Campaigning and fast play WWII tactical rules.

This post discusses an easy fast play campaign system, including a fast play set of tactical rules to keep the campaign moving at a good pace.

 

In issue 58 of Warning Order (free downloadable e-zine), Matt Irsik presented an article with suggestions of how to run a campaign that could be completed in a day. In the following and most recent issue (59) he shared a set of fast play rules, which enable players to cycle through the number of battlefields that will need to be fought over in a single day.

Both articles are an easy read and begged for a closer look, so I set some 10 / 12mm figures up and using measurements in centimetres, ran some manoeuvres on my large pinboard (less than 2’ x 3’), representing the initial battlefield.

There is a link to Matt’s freely downloadable e-magazine and his significant back catalogue in the Resource Section below. 

He has a donate button on his front page, each issue is certainly worth gifting him.

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1471 - Piggy Longton and the Spy Master.

The free Jester figure from Hammerhead 2022

It has been a while since the Dungborough Chronicles have made mention of Piggy Longton, this most battle prone of hamlets, so this post will summarise the simmering intrigue of the past few days as a sort of catch-up.

Readers will recall that recently, King Henry (Lancastrian) had been a guest of a supporter, Lord Darcy, at the hamlet of Piggy Longton.

Henry was awaiting the arrival of Somerset and his contingents, to escort him on his continued journey to London. However all of this was to be interrupted when Yorkist forces under Lord Salisbury attacked Lord Darcy at Piggy Longton, seeking the capture of King Henry (Lancastrian) and have him replaced by the Yorkist - Edward.

Salisbury, heading a Yorkist army, had previously sent messengers to a Yorkist supporter, Lord Trebian of West Rottington, who had neighbouring estates to Lord Darcy, advising that he was about to attack Piggy Longton and ordering Trebian to bring his forces to the battle to co-ordinate an attack into the rear of Darcy’s positions.

Lord Darcy’s patrolling cavalry had diligently intercepted the messengers and so Trebian remained unaware of the plan and of the part that he was meant to play. 

Darcy urgently moved King Henry to the safety of Crispin Priory 25 miles to the east, while fast riders were dispatched to hurry Somerset, who was presently two days march away from Piggy Longton. 

When Salisbury attacked, he was surprised to find that Darcy was ready for him and annoyed that Trebian, who in reality was oblivious to his orders, had made a ‘no show’.

During the battle, just a few of Somerset’s lead units managed to make it to the battlefield in time to join the fighting. Despite his advanced notice of the attack and having some limited support from reinforcements, Darcy was defeated and had to abandon Piggy Longton. 

Salisbury, finding the King gone and questioning Trebians apparent disregard for his orders, began to wonder whether treachery was in the air.

At great pains to prove his allegiance to Salisbury, Trebian deployed his best spy, Master Jack, into Piggy Longton to get information as to where King Henry was being kept.

For those needing a fuller catch-up to all of this recent background, a link to the Chronicle covering the Battle of Longton Fields has been placed into the Resource Section at the foot of this post, together with a post that explains the geo / political history of Piggy Longton.

The Parish of Piggy Longton

We are now up to date and here is the most recent development.

Darcy and Somerset had been biding their time, waiting for reinforcements so that they could at least match the size of Salisbury’s army, before making their attack on Piggy Longton and clearing the way to reach Crispin Priory, some 25 miles beyond the hamlet.

It was important that they moved the King as quickly as possible to London, to prevent Yorkist rebels taking London and putting Edward one step closer to taking the crown for himself.

Master Jack, disguised as a Jester and wearing the colours of Lord Grayson, a prominent Lancastrian supporter, had set himself up outside Piggy’s popular tavern. Each evening, for just a few coins and and a tankard of best Smoggy Ale, he would perform at the tavern, slowly gaining the trust of customers …. especially those who had rather imbibed too much of the local nectar.

Master Jack may have been Lord Trebian’s best intelligence man, but years before, he had also been a stable lad at Oak Leaf Farm at the same time as the landlord’s son, Osmund Ackley. On Jack’s third night at the tavern, Osmund was visiting his father and he instantly recognised Jack. He told his father that the Jester was in fact a Trebian man.

The Landlord, James Ackley, had a propensity for guile and once again he saw opportunity for making himself a much valued tenant to Lord Darcy. The Landlord set his cunning plan in motion and immediately dispatched his son to visit the camp of Somerset and Darcy to appraise them of the revealed and now ensnared Jack.

