Edinburgh Wargames

The Edinburgh Wargames Journal

Issue 28  - November 2008

Periods featured in this issue:  Two Wild West gunfights, an Inter-war Skirmish, the English Civil War (all 28mm), and a report of the Targe 2008 show

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Wild West Weekend, Red Rock, Wyoming, 1880's (Legends of the Old West) 28mm

"The League of Gentlemen Wargamers" is the rather self-important title for a loose collection of like-minded wargamers who gather every few months, for a weekend of wargaming. This time we'd decided to do a Wild West game, and during the course of the weekend most players displayed singularly ungentlemanly conduct! We gathered in the Heugh Hotel, in Stonehaven, a small town in the north-east of Scotland. As you can see, we were virtually snowed in, as that weekend the north of Scotland was hit by a blizzard. Still, it all added to the cabin fever mentality in the wargaming room, and to the need for warming whisky in the bar afterwards!

The first day was spent playing a series of five games, each pitching a player and his gang against a single opponent. Six 3x3 foot tables were available, ranging from small ranches or open badlands to towns, one of which was Mexican. There was also a train game, where one side had to defend a safe on a stopped train against a horde of bad guys, while the rest of his posse rode to the rescue. My posse consisted of lawmen, led by Sheriff Rollo "Daddy" Hill, who was assisted by a couple of well-armed deputies, and a handful of upstanding citizens.

During the day I took on Andrew Nicholson's Apaches (sneaky little buggers, who have a special stealth ability - Draw); Dale Smith's Cowboys (far too well-armed! - Lose);  Kevin Calder's Chinese Tong Gang (a turkey-shoot in open ground - Win); Barry Hilton's Comancheros (a stand-up town-fight - Draw), and Peter Nicholson's Outlaws (the train game, where he saw off my sheriff, but didn't manage to steal the safe - Draw). These games were all different, and all far more fun than most of us expected.

Between each round we had to fill out paperwork, to see which of our lost figures survived, who gained advances through gaining experience, and how much revenue we'd generated. This was used to buy more figures, weapons or other goodies. As for the rules themselves, they were standard Warhammer fare, with an awful lot of die rolling for little result! They also suffered from the other Warhammer problem, where the rules writers produce a relatively simple basic set, then bring out a series of glossy supplements, each of which contain special rules for things like Apache shaman, Chinese martial arts and US Cavalry bugle blowers. It all conspires to make a simple system a lot more clunky than it really needs to be. Added to that is the business of re-rolls using Fortune cards, figures with special abilities, and other such bolt-on extras. I don't know how a simple cowpoke can keep track of it all!

On the second day (Sunday), all the tables were joined together, creating a big Wild West landscape, with an Indian reservation at one end, a Cavalry fort at the other, and several towns in between. Gaps were filled with homesteads, badlands, and a railway track, along which an unsuspecting train wended its way from time to time, being assaulted by just about anyone within rifle range!

What followed was utter mayhem, split over two gaming "days", each of about ten turns. During the game the US Cavalry were mown down by Comancheros, Apaches captured the town liquor store, the Mexicans harangued passing rolling stock, and Billy the Kid was gunned down by lawmen. It was even more bizarre in the afternoon, when Charles Grant's Mexican peons and Peter McCarroll's Apache braves slugged it out in the streets of the main town, both sides sniped at for most of the game by the Sheriff who dubbed himself "the equalizer"! The mayhem continued across the board, and this time it included a pugilistic bear  run by the Chinese Tong, a deadeye outlaw armed with an elephant gun with telescopic sights, and a big shootout between the much-accosted US Cavalry and local Indians, where both sides seemed to wipe out each other!

Everyone had a thoroughly good time though, and while the Wild West mightn't be "proper wargaming", at least it kept everyone entertained! That said, two Wild West games in one month is far too much for me, and I think I'll be hanging up my holster and sheriff's badge for a few months, to try my hand at something else.

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The Assault on Knareton, 1643 (Very Civile Actions) 28mm

For a while we've been intermittently fighting an English Civil War campaign, using the "Tinker Fox" system produced by The Perfect Captain. This engagement came about as a result of the latest round of activity, which saw the Malignants (sorry, Royalists) launch an attack against the Parliamentarian-held town of Knareton, in the county of Worringhamshire.

The garrison, staunchly led by Colonel Matthew Cowper consisted of two regiments of foot - those of Sir Robert Vaughn, and Colonel Cowper's own force, supported by a couple of pieces of artillery. They were attacked by a small Royalist field army of near-equal size - two small regiments of foot and two small regiments of horse, supported by a light field battery. This hazy-looking map is the best map available, as the small "battlefield" card supplied by The Perfect Captain doesn't lend itself to enlargement. However, the Royalists attacked from the south, while the Parliamentarians defended the edge of the village.

