Home Brewed Pre-Dreadnoughts

Pre-dreadnoughts painted British style.

 I've been following a few blogs where homemade wargaming minis feature particularly "Wooden Warriors", and I was also looking at the yahoo group, "wargaming on a budget" this morning and it reminded me of a little project I started a year ago that was my shot a wargaming on the cheap.

 These pre-dreadnoughts are made of precut wooden shapes that can be had by the bag at typical craft outlets here in the states such as Michael's or AC Moore. I make the turrets from discs cut out of craft foam sheet using a paper hole punch. guns are from the ends of round toothpicks or in some case the ends of decorative toothpicks. The hole punch also works for punching thin sheet styrene. Sections of toothpick, styrene tube rod, and a wee bit of brass wire and you're all set.

The hulls are built-up using a stack of two or three of the same size shape with each layer shifted just a bit to give the impression of a pre-dreadnought bow of the period.

The German-ish fleet

The ships are stylized and a bit cartoonish, but the overall effect is belligerent in a 19th century "big stick" sort of way and to my eye pretty convincing. I've been trying to work up some rules that would not involve record keeping (...to me the toxic part of naval gaming...as well as spaceship gaming for that matter...) Just a few hit markers or such. Perhaps a system a bit like the old SPI Dreadnought game. I was also thinking these might work on a gridded field using a more abstract movement system of some sort.

I just used British and German color schemes from the late 19th century to give everything the right feel visually.
One thing that makes this project go quickly is having a "Chopper" from Northwest Short Line. It's perfect when you need a bunch of wood cut to the same length (perfect for those toothpick gun barrels).

The "Chopper"

Northwest Frontier: "Big Battle" Style

 Re-set my gridded table to 1878 for a little Northwest Frontier action Portable Wargame style, this time using Bob Cordery's "Big Battle"  19th century revisions to the rules. In recent months I've managed to add a few units to both sides of my NW Frontier collection so this battle proved to be pretty big.

The happiest Pathan commander I ever encountered...(actually she just was there for the photo op...Hot Wheels cars are more her taste these days)...

The Headman of the Waziri's village.

 I also used some simple cardboard buildings I built a while back using boxes from the local "Michaels" craft store...You can see a tutorial for making them here.

British begin to deploy for battle

Highlanders and Punjabis advancing on a Pathan held ridge

"Piper, sound the charge!"

I'm also using my added "heroic action" rule in this game where an attached individual leader figure (except the CinC)  can force a re-roll of any close action dice and taking the second outcome...while risking a D6 4-6 roll to eliminate the leader for exposing himself heroically in the action...The British typically have one or two leader figures for each 3 stand "Battalion", and the Pathans have one leader for every 5 units.

The CinC of the British force and an artillery leader figure.

Pathan cavalry make an early charge on an advanced guard of the 12th Bengal Horse.

 The figures are a mix of Jacklex 20mm and Ral Partha 25mm...and after some initial trepidation at the slight scale difference, I've grown accustomed to it and the units all seem "in scale" to me now. Especially since I mixed figure scales in the Pathan irregular bases. It surprisingly looks just fine.

 The Jacklex cavalry actually works better for this basing style (40mm squares) since I can fit 3 cavalry to that size base.

Highlanders and Punjabis scale the ridgeline

a mountain gun in support

Bengal cavalry and Ghurkas in a wild melee on the plain with Pathan cavalry.

Finally, I did find the Portable Wargame Big Board rules to be "cleaner" than the earlier versions. I particularly liked the simplified activation die rules. I did find myself "tinkering" with the Close Combat rules. They seemed to be a bit indecisive in that units could "lock" into close combat and not be able to get an outcome for several turns (particularly cavalry since it only takes a hit on a "1" in close combat so two cavalry units would stay locked in close combat for several turns without a result). So I tried the following rule change:

Units hit in close combat only translate "hits" as follows:

Elite Units        1or2= unit destroyed       3,4,5,6=mandatory one square retreat and lose 1SP
Average Units  1,2,3= unit destroyed      4,5,6=mandatory one square retreat and lose 1SP
Poor units        1,2,3,4=unit destroyed      5,6=mandatory one square retreat and lose 1SP

This rule adjustment served to both speed up the game just a bit and to make Close Combat more decisive...sort of a balance I think between Bob's intent and Morschauer's more "bloody" basic combat resolution approach where hits always eliminate. It also serves to differentiate fire combat results from Close Combat and at least it gave the Highlanders a reason to charge that heavily defended ridgeline!

