One Hour Wargames - Triple Line

 The hot weather has finally broken and it's cool enough to go back in the wargame room so we thought we'd get back in the swing of things with a game from One Hour Wargaming by Neil Thomas.  We chose scenario 26, Triple Line and here's how it went:

Overview of the battlefield, 6'x 6' with a road running through the centre and a bridge offering the only means to cross the river.  The English hold the left (Northern) bank, a banner of Knights have secured the bridge while two more prepare to support them from the treeline, a body of Archers make up the third line of defence on the hills behind them.

The sudden appearance of the French from the South has caused alarm and disorganisation in the English ranks, to reflect this the rules specify they may not cross the river and individual units may not move until the French come within 12" of them (firing is unaffected).  The winner will be whichever side is in undisputed possession of the Northern Hills at the end of 15 turns.  

The French army drew four banners of mounted Knights, a unit of armoured Men at Arms on foot and a body of light footmen from the Levy.  The opening move sees the French arrive from the South with the Men at Arms marching swiftly along the road while the Knights scout the flanks and the Levy bring up the rear.

The game gave me an opportunity to show off my new wargame mat which is actually a " green meadow tablecloth" from Temu, I bought two in this design which together cover 11'x 6', the join being hidden by the road.  There are several designs available, I also ordered one with a rocky desert pattern and a fourth printed with a river, bushes and paths, made from polyester they cost about £8.50 each with free postage from China.  The material is very thin and light so I laid them on my regular plain green baize cloth to act as an underlay, this prevented any slippage and for the price I would thoroughly recommend them.

The English Knights are all furnished by Timpo while their Archers are Airfix.  The French Knights are from Britains Herald range while their Men at Arms are Britains Deetail conversions and the Levy are 54mm Elastolin swoppet Saxons.  

The French Men at Arms rush the bridge but are checked by the English Knights and a melee ensues, the Knights carry a combat bonus but the heavier armour of the Men at Arms protects them as they batter their way through the tightly packed horsemen.

Having cleared the bridge the Men at Arms lead on up the road allowing the Knights to cross and fan out into the open ground around them. 

Seizing their opportunity, the second line of English Knights raise a cheer and thunder into a charge, they ride down the weary Men at Arms and punch their way into the supporting French Chivalry.  

Already it's becoming clear that this is a contest of attrition, the Men at Arms performed a forlorn hope to open the bottleneck at the bridge but now the turns are passing quickly and time is running out to reach the hill.  With so many Knights on the field the combat is fast and furious, the casualties are mounting at an alarming rate.

The gallant English Knights vow to sell their lives dearly, honour demands they hold back the French horsemen to buy time for the Archers on the hill.  The fierce melee churns around with no quarter given or asked, fortune ebbs and flows with every turn of the dice and the clock ticks ever onward.

Until finally the flower of English chivalry is trampled under foot and the French Knights face a hail of arrows from the archers on the hill.  With a final desperate lunge the Knights mount the hill and fall on the fearless Archers in the fifteenth turn, but it's too late, time has run out.

And so the day ended with honours even, a Draw.

The game lasted three hours but felt much less, it was heavy on combat but light on firing and manoeuvre, this I would put down to the type of troops in play.  For those not familiar with One Hour Wargames, each individual scenario in the book dictates the number of units for each side, players then dice for random allocation of units relative to the period being played.  Units are eliminated from the game after acquiring 15 hits from combat and firing, we use 1p and 5p coins to keep track of the hits to each individual unit.  

Scoring 15 hits on a unit can take an interminable length of time, but not on this occasion as seven of the ten units in play were mounted Knights, which carry a +2 addition to their combat scores, so it was inevitable there would be a lot of melee and a high casualty rate (once in melee units cannot break off from the fight).  Being mounted the Knights are highly mobile but their manoeuvrability was restricted by the terrain, the necessity of crossing the river by only one bridge, thus creating a bottleneck, and the impenetrable woods shielding the English line from any flank attacks. 

The Men at Arms have an armour bonus and their casualties in combat are reduced by 50%, this made them the only unit on the board strong enough to force a breakthrough at the bridge, spearheading the attack made sense even though it left them fatally weakened.  The lack of Archers was keenly felt by both sides, fewer units of Knights in favour of more foot and bowman would have given the game a very different dynamic.

At the start of a game it's always tempting to rush into contact and then find your focus drawn into the ongoing action as happened to us here, in hindsight we thought the English would have done better to put the Archers in the second line and pull the Knights at the bridge back to give them extra support. They could then use their firepower to degrade the French units before counterattacking, it was all about playing for time and slowing the advance on the hill.

