A Much-Delayed Report of the Leisurely, Protracted Battle of Finchley Common

I swear I wasn't procrastinating. At least this time. Really. I've had vertigo for a week now, so jumping up and down from the computer and leaning over a table were pretty counterproductive. I've got some medication and exercises for it now, so let's see how long this takes me to write.

As a reminder, we used the D3 Jacobite rules from Gridbased Gaming But Not Always. My theory was that, because the rules are a page long, the game would go quickly. In practice, it took around a week. I was lucky to have a very patient opponent! Fellow Paperboys enthusiast George Bisset was even happy to take the clearly disadvantaged Jacobites. As we played remotely, I sent photos of my table and we exchanged moves on Facebook Messenger.

Each unit is represented by two infantry or cavalry bases or one artillery base; each unit has 8 hit points.

Opening positions. Government in two lines with guns in the
front rank; cavalry and a mortar on the flanks. Jacobites in three
lines with cavalry to the fore and three guns to the left.

Turn 1: George started off by charging towards my guns with his cavalry - one unit in each direction. His infantry. Once I remembered the Highlanders would outdistance the one French regiment (represented by Ecossais), he decided to hold them back as artillery guards. His guns all targeted my rightmost dragoon regiment and did a whopping five hits - George's response was "NOW THAT'S SHOOTIN!"

I held fast and swept my cavalry in from the flanks:

My infantry were still out of range (6") so my guns plinked away for a few hits on one cavalry unit, one highlander unit, and one gun.

Turn 2: Communication was a bit confused at this point - because I moved the highlanders 4.5 inches they were smack on the line between squares, which took a little explanation. In practice my photography seemed useful, and comments like "your infantry are a move and a half off, and your cav in range to charge this turn" got across well enough.

George charged my batteries and spread his infantry out a little, with his rear flank units attempting to extend the line.

The Jacobite guns managed to wipe out one of my dragoon regiments, while the cavalry charges were highly successful; between charging bonuses and the vulnerability of guns (which take double hits in CC) they knocked out my two outer guns.

My own moves in response were a bit complex. The Household Cav on my left moved forward and around the Jacobite flank - one struck George's cavalry in the flank, and one charged the infantry unit George had moved to extend his line. On the right, my dragoons did exactly the same thing. My Guards regiments fired a volley, to little effect despite having a "first volley" bonus. One charged Highlander unit broke and retreated towards the built-up areas on its start line. The other units took serious damage, but not enough to wipe them out.

The "ongoing" combats were more worrisome. The rules-as-written do not cover ongoing combats or the fighting scores of units that can't charge. After a little thought, and with George's agreement, I made two decisions:

• Units that cannot charge do their normal firing damage in melee.
• In the second and later turns of a combat, all rolls are at -1. (Remember we're rolling D3s, so this is pretty significant.)

It seemed to work, especially for the gun crews who wouldn't be very effective in melee.

Next, I realized that if units can only attack one opponent - and splitting attacks isn't that useful when you only have D3 to work with - George would have to make a choice.

Fight my guns but be flanked by my cavalry...

Or fight the cavalry but unmask my guns.

Fortunately for him, I then remembered it was his turn, so his infantry could simply charge the gun!

Turn 3: George's units simply moved forward, his front line charging my Guards front line. By now, as he pointed out, this was effectively a solo game, and if I'd felt healthier and run the turns faster it certainly could have been. I lost a third gun to the infantry charge, while my Guards regiments held. Morale in these rules is simply a 2d6 roll against the number of hits taken, and since at this stage my engaged units had 3 or 4 hits, it was difficult for them to roll under and thus break - though I had at least three rolls right on the number! I rallied off most of the hits on my Guard, which meant we'd both used all our "morale" rolls up - three apiece assumed to be from commanders rallying the unit, returning lost HP. In my own turn, I rolled a lot of threes on D3, but without doing enough damage to break my opponents (in part due to the -1 penalty for ongoing combat) so the fights went on.

Since only highlanders and cavalry may charge, my militia could only stand and fire rather than advance into the gaps in the line.

Only 2 has a clear line of sight here - I assume despite
the 45-degree LOS that Militia 1 and 3 can't fire into melee.

