WSS_78

THIS ISSUE: Agincourt and other turf wars in Late Medieval Europe

WWW.WSSMAGAZINE.COM // KARWANSARAY PUBLISHERS

ISSUE 78

KNIGHT VS.

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£ 4.25

RIGHT

9 772211 503014

78

UK

THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR Theme

Specials

• The Battle of Agincourt • Breton raiding at

• Defending Hobkirk’s Hill • A daring Cold War

Blackpool Sands • Philippa of England defends Denmark from The Hanseatic League

commando raid • Refighting the costly Battle of Auldearn ...and much more!

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CONTENTS

THEME: THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR 30 PLANTAGENET VERSUS VALOIS

An introduction to the Hundred Years War

32 MUD, BLOOD, AND STEEL

Wargaming the Battle of Agincourt

Publisher: Rolof van Hövell tot Westerflier Managing director: Jasper Oorthuys Editor: Guy Bowers Copy editor: Duncan B. Campbell Layout, design and maps: Christianne C. Beall ©2014 Karwansaray Publishers Contributors: Mark Backhouse, Steve Bainbridge, Steve Beckett, Rob Broom, Sam Catteral, Richard Clarke, Phil Dutré, Roy Fitzsimmons, David Imrie, Steve Jones, Eoghan Kelly, Joseph McCullough, Michael Leck, Gary Mitchell, Matt Moran, Walter Morrison, James Oram, Chris Payne, Rick Priestley, Andrew Taylor, Ruben Torregrosa, Stephen Tunmore Illustrations: Georgie Harman www.redfoxillustrations.com Print: Grafi Advies BV Editorial office PO Box 4082, 7200 BB Zutphen, The Netherlands Phone: +31-575-776076 (NL), +44-20-88168281 (Europe), +1-800-549-4742 (US) Email: [email protected] Customer service: [email protected] Website: www.wssmagazine.com Contributions in the form of articles, letters, reviews, news and queries are welcomed. Please send to the above address or use the contact form on www.wssmagazine.com Subscriptions Subscriptions can be purchased at www.kp-shop.com, via phone or by mail. See above for the address. Distribution Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy is sold through retailers, the internet and by subscription. If you wish to become a sales outlet, please contact us at [email protected] The exclusive distributor for the UK and the Republic of Ireland is Comag Specialist Magazines, Unit 3, Tavistock Road, West Drayton, UB7 7QE, United Kingdom. Phone: +44 01895 433600. Copyright Karwansaray BV. All rights reserved. Nothing in this publication may be reproduced in any form without prior written consent of the publishers. Any individual providing material for publication must ensure that the correct permissions before submission to us. Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders, but in a few cases this proves impossible. The editor and publishers apologize for any unwitting cases of copyright transgressions and would like to hear from any copyright holders not acknowledged. Articles and the opinions expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of the editor and/or publishers. Advertising in Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy does not necessarily imply endorsement. Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy is published every two months by Karwansaray BV, Zutphen, the Netherlands. PO Box 4082, 7200 BB Zutphen, the Netherlands. ISSN: 2211-503X Printed in the European Union

38 AVENGING BRETONSIDE

The Battle of Blackpool Sands, 1404

42 WARRIOR QUEEN OF KALMAR

Philippa of England, Queen of the North

46 CHEVAUCHÉE

Raids in the Hundred Years War

48 WE HAPPY FEW

Painting English for the Hundred Years War

52 ONCE MORE INTO THE BREACH Building a Hundred Years War army

56

THE RED HARLAW On the cover

FEATURES HE CURSED GOLD 14 BRENNUS AND THE A bitesize campaign

NNER 16 IN A SILENT AND SECRET MANNER The Battle of Hobkirk’s Hill, 25 April 1781

20 RIB RAIDER

The Cold War gone wet

24 THE BATTLE OF AULDEARN

Montrose’s campaigns in Scotland, Part II

REGULAR DEPARTMENTS 6

MINIATURE REVIEWS

Our usual roundup of new wargaming releases

12 THIS GAMING LIFE Move! Shoot! Fight!

60 THE IRREGULAR

It’s the figures, stupid!

66 LET’S PLAY FIGHTING SAIL

Fleet actions between 1776 and 1815 from Osprey

70 DESIGNING FROSTGRAVE Notes on a fantasy combat system

72 GAME REVIEWS

To Defy a King, Blücher, Bloody Big Battles and more

76 UP FRONT

Wargames Darwinisms

80 BOOK REVIEWS More books reviewed by the WS&S team

82 PARTING SHOTS

Hints, tips and laughs for the wargamer

HOBBY 62 FACES OF WAR

Painting 15mm faces

ALL 64 ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL

Walls and fences for wargaming terrain

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Learning from our mistakes “Remember, my friend, that knowledge is stronger than memory, and we should not trust the weaker… put down in record even your doubts and surmises… We learn from failure, not from success!”

© Georgie Harman

EDITORIAL

– Dr Abraham Van Helsing in ‘Dracula’ by Bram Stoker (1897) We all make mistakes. Most we don’t anticipate, failing to predict what will afterwards be all the more obvious. The real failure is not making mistakes but failing to learn from them. When I was younger I must admit they terrified me. In fact, I spent so much time trying not to make mistakes it almost paralysed me, thus I never did anything. If you don’t try you’ll never have an answer to the question, ‘would it have worked?’ Even if you fail, at least you have an answer (“it didn’t work”) you can learn from. Another thing I believe in is truth. Simply put, tell the truth, as then you don’t have to remember which lies you’ve told! So here is my confession… Last issue we ran a deliberately provocative piece called “Are Wargames Shows dying?”. When I first read it, I considered it to be a thought provoking piece with some interesting solutions to revitalise shows. There was however one misleading bit in it, that this year was going to be the last Salute at ExCel. It isn’t by the way… the Warlords have now confirmed they will be at ExCel for many years to come. What I should have done then was contact the South London Warlords and confirm or deny this rumour, or else I should have edited the piece and changed ‘will be the last show’ to ‘may be the last show’ – taking a page from tabloid journalism. Sadly I did neither and ran the piece as is – ah hindsight is indeed a wonderful thing! I’d like to apologise to the South London Warlord committee. What was printed was misleading and should have been amended. Sorry chaps and I love the show! We seem to have been on a bit of a French theme for the past two issues. This coincidental theme will continue as our next issue will look at the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon. Comments and critique are always welcome. I enjoy reading correspondence from readers and it helps us as a team work out what we are doing right and where we’re doing less well. You can contact me as always at: [email protected] I will reply as I am able.

NOW ON THE WEBSITE:

IN THE NEXT ISSUE:

THE ROAD TO AGINCOURT

RESHAPING A NATION

March with Henry V as he makes his way to the famous battle. (http://www.wssmagazine.com/wss78_extra)

Heads will roll in this issue, which looks at the turmoil of the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon.

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REVIEWS:

MINIATURES

MINIATURE REVIEWS B4 203MM RUSSIAN HOWITZER Company: Heer 46 Size: 1/56 Era: World War II Price: €23.50 www.heer46shop.de The Soviet army of World War II had several large artillery pieces, but not many larger than the B4 203mm howitzer. Firing a 100kg HE shell with a range of 18km, the howitzer was the ultimate ‘bunker buster’. Developed in 1931, it was used in most theatres from the Winter War, smashing the Mannerheim line, to the street fighting in Berlin. It was often used as a direct-fire weapon, thus justifying its presence on the table. The kit itself is by Heer 46, which specialises in 1/100 scale German prototype tanks (such as the E series). The company has now diversified into 1/56 with the release of this excellent kit. The gun is well cast in durable resin, with only a few mould lines. Assembly is straightforward and the kit fits together very well. No artillery shells were available, but some should be available shortly. Every Soviet gamer will want one of these. It may take a minute to reload, but it will scare the life out of most German players.

38T TANK AND MARDER Company: Plastic Soldier Company Size: 15mm or 1/100 scale Era: World War II Price: £19.50 for 5 models www.theplasticsoldiercompany.co.uk When the Germans took over Czechoslovakia in 1938, they soon turned their thoughts to adapting the Czech 38t tank production to their own ends. The chassis of the 38t became the base for the Marder tank destroyer, as there was a growing need for tank destroyers. Initially equipped with Russian 76.2mm guns captured on the Eastern front, the Marder soon also became the platform for the Pak 40 75mm anti-tank gun. This clever kit allows you to build three variants – the original 38t tank, the Marder SdKfz 139 (with 76.2mm gun, used by the Afrika Korps), or the Marder SdKfz 138 Ausf H. PSC promises a further kit with the Marder SdKfz 138 Ausf M variant and the Hetzer. This well-detailed kit slots together very well and is easy to build - in fact, your only problem is working out which variant you need! A 20mm (1/72) version is available, with three models for £16.50, which is simply a scaled-up version of this kit. With good value for money, this will be a good investment for any 15mm WWII German player.

LATE GREAT WAR FRENCH Company: Peter Pig Size: 15mm ‘foot to eye’ or 17mm tall Era: The Great War Price: £2.90 for a pack of 8 miniatures. www.peterpig.co.uk Peter Pig has expanded its Great War French range by adding Late War French infantry in Adrian helmets. These do not appear to be simply their Early War French with heads swapped but a completely newly sculpted range. As with most Peter Pig 15mm sculpts, it is worth reminding yourself these are 15mm scale, not 28mm! The current range consists of seventeen packs, adding to the existing eighteen packs of Early War (including four variants of FT 17). The range includes shooting poses, advancing with bayonet, NCOs, officers, grenadiers, and HMG in helmet; casualty models, a 37mm gun, and troops in gasmasks are promised soon. The sculpting and casting on these models are both top notch, with a little flash to be cleared from the base of the miniatures. Size-wise, they are middle of the range and compatible with most ranges. If 15mm Great War is your thing, you’ll need to look no further.

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FLEECE TERRAIN MAT Company: Cigar Box Battles Size: Just over 6’ x 4’ Era: Any Price: $69.00 (£60.00 in the UK) cigarboxbattlestore.bigcartel.com Every now and then, a new product comes along and makes you stop and go, “Wow!” Cigar Box Battles have come up with a clever idea for terrain for gamers – a high quality wargaming mat printed on a fleece. The advantages are many; you can simply cover a table as quickly with a mat as you would a table with a tablecloth. If hills are required, simply stick them underneath the mat. The mat itself neatly folds away and will not crease (no need to iron), and it’s small and easy to store. You can wrap it around yourself to keep warm, too! It means playing over the same terrain, but you can always buy another mat for variety. The one shown is a Europe Battle Mat. There is an excellent and growing selection of mats, including grassland, ocean, woodland, tundra, space, desert, waste, and Great War, to name a few. Specific mats are available, such as a Gettysburg for 6mm and a Waterloo mat for 15mm.

MODERN SPECIAL AIR SERVICE Company: Spectre Miniatures Size: 28mm ‘foot to eye’ or 32mm tall Era: Modern Price: £9.99 for 4 models www.spectreminiatures.com Spectre Miniatures is a new miniature company specializing in ultra-moderns. Its initial range has focused on Africa and has several interesting packs. The range is divided into militia, professionals, and elites. The militia consist of rag-tag Africans in civilian dress and more professionally-dressed rebels. The professionals include mercenary contractors and Nigerian soldiers. The elite range consists of US and UK special forces and ‘operatives’. Spectre has its own rules set free on their website. The release reviewed here are Special Air Service armed with suppressed M16s. The SAS have a selection of NODs (night-vision gear). The models are well detailed and cast out of plastic resin. There was some flash on the models and one of the barrels required straightening (using the hot water method in this issue’s Parting Shots). This issue aside, the detailing was good and accurate on these models. These models are perfect for pulp, zombie, and similar modern games, such as covert operations.

TOKENS AND TANK TRAPS Company: 4Ground (Momentum Games) Era: Tank Traps – twentieth century Price: £ 5.00 for the markers or 10 x tank traps. www.4ground.co.uk MDF tank traps? Who would have thought it possible? 4Ground did, as they are masters of the seemingly impossible, turning 2D flat-packs into 3D creations. The tank traps shown are 15mm. They were a little fiddly to construct, but once one was done, the rest followed easily, even with this ‘sausage fingers’ reviewer. 28mm versions are also available (six for £10). Also shown are two types of marker from 4Ground’s vast selection (currently numbering a staggering 77 packs), which includes tokens, transparent templates, objective markers, and the effect markers shown. The two types shown are for burning wreckage (three per pack) and 2” smoke (two per pack). Other sizes are available (from 1” to 6”) in three colours (white, grey, and black), along with some interesting fire markers (including a fire wall, useful for fantasy). The flames are made of a transparent plastic, which really adds to the overall effect. The smoke/wreckage markers are very easy to construct, as they simply slot together.

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REVIEWS:

MINIATURES

ACW CASUALTIES AND WAGON CREW Company: Colonel Bill’s Size: 28mm Era: Various Price: £5.00 per crew, £2.50 per ‘girl’ www.colonelbills.com If you have wagons for the American Civil War, you’ll need suitable drover models to crew them. Thus is the thinking behind Colonel Bill’s release – as they sell the 4Ground wagon sets, why not make some crew to go with them? Each set consists of four figures. There are two figures leading horses (suitable for horse-holders) and two seated figures in the wagon crew set. The injured consist of one walking wounded and three lying down. Casting is good, with a little flash to be cleaned off the bases. The models themselves are middle of the range in size, so should fit in with most existing ranges. Colonel Bill’s has also released Celtic chariot crews (two sets) and more of the ‘Belt Fed Girls’ in various states of undress. These include Brynhildr (Norse Shieldmaiden), Calamity Jane (Cowgirl), Anya Bakyabich (Soviet WWII Sniper) and Private Leanne Ives (Our Girl in Afghanistan). If modesty permits, we will review these in a future issue.

2ND AFGHAN WAR BRITISH Company: Artizan Designs Size: 28mm ‘foot to eye’ or 32mm tall, to top of pith helmet Era: Nineteenth century Price: £5.60 for a pack of 4 miniatures www.northstarfigures.com Great Britain has a long history of wars with, or in, Afghanistan, dating back to the 1840s. This range covers the British intervention of 1878-80 (known as the 2nd Anglo-Afghan War). This expanding range currently covers both the Afghans and the British, with allies. The British range contains British line infantry, artillery, Highlanders, guides, and Punjabi and Sikh infantry. The Afghan range consists of regular and irregular infantry. Each pack contains four models from a selection of five or six variants (depends on the pack). The sculpting is very good; exactly what you expect from Mike Owen at Artizan. Casting is likewise good, with some flash on the base. Their size is slightly on the heroic side, making them compatible with most middle and larger ranges. If you are into Victoriana and don’t fancy Zulus or Sudan, check out the 2nd Anglo-Afghan War. Unlike most Victorian campaigns, it was far from easy, with many defeats, such as at Maiwand in 1880.

INDIAN MUTINY BRITISH Company: Iron Duke Miniatures Size: 28mm ‘foot to eye’ or 32mm tall Era: Victorian Colonial Price: £7.00 for 4 infantry or 2 cavalry www.empressminiatures.com Iron Duke Miniatures is a new venture by Colonel Mike Snook and Empress, to bring wargamers Indian Mutiny miniatures based on the best information available and using the campaign uniforms worn by Brigadier General Henry Havelock’s brigades in the relief of Cawnpore and Lucknow. The first four packs represent the British centre and flank companies (only the flank companies were armed with the new 1853 Enfield). The next twelve releases will include more British and ‘Neill’s Bluecaps’ Madras Fusilier and Brasyer’s Sikhs. The miniatures are sculpted by Paul Hicks — no need to comment — on the quality of the sculpting. The casting is likewise excellent. Future releases include Bhisti water-carriers (as some Indian troops did not carry water for reasons of caste), mounted field officers, and casualty figures. Longer term include several artillery guns, characters, volunteer cavalry, and the mutineers themselves. Victorian Colonial fans take note! This exciting new range will be one to watch, with a complete and comprehensive range planned.

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PLASTIC BUILDING/RUIN Company: Valliant Miniatures Size: 1/72 (20mm) (95mm width x 135mm height x 113mm length) Era: Twentieth century Price: £24.99 www.valiantminiatures.com Valliant Miniatures has released a hard plastic building kit which is very clever. This building can be turned into a ruin simply by lifting the top floor section off. This feature makes the model multipurpose and useful for showing the damage ‘in game’ caused by artillery. The model comes as a kit with several useful options, including two types of shutter for the windows, a shop front, and a garage. Also included are rubble sections and a selection of signs for the shop. Clear assembly instructions are included. The building is very simple to construct – standard plastic glue worked fine. The roof is removable along with the first floor. The ceiling is pretty high and 28mm models will fit comfortably inside the house as well, opening up the possibility for using this kit with 28mm scale. The detail on the models is very good and the finished building is both light and durable. Three kits are available as a bundle for the discount price of £59.50.

COPS AND DOGS Company: Crooked Dice Games Size: 28mm ‘foot to eye’ or 32mm tall Era: Modern Price: £9.00 for 3 coppers and £5.00 for 3 dogs www.crooked-dice.co.uk The latest release from Crooked Dice Studios is British policemen and dogs. The coppers are armed with truncheons and are dressed in typical fashion for the 1970s and 80s. This is the era when policing was simpler - before the need for stab-proof vests, utility belts, and tasers. The cops come with separate heads, allowing more variety and combining with other heads in the Crooked Dice range. There are police ‘flat cap’ heads available as an option. The new attack dog release consists of two fierce Rottweilers and a German Shepherd (not shown), ideal for both police dogs or for guard dogs for villains. The sculpting and casting are both good, and each model comes with its own ‘slotta base’. The cops could probably be used for earlier periods (Very British Civil War?) and the dogs are pretty timeless, useable for many periods. A second edition of the popular 7TV is in the offing shortly, and we’re looking forward to it.

T-34 AND WINTER SOLDIERS Company: Warlord Games Size: 1/56 (28mm) Era: World War II Price: £18.00 for the tank, £30.00 for 40 winter infantry www.warlordgames.com The T-34 was the workhorse of the Soviet tank divisions in the ‘Great Patriotic War’. Warlord’s model is very easy to construct, taking minutes rather than hours. The instructions are straightforward and a platoon could be assembled in no time. The kit contains the option to make the M41, M42 (shown) and M43 versions. The winter uniform Soviets are an excellent set based on the previous plastic Soviet infantry set, but with the addition of greatcoats. A lot of thought has gone into this set; the heads are wrapped up against the cold and the arms have gloves. All the parts fit together well. A very good selection of weapons is also provided. The only thing perhaps lacking from this set is the earlier M36 helmet or the budyonovka hat for the Russo-Finnish War of 1939-40, so here’s hoping Warlord do some separate heads. But this is a very minor point – these are great kits that every budding Soviet commander will want.

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REVIEWS:

MINIATURES

NINJAS AND SUPERHEROES Company: Crossover Miniatures Size: 28mm ‘foot to eye’ or 31mm tall Era: Modern Price: $16 for four or $6.75 for the Emperor Moth www.crossoverminiatures.com You can never have too many Ninjas! Crossover Miniatures has launched an addition to their ‘Heroes and Villains’ and ‘Minions’ ranges after a successful Kickstarter. The latest releases are Ninjas with guns and with traditional weapons. The models are supplied with two types of head, ‘traditional’ Ninja and ‘bug eye’ (similar to Deadpool). However, their ‘X-Head’ system allows any head from their range to be swapped and placed on any other body in the range (separate heads are available). There are four variants to each minion set. The central model is the evil super-villain ‘Emperor Moth’, who sweeps down on his enemies, delivering his deadly sting! If you are taking a venture into superheroes, then you’ll need to check these out. The traditional Ninjas are good for feudal Japanese, while their modern counterparts are good for Black Ops. Mould lines are hard to spot and there is little flash. Size-wise, these impressive models are middle of the range 28mm, so they’ll be compatible with most existing ranges. They are available through Minibits in the UK.

WOODLAND INDIANS Company: Wargames Factory Size: 28mm ‘foot to eye’ or 34mm tall in head-dress Era: American War of Independence Price: $24.95 for 24 miniatures (£18.00 in the UK) www.wargamesfactory.com The latest edition to the Wargames Factory AWI range is a set of Woodland Indians. There are 24 Indians to the box. There are eight different bodies and twelve different heads with a number of different head-dress which can be glued on. The poses are free-er than previous ranges, with pretty much every arm fitting to every body. They can be built with muskets or armed only with bows and hand weapons (making them possible suitable for earlier Native Americans, such as Skraelings). The musket poses include reloading, and firing. Individual bases are included. The moulding is good and well detailed, and each part of the model fits together well. While the Indians fought for both sides in the American War of Independence, there were several campaigns both before and after the war ended and white fought native. With these plastics, battles like Wabash and Fallen Timbers or the Seminole war become an affordable possibility.

CAVE MEN Company: Steve Barber Size: 28mm ‘foot to eye’ or 31mm tall Era: Prehistroric or Fantasy Price: £5.00 for 4 models, £4.50 for the smilodon www.stevebarbermodels.com Winter is coming... From the depths of time and the frozen tundra comes a new range of cavemen from Steve Barber. The range consists of a dozen sets of prehistoric hunter-gatherers. There is a good mix of models, including flint spear and club armed and bows. Other models include characters (like the chieftain shown), a shaman, fire makers, and two females. There are also several prehistoric animals to choose from including the mammoth, the phorusrachus (think ‘Big Bird’s evil twin), and the smilodon ’sabre tooth’ male (shown). Each comes with a large ‘slotta’ base for the model. The sculpting and casting are both good. Also included in this range are scenery items such as cycads & berry trees and manmade items such as tents. This will be an ideal range for ‘Tusk’ or similar lost world games. The creatures could have some use in fantasy settings as well.

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MDF TRUCKS Company: Warbases Size: 1/56 scale (Crossley is 80mm x 32mm x 35mm) Era: Great War Price: £7.00 for one vehicle war-bases.co.uk As noted earlier in this review section, it is amazing what some companies can do with a ‘flat pack’ MDF kit. Warbases has released an assortment of Great War and post-WW1 vehicles in 28mm. These include a Model T ambulance, an Albion truck and a Mark IV Tank! The models reviewed here are the Crossley Tender and the Lancia Triota armoured personnel carrier, both of which saw action in the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War. The models require some assembly but the kits are straight-forward enough, taking about 20 minutes to half an hour to assemble. Instructions are available online. Once completed, they really do look the part and once painted it is hard to remember they started life as a MDF kit. Sure, the wheels aren’t rounded but the expert modeller could add more detail if required (like starting handles). Overall these are excellent values kits providing gamers with inexpensive transport for their Great War games.

RETREATING FRENCH Company: Perry Miniatures Size: 28mm ‘foot to eye’ or 33mm in shako Era: Napoleonic Price: £9.00 for 3 cavalry, £7.00 for 6 infantry www.perry-miniatures.com As a period, the Retreat from Moscow seems to have developed a life of its own. The Perrys have led this charge with their own range of miniatures, and several companies have followed suit. The most recent releases include French light cavalry in winter dress (with a choice of six different heads), retreating camp followers, scavengers, and frozen casualties. The camp followers, scavengers, and casualties are all great pieces for vignettes. The casualty pack includes half-buried dead and the odd frozen arm sticking out of the ground - very macabre! The sculpting is excellent, and these miniatures simply ooze character. Casting is good, with minimal flash and mould lines. While the models themselves are very specific, being suitable for poor weather conditions, some may have a use beyond the Retreat. The camp followers are useful for characters in games (the French Lieutenant’s Woman) and some of the frozen casualties could be painted as prisoners.

ZOMBIE HUNTER AND KOMODO DRAGONS Company: Gringo 40’s Size: 28.5mm ‘foot to eye’ or 33mm tall, Dragons are 84mm long Era: Modern Price: £8.50 for the set, £3.50 for Gabriel www.gringo40s.com Err, you what? Not just any ordinary zombie hunter, but Gabriel, zombie-hunting ‘komodo dragon master’, and his two pets! For all your dragon zombie-hunting needs. Gabriel looks like a typical steampunk character, complete with hussar shirt, goggles, and fur boots. His weapons consist of a halberd and some form of scoped rifle. His pets are excellent, accurately detailed Komodo dragons, ideal for pulp or fantasy. As we’ve come to expect from Gringo 40’s, the sculpting is very good, with minimal flash and no obvious mould lines. These unique figures will surely find a home in zombie pulp games or as additions to In Her Majesty’s Name or similar steampunk games. The dragons are available to be purchased separately.

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© Georgie Harman

COLUMN

By Rick Priestley

THIS GAMING LIFE

MOVE! SHOOT! FIGHT! One of the great consolations of rapidly advancing years is the opportunity to meet up with old comrades-in-arms to compare notes. I say rapidly advancing years, not to suggest that said comrades comprise an overly decrepit or particularly raddled section of society. Perish the thought. Rather, I mean to suggest that my wargaming generation is rapidly approaching something like retirement, or at least the modern equivalent, whether voluntarily or otherwise.

