Prepping for Falkirk (not there yet!)

 I bought the Black Powder ACW starter set and have been reading the rules. They include this quote about Falkirk:

"There was a high wind accompanied by a heavy rain, which the Highlanders, by their position, had in their back, whilst it was full in the face of the English who were blinded by it. They were, besides, incommoded with the smoke of our discharge, and the rain, getting into their pans, rendered the half of their muskets useless."

That's useful background! The Black Powder campaign also recommends limiting the number of volleys to be fired, perhaps to D3. This should work alright for Simpson's rules. I have played his Falkirk scenario before, from Wargames Illustrated 134. That is recommended at this point in the campaign, but the forces will be different given the track of my own campaign thus far. For one thing, I don't think the majority of British units should be below average, and they should also outnumber the Highlanders. I'm undecided about guns, which did not feature at the actual battle.

In other news, I've continued assembling the ACW plastics; my goal at this point is to have two sets, one for solo play at home and one for experimentation at work. However, gaming at home will halt for the moment, as my Dad is visiting and he's not a gamer. He got me into military and aviation history, and in the UK we visited Culloden, Portsmouth and Bovington. As an engineer, though, he wanted to see the Falkirk Wheel instead.

Aside, my cat likes Black Powder. Or at least the enormous box it comes in.

So that's my last home post for a bit. I hope at least to play at work next month, though. Happy gaming!

Wading into England

I'm now reading Three Victories and a Defeat by Brendan Simms, about British foreign policy of the 18th Century. Simms' thesis is that British emphasis in the period was not on the sea and empire, but on European affairs to which the Americas and the Royal Navy were but an adjunct. The King's holdings in Hanover and the alliances necessary to keep them stable were, in this reading, the real cause celebre' of the wars, and moves across the ocean were, from the beginning, part of a European strategy - at first to weaken the Spanish threat by cutting off its American wealth. The Netherlands in particular, the "pistol aimed at the heart of England," had to stay on-side.

Which puts the solo Jacobite campaign back in my sights.

After my second refight of Prestonpans, I have nine Highland regiments to send towards Carlisle and Marshal Wade. He had thirteen to start. Three of Cope's survivors retreat from Scotland, leaving one holding Stirling, which must be penned in by one of mine. Thus, facing each other are now:

Eight Highland regiments under Charlie,
with the sun at their backs!

Sixteen British and foreign regiments
(plus two cav and four guns) under Wade.

That sounds bad, but the Highlanders are all standard or elite, while Wade's units (either garrison or recently defeated) are all still poor. That evens the contest.

With all those units, I'm also running out both of troops and room on my table. To play in the sunlight where I can take good photos, I'm limited to four feet of space. (What I really need is a dedicated game room.) I'd reduce each unit by one base, but that would mean I couldn't indicate column formation with the British... but granted they're unlikely to attack in this battle anyway, so what the hell.

However, to fit them all I do have to arch them. Perhaps this is being fought in a strategic pass:

Wait a minute, why don't I just halve all units, counting each as two for purposes of the campaign? At least I'll have room:

OK, now I'm ready.

The Scots march forth.

They form into column to move faster, 
but the right-hand unit turns to face the approaching horse.

The Scottish right charges and defeats the cavalry.
Columns advance towards center but take casualties.

One British unit is broken by fire from the center
Scottish regiment, but the British right is swinging
towards the flank.

One British gun is eliminated by fire, the other is charged
to no effect (far left). The other Scots, too far back
to charge, continue to suffer casualties.

More charges go in, and the British center and left are 
eventually destroyed. The right, not so much.

Skipping over a few inconclusive turns (read: I forgot to take photos), the British left is gone, but the Scots have suffered dreadfully in the process and are about to be overwhelmed on their own left. So the Scots break contact and retreat.

Not quite Culloden, and half the Government force is gone, but still a severe setback for the rebels.

