On the road to St Omer

Last night I braved the wind and rain on the southern edge of a yellow weather warning zone to pay a first visit to The Steel City Irregulars. This is a small gaming community that Dex McHenry and Alex Sotheran  are building at The Outpost in Sheffield.

I took along Calais - The Road to St Omer to have a first test of its new dedicated game mat. This is the game I'll be running at Joy of Six in the summer.  I was keen to try it out in its current form. 

I originally designed the scenario back in 2000 for the Blitzkrieg 1940 scenario book. Research was more challenging back in those early-Internet days and the modern version of the scenario is more realistic as a result. 

The group was down a couple of regular players as a result of illness and family emergencies but I was able to meet Dean and we quickly got down to playing. Dean chose to command 3RTR and I ran the recon battalion of 10th Panzer Division.

After a brief outline of how the TacWWII rules work, we got down to action. Dean quickly had the British tanks moving aggressively toward the enemy.

This is a challenging scenario for the British as their TAC rating of 7 makes it difficult for them to get properly organised for the attack. Dean quickly grasped that he needed to get to close quarters if the heavy machine-gun-armed Light Tanks Mk VI were going to make a significant contribution.

3RTR Squadrons advance past the station

Air support would be available to both sides subject to a roll of 1 or 2 on a d10 at the start of the turn. This makes the RAF and Luftwaffe way more present than they were in reality. I excuse myself on the grounds that people like to see aircraft models over the table. In addition, part of the aim is to showcase the TacWWII rules and I like how they handle aircraft. 

On the second (or third?) game turn both sides received air support with flights of Hurricanes and Bf-109s appearing. 

As both were rated "Good Fighter", it was a straight dice-off to see who got the jump on the other. My roll of 7 was beaten by Dean's 9. Given the choice to engage my fighters or get in first with a strafing attack, he chose the latter.

The Hurricanes destroyed an SdKfz 231 but the Messerschmitts then evened the score by taking out an A Squadron Cruiser tank.

In true historical fashion the battle became a confusing melee of close-range tank-on-armoured car action.  Both sides' morale is rated Good and this helped keep the action going despite frequent morale tests caused by losses.  The firepower of the German armoured car companies was much reduced by losses but their six-model starting strength makes them quite resilient in morale terms.

At one point a flight of Me-110s chanced an attack on the 3RTR's Headquarters Squadron but to no effect.

Throughout the battle the Germans continued to receive reinforcements.  Unlucky card draws formed a traffic jam of truck-mounted infantry on the hill to the southeast.

The cards weren't entirely cruel to 10th Panzer, though. A light Panzer company (with a mix of Panzers II and III) swept into action on the flank of 3RTR's leading squadron and caused losses at the crucial moment.

At the end of turn five (of eight allowed for in the scenario) 3RTR was forced to take a battalion morale test. Having lost a squadron and with two temporarily withdrawing in the face of the enemy, the result was "Halt". The British formation would no longer advance without express orders from superior command. Quite reasonably Dean elected to concede victory to the Germans. We can assume that, like his historical counterpart, he would pull back into the Calais perimeter.

With only a single previous run-through of the scenario in a quarter of a century, I was pleased with how this updated version went. 

I decided to remove the "sunken road" as although this is mentioned in passing in historical accounts, it doesn't seem to have played a significant role in the action and would just have served to cramp the British player's freedom of manoeuvre.

I thought the table looked okay but I'll probably lay down more fields at Joy of Six and work on fixing down the railway lines.  I'll probably also move the point at which the lead companies clash further back towards Cocquelles to prevent the whole action occurring at one end of the table.

I have to express my thanks to Dean for being a willing and sporting partner in this exploration of history and to Dex and Alex for setting up the session. I'm sorry I didn't get the chance to pay more attention to their neighbouring game of Chain of Command.

Not another new project?

I tend to have my most creative ideas when out walking the dog over the moors around Sheffield. Recently I got back from such an expedition with the thought, "I could wargame the Lowlives' and Firvulags' attack on Finiah using Dragon Rampant in 28mm scale". 