Junk box finds at Sandown Park Toy Fair

 The joy of junk boxes is that you never know what you'll find, it might all look like rubbish but you can't help having a rummage anyway, maybe there will be something rare in there?  Sometimes there is but mostly not, it doesn't matter, it's the search that drives us collectors on, the hope of finding something, anything!

It might be something damaged or even something you don't really want, it doesn't matter, because it's cheap, so if you get something wrong or you change your mind there's no great harm done.  I didn't go looking for any of these figures or need any of them, the plastic were about 30p apiece and the leads £1, I bought them because they were there, and so was I.

PLASTIC

Top row: Three figures from the Cherilea Elizabethan series, the two in red are originals from the 1960's and the grey one is a reissue made in the original moulds by Giles Brown of Dorset Toy Soldiers, who sold them as British Battle Set under the name Icarus Toys.   Next a Cherilea Chinese/Korean Officer with pistol from the Korean War set and a REAMSA cowboy falling wounded.

Bottom row: Crescent WW1 Britsh cavalry, Britains Deetail French Foreign Legion cavalry, Timpo Duke of Wellington, Timpo Cossack and two Louis Marx Vikings.  

All are imperfect and destined to be repaired or converted but not necessarily by me.

LEAD

Top row: Street Gas Lamp Cleaner and Inn Keeper by Johillco (John Hill and Co.) the former is quite a rare piece, his narrow base extends pointedly at the front so that it fits into the steps of the ladder which he grips in his hands as it leans against the gas lampost.  Next a female customer which came in both the "Butchers Shop" and "Fish Shop" box sets from Crescent.  The two lads selling newspapers and waving are modern solid white metal figures (unmarked and unknown to me) possibly to go with model train layouts.  The Height Finder is very similar to the one in the Crescent " A.R.P Range Finder Unit" set, with a leg missing I have no qualms about a repair and repaint in grey to go on my Gunboat.

Bottom row: The whimsical Postman being chased by a dog is marked GB telling us it was made by Giles Brown of Dorset Toy Soldiers and is a typical example of Giles' humour.  The 1:43 scale gentleman in bowler hat, waiting for a train to take him on the daily commute into the City, is marked Dinky Toys on the upper side of his base.  The Bishop of Hereford is from the Benbros Robin Hood set and finally the motorbike goes with the Charbens GI rider.

All useful stuff which will find a home somewhere, be restored, repaired, repainted, converted or given away, the important thing is that they've been rescued from obscurity and entered the realm of the collector.

Scale Link - Belgians 1914

 I've had it in mind to make a unit of Belgian infantry to go with my Funny Little Wars armies for some time, largely influenced by this:

The picture above featured in the May 1991 edition of Military Hobbies and shows the WW1 Belgian Dog Cart kit made by Scale Link, I've been a big fan of this company since the mid 1980's and have used their heads, arms etc. in numerous conversions.

The donor figures, mostly WW2 French infantry made in China by Hing Fat and sold cheaply in poly bags, the weapons can be a bit fanciful and oversized but I like the originality of the poses, particularly the grenadier.  Also some incomplete Britains Deetail French Foreign Legion, missing arms have been replaced with reissues made by DSG of Argentina, the colour doesn't match so I have no qualms about repainting the whole figure.

Rebased on metal washers for stability, head changes, a few replacement arms from the bits box and they're ready for priming.  

A recent lucky win of these recast Britains French infantry painted in Belgian green provided the impetus to kick start this particular FLW project, I added the old school style basing and now just need to paint in some detailing.

This is the 1989 Scale Link catalogue, the beautiful fine line cover illustration was drawn by John Piper the owner of the company who has signed and dated it (1986)  in the bottom right corner.  I think this was the only catalogue he ever issued and inside it's illustrated with all of his figures drawn in the same linear style with each page copyright dated from 1984 through to 1988 as the range grew.

Scale Link produced figures depicting the WW1 Western Front but also sold their constituent parts: heads, arms and equipment in these small packs shown above, the header cards all drawn, signed and dated by John Piper.  

I  became a regular customer, and got to know John, when he moved his business from Kingston to Twickenham, where he lived, and opened the Scale Link shop in Church Street.  I hadn't realised his main business was producing a wide range of accessories for model railways and architectural design models, which he also sold through the shop along with paints and modelling materials.  John got into WW1 military figures almost by accident when the National Army Museum commissioned him to produce two dioramas for them.  

The shop closed in 1991 when he retired and sold the business.  Coincidentally he lived just four streets away from Roy Selwyn-Smith who had sculpted figures for Timpo and Herald before becoming Managing Director of Britains Ltd. I wonder if they knew each other?  It never occurred to me to ask!