I didn't reread the campaign section before setting this up - turns out it should have been an encounter battle, which at least would have assisted the setup! When I roll on the recovery table:

• Scots rally, with surviving regiments returning to full strength. So having lost one, I have six left (plus the one at Stirling, which returns to the army).
• British rally, but also amalgamate to get half their lost units back. Having lost four of their eight and both guns (representing twice that many), Wade now has twelve infantry, two guns and no cavalry. And they have "seen the elephant," so I should probably upgrade some of them.

I also roll on a Royal Navy table to see what French reinforcements get through, and the British roll badly - a 2. This nets the Scots reinforcements of one infantry regiment, one horse regiment, and enough supplies to upgrade two more clans to elite. I think I can also claim to have assistance in crewing the three captured guns from Prestonpans. So a bit better off...

But fully half the British army can come north after me, and Cumberland outnumbers Wade, so basically Wade's entire remaining force, plus three cavalry regiments and two guns, is on its way to Falkirk. Next time!

Another 3x3 Portable Wargame

 I tried the minimal version of WWII Portable Wargame again, making it a touch even more minimal. I also tried taking photos outside, and marking the squares more clearly with tape, which seems to have helped. I ran the same basic scenario as last - this time around the Americans were defenders and had a forest and river in their deployment zone. The effect of rivers isn't in the rules I had, so I had to ignore it, but it adds to the atmosphere. I am thinking of including more trees, for a Hurtgen Forest or jungle feel.

Taking lessons from last game, firing and close combat in adjacent squares became synonymous, while just one die was rolled for each side. I also left out the choice between loss of an SP and retreat, simply rolling for it.

Deployment. The river is a preproduction element by Wofun, the producers of plexi Paperboys, while the 54mm-scale tree comes from an Australian firm via a tip from Man of Tin.

Turn 1. The Germans have advanced, and both sides
have sustained casualties (elements with one soldier left)
or been pushed back.

American rifles flank the German "point." Unable to
retreat owing to the filled square behind them,
they take more casualties.

The American flankers are themselves flanked, and
eliminated.

When units in the rear square are forced off the board,
they become reinforcements who may return on a 5+.

Fired on by the rifles before him and the
machine-gunners in the woods, the German gunner
bites the dust.

But the Germans advance again on the US center
and left, wiping out another American unit.

That left two US units on the board, with three others in "reserve." Most Portable Wargame rulesets declare a side defeated that has lost a third of its SPs or units, so (discounting the HQ) I decided the Germans had won. Only those in the forest remained, mostly because the Germans hadn't tried to attack them in their cover.

A simple but fun game. I keep the figures and dice in a small bin so the game can be set up quickly, but a playsheet would be useful too. It took longer to set up the folding table than to ready the game.

Black Powder Epic ACW

Via my gaming group's mailing list, I bought an ACW Epic starter set thru an estate sale. It's not Paperboys, but it does have Peter Dennis's artwork on the cover!

I've meant to buy Black Powder for a long time, though I doubt I'll play it; my group prefers other rulesets. The minis are nice, though. I won't paint them, but use them for my solo games and possibly at work.

I had hoped not to glue the model strips to their bases, but turns out they don't fit snugly into the holes. White glue seems to work, though I've used plastic glue on the cannon and commanders. I'd like to use them with Junior General rules, counting each base as two to save space and build larger armies, and pluck one strip from a base for odd casualties. The alternative is casualty figures - at least the paper ones are cheap. So far, I've clipped out and assembled two frames each of Union and Confederate - this will represent three regiments, one gun and a general each side, enough to run Sawmill Village as a demo.

Photo taken in daylight (but the shade). Any better?

I know I keep saying this and falling through, but I hope to try a small game at work next week and, if it works, plan something bigger.

Undecided for the next post. Three possibilities, all testing my new 2x4 folding table outside:

• Another 3x3 Portable WWII Wargame
• Test round of Sawmill Village with Junior General ACW rules
• Next round of my nearly forgotten '45 campaign

I wonder if I could get them all this weekend...

More miscellaneous and reading

Blogging has slowed way down lately. This is mostly because of work, which is increasingly busy and under construction. (I stayed two hours late yesterday because we couldn't close a new door, much less lock it.) Haven't gamed much at home lately.

