Battle of Hopton Heath - 1643 - STARTEX

View NE from above Royalist lines

With a still limited playing area the next game up was the Battle of Hopton Heath which took place in 1643 just outside of Stafford. I've been close to the site several times on trips to the Uni but never actually walked the site - must do so next time.

It's the first in my 1643 series of games for this year (last year was 1642), and as a large skirmish (~1200 men a side) ideal for the reduced tabletop. Since I was doing it in 20mm I decided to give Warlord's Pike & Shotte a go, although unlike with Rommel I'm not expecting much form them - but be interesting to see how they play.

The Parliamentarians had about 500 Inf, 400 Cav and 300 Dragoons, with 200 extra inf to arrive later. They established  defensive position along  a low rise, between two sets of enclosures and with the front of the infantry partly protected by a rabbit warren (!). The Royalists had 800 cav and 300 dragoons. They also had the Roaring Meg siege mortar to put terror into their opponents, with bot side also having lighter pieces.

Since the 500 inf were going to equate to what I normally think of as one unit, that equated to 3 P&S units (as they treat the shot sleeves as separate from the pike block). So that gave about 150 - 200 men per P&S unit, about 1:20, so the order of battle was as follows:

Parliament: 2 x shot, 1 x pike, 2 x Dragoons, 2 x Cav, 1 x small Inf reinforcement
Royalists: 4 x cav, 2 x Dragoons

Slightly more dragoons than in reality but needed to be split on both flanks and didn't want to mess around with small units.

The game has about 9 turns, assuming a standard 20min per turn elapsed time, 3pm start and dusk at 6pm. If that's tight I might play to 7pm.

On turn 1 Hastings (commanding the Royalists) failed his order roll for both Dragoon units, so nothing happened. On Turn 2 he succeeded on his R flank and the dragoons went forward. Roaring Meg roared, and caused zero damage, as did the lighter guns on both sides. The defending dragoons let rip at the advancing Royalists and caused 1 hit, but the Royalists failed to return the favour.

Parliamentary gunners keep their cool as the Royalist dragoons advance

Then the first surprise. Despite being 18" (1 hex = 3" for this) away the shot could take on the waiting cavalry. Given frontages I'm estimating each hex at 50m, so that's a 300m engagement! (The rules do say that ranges are set to be "playable" not accurate). Two of the Royalist cavalry units took a hit.

Turn 2 over. On to Turn 3.....

Rommel Test Game

End Turn 6

In the first few Turns the British and Germans were getting stuck into a tank tit-for-tat on the (British) left flank, whilst on the right the Brits had eliminated the Italian forward positions and encircled the Germans holed-up in Sollum on the coast.

Sollum under seige

Turns 7/8 saw more of the same, with the tank battle seeing most units down to their last step - with a slight advantage to the Germans as they were getting +1 hit on each combat due to their superior tanks.

The Matildas go forward

At the end of Turn 8 an extra battalion or so of Kampfgruppe  Esebeck arrive. With no breakthrough on the L the British commander does a re-plan. Sollum is bound to fall, so for victory he just needs to take and hold the oasis as well. So all forces on the L are pulled back to defend the oasis. The Coast Bn which was in reserve on the R flank is road moved up to help, and as soon as Sollum falls those troops will also be moved up.

So the next few turns sees the British enact the plan and von Esebeck start to try and take the oasis, with other units providing a supporting role.

Sollum Falls, ~ Turn 11

As the battle around the oasis develops the British suddenly notice that the German gun line and supply depot is right in front of them and unprotected, so a "Jock Column" of a Matilda Sqn and Inf Coy is sent forward to reek havoc. They take out the Italian battery, but the German one escapes. They then camp out on the supply point, eating loots of sauerkraut and rendering all German units "isolated". In practical terms that just means they can't use a road move, so it stops any of their more distant units coming to the aid of the oasis fight.

"Jock Column" at right heading for the vulnerable depot and gun line

With the Coast Bn unlikely to hold the Brits thought they had a plan, with the Germans taking the oasis on Turn 14, the Brits retaking it on Turn 15 with the relatively fresh 1 SG just released from Sollum, and then reserving enough dice to hold it during Turn 16.

As it was the Coast Bn held on during Turn 14, and were then relieved in place by 1 SG. There was also a certain amount of gamesmanship with a Tank Sqn being left on the oasis so as to avoid Tank Shock.

So it came down to Turn 16, and the Germans making  literally the last throws of the dice to take the oasis. The Brits expected the Tactic that moves a unit out, and so had a dice ready for "quick reaction" to replace it , but instead the Germans played "no tactics", so all the Brit dice were useless and the Germans called down Reserve Arty and airstrikes to try and dislodge the Brits. Luckily on Turn 15 the brits has played prepare positions, so when the Germans scored 5 hits, 2 went on the prepared positions, 1 wiped out on the armour unit, but the SG companies were able to absorb a hit each  - so the oasis held and the Brits won.

The final battle

In the failing light (literally!) the heroic A & B Coy Scots Gds hold on!