He then sent for his trusted brother, John Ackley the wheelwright and recruited him to his subterfuge. John was to pretend to be quite drunk and make an incidental contact with Jack. During the conversation, he would let slip the lie that the King and a contingent of Darcy’s best men-at-arms, were waiting for rescue at Little Banbury, a deserted village 30 miles due north.

Salisbury was so elated by the news that he never stopped to question the authenticity. To capture the King was a prize that would certainly elevate him to Edwards inner circle. He immediately sent his best men and two contingents of retinue archers to Little Banbury.

James Ackley now sent word to Darcy that Salisbury had taken the bait, leaving the hamlet only lightly defended. Somerset and Darcy readied their men and marched on Piggy Longton intending to retake it and score a hurtful victory on Salisbury’s divided force.

By the time they arrived at the hamlet, the better part of Salisbury’s force were a full days march away and those that  remained at Piggy Longton were about to be sorely tested.

What a peach of a plan and what could possibly go wrong? Well, Salisbury was no lightweight. He had sent instructions to Lord Trebian to provide the hamlet with contingents of bill and bow in his absence. They too were on the march.  

To be continued in a field by you …… soon!

Resource Section

The Battle of Longton Fields - LINK 

https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2022/01/the-battle-of-longton-fields-1471-piggy.html

The geo / political history of Piggy Longton - LINK

http://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2020/10/a-battlefield-to-fight-over-often.html

PLEASE NOTE, FOR THE TIME BEING, THE COMMENTS SECTION HAS BEEN SWITCHED OFF.

Budget Terrain for Pinboard Battles!

During the past fortnight, a knee injury has driven me to sitting at the dining table for sustained periods, so there has been some boardgaming going on and no doubt too much iPad browsing.

For a figures fix, resurrecting my Pinboard Battles for the distraction of a mini side project caught my imagination ….. except my recent ‘sell-off’ of all 'unnecessary' things has meant that I have parted company with all of the goodies needed to get that to the table, so what to do for a quick hit?

'Use, buy and make', all played their part in assembling a fairly speedy game board that would be enough to give a feel for play and let me do some testing of various rule sets for gun / penetration comparisons, which alone is a great distraction activity for me.

This post is just a ramble loosely on Pinboard Battles, but its primary purpose is to add to the series of posts about getting to a gaming table cheaply.

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The Spartan Wargamer!

 

Internet image

No .... not a rufty tufty old bruiser with a sharp pointy stick thing! Rather, this post is all about cramming a wargame world into a single small box. “Impossible” you shout, “I’ve done it once before” I cry.

But of course that was then and this is now! So a harder task for sure, but this is a post that tickles the fancy of this blog’s roots of ‘wargaming in small spaces’, a gaming sentiment that I know interests a goodly section of the audience, who are either currently practising the dark art of gaming in small spaces or knowing that they soon might be, with plans of down sizing.

So if you are interested in a concept of down sizing to a single case / box, please use the ‘read more’ tab for the rest of this post.

1066 - Not Hastings!

It is a beautiful morning in mid August 1066. The sun is bright, the birds are singing with the corn wafting gently in the breeze, a perfect moment for battle thought Ivor Bigbutt, local commander of the West Rottington Array.

For some months he has been in dispute with Anglo-Saxon Thegn, Walter the Tight Wad, over the payment of tribute and with the harvest approaching, Bigbutt feels a reminder as to who is really in charge is due!

With a fine body of cavalry, well supported by heavy infantry, Bigbutt set out for Dungborough yesterday. His route was to take him over Little Bump Hill and onwards to the settlement of Piggy Longton, the main town of Dungborough, to make a demonstration of force and intent.

However, Walter, aware of this raid, has brought local shire forces to block the advance and is already astride Little Bump Hill to intercept Bigbutt.

As the two armies face off, Ivor Bigbutt still fancies his chances in taking the slightly high ground of Little Bump and humiliating Tight Wad.

It looks close, with the local turf accountant Filthy Giles, taking bets of just 1:1 evens on the fortunes of Tight Wad. Will Walter the Tight Wad have his purse strings cut? Has Ivor Bigbutt become too big for his trousers? 

Please use the ‘read more’ tab for the outcome of this escapade.

Shermans on the Pinboard

The recently painted N.W Europe 10mm U.S. Battlepack units from Pendraken have been yearning to make it to the table and get into action and so here they are.

