Edinburgh Wargames

The Edinburgh Wargames Journal

Issue 49  -  August 2010  

Periods featured in this issue:  Indian Mutiny, Second World War, American War of Independence (two games) and the "Napoleonic" War  (all 28mm)

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Assault on the Bhurpa Residency, Indian Mutiny 1857   (Honour & Fortitude) 28mm 

As this was my first visit to the Edinburgh Club in months, it was inevitable that there would be a little celebratory drinking. Well, it got a little out of hand - this was the booziest wargame I've played.  It was almost impossible to take a shot of the table without beer or whisky somewhere in the frame - hence the opening picture. The idea was that a small British garrison were holding out in a defended compound somewhere near Lucknow, and the mutinous sepoys had blown a breach in the compound wall. The game was all about launching assaults against the compound, before the defenders could be relieved. Thank goodness for young Chris, our teenage mutineer, who kept the game moving along despite the increasingly drunken antics of those more than twice his age!

   

It began with a Sepoy cavalry charge, trying to ride down the defenders of the breach in one hell-for-leather assault. Well, it came to naught, as the defenders had cunningly covered the breach with two small guns, and the cavalry rode into a killing zone of canister shot and musketry. Then came two assaults, from two different directions, the first led by the Khazi of Calibar's guard, and the other by the best unit of Sepoys on the table. The yellow-turbaned guard broke into the compound, but failed to achieve anything. The Sepoys were more of a threat, prompting a defensive charge by a squadron of loyal Punjabi Lancers. The cavalry dies to a man, but the Sepoys were halted, and the defences held - just. Then the relief column arrived, headed by British cavalry.

  

By this stage of the game many of the players were too incapable to roll dice, but young Chris battled Derek's cavalry, and amazingly the Sepoys stalled the relief column, albeit at the expense of the last of the Sepoy cavalry. Only a handful of British horsemen were left, and they eventually succumbed to the swords of a band of Ghaqzi fanatics, who lay between them and the gates of the compound. At that stage play was abandoned, the toys were packed up, and the drunken gamers repaired to the Cumberland Arms, to continue their slide into oblivion. Our thanks go out to Chris for keeping the game going, and for Dougie's valiant efforts at umpiring, until the effects of the India Pale Ale became all too much. Despite the booziness of the occasion this small game was both fun and colourful, while the simple but effective rules were perfect for an occasion when most of us seemed more intent on partying than moving lead around the tabletop! The rules themselves - Honour & Fortitude - are an old quarto-sized ten page set from the 1970's, which are probably still available from Caliver Books.

Indian Mutiny page     Honour & Fortitude playsheet 

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Ambush on the Warsaw Road, Poland 1939   (Triumph & Tragedy) 28mm    - Report by Colin Jack

 

September 1939 - Poland on the ropes and close to surrender.  The Fuhrer en route by air to Warsaw to head up the impending triumph.  Unfortunately some engine trouble intervenes and his plane has to divert to a remote airstrip some miles from its destination with the journey continuing by road.

 

As luck would have it, a small unit of Polish regulars have been hiding in a nearby village and they together with some of the villagers decide that this may be an opportunity to strike back against the invader. The Poles wait in ambush and open fire on the leading vehicles.  Luck is with them and the driver of the leading Kubelwagen is killed as is the driver of the following car.  Both cars swerve and crash blocking the road for the Fuhrer's car.

 

     

 

The SS guards are quickly out and returning fire as are the Wermacht survivors from the crashed vehicles.  A firefight develops with the Polish regulars holding a ruined building and the villagers lining a walled field.  The Germans are getting the worst of the firefight when the Polish villagers decide to mount an attack on the stationary Fuhrer's car.  Two molotov cocktails fail to have any effect but there are casualties among Hitler's staff and the villagers.  The crew of the Luftwaffe Ju 52 have now caught up with the action and join in the firefight with a machine gun dismounted from the plane. The driver decides to make a break across country to rejoin the road but by the time they reach it only the driver and the Fuhrer himself are still alive.  The villagers have one more chance to kill Hitler before the driver can put his foot down and escape along the road to Warsaw............................... but they are poor shots so the war does not end before it starts.

 

Second World War page

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Battle of Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina Colony, March 1781   (British Grenadier) 28mm    - Report by Angus

Two wargames in one weekend! This was a refight of Guilford Courthouse - probably my favourite battle from the American War of Independence, and not just 'cause I wrote the Osprey book on it! The war in the South has always held more appeal than the fighting in the Hudson Valley, or around Philadelphia. Part of the appeal - at least from a wargaming perspective - is the fact that the armies were tiny, but the stakes were huge. Well, you all know the basic setup for Guilford. The Americans deployed in three lines, with their worst militia at the front, and the Continental regulars forming the third line. Cornwallis' small army had to carve through all three ranks of Americans in order to claim victory. In the real battle he won, but at a terrible cost, and his small army was so badly battered it had to pull back to the coast - and the debacle of Yorktown. The battle always represents a challenge under any rules system, as the British need to have a chance of winning, thereby testing quality and resolve over quantity.

