Tactica Medieval Rules Test

 

#5 in this series of 8 (!) medieval rules play-throughs.

Presentation

88 pages of glossy A4, lots of pics and diagrams, 30 pages for the core rules. Authored by Arty Conliffe of Shako and Crossfire fame. £12.95 - good value for all the historic info and siege rules probably.

Set-Up

Last of the Battles of Barnet. Yorkists on the advance this time. Yorkist Van stalled though whilst their Rear swung across the battlefield to collide with the Lancastrian van. When the Yorkist Van then appeared in the rear of their Rear they were luckily recognised as friends! Meantime the York Main hit the Lancastrian Main but there was confusing as to who was who and the Lancastrian Rear likewise stalled when it came into the battle, so some initial opportunies lost!

How It Played

Fast and bloody. Melees usually meant one side of the other was a goner after 1 turn. The Lancastrian Currours unfortunately were in column ad hit two units in the flank at the same time, so didn't obliterate the York Van as fast as they might have done. The Yorkists were quickly eliminated and another Lancastrian victory. Think that gives them 3-0 for the runs, better than in 1471!

Rules Impression

Very simple, probably too simple. No real C&C, but dice for initiative, and take an increasingly negative DM if you keep winning (nice). Missile fire was a straight 1D per figure, 6+ to kill, no modifiers or armour saving throws. Based on unit size there are regular checks for Morale, , which if failed halts the unit. Melee again 1D per figure and your target is based on the enemies armour (no save for your own), from 3+ for unarmoured to 6+ for knights (but not shown on QRS!). Minor DM for quality. So with 16 figures that's 16 dice, and on 3+ probably 10 kills. Again there's morale checks at regular loss intervals (starting at 7 for a 116 man unit), but with 11+ needed to save a unit with 10 losses most unarmoured light units go on first round (EVEN IF FIGHTING OTHER UNARMOURED!). There's a morale test if you're routed through, but only if you already have casualties. Army break point linked to number of key units - and could be a race to that on both sides!

Conclusion

For a Conliffe set of rules I was expecting more. Lots of interesting support material but the core rules were just too simple for me, and using a bucket of dice/figure model. The fact that your armour doesn't save you from missile damage, and gets oddly treated in melee was just too weird. Back on the shelf for reference.

Battle of Ramadi AAR

 

Don't really want to have to double post my PhD game reviews so here's the link to the review on my PhD wiki, and a near end game screenshot.

http://taunoyen.com/wiki/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=wargaming:phd:aar:wargame_first_review_-_battle_for_ramadi_-_tinybattle.pdf

Bottom line - pretty good solo game and great value for about £7 print-and-play.

I'm Starting a Wargaming PhD

 

OK, this was a fairly weird week, but possibly symptomatic of the weeks to come. I only had 3 things to do:

• Wargame for a hobby
• Wargame for work consultancy
• Wargame for a PhD!

Yep, I've taken the plunge and applied to, and been accepted by, Bath Spa University to study for a PhD with the provisional title of Wargaming Urban Conflict. I'll be studying under John Curry (of History of Wargaming Project fame) and he has a great group of students already doing wargame PhDs with him.

I've been thinking about doing a PhD for at least a decade, and until about 18 months ago I thought it would be on virtual humans in some way. But when I saw John's note in the Nugget that he was looking for new candidates for a wargaming PhD I thought it had to be.

I've set up a Wiki to support the PhD, and will post major bits of work, AARs, presentations etc to that. I'll also cross-post key bits here with links to the wiki, but otherwise keep the blog for the recreational side.

The Wiki already has the introductory presentation I gave at VCOW2022 if you want a better idea of what I'm after doing.

Why urban conflict? Three main reasons I think:

• The indications are that most future conflicts will have a significant, possibly dominant, urban component
• I've spent the last 18 months or so supporting the British Army on their Ex Urban Lion wargames to study urban warfare, so am already "in the groove"
• John thinks that there's still a lot of scope for original study and research in the use of wargames to study urban problems, and study how wargames deal with the urban environment.

As a first task I've pulled together a database of Urban Wargames (manual not computer) and it's available at: https://airtable.com/shreVPHaoJBpxGzFj

I'm sure it's far from complete, so if you know of any games I've missed then let me know in the comments. Note that I'm only including miniatures rules where they have something different to say for urban (other than a +2 for hard cover!)

So that's me sorted for the next 5 years - wargaming from dawn to dusk (or pre-dawn to just before pre-dawn!)

Poleaxed Rulestest

 

#4 in this series of 7 or so  medieval rules play-throughs.

Presentation

52pp "old skool" blank and white A5 booklet, no pics or diagrams, 2pp QRS. That said really nicely laid out, very clear, all the best bits of "old skool".

