Late Dark Ages Battle: One - Hour Wargames #17 "Encounter", p.2

 ...after a wild first 6 Turns, we are wondering if the Saxons can hold the center hill and bring up reinforcements fast enough to relieve the heavy infantry holding on there.  Let's see!

Turn 6 Bretons. Their heavy infantry are within a Base Depth [BD] of the Saxons, so they may charge them. Using the bases as a measurement tool can really help speed up the game...

...so they take a bit of a risk and hope they will wipe them out quickly.  The foot skirmishers miss but the horse skirmishers manage another Hit. In Melee, the heavies inflict one hit, bringing the Saxon heavy infantry to 6 Hits - one more and they are dead! To cover their flank and rear, the skirmishers shift right and the cavalry attack the Warband, inflicting 2 Hits - double the average!  Bretons also get a reinforcement of Freemen - a great turn for them!

Saxon Turn 6. The heavies roll a '1' for morale and retreat a BD. This means they can't fight back this turn. Their Warband roll a '3' and decline the opportunity for further glory by advancing. The Freemen move up, and the skirmishers inflict a hit on the light cavalry.

What!?  The Saxons seize the IN and choose to go first for Turn 7!

Saxon Turn 7. The Freemen charge the Breton heavy infantry and roll 2/2 hits!  The Warband charge the cavalry and also get 2 Hits. The skirmishers inflict one hit and are destroyed!

Breton Turn 7. The heavy infantry roll a '2' for Morale and can't move. Their skirmishers move up and inflict two Hits on the Freemen, however, and the cavalry inflict 1 Hit back on the Warband. The reinforcing Freemen move up and threaten the skirmishers, but are also heading to the hill, which is the objective.  They may squeak out of this situation yet...

Saxon Turn 8. They pass all their Morale checks - tasting victory? Warband roll 3/3 Hits, and severely cramp the style of the cavalry.

Saxon turn ends with their heavy infantry rallying off one hit, getting down to '5', and inflicting hits on the Breton heavy infantry, cavalry, and freemen. they also got a Freeman reinforcement. A nice turn.

Breton Turn 8. The Cavalry roll a '2' but are -1 due to the yellow Hits, and need to retreat - unfortunately, they can't retreat the full distance b/c of the skirmishers, so take another Hit.  Ugh.

The heavy infantry also roll a retreat, and are able to go back the full distance, but are still in contact.

The Freemen shake it off and move forwards. The Skirmishers inflict another hit on the Saxon Freemen. A weak turn...perhaps, but this is still anyone's game.

And now the Bretons - who have tied a knot at the end of their rope and are hanging on - win IN!  It's a no-brainer decision for them, they will take the first player turn for Turn 9.

Their skirmishers inflict a Hit on the Warband then retreat. The heavy infantry turn to face the Saxon Freemen and put a Hit on them.

The Bretons also get a Freeman reinforcement, and attack the hill with the other Freeman.  They roll well and inflict two hits despite them being uphill. However, on Saxon Turn 9,  they roll extremely fortunately and inflict 2 Hits back! Their heavy infantry help gang up on the Breton heavies, but the warband completely miss, and fail to finish off the cavalry - argh!

And then, for the umpteenth time, the IN switches and the Saxons take it for Turn 10 - more turnovers than a pastry shop here!  What are the odds??

Oddly, I appear to not have taken any pics of Turn 10...must've been a bit dull.  

Turn 11, Bretons win IN back. I hardly know what to say at this point.

Well...Turn 11 sees the Saxon Warband having eliminated the Cavalry but take some more Hits. The heavy infantry and Freemen eliminated the Breton heavy infantry, and then the Freemen moved on to attack the Breton Freemen attacking the skirmishers on the hill, who are being held by the Skirmishers. Meanwhile, both sides have Freemen fighting on the hill.  Overall, I think the edge is to the Saxons since they hold the hill in strength and the Bretons haven't managed to finish off another Saxon unit altho there are two at 5 Hits.

Turn 12. Saxons seize IN back.

Turn 12. Saxon skirmishers drive off the Freemen, albeit with help from their Freemen. The Warband and heavies have failed to Rally off Hits. The Breton skirmishers got dinged along the way. Altho a couple of Saxon units are at the end of their rope, I don't know that the Breton skirmishers are the right unit to defeat three units and save the day!

Saxon Turn 14, Breton Turn 13. The Bretons are trying for the draw, by sticking their dirty toes onto the hill! The skirmishers eliminated the Saxon skirmishers, but not the Freemen that are nearby.

This results in the Bretons becoming the cream filling of a Saxon Oreo, and being eliminated.

Well, that was one of the wildest games yet.  The chance for IN to change that often is not very high. But it has to happen occasionally.

This makes it worth noting - altho certain mechanics may have an AVERAGE result that is the same as another, that doesn't mean that they have the same possibilities. So in the RAW, there are three attack mechanics, two of which have a minimum of 1 or 3 Hits [d6 and d6+2] so neither can "miss". This results in a steady attrition, even if it is small. I do like this since it shows fatigue even if not a decisive result.

