Little Round Top - a Folio Game

In total contrast to the very complicated ‘By Sword & Bayonet’ boardgame that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, today I put this ‘Quick Play’ system on the table.

This is one of the mini folio games from Decision Games in their Musket & Saber series and it has the advantage of carrying the latest rules version, which offer an appreciated 'tidy up' over the previous version (and these are backwards compatible - good!), which also includes the Combat Result Table operating as the designer intended.

The series folios have 6 pages of none illustrated rules, an 11” x 17” map, 40 counters and come in at an attractive price of around £11 plus postage (at Second Chance Games in the UK). The latest four folio releases including his title, are The Hornet’s Nest (Shiloh), Balaclava and Hougoumont.

The photo here shows the map with the armies in their starting positions. The Confederates clearly look like they are about to overwhelm the Union positions, but in this 5 turn game, Union reinforcements come on early and their line becomes steadily stronger, so the Confederates must do what they can early, before they get contained.

There are two interesting aspects to these short rules.

1 - You don’t have to attack a unit that is next to you (i.e. Combat is not mandatory) ….. but, if you don’t, at the end of the combat phase, those ‘not attacked’ units can each launch a counter-attack and they have their strength double - so there are some nuanced choices to be made here.

2 - The combat system is unusual. There are 5 potential results on the Combat Result Table (one being no effect), but whichever side suffers the effect, it has to also take a morale check. If passed you check the result on the first column, but if failed, you check in the second column - the differences can bring a nice narrative and passing your morale might not always be the result that you want!

So a result of 'Dr' means the defender (D) suffers an ‘r’ result. If they fail their morale they will disrupt and retreat, but if they pass their morale, they stand in place and both sides take a loss (the good old 'Exchange' result) .... obviously they have put up stiff resistance and heavier casualties to both sides flow from that.

On first sight, with just 40 counters in play (6 of which are game markers) and a frontal assault, you might be forgiven for thinking there isn’t much opportunity for dynamism here, but you quickly get drawn into the game down at the individual hex level, looking for local advantage. 

There are 9 victory points to gain from occupying locations - The Wheatfield, Devils Den, Little Round Top (but not Big Round Top) and the various road entry points that reinforcements arrive at. To win, the Confederates must score at least 5 VP’s ….. getting 4 seems straight forward, but you have to work for that 5th point and this I think is where the game tension sits.

It plays quickly. They say 60 - 90 minutes, that is probably about right in a face-to-face game, but my solo games have been coming in at around the one hour mark.

The scale for this battle is 176 yards to the hex and 45 minutes to the turn. Generally a brigade is represented with a pair of counters, for example Semmes ‘A’ and Semmes ‘B’. 

There are no command and control rules, but I feel compelled to keep the A & B counters of each brigade operating together (adjacent or stacked), rather than doing fancy footwork to ‘count and perfect’ odd ratios in attack. Applying that discipline does bring some naturally occurring moments of frustrations and opportunities - nice!

I used to have a lot of these folio games, but they were thrown away in the big and unforgiving clear-out last year! I can see myself buying back a few of those titles and having a more enjoyable game using these updated rules. They would make very good vacation games.

I also run a separate web space called COMMANDERS, which is a bit more magaziney than here, with shorter reads that often return to subjects mentioned here.

LINK

https://commanders.simdif.com/dear_diary.html

PBEM Germantown game

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been running a Play By E-Mail game using the Germantown boardgame published by Decision Games in their Mini-Folio series to manage it.

cover artwork

There have been 9 participants and it has been a real eye opener to me, to see the way that having such a fog of war environment and imposing realistic command and control limitations can bring such a different playing experience.

All players are anonymous to each other and for the most part have only seen a small part of the map and been operating in isolation of the bigger picture. This post is purely intended to bring the full narrative of that game into one place, so that the players for the first time will get to see the big picture and can place their involvement within that full setting.

To that end, this post is lengthy and intended for them, though of course everyone is most welcome to come and see how this played out.

Please use the 'read more' tab for the rest of this post.

Salem Church 1863

This is one of the mini series titles from Decision Games that uses the Quick Play version of the Musket & Saber rules. So far the series has encompassed some AWI and Napoleonic titles, but the ACW has the most coverage.  

The series delivers games that use an 11” x 17” map, 40 counters and 4 pages of series rules, with another 2 pages of dedicated scenario rules, notes and game chart, so are notable for their small footprint. They also come in for around £11 (UK) so will meet a wider range of gamer budgets.

This post is going to look at a replay of the game, together with some observations of this scenario and the system in general.

Please use the ‘read more’ tab for the rest of this post.

Musket and Saber rules with ACW figures

Having recently been playing a few of the Musket and Saber mini-folio boardgames from Decision Games and with the rules fresh in my head, I thought it worth experimenting by taking the rule system to the miniatures tabletop using Kallistra 4" hexes and their 12mm ACW forces.

 

 

The following post looks at a generic scenario to test the rules and some observational notes on how it all worked out. 

Please press the 'read more' tab for the rest of this post.

Germantown 1777 - Decision Games

 

This is the sister game to Decision Game's Saratoga. It is early October and the British have captured Philadelphia and then dispersed some of their force to deal with the forts along the Delaware River. Washington saw an opportunity to attack the weakened British main body at Germantown.

 

 

Notes about the system itself can be found in the recent Saratoga post (see Resource section below).

This post simply concerns itself with an AAR of Germantown together with some observational notes about the scenario.

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First Saratoga 1777

First Saratoga 1777

First Saratoga is a boardgame from the mini folio series by Decision Games. In late summer of 1777, Burgoyne's Northern Army had become isolated. The game covers Burgoyne's attempt to break through American defences at Bemis Heights to reach Albany.

 

The system uses a quick play version of the Musket & Saber rules that are found in the larger folio games. The following is a short AAR with observational notes.

Please hit the 'read more' tab for the rest of this post.

Saalfeld 1806 - After Action Report

Saalfeld, prelude to Jena 10th October 1806.

Image taken from the front cover.

Saalfeld is a ‘mini folio’ game from Decision Games, using a 17" x 11" map and just 40 counters. It uses the cut down (quick play) version of the full system that is presented in the larger game folios. Click ‘read all’ below for a full After Action Report and game observations.

Cactus Air Force: Air War Over the Solomons.

Cactus Air Force is part of the Air Wars mini-game series from Decision Games.

Game cover 9" x 6"

This post is a straight forward AAR of the game. For those who would like some more information about the system and sequence of play, I would refer you to an earlier post concerning the sister game ‘Eagle Day’ which pretty much covers that side of things (look under labels to the right of this text).

Eagle Day - Decision Games



Eagle Day is part of the Air Wars mini game series
 and this particular game covers five critical days from the Battle of Britain 1940.

The following is an AAR that also explains the system.