Edinburgh Wargames Journal

Issue 12  - May-June 2007

Periods featured in this Issue so far:  Pre-Dreadnought Naval  (1/1200), Seven Years War (28mm),

Second World War (15mm, 20mm & 28mm!) & Darkest Africa (28mm)

Well, the Seven Years War drive picked up again after a week of R&R in Orkney. We've finished the first draft of the rules, and we've started playtesting again. Meanwhile, our teams of playtesters around the globe have started to send in comments and reports, so things are definitely moving along nicely. At the bottom of the page I've included a short update on the Die Kriegskunst project. We've also been playing a few naval games lately, and no doubt the purchase of a few stunningly beautiful pre-dreadnought ships from the Mike Earll Collection will encourage more watery forays in the near future.

This is a particularly long "Journal", so please be patient while the pictures load. Some of 'em are pretty enough to justify the wait!

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Second World War - Western Desert, 1940  (Battlegroup Panzer Grenadier) 20mm

Last week we saw a Colonial Italian army fighting amid the jungles of Africa. This week it was the turn of their grandchildren, who were busy fighting a rearguard action against a British "reconnaissance in force". The game was laid on by my pal Chris Henry, who supplied all the figures. My sole contribution was a brace of Rolls Royce armoured cars, which were about two decades out of date. The terrain came from Kevan Gunn, master of the home-made terrain tile.

The armoured cars from the 11th Hussars led the way, scouting out the Msus Oasis, then waving the rest of the British column forward. The secret Italian objective was to defend a battery of heavy field guns, whose transport was racing up the road to collect them and drag them to safety. All the British had to do was take them. However, just as they approached the gully where they were sitting an Italian force appeared - a platoon of M13/40 tanks, supported by three infantry companies - one of which was a unit of Italian colonial askaris. That's one of the tanks above, with the Italian tank commander wondering how on earth he can remove the large "supressed" marker from his engine deck. Faced with tanks, the armoured cars hid behind the oasis and left their supporting platoon of  cruiser tanks to clear the road.

The armoured cars then spotted a company of Italian infantry trying to sneak up to the oasis, and engaged them with their machine guns. The infantry were badly mauled and the survivors fell back. the cars advanced, only to stumble over the field guns which fired over open sites - knocking out armoured car "Annie". Cries of "Pinkie bought one" went up from the British side of the table. Next it was the turn of one of the cruisers to erupt in flames, this time from a lucky shot from one of the Italian tanks. Things were looking bleak for King and Country when the RAF turned up. A lone hurricane flew in and strafed the Italian artillery position, knocking out one of the guns. Meanwhile the British infantry - a carrier platoon and a company of Sikhs - advanced towards the bluffs which screened the guns. Despite losses they forced the Italians back and claimed the positions.

Finally the Italian artillery tows turned up - only to bog down as soon as they turned off the road. It was at that point that Chris as the Italian commander decided to call it a day. Despite some gloriously biased adjudication from the "umpire" (who changed his surname from Trail to Trailini for the day), the British were awarded the victory. Still, it was a hard-fought little scrap, and the Italians performed better than anyone expected.

As ever we were using Dave Brown's excellent Battlegroup Panzer Grenadier rules. Have a look at the Second World War section for more on this rules system.

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Darkest Africa, c.1890  (In the Heart of Africa) 28mm

We decided that it was time to give our Darkest Africa toys an outing again. The original idea was for a ridiculously complicated multi-player game, but in the end we opted for a simple two sided scrap. this involved a border clash between a small force of French Legionnaires, and an Italian expedition consisting of Bersaglieri and Italian askaris. Both sides were supported by native allies, both groups of which looked suspiciously like Ngoni tribesmen. Clearly some sort of Civil War was involved!

Colin Jack's Italians began by throwing their natives forward, and his all-female archer unit drove my musketeers from "The Stone Bridge". This paved the way for the Italian Ngoni to advance. they chopped up the hapless musketeers, but when they came out into the open they were mown down by concentrated French rifle fire.

The Italians were supported by a small mountain gun, which dominated the centre of the table and forced the legionnaires into cover. Meanwhile a French Ngoni band crossed the river and waded into a unit of Bersaglieri on the far bank. the two sides were evenly matched, but in the end the tribesmen emerged victorious, and massacred the Italians to a man. On the far side of the table a small French force saw off a group of Italian Ngoni after a hard-fought struggle, then advanced to take the Italians in the rear. At that point the Italian commander called for a general retreat, leaving the French in control of the field.

The rules we used were the ever-popular Chris Peers set In the Heart of Africa - which we've converted for a whole range of other periods and regions - the North-West Frontier, the Spanish Main, the North American Forests, and the dusty plains of India. In fact we're currently thinking about coming up with In the Heart of Mexico - a set covering the Mexican Revolution! The rules are quick, a bit silly (which we usually like), and above all great fun to play.  The figures were a mixture of Foundry, Copplestone and Bicorne.

