Narrative OHW Campaign Battle 3: Battle of Mogmoor

This was the third battle in this narrative campaign experiment. To recap, Spanish-Jacobite forces have invaded the territory of New Dalrydia and are opposed by a Dutch-Scots' force. The invasion has not gone to plan and the Spanish-Jacobites are hunkering down near the small town of Mogmoor. The pursuing Dutch Army has seized high ground overlooking the town amd the Spanish-Jacobites must push them off, or otherwise defeat them - or be forced to evacuate New Dalrydia or worse, surrender...

 The Forces:

The Dutch Army consists of:

1 brigade of Horse (2 bases, both Irish units)

1 brigade of Foot (3 bases, all Scottish units) 

1 brigade of Foot (2 bases, one Scotch, one Swiss unit)

2 bases of Field Artillery

 

The Spanish Army consisted of:

1 brigade of Horse (2 bases of Jacobites)

1 brigade of Dragoons (2 bases, both Irish)

1 brigade of Foot (4 bases, all Spanish)

1 base of Field Artillery

 

The Set-Up:

The Dutch are on the high ground, the Spanish are defending the village.

Spanish Dragoons on the left, Infantry in the centre.

The Dutch have their Horse on their Right (left), whilst the infantry take the Centre and Left (right); note the refused flank

The Dutch Right

The Dutch Centre

The Dutch Left

One last overview shot

The Battle:

You just know it is going to be a bad day when the first artillery bombardment breaks one of the Spanish infantry regiments in the centre!

The Spanish can't afford to not be bold: the Franco-Jacobite Horse advances on the Right

However, the Dutch (ok, ,Scotch-Irish) Horse mirrors the movement on the other flank, threating the Spanish (ok, Irish) Dragoons

The battle develops with the Spanish attacking in echelon by the right...

Another view

Not quite as devastating, but the Spanish artillery is causing some casualties in the Dutch centre

The action starts to break up somewhat: the Dutch Horse has been slow to actually engage, allowing one of the Spanish infantry regiments to begin enfilading musketry...only to be enfiladed by an advancing Scottish regiment in its turn. Meanwhile, the attack on the hill proper is about to start

Seizing the tempo at the right moment, the Dutch Horse charges in - as does the flanking Scottish regiment (centre)

At practically the same moment, the main Spanish infantry asault goes in on the hill

It could have been worse for the Spanish Dragoons, but they manage to hold their own against the Dutch Horse; however, another Spanish infantry unit has been broken (centre)

One of the Spanish regiments manages to close up and capture some Dutch guns; the other is held back by the fierce musketry

The Dutch Horse re-engages, for another bout of melee

Fierce fighting continues on the hill - the Scots' infantry launches a counter-attack on the right-hand Spanish battalion

This time the Spanish Dragoons have come off worse against the Dutch Horse

But more importantly, the Spanish infantry attack in the centre has collapsed, with the musketeers running back towards the town

Position at the end of the battle. The only somewhat bright spot is that the Jacobite cavalry is still intact on the right.

Game Notes:

A good game, although the Spanish-Jacobite force never really seemed to get the rub of the green. The terrain and deployment of the Dutch didn't make it easy for the Spanish though, it was difficult to know how to create at least one decent match-up on one wing. The actual fighting was fairly even, but the Spanish needed to do better than that, and it never looked that likely...

 

There were no particular points in regards to the rules or anything: I am relatively happy with how this type of small battle works with Polemos: Ruse de Guerre, so they typically rattle on at a fair pace. They might be a little quick and nippy for the full early C18 experience mind, but they do give a generally good horse-and-musket game, which is pretty easy to tweak. Not sure if I will try Polemos WSS proper again next time out, or perhaps incorporate some of its concepts into RdG, particularly around artillery and  movement.

 

So the campaign leads to the restoration of New Dalrydia, as the Spanish general sues for terms!

 

Well done for anyone who spotted this, but this was a re-casting of the Battle of Mohacs into One-Hour Wargame scenario form, and then translated into early C18. I did it previously as a more straight-up re-fight, although that was over a decade ago now (eek!). In any case, I was using this as part of my play-testing of my new mini-campaign concept. It has seemed to work pretty well, although it hasn't been quite stress-tested enough yet, on account of one side winning three battles in a row! Still, a promising start.

 

Figures by Baccus 6mm, buildings mainly be Leven I think.

