Ambush!

A Viking in the Sun scenario

I mentioned my interest in gaming the mini-campaigns in the Lion Rampant scenario book, A Viking in the Sun. I finally got around to playing one.

Naturally, I used my own rules rather than LR. Likewise, I modified the scenario a bit, so it's more like an "inspired by" version.

Set Up

Harald Hardrada is an officer of the Varangian Guard in Byzantine service. His superiors have tasked him with escorting a Byzantine envoy to Jerusalem

Harald's forces (red) include:

• a unit of Varangian Guard (with yellow marker)
• a unit of Byzantine spearmen
• a unit of archers
• a unit of Fatimid light cavalry, escorting the envoy

On the way, Harald's force gets ambushed by a bunch of bandits. They include:

• 2 units of light cavalry
• a unit of archers
• a unit of spearmen

Harald must get the envoy off the right-hand edge of the map.

The Skirmish

The bandit horse swarm the archers. One unit gets driven back, leaving some of their dead behind.

The horse try again and overwhelm the archers. Harald's Varangians turn to secure the flank. Meanwhile, the escort makes a break for the little village to the east (right).

The bandits pursue the escort.

Harald and his infantry march down the road to assist the escort, which got tangled up with the bandit spearmen.

The spears fall.

The escort reaches the village but the bandit archers begin shooting. The bandit horse units take on Harald's infantry.

The horse units lose.

The remaining bandits break and flee.

Aftermath

Harald successfully completes his escort mission. Next, he will seek the bandit leader, Hassan, and make him pay for such a brazen assault.

Stay tuned for scenario 2!

Notes

The scenario includes rules for capturing the envoy. I generally ignored those rules and decided that the envoy was attached to the Fatimid unit. If it broke, then the envoy would be captured. As it turns out, that did not happen.

I started the bandit spears in the village,  but moved them out to get them in the action. I probably should have left them in.

Naval Test Run

I decided to do a test run using my sci-fi rules for a naval action.

Set Up

Here is how I set up the game.

• I found a piece of blue cloth. I cut it down to 9 x 12 inch.
• The board is not gridded so I used a ruler I made for a craft stick.
• I used wood ovals for the ships. I used a marker to draw a flag on the stern and dots on the bow to use for identification.
• I decided to throw a hill on the board to serve as an island.
• I'm playing the game on a footstool, using a laptop tray in lieu of a table.

I'm not using different ship types in this experiment. I treated all ships as cruisers.

The Battle

Some near misses on Blue 2.

Blue 2 takes critical damage (2 hits out of 3). Red 1 and 3 take minor damage.

Blue 2 blows up! Red 3 takes more damage and decides to flee.

Blue 1 takes heavy damage.

Blue 3 comes around to protect Blue 1. Blue 3's salvo damages Red 2.

Red 2 and Blue 1 flee. Red 1 decides its at a disadvantage and also withdraws.

RIP Cooper

RIP

I am grieved to report that one of my cats, Cooper, passed away yesterday. 

Cooper - 2022 (L) and May of this year (R)

He went into surgery for a possible ruptured bowel but the vet found multiple masses, likely cancerous. We chose to put him down rather than prolong his suffering.

Cooper's Story

Our life with Cooper began when we discovered him as an injured stray. We took him to the vet and got him patched up.

Our first picture of Cooper. 2009

He recuperated well, and lived life to the fullest, even though he had arthritis from the leg injury.

He even appeared multiple times on this blog.

This is his first appearance, way back in 2013.

Helping me play Down in Flames.

Here's another good one from 2013. This time he crashed our Game of Thrones dinner.

2016. Cooper photobombs my attempt to take picture of my 3mm troops.

Later in 2016, we played Four Against Darkness, with our cats as characters. I posted this picture of our warrior.

And again from 2016, he helps us with Fortune & Glory.

My last gamer picture of Cooper, from 2021.

After that, with his arthritis really flaring up, Cooper had difficulty jumping up on tables. As a result, I stopped getting candid gamer shots of him. Yet he still gave us a few more years of joy.

We'll miss you, Cooper.

More Maritime Musings

On occasion I find myself drawn to naval gaming. Once again, I find myself pondering some action at sea.

The Inspiration

This post from The Wargames Website peaked my interest in wargaming some dreadnought action, especially when the original poster mentioned Austrians vs. Italians.

The Main Problem

My biggest issue is space. Lately, my games have been using a 5-inch square board. That does not give a lot of room for naval maneuvers. I've been thinking of standardizing my boards as 5 x 7 inches - still small for naval.

