Random photoshoot

Its been a while since I had these guys out of their boxes. Wasn't in the mood to use them in a solo game so I decided to just put some of them down for a photoshoot.

All the terrain is scratch-built except for some of the buildings which are printouts from Paper Tiger Armaments.

The Infantry are a mix of ESCI, Italeri, Ceasar miniatures, Plastic Soldier Company, Armoufast and Pegasus Hobbies.

The vehicles are from Armourfast, Italeri, Plastic Soldier Company and Pegasus Hobbies.

German defenders deployed somewhere in the Soviet Union

Soviet juggernaught incoming

Faux fur thatched roof.

Couple of thatched roofs made from hand towels.

The Men Who Would Be Kings game at HRGG

"Just Passing By"

That is the name of  Scenario A from "The Men Who Would Be Kings" rules book.

The objective of this scenario is to accumulate more victory points than your opponent. Both sides receive points for exiting off the opponents edge, the more figures the unit has the more points it is worth, they also get points for destroying enemy units, but more points for exiting. there is also a big bonus for the first unit to exit off the opponents edge.

British table edge

Zulu Table edge.

Both players (Stephen and Bob) had not played these rules before, one of the players started war gaming a mere 6 month ago.

The attacker sets up no farther than 2' from table corner along the short table edge, his opponent on the opposite side.

Both sides initially had the same strategy, exit as many units as quickly as possible from the table edge opposite their start positions, and hope to get the first unit off the table, the Zulu changed their plan as soon as the saw how rapidly the NNH were covering ground and opted to hit the British on their side of the road, get points for killing and then exiting some full strength units (which are worth more VPs). The turn after the Zulu changed the axis of their attack the NNH failed to move for 2 consecutive turns. The Natal Native Horse thereafter never again failed an orders test and were the first to exit, and the Zulu failed more than a few actions test and stalled just inside long range of the British rifles, but eventually got moving and easily destroyed on unit, and charged the other but surprisingly lost the melee. The British formed close order line got a volley off, but were down to 6 figures when a full strength impi hit them 16 -8, but wait since the Brits were close order only 8 fierce Zulu could fight, the close order line won, but was reduced in numbers so could no longer get the benefit of a close order, and next Zulu turn were wiped out, causing pin tests on the NNC and the British behind them, the NNC passed whereas the Brits failed, it was around this point the NNH  point exited they table (the first to do so). The Brits recovered an eventually started firing on the Zulu remnants, eliminating most of them, the Zulu exits a full strength impi and the game was called at this point. A British victory 9-4.

Midway through the game Zulu have crossed the stream, the Natal Native horse have been watering their horses for 2 turns, due to failed move actions

The NNH has exited, 2 British units have been destroyed as have 2 Zulu units, but 3 Other Zulus units have been shot up pretty badly.

The remaining unit of Red Shirts hiding behind the the Natal Native Contingent....er I mean the Red Coats are offering close support for the NNC. A Full strength unit is leaving the table at the top of the picture.

This picture is at game end, the Zulu unit at the top left, exits in its next turn.

Anglo-Zulu war game prep

I got these rules in September and have been itching to give them a try.

"The Men Who Would Be Kings" from Osprey Games.

Some of the guys at at the Hamilton Road Gaming Group, here in London, Ontario, Canada, were going to be playing some "Disposable Heroes and coffin for seven Brothers" which I wasn't in the mood for. I offered to run a game of these if anyone was interested.

The book suggests Scenario A "Just passing By " as the first game.

In preparation for this game I had to once again dig out my Brits and Zulu, which I have not used in about a 5 years. I thought I had enough painted to run it right away, but alas I didn't. I had to paint my NNH. Which I proceeded to do in a few evenings, and since I was working on the mounted guys, I figured I should finish basing the dismounted figures which have been waiting 5+ years for me to do so.

Then I dugout 3 units of Redcoats. They needed a bit of repainting, as the paint had flaked off where the left hand grasps the rifle, on almost every figure. That done I then resealed the touched up areas in white glue.

And I finished re basing the dismounted NNH figures.

Then it was dealing the Zulu. opened 6 baggies of them and chose the best 16 figures from each bag.

Pictures of the Zulu coming soon(tm)

I noticed as I was  dealing with the figures that the bases are really light (they are just #26 Illustration board) but I don't want to re base every figure (over 400 Zulu and nearly 100 Britons), I grabbed a couple of my Magnetic Sheets, and stuck the figures to them, it gives the bases just enough weigh.

Ignore those 6mm Napoleonics, they have nothing to do with Zulu wars.

 Then grabbed a table clothe and some almost suitable terrain. The tables at the library are 7.5x5' I marked a 6x4 area, I did eventually remember to remove 9" from each short edge as well

The British side of the table.

The Zulus table edge

Colonial adventures 2: Zululand patrol

I got "Colonial Adventures 2nd Edition" from 2-hour wargames and had to try them out.

I decided to play a British patrol scenario into Zululand.

I decided to use 3 British units and they worked out as 3 infantry units 2x REP 5 and 1x Rep 4 they came with 3xREP 5 leaders, 2xREP 4 NCOs and a REP 3 NCO.

My table is 4'x4'. I generated my terrain using the clear/hilly terrain chart and this is what I got:

That's right 5 hills, 2 woods and a 2 hut village

The 3 British columns enter, we have no idea where the Zulu are.

Where are the Zulu?

