Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy 65

WSS issue 65

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COLOPHON- CONTENTS Publisher: Rolof van Hövell tot Westerflier Editor in chief: Jasper Oorthuys Editor: Guy Bowers Copy editors: Duncan B. Campbell Marketing & media manager: Christianne C. Beall

THEME: BATTLES OF BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS

28

Beginning Biblicals

Contributors: Andres Amian, Mark Backhouse, Rob Broom, Richard Clarke, Mike Evans, Eoghan Kelly, Steve Jones, Steven MacLauchlan, Simon Miller, Stuart McCorquodale, Gary Mitchell, James Morris, Chris Payne, Rick Priestley

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Armageddon

34

We’re all going on a Lion Hunt!

Illustrations: Georgina Pymont-Harman.

38

The Battle of Kar-Ištar

42

Biblical Miniatures

Design & layout: © MeSa Design, www.mesadesign.nl Print: PublisherPartners, www.publisherpartners.com Editorial office PO Box 4082, 7200 BB Zutphen, The Netherlands Phone: +31-575-776076 (NL), +44-20-88168281 (Europe), +1-740-994-0091 (US) Email: editor@wssmagazine.com Customer service: service@karwansaraypublishers.com Website: www.wssmagazine.com Contributions in the form of articles, letters, reviews, news and queries are welcomed. Please send to the above address or use the contact form on www. wssmagazine.com Subscriptions Subscription price is € 33.50 plus postage surcharge where applicable.

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See above for the address.

Distribution Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy is sold through retailers, the internet and by subscription. If you wish to become a sales outlet, please contact us at service@karwansaraypublishers.com The exclusive distributor for the UK and the Republic of Ireland is Comag Specialist Magazines, Unit 3, Tavistock Road, West Drayton, UB7 7QE, United Kingdom. Phone: +44 01895 433600.

Copyright Karwansaray BV. All rights reserved.

Nothing in this publication may be reproduced in any form without prior written consent of the publishers. Any individual providing material for publication must ensure that the correct permissions before submission to us. Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders, but in a few cases this proves impossible. The editor and publishers apologize for any unwitting cases of copyright transgressions and would like to hear from any copyright holders not acknowledged. Articles and the opinions expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of the editor and/or publishers.

Advertising in Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy does not necessarily imply endorsement.

Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy is published every two months by Karwansaray BV, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. PO Box 1110, 3000 BC Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

ISSN: 2211-503X

Wargaming in the Biblical period.

The battle of Megiddo: Thutmose versus the Canaanites.

Big game hunting – Assyrian style.

Burn, Babylon, burn!

A round up of suitable miniatures in various scales.

FEATURES

18

Bite-size battles

20

The fight for Bedminster

60

Lining up for Maurice

64

Full Auto!

68

Let’s play: Deus Vult

Spy versus Spy with Oberst Redl.

The British break through at Crisis and Fanatic.

A comparative playtest of linear warfare.

Bolt Action takes a trip to Vietnam.

Testing the new Medieval rules from Fireforge.

REGULAR DEPARTMENTS

7

Hobby news

8

Miniature reviews

14

This gaming life

16

Dead Man’s Hand

50

Fair Play

72

Game reviews

76

Up Front

78

Boardgame review

80

Book reviews

News from the world of gaming.

Including cowboys, cannons and staff cars!

Rick questions the value of a well-painted miniature.

Well, pilgrim, what’s this new cowboy game all about?

Point systems and your chance of winning a tournament game.

A look at Albion Triumphant and some devices for Time Travel...

Rich wonders which is the right scale.

Richelieu, intrigue at the Court of Louis XIII More books reviewed by the WSS team.

Printed in the European Union

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© Georgina Harman

EDITORIAL Steeped in history Hence a wise general makes a point of foraging on the enemy.

One cartload of the enemy’s provisions is equivalent to twenty of one’s own... – Sun Tzu The Desert War of 1941-43 has been of interest to me ever since I picked up a copy of An Introduction to Wargaming by John Sandars. This in turn led me to read historical works, including a copy of Popski’s Private Army. One anecdote which still stands out for me is how each side in that war cherished supplies captured from the enemy. The Afrika Korps relished getting their hands on ‘Bully Beef’ while the British likewise held ‘Alte Mann’ in equal esteem. Some of the stories from Popski’s adventures made me think about the nature of my games, which until then had consisted of two forces madly charging each other.

One of my great passions is how an interest in history translates into a wargame, from the design concept to the printed rules. For example, Popski’s No.1 Demolition platoon would observe the enemy supply convoys for days but if faced with a stiff fight would turn tail and flee – clearly common sense, not cowardice. This did not happen in my games, so there was something missing. How could my units behave ‘historically’, when in most rules leaving the table is not allowed or ignored?

These and other considerations have made me consider to what extent history should relate to the games we play. I appreciate that at this point some people may say “it’s just a game” and they would be perfectly right. It is a game, which should be fun. But at the same time, there has to be a strong simulation element for your game to be a good war game (how this is to be achieved and the level of complexity is another issue). After all, who wouldn’t complain if their legions didn’t behave like Romans or if their Tigers were knocked out by puny 37mm guns? The game is about telling the story which unfolds on the tabletop. The rules frame the story, while good miniatures and good terrain help suspend disbelief. But good history underpins all of this.

Nevertheless, an interest in history isn’t mandatory by any means. In fact, it is perhaps more important at the design stage than when you’re playing the game. But investing a little time and effort to gain an understanding of the real events can certainly increase your appreciation for the history, the rules and the enjoyment of playing a game.

As an aside, I’d like to welcome Gary Mitchell as a regular reviewer and writer for WS&S. What with his prolific output along with the likes of Mark Backhouse, we are in danger of having enough good gaming material to go weekly!

FEATURES:

If you have any enquiries for the magazine, please drop me a line at: editor@wssmagazine.com I will answer mail as I am able.

The battle of Winchester, 1863 24

HOBBY 46

On the cover

56

Tea Break!

52

Storage Wars!

The swirling melee of chariot battles.

Can you paint an 8th Army mini in 15 minutes?

The eternal battle to gain space.

Prelude to Gettysburg.

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By Guy Bowers

Come play the ‘Wrath of Heaven!!’

WS&S participation game at Salute The Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy team will be running a participation game at Salute 2013 called ‘Wrath of Heaven’, a narrative-driven skirmish set in Feudal Japan. At the moment, our team is going flat-out to paint the miniatures, build the terrain and play-test the game, in short: we’re doing what many other clubs, groups and companies are doing to present their work at the biggest show in Europe. Check our Facebook page and website for progress reports if you’re curious.

The idea for our game is loosely based on the Playstation game Tenchu Stealth Assassin using a system similar to Muskets and Tomahawks. The Shinobi ‘heroes’ have to complete various missions including the ever popular ‘punish the evil merchant’! There are various surprises planned for the board including some ‘Easter eggs’ in the game and potential power-ups for the Ninja to discover. Enemies include ruffians, rival ninja, Samurai and possibly the occasional supernatural entity. Respect the ancestors!

The system is designed to be fast-paced and fun for several players at a time who’ll be occupied for no more than an A prototype of one of the new hour, and there will be a prize for the Sarissa buildings. most successful Shinobi warrior on the day. The full game will be laid out in issue 67, our Samurai themed issue, and supported on our website. If you can’t make it to Salute and can’t wait till July/ August for WS&S 67, then come and join us at Partizan 2013 where the game will be running again.

Both versions of this game – we’re making two complete sets – are sponsored

by Perry Miniatures, EM4 Miniatures, Oshiro Model Terrain and Sarissa Precision models.

Derwentside Club moves For all those in the North Durham area, the Derwentside club has recently relocated. Their new venue is: Quaking Houses Village Hall, Second Street, Quaking Houses, Stanley, DH9 7HQ. For more information, Andrew Wylie can be contacted on 07826784100 or via email at awylie-gothique@hotmail.co.uk. The club also has a Facebook page titlted Derwentside Wargames.

NEWS Seventh Voyage at Salute!

The front cover of 7th Voyage.

Crooked Dice are releasing a new 28mm skirmish ruleset called 7th Voyage. It is a tabletop miniatures game set in the world of classic stop motion mythic fantasy films of the 60s and 70s. Fight across the tabletop as your favourite heroes or villains - be they demigods, vile tyrants or the horrifying beasts of legend - and all at 24 frames per second!

If you remember classic Ray Harryhausen movies like Jason and the Argonauts or the Sinbad movies, then you’ll know what Crooked Dice plans: they want to bring the world of stop-motion mythic fantasy to the tabletop. Written by Matt Gibbs in collaboration with Karl Perrotton and Graeme Dawson, this will be another stand-alone spin-off supplement similar to 7ombie TV. The game promises a new streamlined version of their action:engine rules. New rules are have been added for swordplay, monsters and magic to the system. They include: a new magic system; archetypes covering all your favourite Greek and Arabian legends; and a Pandora’s box full of profiles of mortals and stop motion monsters to add to your casts - from Cyclops to Sea Dogs! The rulebook and supporting accessories will be released at Salute 2013 with a PDF version available a few weeks before.

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REVIEWS

WWII SOVIET COMMAND

Every army needs great commanders, and none more than the Peoples and Workers Army of the Soviet Union. These miniatures look like they have stepped out of a famous Soviet propaganda picture of the Great Patriotic War, particularly the WWII lieutenant in side cap, bravely leading his men forward. The Warlord Command set consists of two officers and a female nurse. Also shown is the Forward Observer team, consisting of an officer with telephone and binoculars, a prone observer reading map coordinates, and a female signaler with flags. The models are crisp and well cast. There was some flash on the base, but this was easily cleaned up. The separate heads allow plenty of variety

in the models; there are even two head variants (one with helmet) for the females in the command pack. These will be of great use to Soviet gamers, particularly for Bolt Action.

s l Game m tal or 31m arlord ’ e W y : e y an to Comp ‘foot res 8mm War 2 d : iniatu l e r Siz Wo and m d m n o m c o e c Era: S for 3 o.uk £5.00 : s e e ic m .c a g Pr d r .warlo www

CONFEDERATE INFANTRY The latest release in the Perrys’ plastic range is their ACW Confederate Infantry. As with previous Perry releases, the quality is top notch and the set is very reasonably priced. While based on their previous Zouaves release, this is an almost entirely new set, with new command and bodies; only the arms are similar. The new miniatures are slightly larger (by 2mm) than the ones in the original Perry ACW boxed set, almost matching the Zouaves in height. The same system of bald heads and hats is used (there being a choice of hat or kepi). The facial features are similar to the originals, but they are not identical. The command consists of an officer in a coat and a drummer boy. There are five variants in the standard miniature, which can be posed as marching or advancing with bayonet ready. No firing poses are provided. This will be a must-buy for any Confederate generals with grand plans of invading the North.

ures in hat Miniat 31mm y r r o r e ’ e any: P to ey Comp ‘foot m r a m 8 2 Civil W of 44 Size: erican m A a box : a Er 0 for .0 s.com 18 £ : iature in Price m .perry www

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REVIEWS

MEXICAN REVOLUTION VILLISTAS Continuing their mission to cover ‘all things Mexican’, Gringo 40’s have released a number of Mexican Villistas to join the forces of Pancho Villa. The models are well cast and sculpted. They come in four poses, each armed with lever action rifles.

When not working for Pancho, these mean looking desperados could be raiding Mexican villages and incurring the wrath of seven hired gunfighters. Cue music!

This expanding range now includes some Federales as opposition to Pancho’s forces, and, for the British, there is General ‘Black Jack’ Pershing.

If the Mexican Revolution is in your blood, gringo, or if you just want some games ‘down Mexico way’, then these Villistas are just the ticket, Señor.

tall ’s ntury 31mm go 40 r o in r ’ th ce e G ie y : t e y n n e o a t Comp rly tw ‘foot and ea 28mm h : t e n e iz e S et ate nin del Era: L er mo p 0 5 1. £ : m o Price 40s.c .gringo www

MARSHAL, RANGER AND COWBOYS “Whooo whee! We got ourselves a oneeyed marshall and his pardner huntin’ down that no good cowboy, Chaney. He dun killed that there girl’s pa. Now the marshall’s gonna see he swings high …”

There is more than a passing resemblance in this 28mm release to the characters from the excellent remake of True Grit. The models in this range currently consist of (from left to right) the farm girl, the Texas ranger, the hired help, the one-eyed marshall and the outlaw gang leader. The models’ poses are very good, as is the casting, and the mould lines are very hard to spot. Each has its own ‘slotta’ base, which makes these heroic-scale minis that little bit more majestic.

Whether you’re a fan of the film(s) or not, these miniatures will fit nicely into any western skirmish game.

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REVIEWS NEAR-FUTURE INFANTRY I saw these figures from Pig Iron and thought, “Wow!” Ideal for cutting-edge military forces of most western nations – perhaps an elite security team on a mission to rescue top boy-band ‘1D’, who have been kidnapped by the crazed teenage daughter of a shadowy multi-billionaire?

As always with Pig Iron, one can also purchase a selection of sprues that enable customized squads with assault weapons, SAWs, and antitank missiles. The models are split into separate torsos, legs and heads, to facilitate a combination of poses, and the sprues they come on are modelled into scenic rubble, which can be used to decorate your bases – a novel concept worth repeating by other manufacturers.

To please converters, they’re compatible with Pig Iron’s Kolony sprues and with heroic-scale plastic figures.

What you get are crisp customizable castings, and a variety of heads with helmets and night-vision gear. No ‘same pose’ grunts here. The weapons consist of rocket launchers and top-of-the-range assault rifles, and, if the body-armour looks a little futuristic, it’s not overly so.

n ig Iro any: P p m o C uture 28mm s ear F N Size: – iature n oder en min t M r m : a o o r .c E 0 f tions : £20.0 roduc p Price n o .pig-ir www

FOOTBALL HOOLIGANS For those of us who remember the seventies, Ainsty Castings have a series of 28mm minis that would be ideal for the kind of civil disorder we enjoyed back then. This joint project with Colonel Bill’s will shortly be extended by the addition of eight more hooligans and some police officers.

The castings are crisp with few mould lines. There are ‘ordinary civilians’, skinheads and all manner of stereotypes in between.

Crash barriers and a St John’s ambulance team (who could double as traffic wardens) are also available, in case it does all kick off. Ainsty’s website has pictures to act as a guide to the range. These figures would be wonderful in a variety of settings. For example, they are ideal for zombies and civilians in all sorts of ‘near past’ games (7TV’s The Beat comes to mind). Or how about a horde of zombie Bay City Rollers fans? Five packs should enable you to model the Poole Town ‘Away Contingent’ at a 1:1 scale.

g tall, Castin 0mm 3 y t r s o in tall eye’ any: A 24mm ot to r o o Comp f ’ ‘ e to ey 27mm ‘foot Size: 0 m m 2 2 s, £3.0 Youth iature in n r m e d r o ou Era: M for f 6.00 £ hns : o e J Pric St o o.uk w t he tings.c s a for t c y m .ainst ls.co www nelbil o l o .c www

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REVIEWS SPANISH SUCCESSION ARTILLERY accessories, including barrels of gunpowder and spare shot. In addition, the mounted officer would make a good general or similar command figure. This will be a welcome addition for late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth-century gamers who are looking to find a source for cheap artillery.

This boxed set of artillery is the latest release from Wargames Factory, completing their Spanish War of Succession range.

With their WSS infantry and cavalry, the gamer can now buy all that is required for this period relatively cheaply and in plastic. Construction of the gun and crew is simple. The gun may be assembled with a long or short barrel, and the finished cannon is of excellent quality. The crew’s heads and arms are interchangeable with the other sets in the range, allowing a large degree of customization. There is a good selection of

y actor tall, mes F 33mm a g r r o a ’ W e y : e y an to Comp ‘foot e 9mm n (lat 2 m : e m Siz cessio s 45 c d ) n u y a r S t u s nt panish horse th ce r of S y eighteen a tillery W r a : l Era two , ear h r t o n f e te 0) seven (£16.5 $19.95 : e ic Pr y.com rew actor f s and c e m a .warg www

ENGLISH CIVIL WAR PIKE AND SHOT Tumbling Dice have recently released a range of Thirty Years War miniatures in 1/72 scale (or 20mm). The miniatures actually stand 25mm tall. The casting is good with only a little flash. The pikes come with metal spears, which are a bit bendy, so replacing with brass rod is probably a good idea. Each model includes a separate head, all of which are swappable between packs in the range. One or two of the brimmed hats would not fit on the musketeers, so do check before trying to glue them on. For the pike, standing and advancing poses are available, while the musketeers have firing and advancing poses. The range currently consists of musketeers (with four packs, two new models), pikemen (six packs, two of which are new models, and two militia) and cavalry (heavy, light and dragoons).

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REVIEWS

PLASTIC PANZER I Minairons have released an innovative range of vehicles in 1/100 scale (15mm), 1/72 scale (20mm) and 1/56 scale (28mm). Their first release is the Panzer 1 Ausf. A in 1/72. The tanks are hard plastic and snap together easily. No glue is required, although modellers may prefer to glue the models to give a firm seal. Two turrets are provided: the standard twin machine-gun version, and the 20mm improvized Spanish Nationalist version. The detail is good, but perhaps not as sharp as a modelling kit. However, this is a practical and sturdy wargaming model, not a fragile fine-detail kit. Transfers are provided for German, Chinese and Spanish service.

Future releases include the Bilbao armoured car and the T26 light tank. There is a definite Spanish Civil War slant to these releases, which may at first be surprising; but, as the company is based in Catalonia, it’s quite logical. Minairons will be one to watch with interest.

ures Miniat s n o ir d ina ently) Secon any: M (curr p e m l a o early c C s d n a m ar 20m ivil W Size: nish C a p S 15.99) Era: els (£ ar d o W m d l 3 Wor 0 for : £8.0 u .e s Price n o .minair www

FRENCH AND POLISH CARS

Shell Hole Scenics has recently released a new Polish range. This includes various Polish transport vehicles, including tankettes, bikes, trucks, half-tracks and staff cars. The Fiat 508 (shown here on the right, without crew) was used by the Polish armed forces.

Also reviewed here is the Citron 11 staff car. Both models are well cast with little flash. Detail, including the interior of the vehicles, is excellent. The cars were fairly easy to construct, despite the fact that I’m all fingers and thumbs. Even the small parts, such as the headlights, fit into place well. Seeing the extensive new equipment for the Polish has made me consider 20mm as a good scale for gaming early WWII. One of the releases in the pipeline is the AA machine-gun-armed bike, which will be available in travelling mode or set-up ready to fire.

s cenic ole S H l l e h any: S Comp m m War 20 cars Size: World d n o staff c e e h S t : k Era 0 for s.co.u : £7.0 cenic s e l Price o h .shell www

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REVIEWS

GERMAN HQ BUILDING Gamecraft Miniatures specializes in MDF buildings in scales including 6mm, 10mm, 15mm, 20mm and 28mm. They even do a 28mm MDF Pegasus Bridge!

Recently, they have released a clever hybrid building kit as a German HQ. The front facade of the structure is made from a resin casting with raised details, while the sides and rear are simple laser-cut and engraved MDF. This gives good detail on the front and effectively keeps costs down. The front is very well detailed and, complete with an eagle above the door, is typical of a building taken over by the German administration. The five-story structure stands some 15cm tall and is 10cm wide x 9.5cm deep.

The only drawback is that troops can’t be put inside, except under its ‘footprint’ or on the flat roof, but this is a common challenge with most buildings. With the eagle covered or filed off, this could be a building in any WWII-era or early modern city.

tall) ures 0mm Miniat 15 t f s a d r amec g stan any: G ale (buildin Comp c s War 15mm Size: World d n o ec Era: S 0 om $22.5 : e hop.c Pric .gcms e r o t .s www

SEVEN YEARS WAR PRUSSIANS hair and moustaches are clear.

Historical accuracy is very good. They look as if they just stepped out of the pages of an Osprey on Frederick the Great.

Higher command, fusiliers and cannons are coming soon; the guns will have five different variants to suit even the most discriminating wargamer.

Among the samples given to us at Crisis 2012 was a bag of nice looking musketeers from Black Hussar Miniatures. They are a new company, initially specializing in the Seven Years War. Their first releases are the mighty Prussians. Reviewed this issue are their Prussian musketeers. There are nine variations, including reloading and marching, and three firing poses: kneeling first rank, second rank, and third rank firing.

Command (officer, standard and musician) and grenadiers with command have recently been added. The models themselves are well cast and flash free. The style of sculpting is accurate and slim. Fine details like the curls in the musketeers’

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© Georgie Harman

COLUMN

By Rick Priestley

This Gaming Life Apples and Oranges

The other day I was admiring a photograph of a particularly finely sculpted and expertly painted model in the pages of this very magazine. The execution was flawless in every respect: the modelling was skilful and painstaking, the paint job meticulous and precise, and the photography a crisp exposition of the model’s quality and character.

“Imagine an army like that!” I chirruped, between gulps of tea and mouthfuls of steaming cob (fear not – in this part of the world, a cob is a bread roll and not something that comes out of the back of a horse).

“Fantastic stuff”, replied my entirely imaginary interlocutor.

(You see what I am reduced to these days – holding conversations with myself over breakfast. If only the dog could talk ...)

“Ah, but you couldn’t really, could you”, I say, pensively. “I mean, aside from the cost and the time involved, I’d be nervous to even touch models painted like that! You can’t compare that model to a wargames figure – it’s like comparing two different things. It’s like comparing apples and oranges.”

And it’s an interesting thing, isn’t it – how what we see presented on websites and in magazines is increasingly divorced from what a wargamer of yore would have considered an entirely appropriate standard. Much of this is to be applauded, as quality is always to be welcomed and artistry should be rewarded. We have all come to expect the very best. But I do sometimes wonder what we mean by ‘best’. I know that my best is no longer good enough, by a long country mile – not good enough to stand comparison with that superbly sculpted, painted and photographed model, at any rate. And, in a way, that disheartens me a little. Is it just me, I wonder? I mean, there is certainly something stirring about these fantastic models; something undeniably inspirational, which excites desire and fuels the imagination! Yet, I know its beyond me, as a painter, to create work of that standard. Or at least, of that style and standard, because a lot of what I’m talking about isn’t really a reflection of quality, at all. It’s about a style of painting and presentation.

What do I mean by style? When it comes to painting a model that’s about an inch high, it was once considered entirely satisfactory to merely cover it with a coat of paint: red here, white there, flesh for the face and hands, brown for the musket, and – Bingo! Done! Getting the paint in the right places was a worthy enough aspiration, in itself. Its how the old-fashioned Britains-style ‘toy soldiers’ were painted, and its how our pioneering wargames heroes painted theirs. We sometimes call it ‘block colours’, because the basic colours are just blocked in. To this, we might add the ‘lining’ tech-

nique, which takes the blocked model and paints in dark lines – usually black – around the cuffs, belts, webbing and other distinct parts of the model, to pick them out. Very effective this looks, too. Especially once you’ve favoured your troops with a good thick coat of gloss varnish! Eventually, talented painters started to adopt simple wash-and-highlight techniques from large-scale figure modellers. Then blending techniques, source-point lighting, non-metallic metals, and the full gamut of techniques and skills...

Now, I both admire and applaud skill wherever I see it. But, over recent years, I have become aware that all the painted miniatures I see on box packaging, on websites, and in magazines are painted in more or less the same way. I might concede that there are two approaches: the fully blended style, where highlights and shadows blend imperceptibly together, and the contrasting layered style, where these are deliberately and neatly separated, giving the model a slightly ‘stripy’ look.

The first of these comes from large-scale figure modelling really, and it was primarily pioneered by the incomparable Mike McVey, when he was leading the Games Workshop ‘Eavy Metal team. It’s a dry-blending technique, where the darker colour is gradually drawn over the lighter colour and thinned or feathered, often with progressive layers. The second involves painting a dark under-colour, picking out the raised areas with a mid-colour, and then picking out the highlights (with a highlight), keeping each area distinct, without blending. This technique is associated with the talented Kevin Dallimore, who developed the Wargames Foundry range of paints specifically for this style of painting.

The reason why standards have leaped forward in recent years must be that companies selling miniatures have understood the value of presentation. That might be presentation on the catalogue pages of a website, or on the packaging of boxes, in magazines, and throughout the World Wide Web on blogs, forums and so-called social media. I think this has gradually changed the way we all look at wargames armies.

Once we sought inspiration by strolling around the display tables at conventions and the games played at our local clubs, now we all look at photographs. Those might be on a box cover, in a magazine or on the web, but they are all photographs, often considerably enlarged, and frequently

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Same manufacturer, same range, different painters and painting styles. Note though, that ‘Pro Painted’ does not automatically exclude ‘accuracy gaffes’... indulged with a dab of Photoshop. Fantastically-painted models undoubtedly sell products! This has created a commercial incentive for manufacturers, retailers, publishers, and – yes – even magazine editors to present models not as armies, but as individual models, smack in front of the lens of the camera.

This has proven such a success that, when it comes to marketing a new range, it would now be commercial suicide to settle for any other style or quality of painting. Commercial organizations, on the whole, now accept that spending money – often a great deal of money – on having models painted is just part and parcel of getting a range to market.

Now, the camera is an unforgiving brute, and has always wrought its influence upon wargaming fashions. Once, practically all wargamers applied gloss varnish to their armies, so that they might more easily survive the rigours of battle (the armies, that is … not the wargamers). I remember the moment when, all of a sudden, younger gamers began to recoil in horror at the sight of shiny, varnished miniatures, where previously no one had batted an eyelid. I think it was because, at Games Workshop, we had started to fill our books and magazines with colour photographs. And, because you can’t photograph glossy models without getting spots of reflected light on the images, we stopped applying varnish to the models. This meant that they were rather too delicate to use for gaming; but, as they were being painted for box packaging and posed shots in books and magazines, that didn’t really matter. So, the generation that grew up with Warhammer in its various guises were raised with the expectation that models would look a certain way – namely, flat or with the natural sheen of the paint. In fact, where varnish is applied these days, it’s usually flat varnish – I know we do that at Warlord Games specifically so that we can photograph models without any reflective bits spoiling the images.

As with gloss varnish, so with other styles of painting that do not lend themselves to close-up photography. Dip-and-wash techniques, unless very carefully applied and highlighted, just don’t cut it in front of a camera. There are talented individuals who can carry it off – Dr Phil Hendry’s armies are the ultimate example of that – but this is all achieved by very careful blending of the ‘dip’ material, in a way comparable to full paint blending. To really do justice to a model in a commercial presentation, a paint job not only has to do justice to the sculpt – wherever possible, it has to flatter it, too. Now, I’m not suggesting that this perpetuation of a style and quality of presentation is a bad thing. In so many ways, it is a very good thing, and an entirely positive way of presenting our hobby, both to fellow hobbyists and to prospective ones.