Set-Up

Battle of Barnet again, and again with the off-table map movement, which gave a different "starting" position for the combat.

This time the Battles stayed almost in line with the Vans making first contact, but then the Lancastrian Main bumped into the Yorkist Rear and mistook them for friends, and then the Lancastrian Rear arrived on the flank of the Yorkist Rear.

How It Played

Apologies, memory pretty hazy again. Think the Yorkists lost again.

Rules Impression

A lot better set which obviously stands the test of time. Really nice command system. Each commander has a rating (which is constant) in terms of how aggressive they are, and any order change is rolled against that with a chance that the order gets more or less aggressive. Very neat and well worth stealing. Troop classifications are almost DBA like. Movement is N x Average Dice so variable (nice). Missile Fire uses the "guaranteed N, but N+1 on a good roll" model - so no result too wild. Damage is based on Damage Point per unit, which are also related to number of ranks (as are some other results) so trying to mentally apply to my figures which aren't really rank based was fun. Melee uses a classic Figs vs Factor table. Morale and control is again moderated by leader aggressiveness. Some nice rules for commander risk but no rules for Battle or Army break - it's an old skool  fight to the death - although does give option of 50% per Army or Battle.

Overall

Very serviceable. A few things I might tweak (or steal) if I was going to play regularly but probably the best of the bunch so far.

Battle of Barnet and Days of Knights Rules Test

 

#3 in this series of 6 or 7 medieval rules play-throughs.

Presentation

52pp, of which about 30pp rules. Pdf download, 4olumn layout (of which 1 not normally used) so quite card to read the tall thin columns. Reasonably logical. 1pp QRS, which has a very dense unit stats table but not all the key rules (eg movt) you need to play! $10. 

Set-Up

The Battle of Barnet was distinguished  by being fought in think fog, with units moving around, bumping into other units from unexpected directions, and friends being mistaken for foe - with dire consequences.

To model this I set up a simple grid on PPT and had a simple set of random (D8 based) rules to move units, so they went forward, veered left or right or stayed still, and also randomised their end facing. If two units bump into each other then another roll decides whether the unit fight, mistake friend for foe (and vice versa) or just waste time sorting things out. Here's a pic from the pre-game.

Yorkists start in the S by Barnet, Lancastrians are moving S from the N!

Once two units collide only those two transfer to the table top, with others join as they meet other units, or those on the table top.

How It Played

Sorry, I'm playing catch up here and have played the scenario twice more with other rules so I can't remember much of what happened. As you can see from the map above the Yorkist Main Battle swung left and hit the Lancastrian Van, whilst the Yorkist van just stalled in the fog. Yorkist Rear and Lancastrian Main then came into contact, and then the Lancastrian rear appeared out of the fog on the Yorkist Rear's rear! I think the Lancastrian won.

Rules Impressions

Again only headlines as I've quite  a few to go through:

• Little differentiation between troop types
• Some key unit types missing, - eg handgunners, spearmen
• It was quite confusing as to what "unit" was in the rules ( a base? a group of bases?), especially  in melee and doubling in firing, and how allocate hits are then allocated to a  "group"
• Demoralisation has minimal (-1) effect and doesn't seem to stop actions (and per unit, so can split groups to avoid it)
• As mentioned above the QRS doesn't have all the key info you need 

Overall

Couldn't get o with them at all I'm afraid. Quite hard to read and follow, and the way that the rules seemed to be "base" based for everything (rather than just damage) made it all quite messy.

2021 Review/2022 Plans

 

It's still only mid January so I can just about sneak in a "what I did in 2021/what I plan to do in 2022" blog post.

What I Planned to do in 2021 and Actually Did!

The big one was undoubtably Waterloo60, with most of the early lock down being spent doing terrain, and most of the summer! There were also at least 4 practice games, 2 by Zoom, so quite honestly I'm not surprised if my plans to do other things took a beating (not that they've improved since August!).

Painting wise I did some ECW, some more Russians (2 batches) and some WOTR - so at least a bit of each. Post August seems to have been mainly on different varieties of Albedo ACP164 figures! I did in my defence paint 6 entire armies - all in 2mm - for Napoleonic and WW2 ready for my portable wargame.

Games wise I did manage to get through four different 1984 period Company-level rules sets as part of the Company Mega-Test, and will get started on the WW2 rules in the next month or so. I did managed the 2nd Battle of Newbury, twice.

There were several games of ACP164 (Pebble Park should be in MW&BG shortly - second article I wrote in 2021), and of Stargrave and Five Parsecs and hybrids. ACP164 still wins as a on-the-table game system although Five Parsecs has a nice campaign wrapper.

And that was about that!

What I Planned to do in 2021 and Didn't Do!

Most of this lot!

