Hats, Horses and Hexes.....

the photos!

Paul's Prince Rupert with Boye!

Paul Leeson has been giving these rules a spin:

I have had a quick go with these rules using my 6mm H&R armies which have not been used for, gulp, about 28 years !!!! I used my 75mm hex board but still kept within the 6x6 hex limit and it worked fine. No problems with the rules, I will certainly use them again in place of my 52 page ‘Wargames Research Group – 2nd Edition 1979’ set. I think I will create a simple record card for future games to keep track of troop types and hits etc.

I'm really pleased to get some feedback on these rules and its also great that someone is playing them and enjoying them! 

What is more, Paul has sent me some photos.There are 2 sets of photos from 2 games. One a vanguard clash at a cross roads and the other the attack on a convoy based on that at Haford Bridge 3rd March 1645. My favourite is the one above featuring a 6mm poodle, cut down I believe from a 2mm Cuirassier!

Here is the cross roads clash......

And here is the convoy ambush....

I love the way these games are presented, very nice houses and cool forests. I'll have to get mine finished properly now!

New One-Hour Wargames hex grid variant for ECW....

Hats, Horses and Hexes!

Personally I blame Kaptain Kobold. I'm sure I have said that somewhere before! I have been quietly working on a Napoleonic version of my hex grid variant of the OHW for WSS. I really want to be able to use some guys with neat hats and start painting some plastic 1/72 types.

Rupert, man with dog

Needless to say this was going on in the background because I was having a ponder about some of the concepts that the good Kaptain had worked into his GNW rules. He has now come up with a OHW version for the ECW. I think these are brilliant. They take the OHW into the territory that most wargamers think of as "proper rules" but without any of the usual nonsense.

So, I have taken my draft Napoleonics OHW hex grid and chucked them out and started again with the ECW. You can find them here. I have loads of old Heroics and Ross 6mms to paint up and this seems like a good project for the Xmas holidays.

Civil War in Borsetshire

A neighboring fictional county!

After visiting the county of Midsomer (the real life Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire), I wondered about Borsetshire (Warwickshire and Worcestershire) which, in real life, is contiguous with Midsomer. The BBC website offers up a couple of nice maps.

Then there is this one which reveals a little known battle in 1642 near Ambridge.

Ambridge, a good target for a Royalist Chevauche! Stuff the Archers I say.

Update 22 September: Kaptain Kobold has kindly pointed me in the direction of the following really interesting blog which covers scenarios from the ECW in Borsetshire. Here is the true story of the battle at Ambridge in 1642. Anyone would think that its a real place!

Civil War in Midsomer...

Not another project!

I have been following Kaptain Kobold's adventures with the OHW rules. In particular, I was very taken by his GNW rules modifications. He is now at it again with a similar exercise with the ECW using paper soldiers from Junior General. I have to say I think this is great.  

When I was younger (so much younger than today...) I remember buying 1644. These were interesting rules, well illustrated (by the Perry's I think), and they had a nice campaign map featuring the county of Scruttockshire. This has featured in my thoughts over the years and I'd love to have a go at a campaign in this sort of fictional area. Max Foy's recent campaign also filled me with enthusiasm. 

What is interesting is that Kaptain Kobold has set his one of battles in the very fictional county of Midsomer. Home to that bloke who used to be on Bergerac! Very nice idea which I will pursue further, especially when the Kaptain publishes his revised version of the rules.

In the meantime I have been hunting down a map of Midsomer and found this, which I also think is great!

Time for some scenario plotting I think.

Designing is hard work!

Emerging scenario for Kilsyth 1645

My Venture Fair rules will cover five of the battles from the the brilliant campaign fought by Montrose during 1644-45. The battles were:

Tibbermore 1 September 1644
Aberdeen 13 September 1644
Inverlochy 2 February 1645
Auldearn 9 May 1645
Alford 2 July 1645
Kilsyth 15 August 1645
Philliphaugh 13 September 1645

I don't intend to cover Inverlochy, largely because this was a simple and ruthless massacre with little real interest for a wargames scenario. Also, Philiphaugh isn't on my list. Basically a surprise assault by the Covenanters destroyed Montrose's forces in short order with a resulting nasty massacre of prisoners and civilians. Again, not really good material for a wargame.

