Forest of Fright

The 1666 Campaign with Hans Neimand

Background

After being repulsed at a small, unnamed hamlet, Fahnrich Hans Neimand decides to return to HQ and report on the bizarre events of his patrol. However, he hears more Turkish cavalry coming up from behind him. He decides to shake them by going through the woods.

The Battle

As Neimand's force treks through the woods, they lose their pursuers. However, they hear eerie scuttling noises from the copses of trees.

Dismounted and mounted dragoons lead the way. They hear noise coming from dense thickets (indicated by the red markers).

Game Note: I initially marked possible enemies, similar to some of the Two Hour Wargames rules. I quickly dropped it because it reduced the uncertainty. Instead, I just randomly rolled each turn to see if new enemies appeared, similar to Operation Last Train. I found this method far more suspenseful.

Suddenly, a swarm of small, hideous humanoid figures swarm out of the woods.

"Kobolds!" cries out one of the troopers.

Game Note: These are not D&D kobolds. I envision them as goblins, but I am using a German equivalent.

It can't be, thinks Neimand, but he does not have time to process the threat before they are on top of his troops.

The lead dragoons drive off the kobolds, but another troops (bottom) gets overwhelmed.

The mounted dragoons backtrack and overrun the creatures.

Neimand's infantry move up and drive the kobolds into the thickets.

As quiet returns to the forest, the dragoons scout ahead. Kobolds ambush the infantry, but steady fire cuts them down.

The mounted dragoons cover the infantry as more kobolds gather.

Neimand makes a stand on a hill.

Then he forms a line that backs towards the edge of the forest. The mounted dragoons charge and wipe out more of the kobolds.

This gives Neimand's force time to escape from the forest.

Aftermath

Their return to camp in uneventful. Neimand reports to HQ. He expects his superiors to be skeptical, but they are unusually attentive.

Later, Neimand is surprised when his captain approaches and awards him a promotion to Leutnant!

Game / Campaign Notes

I've been in the mood for a skirmish but I don't really have the figures for it. Instead, I decided to do a squad-based game set in my 1666 setting.

The scenario is loosely inspired by one of the scenarios in The Silver Bayonet, where the players get attacked by goblins. I modified it to be a solo game and then game Neimand a simple objective - escape the forest.

Initially, I was using the campaign rules from Pikeman's Lament, which requires me to keep a record of Neimand's honor. I decided I am going to take a different tack from now on. I will do a series of short, 5-game campaigns. If Neimand wins a campaign (wins at least 3 of 5 games), then he'll receive a promotion. I decided that this game would end Neimand's first campaign. A win would lead to a promotion. Well, Neimand won so he is now a lieutenant!

Next up, I plan to use the solo scenarios in The Silver Bayonet as Neimand's second campaign.

Thoughts on Skirmishes

Buckle up, this is going to be a long and meandering post.

Lately, I've been thinking of skirmish gaming, and want to jot down my thoughts.

The Inspiration

My latest gaming digression comes courtesy of this.

Pulp! is an upcoming title from Osprey. I pre-ordered a copy from Amazon.

I love the cover. Two heroes braving a hail of gunfire, presumably from a bunch of goons whose a** they're going to kick. It reminds me of some of my previous skirmish experiments, like the adventures of Kate and Kip.

Kip and Kate (left) vs. the Brainiacs

The Problems with Skirmish

You might notice that I don't play many skirmish games. Oh, I've dabbled, but never really got too deep into it. A few problems have led to this state of affairs.

1. Lack of figures
I just don't have all the figures needed for skirmish games.

I have a scattering of fantasy and sci-fi figures, which I've used on occasion for skirmishes and RPGs. However, I am short on enemies.

A skirmish with Blandalf the wizard, Nocan the crappy barbarian, and Gimlet the dwarf.

I also keep getting distracted by other eras. In the last couple of years, I had short-lived plans for Byzantine and 1666 skirmish campaigns. Both stalled after I ordered some 10mm figures. Now I want to do some pulp scenarios, but I find the thought of painting figures daunting.

2. Lack of Terrain

While I have some terrain that would work for 10mm skirmishes, I don't have enough variety for all the possible settings I'd like to use. Even if I managed to create the terrain, I just don't have enough storage space.

I tried using dry erase boards but found them lacking.

3. Indecision on Rules

Although I have some suitable candidates (a MicroBattle variant, my D12 RPG rules, Age of Heroes, or even Fistful of Lead), I have yet to settle on a set of rules. I keep investigating other rules sets (like Pulp!) and end up in analysis paralysis.

4. Coming up with Scenarios

It just dawned on me that this is a major factor. It's the reason I haven't been doing many RPG sessions lately. I'm kind of stumped on the next chapter for Tweedle and Dunh, and I found the adventures in Dragon of Icespire Peak to be somewhat lackluster.

