Saturday 2 January 2021

Scenario 14: Static Defence

The Violet Army General has been ordered to hold the ruined village AND the hill and must keep two units within two grid squares of each. The Yellow Army General must take either objective.

I used the Portable Napoleonic Rules; 15 turns maximum and Exhaustion Point (EP) at 30% casualties. Apologies for the poorly lit pics, shadows etc. It's dark here, even in the daytime!

Violet's opening position

 
Army Yellow arrives in column, concentrating on the hill

Turn 1

Turn 2 Violet was able to bring 1 battalion from the village

Turn 3 Yellow's artillery opens up


Turn 4 Fire fight begins

Turn 5 Violet's guns are hitting Yellow's flank. cavalry are sent to silence them

Turn 6 Violet's Infantry battalion emerge from the village to meet the cavalry

Turn 7 Yellow's cavalry, already reduced by artillery fire, charge the enemy


Turn 8 With their cavalry lost and infantry battered Yellow are perilously close to EP

Turn 9 Yellow are at EP. The attack has failed

It took until Turn 13 for Army Violet to reach EP and the Game's End.

Despite throwing his whole force at one objective, the Yellow General proved (once again) that a frontal assault like this requires more troops (and better dice rolls).

17 comments:

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    1. It's another tricky little scenario for the attacking side

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  2. Flippin eck - nice game. These rules / board have lots to offer. I'm thinking big battles could work really well and force players to think like generals.

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  3. Flippin eck - nice game. These rules / board have lots to offer. I'm thinking big battles could work really well and force players to think like generals.

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    1. The Portable Wargame system of rules are perfect for my type of quick games on a grid and can be scaled up to bigger battles. Neil Thomas's scenarios are also very good

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  4. This scenario is an odd duck for the attacker, do you split your forces or mass against one area?. I suspect it being a later period game with supporting fire from all defending units requires the attacker to engage on two fronts?. If playing early periods I suppose it would be easy to just ignore one objective.
    On another note, the use of the risk pieces is a great choice.

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    1. Its another interesting one that could be played many times. OHW book is such good value for money!

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  5. Mmh, that's where you were hiding... This blog should be renamed 'Wargaming on Modern Art Paintings' :D

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    1. Ha ha! My son asked if it was a piece of "art"!

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  6. A wonderful looking battle! I love the unpainted Risk figures. I really need to base mine.

    I like this scenario a lot for its replay value - force composition and time period makes a big difference, at least with the OHW rules.

    With the OHW medieval rules, for example, the hill and town reduce damage against the defender by half. For men-at-arms, who already halve damage, that means 1/4 damage - a defender with two such units has a solid hold on both objectives, assuming one is deployed on each. The WWII OHW rules play completely differently - only infantry can hold the town, the hill gives them no advantage, but it does for tanks, and a mortar no matter where it's deployed has the whole table in range provided another unit can see the enemy, so the limitation on movement is of less consequence.

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    1. Thanks John. I like these figures and leaving them unpainted gives it a bit of a board game feel which appeals to me.
      I haven't played this scenario with Neil Thomas's rules, which as you point out have their own dimensions. These scenarios have huge scope and I intend to play them all again, if I ever manage to find the time!

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  7. I am pleased that you posted a link on your other blog as I did not have this one on my list. Now rectified!
    Regards, James

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    1. Thanks James, hope you enjoy some of the erratically appearing posts!

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  8. Do you find the attacker's job is harder when you use EP to determine when a force is broken? The scenarios are written around the OHW rules, where a side fights to the last unit, and I suspect a few of them take that into account in terms of balancing.

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    1. Good point Kaptain, thanks for bringing it up. Yes I'd imagine it probably is harder and I really should try playing exactly the same game with the OHW rules. When I first got the book I did use the Thomas rules as published and enjoyed them, though fighting without any form of morale check just doesn't seem right! I even introduced simple morale rules into some of my games with OHW. Food for thought.

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  9. A very enjoyable battle report to read ... and seeing you RISK figures has reminded me that I have a load of them in storage somewhere in my toy/wargame room. I really ought to find a use for them.

    All the best,

    Bob

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    1. Thanks Bob. I really like the little RISK figures and hope you can get yours fighting too.

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