Parliamentarians spilled the first blood, causing casualties to the two oncoming Royalist pike blocks through musketry. However, the pikemen refused to be checked, and the drove the Parliamentarian shot from the first buildings of the village, routing one sleeve of musketeers, and destroying the other. Things were looking bleak for the forces of righteousness, especially when the two units of royalist horse began spilling around the edges of the village, trying to seek out a way past the village defences.

Then the Royalists over-reached themselves. By advancing too far and too fast into the eastern side of the village, they exposed themselves to counter-attack, and Sir Robert's Pikes fell upon a detachment of Royalist shot, and put them to flight. While things still looked dangerous for the Parliamentarian defenders, at least the Royalists had been checked slightly, and the Parliamentarians were back in the fight.

Time prevented us from playing the game through to its conclusion. Could Colonel Cowper have held on, or would the Royalist regain the initiative and drive them from the village? By the end of play about a quarter of the village was in Royalist hands, but the battle could have gone either way. We might continue the battle in a few weeks, or we might decide some more arbitrary means of deciding what might have happened. Whatever happens, the war in Worringhamshire will continue.

Thinker Fox is a fairly straightforward system, which is based around a map, divided into a couple of dozen locations like Knareton. Others are important houses or churches, two towns (one serving as the base for each faction), river crossings, or just open countryside. The system lends itself to raids like this, where possession of these strongpoints dictates revenue, and therefore the ability of either side to raise or pay for troops, or to perform actions. We really don't play enough English Civil War games, as they always look spectacular, and are great fun. it is also one of my favourite wargaming periods, but it often has to play second fiddle to other more mainstream periods for us here in Edinburgh, such as the Seven Years War, the Second World War, or "the Back of Beyond". 

The English Civil War Page

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Red Rock, Wyoming, c.1880 (Legends of the Old West) 28mm

Two silly games in one month is quite worrying. Actually, I'll be playing three, or possibly four. This was just a warm-up for a whole weekend of Wild West mayhem, while the week after I'm running a big Pirate game -  one of Charles S. Grant's tabletop teasers from Battlegames magazine. this must be the silly season...

Anyway, the aim was to try out the rules again, and the match play system, ahead of the big weekend. We played two games side by side, each on an adjoining 3x4 foot table. My one was fairly sensible - my Lawmen versus Colin Jack's Texas Rangers. Honours were fairly even, but the Texans came unstuck on the final turn. On the outskirts of town, a rather ludicrous scenario pitched Bill Gilchrist's Mexican peons against a horde of Chinese railway workers. I think the Mexicans won that one, but whichever way it went, the game looked like a bloodbath!

Then we rolled up the post game bits and pieces (characters get experience, recover from their wounds, and new posse members can be recruited). After that it was back to the fray, this time with my lawmen defending the town against the rampant Chinese. Rather gamily I made a stand outside the town, hunkering down behind a split-rail fence. It didn't do me much good - however many you mowed down, more seemed to appear and fill their place. In the end that game was declared a draw when both sides failed their morale test at the same time, and "headed for the hills"!

The rules are typical Warhammer - lots of quirks, you roll pointless numbers of dice, and generally the whole thing becomes an exercise in number-crunching. However, the plus side is that the games were fast moving - after all, we got two games in during an evening - the rules are easy to pick up, and above all they're fairly amusing. I won't say I'll necessarily make a habit of playing Wild West games, but once every so often they make for an entertaining evening. Oh, and the figures and scenery are fun - very atmospheric, and with a very Wild Western feel to them. Just look at the picture of the lone gunfighter standing in the middle of the Boot Hill cemetery if you don't believe me! 

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Northumberland, 1938 - A Very British Civil War (The Great War) 28mm

Just saying this was a game put on by Colin Jack is enough to set alarm bells ringing. His games are never straightforward, they often involve several rival factions, and they tend to be ever so slightly silly. Well, this was a classic. Someone somewhere came up with an alternative history period, which they dubbed "A Very British Civil War, 1938". Briefly, it sets King Edward VIII and Oswald Moseley's British Fascists, Daily Telegraph readers and other bad types on one side, and the Church of England, a broad alliance of the left, and a few other strange factions on the other. Don't ask me to explain it all - you can read all about it here (the link takes you to an off-site discussion group).