C

onversation invariably encompasses the thorny matter of eking a living from whatever we have managed to stow beneath the mattress over a lifetime of toil in the salt mines. Considerations of habitation centre upon something called ‘down-sizing’. Old hippies dust off yesterday’s dreams of yurts in Wales, narrow boats, and Volkswagen campers. Some comrades have done well enough to find themselves burdened with an excess of funds and spare time. What better than to spend both on our favourite hobby? If my lot are anything to go by, this goes a long way to explaining the tremendous surge in new enterprises over recent years. New wargames rules published by those who always wanted to, but never had the opportunity, until now. New miniatures companies making models for fields of interest nurtured over the decades, but never previously satisfied. Plastic kits that enable us to revisit youthful passions and redress the lost opportunities of Airfix and Matchbox. Quite frankly, you can’t turn these days without tripping over some middle-aged initiate into the wargaming market. Some of these enterprises are retirement projects that do no more than scratch a longfelt itch. The financial viability of individual businesses might be of less consideration than a simple need to find some way of exercising talents or ambitions that don’t disappear as soon as the nine-to-five grind is over. Other ventures are embarked upon to provide or supplement incomes. A lot depends upon what kind of people we are. Wargaming has always attracted all sorts. There are artists and sculptors who would sooner spend all day on their own, producing work that is intensely personal. There are entrepreneurs who enjoy building businesses and relish the responsibilities that come with doing so. Those old comrades I mentioned earlier include a fair few from both ends of the scale and somewhere in between. Which is, of course, part of what makes our get-togethers something to look forward to. Bizarre coincidences abound. Naval wargames are flavour of the moment. Others are pursuing games with larger scale models. Such atavistic tendencies remind us what a varied and ambitious hobby we once enjoyed. When it comes to the rules, some find themselves

dusting down books and games that last saw the light of day when trousers were flared and a round of bitter could be had for a pound. Others cheerfully embark upon new rules sets or revisit tea-stained notebooks to revive half-completed projects from yesteryear. When it comes to sculpting models, making terrain, or painting wargames armies, most of us find our level pretty quickly. We know what we can do and what lies beyond our abilities. Rule writing is a different matter though. Just as every reader has a novel in them, so every wargamer has a set of rules. And why not? Playing games that hark back to the tastes of years ago is an interesting experience. It’s like driving an old car. Memories somehow gloss over the lack of synchromesh, terrible heaters, and the reluctance of drum brakes to bring us to a stop. Nostalgia blinds us to the realities. When it comes to playing unfamiliar rules, there is also a lot to learn by simply participating in games and observing the process of play. Having worked on many of my own rules sets over the years, it’s notable how conservative are many who are now approaching games design for the first time. Or, I should say, for the first time with any professional intent – with publication and a wider audience in mind. Often these games evolve from sets that have been in use for years as club rules, or rules used amongst a group of friends, where most of the conventions and routines of play are matters of common understanding. Nevertheless, we usually see the same elements recurring in wargames, almost regardless of their subject or scope. First-time writers rarely find it necessary to challenge these precepts. Challenging precepts becomes something that experienced designers enjoy as they explore the process of game design. Even so, there are some aspects of game play that are remarkably tenacious! Probably the most dogged game mechanics of all can be observed in the title of this column – move, shoot, fight! Practically all wargames rules have something that is the equivalent of a move phase, a shooting phase, and a combat phase. These encompass, respectively, the rules for the movement of troops on the battlefield, for ranged combat

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involving shooting, and for hand-to-hand combat or mêlée. These three processes are usually treated as separate and distinct things, and usually they occur in the order given here. So, first one or both sides move, then ditto for shooting, and finally hand-to-hand fighting is resolved. This is the case in practically every rule set I’ve written. And with good reason, too! There is a clear narrative by which movement initiates both ranged combat and hand-to-hand fighting, and in which an exchange of missiles precedes hand-to-hand combat. It is this very strong narrative element that reinforces the idea of separation and sequence: move, shoot, fight. Of course, there are variations. Some rules do change the sequence and allow shooting before movement, or they break movement over multiple phases, allowing for movement after shooting, for example. Recent trends have tended to turn away from the traditional turn-based sequencing in favour of individual units taking turns, with play alternating from one side to the other or determined by cards or random draws. Bolt Action works like that, for example. Although seeming to overturn the usual playing sequence, these systems still preserve a separation between movement, shooting, and combat. Generally speaking, these things still occur in the same order, too: movement, then shooting, and then hand-to-hand fighting. In fact, activation-by-unit is only substituting lots of small turns for one big turn, where everything gets to move, shoot, and fight at once. The separation and sequencing remains the same within each turn. I sometimes refer to movement, missile fire, and hand-tohand fighting as ‘rules domains’ or ‘major rules domains’, because the rules covering each of them form a separate and distinct subset of the rules within the game. The separation of the turn into phases encourages us to separate the rules domains themselves. Of course, we sometimes allow for movement in the shooting or combat phases, of which the most obvious examples are routs and pursuits, although some rules will also make allowance for push-backs during mêlée or as a result of missile fire, for example. Much depends on what sort of warfare we wish to represent. These situations can trip us up, because we are now employing rules from one domain in a phase devoted to another! Many experienced rules writers will shudder with horror at the mere prospect of dealing with rules that cross domain in this way. Rules that do this almost always give rise to potential problems of interpretation. “Never have movement in the combat phase” was a mantra of an old colleague of mine. Mechanically, it’s a good argument. In terms of imbuing a game with character and presenting a realistic narrative, it’s perhaps a step too far towards practicality for its own sake. Either way, the important thing is to be aware of the potential issues introduced by crossing domains. An obvious example occurs when we allow troops to shoot at enemies as they approach, or as they cross the shooters’ line of sight. It takes place during the move phase – or the enemy’s move phase – and the target is therefore in motion when the shot occurs. So, when exactly does the shot take place? The shooting rules are designed for firing at targets in the shooting phase, when the

Move and shoot means you can shoot back. enemy is halted. So we have to introduce a ‘sticking plaster’ rule to cover the gaping wound in our logic: ‘The shooting player decides at which point to shoot’. But how is the unit moving? As a body? One man at a time? Is one man blocking the shot from another? It’s not difficult to work round these things. We all understand the intent. But the shooting rules will have an associated geometry of range, arc of fire, and line of sight that assume the target is standing still. Our ‘sticking plaster’ solution is workable, but it relies upon the players to make judgements and reach a consensus. That is not necessarily a bad thing. As long as we – as designers – understand what we are asking of our players. Other occurrences can be more problematic, depending upon the rules set. Move, shoot, and fire – and variations thereof – will no doubt serve us for years to come. It suits wargames, because it establishes the format of the game narrative and it enables us to confine our rules neatly into separate domains. These are all useful things when it comes to creating games. It is, however, an abstraction of warfare. Real battles don’t have turns or phases, after all. We should remember this, especially when it comes to subjects that don’t respond well to alternating or sequential actions. Aerial combats are hardly realistic when one side moves and then another, or where planes can’t take shots as enemies cross their line of fire. Naval warfare also presents us with units in motion in a way that can’t be realistically represented by alternating movement, whether of sides, squadrons, or individual ships. There is also a tendency for us to imagine that the artificial construct of the sequence is in some way an accurate representation of events. That our unit of archers will march the equivalent of fifty yards and shoot once, wait for the enemy to respond, and then do the same again. Turn sequence structure and phasing encourages us (and our players) to think in literal terms about what, in reality, is likely to be a maelstrom of action where troops are moving, shooting, and fighting, all at the same time. Separation of rules domain reinforces the traditional phase structure, which in turn reinforces the separation of rules domain. Can we break that relationship without also breaking our game? Well, perhaps not entirely. But there’s fun to be had trying! WS&S

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FEATURE

By Guy Bowers

A BITESIZE CAMPAIGN

BRENNUS AND THE

CURSED GOLD

One of the almost forgotten snippets of history is the Celtic migrations of the third century BC. The Galatians were a nomadic tribe of Celts believed to be originally from southern Gaul. The tactics of these Celts suggest they simply ravaged the countryside in search of loot. They seem not to have had the time, inclination, or resources to conquer cities by siege. According to ancient sources, plunder was their main goal, and ahead lay the rich shrine at Delphi and its hoard of gold and silver.

T

he Galatians are said to have been divided into three tribes – the Trocmi, Tolistobogii, and Tectosages. The migrant tribes headed east until, in 279 BC, they invaded Greece. The invasion was carried out by three distinct armies, each probably representing one of the tribes of Galatians. The first (led by Cerethrius) attacked Thrace, while the second (under Bolgios) attacked Macedon, killing Ptolemy Keraunos, the usurper of the Macedonian throne. However, Bolgios was defeated by the Macedonian general Sosthenes, who had rallied their remaining forces. The third tribe (probably the Tolistobogii under Brennus) headed south through Paionia into the Greek heartland after defeating Sosthenes. A Greek coalition soon formed to meet this threat, consisting of the Aetolians, Boeotians, Athenians, and Phocians. They were all agreed to be placed under the command of the Athenian general Calippus. The Greeks formed a defensive line using the natural barrier of the River Spercheios, destroying any bridges and opposing any attempted crossings by the Galatians. However, Brennus sent a force of 10,000 men downriver, where the river widened into a delta. Here it was shallow enough to wade across or for the Celts to cross using their shields as floats. Having been outflanked, the Greek general Calippus withdrew his forces in an orderly fashion and retreated to the narrow pass at Thermopylae (site of Leonidas’ defeat at the hands of the Persians). Meanwhile, Brennus’ forces rebuilt the bridges and crossed the Spercheios.

Battle at Spercheios.

Battle at Thermopylae.

Thermopylae (‘hot gates’) was a formidable obstacle. This natural defile consisted of a narrow strip of land running between mountain and sea. The Galatians suffered heavily trying to assault the pass and so instead tried other tactics. A raiding force was sent against the homeland of the Aetolians, forcing them to retire to protect their own lands. But this was not enough to force a weakening of the defences. Then, Brennus learnt of a mountain pass which would allow him to send a force through the mountains and attack the Greeks in the rear (sound familiar?). However, instead of a massacre, the Athenians evacuated the Greeks using their fleet of ships. Now the way was clear for the Galatians to make their way to Delphi. Their first attack was interrupted by a thunderstorm (anger of the gods?) which was so fierce that orders could not be heard, making the assault impossible. Thus, both sides camped down for the night. At dawn, through the early morning fog, the Greeks launched a devastating surprise counter-attack. Brennus was wounded and committed suicide, and the invading forces routed in a panic. The Greeks pressed their advantage, pushing back the Celts to the banks of the River Spercheios. Most of the remaining Galatians who crossed the river were caught and destroyed by Greek reinforcements from Thessaly. Brennus and his tribe paid the price for daring to attack Delphi.

PLAYING THE GALATIAN CAMPAIGN The Galatian invasion of Greece is ideal as a mini campaign with several ‘what if’s which can be thrown in. It is an exciting time

The Battle at Delphi.

The Dawn Attack.

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to play in history, as 279 BC is when Pyrrhus was attacking Italy. Some of the Greeks of this period probably would have fought in the Macedonian style with the pike, but are equally as likely to have fought in their traditional manner, with long spear and shield – the hypaspist style of fighting was still used by Successor states, as it was seen as more manoeuvrable than the pike phalanx. So, use whatever miniatures you have at your disposal. In other words, don’t worry about it – any Greek or Macedonian will do! The following battles are generic guidelines to fit with your favourite rules set. Adapt the following suggestions to your rules set of choice. The Celts in some rules sets (notably Warhammer Ancient Battles) will do very poorly against the Greeks, so they should be given plenty of opportunity to outflank them with cavalry or skirmishers and table size will be a factor. Don’t allow the Greeks to go table edge to table edge with their phalanx, except at Thermopylae. The campaign itself can be divided into several battles – these are uneven by their very nature – so play the campaign through and see how far Brennus makes it to Delphi. Competitive players may wish to total up the victory points for each side during the campaign or swap places and see how far they can take Brennus towards Delphi. All tables are standard 6’ x 4’ or larger. Battle at Spercheios The terrain will consist of a river running the length of the table. The Greeks control two river crossings (approximately 6” wide, treat as standard terrain); the river is otherwise impassable. However, the Celts have found a third crossing unknown to the Greeks (record its location) which is shallow enough for them to cross ‘floating across with their shields’ (treat as difficult ground). They only have to reveal the secret crossing point when a unit starts to cross it – this will keep the Greeks guessing. The Galatians should outnumber the Greeks by 1.5 to 1 pointswise (so 1500 points of Celts fights 1000 points of defenders, for example). The Celts’ objective is to get the majority of their army across the river. The Greeks must prevent this from happening. Battle at Thermopylae There are no Persians this time! This should be played lengthways down a 6’ x 4’ table, with sea on one long edge and impassable mountains on the other. Again, the Galatians should outnumber the Greeks by at least 1.5 to 1 (points-wise), but the Greeks have the advantage of the natural defile (no flanks to defend). Brennus has, however, learnt of the hidden pass through the mountains, so up to one-third of the Celtic force (infantry only) may be ‘flank marched’ to appear in the Greek rear – you would have thought the Greeks would have learnt from last time, particularly the Phocians. However, the Greeks may retreat off the sea edge of the table to the salvation of the Athenian navy. Total up the victory points for each side. The Battle at Delphi This battle was stopped by a thunderstorm – the gods have shown their displeasure at mortals daring to seize their sacred shrine. I’d suggest a limited-turn game – the Galatians have to break the Greeks quickly, in order to win and loot the shrine. I’d suggest an even-points battle. If your game does not have turn limits, introduce them. I’d recommend a four or five turn game at most, where units are automatically

Galatians galloping for glory and gold! commanded (such as War and Conquest), increasing to six or seven game turns, if using a game like Hail Caesar where units aren’t automatically commanded. If your game has standard turn limits, reduce them by 1. If you are using oracles, the Greeks gain an additional D6 for defending Delphi. The Dawn Attack This should be an even battle. The Celts are set up in the middle of the board (24” square), having been surprised in their camp. The Greeks may enter from any of the long board edges. As the conditions were foggy, ‘blind’ cards can be used for hidden movement until the Greeks get within 12” of the Galatians. That allows the Greek player to hide where his main attack is coming from. For the Greeks to win, the Celts should be soundly defeated and Brennus killed.

THE AFTERMATH The remainder of the Galatians and the survivors of Brennus’ campaign crossed the Hellespont, where they entered Asia Minor and fought Antigonus Gonatas, grandson of Antigonus One-Eye. There, the Successor’s war elephants awed the Gauls and they were defeated. They, however, were allowed to settle and founded the kingdom of Galatia. The Greek accounts all say that the Galatians were defeated before sacking Delphi. However, the Roman writer Strabo tells the story (which he does not personally believe) of the aurum Tolosanum. In this wild tale, the gold and silver looted from Delphi was brought back to Tolosa (modern day Toulouse in France). In 105 BC, as part of Rome’s war against the Cimbri, the proconsul of Quintus Servilius Caepio plundered Tolosa and found a fortune in gold and silver (‘obviously’ the loot from the shrine at Delphi). This was shipped back to Rome as war booty, but the gold was ‘stolen’ en route by brigands. Caepio returned to Rome and was tried for losing his army (at the Battle of Arausio) and embezzlement – it was claimed that he hired the brigands to steal the gold. He was found guilty and was stripped of his Roman citizenship and exiled for life in Smyrna in Asia Minor. In the Roman mind, his defeat in battle and ruin was ‘naturally’ divine retribution for his theft. WS&S Raid and sack the sacred shrine at Delphi? Who would have the Gaul to do that? (We’re here all night)

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FEATURE

By Steve Jones

THE BATTLE OF HOBKIRK’S HILL, 25 APRIL 1781

IN A SILENT AND SECRET MANNER

This is the semi-official twentieth scenario for the Rebellion! supplement for the Black Powder rule set published by Warlord Games. From a wargaming viewpoint, this is one of those helpful situations that can easily be adapted to other periods. One could easily see this scenario featuring Seven Years War Prussians attacking French or Austrians, or Peninsular War British taking on the French. But for now, we will adhere to the historical situation.

O

ne word of warning to those collecting AWI armies. The Battle of Hobkirk’s Hill involved many of the same rebel units as Guilford Court House, but the Crown forces are a completely different set of units from those under Cornwallis’s command. So either use proxies or get painting!

BACKGROUND Following the Battle of Guilford Court House in March 1781, the rebel General Nathaneal Greene abandoned his pursuit of Lord Cornwallis’s shattered army, which marched into Virginia and eventual disaster at Yorktown. Greene turned his attention to the Crown forces in the Carolinas, commanded by the young but capable Lord Rawdon. Greene encamped at Hobkirk’s Hill, a short way north of the Crown supply base at Camden. Seizing the initiative, Rawdon marched out of his fortifications with the small army at his disposal. Moving “in a silent and secret manner” through wooded terrain, the bold attackers fell upon the rebel left wing, hoping that audacity could win the day.

The left wing of Greene’s army awaits.

THE WARGAME Hobkirk’s Hill is an excellent battle to recreate for a demonstration or participation game. However, it can prove a little one-sided, as the rebels have to be limited to some extent to reflect their below-average performance on the day. As it turned out, once we put the troops on the table, we found the game actually proved to be exciting, with the result very much in doubt until close to the end. The results have always been somewhat bloody and much depends on getting those Virginians moving and not losing a Maryland unit in panic to a lucky artillery strike. The Crown forces must drive on firmly, but not get too ambitious right from the start. The aim should be to push hard at the rebel flank and try to roll them up before they organize an effective counterattack.

THE ARMIES The forces of the Crown are mostly provincial units, composed of colonists who have remained loyal to the King. Broadly speaking, these are fairly average units, with the exception of the South Carolina Royalists, who are a lit-

A map of the battlefield.

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Rawdon’s army appears from the woods. tle below par. The King’s army is represented by part of the harder-hitting 63rd Regiment of Foot and a Royal Artillery section. Some accounts list a unit of ‘convalescents’ as being present at the battle, and others mention light infantry. I have represented these as a small battalion of light infantry who may offer good service, having the morale of experienced redcoats, but lacking the ferocious charge ability. One unit of cavalry is available in the form of Major Coffin’s loyalist light dragoons, who were most likely a mounted part of the New York Volunteers, the rest of whom fought at the battle as infantry. Rawdon himself was a highly capable commander and is permitted a staff rating of 9, while his subordinates are a more conservative 7. All crown commanders do benefit from being ‘Aggressive’, as described in the Black Powder rulebook, which should help when on the attack.

given him the same. Hugar seems to me to have been a bit more of a plodder, so he has staff rating 7. All of the rebel commanders are classed as ‘Timid’ to reflect the confused nature of the defence they put up at the battle.

Greene’s rebel army includes four regiments of Continental troops, a mix of veterans and more recently-recruited men. These are the same Continental units who formed the reserve at Guilford Court House. At that battle, the 1st Maryland were very heavily engaged and the 2nd Maryland was routed. As the Continental regiments appear to have been somewhat exhausted by their experience at Guilford, I have rated them with an average set of abilities, but have inflicted the ‘Wavering’ rule upon them. At the real Battle of Hobkirk’s Hill, the 1st Maryland were routed, despite their reputation as a veteran, even elite, unit. The Virginia regiments suffered less at Guilford, but were slow to redeploy at Hobkirk’s Hill, so have been given the ‘Unreliable’ rule. The militia are typically awful, but Washington’s light dragoons are experienced and benefit from a 3+ morale save. Greene’s artillery is a half-battery of three guns, so they have a slight advantage over their opponent’s two-gun section. Otho Williams was a competent commander, so he has been awarded a staff rating of 8, and I have given Greene the benefit of the doubt and

The hill itself blocks line of sight, but has no further effect. Woods limit visibility to 6” and reduce all infantry and cavalry moves to 6”, but troops do not need to assume skirmish formation. Artillery is manhandled and cannot move through the woods. The swamp and creek are impassable for the purposes of this battle.

THE TERRAIN I fought this battle on an 8’ x 6’ table. Hobkirk’s Hill forms a long ridge stretching around five feet across the middle of the table, with its western flank against the table edge and its eastern end partly protected by a swampy area stretching away to a small creek. Much of the battlefield is covered in woods, which Rawdon used to keep his attack a secret from Greene. Most of the hill is clear terrain, apart from the western end. A road runs from north to south, crossing the hill just west of its centre. It has no effect on the game.

DEPLOYMENT Greene’s Continental infantry deploy on the hill with Virginians to the west, Marylanders to the east, and artillery in the centre. Kirkwood’s and Smith’s men can deploy south of the hill and east of the road in skirmish formation to act as a piquet line. The reserve of militia and cavalry are placed behind the Continentals, under Greene’s direct command. Rawdon’s forces deploy as shown on the map, Campbell’s men forming the first line with the 63rd towards the right. Robertson provides the reserve and covers the left flank with his cavalry and riflemen. Alternatively, Rawdon’s army may enter the battlefield from the start of the first

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FEATURE

turn, entering anywhere within 12” of the south-east corner of the battlefield in either column or line formation.

DETERMINING VICTORY D Victory is determined by break breaking the opposing army. Brigades are broken at the start of any turn when more than half of their units are broken or destroyed, and an army breaks once more than half of its brigades Marylanders: Greene’s elite. are broken. This means that

the rebels must break both of Rawdon’s brigades. This represents the ‘do-or-die’ situation the Crown forces increasingly experienced towards the end of the war.

OUTCOME On the day, Rawdon proved victorious and Greene’s army was swept from the field. The writing was on the wall for the Crown, however. Losses could not be replaced, even when battles were won, and illness was soon to rob the army of Rawdon’s tactical skill. The conflict in the Carolinas would rumble on and feature the last major battle of the war at Eutaw Springs. This would prove to be another unexpected Crown victory, but the war had been lost a long time before this. WS&S

UNIT STATS AND SPECIAL RULES The special rules mentioned here are exactly as described in the Black Powder rulebook. Crown Forces Unit

Type

Weapon

H-to-H

Sh

M

S

Special

Ferocious charge

Lord Rawdon (C-in-C), CV9, Aggressive Colonel Campbell, CV7, Aggressive 63rd Foot

INF

Musket

7

3

3+

3

King’s Americans

INF

Musket

6

3

4+

3

New York Volunteers

INF

Musket

6

3

4+

3

Provincial Light Infantry

INF

Musket

4

2

4+

2

Small unit, Skirmish

Royal Artillery

ART

Smoothbore Art.

1

2/2/1

3+

2

Range 48”

Colonel Robertson, CV7, Aggressive Volunteers of Ireland

INF

Musket

6

3

4+

3

South Carolina Royalists

INF

Musket

6

3

5+

3

Tory Riflemen

INF

Rifles

2

1

4+

1

Coffin’s NY Dragoons

CAV

Sabre

4

-

4+

2

Type

Weapon

H-to-H

Sh

M

S

Special

Tiny unit (must skirmish)

Rebel Forces Unit

Major-General Nathaneal Greene (C-in-C), CV8, Timid North Carolina Militia

INF

Musket

4

4

6

4

Large unit, Wavering

Washington’s Cavalry

CAV

Sabre

6

-

3+

3

Maurauders

Colonel Otho Williams, CV8, Timid 1st Maryland

INF

Musket

8

4

4+

4

Large unit, Wavering

2nd Maryland

INF

Musket

8

4

4+

4

Large unit, Wavering

Kirkwood’s Delaware Light Infantry

INF

Musket

4

2

3+

2

Small unit, Skirmish

Brigadier-General Isaac Hugar, CV7, Timid 4th Virginia

INF

Musket

8

4

4+

4

Large unit, Unreliable

5th Virginia

INF

Musket

8

4

4+

4

Large unit, Unreliable

Smith’s Light Infantry

INF

Musket

2

1

4+

1

Tiny unit (must skirmish)

Continental Artillery

ART

Smoothbore Art.

1

3/2/1

4+

2

H-to-H: Hand-to-hand, Sh: Shooting, M: Morale, S: Stamina

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FEATURE

By Sam Catteral

THE COLD WAR GONE WET

RIB RAIDER

Taking advantage of the outbreak of war in the Falkland Islands, Warsaw Pact forces have launched an assault through Germany. Caught unawares, NATO forces have been driven back to the borders of France, where they have stalled the Soviet advance. Thankfully, a conventional war has so far been fought, but as a stalemate develops, the threat of nuclear war becomes ever more real.

S

atellite surveillance has identified an isolated Krivak frigate in the Baltic Sea. It would appear to have an engine problem, as it is limping back towards the dockyards and has become isolated. The ship has been identified as the Svirepy (‘Fierce’), and intelligence suggests that the nephew of the Russian premier, Leonid Brezhnev, is a serving officer on board. The British Royal Navy has seen this as an opportunity not only to gain a tactical advantage, but also to strike a blow in the propaganda war by capturing Brezhnev’s nephew. A small strike force composed of Royal Marine Commandos supported by the Special Boat Squadron has been put together to conduct a daring raid in the dead of night. This scenario is based on Osprey’s Force on Force rules set and the Cold War Gone Hot supplement. It can of course be easily tweaked to fit Skirmish Sangin or the up and coming Black Ops.

ROYAL NAVY MISSION The small raiding force is led by Captain Daniel ‘Danny Boy’ Burton of 41 Commando. Comprising two sections of commandos and two SBS assault groups, the raiding force will use rigid raiders to approach the stern, from which they will launch their assault. The primary objective is for the force to recover the Soviet radio transmission code book, believed to be held in the radio room. Secondary objectives are to capture Brezhnev’s nephew and disable or destroy as many weapon systems as possible. Due to the confined environment on board, the commandos are equipped with SMGs. Fire support is provided by the command section, which has a sniper and gunner armed with a GPMG attached to them. The SBS have been given the responsibility of securing the upper decks, being armed with M16 assault rifles and explosives to take out the ship’s weapon systems.

ROYAL NAVAL FORCES Royal Marine Commando Attributes Initiative Level: D10 Confidence Level: High Supply Level: Normal

The Royal Marines approach the Svirepy. Body Armour: N/A Troop Quality/Morale: D8/D10 Unit Attributes/Assets: Stealthy; Night Vision SBS Attributes Initiative Level: D10 Confidence Level: High Supply Level: Normal Body Armour: N/A Troop Quality/Morale: D10/D10 Unit Attributes/Assets: Stealthy; Advanced First Aid Training; Night Vision Royal Marine Commando Command Section Capt. Burton, SMG 1 x Medic, SMG 1 x Sniper, sniper rifle 1 x Gunner, GPMG (Med. AP:2/ AT:0D) 4 x Royal Marine Commando Fire teams 1 x Squad Leader, SMG 3 x Commandos, SMG 2 x SBS Assault Groups 1 x Patrol Leader, M16 and explosives 3 x Troopers, M16 and explosives

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Sneaking past the guards… quietly does it!

Taking control of the bridge.

SOVIET MISSION

Soviet Naval Infantry Section Leader, AK 47 7 x Riflemen, AK 47s

After the initial success of the Soviet advance, NATO has rallied on the French border and its first major counterattack is expected at any time. Unfortunately, there has been a serious failure with the ship’s engines, meaning that speed is limited to a minimum. The crew must ensure that the security of the ship is maintained, whilst it makes its way to the nearest dockyard for repairs.

SOVIET FORCES Soviet Sailor Attributes Initiative Level: D8 Confidence Level: High Supply Level: Abundant Body Armour: N/A Troop Quality/Morale: D8/D6

SCENARIO INFORMATION: CODENAME BROADSWORD Duration of Game: 10 Turns Initiative: British, until the alarm is raised, then roll for initiative thereafter. Fog of War: Determined normally by Reaction Test rolls. A specific deck for the Fog of War has been created and is listed in the Special Rules section at the end of the scenario. Table Size: The Krivak! Not everyone will have a 28mm scale Krivak frigate handy, so we recommend drawing up deck plans on a large piece of paper (or two). We’ve guessed at the interior detail, as the actual internal deck plans are still a secret.

Soviet Naval Infantry Attributes Initiative Level: D8 Confidence Level: High Supply Level: Abundant Body Armour: N/A Troop Quality/Morale: D8/D8

Set-Up and Troop Deployments Prior to deploying any troops, six hot spots should be placed on the board. One of these should be placed in the crew quarters and another in the mess. Players roll a D6 for each of the remaining four hot spots. The player rolling highest chooses where to place them. If placed on an open deck, the hot spot marker must be placed adjacent to an appropriate access point, such as a door or hatch. Each hot spot should be clearly numbered 1-6 and deployment of troops from these hot spots is explained in the Special Rules below. The British Force must have two fire teams, still deployed in

Soviet Forces – Soviet Sentries 2 x Pair of ship’s crew sentries, AK 47s 4 x static, single ship’s crew sentry, AK 47s Soviet Forces – Ship’s Crew Section 8 x crew, AK 47s

VICTORY POINT TABLES Royal Navy Victory Points

Soviet Victory Points

Soviet code book recovered

5pts

Soviet code book secure

5pts

Brezhnev’s nephew captured

5pts

Brezhnev’s nephew safe

5pts

5 or more weapon systems damaged

3pts

Less than 5 weapon systems damaged

3pts

Each Soviet crew member KIA

1pt

Each Commando or SBS wounded/KIA

1/2pt

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FEATURE

The bow, central section and stern of the Svirepy. the rigid raiders at the ship’s stern. At the start of the second turn, these fire teams may be placed up to 6” on board the ship, measured from the back edge of the stern. The remaining British troops may be deployed up to 9” in from the stern. The Soviets only deploy the sentries at the start of the game, and they must be placed on an open deck. Static sentries are deployed individually; they must be at least 9” apart and remain at these posts until the alarm is raised. (See the Special Rules section at the end of the scenario.) No sentry may be deployed in the British deployment zone. The paired sentries are mobile. Each player rolls their initiative die and the player rolling highest chooses where to deploy the sentry team. These may be as close to a static sentry as you wish, but must be at least 9” from one another. Special Rules The scenario is set at night so the Night Fight rules should be used. Fog of War The following cards were used to make up the Fog of War deck. These cards and their descriptions can be found in the core Force on Force rule book and the Cold War supplement: 2 x Excellent Position 1 x Crack On 2 x Man Down 2 x Amped Up 1 x It’s a Bad Day to Die 1 x It’s a Good Day to Die 1 x That’s the Victoria Cross, Right There! (‘That’s the Medal of Honour Right There’ in the rule book) 1 x Fire! Fire! 2 x What’s this wall made of? Swiss cheese? 2 x Mad Minute A set will be downloadable from the Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy website (http://www.wssmagazine.com/rib_cards).

Sentries Only the Soviet sentries are above decks and only the paired sentries move about the decks. The paired sentries patrol the decks in an anti-clockwise direction moving at Tactical Movement speed. Sentries may attempt to spot the British troops and normal rules apply. Once the alarm is raised, sentries may move to join up with one another to make up a fire team/section. Raising the Alarm As the British troops do not have suppressed weapons, they can only silently kill a sentry in hand-to-hand combat. All sentries involved in the combat must be put down as casualties to do this, otherwise the alarm is raised. Similarly, if a sentry is shot at, the alarm is raised, even if the sentry (or sentries) targeted are put down as a casualty. The location of dead sentries should be marked, and if another sentry patrol moves within optimum range (remember that this is halved, as the Night Fighting rules are in play), they will raise the alarm. Hot Spot Reinforcement Points Once the alarm has been raised, Soviet reinforcements start to arrive. Each turn, the reinforcements arrive via one of the hot spots. The Soviets have only one Naval Infantry section available to them; so when the reinforcements begin to arrive, roll a D6 – on a 5+ the reinforcements will be the Naval Infantry; otherwise they are a section of ship’s crew. If the first two sections are ship’s crew, the Naval Infantry will automatically be the next set of reinforcements to arrive. Six hot spots should be located on the ship (see ‘Set-Up and Troop Deployments’). The Soviet player rolls a D8 to determine the particular hot spot from which the reinforcements arrive – on a 1-6, they arrive from the appropriate hot spot; on a roll of 7, the Soviet player chooses the hot spot; and on a roll of 8, the British player chooses. Hot spots may be neutralized as normal.

