Edinburgh Wargames Journal

Issue 16  - October 2007

Periods featured so far in this Issue  :  English Civil War (28mm),  Second World War (20mm),

Back of Beyond (28mm) and Pre-Dreadnought Naval (1/1200)

This month finished with a flurry of Seven Years War activity - we laid on a Demonstration Game at the Targe 2007 show at Kirriemuir on Saturday 3rd November. 

We refought part of the Battle of Gross-Jagersdorf (1757), with my Russians pitched against Dougie Trail's Prussians. Here's the flyer we handed out at the game which gives you the full background, and you can find the whole scenario and more about the rules on the Seven Years War page. The battle turned out pretty much as expected - my cavalry were trounced (they were both outnumbered and had "inferior mounts"), although my magnificently attired Russian Horse Grenadiers performed splendidly, even if they did pursue the Prussian hussars off the table and didn't come back. Then the Prussian horse charged the Russian infantry line, which was tougher prospect. Two regiments faltered through close-range musketry, then the right-hand Prussian unit was shredded by canister fire from a small battery of Russian guns - all very satisfactory. The only Prussian success came on the other flank, where more hussars (borrowed from Dale Smith for the day) forced a Russian regiment to retire precipitately before having to pull back and regroup.

Main Russian Line

On the other side of the table the two sides advanced infantry brigades into a large wood, and began a musketry duel which lasted throughout the game. The Russians were having the worst of the exchange, although with the cavalry threat dealt with it was likely that the Russians could have reinforced their hard-pressed colleagues if we'd fought the game to its conclusion.

Of course, that's the problem with games of this kind - you rarely get to play them through, as you spend more time speaking to interested onlookers than you do shuffling lead across the tabletop. Still, that's what makes it fun - and I was delighted by the number of people who called it "inspiring", or who wanted to try out the rules for themselves.

In the end we won some sort of runner-up prize for the game, which was pretty good considering the scenery wasn't scratch built - just rolled out and laid on! Again, many thanks to Dougie Trail and Chris Henry for running the game with me, and to Dale Smith and the Kirriemuir Wargames Club for running such a small, tight and enjoyable show.. We'll be back.

Prussian Foot                                                                            Prussian Horse

By the way, sorry for the bad quality of these pictures - I was having a bad camera day! If anyone has any better shots I'd love to see 'em!

________________________________

Somewhere in Central Asia, 1920's  (Back of Beyond - Contemptible Little Armies) 28mm

This was another of those very large multi-player Back of Beyond games, where everyone gets to stab someone else in the back, lands up fighting on two (or more) fronts, and ends up with little to show for the huge bodycount! This game involved Russians (Reds and Whites), Turks, Tibetans, Chinese, Bokharans and the Army of God - and that wasn't counting the umpire factions such as fractious Bhuddhist monks or fanatical Russian Orthodox sects! Each faction had a 1,000 point army, and the "last one standing" rules meant that everyone had to make (and break) alliances in order to survive. For instance, my Turks had a non-aggression pact with both the Reds and the Whites, until both sides shot at us at different times - as well as shooting at each other. We saw off a half-hearted Red assault, turned our own guns on the Whites when they least expected it, and fought off the Mad Baron's Tibetans in a hard-fought melee. We were also strafed by the God's Army plane (don't ask), and our armoured car was brewed up by a Chinese armoured train! Yes, you guessed it - it was all very silly, and great fun! 

The game was run by Colin Jack, and true to form he introduced the possibility of strange special events, finding money or recruits when occupying buildings, and the odd appearance of special characters - mine included Tin Tin and Snowy! the Tibetans (who for some reason had Polish allies) spent the game sniping at people using an anti-tank rifle, the Army of God retaliated by firing a massive 8-inch howitzer at the Poles, and the Whites kept on attacking neighbouring factions and then apologising for their actions. Actually, silly doesn't even begin to sum it up... 

The game was fought on a table which was around 18 feet by 8 feet, with extensions in various places. You'd have thought this was plenty of room to play on, but people kept on being hemmed in, then deciding to attack their neighbours in order to gain a little bit of lebensraum. The pictures above shows a clash between Tibetan cavalry (encouraged by the Mad Baron) attacking a Turkish infantry unit, while the 8-inch howitzer belonging to the God's Army fires on the Poles. 