I'm guessing that sentence will mean very little to most of you. Mild spoilers ahead if that's the case.

The subject in question is the version of Pliocene Europe depicted in Julian May's Saga of the Exiles. This is the setting of a series of four books beginning with 1981's The Many-Coloured Land. 

I read this book and its sequels when I was at university and have revisited them several times since then. The story begins in a twenty-first-century Earth that's part of an interplanetary community where wide-spread "metapsychic" powers make for a prosperous and peaceful, if somewhat anodyne, society.

The only escape for those who don't fit in is a one-way time gate to Earth's Pliocene era (6 million years ago). Unfortunately what these exiles don't know is that Pliocene Europe is under the domination of a dimorphic alien race (the Tanu and the Firvulag), themselves exiled from their home galaxy because of their barbaric battle religion.

The idea that struck me was that, with modern plastic miniatures, I could probably wargame some of the fighting in the book in 28mm scale at a relatively small cost. My thinking was that I'd want to depict the following four types:

The Tanu - tall (2 metres plus) humanoids; I suspect some High Elf miniatures would do the job for these guys.

The Firvulag - stunted, dwarf-like creatures who project monstrous illusory aspects when in battle; pretty much any fantasy model will serve here.

Grey Torcs - human soldiers fighting for the Tanu; described as wearing light bronze armour and kettle helmets and sometimes surcoats in the colours of a Tanu metapsychic guild. The Fireforge medievals should suit.

The Lowlives - free-living humans on the run from the Tanu having an uneasy alliance with the Firvulag. They'll have some through the time gate in a variety of costumes but are increasingly adopting practical buckskin clothing. Like the Firvulag, almost any figure is justifiable though I'd like to have a go at depicting some particular characters.

And there my planning stopped when I realised I couldn't easily source 28mm scale chalicotheres - the distinctive riding animals of the Tanu army. 

And then I went to Hammerhead and discovered the Disain Studio stand selling a 3D printed range of prehistoric animals. I picked up a couple of "chalikos" for a tenner to experiment with.

The additional creature at the back is a cheap Chinese plastic toy I found years ago. It's a macrauchenid, a giraffoid creature from the right period. It was probably restricted to pliocene South America but I won't tell if you don't.

I now need to review the models I own and the ones I can pick up without breaking the bank. I don't want this to turn into a big thing but it might make for an interesting side-project particularly given the half-dozen-a-side scale of Song of Blades and Heroes.

 

Fun running Running from Bull Run at Hammerhead

The old voice was a little husky on Sunday morning after two sessions of Running from Bull Run at the Hammerhead show in Newark.

I arrived at the Newark Showground at about 0850 and quickly transferred the boxes of game material to our folding trolley. Apparently the manufacturers secretly designed the trolley to fit one 33 litre and three 9 litre Really Useful Boxes with precisely the right amount of room for a game-marker-carrying toolbox at one end and three box files on top. I was able to get the entire game from the car in one trip.

Previous experience and careful packing of the components meant that I was able to get the game set up before the doors opened to the public. Apparently this was reasonably impressive as one of the organisers suggested I deserved the prize for quickest set-up by a late-arriving game-runner!

I had been a little concerned that I'd be standing around all day with no players (or at least all morning while attendees did their shopping). As it turned out I had two players (Colin and John) in the morning...

... and four (Andy, Alan, Samuel and Martin) in the afternoon.

I think this is probably a benefit of running a game at Hammerhead; a show that makes a feature in its advertising of showcasing participation games. I've not been to an American convention but I suspect the Hammerhead experience is more American-like in that regard.

If I recall correctly, both games were narrow Confederate wins, the second one narrower on points than we all thought during the game. 

The Cub Run bridge comes under artillery fire as 
US congressmen attempt to flee in their Surrey

Confederate zouaves in pursuit of the fleeing Union troops

In terms of the game, a couple of lessons were learned. I thought I'd counted the maximum number of Union figures I could possibly need so I didn't have to bring along the whole collection. As it turned out I must have miscounted and the second game hit the limit and went beyond. I just kept rolling high whenever further groups of fleeing Yankees were needed!

