Wargaming over the phone! - Portable Wargames

Having read various posts on TMP and on blogs about wargaming using Skype; Zoom; What's App etc., Bob and I decided to give it a go.  We decided to try out Bob Cordery's Portable Colonial Wargames rules as they were on offer on Kindle and meant that the outlay was limited in case we didn't like the concept. Sorry but rules of any sort these days are pricey and you take a bit of leap of faith that you are going to like them!

The next thing was a 'table' I had packed mine away.  I had some old blue 12 inch blue floor tiles which I thought I would paint green - but hold on, for our first try all the DIY shops were shut and I couldn't buy green matt paint for 'love nor money'.  So, for our first game my boys were all at sea playing on a blue surface.  The aim of the game was to hold the gain control of and hold the cross road. 

I set the table up with 15mm Napoleonics.  Rather than have a 'passive player' just looking at the table through a computer screen we thought we would mirror one another's tables.  In effect Bob could use whatever scale he wanted and period provided the troop types were the same (infantry/cavalry/artillery) and everyone had the same factors and grid in effect you could have 28mm 18thC Austrians and Russians on one table and Napoleonic ones on another table. We used an 8 x 8 grid my squares were 4"x4" and Bob's were 6" x 6".

Come the day, the video technology failed us due to the famous 'Poor Connection, Reconnecting. Video will be resumed shortly'  making playing visually impossible,  So we just decided to talk over the phone and roll dice each telling one another on our turns what unit was moving from which grid to the next.

We used the Colonial Rules but with Napoleonic figures as I didn't have any colonials - apart from the British and 400 odd Zulus which I had forgotten about that is.

My initial reaction to the rules was 'ohh' as I lost initiative roll and Strength Points SPs to Bob's dice rolls.  Indeed I did ask him at one point whether he was using that old Salute die which had 2 6s on it!  But I couldn't get away from the fact that my dice rolls were rubbish anyway.  But as the game progressed I really warmed to these rules and playing chess like move 'E3 to E5' short of thing over the phone worked.  Bob told me his moves and I moved the figures on my table accordingly and vice versa. 

After and hour and a half or so, I lost on the basis of Exhaustion points but it turned out to be a very close run game and thoroughly enjoyable.  

So I bought the actual Portable Napoleonic War Game set of rules, the DIY store at the bottom of the road was open so I sent my daughter with a colour swatch and my blue tiles became green!  This time it was Russians against Ottomans.  I had them in 15mm and Bob has them in 28mm.  We increased the table size to 8 x 10 squares.  There are instructionetc for written rules but we choose to leave these out for the purposes of this 'test' game.

The yellow squares at top and side of board are post-it-notes with letters and numbers

The two 'green fields' were deemed impassable.  This was a mistake as it limited cavalry movement  resulting in some very static slogs to try to break through the gaps.

My Guard Cuirassiers didn't prove as effective as I thought and were pushed back until eventually one of the Ottoman heavy cavalry regiments broke as its SP shrunk to nothing..

On the other side of the 'building' Bob's irregular cavalry held up my advance I eventually broke one unit but forgot to move forwards only to find my path blocked by another unit.

Peter Laing Inn Keeper and two barmaids handing out wine to the occupying Russians with Sherbert ready in case the Ottomans strike!

My 15mm version of the action around the 'building

Bob's 28mm version of the action around the 'building'

Bob's version of the attack on the Russian gun

 

I did destroy 6 of Bob's units but these were basically poor quality infantry he used to shield his Janissaries on the left flank from my infantry and some units of light cavalry and poor infantry on the right.  We got this wrong in terms of the type of troops we choose for the terrain.  Too much cavalry on the Russian side.  The Russian Field gun did sterling work deriving back units of Ottoman heavy cavalry but the horse artillery couldn't get into the game.  Bob had similar problems with his guns which after some initial salvos couldn't find any targets.  The rules on Close Combat seem counter-intuitive and slowed us down as we had to forget some of the ways of thinking we were used to in terms of the effects of Commanders etc. and reverse the way you calculate hits from firing in these rules.  Once we got our heads around it it made sense but it took a long time and slowed down the game which took a little enjoyment from it.  Now we have got it we are determined to try again.

No substitute for a game in the same place but a very good next best thing and we both had an excuse to get figures on the table even if in different scales and 'grid' table size and to move them about always a pleasure in itself.   So all in all a plus in the circumstances.  Thanks to Bob Cordery.

Bob's Petrine Army

Bob has been busy during the lockdown and here is his blog on his Petrine Army.

