First Scratch Built Buildings

Here are my first attempts at scratch-building some Sudan village pieces. After having read a thread on The Miniatures Page and visiting the Touching History Blog. www.touchinghistory.blogspot.com/2010/03/model-sale_21.html I decided to give these a shot. Here we see some British soldiers manning the village among some of my new palm trees.

The buildings were not very difficult to make as they are architechtually simple. The buildings are made out of matt board folded, scored and glued. After assembly, I cut out some doors and windows with an exacto knife. I covered the buildings in drywall compound. I then cut some basal wood strips to make the door frames and glued some wood inside the buildings for the doors. The building on the left has a roof made out of bits cut from a hand broom.

Last shot a little bit closer in. I am toying with the idea of making the buildings large enough to hide one base within them. At my 1:10 scale this would equal approximately 50 men so that seems as if it might be a bit crowded inside. I am working on a domed masque next. You can click on the pictures to blow them up.

A couple of books I have been reading and can recommend. The Zulu War by Michael Barthorp. Easy to read book with brief overview of the forces involved and a chronological sequence of the campaign. Good book for introduction into the period. My friend Ray is doing the Zulu war in 1/72nd so this was a good read for me to quickly learn about the period.

The Black Jacobins by C.L.R. James. This is not an easy read. An old History professor of mine recommended this book as the definitive book of the Haitian Revolution. Very thorough well researched book a bit dry, very social and Marxist historical perspective, a very strong examination of the causes of the revolution but with barely a mention of the tactics or battles fought. An excellent scholastic book but not much for the wargamer. I hope to one day write some rules for this conflict as it is terribly fascinating period of revolution and change.

Well that is what I have been up to lately. Good gaming.

THW Colonial Adventures - playtest

Score: 8 out of 10

Over the holiday I play-tested Two Hour Wargames Colonial Adventures rules. First impressions is that this game has some real promise. The rules are written for solo or multi player gaming, the game can be played with miniatures of any scale or alternatively you can play the rules without any miniatures just paper, pencil and dice.

After Thanksgiving dinner I set up a small patrol scenario and played a game in about 45 minutes, the game probably would have taken less time but I had to look through the rule book several times as this was my first game. Before I get into the battle report I will give a brief overview of the rules.

The rule book is laid out as follows: Introduction,

Getting Started (stuff you need to play), Game Basics (discussion on how to determine troop characteristics),

Armies (divided into European and native, also there are additional army lists on-line at their yahoo group), Rules (Turn Sequence, Actions, Movement, Melee, etc.) and Scenarios (set-up, scenario specific rules). The rules are well written and organized. The scale is one (1) base equals approximately five (5) men so a standard platoon is 20 stands, although they do have rules to modify this down to 10 stands per platoon.

The main mechanic of the game is taking a series of "Crisis Tests" against the value of your units and/or leader's "Reputation". The more successful you are at passing the tests, (better rolls) the better the outcome and more options allowed. Example if your Ansar swordsmen want to charge a British Square, you must take a Crisis Test, if you pass you charge. Since the British are being charged they must take a Crisis Test, if they pass they do an action, (fire, stand, etc.) When the British fire at the Ansar, the Ansar must take a Crisis Test to see what happens when they are fired at. If you don't like rolling dice, you will not like this game. The game is played exclusively with six-sided dice so the variance in units is somewhat limited, however the mechanic is simple and elegant.

Players roll dice to determine which side goes first and based on the die roll for each side which reputation troops may activate. Each side complete all of their actions prior to the second side activating. However, Crisis Test will effect the ebb and flow of the turn. The ranged combat and melee are based upon unit reputation as well ,with some situational variables, (high ground, ferocious troops, etc.)

The game plays quickly, is simple and the solo version had just the right amount of tension and desperation. A few draw-backs, there were no drawings showing combat situations only text descriptions and a couple of the rules could have been fleshed out a bit more rather than left up to the discretion of the player. I will post my questions on the yahoo group and report on the level of assistance I receive. All in all a very fun first game, I look forward to trying the rules out with friends.