The reason why all this leaves me feeling a little hollow is simply this – I know I can’t do it! Where, once, I could paint

an army with a certain sense of individualism, with confidence, and with pride in the finished result, now I sometimes despair of picking up the paintbrush and showing the results to my fellow gamers. How many times have I laboured my very best upon a special general or character, only to elicit the comment, “that’s really very good … for army standard”.

Army standard, I tell you! What is that supposed to mean? To paraphrase Oscar Wilde (not hitherto considered much of a wargamer, I must admit, but bear with me), surely a model is either well painted or badly painted, and that is that! I suspect what is often meant is not that the model is well or badly painted in any sense, but that it doesn’t conform to what has become the accepted style for photography and commercial presentation.

So, where does this take us? And what of the future, for us mere amateur painters, working away at our ‘army standard’ forces and enjoying our wargames for the simple pleasure of it? I think that, for many, it has certainly encouraged us to up our game – our painting, I mean! – and, where we have good, clear examples to copy and learn from, I think many of us have benefited enormously. But, at the same time, it has introduced a barrier of a kind, too. Speaking for myself, projects I would once have embraced unhesitatingly, I now find quite daunting, simply because I know that the time and effort required to bring a painted force to the table would be a real challenge. I don’t know if I’m altogether typical – whether I am alone in feeling that slight sense of being left enjoying a no-long-acceptable aesthetic.

However, for my part, I shall continue to admire whatever I find well done, whatever the style, regardless of whether it would survive exposure to the merciless cameraman or not. A well painted and carefully assembled wargames army can be a marvellous and stirring sight in itself, and I know that that is what drew me to the hobby and has kept me enthralled, all these years. I guess, when it comes down to it, I have to consider myself as a wargamer whose armies are merely part of my hobby, rather than as a collector of individual models primarily intended for display. Both are good – both are admirable, in their way – but they are as different as apples and oranges.

Some people have the gift of painting to an excellent standard. For them, playing with excellently painted miniatures is a simple matter. The rest of us can only dream of playing with such gorgeous miniatures, after we’ve cried ourselves to sleep at night, that is…

Miniatures by Wargames Foundry from the collection of Jasper Oorthuys (the good ones!) and Guy Bowers (the other ones!).

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INTERVIEW

By Guy Bowers

The rootin’, tootin’, cussin’ cowboy game from Great Escape Games

DEAD MANʼS HAND The Dutchman sent me out looking for a desperado by the name of McCorquodale. Said I had to ask him some questions, all friendly like. I packed my Schofield .45 and an Arkansas toothpick, just to be sure. I finally caught up with him in a smoky saloon somewhere east of the Pecos. is Open Range, mostly for the brilliant gunfight scene at the end.

Hey, mister! People say you got some kind of new game coming out. That so?

Yup, sure is. Dead Man’s Hand (DMH) is our new skirmish game set in the Old West. Both Mark and I are big Western movie fans, so we wanted to play some fast-action gunfights.

That sure sounds sweet! But why ‘Dead Man’s Hand’?

The phrase ‘Dead Man’s Hand’ comes from the hand of cards that Wild Bill Hickok was holding when he was murdered by Jack McCall in 1876. In our game, cards drive the game-play, so the name is a good fit.

Pair of aces, pair of eights? That’s pretty clever, mister! Tell me more about yer inspiration.

I grew up in Canada. Westerns were always on the TV – I always wanted the Native Americans to win! In fact, both of us really love the Spaghetti Westerns.

These range from the well-known ones, such as the ‘Man with No Name’ trilogy, to other less well-known ones, such as Day of Anger. The mini-resurgence of Westerns produced loads of great movies: Tombstone, Appaloosa, the remakes of 3:10 to Yuma and True Grit, and many more. My favourite at the moment

Nice! So, let’s say the fellas and I want to give it a shot with. What will we need to start?

The rulebook is very concise, and comes with a card deck that is used for initiative and for your hand. Along with that, you’ll need a gang of guys (seven is the typical number of models required), some scenery, a D10 and a D20. All of the games in the book centre on a settlement, so a set up of between six and ten buildings, plus walls, barrels, and so on, arranged on a roughly 3’ x 3’ area will do nicely.

So, what size would them figurines be?

There’s no set scale, but everything’s geared to 28mm, because we’re releasing a range of miniatures, sculpted by Steve Saleh, to go with the game. But I’d love to have a go at DMH using some of the big-scale 54mm plastic figures.

So there aint nuthin’ stoppin’ us from using other scales besides 28mm?

Correct, pardner!

So how do them cards work? What’d ya mean by “for initiative and for your hand”?

The cards work in two ways. First, you deal yourself a hand at the start of a game. These cards can be played during the action. They might enhance what your own guys are doing, or affect the other guy, and influence the game in a number of ways. You can play any number of cards in a turn, which can sometimes lead to interesting ‘stacking’ effects. But, at the end of a turn, you may only draw a single fresh card for your hand. Played cards may be

‘trumped’ by the opponent playing the same value card from his own hand. So don’t burn out the cards in your hand too early!

So you got to be careful not to be played out! Ok. Secondly, the cards determine initiative.

These initiative cards are kept separate from your ‘hand’. At the start of the turn, both players flip over a card, look at it, and assign it to one of their men. They have normal playing card values – 2 to 10, face cards, ace, joker – so be wary where you place it. The other models in your gang get a face-down card. Then both sides reveal all the cards. These determine the initiative order in which the models act in the turn.

The initiative cards can be affected by cards in your hand. So, you may find that the opposition gunslinger has received a high initiative card and is about to deal out some carnage. But you have the ‘Sodden by Whiskey’ card in your hand. Playing this card allows you to switch one of your opponent’s initiative cards with another one from

Charlie Prince, one of the new DMH miniatures painted by Paul Cubbin.

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minutes is the average time span for this one. The third scene is the big gunfight at the end. The whole gang is used and the game ends when everyone is dead or one has been so badly shot up that it runs. We play these in about an hour.

So, all three scenes from a storyline can be done in a typical club night and still leave time for suppin’ whiskey.

his gang. That gunslinger won’t look so clever when you switch his ace for a 2!

How does a cowpoke get around? How far can your gang move an’ shoot?

Movement is really easy. Each moveaction that you declare allows a 10cm move – that’s 4”, for those of you still in the 19th century – and these moves are not affected much by terrain. So you can jump over barrels, sprint upstairs, and even climb the sides of buildings.

Since the focus of these gunfights is the frontier town, buildings are an important factor. A rifleman on a rooftop can see all around and negates the advantage of ground level cover; plus, his unlimited range means that he can hit folks before they’re in pistol range.

Horses may be used. They add to your movement, but make you a bigger target. Plus, it’s easier to shoot when you’re on foot.

So, how do I go about puttin’ the opposition six feet under or givin’ ‘em a cocked hat?

Each model gets three actions: move, shoot, aim, reload, recover. These can be combined, for example, to move, aim, then shoot; or you might just want to blaze away with loads of shots. To hit, you roll a D20, add the modifiers, and look at the Shootin’ Table. 1-10 is a miss, 11-14 is a hit marker, 15-18 is a hit marker and nerve test, 19-20 is out of action. A nerve test is rolled on a D10 and, if you fail, you receive another hit marker. If you have four hit markers (five for a ‘boss’), you’re out of action. The recover action is very important because it allows you to remove a hit marker on a model. There is a balance required between the need to keep those hit markers down and the ability to deal out some justice with your hand cannon. There is a specific card for the cowboy gang called ‘Get three coffins ready …’ This one allows you to switch three of your initiative cards for three of your opponent’s. It’s very funny to play when the other guy puts down a load of high initiative cards and sniggers as you put down a load of rubbish ones.

What do you reckon you can use Dead Man’s Hand for? I know this Irish feller who’ll be askin’ me about ‘Maximillian’ and other periods.

‘Doc’ Holliday painted by Paul Cubbin.

Any period where you want fast, chaotic shoot ‘em ups!

What sort of iron you gonna have? Six shooters, repeaters, or what?

We have kept it very streamlined, so that you can concentrate on the gameplay and the way that the cards interact with it. So, we have pistols, repeaters, rifles and shotguns. Ranges are in centimetres, and are divided into ‘Point Blank’, ‘Close’ and ‘Long’. Pistols have a maximum range of 30cm, shotguns 20cm, and rifles unlimited. There are modifiers to hit at the different range bands, according to the weapon.

How about posses? What sort of choices do you have? What distinguishes the cowboys from the Injuns and Yellow Bellies?

In this book, there are The Law, Outlaws, Desperadoes and Cowboys. They each have specific attributes that set them apart from each other, notably in their cards. Each gang has specific cards (the Jack, Queen, King and ace) that are used only by them. In a second book, we’ll add some further gangs, including Indian renegades and Mexican bandidos.

How long d’ya reckon it’ll take my cowpokes to finish one of them there gunfights?

This is a chance for me to talk about scenarios, or ‘scenes’, as we call them.

We have storylines that are split into three scenes. Scene 1 is sort of an icebreaker, much like the early scene from A Fistful of Dollars, so it only involves a few models and typically lasts just a few minutes. The next takes place using the same scenery, but will involve more models. The victory conditions are limited in this second scene – for example, the game might end when two guys from a gang are out of action. Thirty

So what makes Dead Man’s Hand better than the rest of ‘em? Why should our gentlemen part with their greenbacks for your game?

Because, like that end scene I like so much in Open Range, it is fast and furious, and all sorts can happen. The specialist gunfighters are real killers in the game, but they die like any other man. Smart players will learn when to move into close range and shoot a man down, and when to interrupt (yes, you can interrupt the other guy’s go) and duck back. The rules are concise, so that they can be picked up easily, but the interaction of cards allows for lots of different actions to take place. Initiative cards produce a real wildcard element to Dead Man’s Hand, and produce the possibility of very entertaining swings in who has the upper hand. And the cards in the ‘hand’ of your opponent raise the stakes – will you blaze away with your dude, or does the other guy have the ‘Out of Ammo’ card up his sleeve?

Finally, when is it on sale?

Out in April. Costs £25. Available from www.greatescapegames.co.uk and from your local store. Trade customers in the UK and EU can get the Dead Man’s Hand rule book, counters and gang boxes direct or from North Star. In Australia, War & Peace Games will be stocking it, as will several US distributors. The initial release will include the DMH rule book (with card deck), a set of DMH counters, and boxed gangs for the Lawmen, Outlaws, Desperados and Cowboys. By the time of publication, we should have news on the range of pre-painted, laser-cut wooden buidings, as well.

Time for me to hit the road. Thank‘ee for yer time, mister!

My friends call me Stuart.

Thank you, Stuart!

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SCENARIO

By Eoghan Kelly

Bitesize battles or small skirmishes

ALFRED REDL, SPY VS SPY Alfred Redl was a highly gifted intelligence officer in the service of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His obvious organizational skills enabled him to progress quickly through the ranks.

He was transferred into counter-espionage, and soon rose to become its commander.

It also made him a target for enemy intelligence services.

R

edl was also the deputy director of the Evidenzbureau, the overall Intelligence service, and indirectly managed the Kundschaftsbüro.

He was an enthusiastic progressive, eagerly adapting new technologies for the Imperial Intelligence services. As a result, they became one of the pioneers of intercepting radio transmissions, as well as the more traditional tasks of monitoring postal services.

With the rising tensions in the Balkans, his position was crucial to the future operations of the Hapsburg military.

It was unfortunate, then, that in 1903 he was blackmailed by agents of the Imperial Russian Intelligence service (the ‘Okhrana’. As a result, Redl passed significant amounts of material to his Russian handlers (including ‘Plan III’, the Austrian plans for the invasion of Serbia), as well as providing misleading information to his own military about Russian military strengths and capabilities. He also passed on information about Austrian mobilization timings and details of certain Austrian fortresses. He also revealed the identities of Austrian agents in Russia. In early 1913, Colonel Redl retired from his post, apparently a model servant of the Empire, and moved to a position with the Imperial staff.

However, the authorities had become increasingly concerned about the apparent increase in intelligence leaks to the Russians. Redl’s understudy and successor, Major Maximillian Ronge, had instigated a system whereby suspicious letters would be passed to him for

inspection. In April 1913, he received a letter which was addressed to ‘Herr Nikon Nizetas’. It contained a large sum of money and the address details of known Russian spies. On 9 May 1913, he sent a duplicate letter addressed to ‘Nikon Nizetas’ and arranged a police stake-out, with two undercover officers at a café opposite the post office. They were waiting for the clerk on duty to ring a bell that would alert them to the arrival of Nikon Nizetas. Several weeks later, their patience was rewarded and the bell was rung on 24 May at 17:55hrs. However, events turned to farce, as one of the officers was having a pee and the other had popped into the canteen.

As a result, by the time they had managed to get across the street, they saw their suspect disappearing in a cab.

They only had time to note down its number before it disappeared around a corner. As they stood in the street, wondering what their next move should be, the same cab reappeared.

They were able to identify where Herr

One of Redl’s pursuers.

Nizetas had been taken, and asked to be taken directly there – Hotel Klomser, on Bankgasse 2 in Vienna. Inside the cab, they found the sheath of a dagger that must have belonged to the previous occupant. Once they arrived at the hotel, they gave the sheath to the clerk on duty and waited. To their surprise, the man who accepted the sheath was none other than their old boss, Colonel Alfred Redl....

SCENARIO : VIENNA, AUSTRIAHUNGARY, 24 MAY 1913 The traitor Colonel Alfred Redl, Austrian Imperial Staff. Armed with a dagger and a RothKrnka M7, 8mm semi-automatic pistol.

The Detectives Hauptmann Georg Ramsauer, Evidenzbureau.

Offiziersstellvertreter Sándor Balla, Evidenzbureau.

Both are equipped with a nightstick/ cosh and an M1901 Mannlicher selfloading 7.63mm semi-automatic pistol.

This game is designed for whatever system you use for skirmish-level games (such as Legends of the Old West or 7TV). A suggested mechanism for movement and random events is given below.

DEPLOYMENT

Redl, with liquid courage from his hip flask.

The pursuit takes place through the streets of the inner city of Vienna. Redl is trying to get away without being apprehended. The streets are full of civilians. I suggest you have a good mix of them, wandering about the streets; side alleys should have only one or two people. They do not move (unless panicked), but act as barriers to lines of sight, movement and shooting.

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the security forces are incapacitated, then it is a draw, as he is still in the Innere Stadt district and there will have been alerts sent out for his arrest.

If he is shot or incapacitated by the security forces, then he is arrested and offered the option of ‘an honourable way out’ …

SPECIAL RULES Each time Redl fires his gun, he risks drawing the attention of other police.

Roll a D6. On a 6, another officer will appear at a random point between him and the board edge he is heading towards.

RESULT AND AFTERMATH

Suggested Movement Mechanism Redl moves first by virtue of a free move.

After this, movement uses a deck of cards. Black moves Redl, Red moves the Police officers. Neither officer may move twice in a row.

When drawing a card, a figure may make one action. These actions are: Move, Aim, or Fire.

An unaimed shot has a 50 percent chance of hitting a civilian, if a successful hit is rolled. Civilians were not used to people running through the streets with guns, but they are extremely unlikely to run away or panic until shots are fired.

When a face card is drawn, the colour dictates who the event affects (and the rule applies to the police for consecutive moves).

Ace – a civilian walks out of a doorway and into your path, without looking.

Roll a D6. On a 4, 5, or 6, the player runs straight into him and loses the rest of their move. Additionally, the civilian will automatically block any firing from an opponent.

Black King – Redl. An old friend recognizes him and tries to start a conversation. Redl manages to talk his way out of the encounter. Roll 2D6. On a 7+, the friend will delay the police for a turn. On a 6 or less, he halves Redl’s movement on the following turn.

Red King - Police. A civilian recognizes them as officers and tries to make a complaint about some substandard schnitzel being sold just down the street. The police lose half a move disengaging, or may take an unaimed shot instead. If they shoot, it will automatically panic all civilians within D6+6”, causing all civilians to run randomly for cover. Use a scatter dice to manage their movements.

Queen – a vehicle moving down the street swerves into your path to avoid a child. Roll 2D6. On a 7+, the player avoids being hit. On a 6 or less, the player is hit (and potentially wounded) by the vehicle and has their movement halved for the next two turns, but may fire as normal.

Jack – the road is blocked and the player must cross the obstacle. It counts as hard cover, if shot at while on it.

VICTORY Redl wins if he can escape his pursuers by crossing the board with at least one clear move between him and them. His goal is to flee either eastwards, to the Saltzorbrücke bridge, or southwards, to cross the Opernring into the maze of streets and parks around the University. Going north is not an option, as it brings him too close to an army barracks, and west brings him into a government district.

If he fails to escape within 20 turns and

There was a brief chase through the Innere Stadt before Redl was captured.

He was then handed a pistol and told to go to his hotel room and do the honourable thing. That is where the whole story should have ended. However, the Security Service called on a locksmith to help them gain access to Redl’s apartment. Inside, they found information about his lover. By a stroke of bad luck (from the authorities’ point of view), the locksmith was friends with Egon Erwin Kisch, an investigative journalist, who quickly wrote a dispatch for a Berlin newspaper. Once the story was out, the Evidenzbureau was forced, on 29 May, to admit the real reason for Redl’s suicide.

As a result of his activities, Redl contributed indirectly to the deaths of over 500,000 Austrian soldiers in the fighting in Serbia and Poland. The Serbs had planned their defence around the information in ‘Plan III’, and the Russians had defeated the Austrian offensives into Poland and driven them back, occupying several key fortresses in Hungary.

Only four years after these events, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had ceased to exist. It is not inaccurate to claim that Redl is one of the greatest traitors in history!

Redl model converted from a Scarab Austro-Hungarian officer. Detective from Ironclad Miniatures.

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SCENARIO

By Steve Jones and Guy Bowers

The British break through at Crisis and Fanatic

The fight for Bedminster After laying out our AWI-themed issue, WS&S 63, the Karwansaray team decided to run a participation game at Crisis 2012 and Zwolle Fanatic. We asked Steve Jones to create a scenario based on the miniatures available in our (modest) collection. What follows is a hypothetical scenario set in New Jersey circa 1780, featuring the forces of King George (the Crown) and the American colonists (the Rebels).

T

he following scenario gives statistics for Black Powder, using the simple suggestions Steve made in his article on Blackstock (WS&S 63).

Naturally, with very little adaptation, the scenario can be used with your favourite rule set, as it is generic enough and should work fine. Likewise, it could be adapted to other periods – perhaps a British patrol returning to base is suddenly faced by a native blocking force?

The following situation briefs were issued to each of the players.

Crown briefing While British hopes now rest on campaigns in the southern colonies, the troops in the north are still kept busy with smaller operations against the rebels. Raids and counter-raids are the order of the day, and the increasing experience and discipline of the Continental Army makes them ever tougher opponents for the redcoats.

Sir Henry Clinton has ordered elements of the New York garrison to ensure that the rebel forces of General Washington are obstructed in their efforts to secure supplies, and to this end a column of troops under Colonel White was dispatched into the New Jersey hinterland, with orders to destroy two key bridges over the Delaware River. The mission was undertaken with no serious complications, other than the on-going language difficulties between the British and their Hessian allies.

White’s small force now finds itself trudging back towards the safety of New

American reinforcements coming in from the north, led by Colonel Holmes. With most commands representing only companies, most of our command figures are on foot.

York and a well-earned rest. However, scouts indicate that they may have stirred up Washington’s army, and Major Braun is instructed to march ahead with his Hessians, while Major Green and the redcoats destroy one final bridge, before marching hard to catch up.

As the scenario opens, Braun has encountered a small rebel force holding the village of Bedminster. More rebel units are likely to be in the vicinity and it is vital that the defenders are driven off. Colonel White, who is accompanying Braun, does not have the luxury of awaiting a reunion with Green before engaging the enemy, and so orders the Hessians into the fray, hoping that the rest of his force is not too far behind.

Rebel briefing Since the momentous events at Monmouth Courthouse, the pace of life around New York has slowed somewhat, and General Washington’s main

army has settled into keeping Sir Henry Clinton’s forces bottled-up in the city.

The army has lost many of its finest units to the fighting in the south and lacks the strength for a major offensive.

Military operations are limited to those involving the securing of supplies and frustrating Clinton’s attempts to counter these.

News has reached Washington that a column of crown troops has reached the Delaware River and destroyed bridges at some key crossings. Too late to prevent the destruction, the rebel general vows to make the redcoats pay.

Brigadier-General Doyle is ordered to gather a fast-moving force from his own brigade, to intercept and defeat the enemy before they can return to New York.

Unsure of the exact position or route of the Crown column, Doyle divides his troops into three groups. The most

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The Rebel reinforcements must dice for their arrival points, each column rolling separately. Roll 1D6. On a roll of 1 or 2, arrive at X; 3 or 4, arrive at Y; 5 or 6, arrive at Z. In all cases, reinforcements will arrive by passing a command roll (C-in-C staff value may not be used) and may begin to roll from turn two onwards.

Several elements of both armies have already been removed as the American blocking force holds out. The British Grenadiers, coming at the right, proved nigh unstoppable in all our games. mobile troops form an advance guard, which is closely supported by two columns of Continental infantry and artillery. The guns slow down the infantry, but are likely to be needed if the experienced redcoats are to be defeated in the field.

THE SCENARIO

Objectives The Crown forces are hoping to exit the battlefield at point B, as shown on the map. The Rebel aim is to prevent this.

The Crown wins if more than five units exit, and the rebels win if this becomes impossible.

Deployment and reinforcements Colonel Moriarty deploys first, placing his units anywhere within the area shown. Braun then deploys his Hessian units, and the game is underway.

For the purpose of this battle, ignore the rules for broken brigades for all commands other than those of Holmes and Watson.

The British reinforcements will arrive at point A.

As the scenario opens, the American advance guard has located part of the enemy force and obstructed its route of march by occupying the village of Bedminster. Couriers have been dispatched to summon the Continental columns, and it is now vital to pin the approaching enemy, until these reinforcements can arrive.

The table should be laid out roughly as shown in the map. There should be a village in the centre, represented by one or two areas of buildings (as described in the Black Powder rule book). The village is at the centre of a road network, with five roads leading into the village.

The rest of the terrain consists of rolling hills, woods and some farmland (depending on your terrain collection).

Unit British Elite company

Type Infantry

Armament Smoothbore musket

Hand-to-Hand 7

Shooting 3

Morale 3+

Stamina 4

Hessian Infantry company Hessian J채ger company

Infantry

Smoothbore musket Rifled muskets

6

3

4+

3

6

2

3+

3

Infantry

Special Elite 3+ Ferocious charge Steady Steady Elite 3+ Marauders Sharp-shooters Steady

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SCENARIO

Unit Continental Infantry company Militia company

Type Infantry

Armament Smoothbore musket

Hand-to-Hand 6

Shooting 3

Morale 4+

Stamina 3

Special Steady

Infantry

4

3

5+

3

Unreliable

Rifle company

Infantry

Smoothbore musket Rifled musket

4

3

4+

3

6lb Artillery

Artillery

Medium smoothbore artillery

1

3-2-1

4+

2

Marauders Sharp shooters Range = 48”

Gamers can always adapt their collections as they see fit, or adapt their rule sets, by substituting a company of troops for the equivalent of a company in that particular rule set.

CONCLUSION

Guy running the demo at Zwolle.

Crown Order of Battle Advanced Guard: Colonel White, C-in-C (staff rating 9) Major Braun (staff rating 8) 2-3 Hessian Infantry companies 1-2 Hessian Jäger companies Main Body: Major Green (staff rating 9) 6 British Elite companies Rebel Order of Battle Advanced Guard: Colonel Moriarty (staff rating 8) 1 Continental Infantry company 2 Militia companies 1 Rifle company Main Body: Brigadier General Doyle, C-in-C (staff rating 8) Colonel Holmes (staff rating 8) 5 Continental Infantry companies 1 6lb gun Colonel Watson (staff rating 8)

5 Continental Infantry companies 1 6lb gun

BLACK POWDER CONVERSION For this game, we followed Steve Jones’ suggestions from his Blackstock game in WS&S 63. Each unit of six men (or three horsemen) represents a single company.

The miniatures are mounted on fixed element-style bases, 60mm x 40mm, with cavalry in threes and infantry as six figures in two ranks, or with infantry on two 60mm x 20mm bases, each with three figures in one rank. The latter is useful for riflemen and light infantry, who count as open order when in a 3 x 2 arrangement and skirmishing when 6 x 1.

Command are mounted on 40mm diameter bases. Several of the elementstyle and command bases have been arranged to form mini-vignettes. The measurements we used for the game are kept the same as for a regular game of Black Powder; the units are simply smaller.

Several good, fun games were played at Crisis and Fanatic. Mark Backhouse kindly stepped in and offered to run the demo game at Crisis. He played four games throughout the day with a variety of international gamers. No convincing British victory was achieved however. At Fanatic, we managed two epic games, which were real fights to the death which saw the Grenadiers spearheading the assault both times.

Overall, the scenario worked very well, although it is not easy for the Crown forces to win. They have to rely on a speedy breakthrough before the Americans bring on the bulk of their reinforcements.

This scenario made for enjoyable games, with a reasonable amount of painting required. The British required some sixty miniatures and the Americans ninety.

Despite a mad painting rush, Jasper and Christy managed to get everything ready for Crisis, held in a former warehouse on the Antwerp docks. One month later, we repeated the game among the pews in the Great Church in Zwolle (NL). Two interesting, atmospheric, historical and very different locations, that’s for sure!

Miniatures by Perry Miniatures and Wargames Foundry. All miniatures painted by Jasper Oorthuys and Christy Beall, from Jasper’s collection.

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NEW!

OUT NOW

Available from: radiodishdash.com

AVAILABLE IN TWO FORMATS: 172pg FULL COLOUR A4 BOOK OR DOWNLOADABLE PDF WSS nr65 jan13.indd 23

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SCENARIO

By Mike Evans

Prelude to Gettysburg

THE BATTLE OF WINCHESTER, 1863 In 1863, Confederate General Robert E. Lee realized that the South was losing the war.

Federal forces under General Grant were making significant strides in the west, cutting supply routes and gradually strangling the Confederacy into submission. Despite his army coming near to total destruction a year earlier at Antietam, Lee embarked upon his second campaign into the Northern States and to Gettysburg.

W

ith the vast attention given to Gettysburg, many people overlook the other battles that formed a part of the campaign. This article will provide a scenario to refight the Second Battle of Winchester, which took place on 13-15 June 1863.

As Lee marched his forces into Pennsylvania, he directed the newly re-formed 2nd Corps, under the experienced Lieutenant General Richard S. Ewell, to move into the fertile Shenandoah Valley and secure it. This was not only important for supplies, of which the Confederacy was running critically short, but it also allowed Lee to shield his movements from the Federals behind the Blue Ridge Mountains. Ewell had orders to capture the towns of Martinsburg and Winchester, so he split his forces into two. One arm headed north to capture Martinsburg, which they did with little resistance. The other marched towards the main objective, Winchester, where they expected a Federal force of some 6000-8000 men under the arrogant and overconfident command of Major General Robert H. Milroy.

