Friday, August 1, 2025

Battles & Brews Again

 

While the outside game was going on - and it was WAY hot outside - I set up for Armoured Storm, which was a much easier and faster prospect than prepping for one of my F&IW games! We played a simple meeting encounter scenario with 3 players a side each commanding two platoons of 5 "early war" tanks each, with 2 HQ tanks to deploy at will; two flanking armored forces meeting head on.

Shooting range was the length of the 6-foot table but anything over 20" was only possible on a roll of "10" on a D10. . . and of course two of these improbable shots took out two German Marders in the first couple of turns! Afterwards, the shooting at long range proved completely ineffective and both sides closed to better the odds.






The British "Honeys" and the German PzKw IIs took the brunt of the damage dished out, the Honey platoon becoming the first Unit to be knocked out completely.

 




 After about two hours both sides had lost about a third of their tanks and decided to call off their attacks, satisfied with a "draw."

Armoured Storm is a fun little game, that could be bigger if you wanted it to be. It has simple intuitive mechanics with a system for setting initiative and orders for each turn that involves both sides and is almost a "sub-game" in itself. Give it a try - the price is right!

Thursday, July 24, 2025

Battles & Brews

 

 I planned to put on a F&IW game at Battles & Brews this weekend and completed the bases on these Rangers a couple days ago to premiere them at said game. These are "repaints" - check them out here in the Wayback Machine. Then I hurt my hand and decided I didn't want to haul all the required terrain and heavy metal so. . . I am opting for a "lighter" game to make it easier on my sore hand. 

We're going to play Armoured Storm by author Daniel Mersey, of Lion Rampant fame.


 

This game will be "lighter" all around - way less terrain and tiny (MicroArmor) tanks. We played this once a couple years ago; here are some photos from that game that never made it into the blog.














 

The highlight of this game for me? I volunteered to command the weakest German tanks on the field, a platoon of PzKwIIs. We went "hull down in the pass" to protect our left flank and "brewed up" an entire platoon of Crusader IIIs that intended to roll right over us!
 

 

Maybe I'll see ya this weekend.

 

Wednesday, May 28, 2025

French & Indian War at March To Victory

  

March To Victory was a month ago; I ran a 54mm-scale game of Fistful of Lead: Bigger Battles. In fact, I ran it three times! I decided to run a slightly smaller game than I usually do. . . easier and faster to set up and more amenable to finishing a complete game in a reasonable amount of time. The table was 5 feet x 6 feet and there were 6 units per side; the French Colonials and their Native allies on one side and the British and their colonial subjects on the other. The scenario came directly from the Big Battles rule book: "Scenario 4 - Hold for Reinforcements." The hill (high ground) was the objective for both forces. The Defender begins in possession of the hill with half their forces and are permitted to place their "hasty" fortifications where they want. The Attackers enter the table on their first turn on the edge closest to the fortifications. The remainder of the Defender's forces come onto the further edge on their first turn. Whoever holds the hill at the end of the game (nightfall) wins.

I did make one major change to the Big Battles rules. Extensive reading around the F&IW era has led me to the conclusion that though bayonet charges happened, melee as a result was very rare. Sometimes attackers could not be convinced to charge, and more often the targets of charges fled rather than face "cold steel." In my opinion, melee should be a rare event in this period. So, I added a test for charging into contact based on the Charge Table from my other go-to rules for the F&IW, Muskets and Mohawks written by Two Hour Wargames. We had 7 charges test over the 3 games and none of them ended in melee; in one the attacker failed to charge and in the others the defender fled before contact. Felt about right to me!

I changed my approach to unit traits, too. I used the Line Regular troops as the performance "baseline" and then added positive or negative traits to other units in comparison. I further added a Unit Leader trait to each unit rather than giving a straight-up morale/rally boost to try to give different units more "personality." For instance, Regulars have no traits of their own, but their Unit Leader trait is "Steady," giving them a shooting bonus as long as their leader is alive. Grenadiers, Highlanders, Light Infantry and Natives have additional/unique positive traits and Provincials and Militias have negative traits by comparison.

If you are interested inseeing these rule amendments, Wiley Games has a free PDF download here. Make sure you receive the PDF marked "Cluck Amok version 3/20/25." Give Wiley Games a shout if not and they will update the link.

Following is a brief description of each game with some photos. Enjoy!

Game One had the British defending. The hasty defenses were placed on the hill and manned by "green" Provincials. The British commander could have placed more troops behind the cover but chose not to, and being green (and rolling a 2 on the Charge Test!) were chased out of the defenses by a successful French charge. The British were never able to recover; French win.















 

Game Two had the British defending again. The same commander from the last game decided to place the defenses at the crossroad, manned by Light Infantry, and to try to hold the hill with his Regulars. The French Regulars assaulting the hill delivered more destructive volleys than their British counterparts and again, though the defenses were never taken, the hill was. French win.



















We flipped the script for Game Three with some repeat players. The French defended, placed the defenses on the hill and packed it with Regulars. The British marched right into the teeth of the French Regulars behind the works and were mauled before they could mount a real assault on the hill. French win, as the defenders this time.











 

Everyone seemed to have fun. In fact we had some players come back for a second or third try! It was great to have the toys out again.

See ya!