Retreat From Mons AAR

For February's club game, Gareth, Peter, and I got out our WWI minis for a game of Mud and Blood.

Rules:
We used the Too Fat Lardies 'Through the Mud and Blood'. I had never played the rules before and generally shy away from card driven rules sets, however, I have been more open to them since playing Muskets and Tomahawks (which we will be playing in March). In this rules set every individual unit has a card that is shuffled into the deck along with a card for each user. I think the shooting and mele mechanics are more realistic the Contemptible Little Armies though they are a bit more complicated. Over all, without going into more detail, I really enjoyed the rules and highly recommend them to anyone looking for a WWI rules set.

Scenario:
Gareth had set the game up based of an actual battle during the British retreat from Mons. A small British Expeditionary Force was holding a small farm and some shallow trenches in the path of the advancing German army. The British where to hold their position long enough to delay the Germans and then pull back.

Overview:
According to Gareth our game went along perfectly with the historical outcome. The Germans (commanded by myself and Peter) where significantly delayed in our advance. The British (commanded by Gareth) fought bravely but where eventually overrun my the Germans larger numbers.

German 1st Platoon

 German 2nd Platoon

 The German deployment. The BEF was spreed out and hidden in and beyond the gully.

 2nd Platoon moves to the near by hedge and spots a BEF unit in the near by gully.

 2nd Platoon fans out and the BEF unit starts to fall apart under the hail of gunfire.

 1st Platoon advances in line and stumbles upon to BEF units either side of the bridge. 1 of the German sections is forced into a fierce mele with the BEF.

 The mele is intense and the German section is beaten back. 

 Despite the mele victory the BEF are forced to withdraw under the hail of German gunfire.

 After pushing back and nearly wiping out the BEF unit, 2nd Platoon surges forward to occupy the recently vacated gully.

 The rest of the BEF units take up positions in the trenches and farmstead 

 1st Platoon now occupies the gully as well.

 A BEF unit tries to fall back to the farm complex.

 The Germans did not manage to push beyond the gully before time ran out. All BEF units within 18in of the Germans where captured though few remained till that point.

Muskets & Tomahawks

Hello everyone.
So a few weeks back I had an AAR from a French & Indian War game using the rules Muskets & Tomahawks by Studio Tomahawks (odd name). I really enjoyed the game and decided I would get a unit to contribute to future club games. At Salute this past weekend I purchased the Muskets & Tomahawks rule book and a unit of 8 Militia.

The rules are card driven where each Unit Type for each nation has one or more cards in the deck that give them one or more actions (actions being move, shoot, reload). While I am not particularly fond of card driven games I found that the system work adequately for the time period as well as led to an entertaining game. You might find you have a unit in a perfect position but not have its card drawn until near the end of the game after the enemy has either moved or driven your unit off. While that could be frustrating, when playing with friends it leads to much humor and adds a level of suspense.

A nice feature throughout the book are optional rules that can change the style of play. I really liked this as it allows for greater variety in your play. One such "optional rule" involved each player drawing 3 cards from the deck and then taking turns playing them. This could allow you to force an opponent to act before you so that you could plan or hold back until your ready. Another "optional rule" let you place Units on Vigilance which would allow them to react once to an enemy unit without your units card being drawn.

 Another feature of the rules that I think every rule book should have (and most do) is a good Quick Reference Sheet that is easy to fallow.

The rules also allow for Characters in the forum of Officers that can add greater depth and entertainment to a game.

Overall I really like the rules set and highly recommend them to anyone who is interested in this time period.

The unit I got for the game consist of 8 Canadian Militia known as Coureuts des Bois which where Canadian fur traders who joined the French to protect their homes and business.

I have another unit in the mail and when they arrive the figure in the front rank with the tri-corner hat will become my officer. I will add photos of each individual figure once I fix my camera.

Road to Baghdad, FOF

Road To Baghdad is a supplement for Force on Force by Ambush Ally covering the coalition invasion of Iraq in 2003. The book starts off with a overview of the historical events that took place at that time, covering the units that participated as well as descriptions of the sequence of events.

Each time in the historical section that a particular engagement is talked about there is a reference to one of the 19 scenarios that will cover that particular battle.