“No attempt should be made to hold Winchester against a large force of the enemy.”

Major-General Halleck, General-in-Chief Milroy made good use of existing forts, linking many of them with trenches and heavily fortifying ten strongpoints with artillery, some of it long-range heavy ordinance. Milroy was confident that he could hold this position for weeks.

However, in Ewell, he faced an opponent who was familiar with the ground,

Union guns deploy, ready to fire. having been victorious there at the First Battle of Winchester in May of the previous year.

Early’s division was advancing from the south-west, similarly encountering light Federal resistance as the day ended.

THE BATTLE

Both forces were early to rise on Sunday 14 June. Johnson’s division moved north-eastwards, encircling the town and cutting off Milroy’s line of retreat.

Later that night, Johnson was to march north to Stephenson’s Depot, a train stop on the Winchester and Potomac Railroad, where he would re-engage and capture the majority of Milroy’s retreating forces on the following day.

Early sent Gordon’s Brigade forward to capture the lightly defended Bower’s Hill, where it faced off against Main Fort (also called Fort Milroy) with an ensuing artillery duel. The remaining brigades circled west and north to take up a position opposite West Fort. In the early evening, under the cover of an artillery barrage, the Louisiana Brigade advanced around Apple Pie Ridge to

On 13 June, Ewell launched two flanking actions from the east and southwest. CSA (Confederate States Army) General Johnson’s division attacked from the east, and some small-scale skirmish actions and some artillery fire commenced, pushing the Federal pickets back to the town. At this stage, Milroy still had no idea that he faced an entire Confederate corps, or that his escape route via Martinsburg had already fallen. Rather than following the orders of Major-General Halleck, General-inChief of the Union forces, Milroy chose to concentrate his forces against Johnson, and the brigades of General Washington Elliott and Colonel William Ely were dispatched to defend the turnpikes to the south. Meanwhile, CSA General

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© Alan Perry

regiment (the 140th Ohio), and may be represented by an earthwork or something similar. A linear version of this structure should be placed on Bower’s Hill, defended by Elliot’s brigade. Ely’s brigade should be held off-table; they may enter the table with a roll of 6 on a D6 from turn 3, to assault Gordon’s right flank. The roll required decreases by 1 per subsequent turn.

Confederates turn captured guns on the Union.

At around 9pm, Milroy finally came to realize that his position was untenable. Ordering his guns to be spiked, the Federals retreated in such silence that it was not until morning that the Confederates became aware of their victory. Milroy was to retreat towards the waiting Johnson at Stephenson’s Depot, where, despite some desperate fighting, the Federals were defeated in the Confederate trap.

Casualties from the Battle of Winchester were reported to be around 600 Union soldiers, with large amounts of stores, horses, artillery and wagons captured by the Confederates, who themselves lost under 300. Federal losses at Stephenson’s Junction were considerably higher, with some 4000 captured. Milroy himself escaped to Harper’s Ferry, where he was arrested and subjected to an enquiry. Milroy was never to command again.

Harry Hays (the Louisiana Brigade), William ‘Extra Billy’ Smith, John Gordon, and Isaac Avery. Our scenario commences some way through the battle on the second day, with Gordon’s brigade launching an assault on the Union-held Bower’s Hill, whilst Smith, Avery and Hays have completed their encircling movement, with the Louisiana Brigade launching its assault against the West Fort. Both Smith and Avery’s commands should be held in reserve, but two batteries are available to support Hays’ assault.

As many buildings as space allows (or the gamer has available) should be used to represent the streets of Winchester, forming a nice backdrop for the game.

The Main Fort should be represented on the table as a well-built and extensively fortified structure, containing two batteries of Federal guns, of which one may be heavy artillery. The West Fort was a semicircular structure defended by a single battery and a single infantry

OBJECTIVES As in real life, our simulation will not contain balanced forces, so for our purposes we decided upon an objectivedriven game.

The Confederates must gain both Bower’s Hill and the West Fort to gain a minor victory. A successful assault on the Main Fort will lead to a major Confederate victory. With Early’s attack not starting until the evening, the game should also be time-limited to simulate nightfall. Early had no need to engage the brigades of Smith or Avery, so we will hold them in reserve, as well. In the event that either of Hays’ or Gordon’s brigades are shattered and routed off the table, the Confederates may deploy their reserves.

Similarly, the Union forces gain a minor victory if they hold the Main Fort at the end of the game, and gain a major victory in the unlikely event that they © Alan Perry

storm the fort, charging across the final 300 yards of open ground. The fight was short, with the Federals retreating to Fort Milroy. As night drew, the Confederates launched a sustained artillery barrage against the fort, turning the captured Federal guns in the West Fort against them.

Please see the map for initial troop deployment.

This overwhelming Confederate victory removed the last opposition in the valley, allowing Lee’s invasion to continue apace. It was a shattered army that was to return less than a month later, after defeat at the Battle of Gettysburg.

TABLETOP CONVERSION In recreating the Second Battle of Winchester for the tabletop, we will focus on the actions of General Jubal Early’s division, consisting of the brigades of

The Union troops are forced to retreat from Winchester.

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SCENARIO CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA Jubal Early As this was one of Early’s best battles, he is rated +1, 1 (leadership bonus, number of re-rolls). He commences the game on Bower’s Hill.

Having fought through many previous battles, all units in the ANV are rated as ‘veterans’. Their strength is based on muster rolls of June 30.

Hays’ Louisiana Brigade Brig. Gen. Harry T. Hays (+1, 0) 5th Louisiana (12 figures)

Isaac E. Avery (0, 0) 6th Louisiana (16 figures) 7th Louisiana (16 figures) 8th Louisiana (24 figures) 9th Louisiana (28 figures) Smith’s Brigade Brig. Gen. William ‘Extra Billy’ Smith (+1,0) 31st Virginia (20 figures) 49th Virginia (24 figures) 52nd Virginia (20 figures) Hoke’s Brigade In Hoke’s absence, commanded by Col.

6th North Carolina (40 figures) 21st North Carolina (32 figures) 57th North Carolina (24 figures) 54th North Carolina (20 figures) The 54th NC was detached to guard prisoners after the battle, so they did not participate in the Battle of Gettysburg.

Consequently, they do not turn up on muster rolls of June 30.

Gordon’s Brigade Brig. Gen. John B. Gordon (+1, 1) 13th Georgia (24 figures) 26th Georgia (24 figures) 31st Georgia (20 figures) 38th Georgia (28 figures) 60th Georgia (24 figures) 61st Georgia (24 figures) Dance’s Artillery Battalion 2 x 10-pounder Parrotts 2 x 3” rifles Carrington’s Artillery Battery 2 x 12-pounder Napoleons

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Robert Milroy Defiant to the last, Milroy may have misread the situation, but overall his performance could have been far worse.

We have rated him at +1 / +1. He commences the game in the Main Fort.

Unfortunately, individual regimental strengths are not listed for the Union forces. As they were garrison troops, and thus had not been subjected to attrition, they should be reasonably large units. All units are rated as ‘regulars’ for morale purposes.

West Fort 110th Ohio (32 figures) Spooner’s Battery: 3 x 12-pounder Napoleons Elliot’s Brigade Brig. Gen. Washington Elliot (+1, 0) 123rd Ohio (32 figures) 12th West Virginia (28 figures) 122nd Ohio infantry (28 figures) 13th Pennsylvania cavalry (12 figures) 1 artillery battery: 3 x 10-pounder Parrotts

see off all assaults. The Union forces were quite ‘gritty’ during this encounter.

To simulate this, routed units may fall back to the Main Fort, where they may automatically rally – but only once!

We have played out the game as a multi-player game in a standard 3-hour club evening. Commands were simply

Ely’s Brigade Col. William Ely (+1, 0) 87th Pennsylvania (32 figures) 18th Connecticut (28 figures) 5th Maryland infantry (28 figures) 12th Pennsylvania cavalry (12 figures) 1 artillery battery: 3 x 3” rifles Located in the Main Fort is Milroy’s heavy artillery:

tions. Neither the Star Fort nor Reynold’s Brigade feature in our scenario, although players may like to provide an option for Reynold’s Brigade to form a Union reserve, which could be located within the town, as well as having an artillery battery in the Star Fort.

Reynold’s Brigade Col. Andrew Reynold (+1, 0)

4 x 20-pounder Parrotts 2 x 24-pounder Howitzers

67th Penn. (32 figures) 6th Maryland (28 figures) 1st NY Cavalry (12 figures)

Milroy had other troops deployed around Winchester, many in fortifica-

Star Fort 1 artillery battery: 3 x 3” rifles

‘activated’ in turn as the players arrived.

Gordon’s assault on Bower’s Hill starts the proceedings. The Louisiana Tigers’ assault follows, as the next players arrive, or indeed commences from the outset, if all are present from the start.

as they see fit, according either to the figure-to-men ratio or simply figure availability. We have played out the scenario using Mr Lincoln’s War (time limit set to 7 turns) and Black Powder (time limit set to 6 turns), and both provided equally satisfying games. The enclosed army lists have been compiled for Crusader’s Rank and File rules with their ‘American Civil War’ supplement.

Players may elect to use their rules of choice and represent the regiments

Mike’s article on the Battle of Winchester leads us nicely into next issue’s theme, the Road to Gettysburg.

Miniatures: 15mm Peter Pig from Kevin Lowth’s collection and 28mm Perry Miniatures.

References: Bradley Gottfried, The Maps of Gettysburg: An Atlas of the Gettysburg Campaign, June 3-July 13, 1863.

Federal and Confederate lines clash.

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THEME

By Warren Gleeson

An Introduction to the Biblical period

BIBLICAL WARFARE To plagiarize a popular author, the Biblical Age is big.

You might not quite believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly long a period it is. You may think that the medieval period or the Renaissance are long, but they’re just peanuts compared

Newline Hittite chariot.

to the Biblical period. Having said that, though, the Biblical period is a somewhat fuzzily defined period, as it is only really wargamers who consider it a period at all. So, when does it start and, more importantly, when does it finish? And, to a lesser extent, who does it involve?

A

© Georgie Harman

s to when it actually starts, that’s likely to be buried somewhere in the depths of the city states in Mesopotamia and their contemporaries.

When it finishes is somewhat more debateable –probably, somewhere around the end of the Assyrian Empire, with the dawn of the Classical period, though It could be argued that, potentially, it extends all the way through to the early imperial Romans and the New Testament. Generally, the period covers the really juicy bits from the early Bronze Age through to the close of the ‘chariot period’, more specifically tied to the eastern Mediterranean and Mesopotamia, prior to the advent of the Classical period. The irony is that we cannot even be sure of the very dates that we try to tie our events to, as various groups promote alternative timelines in their attempts to explain irregularities and holes in the traditional dating methods.

The remit is vast. Political states aren’t simply single nations, but a multitude of empires and states that originated in the same location. Egypt saw Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms, followed by a Saite period, all led by pharaohs, but each of them separate and distinct in nature from each other. Even within each Kingdom period, a multitude of centuries could be blithely tagged together, yet dynasties and administrations evolved so that the end of each period was a very different beast from where it had started. These issues, coupled with various ‘intermediate’ sub-periods,

and vase paintings depicting troops.

From these, wargames army lists are built, as we attempt to apply some logic to define army structures in line with what little evidence we have.

such as the Hyksos invasions, the Sea Peoples and the Libyans, along with the Nubian Kushite pharaohs, gives Egypt a very varied flavour. Now, imagine the same complexity multiplied across the vast array of nations and kingdoms that this period offers.

THE BIRTH OF ORGANIZED WARFARE

As wargamers, we are spoiled for choice with a multitude of wars, as conflicts were plentiful throughout the period, from simple border raids through to significant invasions. What we generally lack are details – or, indeed, any facts that we can work with! Sumerian documents more often record the rout rather than the battle. Whilst wars were documented, the accuracy or provenance of the documentation can often be questionable. Without the counterpoint of the Hittite records, one would have little reason to consider Kadesh to be anything other than a great Egyptian victory. As more records come to light and more translations are made available, our understanding of these imperial machinations has improved, but rarely to such a point that we can state with 100 percent accuracy what really happened. Unfortunately, rarely do ancient record keepers provide us with details about those items that we consider important or interesting to further our hobby. There are regrettably no ancient WRG-equivalent army lists, detailing the composition and structure of our favourite armies, but only fragmentary references in documents, coupled with incomplete wall friezes

‘Real men ride into war standing’ (anon) The period saw dramatic changes in the technology of war, evolving from the rudimentary weapons used in early skirmishes, to spears and armour and missile weapons, as evidenced in the Sumerian ‘Standard of Ur’ and the ‘Stele of Vultures’. These, coupled with the early wheeled battle-carts, reflect an evolution to small standing forces, supported by establishing kingdoms beyond the single-city boundaries, which led eventually to the first empires. The battle-carts evolved into the sleek chariots of the Hurrian Mittani, but as the technology spread their dominance of the region was challenged. Meanwhile, developments in missile technology saw the simple self-bows replaced by sophisticated composite and recurved bows, resulting in serried ranks of massed archers being supported by well-armoured and shielded spearmen, replacing the traditional swarms of lightly armed skirmishers. Soon, massed legions of chariot elites supported by archers and spearmen became the norm in Egypt, the Levant, Mesopotamia, Anatolia and Greece. New empires emerged with the Hittites, the New Kingdom Egyptians, the Hyksos, Minoans, Assyrians and Babylonians.

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With the nations becoming increasingly urbanized, the demand for more secure city defences intensified. The original extensive brick walls were gradually replaced with double stone walls and frequent towers with crenellations and sloping bases, which extended for kilometres around the growing cities. Soon, nations developed countermeasures to the walls through improved siegecraft and weaponry to deny these places as refuges. From simply undermining the brick walls, or overwhelming them with massive moles or ramps of earth and siege towers, techniques improved. The Assyrians became the eventual masters, with specialized siege-trains and siegeengines employed to ensure the rapid submission of their enemies.

A POTTED HISTORY At its earliest, this period saw the advent of small city states, established within the Fertile Crescent of Mesopotamia in the fourth millennium BC. As these small states coalesced into the Sumerian kingdoms, they evolved into empires with different cities assuming pre-eminence in somewhat fanciful time frames identified by their rulers in the Sumerian King List. Warfare seems to have been an important element of the social order, as it was apparently the primary mechanism used to determine the transition of nam-lugal (or ‘high king’) between one city’s ruler and another.

By some time around 2334 BC, myth gives way to evidenced history, and the first Akkadian Empire arose under Sargon I, King of Kish. He united the various cities under one empire. For the next 400 years, the Sumerians (in various forms of Akkadian, Ur, and Elamite) dominated the region. Warfare in this period evolved from simple skirmishes through to full field armies of infantry and battle-carts pulled by their reluctant onagers. Along the Nile Valley, the early Old Kingdom was established in Egypt, uniting the older Lower and Upper Nile kingdoms under one pharaoh. Soon, Egyptian armies were mounting expeditions into Palestine, employing troops from throughout their domains, including Nubia and Libya.

15mm New Kingdom Egyptians.

As would be the case for many great empires after them, the Sumerians were eventually brought low by nomadic tribes from the west, despite the attempts by the Dynasty of Ur to keep them at bay. Although they weren’t to rise to greatness again, their legacy would be evidenced through many of the great empires which were to follow.

Around the same time, the Old Kingdom in Egypt also fell, and the entire region fragmented into a multitude of small warring states, during the First Intermediate Period. Massive population movements seem to have been predicated by extensive droughts and poor harvests, destabilizing these emerging empires.

Around the end of the third millennium, stability started to return. In Egypt, the Middle Kingdom was established by a reunited Egypt. In Syria, major cities began to emerge, and in Mesopotamia, four great kingdoms began to form.

With the start of the second millennium, Assyria began to exert its influence in northern Mesopotamia. From these small steps, one of the greatest empires the world has ever seen came to be.

Whilst its initial development was to be overshadowed for a period by the Amorite Kingdom of Hammurabic Babylon, it exploded back onto the scene at the end of the eighteenth century BC, and was to remain a powerful player through to its eventual demise before the combined might of the Medes and Chaldeans in 612 BC. Whilst Assyria and Babylon traded dominance over Mesopotamia throughout the period, other great states came and went around them. Egypt in its many guises fought both Babylon and Assyria, as well as the Hittites in Anatolia, the Canaanite kingdoms, Israel, Judah, the Sea Peoples, the Kushites, the Hyksos, and the Lybians, Arabs and Aramaeans (to name a few). In Greece and the eastern Mediterranean, the Minoan Greeks

and their Mycenaean counterparts established themselves.

Despite the many wars in this period, we must remember that they took place over a long time, so we must not fall into the trap of assuming that these nations were always at war. (Of course, there were warlike individuals, such as the Assyrian emperor Tiglath Pileser I, whose entire reign seems to have been one perpetual campaign against his neighbours.) There were, in fact, long intervals of relative peace between the various empires. It is just that, as wargamers, we don’t tend to dwell on those periods!

WARGAMING THE BIBLICAL PERIOD We are very fortunate in the breadth of the period and the interest it has generated. There are a plethora of rule sets available, enabling us to play our battles at multiple levels, from simple skirmishes to small border scraps, right up to epic battles. Every scale and size is catered for, so the only major challenge is choosing which set to play with. The old faithfuls, such as DBA and Armarti, along with DBMM, FOG and WAB, now mingle with Clash of Empires, Crusader, Lost Battles, Command and Colors, and Impetus, to name only a few. (There are far too many to list in full, but everyone should be able to find something that ‘floats their boat’ and meets their needs.) If you’re looking for a game, and your fellow club members aren’t interested, then look at the current wargames show offerings, as there is likely to be a wargames competition going on somewhere to ‘scratch your itch’ and satisfy your desire.

Miniatures by Newline Design (28mm), Peter Pig and Chariot Minis (15mm). From the collections of Rob Broom and Guy Bowers.

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THEME

By Rob Broom

The Battle of Megiddo

ARMAGEDDON... Š Georgie Harman

The city of Megiddo is known by several names.

The name of Armageddon (from the Greek) will probably be the most familiar. It is mentioned in Revelations where it is thought by some to describe the nearby mountain. It may refer to an assembly, but most will associate the word with a cataclysmic battle or event. It was that indeed, several times.

T

he region containing the Megiddo Pass (also known as the Wadi Ara) and the Jezreel Valley is strategically important, controlling trade routes and access. The area has seen several significant battles and, no doubt, many minor skirmishes. Here, we will look at the first recorded Battle of Megiddo, in the fifteenth century BC. (There is some debate about the precise date, which varies between 1457 and 1482, depending on the chronology used.)

Megiddo is significant as it is one of the first battles for which we have accurately recorded details and information.

The sources are all Egyptian, and so, unlike the later Battle of Kadesh, there are no possible counterarguments as to who won. (At Kadesh, Hittite records suggest a Hittite victory, or, at worst, a draw!) Kadesh and Megiddo also have similarities; for example, both had strong fortresses, although located more to the north, in modern day Syria. The

main source is the daily journal of the Egyptian scribe Tjaneni, whose record of the campaigns of Pharaoh Thutmose III against a coalition of Canaanite vassal states can be seen on the walls of the Amun-Re Temple at Karnak. These vassal states had thrown off the Egyptian yoke, under the leadership of the King of Kadesh, probably with the support of Mitanni. The King of Megiddo joined the alliance, prompting Pharaoh to personally lead an army to put down the rebellion.

Having marshalled together a force of around 15-20,000, Pharaoh moved northwards and reached the city of Yehem. The enemy had gathered a force of around 15,000 at Megiddo, while both sides had around 1000 chariots. There were three possible routes to Megiddo.

Having sent out scouts, Thutmose learnt that the King of Kadesh had placed a sizeable force at Taanach to defend the southern route, and another force to

cover the northern route via Zefti. Both routes offered an easy passage to their destination. The middle route, which went through Aruna (modern day Wadi Ari) was the most direct route, but also the most difficult. Narrow pathways through a ravine meant that troops would only be able to travel in single file across the mountain passes. If the enemy lay in wait, the army of Thutmose would be at a severe disadvantage.

Whilst his generals counselled using either the northern or southern route, Thutmose chose the most direct route.

He made this decision based on the information from his scouts and the assumption that, as his generals wanted him to use one of the other two routes, his enemy would be expecting the same thing. The army needed to make haste to take full advantage of this bold stratagem, and we are told that Thutmose led the vanguard himself.

Egyptian scouts covered the slopes on either side of the narrow passes, clearing out any enemy observers. The army made rapid progress and set up camp, ready to attack Megiddo on the following day.

Egyptian chariots clash with their Canaanite opposition.

It seems that the arrival of the Egyptians threw the enemy into some disarray, but there must still have been plenty of them, although we do not know if the rebels were able to recall all the

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THE BATTLEFIELD

© Georgie Harman

Terrain did not seem to play a part in the actual battle. It seems that the Canaanite forces arrayed on higher ground, but this did not give any significant advantage. A few flat-topped hills could be placed, if you want to break the flatness of the table. It can be assumed that the Egyptian and Canaanite camps (or rally points, if your rule set uses them) are on and around the Aruna and Megiddo exits, respectively.

forces deployed to the north and south.

The Egyptian attack was divided into three wings, with the centre led by Pharaoh himself, which enabled them to outflank the enemy on both sides.

The initial attack broke and routed the enemy almost immediately. Those who could escape fled back into the city, while the others, including both kings of Kadesh and Megiddo, were scattered.

However, rather than drive on straight into the city, the Egyptian forces halted and began to loot the Canaanite camp outside the city walls.

The Egyptians gained a large haul of chariots and armour from the camp, but the delay enabled the kings of Kadesh and Megiddo to re-enter the city with their armies in safety. This was assisted by the defenders lowering clothing and ropes to haul those outside up, rather than risk opening the gates. Thutmose then laid siege to Megiddo, and it eventually surrendered after seven months.

During this period, the King of Kadesh escaped and, after surrendering, the city and its inhabitants were spared.

fer a balanced game, as the rebels seem to be heavily disadvantaged, and the battle ends quickly after the initial engagement. However, it is probable that the Canaanites had the greater proportion of their forces nearby when battle commenced, even if they were not well organized. We also have to assume that Thutmose and his army did not simply disappear when they entered the passes.

Upon discovering the Egyptian plan, the King of Kadesh would have recalled his forces. However, despite similar numbers and although apparently on higher ground, the Canaanite formations probably moved forward piecemeal, in their attempt to meet the Egyptian attack.

The following scenario for War & Conquest assumes that the players are using approximately equally-sized armies.

Using the accompanying notes, players of other systems should be able to apply any differences to their preferred rule set.

The Egyptians are reported as having plenty of manoeuvrability on their left, so any terrain that may affect movement should be predominantly placed to their right. Three areas of ‘uneven ground’ could be placed, one to the left and two to the right. As the battle took place near the city/fortress, some dwellings on one part of the main road, with a small patch of arable land, will certainly add detail to the battlefield, and could replace one of the areas of uneven ground. There is no need to place the city/fortress, unless your game is being played using much smaller-scale miniatures or on a much larger table, where it would make a spectacular backdrop for the battle.

THE SCENARIO When creating the scenario – by considering the ‘what if?’ possibility of the rebels returning to Megiddo more promptly, or catching Thutmose in the passes and delaying his arrival – we can generate several different deployment and battle objective options. Rather than use the deployment and battle

This successful campaign also included the capture of several other cities in the Jezreel Valley. This, along with subsequent campaigns conducted almost annually over the next 20 years against the rebellious states, ensured Egypt’s prosperity in the region. Under Thutmose’s leadership, the empire expanded to its greatest extent.

WARGAMING MEGIDDO Many wargamers tend to enjoy balanced games, usually fought on a 6’ x 4’ table. Megiddo does not appear to of-

Massed Egyptian bowfire repels the enemy chariots.

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THEME

Length of game Pharaoh achieved his victory quickly.

The game will last seven turns. At the end of any complete turn, if one side has achieved their objectives, then the game ends.

Another enemy unit breaks and flees against the mighty Egyptians. objectives found in the ‘Battle Begins’ section of War & Conquest, use the following options instead. These can also be applied when using other rule sets, and give you suitable victory conditions. (In War & Conquest, specific battle objectives complement the usual ‘destroy the enemy’ option, and if the objectives are not completed, victory is calculated based on what forces you have remaining, rather than what enemy you have destroyed. After all, if you couldn’t beat the enemy this time, you will need to regroup your forces and have another try, so having some army left would be important!)

To determine which option you will use, roll a D6 and apply the following: 1 or 2 - Swift as an Eagle 3 or 4 - Make Haste!

5 or 6 - Into the Jaws of the Lion

SCENARIO 1, SWIFT AS AN EAGLE Pharaoh has proved himself blessed by the gods and his bold strategy has proved successful. The enemy are

caught unawares and become dismayed at the appearance of the mighty Egyptian army and their glorious leader.

Battle (Victory) objectives Egypt must destroy or rout at least 50 percent of the enemy formations and secure the enemy camp (or rally point).

To secure the camp, the Egyptians must move one battle formation of infantry onto the rally point, and they must remain there, without routing, until the end of the following turn. This represents the looting of the camp.

The Canaanite player has to stop either one of these two objectives occurring to achieve victory. Should either side destroy 75 percent of the enemy formations, then they will gain the victory.

Deployment The Canaanites deploy first, up to 12” onto the table and no closer than 12” to either of the flank table edges. Their chariots should be placed in the centre 24”, with infantry on either side and behind. The Egyptians then deploy their entire army no closer than 18” from any Canaanite forces.

Special rules Egypt have the strategic advantage, and must take the opening round of play in the first two turns (normally who goes first in each turn is diced for in W&C).

Until the Canaanites win a combat or until the end of Turn 3, the morale value of all formations and personalities within the army is reduced by 1.

SCENARIO 2, MAKE HASTE! Having discovered Pharaoh’s plans, the kings of Kadesh and Megiddo are unable to pull back enough of their forces in time, and the road to Megiddo is wide open. However, due to the efforts of the token rearguard at Aruna and the difficulty of the route, some of Thutmose’s forces are also delayed.

Battle (Victory) objectives The first to destroy or rout 50 percent of the enemy’s formations wins. Should either side secure the enemy camp (or rally point), then they have also won (see Scenario 1, ‘Swift as an Eagle’). This represents the looting of the Canaanite camp or cutting off the Egyptian route onto the table.

Deployment The Canaanites may deploy up to 40 percent of their formations (rounding down, and including all their chariot

Egyptian spear brace for the impact of Canaanite chariots.

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flank table edges. The road to Megiddo is unavailable, unless Pharaoh plans on surrender! Formations and personalities that retire in this way do not count as routed, unless they are actually routing at the time – in which case, hopefully you pass the War & Conquest ‘Last Chance to Stand’ morale roll!

SPECIAL RULE FOR ALL OPTIONS

Canaanite prisoners led away to slavery. formations, if possible) up to 12” onto the table and no closer than 18” to either of the flank table edges.