However, I've just been switched from Children's to Adult/Teen Librarian at work, which might be handy, as the teens are actually actively interested in tabletop gaming. I hope to start a weekly tabletop period soon, which will be mostly roleplaying but with the chance of slipping in other things on occasion. We tried a round of the storytelling card game Once Upon a Time last week, which was hilarious. It's a fine icebreaker, and one of those games that leads to outsiders hearing weird out-of-context statements. The oddest one was where we ended up setting the story in a town populated entirely by stepmothers. A few others I hope to use are Fluxx, Munchkin and Apples to Apples - the last easy enough for young children.

I've been reading a lot, of course, and as usual have been influenced towards particular gaming periods in the process. For example, I read Wiley Sword's The Confederacy's Last Hurrah, about Hood's Tennessee campaign in late 1864, and am working on Paddy Griffith's Battle Tactics of the Civil War. That led to some ACW18 Paperboys construction - a few bases of Confederates and a few more of black troops. The Rebels will be opposed to my Glory:1861 force, and both groups will (she said, tentatively) take part in a wargame demo next week at work. I am thinking of running the Sawmill Village scenario again, which at this point will only require a couple cannon bases to ready.

I couldn't resist adding these to the display. Might
read the right-hand book later.

I was hoping to run Olustee this month instead, as a battle during February 1864 (same month as Black History Month) featuring black troops, and set in Florida, our own state. Not going to happen at this rate, if only because my boss would prefer me to plan, and more importantly promote, events well ahead of time. Another possibility for March is Hampton Roads, as I have 3D prints of Monitor and Merrimac and a simple ruleset that has worked well with kids before, and it's the 160th anniversary of the battle.

The Confederacy's Last Hurrah, while generally good and packed with first-hand reminisces of the battles of Nashville and Franklin, is let down a bit by a lack of maps. It's won some awards, though, and I may look for more of the author's work.

Battle Tactics of the Civil War is something I'd heard a lot about, as Griffith had a controversial thought about the war and its historiography - that it wasn't the first modern war and rifles didn't really change the equation as much as people think. His reasoning is that the rifles of the time were not used at such range and accuracy as would have caused greater casualties with Napoleonic tactics, but rather that the armies were poorly trained in actual tactics so that, coupled with the terrain, they tended to fight at very close ranges where accuracy and range weren't that important. Also doesn't have much in the way of illustrations, which is disappointing as I've heard there's a version with Peter Dennis as illustrator. Which got me making more Paperboys whilst reading. And I've just ordered a discounted copy of the ACW Epic Black Powder set from Warlord Games. Not sure that was a good idea, but at least I don't intend to paint it!

The other period I've been reading up on and thinking about is the 18th century. I recently finished Christopher Duffy's epic two-volume history of the Austrian Army in the Seven Years War. Dense but readable, an excellent history and even uses model soldiers in some of the photographs (to demonstrate formations) - I wonder where he got a thousand little musketeers. I ended up making a few of my own. Unfortunately, Paperboys in PDF are the devil to resize. I have access to several printers, and none of them have the same settings, so printing is always an experiment. The originals are A4, my paper is 8.5x11 inches, sometimes the printer resizes this to fit the page automatically and sometimes it doesn't. This would be okay if I was alright with 25-28mm figures, but since discovering 18mms I haven't really looked back. So resizing the originals which already were coming out wrong... I am on the verge of ordering the Wofun 18mm plexis of Dennis' 7-Year-War collection.

These chaps ended up on 25mm-wide bases;
I was aiming for 30mm.

At least I wouldn't buy the entire large, varied collection - I do have a battle in mind. The Leuthen scenario from Junior General would be my go-to, and since each regiment would be just three bases in size and I'd get twelve bases per 14.50 Euro in 18mm, this seems achievable. I'm hoping I could fit it in on my small table by reducing the ranges and moves, and the figures would still match, Imagi-nation-wise, with the rest of my 18th-century 18mms.

So that's what I've been up to in the last few weeks. Hoping for a couple 3x3 Portable Wargames tomorrow out in the sunlight!