 

 

 

 

Hammerhead 2025

I went to Hammerhead 2025 a little while back. Unfortunately, a nasty outbreak of 'Real Life' has prevented me from posting up the pictures until now! However the delay does mean I have forgotten more of the details, so apologies if I forget something. I'll run through the games I took pictures of first, then save a few reflections to the end.

 

 First up, some Starship Troopers-y action (Yorkshire Renegades)?

 

Some SAGA action.

One amongst several Forest Outlaws' games: Batman and Robin in Gotham.

I 'think' this was another Forest Outlaws' game. The details of this one escape me, my apologies. Looked quite neat though.

 

I think this one was some kind of Jason and the Argonauts thing, with this kind of spiral hex-type terrain I have seen for a couple of different games. Looks a very efficient way of doing certain types of episodic/ladder games in a relatively small space. By Winterpig? (update - Winterpig confirmed!)

WW2 in Italy - think I have seen this one a couple of times before. Always seems to remind me a little of Kelly's Heroes final battle, for some reason! Anyhow, looks really good, by Anschluss I think.

Wings of Glory. Always looks fun.

 

This one was an ECW game, Langport if memory serves. By Wyre Forest gamers, who presumably have loads of pike, shot and horse in every scale that exists.

The OMG guys doing their modern thing:

 

The latest Paperboys' iteration is Chariot Wars. Where were they when I needed them when I was a youngster?!?!

I am so sorry, I really can't remember at all who might have done this one. Nice boats, in any case. (Update - apparently by Pete Foggin, of the Tyneside group, according to a kind reader!)

The really huge Bloody Omaha game by Charles Rowntree that I have seen a couple of times, but never fails to impress. Looked quite busy this one too.

I think this was some kind of Battle of the Bulge thing near the Warlord stand?

Robin Hood, with big figures, by Big on Strategy.

Shaun of the Dead, by The Bunker. They were a friendly bunch! And loads of really nice vignettes in the game.

There were a few DBA games (sorry not many good shots, I wouldn't have wanted to interrupt or distract the players). Were these the truest participation games, I wonder?

Sails of Glory - always looks good fun!

Another cold looking Midgard game - think I might have seen this one before, or something very similar.

The Boondock Sayntes did something a bit different for them, although as beautiful as ever: the Battle of the Fords of Isen

Apologies, not entirely sure about this one: I think it was a nice, very bright looking WW2 game by the...Gentlemen Wargamers?

More Starship Troopers, this time by the Werelords:

The Very British Civil War team, with their very particular 'look':

Witch Racing, an old staple of Hammerhead (by Grantham)

A Cold War Gone Hot game (Harrogate)?

Redcoats attacking a Native American village in the FIW (Derby):

The Battle for Moria (I think - also tentatively by the Women's Auxiliary Balloon Corps IIRC off the programme). It was an eye-catching design, with interior and exterior bits.

A Cruel Seas game (by Wakefield)

A WW1 game, with nice tanks and terrain. Not sure who did this one, but very pretty.

I am not sure this was exactly a zombie game, but it did look like a zombie-type game! Nice terrain.

I want to say this was another Middle Earth game, but I can't quite recall. But I think it does look like Rohirrim against Goblins.

More fantasy stuff...maybe To The Strongest? Does that have a fantasy version?

Kings of War from Phoenix Gaming. There was, as you can tell, quite a lot of fantasy stuff at this show.

The Dragon Perch Wars, also by Phoenix Gaming. Nice buildings and dragons!

I want to say this was WW2 with bobble head miniatures? From Lincoln? Nice terrain and mat, anyway.

I think this one was modern Cthulu, by Peterborough.

I didn't quite get what this next one was - some kind of fantasy or SF trench game? It looked pretty great visually, but didn't really intuitively get what was happening (Update: Trench Crusade by The Dented Bascinet HQ).

This was a Jacobite Wars' action, very very loosely based on the Siege of Derry IIRC. It was big and involved and pretty in a very doable way I thought.

Like a Stonewall did a big 'Mighty Eighth' game, which looked good fun.

These next games are a kind of jumping through space-and-time into different gaming worlds multi-board game (there are portals on each board). To get a kind of 'moving to different tables' demo game experience? Looked really interesting and they had obviously put so much into it (They being Chesterfield, who used to run this show back when it was a Fantasy and SF show).

Naturally, this is the dungeon crawl board.

This is the pirates' board. With ships with hand-made rigging, obvs! Amazing...

I forget...maybe late C19 board?

Medieval board...