The Egyptians may deploy up to 50 percent of their formations (rounding down, and including Pharaoh, at least one formation of chariots, and, if possible, all skirmish formations) up to 12” onto the table and no closer than 12” to either of the flank table edges.

Length of game The game should end once one side achieves victory. Otherwise, after 7 turns, roll a D6. On a 4+, the game will end at the end of the following complete turn, in which case it may be possible for both sides to complete their objectives and draw the game.

Special rules From the beginning of Turn 2, and subsequent turns thereafter, at the start of each player’s round of play, additional formations may enter the table during the movement phase. 1D3 Egyptian formations will enter using the road to Aruna. The Canaanites should divide their remaining formations evenly between the two neutral table edges, and use these road exits to bring 1D6 formations back onto the table.

If playing W&C, use the ‘Returning to the Table’ rules on page 99. Players may use a ‘Strategy intervention point’ to reroll the die roll, if they wish. However, the point is discarded and cannot be re-used, regardless of the result.

SCENARIO 3, INTO THE JAWS OF THE LION Thutmose should have listened more closely to the wisdom of his generals and the naysayers. The kings of Kadesh and Megiddo have been aware of Pharaoh’s move and have laid an ambush.

Emerging from the mountain passes, the Egyptians are stunned to find the enemy waiting for them on all sides, ready to attack. It is time to fight or flee!

Battle (Victory) objectives The alliance must destroy or rout at least 60 percent of the Egyptian formations.

The Egyptians must save at least 50 percent of their forces, or destroy or rout 75 percent of the enemy formations. Once either side has completed its objective, the game is over.

Deployment The Canaanites may deploy up to 12” onto the table from their own table edge and the two flanking table edges. The Egyptian forces must deploy up to 24” onto the table, and 12” either side of their rally point, where the road exits to Aruna (effectively a 24” square).

Length of game Thutmose really doesn’t have anywhere to run. The game should last 6 + D6 turns.

Special Rules With their faith in Pharaoh shaken, any ‘Army General’ bonus (on page 107 of W&C) cannot be used until the Egyptians are victorious in any combat.

If using other rule systems, reduce his morale value by 1, or apply some other suitable penalty.

In an attempt to save their forces, the Egyptians may exit one formation in each turn, back towards Aruna, using the road off their table edge. Should the Canaanites move a formation onto the Egyptian rally point, this option will be lost for the remainder of the game.

Any number of Egyptian formations may exit by the road exits using the two

For any of these options, should Pharaoh Thutmose be killed or routed off the table, the Canaanites have won. We are told that Pharaoh led the attack in the centre, and so he should commence the battle leading a chariot unit in the centre, at the front of his army. During the opening moves, if he should ‘Retire to Safety’ behind the lines, the Canaanite player may feel free to take the moral high ground and jeer at the Egyptian player!

FINAL NOTES There is, of course, no reason why you don’t play all three options, or mix up some of the details to create your own scenario. The ‘Make Haste!’ option has plenty of opportunity for variation, by randomizing the number of formations on the table at the start of the battle or arriving once battle has commenced.

These ideas could be incorporated into the other two options. Observations on the scenario, and additional feedback and information, can be left on the Scarab Miniatures forum, where there is a dedicated topic set up for discussion regarding historical battle scenarios and their battle reports.

Megiddo has seen several battles, one of the most recent in 1918. Editor permitting, we may see this other ‘Great War’ Battle of Megiddo in a future issue.

FURTHER INFORMATION Miniatures by Wargames Foundry and Scarab Miniatures from the collection of Rob Broom.

War & Conquest is available from Scarab Miniatures and retailers worldwide. For additional details, see www.warandconquest.co.uk

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THEME

By Mark Backhouse

Big game hunting, Assyrian style

WEʼRE ALL GOING ON A LION HUNT! One of my favourite parts of the British Museum are the fantastic rooms filled with huge Assyrian reliefs. Of these, the most evocative is the Assyrian ‘Lion hunt’ frieze, taken from the royal palace of King Ashurbanipal at Nineveh, dating from around 645 BC. Lion hunting was …a popular pastime for Assyrian kings, and was used to hone their martial prowess, as well as performing the important religious function of demonstrating the King’s favour with the gods.

T

The Nineveh frieze largely shows the lions being hunted from heavy chariots with several crewmen, armed with bows and long spears to keep the lions at a distance. Other sections of the frieze show lions being hunted from horseback using spears. Clearly, these hunts were dangerous, as one section of the frieze shows an unfortunate man being mauled by a lion. However, given the huge number of dead lions on the frieze, the odds were clearly in the Assyrians’ favour. One particular scene shows King Ashurbanipal dispatching a lion on foot using a sword – an act of great bravery. After they were killed, offerings and libations would be made, and such acts would reinforce the King’s position of authority and divine support.

THE GAME Each player takes on the role of an Assyrian noble, who has been invited to demonstrate his prowess and favour with the gods in a lion hunt. One player takes on the role of the King. Everyone plays the role of the lions.

© Georgie Harman

he lion hunt depicted on the frieze at Nineveh was hardly a fair fight. The lions would have been captured beforehand and kept in cages.

Then, goaded out through beating or through the use of an unfortunate slave as bait to draw the hungry carnivores out, the lions would probably have been released within a large enclosure, to prevent them from escaping. Additional spearmen and archers would man the perimeter, to keep the King safe.

Assyrian lion hunt relief.

What you will need to play If you are using 28mm figures, your table will need to be at least 4’ x 4’. At 15mm scale, you could play on a space of just 2’ x 2’. At 28mm, all moves and ranges will be in inches. At 15mm, all ranges can be converted into centimetres, unless you wish to play on a particularly large table, in which case stick with inches. Place down a couple of areas of light scrub (for this, we used clumps of lichen), but the rest of it will be flat and open desert plain.

You will need one model chariot or mounted noble and one dismounted noble figure for each player, and as many lions as you can get your hands on. Hunting lions was also a popular pastime of the Ancient Egyptian pharaohs (Amenhotep III was alleged

to have killed over 100 lions in a single hunt), so if you don’t have Assyrians, these would make a good stand in.

Ideally, have at least three lions per player. For 28mm, lions can be purchased from North Star, Foundry and Irregular Miniatures. Because I’m a cheapskate, I bought a couple of packs of cheap toy animals from the local ‘99p store’, which had a handful of lions in each pack. Once based on bits of thick card and given a basic paint job, they looked pretty reasonable. For 15mm, Irregular and Splintered Light do lions. You’ll also need a pack of ordinary playing cards and standard six-sided dice.

THE SET-UP Start the lions off from one of the table edges. Each player takes it in turn to

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mêlée, but may carry out archery.

Dismount/mount = Noble dismounts or mounts from the horse or chariot. No mêlée or archery. A chariot can hold a maximum of 5 figures (at a push)!

Call for help = The act of a wimp! May carry out a normal Move (as above), but gains the benefit of supporting archery.

Lions = Lions can move 3D6 and turn as many times as they like. They may engage in mêlée. In the first turn, this counts as charging.

A brave noble tackles a beast from horseback. roll 5D6 inches and moves the animals in a straight line away from anywhere along the edge. Once all of the lions are deployed on the table, you are ready to start the first turn.

Each of the nobles should choose to be in a chariot or on horseback. Being on horseback is a slightly riskier undertaking, but it is a better way of demonstrating the noble’s bravery. Each noble should then roll for the following attributes: Archery, Bravery, and Influence.

For each attribute, roll 2D6. A roll of 2-5 = 2. A roll of 6-8 = 3. A roll of 9-12 = 4. The King is allowed to roll 3D6 for one of his attributes, choosing the best two dice. At this stage, you might also like to roll for a subplot on the table.

THE SEQUENCE OF PLAY For each of the players, allocate one type of card from the deck. The King is obviously best represented by the Kings in the pack. The other nobles in the game should be given other picture cards or number cards. Any cards not allocated to a player should be discarded, with the exception of one of the Jokers, which is kept in the pack.

All of the cards in play are returned into the pack and shuffled. Cards are then turned over, one at a time. If it is a red card with the noble’s symbol on it, then that noble is activated and can carry out an action. If it is a black card, then the noble may activate as many lions as he has Influence points and controls them for an action. A single lion may be activated several times in a turn. If a Joker is turned up, then the turn ends,

and all cards are returned to the pack and shuffled again, before the next turn starts. Then the process begins again.

Activation When activated, nobles can choose one of the following actions: Race = Move 3D6” in a straight line (2D6” on foot). May not turn. May not enter the scrub. May enter into mêlée, but may not carry out archery.

Move = Move 1D6 +3” in any direction (1D6” on foot). May turn through an angle of up to 90 degrees at any stage during the movement. May enter into mêlée, and may carry out archery.

Mêlée = No movement. Fight in mêlée.

Aimed archery = No movement. No

Archery All archery has a range of 18”. Choose a single target anywhere in 360 degrees. Roll a number of D6 equal to the noble’s archery skill. Reduce the number of dice by one, if the target is in the scrub or is over 12” away. A single score of 6 is required for a wound to be inflicted on the target. If two or more wounds are rolled in one set of dice, the target is killed outright.

If a noble has carried out aimed archery, half of his dice are nominated as ‘aimed dice’. These require a 5+ to cause a wound.

On each chariot is an archer who may also fire if the noble has the appropriate orders to do so. He has a range of 18” and has an archery score of 2.

VICTORY POINTS During the game, each player should tally up their victory points as they go: Wounding a lion = 1 point Killing a lion from a chariot (even if wounded by someone else first) = 3 points Being wounded = 5 points Killing a lion while mounted on a horse = 4 points Killing a lion while on foot = 10 points For loss of chariot archer or spearman = -1 point each For every time you call for help = -10 points For leaving the enclosure before all the lions have been killed = -10 points For doing something suitably heroic* = 1-10 points For dying = you lose! *This can be an award granted at the other player’s discretion for things like dismounting in front of five hungry lions, or saving a wounded noble on your chariot.

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THEME

Mêlée If figures engage in mêlée, both sides roll a number of dice equal to their Courage. If the spearman is still alive on the chariot, then he adds an additional point of courage to your noble. Lions have a courage of 3. Add one additional point of courage for each additional attacker from the front. Double your courage, if attacking from the rear while the target is engaged to the front.

Scores of 6 cause a wound. If you charged into mêlée, scores of 5+ cause a wound.

Wounds All lions can take one wound. A second wound will kill them. A wounded lion halves its movement and has its courage reduced to 2.

‘Damn!’, the hunter becomes a tasty snack!

Dismounted nobles can take one wound. A second wound kills them.

Nobles on horseback are dismounted if they take a wound. Nobles in a chariot must sacrifice either their archer or their spearman with the first wound. The second wound kills the other. A third wound causes the chariot to stop and the noble to dismount (the horses or the driver have become casualties). This ef-

Roll 3d6 Subplot 3, 4 Hunger. You score +10 victory points every time a lion kills a noble.

Kill! Kill! Kill!

5, 6 Premonition. You have had a number of upsetting dreams and premonitions of death. You may not use Call for help and your first wound will kill you. Score +5 victory points if you survive the game.

7, 8 Rivalry. Randomly choose one of the other players as your arch-rival.

You must kill more lions than him, regardless of the method used.

If you do this, you score +5 victory points.

9, 10 Reckless. To impress the young concubines of the court, you must perform at least one mêlée with a lion during the game. If you survive, you score +3 victory points.

11, 12 Protection. The King must be kept alive at all costs. Score +3 victory points if he is alive at the end of the hunt.

13, 14 Obedience. Impress the King but do not upstage him. If you kill fewer lions than him, but more than half of his number, you score +5 victory points.

15 Jealousy. One of the other nobles is rumoured to be sleeping with your wife. If he is wounded during the game or is forced to withdraw from the hunt, then you score +6 victory points for upstaging him.

16 Loyalty. The King suspects that you are up to something. You must allow the King to be dismounted against his will and then save his life to prove your loyalty OR you must kill someone who has the treachery subplot. If you manage to do this, you will be given a reprieve and score +10 victory points.

17 Cowardice. You don’t really like hunting lions. In fact, you are very scared of the whole experience, but had to come along or lose face.

Score +5 victory points if you do not engage in mêlée during the whole game.

18 Treachery. During the game, the King must die and you must kill him.

To score + 15 victory points, you must kill him from behind with an arrow, without any other nobles looking towards you. If he dies from lion attacks, you score only +2 victory points. If he dies in any other way, you score no points.

fectively means that a noble in a chariot can take 5 hits before he dies.

THE SAFETY NET If a player carries out a Call for help action, he may also use the supporting archery of the well-trained archers around the perimeter of the enclosure. The target must be within 18” of the sides of the table. Carry out a normal shooting activation, assuming that the supporting archer has an archery score of 5.

ENDING AND WINNING THE GAME The game ends when all of the lions are dead ... or maybe if all of the nobles and the King have had enough. They can leave from the enclosure at any time.

SUBPLOTS If players all work together, it should be very easy. But knowing how most players are, I suspect they will be using the lions very aggressively straight away.

To spice it up a little more, players start with a ‘subplot’. These should be chosen before the game starts and kept secret during the game. Reveal them at the end, once you start to add up the victory points.

What else could you ask for? A nice fun game, occasionally going for the jugular! The wearing of long fake Assyrianstyle beards is entirely optional. No real lions were harmed during the making of this article ...

Assyrians from Wargames Foundry, from the collections of Eoghan Kelly and Guy Bowers.

Lions courtesy of North Star’s Africa range. Our thanks to Nick Eyre for providing some suitably hungry predators!

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THEME

By Eoghan Kelly

King of the World versus King of the Universe

THE BATTLE OF KĀR-IŠTAR Nazi-Maruttaš was the King of Babylon who reigned from roughly 1307 BC until 1282 BC. He was the 23rd King of his dynasty and, according to his own votive inscriptions, © Georgie Harman

styled himself šar kiššati or the very modest ‘King of the World’. In the course of his reign, he expanded and secured his boundaries, but his principal challenge was to control the aggressive and expansionist Assyrian Empire.

N

azi-Maruttaš was effective for over 20 years, using a combination of diplomacy, force and carefully crafted alliances with client states around the flanks of the Assyrian Empire. But when the Assyrian throne was inherited by Adad-narari I, his accession in 1295 BC brought a wholly new aggressive stance from the Assyrians. Assyrian kings always styled themselves as ‘King of the Universe’, to highlight their superiority over all other monarchs. Nazi-Maruttaš’ eponym was seen as a direct challenge to their position.

Urgu-salla, in the Urgu-salla Province.

This city was on the eastern bank of the River Tigris, ideally placed to act as a marketplace for the rich hinterland, as well as exploiting and controlling trade on the river. Adad-narari I envied the wealth of this province, and the unusual placement of the city on the river meant that the Assyrians were faced with an almost impossible task, not being able to cross the river to besiege the city and still having to contend with the unexpected and alarming appearance of a significant Babylonian army, led by Nazi-Maruttaš himself.

“I reduced the land to rubble, the voices of the people, the stamping of the buffalo, every cry of joy – all of these I have reduced to silence“ Ascribed to Shamshi-Adad I, King of Assyria, King of All, c. 1813-1791 BC

As the Babylonians crossed the river by pontoon bridge, the Assyrians hesitated and formed a defensive line, whilst they waited to consolidate their forces.

In 1290 BC, the Assyrians launched a probing expedition against Babylonian forces in Lullubu, one of the Babylonian client states that had been most effective in curtailing Assyrian expansionism.

The Babylonians predicted this move, possibly having deliberately goaded the Assyrians into this action through crossborder raids. The Assyrians moved into eastern Mesopotamia in northern Babylon, to force a decisive punitive action against the Babylonians. Initial skirmishers drove back the lightly-armed Lullubu forces towards the principal city of

Escaping with inflatable goatskins.

The Babylonians, confident that they had surprised the Assyrians, deployed quickly and prepared to engage their enemy.

FORCES I have chosen to put the army lists in WAB Chariot Wars format. However, you can adjust them to whatever system you choose to use. The unit-types from page 18 of ‘Army Lists: Biblical and Classical’ for Hail Caesar can be used for each unit, instead. Another alternative is to use the lists for Clash of Empires and War and Conquest, which can be downloaded from their respective websites.

The equipment is as listed below – so, for example, the second heavy cavalry

Assyrian two horse chariots, correct for the period.

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Assyrians Adad-narari I, King of the Universe As King in lists, with chariot Awimalich, Turtanu of the Right (deploys on the board) As Turtanu in lists, no chariot Sardanapal, Turtanu of the Left (deploys with chariots off-board) As Turtanu in lists, with chariot Nosard-eil, Army Standard-bearer (must deploy at Royal Tent – movement restrictions apply) Chariots 6 x Heavy Chariots with extra crewman and bow-armed Cavalry (as Assyrians), Heavy: Hand of Mammetum 8 x Heavy Cavalry (Royal Bodyguard) armed with bow and thrusting spear (as per lists) Spear of Shamash 8 x Heavy Cavalry, light armour, sword, barded horses, armed with spears Cavalry, Light: Eye of Adad 8 x Cavalry, light armour, swords, armed with bows Gushkin-banda’s Scions 8 x Cavalry, light armour, swords, armed with bows Blades of Belit-tseri 8 x Cavalry, light armour, swords, armed with spears Heavy Infantry: Qurubuti (Royal Guard) 24 x Infantry all with light armour, sword, half with composite bow, half with spear and large shield Rage of Namtara 24 x Infantry all with light armour, sword, half with composite bow, half with spear and large shield Light Infantry: Chupa Auxiliaries 12 x Infantry as per lists Kurchi Auxiliaries – ‘Walkers on Water’ 12 x Infantry as per lists, equipped with goatskins Stones of Enmesharra 12 x Heavy Slingers, all have sword and light armour, half armed with composite bows, half with slings

Battle is joined! Babylonians and Assyrians close. unit for the Assyrians is entirely armed with spears, not half bow, half spear, as per the lists. Technically, chariots of this period would be two-horse light chariots. However, as most wargaming armies are of the Neo-Assyrian fourhorse heavy variety, we have used these in the lists. If you happen to have twohorse Assyrian and Babylonian chariots available, simply swap the heavy-chariot entries for light ones.

DEPLOYMENT Assyrians All infantry units must be deployed in blocks in the centre of the army. One

Babylonians Nazi-Maruttaš, King of the World As King in lists, with chariot Humusi, Turtanu of the Right As Turtanu in lists, with chariot Tabni-Ishtar,Turtanu of the Left As Turtanu in lists, with chariot Mushezibitu, Army Standard-bearer (must deploy at Royal Tent – movement restrictions apply) Chariots 8 x Chariots (no extra crew) Cavalry (as Babylonians): Pride of Lagash 12 x Heavy Cavalry, light armour, sword, barded horses, half with spears, half with bows Fist of Ur-shambi 12 x Heavy Cavalry, light armour, sword, spear Emissaries of Sharru 8 x Heavy Cavalry, light armour, sword, bow

unit of heavy cavalry and one unit of light cavalry are deployed as a mobile reserve. Archers are deployed on the wings of the heavy infantry, and light infantry are deployed further out, protecting the flanks. A Royal Tent with Standards and Baggage must be deployed in the rear area of the army.

One unit of infantry may be redeployed to defend this at set-up, but may only leave the baggage area once an enemy unit moves within 8”.

Chariots are placed off-board with all remaining cavalry units. These represent the balance of the army that was

Will of Tammuz 10 x Light Cavalry, light armour, sword, spear Reckoning of Ningizzia 10 x Light Cavalry, light armour, sword, spear Heavy Infantry: Pride of Sippar 24 x Infantry all with light armour, sword, half with composite bow, half with spear and large shield Sword of Yehud 24 x Infantry all with light armour, sword, half with composite bow, half with spear and large shield Irra’s Dagger 24 x Infantry all with light armour, sword, half with composite bow, half with spear and large shield Light Infantry & Allies: Sons of Geshtu-egod 12 x Infantry as per auxiliary lists Lullubu Auxiliaries 2 x 10 infantry as per auxiliary list.

These units have an Ld of 5 for rallying purposes, but 4 for break tests.

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THEME delayed in advancing after the retreating Lullubu forces. Primarily, the terrain slowed these units up in the initial pursuit, and as a result the Assyrian Command was presented with a readymade outflanking force. For these forces to enter the board, the Assyrian player must write down what entry area they are expected to arrive at. Roll a D6 and check this against the entry number displayed on the map for each zone.

The die-roll must be equal to or less than the number displayed. For each turn of the game, you add 1 to the value of each area.

Babylonians The Babylonian Army must deploy with half of its heavy infantry in the centre of the line. These may be reinforced with a reserve of up to half the remaining heavy infantry.

Cavalry must be deployed by the pontoon bridge on the western bank.

Light infantry and chariots may be deployed anywhere within the deployment area. A Royal Tent with Standards and Baggage must be deployed in the rear area of the army. As the Babylonians are on the offensive at the start of the battle, there cannot be a guard placed on this baggage area at the start, although units may be moved to defend it should the controlling player choose to do so.

SPECIAL RULES Assyrian Heavy Cavalry At this stage, they had not evolved the ability to use their bows effectively whilst moving. As such, these units must be stationary to fire at full effect.

Babylonian deployment The Babylonian troops were aware of the hurried deployment that they had made, and were also aware of the fairly

precarious nature of the ground their King had chosen for this showdown battle. As such, if the Assyrians capture the pontoon bridge, it is considered destroyed, and the Babylonian forces will react in the same way as they would to the death of a king.

Royal Tent, Standard and Baggage For both sides, these were a focal point of their army. Orders were issued from, and valuables were stored at, this vital location. If an army loses this, then all units must take a morale test at the end of this turn (even those in combat). If there are still units off-board, then these do not turn up, having sensed what way the wind has shifted!

Tigris River This is not fordable, but troops may try to swim it. In order to do so, a unit must pass a leadership test, in order to enter the water. It will take two full turns to swim the river. If shot at by archers, they are considered a stationary target at short range. Due to the obscured nature of the target, they will get a save of a 6 on any wounds, regardless of the weapon inflicting it. If a unit escapes across the river, it is considered to have routed off the board, but only counts for 50 percent of VPs when totalling the results.

VICTORY AND DEFEAT This is a fight to decide regional dominance. As such, it was a winner-takesall battle. Victory is a straightforward contest to wipe the other army out.

Count up VPs at the end to determine victory. You will note that there are no VPs listed by units – if a victor is not clear, calculate this after the game, as these are not points-balanced armies, but a real situational fight. If an army standard is lost, then it will also be a strategic defeat for that army afterwards, as this was seen as a tragedy!

Historically, the King of the Universe, won. Nazi-MaruttaĹĄ ultimately was deposed for this humiliating defeat.

Assyrian models from the collection of Eoghan Kelly, Rod Glanfield and Guy Bowers. Miniatures are Wargames Foundry.

Babylonian infantry prepare to advance.

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By Guy Bowers

Collecting chariot armies for chariot wars

ALL THINGS BIBLICAL

The Biblical era is a wide and colourful period with plenty of choice of troop-types, chariots and equipment. Armies tend to be bright and varied, with a fair amount of freedom regarding colour schemes.

As was mentioned in our Introduction, the Biblical period timeline is simply vast. The great Pyramid at Giza had been standing for over a millennium before the Pharaoh Tutankhamen took the throne. There were several incarnations of the Egyptian army, of which the most commonly represented is the army of the New Kingdom, after the Hyksos – because chariots are fun! We have tried to focus our review on New Kingdom Egyptians.

28MM SCALE CUTTING EDGE MINIATURES

Our review concentrates on 28mm, simply because we received so many samples from several companies. However, we include 15mm, 10mm and 6mm, as they more than deserve a mention. Sadly, space prohibits us from examining all possible ranges and scales. But hopefully, this will give Biblical-minded readers an idea of what is available.

Cutting Edge Miniatures have a large range of figures covering the Early and Middle Bronze Ages: pretty much everything from Sumerians to Middle Assyrians. The Egyptians are well covered with Old/Middle Kingdom, Hyksos invaders, and New Kingdom, as are the Hittites, Hebrews and Canaanites. The models are slender and well proportioned.

Range: Very Good Historical Accuracy: Very Good Size: 27mm ‘foot to eye’ or 30mm tall Price: £10.00 for 8 miniatures or one chariot

Eureka have a good range of Assyrians, Elamites, Mycenaeans and Sumerians, covering the typical troop-types (heavy, auxiliary, skirmisher, chariotry, and cavalry, where appropriate) required for these armies. The Assyrian range has two unusual items: a priest and an impaled victim!

EUREKA MINIATURES

Range: Good Historical Accuracy: Good Size: 26mm ‘foot to eye’ or 29mm tall Price: AU$ 2.95 per miniature, AU$ £27.50 for the four-wheel battle-car

HCH MINIATURES/TIN

SOLDIER

HCH Miniatures do a range of Egyptians, including heavy infantry and a chariot, all supplied ready-painted. The Assyrians are from Tin Soldier. Although listed as 25mm Assyrians, they are easily 28mm in scale. The picture shows HCH Egyptians and Tin Soldier Assyrians.

Range: Fair Historical Accuracy: Good Size: 28mm ‘foot to eye’ or 31mm tall Price: £1.00 for miniature (TS) or £3.90 (HCH, painted), £12.00 for Assyrian chariot

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NEWLINE DESIGNS

Newline have a good selection of Biblicals in both 20mm and 28mm, including Neo-Assyrian/Babylonian, New Kingdom Egyptian, Hittite, Hebrew and Sumerian miniatures. Size-wise, the range fits in well with the Foundry Biblicals. Their chariot range is good and includes Sea People’s ox-carts.

Range: Good Historical Accuracy: Good Size: 25mm ‘foot to eye’ or 28mm tall Price: £6.00 for 6 infantry or £20.00 for 24, £8.50 for a chariot

OLD GLORY Old Glory Miniatures (available in the UK from Old Glory UK) have a large range of New Kingdom Egyptian, Hittite and

Assyrian/Babylonian miniatures. They are one of the few ranges that carry two-horse Assyrian chariots and light Assyrian cavalry (both illustrated in the picture shown at left).

Range: Good Historical Accuracy: Good Size: 27mm ‘foot to eye’ or 32mm tall in helmet Price: £24.00 for 30 infantry or 10 cavalry, £26.00 for three chariots

SCARAB MINIATURES Scarab are releasing a nice range of New Kingdom Egyptians. This currently consists of archers and a Pharaoh model, but we are told that these will soon be joined by closeorder fighters and javelin-men.

These will be followed by Egyptian and Hittite chariots.

Range: Small for now, but expanding Historical Accuracy: Good Size: 28mm ‘foot to eye’ or 31mm tall Price: £7.50 for 6 archers

WARGAMES FOUNDRY Foundry have a large range of good quality Biblicals, sculpted by the Perrys. It covers Neo-Assyrians, Canaanites, Egyptians, Hittites, Libyans, Mycenaeans, Numidians, Sea Peoples and Sumerians. The picture shows a Foundry New Kingdom Egyptian chariot and Hittites. A Sumerian battle-car is currently not available.