In addition, I decided to try replacing one of the pursuing Confederate Groups with cavalry. I thought they wouldn't be that good in melee but they might provide the opportunity to ride around the Union flank and capture the Cub Run bridge.

Turns out I was wrong and that charging cavalry are more lethal in Sharp Practice than I remembered.

A question that came up, and that I recalled as being unclear in previous discussions, was the speed of cavalry after fisticuffs. I decided to treat them as being at canter pace after the fighting but in retrospect I think that was probably an error. They should probably be treated as a walking pace after the fight in most cases (although one fight was so one-sided in favour of the horsemen that allowing them to continue at the canter or gallop would be reasonable). This would have made them somewhat less dominant as they need to get up to the gallop before they are truly lethal. 

So that's probably me done with Running from Bull Run for a while. Mostly; I'd like to put some effort into other projects but have been asked online for the scenario so I'm going to have to write it up for this year's Lard Magazine!

Goodbye to Harpers Ferry

The baseboard for the Harpers Ferry game has been in storage for a couple of years and is looking distinctly under the weather.

One corner is bashed (it was made from left-over Kingspan insulation so it was never going to be hugely robust) and the 3D printed fences are badly damaged.

This was the most research I've done in building the setting for a game. I really enjoyed the process and feel like if we landed at the foot of the boat ramp in 1859, I'd have no problem directing you to the Paymaster's Office. 

However, the time has come to say goodbye. I'm about to start demolition. Hopefully some of the components can be reused.

The buildings were always separate from the baseboard and they look OK in their dedicated Really Useful Box.  I've got some ideas for how to use them in a future game. Keep an eye out for Chartists at Pontylard!

Calais terrain test

I've been playing with my existing 6mm terrain trying to set out the revised table for Calais: The Road to St Omer.

Obviously there's a mismatch between the 1:300 scale of the models and the 1:4000 ground scale of the TacWWII rules. We instinctively understand the width of the roads and so we see the battlefield as a few hundred metres across rather than 3.6 kilometres. I'm giving serious thought to creating the road net in some other way for this game.

I have some tarmac roads made from cheap floor tiles (thanks Richard P for that tip) but they suffer from the same issue as regards overscale width.

Options, it seems to me, are:

1. Stick with the latex dirt roads,
2. Switch to the floor-tile tarmac roads (with the option of making some new sections that more perfectly fit the historical road layout),
3. Make a whole new tarmac road layout with narrower road sections for a slightly more map-like visual effect,
4. Create a dedicated 48"x28" gaming mat specifically for this scenario by airbrushing onto cloth, or 
5. Create a dedicated 48"x28"gaming mat specifically for this scenario with the canvas-caulk-sand-paint-flock approach.

I have until July to make my mind up and build the solution. Part of me wants to put on the best-looking game I can while the rest says that it's just a one-off event and doesn't justify the effort.

I shall ponder. Suggestions welcome!

Gangs of Rome additions

The latest additions to the Gangs of Rome collection are these:

The litter (lectica in Latin) is a 3D print from IronGateScenery that I picked up at Vapnartak. On sale at less than a fiver it seemed too good to pass up.

The lady (also purchased at Vapnartak) is from Bad Squiddo Miniatures. 

She's actually meant to be the Palmyrene Queen Zenobia but in my case I think she will probably see service as a Roman priestess. 

I've just finished reading Lindsey Davis's One Virgin Too Many, which sheds light on some of the strange cults in the city. I reckon I should be able to come up with some special rules to cover this incola (the GoR term for a significant non-player character). More on this later!

Hammerhead Handout (revised)

I've produced a draft  of a handout to accompany Running from Bull Run at Hammerhead. Any comments gratefully received before I go to print. Thanks to Sablemage via The Gaming Tavern and Prof Woodward for their feedback so far.