One Hour Wargames - Take the High Ground

Today my girlfriend kindly offered to play a one hour wargame scenario with me using my muddy fields wargaming mat and my American Civil War armies.

We played "Take The High Ground" on a map that consisted of a marsh, road and small hill. With the limited amount of terrain I currently have this scenario was the most appropriate to use.

We each rolled for army composition and for who would be Red / Blue forces. I was the defending Red Army, fighting with Union forces, whereas my other half fielded a Blue Army of Confederates. I had three infantry units, two elite infantry units (called Zouaves in the Wargames book) and one artillery piece. Facing off against them were four Confederate infantry units, one elite infantry unit and a unit of dashing Rebel cavalry. After my test game (Marye's Heights) I allowed cavalry to charge as per Napoleonic rules, dishing out D6 damage but then retreating 6" once the sabres had been rattled!

The cavalry charging ability was put to good practice, taking a toll on the elite Union infantry guarding the hill. My artillery was also present  on the hill, enabling it to start thinning out advancing Rebels. Having the cannon at the front line also stopped Union reinforcements from blocking its line of sight. The elite units in the game were high priority targets, getting some good volleys off but attracting plenty of attention in return. Union firepower started off very well but Lady Luck eventually favoured the Confederates in the crucial final stages of the game.

To summarise the battle, isolated Union forces on the hill were crushed by a mixture of cavalry charges and elite musketry. Meanwhile Rebel infantry held Union reinforcements up on the main road long enough for their comrades to secure ownership of the hill. By taking the high ground, the Confederate forces just had to dig in and hold out against the Yankee counter attack. At one point both sides had exactly the same strength, but the dice rolls eventually favoured Johnny Reb and my brave boys in blue were seen off. My girlfriend quite enjoyed it, especially using her gallant cavalry to savage my elites. 

Overall a very close game, showing that the dice don't always go your way despite seemingly good visual odds on the battlefield. Severely wounded units can still cause a lot of pain (especially those elites with a +2 damage bonus!). I learned that artillery in the open and close to the enemy can only hold out for so long, and that at the end of the day, it's the poor bloody infantry that secure victory!

One Hour Wargames - Maryes Heights

Last weekend I played out a solo game of the American Civil War rules in One Hour Wargames using my muddy fields wargaming mat.

I wanted to see how the different units performed on the battlefield. The battle map was loosely based on the Battle of Marye's Heights, December 1862. General Burnside hurled the Army of the Potomac against Confederate defensive works around the town of Fredericksburg. After sustained and costly frontal attacks the Union offensive was repulsed and another period of relative stalemate followed in the Eastern theatre. It would not be disturbed until the Battle of Chancellorsville the following year. 

For this scenario I used a hill, trench and my hasty barricades to form the Confederate fortifications, and selected an Rebel army of three infantry and two artillery units to fend off the Yankee attack.

I then rolled a dice to decide the composition of the Union forces. The 1 rolled resulted in three infantry, two artillery and one cavalry unit to throw at the Rebel strongpoint.

To summarise the battle, the Union attackers divided to flank the Rebel position, but despite supporting artillery fire chipping away at the Confederates, the defences held out. Union volleys and cannon fire could not make a decent impression on their opponents. 

Lessons learned? Units in hard cover (behind barricades, halving incoming damage) are bloody tough, and one infantry unit in cover can take on two enemy infantry units quite effectively, especially as the rules prohibit close combat. My main mistake was to field 5 units with hard cover against just 6 attacking units who only had a small hill to screen their advance. I also learned that artillery is no battle winner - many round of shooting on both sides did absolutely nothing! So much for accurate rifled cannon!

The one main issue I have with the ACW rules in One Hour Wargames regards cavalry's inability to draw swords and put them to good use. For future games I intend to allow close combat in line with Napoleonic cavalry, as their mobility counts for little when they can't shoot a barn door at 10 paces! Infantry units in comparison do far more of the fighting - and dying - making them the most decisive participants in the field.

German medical team with casualties

These are German medics from Zvezda, another small Art of Tactic box set. I decided not to include the red cross on the helmets as it was a little too fiddly. The wounds and bloodstains are achieve by using the GW paint "blood for the blood god". These may be used during my Wargames as casualty markers, or just to add a little flavour to the battlefield. 

My Early War Germans now need their infantry units. I'm getting a little bored of all the grey and drab colours-.once the Wermacht have their footsloggers I'll be focusing on my English Civil War armies, with some slightly brighter colours. 

Early War German anti tank units and Mortar teams

My Early War Germans for One Hour Wargames are slowly coming together. I've now added the two anti tank units and artillery units (referred to in OHW as mortars). 

The anti tank units comprise of a Zvezda Pak 36 anti tank gun with two crew, and a converted Armourfast Hanomag Halftrack fitted with a Pak of the same calibre from the Plastic Soldier Company. The crew and furniture are also PSC. The difference between the delicate, detailed Zvezda gun and the thicker, more durable PSC one is considerable, but I doubt on the wargaming table they'll be deployed close together and clash.

The mortars are from a small Zvezda Art of Tactic box set. I altered one of the crew's arms to differentiate the two teams. Lots of grey, and black ink, but worth it in the end. 