I don't know the chap who took over Scale Link from John Piper but over the years he seems to have bought up several producers of metal castings, mostly for model railways, and built up a portfolio of specialist brands.  The notice above accompanied my latest order advising that the Group was being disposed due to retirement, I thought I'd include it in this post because some people are interested in this sort of minutiae.  In the meantime if you want to acquire some of these Scale Link parts you'd better stock up quick!

Battle of Saguntum 1811 - 54mm Napoleonic Battle Cry game.

 For our latest game we decided to try a Napoleonic version of Battle Cry and Anthony suggested the Peninsular War Battle of Saguntum 1811.

The scenario sees a Spanish force under General Blake attempting to relieve Sagunto Castle which is under siege by the French under Marshal Suchet.  The Marshal leaves a blocking force at the Castle and heads off to face Blake with his remaining French, Italian and Polish troops.

The Spanish are supported by gunboats offshore protecting their right flank.

The Spanish outnumber the French but both sides are short of artillery and the French are better quality troops.

Blake placed a holding force facing the French left wing while he concentrated most of the Spanish Army on his left flank to lead them in a mass attack against the French right wing.

The French opened with a vigorous attack on the lightly held Spanish right and centre.

Both sides fought themselves to a standstill on the French left as the course of the battle crept across the field to the centre and was finally drawn out on the French right.

The high ground in the centre held by a body of Foot Dragoons was hotly contested, changing hands several times.

On the French right Polish Voltiguers and Italian Hussars under general Chlopicki lined the crest of the Sancti Espiritus hills to await the massed attack of the Spanish.

A spirited counterattack by the Foot Dragoons drives off the Spanish Voluntarios and forces the supporting Horse Artillery to retire

The valiant Poles and Italians hold their ground in face of the Spanish advance.

On the gunboats the gun crews watch the action drift further inland away from the coast and out of range from their broadsides.

The French are finally overwhelmed on their right leaving the Spanish to their victory and the road open to the Castle.

The outcome of the game couldn't have differed more from the course of the actual Battle, in which the Polish troops advanced against the Spanish left and threw them into disarray, fighting in the centre and on the Spanish right was fierce and indecisive but the collapse of the left wing demoralised the Spanish and led to a general withdrawal with heavy losses.  The gunboats along the coast provided a threat but actually saw little action.  With no hope of relief  the garrison surrendered the Castle the next day.

The figures used were sourced from several manufacturers, the Spanish cavalry and most of the infantry were from DSG of Argentina, with a stiffening of grenadiers from the BMC Yorktown set and REAMSA of Spain, the Voluntarios in their distinctive green jackets were made from Helmet kit parts, the gunboat is the remains of a Playmobil pirate ship and the crew are various conversions, General Blake is converted from a Cafe Storme coffee premium.

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On the French side the infantry are mostly Britains Deetail apart from the Polish Volitguers which were made from Helmet Kit parts with an officer from Replicants and the foot Dragoons which are conversions using heads from ATS (Alexanders toy Soldiers), the cavalry are provided by Britains Deetail Cuirassiers, DSG Hussars and Polish Lancers made by PZG (the Polish Association of the Deaf), Marshal Suchet is a Del Prado figure and General Chlopicki is another conversion.

Lionheart - A Medieval Wargame with 54mm toy knights

 Our first trial of the boardgame Lionheart worked very well so we decided to expand on it by introducing some terrain elements and an additional two unit types; Heavy Foot Knights and Mercenaries. The remainder of the armies were the same as in our previous game and we increased the number of actions in each turn from four to six per side.  The basic game mechanics were explained in my previous post HERE.

The French line up with Heavy Foot Knights on the left flank (just visible at the top of the pic) and the Kievan Mercenaries on the extreme right.  For the Mercenaries we used Medieval Russian Knights made in china by Supreme along with some made in Russia by Engineer Basevitch.

While the English line advances with Heavy Foot to the front (Britains Deetail knights just beyond the Timpo Crusaders) and Irish Mercenaries with their priest following in support.

The game allows for one more unit type; Peasants, but I didn't have any suitable figures to hand so we left them out, maybe they'll appear next time.

With their enhanced mobility it's always difficult to hold back the Mounted Knights, they charge across the field when they see an opportunity to strike.  This invariably draws out their opposite counterparts and leads to a duel between the chivalry.

  The Mercenaries are strong in combat and have the ability to induce panic in any unit they attack, forcing them to retire, the danger is that they can be turned if they come in contact with the enemy King and may change sides.