Battle report:

Set up: I selected the Patrol scenario. I played a company of Egyptian infantry sent out from their garrison to search for Mahdist troops and survey the surrounding lands. I rolled for terrain and below is a map of the area with hills, one clump of wooded area (oasis) in the middle and stick men (Possible Enemy Forces - PEF) where Mahdist troops might be. The Egyptian forces are given a Reputation of three (3), nothing to write home about. I rolled for my leader's reputation and ugh, a two (2) reputation, he would be no help at all, however as is usual in legend the NCO was reputation five (5). I imagined a young upstart Mulazim Tani (2nd Lietenant) leaning on the experience of his Sargent. My platoon consisted of 100 men (20 stands). The Mulazim ordered his men into line at the base of a hill and sent 15 men (3 stands) to scout the near hill and the wooded area. The scouts observed no movement along the ridge and slowly moved toward the oasis. Upon cresting the hill the scouts had direct line of sight to two (2) of the possible areas of Mahdi activity. The tension builds, no troops are to be seen, that means troops must be in area 2.

The rules dictate that when a unit moves into the center of a grid that the unit check for the enemy even if there are no PEF figures there. My Egyptian troops slowly marched over the hill and down into area four (4), the line of Egyptians inch forward when two (2) bands of ferocious Ansar spring up in the middle of area four (4). The Egyptians are outnumbered 150 to 85 and the Ansar are exceptional hand-to-hand fighters (I rolled really well for them).

At the top of the next turn the Egyptians and Mahdist roll the same activation number, in the scenario this could trigger possible re-enforcements and sure enough two (2) more PEFs popped up on the board.

While the Mulzim fumbles at his sword while the Egyptian NCO barks out the command to fire at the smaller Ansar unit in front of them (Crisis Test passed), the Egyptian line erupts in Volley Fire and causes 10 Ansar (2 stands) to fall. The Ansar seem inspired by the death of their comrades (Crisis test passed) and charge. The Egyptian NCO orders the troops to reload and fire just prior to the Ansar piling into the line (Crisis test result from charge) and the Egyptians once again unload their carbines, five (5) more Ansar fall (one stand).

Screams and curses are heard over the pitch of battle as hand-to-hand fighting erupts along the line. The Ansar inflict heavy casualties on the Egyptians (20 men, 4 stands) while another 20 men run for their lives (Crisis test Egyptians pass). The Lt. is nearly killed in the action (leader killed on 11-12, I rolled a 10). At the darkest moment the Ansar pause allowing the Sargent to call a fighting retreat and the line is reformed at the top of the hill.(Egyptians rolled higher on activation roll and broke from melee). The scouts are running to the sound of small arms fire but may arrive too late.

With the line depleted the Egyptians manage a smaller volley and inflict more casualties on the smaller Ansar band (5 men, 1 stand), 10 Ansar have enough and flee (2 stands). The Ansar mob ascends the hill (Crisis test to charge past), the Egyptians fire at will but have depleted most of their ammunition (low ammo roll). The Ansar mob crashes into the remaining Egyptians do not have much fight left in them and scatter toward their garrison, the Mulazim and Sargent with a small contingent of troops fight their way out. the scouts can see the Mahdi's men celebrating on the hill and do not dare to approach.

The Yuzbashi at the garrison waits for his report. The young Mulazim Tani arrives at his door. "Your report!", the Yuzbashi's voice is hard and short. "The enemy is in numbers to our east Effendi and my patrol barely escaped, I am sad to report 28 wounded and approximately 30 killed. Had it not been for the Sargent a fear it would have been worse." Just as the Yuzbashi was about to start his lecture on leadership and responsibility, a fellah burst into the room. "Effendi, we have spotted many men moving to the east and west, flying the green banner!" The Yuzbashi reached for his fez, "Mulazim prepare to redeem yourself ." "I will try my best, Effendi!"

