All posts by Ralph

Clear The Woods – Pt. 3

Colonials, Miniatures, Sessions

Event and Terrain Cards are played.  The former limits visibility to 20 inches, while the latter causes a Marine to badly hurt his leg and fall behind the others.  

Event Not Applicable, So I Changed It To One Marine Hurting Leg And Falling Behind.

The Boxers roll for reinforcements each Movement phase.  A roll of “Yes” generates a number of units equal to a D4.

The Marines respond artillery fire by shifting to a skirmish line, but vegetation (bad die rolls) slows movement to the edge of the woods.

A second artillery round (the antiquated cannon can shoot every two moves), kills the limping Marine.

Limping Marine Killed By Artillery. Others Struggle To Extend Into Skirmish Line And Avoid Artillery Casualties By Bunching Up.

A combination of bad Boxer luck and two good movement rolls allow the Marines to reach the tree line.  They can easily destroy the Boxer field gun if their luck can hold concerning Boxer reinforcements.  But, NO.  A “Yes” is rolled with a D4 of “3” calling for three Boxer units, one of which will be a rifle unit.  

Will the Boxers be positioned on top of the ridge, or in defilade?  A “Maybe” roll for top of the ridge leads to a 50-50 chance.  The ensuing die roll indicates the Boxers are massed along the ridge.  Such a tempting target!

This is a SERIOUS problem for the Marine Lieutenant.  Does he engage or withdraw.  His orders were to clear the woods.  The Boxers have already had their Movement Phase.  If the Marines fall back now, they can probably make it back to their camp and report the presence of this force.  If they send a runner, he might summon reinforcements for support.  Or, is it “Death Or Glory”?

Fire And Smoke…….or ……More Flattery

Miniatures, Terrain and Buildings

Around the same time as discovering the explosions posting, I found this one on fire and smoke.

Was intrigued by using tea lights.  Went down to the estrogen flooded Hobby Lobby, and found some cheap lights and  polyester stuffing.  Liberally applied black, gray and fluorescent orange spray paint.

Not bad, but the tea lights don’t shine through that well – polyester instead of cotton stuffing (?) – but the overall effect is OK.  I actually like the stuffing without the tea lights a little better.

Anyway, it’s a good addition to the scenary/terrain box.  Especially since you can whip up a Dresden-Like conflagration in a short time.

 

 

Explosions

Miniatures, Terrain and Buildings

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.  Or, something like that.  I flattered (sounds wrong) earlier this month after reading this post.

Instead of dowels, I used thin steel rod, and didn’t use craters but a wood base weighted with an old bolt. I opted to push the foam bits down through the rods, and then spray with glue.  A lot cleaner than soaking the rods in glue, but the foam had some problems “taking”.  I should superglue the top pieces.

Anyway, it turned out just fine. I could use a little more of the white overspray, but what the hell.

Clear The Woods – Pt 2

Miniatures, Sessions

The Boxers took 80% casualties, most of them lightly wounded, during the melees.  Both Boxer groups and the fanatic riflemen fell back into the woods.

The Marines suffered two dead and three lightly wounded.  Treating the wounded and burying the dead, they pushed on.

The new Terrain Effects Card indicated a rifle range of 15 inches and a maximum movement of two D6 +3 inches in the woods.

The chance of new contact was 20% .  A percentage die roll of 80 resulted in no contact, and the Marines pushed deeper into the woods.

After that move, the chance of contact increased by 20 basis points, now at 40%. No contact again, on another roll of 80.

The next Marine movement die roll included a six, triggering an Event Card draw.  The card was not appropriate and disregarded.

With the chance of contact now at 60%, the die roll was a 10, resulting in a contact.  A D6 roll of 2, divided by two, resulted in one Boxer unit emerging in the woods.  The question was “A rifle or other unit”.  The die roll of “Yes” indicated a rifle unit, with a subsequent Directional die roll of approaching from the East.  With a 3x D6 roll of “7” indicating 7 inches from the Marines.

