Edinburgh Wargames

The Edinburgh Wargames Journal             

                                            Issue 33  -  April 2009  

Periods featured in this Issue:  1/600th Coastal Forces,  The Great War, 1938: The Third English Civil War, "Back of Beyond", Seven Years War & Russian Civil War  (all 28mm)

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Attack on Ambleteuse Roads, English Channel, 1940 (Attack with Torpedoes) 1/600th

We decided we hadn't played a Coastal Forces game for over two years, so the little ships were given another airing. The idea was that a small German coastal convoy had put into Ambleteuse Roads for the night, to avoid a bombing raid on Boulogne, just down the coast. The anchorage was protected by a torpedo net, and covered by the antiquated guns of Fort Mahon. The German escort consisted of a Flak lighter and an armed trawler.

The British decided to raid the anchorage, attacking with four Motor Torpedo Boats (MTB's), supported by two Fairmile B Motor Launches (ML's). Another Fairmile B was also in the area, landing an agent on the coast. Finally, a German patrol appeared, consisting of two R-Boats (light minesweepers). Unluckily for the British they turned up right in the path of the MTB's. The scene was set for a short, frenetic night action.

The British roared into the Roads at 30 knots, trying to work their way round the torpedo net. First though, they had to deal with the R-Boats. German fire eviscerated the leading MTB, then the two sides threaded through each other as they exchanged fire at point-blank range. Meanwhile the supporting motor launches engaged the F-Lighter on the far side of the anchorage. The result of all this shooting was that a second MTB and an ML  were both turned into blazing wrecks, while the Germans also suffered fairly heavy damage. The German fire wasn't enough though, and two of the MTB's rounded the net and fired their torpedoes. One missed completely, but the second boat was rewarded with a hit which promptly sank the largest of the German freighters.

With all their torpedoes gone, the remaining British boats tried to escape to safety. One didn't make it, being shredded by the F-Lighter, which in turn was reduced to a wreck by the remaining Fairmile boat. The game ended as the British disappeared out to sea, leaving chaos in their wake. With one big merchantmen sunk, plus the most powerful German escort, victory was awarded to the British. However, this victory was a pyrrhic one, as three of the four MTB's were lost in the attack,  plus one of the motor launches - two thirds of the attacking force! Incidentally, the agent was landed safely.

It was a close-run game, and an extremely enjoyable one. The rules we used were Dillon Browne's Attack with Torpedoes, one of the few sets for this kind of naval battle which don't get bogged down in minutiae. They achieve this by using Warhammer-like quantities of dice. Instead of working out each individual hit, you simply add up the dice being "fired" by each boat, then roll away. The result is a tense, fun and speedy game. Sure, there are far more accurate sets out there (like Flaklighter or Action Stations), but these simpler rules work for us, and our occasional games.

Attack with Torpedoes playsheet       Coastal Forces page

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Verdun, 1916 - The Great War (Through the Mud and the Blood) 28mm

This week we decided to try out a new set of rules - Through the Mud and the Blood, produced by the Too Fat Lardies. They're described as a large skirmish set, and are similar to the well received Sharp Practice rules, which we also want to try. Most of us have experimented with Lardy rules before, having tried the Second World War set I Ain't been Shot Mum (IABSM). Like IABSM these are card driven - you have a pack containing cards for each of the "Big Men" who command troops, plus ones for support weapons and special events. As this was a learning game we simplified things a bit by using our own simpler artillery rules. I have to say, the Lardy ones are much better - probably the best available rules covering First World War artillery. However, we kept it simple.

The cards are turned one at a time, and that "Big Man" performs his actions - motivating troops (who then move and/or fire), removing Shock Markers (we used pebbles) and other inspirational things. The turn ends when the "Snifter" card appears. At that point all remaining units can shoot, but can't move. Well, in the first three turns the damned "Snifter" card turned up in the first few cards, which meant there was very little movement going on - just a lot of firing. At that point one of the French players lost interest and wandered off, to talk lead-speak with his buddies. Faced with other mutterings I decided to make the "Blank Card" which served no other purpose a second "Snifter" card, and the game would only end when the second card was played.