Turn 4: George's units either moved forward or continued to battle mine, while his guns shot at their only target - my mortar on the hill. None of my units broke, but they all took enough damage that many would go away next turn. I fought back; flanking helped me destroy three of his units, though this put my victorious dragoons again in the sights of George's guns.

One of George's units broke - into the back of my cavalry, which was sweeping around his flank. Here was another grey area in the rules. Had the cavalry been facing him, I'd have ruled George's infantry destroyed; had the infantry been unbroken, it would have charged into George. Neither seemed to match the events, so instead I had the broken regiment angle around.

The situation on my right - victorious dragoons with a battery
of guns just staring at them.

Turn 5: Despite some gleaming opportunities to hurt my cav, George decided to be characterful and retreat instead. Granted, he would then have been countercharged by my infantry, but at this point I think he was a bit worried by my Cannae-like flanking attempt. 

Half a highlander square. One useful thing that prevents
easy flanking is that a charging unit may only change facing once.

Another of my dragoon regiments was destroyed by fire. In my turn, my cavalry charged his highlanders, while my infantry lines started to move forward across the field.

Turn 6: Another thing for which there aren't rules; withdrawing from combat. I'm used to Warhammer games, where melee continues interminably unless one side or the other fails a morale test - rules for voluntary breaking are rare. In our case, we just allowed it - since only one side fights in a round, it seemed punishment enough that George's retreating units could not do damage to mine. On the other hand, his guns could still fire. At this point I turned to solo work - with George's permission, we just retreated his units, breaking and otherwise, towards the built-up-areas on his table edge. By the end of Turn 7, his survivors had made it to this line, and mine were halfway up the board. At least this is not a Culloden-like defeat for the rebels, who reasonably can wait until dark and slip away from their defensive position.

Casualties: (All units began with 8 HP, those listed are hits lost rather than remaining)

Jacobite: (Units 1-2 cavalry, unit 9 Ecossais, all other units Highlander)

• Gun 1 - 2 hit
• Unit 1 - destroyed
• Unit 2 - 6 hits
• Unit 3 - 6 hits
• Unit 4 - 7 hits
• Unit 5 - 4 hits
• Unit 6 - destroyed
• Unit 7 - 4 hits 
• Unit 8 - destroyed
• Unit 9 - 3 hits
• Unit 10 - 7 hits

Government casualties:

• Gun 1 - destroyed
• Gun 2 - destroyed
• Gun 4 - destroyed
• Gun 5 - 7 hits
• Household Cav 1 - 2 hits
• Household Cav 2 - 3 hits
• Household Cav 3 - 4 hits
• Dragoon 1 - 1 hit
• Dragoon 2 - destroyed
• Dragoon 3 - routed off table.
• Guard 1 - 4 hits
• Guard 2 - 2 hits
• Guard 3 - 3 hits

So the Government actually lost more units - particularly guns, though in context the guns if not the crews would be recovered. George's side had nearly all units still alive but many had taken debilitating casualties and could have been destroyed if we continued in the open field. Of 104 hit points in his army, George lost 63, while of 176, I lost 66. My back line, except for one militia unit, never saw action.

George's reaction to the rules and the game was favorable. 

Me: I think the Scots came out of it pretty well - with a little luck and a willing sacrifice at the end they could have done serious damage to the Brits. At least to the cavalry, thus avoiding a pursuit...

He: I had the impression we were starting to get the worst of it, hence the withdrawal, which worked fairly well.my original plan was to form on the buas and hope you'd attack, and also look for a weak flank. if I had to attack I was surprised to find you so forward on turn one and decided to close right away.

Me: I mostly figured the Brits would be - parading on the parade ground. I also ran quickly out of room for the units. In hindsight, I could certainly have attacked, what with outnumbering.

Issues to think about before the next time I try these short-but-sweet rules:

- Auto-destruction if breaking but trapped?

- What roll to hit during protracted combat?

- Leaving combat voluntarily?

End result - Bonnie Prince Charlie loses the Battle of Finchley Common, but manages to retreat safely with the survivors. Will he make it back to Scotland with Cumberland's and Wade's armies between him and home? Probably not, but might be an interesting skirmish down the road.

