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Edinburgh Wargames Journal
Issue 25 - August 2008
Periods featured in this Issue: The North-West Frontier, "Darkest Africa",
"Napoleonics" and Russian Civil War (all 28mm), and Second World War (20mm)
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Latvia, 1920 - Russian Civil War (Contemptible Little Armies - Back of Beyond), 28mm
This game had everything - armoured trains, British gunboats, submarines, tanks, armoured cars, biplanes and flamethrowers. In other words no early 20th century wargaming cliché was left unexplored! The loose premise involved a Bolshevik attack on the newly-autonomous state of Livonia, which was defended by a motley collection of German Freikorps, Livonian nationalists (with a tank), and the Royal Navy. Oh, and the British commander was a Lt. Col. Alexander - later Field Marshal Alexander of Second World War fame.
Both sides were attempting to capture a small Baltic port, which rather inexplicably was also sheltering a Soviet submarine. While a naval signalling party directed naval gunfire from the British gunboat, the German Freikorps entered the village from one side, and the Red army entered it from the other. Inevitably the game became dominated by some hard-fought house-to-house fighting, where the German flamethrowers came into their own. Meanwhile a Red armoured train appeared (operated by Dave Marks), only to be knocked out by a lucky field gun shell, fired by Dave's son Sam! Father and son were soon engaged in their own private war, which eventually saw Dave's Cheka driven off by Sam's sub-machine gun toting Freikorps.
Both sides also had armour - the Bolsheviks had an armoured car, while the Nationalists had a lumbering British tank, with a Livonian crew. Neither did much apart from trading shots with each other throughout the game. In the end the umpire (Colin Jack) declared the game to be a marginal victory for the Livonian Nationalists and their allies. In truth both sides had really fought each other to a standstill. What was particularly enjoyable about this game (apart from the great range of toys on display) was the fact that everyone entered into the spirit of it, including Team Marks - up from London for the day - who seemed to enjoy shooting it out between themselves!
I've said it before - Chris Peers' Back of Beyond games are always great fun, and they make this period a real joy to game.
Contemptible Little Army / Back of Beyond Playsheets
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Arras, 1940 (Battlegroup Panzer Grenadier), 20mm
This was another of those scenarios from Dave Brown's Battlegroup Panzer Grenadier scenario book. We've been meaning to play this one for ages, but we had to wait until we had enough German trucks. I don't know why really - most of them were brewed up within the first few turns! The scenario focused on the British tank attack south of Arras on 21st May 1940, and pitted a force of British infantry tanks (Matilda I's and Matilda II's) against a column of German panzer grenadiers - all from Rommel's 7th Panzer Division. When the tanks broke cover and crossed a railway embankment the Germans were spread out on the road, and for a few turns the British had a field day, machine gunning trucks and their occupants before the Germans could react.
Well, the good times rolled for a bit. One by one the German 37mm AT guns were overrun, and infantry was machine gunned as they ran for cover. Then the German tanks appeared. While all the six Matilda I's were just armed with machine guns, the Matilda II's were sent to stop them. While their 2-pdrs. didn't really inflict much damage on the Germans, their armour kept them out of trouble. Meanwhile the German artillery had deployed, and started firing at the British over open sights. One Matilda I after another was brewed up, and the great British offensive slowly ground to a halt.
The final straw came when the Germans deployed their 88mm flak gun - a weapon which the British had no answer to. With tank losses reaching over 50%, the British decided to call it a day. In fact, the game pretty much followed the events of that day back in 1940, where the British were slowed and finally stopped by German gunners, Stukas and Flak crews. Still, it was a particularly well-paced game, and everyone agreed it was pretty evenly matched.
As usual we used Dave Brown's Battlegroup Panzer Grenadier - a great set of rules if you've never tried them - one of the best WW2 sets on the market!
Battlegroup Panzer Grenadier Playsheets
This is "Team GB" as the German players try to call in a Stuka strike!
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Something vaguely "Napoleonic" (Republic to Empire), 28mm
This Sunday Barry Hilton dropped by to playtest his latest version of his forthcoming Republic to Empire rules. As this was just a playtesting session the armies were highly unusual. One side fielded British, supported by a pair of American guns, while the opposition was an unholy alliance of Frenchmen, Americans, Bavarians an Prussians! After Barry outlined his numerous rule changes (just about everything), we set to. Both armies opted to launch right hooks, and to defend with their left flanks. The French (well, Bavarian) attack was launched first, and using Barry's new-fangled "exploitation" rules the columns swept across the table - only to be shredded by British musketry and canister fire.