It is late August 1944 and an American force is attacking small farm based hamlet held by a platoon of Volksgrenadiers with A/T gun support. This is a small action that I am using to look at converting my Into Battle - WWII Tactical rules from hexes to an open board. 

The game is confined to a large pinboard (34" x 22"), converting hexes to 10 centimetres per hex.

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

Counter-Attack, The Power Station

The last post (link below in the Resource Section) showed a set-up for a city fight on the east front 1943, a game that unfortunately had to be set aside for a few days, but has now been played out and the flow of play recorded here.

A simple 8 x 6 grid

If you recall, Soviet assault troops were in position to counter-attack the Power Station complex that had fallen the previous day.

The rest of this post covers some of the highlights from the city fight, which includes sewer movement and the perils for armour operating in the confines of a city.

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

Not a wargame of Cobb's Farm in 28mm on a small table!

This is not really the post that I had intended to write. The intention was to take the previous post about doing a Black Powder game with 12mm ACW figures on a large pinboard and transferring that scenario to a 4' x 3½' table with some 28mm figures from the Perry's 28mm ACW Battle in a Box set, in the hope of doing a post on easy entry level gaming for 28mm in a limited space and maybe encourage a new gamer or two to dip their toe in the water.

Part of  the Perry box art

It was our face-to-face night and my plan was to introduce Mike, who is predominantly a boardgame player, to the Black Powder rules. We have done occasional figure games on Kallistra hexes, but I was interested to get his opinion on the open table format and wanted his thoughts to then feed into a post that was, as said, intended to reach out to new gamers.

So, I set up the pinboard game on the dining table for a quick knock-about and rule teaching session, with the intention to then move to a temporary table that had the 28mm version of the scenario set-up, but with the measurements returned back from centimetres to inches, to see which style of game he preferred.

What could go wrong?

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Black Powder - the mini game

We have all no doubt been in awe of the ‘largest wargame ever!’ held in Glasgow a few weeks ago, with over 20,000 figures on huge tables and a regiment or two of keen participants to take charge of the armies. It was a fantastic and very community spirited spectacle.

So, fellow gamers, I am ready to present to you the antithesis of such splendour .... The Smallest Black Powder wargame ever - probably! Yes I know, it doesn’t have the same ring to it, being fought out on a pinboard, one evening after dinner with some Rich Tea biscuits to dunk in my cuppa and the very obvious absence of BBC correspondents, but here we go anyway. :-)

This really is a post about a very small BP game, so if that sort of thing interests you, please use the ‘read more’ tab.

Converting a tabletop game to a boardgame

This post runs off last weeks post (see Resource Section below), in which I AAR’d an ACW game using 12mm figures on Hexon terrain. Actually starting with a hex based scenario meant that  moving the whole thing to a physical boardgame is fairly straight forward, though not without some practical hurdles, not least time and effort.

This post briefly outlines the process, costs and some things to embrace or avoid etc, plus there are a few photo’s of the replay action.

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Pinboard Battles Project

Returning to the pinboard project again, I have upgraded the board and given it a first outing, with a fictional divisional action from the American Civil War.

Figures are Kallistra 12mm and the rules are the Perry’s Firepower set, with inches converted to centimetres.

This post discusses painting the board and gives a brief AAR just to demonstrate some action in a small space.

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Black Powder on a Pinboard

Using Black Powder rules on a pinboard!

 

I have started looking at different ACW rules using a generic throw down scenario to see how the rules play out. Recently the scenario was used to test boardgame rules (Musket and Saber) using 12mm figures and 4" hexes, the write-up to that game is linked in the resource section at the foot of this post. 

The following post looks at using the scenario to put a Black Powder game into a small space, in this case a standard large pinboard, using Kallistra 12mm figures, which hopefully proves interesting as the rules in general lean towards a much larger playing area.

 

 

Rather than covering the subject with my usual written AAR, this game was recorded as a collection of short videos over a few days as the battle progressed, in the hope that serialisation helped with the presentation. As a result, the 'replay section' in this post was updated daily with the latest video links. Now that the project is complete, this post has been edited to change it from the present tense to the past tense.

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Building Sci-Fi forces in 10mm

At the Phalanx wargame show this year, I picked up a couple of Sci-Fi armies from Pendraken. One being a Marine army and the other looking suitably Alien.