The well disciplined Marines conducted an immediate action move facing the Boxer threat, and, luckily drew a “Fire” card from the Action deck.

In the ensuing fire fight, both sides took casualties.  After two exchanges, the Marines charged.  The Marines closed to contact, and the Boxers rolled a withdrawl, fleeing off the table.

The Marines detailed one lightly wounded Marine to take a more seriously wounded comrade back to camp.

The mission continues…….

Classic Wedge Formation
Boxer Riflemen Emerge From The Woods
Immediate Action Drill. Contact Right. Marines Away From Contact Maintain 360 Watch
Firefight. Both Sides Take Casualties. Boxer Leader Killed.
Despite Wound To Leader, Marines Close To Contact. Still Maintain Overwatch. Boxers Flee.

Innocence’s End

Kriegsspiel

Earlier this year I devoted several posts to extolling the happy and simple virtues of Kriegsspiel.  It was a wonderful simple time.

Then I started reading.  I found both the Austro-Prussian and Russo-Turkish Kindle books real cheap a month ago (Kindle pricing is a tide pool).  The former also discusses the 1864 Danish War.  Perfect for the 1862 Kriegsspiel rules.

But, this new cursory knowledge created real questions.  How can I play this game when both sides are Prussian.  After all, the ranges and weapons’ effectiveness is based on Prussia’s arsenal.  Once again,  down the slippery slope.

All kinds of research and conversions.  How long is a pace?  How many paces in a meter?  What’s the range of  Austrian weapons?  Can I convert all of this over to the more advanced rifles of the later Russo-Turkish war?  What are the differences in regiment, division and corps organization?  Austrian columns versus Prussian skirmishing “Zugs”?

This doesn’t leave much time to play the game, especially when I have to set it up on the dining room table and the Holidays are fast approaching.

An interesting set of problems.

Not to mention the need for  attention to tactical detail.

Here’s my initial set-up for the reinforced battalion defending an avenue of approach to the critical bridge.

 

Right and Left Limits?

Let’s leave the artillery on the crest of the hill.  1st Company on the left has a right boundary that, well, is somewhere.  At least the battery’s transport is on the reverse slope.  And, where the hell is the commanding officer?

OK….That’s Better.

First Battalion now has limits  based on the road network.  The artillery is dug in on the outskirts of town.  The single company from Second Battalion now has a clearly defined area of responsibility, but can still pivot to support.  The Devil is in the details.

Clear The Woods

Miniatures, Sessions

Been slowly but steadily working with the game.  Solo play requires a lot of imagination, assisted by “Yes, No, Maybe” dice and directional dice.

A simple scenario.  A Marine squad is tasked with clearing a wooded area known to contain groups of Boxers.  For the Marines, it wasn’t a wooded area, but a hornet’s nest.

Random die rolls generated three groups of Boxers the moment Marines entered the woods.  It was a wild melee.

I’m using old wooden Risk cubes to denote light (pink) and serious (red) wounds.  Pinned troops are marked with a brown cube, with shaken troops getting a yellow cube.  Deaths are shown with black cubes.

The Marines fought well, and the Boxers were resilient….maybe because I messed up the retreats from melee.  It was an entertaining slugging match, allowing me the opportunity to work with both Action and Terrain decks.

The two large groups of Boxers withdrew after heavy casualties.  However, the one band of fanatical riflemen remain.

Initial Contact To The Left
Boxers Rallying For Second Attack

More Sword And The Flame

Colonials, Miniatures

Still hacking away at this project.  The rules and charts were becoming an annoyance, so I consolidated them into a three page cheat sheet.  It’s a Beta, with charts limited to forces at hand rather than the rules’ presentation of all antagonists.  The rule synopses are hand written.

Another problem working solo is random activation.   My working scenario is a patrol action by a platoon of Western soldiers.  It’s the classic situation; their movement triggers an enemy response.

