Angus  Konstam's Edinburgh Wargames

Edinburgh Wargames Journal             

      Issue 31  -  February 2009  

Periods featured in this Issue:  The English Civil War (two games),

 the "Third English Civil War" 1938  & Vietnam  (all 28mm)

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Virginia, 1643 -  Rebellion in the Colonies (Very Civile Actions) 28mm

I suppose you could describe this game as a walk in the woods. The loose premise was that by 1643, the English Civil War had spilled over into the American colonies. Two neighbouring towns in Virginia had declared for different sides - Norfolk for the Royalists, and Suffolk for Parliament. The governors of the both towns simultaneously decided to send a force to capture the other settlement. On both sides a smaller force stayed behind to defend the town. That's when the fun began...

The woods themselves - a 4 foot by 4 foot block in the middle of the 6x4 foot table was uncharted territory - a dense forest, crossed by only the most rudimentary paths. In fact, the whole game was engineered so we could use a whacky system called "Fighting in the Forest" that someone dug up. The idea was that our forest was divided up into 16 one foot squares. Each was numbered with a counter - you can see one in the picture above. Each counter edge was colour coded. The fiendish umpire had a map, also with 16 squares. However, the numbers were different, as were the colour of the edges. When a unit wanted to exist a square, he told the umpire something like "leaving square 14 on the green edge". the umpire looked at his map, to see where the next square was. He'd then tell the player something like "it arrives on square 8, on the blue edge".  In other words, the unit "teleported" across the wood to a different square, and not necessarily the one it was trying to move into. OK, it all makes your head spin, but it certainly made for an interesting game!

Well, in our game both sides sent a regiment into the woods, and pretty soon the pikes and the two sleeves of shot became separated. One royalist unit appeared on the Parliamentarian edge of the forest, and became involved in a firefight against the town's defenders. However, due to the weird system, he couldn't reinforce his success, as by that time his other units had "teleported" somewhere else - one right in front of the main Parliamentarian force. Surprisingly, nobody landed up on the squares containing the two bands of Indians, who were willing to take on all comers if they entered their patch of forest. In the end the game degenerated into farce, with both sides unable to achieve anything, due to all the chaos, disorientation and head spinning. Of course, it didn't help when I super-glued Royalist commander Dougie Trail's lucky Vegas dice together, but that's another story!

The upshot is that the Fighting in the Forest system is all very interesting, but we probably won't use it again. You'd really need to be a fantasy player to come with the nonsense it produces, and while it might have been entertaining, it wasn't 17th century warfare as we knew it!

Try the system out for yourselves: Fighting in the Forest

English Civil War page

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

Unlike the previous week's game, this was a "proper" Civil War - a small clash between a couple of Parliamentarian and Royalist regiments, supported by a small body of horse. We hadn't played with these rules for a while, and the prospect of plastic ECW figures has raised interest in the club. Therefore we decided to run a small game, ostensibly to try out our "battalia" amendments , but really so that people could try out the period. 

Actually, as games go, it wasn't very exciting. The Royalists hung back, hogging their table edge. The Parliamentarians moved forward, and soon the horse were locked  in a cut and thrust skirmish on our Parliamentarian right, where the advantage passed back and fore, and ended with both sides pulling back, exhausted and depleted. On the left another body of Parliamentarian horse approached the Royalist line, but was badly chewed up by musket fire. It managed some form of revenge, as it charged and eviscerated a body of Royalist shot before it retired from the field. In the centre the infantry clash degenerated into a rather ineffectual musketry duel, with both sides keeping their pikes in reserve, and relying on firepower to win the day. It didn't really work, and the battle petered out when the cavalry fell back. As a result, the game ended in a draw, although judging by casualties, the God-fearing forces of Parliament had the worst of the scrap.

One of the fun things about Very Civil Actions is the way officers are given certain characteristics, based on the counter they drew at the start of the game. For instance, one of my pike blocks was commanded by a "bookish" leader, who had to roll each turn to see whether he advanced, or simply thought about it instead. Similarly a Parliamentarian cavalry leader was rated as a son of "Mars" - a firebrand who gained a 50% bonus for his unit in melee. The trouble was, using this meant there was a 50% chance of him being killed in the action, which would automatically lead to his unit routing from the field. Judging when and if to use this little bonus was a major headache for the Parliamentarian cavalry commander!

Certainly the rules have their quirks and problems, but on the whole they produce a well-paced and enjoyable "regimental level" game.

