unit that passes through the trees must move at quarter pace. Any commander that loses sight of his force behind the trees must subtract an additional -2 off the command roll in order to control them. Squares C2 and B5/6 contain areas of rough ground. Any unit other than skirmishers moving through this type of terrain must do so at quarter pace and if melee takes place within the area, foot troops fight with a +1 dice for each base in combat against a mounted foe. VICTORY POINTS One of the problems with this scenario is that the common way that an army is broken in Warmaster Ancients is for the units of each army to be totted up (excluding skirmish units) and then halved, thus giving a breakpoint, or the number at which an army is deemed to have lost enough men to collapse, fleeing the battlefield. It’s a simple mechanic that just works. This doesn’t work in this scenario because the two forces are imbalanced numerically and therefore based on the usual mechanic for defining a breakpoint Pompey will, nine times out of ten, win!
ALTERNATIVE END PLAY The other way to end this game is a little more complex but equally fun to game. Historically, Caesar was massively outnumbered by Pompey and chose to leave the field of battle, opting to save his men and fight another day, which we all know was the correct strategy, and Pharsalus was to see him eventually victorious. What you could do is redo your orders of battle and have Caesar quite literally outnumbered 2:1 in terms of points of units deployed on the field of battle. At this time the way that Caesar is victorious changes, as it stops being a classic slogging match and becomes a game that sees Caesar holding his ground before electing to exit the battlefield. Play the game as usual and at game turn 4 roll a D6: instead of dicing to end the game as before you are now dicing for Caesar to flee the battlefield. This MUST be done via the squares of C1D1 or C6-D6 and should be randomly diced for - ie. roll a D6 and on a 1-3 he leaves via C1-D1 and so on. The game ends when the last of Caesar’s units exits the gaming table or is destroyed as it flees. Caesar does not have to rush foolhardily off the table, this is a controlled exit. Who wins is based on the number of points left alive. Now we add up the number of points left of intact units (any stand lost removes a unit from being counted) and it is the player with the highest number of points who wins.
A better method of working out who wins or loses this battle is to set a turn limit and at the end of it simply add up the points value of the units either totally destroyed or partially destroyed. This game will last a minimum of 6 turns and at the end of turn 6 a D6 dice is rolled and if it is a 6 the game ends; on turn 7 a D6 is rolled and on a 5/6 the game ends, and so on. It could last 12 turns in total – but this is unlikely, given the odds. When the game ends use the following numbers to calculate a victor: • For each full unit (including generals) destroyed add its TOTAL points value up • For each unit reduced to one base add 50% of the unit’s point total – rounding up to the nearest 5 points The victor is the player with the lowest total at the end of the games.
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ABOVE: The new 28mm scale of Eastern Asia buildings. The model in the centre is EA4, a village temple/signal tower on stone base. LEFT: You can never have too many clapperboard buildings on your ACW battlefield. AMC17 is pictured here.
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28mm scale buildings from our Carentan range
Sauron may have been defeated, but his Orcs are still running wild across Middle Earth. In this scenario for the Lord of the Rings Battlegame from Games Workshop, the foul creatures of Mordor have taken up residence in a Rohan town and a combined group of Gondorians and Rohirrim must hand them their eviction papers. INTRODUCTION The War of the Ring ravaged Middle Earth from Gondor in the south to the Grey Mountains in the north, from the Lonely Mountain in the east to the Grey Havens in the west. No corner of the lands escaped the titanic fight between the forces of good and evil. Ultimately, thanks to the bravery of the few and the courage of the many, Sauron, the Dark Lord of Mordor, was destroyed and his reign of terror finally brought to an end.
warriors what had befallen the town, and after listening to the story of the massacre the allied battle group made haste on a mission for vengeance.
But what of Sauronâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s legions? His minions were widespread and though their master was no more they did not suddenly depart from their evil ways. On the borderland between Rohan and Gondor a company of foul Orcs, having escaped from the Battle of Pelennor Fields, have found a fortified town at the base of the White Mountains. With the armies of Rohan and Gondor recovering from the final battle before the Black Gate, the lands are almost undefended.