Well, in this game, my lot were the Anglicans, represented by a unit of the British Territorial Army (the National Guard in the US), supported by a unit of armed miners. Our job was to hold an airfield somewhere in Northumberland, to prevent it being used by King Edward VIII, Wallis Simpson and the fascist Duke of Northumberland, who wanted to fly out of the country - probably for secret talks with Herr Hitler. Forcing their way through to the airfield were units from the British Union of Fascists (BUF), the Glasgow Auxiliary Constabulary (whoever the hell they were), and - even more bizarrely - a Royal escort consisting of Grenadier Guards, still wearing their ceremonial uniforms! I told you this was silly...

The game went something like this. The Fascists led the attack with an armoured car, which was knocked out by the Territorial Bren gun team. Less easy to deal with were the Guardsmen, who attacked a farmhouse held by the Territorials, while covering the advance of the black-shirted BUF. Meanwhile the Glasgow Auxiliaries (a first outing for my unit of "Black & Tans") rammed the perimeter fence of the airfield, and began a firefight with the Territorial defenders. The Territorials were supported by the miners, who fought a brisk and fairly bloody engagement against the BUF, which effectively ended in stalemate, with both factions too weak to continue the battle.

Then, when we thought we had managed to keep the Fascists at bay, a Junkers transport plane arrived, and disgorged a squad of German troops. The Territorial outpost defending the airfield now became a last bastion. While riflemen engaged the Germans, the Territorial's last Bren team knocked out one of the engines of the Junkers. It suddenly started to look as if the dastardly King Edward and his American bride weren't going anywhere! At that point we ran out of time. While both sides had caused a lot of casualties, the airfield was still in the hands of my Anglican Territorials, while the King and his entourage were nowhere near the plane. In the end the game was declared a draw.

For rules, we used Warhammer's The Great War. I can't say I really like Warhammer rules, with all their excessive and pointless die rolling. Still, everything moved along at a good pace, and the system was easy enough to pick up. Will I play this "period" again? Well, probably, if Colin Jack dreams up another silly game. However, I have to say, if I really wanted to wargame something in the late 1930's, then I wouldn't choose this. Instead, I'd be off to the barricades around Madrid, refighting the Spanish Civil War. Last week I just happened to pick up a nice bunch of 28mm SCW figures, so that might actually be happening fairly soon...

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Arcola, 1796 (28mm) , and the Targe 2008 Show, Kirriemuir

This Saturday we all headed north to Kirriemuir, in north-east Scotland. The town is host to Targe, a small but enjoyable wargames show, which marks the end of the annual wargames calendar. Our Edinburgh club put on two 28mm games - "Toulgas 1918" (Russian Civil War), which pitched Americans against Bolsheviks, and Arcola 1796 (French Revolutionary War), which pitched Bonaparte against a bridge! Of the two, the RCW game had the better terrain, while the Italian affair was the more spectacular of the two. We even managed to clean up on the prizes, winning a best demo game for Tourgas, and a runner's up award for Arcola. All in all it was a good day for the South-East Scotland Wargames Club!

Here are a few pictures of Bonaparte at the Bridge - Arcola, 1796. Unfortunately my ones of Toulgas, 1918 were too fuzzy to post. These aren't much better, but at least you'll get the idea. We played the game in real time - which meant reinforcements and flanking columns came on when they did historically. The French launched five attempts to cross the bridge, each of which was repulsed with heavy losses. The most successful of these  - led by Bonaparte himself - actually reached the muzzles of the Austrian guns, only to fail to charge home at the critical moment. Instead it "faltered", and was sliced and diced by musketry and canister. Amazingly, Bonaparte survived the debacle, and decided to resort to "Plan B."

This involved a crossing further downstream, so at 3pm a large French demi-brigade arrived on the Austrian bank of the river, and rolled up the Austrian defences as far as the bridge. Unfortunately that was when we had to pack up, but the French were poised for a final bridge assault, this time supported by French troops on the Austrian flank. Historically it worked - but we never did find out if the wargame could repeat history!

Below are pictures of another couple of pretty games - a pretty Sudan encounter laid on by the Iron Brigade (a group of wargamers from Aberdeenshire), and "The Relief of Orleans", run by the Lance & Longbow Society as a participation game. As usual the show was a chance to chat to  friends, buy some lead I don't need (25mm 1790's British in the West Indies from the Bring n' Buy), and check out the wares on offer from traders. "Kirrie" is always a fun show, and a great day out. I certainly plan to be there next year, and with luck the club can defend its cup with a new and even more stylish game!

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