Edinburgh Wargames Journal

Issue 17  - November & December 2007

Periods featured so far in this Issue  :  Second World War, Seven Years War,  the American War of Independence

  and the Great War in Africa (all 28mm), and the Second World War (15mm). Oh, and some nonsense involving dinosaurs.

This is a busy time on the lead front, having several projects to juggle, both old and new. I'm also trying to finish off some half-completed armies, and to get others to a stage where we can game with them.  As for actual games, this month will probably be a mixed bag - some of the usual suspects and possible a few other periods which rarely get an outing...  

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Cadillacs and Dinosaurs  (Home-made rules of the same name) 28mm .. er .. at least for the humans

What can I say. It's Christmas. Regular readers of this column will know that I'm no great fan of fantasy games. First off, we were down to play a Seven Years War game, but Dave Imrie cried off because of a work Christmas party. The next fall-back was Chris Henry, who was planning to lay on a really pretty Aztec and Conquistador skirmish game. Well, he had to drive to Edinburgh from just outside Perth, which should be an hour. It took him two. Meanwhile Colin Jack, that advocate of anything less than ordinary was laying out a game of "Cadillacs and Dinosaurs". Yes, you heard right. 1950's cars, and .. er .. Dinosaurs. It gets worse, as Colin likes nubile pre-pubescent figures, at least if they're cast in 28mm! you can see where this is going. By the time Chris arrived with his real figures we'd agreed to play the silly game. After all .. it's Christmas! 

Well, the game lived up to its expectations. I "commanded" a Buick, filled with a team of four Japanese schoolgirls with tiny short skirts. OK, we got wiped out, but only because we took on Dougie's "nuclear family", and initiative relied on playing cards. I stabbed Dougie in the back by shooting at him, and his family responded. As the next five cards were all in his suite my poor Japanese schoolgirls got blown away!

Other highlights (if you could call it that) involved shooting T-Rexes (to people humming "Bang a gong, get it on") - a reference to a great Glam Rock band to those who never experienced T-Rex the first time around), and the ability of some players to actually follow the plot and hunt dinosaurs rather than each other. It was incredibly silly though,  and has used up my silly game quota for the coming year!

By the way, Colin said that when he runs this game with kids the games are over in an hour, We took all night. The other thing is he said that the kids hunt dinosaurs, while we take out a year's-worth of wargaming angst on our gaming pals! That sorta explains the grudge match between me and Dougie...!

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American War of Independence, Saratoga Campaign, 1777  (British Grenadier) 28mm

This small game pitched Dave Imrie's newly raised British (designed with the Saratoga campaign in mind) against my Americans, which was raised largely as the Guildford Courthouse army. Dave had the smaller army, so he stayed on the defensive. He deployed with his Hessians in the right, his British on the left, and a whopping big battery of three 6-pounders in his centre.

Inevitably these guns turned out to be something of a "death star", and during the course of the game they pounded my American militia units to pieces. One of the weaker points of the rules is that units are difficult to break, unless the owning player rolls really dreadful dice. this led to the rather silly situation of militia units still going forward after they'd taken more than 50% casualties!

The Continental regulars didn't fare much better. My two Virginia regiments (masquerading as New Englanders for the purposes of the scenario) took their time advancing against the British right flank, supported by a small unit of Continental Dragoons. When the time came to charge home they were met by a crippling volley from the British grenadiers (a double "6"), so they halted in confusion. The dragoons point-blank refused to charge against the British flank for the rest of the game - damn that Colonel Washington!

Inevitably the Americans soon broke and ran, the retreat covered by the Continental artillery and by Morgan's Rifles. Actually they turned out to be the only American unit who performed even remotely well in the battle. They out-shot their British light infantry opponents, then picked on the Hessians with some success. However, all things told it wasn't really a night of glory for our colonial cousins!

As for the rules, I've already mentioned my reservations about the morale rules. To give the rules their full credit, we didn't use the Disruption Points system, which would have make the units a little more fragile - at the expense of slowing down the game. We'll certainly try British Grenadier again, and next time we'll add the missing section. however, we also mentioned using our simpler and faster Seven Years War rules as an alternative set. The main thing is the game re-awakened our interest in what has often been a dormant period. We forgot just how pretty these games can be, and how colourful some of the units are.

The British were from Dave Imrie's collection, while the Americans and most of the Hessians were mine. The figures are a mixture of Perry, Foundry, Dixon, Front Rank, Eureka and Old Glory - you can't get much more varied than that! By the way, Eureka's ragged continentals are particularly nice, and fit in well with the Perry and Foundry ranges.