Despite the delays, George was very complimentary and offered to be my victim opponent in future remote games. Thanks to everyone who's followed this desultory little campaign.

And happy New Year!

Planning Finchley Common, Part 3 (last one!)

 "Feth it, we'll use a squared grid."

- Me this morning over Messenger, to my opponent.

Part of the problem was the hexes, but what really changed my mind was the small size of the Memoir '44 board. Instead, I broke out one of my Melee Mats, which are 24x36" and writable with wet-erase markers. I marked it up with rows (A to X) and numbers (1-36), then placed the terrain ("buildings centered on I-2, O-2 and G-2") and informed George. He would lay out similar terrain on his home table.

Placing troops was slightly more difficult. In order to fit the entire Government contingent on the board, I was still limited to two-base regiments which were 60mm wide on a board marked in inches. George seemed clear enough when I simply reported that, for example, a line of six infantry regiments ran from D-9 to D-26; so long as they are evenly spaced it'll be okay even if his are of different size. I also named and numbered all units so we're clear about actions.

I ran out of British guns so threw in a Coehorn mortar for interest. My guns and infantry are in the center, my cavalry on the flanks and the mortar on the hill. Left to right:

Household Cavalry.

Guards, guns and militia.

More of the same.

Guards, guns, foot and a handful of loyal Highlanders.

Dragoons and a Coehorn mortar.

My front line of four guns and my Guard infantry is seven inches into the board, with my second line of regular infantry and militia two inches behind.

George wanted a central deployment, so according to his instructions I placed the cavalry in the first line eight inches into the board, three highlander regiments and Ecossais an inch behind, and four more highland regiments an inch behind that. 

From my side.

From his side.

He wanted his guns in the fourth line; when I pointed out they'd be masked by his troops he shifted them to his left. I placed them so that they could fire diagonally past the houses in their front. 

Now that they're not in the way, I may also pull the infantry and cavalry back an inch or two. At present the front lines are 9" apart. I'll be halving the moves and ranges on this smaller board:

• Cavalry: 6"
• Highlanders: 4.5"
• Infantry and Artillery: 3"
• Musketry: 6"
• Artillery: Unlimited; no mortar fire within 12"
• Retreat from fire: 3"
• Rout from melee: 6"

The D3 rules include commanders, but they are basically a hit-point-recovery mechanic and don't even need to be present. For fun, I included Bonnie Prince Charlie and his Glenfinnan standard on one side, and his distant cousin George II with bodyguards on the other.

Given how badly the rebels are outnumbered, this looks like Culloden all over again. I have several ways to balance that, and will discuss with George to see which we'll use.

• Keep the deployment where it is rather than separating it further, saving the Highlanders a turn crossing the board.
• Give the rebels the first turn.
• Roll for the militia and government Highlanders, who are all reluctant. On a 6 (the old "Oops, Sorry Sir" rule from Warhammer 40K), they either flee the board or don't even show up to the fight.
• Roll for weather - on a 1 all shooting will be at a penalty.

Given this is our first try with these rules, it occurred to me (late, of course) that it might be easier to proportionally reduce the number of troops on the board! Halving the number of regiments would make it easier to track all the hit-points they'll have (eight apiece). But since some of them come in odd numbers, that isn't as easy as it sounds. Ah well, in for a pound, as they say. 

See you soon with the results!

Hills and Hidden Tombs

I was looking forward to the South Florida Miniatures Gamers annual regatta today, but have been feeling under the weather. Since most of the members are old enough to be my father, I decided to spare them my spittle and stayed home.

I took a break from struggling to mesh together free-movement rules and hex boards (thanks for your patience, George!) when a bit of terrain I ordered from Amazon turned up. Ten hill pieces, ready made, painted and textured. I have never owned any proper hills and do not have the patience to make my own, so when I spotted these I bought them, despite the lead time (hand-made). They are smaller than I expected, but just fine for skirmish games or with the 18mm Wofuns and 20mm Colonials.

Three sizes and two heights...

... to make steep or shallow hills.

With Space Marines for scale...

... and Wofun Afghans.

