Category: wargaming

Over the summer I renewed my interest in grid gaming and eventually bought the very popular Portable Wargame Rules by Bob Cordery.

I had previously encountered Bob’s grid rules in the History of Wargaming publication of Joe Morschausers early 1960’s book on wargames. Although a contemporary of Donald Featherstone, Joe’s rules better resonate with 21st century rulesets in my view.

This purchase collided with my stop-start diversion into “pound store warriors” and ultimately a bit of sci fi gaming. Man of Tin had been instrumental in starting me to look at these figures that did not even look like green army men. It is a measure of my lack of progress (the figures arrived during lockdown……) that my recent first game only fielded half a “sci-fi” set up. Some WW2 Russians and Americans filled in as opponents and neatly delivered the unexpected scenario and indeed a back story into the bargain.

Captain Parker of the US 21st Army held the edge of Exetown along the river Exe. In the town were the Russian 33rd Army forces led by Senior Lieutenant Yashin.

The front such that it was involved nothing so much as a watching brief. There had been “no action” when the two forces had closed up to each other – just looking and with even the odd conversation exchanged across the river.

When the Russians were surprised by the Aliens in Exetown all that changed, Yashins troops just ran hell for leather at the Americans who fortunately hesitated to fire long enough to spot the new enemy beyond. Somehow the Americans could sense that the Russians were not trying on a surprise attack – they were genuinely running for their lives.

So the scenario made itself – The renewed Allies have to fight off the Aliens and at least hold the river line. The Aliens have to drive the humanoids off the table.

Rules

Rules used were The Portable Wargame by Bob Cordery. I used the solo option.

Only rule change of note was to assign the “alien blasters” 5 dice per firing round. So they were like super heavy machine guns in effect. But they had only a grid range of 2 instead of 3.

I also permitted some unit size differences. The Aliens had fewer units but 4 or more figures per unit. The Allies were basically 3 man units.

In the event the Allies had a higher break point for exhaustion yet got there quicker as their units were destroyed more easily.

I had just played a game so had the table set up plus some figures that in turn fed the scenario and storyline. My grid was 8 long x 12 wide, using 6 inch (150mm) grids. Not very portable!

Opposing Forces

Allies (Exhaustion Point is at 6 units left)

American (First Lieutenant Osteen)

1. CO unit 3 figures
2. rifle squad 3 figures each
3. rifle squad
4. rifle squad
5. rifle squad
6. rifle squad

Russian (Senior Lieutenant Yashin)

1. CO unit 2 figures
2. Machine gun unit 2 figures
3. machine gun unit 2 figures
4. rifle squad
5. assault squad
6. rifle squad

Aliens (Exhaustion Point is at 3 units left)

Blue Troop (Colonel Blue)

1. Colonel Blue and Heavy Machine Gun 2 figures
2. Blaster unit A1 3 figures (one figure armed with what looks like a bazooka)
3. Blaster unit A2 3 figures (one figure armed with what looks like a bazooka)

Yellow Troop (Colonel Yellow)

1. Colonel Yellow unit
2. Attack unit A3
3. Attack unit A4

What happened?

First up – the Allies (US/Russian) threw high in the first 6 moves for “first to move”. The Aliens took heavier losses as they advanced, then at close range they began to wear down the Allies. Exhausted the Allies had to hold their line and so my scenario backstory kicked in and the allies retired rather than simply continuing to hold under the rules.

So a new ruleset, some abandoned figures and also a new grid surface** combined with a storyline from nowhere, resulted in an excellent game.

The game played out in 12 moves and took half a day as I left it quite a few times to do some real life activity! So I guess maybe it took about 1 hour to 1h30m to play the 12 turns including set up and take down. Remember I already had the table set and in fact the US/Russian troops were from that game.

I suspect that this sort of game is easily a one hour set up, play and put away operation.

Biggest impact for me was the ease of play and how it simply connected with my rather mad scenario. So very high on the Enjoyment scale.

Here are some episodes from the game.

The brightly uniformed enemy had been easy targets and the allies gained an early advantage decimating the orange unit that tried to reach the main bridge first – the remnants retreated to the hedged half timbered house where they stayed for the remainder of the battle

With both flanks destroyed Osteen, Kachalin and the remnants of both Russian and US combat teams retreated from the field.

* – tacfos or “the aliens came from outer space!”

**- for this game I used one of my new grid sheets. I have been experimenting with different surfaces when it comes to grid games. Like most Board games, the grid surface is integral to the game. So I have not yet settled on the best grid surface for any one game. Given I have quite a few cloths and boards for my “measured” table top games this should come as no surprise.