Range: Good Historical Accuracy: Good Size: 25mm ‘foot to eye’ or 28mm tall Price: £12.00 for 8 miniatures or £13.50 for a chariot

WARLORD GAMES With their takeover of Immortal Miniatures, Warlord re-released their Assyrians, Babylonians, and Neo-Hittites. The range is complete with heavy and light infantry, skirmishers, cavalry, and

heavy chariots. Warlord have recently added a new range of Kushites, which includes bowmen, spear/javelin-men and command.

Range: Fair, expanding Historical Accuracy: Very Good Size: 27mm ‘foot to eye’ or 29mm tall Price: £12.00 for eight infantry, £15.00 for Assyrian chariot

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THEME

15MM SCALE PETER PIG

The Peter Pig Biblicals are from their ‘Conquerors and Kings’ ancient range. It currently consists of thirteen packs (containing a good selection of infantry, dead models and chariots), but lacks an opponent (apart from the small Midianite range). However, suitable opponents can be found from other manufacturers, such as the former Chariot Miniatures range sold by Magister Militum.

Range: Fair Historical Accuracy: Good Size: 15mm ‘foot to eye’ or 17mm tall Price: Fair – £2.70 for eight miniatures or one chariot

10MM SCALE MAGISTER MILITUM

Magister Militum has a very good range of Biblicals in both 10mm and 15mm (the old Chariot Miniatures range). Their 10mm range includes Sumerians, Old/Middle and New Kingdom Egyptians, Hittites and Myceneans. The range includes a small vignette of an Egyptian scribe counting the dead by their body parts!

Range: Good Historical Accuracy: Good Size: 11mm ‘foot to eye’ or 12mm tall Price: £5.00 for 30 infantry or 3 chariots

6MM SCALE BACCUS

Baccus’ range of 6mm currently covers the New Kingdom Egyptians and the Hittites, with some allies (Sherden guard and Numidians).

Range: Fair-Good Historical Accuracy: Good Size: 6mm Price: £5.00 for 96 infantry, £3.00 for 3 chariots

RAPIER MINIATURES Rapier Miniatures have an expanding range of Biblicals, which currently includes New Kingdom Egyptians and Hittites. They have recently released both Sumerians and Sea Peoples, which we will review in the next issue of Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy.

Range: Good Historical Accuracy: Good Size: 6.5mm tall Price: £1.25 for 24 infantry, 10 cavalry or 4 chariots

COMPATIBILITY Despite some variations caused by the unique style of each sculptor, most of the miniatures reviewed here are compatible within their own scale, although the 28mm examples tend to be

on the smaller side of that scale. However, any differences soon disappear, when viewed on the tabletop.

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FRONT COVER

By Andre’s Amia’n

Recreating the chaos of a chariot battle

FLY, YOU FOOLS!

When I think of conflicts such as the Battle of Megiddo or Kadesh, the first thing that comes to mind is confusion: a large cloud of dust and sand, people shouting, and a flurry of chariots.

Arrows and javelins are flying in all directions and the charioteers are desperately trying to escape or destroy the enemy. With this in mind, I think one picture perfectly captures this image – the Warhammer Ancient Battles cover for Chariot Wars. This iconic picture guided me through the preparation stage for this issue’s diorama.

W

hile inspired by that famous front cover, this vignette is not a copy. The aim is to convey the feeling of aggressive pursuit on one side, and of desperation while trying to get away on the other.

Also, the vignette had to work both as a beautiful battle scene in a display cabinet, as well as being useable on the gaming table. Although I usually spend more time painting, I still have hopes of playing with what I paint. Therefore, the scene needed to be one that could be taken apart, so that the chariots and other components could be used in a wargame. A good example of this, and an inspiration for this vignette, was the stunning and brilliant scene created by Richard Lloyd (for WS&S 64).

converted into a dying chariot crew member. After playing around with the composition for a while, I decided that the best and most economical base would be an oval piece of 2mm-thick plasticard to provide a flat and smooth surface for the figures. As I had to leave the exact spaces to fit the miniatures on the base, and still be able to remove them afterwards, I looked for material that could be worked on fast, but with good results.

For the spray primers, I used Army Painter primer sprays (AP), and for the colours, I used Foundry (F) mainly, with some Vallejo Gamecolor (VGC) or Modelcolor (VMC) paints (but there are a lot of very good brands, and these are just my preferences).

First, I cut a piece of 3mm Depron (foamboard) into the shape of the base, with a bevelled edge all around, to reduce the visual impact of the main thin base on the gaming table. Then I cut the shapes of each one of the chariot bases and the casualty markers for fallen warriors, and I stuck them in their final position on the main base. Applying pressure with my fingers, I broke the homogeneity of the Depron surface by rolling a ball of tinfoil over it, which leaves uneven marks.

For texturing, I used Vallejo ‘Pumice Stone’ gel to fill gaps, and I glued small stones in some areas, along with sand of different sizes. Once this was all dry, I painted it with ‘Earth’ (VGC062) and dry-brushed with ‘Khaki’ (VGC061) and

The miniatures that I used are from Foundry’s range of Egyptians and Canaanites. These figures are classic Perry sculpts. They include an Egyptian chariot and a Canaanite chariot with casualties to decorate the base of the scene, with a Canaanite infantry warrior

Preparing the base.

Repositioning the wounded Canaanite figure.

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Pinning the chariot and charioteer.

‘Bone White’ (VGC34), although other brands offer similar shades. The brown on the edge is the same one I use on all my miniatures. I like to add dry grass, once all the bases of all the miniatures are finished, in order to give the scene consistency.

Once the composition of the scene was clear, I cleaned, prepared and assembled each one of the chariots.

They were not modified, except for the dynamic placing of the chariots and horses to give the impression of running and zigzagging. The most complicated modification was the Canaanite warrior who had just been hit by an arrow or javelin. I cut the figure at the waist and removed a wedge from each side, to shape the soldier into position, leaning backwards to suggest the impact of the projectile. Once the two parts were fitted together, I remodelled the stomach and the lumbar area to restore the details that had been lost. I did something similar with the head to reposition it.

Reins and bow-string added.

All the chariot crew members were anchored to the base with metal pins.

I also made holes on the wheels to pin them to the base later, in order to strengthen the points where they are joined to each of the individual bases.

Holes were made in the charioteers’ hands, so that they could hold the reins, which were made out of a piece of fine braided wire. I inserted one end in the hole in the hands, and I joined the other end to the yoke on the chariot. When the glue was dry, I carefully shaped the reins so that they didn’t look like cables.

This made the chariots look livelier and left the chariot separate from the horses, in order to make painting them easier.

Otherwise, the reins would have to be added after the whole set was finished, increasing the chances of an accident with the glue or the paints and potentially spoiling the work. I also made the bow-string using a piece of wire tied to both ends of the bow and secured with glue.

Next, I added a beard with green putty to one of the casualties, so that he looked like a Canaanite warrior. The band holding the warrior’s hair was also added, quickly and easily, by simply cutting a groove all around the head with the sharp edge of a file.

Once the more mechanical stage was finished, I proceeded to the painting stage. For this, I used the well-known ‘three shades’ technique, which has already been explained in many manuals and tutorials, so I will just explain how I painted the most striking parts. I start with a darker shade and then paint lighter layers on top, one after another.

For these miniatures, I added ink and washes between the basic colours and the highlights. I used Army Painter and Games Workshop inks, but Vallejo would also work fine. By adding ink, you add depth to the details on the miniatures, and bring out the separation between clothes and skin, and the scales on the armour. I find it necessary

Beard added to the casualty.

Red primer applied.

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FRONT COVER Rat Fur and Leather Brown primer applied. because we are not using black primer, which would otherwise give us the dark areas that are needed to separate each colour. Naturally, this is a matter of taste – this method is just the one that best suits my way of painting.

For Bronze Age miniatures, I like to start with brown basecoat. This achieves a warm surface to work on, which is ideal for applying light colours to represent the linen – red, yellow, and different shades of brown – and for the bronze.

I primed the wheels on the Canaanite chariot in red before assembling them.

When everything was dry, I filed the joints on the chariot wheels a little, so that they could be stuck more firmly to the axle when they were painted.

I gave the drivers a primer coat and painted them, after sticking them to the chariot and placing the reins. For this, I used AP ‘Leather Brown’ primer spray.

I didn’t glue down the dying Canaanite crew member and the Egyptian crew member shooting with the bow, and I gave them and both the wounded warriors a primer coat with AP ‘Rat Fur’ primer spray. This colour is ideal for figures with tanned skin.

For the Egyptian chariot, I chose blue and yellow as the main colours, with bronze details and leopard print in some parts. These colours were also used for the horse equipment and crew.

The parts that required the most effort

The armour on the horse.

were the scales on the armour and the animal skins – not because they are complicated, but rather because they take a significant amount of time.

Once the colours of the base layers were ready, I applied blue ink to the blue areas, brown ink to the areas that I painted yellow, and sepia to the other areas. The ink brings out the scales on the armour, but then they need to be highlighted, one by one, by lightening the shade twice (or three times, if we want a smoother transition). In this case, the colours I used for the blue parts were ‘Bavarian Cornflower Blue’ (F73A), blue ink, ‘Sky Blue’ (F21A), ‘Sky Blue’ (F21B), and ‘Bavarian Cornflower Blue’ (F73C). For the yellow parts, I used AP ‘Leather Brown’ primer spray, brown ink, ‘Ochre’ (F4A), ‘Ochre’ (F4B), and ‘Yellow’ (F2C).

it a kind of fur texture, and then a last set of strokes with ‘Buff Leather’ (F7C) to enhance the fur effect and highlight the edges of the painted areas. Once this stage was finished, I painted the black spots, starting from the centre with larger spots and moving towards the edges, gradually painting them smaller. A detail brush should be used with quite a sharp tip, and the paint should be well watered down. The spots were made with a series of irregular dots, sometimes joined together and sometimes separate, in different sizes, so that the surface would not look the same. I added a dot using ‘Deep Brown Leather’ (F45A) in the centre of each spot, followed by highlight with ‘Deep Brown Leather’ (F45C). The rest of the chariot parts were easier, as it just involved painting the highlights that every colour required.

For the leopard skin, I used pictures of real leopards as a reference, but simplified the pattern. As a base, I used the brown primer, then the ink. Once it was dry, I applied patches of ‘Buff Leather’ (F7A) as skin base colour, then light strokes of ‘Buff Leather’ (F7B) to give

For the enemy chariot, I used a small colour palette once again, to clearly distinguish it from the Egyptian chariot.

The main colours are red and bronze, and I chose a cowhide effect for the skins, but it could equally be goat skin.

Applying the leopard skin.

Detail on the fleeing chariot.

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Cowhide on the fleeing chariot.

The process was the same as with the Egyptian chariot. I used Vallejo Gamecolor for the bronze colours, and I tend to use a very bright or golden bronze, instead of the greener version: ‘Bright Bronze’ (VGC057), sepia ink, ‘Glorious Gold’ (VGC056), and ‘Polished Gold’ (VGC055). For the red parts, I used ‘British Red Coat’ (F68A), sepia ink, ‘British Red Coat’ (F68A) again, and ‘British Red Coat’ (F68C).

For the cowhide, I used ‘Drab’ (F12C), sepia ink (only on the edges and surfaces to be painted), ‘Boneyard’ (F9B), and ‘Boneyard’ (F9C). I applied three layers, as I did with the leopard skin, to make it look like animal skin. I painted with fast and short brush strokes using diluted black ink, and the spots appear as the lines are overlaid. I lightened the black with ‘Boneyard’ (F9B) and highlighted the spots with fast brush strokes.

The Foundry ‘North African Flesh’ set was used to paint the human skin. I usually use this set for Egyptians, Canaanites and Greeks. It is quite a warm shade that works great with brown, white and bronze parts, which happen to be the predominant colours for that period. The order I used was ‘North African Flesh’ (F124A), sepia ink, ‘North African Flesh’ (F124B), ‘North African

The completed diorama.

Close-up of the casualty.

Flesh’ (F124C).

Once all this was painted and properly varnished (gloss varnish for better protection, followed by matt varnish to remove the gloss from the previous layer), it was time for the part I hate the most – when you have to put it all together! You risk spoiling all your work and dropping parts on the floor, if you are not careful. First, I planned and marked the position of the horses on each one of the individual bases of each model, in order to place the chariot correctly. Placing the metal pins in the holes I made on the wheels, I marked their exact position on the base, in order to make the holes later. Once the chariot was properly fixed, I carefully dabbed with Super Glue the parts where the horses were joined, using the point of a pin. When it was all dry, I went over the joints with matt varnish to remove the gloss of the glue (sometimes it leaves white dust that needs to be covered with paint). The last thing was adding the texture, for which I used the same materials as with the main base, and the grass and tufts to the individual stands and to the main base. And then it was ready!

The advantage of this kind of battle scene is that we can change the composition during battle. We can arrange

the elements (as long as they have the same base-size) as the game unfolds – in one of the holes, we could place a casualty or turn marker that we may have prepared beforehand, a version of the destroyed chariots, infantry, etc.

There are many possible combinations, depending on the resources that are available. This enables us to get two things – a beautiful piece to go in the centre of the gaming table, and a battle scene to look at while it sits it in the display cabinet.

In one recent email, a reader questioned the utility of our cover vignettes, stating that these were modelling articles and not wargame-related, unless they were usable on the tabletop.

While the editor disagrees (for one thing, the vignette series has taught him several useful painting techniques), the reader has a point. Thus, in future, we will raise the bar even higher and ask the artists to attempt to make our cover vignettes useable on the tabletop as well as beautiful display pieces!

Our thanks to Wargames Foundry for providing the miniatures for this vignette.

An alternative scene using Trojan infantry.

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© Georgie Harman

COLUMN

By Steven MacLauchlan

Fair Play 50/50? Fat chance!

I’m sure everyone reading this article is keenly familiar with the conversation that arises from the release of new supplements, rules editions, errata or anything along these lines. The defenders, the naysayers, the insights, the misconceptions, and the platitudes are all food that feeds the frenzy of discussion. One of the oft repeated phrases I hear (usually at the end of a long winded explanation of one’s viewpoint) is “I just want to have a 50/50 chance in a game”, usually in reference to tournament play. That viewpoint has always made sense to me. As I have continued my journey through my gaming life, I’ve come to realize that the concept is likely unattainable in miniature gaming - that suits me fine!

What we’re all really saying when we say we want an even chance is that we want a reasonable expectation that we can meet or exceed the victory conditions. In a tournament game, this is probably ‘defeating my opponent’ while in a scenario game it might be ‘hold out for 10 turns against an overwhelming force’ or ‘perform better than my historical counterpart’.

The flaw in the logic stems from a misunderstanding of what 50/50 means. In this case, the outcome is binary - we either win, or we don’t. I’ll wager that unless the entire wargame consists of a single die roll needing a 4+ (out of 6) or a coin toss, the probability of either outcome is never an even 50/50 split.

“And why not?”, you might retort. Shouldn’t one expect going into a game (especially one that is balanced - by points or scenario condition) to have an even shot at winning? Sure, in a perfect world... If I sit down to play chess with an opponent of exactly equal skill level, perhaps then I could expect to have near 50/50 odds. The forces are identical, and the ‘terrain’,

forces and deployment are exactly equal. As long as the game scales up in a roughly mirrored fashion, the balance should be close. Chinese checkers, Reversi, Stratego and many others have this mirrored approach. They have something else in common- they give the players no choice in the ‘force’ they field.

Consider this tweak to chess: what if you could exchange three pawns for a Bishop before play begins? Some governing body decided that a Bishop is worth three pawns, and thus the game should remain balanced (Shuuro? Ed.). Perhaps with such a minor tweak it does. But now let’s go one step further and assign a value to all of the pieces and let you buy your force to an agreed upon points level. Even without the additional variables of terrain and missions, this could make for some lopsided engagements.

Most miniature games take the level of complexity of a board game and multiply it by many factors. With a huge number of nations/factions/armies available, plus scenarios, terrain, and special rules, the combinations become nearly limitless!

While good playtesting can stretch the combinations to find egregious errors, issues will slip through the cracks. Taking a relatively new game with relatively few factions and missions as an example, we can see how many different combinations we can wind up with. Let’s look at one of my favorite games: Saga by Studio Tomahawk and Gripping Beast.

Currently, including web and magazine-only ‘battle boards’, there are around 14 different factions for Saga. For anyone who doesn’t know, ‘battle boards’ in Saga are essentially what makes a faction unique. With fourteen different armies, that’s over a hundred different possible matchups! Now add in the six standard scenarios used in the book, and we have hundreds and hundreds of possible combinations! We haven’t even begun to add in the troop selection choices. For most standard 6-point armies, they probably have two or three choices per point. And all of that totally ignores the unquantifiable like terrain usage and player skill.

If we expand that idea to much broader games like Flames of War, there’s literally hundreds of army lists with a myriad of choices within each. Throw in twelve missions, and we can see that the possible matchups are absolutely endless. Points formulae for balancing can only go so far. They’re arbitrary and can only take into account some variables. They can certainly get a close approximation of balance, but points can’t take everything into account.

A vicious fire fight erupts in a Flames of War game.

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Prepare for the unexpected: one rule changes and suddenly Panthers provide a lot less bang for your points-buck!

Braving the odds at Fall In 2012.

So what can we expect of game designers? The reality is, it’s unrealistic to expect any large miniature game to be perfectly balanced. Once choice, points cost, scenarios, factional rules, and terrain come into play it’s easy to see that points can’t solve everything. Formulae and testing can provide close estimates, but quantifying much of anything with the number of incalculable variables in a game is impossible. What we expect is that through testing and careful development, the designers have come up with a very close approximation at giving us a decent shot of winning under any circumstances.

That is a tall order, but I don’t think it’s too much to ask. I also think in the modern age, we should expect rapid response to verified issues. We have the internet, man!

I’ve learned to just accept the fact that I may be faced with situations that are difficult or impossible for me to pull a victory.

In fact, when I play at my house, I embrace the randomness!

My favourite method of playing is to generate six army lists per side that are historically viable matchups. For example, I might decide to play a 1942 Desert Battle. In which case I’d make four German Afrika Korps and two Italian army lists.

Then I’d put together six British lists. We then leave it all up to fate! We roll a die to see who’s Axis and who’s Allied. We then roll a die to see which list we each run, and another die to see what scenario we play. Does it make for odd matchups once in a while? Absolutely! And that’s the fun part – playing something you may not have otherwise played.

The action you, as a player, can take to mitigate this is to build an army that suits you. You should know what you’re good at - attacking, defending, counter-punching, etc, and control the variables you can. I am an attacker at heart. When I play games I need forces that are aggressive, and highly mobile. I can take that part of the random match up out of the equation in a tournament, ensuring I have a good chance of being the attacker. This helps eliminate some of the guess work and keeps me in my element. If you could accurately predict every opponent’s list, every terrain board, and every scenario you’d face, the last variable left is your own army. The reality is, it’s the only one variable you can control – so give it some thought!

Some may, at this point, argue that your list construction becomes tantamount to your success. Unfortunately, that isn’t really the point I’m trying to make. Army list construction is

important in a broad sense, as I mentioned above, but endless list tweaking and tinkering can have a detrimental effect.

Hemming and hawing over those last 20 points and optimizing ad nauseam has a funny way of boxing you in. Just when you think you’ve covered every possibility imaginable, something unexpected comes up and it can put you on your back foot. It’s far more important to be comfortable with the army you’re running than to endlessly revise the army into what appears to be an unbeatable force on paper. You can’t plan for every eventuality, so play something that suits you and that’s flexible enough to react to different situations. When you get in a situation that you weren’t prepared for, embrace the new challenge and make the most of it. Learn something and make the challenge worth it!

Beware also the trap of ‘super units’. These super units may seem ‘over powered’ on paper, but on the table top and in the wrong hands they may fall apart on you! Too often I’ve seen players make a particular unit the linchpin of their army, only to watch their opponent dismantle it leaving them without a plan. Indeed, my favourite strategy is to figure out how to best do exactly that: destroy the super unit. Sometimes that’s possible, sometimes it’s very difficult. It’s the unbreakable super units that slip by and truly upset game balance that are a problem – thankfully they are few and far between.

So what’s the point of all this rambling? I guess if I had to boil it down I’d say: You will never have an even shot of winning because even the best miniature game ever produced will never be 100% balanced. Sometimes you’ll have a sure-fire win, sometimes the battle will be a lost cause. And that’s what makes miniature gaming great! You have a distinct advantage over a real commander – you get to choose the troops you bring to battle! Choose the ones that suit you, and be ready to take them into unexpected situations. We’re faced with these complex scenarios just like real generals – the difference is we only have to endure it for a few hours and can then go out for a pint to tell our heroic tale or lament our loss. All you have when you face the luck of the draw and the roll of the dice is your own skill to make the most of it. You’ll win some and you’ll lose some. Good luck out there!

Steven founded the WWPD Network to promote the gaming community. Considering his profound thoughts on tournament gaming, that surely must mean ‘What would Priestley Do?’...

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HOBBY

By Simon Miller

The BigRedBat fights the eternal battle for space

STORAGE WARS!

Many decisions about where to store wargames figures and models tend to be made in a very ad hoc manner – usually just after the wife, quite unreasonably, has demanded access to the dining room table! This is a great pity, because advance planning of how the models will be stored can make gaming easier, eat up less space around the house, and better protect our lovingly (and laboriously) painted creations. In this piece, I’m going to look at some of the ways gamers go about storing their collections. © Ironmitten

• Will they stay in the gaming room, or will they need to be portable, so as to regularly travel to friends’ houses or shows?

• Do I want to display them, or simply store them?

Buried alive! Courtesy of Iron Mitten.

Ten years of obsessively collecting 28mm figures means that the BigRedBatCave is now bursting with miniatures, both painted and unpainted, and terrain, to the extent that valued older figures need to be sold in order to create space for new armies. In this savage environment, every cubic foot of space counts, and I now have to carefully plan where stuff can be stored, before making new purchases. It’s a war, it is!

M

BOX TO FIT THE MINI, OR MINI TO FIT THE BOX? Personally, I prefer to store all my miniatures and terrain pieces in boxes, in order to protect them from dust and damage. However, I’ve often experienced difficulty finding boxes of an appropriate size to fit certain terrain pieces that I’ve purchased. So now, I design and build terrain pieces to fit exactly within my standard-sized boxes; this makes the best possible use of my limited storage space. Similarly, I make sure that pikes, lances and standards are cut to a length that will fit within my standard-sized boxes. I optimize the size of bases, too, in order to use up every available square centimetre in the storage boxes.

ost of my collections have started with a small impulse purchase, often from eBay, which has gradually morphed into a huge army. This isn’t the most sensible way to go about things, as a gamer can very easily start a collection that he lacks the resources to complete, or the space to store. Some questions to ponder might include: • What scale will I collect, and how many models will I be collecting?

• Will my figures be based singly, or in elements?

• Will they be heavy?

• What available space do I have at home to store them in? Is this safe storage (i.e. not prone to flooding, mildew, or the ravages of dogs, toddlers or teenagers)?

Foam storage tray for 28mm miniatures.

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TO FOAM OR NOT TO FOAM? Foam storage boxes are a popular storage solution, and provide excellent protection for miniatures in transit. If I were to be involved in a car crash with my collection, I’d much prefer to have my miniatures packed in foam than in any other form of storage!

However, in my opinion, there are a number of drawbacks to foam. Firstly, the foam that protects the miniatures so well is also very bulky. So, to store a large collection, a huge volume of space will be required. Secondly, if a large foam-stored army is to be deployed on the table, it can take quite a while to remove the figures from storage, and also to repack them after the game. Finally, spears and swords sometimes catch in the foam and come loose.

I’d certainly look at foam storage for high quality skirmish or role-playing miniatures. But, in general, I find magnetic solutions more appropriate for my needs. These typically involve attaching adhesive magnetic sheet to the underside of each figure’s (or element’s) base (or sometimes to the inside of a storage box, of which more anon).

THE GREAT MAGNETIC BASING DILEMMA So, you’ve bought a bunch of storage boxes. Do you put magnetic sheet on the bases of the minis and steel paper in the box, or put the magnetic sheet in the boxes and use steel bases or washers on the minis?

One solution I’ve seen used with 15mm armies is to base them on small customdesigned steel plates. This certainly provides a hard-wearing base, but it’s a solution that might stretch both a wargamer’s arms and his pocket. Also, it can be very challenging to rebase a mini that has been stuck to steel rather than to card, especially if superglue has been used. I once, unwittingly, bought such an army on eBay, and had to chisel the miniatures off the bases!

Steel washers, on the other hand, are cheap and readily available. I have seen them used very successfully on the bases of individual figures, used for skir-

A standard box file used for storage. mish gaming, which can then be stored on a magnetic surface. Another related approach is to glue a small rare-earth magnet into the hole in the middle of the washer under each figure.

If basing figures in elements, though, it is cheaper to purchase magnetic sheet in bulk and attach it to the underside of the bases. Pre-cut MDF, plastic and ply bases are readily available on the internet, and make a great time-saver.

TYPES OF STORAGE BOXES In the past, I’ve used a lot of biscuit tins and card packaging boxes to store painted miniatures. A drawback of these boxes is that they usually don’t have a lip, and it is easy for some to slip off the top of a pile, to the doom of the miniatures inside! Once, when I was lifting a pile of boxes from high up in a cupboard, three slipped off the top and fell around 7 feet. Every miniature in every box sheared off at the ankles!

Metal tool boxes, or plastic tool boxes lined with steel paper, are a convenient way of taking miniatures to a club.

A potential downside is that they are heavy – and heavier still, once filled up with 28mm lead! Also, it can be awkward to get the miniatures out of the cantilevered shelves. I am told that some house-breakers carry toolboxes as they go about their dubious trade, and one club I knew was raided by the

police, who assumed they had stumbled across a den of thieves.

Some years ago, I was lucky enough to pick up a couple of car-boot-loads of foolscap file boxes for free, during a clear-out at work. A lot of people use these to store their miniatures, often adding steel paper or magnetic sheet to stop the miniatures from slipping around, or lining them with foam. They are a useful solution, but in my opinion aren’t quite as good as the plastic boxes that I’m coming to next, because they aren’t terribly rugged or waterproof. I still use file boxes, but for storing unpainted lead-mountain miniatures in my loft, rather than painted ones.

I, like many other wargamers, came across the ubiquitous Really Useful Box storage around 10 years ago. They appeal to me for a number of reasons, namely: • They are strong and light, and come in a range of sizes • They are relatively cheap • They stack securely • They are transparent, so one can see what is inside • They are relatively waterproof I do two things with my ‘RUB’s. One is to line them with steel paper, usually bought from Coritani, who sell sheets ready-cut to fit. The other is to label the boxes at both ends, as this helps me to

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HOBBY

Olicanalad’s under-table storage.