Can be used as cover or to block LOS.

Gurkhas are ambushed by Pathans from a ridge.

There are too few for a proper NW Frontier game, but they're a fine start and I'll probably buy more.

Cliff edges, different scale.

The Space Marines, by the way, are playing pieces from a small boxed game I picked up at Barnes and Noble called Space Marine Adventures - a standalone to interest kids. It's a card-activated board game, easy to play, and with solo elements. The only problem is that the enemy Necrons (played by tokens) do not move or shoot - the only way so far for them to wound the Marines is with the placement mechanic. (I've only tried the first scenario.) If one appears in the same square as a Marine, he's injured. Each has different abilities and can be issued "wargear cards" for some basic customization. I think it would work well with the teens - IF I could get them to pay attention. I have one who asks me to play, but is nowhere to be found when I turn up in the tech lab.

A board, figures and tokens.

The boards, and game, are basically Space Hulk lite - another game I have stacked away in the closet - and could be used for a more generic "treasure-hunting" scenario. I'm also thinking of buying the 9th Edition 40K starter set, which has Necron figures in it. With their Egyptian death-cult theme, it could be a nice spooky sort of game for Halloween with simple rules.

As readers may have noted, I like compact games and "packs" that can be easily carried to stores or work:

My blogging has slowed significantly, but I still have plenty on the burner. Thanks for reading.

Planning Finchley Common, Part 2

So, at the slooowly approaching end of my '45 every-rule campaign, the two sides stand as follows:

British OOB:

• Three Guards regiments.
• Four Yeomen/Militia/Trained Bands regiments.
• One Highlander regiment (Murray's).
• Three line regiments (Royal Irish, Bragg's, Richbell's).
• Three Household Cavalry regiments.
• Three Dragoon regiments (one militia).
• Five light guns.

Rebel OOB: 

• One French regiment (Irish Brigade), seven Highland regiments.
• Two cav regiments (one French, one Scottish).
• Three guns (with French crews).

I hope to also run the Junior General Leuthen scenario this month, so it helps that I need to organize my 18th-century Wofun figures. The Leuthen scenario will require three bases per regiment, but I'll want less to fit them all onto my new Memoir '44 board. The D3 rules require tracking hit points for regiments, so sizes aren't important. However, George will be using conventional minis on his own table, so I need to work out the right size.

The board itself is 9x13 hexes. At first I thought 90x130cm might work, which would be roughly 3x4feet, with cm for the moves. But first, the width of a hex is wider than the height (6x5.5cm), and second, it wouldn't provide much room for the armies. Another possibility is half that number of inches - 45x65, so about four by five-and-a-half feet, normal inches for increments, and smaller regiments. 

The Memoir '44 board itself is about 17x27 inches of playable area, room only for seven or eight three-base regiments. So gotta break it down. Eight two-base regiments plus three guns also cross the whole board. Guess we're stuck with one base per unit.

As you'll see in the first photo, this still isn't quite large enough; it may be better to use the entire 2x4 table and mark its edges. I'll have to label both the units and the hexes for George's benefit anyway.

For terrain, I've opted for an open field with buildings at the edges
and low hills in one corner. I have proper foam hills on the way,
but with hexes I'll have just a couple villages on the larger table.

Given the orientation of Finchley Common to what would have been the rebel route of advance, I considered playing down the long axis of the table, but that just won't work even on a one-base scale. 

Another option that occurred to me just as I posted, is to reduce the number of units! Perhaps one large regiment per "brigade?"

The Government force, reduced to "regiments" representing
(right-to-left) militia, guns, Guards, line, Household cav, dragoons.

Suggestions happily accepted!

Planning Finchley Common

 For about a month now, I've been talking with the very patient George Bisset on Facebook about running a remote game to finish off my desultory '45 solo campaign. Part of the problem with remote games is my cat Lex, who will happily interfere with any game in her line of sight, and George suggested that he use his own table and miniatures, with me basically GMing. While this is a bright idea, we went back and forth on methods of ensuring that we were both "on the same table."

