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vtsaogamesParticipantVery nice. The link to Wayne Turner’s Blog doesn’t seem to work.
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
vtsaogamesParticipantLooks good. All home brew rules?
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
vtsaogamesParticipantFor the British: Wolfe’s Army, published 1874. EDIT: It was published in 1974. Fat fingers strike again.
Good battle info: Monongahela 1754 – 55, published 2004, some plates for British, French, Canadians and Indians
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
vtsaogamesParticipantIt sounds interesting. I don’t know The Pikeman’s Lament, but my one quibble with the ratings above is that in 1755 the colonial Rangers were not very good troops, nothing like the forces that Rogers and others would raise later in the war.
I have played the Monongahela a bit over the years, always a hard slog for the British if the troops are rated accurately. One of these days we’ll do it again.
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
vtsaogamesParticipantPardon my ignorance, but what is TPL? I Know Muskets & Tomahawks, Muskets & Mohawks, Sharp Practice and This Very Ground, but not TPL.
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
vtsaogamesParticipant…Alas my camera and computer no longer talk with each other so no pics.
That’s a sad tale and we all are poorer for it.
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
vtsaogamesParticipantThe rules are designed for singly based figures. Ours are based 3 to a stand, so we used 4 stands per unit and kept track of hits. It worked fine. We do the same for Muskets & Tomahawks, with units in multiples of 3.
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
vtsaogamesParticipantWe were using 12 figures, though I think that is flexible, as long as both sides use the same number. It was 6 years ago.
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
vtsaogamesParticipantHere’s an AAR of Two Hour Wargames’ Muskets & Mohawks. The scenario is our own design. We played human players vs. the game system.
http://corlearshookfencibles.blogspot.com/2012/01/
The solo works pretty well. The rules are inexpensive and simple, giving you something to do while waiting for the new rules to come out.
And since they are PDF, they don’t go out of print, like Muskets & Tomahawks.
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
vtsaogamesParticipantFinding a set is tough since they are out of print. My set did not include the nice card deck. Instead, I made chits that we draw out of a cup.
There are not individual traits per soldier like most small skirmish games. All soldiers in a unit are the same. Specific talents can be purchased in points per unit, like elite, sharpshooter, etc.
If you can’t find Muskets & Tomahawks, Two Hour Wargames has Muskets & Mohawks, which ain’t bad and can be played solo or all players vs. the game system. We played it some years back and beat the system mercilessly and also got routed in short order. I think M&T has more flavor.
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
vtsaogamesParticipantWhoops, my error. There is indeed a Canadian officer, listed on a different page than the French officers. Bring on Langlade and Beaujeu.
The M&T rules are fun and simple. As with most simple rules, the casualty rates are extremely high. If you assume they’re not all dead, some wounded, some just deciding to head for home. Heck, even then the losses are high.
There are typos. British local militia are listed as having regular morale. They cost the exact same as French local militia who have militia morale. I assume the Brits have militia morale too. I have seen enough things be published to note that some errors wait until they are on the printed page to reveal themselves, no matter how often the original copy is perused.
I toy with the idea of doing Seven Years War Kleine Krieg with these rules, Croats attacking a supply convoy guarded by Prussian garrison troops and Frei Korps. Not soon, but maybe eventually.
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
vtsaogamesParticipantI can’t see the full photos, some sort of strange grey thing overlaying them.
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
vtsaogamesParticipantVery nice!
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
vtsaogamesParticipantJohn,
How many turns did you get played in 2.5 hours?
Vincent
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
vtsaogamesParticipantAnother thing about Bavarians: we played a campaign of most of the battles of that war. The Bavarians figure in many of the Imperial phase battles and most of the Republican phase battles. At the pivotal battle of Coulmiers, they provide all of the German infantry.
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
vtsaogamesParticipant“one of the Peninsula battles (the one where the 23rd LD charged at a gulley and lost)”
That would be Talavera.
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
vtsaogamesParticipantFound this on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Rules-Wargames-Sebastopol-Century-Warfare/dp/B00RW5S1VQ
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
vtsaogamesParticipantVery nice! What frontage are the line bases?
By the way, I play this period in 15mm using Bloody Big Battles and find the Republican phase battles quite interesting.
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
27/04/2018 at 03:21 in reply to: 'The Battle That Never Was': Fishguard 1797 on Jemima Fawr's Blog #89481vtsaogamesParticipant“I think I should probably cut and paste that as a new blog article…”
Indeed! Entertaining and educational.