The Orcs, too busy drinking the townâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mead stocks dry, did not notice the approaching army until it was too late. They saw they were outnumbered, but there was no time to flee and so they slammed the town gate shut and took up their weapons. If the allied battle group wanted revenge they would have to scale the walls to get it.
In a brutal and one-sided fight the Orcs overran the town and slew all they found. Their leader, an Uruk by the name of Gnarlug, declared himself king and for several days the Orcs made merriment in their new kingdom. They thought their enemies had abandoned this remote region. They were wrong.
THE EVIL FORCES 30 x Orcs with shield 20 x Orcs with spear and shield 12 x Uruk Hai with double handed weapon 12 x Orcs with bow Orc Captain with armour and shield Uruk Hai Captain with armour and shield
A single resident of the town managed to escape and spent days alone in the wilds before coming across a combined force of Rohirrim and Gondorians patrolling the Anduin. Though halfstarved, wounded and near exhaustion, the survivor told the
THE GOOD FORCES 6 x Riders of Rohan with bow 16 x Men of Rohan with shield 16 x Men of Rohan with spear 16 x Men of Rohan with bow 8 x Men of Minas Tirith with bow 16 x Men of Minas Tirith with spear and shield 16 x Men of Minas Tirith with shield Captain of Men with heavy armour and shield
The Orc commanders inspire their troops while the enemy troops pepper them with arrows (Games Workshop).
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THE BATTLEFIELD This game is played on a 4’ x 4’ table with a walled section to one end. This represents one corner of the fortified town, where the allied army makes its attack. The wall should be approximately three feet wide and twelve inches in depth to create a good sized area that allows the Orcs to defend the battlements and have some reserves placed behind.
when the Orcs first arrived they razed them to the ground. Now all that remains are chard beams and ash.
The wall needn’t be very high and can be either a stone wall or wooden palisade, depending on what scenery you have available. The important thing is that it is not a battlement, so that the Rohirrim and Gondorians don’t need any siege equipment to get over it when they attack. In front of the wall is some waterlogged ground, but this does not need specific representation on the tabletop. A few trees to provide a little cover for advancing troops is the only other scenery you’ll need.
In front of the wall the ground is waterlogged and, though not quite a moat, it still hinders the attackers. The three inches in front of the walls either side of the gate counts as difficult terrain. The gate itself is not as strong as a typical fortress gate and so has Defence 9 Wounds 2. DEPLOYMENT The Good side may deploy up to twelve inches from the edge opposite the town, whereas the Evil side starts anywhere inside the town itself. The Evil side deploys first.
THE FORTIFIED TOWN This is not, repeat not, a fortress. The wall is only the height of a man and can be climbed like any other object. Models can fight over the walls both ways, but the defending Orcs receive the usual bonuses for fighting over a defended position. A warrior who slays a defending Orc can take its place on the battlement. You don’t need any buildings inside the walls, as it’s assumed
SPECIAL RULES To make the game more unpredictable it is possible for both sides to receive reinforcements during the battle. Each side rolls a D6 before priority has been established. If the result is a 6 reinforcements have arrived and you make a second dice roll. For the Good player a second roll of 1-4 means the reinforcements are from Rohan, on a 5-6 they are Gondorian. Now roll a third D6 and consult the relevant table. The Evil player only has one table to roll on. See tables on the next page:
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D6 Roll Rohan reinforcements
D6 Roll Evil reinforcements
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6
1D3 Men of Rohan with shield 1D3 Men of Rohan with spear and shield 1D3 Men of Rohan with bow 1D6 Men of Rohan with shield 1D6 Men of Rohan with spear and shield 1D3 Riders of Rohan with bow
Any reinforcements are placed on to the table as soon as they have been rolled for. Evil reinforcements are deployed inside the fortified town itself and along the board edge, though they cannot automatically be put on top of battlements or other defensive positions - they must get to them like everyone else. The Good reinforcements are allowed to be deployed on any of the board edges, except the town edge where the Evil reinforcements deploy. The only exception to this is that they must be at least twelve inches from any Evil model when they deploy.
