Shiny Toy Soldier Skirmish

 Came across these photos while cleaning out my inbox. Looks to be an American force against Spaniards.

China Marines

 Another game of OHSW. This time I did the Zulu War scenario from the book. I switched the Zulus for Boxers and the British for US Marines. There's no set turn limit in this scenario. The Boxers win by getting into the redoubt and knocking down all the Marines. The Marines win by holding out until reinforcements arrive. 

The Boxers advance.

The Marines wait to fire.

The Boxers attack in piecemeal.

Concentrated fire takes it toll.

The Boxers continue to press the attack.

Per the scenario the Marines have gain enough points for the reinforcements to arrive.

The game lasted about five turns, just under an hour. Turns went quickly as the Marines burnt through cards while firing and the Boxers never pulled a high enough card to move a large group of troops. 

In previous games I had played that a figure could move once and fire on 1 action point. After questioning the FB group and getting a clarification in  this game I played 1 action point for each. I had also wondered whether or not when a figure can draw 2 cards to resolve an action if the acting figures wins on the first draw is the second draw necessary. The responses varied with the author saying he drew both cards but I have decided to go with not drawing the second card. It affects the probability of a Joker turning over sooner and burning up potentially higher value cards.   

This has been a great way to get in a few quick games while waiting for our normal group of gamers to be able to get back together.

 

Project finished?

As many of you know I started this blog as a means to follow and motivate me in my project building forces of the Little Britons figures from Spence Smith. The plan laid out in the first few posts was to paint eight units of Infantry (12 figures each), 4 units of Cavalry (6 figures each) and 4 units of Artillery (3 figures each).  The first game was played in March 2015   using One Hour Wargames. After a few more games of that and one of With MacDuff to the Frontier by Ross Mac Howard was bitten by the Shiny Toy Soldier bug and began painting and working on a set of rules known as A Gentleman's War despite all the distractions, a little over a third of the posts here refer to this project, I finished my goal of forces for the project. Three years in the making. Inspired by Grand Duchy of Stollen I decided to do a review of my troops.

The Cavalry

US 10tth Cavalry, RCMP, Hungarians, Bavarians and Generals.

 The Artillery

The Artillery, Costa Rica, Switzerland, Austria and, Serbia.

The Infantry

 Belgium, Egypt, Greece.

US Marines, Hawaiian Guard, US Infantry, NYS Volunteers.

Spain, Argentina, Canada.

Now is this project finished outside of playing games? There's a unit of Dutch bicycle troops on the painting desk and four bags of figures unpainted in the drawer. Along the way I had decided to paint flags for many of the units and may finish out the remainder putting each Infantry unit at an Officer, Standard bearer and twelve privates. Oh! and I bought some molds to cast my own figures just because. 

Thanks for reading.

Colonial AGW

Howard came over for a game of A Gentleman's War using the Colonial variant. I was a coalition force going to the rescue of a unit of Spaniards defending the oasis. Howard was the Moroccans causing what ever mayhem they could.

The figures are a mix of 40mm manufacturers, Little Britons, Scruby, Irregular and unknown 40mm semi rounds that Howard has added putty to to make them into Moroccans.

The Spaniards were able to hold off two assaults while the relief force was able to fend off their attackers but not with out the loss of the Marines and the R.C.M.P.

Critcal Mass.

Last Thursday saw another game of A Gentleman's War. This time Howard brought a full contingent of French as well as some British. We had three players for this game so split the Blue force between two of us. Blue was tasked with assaulting Red who was defending a building complex.

Blue had seven Infantry units, two Skirmishers, two Cavalry and four guns.

Red had four Infantry, two Skirmishers, two Cavalry, three guns and a Gatling gun.

A run of red cards allowed Red to consolidate his position while Blue took some long range shot with their guns. Turn two saw a more balanced run of cards giving Blue the chance to move some troops up and contact Red

The battle went back and forth for awhile and Blue started a flank assault first on the right with the Cavalry Brigade and then on the left with some Infantry.

The battle hung in a balance and the hour was getting late.

Then Red decided to charge with his Cavalry. The ensuing melee tore a hole in Blue's center.

This and the fact that it was past our bedtime ended the game.