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
23/04/2018 at 19:21 in reply to: 'The Battle That Never Was': Fishguard 1797 on Jemima Fawr's Blog #89231vtsaogamesParticipantMarvelous stuff!
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
vtsaogamesParticipantHighly useful, Brendan. Thank you.
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
vtsaogamesParticipantI think a lucky general is one who sees chances and takes them, instead of watching them fade away unused. And is lucky too.
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
vtsaogamesParticipantI dunno, Martin. The Confederate infantry lining the sunken road at the base of Marye’s Heights at Fredericksburg had it all over the Union troops who attacked them in seemingly endless waves. They lost some 500 troops and shot down over 5,000.
The sunken road wasn’t a proper trench. It was perhaps 4 feet deep with a stone wall on the side facing the enemy. It was also in a slight depression so that Union troops suddenly discovered enemy troops within easy rifle range who seemed to spring up out of the ground. But the guys in the road suffered far fewer hits than the ones in the open.
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
vtsaogamesParticipantWow!
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
vtsaogamesParticipantAgree that if infantry behind serious cover aren’t firing back they can’t take any serious loss, just keep their heads down or even persuade less motivated ones to relocate.
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
vtsaogamesParticipantAnd a discourse on the excessive losses to the generals in this and some other recent games we’ve played https://corlearshookfencibles.blogspot.com/
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
vtsaogamesParticipantESR supports a variety of base sizes. distance is flexible according to your base size. As long as both sides are based alike it will work. Of course, if you have wide bases, you’ll need a bigger table.
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
vtsaogamesParticipantYes, buck and ball was the slight advantage that smooth-bore muskets gave at close range. I’m not sure how much the 3 buckshot added. But at close enough range the difference between the two types faded. Grant thought that smooth-bores were highly inaccurate at ranges over 75 yards.
That said, during the American Revolution, Sumter was on the verge of a moderate tactical victory when wounded by buckshot from an buck-and-ball round late in the fight at Blackstocks, allowing Tarleton to claim a win.
Ivan, of the three books listed above, I say Hess has the last and best word on it.
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
vtsaogamesParticipantHess “Rifle Musket in Civil War Combat” has a number of examples, most of them under 100 yards. Some opened fire at 100-200 yards, a couple at 300 yards. Consider many battles were fought in wooded terrain broken by a few clearings. Nosworthy and Griffith have similar info. The rifle musket effect was evolutionary rather then revolutionary as many have maintained over the years. The Minie ball has a much more curved trajectory than modern bullets, requiring training in estimating range, beyond the level of most ordinary troops in this war.
An earlier version of my post :
Nosworthy (Bloody Crucible of Courage), Griffith (Battle Tactics of the Civil War) and Hess (The Rifle Musket in Civil War Combat) all indicate that it was slightly longer than combat ranges of smooth-bore muskets in most cases. Minie balls had a low muzzle velocity and a curved trajectory that made range estimation very important at long range. Many ordinary troops did not have such training. Skilled marksmen like Berdan’s rifles were another story. And then the specialist snipers of the Army of Northern Virginia armed with Whitworth rifles were capable of accurate mayhem at 4-500 yards. That said, I’ve read accounts (not primary sources) of units opening fire at 400 yards with standard rifle muskets and scoring some hits.
You also have to figure that most ACW battlefields rarely offered unobstructed fields of fire for long range. Many battles were fought in wooded areas with just the odd field or clearing, though many gamers use open terrain as the default with the odd woods.
Hess and Nosworthy note that officers wanted to arm their skirmishers with rifled weapons. The troops preferred rifled weapons hands down, though that may have been because all were aware that they were the newest thing. Who wants an old cell-phone? Some officers (like the Irish Brigade) preferred smooth-bore muskets because they thought that would increase the reliance on cold steel.
Anyway, all three writers above concur that the oft-told tale of revolutionary change in tactics due to rifled muskets is a myth and that change was more evolutionary. I do think increasing the lethal close range zone from 75 yards to say 125 does make a difference all by itself.
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
vtsaogamesParticipantIssue has been dealt with.
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
vtsaogamesParticipantGetting this message trying to respond to another thread: ERROR: Your reply cannot be created at this time.
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
24/03/2018 at 20:44 in reply to: Battle of the Plains of Abraham: First Polemos Ruse de Guerre battle #87171vtsaogamesParticipantI eagerly await your further comments on the rules.