Right now, I’m working with a crude grid, with two counters per grid hex randomly drawn.  Each hex is marked for “yes” and “no” for activations.

Trying to figure out when to trigger a activation, as well as incorporating the event and terrain cards into the game flow.  Somewhat vexing, but still enjoyable.

Making the Old New

Colonials, Miniatures

During the shed purge  mentioned in my August 31 post, I found some old 15mm Minifig Sword and The Flame figures.

There’s some backstory.  Back in the mid-80’s a few of the Kansas City stalwarts at Yankee Doodle Game and Hobby fantasized about a “World At War 1899” game.  Easy to extrapolate with Fashoda and Panther incidents going sideways.  I painted up some Brits and French.  Game never happened, figures went into boxes, and decades passed.  A couple years ago, I sold off all the French and most of the Brits.  The exception was some very nice Highlanders that I figured could be used in  a DBA knockoff game.

There was a package of Sihks, along with some stray British and Egyptian cavalry.  Why not paint them up and play a big game.  Can use all my Arab/East African figures for a mash-up campaign.  Plus, this meshed well with my discovery over at Wargame Vault of the old Pluck vs. Science ruleset.  It’s for big games, but I like the character creating possibilities for a campaign.

It’s not a big thing, but a good use of the old and forgotten to create some fun possibilities.  Here’s a  pictures of the recruits.

 

 

 

 

More Kriegsspiel

Kriegsspiel

Received my new Kriegsspiel pieces the other day.  Laser cut so each piece has to be hand cleaned.  Great way to drink beer, watch football and still feel productive.  Problem is……..I don’t know what the hell I was doing when it came to research.

Wanted to have a corps for each side.  When I double checked, it was another case of a brick shy of a load. Benninghoff is a reliable resource…..after all he is a PhD!, as is Quintin Barry.  So it will be another email out to Photon Cutters, for another brigade and miscellaneous corps level assets.

Pretty, But Incomplete

Meet The Boxers

Miniatures

Continuing to jam 30 days of wargaming into a couple days posts.

One summer project was purging The Shed.   This is where old miniatures and wargames hang out.  Found my old MiniFig Boxer Rebellion figures.  They had been painted to help augment forces for a large, and if I remember correctly, really nice Siege of Peking game back in Kansas City.

They’d been billetted in a cigar box for who knows how long.

Not Very Photogenic.  But Angry After Being Cooped Up.

In keeping with my current retro miniatures phase, decided to start working with The Sword And The Flame (TSATF).  I still have an original copy of the rules, along with a Yaquinto Bulletin that includes charts for the rebellion.

Not content to play with just the figures on-hand, I ordered more from Miniature Figurines.  Old School can be pricey at roughly about $1.70 per figure.

I had originally painted up 24 Boxers, 6 Marines, 10 1st Chinese Regiment, and 6 “fanatic” figures, which according to the Foundry Press book, (Jeez, that’s expensive now)  look more like Chinese Christians.

I’ve added Boxer standard bearers, Boxer riflemen,  regular Chinese, more painted Marines (from E-Bay), but with officers, 3 British officers, 2 naval officers, and 10 Frontier Miniatures sailors.  The latter are more or less generic, and useful in any number of roles.

I started painting and playing some introductory scenarios.  Mission Creep set in.  I will be ordering some German Asian Brigade infantry, along with more Chinese Regulars and some Boers to serve as civillian militia.  Again time and money are factors.

The rules call for units of 20 individually mounted figures.   I’ll work with Boxer units of 18, and regular units of 10 figures, plus an officer.  Given my space limitations, movement and ranges will be halved.  So far this has worked.

To augment all of this fun, I purchased some specialized card decks from  The Virtual Armchair General.  These eliminate die rolling and add uncertainity to a solo effort. A very nice addition!

This will be fun, especially when I can get the Germans and Chinese Regulars painted up to play  all types of strange scenarios.