Medieval Mayhem, Manoeuvres and Garden Campaigns !

I counted them all out......Medieval Mayhem!

A few months ago I bought a copy of 'Trial By Battle', a set of 'quick and easy medieval wargames rules' written by Mark Lord and self published via Amazon. the words 'quick and easy' always interest me and whilst my go to rules for combat in this era remains Lion Rampant, I thought I would try them out. What follows is a battle report of my first solo game with the rules.

I set up a fairly plain (by my standards!) battlefield, although I couldn't resist adding a small hamlet to the side of the table allowing for some interested observers (keen eyes may spot a very unusual observer, who often appears on my battlefields). 

The armies are not historically accurate, as Henry the 5th certainly didn't lead the red rose of the Lancastrians against the white rose of the Yorkists, but I love the model and that's always good enough for me. (The figure is a beautifully made Britains figure which I lucked upon, slightly damaged, for two pounds at a recent toy fair).

The two evenly matched armies faced up to each other and their leaders gave short pithy words of encouragement to their men, before letting loose the dogs of war!

The humble carter, suddenly realising where he was, managed to extract a high turn of speed from his horse! Just in time, as the sky overhead darkened with the first flights of arrows!

The mounted knights on both wings charged headlong at their opposing numbers whilst the archers in both armies loosed flights of arrows at the enemy lines. The first victory came as the mounted knights on the Lancastrian right were forced to a morale test, which they lost and immediately turned and left the field!

The Yorkist cavalry cantered forward to press their advantage against the unit of archers standing to their front. The archers managed to fire a volley of arrows into the knights before contact, but then had to draw swords.

Meanwhile, in the centre of the field, fortunes were reversed as the other Lancastrian knights charged and swept through a lance of Yorkist Knights. Threatening the centre of the Yorkist line, the commander joined his foot knights and prepared to receive the charge. 

The archers of both sides fired volley after volley of arrows, gradually wearing each other down as the casualties mounted. Eventually, failing a casualty driven morale test, a Yorkist unit broke and fled the field. 

The Lancastrian archers meanwhile held off the charge by the mounted knights although they were losing ground and it was surely only a matter of time.

Henry realised he needed to join the fray if the battle was not to be lost. He led his foot knights into the side of the melee. Over the next two turns the archers broke and fled but Henry and his knights finally forced the Yorkist knights to break and turn from the field.

Meanwhile another unit of Yorkist archers had broken and the Yorkist general was forced to now make an army wide morale test which he barely made. 

As units collapsed around him, the Yorkist general plus his foot knights continued to hold off the Lancastrian mounted knights. Realising however that he had only two units left to the enemies four, he finally conceded and left the field.

A hard fought victory to Henry and his Lancastrian force!

Conclusion and thoughts on the rules

As I think I have said before, the ever popular 'one hour rules' are generally too simplified for my taste. These rules are in essence, not that far removed from the medieval one hour rules, except for three main differences.

First of all there are six troop types not four. I could argue for seven if you are covering periods where cavalry are not light skirmishers, but are not in full plate armour, and eight if you want to differentiate for frenzied attacks by 'barbarian' types such as Vikings etc. Six is however better than four ,in my opinion.

Secondly, troops have a saving throw against hits, which adds another chance element into the game. Lack of certainty makes for a better game in my view.

Third and most importantly, we have simple morale tests. When any unit sustains six or more wounds it has to take a morale test and roll seven or less on two d6. Anything over and the unit flees. This is such an improvement on the one hour rule idea of 15 wounds and the unit runs. It always feels such a slog to me, to have to accumulate 15 wounds.

Overall, I am very pleased with my first taste of this rule book although I can already see some additions and refinements I would like to make. They are simple, they are quick and I found the game ebbed and flowed nicely giving uncertainty until almost the end. I intend to try them out again with a different sort of game....maybe Robin Hood and his very merry men versus the Sherriff of Nottingham and his uncouth men!

I have compared them to the one hour rules, simply because they are similar and are intended to cover broadly the same sort of game. I know the one hour rules have a lot of fans and I understand why, but these are, in my personal opinion, an improvement. Try them and let me know what you think.

Lion Rampant is probably still my favourite as it adds even more mechanisms and detail, but this rule set could be a favourite for a quicker game.

I counted them all out......Manoeuvres

I mentioned last time out that I had been present at her majesties armed forces manoeuvres on Salisbury plain, but was having some difficulty in obtaining permission to share this splendid sight with my readers.  Well with the help of a box of fine Cuban cigars  and a flutter of the old school tie, I have managed to get permission to show you a few pictures. Enjoy.

The identity of the individual units must remain a secret, but no doubt they will be identified as we cover campaigns and engagements in the future.

Three Cheers For......Garden Campaigns

Todays arrival. I added this tome to the library here at Apperley Towers, as soon as I saw it was available to buy. I am a big fan of the works of Paul Wright and I have each and every book he has written on the subject of wargames with our beloved toy soldiers. I do not have the space and, or, opportunity, to really play full 'Little Wars' ala H.G.Wells, but I will always have the ambition to do so! Regardless of this, Pauls books serve to fuel and inspire my toy soldier antics and I am thoroughly looking forward to reading this latest volume. Even unread I am confident to say 'highly recommended'! 

As The Vicar Said To The Actress ...... Medieval Cart 

I couldn't leave without an honourable mention for my medieval Carter and his conveyance who starred in my battle report. This superb model was sold to me by Peter Cole of Replicants fame at the annual Plastic Warrior show last year. It really is full of character and extremely useful for any period up to the 18th century. Peter only had eight of these for sale last year (as he was experiencing some technical difficulties with one of the moulds if my memory serves me correctly). I am hoping he will have a few more for sale this year as I want another two for my collection. I love Peters work and have a lot of Replicants figures here in various armies. His Medieval, English civil war and Western figures are particular favourites. If you are not familiar with his work, have a look at his website www.replastic.com.

