Angus Konstam

Periods featured in this issue: American War of Independence, The Napoleonic War, some fantasy nonsense and The First World War (all 28mm)

The American War of Independence: The Storming of Winnsborough, 1780 (Patriot) 28mm

We planned to play a Napoleonic game this week, but as one player cried off we came up with an alternative. I have a fairly large American War of Independence collection which rarely gets an airing on the tabletop, and so we thought we'd use them to try out Patriots. These are a set of company-level rules available free on the web from The Perfect Captain. We've used their same system before for the English Civil War (where the rules are called Very Civil Actions), so we thought we'd give the AWI version a try-out.

The idea behind the fictional game was that spies reported that the local political leadership of the Rebels (Patriots, call them what you will) were holding a meeting in the Winn Arms, a tavern in the little settlement of Winnsborough (now Winnsboro) in the backwoods of the South Carolina colony. Actually, as the British commander I didn't know which building in the town they were in. My task though was to capture the town, and seize these politicos of the rebel Committee of Safety, including the local landowner Richard Winn. To make this a little harder the town was garrisoned by two companies of SC Militia, while other militia units and over-the-mountain men were close by, and would march to Winnsborough when they heard the shooting. I say British commander, but the Colonel was the only true Brit on the table - all the rest of his command were Americans - Loyalists - loyal to their rightful King and Country. Colonel Pettigrew had four companies at hand - three of Loyalist regulars, and one of SC Loyalist militia, supported by a squadron of British Legion dragoons and a light gun detachment.

At first the battle went well for the rebels, commanded on this occasion by Dougie Trail. Their militia formed a firing line along a rail fence to the south of the town, and poured a heavy fire into the ranks of the advancing loyalists. Casualties mounted, as first the Royal SC Militia were routed, and then a company of British Legion Infantry were driven back. The only thing that prevented the loyalists from losing the initiative was the rule that forced the defending militia to take a fear test when enemy non-militia troops get within 12" of them. This led to one unit of militia retiring, and while the other stood its ground, it soon found itself outflanked, and forced to pull back into the hamlet. At that point it looked like the loyalists were onto a winner. One loyalist company supported by the gun were busy harrying the rebels on the west side of the village, while the dragoons were busy riding round the eastern side of the town to cut off the enemy line of retreat.

That was when the rebels received some timely reinforcements - the first of the militiamen, supported by a company of sharpshooters - the "Over-the-Mountain Men". These militia were better-motivated that the ones defending the town, and they forced a line on its western side, allowing the retiring militia a chance to rally behind them. Meanwhile the sharpshooters began peppering the advancing loyalists from the woods skirting the western edge of town.

This was all very good for the rebels, but in the end it wasn't really enough to turn the tide. The retreating Farifield County militia rallied in front of the church, only to be ridden down by the British legion dragoons, who thundered in from the east and smashed into them. The only bright spot was that the loyalist militia were also faltering, having suffered heavy casualties from the sharpshooters, and also from militiamen holed up in the church. What this meant was that while the dragoons were able to clear the roads of the rebels, the remaining die-hard patriots were firmly out of their reach, and the loyalists now lacked the infantry firepower to dislodge them quickly. Of course, they did have their light gun detachment, and if things had continued the rebels in the Fairfield Church would have been pounded into submission.

The real end of the game came when the patriot player announced that the politicos (who had been hiding out in the church) had successfully made it off the table, and were now out of reach. If attacked they'd merely escape out the back and off the table to the north. Deprived of a nice clean end to the game, and faced with continuing casualties, Colonel Pettigrew decided not to storm the church, and gave the order to withdraw. While he had given the rebels something of a bloody nose he had also taken about 25% casualties - more than he inflicted - and worst of all his mission of capturing the politicos had failed. He would have to face the ire of General Cornwallis back in Camden, who no doubt would send someone with a bit more fire next time - someone like that go-getter Colonel Tarleton...

As for the rules, they worked - up to a point. There seemed to be more modifiers than in Very Civil Actions, and with higher firing and melee factors the number-crunching was sometimes a little fiddly. For instance, a firing factor of 7, multiplied by 3 for three stands, plus 25% for being formed, then down a column 'cause the defenders are in cover - there must be an easier way than going through all that a dozen times a turn! Patriots sort of work, but they don't do so as well as they do for the earlier period. We've noticed this before, which is why we abandoned the similar system for The Russian Civil War and The Spanish Civil War. Its just too fiddly... The search for the "perfect" set of small action AWI rules continues...

This week's game report is brought to you by Bill Gilchrist, as Angus was laid low by an eye infection. Unable to read, write, wargame, watch war films or paint, he was reduced to listening to an audio book from Edinburgh Library instead of coming out to play. At least it was adapted from a book written by wargamer Iain Gale... Anyway, on to Bill's report, and his trying out of a new set of Napoleonic rules.