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
vtsaogamesParticipantI believe JR to be substantially more complex than F&F. Less complex than either is Bloody Big Battles, which covers the 19th Century mainly aimed at European battles but has been used a lot by others (including me) for ACW battles. Again, multi-stand units (brigades and/or divisions). BBB much like a stripped down F&F. If you want granularity based on various makes of small arms, JR is your bet.
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
vtsaogamesParticipantI have to say the Corlears Hook Fencibles discovered Bloody Big Battles 3 years ago and it scratches our grand-tactical black powder itch. We have played the Shiloh scenario 6 times, 2 Confederate victories, 1 tie and 3 Union wins. I chalk up one CSA win to the Union player losing a personal morale test. I thought it was still 50/50. No other set of rules I have tried gives us the whole battle in one evening and keeps it a cliff hanger. The other grand tactical Shiloh scenarios I’ve played have the Union player nervous at first but calmed down by noon on the first day.
Aside from Shiloh we played Gettysburg (once), First Bull Run (3 times), Champion Hill (twice), Chickamauga (twice) and the Wilderness (twice), enjoying them all. Only Gettysburg took us more than one evening. We weren’t disciplined enough to run it in 4 hours.
If you must have individual regiments and batteries or have different factors for Burnside rifles than Spencers, these rules are not for you. But if you want a full battle in an evening with results that make sense, try them. Basic units in BBB can be brigades or divisions, sometimes two small divisions combined into one unit. Artillery tends to be battalions of 12-24 guns, sometimes even more as the troop scale varies by scenario.
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
vtsaogamesParticipantLight infantry were used as fast elite troops. Sometimes they would skirmish, other times attack in close order with cold steel. When the Continental army formed light infantry, they were used in similar fashion. Note the bayonet attack on Stony Point carried out by Continental light infantry. It was considered quite a coup since the bayonet was perceived as the British weapon.
Howe relied on his light infantry for a variety of tasks. The battalion company officers sometimes complained that their companies were nurseries for the light infantry, who sometimes served in different theaters than the rest of the battalion.
Sharp Practice is a large skirmish set of rules, without the focus on individuals seen in most skirmish rules and usually sees more figures on the table. I can see Cowpens being done with SP, likely the upper limit on how far the game can be stretched. But there were myriad fights in the southern campaigns with less combatants than Cowpens.
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
vtsaogamesParticipantIn addition to his defensive victories, Wellington was capable of bold tactical assaults like Assaye and Salamanca. He was operating under different strictures; if he lost an army, he was out. Napoleon lost several huge ones and came up with more troops.
Strategically, Wellington could never takes the chances that Napoleon could. As for other British commanders, none came near him, even Moore.
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
vtsaogamesParticipantMy goodness, that’s a sad story. Our crew has a fairly different take on stuff: our ACW figures have stood in for Mexican troops at Puebla 1862, my Union figures have a western look about them but that doesn’t stop us from using them for Gettysburg or First Bull Run. We used 1812 Prussians for Crimean War Russians, Gardes Mobiles for 1866 Hanoverians, etc. At least we don’t use WWII figures or Normans and Saxons for our black powder period games.
As for ACW terrain, we often use a mat with the default terrain being woods and the few clearings painted in. I find that more important than the buildings being correct.
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
vtsaogamesParticipantAdding to Zippy’s description of the US Army: the colored regiments had a much lower desertion rate than the others, since most soldiers considered the army treated them better than civilian society did. Plenty of service stripes in the colored regiments.
Also, some of the officers were mighty eager for glory. For example Col. John Gibbon of the 7th Infantry had been a brigade, division and Corps CO during the Civil War and had been a brevet Major General by the end of the war. His drive for a promotion led to him being shot through the leg leading a few companies in an attack on Chief Joseph’s camp during the Nez Perce War. Custer was also haunted by his time wearing general’s stars.
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
vtsaogamesParticipantDon’t know the figures myself, but Old Glory (the 25mm version) has Plains Indians and US cavalry in 25mm. For infantry you could get their ACW Union as close enough.
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
vtsaogamesParticipantI imagine that rosters a couple days apart would be different based on who was sick, who was better, who had deserted, etc. Also, soldiers on detached duty as couriers, teamsters, helping the colonel get dressed, etc.
It's never too late to have a happy childhood
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