Tag: Table Top Battles

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anglo saxons wargame rules wargaming

Abstraction in Wargames Rules

I will eventually report and conclude my wargames ruleset testing using two anglo saxon shieldwalls. Setting up two identical shieldwalls to fight each other is a recipe for a tedious game surely?

Well I have to say that has not been the case. And I admit there have been some deviations from the rule of exactly matching forces. On the face of it in those cases they were thought to be marginal. Well with one exception.

Of more interest to me are the rulesets themselves. They are all typically at the abstracted end of the technique.

To make my point I will draw on a totally different subject – art. And specifically the painting. Like table top wargames paintings have limits and are normally framed in some way. That is another story though………….

Art and abstraction go together. As far as I know my first inkling of abstraction was to do with art and how painting techniques changed over time – well a few centuries. And abstraction was what artists started doing in the late 19th century.

So this is my take on abstracted rulesets – here are 9 to choose from!

These are all images of some fantastic art on show at the Ferens Art Gallery in Kingston Upon Hull or Hull as it is commonly known. If you get the chance pay a visit. For that matter visit any art gallery you can right now. Like all art and music industries, COVID19 will change everything at least in the short term and possibly for a long time to come.

So the images contain some classical or traditional views of the painted picture. In there is a Constable and a Canaletto – both detailed. Yet perhaps not as detailed as the portrait in the bottom right. Apparently it took the artist several months just to paint the head of the life study. Someone else stood in for the rest!

And in there is some cubist style work and “abstract images”

So what we have here is 9 images of different types of wargames rules.

And my anglo saxon shieldwall ruleset tests are definitely in the following vein.

Ancient and Medieval Wargames by Neil Thomas with apologies to Paul Nash
Table Top Battles by Mike and Joyce Smith with apologies to Percy Wyndham Lewis – vorticists in action!
Dan Mersey and Dux Bellorum with apologies to Peter Knight
One Hour Wargames with apologies to the unknown artist as I forgot to snap their resume!
Just for fun and tongue in cheek, I reckon this painting might be the equivalent wargames ruleset legend – “the Newbury Rules” apparently very closely typed text with no pictures requiring a wargames lawyer to assist in its application. Beautiful very Beautiful but a very scary prospect to paint (or in the case of the newbury rules, wargame).

Did you notice the Lady Butler painting – return from Inkerman. If you can, do visit the Ferens Art Gallery in the centre of Kingston Upon Hull – entry is free and there is a coffee shop to sustain you.

If you do go – the portrait of the Lady is by Gerald Brockhurst and is titled “by the hills” and was painted in 1939. When you stand in front of it the feeling is that it has to be a photograph.

Paintings posing as wargames rules might be stretching your mind and you might think I am mad. However this has turned out quite theraputic.

To that I can add “if a year ago you said I would be writing about wargames and artforms in a blog post – I would have said your crazy”. In the year of COVID19 it seems even the craziest thing is possible.

Above all enjoy life while you can, keep playing wargames with the rulesets that make you happy and seek out your way to a healthy life!

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1/72 scale figures anglo saxons wargame rules wargaming

Table Top Battles Tested

In my last post I explained my rediscovery of the ruleset published by Partizan Press and authored by Mike and Joyce Smith.

The Table Top Battles (TTB) ruleset uses a grid. Now I have dabbled in grid based wargaming and played lots of board games which are gridded games of some sort – not a tape measure in sight!

This post is a marathon and I hope you will see that this ruleset although “gamey” has a coherence to it. So the battle flowed and compared to AMW by Neil Thomas and more so with Daniel Mersey’s Dux Bellorum rules, I had little need to keep rereading the rules.

The usual sections follow – set up, then narrative and finally a picture based step by step report.

The rules require you have a base that will fight for each discrete unit. The term used is a “stand”. The General is another base who the way I read the rules is not a stand so does not fight.

I decided to use my leader bases and gave them stand status. The “tinkerman” at work already.

Essentially the line up was a shieldwall with some skirmishers at both ends of the kings battleline. At one end the single rebels skirmisher bow faced up to the kings skirmisher bowmen. At the other the Kings men had a foot bow skirmish stand plus a mounted javelin light cavalry stand facing a shieldwall of rebel spearmen stand.

The diagram below shows the set up. The playing area was kept to a minimum.

Narrative

Earl Toki now felt confident enough to split his forces which had grown due to his successes. He left Thegn Pyrlig with his main forces while he rode to meet some Mercians who promised to come over to his side.

While Earl Toki was away Thegn Pyrlig kept a good lookout and soon enough another force appeared who were yet another collection of the Kings men ready to fight the rebels. Thegn Pyrlig soon confirmed that these were western men but not any they knew or who could be “turned”. And Earl Mathedoi was at their head again, eager to avenge his recent defeat.