This game at the SESWC was something new for us; a 28mm Peninsular war game using the Lasalle rules by Sam Mustapha. Dave Paterson who is an inveterate buyer of new rules has had a copy of Lasalle for over a year, but had never tried a game. We decided to give them a test outing. I put together a scenario using the "army builder" section of the rules, which gave a French Division the task of attacking a British Division, with each side supported by a cavalry brigade of two regiments and a horse artillery battery. I gave the attacking French a dragoon regiment and a hussar regiment, which are superior to the light dragoons fielded by the British.

The French objective was to take an enclosure in the British deployment area. In Lasalle you need to specify an objective for the attacking side. The French deployed with cavalry on their left, veteran Swiss infantry in the centre, and French conscripts on their right. The British who deployed second faced the French cavalry with their own, the centre of their line was held by their "elite" battalion, and the horse artillery battery supported by a line battalion made up the reserve, while a brigade of three line battalions held the enclosure at formed the centre of their left, although the defensive line extended a little beyond it. We diced as per the rules for the vigour of the sub commanders. The British cavalry sub commander was poor (no surprises there), while the infantry sub commander was good (ditto). The French veterans had a good sub commander, and the conscripts a poor one.

On the French left the dragoons charged the British light dragoons who counter-charged, and were given supporting fire from the horse artillery battery. Surprisingly the British drove back the French dragoons, and in their next turn they followed up their success with a charge. This time it was the French dragoons who drove them back, and which enjoyed the support of their own horse artillery battery. The French guns peppered the British 2nd light dragoons and disrupted them. The poor British cavalry commander supported by his Commander in Chief completely failed in his attempt to remove any of the disruption points on the light dragoons. That left them exposed and vulnerable to the French cavalry, who were preparing to launch another charge.

When the charge came, both players were surprised when the melee turned out to be a draw. The French Hussars hung back supporting the horse artillery battery, and took no real part in the action. However, by the end of the battle the other three cavalry units (two British and one French) were all exhausted, and could no longer charge - they all had three disruptions. This left the French hussars the masters of that corner of the battlefield.

In the centre two of the Swiss veteran battalion-sized columns closed and charged the elite British battalion deployed in line in front of them. The Swiss had already taken disruptions from musketry as they advanced, and although they charged home they both bounced off the British line, with one of the columns breaking and fleeing. The British followed up by charging the recoiled Swiss unit, which somehow managed to drive back the larger British battalion! The third Swiss battalion moving up to support was duly broken by the fire of the British horse artillery battery.

Now it was up to the French conscripts to save the day. They attacked the British line battalion holding the enclosure with two battalion columns, while another two battalion columns supported by the French divisional battery engaged the two British battalions holding their far left flank. The British battalion holding the enclosure drove back both of its attackers without much difficulty, while their comrades on the flank shot up the other two columns of French conscripts. The superior quality of the British units, their better skirmish ratings and their good quality sub commander all meant that they outshot their French opponents, and recovered their few disruptions. By contrast the poor quality French conscripts led by a poor sub commander just became increasingly disrupted, until they were unable to press home their attack.

One notable feature of the game was that no attacker ever won a close combat. They were all won by the defender, or were draws (which also count as defender wins). This meant the hand to hand combats were relatively indecisive, as only an attacker winning decisively automatically breaks an opponent. Apart from that the rules worked well, and we both enjoyed the game. The mechanisms are relatively simple, and very well explained in the rules. Every section of the four page Quick Reference Sheet refers to the relevant page number in the rules, which really speeded things up during this trial game. The command mechanisms are also every simple, but quite effective. The quality of the troops, and their ability to recover from disruption is the key to the game. One of my next projects it to write a review of Lasalle and try to compare it with Black Powder, which I use a lot.

Note from Angus: Certainly Lasalle have had several good reviews. In an survey of Napoleonic rules published in Miniature Wargames it came out ahead of other newish Napoleonic sets, particularly Napoleon and Republic to Empire, both of which had a bit of a roasting. However, Lasalle has also been criticised for making all armies a bit homogenous. While I much prefer the In the Grand Manner and General de Brigade approach to Napoleonic wargaming, I'm keen to give Lasalle a try, and I'll look forward to reading Bill's review. Almost every Napoleonic rules set (with the probably exception of Napoleon) has something to offer, and it's only by trying them out that their qualities will come to the fore.

Age of Bonaparte page

　
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This week I made the mistake of being down in London on a Thursday, and letting Bill Gilchrist write up the game report. I thought he'd play something half sensible. Oh no. He played some sort of stupid fantasy nonsense with monsters cavorting around inside an Ancient Egyptian tomb. I can only apologise. This isn't wargaming, and it isn't a sensible way for grown men to spend their evening. The best I can say is that Hugh's tomb looked very pretty - if you like that kind of thing. For what its worth here's what Bill has to say about it;

This week our game was a rerun of Hugh Wilson's Pharaoh's Tomb adventure game. We tested the simplified combat system a few weeks ago, and decided to give it another try this week. Hugh took this game to the last Partizan show at Newark where it was much admired.