Each scenario starts off with a brief overview of the setting with an excerpt of the historical outcome. There is a map showing the table layout for the game then a brake down of each sides mission, force structure, and available assets, if any.

The rules explain that during this conflict a large number of the Iraq forces simply surrendered or fled and a large number of objectives where taken with little to no opposition.  The scenarios they provide for those types of encounters give the Iraq forces that would have been likely encountered in taking the objective instead of what was actually their (meaning none).

Their are no new Fog of War cards for this supplement so the original ones from fof are used. However they do provide a list of samples forces during the period so players can develop their own scenarios. 

Force on Force Rules Review

Overview

Ok, so I have had the Force on Force (fof) rules by Ambush Ally for about a month now and have done some play tests with it. I have to say I'm very pleased with the rules.
The rules are designed to be used for squad level combat from WW2 to present day (though mainly more for the last 25 years or so).
The book starts out with an overview of the turn sequence then it goes into a brief description of each component then later into a detailed description of each component. They start off with Infantry combat and at the end of that section provide a sample scenario you can play to use what you learned. Both the Vehicle and Air Support sections fallow the same pattern. Towards the end they provide additional optional rules to add more diversity to the game play.
Instead of basing actions off individual figures the game revolves around fire teams, usually consisting of 4 or more figures. A side might consist of 2-3 fire teams making up a squad. Line of sight, line of fire, cover, and movement are all based on the fire team as a whole and not the individual figures. Their is a big emphasis that the playing table is more of a representation of the battlefield as appose to an actual model. This means that buildings might have more entrances or firing points then depicted on the model, or that a figure occupies the area its placed in not the exact spot it sits on the table. This can be a confusing concept at first, specially if your use to having everything represented "As Seen". However, once you except the new concept you get a much more fluid and realistic game play.
Vehicles do not play as major a role in combat as in other games because the size of the game table is considered to be practically point blank for vehicles. While they are used and can be key to victory in some scenarios you wont find big armored battles like you might be use to in other games.
Likewise, Air units are very rarely ever represented on the table. The only example given in the rules where they would be used is when units are deploying from or be extracted by transport helicopters. As for air support no models are used as the rules explain that in real time they would either be so far away they would not appear on table or that they would fly through so fast that you could not represent them in the time flow of the game.
The game uses a universal system where your dice roles are always trying to get 4+ to succeed, sometimes this will be apposed by the opponent who will try to not only get a 4+ roll but a higher one then you. To represent the difference in quality of training, moral, and skill in soldiers units are given different dice levels. An average military unit from a first world nation might have a Troop Quality level of D8 which means for all their tests requiring Troop Quality they are rolling a D8 to try and get 4+. I feel this is a good way to distinguish the likelihood a unit is to succeed at something. The downside is you might need to buy some new dice as you will need about 10 of each type (D6, D8, D10, & D12).

Cons

There are a few typos in the beginning and one entire chart is missing. The chart can be found in a free down loadable Errata from the Ambush Ally website. The rules also take a few read through and play tests before they really start to click as they use an unfamiliar system.

Pros

• The Ambush Ally forums has a rules discussion section which is very helpful.
• They system used for play means there is never a time when a player is just sitting waiting for their turn to do something as you can react to every action your opponent makes.
• A game can be played with as few as 8 figures a side on a table no bigger then 2ft x 2ft.
• The book contains photo copyable Fog of War cards as well as extensive quick reference sheets, both of which can be downloaded for free from their site.

Inspiration

   So I have been reading through a series called Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld, whose site you can find here. The series is set in a steampunk WWI. The nations that make up the axis powers are called 'Clankers' because their whole society revolves around the use of elaborate steam powered machines. The allied nations are called 'Darwinists' because through Darwin they have learned to alter the 'life strands' (their term for DNA) of plants and animals to evolve them into tools.

   I found this world fascinating and a new take on the steampunk genre. I decided to develop some gaming rules that would allow gaming in this world. Using rules from Contemptible Little Armies (CLA) by Christ Peers and Valor & Steel & Flesh (VSF) by Robert Charrette as my frame work and modifying them to suit this time period. CLA offers great rules for the WWI era which the books take place in but as in history the rules lack much in the way of vehicles, thats where VSF comes in since its a rules set for Victorian Science Fiction.

Once I'm done I will put the rules on here as a free PDF download.