The battleground was simple – a flat plain. I used 80 mm squares here as my chosen unit type for 1/72 figures is the Impetus Rules with the 15mm suggested base width! Te grid is some cotton sheeting with penciled lines.
On the Earl’s left flank his mounted skirmishers rode forward confidently while his bow skirmishers looked with concern that they faced a solid rebel shieldwall.
In the game pictures you will see a peter pig pink die – this denotes the aggressor. Each turn dice are thrown and the winner has the advantage or the aggression in that turn.

TTB in effect uses the “pip” idea from DBA. It is simplified to give a +1 on ALL dice throws made by the aggressor.

The pink die reminds me that my wargame story has included gridded games in the past. My hex gaming with Kallistra never quite got going even though I thought the concept excellent. My problem was the geometrical look of hexes and the fact there is a “weave” for very linear types of warfare. Maybe I was just too focused on DBA at the time. Peter Pig rules for WW2 used square grids and his Poor Bloody Infantry (PBI) rules I really enjoyed before leaving that period altogether. There the grid worked – it did not impose itself in the way hexes did.

Clearly this is a very subjective matter. It is a case of each to their own.

This is my first return to the grid technique.

The orange 12 sided dice is used to decide who is the aggressor and therefore gets the valuable pink +1 dice
The right wing bow skirmishers got into action first. A game turn comprises phases – move, fire and combat with the aggressor going first in the move and fire phases. Crucially the aggressor inflicts firing losses before the passive opponent replies: Another advantage of having the pink jersey – woops – too much giro d’italia. Did I tell you my scenery ideas have benefited to my mind from watching hours of cycling tours riding across Spain, France and now Italy!

In the aggressors fire phase shown above both units have a value of one. This value is a combination of any fighting ability and morale. It is used in all firing and combat. To this fixed value you add the result of a single D6 throw. In this firing phase the aggressor has thrown a six and their opponent just 3. So no need for the +1 here.

The result is the loser score was “slightly lower” in the dice off so the stand is moved back. Not playing the +1 pinkie is an error because it applies in every throw. And in this case had it been properly used the losing score or “Target Player” score is now half. not just slightly less than that of the “Firing Player”. In this case the stand should be removed.

The Kings bowmen are happy to retire a square relieved they were not “removed” or were they?

TTB gives options throughout and I chose the harsher results approach. Stands either move back a square or are removed from the game.

On the kings left flank the mounted light cavalry (orange value 2) beat the shieldwall (purple value 3) 7v5 (yellow dice being the random addition). The kings bowmen managed a lowly 4 which being less than the shieldwall 6 proved ineffective. The net result is the shieldwall are discouraged and retire a square. Firing is between individual bases. Combat is additive.
The error is corrected and the Kings bowmen leave the field early losing to the aggressors fire turn 8v4.
The Kings men throw themselves against the rebel shieldwall. Even the kings reluctant bowmen, not doubt emboldened by the kings light cavalry, have joined the fray.
The General adds the value of any 1 friendly stand in an adjacent square to the combat phase. Combat is simultaneous unlike the firing. Here a shieldwall spearman stand adds +3 to both leaders. Later on the eagle eyed will see I missed a few +3 yellow dice although because the leaders never moved and were always head to head they simply raised the value of both the group scores making it harder to get a decisive result in the grouped combat.
The combat allows “grouping”. This speeds up the combat process. Because I had a simple shieldwall with all units the same I could use the grouping. The kings group shieldwall score was 7×3 (21 orange) +1 aggression (pink) and a measly +1 random throw (yellow) = 25 when you add the generals bonus of +3 (yellow)

Remember those brave kings bowmen? Well they were not so brave as the rules allow some stands to engage to fire and then retire if a 4 or more on a D6 is acheived. The kings bowmen threw a 4 and with the pink dice acheived a healthy 5 to retire

The Rebels amassed 7 stands at 3 value (base score of 21) to which they added support values of +1 (yellow)from each flank unit because they faced a different unit type or had no opponent. To that you added the generals bonus of +3 (yellow) and a random +5 (yellow). total score 31. I decided that as the rebel bow were a different unit they could not get the +2 flank attack and were just allowed the +1 supporting value.
The whole kings line recoiled to join the already retired bowmen in the bottom of the picture.
The Kings men retained the upper hand though and attacked again next turn winning the aggression dice throw with an 8 on their D12
The skirmishers attacked again the rebel right flank.
By chance the rebel bowmen offered a flank to the recently retired right flank kings shieldwall and they “slid” right as you do in gridded wargames TTB style.

In TTB movement is in any direction with only a few restrictions. No penalties apply for direction change or rather they are absorbed into the move allowance. Generally units face up to their nearest opponent without restriction. The exception is when a unit is pinned on one face – then flank and rear attacks can also be made.