D6 Roll Gondor reinforcements 1 2 3 4 5 6
1D3 Orcs with shield 1D3 Orcs with double handed weapon 1D3 Orcs with bow 1D3 Orcs with spear and shield 1D6 Orcs with shield 1D3 Uruk Hai with double handed weapon
1D3 Men of Minas Tirith with shield 1D3 Men of Minas Tirith with spear and shield 1D3 Men of Minas Tirith with bow 1D6 Men of Minas Tirith with shield 1D6 Men of Minas Tirith with spear and shield 1D6 Men of Minas Tirith with bow
OBJECTIVES This game is of the kill-or-be-killed variety and carnage is the order of the day. The goal of the forces of Good is to rid the town
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of the Orcs, to destroy as many of the wretched creatures as they can else drive them off into the mountain, where the elements and things far more wicked than themselves will spell their ends. Not unexpectedly, the goal of the Evil side is to prevent this from happening. The Orcs like their new kingdom and have no intention of being massacred inside it without putting up a fight. Bring on the man-flesh. For the Good side to win they must do one of two things. They must either slay both Evil heroes (the Orc and Uruk Hai Captains) or they must outnumber the Orcs inside the town with Good models. They have just fifteen turns to do this, after which, if neither of their objectives have been completed, the Evil side is considered victorious and the new kingdom of Orcs will grow and thrive.
scenario as the start of a mini campaign. If the Good side won a follow-up could be fought, with the survivors fighting amongst the ruins of the town itself. Maybe the surviving Orcs make a last stand in the centre of the town, surrounded by enemies. Alternatively, the tables could be turned and the Good side must now defend the town they’ve just recaptured from another group of enemies – perhaps wildmen from Dunland or another group of Orcs.
AFTERMATH Depending on the outcome of the battle you could use this
If the Evil side wins the forces of Good could rally and launch another attack, or maybe Gnarlug’s new kingdom expands, drawing more Orcs and foul creatures to his ranks. With a whole army under his command he could march on other lightly protected towns until a rag-tag resistance is formed to harass his minions, until the Rohirrim return to rid their land of evil once and for all.
During our play-testing this part of the game proved very tricky for the lightly armoured Rohan troops... the Gondorians fared better, but still took heavy casualties! 167
But
this time it’s serious
INTRODUCTION Many of the older readers amongst us will have started out with Airfix figures and a marble to knock them down with, closely followed by Airfix figures and a cloth, a few books and a dice. Most of us will have then grown up… Clearly I don’t mean grown up in the sense that we stopped playing with toy soldiers mind you mindfully extolling the philosophy of we don’t stop playing because we get old, we get old because we stop playing to anyone who questions our hobby. But to show our new found adult maturity we stop using the plastic toys and instead spend thousands on lead ones instead! Ok in the 80’s we might have used GW plastics but only if we went to the dark side of wargaming and started playing Scifi and then only if they didn’t make what we wanted
Wargames Factory 3D models
By Rich Jones & Neil Fawcett
in proper metal anyway! For would bounce handsomely off the historical wargamers the pervasive floor without any damage). feeling was that plastics didn’t Considering on the whole we really cut it. belong to a large group of people There were pockets of resistance who moan about how much a set mind you … people did still use of rules cost if they have a price the soft plastic ‘toys’ but on the tag of over £10 we were all quite whole most of the wargames world happy to discard the cheap plastic treated the products, and indeed the figures and buy ‘metal’ at an ever gamers, with an unusual amount of increasing cost. The amount of prejudice no matter how the actual metal we bought, and then horded quality of the figures and casting (often almost breaking the loft had improved. Of course we had while we are at it) is frightening, perfectly good reasons for doing but AT LEAST it wasn’t plastic! this, you had to wash them before undercoating at tremendous cost in PLASTIC SALUTE our time (apparently metal figure But just the other weekend at ‘cleaning’ up is therapeutic and SALUTE ’08 the biggest buzz of not a waste of time), then you had the show centred on plastics. The to coat them in PVA glue to get Perry Twins were showing off the paint to stick (again forgetting their American Civil War figures the fact that we undercoat and via a stand and a demo game. Then then usually go over the undercoat we had the Warlord stand (which with a brush on metal figures I am drawn to solely because they use the same font for anyway) and to cap it all off, their name as my old even when you had done favourite war comic all this the ‘toys’ tended to bend and the paint come off when you dropped them (of course our metal figures
Perry ACW plastics in action at Salute 08
of the same name) which was showing off its new ancient plastics and, rather cleverly, giving away a sample sprue to a horde of eager recipients. My personal favourites were, because of my insane love of WWII, the Valiant figures outlets which were carrying wares that were only, apparently, boxed at 5am on the morning of the show.