The terrain comprised a line of hills with a road running through them on one flank, a central plain and a forest with a road running through it on the opposite flank.  I like to keep things simple to begin with.

The Heavy Foot Knights (centre) are powerful in combat but very slow moving, it takes two actions to move them one hex, as a result they never really got into the game.

After the Mounted Knights had exhausted themselves duelling the Infantry and Archers moved in, the latter being quite vulnerable if attacked so need close support.

The Kings and their retinues tends to become a mounted reserve, kept safely out of the way behind the lines until desperation draws them out into the fray.

As things turned out all of the action took place in the central plain and virtually no use was made of the hills or forest.  (Note to self: put more obstacles in the centre of the field next time)

I always pick up bits and pieces of Timpo medievals when I see them in the cheap junk boxes at shows, they invariably have no weapons, scabbards or shields but that's easily sorted.  They are notoriously unstable on their small green bases so I mount them on 2p coins, this will be anathema to some people but lets face it they're not rare, you can find hundreds of them on the internet auction sites every day of the week.

This time the game was much less cohesive with small groups of opposing units engaging in clumps of combat dispersed around the field.

It's a good game system and I like the way it flows, I think we will need to give more thought to how we deploy the Heavy Foot Knights or revisit the way we allocate actions in each turn.  

With a little tweaking the system could be easily adapted to the Dark Ages or brought forward into the Renaissance, so we might have a go at one of those periods sometime.

Travel Battle - A Napoleonic wargame with 54mm toy soldiers

 Travel Battle is a boardgame designed by Michael Perry and produced by Perry Miniatures, the well known wargame figure manufacturers, it's based on battles in the Napoleonic period so Anthony and I thought we'd see how well the system translated to a tabletop wargame with 54mm toy soldiers.  Here's how it went:

As usual we started with a very simple game, without may terrain features, to test out the mechanisms of the system.  The boardgame has preformed terrain and uses a square grid for movement, we opted to use a hex grid (because that's all I've got and I prefer it!) 

Each side comprises 3 Brigades, each commanded by a mounted Brigadier and made up from any combination of the units available, which are; 2 x Heavy Cav. 2 x Light Cav. 2 x Artillery. 2 x Guard Inf and 6 x Line inf.  Either or both of the Artillery units may be attached to a Cavalry Brigade and designated as Horse Artillery, which has greater movement distance but less firing range and effect than the Foot Artillery.

The rules are simple, minimal and there is no record keeping, just how we like them but may be a bit too simplistic for some.  Players dice to see who goes first and can activate all their units, the sequence of play is: Move, Fire Artillery, Melee, Retreat any defeated units.  Then the second player repeats the sequence with their units.

Foot units (Guards, Line inf. and Foot Artillery) move 1 hex while mounted (Brigadier, Horse Artillery, Heavy and Light Cav.) move 2 hex in each turn.  All units can move in any direction and terrain modifiers apply. 

Firing is restricted to the Artillery who can move or fire but not both.  Effect is determined by D6 score: 1,2,3 no effect, 4 target falls back 1 hex, 5 target retreats back to table edge or 6 target destroyed.

Combat occurs when opposing units move into touch, in such case Artillery cannot fire but fight as an infantry unit.  Combat is decided by dice throw, with Heavy Cav. and Guard Inf getting a bonus.  Both players dice, highest score wins and outcome is determined by score differential: 1 losing unit falls back 1 hex, 2 unit retreats back to table edge or 3 unit destroyed. 

Command and Control is an interesting feature of the system, every unit in a Brigade (including the Brigadier) must be touching at least one other unit from the same Brigade, any that are not in touch with the Brigadier through the line of units cannot move but can fight if attacked (and Artillery can still fire).  So if a unit in the centre of a line is destroyed the line is broken and units beyond the break are no longer under command.  There are modifiers for the effects of moving into square to protect infantry against cavalry but make them devastatingly vulnerable to artillery fire.

The figures we used were mostly Britains Deetail with a few DSG toys soldiers from Argentina.  The Brigadiers on both sides are Del Prado Napoleonic personalities, beautifully modelled and their larger size giving a commanding presence on the table top. 

Overall I found it very easy to pick up and the action moves fluidly, the system would work very well for large battles and we could easily have controlled twice the number of units or Brigades, it would be ideal for multi player games.  With little modification it would also translate well to cover European battles of the Seven Years War. 

I particularly liked the Brigade structure and control system but not so much the Combat where the outcomes are either fall back, rout or be destroyed, there are no casualties depleting unit as you get in say Lionheart or One Hour Wargames, so it's good but it ain't no game of toy soldiers!