Still, they caused my British a few headaches, temporarily routing one regiment, and charging another veteran British regiment with French cavalry before it could form into square. Fortunately my guys managed to hold on, forcing the cavalry to pull back after a bitterly-contested melee. My routing unit rallied, and by the end of the game what was left of the Bavarians were in full flight.
On the British right the attack was launched against a steady American line, who managed to repel the assault without too much difficulty. Then in the final stages of the game the British launched a brigade-sized attack against the thinly-held French centre, and in the last turn the Buffs (3rd Foot) captured the village which was the lynchpin of the French centre. As a game it was a marginal British victory - although to be honest the game played second fiddle to the playtesting. Poor Barry was constantly scribbling notes to himself, as we tested his new ideas to destruction and beyond!
After all, that's the whole point of playtesting games - trying out various things to see how the system stands up. On the whole we thing Barry is on the right track, even though there were a few parts we thought could do with a tweak. Nice touches were his order "pip" system, his elegant town fighting rules, and his new and fairly intuitive firing system. Barry plans to come back after his tweak, and we'll try the rules out again. Who knows - it might even inspire me to finish painting my Anglo-Peninsular army!
"Napoleonic" section
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Darkest Africa, c.1890's (In the Heart of Africa), 28mm
Anyone who reads this journal will know by now that Chris Peers' rules produce fun, silly games. One of the strangest of his rule sets is In the Heart of Africa. It works a little like Contemptible Little Armies / Back of Beyond, only there's a lot of pleasing African "chrome". The only thing which could make a game even sillier is if it used a scenario dreamed up by Edinburgh's Colin Jack. Well, both he and Mr. Peers excelled themselves this week!
The rather strange premise was that there was a fort in the middle of nowhere, occupied by anti-slaving forces in British pay. A Zanzibari slaving column was heading its way, chased by a force of Belgians. A British gunboat was heading up river to rescue the garrison, while the locals - my He He tribesmen - were generally on the lookout for someone to skewer.
Inevitably the four groups were drawn towards the fort in the centre of the table. However, before anyone reached it the Zanzibaris and the Belgians came to blows, as did the British Naval Landing Party and the He He. The Belgians got the worst of a firefight with the Arab slaver askaris, and it soon became obvious that they weren't going to bring the slavers to justice. Meanwhile the He He launched an all-out charge against the British, who formed a thin blue line and tried to stop the tribesmen before they reached stabbing spear range. Despite the supporting fire of the gunboat the He He shrugged off their casualties and reached the sailors, and soon got the better of them in a bitter melee. The real heroes were the crew of the Gatling gun, who defended their piece until the bitter end. Still, the heavily outnumbered British were eventually wiped out to a man.
That really left three groups - the garrison, the Zanzibari Arab slavers, and the He He. By this stage the garrison had been badly whittled down by Arab musketry, and when the Zanzibari's tribal allies charged the gate it seemed to be all over for the anti-slavery contingent. Then the He He joined the fray, cutting down many of the slaver Allies, using a combination of musketry and a captured machine gun (which promptly jammed the first turn it was fired). Still, as time came to pack up it looked like the Arabs were in the best position, having forced the gates of the fort, and manoeuvred themselves into a dominant position. They were duly declared the winner, with the He He coming a close second.
Another silly game, but one which was both colourful and fun. We haven't played "Darkest Africa" for ages (can it really be over a year?), so it was a delight to get these great figures out again, and to use them to produce such tabletop mayhem! We certainly won't leave it so long until our next venture into Darkest Africa.
Darkest Africa In the Heart of Africa playsheet
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Claymore 2008, Edinburgh
28mm Indian Mutiny - Siege of Hapibutpur (Iron Brigade)
Well, another Claymore has come and gone - the last one in its present cramped venue. next year we'll be moving to a bigger, brighter and much better venue on the other side of town. As usual the show was a chance to chat to old pals, to meet new people, to waste money on lead, and to drool over some very pretty demo games. These pictures show a few of these, including an extremely pretty Byzantine v Sassanid game (which won first prize), a striking recreation of the crossing of the Boyne, and a stunning Indian Mutiny game.