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The Code Book One of the rooms on board should be designated as the radio room, and this is where the code book can be recovered from. To find the book, a fire team must have at least one of its models end its move inside this room, and the only action that that fire team may take is to search the room. Roll a troop quality die; on a 4+ the code book has been found. Should a fire team find the book and subsequently have all of its team members KIA, mark the position where this happened, as this is where the code book can now be recovered from. Brezhnev’s Nephew The ship needs to have clearly identified officers’ quarters for the British forces to search for Brezhnev’s nephew. There are two ways to identify which quarters the nephew occupies. If the British forces have troops in the bridge, the Soviet player must identify the quarters where the nephew can be found; otherwise, they must search each of the officers’ quarters for him. Troops must enter the quarters and spend an action to search it. The first time this is done, roll a D8; on a 7+ you have found the nephew and taken him prisoner. If not, follow the same procedure when searching other quarters, but there is a +1 bonus to the die roll for each search already carried out (i.e. the second search is on a roll of D8+1, the third D8+2, and so on). The nephew will remain a prisoner whilst there is at least one British model in base-to-base contact with him. The Soviet forces will not fire on any squad that has taken the nephew prisoner, for fear of hitting him with friendly fire. They may make an assault, and if they do so, the nephew will contribute a die of the relevant value to their combat pool. Damaging the Weapons Systems The Krivak has a total of seven weapons systems on the open decks. These are:

1 × 4 URK-5 SSM/ASW missile 2 × Surface-to-Air Missile systems (40 missiles) 4 × 76mm guns (2×2) housed in two turrets 2 x RBU-6000 Anti-Submarine rockets 2 × 4 533mm deck-mounted torpedo tubes The SBS troops are equipped with explosives that can be used to damage any of the weapons systems. In order to set the explosives, a model must end in base contact with the weapons system and take no other action, such as shooting, in order to set the explosives. The British player may choose when the explosion is triggered. It’s a ‘button job’, and this can be done either as an action by the team that set the explosive in their turn or as a reaction to an opponent’s attempt to disable the charge. The location of each explosive charge should be marked when placed. The explosives have a firepower value of 4D8 and all of the weapons systems are considered to be light military fortifications, so they have a building defence strength of 3D8. Follow the rules for destroying building to see if the weapons systems are damaged (core rule book, page 58). The Soviet player may attempt to disable these charges. To do this, they must end their movement in base-to-base contact and do nothing else, such as shooting. Roll a troop quality die; on a 4+ the charge has been disabled. However, on a roll of 1, the charge has been set off; roll to damage the weapons system, and also make separate rolls for each unit within 4” of the charge that can draw a line-of-sight to the charge. Remember that the charge has a firepower value of 4D8. WS&S Anyone familiar with the TV series The Last Ship will have a tingling sensation running down their spine reading this scenario. It’s just like episode 8 of series 1...

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FEATURE

By Roy Fitzsimmons & Walter Morrison

MONTROSE’S CAMPAIGNS IN SCOTLAND, PART 2

THE BATTLE OF AULDEARN Auldearn offers a twist on the classic encounter battle. Although often claimed as Montrose’s greatest victory, its result changed little in the course of the campaign and was a closer run affair than most texts would lead you to believe. When we started out, many years ago, to recreate this battle, little did we know that many of our assumptions would be challenged, as we dug deeper into the literature around the battle and the Wars of the Three Kingdoms in general.

T

his article aims to describe the battle as we understand it. From this, we describe the order of battle and potential mechanisms to allow a game to be played, in which both sides have the potential for victory.

CONTACT After the Battle of Inverlochy (see WS&S 74), Montrose struggled to disengage himself from his pursuers, but Baillie also failed to bring him to battle. Baillie then split his forces, giving Sir John Hurry command of the northern army whilst retiring to Perth. Baillie then struck north and almost caught Montrose at Crieff, forcing the Royalists to retreat once more into the Highlands. As Montrose pulled his forces together on Deeside, Hurry ravaged the Gordon lands in the north. He raised additional forces from local regiments, militias (‘fencibles’), and clan levies, many of whom had seen their lands subjected to the ravages of the marauding Royalists. Montrose knew he had to deal with Hurry, as his harrowing of the Gordon territory (a major source of Royalist recruits and provisions) prevented him from taking the war south. Hurry also wanted to force Montrose to join with him in open battle, but only when the Government forces were concentrated in sufficient strength. They would meet on 9 May at Auldearn. The principal road through Auldearn ran north-south through the village. Hurry had travelled along this route from Inverness, but significantly had decided to leave the road and strike across country to allow his army to descend on Auldearn from the open land in the west. As his troops approached, they cleared their weapons of damp powder in preparation for the coming battle.

“For want of which intelligence, if God had not prevented it beyond all expectation, all ther throates had bein cutt.” — Ruthven

As Hurry closed in, Montrose’s force was widely dispersed, most likely billeted in local crofts or foraging in the surrounding area. Only MacColla’s veteran lifeguard and Gordon of Monymore’s untested Highland regulars were to hand. The shots from the advancing Covenanters must have come as a shock to Montrose (who, throughout his campaign, was repeatedly caught off-guard). Hurry’s advance through the open country may have bypassed the scouts on the Inverness road, but it is also possible that Montrose neglected to deploy an effective picket line.

“The major; who, for all his dilligence, could hardly get two regiments drawen wpe, on of the Irishes, and on of Huntlie, when the enemie wer com in sight.” — Ruthven Hurry’s force advanced from the west, across the broad whaleback ridge of Garlic Hill. MacColla and Monymore deployed across their path, amongst turf-walled farm enclosures, fighting a delaying action to buy Montrose precious time to muster his ill-prepared forces. The heavily outnumbered Royalists were forced back, but the Government forces were unable to bring their superior numbers to bear. The marshy areas on either side of Garlic Hill appear to have forced the fighting into a narrow frontage and only Hurry’s leading elements were able to engage the Royalists.

“The enemie, coming wp two regiments in a full body, flanked with horsemen, did charge the major in that deficult place.” — Ruthven Campbell of Lawers’ veteran infantry regiment engaged in a brutal firefight with MacColla’s lifeguard, repeatedly slaying the ensigns holding aloft MacColla’s yellow banner. As the hard-pressed Royalists withdrew off Garlic Hill, Hurry held

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Hurry’s army bears down on Auldearn.

The Earl of Lothians Pike march to battle.

his men in check, preventing a pursuit into Auldearn. Hurry’s reluctance to press home the advantage suggests he realized that he was not facing all of Montrose’s forces. By keeping the majority of his force on the hard-won high ground, Hurry may have been uncertain of where and when Montrose would commit his reserves, as well as recognizing the need to reorder his force prior to an assault on the village. Hurry’s caution may reflect a professional respect for Montrose as an adversary, but coupled with a lack of good intelligence, it led him to misjudge the Royalists’ somewhat desperate situation.

foothold amongst the turf enclosures on Garlic Hill. Lawers, forced to retire, reformed and supported by Loudoun’s Regiment, advanced once more on the Royalists. The two regiments, flanked by supporting horse and supported by indirect bow-fire from Seaforth’s Highlanders, once more succeeded in forcing MacColla back into the village, but this time, they were able to pursue the Irish into the lanes of Auldearn.

“So, efter a brave and long maintained resistance, (MacColla) is forced a reteir to som yeards of the town, and from thence to keipe them of with counteinuall shot, which a little quealed ther force.” — Ruthven IN THE BALANCE MacColla took up a defensive position within Auldearn and its surrounding enclosures. As Lawers committed his men forward, the marshy ground separating Garlic Hill from Auldearn slowed their advance. Within the village, MacColla and Monymore were reinforced by the arrival of fresh elements of the Irish regiments. As the leading Covenanter regiments prepared to advance on the village, with Lawers again on the front line, Monymore took up position on the crest of Castle Hill. The Covenanter advance stalled as they negotiated the boggy ground to emerge on the steep slopes and enclosures of Auldearn. Here they encountered a galling fire from the Irish in the village and the Gordons on their flank. Seizing the initiative, MacColla counter-attacked with the Irish, but soon became bogged down in the same marshy ground that had slowed the Covenanter advance. In fact, the ground beneath Castle Hill was so broken that Monymore could not advance at all. After more fierce fighting, the Irish regained a

“and altho (MacColla) was forced to quyt his ground, yet this brave and valorous gentlman keipt his secund retreat still in a pouster of defence.” — Ruthven Vicious hand-to-hand fighting raged in the houses and backcourts, whilst musket fire undoubtedly played along the flanks of the engagement. Highland tradition vividly describes the desperate struggle within the confines of the village, as the two forces became intermingled. Unable to bring his cavalry to bear, Hurry pushed forward additional infantry to support the battle, perhaps hoping to finally break Monymore’s obstinate defence on Castle Hill and allow his superior numbers to swamp MacColla and the Irish. However, the terrain once again prevented Hurry from capitalizing on his numerical advantage.

THE PIVOT With the battle now grinding towards a Covenanter victory, Hurry became fixated on the force to his front and neglected the danger posed by his lengthy exposed flanks. Perhaps, given that the fighting had gone on all morning and into the early afternoon, Hurry believed that all Royalist forces were now engaged. While Hurry’s leading regiment was engaged in house- to-house fighting in the village, the majority of his force sat idle on the slopes of Garlic Hill. In the meantime, Montrose had been gathering the rest of his forces to the east of Auldearn, screened from Hurry by the hill upon which Auldearn was built. Rather than feed them into the confused fighting within the village, Mon-

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FEATURE

The Irish Brigade repulse the Covenanters from the village.

Strathbogie attack the Seaforths.

trose directed his reserves to the north and south, to fall upon the flanks of the Covenanter army on Garlic Hill.

died hard around their standards, their retreat cut off by the marauding Royalist cavalry to their rear.

First contact came from the south, where Aboyne’s horse attacked the Covenanters’ right flank. Screened by the smoke of battle, Aboyne’s troopers surprised Drummond’s horse, placed on the right by Hurry to support his infantry. Whether through treachery, miscommunication, or just incompetence, Drummond reacted by wheeling his troop into the flank of Seaforth’s Highlanders. In the ensuing disorder, Aboyne drove the two regiments back into their supporters with much slaughter.

“Lovdonis regiment, the Lavthean regiment, Laeris regiment, and Buchannanis regiment (…) ar for the most pairt cut af, fighting to the death most valiauntlie.” — Spalding

“Wherefor (Aboyne) fales in vpon the right winge, (…) and they receive his charge with such a conteinuall giveing of fyre, as he semed, by the thick smok throw which he went, to asalt a terrible cloud of thunder and lightening.” — Ruthven As panic spread, the veteran Covenanter regiments in the village disengaged and withdrew back to Garlic Hill, as Hurry tried to restore order. However, Lord Gordon’s horse now emerged from behind Castle Hill and, moving at the charge, made short shrift of the flanking Covenanter cavalry and fell upon Lawers’ retiring infantry.

“My lord Gordon by this time charges the left winge, and that with a new form of fight, for he discharges all shootting of pistoles and carrabines, only with ther swords to charge quyt throwgh ther enemies, who wer so many in number (…)” — Ruthven With their leading regiments now hard-pressed, the Covenanters watched in horror as Strathbogie’s fresh regiment of foot emerged from the southern end of Auldearn and the remains of MacColla’s command debouched from Auldearn. Hurry tried to stem this advance with Loudoun’s and Lothian’s foot. However, these veterans of Ireland, perhaps singled out for their history of campaigning in Ulster,

With his best regiments fighting on, despite being surrounded, Hurry realized the battle was lost and fled southwards, intending to retire on Inverness. However, the road was covered by Royalist troopers (who, in the confusion, had actually set about one another), who offered little quarter to the fleeing Covenanters. Seeing this danger, Hurry turned to the west, retreating across the River Nairn at Howford.

“Thair wes reknit to be slayne heir at this bloodie battel aboue 2000 men to Hurry.” — Spalding AFTERMATH To all intents and purposes, Hurry’s army was destroyed. His less experienced regiments had scattered and his veterans were savaged. However, the toll was high on the Royalist side, with over 200 slain, including 24 officers, and likely a greater number of wounded. The following day, Montrose retired rather than pursuing Hurry, marching the remains of his army towards the Gordon fiefdoms in the east. Along the way, Montrose’s men harried the lands of the local earls who had raised the regiments in support of Hurry.

“It is to be considderit, that Montross, his capitans, and soldiouris, wan this victorie with gryt gloir of armis”. — Spalding THE GAME There are many appropriate rule systems for the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. We have chosen to use Warlord’s Black Pow-

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der, as described in the Pike & Shotte supplement. At first, Auldearn seemed like a reasonable proposition for a wargame. However, looking at other descriptions of tabletop refights, it became apparent that three factors are often overlooked – the influence of terrain, the timing of action, and the quality of the troops. In games, the table is often too open, the troop quality is skewed with Royalist supermen, and the cavalry always come to the rescue. This raises the question of how to build a balanced game, where both sides are capable of gaining something from the conflict. In reality, the outcome of this battle was not a foregone conclusion, and for a critical period in the village, shortly after noon, the Royalists were effectively beaten.

THE TABLE The terrain in this part of Nairnshire is a series of sandy, rolling hills, which decrease in elevation from the Grampian plateau in the south to the coast in the north. The battlefield is dominated by the ridge of Garlic Hill, which points east towards the heart of Auldearn. The village sits on high ground with two prominent heights, the westernmost being the old motte of Erin’s castle (Auld-Erin) and the second being crowned by the kirk. The seventeenth-century town did not extend to the south and east as far as it does today, but the ground had enough elevation to block line-of-sight for any great distance to the east, even from the summit of Garlic Hill. Thus, the topography was generally T-shaped, with Garlic Hill forming the trunk beneath the cross-bar of the Auldearn-dominated ridge. As regards table lay-out, at its simplest, the terrain should have two large hills, with Garlic Hill separated from the Auldearn ridge by a narrow, boggy valley. Auldearn village should be set up towards the northern part of the ridge. Garlic Hill was not as open in the seventeenth century as it is today. Much of it was covered by small enclosures, utilized by the Royalists to mount their defence. Other parts of the hill were undeveloped, with patches of thick gorse. These days, the terrain is well-drained, yet in the seventeenth century, the local streams were poorly confined and associated with broad areas of boggy marsh. Two streams flowed around Garlic Hill, coming together at the base of Castle Hill. As such, Garlic Hill was almost completely surrounded by marshy

ground. The narrow area of boggy ground and the steep slopes of Auldearn, combined to provide MacColla’s Thermopylae, was likely a critical factor in the Covenanters being unable to maximize their strength in numbers. As well as the marsh areas, the streams themselves must have presented significant local obstacles. The present-day Covenanters Inn is partially constructed from the old water mill, indicating that the stream here must have been deep and fast enough to drive this. Auldearn village was characterized by multiple small enclosures (‘yeards’), so numerous fence lines should also be added. The two high points of Auldearn Hill should be crowned by the Doocoot and the Kirk, respectively. In the case of the former, enough open space should be provided to allow for (Monymore’s) shotte units to deploy. Multiple tracks can be modelled, but the only known main road was the one from Inverness, which skirted around the south of Garlic Hill, entering Auldearn from the south. The current road from Nairn cuts through the northern marsh area and was probably not a major artery before drainage. Outside of the village, on well-drained ground, small copses of trees can be added, but the hills were generally open with the exception of occasional patches of gorse and local turf-walled enclosures. In the Pike & Shotte rules, terrain is thus classified as follows. Streams, fences, and turf-walled enclosures are linear obstacles; marsh and gorse patches are rough ground; tracks and fords through streams or marshes are open, with no movement penalties for troops deployed in column formation. Hills, buildings, and woods will all obscure line-of-sight.

DEPLOYMENT The game begins with MacColla’s lifeguard and Monymore’s regiment on Garlic Hill, facing the might of the advancing Covenanter army, arriving on the western board edge. Unless engaged in mêlée, the Royalists can retire towards Auldearn whenever they choose, using the ‘Fall Back’ rule. In the early stages of the battle, the Covenanters will be better placed to bring their numbers to bear on the central section of Garlic Hill, with only low turf dykes providing defensive positions for the hard-pressed Royalists. As the battle progressed and MacColla retreated, the available deployment width on Garlic Hill into Auldearn will be reduced to a narrow frontage, such that only a single regiment can directly assault the village. This reflects the fact that only Lawers’ regiment could enter Auldearn and their support was from the Seaforths, firing arrows indirectly. Montrose was able to assemble his scattered regiments behind Auldearn and then choose when and where he was going to deploy them. If Hurry had cleared the village, Montrose would not have had this critical advantage. All troop deployment behind the Auldearn ridge should be hidden.

Map of the battlefield.

Scattered Royalist units joining the fighting from outlying billets will be treated as reserves. Royalist reserves arrive from the start of Turn 4, in the following order at approximately one regiment per turn:

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FEATURE

• • • •

flank, encouraging the Royalist to commit his reserve at a time of maximum disruption in the Government lines. Flanking units are deployed at the start of the move and can participate in the turn.

Turn 4. The Irish Regiments Turn 6. Aboyne’s Horse Turn 7. Gordon Horse Turn 8. The Strathbogie Regiment

If the Covenanters seize the high ground in Auldearn village or clear the village itself, all Royalist reserves must arrive on the eastern table edge and cannot move that turn.

However, to reflect Montrose’s tactical counterstroke, the regiments need not be deployed until they are ready to advance, reflecting Montrose nursing his reserves for his counterstroke. Additionally, if the regiment is ‘held’ for at least one turn, the Royalist player can deploy them on either flank.

TIMING By most accounts, the battle lasted all day. The distinct phases, described above, were separated by pauses, as both sides took stock and redressed their formations. For the majority of the day, only a small percentage of Hurry’s force was engaged.

To prevent the Covenanter player being overly prepared for their arrival, the closest two units to the flanking reserves must take an immediate break test. This should only occur once per

ORDER OF BATTLE FOR AULDEARN Royalist Army

Troop Type

Actual Pike:Shot Numbers Ratio

No. of Pike

Unit size

No. of Shot

Unit Size

Unit Quality

FOOT Strathbogie Regiment

Pike & Shot

400

2:3

16

Standard

2x12

2xStandard

Trained

William Gordon of Monymore’s Regt

Pike & Shot

300

1:3

8

Small

2x12

2xStandard

Trained

Irish Companies

Pike & Shot

300

1:3

8

Small

2x12

2xStandard

Veteran

Irish Companies

Pike & Shot

300

1:3

8

Small

2x12

2xStandard

Veteran

Lifeguard

140

—

14

Standard

—

—

Veteran

Lord Gordon’s Horse

Cavalry

200

—

20

Large

—

—

Trained

Viscount Aboyne’s Cavalry

Cavalry

400

—

20

Large

—

—

Trained

No. of Pike

Unit size

No. of Shot

Unit Size

Unit Quality

MacColla’s Lifeguard HORSE

Covenanter Army

Troop Type

Actual Pike:Shot Numbers Ratio

REGULAR FOOT Laird of Buchanan’s Foot

Commanded Shot

200

—

20

Large

—

—

Trained

Sir Mungo Campbell of Lawers’ Regt

Pike & Shot

400

2:3

16

Standard

2x12

2xStandard

Veteran

Loudon’s Regt (Lord Chancellor)

Pike & Shot

400

2:3

16

Standard

2x12

2xStandard

Veteran

Earl of Lothian’s Regt

Pike & Shot

400

2:3

16

Standard

2x12

2xStandard

Veteran

Earl of Findlater’s Regt

Pike & Shot

300

1:1

16

Standard

2x8

2xSmall

Trained

Earl of Seaforth’s Regt

Pike & Shot

500

1:1

24

Large

2x12

2xStandard

Raw

Earl of Sutherland’s Regt

Pike & Shot

500

1:1

24

Large

2x12

2xStandard

Raw

Northern Levies

PIke & Shot

300

1:1

16

Standard

2x8

2xSmall

Raw

Sir James Halkett’s Horse

Cavalry

160

—

12

Standard

—

—

Trained

Major Drummond’s Horse

Cavalry

100

—

12

Standard

—

—

Trained

Campbell of Lawers’ Troop

Cavalry

30

—

4

Tiny

—

—

Trained

LEVIES

HORSE

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The Irish Brigade counter attack.

Gordon Horse smash the Covenanter line.

Additionally, it was only late in the day that Montrose had assembled all his forces for his counterstroke.

power. Conversely, Hurry additionally had some untested regiments (Seaforth’s, Sutherland’s, and the northern levies), which should be given the ‘Freshly Raised’ special rule.

If Hurry had captured Auldearn, Montrose could never have launched his surprise attack. If MacColla had held up Hurry longer on Garlic Hill, or Montrose had assembled his troops earlier, the battle may have occurred on the hill. To reflect the protracted nature of the struggle and the hiatuses between the various episodes, each side is allowed to call a tactical pause for one turn. During this pause, no shooting or mêlée is allowed, but rallying can be resolved and movement/redeployment can occur. This will encourage Hurry to push forward while giving Montrose some respite from the overwhelming odds. Given the relatively small numbers involved at Auldearn, it is possible to achieve a roughly 1:10 ratio for figures, which can work well for 28mm models on a 6’ x 8’ table. Unit size is an important parameter in Pike & Shotte, where units are classified as tiny, small, standard, or large. This not only reflects the physical size (frontage and number of models) but also the fighting ability, with size modifying the basic unit stat line. In terms of troop quality and unit stat line, it is relatively easy to construct the forces at Auldearn from the list included in the book. However, as with many rule systems, Montrose’s forces are represented as Gaelic supermen, whilst those of the Government are relatively bland. For the Royalist army, the Irish regiments and MacColla’s lifeguard can be used as listed in the Pike & Shotte rulebook. Here they have a strong stat line, which makes them more than a match for any single standard Covenanter unit. The regiments of Strathbogie and Monymore are regular Highland regiments and can be fielded as basic Scots infantry. As Monymore’s regiment was newly raised, it should be given the ‘Freshly Raised’ special rule. The Covenanter regiments were a little more diverse in quality than the lists provided in Pike & Shotte. Hurry’s experienced regiments (Lawers’, Lothian’s, and Loudoun’s) gave a good account of themselves on the day and should be rated accordingly. Therefore, rating them as veterans and giving them the ‘Valiant’, ‘Stubborn’, and ‘Elite’ 4+ special rules should give them some staying

Scottish horse, in most rules for the period, commonly gets unfairly downgraded, as these were not commoners mounted on ponies. Neither is there evidence to distinguish the Royalist horse from their Covenanter counterparts. At Auldearn and Kilsyth, the Royalists benefitted from surprise and terrain, whilst at Alford, in an open fight, they performed no better or worse. We suggest that the basic Covenanter horse stat line be applied to the cavalry of both forces, but that the Royalist horse is given the ‘Marauders’ special rule, allowing them more tactical independence. Numeric superiority and surprise should see the Royalist cavalry perform well on the table. Drummond’s blunder may have been the catalyst for the Covenanter collapse and, as such, this unit can be burdened with a -1 on all motivational tests, reflecting the incompetence, cowardice, or collusion of its commander. Brigade commanders, at a minimum, should consist of Montrose and MacColla for the Royalists and Hurry and Mackenzie for the Covenanters. One additional brigade commander may be added to free Hurry and Montrose for a broader battlefield role as general, if felt appropriate. Both Montrose and MacColla need little introduction and should be rated 10 and 9, respectively. Hurry was an experienced mercenary soldier of dubious loyalty, but should be rated 9, as he showed unwavering loyalty to his paymasters at Auldearn. George Mackenzie, Earl of Seaforth, was a fair-weather supporter of the Covenant and of uncertain loyalty. A rating of 6 should ensure that he has a dragging effect on the Government force, perhaps creating a few blunders along the way. WS&S The third part of this article, ‘Montrose’s campaigns in Scotland – After Auldearn’, will be in a future issue of WS&S.

FURTHER READING Primary and secondary source material is collated on the Project Auldearn blog (auldearn1645.blogspot.com). Also included are summaries of the dramatis personae, the units involved, painting schemes, and photographs of the battlefield.

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THEME

By Mark Backhouse

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR

PLANTAGENET VERSUS VALOIS

S

ome revisionist historians have taken this even further, arguing that the origins of the war should be traced back to the formation of the ‘Auld Alliance’ between France and Scotland in the late thirteenth century and William Wallace’s rebellion, as well as Flemish rebellions in the Low Countries at the start of the fourteenth century. Arguments also persist about the ending of the war, with the view that the later Burgundian Wars and the Wars of the Roses were all part of the same ongoing conflict. Despite early successes under Edward III, who won decisive victories at Sluys (1340), Crécy (1346), and Poitiers (1356), and later under Henry V at Agincourt (1415), the war swung in the French favour in the fifteenth century. Inspired by the famous Joan of Arc at Orléans (1429), the French fought back, defeating the English at Formigny (1450) and Castillon (1453) and pushing them out of Gascony. This left the English with Calais as their only foothold on the European mainland. The war had a dramatic impact on the Lancastrian dynasty in England and was a contributing factor in undermining support for Henry VI, leading to the Wars of the Roses in England, a thirty-year period of dynastic upheaval. (Hopefully, this will become a theme for a further issue.) The war is probably best remembered for the iconic English longbowmen, winning dramatic victories against heavily armoured French knights. Certainly, the late medieval longbow was a very powerful weapon, able to shoot a large volume of arrows a considerable distance. It played a critical role at Crécy and Agincourt in breaking up the French charge. However, on their own, longbows were vulnerable and needed favourable terrain and supporting men-at-arms to make them invincible. Again, revisionist historians have started to question the dramatic importance of the longbow, and there has been a trend to move away from the superweapon of Victorian literature. When caught unprepared, such as at Patay (1429), the French mounted knights slaughtered the English archers. Developments in armour also moved quickly in reac-

tion to new weapons. From a gamer’s point of view, this can cause problems for the purist, as the knights at the start of the war would look completely out of place in later actions, as the fashion changed with alarming speed.

© Georgie Harman

The Hundred Years War is something of a historian’s invention. In reality, it encompassed a series of wars between the House of Plantagenet in England and the House of Valois in France, with various allies drawn into the conflict on both sides. Gascony and Burgundy supported the English, while Castile and Scotland supported the French. Starting in 1337 and ending in 1453, these wars really lasted for a span of 116 years, which does not quite have the same ring to it!

Probably of equal significance in the war was the development of the cannon. The French development of artillery gave them French Knight circa 1400. a startling new advantage and allowed them to capture English fortifications after a few days’ bombardment, which in earlier years might have required months of siege. Artillery also played a key role at Castillon, the final battle of the ‘official’ war, where Talbot’s charge was raked by gunfire from prepared positions and Talbot himself was unhorsed by a cannonball and finished off by a lowly French archer with an axe! So, what does the Hundred Years War offer to the wargamer? Was it simply a matter of impetuous French charges against outnumbered English archers? Certainly, such charges were a repeated feature in several of the set-piece battles, but it was much more varied than this. Much of the war was made up of chevauchée raids deep into enemy territory. These were designed to wreak havoc amongst the opposing populace, using terror and pillaging to undermine the authority of the ruling monarch, too weak to defend his own people. The ‘Great Chevauchée’ of 1373, led by John of Gaunt, travelled through Champagne, Burgundy, and

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across the Massif Central, before moving down the Dordogne. Such a raid would make for an interesting campaign, in which a series of interconnected battles can be gamed. The chevauchée did not always go to plan. Henry V was fortunate to pull off a victory at Agincourt, after his raid from Harfleur to Calais went badly awry and his supplies ran short, compounded by attacks of dysentery amongst his troops. The colours of the Hundred Years War are also something it’s hard to get tired of. Heraldry had developed considerably and, by this time, all of the leading nobles on both sides had distinctive coats of arms. From the gamer’s perspective, this can be a blessing and a curse. For the artistic and historically minded, this is an opportunity to have every man-at-arms represent a distinctive individual. Publications by groups like the Lance and Longbow Society will be a blessing for those gamers! For those of us who are less artistically minded, we are fortunate to see some impressive heraldic transfers reaching the market, meaning that a gloriously colourful battle of knights can be achieved without breaking sweat. When you get bored of the French and English, the opportunities for collecting varied and interesting armies from the supporting countries will maintain anyone’s interests. The Scots fought the English repeatedly throughout the period, both in their own at battles, like Homildon Hill (1402), or with the French, as at Verneuil (1424). The colourful jinetes of Castile will make an unconventional opponent for your English troops, and the campaign led by the Black Prince in support of Pedro the Cruel, as well as the conflict between Castile and Portugal, make for an interesting diversion. Likewise, the Flemish, Bretons, Gascons, and Burgundians mean that the possibilities are endless. In addition, the Free Companies acted as soldiers of fortune during these years and often formed small armies in their own right, led by charismatic captains like Sir John Hawkwood. These travelled as far as Italy, intent on raiding and plundering during times of relative peace in the main conflict. The Hundred Years War was not just made up of set-piece battles. Sieges played a critical role in the wars, and the success of the French in these was a key factor in helping them to defeat the English. We know of over 350 sieges during the period, and in 1356, the same year as Poitiers, there were seven alone! Sieges are often ignored by gamers as being too slow for a normal game, but the use of undermining and, in later battles, cannons means that some interesting actions can be refought. The Siege of Orléans provides us with a wealth of scenarios that could be made into an outstanding club campaign with half a dozen players.