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Second World War, Alsace, 1944  (Battlegroup Panzer Grenadier) 15mm

This was one of those rare Sunday afternoon games, a small Second World War fight involving French armour punching its way through a German defensive belt. As usual the defenders were hidden, but for once the Allied commander decided to avoid the obvious killing zone. He avoided the road and the high ground  covering it to the south, and instead opted for a cross-country approach. The whole French armoured column laboured through the wooded hills just north of a small hamlet ... and immediately ran into anti-tank barriers (dragons teeth) and minefields, cunningly hidden in the woods. Beyond that German machine guns in pillboxes covered the minefield.

When the attack bogged down the French commander wisely decided to ignore my counsel (charge up the road and damn the consequences), and instead ploughed on - sending engineers to clear a path through the mines wide enough for a column of tanks to pass through. Covering fire was provided by the tanks, firing into the pillboxes and suppressing the occupants long enough for the engineers to do their job. The German defenders (including the unluckiest Panzerschrek team on the Western Front who consistently missed) were eventually forced back, forcing the German player to send in his small armoured reserve.

What followed was a classic short-range tank engagement, and this time it was the Germans who came off the worst. Despite damaging or suppressing several French Shermans both Pz. IV's were knocked out, as was a PAK 40 deployed to cover the main road. then the French called in artillery, which cleared the woods to the north of the French column of German infantry. The stunned survivors surrendered en masse. With that the French were through, and the road to Metz - leading off the far end of the table - lay wide open. At that point the German team (a father and son combo of Kevan and James Gunn) conceded defeat. It was just as well I wasn't allowed to do my usual impetuous charge up the road - it was covered by 88's, PAKs and dug-in infantry.... all of which were bypassed by the French cross-country approach. I'm glad not all armoured commanders are quite as rash as I am!

The rules we used were Battlegroup Panzer Grenadier, which as usual worked like a charm. Despite being a big game on a small 6x4 foot table, with a lot of French armour and halftracks (at least a battalion-sized group) - the game flowed quickly. Although I prefer 20mm figures rather than 15's, it certainly looked good, and everyone appeared to be enjoying themselves - even the German players whose perfect ambush was foiled by some cross-country manoeuvering!

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The Great War, German East Africa, 1915  (In the Heart of [East] Africa) 28mm

We hadn't played with our East African toys for a while, so we decided to bring them all out and have a game. Well, not quite all of them - the He He, the Masai and the Ngoni stayed at home, and it was left to the forces of the British and German Empires to slug it out between each other. My German Schutztruppe had the task of holding a ridge covering the Pangani river for as long as possible, and to hold open their line of retreat which was threatened by two flanking columns - one of Belgian troops and the other a mix of Kings African Rifles and Nigerians. Oh, for some reason they had a witchdoctor attached, along with a tea-drinking British commander (see above)! 

Well, the Germans managed to cut down the bulk of the attackers - driving off the South African and Indian Army detachments. However, the King's African Rifles were made of sterner stuff, and they not only stood their ground but eventually they also got the better of the Schutztruppe in a vicious firefight. By the end of it there wasn't much left to withdraw, the Germans losing two companies in the fighting, and they only managed to extricate their machine guns and pom-pom with difficulty. 

Meanwhile the Germans guarding the line of retreat suffered too - the company facing the Belgians routed (but not before it saw off the opposition), while the other flank was hard-pressed by the column accompanied by the witchdoctor and tea drinker. Fortunately for the defenders the German artillery performed miracles, particularly the Konigsberg gun which never missed a target throughout the game, causing mayhem amongst the Nigerians and their KAR supports. However, by the time the game ended the German players (myself and Chris Henry) had to concede defeat - our losses were just too heavy.

Everyone enjoyed themselves immensely, and the rules - an adaptation of Chris Peers In the Heart of Africa - worked like a charm. As always Chris' rules were  fast, bloody and hugely entertaining - which is really all you want in a game! My special award goes to Colin Jack. You rarely find a wargamer who can amuse himself by moving a troop of baboons around the table - which was all that was left for him to do after his Belgians ran away!

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Seven Years War  (Die Kriegskunst) 28mm

This was another playtesting game, albeit a rather big one. In truth though, it was really an excuse to field our new cavalry units - the regiments we'd painted up for the Gross-Jagersdorf demo game at the start of the month. For pictures of the Seven Years War demo game we put on at the Targe show, see Journal 16.