Thoughts on Rommel

So, game over, and I don't think that my views changed a lot. A like what Sam Mustafa tries to do, in this and Blucher, and generally how he does it - you certainly can't fault the production quality - but there is always something that just doesn't gel for me. In Rommel I think its that it has the SAGA problem, it becomes more about how you muster your dice to achieve events and tactics that have no direct on-board presence than it is about moving the "toys" around. I really did feel that I could have played this SPI for no loss of interest, and actually for improved playability and usability. I also didn't particularly think the big squares worked for me, movement and actions were too coarse - even though I've found the 10cm hexes to work fine. There is also huge scope for gamesmanship I think, such as the anti-tank-shock example above (maybe that just good tactics) and also that in the attack on Sollum although I had a Bn on each flank I always attacked with 2 coy from one side and 1 coy from the other so as to get the "flank" advantage. If Sam really wanted to have a more grand tactical/strategic game I think we needed to the focus even higher, so Bn units to make table and events/tactics seem more equal.

Unfortunately I can't see myself racing to play it again - I think that Blitzkrieg Commander is still closer to what I want - so I may be rebasing all my new desert units after their first outing, or try them as-is on 4cm hex. I've promised myself a professional desert hex cloth, and then when BKC4 comes out we'll give it all a whirl again!

20mm ECW Cavalry

My first completed 20mm metal ECW unit using some nice figures from Tumbling Dice. Have also painted the Shot for a foot unit, but only now doing the Pike. Writing the book wiped out most of April from a painting/gaming perspective, but with that now at the publishers there's time to paint again (although still not much space to play...)

A 3D/VR Virtual Table Top/Wargames Room

As mentioned in the last post my physical space for gaming has taken a dive for a month or so, and that proved to be the kick I needed to look at a 3D/VR virtual table top or virtual wargaming room. It's a project that's been in the offing for ages, ever since my Second Life days. I've used on-line 2D tools to do tabletop map movement (but not graduated yet to Roll20), but I want something that really feels like I'm using a physical tabletop.

Now it just so happens that in the day job we've created something called Fieldscapes - www.fieldscapesvr.com, a 3D/VR authoring tool for learning and training, so I decided to see if I could press this into service as a 3D/VR VTT.

Initially I made a virtual, modular, Hexon table in Unity, along with some suitably sized (10 & 20cm frontage) blocks, brought them into Fieldscapes, laid them out and dropped in. And yes, I could pick up a block with the hand controller and move it on the table!

So I next made/bought/rescaled some simple terrain pieces (woods, hills, bridge, houses), and found a nice simple 3D "quality street" type soldier and cavalry man that I could shrink down to about 20mm and base up. In these came, and not only could I move them but just as in real life I could crouch down by the table top to look at them more closely.

On the next iteration I added some shelves to put example soldiers on (so no need to crouch), added separate tables for Horse & Musket and WW2 (found something to use as ~ 1/32nd tanks and men), and also created two map tables (using Google Maps images), and one table with a 3D sculpted terrain. I also put in a web browser screen so you can bring rules up in world!

In theory all these bits are multi-user, so someone else should be able to come in world and play with them with me - that's the next test! Then after that we see if we can scale up to a reasonable force on the table.

There is no doubt it seems a very real experience (right down to now having a floor littered with discarded soldier - and some just hanging in space!), but there is also no doubt that I wouldn't want to wear the current generation of VR headsets for a 1 hr+ gaming session. But things will evolve.

Finally, here's a current long shot of the room. I'm currently camped out in our Daden Campus building, but may get something a bit grander in due course!

Rommel Test Game - STARTEX

Been a bit quiet here of late what with work, a book deadline on 30 April and various domestic issues which have seen my physical space for wargaming shrink a bit (hence smaller table above!)

But I have now got the Rommel introductory adventure of Op Brevity underway. Allies attacking from bottom, with objectives being the two oases and the port. The Axis have low grade Italians deployed forward, a German Kampfgruppe on the back line, and another due to come on at Turn 8.

In the first "turn" (i.e Allied then Axis turn) the Brits pushed an armoured thrust into the desert on the R flank, the Germans came out to meet them, but the Brits came off the better and the German's bounced off with the higher casualties.

In right-centre there was a British infantry assault against the Italians on the hills. It failed but at lest one Italian unit only has 1 HP left.

On the right the coastal force engaged the Italians forward of the port. Again Italians damaged but not eliminated.

End of Turn 2

Impressions so far ... not wonderful I'm afraid. The use of the Ops Dice and the range of Events and Tactics make it quite Saga like, you seem to spend more time worrying about dice allocation decisions and choosing a tactic to use than you do actually playing a "real" tactic on the table. Also the fact that tactics should be simultaneously revealed makes it not ideal for solo play.

In terms of game tactics you really need overwhelming force so you can eliminate a unit in one go, and that needs a combination of multiple units, ideally a flank attack, and the deployment of some good Ops Dice tactics. So it may become a case of orchestrating a set-piece or two each turn - which in some way may not be too unrealistic. We'll see.

