New One-Hour Wargames hex grid variant for WSS

Its quite exciting!

I have finished my two Dutch units from my painting experiment and I am very pleased with the result. In the end, the different painting techniques made little difference in this scale and, probably, increased the amount of time taken to complete them. I'll keep it simple next time!

Nice day for a parade

I have finished them off with gloss varnish and some flags from Warflag. The units represent the Ostfriesland Battalion (front) and the Salisch Battalion (rear). I like the toy soldier type look that the gloss gives. This will fit well with my wooden scenery.

Nice sashes guys

I have also made a lot of progress with my latest hex grid version of the One-Hour Wargames rules by Neil Thomas. This time its a version of his Horse and Musket rules for the Spanish Succession. What is really good about these rules is that they require so few troops, being a slow painter isn't a problem!

Like all of my rules and variants, I regard these as being at play test stage. Doing sums, drawing diagrams, rolling dice and pushing bits of cardboard around is great but its only when other people have a crack that you know whether or not they work. You can find the draft here. if you give them a try, let me know how it went.

Napoleonic hex grid rules get a run out!

AAR published

People playing the hex grid game!

I was really pleased to receive a comment today on my earlier post about the Neil Thomas hex grid rules variant. Mike Lewis and his chums have had a go at v2 and quite like them, which pleases me no end. You can see the AAR here. I'm really interested to see what feedback a few plays will generate.

Fab Foam is err...Fab!

It really is...

I have had this stuff lying around for a good couple of years. My plan was to use it as the playing surface for grid type games like the Portable Wargame. Alas, I didn't get very far with this. However, its a great opportunity to put together an 8 by 6 grid for the Napoleonic hex grid game.

Fab Foam is thin (a couple of mil max) and quite soft and floppy (oo-er missus). The surface is porous and the packaging says it can be cut, glued and painted. It takes a pencil line very well and is non-slip. It is 80p for an A3 sheet from Hobbycraft. My old ones were a bit sun bleached so I got a couple of newer ones today which have a slightly different shade of green. I quite like that.

After an hour or so with a compass and ruler I made a template and then produced nine 3 by 2 125mm hex sheets. As you can see, the fit is not perfect but will do. T35 and Robogear "thing" posing on the kitchen table on the new grid. Hurrah!

Yes, I realise that it is 9 by 6 at the moment but I haven't decided yet whether to cut it down. I'm tempted to get another three sheets so that I can have an 8 by 8 grid, this would allow me to play PBI (first edition of course) on it but I would need a bigger table. 

I'm really pleased with this because it looks good and feels nice to play on. What is also good is that Hobbycraft do a blue sheet for rivers and an orangey brown for hills. Counters next!

Napoleonic hex grid game part 4

Some prototype components

I found some Fab Foam sheets in my study today which I had totally forgotten about. They are green A3 and so just the right size for some 125mm hexes in the style of a Kallistra 6 hex piece. I have marked up a couple and will do the rest this week.

Excuse the awful lighting

I have made a lot of progress with counters. Here are some paper Bavarians....badly printed on paper at this stage but still looking quite nice.

I am working on counters for the Allies and French forces for Waterloo and will now be able to play on a full sized 8 by 6 hex grid. Not to worry, I have other plans for my rather nice small Waterloo map from last week.

Napoleonic hex grid game part 3

Order of battle

I prepared an OB for Waterloo whilst on my holidays and have now just retrieved it from the waste paper basket where I had inadvertently filed it. Waterloo is a big battle with lots of moving parts and is clearly not achievable within the standard 8 unit army in Neil's rules. What I have done therefore is to use the army lists in the rule book as the basis for an OB which resembles (!) the proportions of the armies involved.

More fine graphics from J Bignell at Junior General

Anglo-Dutch: 2 British Line Infantry (average), 3 Dutch-Belgian Line Infantry (levy), 1 British Guards or Highlanders (elite), 1 British Riflemen (elite, rifles), 1 British Heavy Cavalry - Household or Union (elite), 1 Dutch-Belgian Light Cavalry (average), 1 British artillery.

Prussians: 3 Line infantry (average).

Total Allied: 13 units

Variable Prussians: They will, of course, have variable arrival times. I'm also keeping the unit type simple for now but may introduce some variation when I have a better feel for the game. 

French: 4 Line Infantry (average), 2 Conscript Infantry (levy), 2 Imperial Guard Infantry (elite), 1 Voltigeur (average, musket), 2 Heavy Cavalry - Cuirassiers (elite), 1 Light Cavalry -Chasseurs (average), 2 Artillery

Total French: 14

French reserve rule: An option is to have the Imperial Guard in a reserve, only to be released when the Prussians arrive or if either side look like folding up (a coup de grace or rearguard action).

Napoleonic hex grid game part 2

And not without some diversionary activity!

Earlier this month I completed my first attempt at turning Neil Thomas' Napoleonic rules into a hex based game using an 8 by 6 hex grid. I have now had a chance to reflect on this at the seaside and have brought home some further thoughts as well as lots of extra sand....

Waterloo on an 8 by 6 hex grid

One of my earlier issues was how do I test out the rules before my Wurttembergers are ready? The answer is to knock up some counters and play on a hex map. I found that the map I drew at the beach bore a close resemblance to the battlefield of Waterloo so that is what I have ended up doing. I have also developed an OB which sees 14 French units battle it out with 13 Anglo-Dutch and Prussian units. More on this shortly.

One solution is to simply use the tiny chaps from the Worthington Games' 100 Days game as illustrated above. This looks good and formations can be shown. Another option is to make my own counters. I have had a go and come up with some nice Austrian and Bavarian types.

Corporal Jones is second from left

The Bavarians are considerably smarter!

These are based on nice images from the Junior General website and these are by Daniel Harper and J Bignell respectively.

Last, but definitely not least, I have pondered the rules and made some changes in the new v2. I have reduced the movement distances for cavalry and have generally made it easier for units to change facing as well as removing quite a few other restrictions. As with the first attempt, the idea is to have a simple game with lots of rock, scissors and paper effects. We will see how these play out but I suspect further work will be needed.

Taking up the challenge...

Hex grid Napoleonics

In one of my earlier posts I foolishly announced that I thought I could fit Neil Thomas's Napoleonic rules (which use a standard eight unit army) to fit on the eight by six hex grid used by Norm Smith for his Russian front rules (Tigers at Minsk). I have had my head down this week trying to prove that I can actually do this.

I am therefore now able to reveal my hex version of Neil Thomas's Napoleonic Wargaming rules or, at least, my first go.

Neil's very nice book

In many respects the rules are quite simple to translate into hex grid form. The overall size and shape of the game envisaged by Neil seems to fit very well within a limited hex grid. I have, however, played around with some of the rules. The next effect is to make the game more "gamey" by emphasising the rock, scissors, paper relationship of the various arms. For example, I have made changing formation subject to a morale check so that no-one can be certain if their prize grenadiers will inadvertently remain in line as they are run down by some lancers. I have also made dense infantry formations more vulnerable to artillery fire while retaining their ability to withstand cavalry charges.

So far so theoretical. How am I going to test these out in the current absence of some nicely painted Wurttembergers? The answer is by using some counters and a hex map....

My next job is to lash up some counters using Junior General images and have a go.