King Henry V and retinue. © Front Rank

Sea battles also played a significant role in the war. While Sluys is probably the best known of these, naval raids were commonplace and carried out by both sides with brutality. The English did not

get it entirely their own way at sea, losing a major engagement at the Pointe Saint-Mathieu against the Bretons in 1403. (More on the consequences of this in the ‘Blackpool Sands’ article in this magazine.) Another costly English defeat was suffered at the hands of the Castilians at La Rochelle (1372), and a costly victory was achieved against the French on the River Seine in 1416. These offer a really interesting alter- For Harry and St George! native to naval games from later periods and present a considerable challenge. The use of galleys, cogs, and caravels make for varied fleets, and the slowly emerging guns did not dominate naval battles yet. Instead, a combination of archery, flaming pots, and good oldfashioned boarding played the key to victory. The wind also played a critical role in these battles and should punish naval gamers even more harshly than in battles of later periods. Many gamers enjoy a good film to enthuse them further. The Hundred Years War is not too heavily featured on the big screen, but there have been some notable exceptions. Henry V has been made into several impressive films. The 1944 version starring Laurence Olivier has a pretty spectacular Agincourt scene, but the mud and horror of the 1989 version starring Kenneth Branagh certainly sticks in my mind. Joan of Arc has also featured in several films. Michael Crichton’s 2003 time-travel film Timeline centres around the Hundred Years War and, despite the science fiction plot, is worth a watch. Several TV dramas have also used the war as a backdrop, notably the BBC2 series The Hollow Crown (2012). For those keener on literature than cinema, several popular and readable histories of the wars have been written, notably by Juliet Barker. If you seek a more academic interpretation of the wars, then Kelly DeVries has written a number of articles that will really challenge your preconceptions. Many of these are available free online, and he also writes regularly for our sister publication Medieval Warfare. If you are interested in skirmish games for the period, a fun set like Osprey’s Lion Rampant will capture the warfare of retinues, raids, and plundering very effectively. For bigger games, you will probably be better off using Warlord’s Hail Caesar, Fields of Glory, or War and Conquest, or Simon Miller’s To the Strongest. The scale you use will largely be decided by your wallet and the amount of storage and playing space you have. I have gamed them in several different scales and all have their merits. Whichever you choose, have fun! WS&S The more recent Luc Besson film The Messenger: The story of Joan of Arc, starring Milla Jovovich, is probably best watched with popcorn in hand and history left well at the door!

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By Rob Broom

WARGAMING THE BATTLE OF AGINCOURT

MUD, BLOOD,

AND STEEL A

ll the time, the English longbowmen poured arrow after arrow towards them, turning the sky dark, as if clouds were whizzing overhead. And the French continued to fall by the score. On their arrival at the English line, the press of men caused the death toll to rise still further. The slaughter, the mud, and the blood had much in common with the battlefields of France 500 years later. Despite this imaginative prose, at first glance, Agincourt is a difficult battle to game. Make it too easy for the French, who outnumbered the English by at least three-to-one, and the English will be swept away. Impose a difficult journey for the French and the game becomes dull, as they struggle forwards, being shot to pieces by the longbows of England. However, the battle was a close run thing and a defining moment of history. Therefore, as wargamers, we want to fight this kind of battle, to see history done or to change it. So raise the oriflamme for France, or cry out for England, “Saint George, this day thyn helpe!” – and do battle!

RULES FOR WARGAMING

© Georgie Harman

Agincourt is a battle that gives us some iconic imagery and, for those on the English side, an epic tale of overcoming the odds and gaining a great victory. After a bold redeployment by the English, the French cavalry, too few and beset by petty jealousies, failed to break the enemy line. Behind them, the French men-at-arms trudged stubbornly on foot across an ever muddying field, which was rapidly becoming littered with corpses.

The following topics should be considered when wargaming Agincourt and have been inspired by the battle to recreate the main challenges of the action itself. The majority of rules sets should have the flexibility to enable you to create the various points by simple amendments or addi- King Henry V of England. tions. War & Conquest examples are given within the text. These should assist players of Clash of Empires, Hail Caesar, Warmaster Ancients, Warhammer Ancient Battles or other rules to come up with their own ideas. Army Composition To get a decent game, the French should outnumber the English by two-to-one. There is no need for a larger ratio, as we already know that the French did not utilize their forces or their options to full effect. Had they done so, the use of a flanking force in strength or an earlier response to the English redeployment may well have brought about a French victory. Although the French army included crossbows and artillery, these had little impact on the battle and these (barring a unit or two, at most) can be ignored, unless you are looking at a wider set of possibilities for the battle (see Final Notes). What you will need is plenty of dismounted French men-at-arms to create two or three lines.

Battle is joined! Men at arms clash.

The French should have some cavalry. Three units (or, if you are using two units, the one on the French left should be approximately twice the size of the one on the right) should be sufficient to flank the first French line. These can be reused

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The initial French cavalry charge. later, if you want to recreate the final charge of the French. (Assuming that the initial charge does not have the most glorious luck of the dice to win the battle all on their own!) The English should consist of dismounted men-at-arms and archers – lots of archers.

BATTLEFIELD DEPLOYMENT AND COMMENCING THE BATTLE The battlefield is well known, so the armies can be deployed historically. A 6’ x 4’ table should be sufficient, with play proceeding down the long side. If you are using large armies, you will need to increase the size of the table to suit. The English should be deployed up to 18’’ onto the table, with the first French wave of soldiers just outside the edge of English longbow range (depending upon your rules; in War & Conquest, 30’’). We know that the English were initially deployed out of bow-shot range and moved forward. To funnel the French, you should place some woods on either long edge for about a length of two feet, commencing around 12’’ from the rear of the English deployment zone. At their deepest point, they should protrude about 6’’ onto the table, so that the choke point is three feet wide. The area from the English table edge to the front of the French deployment zone should be considered ploughed earth. (We can assume that the French would not have made camp in a muddy field.) As we are recreating the moments after Henry has made his decision and the English army has already moved, the French will receive the first Turn/Round. Thereafter, roll to see who moves first in each turn or follow your normal turn sequence. So, if you want to represent those earlier moves, make any required adjustments (refer to Stakes and Final Notes later). The Mud and the French Advance The churning up of the battlefield was a decisive factor in the outcome of the battle. As the field was turned into a

quagmire and littered with the dead and dying, the French advance slowed; yet they still arrived at the English line in numbers and able to fight. The mud itself proves a tricky (or should that be sticky?!) problem to represent. As we mentioned earlier, if you make the French advance too slow, they will be shot to pieces and the game will become dull; but make it too easy and there will be insufficient casualties and the French will overrun the English too quickly. Therefore, I would recommend you treat the ploughed field as difficult ground, provided the French can still make good progress in your rules set. If in doubt, apply a random movement value. For War & Conquest, a double pace move across difficult ground is a variable distance. You can still move quite quickly through mud over a short distance (find a field and try it, but make sure your boots don’t come off!) and the French would have been spurred on by the incoming archery fire. However, this pace is tiring to keep up, and we can assume that the relentless trudge across the battlefield will have had some impact on the French fighting ability. To represent this fatigue, lower the Combat Ability of the French in comparison with their English equivalents. This creates a good compromise and gives us the basis for an exciting game, as the French can close at a reasonable game pace and the English cannot rely on missile fire alone to stop them all. Once at close quarters, the French numerical advantage will be offset by the superior English fighting ability – not only would the French have been fatigued, but the press of men would have ensured that they could not wield their weapons effectively, and the reduced Combat Ability makes allowance for this. In War & Conquest, depending on the unit type, difficult ground removes some combat and weapon bonuses. This will assist the English against the numerically stronger French. Should a French formation rout from the English archery fire (because some wargames rules have such options), and if

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they then contact a friendly formation, then that formation should receive a movement penalty or take some damage. You can go further, if you have the models, by leaving a trail of casualty models or markers across the battlefield when a unit takes significant casualties. While gruesome, the markers can then impose further movement penalties or damage to those coming on behind the first waves.

arms formations behind those in combat: assume that the men-at-arms formation engaged in combat remains at full strength when calculating Strikes and Morale, regardless of any casualties caused. Combat Morale tests should still be modified depending on the result. Should the French men-at-arms formation rout from combat in these circumstances, then it is immediately removed from play.

The Press of Men The French are described as pressing forward, so that those in front could not retreat and, should they fall, they would be unable to get up again. This can be difficult to create in most wargames rules, so amendments to your chosen system will be required.

English Morale The English had nothing to lose, so either their Morale or that of their Commanders should be higher than that of the French. We do this to give the line a better chance of holding and to represent the disorganization of the French. For War & Conquest, I also improved the English ability to kill, as they had more room to swing their weapons and incapacitate the foe.

Much depends on how your system resolves combat when approaching this significant issue. One way to keep the French men-at-arms in the fight, while encouraging the closeness of friends behind, is to maintain the French morale at a high level, or alternatively to add additional hits or damage, rather than allowing them to immediately rout. The key point to represent is that, although the French took significant casualties, they could not run or rout. They were trodden or pushed down into the mud by those behind, and we need to represent that. However, to compensate for such a disadvantage in wargames terms, you should ensure that there’s a benefit provided from those behind. Here is as example, using War & Conquest, to encourage the close proximity (the rear of the engaged unit is within 3” of the unit behind it) of French dismounted men-at-

Stakes These are significant in the battle. Most wargames have rules for stakes. In this scenario, we have chosen to assume that the English have already moved, so we can get straight on with the action. However, if you want to physically represent the English deployment and move the line forward, you should ensure that the archers can set up new stakes (as some rules do not allow that option), or at least have the option to be caught out while doing so if the French move early. This may restrict the number of times the English fire, or they may not complete setting up the stakes and lose the valuable protection that these offered – a decision for the English commander to make! For most rule sets stakes also negate the charge bonuses for cavalry. Hand to Hand Combat and Prisoners Fighting was fiercest around the English King. Mention is made of the prisoners taken and, for some, their death, as Henry had to make an on-the-spot battlefield decision, as the French rallied. Regardless of the rules used (unless specific to the period), you should increase the chances of personalities or leaders becoming casualties or prisoners. Keep a prisoner total, and the player with the most prisoners wins or contributes towards any victory or personal tally, if playing in a multiplayer game. For War & Conquest, a Personality may lose a life on the roll of a 5 or 6, rather than a 6. Once killed, you can roll again, and on a 4+, he becomes a prisoner. Arrow Supply and Missile Fire Unless your wargame rules of choice have rules for arrow supply, you can ignore any restrictions at the start of the battle. The English seem to have had a plentiful supply. You could decide that once a longbow formation has been in combat, it then needs to be resupplied with arrows. The easiest way to represent this is not to allow the unit to shoot in the round of play following any combat, while the archers scramble for arrows.

WINNING THE BATTLE

The map of Agincourt.

Agincourt was a decisive battle, and so it should be fought until one side is beaten or concedes. Rule systems have different ways of calculating victory. The French men-at-arms were enthusiastic to pit themselves against their English counterparts, so you can certainly consider this as part of determining

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victory. War & Conquest uses Battle Objectives, so Pitched Battle or Search and Destroy (destroy or rout the two highest value enemy units) can be used for the French. If, after nine turns, the French have not beaten the English, the game can be considered a draw and the players can discuss the historical repercussions of such a result, when it comes to who claims the victory within their gaming group!

FINAL NOTES AND ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS Should you wish to introduce the English redeployment, you should allow for the French reacting and moving earlier in response. If this happens before the English complete their redeployment, you are set for a very tense game (although it could become one sided, if the French gain too much ground before the English shoot). This is easy to introduce into the scenario by moving each side’s deployment area back by around 6’’. The French close in, can they break the English line this time? When playing the scenario as written, the English should not deploy their full depth on the table, as the French will move first. So, to maximize bow fire, you probably need to be around 6’’ back from the maximum English deployment depth. As the French get close, the men-at-arms will bear the brunt of the fighting, and you can always move them forward to draw the charge while the bowmen harass the

flanks. The French player should push forward and attempt to ignore the withering casualties that the English archery will cause. You have a numerical advantage, so use it! I chose to ignore the French attack on the baggage camp, as this seems to have been more of a distraction by opportunists,

ORDER OF BATTLE AND UNIT STATS FOR AGINCOURT English Army General – King Henry 15’’ Zone of Command 3 Strategy Intervention Points Morale Value 10 3 Strikes and 3 Lives

French 3 Dukes and Nobles 10’’ Zone of Command 1 Strategy Intervention Point each Morale Value 9 2 Strikes and 2 Lives

3 Knights and Commanders 10’’ Zone of Command 1 Strategy Intervention Point each Morale Value 9 2 Strikes and 2 Lives

6 Knights and Commanders 10’’ Zone of Command Morale Value 8 2 Strikes and 1 Life Men-at-Arms (mounted)

Men-at-Arms (dismounted) CA

SA

KA

Mo

AV

AP

4

3

4

8

4

1

Longbow

CA

SA

KA

Mo

AV

AP

3

3

3

8

4

2

Once at or below half-strength, the formation becomes AV 3 and becomes AP 1.

Men-at-Arms (dismounted)

CA

SA

KA

Mo

AV

AP

3

3

3

7

2

1

CA

SA

KA

Mo

AV

AP

3

3

3

8

4

1

Once at or below half-strength, the formation becomes AV 1 and loses its AP.

Once at or below half-strength, the formation becomes AV 3 and loses its AP.

Foot soldiers

Crossbow

CA

SA

KA

Mo

AV

AP

CA

SA

KA

Mo

AV

AP

2

2

3

6

2

-

2

2

3

6

2

-

Abbreviations: CA (Combat Ability); SA (Shooting Ability); KA (Killing Ability); Mo (Morale); AV (Armour Value); AP (Armour Penetration)

Brigands and Opportunists CA

SA

KA

Mo

AV

AP

2

3

3

6

1

-

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Slaughter of the French knights.

Victory! But at what cost?

rather than a concerted flank attack, but it’s easy to include. The baggage was most likely on the move after the English army redeployed, and this would make an excellent skirmish game, as the French involved came away with some handy jewellery! It is probable that the French would have sent a significant force around the woods to make a flank attack, but in the battle, the attack never came, as the French plans fell into disarray once Henry moved the English line forward.

Different kinds of men-at-arms and knights have also been rolled into one profile, to help speed up play. A set of more extensive War & Conquest army organisation lists for the period are currently being written, along with some additional scenario material. These will be made available on the website, to support an Agincourt/Hundred Years War-themed gaming event planned for the US Fall-In Convention, later in the year. WS&S

There is also no need to send any French crossbowmen or men-at-arms through the woods to harry the English flanks. Like the flank attack, it could have happened, but in the historical battle, it didn’t. If viewing the battle as part of a wider campaign setting, or using the opportunity to explore all the possible French options, both the flank attack and the move through the woods can be incorporated. As the flank force would have been spotted at some point by the English, commence movement from the French table edge, and then use a variable move (representing some English soldiers attempting to delay the inevitable) to track the French flanking force’s progress around the woods. The French should enter the table in the turn after they pass the English deployment zone front line. You can redeploy some French crossbows and men-at-arms in the woods by drafting from your main force, but any flank force should be in addition to those already on the table.

THE OPPOSING ARMIES The profiles shown on page 35 have been put together for players of War & Conquest and similar systems. I have chosen to include all relevant statistics within the profile line, rather than being concerned with specific arms and armour for the men-at-arms.

FURTHER INORMATION I hope this article inspires you to consider the battle and the wargaming options, and then to recreate the Battle of Agincourt. Of course, you don’t actually need medieval armies to refight Agincourt. The scenario is transferable to other historical periods.

•

Our forum for discussion on Agincourt and other historical battles, with free army organization lists and rosters can be found at www.scarabminiatures.com/forum.

•

War & Conquest is available from Scarab Miniatures and retailers worldwide. For additional details, see www.warandconquest.co.uk.

•

Juliet Barker, Agincourt: The King, the Campaign, the Battle (2005) – an excellent account of both the battle and the events leading up to it.

•

Bernard Cornwell, Azincourt (2008) – a fictional account of the battle.

Our thanks to Simon Chick for providing us with photos of his excellent 28mm Perry collection and thanks to Kallistra for providing their 10mm HYW armies to photograph.

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By Mark Backhouse and James Oram

THE BATTLE OF BLACKPOOL SANDS, 1404

AVENGING BRETONSIDE

The Hundred Years War was not just made up of large pitched battles. Instead, much of it comprised raids into enemy territory, designed to undermine the opposing king and highlight their inability to defend their own people. Furthermore, such raids could be useful to deprive the locals of vital supplies and steal them to support your own troops. Seaborne raids were also a serious problem and were conducted by both sides. The French launched a series of attacks along the south coast of England at the beginning of the war, burning several major settlements and attacking the Channel Islands in 133738. The decisive English naval victory at Sluys in 1340 allowed the English a period of naval domination, but the French returned to attack the south coast again in 1377.

W

hen Henry IV took power in 1399, he was distracted from the war on the Continent by internal rebellions from the Percy family and their supporters. A second problem to contend with was an increased level of naval aggression from the French allies, the Bretons. In 1403, William du Chastel successfully raided Plymouth; while the walls were not breached, large parts of the barbican were torched. The area has been named Bretonside ever since. John Hawley, an MP and Mayor of Dartmouth (now the home of the Royal Navy’s training school), was given a commission to deal with the Breton threat and was probably delighted to be given the opportunity to get revenge on them for their damage to the local area. Hawley’s small fleet captured ten Breton vessels in the first week, and followed this up with an even bigger haul of an entire raiding fleet of 30 vessels off the coast of Brittany. Amongst the captured ships was a cargo of 1000 tons of wine! Landing at the Bay of Audierne in Brittany, the Devonshire raiders then marched 20 miles inland, burning and pillaging as they went. Returning back to England, Hawley’s raid had been a total success. The Bretons were just as keen as the English had been, and in 1404, du Chastel gathered a fleet of around 300 ships and around 2000 troops. The target for their attack would be Dartmouth, Hawley’s hometown! The Bretons encountered several problems in the crossing. The first group of ships that they encountered were Spanish. The Spanish were, in theory, allies of France and therefore on the same side as the Bretons, but this did not stop them from seizing the Spanish wine supplies and drinking it all. This event caused a major rift between some of the Breton commanders, and Lord

A map of the contested area. Chateaubriand left, taking his contingent back home with him in disgust. The remaining Breton ships continued onwards, but finding that Dartmouth had been recently refortified with an iron chain across the estuary, they landed their troops near Slapton Ley on the south Devon coast with the intention of marching inland to attack Dartmouth from the south-west. The local Devonshire troops were clearly well prepared for the Bretons and had gathered a sizeable force to oppose them. Estimated numbers vary dramatically. The French sources claim that the English had as many as 6000 men, although this was larger than the entire population of Devon at the time, so the real figure is probably much lower! The logical route to Dartmouth was to follow the coast, which also meant that contact could be kept with

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Bretons prepare to land in Devon. the ships. However, at Blackpool Sands, du Chastel’s raiders dropped down into a steep valley and found their exit blocked by the local militia and peasants. The English had prepared their position well. They had dammed the river running into the sea and had created a marsh at the bottom of the valley, leaving only one crossing point, which created a bottleneck where the Bretons had to bunch up before charging uphill to break into the English blocking force. The sensible commander would, at this point, have turned back to seek a less heavily defended position to break into Dartmouth, with the risk of losing contact with the Breton ships and venturing inland into unknown territory. Indeed, du Chastel was keen to turn back, but his second-in-command, De Jaille, accused him of cowardice and reminded him that it was too humiliating to retreat in the face of such a motley enemy. The Bretons charged forward bravely, and rather predictably struggled from the outset. The English archers were able to break up the charge, shooting from their elevated position. The terrain made the heavily armoured French and Breton knights bunch up in an easy-to-hit target, and the boggy ground followed by the steep slope took the momentum out of the charge. The reckless charge cost du Chastel dearly. The English set upon any raiders who did not retreat to the safety of the ships. English ships from Dartmouth also harried the Breton vessels, adding to the chaos. Allegedly, 500 of the raiders had been killed, either in the battle or in the slaughter that followed. William du Chastel himself died of his wounds, and three French lords and 20 knights were held captive for ransom. The battle had been a decisive victory, and had proved once more that head-on charges towards well prepared positions with English longbowmen hold-

ing them were a recipe for disaster. Unfortunately, the French did not learn this same formula straight away, and this would prove even more disastrous eleven years later at Agincourt.

GAMING BLACKPOOL SANDS Blackpool Sands can be happily gamed using most sets of medieval or ancients rules. I have chosen to base this scenario around Osprey’s recent Lion Rampant rules by Dan Mersey, which seem to capture low levels raiding and chivalric actions rather nicely. While I will lay out the orders of battle and special rules to suit this set, it should be relatively easy to translate them into the rule set of your choice. Care will need to be taken to try to make sure that the scenario special rules do not overpower your chosen set.

SET-UP The terrain plays an important part of this scenario. Several key features are requisites. The English east zone of the table needs to have a large hill along the entire side of the table, representing the edge of the valley. Its slopes count as rough terrain. This should be about 12” in depth and provide enough space for the English force to deploy along it in several ranks with some space for manoeuvre. The English should place several large areas of marsh at the bottom of the hill, representing the flooded area. These also count as rough terrain. They must leave at least one causeway, around 4” wide and 12” deep, which counts as normal terrain. The dammed river makes a convenient flank on the eastern table edge, although if you have an appropriate river model, this might be deployed down the east zone of the table. The Breton forces may deploy from the south and south-west zones. Up to two areas of rough ground, representing bushes and rocks or additional areas of waterlogged land, may be

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The Bretons charge the English levy.

The vallaint English militia hold firm.

deployed by each player anywhere in the central area, as long as they do not block access to the main causeway.

3 x Serfs @ 3 points 1 x Bidowers @ 2 points (Total = 32 points, 124 figures)

SUGGESTED FORCES The exact breakdown of each side is rather difficult to establish. The following suggestions will give an interesting game, but feel free to tinker with the sides and adjust them to fit the troops you have available and which were likely to be present. To create an interesting game, I would suggest dividing up the Breton troops into two retinues for Lion Rampant, each one commanded by a different player. While both on the same side, they should attempt to outdo each other and win glory on the battlefield. William du Chastel’s retinue 2 x Foot Men-at-arms @ 12 points 1 x Foot Serjeants @ 4 points 1 x Crossbowmen @ 4 points (Total = 20 points, 36 figures) De Jaille’s retinue 2 x Foot Men-at-arms @ 12 points 1 x Foot Serjeants @ 4 points 2 x Bidowers @ 4 points (Total = 20 points, 36 figures) The Breton commanders can choose from either of the following boasts – “Cleave them in half”, “Half of the enemy shall fall to my sword” – and must take “Strike the first blow”. William du Chastel commands one of the foot men-at-arms units. He counts as vulnerable and is killed by lucky blows on a 2 or 3. De Jaille commands one of the foot men-at-arms units. He counts as rash and the unit gains ‘Wild Charge’. The English retinue 1 x Foot Serjeants @ 4 points 2 x Expert Archers @ 12 points 2 x Foot Yeomen @ 6 points 1 x Foot Yeomen with mixed weapons @ 5 points

The English player(s) may choose whichever boasts they like, although “My lambs will beat their lions” seems particularly appropriate for this scenario! Note that the force composition for this scenario is unbalanced, with the combined Breton forces having 40 points versus the English 32. The terrain and scenario special rules hopefully balance this out. It also allows the Bretons two chances to activate units, whereas the English have only one. The two Breton commanders may not activate troops in their rival’s retinue. This led to some interesting traffic jams in the playtesting!

SPECIAL RULES When any formed unit attempts to move through the waterlogged terrain, they stand a chance of drowning. Roll 12 tohit dice against the unit needing 4+ to hit. Unlike normal, do not use the armour of the target unit to resolve the number of casualties; instead, invert the numbers around, as a heavily armoured man-at-arms would be more likely to drown than a lightly armed peasant! Men-at-arms therefore treat this as Armour 1; serjeants, Armour 2; crossbowmen, archers and yeomen, Armour 3; and bidowers, Armour 4. Normally, units in Lion Rampant may not move within 3” of a friendly unit. As the Bretons became herded together on the causeway, you may wish to allow them to ignore this rule. The English, however, can claim a +1 to hit bonus with missile weapons against any units bunched up in this way.

ENDING THE SCENARIO Keep playing the game until twelve or fewer units are left in the game. (This assumes you use the same orbats.) Once this happens, roll 2D6 each turn; if the score is equal to or higher than the number of units left on the table, then this

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The doomed Breton charge up the hill. is the final turn. The game also stops if one side is completely broken or concedes defeat.

OPTIONAL TWEAKS To make this scenario a bit more varied, you might like to either roll or choose one of the following tweaks and ‘What if’s’. They will unbalance the scenario a little bit more, but who says you need a fair fight for a good game? Roll 2D6. 2 – Strong wind. Randomly determine a wind direction using a D12 clock-face method. Any missile fire with the wind directly behind it gains 6” range. Any missile fire directly into the wind loses 6” range. 3 – Stone wall. The English have managed to build a makeshift dry stone wall at the top of the valley to defend their troops. Place one wall (or fence model), wide enough to cover the frontage of a single unit. This provides cover that improves a defending unit’s armour by +1 against mêlée and missile attacks. 4 – Heavy rain. Reduce the shooting range to 12”. 5 – Additional causeway. The dammed river has not flooded the valley as effectively as hoped. The French may place an additional causeway through the flooded area. 6 – Divided command. Split the English troops into two retinues, each with a different commander. 7 – Scouts. Each side starts the game off the table and may attempt to deploy one unit from their table edge each turn. Dice for movement as reinforcements join the battle. 8 – Mounted vanguard. Swap one Breton foot men-atarms unit for a mounted version in each Breton retinue. Deploy these one turn ahead of the rest of the retinue. 9 – Late arrivals. The English can deploy up to 12 points of troops on the table. Other troops must be diced on for arrival using a move order.

10 – Lost confidence. The Spanish wine and poor sea voyage still seem to be having ill effects on the Bretons. Reduce all courage scores to a maximum of 4+. 11 – Sturdy defenders. Swap the unit of English serjeants for men-at-arms, representing the local nobility turning up to bolster the militia. Hawley leads this unit and is given the ‘Commanding’ special ability. 12 – Deep water. Replace all waterlogged rough going with impassable terrain.

GAME CHANGERS If you find that the English win hands down, you might want to retry the scenario without allowing the English such a strong defensive position. The English might not have had time to dam the river, so only one area of waterlogged marsh can be placed at the bottom of the valley. A slightly less extreme option is to remove the ‘Treacherous water’ special rule for this terrain. If the French storm the English defences every time, reduce one men-at-arms unit in each Breton retinue to foot serjeants.

FURTHER GAMES The idea of coastal raids offers up several good scenarios, or even a full campaign, whether it be Du Chatel’s raid on Plymouth or Hawley’s Breton ‘expedition’. The raiders will be typically well prepared but on foot, while the defenders will consist of mixed local forces. For those lucky (or crazy) enough to own ships, how about naval battles? Simply use the ship movement rules from the WS&S website (originally published for use with WS&S 56, ‘Warwick at Sea’, and WS&S 57, ‘Caesar and the pirates’), and the rules from your favourite medieval game to resolve combat. WS&S Will you die a glorious death like du Chastel or defeat the English and burn down Dartmouth? Whatever happens in your refight, have fun!

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By Michael Leck

PHILIPPA OF ENGLAND, QUEEN OF THE NORTH

WARRIOR QUEEN

OF KALMAR

Philippa was born to Henry Bolingbroke, better known as King Henry IV of England, and his wife Mary de Bohun at Peterborough Castle on 4 June 1394. She was the younger sister of the future Henry V, victor of Agincourt. Known as Philippa of Lancaster, she was the Queen of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway from 1406 to 1430. She was consort to Erik of Pomerania, who ruled the three kingdoms of the Kalmar Union. Queen Philippa served as the de facto regent of Sweden in 1420 and the regent of Denmark and Norway from 1423 to 1425.

