H G Wells "Little Wars" Centenary Games April 2013 - Part 1

Last weekend, the 27th/28th April, a diverse band of toy soldier enthusiasts were drawn together in the Surrey countryside, it wasn't a wargame convention or a collectors show but more a celebration to mark the 100th anniversary of the publication of H G Wells' book Little Wars.

The event had been at least two years in preparation and was the brainchild of Mr Paul Wright, author of "Funny Little Wars" (an updating of Wells' rules to take account of small arms fire, morale etc.) ably supported by members of the Funny Little Wars Yahoo Group for chaps who enjoy playing with larger size toy soldiers.

The event was split into three rounds, each with four games being played simultaneously.  First up was a staging of Wells classic Battle of Hooks Farm, which had to be played indoors due to rain, and here is what the armies looked like:  (click to enlarge)

The Russian contingent (Army Green) commanded by Dr Mike Snape, the infantry are by Armies in Plastic (AiP), the cavalry converted from Britains show jumping riders and Italieri Mamelukes.

Army Red/White/Blue, the American Rough Riders led out by Mr Jack Wright. more AiP infantry with cavalry by Britains Deetail and Paragon Scenics

Dr Anthony Morton offered us his Army Red/Khaki, The British Army in overseas order, most effectively formed up on movement trays from Warbases (note to self: must get some of these) 

By the unanimous vote of all present this Teutonic Army Black won the "Best Painted Army" prize for Mr Stephen Thomas.  More AiP infantry, traditional Britains 4.7s and elephants!   Well who wouldn't vote for them.

The composite Imperial Force comprising RN blue jackets, Canadian Horse and these rather splendid cyclists under command of the Duke of Tradgardland aka Mr Alan Gruber

Here we see Army Red face up against errrrrrr.... Army Red?  At the far end of the table a satisfyingly nostalgic collection of old Britains and other hollowcast figures from Messrs Julian Spilsbury and Andy Hussey advance toward a solid red line of the Little Wars Revisited range of figures produced, and commanded here. by Mr Mike Lewis.

........And finally my own humble contribution to the proceedings, the steadfast Turks of Army Turquoise.  the central column and artillerymen are my conversions from BMC American Civil War figures while the flanking Regiments and cavalry were fashioned from HaT figures by the skillful hand of Canadian veteran gamer Mr Ross Macfarlane



One army is missing from the lineup above; the Forbodians of Mr Tim Gow who was charged with assisting to umpire the first round.

H G Wells would have approved

My second and final report from the March 2013 London Toy Soldier Show are a couple of items built and being sold by an enthusiast for playing "Little Wars" (sadly I didn't make of note of who he was!)

The Nile gunboat "Bordien", I like the way the Britains AA gun has been mounted for'ard and the crows nest/conning tower thing on top of the aft mast, not so sure about the side paddle though.  Still a very nice model and one which has given me plenty of thoughts and inspiration for making my own waterline version.

On the same stall a heavy howitzer, simply made from the barrel and trail of the Britains 4.5" Howitzer with wheels from the 4.7" Naval gun which gives it the appearance of being something much heavier, it reminds me of those big WW1 Austrian Skoda guns.  It just goes to show what you can do with a few bits of broken old guns bought in a job lot on ebay.

And finally..........mention of H G Wells leads me neatly onto the Little Wars Centenary Games to be played out over the weekend of 27th/28th April at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.  Sadly this event is not open to spectators or the public as Sandhurst is a high security military base but several of the participants are regular bloggers so hopefully we will see plenty of reports with photos after the event.  I shall be leading out my redoubtable Ottoman army and the games will be played outdoors so I am keeping my fingers crossed for good weather!

Seen at the London Toy Soldier Show March 2013

Time seems to be running away from me just lately, a few weeks ago I went to the London Toy Soldier show, trading appeared very slow to me but among the highlights I saw this rather nice little collection of Belgian composition figures on the table of Mercator Trading.

In the centre a mounted King Leopold III of Belgium and his three children by Queen Astrid, Lto R: Prince Baudouin, Prince Albert and Princess Josephine-Charlotte.  They are flanked by Napoleonics: on the left by three French infantry and on the right what I take to be Belgian infantry of the United Provinces (I'm basing this on what I can see of the standard).  Made in Belgium by N.B. (Nazaire Beusaert), I estimate that they were made about 1939 when Josephine-Charlotte would have been aged 12, Baudouin 9 and Albert 5, there is no figure of Queen Astrid as she was killed in a car accident in 1935.  The mounted Leopold is quite common but I'd never seen the children before and they make a charming little group, it saddens me to reflect that within a year of these figures being made Belgium had been overrun and the family's life turned upside down by war.

On the same table was this collection of mid 1930's carved wood "erzgebirge" style SA men (I use the word  guardedly as it's in danger of becoming a generic term for any Germanic folksy type wood carved figure when it more comfortably refers to touristy Christmas tree decorations, which these are surely not).  I've not seen so large a collection as this before, it includes field tent, SA barracks and a staff HQ, the bandsmen in black caps are SS, going by the various sizes and styles of carving these have been pulled together from several makers.  Individually the figures have a simple naivety about them but en masse they evoke the era and regime that produced them, and I find that rather chilling.

The Cast take a bow

This post is in response to a request for more details of the figures used in the C18th Funny Little Wars 54mm wargaming project.  These days there are some very good sets of 7 Years War figures made by Armies in Plastic and HaT but before that most of the C18th figures you could get were based on the American War of Independence but with an alternate paint job and stretching the bounds of history a little they can fit the bill for earlier periods. 