BigRedBat’s War Cabinet, full of Really Useful Boxes. quickly find the right box amongst the hundred or so that I own.

I often take my miniatures to shows, and the lightness, stackability, and strength of the RUB is perfect for transport. I find I can fit them, three or four at a time, into sports shoulder bags, which helps with carriage to and from the car.

FIXED STORAGE SOLUTIONS Filing cabinets can be a great way to store miniatures. I’m not thinking here of the big four-drawer ones used in offices, but rather of the smaller multidrawer variety. These are painted steel, so there is no need to line with steel paper, and the drawers pull right out, so one can easily ferry miniatures to the table. On the downside, they aren’t suitable for taking miniatures to a show, as there are no lids on the drawers,

and the drawers are usually relatively shallow, so they might better suit 15mm rather than 28mm miniatures. Shown with this article are some filing cabinets from the collection of Simon MacDowall, containing his lovely 15mm Late Romans.

If a gamer is lucky enough to have a permanent wargaming table in a spare room, or perhaps even a purpose-built shed, then under-table storage is a great solution, especially for larger terrain pieces. James Roach (aka Olicanalad) uses kitchen units, which provide a very stable table base and a huge volume of storage space for terrain.

Inexpensive flat-packed storage cabinets are readily available from Ikea and other stores. Mine is shown at the top left.

What excites me about the Bergsbo, is that it has the perfect dimensions to take an unfeasibly large number of the RUBs which hold all my minis, with almost no wasted space. It is deep, and all the shelves are adjustable. Within (and on top of) the cabinet are no fewer than 68 storage boxes of various sizes, contain-

ing approximately 4000 28mm miniatures and most of my gaming terrain.

The glass-fronted cabinet, transparent boxes, and labels make it very easy to identify and access the specific boxes of miniatures I need for a particular game, so that I can carry them downstairs to the gaming room.

Display cabinets are an excellent solution if situated within the room where the game will be played, as attractive miniatures set off a gaming room nicely!

In James’ room (shown here too), his beautiful miniatures can be lifted straight from the shelf to the gaming table. However, when miniatures are displayed in a different room, I would worry that there is a chance that models might be dropped in transit.

In conclusion, in my opinion, there is no single ‘best’ solution for protecting and storing miniatures. Rather, a gamer needs to give careful thought to storing the armies he owns – or, better yet, those he plans to purchase – and should select the storage solutions that are most appropriate to his needs and circumstances.

Simon reminds the editor of a storage disaster he witnessed. His friend had stacked up his Celt army (loosely packed in stackable plastic storage crates) before opening his car boot to pack them. The army slipped, leaving hundreds of Celts with assorted chariot bits to be picked up off the tarmac car park in the dark!

Filing cabinet storage.

Olicanalad’s display cases.

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MODELLING

By James Morris

How to paint an Eighth Army soldier in 15 minutes

TEA BREAK!

I don’t mind spending a few hours painting a personality model, but I find that I now have less and less time to actually get the rank and file painted, especially when I’m getting into a new period. Gone are the days when I could paint for several evenings a week into the small hours, not worrying too much about getting up in the morning. With a busy job and two small children, I count myself lucky to get as much as an evening per week to paint. However, it has made me focus on making my limited time count, and getting those miniatures onto the gaming table.

I

’d been toying with the idea of getting into the Desert War for some time – possibly East Africa, North Africa, or both. As a child, I’d known that my grandfather served in the Eighth Army, and was always inexplicably impressed by the image of shorts, tin hats, Lee Enfields and bayonets, propagated

by Airfix and Britains toy soldiers. It didn’t take a great deal of persuasion for me to buy a platoon of Westwind Eighth Army models during a 40-percent-off sale, nor to pick up a few of the lovely Artizan models, while dropping in to see Nick at North Star one day. But how to get them painted?

World War Two is a sideshow to my main gaming interests, and, with the

recent arrival of my second child, time was going to be tight. The traditional layering on top of a black undercoat was just going to be impractical – it’s great on a Dark Age warrior, simply attired in tunic and flowing cloak, but a real fiddle to do on all the flaps, pockets and webbing sported by a WWII soldier.

(Tom Weiss has proved that you can do a fantastic job with this technique if you have the patience, but in this case I didn’t!) However, I’d already been tinkering with some options to get a quick but effective paint job onto uniformed figures. I’d tried various washes over a light undercoat while working on Ethiopians and Italians for the 1930s, but by far the best product I found was Army Painter Quickshade (the ‘Strong

A West Wind Vickers machine-gun team takes cover, with back-up from Artizan officer and infantry.

Take that, Rommel! The mighty 54mm Captain Hulk, truly a ‘Big Man’.

Tone’, i.e. brown). I’ve seen more than a few models looking very unremarkable using this product, but it is unbeatable on well-sculpted figures in light khaki tones. It has a remarkable ability to soak into every crevice and is particularly good at picking out details, such as webbing, pockets, buttons and socks ... in other words, ideal for men running around the desert in shorts! Plus, the fact that it acts as a varnish layer cuts down further on time – although, of course, a spray of matt varnish is obligatory to get the finished model looking anywhere near presentable.

As well as Quickshade, the other great product that Army Painter has in its stable is the selection of coloured undercoats. These are not new. GW used to produce a fairly good range, but then axed them (allegedly because the

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A section of Artizan models – note the jumpers, very popular in the variable desert temperatures! profit margin was too low), and matt sprays in a huge range of colours have been available from graffiti art suppliers for some time. But Army Painter has made them easily available in a range of very useful colours. Battlefront also sells similar sprays, mainly for tanks and vehicles, and I have noticed that art and craft stores in the UK are carrying more matt/satin coloured sprays (e.g. Plasticote). Anyway, I figured that some kind of coloured primer was the way forward. If I could leave some of the basecoat uncovered, then that would save me even more painting time. After a few experiments with AP’s ‘Desert Yellow’ colour, I realized that it was perhaps too yellowy to represent Eighth Army uniforms, but when darkened with a layer of Quickshade, it actually did a very respectable job on the webbing and packs. Plus (I’m sure I’m not alone here), I’ve always found painting webbing to be a real faff, having to turn the model to all different angles and then still managing to splash paint onto the battledress! So, as a result, I did the reverse: the undercoat was left on the webbing, and I painted in the uniform around it in a different colour.

One of the things that sometimes dooms figures that have been knocked out with a single coat of AP Quickshade is a lack of contrast, and it’s a very easy thing to do on WWII figures. It is perhaps realistic to have an Eighth Army soldier who looks grubby from head to toe, all stained with the same brown, but it doesn’t produce a very attractive gaming miniature. I’ve always viewed Quickshade as a tool rather than a

magic ‘splash it on all over’ solution.

As I’ve mentioned, it does a killer job on socks and uniforms, but I feel it is less effective elsewhere, especially on smooth surfaces. For that reason I decided that the skin and weapons of my soldiers would be layered from a dark undercoat, while the rest of the model would use the Quickshade. Undercoating the rifles in black and the skin in a chestnut brown creates (I think) a pleasant contrast that makes the features of the figures stand out nicely and brings the faces of the models to life.

I couldn’t resist seeing if the process worked on some Eighth Army models in different scales. As far as colours were concerned, I knew that I was looking for khaki that was faded from exposure to the sun. Once I had started doing some reading on the subject, I was surprised to find out just how much variation there had been in the uniform.

The soldiers fighting in Africa had many sources for their uniforms: first, Britain and different parts of the British Empire (especially India), and later the USA, not mentioning the uniforms captured from Italian supply dumps or those in-

dividually purchased by British officers.

The harsh desert environment also took its toll on clothing and equipment. The upshot of this little piece of research was that I felt justified in varying the colours used for uniforms, so I tinkered with different paints from my collection, in a search for a variety of sun-washed khakis. I found that my first attempts were too similar, so I looked for a little more differentiation. With our models being roughly 56 times smaller than the real thing, I looked for colours that looked different against each other and the webbing. Vallejo’s 70819 ‘Iraqi Sand’ was my default, but I also made use of Vallejo 70921 ‘English Uniform’ (ideal for pullovers, which were common in the desert for cold nights), Citadel Foundation ‘Dheneb Stone’, and Foundry 99c ‘Denison Brown’. Vallejo’s 70914 ‘Green Ochre’ was one of the colours that turned out to be too similar to the spray undercoat to give sufficient contrast, although I found a use for it in giving the helmets an extra lick of

Little ‘n’ large! Foundry 20mm, Artizan 28mm, Airfix 1/32 (54mm).

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MODELLING (L-R): Base undercoat - Flesh and khaki painted - Boots and rifle have received a black undercoat. colour … and it was handy to touch up any paint splashed by accident onto the webbing.

‘Desert Yellow’, as well – the beauty of a coloured primer is that you have carte blanche to miss bits out, as they

are unlikely to be noticeable later. I also painted the base in my chosen colour at this stage.

PAINTING THE MODEL So, first of all, undercoat the model with Army Painter ‘Desert Yellow’ spray.

This is obviously best done outdoors, with the figures laid down in a shallow box to start with and sprayed in light coats from different angles to get good overall coverage. As the primer is going to be visible on the finished model, it’s a good idea to give the figures a second coat to ensure good coverage. (I have found that one 400ml can of spray will usually give a good undercoat for around 80 28mm models.)

With the undercoat fully dry, I worked on a group of eight or ten models for the actual painting itself. This has the advantage of being roughly the same as a British Army section, and means that you can see progress in a half-hour painting session. (I have painted figures in bigger groups before, but it can be tedious.) Using a pair of sable brushes (size 1 for larger areas, and size 0 for fiddly bits), I applied the base coats to the models, completing all of one colour before moving onto another, for speed. The skin areas were all painted with Miniature Paints 84 ‘Chestnut Brown’, and the uniforms were done in the various colours discussed above.

In the example pictured above, I have used Vallejo ‘Iraqi Sand’ for the shirt and Foundry ‘Denison Brown’ for the shorts; the socks were given a light coat of Vallejo ‘English Uniform’. While painting the uniform, I painted around the webbing, pack and equipment, just leaving the ‘Desert Yellow’ primer visible. In areas of shadow (underneath shorts or the helmet, or just fiddly bits that were hard to paint), I left the

USING MATT VARNISHES Since the rise of Army Painter and the necessary use of matt spray varnish, there have been a number of horror stories on the internet regarding the ‘misting’ that can occur. Reading between the lines, I’d say that the vast majority of these problems (upsetting though they are) are caused not by product faults, but by using the product incorrectly. I’ve never had a problem with spray varnishes when I’ve followed these rules: (1) Only spray in warm, dryish conditions. This can be very hard to do, especially in winter – I think 12 degrees celsius is a safe minimum. I have had success on cold autumn days, as long as there is some bright sunshine in the garden. Moisture presents another difficulty, as it really does affect the varnish. Again, a shaft of bright sunlight can be a lifesaver, though you may have to time it just right – I briefly absented myself from a family visit last October, because the conditions were just right to varnish 50 cavalry models!

(2) Always shake the can really, really well. For varnish, this usually means three minutes. A couple of shakes will not do the job.

(3) Keep the can warm before use. Using it straight from the shed will often mean that the product is cold. Far better to bring it inside the night before you intend to use it, or keep it on a high shelf indoors.

(4) Lie models down on a shallow box, or on a (preferably old) tray, to make sure that you get the varnish to cover all areas. Spray lightly from one direction, then allow to dry before turning over and spraying the other side. This is where direct sunlight is very useful, as it speeds up the drying process no end. Keep shaking the can while you are waiting for the last coat to dry. Finally, stand the models up and give a couple of light coats from different directions.

(5) A quick test on an old model before spraying is usually worthwhile, just in case.

The matt varnishes I’ve used on these models are Army Painter Anti Shine and Testors’ Dullcote. Testors has a slightly better reputation for being less susceptible to misting, but I have to say that I’ve had no problems with either.

If the weather conditions are really unsuitable, a brush-on matt varnish is also an option. It definitely takes more time, but will save gnashing of teeth caused by ‘misting’ models! My favourite is Winsor and Newton Galeria Matt Varnish, which is available from art shops – I recently bought a huge 75ml bottle for £3.00.

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(L-R): Wood and metal highlighted - Dip applied - Extra highlights added after matt varnish has been sprayed on.

Next up were the boots, rifle, bayonet, scabbard and entrenching tool, all painted in black. The canvas gaiters above the boots were, once again, left as the undercoat colour.

covered the figure all over with a coat of Army Painter Quickshade ‘Strong Tone’. The models were then left to dry for at least 24 hours before being given a coat of matt varnish (see sidebar).

In order to get a basecoat on the rifle, I simply touched in the wooden parts with Miniature Paints 84 ‘Chestnut Brown’, and the metal with Citadel ‘Boltgun Metal’, leaving the black as areas of shadow. The butt of the gun I painted with Vallejo 70801 ‘Brass’ – all of the Lee Enfields I have seen in museums recently had brass butt plates, but I don’t know if other metals were used.

At this stage, I also touched in the helmet strap with Vallejo ‘Green Ochre’, and used the same paint to recoat any areas of webbing that had accidentally been overpainted earlier.

Although the Quickshade does an impressive job, for me it’s the last few details that really bring the figure to life. After the matt varnish coat, the skin areas were painted over in a simple layering style – Foundry 5a ‘Flesh’ first, leaving the original ‘Chestnut Brown’ showing in the recesses, then a further highlight of Foundry 5b ‘Flesh’ on the noses, knuckles and cheekbones. The wooden areas of the rifle had a simple highlight using a 50/50 mix of Miniature Paints 84 ‘Chestnut Brown’ and Foundry 7a ‘Buff Leather’. As you can see, I painted this in a rough wood-grain pattern – rather cartoonish, but it works well at this scale. The metal parts of the rifle (especially the bayonet) had a very light highlight of Silver – just enough

Now it is time for the infamous ‘dip’.

In common with everyone I know who uses the stuff, I took an old brush and

to give them some shine. Again, this is probably exaggerated, but it looks great on the gaming table. The shorts and shirt both had a single highlight of the base colours, with a very small amount of white or ‘Iraqi Sand’ added, until I was pleased with the effect.

Finally, to finish things off nicely, the model was very lightly drybrushed with ‘Iraqi Sand’, focusing on the helmet and boots, to get rid of that ‘newly polished’ look that was probably fairly uncommon in the desert!

Despite my limited painting time, I managed a couple of hours a week on the project, and was pleasantly surprised to find that I had painted a platoon of 40 models in around ten hours – in short, around 15 minutes per figure! Obviously, basing added a few extra minutes; but, overall, I was delighted to discover that I could get a satisfactory result on a small force in a short amount of time. I have already bought some more Italians to fight my Eighth Army, and will most certainly be adding some boxes of Perry WWII plastics, as soon as they arrive.

James was originally a purely ‘Ancients’ player. He would not touch anything with black powder or firearms. However, a school trip to Ethiopia changed all that and opened a door to a world of gaming.

All photos by Pete Jenkins.

The Artizan Miniatures used for step-by-step painting were kindly donated by Nick Eyre of Northstar – thank you! 20mm by Foundry and 1/32 by Airfix.

The finished model.

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LETʼS PLAY

By Mike Evans

A comparative playtest

LINING UP FOR MAURICE At my club, many have been keen ‘Seven Years War’ gamers for some time, using both the classic Warfare in the Age of Reason and the more recent Black Powder sets for our games.

Neither has been totally satisfactory. Age of Reason takes a little too long for a relaxed evening’s game, and Black Powder can be somewhat too generic for some tastes. So, having had a positive experience with Sam Mustafa’s earlier Lasalle rules for Napoleonic gaming, we were keen to see how his new Maurice would play.

F

rom the very start, the idea that this would be a rehash of Lasalle was quashed. Yes, there were strong similarities in the way that the basics (shooting, movement, combat, etc.) were resolved, but the major difference lies with the card-based mechanism around which the game revolves.

Hopefully, this will become clear as we describe our game.

The basic game is designed to be played by two people, so (besides the ‘umpire’ and a series of onlookers) that’s what we did! Graham played the attacking French player and David the defending British player. The default 100-point armies are built using an elegant and simple system. Irregular units cost 3 points, and regulars (both cavalry and infantry) cost 4 points for a conscript or 6 points for a trained unit. You may upgrade one trained unit to elite status for 2 points, a second trained unit for 3 points, and so on. Artillery is on a similar sliding scale: 1 point for the first gun, 2 points for the second, and so on.

In addition to this, you may also select ‘national advantages’ cards, which allow you to shape the characteristics of your force slightly. In our case, at a cost of 9 points, the French selected ‘A la Baionnette’, which allows regular units to re-roll their combat die together with ‘Maison du Roi’ which, for another 9 points, promotes two elite units to guards (who receive an additional +1 to their combat scores). Very French.

Austrian and Prussian lines brace for combat.

The British player also selected cards that were in keeping with his nationality: ‘Steady Lads’, at 9 points, allows all regular defending infantry to re-roll their combat die, and ‘Lethal Volley’, at 12 points, allows a re-roll of all shooting die that fail to disrupt.

A free C-in-C is added to the forces, as well as the option for some ‘Notables’.

These are characters who may attach themselves to units in your army and are, again, card-based. We decided to allow each army one Notable each,

drawn at random. The British card was the Florentine mercenary and Chief of Staff Giovanni di Tripodi, whose presence would allow the British +1 on their scouting roll to determine attacker and defender. Since we had already decided that the British were to defend, no benefit was gained here. The French were more fortunate in drawing Filip Koreczki, a Polish aristocrat, who would allow all cavalry units under his command to add +1 to any rally attempts. Very useful – he was promptly dispatched to a cavalry wing. This is a

Austrian cavalry and Hussars advance with infantry supporting.

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The game in progress, British and French cavalry face off! simple army selection process, which we found quick and easy to understand.

A quick note on basing and ground scale is required. Like Lasalle, Maurice has no set scale. Everything is measured around base widths, a base being a grouping of figures or a stand. With our existing armies individually mounted on 20mm squares, we adopted 40mm as our basic stand-size and 2” for our movement and shooting base-width.

As this is what we are used to, it was simple for everyone involved. We also required some changes to our unit composition, as they are all in 12-figure units. A quick e-mail was sent to the excellent WarBases and, in under a week, we had 20 ‘sabot’ movement trays to make up the 16-figure units (2 ranks of 8) that Maurice requires.

We used an 8’ by 4’ table, with the table set up according to the Maurice system. This uses ’battlefield cards’, which indicate the maximum number of terrain pieces of any given type that may be placed on the table, for your chosen battlefield terrain (e.g. plains, forest, urban). We drew a forest battlefield card, which limited the terrain to a maximum of one hill, two marshes, one rocky area, two towns, and six forests, with each player having to place at least one forest. Next, each player rolls 2D6 and selects one. This is the number of terrain pieces that he must deploy.

The French rolled a 4, and selected two forests, one built-up area and one hill; the British rolled a 2, and selected a forest and an area of rocky ground.

The starting position of the units was as shown in the accompanying diagram.

Each army deployed in three sub-forces which can be considered as brigades, as the card-based movement system activates a single sub-force per turn.

The final part of the game set-up involves drawing the ‘action cards’ to determine what a player may do in his turn. Five are drawn by the defender (the British) and eight by the attacker (the French). The whole process is very straightforward, easy to learn and use, and quicker to do than to explain.

The cards control the activation of a unit, add to shooting effects, add to combat results, improve rallying, and so on. You have to use (i.e. expend) cards to activate a brigade, but keeping the right cards for the right time is the key to the whole game.

Maurice has a very interactive ‘I Go You Go’ turn-based system, in which the

active player follows a short four-phase sequence. In the volley phase, he may elect to shoot (or not), and the passive player may return fire. In the command phase (the real core of the game), he may pass, play an event, or make an action (i.e. charge, march, fire artillery, or rally). He then draws a number of cards to replenish his hand – the less ’active’ he is, the more cards he may draw. He may then move his officers, and finally any units that are isolated must surrender. The key phase is playing an action or an event, which is where the cards in your hand really come in. In order to command a force to charge, march, bombard (with artillery fire) or rally, the distance between the C-in-C and the force is measured. Cards exceeding this distance need to be discarded from your hand.

For example, let’s assume that a brigade is 12” away from my general. I want it to charge, but I only have two cards in my hand: one gives +2 to combat resolution or a command radius of 8”; the other allows a unit to re-roll misses in combat or gives a command radius of 8”. In order to make the charge, I have to use both cards to activate the unit, as a single 8” would be less than the distance between the nearest unit and the general, whereas the combined 16” is greater. Having used them for command, I have to discard them, so I cannot benefit from their combat effects. This is actually a very stupid (or desperate) thing to do, since I am now

French 1 C-in-C (free) 1 Elite Infantry (8) 3 Trained Infantry (18) 4 Conscript Infantry (16) 1 Elite Cavalry (9) 3 Trained Cavalry (18) 4 Artillery pieces (10) 1 Light Infantry (3) ‘A la Baionnette’ (9) ‘Maison du Roi’ (9) Filip Koreczki (free)

British 1 C-in-C (free) 1 Elite Infantry (8) 5 Trained Infantry (30)

Total 100 points

Total 99 points

1 Elite Cavalry (9) 3 Trained Cavalry (18) 4 Artillery pieces (10) 1 Light Infantry (3) ‘Steady Lads’ (9) ‘Lethal Volley’ (12) Giovanni Di Tripodi (free)

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LETʼS PLAY An Austrian column marches into a potential ambush! left with no cards for the next turn, and will have to rely on whatever card turns up (as you draw a card at the start of your turn).

Whilst the active player’s turn progresses, the passive player has an opportunity to interrupt, should he have a suitable card in his hand. For example, the passive player may negate the effect of a volley or reduce the effectiveness of a bombard, provided he has the right card. It’s a simple mechanism, but it really does engage both players at all times in the game.

Now, onto the game itself (“finally!” I hear you say). Graham, as the French attacker, took the first turn. With no volley phase, he opted to play an action, choosing to order his cavalry on the right flank to advance. David stood firm in his turn. The French then advanced their infantry and, again, the British stood firm. This was to typify the first few turns, with the British player quickly bringing the cards in his hand up to the maximum of ten due to inactivity, while the French player kept his hand at a steady eight cards (as marching allows a replenish-rate of one card per turn).

After three quick turns, the action began. The British responded to the French infantry with a volley and to the French cavalry on their left flank with a charge. Shooting is very simple: the shooting player rolls 1D6 per base, usually requiring a 4+ to hit (there are very few modifiers). All hits may then be converted to disruptions, based upon the quality of the target unit – a 4+ will convert to a disruption on a trained unit. This is an important facet of the game, as disruptions are cumulative, reducing the unit’s effectiveness and causing its removal when it exceeds 4.

In this exchange, the British managed to inflict a single disruption on the extreme right of the French infantry, and the

French failed to have any impact. Poor dice-rolling on both sides! Meanwhile, in the first cavalry combat, honours were even. The close combat mechanism is very simple: roll a D6 and add its value to the unit’s combat value (which is based upon its quality, elite being 8 and conscript 4), with a small number of modifiers. If you score double the defender, he is broken; less than the defender, and the attacker gains two disruptions. If the defender stands, then the attacker falls back, which is what happened here.

Even at this early stage of the game, the two commanders now needed to make some decisions. An important factor of the game is the rally action. This is achieved by playing a suitable number of cards to allow the C-in-C to activate a force and declare that it is attempting to rally. Each unit in the force rolls a D6 per disruption, requiring a 4+ for infantry or a 5+ for cavalry for the disruption to be removed. With units gaining disruption on both the flank and in the centre, the French general moved his Cin-C to his right cavalry flank, in order to press home his flanking manoeuvre.

The British General remained in the centre to bolster his line, wheeling a unit to face his left flank in the event of a breakthrough by the French cavalry.

This eventually came, but not for several turns, as the French cavalry charged, inflicted a few disruptions, took some disruptions themselves, and fell back.

With the C-in-C and Filip Koreczki (+1 to rally cavalry) close by, they were able to rally for a turn and then charge back in repeatedly, until both units of British cavalry broke and were removed from the field. In the meantime, the British infantry were having some success in the volley phase, activated by the British player in his turn, but not by the French player, so that he could keep the casualties down. Here the British advantages of ‘Steady Lads’ and ‘Lethal Volley’ came into play, with +1 to hit and reroll all hits that fail to disrupt.

Despite some appalling dice-rolling, the disruptions were mounting on the French force. The French C-in C was quickly moved back to his centre, to start rallying the troops. Spotting a potential opportunity for a counter-attack, the British cavalry on his right flank moved up to threaten the French. This turned out to be a disastrous move, as they advanced straight into the teeth of the French guns and, after some smart wheeling, fell foul of the French infantry volleys. Both units were routed off the field. The centre was turning out to be the main strength of the British defence.

By now, after around sixteen turns (yes, they are quick, once you get the hang of it!) the French infantry were starting to fail.

At this point, it’s worth mentioning how the game can be won. Each army

The Austrians form line under the commands of their general.

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has an ‘army morale value’, calculated by the number of regular units it has.

The British, with 14 units, had an army morale of 14, while the French had 16.

As units are destroyed, a D6 is rolled: a 1 or 2 removes one army morale point, through to a 5 or 6 removing three. The British were extremely unlucky, with every lost unit contributing a maximum reduction to army morale. With the cavalry gone, the British general was down to just 2 points. Despite having lost half of his infantry, it took one final French cavalry charge to inflict what was the first lost British infantry unit, but, with a roll of 4, the British player’s army morale was reduced to zero. Hands were shaken and the French player was declared victorious.

AFTER GAME REFLECTIONS? This particular game was David’s first: “At first, it can be quite tricky to manage the card activation system, but this comes with playing the game.” As the game went on and he became more familiar with the mechanisms, gameplay got quicker and, consequently, the game became more enjoyable. Overall, David felt that it was a good system that will get better as you learn to play.

For Graham, it was his sixth game, so he spoke with some experience: “What I like about Maurice are the straightforward game mechanisms that also have an incredible depth and variety, made possible by use of the cards. Although the game plays as ‘I Go You Go’, it is very interactive, which keep both players fully engaged. I enjoyed the game enough to invest in an army.” In fact, Graham likes the system so much that, in two months, he has bought not one but two armies and has them all painted!

For newcomers, the system is unusual, so it takes some getting used to. There is little doubt that it will not suit everyone.

However, it is worth visiting Sam Mustafa’s website, where a ‘lite’ version of the rules can be downloaded, together with some printable playing cards, so that you can try before you buy. If you do buy the rules, then buy the cards at the same time – they are an essential component of the game.

Jacobite infantry and cavalry ready for a charge!

If I had to criticize Maurice, it would be that the rules are very generic for gaming in the eighteenth century, with no differentiation between (for example) the warfare of Marlborough and the warfare of Frederick. There are no army lists, although the rule book does provide a series of example games. And secondly, some combinations of the ‘national characteristics’ cards can be used by the less scrupulous to gain an unfair advantage. That said, the former may be remedied by a few house rules and the latter by a judicious choice of cards.

