More Portable Air Wargames Development

I have been doing a bit more messing around with Bob Cordery's Portable Air Wargame from his Developing the Portable Wargame book.

For these next games, there were three areas I wanted to look at: turn sequence, "energy" as combination of altitude and speed and gunnery.  The challenge would be to introduce more realism without upping the level of complexity more than a smidgeon.  In particular, book-keeping has to be not increased passed the level that already exists within the game.

The scenario I have used for all of these games is another one taken from the Achtung! Spitfire boardgame.  This one features a trio of Hurricanes that have bounced a larger formation of Bf110Cs.

The Forces:

RAF: 3 x Hurricane Is
Luftwaffe: 6 x Bf110Cs.

The first thing I looked at for the scenario was the flight characteristics of the two aircraft compared to the vanilla totals in the rules.  In the original rules, single-engine fighters are much better than twin-engine fighters.  However, the actual Bf110 had certain advantages over the Hurricane: it was faster, and arguably better armed.  The Hurricane was much better at turning, it had a very low wing-loading (usually the best indicator).

So for experimental purposes, I re-did the statlines thus:

Bf110 SPEED: 6 DAMAGE: 4 ARMAMENT: Front-Firing 2d6 (red), 2d6 (green); Rear-Firing 1d6 (green)
Hurricane SPEED: 6 DAMAGE: 4 ARMAMENT: Front-Firing 4d6 (green)

The red and green dice are to modify damage.  A red die represents 2 cannons, and a '6' means 2 damage points are scored rather than 1.  This greatly increases the chance of doing some severe damage for cannon-armed aircraft.

At the time of the combat, the Hurricanes were moving much faster and had a height advantage.  To account for this, I gave the Hurricanes 3 energy points to expend and automatically had the first turn.

First Combat:

The Hurricanes (bottom-right) closing in fast behind the Bf110s (left)

The 110s

And the pursuing Hurricanes

The Hurricanes expend some of that extra energy and close-in fast to shooting range

"He who gets in close shoots them down" - Sailor Malan

The 110s break hard and turn towards the incoming interceptors

Something was bothering me soon after this, so I abandoned it.  I think it was rolling for the turn sequence.  The 110s had got the next turn and were thus able to immediately close back in on the Hurricanes.  I couldn't find any way of rationalizing this.  So I decided to reload and not roll for turn but follow a straightforward IGOUGO sequence, with the bouncing Hurricanes moving first,

Second Battle:
 

Once again, with feeling.

Naturally, the first turn plays out pretty much the same

The 110s turn and face

Much better this time: the Hurricanes get in amongst the 110s

Some 110s are in a position to trade shots

As the flanking 110s break hard to try and get into position (left)

The Hurricane leader is clinging hard to the tail of his target

The leading rotte of 110s are in trouble (bottom) but the remainder of the 110s are getting back into position (centre)

The first Bf110 goes down (bottom-right)

The furball continues, the Bf110 leader perhaps surprisingly has suffered only a little damage

The Hurricanes choose honour over, some might say, sense and they make their next pass head-on into the 110s (centre) - "a bold move" in the face of the 110s cannons...

The 110s make a pass then break, considering that they are not in the best position to engage

And it is throttles down for safety

The Hurricanes pursue...

Some good shooting by Hurricane 3 shoots down another 110

The rear 110s are not in a good position...

But they keep their speed up and keep on going...

The Hurricanes are not giving up, but their tenacity is outstripping their accuracy...

The 110 leader escapes the Hurricane leader

The 110s clear the map.

So, more good games - quick, but full of excitement.  The changes seemed to work quite well and make good sense without introducing complexity.  I have been most pleased with the rules for cannon and the rules for energy. I have separately explored the idea of aircraft being able to gain energy by abstractly simulating climbing and it worked...okay.  It hasn't thus far made that much difference though, so I am unsure whether it needs to be adopted.  The IGOUGO does work better I think for air-focused games, but would probably not change the ground rules to go with it: i.e. if playing with aircraft over a land battle, keep on rolling for initiative.

One area that I am interested in exploring is manoeuvring.  I am thinking of changing the turning circle of some aircraft so they have to go two hexes straight before changing facing.  I am also thinking of not charging aircraft for the changing of face, which would enlarge turning circles.  This seems possible without complicating matters too much.  It is changing speed and altitude that really add complexity in air combat games, hence my desire to avoid at all costs.

Anyway, more on this soon.

Battle of Bryn Troelleg - A Polemos SPQR Refight

The latest issue of Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy (101) contains a re-done version of a classic old Don Featherstone scenario, the Battle of Plattsville in Henry Hyde's "Tabletop Tactics" column.  The scenario has been neatened and adapted to suit three periods: ancients, horse-and-musket and WW2.  For this re-fight, I have taken the ancients version and set it in the first century AD, with a Roman Legion pushing into Wales and about to run into some unexpected opposition...

The Scenario:

WSS has a map of the action on its website for download.  The scenario consists of two forces - in this case, a Roman Legion with some extra units attached and a large Celtic warband - approaching to contest possession of a small village in a wooded valley.

One change that I made was to make both the advance guards advance along the road until they spotted each other: an advantage of solo play!  This would slightly change the character of the game, since both sides would have to fight off the line of march.