These two show a swamp-full of White infantry, the deployment of Chinese Cavalry (supported by their armoured train) and an armoured car, and - below - more Chinese troops, a film crew and a general view of the Red / Turkish corner of the table. The rules were Chris Peers' Contemptible Little Armies, and his Back of Beyond lists for them. The rules always produce a quirky, bloody but fun game, and everyone seemed to be having a great time. Who won? Well, hard to say. This was a two-day battle, and I had to bail out ant the end of the first day of fighting. I'll keep you posted, but my money was on the slimy backstabbing Chinese, whose army was poised to crush the Whites when I left.

_________________________________

Second World War - France 1940 - outskirts of Calais (Battlegroup Panzer Grenadier) 20mm

This is more a story of blundering ineptitude than anything else. the British commander (er .. me) was ordered to press an attack through a French hamlet, in an attempt to re-open supply lines between Calais and Dunkirk. He had a fair amount of resources - a Reconnaissance Squadron (Scout carriers & Mk. VI Light Tanks), supported by an Infantry Company, a Squadron of Cruiser tanks (A9's and A13's) and a few other bits and pieces. My leadership style was laid back - any attempt to ask for orders was met with "Use your own initiative", "Carry on", or "More tea, batman"! Needless to say this "playing in character" led to a complete muddle!

Surprisingly a determined attack by the Recon. unit cleared the outskirts of the village, which was strongly defended by the Hun. that's them milling around in the photo above, while the cruisers redeploy to face a new threat - the quartet of Nazi tanks lining the railway on the outskirts of town. Despite some help from a passing Hurricane the German tanks were almost impossible to dislodge, and the British tank commander began to suffer. Meanwhile the Germans kept on being pushed back through the hamlet, and a last minute group of reinforcements from Dunkirk (an under-strength squadron of Matilda tanks) proved a life-saver - at least in the arguments over what would have happened if the game had continued!

This game was run as a rules sampler as much as anything else, which inevitably meant progress was slow. This wasn't helped by some copious drinking on the British side, and the sheer number of players involved - I counted seven, ands that didn't include the umpire! In the end victory was granted to the British, despite their lacklustre performance. As ever the rules we used were Dave Brown's Battlegroup Panzer Grenadier. I supplied the BEF, while Dougie Trial fielded the Nazis.

_________________________________

Pre-Dreadnought Naval - Fictional Action, c.1908 (Perfidious Albion) 1/1200 scale

For the first time in ages we played a naval game, largely because the planned Second World War scrap had to be cancelled because the organizer was in New York. It gave me the chance to field the beautiful scratch-built models I bought earlier this year - all the work of the late Mike Earll. I based them up, gave them a small lick of paint and here's the result - some of the nicest ship models you could hope to see on a wargames table.

 The game was a multi-player affair, with everyone taking command of 2-3 ships. It started with just an Austo-Hungarian squadron on the table (The battleship Erzherzog Karl and the light cruiser Tiger), facing a French battleship (Charles Martel) and a British protected cruiser (Arrogant). Reinforcements came on when someone rolled a "six", and the luck was with the Germans, whose three battleships (Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, Hessen and Deutschland) and two armoured cruisers (Scharnhorst and Freidrich Karl) arrived within the first two turns. Two British armoured cruisers also appeared (Cumberland and Aboukir), but soon found themselves completely outgunned by the German pre-dreadnoughts. Late in the day the last British ships arrived - two powerful battleships - the Lord Nelson and the Venerable. 

 The Arrogant was the first casualty, the British captain electing to risk not flooding his magazine when his ammunition hoists were hit. When the pall of smoke cleared the Charles Martel was on her own, but she pluckily fought it out for an hour before she went under - pounded by German shells. The British armoured cruisers were suffering badly as they tried to close the range, and the Cumberland was the next to slip beneath the waves as her crew failed to stop her flooding damage from spreading. The Central Powers didn't have everything all their own way though, as the Cumberland rammed a German battleship, and the Aboukir sank the Austro-Hungarian cruiser. Meanwhile the British battleships wisely kept their distance, and pounded the Scharnhorst into floating scrap metal. However, by the end of the game the Germans and their Austro-Hungarian allies were the clear winners, losing just one light cruiser to the Allied losses of a French battleship, and two British cruisers.

