Edinburgh Wargames Journal

Issue 9  - February 2007

Periods featured in this Issue: American Civil War Naval (1/600),

 Russian Civil War (28mm), French & Indian Wars (28mm) & Seven Years War (28mm)

People have bitched that they have to scroll through these Journal pages to find the new stuff. Therefore, starting from this month I'm gonna try posting articles in reverse order, so the latest entries will always be at the top. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?!

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Seven Years War     (A home-grown variant of General de Brigade/ British Grenadier)    28mm

While A Grim Panoply is a good set of rules (and due to be published soon), I'm essentially very lazy when it comes to these things, and the simpler the system, then the better I like it. As Dave Brown's General de Brigade system is my preferred rules set for the American Civil War (Guns of Gettysburg), the American War of Independence (British Grenadier), and I plan to use it for Napoleonics, then it sort of makes sense to see if I could adapt the system to suit the Seven Years War. This is probably my favourite wargame period, although I only have one army - a Russian one. As you can see from the pictures, they still haven't fully recovered from a varnishing error, which left them with a satiny sheen. My figures are Wargames Foundry (with a few Front Rank mixed in), and apart from the Russian grenadiers, my flags come from GMB Designs. The Prussians are also Foundry, with home-made flags.

We decided to run this game more as a vehicle for trying out and adapting the rules, rather than as a straight battle. My opponents for the evening were Dougie Trail's Prussians. The Huns were outnumbered, but defending a strong position, anchored on a village. The game wasn't much - just an advance to musket range, followed by a couple of charges - but we did manage to put the rules through their paces.

The main problem is that General de Brigade is geared up for 30-40 figure battalions, while we use 16-man units. That makes it more akin to British Grenadier, so we started using its playsheet, then changing things around a bit to better suit our needs. The Disruption Point system slowed things down - so we dropped it, and we also reverted to the original GdeB movement system rather than the Grenadier one. Then there's the different tactics to consider, and the need to encourage historic manoeuvres. There's still a lot of work to do on it, but we now have a working prototype. We've even got a rather grand name for it Die Kriegskunst - (The Art of War). Once we've tinkered with it a bit more I'll post a playsheet on here, so you can try them out for yourself - and help us fine-tune the system.

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French & Indian Wars     (A Good Day to Die / War in the Forest)    28mm

The calm before the storm...

I'm not usually a fan of skirmish games, but we hadn't played this for a while, I had a new unit which needed to be blooded, and so we gave the period another go.

The premise was that two Abenaki war parties (2 x 20 figs.) - one supported by French Coureurs de Bois ( 12 French trappers & woodsmen) launched a raid on Colonial American settlers in the Mohawk Valley.

A patrol of Rangers and British Light Infantry (24 figs.) was sent to rescue the beleaguered homesteaders before they were burned out of their homes.

The Indians split into two groups, one attacking a homestead at each end of the table. In my attack I used the Coureurs de Bois as sharpshooters, pinning down the settlers with musket fire while the Abenakis swarmed in.

It worked, and within two turns three settlers were killed and scalped, and three more were holed up in a log cabin, firing out the windows at the Indians and trappers milling around outside. they managed to old out until almost the end of the game, by which time the cabin was on fire.

Eventually two Coureurs de Bois managed to kick the door in, and slaughtered the surviving defenders, just before the cabin collapsed in flames.

On the other side of the table the attack didn't go quite so well, mainly because the those Settler womenfolk were tough cookies. One managed to kill four Indians, while another led a charmed life, holding her own on top of a wagon until the Rangers arrived to rescue her. The rangers arrived in the nick of time, and managed to demolish the Abenaki through their superior firepower, and more than a few lucky melee dice rolls.

The British light infantry tried to do the same at the other side of the table, but ran into about a group of Abenaki deployed in a skirmish line, who pinned the British down. That allowed a small unit of Coureurs de Bois to join the fray, while yet more Indians joined in from the perimeter of the homestead, at the far side of a clearing. After three turns of this uneven fight one Indian was dead, and four British regulars. Quite sensibly the British withdrew, just as the homestead finally succumbed to the flames.