Post-Aocalypse Board...

A Badgers and Burrows game next, also by COGS. The 1990s White Dwarf vibe is pretty much perfect.

Void Scar, with some kind of SF game. Maybe something a bit Battletech-y?

I think this is more COGS. I have seen this game a few times before I think, but it does look good.

A Space Hulk-y/Aliensy game from The Scourers. I really liked the way the terrain worked with the mat on this one.

 

A really big Italian Wars game next, possibly Fornovo. One of those 'so big, can't quite get everything in a single good shot' games.

Another robot game. Looked like Transformers type robots are similar, and a nice set-up.

There was a really nice-looking gangster game next. There seemed to be (understandably) a fair bit of gangster legend (like SAGA is to medieval fighting) but all good fun.

Somewhere between whimsy and a black wargame next, with one side trying to steal white goods and the other side trying to pull away tanks with tractors! Lots of knowing visual jokes.

Another one of these ascending hex boards, here themed around bairns' TV shows - Grotesque Gogglebox by Bunny Badger Games. Looked good fun, and really great design. Also, Crooked Dice must have been coining it in...

More stompy robots, in a Battle-techy way. I think maybe these were Blitzkrieg miniatures.

Another Forest Outlaws' game: this one is the 'Siege of Cairile Crfy', which was some kind of 10mm medieval siege affair. It looked nice in that Kallistra way, but I should have asked for more details.

A bijou but nice looking fantasy-horror game (by Dragon Lodge)

 

An Old West game, by the Veterans:

I think this next one was the Manoeuvre Group people, but doing it as hard SF. TBH, it was so hard it could more-or-less have been ultra-modern...

Next up was a game called 'FitzAubrey's Last Hurrah' which I guessed was some kind of Nelsonian/Hornblowery adventure? Looked nice in any case, by Lancaster.

I thought this was some kind of monster-y or zombie-ish type game: please forgive me if I got this wrong!! By the Doncaster group, I think (Update: Sanford Floral Committee Presents Best Kept Village 23 Years Running – Doncaster Wargames Society).

A Gates of Antares kind of double game. I liked the futuristic buildings!

As a show, it was..quite good? It was busy but not totally rammed. I got pictures of everything except the new Rubicon game I think, which was just too crowded every time I was near. Exhibitors were all friendly and helpful. There was a reaonable slant towards fantasy and science-fiction, which probably fairly reflects the games that get played most often in real-life. Some of the games really did feel like demo games where someone might have let you throw some dice rather than a participation or convention game per se. As my son generally feels a bit too shy to want to play, this is fine by me - but it does mean that the distinction between this show and Partizan is slowly being eroded, I think? There is still some difference in emphasis, but it has worn a bit thinner over time, I think. I also think - and this applies to the Partizan demo areas as well as this show - that somehow it is not quite an optimal environment for relaxed game playing with strangers? This isn't really a fully formed thought, but my intuitions about this are becoming sharper. There are very few of those games that I simply wouldn't play in any context...therefore if I don't play them, maybe the context isn't right? Similarly, I don't particularly like shopping at shows - it is convenient at the top-level (loads of gaming stuff in one place), poor at the bottom-level (trade stands aren't always easy to navigate and compare). The table sale seemed pretty good with plenty of bargains to be had. It could be a bit of a scrum...but I suppose that is useful information that people like it and it could be even bigger and better (and slightly more spread out).

 

Baccus wasn't there (their van broke down on the way apparently) which is always a bit of a shame for me, as I like to have a look over the latest releases, maybe have a quick chat with Peter and the team. But he did send out all the pre-orders he couldn't deliver straight away, so I got my parcel later that week. At the show, I bought a couple of SPI boardgames and a copy of Goths, Huns and Romans (the first edition of what would become Comitatus - I had given my copy to a friend - now very sadly deceased* - along with a couple of appropriate armies (Late Romans and Goths) years ago). My son picked up some painted SF stuff, and also a box of plastic Agincourt English. There were lots of things I fancied, but since painting has been relatively slow recently, I refrained...next year, perhaps? There are loads of really good plastic box sets that are out at the moment, but I feel my painting and playing have to be able to justify that, to at least some extent. Also, without Baccus, there is very little 6mm stuff; there didn't seem to be that much 15mm stuff either.

(*especially sad since Newcastle - our football team - have just won the League Cup! He was a bit older than me, and died in his 50s, so he never got to celebrate them winning a trophy in England).