The Forces:

Imperial Romans:

Commander: Marcus Drusus (Average)

2 bases of Cavalry (Formed Armoured Veteran-Elite)
2 bases of Light Horse (Unformed Trained)
2 bases of Skirmishers (Unformed Trained bow-armed)

XIII Legion
Commander Quintus Flavius (Average)
8 bases of Legionaries (Formed Armoured Trained)
2 bases of Archers (Formed Trained bow-armed)

Silurian Warband:

Commander: King Cynwrig (Average)

2 bases of Chariots (Unformed Trained-Elite)
2 bases of Light Horse (Unformed Trained)
2 bases of Skirmishers (Unformed Trained javelinmen)
2 bases of Skirmishers (Unformed Trained slings)
8 bases of Tribal Warriors (Unformed Trained)

So the advantage is definitely with the Romans, but the difference is not insurmountable.

Each side was led by an advanced guard of 4 bases (2 skirmishers, 2 close-order foot troops), with the remaining forces following c.30 minutes (6 moves) behind.

Readers of the article will notice that I have double the number of units compared to the original.

The Battle:

The valley of Bryn Troelleg

A closer look at the village

Bryn gwyrdd, bounded on one side by the stream and a thin belt of woodland on the other

The Battle:

The Romans and Silurians advance, Romans from the bottom and Silurians from the top.

A closer look at the Silurians.  The King, idiosyncratic chap that he is, prefers to ride on horseback rather than in his royal chariot.

The Roman column just reaching the curve in the road when it spots the Silurian slingers in the distance...

King Cynwrig is first to get into position, hurrying his men into position on the hill; Flavius leads his legionaries through the woods and up the slope (bottom)

The battle developing as the main bodies of each force arrive.  Silurian and Numidian horsemen approach the village from opposite sides,

Whilst the Legionaries continue their slow advance...

Suddenly King Cynwrig orders his foot warriors to charge!  Full of fight, they run screaming down the hill towards the wavering Romans...

With their King fighting amongst them, some of the Celtic warriors push a legionary cohort back down the slope into the woods; however, Flavius inspires the other cohort to defy the odds and push back the Silurians

Numidian light cavalry in a very advantageous position - which they resolutely ignore, preferring to harrass the local cattle and women

Drusus orders his horsemen to charge the Silurian chariotry; his archers are now blocking the bridge

Flavius and his legionary cohort defeat and slaughter the Silurian warriors after pushing them back up the slope

But the King and his men have routed the other leading legionary cohort!

Drusus and his cavalry get the better of the Silurian chariots after close, hard fighting...

More Roman Cohorts advance towards the victorious Silurian warriors

Having seen off the charioteers, the cavalry are then attacked by the tribal foot warriors holding Bryn y cwningod across the stream.  Defying the odds again somewhat, the Romans hold on, Drusus narrowly escaping harm to his person too.

The Roman legionaries push the Silurian warriors back through the woods.  The Silurians are more effective fighters than the legionaries, so the battle is slow and bloody.

The Roman cavalry turn the tables and defeat the Silurian warriors on the far bank of the stream

The Silurian foot begins to break...

More Roman legionaries advance through the belt of woods on the slope of Bryn gwyrdd; whilst harrassed by the Silurian skirmishers, although to no great effect

The position: the Silurian left flank has been turned and they are hastily attempting to restore the line...

But as this closer view shows, the Roman legionaries have finally defeated the Silurians in the woods (bottom-right) and Flavius has already got a cohort into the centre of the hill, so there is no place for the Silurians to "hinge" their new line

The Roman legionaries pant up the hill and catch the Silurian skirmishers..

Killing many of them

The King himself leads another charge of his foot warriors: the Roman cavalry get distinctly the worse of it, and are in danger of breaking: Drusus again narrowly escapes with his life and liberty...

However the Silurian centre is in deep trouble...

And at that point, Silurian resistance collapses and it is every man for himself.  The King and most of his horsemen and charioteers have escaped, but nearly a third of his foot warriors and slingers have fallen.

An overhead shot: the regular lines nicely show the position of the Roman legionaries and cavalry!

The King escapes and Drusus counts himself lucky to be both alive and free (right), as his legionaries come up to relieve him.

Game Notes: A hard-fought game, and one in which a combination of some advantages in army composition and a couple of particularly luck dice rolls spelled victory for the Romans.  Perhaps the distribution of terrain slightly helped the Romans too: woods are not great for the Romans, but watercourses are difficult for everyone and it is slow going getting across them in Polemos: SPQR (although no-one failed the crocodile test in this game!).

 I don't think anything occurred which was that unreasonable, a testimony to the rules.  This was actually the third game of this scenario I played: the first two I took no pictures of but played the first with Polemos: SPQR, the second with DBA.  I have commented on the differences in play between the two many times so I won't re-iterate them, but it was noticeable how much longer that the SPQR games took: more than twice as long on average.  Some of that is extra fuss in the rules (the command and movement mechanisms are slightly more complicated) but much of it, particularly in scenarios with plenty of terrain, is that troops spend a lot of time not moving: they are reforming from disruptive terrain, or reforming having been disorganized, or are trying but failing to get up the gumption to charge.  Troops not doing stuff from command limitations are roughly similar in both games.  Funnily enough, the troops spend a lot more time in combat in DBA: it is much less decisive than in Polemos, since there is typically a clear progression in the latter that the side losing a round of combat will become progressively more likely to lose the next one. 

Figures by Baccus and Rapier, buildings by Timecast.