Monday, December 8, 2014

Part 3: Neil Thomas "One - Hour Wargames" Battle Report

This is the exciting finale!  The victory conditions should be remembered at this point - no North Welsh on this side of the river.  The bridgehead must be crushed!  I've tried to update all three posts as well as answer the questions that came in, and hopefully the batrep makes sense.  It takes longer than I thought to do and I will change my method for next time so it can go up more quickly.  Anyway, back to the fray!

Below - appears to be the end of Turn 8.  Inf1 has advanced into Wb4.  As only one Unit may contact per facing, this will cancel the engagement with the Skirmishers.  This is also the problem with not closing the door - there's a wide open front physically that the rules say you can't double-up on.  Something has to be interpreted, so this was mine.  Inf2 and Inf3 are positioning themselves to extend the line and contain the bridgehead.  Wb3 - which has casualties from Cav1 - has contacted Inf3 and Wb5 is racing to the right flank, but being opposed by Inf1 [Inf1 & 2 crossed paths].  Cav1 heads back to the pub, top of pic.

End of Turn 9 I think.  The slog in the middle continues, with the shieldwalls trading blows with the Warband Units.  I may have forgotten to halve the casualties, or lost track of what's happening in the pics.  The Infantry Units seem to have a lot of casualties for one turn, the max a Warband can inflict upon their front is 4 [d6 rolling '6' + 2 x 1/2].

One of my favorite figures is a heroic yelling fellow presently the commander of the unit below.  "Come and get some of this ya sheep grabbers!"

End of Turn 10.  Warband 5 made a flank contact on Inf3 [with another Unit close by, this felt a bit cheesy - perhaps some sort of "Barkered" rule is needed...]  Casualties piled up and it broke.  Inf3 is probably feeling lonely at this point with no middle to the line. The SW have fought hard, but don't have enough push at this point to finish off the damaged Warband Units.

End of Turn 11.  Inf1 broke Wb4, but was then broken by Wb3 who rolled the max.  Inf3 is now very lonely out there!  The Skirmish Unit won't be much help, altho it can hide in the woods, which would be a wise choice at this point!

End of Turn 12.  Sk1 isn't very smart - or is it?  The opposing Skirmishers could easily put them over the top with shooting, so retreating from the wood and trying to support the retreat path of Inf3 is perhaps a great idea!   Inf3 is holding out against Wb5, but trading casualties won't be enough at this point, with another Warband in the middle.

Looks like Turn 13 below.  The Skirmishers were routed by long-range shooting from their opposites, and the Warband 4 flanked Inf2, ending their day early. The hillmen are over the bridge!!

Hope this batrep was useful for all.  I found the rules quite simple, but a little more definition about contact would have been useful.  I'm thinking very carefully about clarifications and some changes, will post them next.  I feel that the spirit of the RAW should be adhered to - simplicity first, avoiding the Law of Unintended Consequences.

9 comments:

  1. For me this is an excellent series of post!
    Your figures and the terrain setup look very good and, the blow by blow report of the battle (with the added comments) is very useful to understand the game mechanics.
    Thank you very much for all the time and effort you have put to share it.
    Cheers!

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  2. thanks for the supportive comments! It is of course affirming and helps make it worth doing. I did enjoy making the batrep and sharing the analysis, there's more coming about it along with my thoughts on trying to change the rules a bit without ruining them!

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  3. Man, this was almost like playing myself, thank's so much (need to by the rules, I recon). One thing: In the very last move (13) "Warband 4 flanked Inf2". Wouldn't that be turning more than 45 degrees and thus making the charge/contact illegal? Of course I might confuse some units or rules.
    Olivero

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  4. no, shows you're paying attention! Honestly, the last couple pics may have been more than a turn - I forgot to keep the turn indicator dice in the pics. My bases are a bit deep as they are originally DBA double bases, more or less, so they're about 60mm frontage by 45-50mm deep. This is lost in the camera angle. I probably just clipped the back of the base.

    Or I lost track of a turn!

    Glad this was helpful. I don't see how one can go wrong with getting them, it's nine sets of rules for $18, or $2/ea. And the design commentary is very edifying. I've been gaming 33 years, and NT has certainly changed my views on a few things. And that's really not that easy after this much gaming!

    Enjoy them, and comment back or link your own nifty batrep when you get to it. One thing I recommend - take exactly one pic at the end of each complete turn, or some other methodical approach, or you'll get lost later writing up the batrep!

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    1. What I also do for aligning photos to the report is when I am taking notes, I indicate when I have taken a photo. So going back, I can read my notes and then figure out why I took the photo.

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  5. Woo-Hoo! Part 3! A fantastic end to a detailed report, just the sort of battle reports I love to read!.

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  6. This was a great set of posts -- I really enjoyed reading them.

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  7. Yes, it's the type I like to read also. I'm getting a bit better at pics and posting them, so there should be more coming soon. Tell your friends! Tell your enemies! And vote on next posts - I'm reading D6 Ancients and a surprise set that I'm very interested in...more later!

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    1. I have voted (KoW). I did like AD6. There are so many more rules I own for me to try though, so I now tend not to go back except for face to face play...or if they are my own rules :-)

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