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n 1402, Queen Margaret of Denmark had entered into negotiations with King Henry IV of England about the possibility of an alliance between England and the Kalmar Union. The proposal was for a double wedding, whereby Erik would marry Henry’s daughter Philippa, and Henry’s son, the Prince of Wales and future King Henry V, would marry Erik of Pomerania’s sister, Katarzyna (or Catherine). The English side wanted these weddings to seal an offensive alliance between the Nordic kingdoms and England, which could have led to the involvement of the Nordic union on the English side in the ongoing Hundred Years War against France. Queen Margaret led a consistent foreign policy of not getting entangled in binding alliances and foreign wars. She therefore rejected the English proposals. The double wedding did not come off, but Erik’s wedding to Philippa was successfully negotiated; Philippa was engaged to Erik and formally proclaimed Queen in 1405. The wedding was accompanied by a purely defensive alliance with England. Married on 26 October 1406 to Erik of Pomerania in Lund Cathedral, Philippa was actually the first documented princess in history to wear a white wedding dress during a royal

wedding ceremony. She wore a tunic with a cloak in white silk bordered with grey squirrel and ermine. She was given large parts of Sweden as her dowry. During the first years of their marriage, the couple lived in Kalmar in Sweden, and Philippa was to spend much of her queenhood living in Sweden. It had been decided that she would be granted personal fiefs in only one of the three kingdoms, and that was to be Sweden. Trouble was coming. In 1428, the Hanseatic League gathered a large fleet of 240 ships and 12,000 men for a final attack on Copenhagen to end their war with Denmark. Rumour had told them that there was a lack of men and supplies in Copenhagen, and they wanted to capture the town before reinforcements could arrive from the rest of Denmark or Sweden. The Hanseatic League’s fleet was under the command of Gerhard VII, Count of Holstein-Rendsburg, and to ensure God’s protection, he had commanded the fleet to display big blue crosses on the ships’ sails. As the fleet arrived outside Copenhagen and began the blockade, word started to spread that King Erik had fled the town, leaving them at the mercy of the Hanseatic League. At this crucial moment, Queen Philippa stepped forward and rallied the people of Copenhagen, successfully organizing the defence of the town. Queen Philippa had governed well as regent during Erik’s travels abroad, and she was a good influence on him when he was in the Union countries. She bore a stillborn boy in 1429, and died on 5 January 1430. She is buried in the Cloister Church at Vadstena, close to Linköping in Östergötland, Sweden.

The board for Save the King.

After her death, the policy of the King and kingdom fell apart. In 1434, the farmers and mine workers of

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Hanseatic troops attempt to block the road.

Loyal troops – For Queen Phillippa!

Sweden began a national and social rebellion, which was used by the Swedish nobility in order to weaken the power of the King. He had to yield to the demands of both the Holsteiners and the Hanseatic League. In Norway, peasants led by Amund Sigurdsson rebelled against King Erik and his officials, besieging Oslo and Akershus Castle. When the Danish nobility opposed his rule and refused to ratify his choice of Bogislaw IX, Duke of Pomerania, as the next King of Denmark, he left and settled at Castle Visborg in Gotland, apparently a kind of a ‘royal strike’, which led to his deposition by the National Councils of Denmark and Sweden in 1439. The Norwegian nobility remained loyal to King Erik, and in 1439 he gave Sigurd Jonsson the title of drotts, under which he was to rule Norway in the King’s name. But with the King isolated in Gotland, the Norwegian nobility also felt compelled to depose him in 1440, and for the next ten years, Erik lived in Gotland and made his living by piracy against the merchant trade in the Baltic.

emergencies, they could call up a general levy, the Landevaernet, which was of dubious quality but available in large numbers. The Obudshaer was intended for overseas service, but the Landevaernet was only used at home. Most Danish armies were based around noble retinues, mercenaries and the Obudshaer. The Union also had substantial naval forces at its command.

At the time of her death in 1430, Queen Philippa was in Sweden on a diplomatic mission where she was immensely popular, having her personal fiefs. She also did many other deeds for the common people in Sweden and Denmark by helping the poor and providing for widows and orphans. She is described as one of the few royals of the Kalmar Union who was actually popular outside Denmark. She was loved by the people of Copenhagen for rallying the citizens to fight the Hanseatic fleet.

THE ARMIES The Kalmar Union armies cover the armies of the combined Kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden and Norway. They were well equipped and of good quality, and included large numbers of mercenaries. Apart from the usual knights available to European armies of the period (but always in short supply), the Danes often used Obudshaer forces. These were good quality infantry with pole-arms. In

In the following scenarios, the Kalmar Union hosts are composed of the King’s personal retinue of Riddare, Svenner, and Skyttar (knights, squires, and mounted crossbowmen). The host of Queen Philippa is composed of Landevaernet and some rallied civilians (serfs) who joined up in the defensive struggle for Copenhagen. The Hanseatic League armies cover the armies of the 200 or so towns of the League. They were very well equipped and often of excellent quality, and included large number of mercenaries, like the Kalmar Union armies. The main part of the League’s forces was composed of urban militias, based upon the town quarters and guild structure. The main elements were armoured men, equipped and trained for close combat, both cavalry and infantry, and crossbowmen that formed separate units – in fact, crossbows became characteristic of Hanseatic armies. The use of mercenaries was very common, as many towns used them in preference to the town craftsmen, and they also hired mercenary specialists as artillery officers and hand gunners. Of course, the Hanseatic League had a huge naval force at its command, as all trading ships had to be armed and equipped with marines for their protection. In the following scenarios, the Hanseatic League hosts are composed of a mix of town militia, mercenaries, and sailors; as they usually didn’t field horses in any quantity, I have left out the cavalry. They are also designed for Lion Rampant but can be easily adapted to other wargames rules. Simply use the forces as a guide.

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THEME

past the harbour blockade. The scenario is designed to be played on a 120cm x 180cm (4’ x 6’) board. Special Rules This scenario includes four hosts. To determine their order of activation, use activation cards for each host and draw a random card from the deck to see which host will have the activation phase. When your activation phase ends, draw a new random card from the deck. Keep going until all hosts have had their chance to activate. Then shuffle the cards and start a new turn. Movement by rowing boat is 6” and counts as a Move action for the unit in the boat. The harbour blockade counts as difficult ground.

Map for Warrior Queen.

SCENARIO 1: WARRIOR QUEEN The first Lion Rampant scenario is inspired by the Hanseatic League attack on Copenhagen in 1428. As some stories tell, King Erik of Pomerania fled Copenhagen as the Hanseatic League’s fleet approached the Danish coast, leaving the defence of the city to Queen Philippa, who rallied the citizens in the defence of their town, sinking ships to block the inlet to the harbour. This scenario sees King Erik and his retinue leaving Copenhagen, trying to reach sanctuary in a monastery outside town and leaving Queen Philippa in charge of the defence. The Hanseatic League’s main objective is to get into Copenhagen to ravage the town, and if possible, capture the fleeing King before he manages to leave the area. Set-up King Erik and his retinue are by the town gate, while Queen Philippa and her retinue make their way to man the town walls and repulse the Hanseatic League attack. Count Gerhard of Holstein-Rendsburg and his retinue are deployed on the far side of the hill, but the artillery will be deployed on the hill from the start. Captain Simon von Utrecht and his retinue are deployed in the water by the beach in the south; the water counts as difficult terrain (i.e. half move). One of Simon’s units may be in a boat and might try to get

As it is difficult to think of every possibility during a siege, use these guidelines for defending the town wall, based on how we handled it during our play test of the scenario. We assume that all attackers bring something to scale the walls with, and the defenders have lots of stuff to repulse the attacks (like stones, oil, bolts, and arrows). We decided to make things easy and introduce hard cover that would increase the Armour for the defenders by +2 ; but for some troops, that would be very high, so we capped the Armour at a maximum of 5. Units that are manning the town walls benefit from hard cover if the enemy are on the outside of the wall. We also decided that each wall section with a tower to its right counts as one defensive area that could only be defended by one unit and only attacked by one unit at a time. So the walls in this scenario would be divided into three defensive areas. To man a section of the wall, a unit must move into contact with it, and on the next Move activation, it will man the wall. If a defending unit has to retreat while manning the walls, the unit is placed below the wall on the inside of it. In the next activation, it may man the walls again, if it still has a Move action, is not battered or an enemy unit has not managed to make a move up onto the walls in the meantime. Ending the Scenario Play continues until a turn begins with five or fewer units remaining on the board (excluding the artillery). When this happens, roll a die at start of turn; if the score is higher than the number of units left on the table, this is the final turn.

SCENARIO 1 — ORDER OF BATTLE Kalamar Union Host of King Erik of Pomerania Leader Skill: Sly 1 Mounted Men-at-Arms, Drilled @ 7 points (including King Erik) 1 Mounted Serjeants @ 4 points 1 Mounted crossbows @ 4 points

Hanseatic League Host of Count Gerhard VII of Holstein-Rendsburg Leader Skill: Rash 1 Foot Men-at-Arms @ 6 points (including Count Gerhard) 1 Crossbowmen @ 4 points 1 Foot Serjeants @ 4 points 1 Artillery @ 4 points (use the rules from WS&S 77).

Host of Queen Philippa of England Leader Skill: Commanding 2 Foot Yeomen with Mixed Weapons @ 5 points each (one including Queen Philippa) 2 Serfs with Mixed Weapons @ 3 points each

Host of Captain Simon von Utrecht Leader Skill: Blessed 1 Foot Men-at-Arms @ 6 points (including Captain Simon) 2 Fierce Foot @ 4 points each (ferocious sailors and mercenaries) 1 Bidowers @ 2 points (mercenary hand gunners)

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Victory Conditions The Hanseatic League earns 2 Glory points for each unit that is on the wall or inside Copenhagen by the end of the game. If they capture King Erik, either with a lucky blow in close combat or a challenge, or by wiping out or routing his unit, this earns them 3 extra Glory points. If the Hanseatic League also captures the Queen in the same way, this earns them 1 extra Glory point. The Kalmar Union must safely protect the town. If there are no enemy units on the walls or in the town at the end of the game, this earns them 5 Glory points, and if the King manages to escape off the table from the West Zone, this earns them 3 extra Glory points. Both players gain/lose Glory for Boasts.

SCENARIO 2: SAVE THE KING

Map for Save the King.

The second Lion Rampant scenario is inspired by the cowardly escape of King Erik and his knights from Copenhagen, seeking sanctuary in a monastery outside the town, where he awaited reinforcements. The Hanseatic League attack was repulsed by the heroic command of Queen Philippa, but the fleet wreaked havoc on the surrounding coastline with its mercenary soldiers.

Special Rules This scenario includes four hosts. To determine their order of activation, use activation cards for each host and draw a random card from the deck to see which host will have the activation phase. When your activation phase ends, draw a new random card from the deck. Keep going until all hosts have had their chance to activate. Then shuffle the cards and start a new turn.

King Erik, having been informed of his Queen’s deeds and also of the threat of the ravaging Hanseatic League mercenaries, will try to get back to the safety of Copenhagen. However, his road is blocked by some Hanseatic troops. While the brave Queen comes to his assistance, the King and his retinue must break through the Hanseatic lines and exit from the opposite edge of the board. The Hanseatic forces must capture the King before he manages to leave the board.

Ending the Scenario Play continues until King Erik has either escaped or has been captured. When this happens, end play at once.

Set-up The King and his retinue set up by the monastery (West Zone). Queen Philippa and her retinue set up on the road (East Zone). Count Gerhard of Holstein-Rendsburg sets up in the village (Central Zone), and Captain Simon von Utrecht is in the water by the beach (South Zone). The water counts as difficult terrain (i.e. half move). The scenario is designed to be played on a 120cm x 180cm (4’ x 6’) board.

Victory Conditions The Hanseatic League side must capture King Erik, either with a lucky blow in close combat or a challenge, or by wiping out or routing his unit. This earns them 5 Glory points (+/- Boasts). If the Hanseatic League captures the Queen in the same way, this earns them 3 extra Glory points. The Kalmar Union must safely protect the King and facilitate his escape off the table from the East Zone. This earns them 5 Glory points (+/- Boasts). WS&S Philippa showed the same courage as her brother at Agincourt in 1415. Joan of Arc was not the only medieval warrior woman.

SCENARIO 2 — ORDER OF BATTLE Kalamar Union Host of King Erik of Pomerania Leader Skill: Sly 1 Mounted Men-at-Arms, Drilled @ 7 points (including King Erik) 1 Mounted Serjeants @ 4 points 1 Mounted crossbows @ 4 points Host of Queen Philippa of England Leader Skill: Commanding 3 Foot Yeomen with Mixed Weapons @ 5 points each (one including Queen Philippa)

Hanseatic League Host of Count Gerhard VII of Holstein-Rendsburg Leader Skill: Rash 1 Foot Men-at-Arms @ 6 points (including Count Gerhard) 1 Crossbowmen @ 4 points 1 Foot Serjeants @ 4 points Host of Captain Simon von Utrecht Leader Skill: Blessed 1 Foot Men-at-Arms @ 6 points (including Captain Simon) 2 Fierce Foot @ 4 points each (ferocious sailors and mercenaries) 1 Bidowers @ 2 points (mercenary hand gunners)

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By Matt Moran

RAIDS IN THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR

CHEVAUCHÉE

The chevauchée – also called the cavalgada, algara or razzia in Spain and the ghazwa among the Bedouin – was common across the medieval world, but reached its zenith in England’s incessant fighting against France and Scotland during the Hundred Years War.

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eudal society relied on the mutual obligation between “those who farm, those who fight, and those who pray”. Farmers paid heavy taxes to their overlords, who in turn protected them from both mortal and spiritual peril. When this system broke down, domestic turmoil inevitably ensued. If warriors could not defeat their enemies and protect their people, what use were they? Did their lives have any meaning? That was the driving force behind the desire of European knighthood to constantly prove itself in endemic warfare, invasions, and crusades.

small raiding force that lives off the land and serves on the promise of a share of any plunder acquired, on the other hand, costs almost nothing, particularly if it is made up of veterans who bring their own equipment. This was why cash-strapped English, Scottish, and French monarchs turned to it as a cost-effective tactic in the marches of their realms. Spanish monarchs without the power or will to raise whole armies, sent raiders against the Moors, who in turn sent razzia into heathen lands, to remind them that the advance of the Caliphates had not yet stalled entirely.

The absence of rigorous reconnaissance and representative maps made it difficult to bring an unwilling enemy to battle, so medieval battles were usually fought by mutual consent, and often with a formal challenge. Knights who fought at Tewkesbury complained in writing of the ditches, walls, hedges, and “evil lanes” that broke up the battlefield, because they were so used to meeting on an open field, in much the same way as Greek hoplites 2000 years before.

It was not just royalty like King Edward III and the Black Prince who led and authorized chevauchée. In the endemic warfare that characterized long periods of the Hundred Years War, the history of the Scottish borders, and the Reconquista, lords often took it upon themselves to become rich at the cost of their enemy’s peasantry. In fact, John of Gaunt, the richest man in English history and father of King Henry IV, made a large part of his fortune on chevauchée, although his famous expedition in 1373 was both a remarkable military feat and a total commercial failure.

The chevauchée undercut all of that. Instead of meeting their counterparts on an honourable field of battle, groups of battle-hardened veterans burned and pillaged their way through the countryside, crippling the local agrarian economy, striking terror into the hearts of the survivors, and shaming the local lords in the eyes of both their subjects and their masters. Evading the few trained soldiers they faced was simple, in a time with much lower population density, and castles could not contain all the people and valuable goods found in their region. Their garrisons often could not sortie to hunt down the raiders, because they had as few as half a dozen men. This was because standing armies were (and still are) expensive. Lords could raise large hosts, but only for short periods and with valuable time spent in preparation. However, by their very nature, garrisons must be in place long-term. Scrimping on the military budget is not a new trend – in fact, it was scrimping that led to the chevauchée, too.

French Knights ready for battle. © Front Rank

However it is raised, an army costs more, the larger it is. If nothing else, it needs feeding. A

WARGAMING THE CHEVAUCHÉE I think the chevauchée is excellent fodder for wargaming. There are plenty of available sources, and the nature of these campaigns lends themselves to more interesting battles than a simple clash of opposing battle-lines. Running battles, desperate escapes, interrupted looting – there are plenty of ways to use those beautiful medieval miniatures in a more engaging way than a simple toe-to-toe fight. If you do nothing else on a busy club night, add a baggage element for one side to desperately defend as the sum of all their efforts! From a modelling perspective, gaming a chevauchée is an excellent reason to add more cavalry to your Hundred Years War English. Recent scholarship has shown that a longbow can be accurately fired from horseback, as shown in contemporary illustrations. The need for speed meant the chevauchée was a largely mounted affair, despite the English predilection for fighting on foot, and there are some lovely miniatures of mounted archers out there. Now you know they can be of real use in a tabletop fight, not just window dressing! Gaming raids or their aftermath also reverses the usual paradigm in HYW games. It makes the English the mobile force, while the French are the ones trying to stop or catch them.

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The French prepare to find and fight the English raids. Either way, it provides a pleasant change from ‘charge the archers with the knights’, which is sadly what a lot of my HYW games have ended up being over the years. Designed with the chevauchée in mind, Lion Rampant is a great rule set to use for these sorts of games. SAGA Crescent & Cross is similarly meant for the Early Reconquista and features rules that require little updating to cover the whole period. Large battle rule sets for the period can obviously be used too, but army morale should be tweaked to represent the raiders’ desire to keep their ill-gotten gains as much as their lives.

SCENARIO – THE CALL TO ACCOUNTS The English raiders are riding back to their strongholds in Normandy, but they are not yet in the clear. The local lord has mustered his retainers and levies and marched out to confront the despoilers of his lands. The English seek only to escape with their plunder, while the French are looking for revenge as much as restitution. While primarily designed for Lion Rampant, this scenario can be easily adapted to other rule sets by using the suggested forces or by doubling (or tripling) them. Alternatively, use the scenario as a guide and use the suggested units from your rule set (for DBA 3.0, for example). English Raiders 6 Mounted Men-at-Arms 6 Mounted ‘Crossbowmen’ (actually longbowmen) 3 x 6 Bidowers 12 Expert Foot Sergeants French Avengers 6 Mounted Men-at-Arms 2 x 6 Mounted Sergeants

12 Crossbowmen 2 x 12 Foot Yeomen Set-up The board should have a road running from short edge to short edge and other terrain as the players prefer. The English set up in the East Zone, and then the French deploy in the West Zone. The English begin the game with four ‘loot markers’, which can be allocated among their units as they wish. Special Rules: A unit with one or more loot markers ignores the Courage test trigger ‘Unit becomes your only unit remaining on the table’. Loot markers can be seized by defeating a unit in close combat. Loot markers carried by a unit wiped out or routed by shooting are lost to both sides as the survivors flee with their ill-gotten gains. Victory Conditions The English get 1 Glory for each unit exiting the board, 1 Glory for their Leader exiting the board, 1 Glory for slaying the French leader, and 1 Glory for each loot marker removed from the board. The French gain 1 Glory for each English unit routed or wiped out, 1 Glory for slaying the English leader, and 1 Glory for each loot marker not in English possession at the end of the game. Both players gain/lose Glory for Boasts, and the player with the highest total wins. WS&S A good number of the famous battles in the Hundred Years War started as English chevauchée raids where the French caught and forced the English to battle. The famous English victories of Crécy, Poitiers, and Agincourt were originally raids.

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By Ruben Torregrosa

PAINTING ENGLISH FOR THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR

WE HAPPY FEW

In this article, you will find a complete guide to painting both English archers in padded aketons and men-at-arms wearing plate harness. These techniques are not exclusive to the English and can be applied to any medieval miniatures of the period. Metal as a colour can be tricky to paint, but hopefully you’ll find this guide a good resource.

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efore we start painting the miniature, a little cleaning up is required to remove burrs and mould lines with a modelling knife and file. Washing miniatures with water and soap removes the release agents, especially when the figure is cast in metal or resin. Once dried, apply a primer coat. Not only does this help with painting, but it also protects the paint from chipping. I usually use grey primer, because any colour can easily be painted onto it. A black primer would require several layers of lighter colours to get a uniform coat. The same is true of dark colours on a white primer. This doesn’t occur with grey primer. I like preparing the base before painting the model; then I don’t need to be careful if I stain something accidentally. Better to mess up the base than the model. To create the base, I prepare the surface with Milliput and get a texture using a toothbrush and some real rocks. Once it’s dry, I usually paint it with Vallejo Model Color 941 ‘Burnt Umber’ (all colours I use are Vallejo Model Color, unless specified otherwise) or another dark brown colour. Then I apply a couple of dry-brush layers to get some contrast, first using 875 ‘Beige Brown’, and after that 819 ‘Iraqi Sand’, or even 918 ‘Ivory’. Never use pure white for highlighting – it’s too bright! Furthermore, you can paint the rocks with a different colour to add some interesting details. For example, I have painted them grey and applied a dry-brush with ivory to get some highlights. However, I don’t apply the grass just now; I only add this at the end, because it can get in the way of the painting process.

THE ARCHER After painting the base, the next stage is to apply base colours to our miniature. These are the darker colours in the shadows. To bring out the white padding of the aketon coat, I have initially used a darker tone, such as 821 ‘German Camo Beige ‘Choco WWII’. For the trousers, I use 872 ‘Chocolate Brown’, which can be used to simulate shadows on a green colour. Around the neck and hood, I decided to represent a brown fabric and used Vallejo Panzer Aces 302 ‘Dark Rust’. Uniforms didn’t properly exist back then, so we are free to use whatever colours we wish. In all cases, I have diluted the paint with water to help with its distribution. The French knights.

Now we work every colour, one by one. On the white aketon coat, start by mixing 821 ‘German Cam Beige’ with 918 ‘Ivory’, until you are using only the ivory. I The finished English soldiers. prefer to use ivory instead of white, because the colour is more realistic – pure white doesn’t exist in nature! There are always shadows and highlights. The first highlights will cover a huge surface, but not the gaps representing the padding. However, the last highlights, especially the last one, will be restricted to one of the edges of the padding. For example, I have put the maximum light on the right or on the top (breast). After painting the last highlight, we can emphasize the gaps with the beige colour. To paint the leather neck piece, we can start applying the first highlight with 984 ‘Flat Brown’, and then begin mixing this colour with 981 ‘Orange Brown’. In this case, we only need to paint the highlights on the sculpted relief. Very simple. Finally, for the green trousers I used 890 ‘Reflective Green’. Because we used ‘Chocolate Brown’ for the shadows, gradually mix this colour with the green until you reach pure green. Indeed, you can apply some extreme highlights mixing the green with a bit of ivory or white. Once more, you can follow the sculpted lines, while stressing the highlight on the upper part, on the knee. Next, we need to do some black profiling to separate each element in the miniature. This is, in my opinion, one of the most important steps, because it brings our tiny models to life! Profiling involves painting a very thin line between all the different elements (e.g. between the coat and the trousers or the belt) to make them stand out. So, dilute the paint and use a fine brush to mark all the recesses. Be careful – you don’t have to mark the shadows; only the divisionary line between different parts. Next comes the details and accessories. As before, I start by applying a dark colour as the base coat shadows. To paint the wood of the bow and arrows, I have used a medium brown, such us 921 ‘English Uniform’. However, to paint the stake, I have used a darker colour (‘Chocolate Brown’), because I wanted to get some different contrasts. For the belt and the boots, I decided to use ‘Dark Rust’ and black, respectively.

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Base colours added.

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Details added to accessories.

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First highlights added.

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With highlighted wood and red cross.

For the metal parts (like the helmet, buttons, and arrowhead), you can take a look at the guide for ‘The Knight’. Now we can paint the English red cross on the breast. Instead of using flat red directly, we initially paint it with a darker colour, such as ‘Flat Brown’, before filling it with flat red. We do this for two reasons: firstly, because it will be easier to paint the red over the brown, rather than white; and secondly, because we can use the darker colour as a profiling for the red. To work the wood, we can use ‘Ivory’ (or white) in every case. Start by mixing the wood colour with ivory and apply progressively lighter colours until you reach proportions of one-to-one. In the case of the bow and arrows, just apply highlights along the whole surface; but for the stake, you can simulate a marbled effect by painting fine parallel lines. Indeed, painting the end with a yellowish colour simulates where the stake has been sharpened. After painting the arrows, the feathers are next. First, paint them black (for black profiling), then use 821 ‘German Cam Beige WWII’, and lastly paint small lines to simulate the texture of the feather. Finally, to illuminate the black boots, you can use grey; or instead of grey, you might use pink. Yes, pink! But use only a very small amount. Because it’s composed of red, which is a warm colour, the highlights on the black colour will seem more realistic. Finally, we only need to paint the flesh. But first, paint the eyes – you only need to paint a white line with a black dot in the middle. I usually paint the eyes now, before the flesh, because I don’t need to be careful. Paint the whole face and hands with Vallejo Game Color 066 ‘Tan’ as the shadow or base coat, before starting work on the highlights. Mix the tan with Vallejo Game Color 041 ‘Dwarf Skin’ in the same proportions, and use it to mark the facial details – forehead, cheeks, and lips – and, on the hands, the fingers and palms. Next, apply the ‘Dwarf Skin’ alone, to reinforce the highlights. You should stress the upper parts (cheeks) or

Black ‘profiling’ added.

Flesh added.

bottom part (nose and forehead), or the knuckles on each hand. Finally, apply a last highlight, mixing the ‘Dwarf Skin’ with an equal amount of ivory, to paint just a dot at the extremity of each highlighted area. Then you can touch up the shadows using more tan, remembering to paint the bottom lip, and – if the model has an open mouth – you can paint the teeth with ivory.

THE KNIGHT Fortunately (if you don’t like using different colours) or unfortunately (if you don’t like painting metals), the knight wears full plate armour. Instead of directly applying a silver colour, we can start working on the shadows. Then, little by little, we will continue working on the highlights, with the silver colour as the maximum highlight. Thus, we first apply a general coat with 863 ‘Gunmetal Grey’. You should dilute it with more water to facilitate its application and in order to avoid visible brushstrokes. If you don’t have this colour, you can just mix silver with black in the same proportions. Now we need to emphasize the recesses by applying a black wash. Dilute one part of black with five parts water and apply a general wash, or use a ready-to-use acrylic wash from Vallejo or Citadel. If you have time, an alternative and cleaner option is to paint a fine black line to mark each recess individually. In this case, you can skip next step. Because the wash is a very dirty method – although fast and effective – we need to rescue the original colour, which the wash has darkened. Use 863 ‘Gunmetal Grey’ once more to re-paint everything, except the black line between every element. However, instead of painting the whole model in gunmetal, we can try a colour gradient. Taking the gunmetal covered by the black wash as the darker colour, you can start directing the highlights to one specific region. For example, in the breastplate, we can focus the

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Base coat of gunmetal.

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Finishing the other areas.

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Base highlighting the armour.

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Base coat of flat brown.

highlights on the upper part. So we don’t have to paint the whole armour with gunmetal, but only the parts we want to lighten. Now it’s time for the silver highlights. Gradually mix the gunmetal with 997 ‘Silver’, applying two or three intermediate or transition layers before directly applying pure unmixed silver. Cover smaller surfaces with each additional highlight. Aim to stress the highlights on the edges or, in the case of big surfaces, on the upper part. It’s very important to use the paint diluted with water to apply very thin layers, which allow us to create the colour gradient. Use the silver colour for the last highlight, and only mark the extremity of each different armour piece with it. Note that, if you want to get a nice colour gradient, you cannot mask previous layers. All the layers need to be equally visible at the end. Finally, apply black to reinforce the profiling in any places where it was lost. In addition, you can paint the different details, such as the sword sheath or the belt, with black, prior to applying the proper colours. This means that they will be perfectly marked with a black line at the end (more black profiling). I have chosen different colours to paint the details. First, use 996 ‘Gold’ for the sword and dagger hilt. Mix gold with dark brown to get a darker colour first, and then apply some highlights directly with gold. I have used blue to paint the dagger case, starting with a dark blue base and then applying a highlight directly with blue. As you can see, I always follow the same process: first, I work on the shadows, and then I apply the ‘real’ colour, with some highlights. The sword sheath and belt are initially painted with 984 ‘Flat Brown’ or 982 ‘Cavalry Brown’ as the base shadow. Next, I start mixing this colour with flat red, until I am directly applying the pure red colour. You can add some extra highlights with vermillion. Finally, we only need to paint the trousers and leather straps. I decided to use a green tone for the trousers, such as 860 ‘Medi-

3

Adding Silver highlights.

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Adding highlights.

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Highlighting other areas.

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Adding the yellow pattern.

um Olive’, using a base shadow colour of dark brown. To paint brown leather, I like to start using Vallejo Panzer Aces 302 ‘Dark Rust’, and then mark some highlights with flat brown. Likewise, you can mix flat brown and black in the same proportions. In all cases, we always apply highlights in the same order, stressing the highlight on the upper part of each element. Finally, you only need to paint the flesh, which is easy in this knight miniature, because only the face is showing. You can follow exactly the same tips explained in the archer guide.