This is my latest project, and is not yet complete. It is the Russian army of Peter the Great, not to fight the Swedes in the Great Northern War, but to take on my Ottoman Hordes. It is dated to as close to 1700 as I can make it, a time when although there were uniform regulations they were not met, and the Russian army is at its most colourful with green, red, blue, white and yellow uniforms.

The two senior regiments the "play mates battalions" formed from the child Peter's playmates on two estates are here. The Preopbrasjenski Guards, 

and the Semonovska Guards. A private in the Preopbrasjenski Guards was the equivalent of a lieutenant in any other regiment. Its C in C was always the Czar.

One of the original "soldat" regiments that survived into the new army - Sir Patrick Gordon's regt.  His flag is listed as a white cross on a red field - since he was a Scot I have given him the St. Andrew's Cross.

At the rear of the army is two regiments of Streltzi -yellow and red coated. It is often stated that the Streltzi were disbanded and they were, but Peter could not manage without their numbers and they were reconstituted.

Peter the Great instituted new cavalry regiments, mainly dragoons and although by the 1720s all were in green at this time they wore yellow, red, white, light and dark blue as well. But as with the infantry there were not enough of them so Horse and lance units were used. These included the local nobility, as well as irregulars such as Cossacks, Culmucks, lancers and hussars as well as reiters.

This is under construction and not all are shown but the noble cavalry has been painted.  All the noble cavalry including the command (but not the dog) are from Hinchcliffe. The Dog is from Irregular Miniatures..

The dragoons/Horse grenadiers are from Irregular and Lancashire games.

The first 5 regiments of infantry are from Ebor, others from Irregular Miniatures; Lancashire Games and Wargames Foundry. The Streltzi are from Old Glory.

The 2 mounted officer and the engineer section are from Reiver.  

The Orthodox priest is a resin figure from V&V Miniatures and appears with my Russian Napoleonics as well as supporting Peter the Great.

Still as work in progress - hope you enjoy them.

The large card building is a Russian kit of the cottage that Kutozov used as his HQ.

Looking to the future - 2 SAGA armies

I have passed the year mark for my cancer and stopped the last chemo treatment for yesterday as I didn't want to lower my immune system still further in light of the COVID19 virus. I am now on what I describe as a boiler maintenance programme.  The chemo has shrunk the cancers and the one drug I now have poured into me every 3 weeks should help to hold the line until the Mongal hordes overwhelm the defences again.  But no change in the prognosis unfortunately.    I did take birthday cake into the chemo unit with one candle, lit it and one nurse said 'ahh is it your birthday?'  when I announced 'no, it's the cancers' she looked like I was a bit odd.  No sense of humour but some got it still they ate the cake!

Anyway, looking to the future and having 12 weeks house arrest to deal with I like many of you have got my paintbrushes out and looked at the lead mountain that I suspect we all have.  Not wanting to start a large new project, I knew Bob had some Saxons and Vikings hanging about and we had talked about trying the Saga rules again.  We had played one game a year or so ago and it was quite fun and quick and more importantly didn't entail lots of figures.  Bob kindly passed on to me the equivalent of a 4 point Saxon and Viking army.  

They were quite interesting to paint, I found the Newline figures easier than the Irregular Miniature ones for some reason.  So Bob now has them back and they are ready for a game once we are free to move about again.

Vikings
Mostly Irregular Miniature figures.  My apologies for the pictures , my proper camera has developed a fault and so I used an old camera I found in the draw.  I tried my main camera again and although it still comes up saying it has a fault I think the pictures of the Saxons are much better.

Saxons
I think these are mostly Newline Designs.  I also got a lot more carried away with the shield designs on these figures.

Now on to more Jacklex conversions,  some Strelets Rifts, maybe another regiment of Austrians for my 1866 Austrian army some more French 1870 units, some interesting looking 1866 Hesse Homberg lancers. a Bactiran camel drawn ambulance for the Russian Crimean forces and on and on...... 

28mm ACW - A little bit of Everything Game

Well finally felt well enough after Chemo treatment to try our 28mm ‘everything in the pot ACW game’  I took a lot of pictures and I am afraid that you will have to suffer a lot of them. Sorry.  It also represents the last game on my big table in my loft - all dismantled now.  Five flights of stairs in a Victorian London Terrace are proving more of a challenge! Still aim to carry on gaming for as long as I can but will use the dinning table instead.  Also means Jack can join in as the can't do the loft!

Given the Confederates entrenched positions and knowing how difficult these had been to take in other games using Black Powder, we agreed that the Union forces should be further reinforced by another Brigade of 4 regiments of infantry.

The Union forces started with an all out assault Bob relying on speed to try to get to the Confederate raider before she could escape.