A Solution

Rummaging around I found an unused GMT game box. I decided to turn it into my naval gaming box. It's 9 x 12 inches, which allows me to fit a larger board.

I did a test game to see if the board works. it does, and it fits snugly in the box. I just need to add a grid.

Rules

Once again I find myself perusing rules, as I did in January. Back then I mentioned a set of homebrew fleets in space rules. I decided to give them a test run. Expect a battle report soon.

Counters

For my test, I whipped up some ships using wood ovals. These are just a temporary expedient; I will replace them with counters.

Back in January, I made some pre-dreadnought counters - a battleship, a cruiser, and a destroyer. I'm not entirely satisfied with them and will redo them. But this has led to some questions:

• Do I want one ship or multiple ships on a counter? I am toying with the idea of multiple ships for big fleet battles.
• Do I want genre-specific ships or can I make generic counters. Considering how they get scaled down, I think generic counters would work.

Anyway, I have some work and testing to do.

My Gaming Developments

Some miscellaneous gaming notes.

The bases are coming! The bases are coming!

Actually, they're finally here! Last month I created and printed some modern era counters. I had to order the bases for them. They finally arrived. I'll be able to put the counters together.

New markers

In last week's Revolutionary War battle, I used some new and some old counters. I like how they enhanced the game.

•  The red, pill-shaped tokens are casualty markers. I like them because they stand out but are small so don't obscure the counters.
• The white pipe cleaners indicate units that fired. I've had these for a while and used them before, but it has been some time. I think it makes the photo battle reports more understandable.

Terrain

My portable battle set uses flat markers for built up areas. They are convenient but honestly don't work very well. Usually, the counters obscure the BUAs.

Last week, I pulled out some old 2mm terrain. The fort (top) worked pretty well (with one drawback). The farm (bottom) did not work well because it took up too much space. The units did not fit neatly into the BUA spaces.

I have a solution in mind - buildings in two dimensions (length and height). Bob Cordery has some excellent examples on his blog. I just need to pick up the supplies and build some.

There is one issue with these, and it is the same quibble I had with my fort. The walls are on the interior of the grid sides. This means that there is not enough room for a unit to fit in a space. I see a few  solutions to this problem.

1. Create buildings that fit on the outside of the grid sides. I just worry that it restrict space in the spaces next to the BUAs.
2. Create a slightly larger grid. I currently have a 1" grid. Perhaps I could go to 1.25"?
3. Uses smaller counters. My counters are also 1" wide. 3/4" counters would probably fit better.

Number 3 is the least likely option because it would require redoing all my armies. Number 2 would be fairly easy - I just need to create 2 new battle boards then create BUAs that match the grid size.

The Fourteenth Colony

I played a little American Revolutionary War battle on the 4th.

Background

We have been following the exploits of (fictional) Colonel James Endicott in his attempts to conquer St. Augustine for the American revolutionary forces.

Stymied in his attempts to approach St. Augustine by land, Endicott madly chooses a sea route. Amazingly, he passes the British defending flotilla and arrives at St. Augustine. Endicott then besieges the fort.

Set Up

I based the game on scenario 22 - Ambush from One Hour Wargames.

The British (red) have a unit each of infantry and artillery garrisoning the fort. The relief force of dragoons, regular infantry, and light infantry approach from the north (left).

Endicott has 3 infantry, 1 light infantry, and 1 artillery.

Note: I should have reduced the American quality but I forgot to do so. I swear, it was an accident and not bias! Really!

The Battle

The artillery units trade fire. The British take the worst of it. Meanwhile, the British relief force swings into action. The lights skirmish ineffectively.

The American lights drive off the dragoons then retreat into the buildings. Fire from the British lights drive back the American infantry.

The Americans drive off the British dragoons.

The Americans swarm and eliminate British regulars.

But the British rally, destroying American infantry and driving back the lights.

Then the American artillery blows up its British counterpart.

With the relief force in shambles and his artillery gone, the British commander surrenders!

Florida now becomes an American colony!

Game Notes

• I finally finish a campaign! It took 5 battles but Endicott pulls off the upset 3 games to 2.
• Now that this campaign is over, what next for my July 4th games? I'm thinking of a West Florida campaign.
• You may have noticed some changes to my game components:
• I have new casualty markers. Just some simple red pill shapes. I like them better than my prior markers.
• I used some buildings from my 2mm-3mm campaigns. Nicer than the flats I've been using.
• My new artillery counters made their debut.
• I almost didn't get the game in because Onyx decided to join. However, I went upstairs to get something, he followed and got distracted. This gave me an opportunity.

God Bless America

Happy birthday USA!