No Napoleonic decadal battle, only one batch each of WOTR/ECW/Nap, only one ECW battle, no WOTR battle, no modern 28mm (to be fair the Kickstarter still hasn't arrived!). The 10mm WW2 was bought at Salute but is still next to paint. Apart from the MegaTest no further on BAOR gaming, but plans for the urban terrain gathering. Figures bought and painted, scenery made and boxes filled for the portable wargame, but no game played yet! Given COVID (that's my excuse) not battlefield walks or visits, but lots of  Zoom lectures!

What I Plan to do in 2022

Waterloo61 planning has started, hoping to do in May, which means that the we may even get to do Quatre Bras in the autumn. Luckily no new terrain needed for Waterloo61, and probably little for QB, and figures wise I just want to do about 6 new French battalions as I had to use some really ropey Airfix ones for Waterloo60. Also plan to do at least one Russian batch, and possibly a British Peninsular batch. One decadal battle and finally play General d'Armee and possibly one or two  of the other new Napoleonic sets (assuming more don't come out in 2022!)

One more WOTR batch (last before I move on to 100YW), and possibly last for a long while ECW batch. At least one battle for each period (well underway already for WOTR!).

Paint the 10mm WW2 and use them to complete the Company MegaTest. Possibly start the Battalion MegaTest (looking forward to playing 'O' Group) but that might be 2023. Do at least one BAOR game. Build out my 10mm urban terrain. Warrior/BTR in 10mm possibly towards the end of the year.

Once the 28mm Moderns arrive (Ultramodern Kickstarter) actually get them on the table. Get the ACP164 ILR Assault troops painted and on the table, and also play with the ACP164 terrorists (start the Almata campaign?) Probably not much else SF unless I can start a Five Parsecs campaign as a background task.

Try and write 3 articles (not counting Pebble Park which comes out in 2022 but was written last year). Have drafts for at least that many so should be do'able.

That should keep me busy! There is also one huge project starting, but more on that anon.

What I Plan to do Somewhen

A couple of ideas have been on the list for ages, but I've still not got around to them, and can't see that changing in 2022:

• A "Dark Materials" wargames army in 28mm, and find a suitable set of rules (just love the idea of painting all those daemons!
• Creating a 3D Catan set out of Hexon terrain hexes (have almost all the bits, just need to sort how to do roads and towns)
• Play some games with the 1/2400 (?) WW2 Naval I bought nearly a decade ago!
• Play Phil Sabin's Fire and Manoeuvre on Hexon 
• Finish the 100 Days campaign Nick and I started well pre-COVID (just needs the Battle of Hal - one for Rose Hill Wargaming Group?)
• Start a new Napoleonic campaign with Nick - central Europe?
• Start my own ECW campaign
• Bigger 2mm armies on 10cm hexes for BIG Napoleonic Battles on a small scale

That should all keep me busy!

Donestk: Battle for the Airport

 

Donestk: Battle for the Airport is a small folio game by Tiny Battle Publishing (also published in Flying Pig Games's Yaah! magasine, so annoyingly I bought it twice!). It represents the multiple fights over Donestk Airport by the Ukrainian Army and Dontesk Separatists in 2014/2015. Not my usual fare but the reasoning will hopefully become clear in a few weeks!

Presentation

PDF for $17 ($28 printed). 14 pages, including 4 scenarios, game notes and a 1 page QRS. All nicely laid out. One counter sheet (double sided) and an A3 size colour map. Didn't take long to get it all printed out. Didn't bother to mount on card stock or anything.

Set-Up

I played the first, introductory scenario, where about a company of Separatists had sized the terminal buildings, and a company (-) of Ukrainians, with close air support was sent to oust them. Separatists set up anywhere (but in the terminal is the sensible place), and Ukrainians start on the board edge.

How It Played

I decided to hold the Coy Comd back on the board edge to bring down the close air support and then put a platoon in on each flank. The air support wasn't devastating given the solidity of the buildings and only 50% effective on lower floors but was enough to soften the Separatists to the point where one platoon could (at the second attempt) storm the building. As they started to clear rooms the second platoon which was attacking over more open ground in the East got repeatedly pinned by the Separatist team atop the Old Terminal and survived several airstrikes. The Pl Comd got hit and pulled back into the Metro while his BTR's gradually weakened the Separatists in the Multi-Storey. On Turn 6 the Separatist hit their hesitation level, and so on Turn 7 the Ukrainian just had to choose their positions to surround the Separatists and it was all over. 

Game Impression

Pretty good game. Interesting that the rules were a differential CRT rather than the more "traditional" ratio CRT I'm used too. A few gaps/unclear points but otherwise the core mechanics worked well and certainly gave you some sense of the battle. I'll try and play one of the more complex scenarios next week.