But regardless, it produced a fun Sunday's diversion, and some thoughts about a possible campaign using a "squared" larger map that is scaled to my tactical table size of 18x18 grid squares so each grid square on the map would be a "table".  The battle rules are clean and fast so running a campaign could actually work, and I can spice it with some skirmishes using "Sword and the Flame" if needed.

Two Battles in Two Days

 Two battles completed after a weekend of gaming progress! The first has a British punitive column attacking a Pathan held village in a valley flanked by rough hills.

Pathans mass on the hillsides

Sikhs prepare to assault the village while Bengal lancers screen the river bank

Punjab infantry assault the Pathans on the right flank

Highlanders and a field gun move to support the Sikhs hard pressed by rifle fire from the village and a fierce charge of Pathan cavalry

Punjabis crest the hill

The British are forced to withdraw taking heavy losses

The British start positions at the foot of the pass

 I managed a second battle after the kids were off to today's summer activities and before I had to head off to teach my afternoon classes. This time the British attempt to force a Pathan held pass. This time the hills I constructed yesterday really come into play and made for a bit of scenic goodness. (lighting this morning affects the colors in these pics)

 The British were deployed first in a way I thought would be balanced and the Pathans deployment was then randomized and then played as is. I deployed the Pathans anywhere up to six rows in from the table edge except for a unit of 4 stands deployed holding the crest of the pass.

Pathan position on the pass

The British advance

At this point in the game I added a road for some color. I'm still "sketching in" the terrain and figuring out what will work or what has to be improved. 

The Ghurkas assault the pass after some shellfire softens up the defenders.

Pathans make a deep flanking movement with a series of high initiative rolls

the struggle for the pass

Pathan cavalry make a last ditch attempt to throw back the Ghurka assault

...but ultimately the Pathans hit their army break point (I'm currently using a 2/3 of total stands lost as a game ending break point to keep things looking right casualty-wise)—with the British sustaining only a 25% loss in units (good for this sort of game and much better than their first outing)

I'm getting a much better hang of the rules and a better understanding of how to take time to get an assault rolling with lots of units instead of sending units in piecemeal. I thought artillery was a bit weak in the first game but it was pretty effective this time out so I think if the Brits can get a few mountain guns painted up the British will be a bit more formidable and I can then add some more Pathans. I've also got a Russian force (converted from Egyptians and Russo-Japanese War Jacklex figures and a Krupp gun) waiting for basing to make for more intriguing colonial struggles on the Afghan plains. With battles being completed in an hour or less, a solo campaign becomes feasible even for a busy guy with kids and a job...now if I can just camouflage the game equipment on our dining table to look like an elegant four piece table setting, I can leave it set up without my dear wife being the wiser!    "Baby, could you please pass the dice cup...er... I mean the potatoes...!"

Portable Wargame Part 2: The Hills are Alive!

 Had a great time this weekend painting up some more units for my colonial "not quite Portable Wargame". I was able to get a unit of Punjab infantry done as well as a few stand of Pathan cavalry and some single leader figures for the Pathans so both sides now can use my "Heroic Action" rule I mentioned in the last post.

One thing I wanted to work on was more period specific terrain for the NW Frontier while still retaining the abstract quality of the Bob's Portable Wargame Rules. I felt that my cork hill layers needed to be a lot more precipitous if the table was going to look anything like the Northwest Frontier of India.

I remembered a really cool idea for dealing with steep hill terrain that was on the now immortal "Major General's" website (by far and away the best gaming site of all time IMHO...) So this evening I got to work cutting some crestline profiles out of the scrap cork leftover from making the hill layers...glued them together so they stand up and can be placed to make "impassable ridgelines"on the normal cork hill layers. I think these ridge-lines will be impassable to colonial troops but the Pathans will be able to cross them by using a two initiative points to cross to the other side...that would reflect their better knowledge of the terrain and their legendary agility on the high slopes. All the cork layers have a the 2 1/2" grid drawn on but because the cork is dark it is barely visible...which to my eyes is a good thing as the grid is just visible enough to locate units but not too bold to destroy the "look" of the table.