The game picked up speed after that, but the system was still frustrating, as units would advance into the open, then stand there for what seemed an eternity while everyone fired at them. The game involved six German squad-sized units plus a few support weapons, attacking two French units plus machine guns, with more French coming on as reinforcements. The premise was that the Germans had captured a front line trench during the night, and this was the dawn assault on the French reserve line.

In the end the Germans managed to reach the French positions, but only by advancing up the two communication trenches. Anyone out in the open suffered badly (as you'd expect), including the French reinforcements, who ran into artillery and machine gun fire as they came up in support of their comrades. After three hours of play the game was declared a draw, albeit one which favoured the Germans. While they hadn't completely cleared the reserve trench, they'd established a strong lodgement, and the French lacked the strength to eject them.

That's when the real fun started. It seems that you either love Lardy rules or you hate them. For my part I quite liked them - or at least I liked some bits. The "Snifter" card was annoying, as was the general lack of flow in the game. Conversely I can see merit in the card system, and frankly it would become slicker with practice. Other players really didn't like them at all - in the picture below the French commander is waxing lyrical on the subject (in true Gallic hand-waving style), and while some agreed to give them another go "some time", others point-blank refused. The truth is, we like fairly simple rules for this period, which is why Contemptible Little Armies works for us. Through the Mud and the Blood is interesting, but - like peaty whisky - its also an acquired taste.

The Great War page     Too Fat Lardies website

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The Farne Islands, 1938 - The Third English Civil War (The Great War) 28mm

I've already said that games organised by Colin Jack tend to be a bit silly. This one was as daft as they get! For a start, it was part of his alternative "1938: Tthe Third English Civil War campaign". That means everything was completely fictitious, and slightly unbelievable. Then there was the scenario itself. This was no finely-crafted Charles S. Grant affair. Oh no. Our game involved an 8x6 foot sea mat, two bare islands, and a lighthouse.

The rather loose premise was that these were the Farne Islands, off the North Sea coast of north-eastern England. Inner Farne boasted a lighthouse, while there was nothing on Outer Farne apart from a radio tower and an awful lot of puffins.  The newly-built radio tower was held by the British Union of Facists (BUF), who used it to broadcast their brutish propaganda to the mainland. The Inner Farne lighthouse was held by a small anti-Facist garrison, which included a howitzer and crew - the start of a makeshift coastal battery. These troops came from the Anglican League. Don't ask. For some reason, both sides simultaneously decided to send reinforcements from the mainland, and to launch an attack on the enemy-held island. I told you it was silly!

The BUF landed near the Inner Farne lighthouse, the landing supported by a strange-looking armed tug. They then spent the whole game overpowering a small bunker, and by the end of the evening the battery position and its command bunker were still in Anglican hands. Meanwhile, on Outer Farne the Anglican League approached in two boats - a landing craft and an armed motor launch. The launch began shooting up a lightly armed BUF launch it found off Outer Farne, and the landing went ahead unopposed. Unfortunately the Facists had  an armoured car on the island, which (rather gamily) hid on the reverse slope from the well-armed motor launch, and kept the Anglican assault troops at bay. When the game ended the Anglicans had wiped out the island garrison, but still had to overpower the armoured car. The launch had been sent back to the mainland to pick up reinforcements (a small tank), but the Facists were also sending two boatloads of reinforcements to reclaim the island. The game was finally declared a draw, but in truth the outcome was still very much in doubt, despite the Facist superiority in "cool toys".

To add to the silliness, special events and reinforcements were diced for at the end of every turn. Something turned up about every second turn, and strangely enough, all of the "cool toys" appeared on the Facist side. The first  was a Nazi corvette, with a bizarre howitzer on the back. Then came a well-armed boatload of reinforcements, followed by air support in the shape of a turncoat Gloster Gladiator. Finally a Nazi U-Boat surfaced between the two islands, which used its anti-aircraft gun to pepper the defences of Inner Farne. Of course, this was no more farcical than the scenario itself, the line-up of forces and the bizzarre two-island tabletop! All utter nonsense - but shame-faced fun.

For rules we used Warhammer's The Great War. If you like Warhammer rules they worked fine, bolstered by Colin's own bolt-on nautical bits .