Since our play tests last year Hugh has radically simplified the combat system and this has considerably speeded up play. We had eight players this time, with four two-man teams entering the tomb at each of its four corners. Their objective was to reach the Pharaohs sarcophagus in the centre of the tomb, and then exit the labyrinth via the opposite corner. Along the way you find treasure, scrolls, secret passages, combat monsters and get beset by all sorts of other random events. The important factors for the players are how many of their six lives are left, and how quickly their torches burn down.

The highlight in this game was when five of the adventurers entered the central sarcophagus room in two consecutive turns, and as they entered they generated more than 20 sets of monsters that had to be eliminated before any of them could exit - let alone survive!

Dave Paterson and Ian Carter won the game by getting to the sarcophagus and killing the most monsters. Bill Gilchrist won the wooden spoon as his adventurer did not even get half way to the centre before he was cut down. His famous last words this week were: "It's very unlikely that I'll find a third poison potion in this tomb"! He was one of this game's adventurers who perished during the evening, but the three who lived to tell the tale all successfully entered and exited the central sarcophagus room, and found their way back out of the maze.

Fun game again - but too many giant spiders and mummies appeared - they are hard to combat compared with the rats, scorpions and beetles.

The First World War: The "Sausage Factory in Tanganiki", German East Africa, 1914 (Black Powder) 28mm

Our first game of 2012 was based around an exchange in Black Adder Goes Forth. When Capt. Blackadder asked half-wit Lt. George why the war began, George blamed "the vile Hun and his villainous empire building". Blackadder replied; "George, the British Empire at present covers a quarter of the globe, while the German Empire consists of a small sausage factory in Tanganiki. I hardly think that we can be entirely absolved of blame on the imperialistic front!" Well, this game centred around the defence of this very sausage factory against a large and well-equipped Anglo-Belgian expeditionary force. Yes, it was all very silly, but this was set during the War in East Africa, a campaign that was bizarre to say the least.

To complicate things, both the Belgians (attacking on the right) and the British Empire troops (attacking on the left) had outflanking forces, which were crossing the Limpeepee River a little off the table, and so would turn the river line. Also, the Germans had to send half their force off table with the stash of sausage meat etc., and after seeing the bearers to safety the units might possibly be able to return to the table in order to help the defenders of the sausage factory.

At first the advance went well - or at least it did until the Belgians came within artillery and machine gun range. The German defenders had one light mountain gun and a machine gun at their disposal, and both weapons began picking on the Belgians. A thin screen of Ruga-Ruga African allies were sent off to the river to delay the oncoming British, while the bearers and their escorts made their way off the table. The blood-letting really started when the Belgians began wading the river. Their first unit was pretty much annihilated before it reached the middle of the river, while the unit behind fared little better. A third Belgian unit - the outflankers - entered the table and charged the machine gun position, with predictable results. Amazingly the last few survivors of the unit managed to silence the Maxim gun with rifle fire, only to fall in a hail of bullets fired by the Schutrztruppen (German-trained askaris) holding out in the buildings.

The final Belgian unit did a little better by adopting the sensible tactic of going prone and not crossing the river. In fact, they got the better of the rifle exchange with the Schutztruppe on the far side of the Limpeepee, and helped the British as they lumbered forward with their own "big push". So far the German NCO in charge of the machine gun team was the only "white" casualty...

Then it was the turn of the British. They drove off the Ruga-Ruga in fine style. and when the outflanking unit appeared they covered the river crossing, and everyone formed up for the great advance. An armoured car even turned up, and though it couldn't cross the river bank it drove up and down the far side, firing at the big whitewashed target of the sausage factory. At this stage the German defenders were down to just a handful of sailors from the cruiser Königsberg and a half-strength company of Schutztruppen. Fortunately for the "vile Hun" the first of their baggage escort began to re-appear on the German table edge, and soon the British were coming under heavy rifle and machine gun fire from their left flank.

When it came, the "big push" was rather more like a "gentle shove". The leading company of British regulars were broken with heavy casualties, thanks to some good shooting from the sailors. Despite their casualties the battered defending Schutztruppen unit didn't seem to want to break, and held on until their comrades on the far side of the village- the ones who mowed down the Belgians - were able to come to their rescue. By now it was becoming clear that the Allies weren't going to take their objective. So, when the next British company took two morale hits and refused to advance, the British commander decided to call it a day. So, for the time being, the "sausage factory in Tanganiki" remained in German hands - bockwurst and frankfurters for all!

While we usually use In the Heart of East Africa, a variant of Chris Peers' In the Heart of Africa rules, this time we went for the slightly simpler and even more bloody Contemptible Little Armies set, by the same writer. Even though we made it a little harder to hit people than usual, it still resulted in the usual Chris Peers bloodbath. As I said at the start, it was a silly game, but a hugely enjoyable one!