Below, I will examine consider some solutions to these problems.

Figures and Terrain

I've been very pleased with my experiments with counters (as seen in this battle) and realize that they can be a solution to my skirmish issue. Counters and 2D terrain are easier for me to create and take less storage.

Right now, I am debating how to position the counters. Should I go with top down or side view? 

I am leaning toward the approach I took with my virtual skirmishes (like the Kate and Kip illustration above). Figures are side view but terrain is top down. This is kind of the approach used in old school video games. But the jury is still out.

Rules

I will likely use either MicroBattle or my D12 RPG rules, but I'm perusing through some Ospreys that I previously purchased to glean ideas.

This leads me to a rant.

For a recent last family game night, I toyed with pulling out Mice & Mystics. Eventually, I demurred because it is a bit of a pain to set up and it can drag. However, I thought my wife might enjoy a skirmish game with anthropomorphic animals. Following this train of thought, I purchased Burrows and Badgers. I was aghast when I saw the roster.

I highlighted in red the space for the nine characteristics players have to track for each character. Yes, nine! Overkill in my mind.

Anyway, rant over.

Scenarios

For battles, I have the luxury of the scenarios in One Hour Wargames. If I'm in the mood for a game, I can quickly pick a scenario and throw together a game. I just don't have the same resource for skirmishes. I've dabbled with generators, but they are not generic enough to be a one-stop resource. I've also used scenarios from various commercial rulesets, but these are scattered over a plethora of books.

I should come up with a generic generator.

What Next?

I think my first order of business in creating counters. Stay tuned.

Battles of Medieval Britain

Acting upon a recommendation from Geoff aka elliesdad, I ordered a copy of Battles of Medieval Britain: A Solitaire Wargame from Amazon.

It a nutshell, I'm glad that I did.

Let's take a look.

Physical Layout

Battles of Medieval Britain (hereafter BMB) comes in book form, specifically an 8.5 by 11 inch, paperback booklet with 44 pages. Not fancy but serviceable.

Contents

Inside, BMB contains two sections:

• Rules - which lay out how to play the game
• Scenarios - 12 battles from medieval British history that you can play using the rules

The Rules

The rules only take up about 10 pages and are quite simple.

Turns follow this sequence:

1. If applicable (depends on the scenario) roll for enemy reinforcements.

2. Choose a unit to activate. Roll 3 (for infantry) or 4 (for cavalry) D6s and refer to the scenario chart to determine what actions that unit can perform

Here is an example of an activation chart. Each roll corresponds to a potential action, and units will have multiple actions they can perform each turn.

3. Perform actions - you can choose the order of the actions. For example, if you rolled a 1, 3, and 6 you could move first, attack, then form a shieldwall.

To attack, roll 2D6. If the roll is greater than or equal to your unit's To Hit value, then you hit the enemy. Hits eliminate the targeted unit, which means combat is fast and bloody.

4. Repeat steps 2-3 for your remaining units.

5. Enemy units attack all your units in range.

Yes, an enemy unit will attack every single one of your units in range. If you have 4 units surrounding an enemy, it will attack 4 times in the turn! Thus, you want to make sure you position your troops to maximize your attacks while minimizing the enemy's attacks, especially since hits kill!

6. Check for victory conditions. The scenarios in this book require you either to eliminate all enemy units or kill the enemy leader, depending on the scenario.

The Scenarios
Most of the book comprises the 12 scenarios - battles from medieval British history ranging from Brunanburh (937 AD) to Shrewsbury (1403 AD).

Each scenario comprises 2 pages.

1. The first page has a very brief introduction, the charts you need for the scenario, a summary of combat modifiers, and the victory conditions.
2. The second page has the game map, like this:

What is neat about this format is that you can lay the book open on your table, set up your units, and play by referencing the adjoining page. This makes the game easy to play.

You may notice a bunch of numbers on the map. This is for random setup of the enemy forces. Each time you play the scenario, this will differ, giving each scenario variability and greater replay value.

The tracker at the bottom allows you to keep tabs on the turn. It also shows when enemy reinforcements arrive.

My Play Tests

I played the first two scenarios in my initial test of the game. In both cases (Brunanburh and Fulford Gate), I ran out of time before I could get to all the enemies. I think there were about 3 enemy units left in both games.

Game time was short, maybe 15 - 20 minutes each.

Evaluation

I suppose you could make a lot of quibbles about the rules:

• Your units' actions are limited by your dice rolls. A unit may be sitting next to a unit but if it rolls 3 move actions, it's not doing anything.
• Enemy units don't move. They just sit there passively. This is ameliorated somewhat by reinforcements, which can swoop in next to your units.
• To Hit odds are determined solely by the attacker without reference to the target (and especially the type of armor the target wears).