His plan was that I would have table squares in order to tell him "X Regiment is in A2." Even if he were using an ordinary table, so long as we determine distances and angles to terrain pieces he should still be able to manage with my instructions as a guide. While I liked this, I haven't got a table or map of the appropriate size or breakdown. I considered sticking pennies to the tabletop, and was on the verge of creating and printing a large paper map when I decided to order Memoir '44.

While I've heard many good things about this game, what intrigued me was how many of the players on the Paperboys Facebook group have used the related Commands and Colors game with paper figure stands in place of the block pieces. That and my increasing interest in Bob Cordery's popular Portable Wargame made me want to use a ready-made hex-board with plenty of terrain hexes to add to it.

I received Memoir '44 a couple days ago.

Sometimes I wonder if it's the color green that Lex likes.

The board is 13x9. The photo is grainy, 
must try to avoid that if I use this method to
communicate moves.

Experimental shot of units. Will need to fix the lighting
to make both units and hexes recognizable.

Lawrence Newman, who ran a similar campaign for his kids last year, sent me a couple useful maps. They're both from well after the battle, but it doesn't have to be perfect.

1780s. Not sure where (if) it overlaps with the next.

19th century; appears to be "enclosed."

He also filmed part of the scenario on Youtube:

In practice, it looks like we can get away with a flat, open space, with buildings and perhaps a ridge or two at the edges. Lawrence says he began the scenario with the British army deployed and the rebels marching on. Any comments or suggestions are welcomed!

Given the board size, I am thinking of suggesting a 130x90cm table, with moves made in cm (as I doubt George has an 11-foot table!). The rules, incidentally, will be the one-page D3 rules from Grid-Based Gaming But Not Always. Units on my table will be represented by single Wofun bases. Since units have "hit points" in these rules, there should be a way to mark units and track casualties, perhaps with a spreadsheet. If I can, I want to be able to do it myself, effectively "GM'ing" George's more conventional table.

Finally, George has linked me to a map-and-scenario editor on the Memoir '44 website. If I can work out how to use it, it'll be a good way to "store" unit positions, as in practice this game may take some time to play and I simply can't leave it out for the cats to pounce on...

Tactical Combat at Gallabat

Saturday, November 19 saw the action of Gallabat, November 6, 1940. Using South Florida Miniatures Gamers member Mark Ritchie's minis and Tactical Combat rules (see here for a previous round), we reenacted this fight from British East Africa. I'm already familiar with it, from Field Marshal Bill Slim's witty account in his 1960 short story collection, Unofficial History.

The first part of this game has already appeared on Oriskany Jim's Youtube channel: 

So my poorly photographed account may not be as interesting! But I enjoyed the game and the miniatures very much. Here goes.

The entire field, several turns in - Gallabat fort has been
ineffectively bombed. The thin blue stream at right marks
the border between Ethiopia and Sudan.

From the Italian side.

With Mark GMing, we had three players a side. The Italians had some colonial infantry and assorted guns in and around the fort, a handful of camel-mounted lancers in the village at the crossroads, two armoured cars, and five CV33 tankettes and a CR42 Falco for reserves. There were also two emplaced guns, a 25mm AA gun, a 45mm and a 100mm Skoda off-table.

Against that, the British had five A9 and A10 infantry tanks, five Vickers light tanks, six armoured cars, and a smattering of Indian and British infantry mounted in assorted trucks and carriers. This meant four two-pounders (one of the tank guns could be exchanged for a CS weapon), one field gun, and a <bleep>ton of machine guns.

Our air support was this Fairey Battle in faint
brown-and-green camo; the first model of this
light bomber I've ever seen. Unfortunately, it could
not be used for strafing with its one MG, but we were
allowed two sorties.

This classic Fiat biplane was magnificently painted,
but oddly unpiloted!

More infantry and a couple armoured cars. Radios
are denoted by a metal ring antenna. The sandbags
at bottom could be placed as the Italian players desired -
mostly around the large buildings across from the fort.

CV33s, one with a flamethrower and another with a radio.

Indian infantry platoon, with Indian-Pattern carriers to left.

British armour. The front heavy tank has two sponson turrets.

More infantry, vehicles and field-gun.