Download In the Heart of Africa playsheet  (MS Word file)

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Second World War - Normandy 1944  (Disposable Heroes 28mm & Flames of War 15mm)

The weekend was spent in Kirriemuir, Angus with the "League of Gentlemen Wargamers". These fellows laid on a Normandy weekend which consisted of two games - an impressive D-Day landing fought out in 15mm, followed by an even more spectacular 28mm game set somewhere around Villers Bocage. This was a huge game, involving a 14 foot x 14 foot table (with a pop-up hole in the middle), and what must have been well over 30 tanks a side, plus supporting infantry.

The Allies (both British and Americans) were charged with defending the line of the River Vivre in the face of a surprise attack by a very powerful German panzer force which appeared to consist of serried ranks of Tigers and Panthers! The Allies stalled the advance by blocking the two bridges - using the simple expedient of having tanks knocked out on them! In one corner British Paras were battling it out against German Panzer Grenadiers, while at the far end of the table a cut-off American force was fighting to the last man in an effort to stem the German tide. It was all fantastic fun, and just as importantly it looked truly spectacular! We used Disposable Heroes - a skirmish-level set of rules which I've not had much experience with, but which seemed to work well. 

The previous day we fought our way off Omaha and Sword beaches. This was a big 15mm game, and it really highlighted the difference between the two beaches. The Americans had a really tough time capturing or neutralising the German beach defences, and just like in the real thing they took very heavy casualties as they came ashore. For their part the British also took losses, but their "funnies" of flail tanks, Churchills with petard mortars, bridgelayers and fascine tanks all helped ensure that the attackers were ready to move inland without quite so much difficulty.

However, that's where it started to go wrong. The Germans were able to bring up substantial reinforcements - including a lot of tanks - and the British advance from the beachhead soon stalled well short of its objective lines. For their part the Americans also became embroiled in a fight for the inland towns and villages, which had been turned into German strongpoints. However, by the end of the day's fighting, Barry Hilton (who organised the event) declared the battle a winning draw for the Allies.

You can see more pictures of the two games here.

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Seven Years War   (Die Kriegskunst) 28mm

This was another playtesting game, involving two borrowed armies. I commanded Dougie Trail's Prussians (bolstered by one of my Hessian units and Russian cavalry posing as Prussians, while Dave Imrie took charge of the French - an army composed mainly of figures from Dale Smith of Kirriemuir's collection, augmented by my two Reichsarmee units. By the way, the photos of the game were taken by Derek Hodge, the nemesis of the Flames of War designers.

The battle was stacked against the French from the start. We followed a scenario devised by Charles S. Grant called "Flank Attack", the premise being that in true Frederick style the bulk of the Prussian army had marched around the French position, and was set to fall on it from the flank - just like they did at Leuthen. Our objective was to test how the command system worked - we wanted to see just how long it would take for the French to respond to this onslaught.

Well, the rules worked a treat. The Reichsarmee units were swept from the field, and the covering regiment of French hussars driven off by Prussian volleys. While the main French line tried to refuse its flank and form a new line, the Prussian streamroller kept on going, driving another French unit into retreat.

 In the end the French managed to pull together some semblance of a firing line, but by that time the Prussians were very much in the ascendancy, and if we'd gone on the best they could do was to cover their own retreat with their unblooded cavalry.

Actually, the powerful French cavalry force spent the whole game waiting for orders which never came. Its commander was rated as "poltroon", and even when the CinC came over to spur him into action the cavalry still just sat there! The command rules certainly seemed to work in this game!

The playtesting highlighted a few problems - we need to rework the whole business of troops in built-up areas (who get outshot by units outside), and we need to clarify some of the rules concerning charges. Apart from that everything went smoothly, and Dave went home vowing to build up a new and better army to avenge his defeat. I think this time he's opting for Austrians, so expect to see more pretty pictures and figures here in a month or so..

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Ironclad Naval - the Battle of Lissa (1866 - Austro-Hungarians & Italians  (Home grown rules) 1/2400 scale

I'll be the first to admit that we've been at sea a lot lately. However, Colin Jack hadn't brought these little ships out for several years, and felt a sortie was long overdue. We were tempted by not having to do anything - useful as I came hot-foot from the cinema after watching the new pirate film (good but over-long). Well, I sort of knew what happened at Lissa, and I was pretty convinced that the Austrians were the ones to go for. Unfortunately Colin never told us that the Italians had far more rifled guns, most of our ships weren't armoured, and ramming (the Austrian tactic of choice) was pretty hard to pull off!

We charged in using the naval equivalent of a Napoleonic column ... and only managed to ram one ship - which got off with a slight dent in its side. Meanwhile the Austrian guns did some damage, but not nearly as much as the Italians did. We started losing ships - and things looked bleak. Fortunately the uncharacteristically aggressive Italian commander went home early, and ever the gentleman, Colin was happy to play the Italians in character. Consequently the Austrians managed an eleventh-hour turn around - ramming several Italian ships, sinking a couple, and turning defeat into a draw. Honour was saved.