I'm not approaching this in any order but have done enough work on Tibbermore and Aberdeen to begin play testing. I've been using Stuart Reid's Auldearn 1645 as my main source. Aberdeen was straightforward but Tibbermore was problematic and I ended up rethinking it significantly. Ironic really as this is the only one of the battles fields I'm personally familiar with.

So I started on Kilsyth the other night not knowing what I would find when I reviewed my earlier draft. Lets not forget I drafted these scenarios out several years ago using the same sources.

So, some days later, I think I have finally got  grip on the battle. Here is my sketch:

Thanks again to DoW and their map editor for M44

The right hand of the map is North. Montrose was between the Covenanter forces and Glasgow and Baillie, their commander, took his forces to find Montrose. He followed the road just off the left hand side of the map towards Glasgow. Montrose had drawn up in position yellow 1, possibly to ambush Baillie as he moved along the road (position blue 1).

Baillie spotted the ambush and took his troops off the road towards the north, using the local hills to hide his movement. However, when the Covenanters eventually moved out of cover through positions blue 2, Montrose reacted to being outflanked by moving his troops towards positions yellow 2. 

The Covenanter commanded shot under a Col. Haldane, decided to have a go at the Royalists and moved into a group of cottages and enclosures known as Auchinvalley, precipitating contact with the Royalist Highland units. This engagement prevented Baillie prolonging his line towards the north so he used his cavalry to seek to outflank the Royalist line (blue 3). Royalist cavalry moving across the rear of their line (second yellow 2 position) from the original positions dealt with this threat. 

Weight of numbers and experience told as the Royalists broke the Covenanter centre and the Royalist right wing destroyed Baillie's left flank.  

I have really enjoyed learning about this battle and think I have now got enough of an idea to make a worthwhile scenario. Interestingly, I only made progress once I turned the map round by 90 degrees, then things began to make sense. Possibly a life lesson there!

To him Pudel!

Aberdeen scenario for Venture Fair

I now have two things, a headache and the greatest respect for designers who make things look nice! 

I have made great progress with the Venture Fair rules, however, while they are drafted they are not yet crafted. The rules themselves need some more work but this can only be done by some hard play testing. Hence the work today on getting the scenarios into some shape to play.

So, here is the first one.....Aberdeen.

I have been desperately trying to get the information into a one page scenario brief. When I think about the amount of information the Flames of War people get into their books, guff or not, I'm ashamed that my effort looks pretty rough. See the evidence for yourselves.....here (I gratefully acknowledge that the map graphics etc belong to Days of Wonder).

I'm hoping that Father's Day will involve my children completely ignoring me as usual so I can crack on with the other scenarios. 

Venture Fair

A prototype Montrose game

Long long ago I started out to write a version of Stephen Simpson's 1745 rules for the campaigns of Montrose. They were called "Nil Medium Est" (No Middle Way). And here they are in all their hand written glory!

My main source was Auldearn by Stuart Reid (Campaign 123) and that remains the primary basis for the scenarios, see below.

I have been frustrated with these rules for a long time because, although only two pages long, they still feel too complex. I also had a big problem with the maps and how to actually draw them.

I have taken some decisions and had a bright idea. Ideally the game will be played on a hex grid and use toy soldiers. At present my Baccus ECW troops are unpainted and hidden in the garage. Therefore this prototype uses counters. They also use a map, in this case, the M44 scenario editor has been used. The M44 editor does not produce really printable maps but for a prototype it is just the thing. Once the troops are sorted I could even play on the Hold the Line map using the HTL tiles.

One map herewith for the battle of Aberdeen.

Graphics copyright Days of Wonder

And here are some counters I made.....

I'm quite pleased with these. Not good enough for a final print but good for a trial run. And last but not least, here is a test set up for Aberdeen.

Now I can get down to designing some new rules. These will be called "Venture Fair" after Montrose's code name. Hurrah!