Ops boards at the end of Turn 2. Whether to reset and draw 3, or just draw 6 but have filled tactics I can see being a big decision.

IABSM Test Game: Turns 18 - 23 ENDEX

View from 3 Pl. 1Pl attacking from right to left

Well that ended quickly. 3Pl provided a mediocre fire-base as they couldn't really see the target - certainly not after the smoke went down. 1Pl started moving though the open orchard but started taking casualties from the German Zug. 3 Pl started laying smoke late, but the wind was pushing it back towards 3Pl, so they couldn't adjust well to cover the rear of the building (off image to left above).

1 Pl (centre top) raked by fire on leaving the orchard by Germans at upper left

As a result as 1Pl emerged they were due to edge of table too much in line with the German defence (especially as the reserve Gruppe had moved to close the back-door), and not obscured by the smoke. In one round the reserve Gruppe inflicted 3 hits on each unit, which added to the 3 they already had reduced each section to 2 men, and so no longer effective. With only 3Pl left, and that a bit battered, and the German Zug more or less untouched and in a strong defensive position the Company Commander decided to call it a day. Game over.

Overall not bad. Quite a realistic result, I remember being taught that a good MG position is a Platoon attack target, the Germans had 2 of them, plus the two platoons which are each Coy attack targets, so trying to do this with one unreinforced company was always going to be a tall order!

What I liked about IASBM:

• The blinds - but is the CoC patrol phase better?
• The very simple modifiers
• Spotting
• The mortar and smoke mechanism
• The variable movement
• The tea break card
• Card based activation
• Bucket of dice - becoming a convert

And playing at 1:1 figure to ground scale. But 6mm is just too small for 1:1 men, and looking forward to using the new 10mm figures and happy to have only a ~2:1 error ratio.

What I liked less:

• Suppression seemed secondary to damage, not the other way around
• Shock and damage didn't seem to achieve much different, in this game damage dominated
• Big Men rarely got the change to use their range of actions (since a small game?)
• Not sure that every Pl needs a Big Man, if the Pl activates as a unit anyway - gets confusing
• The damage table - you have to look everything up

I think overall CWC/BKC is closer to what I want, but neither is ideal so may be back to writing my onw, but more influenced by IABSM/CWC than WRG!

IABSM Test Game - Turns 13- 17

The British attack finally goes in. 3 Pl is providing the smoke and firebase, everyone else is going right flank, bags of smoke, with 2 Pl left and 1 Pl right.

2Pl realise too late that making a full 2-3 activation move to reach the enemy will lose them dice in the melee, so they stop short in the smoke to await the next turn. 1 Pl has swung nicely wide and sends 2 & 3 Sections against the Gruppe lining the hedge ( a flank guard recently moved up), whilst 1 Section goes in against the rear of the dug-in  MG42.

2 & 3 Sections get surprisingly bounced, but inflict a fair amount of damage. A Sect also has a tough time and takes 2 rounds to get the MG42 team (well 1 man) to retreat.

Next turn 2Pl finally goes in, and again take a lot of damage from assaulting the emplaced infantry head on. 2 & 3 Sections are going against the Gruppe lining the hedge, and 1 Section against the weak Gruppe in the house.

1 Section gets bounced - unsurprisingly, but 2 & 3 manage to secure their objective and the German Gruppe is reduce to 1 man, pulls back, and loses it's Big Man.

In the next turn the smoke finally clears.

2 Pl activates first and sends 2 Sect left against the building and 3 Sect right against 1 Pl's opponent. Despite their losses 3 Sect wins out, but 2 Sect is repulsed - although only one man is left in the building (and only 1 shock so OK!). 3 Pl then activates it and pours in all its firepower, which ends up being far more effective than earlier in the game (was I doing something wrong?) and kills the brave bloke!

1 Pl and 2/3 Sections recover in the Orchard whilst 3 Sect/2Pl finishes their work, right

The 3Pl firebase and target house

A quick regroup and then its time to turn the British focus on the 2nd German Zug, still on a blind in the other house the other side of the T junction. 1 Pl is just about battleworthy (2 men down per section, so only 2 activations each). 2Pl has lost one section and has quite 2 weakened, so they'll join with 3 Pl (which has lost 1/2 section) to provide the firebase. It might be nice to swop 1 & 3 but 1 is in a better position to go right flanking and get right behind any German emplacements. 2Pl can also provide 3Pl with its smoke for the screen.

The next objective - the remaining German Zug, still on blind!

Overall this phase went quite nicely. Juggling men lost and shock seems a pain at times for no real benefit. Also I ended up with quite a few units at 2-3 men, so that meant they had no actions, so could only sit and be assaulted - so I decided to just remove them from the table if they weren't in a good defensive position. I also forgot about the 2" mortar rapid HE fire in the assault - I think that might be needed as its now a pretty even match for the last fight and the Germans can hole up in the buildings if they want. Could be a close run thing which is about right given the ratios.

Aim to finish this week so I can clear the decks for Easter and Rommel.