Colin Jack supplied the ships (1/2400 scale Hallmark models) - which didn't look half-bad en masse - and he also supplied the "back of a postcard" rules, which more or less did the business - although they probably need a bit of tinkering to achieve a "historical" result if we ever do this again. I can't really say that 1/2400 is a scale for me either - far too small - a bit like playing with Microtanks or such-like. 1/2000 scale is about as small as I'd really like to go.

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 Indian Mutiny - Battle of Pandu Nadi, 1857  (Sepoy) 28mm

Its been a while since we played an Indian Mutiny game, and this return to the sub-continent was inspired by the discovery of a set of rules - Sepoy, by Graham Evans, sold by Caliver Books. They're based on the reliable File Leader English Civil War set, but they have a lot of their own Mutinous quirks. For instance, the number of six-figure bases the Mutineers can command each turn is decided by rolling a die. Roll a "1" and your army just sits passively and awaits its fate! It allows small British units to seize the initiative and achieve deeds of derring-do - which is exactly what happened in the real thing.

The plucky British players (just look at the picture below - doesn't the word "plucky" spring to mind?) advanced on the bridge where the Grand Trunk Road spanned an otherwise impassable river, driving off the Mutineer engineers and herding the defenders off the board. In fact the mutineers never really stood much of a chance, but the fun lay in trying to stop the British achieving their goal - clearing the Mutineer army from the table. In the end the rump end of the Mutineer army was still holding on, but the British were securely in control of the bridge, and the next few miles of the road to Cawnpore lay open...

In our previous Mutiny game we'd used In the Heart of India, our own version of Chris Peers' Heart of Africa rules. Well, both sets worked well, but we all felt that Sepoy might have led to a pretty one-sided battle, but it was probably a better representation of an Indian Mutiny battle.

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Pre-Dreadnought Naval - French v British c.1890  (Perfidious Albion) 1/200 scale

We'd planned to play a Seven Years War game this week, but at the 11th hour wargame buddy Dave Imrie called and cancelled - after spending an hour in a traffic jam on the approaches to the Forth Road Bridge he failed his morale test and headed home. So, with the SYW on hold I looked around for something quick and easy to lay on - which usually means a naval game - minimal set-up, and very little hassle.  I grabbed by file boxes of pre-dreadnoughts, and headed for the club...

We pitted a small French squadron against a similar-sized British one. All these ships were around in 1890, when ship design was at its funkiest. The game was really something of a turkey shoot - all went well at long range, but as the fleets drew closer the French found themselves seriously outgunned - their ships simply weren't as good as their Royal Navy equivalents. The first to go was the Devastation, her magazine hit by a shot from one of HMS Inflexible's 100-ton muzzle-loaders. By that time the two fleets were pretty much intertwined, and a French torpedo boat attack achieved nothing. Next it was the turn of the Formidable, which was rammed by HMS Edinburgh, which wrecked her steering gear and started a flood which wouldn't stop until she slipped beneath the waves.

We called a halt to the massacre when the Terrible was surrounded by the Inflexible, the Rodney and the Camperdown, and was being pummelled into scrap. That left the Requien and the armoured cruiser Vauban relatively undamaged, and able to slink off back to Brest. On the British side, the only serious damage was suffered by the Inflexible, which was hit twice below the waterline, causing some serious flooding. The French really are natural victims at sea, and once again the honour of the Royal Navy was upheld. Pink gins all round...

When we play this period we use Perfidious Albion - a set which is rather silly and "old school", but seriously good fun! Each ship card shows a side view of the vessel, superimposed on a grid. You simply roll a D10 and a D6 to see where the shot lands. If it penetrates the armour on that spot then it knocks out everything in that box. Smaller ships have more empty space around them, so there's more chance of missing. Simple but effective. You can find out a bit more about the rules in the Pre-Dreadnought section of the site.

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Seven Years War update

We've finished the full draft of Die Kriegskunst (the Seven Years War version of General de Brigade), and all our playtesting groups now have a copy. Obviously the biggest differences between these and the Napoleonic  set lie in the way the armies deployed and manoeuvred. We had to reflect the mechanics of linear warfare, which means that anyone who tries to fight like Napoleon is going to run into difficulties very quickly. In Die Kriegskunst it pays to have a clear idea of where your army is going to deploy and engage the enemy, as everything is much more formal and slower than in the later period.

One of the hardest things was staying faithful to the original set - resisting the temptation to tweak and change more than was absolutely necessary. The thing about General de Brigade is that its a well-tested and well-proven system, and it really lends itself to this earlier period with a few major (and several small subtle) changes. Of course the proof is in the playing, and I'm sure the next and more extensive round of playtesting will produce a whole host of new problems. However, for the moment we're pleased with the basic system, and the way the whole thing hangs together.

Click here to find out more about the rules.

Oh, about the name. Die Kriegskunst (The Art of War) is just a working title, and the future publisher - Dave Ryan of Partizan Press (and Caliver Books) is already squeamish about the obvious puerile variant to it!

Therefore, I'd like to ask you lot what you think might work better - a good title that says Seven Years War, which hasn't been used before, and which has a certain ring to it. You can e-mail me your suggestions here. the guy who comes up with the one Dave picks will get a freebie copy of the rules as soon as they come out...

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