Another great game with good people. We played on a four foot square table and with the number of troops we had it was a little tight. Another foot or two on the flanks and one more in depth would have been better I think. As for the number of units things worked well. It seems seven to ten units will give about a two hour game. Twelve to sixteen units would take just under three hours.

The French have landed

My friend Howard has finally given it to the temptation of 40mm toy soldiers and ordered a few from Irregular. An accomplished painter he's gone with some shading on the figures as opposed to the straight up paint job I've used. His technique compliments the sculpting of these figures and really pops on the table.

I also like the pill shaped bases and will be rebasing my cavalry and using this for future units. 

Eager to get his troops in action we played an Attack/Defense scenario which saw me attacking with a mostly Western Hemisphere force (Blue) against Howard's European Unification force(Red). I was interested to see how this played out as our previous games were meeting engagements with equal forces.

The cards favored red from the start and the chasseurs a pied harassed my troops and the EU artillery wreaked havoc on my Gatling gun.

Fortunately for the Blue the turn ended quickly but the next turn did start off with a run on Red cards. Soon enough Blues cards started to turn up and the advance started.

With opportunities alternating between the two forces casualties built on both sides. Still Reds force remained steady in the center.

Blues forces in the center were taking heavy losses but passed their morale checks and stayed in the fight. 

An inspired but ill advised frontal charge by the French cavalry on the Spanish line eliminated the cavalry freeing The RCMP to threaten the flank of Reds line. With the turn ending, Red having lost several units and a strong Blue force on the left, Red fell back and conceded the field. 

Another great night of gaming! Howard has refined the rules for formation changes and the morale rules. Both worked well and stayed within the spirit of the game. He's also added some rules for abilities to the units so not every unit is the same. These also worked well and give a little more color to the game. 

If you haven't already check out the Yahoo group that's been set up for these rules. A Gentleman's War

Generals, Colors and Limbers.

Over the weekend I finished a few more troops for A Gentlemans War.

Generals

Colors

Limbers

Here's a cannon I bought last month on a visit to Appomattax Court House.

These are the NYS National Guard with the new flag figure.

I'm off to Huzzah! in Maine so it will be a few more weeks before they get on the table.

Another game with the Little Britons

We had another game with the LBs. I started to take pictures but became caught up in the action and forgot to continue. Howard's fleshing out the rules and giving a little more detail but as the new title is Gentlemens War it's expected that any disagreements will be decided through polite discussion and a roll of the dice. A rule that allows you to act again with a unit if you draw an Ace came in handy for both of us. Here's the few photo's I took.

I've two more cavalry units on the painting desk along with some limbers and Generals which I hope to get ready for next months game.  

A game with the Little Britons.

I brought out the Little Britons for a game the other night. We used a set of rules that Howard has started on to play. The working name is Shiny Toy Soldier Rules. The Armies were of the same size being four line infantry units, one skirmisher unit, one cavalry unit and two guns with three gunners each. I'll need to paint up some more gunners for each gun as the rules base firing on the number of gunners. It was your basic meeting engagement. We both forgot to bring a ground cloth so used the table in the Hobby Town and unpainted piece of MDF.

The Blue Army lined up at the start

Red Army center

Red Army right flank

Red Army left flank with the newly painted Greeks.

The Battle started off with a general advance by the Blue Army. The Marines placed in the center. 

Red advanced his left flank and opened fire with both his artillery units. Blue moved up on the his right to counter the advancing Greeks but had his skirmishers pushed back. Opening fire on Red with one gun and the NYS Volunteers forced a morale check on the Greeks and caused them to fall back. 

Meanwhile in the center the Marines charged the woods held by Red's skirmishers. It was a bloody fight but the Hawaians fell back and Blue advanced into the woods where they faced a constant fire from Red's Egyptians.

Over on Blue's left the RCMP charged into the 10th US. After several rounds of melee Blue's cavalry was routed off the board. A firefight raged on between the Canadians and Spanish of Red and the Belgians and Argentines of Blue with Blue getting the worst of it.

Red's cavalry then wheeled to the left chasing off the crew of the second Blue gun and then charged the NYS Volunteers on Blue's right causing them to fall back. The action was heavy all around and our cameraman was headed to the rear just ahead of the troops on Blue's left flank. 

With a stand off on Reds left flank and nothing left on the right to hold Red's advance  Blue conceded the field.