It involved a clash between two of my Russian infantry brigades, supported by three cavalry regiments and some Cossacks against a Prussian force, which was supposed to be just five battalions strong, plus three more regiments of cavalry. True to form the Germanic fiends went back on their word, and the final tally was eight infantry units - two of which were grenadier battalions.  Oh, and one was a Hesse-Kassel battalion which must have turned up on the wrong battlefield, in case anyone recognises the flags flying in the picture above!

The key to the game was the big cavalry clash on the Russian right - a situation we needed to playtest. As it stands the standard General de Brigade system calls for the units to charge into melee, then the action freezes. When the melee turn comes around the close combat engagements are fought out, and then there's another pause until the Morale phase, when all retreats, pursuits and follow-up charges are worked out. the system works, but its a little disjointed and clunky.

We tried various solutions during the game, none of which were wholly satisfactory. It would be nice to fight through the melee and work out all the results as they happen, but at the moment we haven't found a suitable alternative to the existing system. Back to the drawing board.

Anyway, I'm pleased to report that on their second outing my Russian Horse Grenadiers - the Ryazanski  Regiment - excelled themselves yet again, riding over a larger formation of veteran Prussian dragoons. Unfortunately - yet again - my regular dragoons - the Tobolski Regiment - were trounced by a smaller unit of Prussian hussars. the key to the Prussian success was an attached battery, which poured canister into my dragoons as they rode in. Still, the Horse Grenadiers (which charged so successfully at Zorndorf) have now won two charges in a row, and they're well on their way towards becoming my favourite unit!

On the rest of the battlefield the battery of Prussian 12-pounder "Brummers" looked good but achieved very little, while my two brigades gave as good as they got from the Prussian line, who were being steadily whittled down by Russian artillery fire as they closed with my line.

As for the rest of the battle, it developed into a close-range slugging match, although on the final turn the Prussian cuirassiers charged their Russian counterparts, while their supporting Cossacks refused to leave the nice safe cover of the nearby wood. Cossacks add colour to a game, but not much else!

In the end the game was declared a draw, with both sides performing well, despite our tinkering with the rules as we went along. However, it was set up as a playtest as much as a stand-up game, and the discussions over rule mechanics continued on after the game - in fact until the staff of the Cumberland Bar called it a night! We'll play another game soon, as we still have a few ideas to try out. However, if you want to learn more about Die Kriegskunst, visit the Seven Years War pages and the section at the bottom of this page. 

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Second World War, Normandy 1944  (Disposable Heroes) 28mm

Sometimes the prettiest tables don't photograph very well. This was a case in point - the table looked fantastic, but my pictures don't really do it justice. It was a Second World War skirmish, set somewhere around Mont Pincon in Normandy in 1944. German paratroopers defended, and troops of the Dorset Regiment were sent in to flush them out. Things began to unravel from the start - our squad on the right flank was shot up and pinned down by fire from a German-held farmhouse, while on the left an attempt to outflank the position was met with more automatic fire. Our attack stalled. The only thing working in the British favour was the support weapons - the 3" mortar began hitting the farmyard and causing German casualties, while the Vickers machine gun moved up to riddle it with fire. The game ended as night fell, but the Germans still held their positions. To carry out a full assault we'd have needed more men, more time and more luck!

The terrain was formed by a great terrain mat (from www.terrainmat.com) - a piece of scenery you'll be seeing a lot more of on this site. They also supplied the little mat-like fields. The excellent bocage-style hedges came from The Last Valley, and the buildings from TSS (now available occasionally in e-bay). The British were mine, while the Nazi Paras were from Dougie Trail's collection. As for rules, we used Disposable Heroes. Interestingly enough, right next door was another Second World War skirmish - a desert clash which used the Rules of Engagement rules. Both sets proved fast and playable, but the RoE crowd swear their set has the edge. At £25 a copy I'm a little reluctant to buy a set, just to find out!

Disposable Heroes playsheet

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Die Kriegskunst Update

Work on our Seven Years variant of General de Brigade is coming on apace. We've largely finished playtesting (many thanks to all who've helped), although there's bound to be a few cases of last minute panic. We're now writing and testing scenarios, sourcing pictures, and generally putting the finishing touches to the package.

You can find the latest about the project in the Seven Years War section.

Die Kriegskunst is due to be handed over to Dave Ryan and Jay Foster at Caliver Books by the end of the year, and is due to be published in the spring, in time for Salute 2008.

So far the scenarios included with the rules will be:

    Emsdorf, 1760 (a small "example of play" scenario) 

    Gross-Jagersdorf, 1757 

    Hochkirch, 1758 

    and one other (probably Lobositz, 1756)

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