The English Civil War Page (which includes a review of Very Civile Actions)

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Northumberland 1938 - An alternative history Third English Civil War  (The Great War) 28mm

This was another profoundly silly game, based on the alternative history "Third English Civil War" in 1938. (see links below for details). The game revolved around the Durham Miners, who rebelled against King and Country, and therefore had to be taught a lesson. The "lesson" was supplied by the Durham Light Infantry (DLI), and territorials of the Northumberland Fusiliers, supported by light tanks. Meanwhile the Scots launched a raid over the border, in an effort to offer succour to the miners.  As the "royalist" commander, my job was to repulse the Scots, and recapture the mine. true to form, we used overwhelming force against the miners, leaving the right-wing auxiliaries to counter the invaders.

As the rules were a Warhammer derivative, bucket-loads of dice were used. In two turns the miners were wiped out, leaving the DLI to capture the mine. Naturally more miners appeared when the regulars entered the complex, but like their predecessors these poorly-armed guys were no match for the firepower of the regulars. In fact this whole game felt uncomfortably "Thatcherite", with overtones of the Miners Strike of 1984. After gunning down the miners,  dealing with the rebellious Scots was almost a relief.

Deal with them we did. The Fascist militias halted their advance in a little mining village, while Scottish attempt to reach the mine were thwarted by the machine guns of my two light tanks Alice and Annie.  My co-commander did a splendid job, despite facing two medium tanks, which roamed the battlefield, ignoring fire from our 37mm Bofors AT gun (below). Meanwhile an air duel was fought out overhead, with final victory going to Gladys the Gladiator, who drove off her opponent - a Hawker Fury.

As I said, this was a dumb game, saved only by the chance to field exotic 1930's equipment, and a mixture of figures from the First and Second World War, plus other odds and ends scraped together for the occasion. My fear though is that Colin Jack who masterminds these affairs will regard this as a real wargames period, worth of regular outings. Once in a while is fine - anything more is just sheer indulgence!

1938: A Very British Civil War  - Source Book available from Solway Crafts (an E-Bay page)

1938: A Very British Civil War  - Background  and Yahoo Group listed as   ECW3 

The Great War Playsheet , geared up for 1938

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Khe Sanh - Hill 881N, Vietnam 1967 (Vietnam Skirmish Rules) 28mm

This probably wasn't my finest wargaming moment. We were wondering what to play, and someone mentioned we hadn't played a Vietnam game for a while. There's probably a good reason for that - skirmish games are never particularly satisfying, and apart from the chance to put cool toys on the table and whistle songs by "The Doors", Vietnam  doesn't have a lot going for it. That said, the toys are particularly cool...

The scenario came from some skirmish campaign booklet, and concentrated around an attempt to reinforce the beleaguered US Marines on Hill 881N, which overlooked Khe Sanh. Essentially a force of US Marines would land a CH-46 Sea Knight in a "hot LZ", and try to clear the area of North Vietnamese troops.

The trouble with jumping out of helicopters into clearings is that if the enemy is hidden, you don't really know which tree line to run for. Part of my force broke left and the rest broke right. Their sense of urgency was heightened by an enemy machine gun, which opened up from a hidden bunker, just as the first troops ran down the tail ramp. Fortunately some good shooting from a circling Huey "hog" gunship managed to deal with the problem.

Then came the job of securing the perimeter. The Sea Knight took off safely, but as soon as it vanished two waves of enemy troops rose out of the jungle - catching half my force between two fires. The NVA player (Dougie Trail) had cunningly concentrated all his forces on one side of the table, hoping for the chance to overwhelm part of my force before the rest could intervene. It worked to perfection. Within minutes about a third of my Marines were overrun, a third more were running away, and the rest were desperately trying to march back through the jungle so they could help their buddies. In other words, the landing was a fiasco! the game ended with what remained of my Marines forming a defensive perimeter, and calling for help. Rather than helping the defenders of Hill 881N, they just added to the problem...

The rules we used were taken from the internet - and called simply Vietnam Skirmish Rules, by Andy Watkins. We've used a simpler version of them before, but since then he came out with another set, and we decided to try them out. They did exactly what we wanted - producing a fast-paced and entertaining game, without too much complication. We'll certainly use them again - at least when someone can persuade me that Vietnam really is an interesting wargaming period, or I feel the need to pull out my cool toys again!

Andy Watkins'  Vietnam Skirmish Rules

Vietnam page

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