The Italians placed roughly half their infantry and all their light guns in and around the fort, while the rest of the infantry and a couple machine guns went into the village and the lancers around the small huts. The Brits, with me as the armour commander, focused on the left flank, with a smattering of infantry and light vehicles on the right facing the fortress. I believe my theory was to sweep around the Italian right, using the buildings for cover from the fort's guns; in practice the relatively slow movement stymied this.

The first action of the game was a preliminary bombardment from the Fairey Battle, which aimed for the two guns in front of the fort but hit the fort instead. It cleared the parapet of infantry and did some damage to the wall, but left the guns intact.

A remarkably nice eight-piece fort. Visible are craters,
guns in the turrets and emplacements, and a couple
motorbikes. The red puffs denote damage.

The village of Gallabat, which I thoroughly plastered
with machine gun fire from the armoured cars.

Native lancers among the huts, cunningly made from
toilet paper roll and carved foam.

The compact but powerful British left.

The lancers charged and took out our only forward observer!

The situation in my sector was somewhat confused; I moved all units flat out, so could not fire at the lancers, whose only casualties came from their own artillery trying to drop a 100mm round on our field gun!

In turn two, I declared one of the tanks to be a close-support vehicle with a 3.7 inch gun, which I used to drop smoke in front of one of the Italian guns before the fort. I placed all the tanks hull down and left them there for the game, bombarding with their two-pounders. The armoured cars, on the other hand, rained fire on the village, killing one opposing armoured car and shocking and immobilizing the other with heavy machine guns. Tank machine-guns killed several gun crew. The Fairey Battle attempted another run on the guns, but only killed a few crew:

Our infantry used reactions to shoot up more of the lancers, but they were surprisingly still alive to cut us up. (In Tactical Combat, units can move their full distance, move half and fire, or reserve a "reaction" to fire and/or move in response to opposing actions. Not using these in our first turn was probably a mistake.)

On the British right, infantry advance towards the fort.

Close-up on the varied British vehicles, including the curious
Indian-Pattern wheeled substitute for the Bren carrier.

Field gun and prime mover,
with wrecked armoured car
in the distance.

The smoked fortress - yellow cap indicates that one
"puff" will dissipate next turn.

In Turn Three, Jim as Italian forward observer dropped a round on the CS tank, which the Italian players seemed fearful of. Hulldown protected it, but the gun was knocked out - though not before dropping another smoke round. I also managed to kill the second Italian armoured car, while our field gun and a mortar plinked away at the fortress guns.

Cars and infantry advance.

Indian infantry squad, with Bren gunner at right of
front line and a helmeted medic working his magic.

In Turn Four, the CV33s turned up, but neither side realized at first that the stream was actually the table edge, which meant the tankettes got to move farther and throw a lot of fire at the Brits. Had we caught that, I would have used my tank guns on them. Jim concentrated on our lonely fieldpiece, destroying the prime mover with a good scatter:

In Turn Five, I fired the tank guns at the tankettes - and missed every time. In return, I lost two armoured cars - one to the 25mm AA and the other to crew casualties. My .50 cal did manage to kill a tankette before it was knocked out. Our infantry suffered most - those on the left machine-gunned, those on the right bombarded.

Turn Six was the last, as we were all getting tired and a couple of us had to leave soon. The CR42 finally turned up and blew my cars to hell, while the Italian artillery caused more infantry casualties. My surviving vehicles wore down the crew of a gun whose cover had been destroyed earlier.

"Dio mitraglia l'Inghilterra!"

The result.

End result: a not unexpected British defeat - the historical result. Mark informed us that the last time he ran this scenario, the Italians in the village were wiped out; in our runthrough, seven were still alive, three wounded, but still manning their machine guns with gritted teeth.

I think the British loss was due (aside from the fact that I was commanding it!) to a lack of focus. We were concerned about the fortress guns' ability to hurt our vehicles, but at the same time put a lot of fire down on the village. Had we managed to bring down the fortress wall with our bombs (a distinct possibility!) there might have been a different battle.

The rules are well considered, though having the creator for a gamemaster simply telling us what to roll was immeasurably helpful. The miniatures and terrain were appealing. I'll always be happy to play another round - Mark has about a hundred scenarios ready to go!

The scenario and battlefield map.