Dougie Trail took on the role of Cornwallis, while I played the bad guys. The first British decision was whether to go in with the bayonet against the first line of North Carolina militia, or to engage in a firefight. Dougie chose the latter, and despite taking a few "permanent" casualties from his light infantry, he managed to see of the rebels in fairly short order. I managed to extricate my 6-pounder section, which pulled back to the thrid line, together with the shameful militia brigadier who survived his brigade morale test, but lost the rest of his brigade! Then the British entered the band of woods, to take on the waiting second line of militia. This time they were Virginians, and slightly better quality. They were also supported by rifle-armed skirmishers, who soon began to cause casualties on the advancing British. Still, the British advanced and fired, then kept firing until their opponents broke and ran. In British Grenadier firing involves a subtle form of decision making. The first three hits are "free" - they disorder rather than kill. You also pick up disorder markers by advancing through woods, or trying to manoeuvre too quickly. A sensible commander then stands and rallies them off before advancing again. Unfortunately the militia were less able to rally off disorder markers than the British regulars, which meant that they were bound to lose a stand-up fight, or else be forced to pull back when they started taking casualties. To cut a long story short the second line fared a bit better than the first, and this time the riflemen and cavalry pulled back safely, while all but one of the militia units broke and ran.

The British now faced the much sterner prospect of defeating the waiting line of Continental regulars, backed by skirmishers, guns and cavalry. Dougie halted his line at the edge of the woods, dressed his ranks, and gave the order to advance. That was when disaster struck. A lucky "double six" hit from the American guns managed to destroy the small supporting British battery of 3-pounders, and Cornwallis was wounded, and forced out of play for a turn while his wounds were dressed. This proved a crucial moment. The guns then destroyed the British Legion - horse and foot - as they deployed for a charge, and the rest of the British line began to take heavy casualties. Without Cornwallis to help rally off disorder markers the British were now outnumbered, outgunned, and taking casualties far more rapidly than their American opponents. One by one the British (and one Hessian unit) failed their morale check, and retreated from the hail of fire. Other units broke and routed. Let's just say that the Guards were less than elite that day... It pretty soon became clear that the British had lost the battle, and the American line was no unassailable. Cornwallis had no option but to call off the attack, and call for a general retreat.

This account doesn't really do justice to a game which was tense, highly enjoyable, and could have gone either way right up to the final turn or two. Guilford is always a tough refight for the British, but although the result wasn't a historic one, both players agreed that the British Grenadier rules did a great job of simulating this type of morale-driven battle, where training and leadership count more than numbers. The most important thing though, was that I had my revenge after the drubbing of my Russians the day before. It also inspired me to keep painting up my AWI lead stockpile, and to stage another game soon.

American War of Independence page

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Battle of Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina Colony, March 1781   (Black Powder) 28mm    - Report by Bill Gilchrist

As a companion to the report up above, here's another refight of Guilford Courthouse, this time fought using Black Powder.

The British advanced boldly towards the North Carolinans lining the fence.  Well, at least some of them did.  On the British right the advance slowed almost at once when the American cavalry moved forward and tried to flank the Hessians.  This and skirmishing fire stopped the Hessians and distracted their Brigadier.  The cavalry were eventually broken by the Hessian Jaegers. On the British left one of the line battalions charged the militia holding the fence.   The militia won four rounds of combat , surviving all their wavering break tests, and it was the line battalion who broke first.  They broke still having their "First Fire",  having never fired a single volley!  The other units on the left flank became bogged down in a long drawn out firefight. Eventually the two British units on the right flank broke the militia through firepower.  The militia and riflemen on the British left held on for a long time, forcing the British to commit all their units before the militia finally broke. 

Both American rifle detachments survived the fighting and withdrew to join the 2^nd line,  which waited for the British in the woods.  The 2^nd line were also were joined by a unit of Continentals. The British advanced all along the line, but this time it was the British right that struggled. while the left overcame their militia opponents. Still, the militia managed to break another British line unit.  The  Continentals sacrificed themselves by charging and destroying the British artillery.  It was clear by this point that it was impossible for the British to cross the open ground to attack the 3^rd line - the five units of Continentals.  Most of the larger British units ended the game shaken,  and would take some time to recover.  The only fresh units were Tarleton’s cavalry which were still to strike a blow.  Overall it was an enjoyable game and it looks great set-up.  The BP rules work well for large games - we played an enormous number of moves.  It took nearly 3 hours of actual time for the British to overcome the first line - the actual battle in which the British at great cost defeated all 3 American lines lasted for 90 minutes all told!

