Wargames weekend - December 2001
1st/2nd Decembre 2001
Apart from a short game on friday, this was another two day weekend with one game being played each day.
Friday - Pig Tickler
Pig Tickler is a not very serious game of steampunk Victorian cavalrymen on unicycles chasing a mechanical pig around a field. The background to the game is very interesting and sheds new light on the charge of the light brigade at Balaclava. The system is simple and good fun as you wander round the pitch trying to jab the mechanical pig with your lance while avoiding its molestations and the unwelcome attention of the stokers.
Our game went on much longer than the 45-60 minutes that it is supposed to take as each time someone got near to winning they were taken out of the game by the Pig. Fortunately there is always Tompkins minor to take over!
Saturday - Flat Top
Chris, Richard L - US
Cliff, Margaret - Japanese
Richard H Referee
The game involved two even matched (or so we thought) fleets with two carrier groups each with an island airbase to defend. The game started at midnight and both sides set up close to the islands and launched immediate airstrikes at the enemy air base. The American strike was a much lower key affair as it only involved only the bombers and escorting fighters from the airbase, whereas the Japanese strike involved pretty much every plane they could muster.
Both strikes went in pretty much simultaneously and the Japanese one inflicted considerable damage on the US airbase, but not quite enough to take it out of operation and in the coupld of hours before the ineffectual US airstrike returned enough capability was repaired that they were able to land all their planes safely. As dawn came, both sides began to located each others forces and when the US carriers pinned down the Japanese task group, they launched a full strike of all their planes against the Japanese, but after about two hours in the air, they realised that their shortest ranges plane would come up about 20 miles short of the Japanese fleet and so they had to abort and return to base.
As the game was partly a playtest for a PBM, it carried on for a few more game hours as Japanese and US carriers frantically rearmed and refueled their planes and the separated US groups closed up on each other, and then called it a day just before more strikes were sent in.
Sunday - Malburian
Chris, Margaret - Allies
Cliff, Richard H French
Richard L - referee
The game followed lots of delicious pancakes provided by Rachel and Alan (aka Simon).
This was a playtest of my new rules for War of Spanish Succession, which is intended to be used (when the initial bugs are ironed out) over the next few years to replay the battles of the war as their respective 300 anniversaries occur.
The French were on the strategic defensive and set up close to a line of riges that they occupied over the course of the battle. The initial act by both flanks of the French was to send forward their cavalry with orders to attack the forces in front of them. The allied cavalry responded to these moves as their infantry moved forward in an attempt to make use of their general firepower advantage over the French, and two large cavalry engagements ensued. The Dutch cavalry on the Allies left flank saw an opportunity to engage the French lead cavalry unit at a considerable advantage, but was not able to press the advantage and gradually was worn down. A similar thing was happening to the British cavalry on the Allied right, who were not able to use their charge impetus to the full and were beaten back by weight of numbers and the additional French regiment.
As the cavalry battles raged on the flanks the allied infantry pressed forward and began to attack the French centre and left flank infantry. Pushing up the hills they engaged in firefights and began to make some impression on some French brigades, but reinforcements and a charge by a reserve cavalry unit began to tell and the Dutch infantry on the left were eventually thrown back, though still in pretty good order. As the infantry attacks began to fail the French cavalry won the two fights on the flanks and the Allies sounded the retreat, though they would have probably been able to make a reasonably orderly withdrawl as the French cavalry was prety badly mauled after their fight.