convert the figures FAR easier than you can with metal figures, in fact most of the figures are appearing as multi-part figures allowing a lot of variation and individuality. Maybe the manufacturers have come to the conclusion that it is worth the setup money to produce the figures as the wargames market is supposedly at an all time high. Mainly though I suspect that we have come to our Now perhaps there is nothing too senses and figured out spending strange about people queuing for £12 on 36 figures has got to be goodies at Salute… the difference better than £40 plus. here is that the goodies were plastic! I have been converted to hard plastics for my WWII skirmish So why the apparent shift in our figures, preparing them and thinking on plastics? Possibly it converting them is actually is the fact that the new breed of great fun as my squad can all figures are hard … apart from the look different. My friend Shaun weight they almost feel like metal. walked away from Salute with as Possibly it is that the new plastics many boxes of ACW figures that are tending to be bigger figures, we could be persuaded to carry even the Valiant 1/72 make the for him and they are destined to old Airfix boys look like wimps. be part of some mega gaming at Perhaps it is the fact that you can PEWC (Ponders End Wargames
Club – the home of a lot of WJ lackeys and groupies) shortly. I am sure Warlord could have sold a few Legions of its Roman boxes had they been ready. MISSING IN ACTION One name that we’ve not mentioned so far is that of Wargames Factory, a US manufacturer of ancient miniatures. This firm’s offerings are still a bit of a mystery, although they have been very forthcoming with digital images of its Romans and Celts. The Bostonian company has made a rather dramatic investment in the actual machinery to create its own plastics, which it seems is different to a lot of other firms who have made third party deals to bring their wares to market. My [Neil Fawcett] dealings with injection firms has been an interesting one and generally left me balking at the costs associated.
The guys at Wargames Factory have very kindly allowed us to be the first people to show off the artwork from their new Celt Cavalry boxed set of hard plastic miniatures. We canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t wait to see the actual plastic itself. A truly inspirational piece of artwork. WWW.WARGAMESFACTORY.COM
By Mariusz Kozik
At the time of this article we are unclear of the process by which Warlord and others are making their minis, but Wargames Factory has gone the organic 3D sculpting route, as can clearly be seen by the images the firm has made available. This technique will pay dividends in the long term but can prove complex at the beginning. Another thing that is clear is the healthy rapport that Wargames Factory has with the purveyors of the Field of Glory (FoG) rules, Slitherine Software and Osprey Publishing. The first two armies sit comfortably with the first army book, Rise of Rome, for FoG and the next sets of two plastic armies
after Romans and Celts will be 100 Years War (to match into the Storm of Arrows army book) and then after this we will probably see two armies to fit in with the Swords and Scimitars: The Crusades army book.
set of rules which will work nicely alongside some rather nice plastic ACW miniatures. Clearly these firms are sensibly working closely with others who can aid their cause, which is a healthy thing to do. We take our collective WJ hat off to all of these firms for giving it a go. Entering the plastics arena is not cheap and does not come without risk. So we will be keeping a close eye on the major players in the apparently burgeoning plastic market.
But seeing such overlapping deals, especially from companies trying to break into an entrenched marketplace, is hardly surprising. If we look at the Warlord company we see ex-Games Workshop people, so it is plausible that this company will work closely with Warhammer Ancient Battles or perhaps even Who will come out on top â&#x20AC;&#x201C; who the Warmaster rule sets. Then we knows? Hopefully it is all of them. have the friendship with the Perry Reviews coming soon! Twins and we see a Black Powder