At the back troopers of Kurassier Regt. no2 are made from the bodies of Britains "Herald" Life/Horse Guards, the heads replaced with metal castings, saddles and horses from Helmet kits  I had intended to paint them as a "white jacket" Regt. so that they could double bubble as Austrians but at the end of the day I just couldn't resist the "yellow jackets". 

The Line infantry, Musketeers of Regts. 3 and 4 on the left and Fusiliers of Regts. 35 and 42 on the right are all from the BMC Yorktown playset.  Their sculpting is generally poor but they have a nice toyish appearance, you get a good variety of animated poses and when painted up en masse they look okay.

The Grenadiers in the middle are made by American firm CTS, the drummers are all by Accurate (who I think have been taken over by someone else now) with mitre hats from the spares you get in the HaT 7YW sets.

At the back the Dragoons are made from Britains "Swappet" AWI bodies with heads, legs and horses from Helmet Kits.

In front from the left are more BMC painted as Russians (another stalled project) but pressed into the Frederickian ranks as Jaegers for this game.  The greyhound comes with the Elastolin figure of Frederick the Great, so had to be included. 

The command group include a character figure from a German TV series? don't know what it was or who made him but he looks the part.  Marshal Murat from del Prado looking suitably exotic travels back in time to become Lord of the Bosniaks.  Lazare Hoche and Louis XVI were premiums from the French coffee firm Mokarex, behind them Marshal Montcalm is made from SEGOM kit parts on a Historex horse and the begging dog is a vintage item by French firm Clairet. 

The Pandurs are loosely based on Trencks' Regt. and will rejoin the Austrian army when I get around to doing it but for now they have joined the ranks as a Bosniak contingent.  They are a mix of figures by Marx and A Call to Arms with either a head change or just a reshaping of their bearskins, by rebasing and giving them a uniform paint style figures from different makers can go together seamlessly.  They are accompanied by their chaplain in the form of Piere l'hermite issued as a premium by the Belgian coffee firm of Storme.  Finally the Grenadiers in light blue began their military career with the French Lazun Legion but have now joined Frederick as allies from a nondescript minor state.

The opposition "Pragmatic" army (not shown in this post) are from the French and Indian wars range by Barzo bolstered by some rather nice metal figures from Tradition.  The Regiment Royale Ecossais are mostly by Marx and the Dragoons and light infantry from A Call to Arms.

A Storm in Flanders (part2)

And so it all begins:

At the sound of the mortar barrage opening the main attack goes in, led by the newly raised Kurassier Regt. no.2 and the dependable old Dragoons, the infantry follow up at the double in column of fours.  The mortar barrage has mixed success, the first salvo falls amid the "Pragmatic" command wiping them out and setting the Town Hall ablaze.  The engineers are called away from their work on the fortifications and rush to put out the flames.  As the flames are brought under control the troops manning the perimeter stand to, unaware that they have lost their beloved Colonel.  A second mortar salvo screams in but does no damage, the fuses have been badly cut.

A regiment of Fusiliers is led to the right to avoid congestion on the narrow avenue through the woods.  The Kurassiers burst from the cover of the trees and are blown away by a volley from the barricades to their front and enfilading fire from the guns in the centre.

In the centre the Jaegers, Grenadiers and Pandours move up to the tree line. 

On the right both sides move tentatively towards each other in the open and a desultory fire breaks out along the lines but at long range it is ineffective.  In the town smoke still billows from the embers of the burnt Town Hall.

The redoubtable Dragoons charge home through the debris of the Kurassiers and bludgeon their way into the streets of the suburbs.  Taking fire from the houses on all sides they pay a heavy price for their action but they have opened the door for the supporting infantry regiments who have now reached the town virtually unscathed.  Two companies are detailed to house clearance while the main body press on into the town.

The "Pragmatic" guns have been turned away from the main assault to meet the more immediate threat to their front, firing canister at short range they gouge great gaps in the Frederickian lines.  The mortars continue to batter the town but as the bombs land the engineers attempt to extinguish the burning fuses by dousing them with buckets of water, desperate dangerous work but it meets with some success. 

The situation hangs in the balance before the town square but just then a mortar salvo lands on one of the "Pragmatic" batteries and the Grenadiers surge forward to burst through the breach.  A melee ensues but the superior training and discipline of the elite Grenadiers tells in their favour.

While the victorious Grenadiers reform, a battalion of the Royal Ecossais rush across from the churchyard, the surviving gunners and engineers pick up arms and all together they throw themselves into a desperate counterattack to expel the invaders. 

But the line holds and with the Frederickians pouring in from every side the artillerymen spike their guns and the surviving "Pragmatics" beat a fighting retreat.  The enraged Frederickians sack the town but with their infantry exhausted and the cavalry broken they are unable to follow up the victory.

In retrospect:

The game lasted a full five hours but it felt like much less, the intention was to test out the storm of fortifications,  the special rules for use of engineers and house to house fighting, the first two were achieved the third less so (but there is always next time). 

Conventional wisdom tells us that a superiority in numbers of 3:1 is required for such an assault to succeed, on this occasion the attackers fielded 110 inf. 22 cav and 2 mortars to the defenders 50 inf. 10 engineers and 2 guns.  The cavalry shouldn't really have featured in this game but as I'd just spent a week painting the 2nd Kurassiers there was no way they were going to miss it.  The defenders probably didn't have enough troops to man such a large perimeter but it's difficult to know what the right proportions for a balanced game should be until you've tried it out a few times.

The rules for engineers worked well, and their contribution was critical at times.  Canister shot was emulated by firing a "Party Popper" at the attackers, those covered in tissue streamers were casualties, it worked with varying degrees of success and made a change from firing matchsticks, the sound of explosions and background martial music add greatly to the ambience of the game.  Caution should be exercised when introducing explosives to the table top, no fingers were lost on the day although blood was spilt!