THE SHIELD If you wish to equip your knight with a shield, you need to decide what colour scheme you want. I decided to paint a gold net (yellow) on a field of blood (red). First, you paint the field or base with the dominant colour. So, to paint the red colour, I started painting the whole shield with 984 ‘Flat Brown’. Next, I worked on the highlights, mixing 984 ‘Flat Brown’ with flat red, first in equal proportions and then using red directly. You can try to simulate a colour gradient. It should be easy, because the shield has a big flat surface. Indeed, the shield is composed of three elements: the upper and bottom parts are inclined; therefore, we can mark the shadows in the joining lines, and paint the light brighter in the opposite extremes. Finally, I painted the yellow pattern. Start with 913 ‘Yellow Ochre’ as the base. Then paint the parallel lines, followed by the perpendicular ones. Use a fine brush and dilute the paint to facilitate the work. Note that you can use red to emphasize these lines. Finally, apply some highlights using 948 ‘Golden Yellow’. Indeed, you should follow the same shadow-light pattern used to paint the red. Then apply the lighter areas on the same side where you painted the red ones. WS&S Four models down, only another 140 to go ...

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By Guy Bowers

BUILDING A HUNDRED YEARS WAR ARMY

ONCE MORE INTO

THE BREACH

The Hundred Years War was the classic struggle for control of France between the English and French royalty – a true game of thrones between the Plantagenets of England and the Valois of France. It would see lightning raids, vast battles, bloody sieges and even naval and amphibious warfare – in fact, everything your average wargamer needs.

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e have chosen to take a look at men at arms for this period. While the main focus is on the English, the style of armour would for the most part be familiar in the French ranks and across Europe. In addition, as the style of armour evolved during this period (the shield was abandoned as protection moved from chainmail to plate) early Hundred Years War knights will look quite different to those later in the period (although the earlier armour would still be used by the poorer nobility and sergeants). Weapon technology also played a vital part; while the rise of the English Longbow challenged the supremacy of the mounted knight on the

battlefield, it was the development of gunpowder weapons and the cannon which would help decide the fate of the war. As usual, space and time prohibits us from covering every manufacturer, so we are limited in giving a small selection, using what has been supplied in time for our deadline. One notable exception to our review is Essex Miniatures which sadly did not arrive in time. Measurements of cavalry are given from base to the top of the head of the mounted figure. What follows should provide gamers with inspiration to what is available in different sizes/scales. WS&S

1ST CORP MINIATURES 28MM Range: Growing. Size: 28mm foot to eye or 31mm tall. Price: £8.00 for eight infantry. £6.00 for Joan and banner. Under the 1st Corps banner, the Curteys have the Kingmaker range of 15th Century medievals. This contains good selection of mounted and foot models suitable for the Hundred Years War. These include longbow archers, hand gunners, crossbowmen, spearmen and mounted longbowmen. The latest release is their first character model, a mounted Joan of Arc miniature (shown) released with a flag by Battle Flag.

BLACK TREE 28MM Range: Good. Size: 28mm ‘foot to eye’ or 31mm tall. 47mm in Saddle. Price: £5.95 for four infantry or £10.50 for 3 cavalry models. Black Tree has a good selection of Hundred Years War miniatures divided into early and late war. There are 49 packs in total providing infantry (longbow, hand gunners, crossbowmen and spearmen) and mounted (knights and light cavalry).

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CLAYMORE CASTINGS 28MM Range: Growing. Size: 28mm ‘foot to eye’ or 32mm tall. Price: £6.50 for four infantry. Claymore Castings specialises in Scottish models for the Hundred Years War period. Currently these only include foot figures for the Scots (including Gallowglass) and English.

CRUSADER 28MM Range: Fair. Size: 28mm ‘foot to eye’ or 32mm tall. 50mm in saddle. Price: £9.75 for eight infantry or 3 cavalry. This range consists of nine packs of infantry (covering dismounted knights, pavisiers, crossbows, longbows and hand gunners) and five of cavalry (hobilars, mounted crossbows and knights).

FRONT RANK 28MM Range: Comprehensive. Size: 27mm ‘foot to eye’ or 30mm tall, 46mm in saddle. Price: £1.20 per model, £2.25 per horse. This comprehensive range includes longbow, hand gunners, crossbowmen and pavisiers for the infantry and knights for the cavalry. Models are sold individually, but unit packs are available.

PERRY MINIATURES 28MM Range: Good. Size: 28mm ‘foot to eye’ or 31mm tall. 45mm in saddle. Price: £7.00 for six infantry, £8.50 for three cavalry, £20 for 36 plastic infantry. The Perrys have a good selection of late HYW miniatures in both metal and plastic. They have archers, peasants, knights (both mounted and dismounted) and some interesting personalities.

FOUNDRY 28MM Range: Fair - Good. Size: 27mm ‘foot to eye’ or 30mm tall. 43mm in saddle. Price: £12.00 for eight infantry or three cavalry. Foundry has twelve packs of infantry (including knights, pavisiers, spearmen, crossbowmen, archers and peasants) and five packs of heavy cavalry. They also have character packs including an oxen plough and several sets of peasants and civilians.

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OLD GLORY 25MM Range: Very good. Size: 26mm ‘foot to eye’ or 29mm tall. 41mm in saddle. Price: £24.00 for 30 infantry or 10 Cavalry. The Old Glory Hundred Years War range includes not only English and French but Scots, Spaniards, Germans, Burgundians and Flemish. The range is sub divided into Crecy (early to mid HYW) and Agincourt (Late HYW). These include pretty much every combination of infantry and mounted units that were available.

KHURASHAN 15MM Range: Small, growing. Size: 18mm ‘foot to eye’ or 20mm tall. Price: $2.99 for six miniatures. Khurashan has a small but growing range, consisting of four packs of longbows, knights, welsh knifemen and command.

MINIFIGS 15MM Range: Good. Size: 16mm ‘foot to eye’ or 18mm tall. 25mm in saddle. Price: £3.30 for 8 infantry or 4 cavalry. Minifigs has two ranges, one for Crecy and one for Agincourt. They include a complete list of infantry and cavalry for both sides.

KALLISTRA 12MM Range: Good – growing. Size: 12.5mm ‘foot to eye’ or 14mm tall. 21mm in saddle. Price: £6.00 for 32 infantry or 16 cavalry. Kallistra has sixteen packs of miniatures covering all the basic troop types. This includes two Scottish packs and siege guns. As with all Kallistra products, bases are included as standard.

PENDRAKEN 10MM Range: Good – growing. Size: 15mm in saddle. Price: £4.50 for 30 foot or 15 cavalry. Pendraken have forty-one packs in their Late Medieval range, most of which are suitable for the Hundred Years War. They include all the usual infantry and cavalry types with a few special items such as siege towers.

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By David Imrie and Andrew Taylor

ON THE COVER

THE RED HARLAW I was delighted to be invited to contribute the front cover piece for WS&S for the third time. This one is a joint endeavour with Andrew Taylor. We decided to do something different from the ordinary painting guide and add in a little bit of history, painting, and gaming information. After all, that’s what our hobby is. And besides, there are only so many times that we can describe how to layer paint on a figure!

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his article is also admittedly a blatant plug for Claymore Castings, a company that focuses on the medieval period … and just happens to be owned by Andrew and me! Our ranges at present focus on the domestic battles in the British Isles circa 1400. There is no shortage of conflicts that the figures can be used for, including the Hundred Years War, the Otterburn English and Scots campaigns, Shrewsbury, the Scots and Highlander raids on Ireland, and the Highlander-Lowland Scots conflicts of the period. Our initial thoughts were to do a vignette of John the Blind of Bohemia and the story of the three feathers. At Crécy in 1346, he bravely charged against the English while strapped to his knights. They all died together. Sculptor Matthew Bickley did the group as a special commission, all tied together with falling horse and standard. Everything was looking great, but then, like John the Blind, the project fell at the last hurdle. Thankfully, forewarned is forearmed, so we spoke to Guy and opted for a different vignette – with the promise that John the Blind would appear in a future issue of WS&S.

like Hotspur, Swinton, Red Hector, Douglas, and Mar, although famous in their time, now dwindle dimly against the mythology that has grown around the heroes of the earlier periods. The many characters and complexities of this period saw strange alliances, daring deeds, feuds, and broken trusts, whether it be the poetic story of Swinton’s death charge at Homildon Hill in 1404 or the dark and sinister story of the ‘Wolf of Badenoch’. We like to game this history with a comic book/adventure feel for the period, but at the same time embracing a foundation in actual events. This is not a detailed or even perfectly researched account of the period, but rather a jumble of facts and points of interest that have captured our imagination! We hope that this will lead you to do your own research on the heroes and conflicts of the period. For this front cover, we have chosen to paint up some Scottish knights for the Battle of Harlaw in 1411. (Figures painted by Andrew and myself.)

PAINTING ARMOUR, BY ANDREW

Most people, when they study medieval Scotland, think about the time of The Bruce or Wallace. However, the later period of 1377 to 1420 has always interested us just as much. Names

Apart from the jupon bearing their coats of arms, the men-atarms or knights of this period were almost entirely covered in polished steel plate and mail, although occasionally gilding and paint could be used as well. There are a number of ways you can paint armour – dry brushing, washes, and even polishing the bare metal on the miniature!

Claymore and Perry Knights in the finished diorama.

Donald, Lord of the Isles’ men.

SCOTLAND IN THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR

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The Stewarts line up for battle.

Stewart Kerns with bills.

I begin by undercoating the entire miniature with a coat of thinned-down black enamel. I find enamel works best for this, as it runs into the detail very well, which is important for areas such as mail, as you don’t want any unpainted spots showing through.

Like the development of most clothing, there is no clear date for the changeover between one style and another. A (very) rough timeline guide would be: 1360-1410, tight jupon-covered plate armour; 1400-1420, the start of uncovered plate armour.

The first stage is painting the mail. For this, I first dry-brush with Vallejo Model Color ‘Gunmetal Grey’, and once this is done, I put a final highlight of silver over the top. For the plate armour, I start by painting over all the areas with a coat of Vallejo Model Air ‘Steel’ (this is one of my favourite metallic paints – it’s very shiny, but quite thin, and gives very good coverage). Once this is dry, the armour is given a wash of a little black paint mixed with Johnson Klear acrylic floor polish and a little water. (You could use some acrylic gloss varnish if you can’t find any of the Johnson stuff.) I like it because it’s fairly thin, lending itself to washes very well. It has the extra bonus of being gloss, adding to the shiny look of the armour. Once this has dried, a final dry-brush with the steel colour is added to enhance the gleaming metal look.

Knights and spearmen from our range and the extensive Perry Miniatures ‘Agincourt’ range would be suitable for the Stewarts’ army.

Once the armour is painted, the rest of the miniature can be finished. Once completed, I carefully paint over the non-metal parts with matt varnish, so as not to dull the metallic look.

THE BASING, BY DAVID I use Warbases laser-cut MDF bases. First, I texture the base with a coat of glue and sand. Next, I use Vallejo Flat Earth as a base colour, then I dry-brush with Desert Yellow, and then a tiny amount of white is added for a final dry-brush. Some grey stones are added for effect. I use two sizes of grass tufts for variation. (Tufts are available from many places nowadays.) The tufts are then dry-brushed lightly with yellow. (Dry-brushing is when you wipe some of the paint off your brush and then gently drag or flick the brush over the texture, so that the paint only picks up and coats the raised parts of the sand or texture; progressive dry-brushing with lighter colours needs to be gentler in pressure.)

THE BATTLE OF HARLAW Harlaw was fought on 24 July 1411, just north of Inverurie in Aberdeenshire. Just a few years before Agincourt, the topic for this edition of the magazine, the knights’ armour of this period was in transition from the covered tight-fitting jupon style to the uncovered armour commonly seen by the time of Agincourt.

The Battle of Harlaw was fought over competing claims to the Earldom of Ross, a large region in northern Scotland. Whoever controlled this area also controlled Aberdeen. Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany and regent of Scotland at the time, had taken control of the earldom as guardian of his niece, Euphemia Leslie. (These are the Stewarts.) This claim was contested by Donald, Lord of the Isles, who had married Euphemia’s aunt, Mariota. Donald invaded Ross with a large force, sometimes claimed to number as many as 10,000 men. (These are the Highlanders.) Although medieval accounts of numbers are to be taken with a pinch of salt, I’m under no doubt that it was a large force of Highlanders and Islesmen, their sole intention being to seize the earldom by force. Highlanders at this period were not clad in tartan from head to toe, and in some cases their lords could often possess quite modern armour. Dr Chris Brown’s recent work states that there is no real evidence that a wealthy knight or lord’s armour would look any different if he were English or Scots or a Highlander. His book The Knights of the Scottish Wars of Independence is well worth a read. We should also be careful when we look at this history from a national perspective. Individual gain was everything! A Highlander army used large numbers of archers and axemen, a throwback to the Nordic-Scandinavian influence on the Outer Isles and Highlands. Their bow was a war-bow based on Viking tradition and, although not used as effectively as the English longbow, could be a deadly weapon. There is an account of them stopping a Scottish schiltron of spearmen with archery, a picture we normally associate with the English and Scots conflicts of the period. The large double-handed claymore was just developing at this time.

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Base with sand and Base with a coat of Base dry-brushed with White is added to the Grass and tufts (before a Desert Yellow. stones glued on. Flat Earth. Desert Yellow. dry-brush with yellow). Donald’s army defeated a large force of Mackays at the Battle of Dingwall, capturing Dingwall Castle as a stronghold before advancing on Aberdeen. At Harlaw, the Highlanders were confronted by 1000–2000 of the local lords and knights, hastily assembled by the Earl of Mar. After a day of fierce fighting, there was no clear victor. The Stewart force would probably take the appearance of our Scots knights and spearmen, with a few Highland-looking allies, and would probably fight in a schiltron formation of spearmen lead by knights, a formation that was commonly used by the Scots. Donald had lost an estimated 900 men before retreating back to the Western Isles, and Mar had lost around 500. The latter could claim a strategic victory in that Aberdeen was saved for the Stewart cause, and within a year, Albany had recaptured all of Ross and forced Donald to surrender. However, Mariota was later awarded the Earldom of Ross in 1424, and the Lordship of the Isles would keep the title for much of the fifteenth century. The ferocity of the battle gave it the nickname ‘Red Harlaw’. It is commemorated by a 40-foot memorial on the battlefield near the town of Inverurie. A noted character in the conflict is Red Hector of the Battles MacLean. Hector distinguished himself by his daring exploits and was one of the best swordsmen of his time. Many came from distant parts to measure their skill with weapons against him. One of these was a renowned knight of Norway, who challenged Hector to a combat to the death. They met in Mull, where they fought, and where the Norwegian fell. A cairn on the sea-shore marks the spot where the Norwegian knight is buried. While serving under his uncle Donald at Harlaw, Hector was ultimately slain by Sir Alexander Irvine of Drum in a ferocious hand-to-hand combat, at the end of which, both men lay dead. As mentioned, Andrew and I like to game this period in an adventure gaming style, and the Lion Rampant rules from Osprey Publishing are a perfect set of rules to do this. I have included two sample 24/26 point army lists for the Harlaw period. Of course, you can field your own interpretation.

1 x Unit of Lowland Archers (4pts) Add Ribaulds (Bidowers) (2pts) Donald, Lord of The Isles (Highlanders) 2 x Unit of Highland Knights/MAA or exchange 1 x Knights for 1 x Expert Serjeants (12pts) 2 x Unit of Fierce Foot (8pts) 1 x Unit of Highland Archers (4pts) Add Cateran or Kern (Bidowers) (2pts) Special rule for those of us that like our schiltrons to move. Foot Yeomen and Serjeants upgrade: Mobile Schiltron @ 1 or 2 points per unit. Allows units to move in schiltron at half-speed for 1 point or full speed for 2 points. Cannot move in Rough terrain.

THE KERN AND THE CATERAN Like the terms Bidower or Ribauld, the terms Kern and Cateran are other names associated with the peasants or lighter-armed soldiers that are mostly lower class warriors. The word ‘kern’ is an anglicization of the Irish word ceithern or ceithrenn, meaning a collection of persons, particularly fighting men. The word ‘cateran’, from the Gaelic ceathairne, is a collective word historically referring to a band of fighting men of a Highland clan. WS&S If you want to learn more about Claymore, please contact them at [email protected]. Flags by Flags of war, www.flagsofwar.com Bases for the figures by Warbases, www.war-bases.co.uk Figures by Claymore Castings, www.claymorecastings.co.uk

FURTHER READING

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Peter Marren, Grampian battlefields: the historic battles of North East Scotland from AD 84 to 1745. Aberdeen, 1990. Pp. 89-102.

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David E. Martin, The Battlefields of Scotland: A report on their preservation for Historic Scotland. Historic Scotland, 1997.

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http://www.battlefieldstrust.com/resource-centre/ medieval/battleview.asp?BattleFieldId=64

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William Mackay, The Battle of Harlaw: its true place in history. Inverness, 1922.

LION RAMPANT FORCES FOR THE PERIOD The Stewarts (Scots) 1 x Unit of Knights/MAA (6pts) 1 x Expert Serjeants – not Billmen, but better trained spearmen (6pts) 2 x Unit of Scots Spear (Foot Serjeants) or exchange 1 x Spear for 1 x Fierce Foot (8pts)

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© Georgie Harman

COLUMN

By Phil Dutré

THE IRREGULAR

IT’S THE FIGURES, STUPID! In September 2013, the BBC program Antiques Roadshow unearthed a collection of toy soldiers, once owned by a certain George Alfred Keef in the 1870s. The collection, along with extensive notes and maps describing the adventures of the toy soldiers on campaign (ranging from Europe to India), has been in the Keef family ever since.

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hat struck me about this story is that we know next to nothing about the rules that George Keef and brothers used to play their wargames – except that they used gunpowder-firing toy cannons to really shoot at their soldiers. But does it really matter? When looking at the maps depicting the various battles, the story of the army comes to life. The toy soldiers and their adventures preserved for more than 140 years are the real gem, not the actual rules, and certainly not such trivial details as die-roll modifiers for specific actions on the battlefield (if they used dice at all). To contemporary wargamers, this might feel a bit strange. Are the rules not the core of our hobby? The sacred rules we constantly argue about, and by which our toy soldiers behave such that they mimic as closely as possible the actions of military history? What are figures without a proper rule set that is carefully researched and written by a game designer? Don’t we need the rules to bring life to our beloved miniatures? Oh, the horror of not knowing what basing standard to use!

Such thoughts crossed my mind when I was spending some time during the Christmas holidays cleaning up and repairing an old army of mine. I almost never repaint old miniatures. I consider them witnesses of my previous colouring preferences and painting skills; and moreover, the mountain of unpainted lead has priority over the legions of couldhave-been–painted-better lead. However, I do rework the bases now and then. More than the paintjob of the figure itself, it is often the visual look of the base that provides the common theme for all figures in an army. If all bases on which the figures are mounted are visually similar, it provides for a much larger visual cohesion on the battlefield. The bases for the models in this particular army of yesteryear were in a dire state. The models in question are orcs and goblins from an age long gone, but this particular detail is irrelevant here. Originally, the figures were based individually, with bases simply painted black. Later, grey flock was added. A few years after that, I based the figures in groups of four, in order to adjust them for a par-

Some ‘flats’, over 100 years old. Rarely used for gaming now, but old toy soldiers never die. ticular rule set that we really liked at the time. Since I thought this was the best rule set ever, and could not imagine using anything else, I superglued the original figures to cardboard bases measuring 6cm by 6cm and gave them another layer of paint and flock. When that rule set finally fell out of favour in our gaming group (I guess this sounds familiar to many of you), I decided to re-individualize the figures; but by now, glue marks and irregular bits of flock were all over the original bases. So it came about that, after many years, I recently refurbished the bases of all these individual figures, roughly 200 in total. Again, I applied grey flock – not what I would do today, but hardly a choice, given the history of these figures – and adorned them by using rocks, tufts of grass, and so on. At last, my army is again respectable enough to make a showing on the wargaming table. These particular figures, which I dearly love, have now served me for over two decades. And what I realized in the process of making them serviceable again is that, for a long-time wargamer, the figures are the real focal point of your hobby – not the rules you might use by accident for a few years before moving on to a better set.

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These have been in my collection for over 20 years and probably will continue to serve for the next twenty.

54mm repainted old Britains toy soldiers. We still play Wild West skirmish games using these.

As a young wargamer starting out, it is quite natural that you acquire figures that go with your chosen rule set. Your budget might be limited, and perhaps you do not always know where to start. Current rule systems quite often guide you conveniently to a particular range of figures, and the so-called army lists that now seem to be a mandatory feature of commercial rule sets provide a gentle push in the right direction. But of course, rule sets do lose their popularity for a myriad of reasons. Sooner or later, the original publisher stops ‘supporting’ the rule set, thus providing an easy excuse for players to abandon ship. More importantly, one’s preferences evolve over the years. Rules that once seemed so clever and fun might feel like a futile exercise in die-rolling several years later. Alternatively, social dynamics might dictate why certain rule sets fall out of favour. There is no reason to cling to a rule set if all your regular gaming friends have switched to something else. And lastly, there is innovation in wargaming, as well. Gaming mechanics and procedures do become better over the years, reflecting new insights in games design.

the eighties and nineties. I have come to realize that the constant factor during all these gaming years is a good and solid collection of figures. Those three decades are not characterized, in my mind, by any particular rule set or army list, but by the toy soldiers that have been drafted over and over again in different battles, wars, and campaigns. A particular set of rules, although needed to play a wargame, is only incidental to my wargaming experiences and memories. This is not a plea to nostalgically stick to old figures and never buy shiny new ones – there is an industry to support, after all. But the reality is that, given the size of our current wargaming armies, the effort that went into collecting and painting them must be amortized over many years to come. Future rules writers and publishers should take this into account, since I will not rebase or completely replace my existing wargaming armies.

But the turnover frequency of rule sets, driven by these various factors, is not matched by the turnover frequency of a collection of figures. After all, it is quite easy to change rule sets. A new rule set does not cost much, and the effort of learning and getting familiar with new rules is not that hard. On the other hand, there is significant more effort involved in buying and painting a completely new army of toy soldiers. The time and financial investment is at least an order of magnitude larger than reading a new rule book. Hence, the figures in the collection of any wargamer who is in the hobby for the long run most certainly outlive the use of any particular rule set. So it makes little sense to acquire figures specialized for a particular gaming system, or to mount your figures on oddly-shaped bases because a designer demands it. Slavishly adhering to army lists, whose only purpose is often to sell more figures, seems in this respect a silly thing to do, as well. I’ve been wargaming for almost 30 years, which means that a significant portion of my beloved soldiers date from

One wargaming trend different from the above is that many new rule sets seem to favour the ‘warband’ style of play. By focusing on the smaller number of figures needed to play, it might be easier for a player to sell off or do away with a warband, once the accompanying rules are no longer used, and start all over again. However, even though a young wargamer might fall prone to this behaviour, I don’t think it is the modus operandi of those of us who are in the hobby for the long run. Ten years from now, I might use rules that do not even exist today or that will use clever gaming mechanics that have yet to be invented. But most likely, I will use figures many of which are already in my collection today. WS&S Once you have a Crusader army, what’s really to stop you from using it with WAB, Hail Caesar, DBA, Lion Rampant or Crescent and Cross? The editor has used his Numidian cavalry for every period from Hannibal to El Cid and beyond. The whole story of George Alfred Keef – along with a transcription of the notebook – can be found on the blog The History of Georland (http://georland.blogspot.be/). You can check out Phil’s blog spot at http://snv-ttm.blogspot.be/

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MODELING

By Steve Beckett

PAINTING 15MM FACES

FACES OF WAR I dunno. There I was, innocently posting up a few photos on Facebook, and now look what’s happened. I’m writing and sharing painting tips in everybody’s favourite wargames mag, WS&S! It seems my recent dabbling in all things 15mm and World War II has caught the attention of a few folk.

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have to admit, I’m new to painting and modelling, both the WWII period and 15mm. Up until now, 28mm was my preferred scale. Why? Well, it’s all about the faces. I like to add character and bring my warriors to life. As a scale, 15mm never appealed, because painting the faces on tiny, tiny soldiers just isn’t the done thing … until now! So, why the change of heart? Firstly, my gamer chum, Mike, and I both wanted to start gaming WWII. However, Mike wasn’t keen on 28mm and, after a brief discussion down the pub, I ended up somewhat reluctantly agreeing to game WWII in 15mm. After scouring the internet, I settled on the Flames of War starter box, Open Fire! It has lots of tanks in it. But, best of all, there are lots of infantry in plastic, which on close inspection turned out to have nice, clearly sculpted faces. Three months later, I have now completed the allies from the FOW set – eight tanks and a platoon of US Airborne, who feature heavily in this article, and more from Flames of War and the Plastic Soldier Company, a few of which figure here too. (Thank you very much Will Townshend for the sample figures. I hope I’ve done them justice!) I’m now firmly a fan of the 15mm scale. Which brings me on to the focus of this article – painting the faces on your 15mm figures. Madness! You mean to say that they actually have faces? Yes, they do have faces! Some, however, are not always spot on. Amongst the Stallone and Eastwood lookalikes on my Battlefront sprues, there are a few faces resembling Sloth from the Goonies and Voldemort. A couple were missing noses and one guy was missing half his face! Nothing a tiny bit of green stuff couldn’t sort out, though. These are nice figures, with well-defined detail and characterful faces. They deserve more. Now, I get that those of you who are avid tournament gamers may not have time to lavish such detail on your armies; especially if you’re painting to a looming deadline. That’s fair enough. But why not con consider revisiting some of your previously painted soldiers and add an extra detail here or there? They may fight better with some eyeballs!

A German officer.

Using one of my US Airborne and a German officer as examples, let’s have

a look, step by step, at painting these little chaps’ faces. It’s really not that scary. Disclaimer: I’m focusing on plastics here An American para squad. and my soldiers are of the ‘heroic’ 15mm bent. Some slighter, real-scale 15mm sculpts may not have the definition needed to exaggerate some of the details illustrated in this article. Having painting a few 15mm metals, too, I’ve found that painting in all the facial features on some metal figures may be tricky; not impossible, though. They may just need a bit more love and attention.

THE PROCESS I’ve drawn up a diagram to illustrate the following steps for extra clarity. Hopefully my pictures will give you a clear idea of just what paint goes where! The US Airborne and the German officer pictures have slight differences in the way they’ve been painted. The American has a tanned, pinkish complexion, whereas I wanted my German to have a paler, washed out complexion. Perhaps the bitterness of the Eastern Front, coupled with the niggling worry of failure and an impending summons to Berlin, has taken its toll on the poor chap. But in both cases, we want strong contrast in skin tones at this scale. Step 1: I work from a brown undercoat, using Vallejo Model Color German Cam. Brown, which I brush on diluted with a little water. Unusual, I know; but I prefer to control the amount of undercoat to limit detail loss at this scale. Spray primer is fine. It’s just a personal preference. Also I prefer to wash the brown undercoat with Games Workshop Agrax Earthshade, to give me a pre-shaded base to work on and to pop out the details on the figure, making them easier to see. Step 2: As you can see, I’ve finished the uniforms on these figures, so let’s focus on the faces. Using a 0-size brush, take some Vallejo Game Color Heavy Siena and block in the face, leaving the recesses around the nose, mouth and eyes. Step 3: Using Vallejo Game Color Heavy Skintone, paint over the Siena base, remembering to leave some of it showing around the edges of the face and around the nose and mouth. Remember

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that we are trying to achieve a strong contrast of light and shade for well-defined details, which is important at this scale! Step 4: Using Vallejo Game Color Heavy Charcoal, paint in and around the eyes, and if you want your soldiers to have that not-shaved-for-a-week look, paint this colour around the mouth area, too. I then carefully apply a wash over the face with Games Workshop Reikland Flesh Shade. The wash enriches the flesh, giving it a pinkish tone, which helps the skin tone pop. For the German soldier, I skipped the wash, as I wanted him to have a paler complexion. I also gave him a paler stubble by mixing Vallejo Game Color Heavy Warmgrey with a little Heavy Skintone and applying a thin layer around the mouth. Step 5: I like to paint the eyes in. “What do you mean?” members of the Facebook pages screamed, “They have eyes? I didn’t even think they had heads!” Yes, they do have eyes. Painting them is optional, of course, and the face will still look good if you choose not to. But my gamer OCD will always force me to attempt painting in the eyes, whether I like it or not! I swapped my brush for a 5.0 and painted in the eyeballs with white. This is the trickiest stage. Next, using a 10.0size brush, I carefully dotted in the pupils using black, making sure that the paint was of a thin consistency, but not watery. (I like to mix in some Games Workshop Nuln Oil with my black to help it flow.) There’s no easy way to do this, but I find that the A bazooka team.

brush tends to naturally fall into position. If necessary, go back to the Heavy Charcoal and define the shape of the eye. You could also carefully draw the brush over the top of the eye to help define it. If the soldier’s helmet is low over the eyes, just paint the underside of the helmet’s rim. Try to avoid the eyes looking too big. Less is definitely more in this case. Step 6: With my American soldier, using a thinned mix of Vallejo Heavy Skintone and Charcoal, I carefully painted a translucent layer over the grey around the mouth, so that the grey still showed through. Then I made a 50/50 mix of Vallejo Heavy Skintone and Games Workshop Ratskin Flesh, and painted the cheeks, nose, and chin. Then, mixing in white with the Ratskin Flesh, I painted in highlights on the tops of the cheeks and bridge of the nose. For the paler German soldier, I highlighted the cheekbones, nose, and chin with Vallejo Game Color Heavy Warmgrey. Finally, mixing in a little red with Heavy Skintone and Heavy Siena, I like to run the brush over the bottom lip. And we’re done. When viewed at a comfortable distance, the figures really do have character and personality, something I think each model’s sculptor always intended. I hope you can see that the strong contrast in tones really helps make the faces stand out at this small scale. When grouped together, the squad really does look like a motley crew – battle hardened and battered by the elements. Giving your 15mm figures’ faces a little extra attention really will make all the difference. Madness, I know! WS&S A wise painter once said that the key to a good miniature was

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MODELING

By Stephen Tunmore

WALLS AND FENCES FOR WARGAMING TERRAIN

ANOTHER BRICK

IN THE WALL Walls and fences are often ignored by wargamers for their wargaming terrain. They can provide cover, making movement less fraught, and can obscure line of sight. They also provide an obstruction to movement and allow flocking and vegetation to be represented, so adding realism to your terrain. Here, I hope to provide some ideas, some of them period-specific, to add some aesthetic appeal to your wargaming table.