Marine Dreadnought

The armies are relatively small, cheap and paint up really quickly, so make the ideal starter project that is more likely to be seen through to a conclusion. 

Please use the 'read more' tab for the rest of this post looks at how the armies were put together, with a few shots of them in action.

Pinboard wargames for small spaces

The versatility of the humble pinboard.This is just a catch-all post covering the pinboard set-up that has evolved since I first set out trying to get a game into a smaller space.

The post covers materials used and demonstrates the use for boardgames, figure games and using Hexon II terrain.Please click on the 'read more' tab for the rest of this post.

Playtesting a WWII campaign

I am presently working on a campaign module to compliment my Into Battle - WWII Tactical rules. The module is going through a second playtest and the 7th battle in the campaign is being played out today.

This post covers the AAR of this battle and discusses some design aspects behind the mini-campaign module. Please press 'read more' for the rest of this post.

Stalingrad Scenarios for 10mm on hexes

This post introduces two new scenarios for the Into Battle - WWII Tactical system (figures on hexes). Both occur during the Stalingrad campaign in 1942 and both are designed to play in an area the size of a large pinboard (2' x 3').

The first is based upon the repeated German attacks against the building that would become known as Pavlov's House.

The second is inspired by Scenario 1 from basic Squad Leader (published by Avalon Hill) - 'The Guards Counterattack', a scenario that must surely be classed as one of the most nostaligic play experiences of a generation of board wargamers.

The rest of the post will concern itself with the design aspect of the two scenarios and conclude with some links to resources of interest, including the downloadable file for the scenarios themselves.

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6mm 10mm pinboard project - final update

^{The quest to get a figure game into a small playing space (a pinboard) and keep game storage low, has continued, but at last has taken a direction that leaves me happy to conclude these project posts. The past month has been busy with three quite different gameboards being assessed, a working set of home grown WWII rules tested, the painting and basing of two forces gaining ground and some terrain bits added.}

^{Readers who want to see the three previous posts to get some context of how this project has evolved can use the following links.}

^{Project Introduction}

^{Ist Monthly Update}

^{2nd Monthly Update.}

^{Please click below to continue with this post.}

6mm / 10mm Pinboard Project - Second Month

This is the third monthly posting on the progress of my 'pinboard' project. If you are new to these posts, you may wish to browse the two earlier posts before reading on, so that the comments here can be taken in context of what has gone before.
INTRODUCTION
FIRST MONTH
While not yet getting to the stage of putting a game on the table, this month has been both busy and useful in getting the basics right, to make this project work for me. I have painted and based all of my sample units that I bought to help me decide upon scales and basing systems. I have also been looking at rules, playing around with grids and doing more scenery, including painting up my new Baccus rivers. Full details follow;

Please click below to continue reading

6mm / 10mm project 1st month

1st Monthly update of the pinboard project.
This is the first update on how this project is going. For those new to the project, you may want to read the original post first, so that the following can be seen in context.
Link to original post INTRODUCTION

Since the pinboard itself is somewhat central to the project, I shall start with that. I had bought the MDF version of the board with the intention of coating it with a mix of sand, filler and paint and then doing some dry brushing when dry. This would (possibly) have looked nice but would cause some minor problem for small terrain items to sit on it nicely (I am thinking of roads and streams here).
To read the full post, please click below.

6mm / 10mm Project - wargaming in small spaces.

Introduction - the basics.
As much as I love the grand spectacle of big tables, dressed with beautiful terrain and occupied by dazzling 28mm figures, parading on their generous frontages, the truth is, this style of wargaming does need plenty of space for both play and storage. In my own situation of now living in a smaller place and having back trouble that makes leaning over tables somewhat perilous, any figure gaming is now better suited to a compact setup (by that, I mean smaller than dining table size for solitaire play). This has led to my latest project - marrying up a small 6mm scale with a pinboard sized playing area.
I am guessing that for various reasons, there are plenty of gamers looking for a compact way to run their miniature games and so I am starting what I hope will be a collection of posts themed around this project, that may be of interest to others. Those who are already doing it, please add your thoughts to these posts, it would be good to hear from you.
This project is being done from scratch, so any readers who have not done miniatures before can join in and even modify the project for their own needs, for example going to a larger / smaller play area or translating a boardgame to a figure game, or whatever.

6mm Empress Dragoons (Heroics & Ros).

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