As with all our games the rules we used were Perfidious Albion, a set allegedly first devised by Colin Jack - the Austro-Hungarian player. They can't be taken too seriously, and we both silly and good fun at the same time! What more could you ask for?!

_________________________________

English Civil War - Yorkshire, 1644 (Very Civile Actions) 28mm

We suddenly realised that we hadn't played an English Civil War game for over a year. Therefore the forces were rallied, the toys came out and we had a small game. This set-up involved a small Royalist garrison comprising Dave O'Brien's "munchkins" (they're mostly 1970's Minifigs) defending against an assault by the Scottish Covenanters - the troops of Jack Glanville. Halfway through the game a Royalist flying column arrived - two regiments of Northern Horse and some commanded foot - the figures of Dougie trail. My own massed force of Parliamentarians stayed in their box.

Dave's garrison - a regiment of foot supported by a detachment of dragoons and a small gun were set on from three sides, and were suffering the worst of it when the cavalry arrived to save them. The Scots attacked them with two small foot regiments-  one from each side of the village - while a unit of highlanders assaulted from the hill behind the settlement. True to form the highlanders proved something of a "damp squib", failing to charge on every occasion throughout the game - something of a minor achievement! then Dougie's horse arrived, and the situation turned around pretty quickly. One cavalry charge ended in failure as it became blocked by houses and hedges, but the others routed most of one Covenanter regiment, and threatened the rest of the Scottish force with destruction. What saved the day - and won the Scots a begrudging win - was the latent force of Highlanders, and the pikes of the other regiment, which dominated the centre of the village at close of play.

By the way, in the picture above right, a yellow chicken behind your pike block is not a good thing! Despite it being so long, everyone picked up on the rules again with remarkable alacrity. the game was punctuated by comments from all four players which tended to begin "what I like about these rules" or "the good thing about these rules..." We were using Very Civile Actions, the English Civil War variant of the Spanish Fury: Actions! rules available as a freebie download  from The Perfect Captain. Our only real modification was to increase the size of ranges and movement by an extra 50%, as the original set were designed with piffly 15mm figures in mind.

My review of the rules (first published in Battlegames 3)     The Perfect Captain    The Perfect Captain's Yahoo Site

_________________________________

Second World War - Rasyenya, Russia, 1941 (Battlegroup Panzer-Grenadier) 20mm

This was a scenario listed in Dave' Brown Battles for the East scenario book for the Battlegroup Panzer-Grenadier rules. It was aptly subtitled "Meeting the Dreadnought", as it featured the monster show above - a KV-2. The scenario (fought out on an 8x6 foot table) involved the drive by 6th Panzer Division over the Dubissa River near Rasyenya. A single KV-2 and some supporting troops cut the division's line of communications, and held its position for two days. It was finally finished off by satchel charges.

Well, our game pitted the Germans against this leviathan, and in our refight history largely repeated itself. German infantry and anti-tank guns were kept at bay throughout the first day, and a cavalry-like charge by German panzers ended with the battlefield being littered with burning Nazi tanks. However, the Germans also scored successes, whittling down the defending infantry, and wiping out a small force of T-26's (with "militia" crews) who tried to join the battle. 

We ended the game at the start of the second day, as it would have taken far too long to fight the battle to its conclusion. German 50mm anti-tank guns were moving into a flanking position, while the rest of the 6th Panzer was waiting for the 88mm Flak gun to appear, along with more tank reinforcements. In the real battle the KV-2 dealt with all of these threats, despite being hit five or six times by 88mm shells. When the Germans approached the tank to inspect it the turret began moving they found out to their cost that the monster tank was damaged but not destroyed. In the end the Germans had to drive off all of its infantry support, then send in assault engineers.

One of the enjoyable things about this phase of the war was that the Russians had some fantastic tanks, but lacked the skills to use them effectively. The Germans were exactly the opposite. the result is that when a scenario is well thought out (As this one was), then the games can be a lot more balanced and far more fun that later slugging matches where everyone has super-tanks.

As usual we used Dave Brown's Battlegroup Panzer-Grenadier rules - an awful name for a superb rules system. If you want to learn more about them, then visit the Second World War pages.

Anyway, here's a picture of the real hero of the Soviet Union -

photographed by the Germans after the battle.

____________________________________