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roadly speaking, these scenic features can be divided into two groups – commercially available and scratchbuilt. A quick trawl through the internet will reveal a number of suppliers from both the wargaming and the model railway worlds. Although model railway accessories may be more suitable for 20mm scale figures, they can sometimes be used for larger scales with a little work. The following pictures show the potential of some of these items. All paints used are from the Vallejo Model Color paint range.

STONE WALLING With the Javis Scenics stone walls, I have painted one to suit a temperate climate, using 994 Dark Grey as a base colour and progressively adding 918 Ivory to the base colour, dry-brushing to show the detail on the casting. To add some depth, wash the whole item with a thinned black ink wash. Do one side and then the other, to stop the black wash flowing to the bottom of the wall. The second wall is for a Mediterranean-themed table. It is painted using 914 Green Ochre as a base colour and drybrushed in lightening shades of 914 with 918 Ivory added. A watered-down wash of Windsor & Newton peat brown ink adds depth. Again, do one side of the wall at a time. The stones on the base are Cotswold buff chippings, which were obtained from a local builders’ merchants, painted in a suitable desert colour, and dry-brushed.

For a granite stone wall finish, paint the wall 950 Black, then dry-brush with various shades of grey – 994 Dark Grey, 990 Light Grey, and 991 Dark Sea Grey – to show up all this detail. Again, you could pick out individual stones.

WOOD AND BRICK For a wood effect, I mixed 921 English Brown and 994 Dark Grey to show a weathered dark brown colour, and covered it with Windor & Newton peat brown watered–down ink. I then dry-brushed with lighter shades of brown, but this could also be done in grey, to make the wood look more weathered. For a good brick finish for walls, I use a bricks mixture of my own. I mix 818 Red Leather, 829 Amarantha, and 983 Flat Earth equally, and wash it down with Windsor & Newton peat brown ink, thinned with water. Then pick out individual bricks with various shades of brown and red to break up the bland monotone colour of the wall. The angled pantile on the top of the wall was painted with 994 Dark Grey, Windsor & Newton thinned black ink dropped between the tiles, and dry-brushed a lighter shade of grey.

SCRATCHBUILDING Some people may not feel confident making scratch-built items, but with some patience and a few cheap tools, it can be very easy and rewarding.

An alternative to grey walls, using 875 Beige Brown highlighted with 876 Brown Sand and washed in thinned Windsor & Newton peat brown ink, can represent sandstone walling.

Simple flower-arranging wire and matchsticks obtained from a local flower shop can make simple fencing. (The wire had gone rusty and they were only too glad to give it to me!) The standard-size matchsticks are cut to length, and holes are drilled

Javis stone walls, desert and temperate.

Javis Scenics broken-down vertical timber fence.

Dry stone walling in grey and sandstone.

Hovels red brick wall capped with grey angle pantile.

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The stages of constructing a snake rail fence.

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The stages of constructing a buck rail fence. into them at fixed points. I cut mine 20mm long and drilled holes in them using a pin vice, at points 5mm and 15mm from the top. The wire is threaded through the posts and glued in place with superglue, remembering to space the posts equally first! Then fix the posts into a strip of plywood which has been glued along the centre of the plywood base. If the wire is not long enough to reach from one end of the modular terrain to the other, end one length of wire in a post and slide the next length into the other side of the post. After the glue has dried, plaster, flock, and paint. If any wire is sticking out from the end of the final post, carefully file flush with a small file. I have scratch-built snake rail fencing for my 28mm American Civil War forces, after some trial and error using the same modular terrain system (see illustration in WS&S issue 74, p. 68). I used twigs and sticks from my garden to make the posts and rails, and I also cut back black thorn bushes, as well. I tend to collect them in autumn and winter, because any new growth from the spring and summer has hardened off. You don’t want bendy posts and rails! I made a plan of the upright post locations. Remember to note where the zig-zag of the fencing will start and finish, so that consecutive pieces will join up. I cut the upright posts 25mm long, because one end will be whittled down and the other set in the plaster covering the base. Using a sharp craft knife, I cut one end of the vertical post flat so that it could stand upright. (I found that snips or pliers crushed the end and did not leave it flat.) Then I whittled the other end to a point, to represent axe cuts. Finally, I glued the upright in place using medium viscosity superglue. I have found that thin superglue soaks into the plywood base and does not fix the post in place, whereas the thicker type sits in place and flows around the post. Remember to leave enough space between the upright posts for the cross-members. Also, as one of the end rails is higher than the preceding one, place a piece of waste from whittling the post-end to elevate it, so that it appears to interlock with the next section of fencing. I have never seen gates used with snake rail fencing. I assume that you either climb over the fence or disassemble it to allow

a plough to enter the field. Add the rails, overlapping each other, so that three rails are 20mm high. A dab of superglue will suffice to hold the fence together, but sometimes this leaves a ‘frosted’ finish. To avoid this, you could use neat PVA. Although this will take longer to dry, it will dry clear and you will not have to paint over the natural colour of the posts. Cover the base with a layer of plaster or tile adhesive and flock, as per my previous article. Another form of fencing prevalent in North America is buck and rail fencing. I was prompted to make some of this after seeing some in an AWI game at ‘Partizan in the Park’. Again, as with the snake rail fencing, I marked out the base where the posts would stand, taking into account how long the rails would be. I used wooden skewers for the cross pieces, after roughening them up with coarse sandpaper, and extra long matches for the rails. I glued the cross-pieces together and left them to dry overnight. Then, with the rails already cut, I used thin superglue to put the fence together. I then covered the base with waterproof tile adhesive and placed the large stones under the fence. At the same time, I covered the base in stones and grit and left it to dry. When this has dried, you can paint, dry-brush, and flock the base.

CONCLUSION Walls and fences lend a strong sense of realism to your wargames terrain and would grace any table. The commercially-available items can fulfil many possible scenarios, dependent on what colour you paint them. Even the scratch-built items take a relatively short amount of time, and consider the fact that, instead of hunting around different suppliers to get an item that’s closest to your requirements, you can make exactly what you want. WS&S Below is a list of suppliers I have used for this feature: • www.expotools.com • www.hovelsltd.co.uk • www.javis.co.uk

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LET’S PLAY

By Gary Mitchell

FLEET ACTIONS 1776-1815 (OSPREY WARGAMES) PAPERBACK

LET’S PLAY FIGHTING SAIL In the years between 1776 and 1815, square-rigged sailing ships dominated warfare on the high seas. Fighting Sail is a tabletop wargame of fleet battles where players take on the role of admirals (or individual captains) in battles ranging from the American War of Independence to the Napoleonic Wars and their offshoot, the War of 1812. Each fleet has access to different ships, tactics, and command personalities, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. By fleets, we’re really talking about small squadrons, but Trafalgar is not beyond the bounds of possibility.

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or this article, I gratefully received an advance PDF from the author, the printed book not yet being available. Not to worry; it was pretty much all there – as always, lavishly illustrated with stimulating artwork, pictures of models in play, and informative ‘sidebars’ of anecdotes and information. Phew! I could meet my deadline before Captain Bowers ‘let the cat out of the bag’ and assembled all contributors on the quarterdeck of WS&S to see me made an example of. As with all the books in the Osprey Wargames series, the rules promise a blend of detail and simplicity. Fighting Sail is intended to be a ‘fast-play’ rules set, which suits me fine, and at the price (c. £10) one cannot really lose on the artwork alone. It’s origins in fantasy gaming show, but it’s none the worse for that. Of the 64 pages in the PDF, half were rules and the rest lists and scenarios, so this really is a one-stop rules set for the genre. Mr Miller’s scholarly introduction and potted history sets the right and proper focus on the ‘iron men’, rather than their ships, as being the crucial factor in Napoleonic naval victory and defeat.

SET-UP First, one must choose one’s fleet. The rules recommend around 300 points. Using the RN lists, Victory clocks in at 172, with a 1st rate at 96, a 3rd at 55, and a 5th rate frigate at 31, so we’re not talking about huge battle fleets. A ‘Hero’ admiral will cost the RN 6 points – Nelson himself is a whopping 31 points! An ‘Authoritarian’ captain (e.g. the fictional Hornblower) will cost the RN 3 points, and all types of officer give certain advantages. You get the idea. The object of the game is to reduce the enemy’s morale to zero, so that they ‘strike’ (surrender) or run away. Record-keeping is conducted via tokens – Cannon tokens show whether a ship has fired; Damage tokens show general damage taken; and Anchor tokens represent all kinds of sailsail ing difficulties, shot rigging, and so forth. All fairly abstracted, but none the worse for that, as ships were like ‘human machines’, Small scale, but dependent upon their crew (if you full of detail. don’t believe me, read Ben Wilson’s

excellent history Empire of the Deep). Tests (e.g. a ‘discipline test’ to remove an inconvenient ‘anchor’) are passed by rolling a natural 6. The better your crew, the more dice you throw. Elegantly simple. By the way, these tokens, plus turning templates and such, are provided for copying in the rules, and there’s a Quick Ref sheet, too. Hassle-free record-keeping.

PLAY Initiative is basically IGO-UGO within a phase, and is diced for each turn. Side A moves all its ships, one by one, then side B, and likewise with firing. Aha! Planning your squadron’s order to do things will be important. Elegantly simple – like all good games, the complexity of Fighting Sail appears to be in the application of the rules, rather than in long rules themselves. It is a truth, universally acknowledged, that in Sail-era games, sailing itself can be the most complex part of play. Here it’s simplified into two key factors: crew ability and the vessel’s angle relative to the wind (advanced rules allow for changes in wind direction). A ship dices its ‘sailing points’ and, depending on wind attitudes, these scores give different numbers of 2” moves and turns that a ship can make. So, having the weather gauge is still important. But then, so is the crew quality you pay for in points at the start. Abstracted, sure; but a very clever, realistic mechanism, being simple to grasp once you get the hang of it. Indeed, I’m surprised no one’s thought of this elegance before. There are informative illustrated examples throughout. Turning is via templates; and ships that fail to move get an Anchor token, which severely limits their sailing ability until removed by a ‘discipline test’. So, train, train, train your crew. Collisions (prior to boarding) are also catered for and, again, explained via examples. Gunnery is similarly rationalized. The maximum gun range is 18”, so manoeuvre is plainly important – get in close and pound (the factors are better). The point of measurement is the mainmast and ships have a 30° firing arc, based on length, which elegantly gives a ‘broadside’ effect. Cannon tokens are used to keep track of firing, and there is a gunnery factor for each ship, based upon crew skill. As well as hits, 5s and 6s give explosions and gain extra damage-dice. Sweet random – you could get in a lucky shot. Ships then roll their defence dice to

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The Spanish fleet closes for battle.

Tight manoeuvring for the French squadron.

see how many hits ‘go through’ and take Damage tokens (and sometimes Anchor damage). Damage not ‘saved’ is significant, as it can affect ship and fleet morale, as well as gunnery and boarding effectiveness. Hey, you think that’s bad? Four Damage tokens taken and you’re sunk – that’s gonna affect morale. ‘Discipline’ rolls can remove damage, so get out of the fight for a while to make those repairs (“I need that mainsail back in two minutes, Mr Scott, or we’re dead in the water”), so make sensible captain choices. (I will never choose a ‘Swashbuckler’ again.) Fire can be combined by squadrons (e.g. frigates), but there are limitations. Choosing a ‘Marksman’ captain helps. But then you could choose a ‘Navigator’, who’s better at sailing. Mmm … a few rules, lots of permutations. I like that.

therefore (I saw it, so you don’t have to), when the Spanish list included a certain Cosme Damián de Churruca y Elorza – the great, great, great, great, grandfather of his Iberian consort. Key ships (HMS Victory, Santissima Trinidad – all the usual suspects) have their own stats, but there are also generics for the fleet, complete with points cost, so devise your own. Question at the back? Yes, there indeed be pirates allowed in there, there be, ahhh! The points system should ensure balanced forces.

Boarding actions can be undertaken by entangled ships and – bottom lines – once reduced to zero morale, your fleet loses. You start with 10 per cent of your initial points cost as fleet morale – which means campaign games could be developed, where you scuttle for port to keep your fleet ‘in being’, but its morale is not so good. There are, as yet, no campaign rules, but thinking ahead, the points system could be adapted. Train your crew, build new ships, capture and repair your prizes, blockade, swashbuckle your way up the chain of command under Captain Francis Austen, so you end up the naval hero in Grapple More Closely, his kid sister Jane’s latest bodice-ripper (etc. etc.). So, yes, more complexity could easily be added, and advanced rules are included, mainly dealing with the weather, running aground, fire-ships, shore forts, and all the usual suspects. Sample scenarios are also provided, though I suspect many of us will just want to eliminate rival shipping concerns. A little technical knowledge is helpful; players will need to grasp terms like ‘reaching’ and ‘wearing’, but these are helpfully explained for landlubbers.

THE FLEET LISTS These provide archetype captains and admirals for each navy, with archetypal skills, and are refreshingly free of RN bias. Yes, we know it was the best navy in the world, but it came a cropper in the AWI. There are also ‘legends’ – costly but useful historical characters – supplied for most navies. Imagine Pete’s delight,

THE PLAYTEST With my trusty fellow club members from STaB, Pete Lowe, Paul McInnerny, and Steve Purbrick, I set out to playtest the rules. We used Pete’s 1/1200 models (mainly Langton) and considered my smaller (mainly GHQ) 1/2400 vessels, just for contrast, halving everything as per rule instructions. In the end, we didn’t have time, but it would be perfectly feasible, especially for those with limited space in which to play. Yes, it has to be said, 1/1200 are aesthetically pleasing, and a scale-up to 1/600, like the old Airfix HMS Victory model and conversions thereof, would look even better. Game 1 – Encounter on the High Seas (Team Game) As per Admiral Bowers’ briefing, we set to test the rules to destruction. Deciding initial wind direction was easily achieved: we placed our ships (two aside, one per player) and randomly tossed up the direction marker. For the allies, we fielded the French Beaucentaure and Spanish San Juan Nepumuceno (Pete’s girlfriend’s ancestor’s ship), against HMS Swiftsure and Ajax, 74s both, plus captains and skills, to a fair 60pt total per player. As we manoeuvred to gain the weather gauge, it readily became apparent how important initiative is in giving first movement and firing, and is rightly a random throw. Get it wrong and you move to where you can be raked; get it right and you can rake the enemy after taking minimal damage. The different captain characteristics suggested each fleet play to its strengths (e.g. ‘Architect’ for the Spanish to re-roll 1s for ‘saving hits’; ‘Authoritarian’ for the British to ensure overall modification), and that’s what we did. ‘Swashbuckler’ is less useful, we found, as on the Beaucentaure Captain Picard sought to close the range against an avoiding Brit, whilst a ‘rake’ blew away the San Juan. Pic-

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LET’S PLAY

well, the moral being “Don’t grapple the big boys”. In our two sub-scenarios, Spartiate was both blown away by Santissima’s gunnery, and taken as a prize by boarding – which increased fleet morale. But it wasn’t guaranteed. The Brits could have won.

CONCLUSIONS

The action comes thick and fast! ard finally got Ajax in return, and both sides’ morale started to crack. Aha! The game ends with morale; and with this in mind, Captain Picard retired to his ready-room and the surviving vessels broke off, so that we could try another scenario. Game 2 – Frigates! This game was to be USA versus Brits; a chance to use the ‘legendary’ frigate USS Constitution and its inevitable consort USS Enterprise against HMS Lydia and Sirius. Keen readers will have detected that the Lydia is fictional, because we wanted to include literary heroes; in this case, Horatio Hornblower. (Cue tea-break and discussion.) This game was deliberately asymmetrical in points, just to see what would happen. We also used an island for variation, which meant one British frigate had to race to get into action before her pal was overwhelmed by a brace of ‘Jonathons’. Once again, concentrated fire destroyed a vessel, the surviving Lydia beating a hasty retreat. A few additional thoughts from this game. The points system is vital for balance – Constitution, indeed, has the … well, constitution of an ox. The asymmetric game gave asymmetric morale and made things very unbalanced, so in a campaign, adjustments would have to be made. The rules recommend using a fixed area for play, but for this game, we used a ‘floating map’, and this worked out fine for our running fight. With the lower factors of frigates, it took a while to inflict damage, which is realistic; but again, by luck and judgement, a heavily attacked ship can soon go ‘boom’, which leads to a resolution. Faster ships mean more dancing around for an advantage – again realistic. Game 3 – El Ponderosa Our final playtest was an equal-points game that pitted the Spanish leviathan Santissima Trinidad against three British 74s – Mars, Ajax and Spartiate. Given that the Santissima is slow, with only two sailing dice, we thought this would be a quick game – sea wolves against a sea mammoth. Not so! The points system again ensured balance. Despite receiving raking fire, the ‘Architect’ quality of the Spanish captain and the ship’s huge crew and bulk ensured that it soaked up punishment. A positional error by Mars ensured that it caught a full Spanish broadside … and blew up. Ouch! We then had a boarding action to try out the entanglement and boarding rules, and these seemed to work very

As we grappled with the rules, we decided having pre-printed stats sheets for ships would be a good way forward. The (occasionally) ambiguous wording of the rules would not suit ‘lawyers’, but for human beings left nothing that couldn’t be resolved by a friendly house rule. Yes, the system might suit competition play, and we found that the battle ebbed and flowed nicely, the engagement never over until the fat lady decides she’s had enough and wants to go home. There is a slight tendency for ships to blow up too easily, but this is the luck of the dice. Yes, the luck factor is inherent in the buckets-of-dice approach. It can unusually influence results, but not adversely, and this encourages one to buckle one’s swash and ‘take a chance’ – which is, of course, fun. He who dares wins, etc. The mechanism showed that the rule system is indeed simple but subtle, and requires thought. Not bad qualities. Fighting Sail does exactly what it says on the tin. It provides a fast-paced, playable, fun Napoleonic naval game. As can be seen above, the points system is very important to playability, and one packs one’s fleet with expensive atypical ‘heroes’ at one’s peril. The degree of abstraction is rational and overall gives the same results as many more complex sets. We found the token system simple, and suggest they could be replaced by suitable record cards, or by painted scenery for aesthetic purposes – smoke, fires, waterspouts, and such. Maybe even mermaids? After three games, we found we were easily getting the hang of the game mechanics and were ready to move on to developing tactics and choosing balanced fleets. We also liked the ‘squadron rules’ for combined frigate fire, and the entire game system is playable and elegant. I’ve already mentioned campaigns, and we believe the game system could easily be extended back into history if fair points values could be calculated and agreed upon. It would also suit some sci-fi ‘verses, as a UFP squadron of the dreadnought King William V and its escorts takes on Klingons. If Fighting Sail catches on, as I think it will, we will soon see variations emerge. It’s fun, accurate, and does the job better than many more complex sets. WS&S +++ from Osprey. We had a (cannon) ball – and will do so again!

FIGHTING SAIL Authors: Ryan Miller Illustrator: Peter Dennis Short code: OWG 9 ISBN: 978-1472807700 Format: 64-page softback Publisher: Osprey Publishing Price: £11.99 www.ospreypublishing.com

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SCI FANT

By Joseph McCullough

NOTES ON A FANTASY COMBAT SYSTEM

DESIGNING FROSTGRAVE When I pick up a new set of wargaming rules, the first thing I want to know about is the ‘basic combat mechanism’, how one miniature attacks another, be it shooting or hacking with a sword. Does it use dice or cards or something else? Do both players roll? How many dice are rolled and how many times? The answers can make or break a ruleset for me. If the mechanism that is used for fighting isn’t interesting, why am I playing?

T

hat might sound a little bit harsh, but, as the name implies, these are wargames and fighting is the central theme. Over the years, I have read scores of different combat systems for games, usually each with slight variations on popular or classic themes, a few are more revolutionary. I subconsciously collected the aspects of their combat mechanisms that I thought made for exciting and entertaining games. Recently, I called upon that store of knowledge to write my own set of fantasy skirmish rules. My new game, Frostgrave is due out in July from Osprey Publishing. Here are my thoughts on how I went about designing what I hope is a combat mechanism that will inspire gamers to give it a try. The game takes place in the freezing ruins of a once magical city that is now overrun with undead creatures and monstrous, animated constructs. All of the players control a wizard venturing into the ruins in an effort to discover lost spells and other magical knowledge. Although magic and spellcasting are the central themes of the game, all of the wizards are supported by their apprentices and a gang of mercenary soldiers. While wizards can cast numerous deadly or reality-altering spells, they can also easily be killed by a sword in the guts. I wanted a combat system that was quick and deadly, but also capable of generating surprising results, adding a sense of unknown to the narrative of any game. Usually, a trained knight should take down a lowly thug, but not always. Perhaps more importantly, a snow troll should generally flatten a wizard if it comes to hand-tohand combat, but there should always be a chance for a lucky escape. How could I create a system that allowed for these possibilities, while remaining believable and tactically interesting? Almost all wargames go with some sort of randomizer, if for no other reason than it creates a degree of ‘fog of war’, such as the unexpected victory of a wizard over a snow troll in combat. Without it, you end up with a game more like Chess or Diplomacy, neither of which create the kind of surprise results I wanted for my game. I wanted randomization, but how to get it? Dice are the classic method, but more and more systems are turning to cards. I considered them for a while, but I have typically found that the use of cards in wargames separates me from the action on the table. I feel like I’m playing a wargame and a game of

Plastic soldiers from North Star Osprey Games for Frostgrave. cards at the same time. On top of that, for me, there has always been something special about rolling dice, the act of releasing them onto the table and watching them bounce around (usually taking out a miniature or two), before settling down, fate side up. Since the result is just a number, without suit, colour, or face cards, it is less distracting to me and helps keep me in the game. So, I decided it would definitely be dice for Frostgrave. How many dice and what kind? I realized pretty early on that I wanted to use twenty-sided dice. First and foremost they offer a great field of possibilities, allowing more flexibility when trying to insert and balance unlikely possibilities - like a skeleton with a rusty dagger decapitating a barbarian warrior. The other reason is that I wanted the game to have a bit of classic Dungeons and Dragons feel, and the d20 was the die used in that game for rolling attacks. I next had to determine how that roll decided a combat. For help with this, I turned to a couple of my favourite modern wargames Song of Blades and Heroes and The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game. Both of these games use a simple roll-off to determine the winner. Both require miniatures to roll a d6 with the higher result declared the winner. While this may seem an incredibly simple combat mechanism, it also has one extremely appealing feature – both players are involved. The worst thing a wargame can do is make a player feel like they aren’t actually playing. This mechanic also appeals to me because both miniatures have the chance to win a fight on

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An illusionist & her warband confront a witch & his warband.

A wizard battles around the tomb of an ancient necromancer.

any roll. I’m not a fan of systems where miniatures attack on their turn, and then their opponents attack on theirs. It always felt a little too much like trading punches instead of a swirling melee. Also it tends to slow down the game. So, in Frostgrave, I decided that both players would roll a d20, add their fighting ability, and whoever scored highest would win the fight.

made rolling three dice. Hits were determined by adding those dice together. If a hit was scored, damage was determined by taking the results of one of the three dice, depending on the type of weapon used. I couldn’t use that system exactly because my attack only used one die, but the idea of using the same roll to determine both a successful hit and damage at the same time was very appealing. Thus, I came up with a system where the opposed roll determined who won the combat, but then the actual result of the winner’s roll was compared to the armour value of the loser, with the difference being the damage that was done.

In a lot of wargames there is now a second roll for damage. This can slow down the game and interrupt the narrative flow so I wanted one die roll to determine the outcome. Song of Blades and Heroes uses an elegant mechanic whereby damage is determined by whether the winning die is odd or even. Elegant, but a little too simple - I had already decided that I wanted miniatures in Frostgrave to have health or hit points. While this goes against simplicity and eliminate bookkeeping, I had good reasons. Partly this is another throw back to Dungeons and Dragons, but it had more to do with creating drama. I just love the cinematic nature of guys getting beat-up and wounded but struggling on. Since warbands in Frostgrave are small, about ten figures or less, I thought the paperwork would be minimal enough to be worth the effort, just a few ticks here and there on a player’s ‘wizard sheet’. Also, it means that just because the wizard got the better of the snow troll for a moment, it doesn’t mean he slew it with one stroke. With the decision to use health points, came the necessity of having a combat result that did numerical damage. How to achieve this without another die roll? An example was provided by one of my all-time favourite combat mechanisms found in the spacefighter game Silent Death (the mechanic was later adopted by the fantasy wargame Blade Storm). In this game, attacks were

From then on, it was just a matter of mathematics. I had to adjust all of the numbers and modifiers so that I got the probability of both the standard and extreme results I wanted. It was a long process filed with lots of little decisions, but not a particularly exciting one. While it took awhile to settle on my exact combat mechanic, I’m very happy with the result. I’ve got a system where both players roll a d20 to determine both the winner of the fight and the damage done. It is quick; it is relatively simple, and it provides a wide range of outcomes. Hopefully players will find it an interesting and exciting combat mechanic. Of course, Frostgrave is mostly a game about magic, so it is very likely that a miniature will get blasted by a lightning bolt before he ever gets into combat, but hopefully that’s got an interesting mechanic as well... WS&S Frostgrave will be reviewed in our next issue.

COMBAT EXAMPLE A barbarian with a two-handed sword attacks a lowly thug armed with a mace. Both players roll a d20 and add their figure’s Fight statistic. The Barbarian rolls a 7 and adds his Fight of +4 for a total of 11. The Thug rolls a 13 and adds his Fight of +2, for a total of 15. As the thug has the higher result, he ‘wins’ the combat. His total of 15 is then compared to the barbarians Armour which is 10 (unarmoured). Since the thug’s score is 5 more than the Armour of the barbarian, the barbarian takes 5 points of damage. However, barbarians have 14 health to start, so he is only slightly wounded. The thug then decides to press his luck and attacks the barbarian. This time the barbarian rolls a 15 +4 for a total of 19. The thug rolls a 16+2 for a total of 18. The barbarian has won the combat. He compares his total of 19 versus the thug’s Armour of 10, getting 9 points of damage. However, since the barbarian is using at 2-handed weapon, he does +2 damage for a total of 11. Since thugs only have a total of 10 health, the barbarian cuts him down and the thug is removed from the table.

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REVIEWS: GAMES

GAME REVIEWS TO DEFY A KING Written by Keith Johnson 98-page softback / Format: Players move a unit at a time / Dice: D6 / Published by Wargames Dispatches / £29.00 inc. p&p Reviewed by: James Oram

To Defy a King is an English Civil War rules set, primarily for use with 28mm miniatures. Troops are grouped together as a number of bases (generally four models for infantry and two for cavalry), and a number of bases form a regiment. Although not absolutely essential for the game to function, the author utilizes what now seems to be the ubiquitous 20mm frontage per infantry model and 25mm frontage per cavalry model, making rebasing from many other systems unnecessary for those players with established collections. The use of multi-figure basing makes the game very adaptable to other figure scales, but less so for skirmish actions. The game returns to some ‘old school’ principles in requiring orders to be given to units at the start of a battle, which can only be changed by the intervention of officers or messengers. The overall mechanics of shooting and mêlée are fairly simple, with each base rolling 2D6 and needing a score of 8+ to cause a hit. There are modifiers to the dice results depending on the quality of the troops attacking. Additional modifiers to shooting are governed by range and cover, while those affecting mêlée ability are largely dependent on what type of troops are fighting each other. Once the number of hits has been calculated, a single D6 is rolled by the defending unit, and if the score is less than the number of hits caused, a base is removed.

