Scenario 28: Botched Relief

 Army Red has received word that their enemy, Army Blue, have a force preparing to attack a poorly defended town. A relief force is dispatched. Regrettably it is commanded by General Factotum, known for his inability to make decisions. Apologies for the pictures; the lighting was very poor.

Starting positions

  The four Red units on the hill may only be activated one at a time, and only once the currently active unit has been eliminated.

Blue's assault on the town begins

Despite being under cover, Red's units in the town are taking hits

Blue moves a unit to the other end of the town while Red's unit from the hill is kept occupied

Blue's cavalry force their way into the town without loss!

Blue poised to take the town

The Town has been captured and Red's inertia means it cannot be retaken

Red's one active unit was destroyed in a last desperate attack. General Factotum sent a cavalry unit hurtling down to attack the Blue infantry out in the open, but it was too little too late; the day was lost. Modified Portable Wargame rules were used once again.

Scenario 27: Disordered Defence

 Blue has launched a surprise attack with a small force (4 units) whose objective is to capture a strategically important crossroads. Red has half of his force (3 units) in place, with the remaining 3 units arriving late (turn 8). Blue always moves first in this scenario. Modified Portable Wargame rules were tried again, with no Exhaustion Point. The trees are only to break up the field a bit - apart from the roads this is a flat featureless terrain.

Initial situation

Blue's Cavalry have attacked the Red artillery and fallen back to charge again

By Turn 6 Blue has captured the Crossroads with a weakened cavalry unit

The Centre and Right are in Blue's control

The remaining Red units arrive - will the tide turn?

Turn 11 and Blue is still very much in charge of the objective

Red pushes forward to try to dislodge Blue

Disaster for Red - sustained fire has led to his General's demise

The end of the game with Blue successfully holding the Crossroads!

Scenario 26: Triple Line

 A Goblin raiding band is approaching the foothills of the Dwarvish Mountains. The Dwarves send a small but tough force out to stop it but their defence is a disorganized triple line (see OHW for effects of disorganization). The objective is sole occupancy of the hill by Turn 15.

The unit of crossbow Dwarves guarding the bridge

The Goblin force has arrived. Note each tree represents an impenetrable wooded area

Goblins swarm in to attack the bridge guards

The Dwarves fall back but have inflicted damage on the lead unit

The Goblins come up against the second line

The Goblins push the Dwarves back further on the left

Half way through the battle and the Dwarves still hold firm

However, their resolve begins to falter

The Goblins attempt to surround the Dwarves

Casualties are mounting

The Goblins break through and are on the hill

The last Dwarf unit is destroyed and the Goblins win the field

This game was played with a version of the Portable Wargame that did away with the Exhaustion Point rule to bring it more in line with OHW rules. There were no Generals either.

Scenario 25: Infiltration

 A small (4 unit) Blue force has infiltrated Red territory and must exit 2 units via the opposite base line before Red's larger (6 unit) force can stop it.

Blue arrives on the Southern base line on turn 1. Red has only 1 unit on the table at the start of the game.

(Due to the pre-Christmas clear-up, I am unable to currently locate most of my scenery - the sand represents a road. The dense mass of mismatched trees represents an impenetrable wood)

Blue sends one unit against the Red unit on the hill

Blue is not doing well and two more Red units have arrived on their baseline

Blue has lost one unit by the end of Turn 4

Having disposed of the Red unit on the hill, Blue must now engage the new arrivals

Turn 6 and the remaining Red troops arrive - is it too late for Blue to escape?

Red closes in

Blue has two units left, the minimum required to reach their objective

One Blue Unit is on the baseline but involved in combat while the other is close to defeating their opponents

Disaster - with only one unit left Blue cannot win

Scenario 24: Bottleneck

 In this Scenario, a smaller force of Peasants (4 units) attempts to slow the progress down the road of a larger force of Holy Order Knights (6 units). I used these figures as I had just rehoused them and thought they could do with a game after many years in storage.

The lake and the wood (that can only be entered by the local peasant woodsmen) form obvious barriers to movement. 

To win, the Peasant force needs to keep troops on the road, or at least the edge of it, by Turn 15 in order to hamper the Knights' progress.

The opening positions

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The Knights advance down the road taking the odd hit from the woodsmen, while their infantry reorganize themselves 

The road block

A Crossbow unit (bottom left) engages the archers in the wood

The road block is steadily being removed

The peasants hold on 

The force blocking the road is destroyed however the woodsmen remain

The pesky archers in the woods proved impossible to dislodge from their position, so technically the Peasant force met its objective. The OHW rules give them +2 to their dice roll when firing, plus they are in cover, halving any received fire. They quickly defeated the Crossbow unit that had tried to winkle them out early in the game. 

A few years' ago I tried this Scenario with in an ACW setting (see HERE) which also resulted in a win for the smaller force.

Scenario 23: Defence in Depth

 This game was played using Neil Thomas's ACW OHW rules - to explain the dice marking unit strength; a White 1 = ten. If there are two black dice add the pips shown together.

The Union objective is to exit 3 units (at any remaining strength) from the table. Only the CSA force may enter the wooded areas.

Opening positions - CSA hold 2 fords. The bridge is unguarded

The Union forces advance rapidly but are taking fire 

The Union force has largely crossed the river by turn 5

By turn 7, the first Union unit is exiting as casualties mount on both sides

The CSA cavalry (top of pic) have destroyed a Union Cavalry unit and now attack the artillery

The Union Cavalry unit has exited the table with a single strength point
The last CSA Infantry unit has been destroyed

The third Union unit is free to exit, leaving the artillery men to their fate. Union victory.

A fast, bloody affair, but good fun.