Martian Assault Tripod 1

This is my first of the Martian Assault Tripods from All Quiet on the Martian Front manufactured by Alien Dungeon. This white tripod is a Martian embodiment of a battlefield leader. It's main weapon is a heat ray located in the "crest" of the tripod head. It also has a pair of tentacles for interaction with objects and people on the ground, and a pair of vicious claw like hands for close combat.

The scenic base was made from cheap blu tac "sealed" and painted with GW paints. The trees were spare plastic ones and the sign for Grover's Mill farm, a nod to Orson Welles's War of the Worlds, was a metal trench accessory from Early War Models.

As seen in the photo, my tripods will be able to be dismantled into several pieces for storage purposes. As I currently have very limited space in Bristol I can't have these bad boys on display, so I feel another Really Useful Box will be needed!

I have already started my second tripod, armed differently, with another scenic base. This time it's an abandoned mortar pit, and the weapon is a Black Smoke launcher, a weapon as feared as the Heat Ray...

WIP Martian Assault Tripod 1

The following are the most recent photos of my first Martian Assault Tripod model from the All Quiet on the Martian Front model range. The legs and body have been painted with GW Leadbelcher followed by a generous coat of GW Nuln Oil ink. The underside of the 'head', arms and tentacles have undergone the same coats. The main head cover has been painted with Ushabti Bone - I'm paying homage to the various colours of Dr Who Daleks. As this is my first one and it has two grabbing claws only, it will represent a command tripod, leading by example. In comparison with the original game mechanics I have not included an official Heat Ray, and I won't be doing so on any of the other tripods. I always imagined the heat ray weapon being head mounted, either in the central eye, or on this model, possibly emanating out of the head's distinctive 'crest'. The heat rays provided on the sprues are the only thing I don't like about this range of models - in my opinion it looks more like an oversized remote control than a terrifying energy weapon. I will also be using the green gas bombs and storage tube as something totally different - again it is a little too cartoony for my creative vision. I'll show how I intend to use the green gas accessorised in another article, let's just say it'll be "shocking" pun intended.

The main eye of the tripods is coming along nicely, I'm going for a Sauron-esque reptilian red eye using a combination of GW paints.

I've also decided to customise the base for this model. I've done a couple of scenic bases for my WW1 models in the past, so I'm going to use the same method - white tack as a modelling putty along with various accessories from my bits box. An Early War Miniatures trench accessory has now been painted up as a signpost for the base. Grovers Mill is the name of the farm where the Martians first land in Orson Welles' renowned radio adaptation of the HG Wells novel. So a mixture of homages to sci-fi will be included in the final product.

And now for something completely different

Please don't get me wrong. I love history, military history of most periods, and am fascinated by the many real events and the stories and people behind them. But once in a while I find myself needing a little escapism, especially in the current political climate both in this country and across the world.

Escapism in military history usually comes in the form of "What ifs", or as historians usually phrase them, "counterfactuals". For example, what if Jackson was alive and commanding his Stonewall Brigade at Gettysburg? Or if the Germans had managed to commandeer the French fleet at Mers El Kebir, and not changed strategy during the Battle of Britain? These are classic hypothetical questions that I could deliberate over for hours.

However, another part of this hobby for me is related to science fiction; earlier in this blog I posted on my Revell kit of Battlestar Galactica. I am a big fan of both Star Wars and Star Trek (probably siding with parts of the latter, if pushed to pick favourites) and love the genre's hybrids, such as the TV show Firefly (a sci-fi Western).

The other day on Netflix I watched a documentary on the Orson Welles 1938 radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds. I had read the book as a kid and loved it (despite not fully understanding the finer parts) and it got me thinking about mixing my military history models with something a little more... Fictitious.

After browsing the Internet in search of something to satisfy this craving, I stumbled across an amazing wargame that was created over in America. The game is called "All Quiet on the Martian Front" and is a wargame based on the premise of second alien invasion following the events of the HG Wells novel. Before doing so, I was considering depicting Martian tripods as 'bipods' and caving in to Games Workshop, spending lots of money on a pair, or perhaps trio of Eldar Wraithlords. The Wraithlord is one of my favourite truly alien units from the Warhammer 40k universe, and the Martian weaponry could have been represented by the Bright Lance, Missile Launchers, Star Cannons and flamers of these beastly walkers.

But All Quiet on the Martian Front offered me an alternative - unique three legged Assault Tripods - a box of three for the price of one Warhammer 'Lord. I managed to get a box off Ebay and was very pleased with its contents. The one hitch is that the game units are intended for use with 15mm scale models. However, these tripods still boast considerable height over my 1/72 armies.

I have now started my first Tripod, nicknamed Alpha. It's going to be the leader Tripod, so I've gone for two grabbing claws out of the various weapon options. The chunky plastic appears very durable, with the exception of the feeler tentacles. I'm not quite decided on a paint scheme but might go for a range of colours for the tripods to differentiate themselves on the tabletop. My long term goal is to form a small collection of Steampunk-inspired Martian Front units, either by buying the official products or converting mainstream kits to fit in. Watch this space! (Also, you'd better watch the sky for those Martian cylinders!)