The rebel left flank is driven back again
almost stalemate again but now the rebels have numbers in the group combat as well (7 purple dice v 6 orange dice)
yet again the kings men aggressively return to the fray (winning the D12 dice off with a 9 to get the prized +1 pink dice) having lost the last group combat
The rebel bowmen were isolated by the right flank kings spearmen and put to flight with better dice throwing and that useful +1 in pink
Next up the rebel left flank spearmen stand determined to remove the kings own flank spearmen
Its that pink dice again – the kings men win this round by just 1 and drive the rebels back. The small gaming space is relevant as if the rebels get pushed off the table (or out of the ring!) they lose those stands.
The rebels throw a 12 on their D12 to resume their own aggression and take the fight to the kings men.
The weary shieldwall resume their struggle with the kings left flank skirmishers. Yet taking no fire damage they see off the bowmen again while the light cavalry stay too close! (failed to get 4 on a D6)
7v7 is a draw in this combat so the aggressor (rebel shieldwall) gets the nod and drives back the light cavalry. The pink dice has lots of ways of rewarding the owner!
Close again as the kings men win the central group combat 25 v 24 despite the rebel having that pink +1. The rebels are driven back again.
The Kingsmen are feeling good and secure the pink +1 dice with 11 on a D12
Out of picture the kings yellow dice of 5 is forcing the rebels back into the group combat off to the left so destroying them instead. With a 90 degree retreat arc I could have had this stand retire towards its enemy baseline. I decided this would not happen and the shieldwall just melted away having been cornered.
The kings men again triumph in the pink dice competition and drive forward but it remains a stalemate
on the rebel flank the skirmishers cling to the shieldwall but remain ineffective
In the centre the rebels hold a small advantage while on both flanks the kings advantage in numbers is clear
bottom right is the A4 rule book – to hand – actually despite 42 pages in length only about 2 sides of A4 text are relevant in the heat of battle. And here the rebels again aggressively attack the kings line. In the distance the left flank rebel spearmen drift out to engage the kings spearmen on that far flank.
In their movement phase the kings skirmishers again crowd around the rebel right flank scenting blood
Despite driving back the kings spearmen on their left flank, the rebel right flank has collapsed although all units forced to retire have managed to stay in the game (that is “stayed on the gaming board”).
A rare aggression victory for the rebels allows them to create some space as they renew their attack. The left handside of their line though, is crumpled.
on the far flank the battle remains one of two evenly matched shieldwalls
The kings men begin to turn the rebel line
the javelins of mounted skirmishers still have no impact on the resilient rebel spearmen and neither do the bowmen.
On the opposite flank the rebel spearmen get the better of the fight driving back the kings spearmen
although their flank has been turned the rebel spearmen give the light cavalry short shrift when they fail to evade after another ranging attck with their javelins. The light cavalry fly from the field. Elsewhere the rebels lose the central group combat again and are driven perilously back towards their baseline.
Even so with renewed vigour the rebels defend their line defeating the careless bowmen who retire
again the kings men win the centre combat driving the rebels back further. BUT……………..
And then the rule of 12 lands! The game ends after 12 turns representing the part of the day the battle was fought. The rebels were still in the field but with more stands lost victory went to the Kings men.

Thegn Pyrlig led his men from the field. Already his camp alerted to the returning stream of wounded and fleeing men had begun to get ready to move.

Fortunately Earl Mathedoi and his soldiers simply remained on the field too exhausted to pursue the defeated rebels. Earl Mathedoi cursed has lack of a reserve and especially a mounted reserve. Come to think of it where had his light cavalry gone?

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anglo saxons wargame rules wargaming

Another Ruleset Test

So I was looking for my copies of “Twilight” the Pike & Shot Society rulesets, as I had just acquired some more of them. This was prompted by my renewing my P&SS membership. The Arquebusier journal is worth the membership alone and at the moment of course is a lifeline.

Well I stumbled across “Table Top Battles” (TTB). This ruleset I have had many years and is in pristine condition which means unused. Authored by Mike and Joyce Smith my edition dates from 2007 although the bulk of the ruleset dates from its first publication in 2000. That was the heyday? of DBx rules and for that matter Warhammer Ancient Battles was in the wings and by 2007 everywhere.

I think some of the rules ideas reflect that era well. Yet they are niche in the sense that they are “gridded”. Now gridded wargames are not new and by some parts of the hobby be simply considered as extensions of chess or board games.

Given TTB pitches its main objective at around 6′ x 4′ playing areas and 2.5 hour long games, these are not board game rules.

My current testing of Neil Thomas’s Ancient and Medieval Wargaming (AMW) and Daniel Mersey’s Dux Bellorum (DuB) using Anglo Saxon shield walls, with the odd mounted troops thrown in, has now got a new dimension.

So next up will be a report on how two shieldwalls fared under Table Top Battles.