Washington’s Army AAR

[Roundie]

Here’s a link to a quick write up of a Washington’s army 28mm game for anyone who may be interested

Benton valley firefight

cheers

 

[Tony S]

Wow! That report could easily be in the pages of Wargames Illustrated. Incredible table and an amazing collection of figures you’ve amassed.

I haven’t played those rules, but I’ve played some of its cousins and I’ve always enjoyed RFCM games.

Thanks for sharing.

[vtsaogames]

Great report, thanks for sharing. How many turns in the game and how long did the game take to play? I understand documenting it and taking all those photos slows things down.

It's never too late to have a happy childhood

[Autodidact-O-Saurus]

Roudie,

Your site is always a visual feast. Very inspiring!

Self taught, persistently behind the times, never up to date. AKA ~ jeff
More verbosity: http://petiteguerre.blogspot.com/

[OB]

Top stuff there.  Interesting to see how the rules played too.

OB
http://withob.blogspot.co.uk/

[jeffers]

Lurvely!

More nonsense on my blog: http://battle77.blogspot.com/

[Roundie]

Thanks guys

Vtsaogames- That was a standard 500pt game which took about 4/4.5 hours to setup & play. I was pretty rusty with the rules so there was a bit of rule checking/reading going throughout the game (photo’s and stuff as well).

5 turns played in all. Washington’s army uses a 21 point time clock that counts down 1D6 at the end of each turn.

Turn 1 : rolled a 4- clock dropped to 17

Turn 2 : rolled a 5- clock dropped to 12

Turn 3 : rolled a 5- clock dropped to 7

Turn 4 : rolled a 3- clock down to 4

Turn 5: rolled a 6 finish.

Given that most victory points are D6 generated (eg. 3D6 VP’s for holding the crossroads) and the fact that you can never be sure how many turns you have to grab said points, makes for pretty interesting games.

cheers

 

[David Cooke]

Had a great time looking around your blog! Wonderful looking minis and enjoyed seeing those Austrians in action against the French.

But could not find the Washington’s Army AAR. I must be blind because everyone else saw it.

[vtsaogames]

It’s because you were standing sideways.

It's never too late to have a happy childhood

[Tony S]

It is a trifle hard to find.  It’s at the bottom, under “recently played”, or to be more succinct:

http://miniatureaddiction.info/benton-valley-firefight/

 

[David Cooke]

Thank you Tony. What a beautiful looking table of minis and terrain.

Like you said they look like straight out of Wargames illustrated.

[hammurabi70]

Roundie wrote:

Thanks guys Vtsaogames- That was a standard 500pt game which took about 4/4.5 hours to setup & play. I was pretty rusty with the rules so there was a bit of rule checking/reading going throughout the game (photo’s and stuff as well). 5 turns played in all. Washington’s army uses a 21 point time clock that counts down 1D6 at the end of each turn. Turn 1 : rolled a 4- clock dropped to 17 Turn 2 : rolled a 5- clock dropped to 12 Turn 3 : rolled a 5- clock dropped to 7 Turn 4 : rolled a 3- clock down to 4 Turn 5: rolled a 6 finish. Given that most victory points are D6 generated (eg. 3D6 VP’s for holding the crossroads) and the fact that you can never be sure how many turns you have to grab said points, makes for pretty interesting games. cheers

Nice write-up.

At the risk of appearing greatly offensive, I would have to say that this mechanism for battle duration has a long pedigree and has been abandoned long ago.  Although the dice rolls should give an average of six turns the potential spread is very high: between four and twenty-one turns.  For a club evening that is rather wild and it is bad news to play a campaign game and only get half way through a battle … or to finish half way through the evening without a chance to reach your objectives.   And yes, I have seen both.  Even the use of an average dice narrows the difference to five and eleven.

www.olivercromwell.org; www.battlefieldstrust.com
6mm wargames group: [email protected]; 2mm wargames group: [email protected]

[Tony S]

As I have mentioned, I quite enjoy the RFCM stable of rulesets.

But I have to agree with Hammurabi to a degree. I remember playing one game – Poor Bloody Infantry if I’m not mistaken – that has the same mechanism for determining the end of the game. I was the defender, so was desperately hoping for a fast game, but I don’t think I ever rolled above a “3”. It was a club game, so we had to end it early.

It does happen, and is frustrating, but fortunately it doesn’t occur too often. I suppose one could houserule that it ends after 10 turns no matter what.

But I think on balance, the uncertainty of knowing when the game will end makes up for it. Admittedly, as Hammurabi does imply, other rules have variable game end too, but perhaps not as subject to irritatingly wild swings of fortune.

[Norm S]

A beautifully presented site – thank you.

[Roundie]

Yeah that’s a fair point Hammurabi.

As always, in the end it’s simply a case of taste I guess.

 

[vtsaogames]

Perhaps pick a target turn. If you prefer an average of 10 turns per game, roll at the end of turn 9, a score of 5+ ends the turn. Same on turn 10. If the game gets to turn 11 definitely end the game. You might even play turn 11 with rules for fighting in twilight. Though throwing in rules changes at the end of a game sounds like a bad idea. Never mind.

It's never too late to have a happy childhood

[McKinstry]

Great AAR, both the description and the visuals. As has been said, this AAR is as good as anything in the glossy magazines.

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[hammurabi70]

vtsaogames wrote:

Perhaps pick a target turn. If you prefer an average of 10 turns per game, roll at the end of turn 9, a score of 5+ ends the turn. Same on turn 10. If the game gets to turn 11 definitely end the game. You might even play turn 11 with rules for fighting in twilight. Though throwing in rules changes at the end of a game sounds like a bad idea. Never mind.

It does need to be integrated into the rule system.  Our current WWII system is:

+1 each turn, plus
both players roll a D3, add the difference (+0, +1, +2), plus
+1 for significant event during a turn (currently, air strike or off-table artillery bombardment)

Battle ends when the total exceeds the days in the month the (campaign) battle is being fought in.  We use a TFL-style card activation system in our home-brew rules.  At first it looks too random with potential totals of 5 (or less) to 7 [the pack contains a card for each player to have an airstrike or artillery bombardment].  However, nobody is going to forego an air or artillery strike, which is essential to press home an effective attack, and retarding the passage of time if they do not arise or accelerating it when they do happen keeps the tempo of the game humming.  It fits our requirements but would probably not do for many other rules without significant adjustment.  Because time advances during a turn it also prevents last turn issues as the day may end with a dusk strike just before the attack goes in, much to the chagrin of the player making an attack.  As you cannot be sure of card order you have to get on with your attacks less dusk fall before you have concluded matters.

We have currently moved over to the seventeenth century.  Using days of the month is good for February but makes January the same as July so I am experimenting with hours of daylight for the target and variants thereon.  The key is to define the range you are looking for and finding a methodology that will deliver it and ensure some ambiguity.   I think ROMMEL is a great set of rules BUT by fixing a day at 16 turns it can give a very bad game-end with a lot of last move play twisted to achieve the objectives. I find this very annoying and a blemish on a very good set of rules; anyone found a good fix?

 

www.olivercromwell.org; www.battlefieldstrust.com
6mm wargames group: [email protected]; 2mm wargames group: [email protected]

[agent pumpkin]

Impressive, most impressive!

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