My system - and several others - have the same mathematical averages but do allow the possibility of missing an attack completely. This - theoretically - could result in some "back luck" and a lot of misses. I'm OK with this because if you roll lots of natural 1's in the RAW, you still lose while your opponent rolls average.

Your feelings on this may vary.

This was a great knock-down drag-out fight, and I originally thought the Saxons would lose after some poor choices and results in the first 5 turns. They did turn it around completely and drove the Bretons from the field. This was about the eighth time I played the scenario, and I think I have it mostly understood. I do like the increasing chances of reinforcements arriving with every missed roll. I have had it go down to a 1+ only once, and a 2+ a few times.

Just goes to show that there are plenty of games to play with every OHW scenario, even one that seems as simple as this!

As for the rules, I am very happy with how they have developed, and I really enjoy the Morale check mechanic - provides the right amount of friction with minimum rules fuss, and "feels" right.  So a tip of the hat to John Acar and his labors for gamers worldwide!

Late Dark Ages Battle: One - Hour Wargames #17 "Encounter", p.1

 "I wish I had drunk less sherry and listened more to John Acar!"

From here [click]

Well, it seems like a regularly find something useful in what John Acar [click] says. True, he appears from his Fb page to live in a somewhat sideways gravitational field, but hey Napoleon Himself can't be wrong!  Seriously, altho I've used or considered many of JA's rules preferences, I must admit that he regularly reminds me of why some things work.

I've saved his "what I like in rules" post from somewhere. I printed it out and eventually I will do more with it.  I think his reasoning and preferences are that good! Recently, he put up a Horse and Musket version of OHW that incorporates a "check morale when the unit activates" mechanic [which I do use in my WWII rules already], but it reminded me to try it out in my "Spear to the Strife" Late Dark Ages / Feudal Rules and it has worked out really well.

All the positives being said, the rules he posted have the same gaps as the original OHW rules with key mechanics missing. But, I did steal his 1d6 roll for the morale results, altho I felt they needed to be toned down a bit - they were TOO impactful and more or less raised a slew of additional rules questions.  Still, they did work when I developed the final product.

My version of the morale check mechanic has any unit that takes a hit [and I use a 6-hit system - on the 7th, the unit is removed] has to check morale the next time it is activated, which will always be next turn [you can't NOT Activate a unit, even if it does nothing]. It has about a 50-50 chance of passing with nearly no ill effects. But on a 1-3, you end up with some retreats and loss of movement and combat power, as the unit becomes a bit confounded at their disorder and/or casualties.  Works well and is easy to tweak [you can make it more or less impactful with little effort]. I playtested a whole bunch of times and this will be the unveiling.  

To demonstrate, I played the the #17 'Encounter" scenario for the first time.  This has each side starting with 1 of its 6 units on the table 6" in, with a hill objective for both sides in the dead center.

...my take on the scenario map below:

NOTE: The road, field and ruins have no effect on the game...they just look pretty!

The catch is that this is an encounter battle, and each side rolls a d6 at the start of their turn and on a 4+ they pick another unit to enter the table.

The BLUF on this scenario is that it is important when you get your reinforcements! If you don't get any for 2 or so turns, you may be in deep trouble. To lessen the impact of luck, I drop the target number by 1 for each Turn that reinforcements fail to enter: so one failure and the next roll is for a 3+, another failure and it's a 2+...haven't missed that one, but if another failure, it would be an automatic on a 1+!

However, do NOT be discouraged if your reinforcements are slow to arrive. It is quite possible that you will find yourself retreating towards your board edge to gain some time while your opponent advances to pressure you more, and you are now closer to your reinforcements than he is!  Also, as it is a draw if the hill is not ENTIRELY in one side's hands, even if you are encircled by 6 enemy Units and have one unit with one Hit left - it's a draw. OK, that would certainly be a draw in the opponent's favor, but hey, better than a loss! So the scenario is not easy to WIN altho it is often in favor of one side depending on how the reinforcement rolls go.

That being said, the critical decision is which of your units to pick as the reinforcement.  After playing this about 6 times, my humble opinion is that there are two ways to do it - pick all your light skirmishing and cavalry stuff first, to help develop an aggressive stance on the battlefield. OR, pick your solid line units force, build up strength and then advance together with your best combat power. YMMV!

The only terrain issue is that Units uphill of the enemy take half hits in Melee, if not from Shooting. That is hard to take advantage of as it is unlikely you will get there with secure flanks, also.

That all being said, let's see what happens in this 7th +playtest!

Below, the army representing the remnants of civilization.

These Byzantine Peltastoi function as OHW Serjeants - they hit for d6 Hits and are Armored so take half Hits. I switched to a 3d6 hitting on a specific target number instead of the OHW system. The math is the same but there are additional possibilities in my mechanics, like missing completely.

All figs Old Glory 25s unless otherwise noted [CLICK]

These Irish medieval cavalry function as OHW Cavalry, hitting for d6 Hits. BUT, they also may Move then Shoot javelins same as Skirmishers, so d6-2 Hits in OHW.