28mm Williamite Wars - Battle of the Boyne, 1690 (League of Augsburg)
28mm Battle of Solachon, AD 586 - Byzantines and Sassanid Persians (Lance & Longbow Society)
Other good demo games included a Boxer Rebellion game, c.1900 (Falkirk Club), and a refight of Bothwell Bridge, 1679 (Tyne Club). While both of these had beautiful figures, their terrain lacked the "wow factor" which the Boyne, Solachon and Mutiny games possessed in bucket-loads. There was also an attractive Marlburian game featuring a splendid star fort, and a pretty Seven Years War battle, albeit in a miniscule figure scale! Oh, and there were a few fantasy games, taking up space...
Finally here are a few people shots, including wargaming pals Dave O'Brian and Brian Phillips, Sam and Dave Marks, and participants in the "Toy Story" game laid on by RAF Leuchars. More pictures of games, participants and prize-winners will appear on the Club website shortly.
All in all it was a great show - but I'm sure we'll all be pleased to move to a better venue next year. As usual I came away with lead I didn't need, including bags of Colonial, French Revolutionary War and American War of Independence figures. Let's just hope I get a chance to paint them before next August...
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The Khyber Pass, North-West Frontier, 1919 (Back of Beyond / Contemptible Little Armies) 28mm
For a while I've been painting through my backlog of Pathans and Afghan regulars, so when Colin Jack suggested a North-West frontier game I jumped at the opportunity. The idea was that a British outpost (manned by a detachment of the Khyber Rifles) was under siege from the local Pathans, and a British punitive force was sent to punish the locals in the valley by destroying their villages. Well, it all went well for us Afghan locals until the British reinforcements appeared, arriving in the nick of time to save the outpost. Worse, the British spearhead consisted of three Rolls Royce armoured cars, a new-fangled weapon of war which was impervious to Pathan bullets.
Then the Gurkhas arrived, right behind the main Pathan mountaintop position. Well, the Pathans bolted off the mountain, only to find themselves in melee with British regulars. Strangely enough it was the British who came off worse, although the Pathans were broken in the fight. That left the valley clear for the armoured cars, which rampaged through the nearest Pathan village, destroying buildings and generally causing havoc. The tables were turned slightly when the Afghan regulars appeared, occupying the other village in the valley, and knocking out an armoured car with their artillery.
Back up the valley near the outpost the Pathans were still making a nuisance of themselves, and a tribal cavalry charge routed the small squadron of Bengal Lancers (Skinner's Horse) who were sent in to save the day. Still, the British managed to hold on to the beleaguered outpost, and in that part of the valley the day ended in stalemate, with both sides badly blooded, and unable to continue the fight. Meanwhile the Gurkas came off the mountain and advanced on the second village, firing on the part of it which was occupied by Pathans, while on the far side of the village the armoured cars kept the Afghan regulars busy. One of these Rolls Royce machines even rammed an Afghan-held strongpoint, caving in the walls and driving the Afghans out into the open - a sure-fire case for a VC if ever I saw one!
Despite all this the game ended in a draw. After all, the Pathans were having a hard time holding what remained of their valley, but the British had suffered heavily in what was after all meant to be a small punitive expedition. No doubt questions will be asked in Parliament! The heroes of the day were the Gurkhas, who performed brilliantly, but in the end even they were hard-pressed to drive the last remaining Pathans and Afghans from their homes. The game was judged a draw, and probably one which slightly favoured the local inhabitants.
For rules we used Chris Peers' Back of Beyond / Contemptible Little Armies system, which as usual was rather silly, very bloody, and great fun! What more can you ask for from a Colonial game?!
Back of Beyond Section Contemptible Little Armies playsheet
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Update:
Die Kriegskunst
Wargaming the Seven Years War
Based on the General de Brigade system of brigade-level rules
Hurrah! They're out!
They were published by Partizan Press on 1st July - you can buy your copy here.
See the Die Kreigskunst page for more details about the rules, and how they work,
or to read about other games we've played then visit the Seven Years War page.
Stop Press: An article on the rules will appear in Battlegames magazine, Issue 14,
along with a brand new scenario - "Gotha, 1757"
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