Nevertheless, this is a fun and challenging game. It is a bit of a puzzle to determine how to best approach and attack the enemy's dispositions. Furthermore, the optimal solution will vary depending on your dice rolls. And because of the random setup, each replay of a scenario will be different.

In all, I'm glad that I purchased BMB and expect to play it quite often.

I have one other minor complaint about BMB. There are no unit counters or markers; you need to provide your own. If you have miniatures, that's probably not a problem. It would have been nice, however, if the author provided a sheet of counters one could cut out and use.

The Series

The author, Mike Lambo, has published 6 solitaire game books. Alas, the other 5 cover World War 2, a topic in which I have very little interest. I hope he publishes rules for additional periods; I would certainly purchase them.

Addendum: More Counters

As noted above, BMB does not come with counters or markers. For my tests, I used the counters I recently created. However, they were a bit wide for the map. I decided to create some 3/4" by 1/2" counters specifically for this game.

Since I was making counters anyway, I added some more to the list - casualty markers, more ships, towns, and chariots. I placed an order with Litko for the bases. Just waiting for their arrival. 

Battle of Oikos

Background

Following up their first victory, the Persians strike deeper into Byzantine territory. The Emperor instructs General Synchysi to hold the invaders at the town of Oikos.

Dispositions

Synchysi posts two units of heavy infantry in and around the town (left), backed up by heavy cavalry. The remainder of his army defends a nearby hill (lower right) so that the enemy cannot turn his flank.

The Persian commander decides to focus his efforts on seizing the hill. His infantry will  demonstrate before the town.

The Battle

Synchysi's infantry repulses an attack on the town and his cavalry chase the light infantry to a nearby hill. Feeling secure, he sends some infantry to the right flank, where a cavalry melee rages.

Note: I ran out of casualty markers and I was too lazy to go upstairs to get more so I pressed a sunflower seed into service.

The Persian light infantry shoot down their pursuers.

In a display of indecision, Synchysi recalls his infantry in the woods. They are not needed, though, as a Persian assault on Oikos fails miserably.

The Byzantines lose some cavalry (top) and their infantry (left) takes casualties from Persian archery.

Meanwhile, the Persian elephants prepare to assault the infantry holding the hill.

Synchysi rides to the beleaguered hill, but he is too late. The elephants have crushed the infantry and taken the hill.

The elephants stand firm, leaving Synchysi no choice but to concede Oikos. The Emperor will not be happy.

Campaign

With another loss, the Byzantines find themselves in an 0-2 deficit for the campaign.

Game Notes

I took the scenario from One Hour Wargames. It is number 14, Static Defense. The attacking Persians need to control either the town or hill at the end of 15 turns. The elephants seized the hill on turn 14.

For the armies, I used the lists created by Mark Cordone in The Portable Wargame Compendium. He lays out some ancient army lists for his 3 x 3 variant.

Counters

This battle was the first outing for more generic army counters. I used blue for the Persians and red for the Byzantines.

I have to say that I am quite pleased with the result. The counters are easy to handle and easy to identify the troop types. Furthermore, they are much quicker to create than painting miniatures. Expect to see more counters in the future.

I have some enhancements in mind.

First, I would like some better casualty markers. I created a design already, but I have another thought. I may print some more unit counters with some kind of casualty mark (maybe bloodstains) and glue it to the backside of the counters. Then I can just flip the counter when it takes damage. I just don't look forward to all the gluing this would require so I may just make a handful of casualty counters.

I used 2mm terrain for woods and hills, but I was too lazy to dig out any buildings. Instead, I used a piece of card with buildings sketched on it. I actually really liked this approach. I often have difficulty fitting buildings and figures in a square but having flat buildings solves the issue. I may create some building counters, kind of like in the Command & Colors series.

Mare Nostrum

More properly, He Hemetera Thalassa, Mare Nostrum (hereafter MN).

MN is a set of rules for galley actions that I have been perusing lately.

I picked them up last year when I began a short-lived foray into Byzantine naval operations. Because of my recent experiments with galley battles I decided to take another look.

Here are some of my thoughts.

What I Like

There are quite a few aspects of the rules that I really like.

• The emphasis is on fleet actions rather than individual warships. Because of this emphasis, MN employs multi-ship bases, much like my counters.

My counters in action

• Missile combat does no damage, but it reduces a ship base's effectiveness in "melee" combat.
• The rules cover galley warfare in the Mediterranean up to 900 AD, so they cover Byzantines.

Not Sure About This

There is one rule that gives me mixed emotions.

• There is no distinction between ramming and boarding. Both are subsumed into melee.

This makes a lot of sense for fast-play fleet actions, but I worry that it will make combat too generic. The difference between fleets that rely on ramming vs. those that board seems to be an important difference that I would like to model in some fashion.

Not My Cup of Tea

There is nothing inherently wrong with these aspects of the rules. They just don't fit my preferences.