The next scenario in the book is a raid by the winning force of the Patrol scenario. I will play this scenario with friends and report later. In summary Colonial Adventures is a fast, simple and good set of rules. I will report later and continue exploring other rules as well. On a crafting note I had a bit of time to work on my terrain table last night, I hope to post pictures soon.

The Battle of El-Teb

Last Friday 11-06-09 I played my first Sudan Campaign game using Too Fat Lardies' http://toofatlardies.co.uk/ Sudan rules They Don't Like it Up Em! These rules are available in their December 2008 Festive Feast special.

First impressions of the rules, short (10 pages), random card driven turn (not all units will activate each turn), funny (humorous card effects), ambiguous.

I have not played Too Fat Lardies' rule system before so those who have may have an easier time interpreting the flavor of the rules. The main driver of the rules is the action deck and blinds. The action deck is built by making a card for each large unit, most officers, some special event cards and one (1) end of turn card. During each turn cards are drawn and each card activates its' unit. The other major component of the rules is utilizing paper "blinds" for each native unit, I used 5X3 inch index cards face down. These are deployed by the native player for intial set-up, additionally the native players received blank "blinds" which would help hide the location fo their troops even more. The British officers and units can attempt to "spot" the enemy blinds (reveal if they are actually troops or not). The combination of the random end of turn and inability to see your enemy at the beginning are both interesting concepts.

The scenario started out with the Mahdi's forces (natives) occupying a couple of hills flanked by rough terrain (pictured left) and the British entering the board from the lower corner.

The British player began advancing and attempting to spot the Mahdi's forces with his cavalry and got a bit overextended on the left flank. The Mahdi's forces stayed undetected with little movement the first turn. However, the Native artillary started to fire at the British advance triggering the British player to fire his artillary and jamming his Gardner machine gun, which never unjammed the entire game.

Pictured left are the King's Royal Rifles and Yorks and Lancs advancing with their supply camels. While drawing cards we noticed a trend, the native player had many more units, i.e. his cards were being drawn quite a bit more often than the British, the British player did not even get his artillary card drawn to almost the end of the game. We had some issues with the rules as they seemed incomplete at points, sometimes not fully developing the rule before moving on. As these rules are based on the Lardies' system the gaps in the rules may be easily interpreted by players of other games within the system, however having never played them before we had to make some gentlemanly decisions on how we would treat the unknown.

Example: When the card "Blinds Move" is drawn the native player may move all of his blinds and wanted to charge all of his sub-units within the blind into the British, this was not covered in the rules. The rules said how to "shoot" from a blind but not how to move the sub-units within the blind into combat. We decided to have each sub-unit within the blind move and fight individually, ther was not rules for several units engaging one British unit, flanking etc. each combat was fought one at a time ala Kung-fu style, allowing the British to repulse each attack prior to the next.

Overall our gaming group gave the rules a C+ allowing a little room for our first Sudan rules test and we did have a fun time with quite a few laugh out loud moments as the native players became obsessed with trying to capture one of the British Camels and failing the entire game. The final outcome of the battle was a win for the natives who gave the British a bloody nose inflicting quite a few casualties, however a combination of horrible dice rolls, inability to draw more than one British unit card and no rules for passage of lines may have been a disadvantage for the Brits.

Will we play these rules again, probably with some house rules thrown in and several postings to the Lardies' Yahoo group. I would say if you have played other Lardies' titles you would probably have no issues with the game. It is a beer and pretzels game and I am not sure it is what we are looking for but it was an enjoyable evening and that is what is important. Finally for the record paper troops are not nearly as enjoyable as lead. Coming up Piquet Field of Battle, Two hour Wargames Colonial Adventures and The Sword and the Flame. I have been working on a steamer ship model and will post about that next week.