It was almost as if two games were being fought on different sides of the table, one ending in a British victory and the other in a French / Indian one. The rules we used were War in the Forest, the French & Indian War variant to his skirmish set called A Good Day to Die. Certainly they had their quirks, and didn't cover things like breaking into buildings or setting fire to them. However, that's what you expect from Chris Peers' rules - you'll have fun, but inevitably you'll find yourself writing amendments and house rules for them!

Roof taken off for ease of play .. it was on fire anyway...

The consensus was that while we'll probably try the rules again, we'll also try writing a French & Indian Wars version of Chris Peers' In the Heart of Africa set. After all, we use them for Colonial games, so surely they won't need much tweaking for this period! Once we finish In the Heart of the Forest we'll let you know, and post a playsheet. Meanwhile, for those who want a playsheet for the War in the Forest skirmish rules, then here they are:

War in the Forest Playsheets

The aftermath ...

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Russian Civil War (1920)   (Back of Beyond / Contemptible Little Armies)    28mm

   Close up of one of SESWC member Dougie's Trail's Red Partisans.

   That lad can paint ...

This little affair came about because we couldn't agree on anything else to do this week. It pitted two Red forces (owned by Dougie Trail and Colin Jack) pitted against Dougie's French Interventionists, supported by a contingent of Jack's Whites. Dougie, Chris Henry and Bill Gillchrist took the Reds, while Colin, Nicholas the Pole, Shuggie the Veggie and I took the Whites.

It was a straightforward encounter affair - no subtleties - just straight in an' at 'em. The village in the centre was occupied by Red Partisans supported by Sailors, who were eventually winkled out of their strongpoint by a spirited French attack. They were supported by the White cavalry, which charged in support of the French, and who hacked their way through a good number of the defenders.

However, the Whites on the right flank spent the game doing little or nothing, and at the close of play the Reds had managed to move reinforcements - a cavalry unit and Trotsky's Guards - who were threatening to launch a counter-attack against the French-held villages. Another Bolshevik cavalry unit was also threatening the French left flank, which could have caused even more problems.

Although the honours were awarded to the French and the Whites, it was most definitely a close-run thing. We used Contemptible Little Armies, which may not be the most accurate, mind-stretching or best rules out there, but which at least allow us to field fairly large armies, and finish a game in an evening.

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American Civil War Naval - The Battle of Albemarle Sound (1864)   (Smoke on the Water)    1/600

Its been a good while since we last played an American Civil War naval game, and this was the first since we got our shiny new sea mat. OK, its not really suitable for the muddier waters of the Mississippi River - we'll need a special mat for that - but its great for the inland sounds of the Carolinas.

This game was based on the Battle of Albemarle Sound, fought in May 1864 between a Union blockading force of wooden gunboats and the Confederate ironclad CSS Albemarle. We had to substitute a few of the Union ships, but otherwise this was a straight refight. It also panned out pretty much as it did back in 1864. The Albemarle lumbered onto the table, and throughout the game only one lucky Union 100-pound rifled shot managed to penetrate its armour. Everything else just bounced off.

However, with her smokestack shot away early on, her speed was reduced to a crawl (10cm a turn), while the wooden Yankee gunboats danced around her, trying to cause damage. The two little Confederate gunboats (well, tugs really) Cotton Plant and Bombshell were either sunk or driven off, and then near the end of the game the USS Sassacus made a successful ram attempt against the Confederate ironclad - just like she did in real life. By the end of the game the Albemarle was bloody but unbowed, and lumbered away to safety back up the river.

For the first time we used the optional reloading rules - where medium guns take three turns to reload, and large ones a nail-clenching four turns (four minutes in real time). This dramatically changed the nature of the game  - making it a lot more interesting. However, in future we might drop the reload times to two and three turns respectively  -which is long enough when your ironclad only has two 6.4-inch Brooke rifles to fire back with!

One other new trick was the speed markers. In the rules, you're meant to put a marker behind the ship, showing what speed its doing ("M" for Medium, "V" for Very Fast etc.). Well, that looked ugly, so instead we stuck down wake markers - you can see them in the picture above. One means Slow, two mean Medium, three Fast, and four means Very Fast. Simple, eh? That means the USS Mattabassett above is going along at Medium speed.

If you want to read more about these ships and the period, I've added new sections to the American Civil War Naval page. Then again, if you want to try out the Smoke on the Water rules for yourself, you can download them for free direct from Canis Publications.

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