Skirmishers from OHW, Pict LC and Welsh Archers. The dismounted may move thru woods and pass through other Skirmishers, the mounted cannot but of course they move faster. They both shoot and melee d6-2 in OHW. Interestingly, these are the only troops that can completely miss in the combat mechanics. Makes them a bit more unpredictable, which is as it should be. 

These Dark Ages Welsh function as Freemen, generic OHW Levy in the Medieval rules. They hit for d6 and have no armor.

...plus, they look cool in a continuous shield wall!  

Below, the Saxon Savages.

These Gripping Beast Late Romans [CLICK] are acting as foot Serjeants, or fight d6 and are Armored. 

These Saxon Fyrd are same as the Welsh Freemen. And also look good together!

These Gothic Infantry are acting as OHW Warband so hit on d6+2 and move fast as Skirmishers. They function as slower Knights, basically. They don't like to be shot at, however.

These Gothic archers are skirmishers, and the only firepower the Saxons have.

Battle Deployment. The Barbarians are leading with their most civilized - and durable - Unit. Goal is to seize and hold the hilltop best they can and hang on for reinforcements.  The British are leading with their Mtd. Brigans [Light Cav] who have a modest shooting ability and are very maneuverable. Goal is to harass the heavy infantry and soften them up for the reinforcements. There's only a low chance of them being forced into a melee, but that also means that the infantry can rally every turn to try and get the hits off. The net result is that does stop the infantry from maneuvering, which is a LC task.

Turn 1. Both sides advanced, neither sides got reinforcements [need a 4+] so both will need a 3+ next turn. The light cavalry rolled very low, and the infantry rolled high and moved nearly as far as they!

Turn 2 Initiative. Blue does not win by two, so it is retained by Red Saxons. 

Looking at the table, Red decides to concede the IN and force Blue to move first. This allows them a counter-move against the fast-moving Mtd. Brigans. A great choice as they may win IN later and turn the tables on the light cavalry.

Britains do get a reinforcement and choose their Brigans - skirmishing infantry. This will increase their ability to harass the infantry from two directions. Not to be put off their attack plan, the light cav move to just within shooting range but miss, needing a 5+ for a hit. The Infantry turn a bit to face the cav.

As their counter - the Saxons roll a reinforcement and bring on their Brigans, who roll high enough to get into range. They also stay close enough to prevent the light cavalry from slipping through the gap between them and their Infantry. They shoot and get one Hit!  The light cav get a red Hit marker to show they must check morale next Activation Phase.

End of Turn 2. Both sides need to roll a 4+ for a reinforcement unit. Blue has IN.

Turn 3. Red wins IN, 6-2! They seize IN and successfully roll a reinforcement so bring on a Warband. They shoot and get 2 Hits with their skirmishers, pushing the light cavalry to 3 Hits! The infantry could attempt a charge on the light cavalry, but the chance is only about a 1/3 or 1/6 to make it, so they decide to sit tight and secure the hill, which is after all the victory condition.

Blue Turn 3. The light cav roll a '1' and Retreat a Base Depth. This means they can't shoot as they retreated out of Range. On a 2 or higher they would have at least stood their ground!

Turn 3 end. Both sides have three units on the table. Britans hope to use their shooting and maneuvering to tear up the Warband, while the lights keep the other two units busy.

Turn 3 Redux. It's really turn 4, but I forgot to advance the Turn dice...the problem with taking pics, checking new rules, and playing against myself! 

Turn 3 Redux Saxons. All three units advance. Unfortunately, the Brigans missed the light cav.

Turn 3 Redux Bretons. The cavalry advance and score Hits on the Warband. The Brigans are keeping the heavy infantry on the hill busy. The Breton heavy infantry arrives and begins pushing forward. The plan is to advance to the right of the hill, crush the warband, and flank the hill. 

Stand against their arrows! 

The Cavalry threaten the Warband amidst the ruins of Roman civilization.

Turn 4. The Bretons seize IN back!  Pretty surprising, usually only happens a couple times a game.

Turn 4 Bretons. They make the most of the turnover and inflict Hits on both the heavy infantry and the warband, while advancing their own heavy infantry.

Turn 4 Saxons. They roll poorly on the Warband's Morale Check, and they retreat a base depth. The heavy infantry stand, the Brigans advance and put a hit on the light cavalry, and they get a reinforcement - they pick the second Warband - fastest unit they have left.

Turn 5 Bretons. They inflict serious punishment!  Three more hits on the heavy infantry from shooting, and two more on the Warband from shooting, then their heavy infantry manage a long charge and send the warband packing - wow, great turn!

Turn 5 Saxons. They get a reinforcement, a regular old Freemen infantry. The remaining Warband curbs its enthusiasm and just advances a bit, not wanting to get caught away from support. The heavy infantry pass morale with a 4, then rally off one Hit with another 4. Their Brigans advance and get a Hit on the light cavalry.

"Warriors...come out to play-ayyyyyy!" [click]

Well, it's been an interesting start, a lot of turnovers of Initiative and some setbacks for the Saxons - can they recover and hold on to the hill??

Next post - Turn 6 and on to Victory!