To find out where the Zulu are, I go to the charts (again) roll some dice and get PEFs (Possible enemy Forces) in sections 2, 4 and 4

Area 2, The woods at the back of the table. The white die shows the REP of the PEF (6 is the Best possible)

Area 4, both units behind the crest of the hill. The Dice show the REP of the PEF, (1 is bad)

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Turn 2: The Brits closest to to the two REP 1 PEFs  advances 8" and shakes into line, the Center column advances and stays in column so it can move through the woods next turn, the Column on the Right cannot activate. The Zulu REP 6 PEF activates and races into the central woods, where the British get LOS  on it and it morphs into a REP 5 Impi, (I should have read the PEF movement chart, I then would have know PEFs move 16").

Sir, I think I see something moving ahead of us!

Zulu are in Open order, since only troops in open order can enter woods, unless they are foolishly in column of march.

 The British are within 12" and have LOS they must take a test of will check, they pass 2, a volley crashes out with 4 dice, needing ones, they score no hits, the Zulu take a received fire check and regardless of what they roll, they will want to charge (the Zulu are ferocious)

That's not too bad, we'll pull back, shake into line on the hill and feed em some lead next turn.

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Turn 3: The great British plan is scuppered, the Zulu go first, another round of melee ensues leaving the centre unit a bit short in the manpower department.

But a plan is a plan and they successfully pull back, the Zulu take a test of will and charge, a puny volley pops out, the Zulu pass the casualty test and at 16 to 5 eviscerate the redcoats (it was 18 dice vs.8) and though they rolled 5 successes it could not offset the Zulus 9 successes, the redcoats were down to 2 figures then the morale check reduced it to one, the REP 5 officer.

The left platoon decides to advance onto the hill and disperse the PEFs there (REP 1s probably aint going to be actual troops)

Wrong! one PEF is TWO units the other ONLY one.

One Zulu unit tests will, charges and is fired upon and then melees, then the second Zulu unit takes his Test of wills, charges and is fired upon and then he conducts melee. The second rank units seeing there is no room for him, decides to race over to attack the unit in the open, hoping to co-ordinate with the survivors (all 15 of them) of first attack.

The second unit of British dies even quicker, in melee the +1 melee die for each extra figure is very deadly, Since they are fighting two units the British have to split their melee dice so it was 2 Zulu units, one of 18 and one of 16 versus, 14 redcoats so 18 to 7 and 16 to 7  it worked out each attack was 18 dice vs. 5 dice, they didn't even need to check morale they were all dead. During two rounds of melee they had managed to kill 2 Zulu from each unit (4 total), plus 1 or 2 from gunfire as they charged in.

 The survivors on the nearest hill charge the British in the open and manage to tie them up long enough for the rest of the Zulu to mop them up as well.

Here two truly ferocious Zulu are preventing the British from recovering casualties (or withdrawing), as the rest of the army moves in.

Thoughts on the rule changes. Maybe I should stop fighting ferocious units as they always seem to skew the results.

Things I like:
I like how the melee resolution is much faster.
I like the removal of the constant casualty checks.


Things I don't like: (may be colored by Ferocious ability)

Zulu are either REP 5 or 6 (they were good, I don't think they were that good)
Shooting is very ineffective.
Melee: the winner takes only 1 casualty, regardless of how well his opponent rolled.
Melee: unit size has no effect on number of dice you roll (near the end of the game 2 Zulu attacked 11 Brits with 7 dice 5 for REP +1 ferocious, +1 shielded, admittedly the Brits rolled 15 dice back at them, 4 for REP, +9 dice for extra figures and +2 dice vs Open Order unit)
The Army lists only tell you REP of the units, not how they are armed.


Home rules I'm thinking of:

When firing on native Mobs hits on 1 or 2, (MOST natives were crappy shots, so they'll stay at 1 when firing on close order Europeans)
Zulu mainly REP 4 with a few 5's.
Melee, only front two ranks plus 1 overlap on each side counts during melee.
Melee winner needs to suffer more, maybe remove all successes from other side, rather than the difference from the loser,

Fireball Forward playtest

For the last few months I rarely have been in the mood to game.

The few times I was, I couldn't be bothered as I knew it would involve a long process starting with clearing an area in which to game (holiday clutter still hanging around), then assembling my table and then another hour to ninety minutes to set up the terrain and pull the troops.

I decided it was time for a game and I was, and still am, interested in an upcoming WW2 set called "Fireball Forward" as its the same scale as Squad Leader i.e. each unit is a squad, half squad, special weapon team (Heavy machine gun, bazooka, gun crew, et al), leader, vehicle or gun. So I built some quick multi-figure bases, as my troops are singly based. There is a Infantry only play test package on their site, which includes a simple scenario, which recreates easy company's D-Day assault on a German artillery battery, as I had played the trail scenario several times I thought I would try converting the Skirmish campaign scenario Hedgerow Hell to a FBF game. I inflated the map to fill a 4'x4' table and increased the forces, and will play it a few times to balance it.

So last Friday night I did the preliminaries i.e. clear area, build table, pull terrain and troops, with the intention of spending most of Saturday play testing. Unfortunately a broken shower head saw me spend most of the day Saturday trying to find a way to fix or replace the ball joint, which I had finally done by 3 in the afternoon. I had been running around hardware stores since 10 in the morning, so I was a bit tired and only managed to get a single playing in.

The American had 1 squad and a rifle team in one platoon and a HMG and 2 rifle teams in the other platoon. The Germans had 2 platoons of 2 squads, a platoon of 1 squad and 1 rifle team , plus 2 HMG teams.

My flaky camera was acting up again so I only got a few pictures of the last turn.

Some pictures showcasing my terrain.

  

I couldn't play Sunday, my local miniatures group had our Pontic vs. Roman grudge match.