BLÜCHER Written by Sam Mustafa 176-page full colour hardback / Format: Players take alternative turns / Dice: D6 / Published by Sam Mustafa / £28.00 (Rulebook) and £24.00 for the Hundred Days Cards Reviewed by: James Oram Those loyal readers who have been digesting the content of the WS&S Editor’s Blog may be aware that our local club is amassing a sizeable force of Prussians and French to have a grand 28mm game around the anniversary of the Battle of

Further period-specific rules represent the ‘push of pike’ by the use of morale tests in combat being connected with how far units have been forced to give ground by their opponent. This is a welcome change from many rules sets, where a virtually unscathed unit can easily be instantly destroyed. One of the most innovative features of To Defy a King is that the points-match system of so many wargames has been replaced with a rather random card-based system of generating your army. In short, you draw from one deck of cards (provided with the rulebook), which determines both the number and type of troops within each regiment, and then from a second deck, to randomly determine the quality of said troops. The system of army selection is strengthened by army lists for each year in which serious conflict took place, meaning that an army of 1642 can potentially be a very different beast by the end of the war. The lack of control over army selection will no doubt infuriate the more competitive tournament players amongst us and can lead to some very unbalanced (although historical) games. Those of a nervous disposition may well dislike the random generation of an army list (especially when an army can potentially include ’veteran’ clubmen). Although I quite like the random element of army selection, others may well complain about the need to possess huge armies in order to be able to use this system as written. My main criticism of To Defy a King is that the editorial quality is lacking in places, with notable typographical and grammatical errors (I’m a lawyer by trade; teachers will likewise, I’m sure, have their red pen handy). Likewise, it will do little to assist a new player in the interpretation of a new rules set, although the experienced player will work it out. This aside, there is a good, simple system here, and those players who have not yet found an ideal system for the wars between King Charles and his rebellious subjects should consider giving To Defy a King a try.

Ligny later this year. Given the very active efforts of the club, it was with some degree of surprise that I have been asked to review a set of wargames rules that requires no miniatures. Blücher is a system based around individual regiments being represented by the area of a standard-sized playing card. These cards can be easily made by players, but the first expansion to the core rules, with high quality pre-printed cards representing the units of the Hundred Days campaign of 1815, is already available to purchase. Should players wish to use miniatures rather than cards, the latter could usefully be used as movement trays for smaller scales (unit stats most relevant to gaming are cunningly placed along the rear edge of the cards). If players wish to use anything larger than 15mm without dramatically changing the game scale, regiments will be represented by only a handful of figures.

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There is a high level of abstraction, as units can either move or alternatively stay stationary and shoot. Those looking for detailed rules concerning the individual behaviour of formations below the regimental structure will need to look at rules better suited to smaller scale actions – these rules simply don’t care whether you think units are in an attack column or formed up in a thin red line. Units are moved by expending manoeuvre points (MO). A distinct feature of the game is that you don’t know how many points you have to spend during your turn, as these are secretly generated by the opponent, leading to difficult decisions as to how many of your cards you will attempt to move in any given turn. No doubt your opponent will take great pleasure in informing you when your MO has been exceeded and your turn ends! Shooting and combat are generally basic, with a number of dice being rolled depending on how exhausted the unit carrying out the attack has become. For me, it’s reassuring to

BLOODY BIG BATTLES (& BLOODY BIG EUROPEAN BATTLES)

Written by Chris Pringle 56-page softback / Format: D6 with IGO-UGO (with tweaks in each turn) / Published by Skirmish Campaigns / $25 (per book) Reviewed by: Eoghan Kelly

When I was a student and soon afterwards, there was nothing I loved more than gaming really big battles. I mean massive games that might take a weekend just to set up and another weekend to play. It wasn’t the time involved; it was the scale that I loved – huge, titanic battles that changed world history. This set of rules and their supporting scenario book attempt to replicate this, while allowing players to play big battles in an evening. Coupled with the designer’s self-professed aim to design an elegant game, it seems to be quite a tall order. The author has quite a bit of experience in designing games, so this is not a first attempt and he makes a serious effort to explain the thinking in a concise and well-written foreword. First and foremost, these rules are expressly written for battles which had in excess of 100,000 troops on the field, with a handful on the cusp, making them exceptionally bloody affairs. The system does have a certain degree of simplicity, coupled with some clever structuring of the turn, which lends a degree of elegance to how the game plays out. I especially like the fact that the non-phasing player shoots first

see a set of rules where troops gradually lose élan (i.e. both their morale and combat effectiveness), rather than becoming instantly massacred due to lucky attack dice when only freshly engaged. The gradual erosion of regiments requires an effective reserve to be held back, to avoid fatal gaps emerging in the line of battle, and accurately represents the nature and tactics of the battles of this period. For me, the tabletop game is the second-best part of Blücher. The second part of the rulebook presents advanced rules, the most striking of which is a campaign system (named ‘Scharnhorst’, after one of the Prussian army’s key reformers in 1813) to simulate pre-battle manoeuvres. Although a simple enough idea, it is clear that it has been extraordinarily well thought out and playtested, as it provides a great way to determine the set-up of the wargame itself. However, potentially poor decisions in the Scharnhorst phase can lead to the wargame being ridiculously unbalanced – don’t say you haven’t been warned! in a turn, which makes attacking especially bloody, unless you have overwhelming numbers (which neatly reflects the mentality of this period). There is no set scale for figures, but there is a recommended base-size for units, and although it’s possible to squeeze 28mm figures into this, both the basing guidelines and the ranges involved would make the game feel a little strange. For me, it would seem to work best with 10mm or even 6mm to get the right feel for the enormous size of these battles. The rules have several levels of unit quality as well as weapon types, ranging from smoothbore muskets to repeating rifles. Units may also have attributes, which can make a unit better or worse than you might wish, but will allow for some nuances in how they behave in combat. There is a detailed terrain section that allows for pretty much anything, although I am a little mystified about the rules on forts, as these have no effect on movement, and I would have thought that, given the scale of these rules, forts in the game would have a serious interdicting effect. Similarly, there aren’t any rules covering fortresses, which would exclude one of the key features of the Battle of Metz. In combat, units can be disrupted, forced to retire, or routed. If routed, a unit is removed from play – not something I particularly like, as I enjoy seeing broken units rallied and sent back into the line, but at this scale, it’s probably the best way to deal with divisional-sized bodies. The rules are comprehensive and cover night fighting and so on. The main rulebook also includes nine battles from the Franco-Prussian War, with the accompanying scenario book covering an additional sixteen battles from a variety of European conflicts of the late nineteenth century. The presentation of each battle is well done, with a map, history, forces, and special rules, all captured in around three pages. All in all,

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REVIEWS: GAMES

these are a good set of rules, which will allow players of this period to recreate the battles of the title in an evening. “This all sounds too nice”, you cry. “What are the downsides?” Some things I didn’t like: From a superficial point of view, the author uses a lot of images, especially in each scenario, but none are attributed and none are in colour, which is a pity, as these look very good and would give a great flavour of the colours and styles of the armies. (I personally have collected armies in the past based on how they look, and I can’t believe I’m alone in this.) On a more significant note, my big issue is that this rules system is really for bespoke battles. I cannot see how you could use them for a ‘fictional’ battle. In fact, I can’t see how you can even draw up a non-historical army, as there is no mechanism

POCKET BATTLES: CONFEDERACY VS UNION

Designers: Paolo Mori and Francesco Sirocchi Publisher: Z-Man Games Website: zmangames.com Price: $14.99 Players: 2 Age: 13+ Playing time: 30 minutes Contents: 60 Troops, 20 order/wound tiles, six dice, two player aids, rulebook. Reviewed by: Chris Payne

Several years ago, I reviewed the first Pocket Battles games (Romans vs Celts and Orcs vs Elves) for WS&S, but with this new release, Z-Man make their first foray into the gunpowder era. The basic format remains unchanged. Each counter (unit) has a points value and players build armies around a set number of points. The battlefield consists of sectors, representing the centre, the left flank, and the right flank, with each sector having a front and rear zone for each side and an engagement zone. Units have an attack roll and wounds, and sometimes special traits. Combat is resolved by rolling dice. This is the first game in the series where the two sides are potentially very similar. Both sides have counters available to represent cavalry, mounted infantry, regular infantry, and some scouts (Partisan Rangers or Bushwhackers) that are essentially identical. Both sides then have some specialized troops available, such as the Confederate sharpshooters (Skirmish and Deadly traits) or the Union marksmen (Deadly trait only). The Confederate militia and Union volunteers differ only in grouping limits. The special items can subtly tweak an army list: the Confederate ones (Drummer and various officers) are mostly geared towards combat (either shooting or mêlée), whilst the Union ones (Chaplain, Signal

for drawing a list of forces from a nation; and so this means that, if the army is not included in a particular battle in the two volumes, how do you know what it would really have been like? On the back of the rulebook, the blurb reads that you can recreate epic battles such as Solferino, Gettysburg, Königgrätz, Sedan, Plevna, and so on. The key flaw is that the Civil War bit is clearly not possible, as you have no idea what forces and qualities the two sides possess unless you are using an order of battle from a different game or games system. If you want your game set up for you to take a straight run at an historical battle, this is a good set of rules. However, I feel the author has missed a real opportunity to make these a great set of rules by allowing players the chance to develop some DIY historical battles, as these do not lend themselves to a campaign game as they are currently published. Corps, and various officers) are generally more geared towards command and control. The Union ambulance corps is the only item that can heal a unit of wounds, and a single counter represents the Iron Brigade (Tough trait, with 3 wounds). Notwithstanding that this is a gunpowder-era game, the base shooting and combat mechanics are the same as in the lower technology games. Most of the artillery gets the ability to make a long range attack and has a wide arc of fire, enabling an attack on an adjacent sector. Each side has a choice of three different artillery tiles. The Confederate Whitworth and Union Napoleon gun are identical, but the Confederate Parrot rifle gets an extra wound, whilst the Union Howitzer gets +3 shooting dice. The component quality is to the same good standard as the previous releases, although the ready reference sheets are now paper and not card. The tile backs are labelled and are blue or grey for easy sorting, and graphically the game draws on the blue/grey stereotype image. Careful planning will enable many of the aspects of the war to be recreated. For example, a Drummer and a General with enough infantry can replicate Pickett’s charge. The Union Colonel, with his bonus to shooting and combat, reminds me of Joshua Chamberlain at Little Round Top. It would have been nice to see a tile representing an elite unit for the Confederacy, such as the Louisiana Tigers or Jeb Stuart’s Cavalry. The game repeats the challenges of the other games: firstly, design an army (with many possible variations), and then play it to victory. Sometimes counters may look very similar (e.g. Roman and some ACW artillery), but there are still subtle differences. Confederacy vs Union is not just a case of the emperors’ new clothes; the new traits of Deadly and Disengage, together with new combinations, make this a fresh challenge to play. As with other games in the series, it is possible to fit armies from other sets, so ‘Confederates versus Orcs’ becomes a possibility! The abstracted nature of the combat system means that this will still give a challenging game.

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© Georgie Harman

COLUMN

By Richard Clarke

UP FRONT

WARGAMES DARWINISMS I’ve written a fair bit about wargames shows recently, and after reading Gary Mitchell’s thought-provoking piece, “Is the Wargames Convention Dying”, in the last edition of this magazine, I’m going to do so again. After that, I’ll shut up and leave the subject alone for a bit – promise! Gary raises some interesting points in his piece. I’ve always felt that how one views a wargames show depends on perspective.

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itchell raises some interesting points in his piece. I’ve always felt that how one views a wargames show depends on perspective. It’s rather similar to how artists view their still life model; whilst you may be on one side of the room, painting the back of her head, I, standing opposite, am getting an altogether different view. As such, my comments can only be presented as reflecting my own standpoint. Nevertheless, I find myself coming to somewhat different conclusions from Mitchell. Firstly, let me agree with Mitchell when he says that the future of wargames shows will be about evolution. He cites a couple of events which, for one reason or another, failed to happen in the last year or so. To my mind, this is the ultimate expression of the evolutionary process of a wargames show. Let me explain. The life-cycle of a wargames show is not rocket science. It’s much like any large beast, in that it needs a balanced diet to stay healthy. In the first couple of years, it is likely to be the enthusiasm of the organizers that either makes the show work or sees it fail. Ultimately, there are many factors that combine to make a good show – good games, good venue, good parking, good road links, a good gap in the calendar – but all of these pale when compared with the two key factors that the organizers need to balance in that period of time: trade and punters. Show organizers have two income streams. They sell trading space and they charge the public to get in. The rest is window dressing. Cash is King. And what a balancing act it is. What the organizers need to ensure is that there are sufficient punters with enough cash to make the traders want to come back next year. Equally, and conversely, the punters must be presented with traders selling the products that they want to buy. Successful balance in that area will allow a show to grow incrementally, year on year. As word of mouth attracts more punters, the number of traders can be gradually expanded, and keeping the two factors working in concert allows the show to expand. If that relationship breaks down, trouble will ensue as surely as night follows day. Successful shows have been known to ‘over-expand’, bringing in more traders in bigger space, only to find that the

number of punters doesn’t increase proportionately. When that happens, you can end up with an impressive watershed; but what is certain is that, if the traders are not making a profit, they will not be back next year. Here we see the first sign of an ailing show. Suddenly, fewer traders turn up, or certainly fewer traders from the perceived ‘Premier League’ (and who they are is determined by the punters’ perceptions, not the traders’ egos!). Once this happens, a spiral begins where punter numbers dwindle and, as a result, the traders take even less cash and fail to return. Thus, the cycle to a slow and sadly ignominious death begins. Is the demise of an ailing show a symptom of a sick hobby? I’d suggest not. It may be harsh to say, but this is not an effect without a cause. It can often come about when the organizers have grown complacent about “their successful show” and are failing to communicate with the two key groups. I’ve traded and run games at many wargames shows, and I can tell you that the trade element are very vociferous in providing feedback, if they are asked. Often the lines of communication are strong. It’s possibly wrong to single out any one show as a great example, but I’m going to. At the Derby Worlds, I am always asked by the organizers what they could do to make the experience better. Usually, the answer is “Nothing”, but by asking the question, they’ll be sure not to miss the one time when they really need to know that something is wrong. Full marks to Derby. But I can assure you that, for every good example, there are other shows where communication is a big fat zero. Maybe it’s an understandable failing. We all sit back and have a lapse in concentration from time to time, and sometimes where things go wrong, they can be addressed and turned around. However, this only occurs when the two key groups, traders and punters, are addressed, and tangible improvements are made, and made very public. People will tend to give you a second chance; a third is harder to come by. Mitchell makes the excellent point that making shows more family friendly is important. But is introducing “comely young ladies to promote their products” really a step towards that goal? I personally doubt it. I recall online

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Rich demoing Chain of Command at Crusade.

Taking aim at Poldercon 2015.

coverage of a convention in the US some years ago, where a major game company had employed what I presume it considered to be ‘comely young ladies’. Frankly, I was left somewhat bemused. Did the crowd of fifty-something wargamers really think the ladies concerned were interested in gaming with them? Did the company really think this was about making things inclusive? Maybe the biggest question of all was who on earth was left to work in the local strip joint that evening. It was a disaster of epic proportions.

supply, it will be the punters who determine which events die out and which will flourish, as both they and the traders vote with their feet. That is, ultimately, the Darwinian conclusion of Mitchell’s evolutionary process. The fit survive.

Likewise, any show that puts “women and children first” by inviting “craft stalls and dolls house manufacturers” may well find that they are alienating their key customer base: wargamers. Am I saying that we should stick to entertaining nerds and old men with tape measures? Of course not. I am simply suggesting that wargames shows should be for wargamers, regardless of age and gender. To single out women for free entry is pretty much saying “We know you’re not going to like this, but you can come in anyway”. Not the most positive of messages. If we want to really address the potential wargamer in our spouses, girlfriends, and kids, we need to get them playing games rather than looking at dolls houses. My feelings are that wargaming shows per se are not at fault here, but that, like most things in life, they provide a spectrum, from the very poor to the very good. I actually think that there are too many shows on the UK wargaming calendar, and certainly the two-day show is well past its sell-by date. The competitions they were designed to support are nowhere near as large as they were twenty years ago, and for traders, a two-day show increases costs hugely, with the accommodation costs involved, and it certainly does not generate double takings. If Salute were held over two days, for example, the numbers of punters through the door would probably increase by less than 10 per cent, along with the same small increase in the sums of money changing hands. The associated costs of making it a two-day event would be astronomical, and the manpower requirements from club volunteers would be stretched to the limits of what one could reasonably ask. However, all of this is academic. In any market where there is over-

In the same way that we hear about the numbers of pubs that are closing, we almost never hear about the number of new bars and coffee shops that are opening. This is simply reflecting a shift, albeit a sad one from my own perspective, in changing customer habits and demands. In the hobby, this shift is replicated by the changing range of customer options. Shows like the Baccus Miniatures ‘Joy of Six’, the Warlord Games and Foundry Games Days, or the number of Lardy Days we now have on the calendar each year are not wargames shows in the traditional sense, but focus on the pleasure of gaming rather than the usual trade fair approach. Likewise, some of the more forwardlooking shows like Hammerhead, and new events like PolderCon, are similarly focusing on developing a balance between a shopping excursion and actually getting punters playing games. Gone are the static and largely silent ‘demonstrations’ – and, God knows, I believe that demonstrations can be well done, but somehow they so rarely are – with these being replaced by the inclusiveness of participation games. It’s shows like this, where we can provide games that engage and entertain the punters, that will see the wargamers of tomorrow created. In conclusion, I’d suggest that wargames shows and conventions are not dying; but those that are failing to adapt in order to meet a shift in customer needs are undoubtedly endangered species. At the other end of the evolutionary scale, the shows that are encouraging a dialogue with their traders and punters are able to react to changing requirements, and consequently are growing stronger and more successful year on year. In future, shows like this will become the survivors, whilst the old dinosaurs that fail to move with the times will drop dead, and we’ll miss them about as much as we miss the diplodocus. Not a lot. WS&S Rich’s article is in response to the Irregular column in our previous issue (Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy 77).

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REVIEWS: BOOKS

BOOK REVIEWS THE CHICKAMAUGA CAMPAIGN - A MAD IRREGULAR BATTLE Written by David A. Powell ISBN: 978-1-611211-74-0 / 696 page paperback / Published by Savas Beatie / £23.99 Reviewed by: Eoghan Kelly

This is the first volume in what will be an epic trilogy of books centred on one of the most significant campaigns of the American Civil War. The author has researched the campaign to the nth degree, trawling through thousands of documents to build up a very detailed narrative of the campaign that saw the Army of the Cumberland clash with the Army of the Tennessee. This first volume covers the Tullahoma campaign that lead to the stage and setting for the battle of Chickamauga and then follows the battle for its first days. The level of information is staggering, for example individual casualty records by regiment, battery and brigade being listed. The

THAT FURIOUS STRUGGLE Written by Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White ISBN: 978-1-61121-219-8 / 129 page paperback / Published by Savas Beatie / £8.99 Reviewed by: Eoghan Kelly

I have a particular interest in the American Civil War and so I enjoyed receiving this book from our esteemed editor. The book at, first glance, seems to be a relatively slight volume, but this is deceiving, packing in nearly 180 pages of information into a book slightly thicker than your average Osprey book! The authors, both of whom have impressive ACW credentials have selected the huge and well known battle of Chancellorsville, possibly Lee’s greatest triumph, but also a victory that crippled his army and paving the way for defeat at Gettysburg (spoiler alert – I apologise if I have given away the outcome of that battle!). They have structured the book to allow the reader to use it as a battle field guide, giving details at the end of each chapter about where you can stop to walk across and around the key

narrative gives detailed analysis of movements, motivations and sometimes the methods of command. I found this a book I needed to dip into and then put down to digest the information I had read, as there is an awful lot to take in. The chapters are well illustrated and there are some good maps accompanying the text, but these could have been better served by being in colour, or at the very least with a better key to indicate meaning. Some of the illustrations are probably unique, coming from local library archives in various places and some give a real texture for what the action would have looked like. If the ACW is your thing, and if you wanted to run a full campaign, then this is an absolutely essential book. My main issues are that this doesn’t warrant a three volume set, Volume 2 for example, will cover September 20th, which was the last day of the battle. This feels to me like an attempt to force the reader to but the second volume in order to complete the narrative of the battle, and Volume 3 will cover the retreat into Chickamauga and the siege itself, maps of which are in this volume already. This a good book, the author clearly knows his stuff and there are plenty of contemporary accounts, quotes and illustrations, but there needs to be an element of ‘Buyer Beware’ as it is not really a ‘complete’ volume.

points of action in that chapter. Each chapter is well illustrated showing plenty of photos and images from the period and pertaining to the chapter concerned. These are also well captioned and support the approach the book takes to giving you a guide to exploring and walking across this historical battlefield – but be warned, this covers a LOT of ground! Additionally the maps are of high quality, but as the book is entirely in black and white, these would have benefited from a colour impression or at least a better key to them. The work is finally finished with a set of appendices written by a variety of contributor’s, all of which add to the contents and give additional information. These pieces are clever inclusions that add to the steeing of the book, small pieces that cover the Brick House, Stoneman’s Raid and the geography of the river crossings amongst other things. As a result these help to give the reader a real feel as to being there and experiencing the setting before you even visit. The final appendix gives a full order of battle down to regimental level, again this is valuable, however as it doesn’t include the numbers of each unit it is slightly lacking in help for the average gamer – that being said this is a small failing. The book itself is useful as a read and reference tool for ACW gamers and fans anywhere, but for those fortunate enough to live close enough to visit this will be an indispensable resource.

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LOST BATTLEFIELDS OF WALES Written by Martin Hackett ISBN: 978-1-4456-0378-0 / 288 page hardback / Published by Amberley Publishing / £20/$40 Reviewed by: Eoghan Kelly

This book is probably a slightly misnamed book, I felt it should have been ‘Misplaced Battlefields of Wales’, but apart from this I felt there was little I could do to really improve what was a pleasantly surprising enjoyable read. The author has broken the book up into a very informative introduction, giving an overview of Welsh history, followed up by a list of the key references that supply the information covering this period. The battles range from 51 to 1797 and some of

PANZER II VS 7TP Written by David R Higins ISBN: 978-1-4728-0881-3 / 80 page soft-back with colour illustrations / Published by Osprey Duel 66 / £12.99 Reviewed by: Guy Bowers

The Osprey Duel series pitches two rival machines against each other. The series has included ships, aircraft and armoured fighting vehicles, looking at the strengths and weaknesses of both. This book, the 66th in the series, looks at the struggle for Poland in 1939 and pitches the Panzer II versus the Polish 7TP (siedmiotonowy polski or 7 ton Polish). The German invasion of Poland was no walkover and this book details some of the reasons why. Tank warfare in the early war is fascinating precisely because it does not involve the big ‘cats’. What we have here is two armoured vehicles quite capable of damaging each other but with one having the edge (you’ll have to read the book to find out which one and more importantly why). At the beginning of the 1939 campaign, the Panzer II was the main armoured fighting vehicle of the German Wehrmacht, simply because there weren’t enough Panzer III or Panzer IVs available. Inevitably the Panzer II would do the main stay of the fighting. Its 20mm cannon was still capable of a high rate of fire and of penetrating the hull of the 7TP. Opposing it was

the earlier ones have sources of varied quality, which he analyses well. This is followed up by sections on the weapon types used across the periods and any armour used too, and finally gives a view of the various armies that would have existed at the various stages. This is where the author displays his obvious connections with gaming as he gives clear outlines as to the mix of troop types in the armies as he goes through them. In the section covering each battle there is a good map that helps illustrate the battle as well as giving an gamer the start line to recreate these battles. I found this to be a well written book – although his prose was sometimes a little dry – it was very well researched and superbly illustrated with photo’s of the sites as well as re-enactment units displaying arms and armour of the various periods. Some of the sites are more obscure than others, misplaced by history books maybe, but thanks to this book, most definitely not ‘Lost’. I heartily recommend this to anyone with an interest in any part of a 2,000 year period of battles on mainland Britain!

the 7TP, a Polish built licensed version of the Vickers E Export tank. This British design which spawned the T26 series (an unlicensed copy by the Soviets) was adapted by the Polish for their needs. The original Vickers E version was a twin machinegun turret design (one upgraded to a Browning 13.2mm heavy machinegun). However it was clear that the Poles needed a single turret design and they adopted the 37mm Swedish Bofors anti tank gun as main armament. This was far superior to the German 20mm gun but had a slower rate of fire. The book goes into the origins of both designs, giving technical specifications and several colour illustrations backed up by period photographs. Each of the vehicles’ components (armour, main weapon and mobility) are examined in some detail, including an excellent ‘sight reticule’ for each vehicle in the centre pages. The next two sections of the book deal with training doctrine for both sides and combat. The combat sections is where the real meat of this book is. The combat examples could be very easily translated into good scenarios for any Polish 1939 war game. The final chapter is the aftermath, looking at the Polish losses of the 7TP over the course of the campaign makes interesting reading. There is a lot to this book, I thought I knew the 1939 campaign fairly well but this book taught me some very interesting facts I certainly didn’t know before. I knew the Germans took heavy losses (some units losing 50% and their overall tank force was cut by ¼) but as they generally won the strategic battles, they were able to salvage tanks on the battlefields while the Poles were not. I recommend this book for anyone interested in the Polish Campaign on 1939 or if you’re a tread head interested in tanks.

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PARTING SHOTS

PARTING SHOTS DEAR WSS In response to the interesting article in March’s edition by Gary Mitchell entitled “Is the wargames convention dying?” I should like to say no! and a resounding no at that!! Come to Campaign in Middleton Hall, Milton Keynes on the 9th and 10th May and see for yourself. The wargames show is alive and kicking. We have after last year’s hiatus regained our usual venue of the last 15 years in front of John Lewis. Unlike the usual gym hall it is bright light and airy. Entry is free to all not just women and children and it is surrounded by shops, eateries and the like. So there is plenty to engage and occupy other halves and children if not quite Gary’s very modern idea of co-ordinating with craft stalls and doll’s house manufacturers. As suggested in Gary’s article, we already have a help desk, individuals tasked with walking the show and engaging with the public and nearly half the non-competition games are participation. These are strategically positioned around the edges to entice the public in. Whilst we do have demo games which Gary suggests banning, we feel they do offer good eye candy, which can itself be a first step to enticing people in. Many of the demo games are put on by other clubs in our area and generally across the south of England and so they also, like MKWS, have a chance to recruit new club members. Finally can I say thank you to Gary for suggesting we all “Support our local wargames convention ... by attending” ... on 9th and 10th May in front of John Lewis, Middleton Hall, Milton Keynes MK9 3EP or see www.mkws.org.uk — Steve Bainbridge

ROUND THE BEND

TERRAIN CAN BE A PAIN

The only problem with many walls is the fact they are all straight. Thus they do not allow you to border winding roads and make ‘S’ bends in your scenery. A member of the wargaming club I go to, passed on this tip to me. If you dip some resin wall Above: Three formerly into a bowl of just boiled water, straight walls. Below: they will bend with a little gen‘S’ bend scenic tile tle persuasion, like the ‘S’ bend with curved walls. scenic tile with curved walls shown at right. You may find that the walls have some ‘residual memory’ and will try to straighten out - to stop this immerse them in a bowl of cold water to preserve the new shape. This does not work on all types of wall as some items are too thick to do this with. Still, it’s worth a try!

I love to have beautiful terrain for my tabletop battles. The ideal solution is terrain boards, but making and keeping them snugly connected is an issue. Therefore, I always carry some form of cloth, newspaper or cardboard whenever I do a demonstration game at a show - ever since that one show many years ago when I arrived to find we had uneven tables. Another excellent idea, shamelessly stolen from Patrick Diederiks, is using anti-slip material on the bottom of your tiles, just in case someone gives them a ‘nudge’. Bicycle inner tube or a roll of the Ikea material for use in your cabinets is just what you need to prevent board separation. I did buy a set of powerful ‘rare earth’ magnets. My idea was to attach them to the sides of the boards so they’d stick together solidly. However my early experiments proved that I needed to wait until the magnets fully dried in place before bringing the boards together! Still, magnets are an idea I’m still experimenting with. I’ll let you know how I get on.

— Stephen Tunmore

— Guy Bowers

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