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.

Jacklex Russo Japanese game the outcome.

As I suggested in my previous post, the additional Japanese forces made the defences look at bit too strong.  We therefore decided that 2 units should form a reserve and I diced for what move they would come on – luckily it turned out to be move 3.  Bob also rearranged the Russian cavalry splitting them and pacing regular and Cossack cavalry on each wing.

Given my defensive position it was down to Bob to take the initiative.  He diced for brigade after brigade of Russian infantry and cavalry and not a single unit moved!  Only 2 moves left until my reserves arrived!  His artillery and machine gunners had a bit more like but fortunately I managed to save every hit.

  

Move 2 saw the Russian cavalry on the right wing fail to response whilst the infantry suddenly awoke and surged across the field.  On the left the infantry also charged across the battlefield making the Japanese trenches in a 3 command moves.  

This is one of the odd rules in Black Powder.  But we lived with it.  The Russian cavalry on this flank also decided to hang around and not move!  Again the Russian artillery struck, this time hitting one of the Japanese units and forcing them to retire as part of a Break Test and leaving a section of earthworks undefended.  Fortunately, no Russian infantry were close enough to take advantage of this momentary success.

The Japanese troops opened fire even with a First Fire bonus they were very ineffective and to cap things off the Japanese machine gun on the left flank jammed! On the Japanese right flank closing fire and a heavy skirmish with a large Russian unit saw draw after draw in the skirmishes but the Japanese kept witling away and the Russians were eventually forced to take a Break Test which they failed badly and were destroyed.

A similar outcome occurred in the neighbouring earthworks with another Russian unit broken.

It wasn’t all going my way as the machine gun on the right flank also jammed.  I managed to un-jam it with a D6 only for it to immediately jam again on a D1!!

Another Russian unit on the left flank was hit by artillery and forced to take a Break Test forcing it to fall back.  This left 2 Russian Units who in turn charge the earthworks.  This time despite some initial resistance the already weaken Japanese unit was forced to retire and their accompanying machine gunners cut down.

However, all this had taken time and my infantry reserves arrived one regiment went to bolster the earthworks on the left and the other turned its attention to the right and the Russians who had made it over the earthworks.  The Japanese unit forced from the trenches rallied and returned to the front line.  

Things were looking a bit better.  One of the successful Russian regiments was routed in a subsequent melee and the other facing fresh troops decided to voluntarily retire covered by the Russian cavalry.

What I can hear you wonder was happening on the Russian tight flank?  Frankly 
nothing!  After an initial rush across the battlefield they came to a staggering halt and just exchanged fire with the Japanese.  Neither side causing any significant casualties.  The Russian machine guns which had been successful jammed on the same turn and the Russian gunners suddenly gave up on the idea of hitting anything.

Lessons learnt.  Even allowing for 2 Japanese units to come on as Reserves, the Japanese were too strong behind their earthworks.  We should have allowed the Russians to have recycled the units that were destroyed once from the starting line to increase the number their numbers.  With good command rolls they could have made a difference. We need to look at the Rally to Me orders in the Rules to see if whole brigades could be encouraged to move forward rather than hang about.  An attack on the earthworks by the 4 units on the Russian right might have made it awkward given the jammed machine guns and the lack of Japanese troops.  I only 2 units of infantry and 2 of cavalry until the Reserves arrived.  

I re-based the little command group on a round base as the original square base looked a bit cramped.

There is no Russian General so I used the British Mounted Naval Officer who sports a rather fine beard and cut away the lapels on his jacket.  The standard bearer is the Russian lancer and the Cossack has his lance arm bent upwards to have a raised lance.  

Normal Cossacks

Cossacks Jack made with Lance raised my preference

Jack painted most of the Russian Infantry back in the day and all the Japanese infantry, gunners and cavalry in Khaki.  He scratch built the Russian buildings (with the exception of a couple of 15mm resin buildings and the 20mm American Road Side Chapel) using cocktail sticks and foam board.  The earthworks are my handiwork and made from Rendera gabions, DAS air dry modelling clay and coffee stirers.

It was great to see these figures on the table after all these years and to try our first Russo- Japanese engagement.

Better still, these wonderful Jacklex figures are available again.  You can buy all the original ranges and new figures as well as download the ‘catalogue of figures’ from www.jacklexminiatures.com

1904 Jacklex Russians and Japanese Prepare for battle - at last!

For those of you who also look at our sister blog ‘All Things Jacklex’ you will already have heard of the saga of Jack’s Japanese Army.  Briefly, we have been looking for this army for the last 8 years or so.  I had been desperate to photograph it for the blog and to have a game with them fighting the Jacklex 1904 Russians. 

The Japanese had been used against my Zvevda Samurai following the release of the film the The Last Samurai and then been reflagged as Mexican Federal troops to battle Jack’s 1916 Americans.  After which they simply disappeared.  The only conclusion was they were somewhere in the dark reaches of Jack’s loft.  Anyway,  Jack’s daughter decided that the conservatory where Jack now does all of his modelling and where we occasionally have a game, but almost always sit and have a coffee and a chat needed a good tidy up.  In his conservatory is a cabinet with his 54mm figures and underneath it and behind a pile of books she found the Japanese.  These had been literally inches and at best 4 feet away from us for all of the 8 years we had sat and discussed where they were!

I grabbed them and Jack's Russian Army and have set up our first ever 1904 Japanese v Russians game in the 20 odd years we have known Jack.  Originally the the Japanese were heavily outnumbered and whilst they have a number of machine guns, they were at a disadvantage, so I put them behind earthworks.  However, with the help of Mark Lodge the new owner of Jacklex Miniatures who very kindly provide me with a painted unit and a couple of units of Blue coated Japanese I painted some years ago and a new unit painted with my doggy eyes.  I have managed to bump the Japanese infantry up from 3 units to 7.  The Russians have 10 although 4 of them are 'large units' for our in house version of Black Powder with all the firing and fighting bonuses that come with it.  So the Japanese may be a little too safe now behind their earthworks.  They are however heavily outnumbered by the Russian cavalry.  There may have to be a couple of minor changes before the games starts.  We shall see.

Next week or so is a bit manic with a cataract operation and then a trip to the Oncologist to check on the cancer and the week after I am going on a family holiday to Portugal. I still hope to be able to meet Bob for a game before then, but just in case,  I thought I would wet the appetite by showing the game in its starting position and some of the units. 

The Russian right wing:

The Russian centre and artillery

The Russian left wing

Inspirational ride about by the Russian Commander

The Japanese positions:

Right wing:

held by cavalry; artillery; a machine gun and hastily raised units of Japanese in their blue uniforms.

Japanese centre:

held by infantry and entrenched gun and machine gun.  The Bellona gun position is almost as old as the figures!

Two newly arrived units wait as reserves

The Japaneses left wing:

I