The game was fought down a 12ft by 6ft table.  This and the deployment allowed the game to be played easily by 4 players. The game was played with the 66% version of the BP rules - reducing movement and firing by 66% but we retained the command radius and proximity distance at 12” given the size of the units. The figure scale was 1/10 so we had a total of just over 200 British figures facing slightly over 400 American figures.

To try to balance the game towards a historical result I gave the British units all the special rules they get in the AWI scenario in the BP rules (Crack, First Fire, Steady) plus in addition I made the Guards and Grenadiers Elite 4+.  The Hessians and NC loyalists were given First Fire.   The continentals had First Fire and 1 of their unit’s the 1^st Maryland were also Steady.  The militia were all Unreliable and I reduced the hand to hand dice, stamina and morale of the Militia by 1 and in addition I made the North Carolina militia Wavering so that they had to take a Break test every time they suffered a casualty.  The commanders were all given a rating of 8. I also allowed formed troops and cavalry to move through the woods, but with their movement reduced to 6”, and any troops within the woods received a bonus to their morale throws for the cover.

American War of Independence page

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Clash near Mozhaisk, October 1812   (General de Brigade) 28mm    - Report by Angus

This was a rare chance to play a game up in Orkney, and it was in effect the inaugural game of the resurrected Orkney Wargames Club. We have only two members so far, but its a start! Anyway, this was a Napoleonic clash, set right at the start of Napoleon's retreat from Moscow, in October 1812 - just before the snows came. The premise is that a French rearguard is holding the main Moscow to Smolensk road open near Mozhaisk, while the rest of the Grand Armee steals a march on the Russians. In this game a shortage of French figures meant we gave them an abandoned redoubt to defend. To reflect the scrappy nature of this period both sides started with a small initial force, and rolled to bring on reinforcements. Essentially the French were defending with two small brigades backed by a small cavalry force, and a slightly larger Russian division-sized force was attacking them, with the objective of seizing the redoubt covering an important road junction. Both sides started with one brigade on the table. Dougie Trail commanded the French (aided and abetted by Mark Colston), while I gave my eight battalions of Russians their first tabletop outing. This was also the first scrap for Dougie's "Perry Plastic" Frenchmen.

The grand plan began to unravel right from the start. The Russian brigade launched a rather premature attack on the redoubt, while the first of their reinforcements - a cavalry brigade - pinned the rest of the French in place. The trouble was, the French also rolled well for reinforcements, bringing on their infantry brigade on Turn 2, and the cavalry brigade on Turn 4. Worse still, these cavalrymen came on from the Smolensk Road, and appeared right on the flank of the Russian horse. The French infantry formed square, and repulsed a charge by the Empress Cuirassiers, who promptly retired right into the path of the French cavalrymen. The dragoons caught them in the flank, and disaster was only averted by a counter-charge by the Marioupol Hussars, who are rapidly becoming one of my pet units. The dragoons were eventually driven off, but the Russian cuirassiers pursued them off the table and out of the game - a not particularly helpful trade-off. Meanwhile the French and Russian hussars charged, counter-charged and eventually pulled back from each other, bloodied but unbowed. So much for the great cavalry "stramash" - lots of whizzing around, but the result was an inconclusive trade-off and stand-off. 

Meanwhile the Russian infantry made a hash of their attack on the redoubt, with one defending battalion of Swiss seeing off first one Russian battalion then the other, while the guns poured canister into the third Russian battalion, who faltered in front of the guns. All in all it wasn't a particularly good morning for Mother Russia. The Russian infantry reinforcements arrived at last, and launched a determined assault on the centre of the French position. They saw off the Westphalian Guard in front of them, but they were also a little too successful, as in the process they exposed their flank to the French reserves. They were duly routed in short order, leaving just one two battalion Russian reserve on the table, to take on five battered but still serviceable French and Allied battalions. Only an idiot would launch another attack.

Naturally, that's exactly what I did next. Not surprisingly the Russians were a little hesitant to charge home, and it soon became clear that the only thing preventing their complete annihilation was the presence of a large and menacing battery of Russian guns. Bowing to the inevitable, I called it a day, and pulled back, protected by the artillery. Frankly, of my new Russian army, only the guns and the hussars came out of this little tabletop debacle with any sort of reputation. Clearly I need to re-consider my policy of launching unsupported bayonet charges, hoping that the doughtiness of the Russian soldier will win the day...

We used the tried and tested General de Brigade rules. Both Dougie and I are familiar with them, having written their Seven Years War counterpart, and after experimenting with other Napoleonic rules we opted to use the reliable set we know. Of course, we'll use Black Powder for really large games, but I still think General de Brigade are the best divisional set on the market, and still better than all its shiny new rivals.

The Napoleonic War  page

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