The Union cavalry charged forward catching the militia unit guarding the herd.   This was a freshly raised unit and the sight of the Union cavalry struck terror into them only giving them a chance to hit anything with a roll of D6.  Needless to say they missed and were cut down by the cavalry and the herd scattered.  However the gunfire alerted the Confederate forces.

Across the rest of the front the Union infantry hesitated and didn’t make great strides towards the Confederate lines.

On the river the Confederate patrol boat suddenly discovered it was being pursued by 3 Union boats .  Not something I was expecting.  Shades of the Oxford and Cambridge University Boat race.   The Confederate boat couldn’t pull clear enough to turn around to use it’s gun and I just had to keep going towards the raider hoping all the time that Bob’s ships guns wouldn’t sink me!

Whilst this was going on, unaware of the river threat, the main gun on the raider was being loaded and turned to face the threat of the advancing union infantry. 

It was only a lucky shot from one of the Union bow guns that disordered the raider’s gunners that alerted then to the real threat.  In the meantime they had managed to score a direct hit on the 30^th New York infantry forcing them to badly fail a Break Test and leave the field.

With his cavalry largely unable to advance further because of the Confederate defences, Bob decided to dismount first one regiment and then the other and engage in a fire fight.  This pinned the confederate forces.

Whilst the raider then reloaded and turned its bow gun to deal with the river boat threat, the rear gun was loaded and turned to face a now growing infantry threat.

 

Panic was being to ensue on the raider all attempts to get the boilers going were failing and the crew were rushing to try to ward off the advancing Union flotilla.

The noise of the Union light ships guns alerted Col Jackson of the 47^th Alabama whose regiment was engaged in a fire fight with the Union cavalry.  Unable to leave the defences, he sent half his men to the river side to fire at the passing Union boats to try to disrupt them.  They managed to Disorder one reducing it’s speed by half whilst the rowers got their act together.

In the meantime all attempts to roll a D6 to get the slaves to revolt were failing but the Union troops kept advancing.  A fresh Confederate Regiment came off the train to prepare to take up position.  Whilst it proved impossible me throughout the entire game to roll any sixes to restart the train’s boiler, I did manage one six to get one of the 2 raiders boilers fired.  I just needed one more six to get the other one going and smash through Bob’s boats!

The Confederate Marines rushed to try to fill the gaps in the centre of the line.

Whilst the defences meant that the Confederates were taking little or no casualties, Bob’s Union force pushed on across the entire front preventing me from moving troops.  Soon the Union the forces had moved to close range and it was only a matter of time before they hurled themselves at the defences.

The final assault came all along the line.

On the river the slower of the Bob’s Union boats found itself exposed at close range to the raider’s main gun.  Needless to say it didn’t survive!

But it was all going horrible wrong. Everywhere except on the one section of defence’s left hand side my forces were pushed back in melees.  Not only did the Militia unit hold, they forced back the 1st US Sharpshooters, and seemed to be doing well against the 80^th New York (with the smart yellow flag).  Then it happened! A D6 and the slaves seeing how close their saviours were decided to get involved! One shot and a lucky D6 was all it took to disorder the Militia and the 80^th were over the barricade and getting to work. 

There were odd success but not enough one Union regiment was through back , but another took its place.

Worse still the union boats drew alongside the Raider and their crews engaged in hand to hand fighting with the crew on board.

Whilst the crew were rushing to try to see off the river threat a gap occurred in my line which I couldn’t fill and although the Confederate Marines put up a good show against the New York Chasseurs.  Two of Bob’s infantry regiments stormed through the gap and found the undefended side of the Raider and it was all over!

My patrol boat rowed off up-stream to deliver news of the disaster!

For all of the odd bits and pieces I had put out on the table, the rules, with a bit of common sense, worked surprisingly well.  The Union would have failed without the extra Brigade and we allowed the river boats to up their ‘stroke rates’ on 2 occasions to be able to move 6 inches instead of three.  They couldn't reload when this was happening and could only fire every other go.

I never thought it would be so difficult to throw a D6 for the Train and Ships boilers.  We even thought we would change it in the course of the game, so you only had to get above the number on the next roll to help.  That of course was the only time we rolled a six!

It was great fun anyway and good to see everything out.  Jack scratch built the Church, the Rider and the Warehouse building, and some of the Boats.  He also made up the Black Hat regiment in one of the pictures.  The boat crews are from Britannia Models Napoleonic range which head swaps from the Redoubt Naval and infantry range with lapels and braiding cut away.  The union sailors are First Corp, Confederate sailors are Redoubt.  Almost all the other figures are Perry Plastics, with the exception of a few Haitians from Trent Miniatures and a few African Sailors from the Reviresco range.