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Ashkhabad, Turkmenistan, 1921 (Contemptible Little Armies / Back of Beyond) 28mm

This week we revisited our Back of Beyond campaign - loosely based on the Central Asian theatre of the Russian Civil War. The game involved a Red Army assault on the city of Ashkhabad, which was defended by the local Emir and his guard. The fly in the ointment for the Bolshevik player came in the form of a Turkish army, which was marching to the relief of the Muslim city. The stage was set for a three-cornered contest, with the Red Army commander having to split his forces to meet both threats. In the end he divided his troops fairly equally, half assaulting the city, and half countering the advance by the Turks.

The battle began with a Red cavalry assault on the Turkish forward positions, but the riders were driven off by machine gun fire. They then lost their sole armoured car. Both sides fed more troops into the battle, and the Red Army actually went over onto the attack, its force spearheaded by a unit of Siberian Rifles. While they relied on rifle fire to win the day, other Red units and their Turkish counterparts closed to fight it out hand-to-hand. This was a bit of a mistake for the Reds, as the Turkish troops were slightly better quality, and had the edge in melee. Within a few turns the Turks emerged battered but victorious. Even a last-minute assault by Trotsky's Guards (resplendent in their red leather uniforms) failed to stem the tide.

The Bolsheviks did much better against the defenders of Ashkhabad. They stormed into the town, and a Turcoman counter-attack was thwarted by one of the last remaining units of Red cavalry. However, the Bolsheviks lost a lot of casualties in the process, and it soon became clear that they lacked the strength to root out the last of the defenders - at least before the Turks reached the city. At that point the Red Army commander conceded, and pulled what was left of his army to fight another day.

As ever, we used Chris Peers' Contemptible Little Armies rules (and the army lists supplied in his Back of Beyond supplement). The only change to the printed rules came through our use of aircraft - we modified the existing system to allow more enjoyable dogfights. In our game the Turkish pilot emerged victorious, and I'll be painting a little red star on the side of his machine before his next outing! The Turks were mine (that's their  rather familiar-looking portly commander in the photo below), while the Reds and the locals came from the collections of Emir Colin Jack and Comrade Bill Gilchrist. You can never go wrong with Back of Beyond - the games always have plenty of flavour and colour, and are hugely enjoyable.

The Great War / Back of Beyond page       The Back of Beyond Campaign page

Contemptible Little Armies playsheet

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The Saale Crossing,  1757 -  Seven Years War (Die Kriegskunst) 28mm

This game was loosely based on the scenario by Charles S. Grant, published in the first edition of Battlegames magazine. We simply changed things a little to reflect the figures and the scenery we had available. The idea was that the Prussians had thrown a pontoon bridge across the Saale River, in an attempt to reach the French, who held the territory beyond the west bank. A strong Prussian brigade held the bridgehead, and as the game started the rest of the Prussian army were marching to its aid, approaching the pontoon bridge from the eastern side of the river. A brigade of French troops kept the Prussians under observation, loosely supported by a brigade of dragoons. The rest of the French army were also marching towards the battlefield from the west. The Prussian objective was to safeguard the bridgehead, and to secure the north-south road which lay beyond.

In this situation most Prussian advanced guard commanders would be content to sit tight and wait for reinforcements. Not Roger, our visitor from Perth. On turn one he advanced on the French, leaving a couple of battalions behind to protect his flanks from the French dragoons. His troops fired a volley, then charged, and the French were pushed back up the hill behind them. Within three turns they were routing from the field, leaving their guns to be captured and spiked by the enemy. By this stage the rest of the Prussian army had appeared, and was beginning to cross the river.

The French dragoons launched three near-suicidal charges against the advancing Prussians, but their sacrifice achieved little. At that point the French were buoyed by the arrival of reinforcements (my main body), which advanced up the road from the west. The race was now on as both sides tried to secure an advantageous position, and to shake their troops out into line of battle. After driving off its opponents, the Prussian advanced guard had seized the village in the centre of the table, and turned it into a strongpoint. The Prussians in the buildings opening up a harassing fire on the French army which was forming up on either side of them. To coutner them the French screened the village with a line of skirmishers, and massed two battalions of Grenadiers de France, ready to go in a la bayonette.