A large gathering of Afridi Pathans advance up the mountainous slopes to outflank the British

 The new terrain gives a nicely abstract impression of mountainous ridge-lines while being simple to construct, and helps to rough up the flat cork hill layers.

the Sikhs have their deadly work ahead...

Pathans gather at the foot of a large hill mass

mountains in the distance....

A new battle set up to be played tomorrow evening after work...I can't wait!

Pathans lie in wait...I need to dig up some Kipling in the meantime to get into the mood!...

I remember something like:

"Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
   An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.."

Not Quite Portable Wargame

 After my last post and some thinking on how to use a pile of bases for a new and inexpensive summer project. I realized that I had forgot about a batch of Jacklex and Ral Partha (20/25mm figures) colonial (NW Frontier) figures I had worked on last year. I had intended to base them individually and use TSATF skirmish rules with them, but never really got the urge to complete the stuff. So I thought they might work well with the "bases without an army" problem mentioned in my last post. So after a week of basing and painting a few more to fill out the collection I managed to put together two armies for use with Bob Cordery's "Portable Wargame Rules."

I now have a British vs Pathans collection and the project has turned out quickly and I managed to get in some unexpected gaming this Saturday due to some timely babysitting on the part of my wonderful father-in-law.

British punitive column deploys to teach the Pathans the inevitability of civilized might! Sikhs on the left, Ghurkas on the right and the 72nd Highlanders in reserve. (3 stands is a typical colonial battalion)

I based the Brits 6 to a 40x40mm base and the Pathans 4-5 to a base and used the old Peter Gilder trick of leaving off a few figures and filling in with terrain on the bases. I got a few more bases out of the project using this method and the Pathans look appropriately irregular. The armies are a bit larger than the 12 units recommended in Bob's early version of "TPW" so my Brits have 12 bases and the Pathan army is a bit larger at 16 bases/units. But my table is larger as well (18x18 grid squares each 2 1/2" square)...all in all enough room for everything but still fits on the dining table.

I mixed in the Ral Parthas with the Jacklex Pathans to minimize the discrepancy in the sizes of the figures (the Rals are just a bit bigger but the overall effect works fine with an abstract game like "Portable Wargame"). One trick I found was to put the larger figures towards the center of each base and the smaller Jacklex to the outside so the scale difference is less noticeable.

Jacklex 20mm 72nd Highlanders and Ral Partha Sikhs in the background. The field gun and crew is Jacklex.

 One of the challenges was that I wanted to keep the old school shiny look with unflocked bases so adding rocky terrain to fill the Pathan bases posed a bit of a problem. I decided to paint the bases an olive green and simply glue the rocky terrain right on the base...thus keeping the overall abstract quality of the armies consistent with both the rules and the old school figures. It seems to work (at least to my eyes)...

Pathans lie in wait

 Some of the glue is still drying in these pics so you can see how straightforward the basing scheme is...(we don't need no stinkin' flock!  ;)

 I used 15mm desert buildings from Battlefront for the village. They are small and fit the 2 1/2" square grid nicely. I decided to go with a square grid rather than hexagons since I use hexes with my 6mm Naps and needed something simple and even more "classic".

 Cork tiles were pressed into service to make hill contours.

 I also am working on some additional rules to add period chrome to the basic rules. I have added a "Heroic Action" rule that I think adds some interesting color to the game: Each army can have a number of individually based leader figures that represent company/regimental officers in addition to the CinC. These figures move with the "company" (I assume stands are company sized) and when in close combat can be risked for a re-roll of a Close Combat die. Regardless of the second roll the leader figure rolls to "risk himself" in the action 4,5,6 resulting in the leader being lost...and or "mentioned in dispatches"... The rule adds a bit of color to an otherwise abstract army level game, but I think gives a good reason to paint up some cool leader figures! I made the grid squares large enough to fit both an infantry base and a leader figure...so 2 1/2" squares seems to do the job nicely.

The Sikhs assault a wooded spur with an officer in the combat and the Ghurkas in support

Close Combat!

I'm now painting another unit of Jacklex Punjabis. The basic stand will represent a company and three companies plus one or two leaders will form a British "battalion"

It all seems to work and is ripe for further tinkering with additional period "chrome". I'm also seriously thinking to try this same approach with Spanish Civil War so...when my next check comes in....