Right at the beginning of this article, I mentioned that my previous rule sets of choice were Warfare in the Age of Reason and Black Powder, so perhaps it’s worth briefly mentioning how these rules differ. Age of Reason is very much in the WRG mould of gaming, with plenty of tables listing lots of modifiers for shooting, mêlée and morale.

Period-feel is achieved by incorporating detailed charts favouring the formations and national characteristics that typified the era. Frankly, it can all get a little tedious at times, with constant reference to the playsheet: we even resorted to developing flow charts to help us negotiate our way through the complexities of the charge process! Perhaps it’s a modern trend to simplify games, or maybe it’s just age-related that endless tables no longer hold the appeal that they used to.

Black Powder sits firmly at the opposite end of this spectrum: very simple rules allowing flowing motions, with few restrictions on the players’ actions. It’s more of a command-and-control system, with forces activated by dice-rolling. Gone are the endless tables and, to a certain extent, gone also is the periodfeel, as players apply a series of special

rules from a ’toolkit’ in the rule book to distinguish troop-types and nationalities. The end result is a game that does what it sets out to do, which is to allow players to get together and play a large game in an evening, in a very informal way. Our gripe with this – if gripe is the correct term – is that you don’t get a particularly strong period-feel. You get more of a game that is set in the ‘black powder’ era, that just happens to be played with Seven Years War figures.

So, where does Maurice fit in between these two extremes? I’m tempted to say somewhere in the middle, but that’s not quite true. Maurice does have lots of very simple mechanics, like Black Powder, but for activating troops, it doesn’t rely on the dice-roll that can be ever so frustrating at times, especially when your opponent seems to be able to move at will, whilst your men are stationary. Maurice does have a very strong period-feel and does encourage period formations and tactics, like Age of Reason, but it doesn’t have the tabulated complexity. Maurice stands and falls by its card-driven activation and action system, which is quite unlike other systems that I’ve played. You will either love it or hate it!

As a club, the Huntingdon and District have now all bought into Maurice, with the usual additional purchases to round out their armies. In September, they intend to start a campaign based around the simple set of campaign rules (the ‘Succession Wars’) in the rule book.

The 15mm Austrians and Prussians are Essex Miniatures, courtesy of Derek Stone.

The Jacobites are also Essex, courtesy of Derek Bruce.

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SCENARIO

By Guy Bowers

‘Rock and Roll’ in the Vietnames jungle with Bolt Action

FULL AUTO!

World War II gaming in 28mm and other scales. With the release of the rules, the first question that came to my mind was how far could Bolt Action rules be pushed? Could they be adapted to other periods? The Korean War, certainly, is effectively covered by

© Georgie Harman

Love it or loathe it, Bolt Action has triggered a renaissance in

the existing US, British and Soviet lists. But what about Vietnam?

T

he Vietnam War (1955-75) holds a fascination for wargamers, probably partly due to films like Platoon and Full Metal Jacket. Hopefully, gamers will go beyond the ‘Gung Ho’ version and be inspired to read further, with books like We Were Soldiers Once …

And Young by Lt Gen Harold G Moore, or The Only War We Had by Lt Col Michael Lee Lanning, to name but two.

For some, it may be ‘a war too soon’.

As it is still a fairly recent conflict, the wounds are still fresh. However, playing the period will (hopefully) encourage people to read further, particularly the stories and lives of the brave men and women who fought in this war.

From our previous WWII games and initial play-testing ‘up country’, it soon became clear that Bolt Action can be a very deadly game. This is particularly true when the dice get rolling, and there are a lot of dice in Full Auto fire-fights.

So, to make Vietnam ‘playable’, a few liberties have been taken, most of which turn out to be historically justifiable, which is a bonus. We only cover the major US involvement in Vietnam from 1967 in these lists.

mortar with a crew of 1; it is not a ‘team weapon’.

TERRAIN Most Vietnam battlefields will be terrain-heavy, varying from paddy fields, jungle and river to the suburbs of the cities. Some special considerations were needed for this. Bolt Action usually follows a strict line-of-sight rule, but, given the complexity of the terrain, this is a little impractical.

Our basic terrain (like most people’s) is a section of trees or bushes on a base.

We separated our ‘jungle’ into sections – separate areas of terrain, approximately 6” square. The open areas between sections are considered paths (open).

Units can shoot into a single jungle section, but not beyond it, so units behind a jungle section cannot be shot (or shoot through it). Units at the edge of the jungle have light cover (within 2”

from the direction of the shooter), while those deep in the jungle have heavy cover (they are hard to spot), but have a -1 ‘to hit’ when shooting out (as the dense cover hinders outgoing fire).

UNITED STATES ARMY Use the lists from the main book or from Armies of the United States. Except where noted, infantry will be conscripts – the US relied on the draft and, by the time men gained experience, their year tour was up and they went home.

The following Army Special Rules are used: ‘Follow Me!’ – While the US officer cadre may have been inadequate (the ‘best’ being inducted into Special Forces), the US had a good system of NCOs. While the squad leader is alive, the squad tests morale as ‘Regulars’ (Leadership 9, not 8).

WEAPONS The weapons are unmodified from Bolt Action. There was a good argument that the assault rifle should be reduced to 18” range, as the bolt action version should outrange it, but we left it as it is. Shotguns are treated as having 12” range and Assault 1, but ignore cover.

The M79 ‘Thumper’ is treated as a light

US infantry run into a VC ambush.

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as an armoured car with no troop transport. Jeeps and 2½-ton trucks should be available.

This is far from a comprehensive list, but should give players a guide to get started.

ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM

Anyone who runs, is a VC! ‘Peace through Superior Firepower’– a US Artillery or Air Observer can call on two strikes during a game.

‘Let’s Roll!’ – US firepower will usually be heard approaching, long before it’s in view. The VC player must be informed before a game if the US are using APCs, Tanks or Helos, and can equip their force with the suitable weapons.

Use the standard Reinforced Platoon force list from the rulebook (or page 19 of the US Army book). The US can take ‘Inexperienced’ and ‘Regular’ Headquarters Units. Any HQ model can be armed with an M16 (assault rifle) for +6 points per model.

Except as noted, all infantry squads and teams are inexperienced. Snipers may be inexperienced or regulars. One veteran LRRP section can be taken per platoon.

US Vietnam Inexperienced Squad Cost: 65 Points Inexperienced Infantry Composition: 1 NCO + 4 Men Weapons: M16 (Assault Rifle) Options: • Add up to five additional riflemen for +12 Points each • One man can replace an M16 with an M60 for +10 Points. A second rifleman becomes his loader.

• One man can replace an M16 with an M79 for +5 Points (Light Mortar) • One man can replace an M16 with an shotgun (free) • The entire squad can take Flak Jackets at +2 Points each. Treat as Regular for Casualties.

LRRP Section Use the Ranger Squad from page 25 of the US Army book. Any man may be

equipped with an M16, Shotgun or AK 47 for +6 points. One man may have an M79 for +10 points or an M203 for +16 points. LRRP sections were typically small, so are limited to no more than 6 men.

Support Most heavy support was left back at base while on patrol, but is included here for base defence. US Platoons may take heavy machine-guns, medium mortars and heavy mortars. The M60 medium machine-guns from the weapons platoon were typically issued out to squads. Medium and heavy artillery may be taken. All are ‘Inexperienced’.

Gun crews may be equipped with M16s at +6 points per model.

Vehicles All the vehicles are ‘Inexperienced’.

Technically, only ‘Cav’ units can have the M113. The ACAV should be treated

The South Vietnamese forces were equipped with a large variety of US army surplus. At first, they were equipped as WWII American squads, with M1 Garands, M1 carbines and BARs (use the Inexperienced Squad from the US lists), but as ‘Vietnamization’ continued, the better units were armed as US Vietnamese troops. All troops are ‘Inexperienced’. They do not have any special rules, except that they can nullify either ‘booby traps’ or ‘locals’, as they know the country just as well as their opposite numbers.

VIET CONG The Red Vietnamese Viet Cong (VC) use the Soviet lists from the main book or from Armies of the Soviet Union.

Infantry will be classed as ‘Conscripts’, except where noted – given the large casualty rates suffered by the VC and NVA, few would be ‘Regulars’ or ‘Veterans’. Weapons were also scarce, so most are armed with older weapons.

M113 ‘ACAV’

89 Points 119 Points

Armoured Car 7+ Armoured Car 7+

M48 Tank

316 Points

(As M26 Pershing)

Pintle HMG Plus Transport 10 Pintle HMG plus Two LMGs added (1 left, 1 right)

Anyone who stands still, is a well-disciplined VC!

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SCENARIO

Booby trap table 1-3 Punji Trap +1 Pen, 1 model 4-5 Grenade Treat as light mortar 6 Artillery Shell Treat as heavy mortar Vehicles are hit on their rear armour.

The following Army Special Rules are used: ‘Booby traps’ – The VC player gets a dozen counters to place down before the game, representing potential spots for booby traps. Only four of these are marked (actual booby traps), the rest being dummies. These can be placed anywhere on the table (ideally on paths).

The VC ignore them for movement. Any US player approaching within 2” of a counter will activate it. If it is blank, nothing happens. If it is marked, a booby trap goes off.

US Troops may try to disarm booby traps by making an advance order. They forego firing for that turn and make an unmodified leadership test (8 for conscripts). If they pass, the trap is defused; otherwise, the trap is triggered.

‘Locals’ – The VC know the local paths.

For the first move, all VC can run through jungle terrain as if it were open.

‘Quyet Thang’ – Give the troops the ‘Great Patriotic War’ rule from the Russian list.

‘The jungle is our fortress’ – Any Vietnamese unit on ‘Ambush’ can activate and make a single move action away from the enemy.

Use the standard Reinforced Platoon force list from the rule book. The VC can take a Headquarters Unit of any level of experience. Any HQ model can be armed with an AK47 (assault rifle) for +6 points per model.

All infantry squads and teams are ‘Inexperienced’, except snipers, who may be inexperienced, regular or veteran. One ‘Veteran’ VC squad can be taken per platoon.

VC Inexperienced Squad Cost: 35 Points Inexperienced Infantry Composition: 1 NCO + 4 Men Weapons: Rifle Options:

Get down! Taking cover in a stream.

• Add up to seven additional soldiers for +7 Points each • One man can replace a rifle with a machine-gun for +20 Points. A second rifleman becomes his loader.

• One man can replace a rifle with an RPG for +20 Points • One man can replace a rifle with an SMG for +3 points • Three men can replace their rifles with AK 47s for +5 points • The entire squad can be made ‘Quyet Thang’ at +2 Points per model.

The RPG should be treated as a reloadable Panzerfaust.

VC ’Veteran’ Section One squad per platoon may be ‘Veterans’, at +3 points per model (treat as Regulars).

Support The VC acquired a large selection of man-portable heavy weapons, which they used to great effect. VC platoons may take ‘Inexperienced’ or ‘Regular’ machine-gun teams, heavy machineguns, light mortars, medium mortars and heavy mortars. They may take two mortars per platoon.

NORTH VIETNAMESE ARMY The North Vietnamese Army (NVA) were better equipped than their VC counterparts; more like a trained army, but not necessarily acting as irregulars. NVA do not have the ‘Booby traps’ rule, unless they are defending, or the ‘Locals’ special rules. Again, given the very high casualty rates, most squads are ‘Inexperienced’.

NVA Squads Use the VC lists, except that NVA can have AKs and ‘Quyet Thang’ at +6 points per model. They are also better equipped than their VC counterparts, with better support options, so they may

take an additional mortar and machinegun team per platoon.

The NVA did have armour, but it was not used until after the Americans had left Vietnam (apart from the incident at Lang Vei) and against ARVN troops.

CONCLUSION Bolt Action works surprisingly well for this period, with the scenarios from the main rule book fitting particularly well.

The above lists are only a taster. There is so much more we could have added, given the space.

There is no reason why these lists could not be taken further and used to cover other conflicts, with one caveat. With their associated increased firepower, modern games become very lethal.

There is good reason why most of the troops are deliberately ‘Inexperienced’ in Full Auto. It fits the concept that the modern trooper relies on firepower, instead of relying on marksmanship. So, by all means, pitch your ‘elite’ western forces against irregulars, but do not be surprised if the results are not quite as playable as you expected.

Technically, these ideas should have been called Gas-Operated Action, or ‘the principle on which modern automatic rifles work’. The term also accurately describes some of our local club members to a T. However, Full Auto was a more catchy title!

Miniatures are Baker Company (28mm) from the author’s collection. Our thanks to Warlord Games for providing dice for the photographs. My thanks to Paul Burkin, Peter Bowles, Eoghan Kelly and Rossco Watkins, for their feedback.

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LETʼS PLAY

By Mark Backhouse

Fireforge launches the Great Crusade!

LETʼS PLAY DEUS VULT Deus Vult from Fireforge Games is a set of rules designed to recreate medieval warfare around the time of the Crusades. After we interviewed the authors, Alessio Cavatore and Dylan Owen in the last issue (WS&S 64), our team was raring to go, and anxious to see how the new medieval game from Fireforge played.

T

he rule book itself is a well presented 191-page hardback. Only the first half of the book is rules, while the rest is made up of army lists, a brief history of the Crusades, and a battle report. While this might sound daunting, the word count on the main part of each page is quite low, as more detailed rule examples and historical anecdotes are provided in the margins. This means that grasping the basics of the rules does not take too long.

The armies in the game are structured into a number of divisions commanded by leading nobles. In each division, there are between one and eight units.

The system counts the number of ‘bases’, which are made up of multiples of six infantry figures or two cavalry figures per unit. A small unit might be just two bases, but this can increase to eight bases for huge units. Individual figures also need to be removed during the

battle. The rules are designed for 28mm figures, but the book gives suggestions on how to use smaller scales, with a note that a fair amount of the playtesting was done at 15mm scale. For 28mm figures, the individual base area for each model is 20mm x 20mm for infantry and 25mm x 50mm for cavalry.

This means that, if you have armies based for WAB, Clash of Empires, War and Conquest or other similar systems, they can be used with very little fuss.

There are a number of alternative basing ideas, and, to be honest, as long as both sides are based equally, I don’t think it would cause too many problems. While there is no official minimum number of troops required for play, you would want at least two divisions per side to make an interesting game, with about 100 figures per side. The emphasis with these rules is very much on recreating larger battles, and we played with well over double this number, to try and

get the best out of the rules in our play tests. The recommended gaming table for Deus Vult is a 6’ x 4’, although slightly smaller or larger could still be accommodated by the rules.

The pre-battle system is one of the strengths of rules. Reconnaissance is carried out by each army allocating scouts to different sectors of the board.

While you could use figures for these, we simply placed different coloured dice on each part of the table to represent mounted scouts and those on foot.

After a simple dice-off, the winning scouts can then select the terrain for that sector. Scouts can also be allocated to carry out acts of subterfuge. These are randomly drawn from a pack and might allow you to ambush enemy troops while they are attempting to deploy, delay them while coming on, or even sabotage their water supplies. Some of the subterfuge cards are blanks, which

Pre-battle game: Crusaders are ambushed!

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which had an unfortunate commander who could command only one!

A standard-bearer used as a battle leader. might allow you to bluff your opponent with the threat of an assassin or disloyalty card. These cards are provided in the book if you want to photocopy them (or even cut them out), but can also be freely downloaded from the Fireforge Games website and printed out. The cards certainly add to the character of the game and make it feel as if it’s a Crusader battle. Armies are generally deployed with a vanguard division on the table first, followed by a main force, and finally a rearguard, later in the game. Some of the scenarios, however, allow for whole armies to be deployed straight away.

Battle leaders play an important role in the game and control the divisions out of which the army is made up. On the tabletop, they are represented by a model. The exact basing for each leader is less important, as long as they do not exceed 60mm (either in diameter, if circular, or in length, if square). Battle leaders can be mounted or dismounted during the game, so you might like to have a model for each type, or merely put a marker down beside him. Each of the battle leaders rolls for their characteristics, as well as their virtues and flaws. This is an interesting mechanism that brings character to your tabletop commanders and also creates some interesting command issues. The command rating for each commander is particularly useful, as it determines the number of units in a division to which he can give orders. In one game, I managed to have a division with four units,

The rolling of statistics was generally welcomed by players who enjoy a relaxed club game; but, as the impact of rolling randomly can create commanders of very different quality, I wondered how the more competitive players might see this. We based one of our games around a historical scenario, and allocated statistics and traits for the different commanders. Players are encouraged to do this. As an alternative, you can allocate points to different statistics, something I suspect our more competitive brethren might opt for.

There are no pre-prepared statistics for key personalities of the period, such as Saladin or Philip II of France, although being a ‘Lionheart’ is a possible virtue that gives your battle leader a bonus to his courage!

All of this pre-battle preparation makes you feel a connection to your army and a sense of who they are. You can almost feel the sweat and taste the dust on your

parched lips before the battle commences! It sets the scene nicely for a big clash, but the cost is obviously in terms of the set-up time. For players who just want to get on with a quick fight in a limited amount of time, this system might be a little long-winded, taking around thirty minutes to prepare (although, if the commanders were pre-rolled before the game, this would cut down the time spent by half).

In each game turn, you need to select the order in which your divisions want to move, by placing cards in order without your opponent seeing them. A dice-off is carried out for initiative, and the two sides reveal their first division.

Whoever has the initiative is allowed to activate their division first, followed by their opponent’s division, and so on.

It is at this point that you realize the importance of the battle leaders, as they are allowed to issue orders to a number of units, depending on whether they lie within the range of their influence. This encourages divisions to fight closely together nearer to their commander, as

An Andalusian battle leader.

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LETʼS PLAY

cal precedents. The book claims that “just because the sources are quiet on the matter doesn’t mean that duels didn’t occur”. In practice, this means that battle leaders can challenge one another to single combat, which felt like a bit of a throwback to Warhammer Ancient Battles, which, in turn, was obviously inspired by the fantasy rule set. That said, the rules for duels are good fun, and use a system of hidden dice selection to try and outwit your opponent, which had us cheering with delight or shock as the dice were rolled.

The impact of them also tended to force a battle leader to withdraw humiliated or wounded, rather than being chopped to pieces. If the idea of such frivolity in your games is beyond the pale, they could easily be ignored, but I suspect that, in our games, they will return by popular demand, despite the possible anachronism!

Two commanders duel for honour! units outside of his influence will not be activated until the end of the turn.

This activation system is quite simple, but creates some interesting command decisions, as you try to outwit your opponent and get the key charges in first ... or, in my case, usually withdrawals!

Uncommanded units who are outside a battle leader’s influence, or who have lost their commander, are still allowed a restricted selection of actions at the end of the turn, but often their role can be negligible.

A unit may be ordered to carry out up to four action points per turn. Different manoeuvres cost a number of action points. I found these commands to be very straightforward, and they generally forced players to move in a more historical way. For more complex manoeuvres, a discipline check is required, and a failure results in the unit wasting the actions. An abject failure on a discipline test sometimes results in the unit becoming disordered or breaking ranks.

The mêlée and shooting rules both use a similar mechanism. Each stand contributes a number of dice based on the type of troops they are. This is then modified by other factors, such as whether they are charging, or if their opponents are disordered. Quite a lot of dice are needed at this stage. The system places

great emphasis on disordering your opponent to give you an advantage, and mêlées fought between large groups of infantry often go on for a long time and can become fairly indecisive, unless fresh reserves can be brought in to the flanks of your opponent. Some of our play-testers found the indecisiveness of the combats between evenly matched troops to be frustrating. Crusading knights, as you might expect, can be devastating on the charge, and I had a rather nasty experience on the receiving end in our first game, where two very small units managed to smash a hole through an entire division of poor quality archers and spearmen.

The number of kills caused by archery fire tends to be fairly small, unless the target is within killing strike range (which is very close with bows and considerably further with the deadly crossbows). Archery, however, can be particularly effective at forcing your opponent to take disarray tests, where they might become disordered or lose figures through breaking ranks. With more experience, we found this to be a useful tool for breaking the deadlock and weakening units before the decisive clash of swords and spears.

The duel rules provided us with some interesting discussions about histori-

Overall, the game system plays pretty well. The rules are laid out carefully and are clearly communicated. While we missed out a few nuances on the first couple of games, we very quickly got the hang of the basic mechanisms, such as the orders and discipline tests.

Getting used to the different units took a bit more time, as each had a number of ‘traits’ to make them distinctive. While most of these were fairly obvious, in some of the more elite units, you had to memorize four or five of these special features and their impact. To the amusement of my opponent, throughout the entire first game, I was unable to find the elusive Karr Wa Farr trait for my bodyguard cavalry in the list of traits, and wondered if it had been a typo, only to find it at the start of the ‘Arab Dynasties’ army lists as a special rule! He was not so amused in the second game, when I used it to launch hit-and-run attacks on his crusading spearmen before they could fight back. In fairness, the traits really do effectively highlight the tactical differences between the Muslim and Christian troops and make you play accordingly. We played small 500-point games (two divisions and about 100 figures per side) in around an hourand-a-quarter of actual playing time, and played bigger 750- and 1000-point games (three or four divisions and about

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200 figures per side) in a two-and-ahalf- or three-hour evening club session.

With a little bit more practice, we could probably cut a little off these times.

Victory is decided at the end of six turns, although a battle commander may attempt to extend the game by passing a courage test for an additional turn. Victory is worked out by tallying the number of trophy points gained.

Trophy points are given for units and battle leaders killed or destroyed, standards captured, and (depending on the scenario you are playing) control of battlefield zones. The number of trophy points a unit is worth is based around their social prestige and their numbers, so a unit of knights is (unsurprisingly) worth more trophy points than a unit of

pilgrims!

The army lists for the Arab dynasties and crusaders give you a detailed guide on how to organize your armies into divisions along historical lines, but with enough freedom to make them your own. There is a wide selection of different troop-types, each with very different personalities. One surprising feature, though, is their restricted timespan. The ‘Early Crusading States’ list covers 1100-1128, missing out most of the First Crusade and the Third and Fourth Crusades! This seems a strange omission, when the history section of the book places more emphasis on these periods. The ‘Arab Dynasties’ list has a slightly wider span, covering 9451150. In fairness, with a little initiative, these would be very easy to amend to

encompass later or earlier conflicts, but I suspect that some people might feel hard done by because of this omission.

There are also some sample units for Teutonic Orders and Baltic pagans, as well as more generic European medieval troops, which would be useful if you wanted to remove the game from the Holy Land to another location.

There are no Mongols, Byzantines or El Cid-era Spanish in these lists as yet, but a resourceful player could easily use a stand-in unit to represent them. There is a points system that seems to have been carefully thought out to produce balanced games.

Along with this, seven scenarios present some varied tactical challenges beyond a head-on clash, such as ‘Defend or Die’ and ‘Encircled’. Other than a few baggage models (and there are card counters for these, if you need them, in the appendix section), none of them require anything particularly out of the ordinary, except ‘The Crossing’, which requires a river.

If you want a tactically challenging set of rules that really emphasize the Crusading era, these rules are probably for you. The emphasis on bigger battles means that you will want to put aside a number of hours to prepare and play, and the rules are very suited to club games, where several people per side are allocated a command. The smaller games we played tended to be less engaging and sometimes bloodily brief, but they were a useful way of learning the rules. Players will require a little bit of initiative if they are to use the army lists for later crusades, but, for nearly every gamer I know, this would not be an obstacle. Beneath the veneer of a lavishly presented rule book is a solid system that will doubtless entertain our club members on a number of occasions this year.

Deus Vult is available now from Fireforge games.

WS&S would like to thank Neil and Owen Snelgrove for their help in the play-testing. They liked it so much, they even went out and bought a copy!

The review author contemplates his next move while playtesting.

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GAME REVIEWS

ALBION TRIUMPHANT T

his Black Powder (BP) supplement covers not only the Peninsular War, but also (briefly) the ill-fated Walcheren expedition of the 1790s. In a tasteful foreword, the author encourages research, and admits to not producing a history of the Napoleonic Wars. Good, because I’m rather fed up with books full of waffle and painting guides – why pay more for what you don’t really need? What is included is a potted history of Napoleonic tactics and how to best represent these (which is apt for a Napoleonic wargame). Although this may be old hat to veterans, it will explain a lot to the ‘newbie’. I would recommend the author’s summary of eighteenth-century demographics and the consequent military developments to my fellow history teachers.

Battle summaries are provided, along with lists for the Spanish, Portuguese, French (“boo! hiss!”), and our brave British lads (“huzzah!”), along with sundry allies of the Corsican upstart. Wellington’s main battles are described and brigade-level lists are provided, so that one can explain to the wife why more Napoleonics are needed. The thrust of the book is unashamedly Anglocentric, focusing on Wellington’s campaigns.

This is a pity, as it detracts from the efforts of our gallant Spanish allies in tying-down large numbers of frenchies in the south of the country - not to mention the virtues of the Portuguese ‘fighting cocks’. Baylen gets a mention, but that’s about it. Sad to say, there’s a tendency to repeat the bias of contemporary English writers and put the Spanish down. Accordingly, one might want to upgrade their stats, particularly in the Battles of Talavera and Albuera, where the Spanish line historically held (one doubts whether they still would using these lists). The Rey Regiment of Cavalry, for example, held their own against the French mounted arm, and broke an infantry square at Talavera.

It wasn’t just guerrillas who had an effect. These words may have some UK

readers reaching for their UKIP application forms, but I personally believe in embracing, in equality, our friends in the rest of the EU – though, obviously, within the realms of British decency.

That’s what Sir Harry Smith did!

Following on from Warlord’s The Last Argument of Kings, there are again potted biographies of generals and ratings for personality, and a section on amending BP to cover specialist tactics, like the reverse slope or the impetuous advance of Les grognards. The superb eye-candy pics of miniatures, and the thoughtful and entertaining sidebars that make Warlord rules and supplements great books in and of themselves, are retained. Once again, I had great fun reading all of these. Loose OOBs for the major Peninsular battles are provided, and the guide to applying appropriate BP ‘special rules’ to particular armies should not only point existing players in the right direction, but will also be a useful reference point for Peninsular wargames, in general. What might also be worth considering is rules to cover terrain and supply, as there’s nothing so annoying as a bunch of French soldiers turning up and helping themselves to your crops.

Sample scenarios are also provided (again only for Brits versus French at Rolica, Salamanca, and the fictional Granja de la Abundancia and Cuidada Espanola). Sadly, the wider FrancoSpanish campaigns are omitted, as is the work of the Royal Navy in sending shore landing parties to assist and keep the French wrong-footed. For those of you that dig such things, there are excellent army lists to give an idea of how to construct a realistic Peninsular army, and, although the dreaded ‘points system’ isn’t totally BP, it is nonetheless a useful guide for balanced ‘scratch’ games. The free standard-bearer mini included with the book would also reward quality painting.