The scene was set for the climax of the battle - which of course is where we ran out of time!

A few of the players were under spousal curfew, and so we had to pack up. Our problem was that with about 12-16 battalions a side, plus about 6 regiments of horse, this was a fairly large battle. Also, the way the troops arrived on the table meant that the main armies didn't reach the scene of the fighting until about turn 10. In hindsight we should have fought a smaller engagement (but we all wanted to use our lead), or play it over more than one day. However, we took plenty of photos, and plans were laid to continue the battle next month, picking up the game exactly where we left off. There was certainly everything to play for, with the Prussians formed into a defensive line just short of their objective road, and the French deployed for a major assault on the bridgehead. There's still everything to play for, in what turned out to be a well-balanced game.

When we refight it we'll also run the rivers across the long side of the 8x6 foot table, and possibly add an extension, to give both commanders more room to manoeuvre. As it stood it was getting very crowded inside that Prussian bridgehead, or in the French centre.

We all enjoyed ourselves though, and one of the Prussian players - figure painter Brian Phillips - promised to begin collecting his own Seven Years War army tomorrow!

You'd think that having the two rules writers there would have ensured everything ran smoothly. It didn't! You see, we're busy working on the errata and addendum to the rules, as well as a scenario book. As a result, we spent as much time debating rules changes, or wondering how to deal with strange situations (like cavalry counter-charging while crossing a pontoon bridge) as we did actually shuffling lead around the tabletop!

Seven Years War page        Die Kriegskunst page       Die Kriegskunst playsheet

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Stop Press:  The Joys of Six!  

I've decided to sell all my bulky, old-fashioned 28mm figures, and re-do everything in 6mm. Its the new frontier. I've seen the light. Peter Berry of Baccus will be delighted. I've been secretly painting up 6mm figures (a joy), and I'm ready to make the switch.

Just think of the advantages - easy to transport, cheap to buy, and it doesn't take up every available bit of storage space in your house. Besides, they now do just about everything you'd ever want, from Ancient Egyptians to the present day and beyond. Hurrah!

   OK, enough of this April Fool nonsense. Back to real toy soldiers:

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Tartu, Estonia, 1919 -  Russian Civil War (Contemptible Little Armies / Back of Beyond) 28mm

We'd planned to play a Seven Years War game, but as we'll be doing that on Sunday, we opted for the Russian Civil War instead. This was a small and pretty straightforward game, played out on a 6x4 foot table. The objective was a broken down tank, stranded somewhere near the Estonian/Latvian/Russian border. Both the Red Army and an uneasy coalition force of Nationalists and Germans sent small forces to capture the tank, and so the scene was set for an encounter battle. Both sides had four infantry units, supported by a couple of machine guns.

The battlefield was dominated by a big open space, and at first both sides seemed wary of advancing into it. Instead they skulked in the trees, taking potshots at the enemy. The Nationalists and Germans (let's call them the Whites) captured the tank, but didn't advance any further. Then, on the White left a unit of veteran Siberian rifles were swept  by machine gun fire as it advanced in the open, and then a unit of Latvian infantry swept out of the trees and charged into them. The Siberians were eventually overwhelmed, and the victorious Latvians went on to capture a Bolshevik machine gun. In the centre of the table the Estonians tried a similar trick, but were driven back after a vicious hand to hand scrap with Red sailors. While the Whites had the upper hand on that side of the table, but it was a pyrrhic victory, as the Nationalists had been badly chopped up during the fight.

On the White left the Germans played an altogether more cautious game, holding the line agaisnt a couple of Red units, and trading long range machine gun fire. The game ended when it became clear that neither side were willing or able to press home another serious attack. Technically this little scrap ended in a White victory (as they held the tank), but in truth it was pretty much a stalemate, with both sides worn down by the fighting.

The rules we used were our standard Chris Peers set - Contemptible Little Armies (a 4,5,6 and you're dead etc. etc.), and as usual the game was fast, fun, furious and extremely bloody! The Nationalists and Germans were mine (with a Latvian unit and a tank borrowed from Colin Jack for the evening), while the dastardly Bolsheviks (including these sailors) were painted by Dougie Trail.

Contemptible Little Armies / Back of Beyond Playsheet          The Great War page

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