• Fleets consist of multiple squadrons, each with multiple ship bases. As a result, scenarios tend to feature dozens of bases (the sample scenarios generally have 20-40 bases per side). I plan to use about a half dozen stands per side. I'll probably assume that each stand is a squadron.
• Combat resolution uses D10s but I plan to use D6s. I will likely adapt my MicroBattle rules to replicate the results.

My Plans for Galley Wars

I don't really plan to use MN as is, but I will mine it for ideas.

Here is a rundown of my thoughts so far on galley warfare rules.

• The objective is a portable wargame style set of rules with a gridded board (of perhaps 8 x 10 spaces)
• Fleets will consist of ~ 6 squadrons, each of 1 base.
• Movement will be random, perhaps 1-2 spaces per move
• As with MN, missile combat will affect combat effectiveness
• I may adjudicate ramming like a charge, with bonuses in combat. After the ram will come boarding.
• I will use MicroBattle resolution to determine combat results.

That's what I have so far. Stay tuned for more experiments.

Eastern Med Action

Introduction

After completing some naval counters, I decided to get them in action.

I set up a quick hypothetical action between the Byzantines (red) and Arabs (blue)

Background

A Byzantine convoy is taking supplies to northern Africa. Arab galleys intercept it.

The Battle

Opposing light galleys engage in missile fire (upper right). The Byzantines take damage.

The light galleys engage in boarding actions, Meanwhile, the Byzantine heavy galleys (bottom right) overwhelm more Arab light galleys.

The supply ships turn right in an attempt to escape.

But the Arab heavy galleys overtake them.

There is a mad scrum, but the supply ships are forced to strike.

Arab victory!

Notes

• I used a variant of MicroBattle that I quickly ginned up. Some highlights
• Each counter represent a squadron of ships
• Squadrons move 0-2 spaces per turn
• There are 3 forms of combat:
• Missile fire (range 1-2 spaces)
• Ramming - attacker needs to move into an opponent's space. Roll for success depends on the angle of attack.
• Boarding - for ships that begin in the same space. This uses an opposed die roll
• A successful attack does 1 damage. Squadrons strike on 2 points.
• I made the counters by
• creating the top-down ship images in PowerPoint. They are stylistic instead of realistic
• printing the images on cardstock
• Cutting out the images and gluing them to some 1" wooden tokens I had lying around
• Overall, I like the counters. They especially make it easy when squadrons share a space.
• I want to make some damage counters. I just need to decide on a design.

Games and Stuff

 A lot going on during my vacation last week.

Surviving Orlando

We went to Orlando to visit Disney's Flower and Garden festival.

But first, we had to sit through a timeshare presentation. I thought it would be worth it for the hotel stay and other goodies they offered us. It wasn't.

Then I succumbed to heat exhaustion at Epcot. First time I ever left Disney in an ambulance. At least we had a nice dinner at the Nine Dragons (Chinese restaurant) the night before.

Roaring 20s League

I played another week of games for my dice baseball league.

In the American League, the Yankees won 2 out of 3 over Cleveland. Nevertheless, Cleveland's win was memorable. Down 1-0 late in the game, the Indians scored 7 in one crazy inning that included a grand slam. New York answered with its own grand slam, but they still fell short 7-5. In the other series, the Athletics swept the Senators, with all games being decided by a single run. The second game was especially heartbreaking for Washington. They gave up a 4-run lead late in the game.

In the National League, the Cubs swept the Pirates, with a two-run homer by Rogers Hornsby securing the victory in the first game. St Louis's Grover Alexander had a bad game, allowing 4 walks and 6 hits in an 8-run inning. He settled down after that but the damage was done and the Giants were victorious 8-3. Then the teams split the next two games.

Here are the current standings.

Counters

After some thought, I decided to continue with my counter experiment. I added to my counters with some ships for Byzantine naval battles. Each fleet has light galleys, heavy galleys, and merchant ships.

I also printed a bunch of the counters.

I put the naval counters in action. Here is a shot. Full report coming.

I recently acquired some bases from Litko. I just need to paste the counters onto the bases and my armies will be ready to go.

Bargain Buy

When I was working on my 1666 Campaign, I considered getting this book from Helion. But at 30 pounds, I considered the price too steep.

Now that I am making counters, I wanted to try some for this campaign. I was looking for some uniform references and again came across this volume. However, it was on sale for 11.98! I ordered it without a second thought.

Operation Last Train

Earlier this year, I dabbled with Operation Last Train, a set of free sci-fi rules. I had some free time one evening so ran a scenario. Sorry, no after action report. The star marines managed to save 3 bands of civilians at the loss of one squad.

Missed Comments

I just discovered a backlog of comments awaiting moderation. I approved and responded to them.

Sorry for missing them. I turned on moderation due to a glut of spam but I did not realize that I had notification off. It is now on so I should respond in a timely manner going forward.