So, in summary, if this doesn’t inspire you to more 28mm Napoleonic gaming, then (a) either you have no sense of the romance of the Napoleonic era, or (b) you’re my eldest daughter Deanna, for whom the only point remaining is gentlemen wearing nice uniforms in visual adaptations of Miss Austen’s famed ‘chick-lit’. A sequel based on the Waterloo campaign is planned. Can’t wait.

t lemen Supp ar r e d Pow lar W Black ninsu e ll P e h age fu p for t 2 11 nts: Conte softback ter r cWal colou : Adrian M .com or mes Auth lordga r a w . www 18.00 : £ Price

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By Gary Mitchell and Eoghan Kelly

THE MAN FROM 2000 I first encountered Crooked Dice’s 7TV spy-fi rule set back in 2010, and I instantly had an ‘I wish I’d thought of that’ moment. Their ‘action engine’ game mechanic was already proven on a freebie Dr Who game, and the whole thing has snowballed from strength to strength, thanks to a spectacular range of ‘not’ miniatures (e.g. Not Captain Scarlets) and some clever rules, inspired by the best of hit Sixties and Seventies cult shows that we knew and loved so well. 7TV is not so much ‘wargaming’ as the place where wargaming and RPG meet. Intrigued? I hope you are.

7TV gives you the chance to create your

own TV show, with enigmatic heroes, saucy sidekicks and manic bad guys. In this new ‘programme guide’, it’s done for you, as the team delve even further into the background of their eponymous hero and his team at ‘Project Time Lift’.

Reading the text, one is struck by the similarities to actual TV shows of the era, notably the Pertwee-era Dr Who, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

There are also connections to current Saturday tea-time operas, like Primeval, underlining just how flexible this concept is. You will, of course, need the main rules to play, but this guide also provides additional ‘event cards’,

as well as episode backgrounds, further characters details, and locations. What makes The Man From 2000 unique is that the flexible time-travel plot device can - quite literally - take you, any time, any place, anywhere (to recall a TV ad of the period). The text is, as always, readable, entertaining, and lavishly illustrated with suitable versions of CD’s miniatures, all professionally painted. I also just love the facsimile scripts and period Radio Times entries, which never cease to make me chuckle. I won’t spoil it for you, but the cross-section of ‘Time Lift’ HQ explains why a certain London landmark has yet to be renovated.

FOR GHOULS AND COLLEGES T

his publication brings a UK twist to the earlier US-based 7ombieTV. Right, so pay attention, Shaun of the Dead. It enables gamers to play post-apocalyptic double-decker-omnibus-based cannibal ghouls, such as the twisted The Number 11 (“I ‘ate you, Cutler”) or two new ‘survivor casts’ – the Girls of St Searle’s (guess who really) and the vicious Borstal Boys (the name ‘The Redmond Youth Institute’ being a nice educational touch).

The PDF is lavishly illustrated throughout - spot on, as always, with period artwork (how do they do it?) – though, I must say that, as a serving teacher in one of HM Girls’ Secondary Schools, I think the staff at St Searle’s should do something about the girls’ uniform, or it will create the wrong impression with the general public. You will need 7ombie TV to play, but new rules are explained, along with the new casts, and a PDF bus as ‘a thing to make and do’.

I can’t wait to see this premiered at Salute, with their ‘ruined London’ model that’s been an entertaining web WIP. If I

do have a criticism - and it’s a small one - it’s that, for people who don’t remember 70s TV (like young George, from the SVfM team) it will take some research to ‘get’ the gags. That said, St Trinian’s are back in recent history, and the No. 11 is still running …

As always with Crooked Dice, these new rules inspirational. I can’t wait for the hard copy of Ghouls, in order to read without eye-strain.

0) and m 200 softback o r f PDF (Man -page olour rotton and 2 c 5 l : l s u nt rl Per uls) f Conte (Gho a Nash, Ka e g a p 42elen of ors: H son rsion Auth k e w u v . a o d D e c e e. nt Graem rooked-dic e PDF. Pri h c . t w r ww 15.00 0 fo : £5.0 h cards) £ Price t i ls (w Ghou

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Due out in Spring, 2013 North Star Military Figures Ltd, Unit W37, Lenton Business Centre, Lenton Boulevard, Nottingham, NG7 2BY, UK Tel: +44 (0)115 978 6656 Fax: 0115 9552 108 (Please address all faxes to North Star Unit W37) Email: northstar.figs@ntlworld.com Web: www.northstarfigures.com Postage and Packing: 10% UK and BFPO, 15% Europe 20% Rest of the World.

Cheques payable to North Star. We accept Visa, Mastercard and Maestro.

Nick Eyre's

NORTH STAR NORTH STAR Military Figures

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Presents

We are delighted to announce that later this year, in conjunction with Osprey Publishing, we will be releasing a range of Victorian Steampunk figures to accompany their game 'In Her Majesty's Name'. For more details visit Kev Dallimore's online magazine.

Painting by Kevin Dallimore

Sculpted by Steve Saleh

COMING APRIL 2013 IN HER MAJESTY'S NAME: Steampunk Skirmish Wargaming

WSS_ADVERT_1.indd 2

2/4/2013 2:27:19 PM

www.ironfistpublishing.com www.theplasticsoldiercompany.co.uk WSS nr65 jan13.indd 74

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Due out in Spring, 2013 PUBLISHING

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The first supplement for the Battlegroup game system, covering amphibious and airborne operations on D-Day and the battles inland, to the Westwall of Germany.

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Designed to be played at 15mm and 20mm scales.

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Thirteen detailed army lists included: the German Panzer, Ersatz Panzer and Fallshirmjäger Divisions, to face the US and British Armour, Infantry and Airborne Divisions.

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All in a lavishly illustrated 240 page, hardback book.

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Also, the full Battlegroup bundle: separate basic rulebook, Battlegroup Overlord and Battlegroup Kursk books all for just £50.

available to pre-order from:

www.ironfistpublishing.com www.theplasticsoldiercompany.co.uk WSS nr65 jan13.indd 75

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© Georgie Harman

COLUMN

By Richard Clarke

Up Front God’s Own Scale

I started wargaming back in the 1970s, when a box of Airfix figures was the schoolboy’s simple access point to the hobby. But, even then, the pages of Battle for Wargamers spoke – mostly softly, but sometimes with rancour – of a division, a wargaming apartheid, where real wargamers used metal figures, and plastics were not quite the done thing.

It is interesting to see how the ‘metal versus plastics’ argument has resurfaced in some quarters with the rejuvenation of the plastic figure. My old chum Henry Hyde regularly froths at the mouth on the View from the Veranda podcast, in response to people complaining about ‘lack of heft’ – whatever (as he says) that means.

In fact, this argument is replicated in several forms throughout the hobby. Styles of sculpting – whether the figure proportions are stylized or realistic – have their own enthusiastic spokesmen, but the biggest area of disagreement, by far, seems to be the long-running saga of ‘God’s Own Scale’. For many years, 20mm WWII gamers were the most vociferous in stating their claim, as they kit-bashed their way around the battlefields of the world. More recently, 28mm has worn the crown, dominating the hobby press in such a manner that a newcomer to the hobby could well believe that no other scales existed.

This omnipotence was commented on, a couple of issues ago, by my good friend Joe Legan, in his well-argued case for 15mm, only to see the baton seized by Dan Johnson in WS&S 63, who ably flew the flag for 10mm – the ‘Goldilocks scale’, in his words. Indeed, a quick search on Google for ‘God’s Own Scale’ will reveal that just about every size of figure out there has had this lofty claim made on its behalf.

Of course, all of the arguments in favour of one scale or another tend to be well reasoned and persuasive. However, the truth remains that, to argue that any single scale is simply the best (better than all the rest …) is rather like arguing that your hammer is a better tool than my screwdriver. In fact, the variety of tools in a builder’s toolbox have

54mm Victrix, 28mm Warlord, 20mm Esci, 18mm AB and 6mm Baccus.

been intentionally assembled in order to allow him to solve any number of problems he encounters in his work. Each tool is King when it comes to the specific job for which it has been designed. And to my mind, thinking of wargames figures in the same fashion would be a positive thing.

For example, my Boer War collection is made up of Baccus 6mm figures, and I have long fantasized about playing Kriegsspiel on an enlarged map using serried ranks of figures in that scale. The strength of this figure-size is that it allows the gamer to create an impression of massed formations or wide open spaces, something that we found we had lost when we attempted to recreate the same actions on the bushveldt with 15mm figures, let alone 28mm. On the other hand, the fact that I can’t see Colonel Blimp’s moustache will mean that, for some gamers, this scale will sadly be unacceptable.

When I first worked on the early play-testing of I Ain’t Been Shot Mum, I used 10mm figures. At the time, there wasn’t much choice when it came to infantry figures in this scale, and, whilst my collection of armoured vehicles was a joy to behold, the accompanying infantry were very wooden in their poses, and it was this that made me sell my collection. Of course, I now regret that – I should never sell my figures … I always regret it! – as the superb 10mm models available now, such as those from Pendraken, have every bit as much detail as their 15mm equivalents. They give a superb representation of a WWII battle at what is pretty close to real ground scale – something we wargamers rarely achieve – and, individually, they are pretty enough to drool over.

The big boost for 15mm figures came in the 1970s and 1980s, with the general adoption of that scale by most competition gamers and by those of us without the cash or the room to move into 25mm. It provided an increasingly diverse selection of figures as time went by, and is still one of the ‘Big Two’ in the hobby today. In recent years, however, 15mm seems to have had mixed fortunes. For WWII gaming, Flames of War has seen 15mm dominate that period and, in the past two years, 15mm sci-fi has been a huge growth area. Meanwhile, Napoleonics and some of the more colourful periods seem to have shifted towards larger figures. My recent experiences in the USA suggest that this is a shift more explicit in the UK and Europe than across the pond, which may explain why the UK/Eurocentric hobby press tends to use so many images of 28mm figures.

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28mm Warlord, 20mm PSC, 15mm Battlefront, 10mm Wargames South, 6mm Micro Armour.

15mm offers lots of options for gamers. The figures are large enough to allow you to recognize individual men on the battlefield, so it opens up skirmish rules such as Sharp Practice, as well as larger battles with systems such as General de Brigade.

The longevity of 20mm as the dominant scale in certain periods was undoubtedly perpetuated by the huge range of figures and kits one could get hold of. My earliest armies were Airfix ACW, a choice determined by the fact that the grey and blue plastic needed little painting by an 11-year-old (I still weep with shame), and we were encouraged by WWII AFV kits that even the most ham-fisted of us could put together, even adding a bit of our own detailing to make that vehicle unique. The opportunity to combine wargaming and military modelling was, for many, irresistible.

Intriguingly, one can still see that, where the hobby divides along ‘scale’ lines, it also divides according to which rules are used. Rapid Fire was long dominant in the 20mm field, and Kampfgruppe Normandy (and now Battlegroup Kursk) seem to be picking up plenty of adherents there, no doubt assisted by the splendid plastic kits from the Plastic Soldier Company, which are proving that 20mm is the hardy perennial of the hobby.

As we have already touched on, 28mm (previously 25mm) has been the real come-back kid. In the 1970s, real wargamers wore flares, had unlikely facial hair, and gamed in 25mm metal. In my teens, I could only look on with envy, as my 15mm metal figures were a poor substitute, although they suited my pocket better. Indeed, they suited many pockets, and the surge in 15mm figures saw rule sets such as Empire being written specifically for this ‘new’ scale, and 25mm limped off behind.

To a large degree, I think we can thank Duncan Macfarlane and Wargames Foundry for the re-emergence of 28mm in the 1980s. Duncan’s ceaseless devotion to the bigger scale, coupled with his great photographic skills and access to some of the finest collections in the hobby, provided inspiration for many of us. My first 28mm figures were the Foundry ‘Indian Mutiny’ figures, models which still fill me with awe thirty years on.

There can be little doubt that 28mm has hegemony in Europe, in what we can call the ‘pretty’ periods. ‘Horse and musket’ and ‘Ancients’, to use two somewhat dated terms, seem to have shifted, lock, stock and barrel, to that scale, with plastics undoubtedly playing a part in that. My own ACW collection for Sharp Practice is largely made up of plastics, but with metal officers and NCOs, the main characters of the game – which probably says something about my own subconscious stance in the ‘metal versus plastics’ debate!

Rule sets such as Black Powder and Hail Caesar, now being

marketed with accompanying 28mm figures, will undoubtedly further entrench this scale in the number one spot. It certainly offers visually attractive figures with ample character for both skirmish games and larger battles. Where it fails is in its (lack of) ability to refight some of the larger historical actions.

Even Edgehill and Naseby would be problematic in 28mm; Waterloo would be crazy. As a result, any 28mm ‘horse and musket’ battles that one sees tend to be small actions taken from a larger overall battle, or simply ahistorical, which can certainly be fun, but somewhat limiting.

The new kid on the block is 40mm, which has some very keen adherents. Rightly so, as it’s a superb scale with which to fight a Saga or Sharp Practice-sized action. It has all the joy of 28mm plus more. But, as with 28mm, its limitations are more to do with the space needed, than with the figures themselves.

So which is the ‘One True Scale’? Well, clearly you may as well search for the Holy Grail, as in truth it doesn’t exist. But this is not a reason to despair. Indeed, we should celebrate that this is the case.

Remember I mentioned the gamers who won’t even look at 6mm, because they can’t see the Colonel’s moustache? Well, they should. Not for every game or period which they undertake, but for the ones where the Colonel’s moustache is not the main focus of attention. We’ve discussed how you’d need a football pitch to do Waterloo in 28mm. Well, this is where 6mm comes into its own. No longer are you perpetually obliged to command a brigade or two, when you can move up to head an army.

This is not to condemn 28mm. Indeed, it highlights the fact that, if you are getting Harry Flashman out of one of his scrapes in the Mutiny, or defending your Romano-British kingdom from invaders with Dux Britanniarum, then 28mm is absolutely the perfect scale. Likewise, you will find that fielding a corps-sized force in an 1870 scenario suits 15mm or 10mm. The secret of happy wargaming is to select the right tool for the job, and we are lucky to have such a great selection to choose from.

When wandering around your next wargame show or convention, take a brief moment to look at manufacturers who produce scales which you don’t normally choose to game. Think about what they can do for you. Joe and Dan highlighted cost in their recent articles, but let’s try to look further than that, and consider what different types and styles of games we could add to our repertoire.

Rich reminds us that it’s a good idea to keep an open mind regarding different scales. The larger the ground scale (or the smaller the individual miniatures), the more room there is for the grand manoeuvre. This may be simulated off-board in 28mm, but can equally be simulated on-board in 6mm.

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BOARDGAMES REVIEWS

By Chris Payne

RICHELIEU Richelieu aims to represent intrigue at the court of Louis XIII. This is, of course, the era of the Three Musketeers, but there are no references to them, although players represent noble families.

Games based around the theme of intrigue are a difficult challenge to implement. At one end of the spectrum, there are ‘negotiation and diplomacy’ style games, which can descend into protracted bouts of discussion going nowhere and often end up with a playing time far in excess of what it says on the box. And at the other end, the theme may be present, but actual game-play has no intrigue or skulduggery within it.

tracks (money, prestige, or military commission), or placing the Queen or Eminence Grise.

Each player has the same number (10) and value (1 to 3, with one -2) of agents to place, but placing your last agent causes you to take all your agents back.

On a player’s turn, they get to perform one action, if they are tied with (or in front of) the Richelieu marker on the prestige track, or two actions, if they are behind (and therefore seen as less of a threat). This can be placing agents, buying military commissions, buying or selling jewellery, or taking income. The military track at certain points will give bonus income or prestige.

The game ends when all thirteen plots (pairs of intrigue tiles) have been resolved. The winner of the game is determined by: a) Adding up the scores from the prestige and military track b) Adding a bonus for jewellery tokens held c) Adding a bonus for sets of intrigue tiles. The player with the most Richelieu tiles scores 8 points and the player with second-most scores 4 points, whilst foreign powers score 1 point for one, 4 points for two, 9 points for three, and (in the case of England only) 16 points for four. With only thirteen plots to be fought over, getting the high value sets is going to be difficult.

“If you give me six lines written by the most honest man, I will find something in them to hang him.”

Cardinal Richelieu.

The core element of the game is placing agents onto ‘intrigue’ tiles. They are placed in pairs – one side represents the Cardinal, and the other a foreign power (Holland, England or Spain). These have six spaces for an agent to be placed with a base cost of 0 to 3. Once one side of a pair is full of agents, then the total value for each side (agents plus the Queen or Eminence Grise, if present) is calculated to determine which side has won. The person who contributed the most to the winning side gets to keep the intrigue tile, whilst the players who contributed the most and next-most also receive a bonus. This bonus will involve a variety of options, such as more money, advancing along one of three

Intrigue tiles and counters.

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During play testing, there often seemed not to be enough high-value agents or money to fully exploit the different tracks. With one slot on each intrigue tile costing 3 moneypoints to place on, it is often the last one to be finished, so it is critical in deciding who wins the intrigue. Advancing on the money track is difficult: two slots on the military commission track give advancement (but advancement on the military track requires money in the first place) and some of the intrigue tiles give a money track advance as the bonus.

The board in close-up.

Richelieu has the following element of intrigue within its game-play: a) Hidden or open placement of variable-strength agents. It is possible to place agents on both sides of a plot. b) One of the bonus rewards is to move an agent (either your own, or another player’s). If moved to a zero-cost slot, it is revealed. c) The Eminence Grise and Queen markers are worth 3 points for whatever intrigue side they are on, but do not score for any particular player. They are placed as a result of a bonus action from winning an intrigue tile. Placing these requires careful thought. d) Each played has one -2 agent. Place him to weaken your opponents. e) Alliances to secure a win on one side of an intrigue tile will shift during the game and from plot to plot. With each tile having five vacant slots and only one zero-cost slot, placing agents is a tactical decision each turn.

White Goblin Games is a Dutch company, but the Englishlanguage rules are well written and clear. They were first made available in the UK at the end of last Summer.

The components are printed on heavy-duty cardstock, which punched out cleanly and appears to be strong enough to stand up to the rigours of play. I found the money (which comes in units of 1 and 3) a bit hard to distinguish at first, as all denominations are the same size and color: bronze and silver, for example, would have been better than giving both values the same gold finish.

The board is 54cm x 54cm when unfolded. Because of the need for players to see easily what the intrigue bonuses are, and what tokens are on what tiles, I would recommend not playing on too big a table. On the other hand, there needs to be additional table space for the screens, which hide players’ unplaced agents, money and jewellery tokens. The board’s background is an old parchment map of Paris. Personally, I would have muted the base background colour and print a little to show off the various foreground tracks better.

With the pairs of intrigue tiles being determined randomly each game, the tactical decisions are going to be different in each game. There are potentially elements of memory within the game which some people will dislike: the rules are silent about whether placed agents can be inspected once played and whether intrigue tiles once taken have to be visible.

The two-player game is somewhat different. Each player receives seven tokens of another colour, which are regarded as a neutral player. One of these is placed as an additional action on a player’s turn, and there are a few rules about placement of neutral agents and resolution of intrigue tiles.

The game essentially has the same rules as the three- or fourplayer game. The actual game-play and dynamics are, however, somewhat different.

My personal view is that the three- or four-player game is better. Playing time is as stated, providing people don’t spend too long analyzing the board on their turn. In my opinion, the theme and game mechanics go well together, and the playing time makes it long enough to be interesting, but not so long as to become boring or frustrating. The winner is unlikely to be known until the final intrigue tile is resolved.

All pictures courtesy of Chris Payne.

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BOOK REVIEWS WARGAMING NINETEENTH CENTURY EUROPE 1815 - 1878 approach games and justifying how these rules will operate before actually getting to the rules themselves! I found this to be slightly distracting as I felt the rules seemed to be quite good and suitable to fast play gaming. The system itself is a traditional IGO UGO with a straight forward sequence of play: • Formation Changes • Charges • Movement • Firing • Hand to Hand The unit types are simplified into what is effectively four types; Infantry, Skirmishers, Cavalry and Artillery. Each of these will have a certain number of figures per base and casualties are removed by base. What is slightly unusual is that all units are the same size, and so only casualties will give a unit a numerical advantage over its opponent.

I quite like the author’s idea that this is a period well suited to small-scale battles, which will work well for players with restricted budgets or space. There is a very comprehensive set of army lists, which are very good (and surprisingly concise) and some interesting musings on how to refight historical battles are provided. Not just content with giving some very clear ideas for ‘DIY’ battles, the author goes ahead and provides ten historical battles spread across the period discussed. These are well laid out with backgrounds to explain the starting point of the battle, maps, and orders of battle which also have balancing elements to allow for refights that have some options should players feel they are slightly uneven.

This is a very interesting set of rules covering the postNapoleonic era. To begin with, it is a lot more than just a set of rules, and comes with a very good overview of Europe in this period, listing the major (and some minor) conflicts, the causes of these wars and, of course, their results. I found this to be a good source to set the context of the rules as well as helpful in understanding the rationale behind the armies of the period.

The quality of the production is good, being well supported with maps and photographs of miniature battles, though some are not very good (why would you take a picture of the back of your troops?) and others use the old trick of presenting two different scales of figures to give the impression of distance. The writing style is quite good and is well supported with a liberal dose of quotes from contemporary military writers of this period.

The rules themselves are remarkably ‘lite’, covering only eight pages of the 192 odd in the books itself. The author appears to spend a lot of time criticising how other rules

Once I got past some of the strange justifications in the early part of the book (which I felt were almost an advance rebuttal of some sort), I found this to be a clever set of rules which give a gamer, especially a novice gamer for this period, a really great introduction and enough to effectively ‘plug and play’. I would recommend these for anyone looking for a new period, or those who want to breathe life into a period that they may have played before. Note for the publishers - please get some better photos for the next edition…

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By Eoghan Kelly and Guy Bowers

JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS The majority of the book is the telling (retelling?) of the story of Jason and the crew of the Argo as an historical narrative.

While not quite bedtime story material, it is a very good read and certainly shows why this heroic tale has survived the intervening centuries. Included is a list of the Argonauts and their special abilities. There is the legendary hero Heracles, Euphemus (who can run across water), Peleus (father of Achilles), Mopsus (who could divine the future from birds) to name but four. It is quite a ‘who’s who’ of Ancient Greek heroes! All the familiar elements are here: Harpies, Sirens, the Talos, the Dragon and the fickle will of the Greek gods. The book also continues where the films stop, and covers the fate of Jason after the quest. Don’t mess with Medea!

The timing of this release is spot on. The theme for Salute 2013 is also Jason and the Argonauts and there is the soon to be released 7th Voyage, a new publication from Crooked Dice. This inspirational and well illustrated book will be perfect for those who want to recreate Jason’s adventures on the tabletop or those who simply want a good read.

Just when you think Osprey Publishing cannot possibly initiate another series of books, they come out with Myths and Legends. Before Herodotus and Thucydides defined history, stories from ‘way back when’ happily mixed historical cores with mythical and legendary embellishments. The story of Jason and his Argonauts falls squarely in that category and must be one of the oldest epic questy stories: a band of adventures seeking a long lost artefact who have to overcome many perils and twists of fate before their journey’s end.

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This book covers the story of Jason and the Argonauts, looking primarily at the original story as written by Apollonius of Rhodes, who probably was simply recording the oral version in writing. This, with the Roman version of Valerius Flaccus, is used to piece together the story of Jason. At numerous points, the narrative points out where stories differ and how they have been embellished over the years (including a nod to the Ray Harryhausen’s 1963 and 2000 films).

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BOOK REVIEWS BOLT ACTION: ARMIES OF GREAT BRITAIN There are the now familiar theatre lists at the end of the book.

These are admittedly very useful and cover 14 theatres of war, from France 1940 to ‘into the Reich’ 1945. These are very good, as they tell you what sort of units you can have in different periods (so your 1940 British can’t have veterans and can only have 1940 vehicles - logical). The inclusion of theatres for ‘Dad’s Army’, ‘Raiders’ (Commandos) and ‘Behind enemy lines’ (LRDG and SAS) and ‘Market Garden’ (Paras) are most welcome, although I’d have liked to have known what suitable theatre lists the Germans could field against some of these forces (presumably the anti-partizan lists?). I can’t imagine Commandos encountering an SS Panzer division complete with Tigers on a coastal raid… Some common sense may be required! While the Desert is given ample coverage (five theatre lists), Italy is given a single one (Sicily is mentioned in passing) and the East gets two theatre lists. I would have preferred a few more pages on theatres or dropping the odd full page picture.

The special rules for the British are ‘a bit good’. There are the ones from the main rulebook plus one called ‘A National Characteristic’, which allows the player to choose one of five special rules (each one a very ‘tasty’ rule). This is good, as it allows players to customise their armies (so Indian troops can be different from Aussies), however this has the danger of being a ‘swiss army knife’, perhaps too adjustable to suit the opponent the player is fighting. British players will definitely find this book a useful addition to their Bolt Action arsenal.

The Armies of Great Britain is the third supplement for Bolt Action, giving detailed army lists for the game. It follows the now familiar format of excellent quality illustrations from Osprey and good pictures from Warlord. As the original rulebook was pretty comprehensive, the same question is as relevant here as it was for the last two books: what does this book provide which the main book did not? A fair bit, as it happens…

The book starts with a brief history of the British involvement in WWII followed by a comprehensive list of British squads, equipment and vehicles. The myriad of British tanks and armoured cars (including US ‘Lend Lease’) is handled adeptly, they even included the Bishop and Kangaroo! There is also good coverage of LRDG vehicles and jeeps (Para and SAS). For infantry, there are special lists for Commandos, Chindits, Ghurkhas, Home Guard and Paratroopers. No special rules are provided for Commonwealth troops, or not specifically anyway.

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Miniatu

IN HER MAJESTY’S NAME Steampunk Skirmish Wargaming Rules

OSPREY WARGAMES 3

COMING IN MAY

ISBN: 978 1 78096 289 4 Price: £11.99 / $17.95 80pp, Full Colour

By Craig Cartmell & Charles Murton

It is 1895 and the world is in turmoil. The Great Powers compete for resources and the latest technology, and an undeclared and secret war rages between them all. This is the battleground of the Adventuring Companies. These clandestine agents of the Great Powers operate in the shadows, matching skills and wits in pursuit of the newest scientific formulae or powerful occult artifacts.

In Her Majesty’s Name is a new set of wargaming rules that sets these Adventuring Companies against each other in one-off encounters and in longer narrative campaigns. Companies are usually comprised of 4–15 figures and two players can easily play three games in an evening. The rules have been designed to allow maximum versatility for the player – if you can imagine it, the system will help you build it. There is, however, a wealth of material provided in the book, covering weird science, mystical powers, and a range of pre-generated Adventuring Companies, including the British Explorers’ Club, the Prussian Society of Thule, the US Marine Corps, the Légion Étrangère, the revolutionaries of the Brick Lane Commune, ancient Egyptian cults, and the mysterious Black Dragon Tong.

Official miniatures produced by North Star Military Figures

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OSPREY WARGAMES

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