Tara a bit!

Scatter Dice and Sheep

 As with most wargamers, I am never wholly satisfied with the rules I play with. Itching to play a solo game with my newly painted houses on the table, I thought I would try the 'Rifle and Saber' rules from the highly respected 'One -Hour Wargames' book by Neil Thomas. I have played the Medieval rules before but not these for the late 19th century. 

To add a twist of my own, I thought I would add in area templates and scatter dice for artillery shooting. These are lifted directly from my 30 plus years of playing the various editions of Warhammer 40k by Games Workshop. The scatter of artillery fire is both realistic (sort of) and fun as it adds a completely random element to proceedings. 

Mr Thomas's rules don't allow for misses, just less damage on a single D6 roll. With my tweak, the template is placed over the target unit and a scatter dice rolled together with 2 D6 at half range or over, or 1 D6 if closer. The dice gives a 1 in 3 chance of a direct hit, so I decided that however many models were under the template would be the number of hits. Whilst this could be up to 10 (as happened in the game!), I reasoned that as 2 in 3 shots were likely to scatter and do less if any damage, this would be a similar effect to 3 rolls on a D6,as in the rules as written. Well lady luck didn't agree, or at the very least is a Socialist as you will see!

The Commanders tossed to bat and the Royalists bowed to Lady Luck (not for the last time this day). The Socialists had 3 infantry companies plus a machine gun section in place in the village, plus two supporting guns to the left.

 

The Royalist forces tasked with clearing the village also had 2 field guns and 3 Infantry companies, but in addition they had 2 Cavalry Squadrons and a new fangled landship! The Royalist Commander assured his staff that a bold frontal assault would carry the day and that the Socialist rabble would melt away!

The Socialist guns opened fire at the Royalist battery by the church, scoring a direct hit and a wide miss.

The counter battery fire resulted in two scattered misses. First round to the rebels!

A general advance ensued from the Royalist forces. The landship trundled up the road with a naval assault company in support. The Highland company advanced towards the wood supported by the Heavy Cavalry squadron. The Guard company followed by the Lancer squadron advanced around the left hand side of the church. As all of the infantry could neither shoot because they were moving or not within 12" range, shooting was left to the 4 field guns and the landship (which I decided could move and fire).

The ensuing artillery fire heavily favoured the Rebel guns, who scored a number of direct hits, knocking out one gun completely and damaging the landship. They also inflicted notable casualties on the advancing heavy cavalry, the Highlanders and the Naval company. In response, the Royalist guns inflicted light casualties on an infantry company and one gun. 5 out of 6 shots scattered relatively harmlessly! Well almost...a flock of sheep took 4 casualties and shouts of 'lamb kebabs tonight!' could be heard from the Socialist lines. The Landship inflicted light casualties on the machine gun section to its front.

 At this point the Heavy Cavalry charged the Infantry company to its front and whilst inflicting 3 casualties, failed to break the unit and so had to retreat 6". This was fairly disastrous as the Infantry then took aim and inflicted sufficient hits to break the Heavy Cavalry who turned to leave the field. The Highland Company also took sufficient casualties' from subsequent close range artillery and rifle fire to also break and retreat.

In the meantime the Landship had taken so much damage from the machine guns to its front that it failed and ground to a halt, blocking the road. The Naval assault company then took another direct hit from a field gun and also broke!

On the left hand side of the field things were looking better for the Royalist forces. The Guard company had reached firing range with only a few casualties and the Lancer squadron managed to charge the Rebel company and break them. 

The Lancers were however carrying casualties and now coming under fire from the machine Gun section. The Royalist Commander was finally persuaded to save what was left of his forces and ordered a general retreat. The day ended as it had started with the Rebels still in control of the village, a hard lesson for the Royalist commander to swallow.

Lessons learned:

The Royalist Artillerymen need more training!

Frontal assaults on defended urban areas are costly!

Hand  to hand combat will never break a defending unit unless they are already near the 15 casualty level as 1 D6 damage (average 3/4) will not be anywhere near enough on its own. This does reinforce the authors statement that cavalry were no longer effective by this era.

Conclusions

First of all, the templates worked but perhaps a little too effectively. I still like them, but might need to lessen the scatter distance. 

The 'one hour' rules worked fine but felt a little thin for my taste. I like simple rules but these are just a bit too stripped back. 

The need to gain 15 casualties before a unit ceases to play a role feels too arbitrary. I felt the need for morale tests even if a relatively simple mechanic.

I want my toy soldier cavalry to be able to charge heroically and have a chance of breaking a unit, realistic or not!

Overall, I think these rules are clever in their simplicity and I can see why they are popular, especially for a very quick game. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the book, they are just not generally for me. 

I am still drawn back to Daniel Mersey's Lament series as they seem to be my sweet spot for level of complexity balanced with fun game play. I do have other favourites but for different sorts of games and circumstances.

H.G.Wells own rules and Paul Wrights excellent Funny Little Wars expansions are great fun! A decent lawn or large carpeted room are a necessity however!  Oh and better knees than mine are an advantage.

Howard Whitehouse's 'A Gentleman's War', has been a major source of inspiration to me and has lots to offer. It doesn't lend itself readily to solo play, but it does provide a competitive game  with a very strong strategic element, whilst still having a great sense of fun!

 I intend to say more about these and other rule books in later blog posts.

Off for tea now...can I smell roast lamb? Tara a bit!